| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Rabbi Pincus Cement Welcomed
00:04:38
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unidentified
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Experience whatsoever. | |
| Most of he has military experience. | ||
| I mean, he does have military experience. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, he has been in the military as a reporter. | |
| Come on, I was in the military too, but not as a reporter, but as a military man. | ||
| I think he served in other functions than that. | ||
|
unidentified
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But go ahead and make your point. | |
| Yeah, so my point is that you wonder why everything is falling apart, you know? | ||
| Everything is falling apart. | ||
| Nothing works. | ||
| And as far as START is concerned, those people who claim they have done such a great job. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I have to say that. | ||
| Okay, and I apologize. | ||
| I apologize, Ben. | ||
| We'll have to leave it there. | ||
| The House of Representatives is coming in. | ||
| We'll take you to them now. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The Chair lays before the House a communication from the Speaker. | ||
| The Speaker's Rooms, Washington, D.C., March 27, 2025. | ||
| I hereby appoint the Honorable Addison P. McDowell to act as Speaker Pro Tempore on this day. | ||
| Signed, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, Rabbi Pincus Cement. | ||
|
unidentified
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Almighty God, I begin my prayer with an act of charitable kindness. | |
| Creator and Master of his universe, after the biblical story of the great flood in which you spared Noah and his family, you gave guidance and instructions through them to all of humanity. | ||
| You taught how to lead a moral, ethical, and productive life in the form of seven guiding principles, also known as the seven Noahide laws. | ||
| These laws are found in the Bible, in the book of Genesis, and its sacred commentaries and include to worship you, not to blaspheme your name, not to commit murder, not to engage in illicit relationships, not to commit theft, not to be cruel to any living creature, and for every society to be governed by just laws that are based on the recognition and acknowledgement of you, O God, as the sovereign ruler of all humankind and all nations. | ||
| Almighty God, bless the members of this august body, the United States House of Representatives, who convene to fulfill your very guidance to establish such just laws. | ||
| Bless them with health, clarity, wisdom, compassion, and good fellowship. | ||
| I beseech you in the merits of the great leader and spiritual giant, the late Lubabat Rebbe Rabbi Benacha Mendel Schneerson of saintly and blessed memory, who came to these shores in 1941 and described this country as a nation of kindness and who passionately shared the riches and importance of the said seven Noahide laws for all to embrace, | ||
| to please grant that the vision of our nation for a world imbued with peace and tranquility be the crowning achievement of this mighty and awesome chamber in our days. | ||
| And let us say, Amen. | ||
| 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 gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Garcia. | ||
|
unidentified
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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice to all. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Hill, is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to welcome today's guest chaplain, my friend Rabbi Pincus Cement. | ||
| Rabbi Cement is the director of Chabad Lubavitch of Arkansas in Little Rock and is currently the longest-serving rabbi in our state. | ||
| He was born in Boston, Mass, and moved to Little Rock with his wife in 1992. | ||
| Rabbi Cement has lectured on matters in Judaism at several universities in Arkansas and has been a frequent author in the Ask the Clergy section of our statewide newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. | ||
|
Bending Knee, Standing Up
00:14:28
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| He studied at the Rabbinical Seminary in Morristown, New Jersey and the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York, receiving his rabbinical ordination in 1990. | ||
| He's a devoted husband to Estee and a proud father of 10 children. | ||
| I'd like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Rabbi Cement for delivering a beautiful opening prayer. | ||
| I wish him, his family, and Chabad Lebovich of Arkansas continued success in serving the central Arkansas community. | ||
| I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The chair will entertain up to five further requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I request the animals' consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remark. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Penn State Wrestling, the 2025 NCAA Division I national champions. | ||
| Continuing their dominance of NCAA wrestling, the Netanyahu Lions brought their 13th national title to Happy Valley. | ||
| Under the leadership of Coach Carl Kale Sanderson, this team has won 12 of the last 15 NCAA championships. | ||
| Penn State's two individual champions are a testament to the strength of their program, as well as their personal strength, talent, and determination. | ||
| Carter Sirachi made history by becoming the first wrestler to win five individual NCAA titles, while Mitchell Messenbrink claimed his first national title with an outstanding performance. | ||
| Beyond individual triumphs, the Nittany Lions made history as only the second team ever to have 10 All-Americans in one tournament. | ||
| The success would not be possible without the dedication of the coaching staff, the families, and the unwavering support of the Penn State community. | ||
| As a graduate of Penn State, I am proud to congratulate Penn State Wrestling on winning the 2025 National Championship and on their continuing success. | ||
| We are. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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I seek consent to address the House for one minute. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I welcome the opportunity to celebrate Larry Huggins' incredible contributions to Illinois and Chicago. | ||
| Larry is a trailblazer. | ||
| At a time when black people were discouraged from construction jobs, Larry founded a construction company that is still thriving and has helped build some of Chicago's most famous landmarks. | ||
| Huggins is an eminent civic leader as well. | ||
| He served as acting chairman of Metra, and he founded the famous Christmas in the Wards to distribute toys and other gifts to Chicago's needy. | ||
| He also co-founded the Chicago Football Classic, which is a yearly football game between two HBCUs at Soldier Field. | ||
| The game is accompanied by scholarships, workshops, and outreach for students. | ||
| From business success to civic leadership, I am pleased to congratulate Larry Huggins on a life of exemplary service and achievement. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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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. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| I rise to celebrate Sydney Tren. | ||
| She's a seventh grade student at El Rancho Charter School in Orange for becoming Orange County's new Spelling Bee champion. | ||
| Sydney earned her well-deserved victory and secured a spot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee by spelling the word obsecration in the 14th round of competition. | ||
| In addition to her spelling skills, Sydney is also on the school robotics team and participates in community service projects, embodying the spirit of a well-rounded and engaged student. | ||
| Her success serves as an inspiration to her peers and brings pride to our entire community. | ||
| Sydney will soon head to Washington, D.C. to represent Orange County at the National Spelling Bee in May. | ||
| Sydney, good luck. | ||
| We're cheering you on. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute, so I'm glad I have my remarks. | |
| The gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, for Women's History Month, I rise to honor the parent leaders from the Resurrection Project known as Las Mamas of Back of the Yards, or the Back of the Yards Moms. | ||
| a powerhouse of immigrant women who are the heart and soul of their community on Chicago's south side. | ||
| Mothers like Gonsuelo, Lorena, Alma, Maria, Ophelia, Marta, Suleiman, Victoria, Gabriela, and Sylvia show us the real leadership and what it looks like. | ||
| They educate neighbors on their rights, organize rapid responses when raids threaten families, and distribute food when the fridge is empty to keep our youth safe and supported. | ||
| From City Hall to Washington and right inside our schools, these women ensure that their voices and the community voices are heard. | ||
| They are respected, admired, and deeply rooted in the back of the yards. | ||
| And yes, they keep people like me on our toes, always causing good trouble. | ||
| In honoring them, we honor the power of immigrant women everywhere, their courage and commitment, and the fight for a better future for all of us. | ||
| I thank them, I stand with them, and I celebrate them. | ||
| Muchas gracias, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Indiana seek recognition? | ||
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unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, during this district work period that so many of us were out on over the past week, I had the opportunity of hosting discussions with business leaders and constituents across Indiana 6th District with our community leaders. | |
| I had conversations that focused on the need to extend the pro-growth policies of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act over 17 visits across my district. | ||
| I spoke with our seniors on Medicare Advantage. | ||
| I spoke with Hoosier Farmers at National Ag Day at our Purdue Extension Facility in Johnson County. | ||
| I heard from our Indiana realtors, and no one knows our communities like our realtors, about the importance of home ownership, having sufficient housing inventory for job growth and economic creation. | ||
| I appreciate these listen and learn opportunities with our local small businesses and constituents. | ||
| All policy is so very local. | ||
| I'm proud to work with businesses across Indiana District to bring business sense to Washington. | ||
| The American people expect results, and we must deliver. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does a gentlewoman from Texas seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, yes, that's me. | ||
| In 1977, I was a young law student representing Texas at the historic International Women's Year Conference in Houston. | ||
| Anne Richards was right behind me. | ||
| She was getting ready to make a speech on the ERA. | ||
| She'd go on to be governor, and I went on to serve in the city, county, state, and now here in federal government. | ||
| But that day, we were doing what I'm doing right now, fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, fighting to guarantee equal rights for all women under the Constitution. | ||
| I still have the ERA pin I wore that day. | ||
| I've kept it for nearly 50 years because the fight isn't over. | ||
| This week, I stood with powerful women in Congress to introduce a resolution that removes our final barrier, the arbitrary deadline said decades ago. | ||
| If it passes, the ERA becomes the 28th Amendment. | ||
| We must pass this resolution. | ||
| We must remove all barriers to women because our rights don't have deadlines. | ||
| Our rights are human rights. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Unanimous consent to address the House one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We must use budget reconciliation to fully repeal the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, IRA, the green subsidies within that. | ||
| They are a trillion-dollar disaster, driving up energy costs, undermining grid reliability, and forcing out dependable power sources like coal, natural gas, as well as the hydroelectric dam destruction we see happening. | ||
| Keeping even one of them threatens real spending reductions and makes it nearly impossible to rein in the national deficit of around $2 trillion brought on by the Biden administration and Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. | ||
| The stakes are very clear. | ||
| Europe's energy crisis shows what happens when a country relies too much on unreliable renewables. | ||
| Meanwhile, China profits off of our bad policies, selling us solar panels and electric vehicles while expanding its own coal production and its power plants. | ||
| We cannot let the left's green welfare agenda weaken our energy security while boosting our biggest adversary any longer. | ||
| Full repeal means saving taxpayers $1 trillion in wasteful spending, easing inflation and lowering costs for families and small businesses, and restoring energy reliably and the security by stabilizing our grid. | ||
| Reconciliation is the path forward. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Vermont seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute in 2017. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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I just need a little help adjusting the microphone. | |
| Can you help me? | ||
| This morning. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify something for some of my colleagues and for leaders across this country because there seems to be some confusion. | ||
| There is a big difference between taking a knee and bending a knee. | ||
| Taking a knee shows that you can hold many truths at once. | ||
| You can love our country and believe that there is still more work to do. | ||
| It shows that you're willing to do that work and to live up to our country's ideals. | ||
| But bending a knee is something quite different. | ||
| Bending a knee is capitulation. | ||
| It's what you do when you've given up, when you've lost your fight, when you've lost your way, when you are not willing to show courage, to show up, to speak up. | ||
|
unidentified
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Taking a knee, you got skin in the game. | |
| Bending a knee, you have given in. | ||
|
unidentified
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You have lost your self-respect. | |
| We were not elected to be obedient, to submit, to cower. | ||
| We were not sent here to worship one man. | ||
|
unidentified
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We have no kings in America. | |
| We were sent here to work on behalf of the people. | ||
| Gentlemen, if you're doing anything, you are not being brave. | ||
| Show some grit and stand up for your people. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today I rise to congratulate the Anaheim High School's girls' water polo team that just won the CIF Division VI championship. | ||
| This victory represents hard work, determination, and perseverance on behalf of the players and their coaches. | ||
| And they did that the whole season. | ||
| And as an Anaheim High School alumni myself, I want to congratulate our student athletes, parents, coaches, and teachers. | ||
| Again, you've made us proud. | ||
| And I ask my colleagues today to join me in celebrating this great victory for Anaheim High School's girls' water polo team. | ||
| And remember, once a colonist, always a colonist. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Weber, seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 242, I call up House Joint Resolution 24 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the joint resolution. | ||
| House Joint Resolution 24. | ||
| Joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under Chapter 8 of Title V, United States Code, of the rules submitted by the Department of Energy relating to Energy Conservation Program, Energy Conservation Standards for Walk-In Coolers and Walk-In Freezers. | ||
|
Energy Efficiency Standards Controversy
00:15:19
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| Pursuant to House Resolution 242, the joint resolution is considered read. | ||
| The joint resolution shall be debatable for one hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their respective designees. | ||
| The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Weber, and the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, each will control 30 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Weber. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend the remarks on the legislation and to insert extraneous material on HJ Res 24. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume. | ||
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, on December the 23rd, 2024, as American households and businesses are in the process of preparing for the holidays, the Biden-Harris Department of Energy finalized burdensome and unnecessary energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers. | ||
| These products are staples. | ||
| They're necessary in businesses and restaurants across the country, and they play an essential role in providing consumers with safe and fresh food as well as drinks. | ||
| Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the Biden-Harris administration's final rule jeopardizes those very same small and independent retailers' ability to serve the communities that rely on them. | ||
| This final rule will force stores like small grocers and convenience stores to incur significant, major upfront costs for new equipment. | ||
| I know, because I operated air conditioning equipment for business for 35 years. | ||
| They will incur significant major upfront costs for new equipment while reckoning with associated operational disruptions and supply chain challenges. | ||
| The Biden-Harris DOE itself estimated that the cost of these standards, which were last updated just a handful of years ago, to be almost $1 billion with the B dollars. | ||
| However, the real cost, Mr. Speaker, is likely much higher as DOE ignored other costs businesses will be forced to absorb. | ||
| I know I operate an air conditioning company for 35 years. | ||
| For example, like any structural changes needed to accommodate a new walk-in cooler or freezer in order to comply with their final rule. | ||
| Unfortunately, this final rule will disproportionately impact rural communities and small businesses. | ||
| In many areas across the country, Mr. Speaker, including in my district in Texas, there are communities with limited food and drink and retail options. | ||
| It's not uncommon for a convenience store to bridge that gap in providing food to American families. | ||
| These same small businesses, which are often owned and operated by a single family or an individual, cannot afford the new equipment mandated by these unreasonable standards. | ||
| In fact, 90% of food and drink retailers are categorized as small businesses and operate get this with a 1 to 3 percent margin. | ||
| That's how slim the margin is. | ||
| The result will be significant costs being passed down to consumers. | ||
| And in the worst case scenario, the shuttering of businesses, those mom and pop businesses that we all like, they may be shuttered, prevented from providing essential services to their very communities that they grew up in. | ||
| Well, thankfully, Mr. Speaker, the House is considering H.J. Res 24 introduced by Representative Beiss of Oklahoma to repeal this disastrous final rule. | ||
| Over the last four years, small businesses have endured supply chain challenges, an inflationary environment, and regulatory uncertainty, just to name a few. | ||
| Congress has the opportunity today to chart a new path for the small and independent retailers and grocers that feed American families by repealing this final rule. | ||
| I thank the gentlelady from Oklahoma for her leadership on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting HJ Res 24. | ||
| Once again, I'm going to urge all my colleagues' support in our reserve, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Gentleman from Texas Reserves, gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself such time as it may consume. | ||
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I rise in strong opposition to HJ Res 24, the fourth Republican resolution in this Congress to dismantle energy conservation standards for appliances. | ||
| And this harmful resolution guts a Department of Energy efficiency rule for walk-in coolers and freezers, which will increase energy costs for businesses and consumers. | ||
| And I stress that again. | ||
| It will increase, if this rule is repealed, will have increased energy costs for businesses and consumers. | ||
| And because it's a Congressional Review Act resolution, it prevents the Department of Energy from ever issuing substantially similar standards in the future. | ||
| Now, let me say, Mr. Speaker, at a time when Americans are struggling to make ends meet and facing the reality that Republicans may soon strip them and their families of health care, it's shocking that House Republicans are spending another day here on the floor focusing on repealing common sense energy efficiency standards that save businesses and consumers money. | ||
| This whole Congress has been a revolving door of resolution after resolution attacking conservation standards for different appliances. | ||
| In fact, we were on the floor just yesterday afternoon debating another energy efficiency standard for commercial refrigerators and freezers, an effort to repeal that, I should point out. | ||
| Now, instead of investigating, which is what they should be doing, the shocking and unprecedented breach of security and leaked military strikes from top Trump national security officials, which threatens our national security and our defense, instead of doing that, we're here once again wasting valuable floor time debating energy efficiency standards. | ||
| Or maybe we should be taking action to protect Social Security from the Trump administration's funding cuts that could stop seniors from getting the benefits that they earned through a lifetime of work. | ||
| My constituents are already telling me they can't even call the Social Security Office anymore. | ||
| There's nobody there. | ||
| They've cut the staff. | ||
| They've cut the phone service. | ||
| They can't even access the Social Security Administration anymore under this administration, under the Trump administration. | ||
| Or maybe, Mr. Speaker, we should be reversing the Trump administration's actions to close the Department of Education and rip away funding from students and teachers and schools. | ||
| House Republicans are not likely to take on any of these actions that I suggested because they refuse to take on President Trump, even when he's breaking the law. | ||
| So it's clear that my Republican colleagues do not have their priorities in order. | ||
| In fact, it seems to me their only priority is securing giant tax breaks for their billionaire buddies at the expense of American families and businesses. | ||
| And HJ Res 24 fits right into the Republican agenda of raising costs on hardworking Americans. | ||
| Now, I would not be remiss if I didn't point out the irony of this resolution. | ||
| President Trump and Republicans ran on a promise to cut energy costs in half in his first year. | ||
| Yet here we are, once again, wasting precious time on the floor with a resolution that would raise energy costs for American businesses by wasting more energy. | ||
| The energy efficiency standards under threat today for walk-in refrigerators and freezers will save American businesses up to $6.5 billion on utility bills over the next 30 years. | ||
| These businesses include restaurants, convenience stores and supermarkets across the country. | ||
| And Republicans' anti-efficiency agenda will rob them of these cost savings. | ||
| And this is especially concerning at a time when we're hearing more and more stories about the damaging impacts of Trump's extreme tariffs, the rising costs of groceries, and the chaos and uncertainty that Trump is bringing every day to our economy. | ||
| People are concerned about a Trump recession. | ||
| That's what they're worried about today. | ||
| That's what I hear when I go home. | ||
| But Republicans don't care about everyday Americans. | ||
| They only care about doing the bidding of their billionaire corporate buddies at the expense of consumer and working families. | ||
| Energy efficiency standards for appliances are designed to reduce energy use and climate pollution while also saving consumers and businesses money. | ||
| Reducing an appliance's energy use also helps decrease stress on the electric grid. | ||
| The resolution today is proof that my Republican colleague's concern about grid stress-we had a hearing yesterday on that-and the increased load growth from data centers and American manufacturing are hollow, merely lip service. | ||
| If Republicans truly cared about reducing stress on the electric grid, which is what they said yesterday at the hearing, they would stop dismantling energy efficiency standards designed to ease strain on future electric grid capacity. | ||
| The true intent of this anti-efficiency resolution is not to help American businesses, but to line the pockets of their billionaire cronies and oil and gas friends. | ||
| Because you guessed it, less efficient appliances means more profits for big oil and gas. | ||
| So I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution, Mr. Speaker, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. | ||
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I'm not quite sure how to respond to that this early in the morning. | ||
| I don't know if some of our colleagues have been drinking this early or not, but notwithstanding, I want to recognize the gentlelady from Oklahoma for such time as she may consume. | ||
| The gentlelady is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| And first, let me say I rise obviously in strong support of House Joint Resolution 24, legislation that I authored, which uses the Congressional Review Act to overturn regulations by the Biden administration. | ||
| I was extremely excited this morning to be notified that I have a statement of administrative policy support from President Trump on this legislation. | ||
| In December of 2024, the Department of Energy enacted new energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers, equipment vital to pharmacies, convenience stores, food processing facilities, food banks, restaurants, and many other establishments nationwide. | ||
| These regulations will impose significant financial burdens on small businesses, which will have to absorb major upgrade costs to meet these new aggressive standards. | ||
| At a time when our focus should be on lowering the cost of living for our constituents, it's clear most of these expenses will be borne by consumers in the form of increased prices. | ||
| Furthermore, they threaten significant operational disruption for many enterprises that rely on this equipment. | ||
| We have heard from many businesses in rural areas, which will have to go through extensive structural and electrical upgrades to accommodate the new equipment. | ||
| These same businesses have reported that getting their refrigerators and freezers repaired is a process which is already taking too long and expensive and will become even more so. | ||
| For businesses looking to enter underserved markets, this will be another barrier in doing so. | ||
| For businesses operating on a narrow profit margin, this could be what sends them under. | ||
| Recognizing these detrimental impacts, I fought against the adoption of this rule and expressed my disapproval last year during the public comment period. | ||
| Like many of the rules handed down by the Biden administration, this effort will have a harsh economic impact while failing to achieve its own stated goal. | ||
| DOE estimates that the rule would carry a minimum price tag of nearly a billion dollars with minimal energy usage reduction. | ||
| My colleague mentioned that it would be a savings of $6 billion over 30 years, but what he didn't mention to you is the cost of new equipment, replacement equipment with these new energy efficiency standards could be tens of thousands of dollars, adding up to billions and billions of dollars that are going to be borne by these businesses. | ||
| I'm grateful President Trump has taken the decisive action to halt these rules by having the Department of Energy postpone the effective date of these standards, providing breathing room for businesses. | ||
| However, more work needs to be done, and Congress has a role to play. | ||
| My resolution seeks to ensure that these overreaching regulations are permanently overturned. | ||
| By doing so, we will protect small businesses from unnecessary compliance costs and preserve the diversity of choice available to consumers. | ||
| This action aligns with our broader commitment to roll back burdensome regulations that stifle economic growth and infringe upon individual freedoms. | ||
| In fact, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, in 2022, the total cost of regulations is estimated over $3 trillion. | ||
| We cannot continue to allow burdensome regulations on every aspect of our lives and our businesses. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support House Joint Resolution 24, legislation that will reduce burdens on businesses and serve in the best interest of the American people. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield. | ||
| Gentleman from Texas Reserves. | ||
| I do, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield the three minutes now to a member of the Energy and Congress Committee, the gentleman from California, Mr. Mullah. | ||
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I rise to strongly oppose HJ Res 24. | ||
| It's baffling to me that amidst skyrocketing electricity costs, the highest they've been since the 1990s, we are talking about overturning common sense energy efficiency standards. | ||
| Economists predict these standards would save American taxpayers billions of dollars. | ||
| But you don't need to be an economist to know that a better fridge or freezer will mean lower costs on your utility bill. | ||
|
Energy Efficiency Saves Money
00:15:32
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|
unidentified
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For families going to their local grocery, these standards would lower prices and reduce financial strain. | |
| For small businesses, it means less overhead and more profitability. | ||
| These benefits are why the Department of Energy has set energy efficiency standards for decades across Republican and Democratic administrations with broad support and little controversy. | ||
| America should be leading the world in creating and adopting innovative technologies, especially ones that reduce costs and help the environment. | ||
| Unfortunately, there was just another empty campaign promise by candidate Trump that electricity costs would be reduced. | ||
| So let me just emphasize that Democrats believe in an economy that works for all people. | ||
| Under the last administration, we passed legislation that created nearly half a million new jobs in just two years. | ||
| The federal government set standards that will save money. | ||
| I just want to conclude by saying that Americans will save $1 trillion on their energy bills over the next 30 years under the previous policies. | ||
| That's $1 trillion. | ||
| So we will continue to fight for common sense policies for everyday people, and that's why I oppose HJ Res 24. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman from New Jersey Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| The gentle lady from North Dakota is recognized for such time as she might consume. | ||
| John is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in strong support of House Journal Resolution 24, legislation led by my friend, Representative Stephanie Beiss. | ||
| This reverses yet another burdensome Biden administration mandate that will add senseless costs for families and small businesses for no real benefit. | ||
| The Biden Department of Energy's rule on walk-on refrigeration equipment is a textbook example of government overreach. | ||
| This rule imposes sweeping, unrealistic energy standards that demand massive energy reductions. | ||
| But this isn't just about energy policy. | ||
| It's about the reality facing restaurant owners, grocery stores, and convenience stores in North Dakota and across the country. | ||
| These businesses have battled through four years of inflation, supply chain disruptions, and workforce challenges. | ||
| Now, Washington bureaucrats are telling them to replace perfectly good refrigeration equipment at a nationwide cost of nearly $1 billion just to meet an arbitrary one-size-fits-all efficiency target. | ||
| To comply with these standards, manufacturers will have to increase prices on already expensive equipment. | ||
| These costs will land squarely on the businesses and ultimately the American people. | ||
| 90% of the food and drink retailers impacted by this rule are small businesses, businesses that are critical to the U.S. economy, employing millions of Americans and contributing more than $200 billion annually. | ||
| This rule is not economically justified. | ||
| It's Washington at its worst. | ||
| It's no wonder that before President Trump took office, 75% of the country thought that we were headed in the wrong direction. | ||
| It's rules just like this that they know about. | ||
| Speaker, this is a bad rule. | ||
| It's bad for business and it's bad for customers. | ||
| Let's stop this misguided regulation before it does more real damage to the small businesses that drive our economy. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to put common sense over bureaucratic overreach and support House Journal Resolution 24. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Speaker, a reserve. | ||
| Gentleman from Texas Reserves, gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield such time as she may consume to the gentleman from Florida, Ms. Castro, who is the ranking member of our Subcommittee on Energy. | ||
| Joe Williams recognized. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the gentleman for yielding his time. | ||
| I rise in opposition to this Republican bill that requires business owners to spend more money and use more energy. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, here we are at the end of March. | ||
| It's the 83rd day since the Congress convened under the Republican majority, and Republicans haven't brought one bill to the floor of the House to help lower costs or tackle the cost of living for our neighbors back home. | ||
| Instead, Republicans have been singularly focused on crafting a massive tax giveaway for billionaires like Elon Musk that is paid for by health coverage, ripping away health coverage from the people we love the most. | ||
| Kids, our parents, our neighbors who rely on skilled nursing, people with disabilities who especially rely on Medicaid. | ||
| It's wrong, and it makes life harder for people back home. | ||
| It makes their lives more expensive. | ||
| And people want answers. | ||
| But Republicans have refused to hold town halls, and many of them will not even answer the phone. | ||
| At my town hall last week in St. Petersburg, people wanted to know why the administration and Republicans want to make it more difficult to receive Social Security rather than strengthen Social Security. | ||
| You know, instead of a wasteful, time-consuming, silly bill like this, why don't we work together and bring to the floor a bill that will strengthen Social Security? | ||
| That would be a help to our neighbors back home. | ||
| I think what it comes down to is that Republicans here in Congress are out of reach with or out of touch with hardworking people. | ||
| They're out of touch with their struggles. | ||
| They want lower costs. | ||
| They don't want bills like this that say you're going to pay more and our big oil friends, they're going to make more on their bottom line. | ||
| People are tired of being ripped off by the special interests and politicians who have all too much power here in Washington, D.C. | ||
| This bill is another example of that. | ||
| Republicans want to make it harder for business owners to save money through energy-efficient appliances. | ||
| Energy efficiency saves people money. | ||
| It's pretty straightforward. | ||
| It cuts costs, it cuts pollution, it encourages innovation. | ||
| And specifically here, you know, electric bills for walk-in refrigerators and freezers are a huge line item for restaurants and grocery stores. | ||
| Taking those savings away will increase costs for businesses. | ||
| And these are costs that will be passed on to consumers. | ||
| So I want you to think about that next time you're in the frozen food aisle of your grocery store. | ||
| This is not right. | ||
| You know, overall, when the Department of Energy goes in and works with manufacturers and consumer advocates, they come up, they look at the latest technology, and then move forward on adopting a standard that will be in effect years from now. | ||
| They look particularly at the cost savings overall, and the savings they estimated here are huge, $6.5 billion in utility bill savings over the next 30 years. | ||
| And I have to say, this also hits home in my community because many of the businesses, many of my neighbors are rebuilding from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. | ||
| They were flooded out. | ||
| They lost their appliances. | ||
| Many businesses just went on the fritz. | ||
| This would be particularly helpful to know as they make these major investments that they're going to be able to save money over time. | ||
| And this is exactly what Congress intended when we passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. | ||
| It was passed in 1975. | ||
| We directed the Department of Energy to set and regularly update these standards. | ||
| Energy efficiency standards also incentivize innovation. | ||
| And American manufacturers have traditionally led the way in innovation due to updated standards. | ||
| By weakening these rules, we open our markets up to countries that manufacture low-efficiency products like China at the expense of American companies and American families. | ||
| Here, the Department of Energy followed the law. | ||
| They collaborated with manufacturers to ensure that the standards work. | ||
| And now, Republicans, after all of this hard work, want to swoop in and repeal these standards on coolers and freezers. | ||
| They're, in essence, walking out on the cost savings at a time our neighbors really expect us to work together to lower the cost of living. | ||
| But there is a larger issue here, and it's the fact that Republicans are ignoring the affordability squeeze. | ||
| And you know, when Democrats were in charge, we did everything we could to help lower your cost of living. | ||
| We passed a cap on insulin at $35 per month. | ||
| We required Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. | ||
| We gave you help on your health insurance bills. | ||
| We provided tax rebates and savings for appliances on your electric bills. | ||
| This has led to a major manufacturing boom across the country. | ||
| Over 750 clean energy projects, over 400,000 new jobs created all across America, many in Republican districts. | ||
| There was until the Trump administration came in and started these illegal shutdowns and now threatening these new taxes through tariffs that the economy has stalled. | ||
| Have you looked at your 401k lately? | ||
| People are very uncertain. | ||
| So let's get back to business standing up for hardworking Americans, standing up for businesses, making sure we guard their pocketbooks, we tackle the affordability squeeze together, rather than serve the special interests here that have all too met too much power. | ||
| Republican billionaires, big oil companies, they're the real winners when you pass resolutions like this and you rip those savings away from American consumers. | ||
| So let's stand up for the people for a change and not the powerful special interests. | ||
| Let's stand up for their pocketbooks and vote no on this resolution. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| From New Jersey Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Texas recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| You know, it's interesting for me to hear my colleagues across the aisle as an owner of an air conditioning company that dealt with not just air conditioning but convenience stores that had walk-in coolers and furnaces and air conditioners. | ||
| What they don't realize, I get that they speak from inexperience, you know, I'll give them that. | ||
| What they don't realize is that when something like this is mandated, first of all, those businesses usually operate on a very, very thin margin. | ||
| It could be one and a half to two, maybe sometimes almost three percent of profit. | ||
| I know from experience. | ||
| And so when something like this has to be done, even a small walk-in cooler, let's just pick some figures. | ||
| Let's say it costs $5,000 to $6,000, but the plumbing and the electrical and the carpentry and the permits, everything costs $10,000 to $12,000. | ||
| Now they've got a choice. | ||
| They're either going to pass that on to their consumers and higher food prices, or they're going to continue to pay an extra $10,000 or $20 a month in electricity. | ||
| And that's what's going to happen, that they don't realize that what they're wanting to do is mandate that businesses have to increase their expenses at the expense of the consumers because they're the ones that's going to pay for that. | ||
| And as I've watched this for a long time, I realize that they speak from inexperience. | ||
| And so I'll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker, for the time being in our reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Texas Reserves, gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Can I ask the gentleman from Texas, are you prepared to close or do you have more speakers? | ||
| We are prepared to close. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right, then I'll do the same. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Again, I rise in opposition to this resolution. | ||
| Republicans make it sound like no one supports these standards, like they came out of nowhere and are an incredible government overreach. | ||
| But of course, that's not true. | ||
| Manufacturers support these efficiency standards. | ||
| They provide clarity to industry. | ||
| Manufacturers support the Department of Energy's rule because it provides clear guidance. | ||
| And if this rule is revoked, it creates regulatory uncertainty for manufacturers. | ||
| The Department of Energy worked with manufacturers and advocates to ensure that these standards were feasible and justifiable. | ||
| Unlike my colleagues across the aisle, the Department of Energy went through a prolonged process that engaged extensively with experts and worked to address their concerns. | ||
| In fact, in recently submitted comments regarding the delay in the effective date for the standards, the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, a trade group that represents many of the manufacturers of these walk-in coolers, asserted strong support for proceeding with the standards as published in the Federal Register in December of last year. | ||
| And Lennox, a manufacturer of these walk-in systems, also submitted comments asserting support for proceeding with the standards as finalized. | ||
| Lennox's comments also state that the final rule, I quote, provides regulatory predictability regarding energy conservation standards through 2031, providing a stable planning horizon. | ||
| Now, these comments are an important reminder that regulatory uncertainty from killing a standard, as the resolution before us today would do, costs businesses money. | ||
| My colleagues across the aisle are more concerned with slashing any and every regulation they can find than with engaging in thoughtful and well-reasoned policy. | ||
| And again, this is politics at its worst. | ||
| So I oppose this resolution. | ||
| But I also want to point out, Mr. Speaker, that my colleagues across the aisle keep talking about the costs of these standards to businesses. | ||
| But I think it's important to get the facts straight. | ||
| The new standards for walk-in coolers don't go into effect until 2027 for some products and 2028 for others. | ||
| This means that if a business needs to replace these units any time in the next couple of years, the products on the market now will be available to them. | ||
| So they don't have to get rid of the refrigerators they want. | ||
| It's when they buy a new one. | ||
| Whenever a business does need to replace the units, the products on the market will save them money. | ||
| Specifically, these standards will save, as I mentioned, $6.5 billion in utility bills over 30 years. | ||
|
Tariffs: Back and Forth
00:02:23
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| And DOE estimates the payback period for these products as three years for refrigerator systems and 1.6 years for non-displayed doors. | ||
| So after those three years, or in the other case, 1.6, you're actually saving money every year. | ||
| This means that after the first couple years of ownership, these products start saving businesses a lot of money. | ||
| And this is real money. | ||
| You know, the Republicans talked about upfront costs. | ||
| There may be some upfront costs, but over the period of time, and after those first couple of years, you're saving money. | ||
| If Republicans are actually concerned about the small businesses in their communities, and if they were really concerned about costs being passed down to consumers, they would be standing up to the Trump administration and pushing back on tariffs. | ||
| I'm mentioning the tariffs today because the President, again, is starting to impose new tariffs. | ||
| The last one, I guess, was on automobiles. | ||
| Large appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines rely in part on steel, making them extremely vulnerable to price increases from Trump's tariffs on steel, which are already in place. | ||
| In the aftermath of steel and aluminum tariffs during Trump's first term, talking about the first term now, not the new ones, major appliances showed price increases of between 5 and 10 percent. | ||
| So if you're concerned about the prices, you should be speaking out against what Trump is doing with these tariffs, not to mention the fact that not only the tariffs impose additional costs on consumers, but he's, again, the uncertainty, back and forth, back and forth. | ||
| Put the tariffs on, take the tariffs off, put the tariffs on, take the tariffs off. | ||
| This is the reason that the stock market has been so volatile, because people don't know with certainty what's going on with this administration. | ||
| So we're facing policies from the Trump administration that will increase everyday costs for households and businesses. | ||
| Instead of trying to fight these increases, Republicans are more concerned with the upfront costs of walk-in coolers in 2028. | ||
| I mean, I don't know what to say except that it's ridiculous. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to this resolution and yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
15-Minute Vote Follow-Up
00:03:02
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|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from New Jersey yields back. | |
| Gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I'm going to make it short and sweet. | ||
| I urge everybody to vote for HJ Res 24, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Texas yields. | |
| All time for debate having expired, pursuant to House Resolution 242, the previous question is ordered on the joint resolution. | ||
| The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint resolution. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| Joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under Chapter 8 of Title V, United States Code, of the rules submitted by the Department of Energy relating to Energy Conservation Program, Energy Conservation Standards for Walk-In Coolers and Walk-In Freezers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question is on passage of the joint resolution. | |
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The joint resolution is discussed. | ||
| I would ask for the yays and nays. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The yeas and nays are requested. | |
| Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. | ||
| Sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, this 15-minute vote on passage will be followed by a two-minute vote on passage of how it's all right. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, this 15-minute vote on passage will be followed by a five-minute vote on passage of House Joint Resolution 75. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
| And the House voting on three bills during this series that were debated earlier this week and saved for votes today. | ||
| This is expected to be the last legislative work of the week. | ||
| This is the final vote on repealing a Biden-era energy conservation rule on walk-in coolers and freezers. | ||
| Under the current rule, the Energy Department established standards for the principal components that make up a walk-in, the doors and panels and refrigeration systems. | ||
| The bill being considered today would nullify that rule. | ||
| It's being brought up under a process under which Congress can overturn regulations issued by federal agencies if introduced within 60 legislative days of when an agency issues the final rule. | ||
| While members are coming to the floor for this vote, we'll take you live to a confirmation hearing for four Defense Department nominees, including Air Force Secretary. | ||
| We did this by proving to consumers and drivers that there was something better than the unreliable and expensive service that the taxi cartels had profited off for decades. | ||
|
Desire to Innovate Fast
00:03:07
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|
unidentified
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Just before building Uber, I had the privilege of working as a special assistant for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. | |
| From him, I learned how to make things happen fast in the Pentagon, notably the MRAP program and the joint IED defeat programs. | ||
| I also learned how to reform the Pentagon as a lead on the tail-to-tooth budget initiative, which changed what was an unsustainable trajectory of tail growth at the time at the expense of our warfighters. | ||
| After that, I served on the Defense Business Board and brought better ideas for technology practices to the Defense Department. | ||
| All of this experience has culminated in my desire to serve as the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, which is the Department's chief technology officer. | ||
| If confirmed, I bring my decades of experience in the technology industry and management of large, complex global organizations to ensure that the United States has the most technologically sophisticated defense systems in history. | ||
| The central element necessary for all this is innovation at speed. | ||
| Innovation means increasing the department's willingness to take risk while having the discipline to stop the projects that are failing. | ||
| Innovation means focusing our investments in science and technology on only those things that are aligned on our peace through strength mission. | ||
| This must all be done at a pace that is dramatically different than the Defense Department has done in modern times. | ||
| Time must be a factor in all of our decisions as we confront an increasingly sophisticated adversary in China, which not only has lower labor costs but is notorious for intellectual property theft, making its research and development costs even faster and less expensive than we could have imagined only a decade ago. | ||
| If confirmed, I will work to recast the relationship between DOD and the emerging defense tech sector. | ||
| The DOD needs to foster more robust and competitive defense industrial base by providing more realistic requirements, inviting smaller and innovative companies with less burdensome processes, becoming more agile on how and when we grant contracts. | ||
| The private sector too should bear more responsibility for the risks of their own failure. | ||
| A healthy ecosystem will provide for weapons that are better, cheaper, and faster. | ||
| We've never been at a more critical time for a shift in how we work to catch up where we're behind and increase the gap where we're ahead. | ||
| We're living in a much different world than when I was at the Pentagon last in 2011. | ||
| Every enterprise, public or private, must now be in the technology innovation business. | ||
| There is no other choice but to do so at full speed. | ||
| The United States has the technical talent, the money, and the will to ensure warfighting supremacy in every scenario that this new world demands. | ||
| I fully believe in President Trump's vision for a golden dome for America, and thank you for your consideration for your nomination. | ||
|
Honoring Military Medicine
00:03:41
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unidentified
|
I look forward to hearing your questions about how I can best serve our country, Secretary Hegseth, and President Trump in achieving this mission. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Michael. | ||
| Mr. Bass, welcome. | ||
| You are now recognized for your opening statement. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Chairman Fisher. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you, Ranking Member Reed and distinguished members of the committee. | ||
| Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. | ||
| I'm deeply honored and humbled to be nominated for the position of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. | ||
| I'm grateful for the trust placed in me by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. | ||
| I want to thank the members of this committee. | ||
| I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with many of you to discuss ways to strengthen and enhance the military health system. | ||
| If confirmed, I look forward to continuing these conversations and strengthening our partnership to advance the mission of military medicine. | ||
| Before I begin, I would like to introduce and express my gratitude to my family, both those here with me today and those watching from afar. | ||
| I'm joined by my twin brother Kevin, retired Colonel of the United States Army, and my two daughters, Kate and Erin. | ||
| Their unwavering support has been instrumental in my journey, and I'm especially grateful for their encouragement. | ||
| I also want to recognize my wife, Martha, and my parents, who cannot be here but are watching virtually. | ||
| I've had the honor and privilege of retiring from the United States Navy after 20 years of active duty service. | ||
| Throughout my enlisted and officer career, I've served aboard ships in the military medical treatment facilities, both domestic and overseas, at the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Central Intelligence Agency, and the White House. | ||
| After retiring from the military, I transitioned into civilian leadership roles, serving as the Senior Vice President for a virtual health technology company and currently as a medical center director at the VA Health Care Center. | ||
| Throughout my career, I've supported humanitarian missions, disaster response efforts, theater medical operations, and casualty evacuations. | ||
| I've had the privilege and honor of serving alongside dedicated military and civilian professionals who devote their lives to sustaining the readiness of our forces. | ||
| I could not be more proud to call them colleagues and friends. | ||
| The military health system is a global leader in delivering world-class care, unmatched in excellence and second to none. | ||
| I'm excited about the future of military medicine and the opportunity to drive innovation and improve patient outcomes. | ||
| By continuing to focus on modernization, technology, research, care delivery, we can strengthen our operational readiness and set new standards in casualty care. | ||
| We must also acknowledge the complex and evolving challenges facing our health care. | ||
| Ensuring the readiness of our forces, recruiting and retaining medical personnel, and adapting to rapid technological advancements are all pressing issues that require strategic action. | ||
| If confirmed, my highest priority will be ensuring the medical readiness of our forces, stabilizing the military health system to provide advanced care possible both on and off the battlefield. | ||
| A strong military health system is the cornerstone of our national defense strategy, and maintaining a medically ready force requires an integrated, innovative, and adaptive health care system. | ||
|
Nuclear Modernization Priority
00:15:52
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unidentified
|
If confirmed, I will work closely with Congress, military leaders, health care professionals, and our community partners to ensure force readiness. | |
| Together, we can build a health care system that not only meets today's needs but also anticipates and adapts to the challenges of tomorrow. | ||
| I look forward to talking with you today and welcome any questions you might have. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Bass. | ||
| I will now ask all of you a series of standard questions this committee poses to all civilian nominees. | ||
| Have you adhered to applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Have you assumed any duties or taken any actions that would appear to presume the outcome of the confirmation process? | ||
|
unidentified
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No. | |
| Exercising our legislative and oversight responsibilities makes it important that this committee, its subcommittees, and other appropriate committees of Congress receive testimony, briefings, reports, records, and other information from the executive branch on a timely basis. | ||
| Do you agree, if confirmed, to appear and testify before this committee when requested? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Do you agree to provide records, documents, and electronic communications in a timely manner when requested by this committee, its subcommittees, or other appropriate committees of Congress, and to consult with the requestor regarding the basis for any good faith delay or denial in providing such records? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Will you ensure that your staff complies with deadlines established by this committee for the production of records, reports, and other information, including timely responding to hearing questions for the record? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Will you cooperate in providing witnesses and briefers in response to congressional requests? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Will those witnesses and briefers be protected from reprisal for their testimony or briefings? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| We will now begin with our first round of questions, and I will start. | ||
| These are five-minute rounds. | ||
| Having a safe, effective, and reliable and credible nuclear deterrent is the cornerstone of our national defense. | ||
| Currently, each leg of our nuclear triad is undergoing a generational recapitalization to a better align with the projected threat. | ||
| The Department of the Air Force is responsible for two of the three legs, the land-based ICBMs and our bomber fleet. | ||
| Dr. Mink, in your answers to the committee's advanced policy questions, you stated that, quote, the ground leg of the nuclear triad, Menutman 3, and overtime Sentinel are foundational to strategic deterrence and defense of the homeland, unquote. | ||
| I agree with that. | ||
| I also believe that we have an opportunity following the analysis done during the Nunn-McCurdy breach to incorporate lessons learned and build a stronger, more enduring Sentinel program than was originally proposed. | ||
| Dr. Mink, if confirmed, will you commit to utilizing all available tools to accelerate Sentinel and placement and ensure that our nation's ICBM capability does move forward? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Senator. | |
| If confirmed, I will do so, and I do appreciate the one-on-one conversation we had on this topic. | ||
| I'm looking forward to diving into the results of the Nunn-McCurdy and then also obviously work in the B-21 and the other activities from a nuclear perspective the department supports. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Duffy, if confirmed as Under Secretary of Acquisition and Sustainment, you will oversee all nuclear modernization efforts and serve as chair of the Nuclear Weapons Council. | ||
| Can you provide us with a short summary of your views on why we need such a strong nuclear deterrent? | ||
| Madam Chair, thank you for the question. | ||
| And yes, I look forward, if confirmed, to assisting and leading the Department in the oversight of the nuclear modernization program. | ||
| Nuclear modernization, as you mentioned, is the backbone of our deterrent, our strategic deterrent, and ensuring that we have a modern, capable nuclear enterprise that not only includes the B-21, which is a successful acquisition program by all accounts, but the Columbia-class submarine and the Sentinel nuclear ICBM are critical. | ||
| As chair of the Nuclear Weapons Council, I look forward to the partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration, working with this committee to ensure that we maintain the highest quality systems that not only deliver the weapons, but the nuclear command and control system that would be required for a safe and secure deployment if necessary. | ||
| And I think it's absolutely critical that we ensure that we have accelerated acquisition of those capabilities. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Would you agree that our triad, along with NC-3, the deterrent it provides, truly is the priority of the Department and that it underpins all of our strategic planning? | ||
| I absolutely agree with that. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Dr. Mink, I believe we're finally on a better path when it comes to space programs. | ||
| And I'm impressed by what our guardians have achieved over the last several years. | ||
| But the Space Force is still a young organization, and there are likely still growing pains ahead. | ||
| I am encouraged that the President nominated someone for this program with deep expertise in space programs. | ||
| Mr. Mink, what's your vision for how the Space Force should grow and how it should evolve as a service? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for the question, Senator. | |
| Yes, I've been fortunate enough to work space systems, both on the Air Force side, which then became the Space Force side, as well as from the IC side. | ||
| Space is critical. | ||
| This is actually one of the areas that we're most challenged, I believe, from the rapidly evolving threat from China and others, both the direct threat to our systems as well as the threat those systems pose to our operations across the Department in general. | ||
| I think the key to both acquisition and operations is making sure you have the best talented workforce. | ||
| These are some of the most complicated systems, and if the U.S. is going to maintain our advantage, which we need to do in space, we need to make sure we have the right workforce. | ||
| The Space Force is in the process of growing. | ||
| We'll support that activity to make sure we have the right numbers and the right skill set, and then make sure that the acquisitions themselves are delivering and that they're getting into operation. | ||
| Can you give me a quick example of what new capabilities you think Space Force should be focusing on to acquire? | ||
| Just a quick example. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think some of the space control and counterspace systems are critical. | |
| Senator, can't dive into too many of the details, but that is probably the area that we are being most stressed from a threat perspective. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Reed. | ||
| Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. | ||
| Mr. Duffy, in 2019, you played a central role in the withholding of $250 million in desperately needed Ukrainian assistance, which passed Congress with bipartisan support. | ||
| And indeed, President Trump was impeached for his decision to withhold the money. | ||
| Your actions to facilitate the withholding of this aid that had been authorized and appropriate by Congress certainly contravened the direction of this body and the law. | ||
| Can you assure us that you will follow the law without reservation rather than the wishes of the President or the Secretary? | ||
| Yes, Senator, I provide that assurance. | ||
| If I am confirmed, I would follow the law. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Dr. Ming, as you know, launch operations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base have become highly constrained due to the new class of ultra-heavy lift rockets and the amount of standoff distance that they require. | ||
| If confirmed, will you review what options are available to alleviate this constraint, which is hindering competition in this particular area, and report back as quickly as possible to the committee? | ||
| I think one of the great achievements of the last few years is the privatization of space launches, and the competitive model is a good one. | ||
| We'd like to see that maintained. | ||
|
unidentified
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Senator, I'd be happy to. | |
| That is something in my current job we work and are concerned about. | ||
| One of the phrases I like to say sometimes is this is kind of a good problem to have. | ||
| Historically, we had a very limited access to space launch. | ||
| That has grown across many, many companies in the U.S. | ||
| But that has also led to some challenges, as you just articulated. | ||
| It's getting very busy, very crowded, and some of these larger launch vehicles do drive different concerns than maybe we had to address in the past. | ||
| So yes, Senator, I think that capability is extremely important for us to maintain our advantage in space. | ||
| I think to some degree what we are doing across the board in the launch gives the U.S. an asymmetric advantage. | ||
| But we do need to make sure that we have the proper launch infrastructure, the proper space really to continue operations and allow that both national security and commercial industry to grow. | ||
| And you'll get back to us as quickly as possible with the Yes, Senator, I will. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Mr. Michael, one of the key advantages we have in our industrial base is our technical workforce within the military, including our acquisition professionals, our test and evaluation community, our STEM personnel, our laboratories. | ||
| They are vital. | ||
| In fact, I think we'll find that that is going to be the pathway to more efficiency and more productivity as we enhance this workforce. | ||
| But we're now in a situation where many of these individuals are being dismissed without any cause. | ||
| They're being encouraged to leave, and many of them have the skills to walk out the door and get a lot more money in the private sector. | ||
| What can and will you do to reverse this trend to build up our workforce rather than to haphazardly dismiss it? | ||
|
unidentified
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Ranking Member Reid, I think that we all agree that technological innovation is the way forward for the Defense Department in almost every dimension. | |
| And we have some storied labs like DARPA and other places that ought to be fortified as opposed to degraded in any way. | ||
| And I think part of that is ensuring that it remains an honored profession because people join these labs and these affiliated scientific organizations with the DOD because they care about the mission. | ||
| And we have to honor that. | ||
| And I think we can attract more people and retain people if we celebrate their accomplishments more. | ||
| And also if we focus them on missions that are going to be important and realized. | ||
| And that's why I mentioned I think focusing them on those missions and honoring their successes will attract and retain more of them. | ||
| And I've done that in the private industry for decades, really focusing on getting engineers, keeping them, rewarding them to produce great things. | ||
| And that's what I intend to do in this role of confirmation. | ||
| Well, that's encouraging. | ||
| Again, though, you're looking at a situation now where people have been dismissed not based on their talents, but they are in appropriation status and they can be dismissed. | ||
| And I hope you can reverse that, again, policy. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And my time is expiring. | ||
| Mr. Bass, I'll have a question for the record. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Reed. | ||
| Senator Cotton, you are recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Dr. Mink, I want to return to Senator Fisher's line of questioning about nuclear modernization. | ||
| The Air Force is responsible for two of the three legs of the nuclear triad, as she said. | ||
| Sometimes the funding for that, which is known as the pass-through, counts against, you might say, the top line for the Air Force in internal budget battles. | ||
| I personally worry the Air Force can't execute all of its tasks when it comes to its traditional conventional tasks while also executing nuclear modernization of our missiles and our long-range bombers. | ||
| Do you agree that we need to take a new look at the top line for the Air Force and especially to account for that nuclear pass-through to ensure the Air Force has the budget necessary to perform all of its vital tasks? | ||
| Senator, thank you for the question. | ||
| And thanks for the opportunity to talk a little bit offline. | ||
|
unidentified
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The Air Force is kind of in a unique position almost in its history. | |
| We're in the process of modernizing pretty much across all the five core mission areas. | ||
| The nuclear triad, nuclear deterrence is a huge part of that. | ||
| As you just kind of mentioned, those systems are pretty expensive. | ||
| One of the first things I plan to do is take a holistic look at all of the modernization and all the readiness bills that we have coming. | ||
| And then I will put together and advocate for what resources I think are necessary to execute all of those missions. | ||
| And then working both within the administration and with Congress, which I found throughout my time working in national security, a good relationship with Congress is critical. | ||
| So if confirmed, I'll be back here walking through what I think we need to do. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I'm sure in the internal budget battles, you remind everyone, it's not just my top line. | ||
| I've got this big slug of nuclear modernization here as well. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, Senator, there's a couple slugs in there. | |
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| Another thing that worries me is retaining our troops, especially in the Air Force, retaining fighter pilots. | ||
| We're nearly 1,800 pilots short, I believe, these days for every four jobs requiring a fighter pilot. | ||
| We just fill three of them. | ||
| I have my thoughts on some of the factors driving this, in part due to some roundtables that Senator King and I have held over the years with pilots. | ||
|
Pilots and Technical Skill Sets
00:02:19
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| For instance, I think we can always probably do a little bit better job of paying our pilots, but I don't think you're ever going to pay them enough compared to what commercial airlines will pay them or private companies. | ||
| People join the Air Force to fly fighter pilots because they want to fly high-performance jets in defense of our nation. | ||
| And we need to do a better job of getting them more time in the cockpit training here and downrange. | ||
| I think it's one big factor. | ||
| There are other factors as well. | ||
| But could you give me your thoughts on that and also just a commitment that you're going to look carefully at that? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, I'll commit. | |
| I'm going to look carefully at that. | ||
| And Senator, I think your discussion about, I see that as kind of a quality of service, quality of life, pay, that only goes so far. | ||
| We need to make sure, not just with pilots, but across our highly skilled areas within our workforce, that they have the opportunity to do what they've been trained, what they love to do. | ||
| I think that could be a bigger impact on maintaining some of these highly technical skill sets, like pilots and others, letting them do what they were trained to do. | ||
| I've been around since I was a navigator. | ||
| We've always struggled with maintaining pilot levels. | ||
| It is much larger than just the funding. | ||
| And Senator, not to necessarily ask something of you, but if you have other opinions, if I'm confirmed, I'd love to sit down and talk to them about it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Just one more question for you, Dr. Mink. | ||
| Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith is now the home of the international fighter training mission for the F-35. | ||
| It's going to grow from four aircraft today to 48 fighter aircraft in the next three years. | ||
| That's twice as fast as the normal bed down for standard F-35 mission. | ||
| The Air Force has worked well with our state and local partners in Senator Bozeman's office, Congressman Walmack's office, and mine. | ||
| Can I get your commitment that we'll continue to work well as we go through this very fast, but so far a very successful bed down to ensure that Ebbing has the resources it needs? | ||
|
unidentified
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Absolutely, Senator. | |
|
Ensuring Military Health Care Resources
00:07:53
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|
unidentified
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Okay. | |
| Mr. Bass, first off, I want to apologize that I missed our meeting yesterday. | ||
| I hate to stand up, a wonder boy from Arkansas Tech University, right across the river from Dardenal, Arkansas, but glad to see you today and congratulations on your nomination. | ||
| I continue to hear that the MHS Genesis program is causing problems for recruiting and converting recruits into new troopers, not just airmen, but soldiers, sailors, Marines, and so forth. | ||
| Obviously, we want to work efficiently with medical records, and we don't want to bring in people who are going to be washed out because of serious medical conditions six months after basic training. | ||
|
unidentified
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Nays are 182. | |
| The joint resolution is passed. | ||
| Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on passage of House Joint Resolution 75 on which the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the joint resolution. | ||
| House Joint Resolution 75. | ||
| Joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under Chapter 8 of Title V, United States Code, of the rules submitted by the Office of Energy, Efficiency, and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy, relating to Energy Conservation Program, Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Refrigerators, Freezers, and Refrigerator Freezers. | ||
|
unidentified
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The question is on passage of the joint resolution. | |
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
| And the second of three measures getting a vote in this round here in the House, likely to be the last of the legislative work this week. | ||
| This measure repealing a Biden administration rule establishing new energy efficiency standards for commercial refrigeration equipment. | ||
| It's being brought up under a process in which Congress can overturn regulations issued by federal agencies within 60 legislative days. | ||
| While members are voting, we'll take you back live to the defense officials' confirmation hearing. | ||
| A number of those victims over the years from the time of the first attacks in China and Cuba. | ||
| The Department of Defense has been offering critical care at Walter Reed for the victims across the interagency. | ||
| However, many in the intelligence community, I think, are doing a disservice to these victims by continuing to deny that this is a real issue and to fail to look for attribution for who's responsible. | ||
| Now, I understand that there are reports from your time at the CIA that suggest you didn't take seriously the reports of those anomalous health incidents. | ||
| Can you speak to why you were skeptical and what your position would be if you were confirmed for this new role? | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Senator, and thank you for your commitment to this effort. | |
| I reject the premise that I wasn't, I did not take AHI seriously. | ||
| All individuals that are affected by AHI, regardless, should be treated with dignity and respect, and they should be afforded health care. | ||
| The issue that we had to resolve was these individuals wanted to go to Walter Reed. | ||
| We needed to really streamline the process for getting Secretary designee because at that time the processes and the policies were not in place to get them to the NYCO. | ||
| I think we were using NIH at the time. | ||
| So we pulled together all the subject matter experts. | ||
| My understanding now is that DOD has significantly expedited that process. | ||
| And these individuals, not just at the agency, ma'am, it was at all the federal agencies. | ||
| We wanted to make sure these individuals got the health care that they deserved, regardless of source. | ||
| Whether we knew what the source was or not, they should have gotten health care, and we worked to do that. | ||
| And I think given time, we did get those individuals into the health care they deserve. | ||
| So do you commit that if confirmed, the Defense Health Agency will continue to play a critical role in care and treatment for those who have been victims of AHIs? | ||
|
unidentified
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Senator, 100%. | |
| I commit to that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I'd like to ask the other three of you who I'm sorry I missed the opening statements that everybody provided, but in the questions that I've heard, you've all talked about the need for additional resources at the department level. | ||
| And how do you square that with the current commitment of this administration and Secretary Hegseth to reduce funding for the Department of Defense by 8% a year over the next five years? | ||
| Mr. Duffy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Senator, thank you for the question. | |
| I believe that the media reporting on that is inaccurate. | ||
| I do not believe that it's Secretary's intent to cut the budget 8%, but rather he directed the services to re-look at a budget that had been prepared by the prior administration with a focus on 8% of the resources of that prior budget and reallocate that towards this administration's priorities. | ||
| So, would you agree that if you or can you tell this committee that if you disagree with the directive for the Secretary of Defense or the administration about what they tell you you should do with our nuclear program, | ||
| that if you think it's incorrect and that it will affect the ability of that program to operate successfully in the future, that you would say that to them and share that stand-up to those people directing you to do something that you think you should not be doing? | ||
| Well, Senator, I would take my responsibility seriously to advocate for the resources that I believe are required to resource our forces with the capabilities they need in order to prevail in conflict. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Dr. Mink, on the resource question? | ||
|
unidentified
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Absolutely, Senator. | |
| I will always advocate for the resources I think I need to meet the requirements that I've been given. | ||
| And I've had a bit of a history of doing that. | ||
| I will continue to do that, Senator. | ||
| And Mr. Michael? | ||
|
unidentified
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Senator Sheen, of course. | |
| I think the first thing a new leader does when they come into an organization is look at what their mission is and what they do. | ||
| They have the resources to accomplish it or not, and the every new administration gets their own agenda, and so that would be one of the first order of business when you get into a job like this would be to assess that and make sure that you have the right resources. | ||
| Thank you, thank you very much, senator Shaheen, senator Kramer. | ||
| Thank you, mr chairman. | ||
| Just on that last point. | ||
| I think what you're going to find out is you don't have enough resources. | ||
| But that's just my prejudgment. | ||
| I think it's great, dr Mink, that you're surrounded by the research and development guy and the acquisition guy and you're all talking about modernization and that's what I want to talk about. | ||
| But first I want to know, in Lemon, south Dakota, the as close to north Dakota as you can possibly be, to quote my colleague from south Dakota is, was your area code 605 or 701? | ||
|
Amendment Number Three
00:04:36
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| Because Lemon is known to have both? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah yeah, it's not just close, actually part of the town. | |
| 114, the nays are 193. | ||
| The motion passes. | ||
| The joint resolution is passed without objection. | ||
| The motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 242 and Rule 18, the chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union for further consideration of H.R. 1048. | ||
| Will the gentleman from California, Mr. Obinoti, kindly take the chair? | ||
|
unidentified
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The House is in the committee of the whole House on the State of the Union for the third consideration of H.R. 1048, which the clerk will report by title. | |
| Union calendar number 9, H.R. 1048. | ||
| A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to strengthen disclosure requirements relating to foreign gifts and contracts to prohibit contracts between institutions of higher education and certain foreign entities in countries of concern and for other purposes. | ||
|
unidentified
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When the Committee of the Whole rose on Tuesday, March 25th, 2025, a request for a recorded vote on amendment number six, printed in House Report 119-38, offered by the gentlewoman from Michigan, Ms. Talib, had been postponed. | |
| Pursuant to clause six of Rule 18, proceedings will now resume on those amendments printed in House Resolution 119-38, on which further proceedings were postponed in the following order. | ||
| Amendment number three by Mr. Scott of Virginia. | ||
| Amendment number four by Mr. Self of Texas. | ||
| Amendment number five by Ms. Talib of Michigan. | ||
| Amendment number six by Ms. Talib of Michigan. | ||
| The chair will reduce to two minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote in this series. | ||
| The unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number three, printed in House Report 119-38, offered by the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Scott, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the no's prevailed by voice vote. | ||
| The clerk will redesignate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number three, print it in House Report number 119-38, offered by Mr. Scott of Virginia. | ||
|
unidentified
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A recorded vote has been requested. | |
| Those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, the recorded vote is ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a two-minute vote. | ||
| And votes now on amendments to the college foreign gift disclosure legislation. | ||
| These are expected to be the last legislative work of the week. | ||
| The gift disclosure bill would establish new requirements for colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education that receive funds from foreign sources valued at $50,000 or more, down from the current $250,000 threshold. | ||
| Members voting now on an amendment offered by Virginia Democrat Bobby Scott, ranking member of the Education and Workforce Committee. | ||
| It would replace the current GOP bill with the Democratic version of the legislation. | ||
| While votes are underway, we'll head back to the defense officials' confirmation hearing. | ||
| She was against it. | ||
| So the committee staff wouldn't put it in the bill without a vote of the members. | ||
| I brought the amendment to the committee. | ||
|
unidentified
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It passed on a voice vote. | |
| And here's the point. | ||
| It has to do with TRICARE reimbursement for health care services that don't meet the very, the singular, very specific accreditation. | ||
| Not a better accreditation, just an accreditation specific that greatly reduces access to health care, to mental health care. | ||
| The reason this became important to me is because I know of two airmen who sought mental health care at Grand Forks and were denied by TRICARE, who are no longer with us because they ultimately chose to take their own lives. | ||
|
Defenders of the New Edge
00:15:56
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| All because of this one accreditation that wasn't. | ||
| I don't know what would have happened had they been able to get the care that was available to them. | ||
| But the bill that we passed that's part of the NDAA basically says if access in the state fails to meet standards for more than 12 months consecutive, then we have to look at something different. | ||
| Now, it's under review. | ||
| The first part of the bill is a one-year review. | ||
| My experience, and my experience is far too often, that in a year we have to ask somebody where the review is and then they'll try to get it to us in four months. | ||
| Would you just please, please, please, please commit to the men and women of the military that we'll look into this right away, that a year from the enactment of the law, I don't have to wait four more months for the conclusion. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Senator. | |
| The mental health access for our service members and our total force has to be our priority, and I will commit to working with you on that. | ||
| Thank you for that, sir. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Kramer. | ||
| Senator King. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Mr. Duffy, it's appropriate that you and Dr. Mink are sitting together because I think there's such a close correlation between the work that you're doing. | ||
| Technology wins wars. | ||
| The side that has the newer technology generally prevails. | ||
| Genghis Khan and the stirrup, the longbow at the Battle of Agincor, the tank in World War I, the atomic weapon in World War II. | ||
| My concern is that we have missed two of the major technologies of the 21st century, and this isn't a criticism of the current administration. | ||
| It goes back probably 10 or 15 years: hypersonics and directed energy. | ||
| And we've got to catch up. | ||
| And the prior administration cut the budget for directed energy in half, which to me just doesn't make sense. | ||
| We're spending two or three million dollars per missile to knock those $20,000 drones out in the Red Sea. | ||
| Directed energy certainly ought to be an answer. | ||
| And I know that there's work going on, but it should be accelerated. | ||
| My request is that you try to think ahead and think about acquiring the next technology, not just what we've always done. | ||
| My most hated words in the English language is we've never done it that way before. | ||
| I hope you'll subscribe to a philosophy of trying to look to the future. | ||
| Your thoughts? | ||
|
unidentified
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Senator, thank you for the question. | |
| I'm thrilled to not only be seeing Nestor, to Dr. Mink, but Mr. Michael, who will be at the cutting edge of the next generation of technologies. | ||
| And I look forward to a partnership with both these gentlemen on how do we advance that technology, how do we leapfrog our adversaries' capabilities there. | ||
| And then I see my responsibility is how do we accelerate getting that in the hands of the warfighters? | ||
| And one way to do that is smaller businesses. | ||
| We've had testimony to this committee by smaller businesses that they've just given up on the Pentagon acquisition process. | ||
| Too complex, too much red tape, too long. | ||
| And I just hope that in the 2010s. | ||
|
unidentified
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The yeas are 199, the nays are 214. | |
| The amendment is not adopted. | ||
| The unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number four, printed in House Report 119-38, offered by the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Self, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. | ||
| The clerk will redesignate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number four, print it in House Report number 119-38, offered by Mr. Self of Texas. | ||
|
unidentified
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A recorded vote has been requested. | |
| Those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, a recorded vote is ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a two-minute vote. | ||
| And amendment voting continuing with a vote now on changing the college foreign gift reporting threshold in the bill from $50,000 to $1. | ||
| Texas Republican Keith Self offered this amendment. | ||
| He's the chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe. | ||
| After this, expecting two amendments from Michigan's Rashida Tlaib, followed by final passage of the College Gift Reporting Requirements Bill. | ||
| As members record their vote, we'll head back to the defense confirmation hearing. | ||
| By orders of magnitude, the amount we're spending in DOD, and we should be leveraging that in some way. | ||
| And certainly in the university settings, they're also innovating in quantum computing and lots of other areas that we need to be drawing from and pulling in faster into the DOD and into Mr. Duffy's acquisition program so that we can get those things in sooner from both of those types of organizations. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Bass, I'm running short of time, but I want to be sure that one of your priorities is brain health. | ||
| The signature issue from the war on terror has been problems with overblast, blast overpressure and brain health long-term effects. | ||
| And I hope that's something you'll pay significant attention to. | ||
| There are ongoing studies in the department, but I want to also emphasize that implementation of the results of those studies is important. | ||
| I hope that you'll commit to me that brain health is something that you'll attend to in this position. | ||
| I think it's one of the most important maladies affecting our troops. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Senator, for your commitment to this issue. | |
| DOD is a leader in this space, and I will commit to you that we will continue to look at ways and devote research to this issue and making sure that we continue to make progress. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Just in a few seconds, none are so devout as the convert. | ||
| I was not enthusiastic about the creation of the Space Force under the leadership of Senator Kramer. | ||
| I now admit I was wrong, and I used AI a few minutes ago to determine that the budget of the Space Force is 3.5% of the total budget of the Defense Department. | ||
| Given the role of space in any future conflict, Mr. Mink, I think the Space Force, Dr. Mink, I think the Space Force deserves greater resources and greater attention. | ||
| The first day or two of any future conflict is going to take place in space. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, Senator, I believe that you are correct, that space is going to be one of the determining factors, either from a deterrence perspective, because if it can't be affected, it's going to be a deterrent to the adversary. | |
| So we definitely need to get that right. | ||
| The Space Force budget has been, to my understanding, has been growing significantly since it was founded five or so years ago. | ||
| And I will continue to advocate for the resources. | ||
| And I think the Department in general, given the threatened environment in New Paycon Theater, is going to play a very important role in both air and space. | ||
| And I will advocate for the resources to do that. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Well said by both of you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator King. | ||
| Senator Budd. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and congratulations to each and every one of you. | ||
|
unidentified
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The yays are 92. | |
| The nays are 321. | ||
| The amendment is not adopted. | ||
| The unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number five, printed in House Report 119-38, offered by the gentlewoman from Michigan, Ms. Talib, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the no's prevailed by voice vote. | ||
| The clerk will redesignate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number five, Prince and House Report number 119-38, offered by Ms. Talib of Michigan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A recorded vote has been requested. | |
| Those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, a recorded vote is ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a two-minute vote. | ||
| And lawmakers voting now on another amendment to the foreign gift disclosure bill. | ||
| It's the first of two amendments from Congresswoman Rashida Talib of Michigan getting a vote today. | ||
| This one would change the definition of foreign country of concern to include any country that's defending a case before the International Court of Justice relating to an alleged violation of the Geneva Conventions or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. | ||
| While members vote more live coverage from the defense hearing. | ||
| Suited for today's threat environment, end quote. | ||
| So, Dr. Mike, in your opinion, is the F-15E strike eagle ill-suited for today's threat environment? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, I believe, first off, the F-15, it's kind of my favorite airplane. | |
| F-15 AirCap came to my rescue when I was in a tanker in the first Gulf War and ran off a couple of Iraqi fighters. | ||
| So, I'm probably a little bit conflicted when it comes to the F-15. | ||
| But is it going to be able to operate in the highest threat environments? | ||
| No. | ||
| Does it have value? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I think the question going forward will be: how long do we continue and how do we best utilize the value from the fourth-generation fighters? | ||
| But I think it definitely has value today. | ||
| Not in all environments, but it definitely has value today, Senator. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| More broadly, what are your thoughts on General Alvin's comments about the size and age of the Air Force fleet? | ||
| And is our fleet, particularly our amount of tactical fighters, is it too small? | ||
|
unidentified
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Senator, the thing I can speak to for sure is that the fleet is aging. | |
| 30-plus years on average, some of the platforms, some of the critical platforms are significantly older than that. | ||
| When I was a navigator, I never flew a KC-135 that was younger than me. | ||
| They're still flying today in one of the mainline air refueling platforms the department has. | ||
| So they are definitely getting old. | ||
| Still a very capable platform, but they're definitely aging. | ||
| With respect to the exact numbers, Senator, I have not seen, and I'm looking forward to seeing the detailed analysis that went into the projections on NGAD and the other systems. | ||
| My sense, though, is it's probably too small, both on the fighter and the bomber side of the house. | ||
| Thank you for that. | ||
| Mr. Michael and Mr. Duffy, American deterrence relies on maintaining military technological edge over our adversaries. | ||
| China's strategy to blunt that edge through espionage, intellectual property theft, and rapid acquisition is a threat that must be addressed. | ||
| So if confirmed, you both would play a major role in ensuring that America and its allies have the tools needed to prevail in war while ensuring that critical new technology stays out of unfriendly hands. | ||
| Mr. Michael, as we develop and scale new technology, including NGAD or next-generation air dominance, AI, and quantum, how will you act to ensure that the security of these American innovations and their IP remain in our hands? | ||
|
unidentified
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That is one of the most important things that I'll have to work on because if you look at what's happened with the Chinese capabilities with SALT Typhoon and with infiltration into some of the university programs and into our systems, that means that that adversary can catch up without 80% of the cost because they could innovate on top of our 80% investment. | |
| And that's quite a bit of advantage they get. | ||
| So protecting against their ability to steal our intellectual property, our trade secrets, and us not being reliant on their supply chains are two things that we have to do in combination with one another to ensure that when we're superior, we stay superior. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Along those lines, Mr. Duffy, how will you ensure that our acquisition system can keep up with the rate of technology and innovation in the world? | ||
| Well, thank you for the question, Senator. | ||
| It is critical that we have a robust defense industrial base that can provide security to protect our intellectual property, but has the robustness to ensure that we're delivering the most cutting-edge capability to our forces. | ||
| It would be my commitment, if confirmed into the job, to explore those barriers that are preventing new entrants and private capital from entering the yays are three. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The nays are 410. | |
| The amendment is not adopted. | ||
| The unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number six, printed in House Report 119-38, offered by the gentlewoman from Michigan, Ms. Talib, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the no's prevailed by voice vote. | ||
| The clerk will redesignate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number six, Prince and House Report number 119-38, offered by Ms. Talib of Michigan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A recorded vote has been requested. | |
| Those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, a recorded vote is ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a two-minute vote. | ||
| And the last amendment getting a vote in this round is one on whether to change the definition of investment of concern in the college foreign gift disclosure bill. | ||
| This would include any entity that the Secretary of State determines directly facilitates state violence and repression, war and occupation, or severe violations of international law and human rights. | ||
| Congresswoman Talib also offered this amendment after this final passage of the college foreign gift disclosure bill is expected. | ||
| As members record their vote, we'll head back to the defense confirmation hearing live. | ||
| That analysis as we bring on additional fifth and potentially sixth generation fighters. | ||
| So I can't speak to the details, Senator, but I will look into it and I will be happy to come down and brief the Hill on what I find. | ||
| And that is a valuable answer in itself. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And Senator Rono, you are ready. | ||
| Mr. Chairman. | ||
| And welcome to each of you. | ||
| As part of my effort to focus on ensuring the fitness of all nominees who come before any of my committees, I ask the following two initial questions. | ||
| And we'll start with Mr. Duffy and go right down the line. | ||
| First question, since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Never. | |
| Let's go down the line. | ||
| No, sir. | ||
| No, Senator. | ||
| No. | ||
| No. | ||
| Second question, have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement relating to this kind of conduct? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| No, Senator. | ||
| No. | ||
| No. | ||
| This is the first hearing of this committee since the security breach involving Signal and involving the attack on Yeaman. | ||
| So I am going to ask each of you yes or no questions. | ||
|
Yays and Nays Count
00:04:42
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||
| And again, we'll start with Mr. Duffy. | ||
| Based on your backgrounds, each of you has had a security clearance. | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Yes, Senator. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have a clearance. | |
| I didn't hear you say, do I have or have I had? | ||
| Have you had? | ||
| If you either have or have, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| So you know what a security clearance is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Senator. | |
| Go ahead. | ||
| And each of you would agree that protecting classified information is important? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Yes, Senator. | ||
| It's obligatory. | ||
| It's what? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Obligatory. | |
| Yes. | ||
| It's the law. | ||
| Have any of you discussed classified information on an unclassified device or medium? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| No, Senator. | ||
| No. | ||
| No, Senator. | ||
| I'm glad that you have answered no because that's pretty obvious. | ||
| you admitted that you did not follow the law that you will be admitting to committing a federal crime. | ||
| Mr. Chairman I would like to ask unanimous consent that the record of this hearing include. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The a's are four. | |
| The nays are 404 with one answering present. | ||
| The amendment is not adopted. | ||
| There being no further amendments under the rule, the committee rises. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the committee of the whole House and the State of the Union has had under consideration H.R. 1048. | ||
| And pursuant to House Resolution 242, I report the bill as amended by that resolution back to the House with sundry further amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole. | ||
| The Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union reports that the Committee has under consideration the bill H.R. 1048, and pursuant to House Resolution 242 reports the bill is amended by that resolution back to the House with sundry further amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole. | ||
| Under the rule, the previous question is ordered and a separate vote demanded on any further amendment report 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 say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The amendments are adopted. | ||
| The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor, please say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to strengthen disclosure requirements relating to foreign gifts and contracts to prohibit contracts between institutions of higher education and certain foreign entities and countries of concern and for other purposes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question is on the passage of the bill. | |
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The bill is passed and without objection. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman rise? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for the ayes and nays the yays and nays are requested. | ||
| Those favoring a vote by the yays and nays will rise. | ||
| A sufficient number have risen. | ||
| The yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| Members will record their vote by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
| And a final vote now on the measure establishing new disclosure requirements for colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education that receive funds from certain foreign sources valued at $50,000 or more, down from the current $250,000 reporting threshold. | ||
| As members wrap up these last votes of the week, we expect two hours or so of special order speeches from California Congressman Doug Lamalfa, Al Green of Texas, and California Representative Kevin Kiley. | ||
|
Air Force Tankers Crisis
00:05:44
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|
unidentified
|
While members vote, we'll head back live to the defense confirmation hearing. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| And members are reminded that suggested legislation should be submitted by Monday night next for inclusion in the NDIA. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Hirono. | ||
| Senator Banks, you are next. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Dr. Mink, the President has expressed historic confidence in the Air National Guard by nominating General Kane to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. | ||
| That's never happened before, to have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs come from the National Guard. | ||
| And I wonder if you could talk about if you could speak to the importance of the Air National Guard and the overall Air Force mission and the priority of the Air National Guard and what that would look like on your watch. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for the question, Senator, and thank you for the opportunity to speak offline. | |
| Yeah, the Air National Guard is critically important. | ||
| It is a significant portion of the department's capabilities across the board, from tankers to fighter aircraft. | ||
| It will continue to be an important part of the department, and we need to continue to support and work closely with the states and with Congress to make sure that stays so. | ||
| Yeah, on that note, as you know, the Air Force is shrinking. | ||
| We're not buying enough planes to keep the force at its current size, but that means that the Air Force carries that the Air Force reserves and the National Guard carries a greater priority of the mission. | ||
| How can we ensure that the Air National Guard is getting its fair share of new fighter aircraft? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, Senator, one of the things I plan to do, and again, is take a holistic look across all the modernization activities to understand what we need from a numbers perspective, how fast do we need to build, both to support the active duty and the reserve units. | |
| And then I will advocate for whatever that requirement is or whatever the capability is and whatever the resources that are needed to meet the requirement, both up to the administration and to Congress. | ||
| Well, I appreciate that. | ||
| I look forward to working with you to make sure that the Air National Guard doesn't get the short end of the stick like it often does. | ||
| Dr. Mink, your first Air Force assignment was flying KC-135s at Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana. | ||
| Can you talk about how important the effort is there and why it matters, not just Indiana, but to the country and our national defense? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, so this primary area I'm a little bit biased on since I started my career in tankers, but it is just been critical, both from a strategic nuclear mission as well from a conventional mission. | |
| One of the reasons we were pulled off of alert and sent to the Gulf War is because tankers were not only necessary for the strategic mission, but they were just critical for operations that were going on in the Middle East. | ||
| So, yes, the tanker force has been and always will be, and to some degree, I think it's becoming more important given in the PICCOM theater where the ranges are even longer than what they are in some of the other theaters. | ||
| So we need to continue. | ||
| We need to ensure that the tanker force, both active and reserves, are able to support mission. | ||
| Does it surprise you? | ||
| Still flying the same planes there that they were flying when you were there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have to admit a little bit, but to some degree, not to dive too deep, but they sincerely zero-timed those airplanes when I was active duty when they re-engined them. | |
| So it was almost a brand new airplane effectively, but it is still, you know, 60-odd years old. | ||
| That's still pretty old, even if you've done a lot of maintenance on them. | ||
| Well, the Air Force refueling tankers are on average among the oldest aircraft in the fleet. | ||
| And the Air Force isn't buying enough new tankers to replace the ones that were retiring. | ||
| The same goes for Grissom, the place where, as you said, you started your career. | ||
| Grissom has a more than two-mile runway, one of the longest in the United States of America. | ||
| As far as I can tell, the Air Force needs new tankers for Grissom, which otherwise threatens to close down the base, and we would lose that runway, that important asset that we have. | ||
| How should we be working to fix the Air Force refueler fleet? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right now, the new tanker is the focus. | |
| We have to work with both within the government and with the contractor to get that program on track, to get the production rates up and drive the cost down so that we can afford to procure the tanker force that's necessary both to expand and replace. | ||
| As a great airplane, Senator, you're exactly right, it is getting pretty old. | ||
| We were going to have to replace it. | ||
| The Nays are 241, the nays are 169. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
|
Honor And Legacy
00:08:06
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|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from New Jersey rise? | |
| Speaker, unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourned to meet at noon on Monday next for a morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the House will be in order. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House out of order for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today, alongside my colleagues in the New York delegation and many of her other cherished colleagues to mourn the loss of a giant of the House and the trailblazer for women in public service, Chairwoman Nita Lowy. | ||
| For more than three decades, she represented her constituents in Westchester and Rockland counties with unwavering dedication, fierce advocacy, and an unbreakable spirit. | ||
| As the first woman to serve as chair of the Appropriations Committee, Nita shattered glass ceilings with dignity and determination. | ||
| And as the former dean of the New York delegation, Nita fought tirelessly to secure resources for the Empire State, leading the charge after September 11th, Superstorm Sandy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. | ||
| Her commitment to global security and education also left an indelible mark beyond our borders. | ||
| As the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, she championed critical global health and education initiatives. | ||
| Nita was more than a colleague. | ||
| She was a mentor and a friend to many of us. | ||
| She was a voice of compassion and reason. | ||
| She believed in the power of government to do good, and her legacy will endure through the lives she touched and the barriers she broke. | ||
| May her memory be a blessing. | ||
| May her memory be a blessing. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield one minute to the gentleman from New York, my colleague Mr. Lawler. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Representative Nadler. | ||
| Today I rise to honor the remarkable career and lasting legacy of Congresswoman Nita Lowy. | ||
| As the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee, she shattered barriers and paved the way for so many others during her 32 years in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Nita was a tireless advocate for the Hudson Valley, and she was committed to getting things done on behalf of her community. | ||
| Along with Congressman Latimer, we now represent portions of the district she once served. | ||
| I know I speak for George in saying that we're proud to follow in her footsteps. | ||
| Her commitment to bipartisanship is something I've tried to carry forward in her honor. | ||
| Nita knew that real solutions come from working across the aisle, and her ability to build consensus led to critical investments in education, health care, and infrastructure that benefited New Yorkers and Americans across our country. | ||
| I thank Nita Lowy for her extraordinary leadership and her unwavering belief in a better future for all Americans. | ||
| May her memory be a blessing, especially for her husband, Stephen, her children, and her beloved grandchildren. | ||
| Nita will be sorely missed. | ||
| I yield back to my colleague from New York. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Lawler for those kind words. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now ask that all members and staff throughout the Capitol rise for a moment of silence in remembrance of Chairwoman Nita Lowy. | ||
| May your memory be a blessing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The house | |
| will be in order. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Utah seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| the gentleman's recognized. | ||
| Today we remember and honor a trailblazer, a leader, and a dear friend, Leah Love. | ||
| Mia made history as Utah's first black mayor and the first black Republican woman elected to Congress. | ||
| But her impact went far, far further than those titles. | ||
| She was a fierce advocate, a tireless servant, and a bright light in the lives of so many. | ||
| Mia brought passion, energy, and unwavering commitment to the people of Utah's 4th District, a district that I am now proud to serve. | ||
| She led with grace and conviction, never backing down from a challenge and always striving to make a difference for those she served. | ||
| It is for me a profound honor to follow in her footsteps. | ||
| Her legacy is one of faith, courage, love, and the highlight of her life, her husband Jason and her family, all fitting for a woman whose name said it all. | ||
| While we grieve her loss, we also celebrate a life well lived, a mission well served, and a friend deeply missed. | ||
| Our Utah communities mourn for the loved family. | ||
| We pray that they find peace in Heavenly Father's love and comfort and solace in what Mia has meant to all of us. | ||
| And now, please rise for a moment of silence. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I go back. | ||
|
Why We Left Google
00:11:30
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|
unidentified
|
The chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Michigan seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, he has consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Last year, the EPA finalized a rule which set aggressive emission standards for vehicles amounting to a de facto EV mandate. | ||
| While I'm not against EVs, or certainly against reducing emissions, we must not push misguided regulations that limit consumer choice, burden the American auto industry, and increase reliance on China. | ||
| President Trump recently issued an executive order to eliminate the EV mandate, demonstrating his commitment to repealing excessive regulations. | ||
| However, we must take further steps to prevent future administrations from issuing similar mandates. | ||
| That's why I partnered with Representative Fulcher to introduce the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales or the CARS Act, which will prevent similar EV mandates and safeguard Americans' freedoms to choose the vehicle that is best for them. | ||
| We must put consumers back in the driver's seat and ensure the future of the auto industry that is forged through innovation and not mandates. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise to celebrate the incredible legacy of Anise Parker, a trailblazer, a fearless advocate, and a champion for LGBTQ rights in Texas and across the nation. | ||
| As the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major American city, Houston, Anise shattered barriers and showed millions of people that LGBTQ Americans belong in government and in every part of public life. | ||
| Her work wasn't just about representation, it was about action. | ||
| She fought for equality, for fairness, and for a Texas where everyone, no matter who they love, has the opportunity to thrive. | ||
| Through her leadership at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, she helped elect and empower leaders at every level of government. | ||
| And it is because of Anise's leadership that the next generation of LGBTQ Americans has more seats at the table, more voices in the conversation, and more hope for the future. | ||
| Anise, thank you for your service, your courage, and your unwavering commitment to justice. | ||
| Texas and our nation are better because of you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | |
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Gia Deborah Gentile, a remarkable young woman from Hawthorne, New York, who tragically passed away on March 9th at just 14 years old after a brave and tireless battle with neuroblastoma. | ||
| Though her life was far too short, Gia's legacy is one of kindness, compassion, and selfless service. | ||
| Whether it was through her role on the Student Council, her leadership on the Westlake High School varsity cheer team, or her dedication to the service club. | ||
| Gia led by example, always putting others before herself and inspiring those around her. | ||
| Even while facing the most difficult of challenges, Gia's heart of gold never wavered. | ||
| She continued to serve and support others, embodying a spirit of positivity, empathy, and generosity that touched everyone she encountered. | ||
| As her parents, Carmine and Dana, and her siblings Jordana and Tino continue to grieve this unimaginable loss, we keep them in our thoughts and prayers. | ||
| Gia's memory will forever shine brightly in the hearts of all who were blessed to know her. | ||
| May Gia rest in peace and may we all strive to live each day in the spirit of kindness that she exemplified. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose is the gentlewoman from Minnesota seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise on September March. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today I rise to voice a concern for my constituents, Jeff and Bev. | ||
| Last week, Trump's billionaire commerce secretary was speaking with another billionaire about how only fraudsters would complain about missing a social security check. | ||
| Trump's billionaire commerce secretary said that if Social Security didn't send out checks for a month, his mother-in-law simply would not call to complain. | ||
| At the very same time, I held a town hall with my constituents where Jeff and Bev from Bloomington asked this question. | ||
| If or when Trump ends Social Security, Bev and I will be unable to pay our mortgage. | ||
| We will become homeless at age 70. | ||
| What can we do? | ||
| What should we do? | ||
| There are tens of millions of Americans across the country like Jeff and Bev who depend on that check coming every month. | ||
| So on their behalf, I ask my Republican colleagues who have majority rule of this chamber, what are you going to do to stand up for American families and stop the billionaires who are dismantling Social Security? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from Georgia seek recognition? | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Tiffany Cooper, a beloved wife, mother, and teacher who recently passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. | ||
| Ms. Cooper was a remarkable, loving, kind, and faithful woman. | ||
| She embodied patience and grace and was known for lifting the spirits of those around her with her warm heart and gentle spirit. | ||
| After graduating from the University of Georgia and earning her master's in specialist degrees, Ms. Cooper became an educator who poured her heart into her students. | ||
| As a devoted Christian, Ms. Cooper's love for the Lord was the center of all she did. | ||
| She dedicated her time and energy to serving others, including leading the Christians on campus group at Long County High School. | ||
| At the center of her life was her family, often saying that her greatest accomplishment was her two children, Sophie and Jake. | ||
| She gave them a foundation built on family values, knowing that those values would guide them through life's challenges. | ||
| Her life will continue to inspire all who were blessed to know her. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania 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. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, more than 17 million seniors live on less than $30,000 a year, yet Republicans look to weaken or sever lifelines like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security. | ||
| President Trump announced a plan to fire 12% of Social Security employees, close 26 offices, slash phone services. | ||
| Commerce Secretary Howard Luttnick recently said his family wouldn't complain about missing a Social Security check, and that the only people who are are fraudsters. | ||
| Well, Mr. Luttnick's family might be able to afford to lose a payment or two, but most Americans cannot. | ||
| This is their money. | ||
| Americans pay for these programs. | ||
| These are earned benefits. | ||
| People are afraid, and rightfully so. | ||
| They're calling, texting, emailing, and stopping me on the street. | ||
| So on behalf of my constituents, seniors, Americans with disabilities, working families, I have a message, Mr. Speaker, for President Trump and his incompetent billionaire buddies. | ||
| Hell no, our seniors are not the fraudsters you are. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address this body for one minute and to revise and extend my warrants. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, did you know that more than 3 million Americans, some only 18, 19, 20 years old, served in Vietnam? | ||
| Each one had a duty to serve, but our duty, Mr. Speaker, is to remember. | ||
| So on March 29th, National Vietnam Veterans Day, we remembered the brave Americans who served, including the 26,900 Vietnam veterans who called the 4th Congressional District of Florida home. | ||
| We remember the 58,000 patriots who never returned home safely to the warm embrace of their families. | ||
| Today, their names are hauntingly etched into the two faces of black granite in our nation's capital, known simply as the wall. | ||
| A replica of this very wall, almost 300 feet long, will be on display in my district from April 17th to April 21st, 2025, at the Northeast Florida Fairgrounds in Nassau County, Florida. | ||
| This will be a unique and moving opportunity for individuals to come see the names of their loved ones and patriots who otherwise may not be able to make it to Washington, D.C. Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We remember the 150,000 who were wounded in battle and bear the visible scars of post-traumatic stress and Agent Orange exposure. | ||
| We remember those who faced brutal captivity as prisoners of war and the 1,200 service members still missing in action from Vietnam. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we may never be able to repay our debt to those who have given the last measure of devotion for the spirit of America, but we can continue to do our duty to remember. | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, on National Vietnam Veterans Day and every day, we, the people of the United States, with a grateful heart salute those who endured great dangers at the hands of the enemy and lost in service to our nation. | ||
|
Commerce Secretary Boosts Tesla Stock
00:03:20
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||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Elon Musk spent $277 million supporting Donald Trump's campaign last year. | ||
| And in return, Trump has done all he can to support Musk's business ventures, awarding billions in potential contracts to Tesla and SpaceX. | ||
| Trump even turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom to try to boost Tesla sales. | ||
| Commerce Secretary Howard Luttnick, whose investment firm owns hundreds of millions in Tesla's stock, went on national TV to try to increase Tesla's sagging stock price. | ||
| And our own colleague, Ms. Taylor Greene, spent thousands of dollars buying Tesla stock this year and then tried to weaponize the DOJ to help increase Tesla sales. | ||
| This is all blatantly unethical, and much of it's illegal. | ||
| At the same time, Ms. Green's Doge subcommittee, following the example of Elon Musk in February, is calling for the defunding of NPR and PBS. | ||
| Yes, Elon and Marjorie Taylor Greene are trying to kill Elmo. | ||
| But here's the thing. | ||
| Public broadcasting receives just a tiny fraction of funding compared to the government contracts Elon stands again. | ||
| In fact, if you take away the new military contract for cyber trucks alone, you'd pay for all of PBS and NPR. | ||
| And unlike cybertrucks, PBS and NPR won't get recalled because they're falling apart. | ||
| What is happening right now is a pure bait and switch. | ||
| Republicans are trying to slash Medicaid and public schools and programs like PBS so they can give billions to Elon Musk and his fellow oligarchs. | ||
| The corruption we're seeing right now is outrageous, unprecedented, and cannot stand. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Missouri seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I request to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the life of Don Donald Don Angel, a remarkable Missourian who was taken from us far too soon in a tragic accident on his beloved family farm, a place that reflected the hard work and the dedication that defined his life. | ||
| Above all, Don was a devoted husband to Kristen and a loving father to his six children, Hunter, Hudson, Harper, Hope, Harlow, and Hattie. | ||
| A proud graduate of University of Missouri, he built a distinguished 27-year career in financial services. | ||
| He served his community with the Springfield Sertoma Club for over 20 years, raising funds for children's charities and found joy in working the land on his farm. | ||
| A man of deep faith, unwavering integrity, and a sense of humor that could brighten any room, Don had a unique ability to connect with the people from all walks of life. | ||
| My prayers are with the Angel family, and may Don's legacy continue to inspire us all. | ||
|
University Of Akron Zips Victory
00:15:56
|
||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're good. | |
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today, I rise to recognize the University of Akron's men basketball team as Ohio's 13th Congressional District Champion of the Week. | ||
| The Zips recently won their third Mid-American Conference Championship in four years when they took down the Miami Redhawks with a final score of 76 to 74. | ||
| Entering halftime down 34-46, the Zips played hard the second half of the championship game, tied it up with seconds to go, and ultimately came out on top for the second year in a row. | ||
| After losing five seniors at the end of the last season, there was some uncertainty at the start of the season about how successful the Akron Zips would be. | ||
| But the team quickly put all doubts to rest, going into the Mac tournament as the number one seed with a record of 27 to 6, which included a 14-game win streak and even making it to the NCAA tournament. | ||
| Congratulations again to the Akron Zips men's basketball team for this outstanding victory. | ||
| The team is a shining example of why this community is known as the birthplace of champions. | ||
| I look forward to cheering you on next season. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Colorado seek recognition? | |
| I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my vote. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the retirement of Colorado Springs Fire Marshal Brett Lacey. | ||
| Marshall Lacey joined Colorado Springs Fire Department in 1992 and he's faithfully served our community for 32 years. | ||
| Marshall Lacey was instrumental in helping protect our community through his leadership in prioritizing structure and vegetation management as he established a nationally renowned wildfire mitigation program. | ||
| Marshall Lacey was on site and led the efforts to combat the Waldo Canyon fire and save my own home and thousands of others in the Black Forest fire that devastated our community. | ||
| In addition to helping recover victims of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in congratulating and thanking Fire Marshal Brett Lacey for his service to our country and to the Pikes Peak region. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from New York seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I'd like to request the manuscript 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 with great pride to congratulate the Baldwin High School girls' basketball team on winning the New York State AA State Championship. | ||
| On behalf of New York's 4th Congressional District, I want to take this opportunity to commend and celebrate these young athletes for their dedication, for their teamwork, for their perseverance, and quite frankly, their dominance on the basketball court. | ||
| This year's championship marks Baldwin's third state title in school history, a testament to the strong foundation built by the players, the coaches, and the administrators, both past and present. | ||
| Congratulations to the Lady Bruins on their remarkable victory. | ||
| I know you will continue to make Nassau County proud. | ||
| With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to adjust the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| It is March Madness. | ||
| With America currently fixated on basketball, I recognize today the Palm Bay girls basketball team on their recent statewide victory. | ||
| The team made history by capturing the state's Class 4A state championship here in Florida. | ||
| The Pirates overcame a tough American heritage squad where they rallied from a 14-point deficit to win the state title. | ||
| Leading the way was senior guard Jada Civil, a University of Tennessee commit and McDonald's all-American who grabbed nine rebounds and scored 20 points. | ||
| The entire team made critical contributions, showcasing their depth and the unity of this team. | ||
| The championship caps off a season where the Pirates won by an average of 57 points. | ||
| To the entire Palm Bay Pirates team, congratulations. | ||
| You've made our entire community proud. | ||
| And I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | ||
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unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | |
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate this week's constituent of the week, Rick Sherman, on being named Business Person of the Year by the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. | ||
| For over a century, the W.A. Sherman Company has been a cornerstone of Orange County. | ||
| It has provided essential electrical, heating, and plumbing services to the community. | ||
| Passed down through generations, the Sherman family's dedication to service has made a lasting impact on local families and businesses. | ||
| Rick, your leadership and unwavering commitment to this community are truly deserving of this recognition. | ||
| As your representative of Congress, I'm grateful for the work you do each day to strengthen our local community and serve the people of Orange County. | ||
| Congratulations again on this well-earned award. | ||
| It is a privilege to highlight your story on the floor of the U.S. House. | ||
| I'm thankful for all you do. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Montana seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and to extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Coulter Lumley, who on January 22nd earned the rank of Eagle Scout. | ||
| I've had the honor to watch Coulter from a young boy get involved in his community and do things that mattered not just to his community but to the state of Montana. | ||
| Coulter hails from immigrant Montana and can now count himself among the 11 other boys who have achieved the honor since Troop 551 began in 1984. | ||
| Those who know him best attest to Coulter's humility and work ethic, saying, and I'm quoting, all he does is rise in the morning and put forth more effort and hard work before noon than most of his age do in a full day. | ||
| His Eagle Scout project was to replace a retaining wall at the fire department in Gardner, Montana. | ||
| He arranged the pre-construction meetings, organized the delivery of the supplies, and was even able to get a price reduction to save money. | ||
| He then rallied his football team and his troop to replace the wall, completing the job in 20 hours and placing over 600 center blocks. | ||
| Coulter, you've made your country and your state proud. | ||
| So thank you for setting an example for your peers and your community. | ||
| Congratulations on this great achievement. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| 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, today I rise in disbelief at the troubling stories in the Atlantic magazine of classified attack plans carelessly leaked by the U.S. Department of Defense in reckless and dangerous fashion. | ||
| Congress must conduct full independent, public and private congressional hearings. | ||
| The highest national security and intelligence leaders of our nation put American service members' lives at high risk. | ||
| All responsible must be held fully accountable, including through removal or resignation from their positions. | ||
| And these include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director Radcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard, Secretary of State Rubio, National Security Advisor Waltz, Chief of Staff Wiles, and Vice President Vance were among those involved in the plans Hegseth shared against DOD policy on a signal group chat on unsecured, non-government devices vulnerable to espionage. | ||
| Hegseth failed to notice the group chat. | ||
| It included a news editor and reporter with no security clearance. | ||
| Only Lady Luck graced our nation as their haphazard approach to war didn't result in the death of American service members who could have ended up at the bottom of the Red Sea or over foreign soil. | ||
| Their reckless leak risked American lives and our security. | ||
| As our Marine Corps uncle would say, shape up. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Indiana seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise and ask the analysis. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding life and public service record of DeKalb County Commissioner Mike Watson. | ||
| Mike dedicated his life to serving Northeast Indiana in roles ranging from president of the Auburn Economic Development Commission, president of the DeKalb Central Foundation, and serving as an Auburn Common Councilman. | ||
| In December before his passing, Mike received the Distinguished County Commissioner of the Year Award from the Indiana County Commissioners Association. | ||
| Mike was the architect of many projects that bettered our region, such as having the Auburn-Waterloo Trail become part of the Pokebosh Trail between Angola and Bluffton, Indiana, and the creation of the Auburn Main Street, which collaborates with the Auburn community to be an economic driver through promoting and advancing the town's vibrant historic downtown that is welcoming for all folks. | ||
| Mike will be remembered as an incredibly hard worker, an intense advocate for his Auburn community, an unapologetic family man. | ||
| He always put his heart and soul into his work. | ||
| Our community will miss him and his mentorship sorely. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I'll yield back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Oregon seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I am a woman of faith, and I know I am joined in these chambers by fellow believers of all kinds. | ||
| And today I am reminded of Ezekiel 34, 3, a story about the selfishness and greed of shepherds who use their sheep for their own gain while neglecting their primary duty, which is to care for the flock. | ||
| All of us were sent here to lead, to care for, and protect our people. | ||
| So I ask my colleagues, how do you justify making an agreement with farmers and not paying them their money? | ||
| How do you justify snatching the benefits from veterans who put up their lives and put them on the line for the country? | ||
| How do you justify the erasure of the underpaid and unpaid laborers who helped build this country? | ||
| And how do you take from our seniors on Social Security? | ||
| You don't and you can't. | ||
| Believers know that especially in times that require courage, God always has your back. | ||
| So don't just sit back and watch. | ||
| Dig deep for some courage and stand up for those who are in need the most. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask your unanimous consent to address the House one minute or revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I am grateful that President Donald Trump's Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Congress are working together to return education to the proper original jurisdiction of the states. | ||
| I support President Donald Trump's plan to eliminate the Department of Education, ensuring that education decisions are made by local elected school boards, putting students and teachers first. | ||
| Additionally, South Carolina has the visionary leadership of the State Superintendent Ellen Weaver and the tradition of Dr. Barbara Nielsen. | ||
| Additionally, House Republicans are protecting institutions of higher education by voting for the deterrent bill introduced by Congressman Michael Bumgardner. | ||
| Foreign adversaries are targeting students by stealing research, limiting free speech, and pushing propaganda. | ||
| As a co-sponsor, I'm grateful the act will reduce the foreign gift reporting threshold, close reporting loopholes, require disclosure of foreign gifts and contracts at research institutions, hold private institutions accountable for their financial partnerships. | ||
| In conclusion, God bless our troops. | ||
| As the global war on terrorism continues, open borders for dictators puts all Americans at risk of more 9-11 attacks imminent as warned by the FBI. | ||
| President Trump is reinstituting existing laws to protect American families with peace through strength. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, when I recently asked someone who supports gutting the Department of Education how that decision would make American education better or what the department even does, they couldn't give me an answer. | ||
| So let me tell you how gutting this department would hurt every parent, teacher, and most of all student in our country. | ||
| In Virginia alone, 5,000 teachers would be at risk of removal. | ||
| Our education system would face a $2.4 billion shortfall, and we would lose $2,000 in spending for each student. | ||
| Our most vulnerable students with special needs would be unable to access the resources they need to succeed, and low-income students would go hungry. | ||
| Education has always been a great equalizer and an engine for socioeconomic mobility. | ||
| Without the Department of Education, we will be left with a system that leaves Americans, rural, urban, and suburban, underserved, uneducated, and unprepared. | ||
| If we want to lead in the world in innovation and discovery, if we want opportunity for everyone, we need to invest in the next generation, our kids. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentlewoman from North Dakota seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for 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 recognize an extraordinary North Dakota woman, Elsie Rickey. | ||
| She celebrated her 101st birthday today. | ||
| But instead of taking the day off, she was no doubt right where she's been for more than 70 years, at her desk in Grand Forks, North Dakota, preparing tax returns by hand with a calculator and a typewriter. | ||
|
North Dakota's Tax Guru
00:14:06
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| Elsie's work ethic is unmatched and recently landed her with a page one feature story in the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| While tax preparers today rely on software, Elsie relies on decades of experience and a deep knowledge of the tax code. | ||
| This beautiful woman, shown right here, is proof that hard work and sharp thinking never go out of style. | ||
| On behalf of all North Dakotans, thank you, Elsie, for living our values and for showing us what true dedication looks like. | ||
| Most importantly, happy 101st birthday, Elsie. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Oregon seek recognition? | |
| I request 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 recognize West Salem High School for its commitment to inclusivity in sports. | ||
| The Titans recently earned two national awards for their inclusive basketball program. | ||
| In addition to being named a unified champion school by the Special Olympics, West was also added to ESPN's honor roll, a distinction awarded to only one school in every state per year. | ||
| Their unique program includes combined gym classes where students with disabilities are paired with other students who can help guide them through activities, as well as special equipment and necessary modifications like shorter hoops for athletes using wheelchairs. | ||
| I am so proud of the students and faculty at West for their dedication to ensuring that every one of their peers can participate and make friends through sports regardless of their abilities. | ||
| Again, congratulations on these incredible and well-deserved achievements. | ||
| Keep up the good work and go Titans. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New Jersey 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 gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, more than 700,000 New Jerseyans sent me here to be their voice in Congress and to address the challenges they face each and every day. | ||
| Many of those constituents have sent me messages advocating for what's most important to them. | ||
| Thousands have written asking me to protect Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. | ||
| Hundreds more wrote about the rising costs of child care and housing. | ||
| Many have asked me to stop the scourge of gun violence in our communities. | ||
| But not a single person, not one, wrote about loosening regulations on their commercial walk-in coolers and refrigerators. | ||
| So why then are those the bills that Republicans brought to the floor this week? | ||
| Maybe it's because Republicans don't have solutions to the challenges that most Americans are facing. | ||
| Maybe it's because the Republican budget slashes billions of dollars for Medicaid and food assistance for the most vulnerable amongst us. | ||
| Maybe that's why they prefer to talk about refrigerators. | ||
| House Democrats, on the other hand, continue to present an alternative to the American people and fight for the progress that they deserve. | ||
| Democrats are ready to lower the cost of child care by expanding the number of child care facilities across the country. | ||
| We're pushing for record new investments in affordable housing and incentives for first-time homebuyers. | ||
| That is what the American people are asking for, and that is what House Democrats are fighting for. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New Hampshire seek recognition? | ||
| Asking in this consensus person to revise and extend my report. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today because health care through Medicaid, covering more than 10% of residents and more than 30% of all kids in New Hampshire, is on the line. | ||
| Their access to life-saving preventative care, long-term care, mental health, and addiction treatment will be put at risk by the cruel and fiscally reckless budget being proposed by Republicans in the House. | ||
| In addition, New Hampshire's Medicaid expansion, established on a bipartisan basis, would end with any decrease in federal funds, leaving 68,000 Granite Staters uninsured and devastating our hospitals and community health centers. | ||
| I've heard from literally thousands of Granite Staters on this issue, including a woman who contacted my office and shared her fears that cuts to Medicaid would leave her family homeless. | ||
| She's a caretaker to two family members and worries they won't be able to survive on one income if they lose their health coverage. | ||
| So I'll continue to do everything I can to stop a budget that places the burden of cuts on New Hampshire families like hers to finance massive tax breaks to the super rich. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to stand up against this betrayal of working families and instead focus on how we can work together to make life safer, healthier, and more affordable for all Americans. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The chair will receive a message. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, message from the Senate. | ||
| Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
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Madam Secretary. | |
| I am directed by the Senate to inform the House that the Senate has passed without amendment HJ Res 25, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under Chapter 8 of Title V, United States Code, of the rules submitted by the Internal Revenue Service relating to gross proceeds reporting by brokers that regularly provide services effectuating digital asset sales. | ||
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unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Maryland seek recognition? | |
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to advise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I rise today in support of the FCC's Universal Service Fund, a successful program which brings high-speed internet and phone service to millions of underserved Americans. | ||
| And this is personal to me. | ||
| This program is essential for connecting rural and low-income communities, schools, and libraries, effectively bridging the digital divide and expanding access to education, health care, job opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. | ||
| For the bulk of my career, I worked at a children's nonprofit and then at the Department of Commerce NTIA, advocating to provide affordable, high-speed internet to all Americans, and particularly children who need it for the homework gap. | ||
| USF helps to ensure that these communities are not left behind. | ||
| It empowers students, strengthens local communities, and improves access to essential services for families. | ||
| In 2023, carriers in Maryland received over $6 million to connect households in our rural and farm communities. | ||
| It also, in the last two years, 1,600 schools and 198 libraries received over $73 million for connectivity, benefiting over 1 million students. | ||
| And nearly 37 health care providers in our state received funding to strengthen connectivity to help patients and also facilitate the reach of telemedicine. | ||
| Today, I urge the Supreme Court and my colleagues in Congress to safeguard this incredibly essential program for those who need it most in terms of connectivity and opportunity. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield my time. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition? | |
| I'd like to ask unanimous requests to speak for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I call upon today to have the Trump administration abandon the drastic Biden-Harris 14C rule. | ||
| The 14C rule is with regard to allowing certain people with handicaps to work for under minimum wage. | ||
| I have toured many what are called either work centers or sheltered workshops in my district in which people who have different abilities are allowed to work, maybe spina bifida, maybe Down syndrome. | ||
| I know a guy who's an outright quadriplegic. | ||
| They are allowed to work for under minimum wage. | ||
| They usually get some other sort of federal subsidy, SSI or something, but by being allowed to work in these places, they're able to supplement their income. | ||
| They have the dignity of work. | ||
| They have the socialization of somebody outside their families. | ||
| I strongly encourage the Trump administration to abandon the drastic Biden-Harris 14C rule. | ||
| And I encourage all my colleagues in the state, in the U.S. Congress, to tour some of their own sheltered workshops where you can see how valuable they are in the life of people who are given a little bit less than some of us in some ways to live their life. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent as the House omit which revise and extend by the line. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Elimination is closing the Social Security hearing office in White Plains in May. | ||
| Just like that. | ||
| Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins offered the federal government county space that would be more cost-effective. | ||
| The offer was turned down because this isn't about saving the government money. | ||
| This is about thoughtlessly cutting critical services in the name of ideology. | ||
| This weekend, Commerce Secretary Luttnick said his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't miss her Social Security check if it didn't show up. | ||
| Mr. Luttnick is a billionaire who can easily provide for her, while most other seniors rely on their monthly payment. | ||
| This weekend, more than 250 people in my district voiced their concerns at a rally to save Social Security. | ||
| I'll take their word over a billionaire's mother-in-law. | ||
| More than 10,000 of my fellow boomers become eligible every day for Social Security. | ||
| This is not the time to be closing offices, cutting staff, and ending phone service. | ||
| There are ways to make Social Security more efficient. | ||
| This ain't one of them. | ||
| Scaring seniors and threatening to end their economic lifelines isn't about efficiency. | ||
| It is a mockery of efficiency. | ||
| Remember, we told you so. | ||
| I yield my time. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | |
| Unanimous consent to address the House permit and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The Binghamton Patriots boys basketball team are New York state champions, just like the city they represent. | ||
| This team was all about grit and determination. | ||
| Down in the fourth quarter of the championship game, the Patriots didn't fold. | ||
| They fought and took the game into overtime. | ||
| Down in overtime, the Patriots didn't fold. | ||
| They fought and took the game into double overtime. | ||
| And that's when they finished the job, because no matter how long the odds, do not ever count out Binghamton. | ||
| To Coach Paddock and his coaching staff, Binghamton's teachers, staff, and administrators, and of course the students and players, congratulations. | ||
| And thank you for bringing some joy to our community at a time when we really need it. | ||
| I'll always be a proud Union Undercott Tiger, but today we're all Binghamton Patriots because there is nothing more unifying than bringing home a state championship. | ||
| I'm honored to enter the Patriots roster into the congressional record. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Sit. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, North Carolina's first congressional district is one of the most economically distressed in the nation. | ||
| However, I have good news to share. | ||
| Recently, I was honored to join industry, state, and community leaders for groundbreaking of a new, over $2 billion state-of-the-art Johnson Johnson Biologics manufacturing facility in Wilson, North Carolina. | ||
| It will bring more than 500 specialized jobs, paying about $109,000 a year into eastern North Carolina. | ||
| The first 10 years of operation are estimated to have an economic impact of $3 billion statewide. | ||
| Johnson Johnson is also committed to investing in local education, STEM, workforce, and research. | ||
| The new facility will support Johnson Johnson's plan to advance transformational medicines for cancer, immune-mediated, and neurological diseases. | ||
| The investment will have a huge impact and life-changing for our region. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, proudly I stand here today, proudly to say, and still I rise. | ||
|
Goldberg Exposed
00:16:08
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| And still I rise. | ||
| A proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and still unafraid. | ||
| And still I rise, Mr. Speaker, not only as a proud, liberated Democrat, but also, Mr. Speaker, censured, not silenced. | ||
| Censured, but not silenced. | ||
| Still carrying my cane, which has been called many things. | ||
| But for me, it provides comfort. | ||
| It provides comfort because I'm a believer in the 23rd Psalm, that part about, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. | ||
| This is my comfort. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, there are people who don't believe that I should have the free speech that the Constitution affords me. | ||
| And I'm not always in the company of people who can protect me. | ||
| So my cane has become my staff and my rod that comforts me, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I wish it were different, but it's not. | ||
| We seem to live in a society now where if you are willing to speak truth to power, there are consequences beyond simply having those who differ with you give their retorts. | ||
| There are some who want to do more than give retorts, so we have to find ways to comfort ourselves when we no longer have those who are assigned the responsibility of providing us comfort. | ||
| Protection is another way of saying comfort. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I want to expose what has been called to our attention in many different ways over the last many hours. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we are at this moment in our country engaging in a big lie cover-up. | ||
| It is a part of a chat gate, a big lie cover-up. | ||
| Chatgate, Mr. Speaker, is a security breach not defined as such because the person who would define it as such, if he should do so, would inculpate himself. | ||
| So the Secretary of Defense, who has the responsibility of defining whether certain information is classified or not, chooses not to define that which is intuitively obvious as classified. | ||
| He chooses not to define it as classified. | ||
| He does not want to inculpate himself. | ||
| So he has the ability to exculpate himself by simply saying something that clearly is classified, saying that it is not. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, while he can say so, I think the American public will have the final word and will be the final judge. | ||
| I'm honored to tell you who the players are in this cover-up. | ||
| One person is, quite frankly, a person who merits a lot of accolades, a person who ought to be acknowledged for the courage that he has demonstrated, a person who brought this to the attention of the public, a person who had no desire to be a part of this cover-up, but he is only there in that he was the person who, in a sense, acts as a whistleblower. | ||
| And I'm talking about Mr. Goldberg with the Atlantic Magazine. | ||
| Mr. Goldberg is the person who had messages sent to him that he did not seek, that he did not ask for, according to the reports that I have read and you have probably seen and heard televised. | ||
| He was there minding his own business when he received messages, messages that were intended for a select group of people, many of whom I will name in just a moment. | ||
| And in receiving these messages, he was made privy to information that should not have been exposed to the public, in the opinion of many experts, should not have been exposed to the public. | ||
| I will read some of the information that was captured by Mr. Goldberg. | ||
| Mr. Goldberg captured this, and this comes from the Atlantic Magazine. | ||
| They published this information. | ||
| It has been made public. | ||
| My belief is that the persons who engaged in this cover-up had no desire to have this published, but once it was, there was a decision made by the person who had the power to do so to say, well, it's simply not classified information. | ||
| So, no big deal. | ||
| Well, here's the big deal. | ||
| This information, according to Mr. Goldberg, he indicates that at 1144 a.m. Eastern Time, he gives the name of the person. | ||
| It's the Secretary of Defense, Hetzik, posted in the chat in all caps, and this is the quote, team update. | ||
| Then Mr. Goldberg indicates the text beneath this began, time now, 1144 ET. | ||
| Weather is favorable. | ||
| Just confirmed with, it says W, with CENTCOM, we are a go for mission launch. | ||
| We are a go for mission launch. | ||
| Well, let's go on. | ||
| These are excerpts I shall not read at all. | ||
| Next comment in quotes reads, 1215 ET, F-18s launched first strike package. | ||
| And thereafter, 1410, more F-18s launch second strike passage package. | ||
| Thereafter, 1536, F-18 second strike starts. | ||
| Also, first C-based tomahawks launched. | ||
| Now, all of this was intended for a select group of people. | ||
| It was not intended that this be published, but since it has been published, the Secretary of Defense has indicated that this was not classified information. | ||
| Now, if the Secretary of Defense, who was a participant in this chat, in what I'm calling ChatGate, if the Secretary of Defense sincerely believes that this is not classified information, and there's more of it, I've only read you some excerpts. | ||
| If he sincerely believes this, then he is not the person who should be charged with the responsibility of making a decision as to whether this type of information is classified. | ||
| Because there is no way a person who has intelligence at heart and an understanding of it within the mind to conclude that this is not classified information. | ||
| Too many experts differ with him. | ||
| We had persons who are on the intelligence committee in the House to indicate that this was clearly classified information. | ||
| In fact, indicated that things that are less serious in nature have been classified. | ||
| But the Secretary of Defense has the ability to exculpate himself. | ||
| So his exculpatory statement is that this is not classified information. | ||
| I believe that if any other person beneath the Secretary of State had allowed such information, same information, to be exposed to the public, I don't think the Secretary of State would have come to the same conclusion. | ||
| The Secretary of State has sacrificed his honor and his dignity by indicating that this is not classified information. | ||
| But he didn't do it without the aid and comfort of some others. | ||
| Let's just talk about the other people who were on this call, pardon me, this chat with the Secretary of State. | ||
| We had the Vice President of the United States of America, a part of the chat. | ||
| Now, I don't believe that the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President of the United States would get on a chat and have this type of information that I've called to your attention, much more available, would get on a chat and have this be exposed to the public. | ||
| There was no desire that it be exposed to the public. | ||
| They said it's sensitive information. | ||
| Well, it is sensitive because it's classified information that has not been declared such because it would inculpate the Defense Secretary. | ||
| So you have the Vice President of the United States on the chat. | ||
| Then you have the CIA director, Vice President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, CIA Director. | ||
| And this is not classified information that they're discussing, discussing. | ||
| Just having a little talk that could be exposed to the public but chose not to, but for it having been sent to Mr. Goldberg. | ||
| Mr. Goldberg, by the way, deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor. | ||
| He is the hero in this story. | ||
| He is the person who has had the courage and also the wisdom and insight to understand that before you release this, you need to do some checking. | ||
| So he did his due diligence before releasing the information. | ||
| But Mr. Goldberg, the person who released it, has been called many names by people who would not have him release the information. | ||
| Mr. Goldberg has been scorned. | ||
| He is the person who called to our attention something that was done improperly, and yet he's being made the villain. | ||
| He's not the villain. | ||
| He is the hero in this process, and he ought to be acknowledged as such. | ||
| I am going to have a flag flown over the Capitol of the United States of America in honor of Mr. Goldberg for what he has done. | ||
| I will not allow his reputation to be tarnished without a fight to protect it. | ||
| I'm going to do what I can to protect his reputation. | ||
| So we have the Director of National Intelligence on the call, on the chat. | ||
| Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of State on the chat. | ||
| Again, the Defense Secretary, the Vice President, the CIA Director, the Director of National Intelligence. | ||
| My God. | ||
| Also, Special Envoy Whitcliffe was on there. | ||
| Witkoff was on there. | ||
| And by the way, he was in Russia at the time he was on. | ||
| We all know that you should not be on an unsecured line if you're going to be in Russia talking. | ||
| Those of us who've been to Russia are very much aware. | ||
| And of course, the Secretary of State. | ||
| These are the players, all of them on a chat, and all of them engaged in the cover-up of this big lie, a cover-up. | ||
| A cover-up because they all have at one time or another implied or stated explicitly that this was not classified, that this was not classified. | ||
| And they had the cover of the Secretary of Defense to give them this opportunity to contend that it wasn't classified because he had to protect himself. | ||
| And to protect himself, he declassified what should have been classified. | ||
| He avoided being inculpated by declassifying this information that should have been classified. | ||
| Now, this is egregious. | ||
| It is always said that the cover-up is more egregious than the action that precipitates the cover-up. | ||
| True, the cover-up is more egregious than the action that precipitates the cover-up. | ||
| But there's something that occurred here that's more egregious than the action that precipitated the cover-up, than the cover-up itself. | ||
| And that thing is the ability of all of these actors to do this and commit any federal crime with impunity. | ||
| And as a matter of fact, we could say with immunity. | ||
| These actors, these participants, they all have the blessings of the President of the United States of America. | ||
| And the President of the United States of America, now under the impression that he has absolute immunity, knowing that he's not likely to be prosecuted for anything other than impeachment while he is holding the office of the presidency, | ||
| knowing this, believing he has absolute immunity, and having already demonstrated that he will accord exoneration by way of pardon to people who would assault the citadel of democracy, the capital of the United States of America, assaulted, and he, the President of the United States, used his awesome pardon power, | ||
| the awesome power accorded him in good faith under the Constitution of the United States of America, he uses it to release and to a certain extent to exonerate, limited extent, persons who actually assaulted the Capitol. | ||
|
Censured for Truth
00:15:50
|
||
| So they now, these participants in this event, they know that they've got the president backing them up. | ||
| They know that even if they commit a federal crime, all the president has to do is pardon them. | ||
| It's really that simple. | ||
| So you've got a president now who sits on high, understanding that all beneath him, all of his minions, all of his plutocrats and others who are beneath him, he has the ability to protect them from breaches of the federal law. | ||
| This is more egregious than the action that precipitated the cover-up and the cover-up itself. | ||
| To know that we now have an administration where all of the parties involved can rely on one person to protect them regardless as to what they do if it is a federal offense. | ||
| Yes, there was a cover-up. | ||
| Yes, that cover-up is something that they understood they could get away with even if they were caught red-handed. | ||
| They knew they could get away with it because they knew that the president was there to back them. | ||
| By the way, the president is also there to do what he normally does, and that is throw his acolytes, his underlings, his persons who are beneath him, if you will, throw them under the bus. | ||
| And he did. | ||
| Threw them under the bus. | ||
| He doesn't know anything about this. | ||
| You know, he just happens to have heard about it. | ||
| Now, the president gets briefings on all important issues. | ||
| But for him to sit and say, oh, I know nothing about it, which is what he always does. | ||
| And then he pushes someone else under the bus. | ||
| But he knows that he can push them under the bus and then extricate them, extricate them because he has the magic wand, the power to pardon. | ||
| And he will use it as has been demonstrated by his causing many persons who assaulted the Capitol, persons who came here with a gallows, persons who came using flags and trying to stab and all sorts of sprays, persons who came into the Capitol and defecated. | ||
| He caused all of these persons to be released. | ||
| If not all, I would say to you, nearly all. | ||
| I don't have the exact numbers, but he went on a rampage and just started pardoning people who were engaged in this assault on the Citadel of Democracy. | ||
| So we have ourselves now a circumstance where people who are trusted with the nation's most sacred secrets, sacred, they're so important that they're really sacred. | ||
| Sacred secrets. | ||
| These persons have demonstrated that they will forfeit their dignity, their self-respect, and their honor. | ||
| They will forfeit these things, these, to protect themselves and to protect the president, themselves and the president. | ||
| And what we have when this occurs, with all of these people doing this, we have now a group of people who have sacrificed their honor. | ||
| When you sacrifice your honor in this fashion, the people who serve under you lose respect for you. | ||
| They lose respect for you. | ||
| There are men and women, persons in our military, who no longer respect the persons who serve in these high and lofty positions. | ||
| They don't respect them because they are persons with a reasonable amount of intellect, superior intellect, and understand that this whole scenario, this fiasco, this level of buffoonery, they understand that this is not based on truth to say that this was not certified, this was not classified information. | ||
| It wasn't certified as such, but it was classified. | ||
| Only reason not certified as such, because the Secretary of Defense would inculpate himself if he should do so. | ||
| He would put himself in harm's way. | ||
| So he chose to keep himself out of harm's way. | ||
| His cohorts agree with him. | ||
| They all now are going to contend that nothing to see here, just a chat between persons who happen to want to discuss sensitive information and the reporter who reports it, he's the culprit in all of this. | ||
| The people who serve in our military, they know better. | ||
| And they know now that the people at the top are not honorable people. | ||
| That has an impact on morale. | ||
| And don't you think for one second that someone in the military will not at some point in time use the same argument that you're using. | ||
| They're going to mention how this very incident occurred and how people just walked away from it unscathed. | ||
| That's what they will do. | ||
| People are not going to allow this to just be a one-off. | ||
| If something happens and they should be charged and they believe that this scenario can aid and comfort them with their defense, they will use it. | ||
| So we now have at the highest levels of our government people who have given up their dignity, their self-respect, and they no longer have the honor and respect of a good many people that have to serve under them. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this is a very sad time in the history of our country. | ||
| Very sad. | ||
| And here's the final reason why it's sad. | ||
| I was silenced, in a sense, when I was shouted down by my colleagues. | ||
| They shouted me down when I was trying to explain to the president. | ||
| I never called him a name. | ||
| I merely said to him, you do not have a mandate. | ||
| You do not have a mandate to cut Medicaid. | ||
| My colleagues were shouting loudly to prevent my voice from being heard. | ||
| At least that's the way I received it. | ||
| So I repeated what I said. | ||
| Their voices grew louder. | ||
| I repeated again, and I was removed. | ||
| I'm not mad at the speaker. | ||
| I'm not angry with them. | ||
| I'm not angry with anyone. | ||
| I was censured for what I did. | ||
| Censured, not silenced. | ||
| My voice will not be silenced. | ||
| Censured, but not silenced. | ||
| Here is the point. | ||
| What I did, this Congress decided, not all, not all, let me not say include everyone, but all of my colleagues across the aisle and 10 colleagues from this side of the aisle, they decided that I should be censured. | ||
| I hold no animus toward any of them. | ||
| I want to make a point. | ||
| The President of the United States and his men and women are now going to perpetrate this cover-up and walk away unscathed, except for loss of dignity, self-respect, and honor. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I would rather be censured than lose my dignity, sacrifice it, my self-respect. | ||
| I admitted that I did what I did intentionally. | ||
| They won't admit that they were on this, in this chat and that it should have been in a much more secured location. | ||
| They won't admit it. | ||
| They don't have the self-respect and the dignity to just tell the truth about what happened. | ||
| I admitted that I did it intentionally. | ||
| I said when you do things and you do them with intent, and if it's a form of protest in my case, then you've got to be prepared to suffer the consequences. | ||
| So I have been prepared to suffer the consequences. | ||
| It doesn't mean that I agree. | ||
| You don't have to agree with the consequences you suffer, but you have to be prepared. | ||
| They chose not to be prepared, chose not to suffer any consequences by covering up with a big lie. | ||
| I respect Mr. Castro. | ||
| I saw him when he questioned, when he questioned those persons who were before him on yesterday. | ||
| And when he questioned them about this, he called each name. | ||
| Dear brother Castro, dear congressman, I have such great respect for you. | ||
| You had the courage to tell them to their faces that they were lying. | ||
| It takes courage to do what he did. | ||
| Courage is what's missing. | ||
| You got to have courage if you want to make big change. | ||
| You've got to be willing to stand and say as he did. | ||
| This is not to say that others did not deliver great commentary. | ||
| I single him out because of the way he did what he did and in the presence of the people. | ||
| He didn't wait until he was out behind their backs to say what he said. | ||
| He said it in front of their faces. | ||
| And in my neck of the woods, when you tell a person something to his face or her face or their face, that says something about you as a person. | ||
| This is why I wanted to tell the president to his face, you don't have the mandate to cut Medicaid and Medicare, by the way, as well, and Social Security. | ||
| He doesn't. | ||
| So all of this, all of this, this censure of a person for speaking out against the president, who, by the way, on that same evening called Democrats lunatics, no censure of the president, no reprimand, nothing said from the house, just the president being himself. | ||
| Others, on the other hand, can be censured for calling things to the president's attention. | ||
| I'm also the only person to ever been removed, evicted, from a joint session of Congress. | ||
| The only one. | ||
| I'm only saying this because I don't want anyone to believe that this censure and this eviction is the end of the story. | ||
| It's just not. | ||
| And I'm grateful to all of those who have been kind to me and the well-wishes I've received and all of the persons who have indicated that they would have me speak at various events. | ||
| I'm grateful to you. | ||
| But I want you to know that the story does not end with a censure. | ||
| Just as the story with these persons who engaged in this cover-up, it will not end with them simply saying this was not classified information. | ||
| It will not. | ||
| The story is still being unfolded, still being told. | ||
| And in the end, posterity will judge us all. | ||
| Posterity will see and know the truth. | ||
| Time tells. | ||
| History judges. | ||
| The truth is known. | ||
| The truth will be known. | ||
| At some point, someone is going to reveal even more information about what happened on that chat. | ||
| It will happen. | ||
| Maybe not now, maybe not this year. | ||
| But at some point in time, the story is going to be told. | ||
| And all of them will have to face a shame, a shaming that they have tried to avoid by contending that classified information was not such. | ||
| You cannot get away with this kind of thing. | ||
| The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, and what you've done is unjust, and it will be told. | ||
| The story will be told truthfully. | ||
| And I close with this: We who are given the honor of serving, we have been accorded the trust of the public. | ||
| It is said that we hold public trust. | ||
| And when we hold public trust and we make mistakes, believe it or not, you can say you made a mistake, or you can say, I didn't make a mistake. | ||
| I did this intentionally, and I'm going to suffer consequences. | ||
| I'm prepared. | ||
| I may not agree with them, but I'm prepared. | ||
| We hold public trust. | ||
| Those persons who participated in this cover-up are not persons worthy of holding public trust. | ||
| So, Mr. Secretary of Defense, you, sir, should not hold public trust. | ||
| You are not the person to determine whether something is classified or not. | ||
| You have demonstrated wittingly or unwittingly that you are not capable of doing it. | ||
| You just don't have what it takes within to speak the truth when you have committed a transgression. | ||
| You shouldn't hold public trust, sir. | ||
| You should do the honorable thing. | ||
| You should resign. | ||
| And if you don't resign, the people of this country, notwithstanding all that the president has in terms of his power, notwithstanding all of this power, the people of this country, we the people, will have the last word. | ||
| And you're going to see protests. | ||
| You're going to see more protests because we, the people, refuse to allow cover-ups to go unnoticed. | ||
| You're going to see more protests. | ||
| But I say to everybody, make it a peaceful protest. | ||
| Do not protest in any way other than with peace in your mind and your head and your heart. | ||
| Peaceful protests. | ||
| Peaceful protests can make a difference. | ||
| It made a difference for the farmers when they came here with tractor cade and protested their farmlands being foreclosed on. | ||
|
Protest Makes a Difference
00:01:40
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| Made a difference when the military veterans came to Washington, D.C. to protest the bonuses that they were promised. | ||
| Made a difference when Dr. King came here and stood on the mall and read his I Have a Dream. | ||
| Actually, he didn't read it. | ||
| He actually stated it, his I Have a Dream speech when he gave that I Have a Dream message. | ||
| It makes a difference. | ||
| Peaceful protest makes a difference. | ||
| It is as American as the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock. | ||
| Peaceful protest will continue. | ||
| I will be a part of it. | ||
| And if I should get in the way, as John Lewis says it, I will be prepared to suffer the consequences. | ||
| But I refuse to give up my right to protest, and we the people will have the last word. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair. | |
| Under the speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from California, Mr. LaMalfa, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I appreciate the opportunity here as we conclude the week. | ||
|
Rural Challenges and Energy Independence
00:05:33
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| I wanted to take the time today to highlight some of the work that we're doing in the Western Caucus, made up of over 90 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. | ||
| And I've been privileged to become the chair of that group this year. | ||
| And so chairing the committee, I get to the caucus, I get to bring up a lot of key issues on the floor and kind of illustrate to the people that are watching that wish to pay attention that how important the issues we are taking up and continuing to advance. | ||
| Working with the Trump administration, one of the cornerstones indeed is an energy. | ||
| And we call ourselves the Western Caucus, but the issues are a little beyond the Western states. | ||
| Indeed, they're rural issues. | ||
| They're issues that affect all of our states and the opportunity to strengthen our entire economy with what we have available in the western states, in rural areas. | ||
| Indeed, our oil and our energy come from many, many parts of the country. | ||
| The original oil patch was in actually western Pennsylvania. | ||
| So we're less about maybe what the real estate is, but more about the concepts of advancing rural issues and the ability to extract resources, to utilize resources ecologically soundly. | ||
| We're all about that too. | ||
| So the U.S. gets a bad reputation sometimes. | ||
| The people that are in these industries are misconstrued by environmental groups and such as being against the environment and against doing things properly. | ||
| So really the bottom line on that topic is that unleashing American energy and our mineral resources, strengthening agriculture and tackling the real challenges facing our country, like the devastating wildfires in the West, are key issues that the Western Caucus faces. | ||
| One of the things that can help with some of these issues would be modernizing the Endangered Species Act. | ||
| It's been around over 50 years. | ||
| And I see the futility as it's interpreted these days in layer after layer of court decisions and lawsuits that basically just hamper the ability for us to do the things we need to do to have stronger energy availability, have the other resources that are key towards a strong economy for our country and not import all these products. | ||
| Indeed, with the goals set out, at least by some, to have further electricity usage for appliances, which we've talked about this week on this floor, there's requirements. | ||
| There's people being mandated to change what their appliances are powered by. | ||
| And so when you have a gas-powered stove, gas-water heater, and on and on, that mandates, whether it's my home state of California or has come through the previous Biden administration, this has taken away consumer choices, taken away the best choice for a lot of people for how to power these devices. | ||
| And that extends also to automobiles, trucks, which if you got it, a truck brought it. | ||
| And that's an important aspect to remember as well, is that just by merely sweeping away the ability to have gasoline and diesel, as California is doing and that they're trying to do, and that the federal government had been until the end of the Biden administration, that's going to cost a lot. | ||
| It's going to make it a lot less convenient, a lot more difficult to get raw materials and products from where they're created to where they're needed. | ||
| So Endangered Species Act is part of the issue that needs to be modernized, as well as Getting over the lawsuits and litigation that is used as a weapon, whether it's by federal agencies or by so-called NGOs, you know, environmental groups. | ||
| So, we've been working in this chamber, as I mentioned this week, to help deliver solutions to lower energy costs, cut red tape, and reversing the Biden administration's relentless overreach from blocking costly energy efficiency mandates on consumer products, stopping unnecessary restrictions on American manufacturing and energy production. | ||
| We want these things to be manufactured here by American workers using American technology, American efficiency, and the cleanliness that comes with it. | ||
| We're much more efficient, much cleaner than what happens in China manufacturing. | ||
| Our natural gas we use in this country is actually cleaner than Russian natural gas. | ||
| We should be exporting more of that to Europe and helping them out instead of them becoming dependent on the long reputation we've had with Russia there. | ||
| So, when we're talking about these overreaches by governments, by these regulations, it really drives up prices, burdens businesses, and makes us more dependent on foreign products, foreign energy, etc. | ||
|
Protecting Antiquities and Geothermal Resources
00:15:57
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| So, let's restore American energy dominance, support these industries that put food on the table and clothing on our back and shelter above us, support them to make our country stronger and more independent. | ||
| We'll push back against the policies that are failing and harming rural America. | ||
| So, I look forward to hearing from my colleagues. | ||
| Some of them will be joining me during this time here and what they're working on as part of our Western Caucus partnership here. | ||
| So, I've seen that a couple of my colleagues have arrived here. | ||
| So, if I would like to recognize, if she's ready, my Executive Vice Chair, Celeste Molloy from Utah, is with us here, and I'm pleased to have her as a partner and friend on the Western Caucus to inform us on the issues that are particular to Utah, but also the Western states as well. | ||
| So, I'm really, really pleased that she's stepped up to be in this role here, and I appreciate her quite a bit. | ||
| So, Celeste, please take it away. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here today, and I commend my colleagues in the Western Caucus for their unwavering dedication to preserving the values and livelihoods of rural America, the Western states, and our Western values that we both represent. | ||
| Today, I want to highlight three pieces of legislation that I've introduced. | ||
| One of them addresses abuses of the Antiquities Act. | ||
| One of them addresses the inefficiencies and unfairness of our permitting system. | ||
| And the other one addresses the need to get geothermal energy up and going more quickly and more efficiently. | ||
| I'll start with the Antiquities Act. | ||
| So, for decades, the executive branch, presidents of the United States, mostly Democrats, have used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate vast areas as national monuments. | ||
| And that's an authority that we delegated to them in the 1906 Antiquities Act. | ||
| The abuse of that narrow delegated authority has resulted in restricted access to lands, hindered economic opportunities, and it's left local voices unheard and frustrated. | ||
| In my district, the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was created by Bill Clinton in 1996 over the objections of Utah's governor, Utah's federal delegation, local and county and state elected officials. | ||
| And those frustrations and scars and wounds have not healed in the years that have passed since then. | ||
| So my ending presidential overreach on Public Lands Act ensures that decisions of this magnitude affecting public lands are made collaboratively, respecting the role of Congress with our jurisdiction over public land and taking input from local voices. | ||
| It should be Congress that makes those widespread large-scale land management decisions. | ||
| The next one I want to talk about is the FREE Act, which encourages agencies to go look at the permits they issue and determine which ones can be done by permit by rule, which means they have a predetermined list of requirements for a permit and firm timelines on making those decisions. | ||
| So an applicant can bring an agency, everything on that list, and the agency can either say, yes, this is adequate for a permit and issue the permit, or say, no, it's not adequate for a permit, and give the applicant what they need to do to remedy that so that we can permit, especially infrastructure projects, more quickly. | ||
| Right now it takes years and millions of dollars to permit infrastructure projects, especially in states like Utah, where most of the land is managed by the federal government, and everything we do has to go through multiple layers of federal processes. | ||
| And lastly, the GEO Act addresses the time that it takes to permit geothermal energy projects. | ||
| Geothermal energy is abundant in Utah. | ||
| We are leading out in a lot of ways on developing new geothermal resources. | ||
| But the time it takes to get the permit to build a geothermal plant is prohibiting us developing some of the resources and getting clean, reliable baseload power online that this country needs now and will need even more in the future. | ||
| These bills, all three of them, they're not all of my bills, but I wanted to highlight those three today because they are about safeguarding public lands, fostering economic growth, and empowering our communities. | ||
| They're about letting ranchers, families, small businesses, and entrepreneurs benefit from thoughtful and responsive government as opposed to government that drowns out their voices and ignores their needs. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support these measures, which offer pragmatic solutions to real challenges in Utah, throughout the West, and throughout the whole country. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Ms. Malloy. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
| I wanted to ask you a little bit, if you care to, and the Antiquities Act, because I've shared a lot of that frustration as well. | ||
| The Biden administration, on the way out the door, declared several monument areas, a couple in California, one on the ocean area. | ||
| And it really seems that it's become down to just being an executive action and with very little input by Congress. | ||
| And I know that's what you're working on in your legislation, but a couple examples I can think of is that one of the recent ones is over 600 million acres is turned of an ocean monument area. | ||
| And so when you do the math on that, that ends up being about 1,000 square miles of, excuse me, a million square miles of a 1,000-mile square. | ||
| That's a giant chunk of ocean that is no longer really usable for normal things with fishing and things like that. | ||
| And then my own, in my home state, up in my district, they declared almost a quarter million acre area that they really had little consultation with the folks there that had like a mining operation and the timber management need to happen. | ||
| So it has been quite abusive. | ||
| What do you think over time here the long-term effects have been able to have been on energy in the West and energy exploration and the types of things we need to be doing? | ||
| Well, it's had a negative impact on energy production by as soon as I get in front of a microphone, then I have a tickle in my throat by restricting the areas that are open for use, withdrawing them from mineral exploration, oil and gas exploration, and energy production. | ||
| The original intent of the Presidential Proclamation Authority in the Antiquities Act was for the president to be able to move quickly and declare a national monument in an area with antiquities or an area of scientific interest to hold it until Congress could make a decision. | ||
| Since 1976, when the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, FLITMA, passed, it's been the policy of the federal government that we don't dispose of land anymore. | ||
| So that threat has been removed. | ||
| The need for a president to move quickly no longer exists, and the act is just being used to create land policy that couldn't get through Congress. | ||
| And that's the process matters when it comes to land management. | ||
| And we need to take back that authority we gave presidents because they're not using it in the way Congress intended it to be used. | ||
| Now it's being abused and we need to end that abuse by exercising our legislative powers. | ||
| I agree. | ||
| It seems that it's really flipped into just one direction on the invoking of a new monument or wilderness area or what have you. | ||
| And I know your state of Utah has been hit pretty hard by several. | ||
| Now it's not that we're against these measures to protect particular areas, but what you talk about is a gigantic swath of land instead of something a little more focused, which the original intent was focus on the particular historic or geographic areas, | ||
| maybe like an old growth forest area or something like that, areas where there might be Native American ruins that we want to particularly focus, but instead we get these gigantic acreages. | ||
| And I know the Trump administration is going to be looking at some of these here as they did previously. | ||
| And also I like what you were speaking about on your geothermal process there because it should be an all the above way of looking at things on types of energy we have available. | ||
| And geothermal is clean power and it's one that's available 24-7. | ||
| You don't have to wait for the wind to blow or the sun to come up or the clouds to go away. | ||
| And so we need a lot more baseload power because look at what's going on with the tech centers and the amount of AI that's going to be coming on aboard and the amount of energy that's going to be consuming. | ||
| These data centers are going to use a mass amount of new electricity if they're allowed to. | ||
| And they've talked about wanting to do it all as renewable. | ||
| If geothermal can be a source in those areas, that's one thing. | ||
| But we're going to have to get real on where our power is going to come from because we have to have reliable baseload power. | ||
| So geothermal's had a very, very difficult permitting process. | ||
| Any idea what kind of timeline, how many years does it take to get one through if he can get them through? | ||
| I don't know what the current timeline is, but I know it's taking years when it should take months. | ||
| We know what a geothermal power plant looks like. | ||
| We know how to do it in a way that's environmentally sensitive. | ||
| We're just taking time and money to get to that end point that we already know we're headed to. | ||
| Yeah, indeed. | ||
| As another example, there was a copper mine. | ||
| It's not the same as a geothermal thermal power plant, but one particular one in the West took 29 years to permit. | ||
| So when you're talking any kind of thing that's moving forward on self-sufficiency on minerals or energy dominance that the U.S. needs to have, it takes a decade or more in many cases to get this done. | ||
| A desalination plant in Southern California, along the coast, I think out of Huntington Beach, Poseidon project it was called. | ||
| They fought for two decades to try and get a desalination. | ||
| You know, we can't build water storage in California, it seems, or other areas. | ||
| So everybody says, well, hey, desal, we can use the Pacific Ocean. | ||
| Not until you try to permit and do it. | ||
| They fought for 20 years to work through a permit process and jump through every hoop. | ||
| What requirement will make them happy to take care of the brine, the landscape itself. | ||
| And after all that time, they were still denied by the California Coastal Commission and others to be able to do that. | ||
| So permitting does need to be reformed, not thrown away, because we want to have a process where people can have a say and a look at what's happening. | ||
| But by the same token, when we talk about the Antiquities Act, people need to have a say as well, not just 2,500 miles away in Washington, D.C., where a stroke of the pen does it. | ||
| As Ms. Molloy mentioned here, local input from their legislature, their governor, and their delegation to D.C. basically was ignored on national monuments that were done in Utah. | ||
| And we didn't get heard a whole lot up in Northern California on the one done recently as well either. | ||
| It was kind of one-sided. | ||
| So I appreciate you bringing those to the forefront here today. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You're welcome to make any more comments you wish, but we'll move on a little bit to western water for right now too. | ||
| So it's a key issue for agriculture, for hydroelectric, and thank you. | ||
| And with safety from flood and even recreation, as well as a lot of the folks that are wanting more water for fish needs and fish passage and such, they sure enjoy the benefits of having stored water in western dams or any dams. | ||
| I point out as an example here, this is Shasta Dam in Northern California. | ||
| It's a Central Valley project as it's known. | ||
| It's a federal project built in the 30s and came online strongly in the early 40s. | ||
| This is an amazing project and it's indeed the cornerstone of California water as well as some of the Colorado River water sources we have. | ||
| But this is 4.5 million acre feet in one dam and one lake up in Shasta County, California. | ||
| And so the way it's operated is extremely important. | ||
| And when we don't have as good a decisions being made, at least in my opinion, on how that water is stored, how it's kept, how it's allocated, then people suffer on that unnecessarily. | ||
| So right now this lake sits at about, oh, say 600,000 acre feet still to fill it up. | ||
| And the thing that gets me is that we're seeing farmers and others in the water districts in Central California, San Joaquin Valley, where so much of our important food supply for the whole country comes from. | ||
| They're stuck at 35 or 40 percent of what used to be the normal allocation. | ||
| And part of that is that they can't point to the water supply. | ||
| Now, I think it's a bit of a misnomer. | ||
| There's plenty of water around. | ||
| I'll illustrate that here in a moment. | ||
| But this lake, when it's 4.5 million acre feet full, along with our other lakes, why isn't that allocation to agriculture and others closer to 100%? | ||
| It hasn't reached 100% in a long time. | ||
| And a lot of that is based on what we talked about a moment here ago, Endangered Species Act, and its weaponization in the last 50 plus years. | ||
| It's not a matter of us not caring about species and trying to recover them and conserve them. | ||
| It's that it's used as a weapon to stop further water storage or the other issues we talk about other energy projects, even forestry practices that we would be helpful to not have continued wildfire at the massive scale we're seeing so much, especially in the western states. | ||
| So what I want to see happening for Lake Shasta, for example, is that they can use more scientific forecasting of what the systems of weather are going to be looking like in a given year, in a given season. | ||
| We're about to end the rainy season as a Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers. | ||
| Army Corps is in charge of flood control, so they control the top portion of this dam and like Lake Orville down near where I live and many, many others around the whole country. | ||
| That's their charge is for flood control. | ||
| So they'll require that a certain gap from the top of the dam down, you know, 40, 50 feet or so, a particular amount of storage has to be available until the end of the rainy season, which is pretty much April 1. | ||
|
600,000 Acre Feet Down
00:03:55
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| So at that point, you're allowed to fill the lake. | ||
| The lake can fill on up. | ||
| Well, we're 600,000 acre feet down, and there's assessing the snowpack more or less as I speak, but with still another weather pattern coming in here quite soon that would probably enhance that snowpack number as well. | ||
| So what gets me is that we've allowed Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps has allowed about 2 million acre feet to leave this lake, to leave this system since early January. | ||
| And that's flowed down, in this case, the Sacramento River and on out to the Delta. | ||
| you want to see something about delta numbers this poster here isn't quite updated but it illustrates how the water flows down from the north and such and flows through the bay delta out to the ocean These numbers are a little bit older. | ||
| I have to update my poster here, but it shows a gap on this case here at this timeline. | ||
| 29 million acre feet flowed into the delta. | ||
| Down below it shows 22 million acre feet flowed out. | ||
| I mean, that is a heck of a lot of water to lose that we didn't capture more of. | ||
| We have an excellent opportunity to do better at that and keep more water for hydroelectric power, for agriculture, recreation, people's use in the urban areas. | ||
| There's a bit of a misnomer that people in agriculture use way more water than what is actually the case. | ||
| Of stored Stored water in the state, 50% goes for environmental purpose, 40% and descending goes for agriculture, and about 10% for urban and people use. | ||
| And that's of captured water. | ||
| And there's about another 50% of the total rainfall and snowpack that falls on the state that flows out to the ocean or other areas that ends up being basically, you could call it environmental water as well because people don't get to use it and it's doing what it does in the rivers and streams and such. | ||
| So you keep hearing like, well, these farmers are wasting water and people in the cities have to conserve more. | ||
| And conservation is good. | ||
| Farmers using better practices is good as well. | ||
| But if you're telling people in the urban areas, and wait till this really happens to them, and this will really get their attention, when they get rationed down to 42 gallons per day per person, and you see these kinds of numbers, you see that much water going out to the Delta because we have people refusing to build the storage and run the pumps, for example, at the south end of the delta that could be filling up what's known as San Luis Reservoir, which hasn't been topped off yet. | ||
| It was topped off two years ago, but last year and this year, under similar snowpack and rain circumstances, they haven't allowed the pumps to run hard enough to fill it. | ||
| I'm hoping, and then there it is, a lot of stuff seems to be based on hope that we can have enough melt into the Shasta Lake or Lake Oroville and the other large ones that they will fill up and there'll be enough water for everybody. | ||
| But how do you count on having that amount of water, that amount of rainfall in March and April? | ||
| I've lived there my whole life. | ||
| You don't always get heavy rains in March and April, and that would help top off these reservoirs. | ||
|
Alaska's Mineral Potential
00:15:52
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| So it is indeed important to California, but it's an important Western issue, and what gets produced in those areas is important to everybody. | ||
| So I recognize that it's not just a California, but an entire Western issue. | ||
| And that's why the Western Caucus is going to be focusing partly on that. | ||
| So another colleague of mine, Mr. Nick Begich of Alaska, has joined me here. | ||
| And I'd like to recognize him for as much time as he may consume on bringing a perspective of what's going on in that great, great northern area of Alaska and the amazing amounts of resources they have there that this country enjoys and consumes and it does so responsibly as well. | ||
| So thank you for joining us, Mr. Begich. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| And thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to discuss the many opportunities of Alaska. | ||
|
unidentified
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As America's most western state and most eastern state and most northern state, Alaska is nearly 20% of the United States landmass. | |
| We have more than half of the United States coastline. | ||
| And it is estimated that we have more undiscovered estimated natural gas and oil resources than any other state in the country. | ||
| We have nearly every critical mineral on the critical minerals list in Alaska. | ||
| We have base metals. | ||
| We have precious metals, of course, we have rare earths in abundance. | ||
| We've got incredible timber resources and produce about 60% of America's seafood. | ||
| Alaska is a crucial state, and I'm proud to be a member of our House's Western caucus. | ||
| You know, I'm the only member from the state of Alaska. | ||
| We have about 730,000 people that live in a state that's two and a half times the size of Texas. | ||
| And we are vast, we are independent, and we want to make sure that we have the ability to develop the resources that we've been blessed with. | ||
| Under President Trump's leadership, we have seen executive orders that specifically allow for development of our critical minerals, of those rare earths that I spoke of, of our natural resources, including tremendous energy resources in ANWAR and NPRA and elsewhere. | ||
| And that is what Alaskans want. | ||
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unidentified
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Alaskans want the ability to be independent, to develop their resources responsibly and to stand on their own two feet. | |
| And I'm thrilled to be a part of this body, a body that is focused on making sure that Alaska's energy resource potential is fully unlocked, that our mineral potential is fully unlocked, that we restore domestic supply chains again. | ||
| And as we restore those supply chains, we know that those supply chains begin with resources and begin with energy to process those resources. | ||
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unidentified
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Alaska is the cornerstone of this strategy, and we are excited to be a part of that conversation. | |
| And I look forward to the opportunities that we'll be bringing forward in the 119th Congress to advance Alaska's interests, our nation's interests, and restore domestic manufacturing in this nation again. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
| Indeed, with all the rich resources we have in Alaska, it would be amazing if we can get the permitting process so they can produce these rare earths and critical minerals in our country instead of relying on them from adversaries that are not going to be reliable long term. | ||
| So I appreciate you bringing that to our attention and the work you're battling to do up there. | ||
| So thank you, Mr. Piggitch. | ||
| Let me now recognize from Montana, one of our new members here as well, who has half of Montana. | ||
| You don't get to have the whole state anymore, I think, with two members there, Mr. Troy Downing. | ||
| Thank you for joining us here. | ||
| And indeed, these large states are home of so much rich resources that are important to our country. | ||
| And we're glad to have Western Caucus membership that is recognizing that and working with us here. | ||
| So, Mr. Downing. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding me some time. | |
| You know, Montana has many mottos, official and unofficial, the last best place. | ||
| It's the big sky country. | ||
| It's the treasure state. | ||
| And this last one recognizes the rich natural resources we have in the great state of Montana right underneath our feet. | ||
| Up until recently, Biden's anti-American policies have allowed foreign actors to dominate mineral markets, and this has stifled domestic energy production to the detriment of western states like Montana. | ||
| I had the opportunity to return home last week, and I heard about these issues firsthand from miners across the 2nd District. | ||
| In fact, I probably spent more time below ground than I did above it, and actually I really enjoyed that. | ||
| I'm going to talk first about Stillwater County. | ||
| In Stillwater County, the miners of the Sabanier-Stillwater mine are hard at work producing the only platinum and palladium that's mined in America. | ||
| Years of feckless trade policy on the part of the Biden administration has allowed malign foreign actors like Russia to flood commodities markets, crippling smaller producers like Sabanye-Stillwater. | ||
| Russia, which represents more than a third of the market, has been subsidizing and dumping these critical minerals, causing artificially low commodity prices. | ||
| This resulted in the layoff of approximately 700 workers, hardworking miners, just last year. | ||
| It's had a negative impact from dumping that's not only affected the commodity price, but it's made it so that the commodity price is below the actual cost to extract it. | ||
| The ripple effects are still being felt throughout my district. | ||
| This is why our Montana's congressional delegation is stepping up. | ||
| I stand shoulder to shoulder with Congressman Zinke, with Senators Daines and Sheehy, and we introduced the Stop Russian Market Manipulation Act. | ||
| This bans imports of critical minerals from Russia. | ||
| We're creating a competitive market for U.S. mineral producers, not driven down by dumping from foreign actors and extending a vital lifeline to operations like Stillwater. | ||
| This not only allows these mines to support their workforces, but this also drives the local economy, it drives my state economy, and it's also a factor in the security of these United States of America. | ||
| Our bill encourages domestic production, decreases reliance on foreign minerals, shores up supply chains, and significantly bolsters national security, all while dealing a critical blow to Putin's war machine. | ||
| These factors combine to make a real difference in the lives of hardworking Montanans who rely on these jobs to make ends meet. | ||
| I go on to another one of ours. | ||
| Signal Peak Mine. | ||
| This is the only Musselshell County, and Signal Peak Mine has faced a similar reality after years of regulatory foot-dragging and America-last energy policy. | ||
| This threatened Montana's only underground coal mining operation. | ||
| I spoke with miners who expressed concern about Signal Peak's future amidst permitting uncertainty and resource availability. | ||
| My Crow Revenue Act eliminates this uncertainty by facilitating a critical land transfer that unlocks access to minable federal coal while providing the Crow tribe with a piece of the revenue. | ||
| With bicameral support, I'm confident we'll get this bill across the finish line for our tribal communities and our state economy. | ||
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unidentified
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More importantly, this is another step in ensuring American energy dominance. | |
| In closing, let me make one thing abundantly clear. | ||
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There's a new sheriff in town. | |
| None of these efforts would stand a chance of becoming law without this administration. | ||
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President Trump has taken swift executive action to declare a national energy emergency, reopened exploration on federal lands and waters, appointed an all-star cabinet with the likes of Secretary Wright and Secretary Bergham to streamline permitting and unleash American energy. | |
| This is why I am hopeful for projects like Black Butte Copper near White Sulphur Springs, who are committed to unlocking the Treasure State's resources and driving rural economic development, all in a responsible manner. | ||
| And I can't wait to see what this next four years bring for my state and others like it. | ||
| Let us not squander this opportunity and work together to make American mining great again. | ||
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unidentified
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And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield my time. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Downing. | ||
| I appreciate your perspective on that. | ||
| We're finding that these Western states, the Western Caucus focus area, I guess, is very rich in so much of what we need here. | ||
| And so I appreciate your work with those folks in the mines to illustrate how important they are to the whole country and our energy grid, etc. | ||
| So thanks so much for your time with us and the technical issues that you're putting in there. | ||
| But they emphasize the point. | ||
| Yeah, thanks. | ||
| But thanks so much. | ||
| And I'm pleased to have Excited new freshman members that really want to take charge and get going here. | ||
| So it's good stuff. | ||
| So with that, we'll move on to another colleague, a new member from North Dakota, who's shown a lot of enthusiasm to jump in with us here in the Western Caucus and help make it happen. | ||
| Another at-large district, which means the entire state. | ||
| So even though there's maybe not a lot of people in these areas, it's extremely important what they do. | ||
| So Julie Fodorczik from North Dakota, please take it away. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate the opportunity to be here. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| This little podium seems to have a mind of its own, so I'm going to leave it down so it doesn't scare us all again. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues in the Western Caucus for leading the charge to strengthen rural America's future. | ||
| As a fourth-generation North Dakotan, I've seen how the hard work of our energy and agriculture producers fuels our economy, strengthens our communities, and secures our very way of life. | ||
| That's why on Monday, I introduced a resolution to overturn the Biden administration's reinstatement of the once-in-always-in rule. | ||
| This is a short-sighted, bureaucratic mandate that punishes energy producers, manufacturers, and small businesses for investing in emissions reduction. | ||
| This rule permanently classifies certain industrial facilities as major sources of hazardous air pollutants, even if they take meaningful steps to reduce emissions below the federal thresholds. | ||
| That makes no sense. | ||
| Facilities that make major investments to reduce emissions should be rewarded, not locked into outdated, costly regulations that discourage further investments. | ||
| By refusing to let businesses reclassify after making progress, this rule removes any real incentive to invest in cleaner technologies. | ||
| Instead of supporting innovation, it sends a clear message: don't even bother. | ||
| Democrats like to use the mantra of hope and change. | ||
| This regulatory approach says there's no hope, so don't change. | ||
| That's not environmental stewardship. | ||
| That's Washington overreach. | ||
| The United States has reduced emissions more than any other nation since 2005, all the while leading the world in energy production. | ||
| We should be building on that success, not undermining it, with policies like this outdated, overly burdensome Biden regulation that stifles investment and progress. | ||
| North Dakota is proof that responsible energy production and environmental stewardship go hand in hand. | ||
| It's not one or the other. | ||
| Our state has never violated federal air quality standards. | ||
| I want to say that again. | ||
| Our state has never violated federal air quality standards while being one of the largest energy producers in the whole country. | ||
| This is a testament to the more than $2 billion our energy producers have invested in emissions control technologies. | ||
| And they did that because they take their responsibilities seriously. | ||
| They want to be good stewards of our resources and of our air and our water. | ||
| American businesses are dedicated to protecting the health, safety, and vibrancy of their communities. | ||
| What they need is regulatory certainty, not a rule that locks them into compliance with outdated standards even after they've done the right thing. | ||
| This is about more than just one burdensome regulation. | ||
| It's about standing up for the industries that power our economy and rejecting Washington's one-size-fits-all approach. | ||
| American energy solutions are climate solutions. | ||
| American energy producers are providing the solutions that are going to solve energy needs and environmental needs for the world over. | ||
| Let's encourage investment in technology, not support regulations that make it impossible to do business. | ||
| I'm proud to lead this effort in the House, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution. | ||
| Let's restore regulatory certainty, the number one cry from the industry that I meet with. | ||
| We need regulatory certainty. | ||
| And let's send a clear message that we stand with American energy producers, farmers, manufacturers, and we stand with innovation. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, our nation has been blessed abundantly with natural resources. | ||
| Misguided regulations and policies are strangling the very people in our nation who are building and producing everything that we need. | ||
| They're strangling the people who create jobs, who produce the products, the food, who pay taxes, who employ people, the people who make our communities strong. | ||
| We need to stop doing that. | ||
| We need to correct course in our approach for government and regulation. | ||
| Our Republican House caucus, the President, the Senate, Republicans, we are committed to doing this for America and to making our nation, our states, our energy producers, our farmers, manufacturing, manufacturers, and our communities to make all of those great again. | ||
|
Wolves Ravaging Livelihoods
00:14:17
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| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Representative Fidorchik. | ||
| Great points you emphasize for us, and it's a common theme here. | ||
| Thank you for that. | ||
| In that the red tape, the endless delays in doing the work it needs to be done to produce. | ||
| And that's what the Western states, the Western caucus, but indeed our whole country. | ||
| I've got to remember that and to emphasize, these products come from all over. | ||
| When we're talking mined materials, farmed materials, wood. | ||
| It's all important. | ||
| And the same laws that affect us in Western states affect us everywhere. | ||
| And why are we having to spend so many years to get permits to do things that we know how to do well? | ||
| And indeed, in the United States, do with a better set of environmental regulations that are way more conscious of that than what you're ever going to get produced in China or some of the other Pacific Rim areas. | ||
| We have the technology to do it the best, as Ms. Fidorchek was talking about. | ||
| If you want to talk about CO2, which I don't a whole lot because I think CO2 is an essential building block, it is not a pollutant, as has been whipped for so many years amongst regulatory agencies and NGOs and such. | ||
| But if you want to look at how the United States has been doing, we're one of only a couple countries that has been able to level off and even reduce CO2 production. | ||
| Now, we're going to get to the point where it's going to be so critically harmful to our industry here. | ||
| We need to reassess how burdensome these regulations are, especially for CO2 being not a poisonous pollutant per se. | ||
| I mean, plants need it, and all things in moderation, you might say, but it's important that we have some reality on how these regulations affect. | ||
| So we talked about water storage, we've talked about somewhat on energy production, and when I was talking about our water storage, how important hydroelectric electricity is in that it's a CO2-free source. | ||
| Ms. Malloy talked about geothermal. | ||
| That is a clean source of energy to produce electricity. | ||
| And one we haven't got to touch on much, but is also much, much potential as an issue Western Cox will be working on is nuclear energy, another CO2-free source of electricity. | ||
| If you want to deal with CO2, here you are. | ||
| Yet these forms of electricity generation are continuing to be pushed out or pushed off in the regulatory climate we have here. | ||
| We have the opportunity to mine the uranium, a lot of it in the western states, build the plants that are going to serve our urban centers. | ||
| I was talking earlier about how much AI and data centers are going to use so much more electricity. | ||
| As well, if the electrification of cars and trucks keeps getting pushed, where's that electricity going to come from? | ||
| It's amazing how you can mandate this in a la-de-da atmosphere of, well, we're just going to have more EVs. | ||
| But you're not, the folks regulating that and pushing that are not being accountable for where that electricity is going to come from. | ||
| They think more and more acres of prime farmland covered with solar panels is going to do it, or offshore windmills producing a certain amount of electricity, and they find that they have problems with that, and there might be negative effects on the wildlife and the ocean life there. | ||
| So we indeed need to have the ability to go take a look back at these layers and layers of court decisions since these laws were made with good intention back in the early 70s, whether we're talking Endangered Species Act or the NEPA regulations, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, all intended very well, but they've been weaponized by NGOs, environmental organizations, and even those with certain belief systems in government. | ||
| Heaven knows in my home state of California, they're weaponized to stop some very good projects from happening. | ||
| When we're talking Endangered Species Act reform, you have species that are basically used to stop water storage, stop highways from being built, stop power plants from being built, even things like levees being repaired in areas that have potential to be flooded. | ||
| One project in my district took 20 plus years to finally get approved and through for a levee project on an already existing levee. | ||
| They required that it be set back from the river more and then a bunch of habitat created out of the farmers' orchards that were adjacent to that on the outside of the old levee, but now inside the new levee. | ||
| That took over 20 plus years and it's because of an endangered species as listed by the Fish and Wildlife 20, 25 years ago, maybe longer, that 15 years ago they recommended, yeah, we can go ahead and delist that now. | ||
| You can hardly delist anything, it seems, under the way these rules have been misinterpreted. | ||
| One issue ravaging much of the West and right now has really taken hold in my district has been the wolf population that's been introduced. | ||
| I know the Biden administration has done some of that at the end with like over 40 wolves being dumped into Colorado last minute on their way out the door. | ||
| And wolves in California have really taken hold in the northeast part of the state, Modoc County, Siskiyou County, Lassen County, Eastern Shasta and other areas to a little bit lesser extent. | ||
| And they're ravaging those areas. | ||
| The deer population is being decimated. | ||
| And when they run out of deer, guess where they're looking next? | ||
| You know, they're looking at livestock. | ||
| But here's an example. | ||
| And I don't mean to be morbid, but people need to see what this really looks like. | ||
| Here's a wolf toting off a deer right here. | ||
| It's got a deer head right there. | ||
| This isn't native to that area. | ||
| These are Canadian gray wolves. | ||
| These are great, big, powerful, scary wolves that really aren't indigenous to the farther western states. | ||
| And it's still listed, and we're making our efforts to delist this wolf from that list. | ||
| But it's running into problems, running into difficulties because of the environmental movement saying, no, we need to have them everywhere. | ||
| We need to have mating pairs in every county, I guess, in order to bring satisfaction to their desires on that. | ||
| But these wolves are plentiful in areas like Minnesota and neighboring states and the central part of Canada. | ||
| It's not an endangered species. | ||
| There's plenty of numbers there. | ||
| If you want to go look at a gray wolf, go travel to that part of the country because we don't need to have them everywhere in order somehow to be deemed as recovered. | ||
| I like to make the giraffe analogy. | ||
| Now, if you want to go look at a giraffe, you need to go to places in Africa. | ||
| If you want to look at it in North America, other than the occasional zoo, we don't have them here. | ||
| So you can't deem them an endangered species in North America because we don't have them here and somehow have to start a new program to encourage and build giraffe habitat to bring a species in that really doesn't belong in that area. | ||
| So it doesn't make a lot of sense and it's really devastating. | ||
| Over 200 calves have been taken in the Northern California area and part of Oregon as well. | ||
| Here we see a calf that has been devastated just completely annihilated and fed upon by a pack of wolves there. | ||
| And again, I'm not doing this to be morbid or but I guess I hope it does shock you. | ||
| I hope it does shock you because this is really happening to people's livelihoods that are producing food that Americans want, that others want, and that they can't do so because of a wolf population that's been introduced by government and by the hest of basically urban people that think, oh, wouldn't that be a nice ideal to have these wolves in that area? | ||
| They don't have to live with the results. | ||
| So these wolves have become so brazen in how they act in the area. | ||
| Here it's taken a sheep. | ||
| Any livestock is on the menu for them because when they start running out of the local wildlife, they're going to take what they need. | ||
| And so the ability for people to push back on that, to haze them or to move them away, is very, very limited by how Fish and Wildlife has made the rules. | ||
| They have very, very few options to keep them not only out of their herds, but away from their doorstep, including this doorstep right here. | ||
| Yeah, this is a family dog right here. | ||
| This is what's happening to families that are working and living in those rural areas four, five, six longer generations, provide food to put it on the table for Americans. | ||
| And this is what they have to live with. | ||
| They can't let their pets out in some of these areas anymore. | ||
| They can't have their kids go down to the bus stop without having being guarded in order to do normal things like going to school. | ||
| People are afraid to go outside their homes at night in some cases in certain areas because you can hear the wolves howling and the wolves don't feel any fear of mankind. | ||
| They don't feel any deterrent due to the very limited and meager measures that people can take to deter them. | ||
| They're not allowed to shoot them. | ||
| They're not even allowed to shoot over them. | ||
| They're not allowed to be very aggressive with vehicles and such. | ||
| Indeed, one anecdote I received on visiting some folks in the district is that they have drones. | ||
| They try to fly over and move the wolves away from their herds and away from their area. | ||
| Finally, the drone just looks up at it and lays down and watches it. | ||
| And the other measures, they have to fly pieces of flag of ribbon on their fences and hope that ribbon flapping in the wind will, it's called flattery, that that will scare the wolf away, or they try and string single wires of electric fence. | ||
| The wolf is pretty smart. | ||
| They're going to go around that. | ||
| And when they're running in packs like that, they're very effective at moving the livestock, moving them, herding them to other areas. | ||
| You hear other stories about them coming in and wiping out an entire flock of sheep on one farm just for the heck of it. | ||
| A single wolf in one case killed 30 sheep, killed the dog, and basically scared the horse, ran the horse over a cliff area, killing that. | ||
| That's more or less for sport. | ||
| And this is what's happening to people. | ||
| This is what's happening just in my northeast part of my state, but all over the west. | ||
| The population, the elk population, the deer population being devastated in these areas. | ||
| But we don't get to talk about that much because it's an ideal under Endangered Species Act that we have to move these animals wherever somebody deems that they need to go. | ||
| Indeed, when you have populations that will sustain and keep the prevent extinction just from what you have in the upper Midwest in Canada. | ||
| So what is it going to come down to? | ||
| Do we have to have people themselves be victimized to get a nice idyllic scene like this, people hiking trails? | ||
| We have the Pacific Crest Trail running through that portion of my district. | ||
| Now, has there been warnings sent out by the people promoting this wolf population to those that are looking to utilize these trails, Pacific Tress Trail, or climb the different mountains around Northern California? | ||
| Is there adequate warnings going out to the urban areas when people expect that they're going to be able to do this as they come travel and recreate a little later on this spring and summer and fall? | ||
| Are they doing that? | ||
| You have this idyllic scene of a family out there hiking. | ||
| So do they know possibly there might be wolves lurking in here if they're hungry and they've run out of deer to attack and the farmers and ranchers have sold their livestock herds or pulled them out or just lost them to wolf attacks that they're going to get hungry and start coming after anything they can find. | ||
| Are people going to be on that list? | ||
| Am I being dramatic? | ||
| No, this is a reality. | ||
| This can happen. | ||
| And so will this scene be allowed anymore in those areas to say, well, it's wolf habitat now. | ||
| We don't have any people recreating on their lands, on their national lands, on their parklands, you know, the forest lands that are deemed to be multi-use. | ||
| That use is being narrowed more and more to not doing timber operations and preventing wildfire and having wildlife flourish, but to be a very narrow group being satisfied this. | ||
| So this is part of the work that we need to get done and that Western caucus is going to be focusing on is endangered species reform, our energy, agriculture. | ||
| We need to be helping out with making the farm bill a reality here soon because the farm bill's had extensions so far. | ||
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High-Speed Rail Disaster Update
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| We need to pass a full farm bill this year that's good for five years and agriculture being a very important cornerstone of Western caucus priorities as well as it is a national priority. | ||
| So with that, we got our work cut out for us, but we have a great team on our Western Caucus staff and nearly 100 members of the House that are in this, as well as our colleagues over in the Senate, led by my good friend Senator Lummis from Wyoming. | ||
| So it's a very positive thing and I'm looking forward to the work here. | ||
| I'm honored to be able to chair it. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley, for 30 minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform folks throughout California and the entire country of one of the biggest scandals in our state's history. | ||
| which is that Governor Gavin Newsom is literally bankrupting Medicaid in our state. | ||
| He is driving it insolvent through a policy that exists nowhere else in the country, in no other state, a policy of offering free, comprehensive, universal Medicaid or Medi-Cal as we call it to the entire population of illegal immigrants in our state who meet the income threshold. | ||
| No other state has done this and in California it has been an absolute disaster. | ||
| Initially it was estimated that this unprecedented expansion would cost just a few billion dollars. | ||
| But now it turns out that it's going to cost $9.5 billion just for this year. | ||
| And because of that enormous cost overrun, because of the resulting shortfall of some $6 billion, Governor Newsom has just taken out an emergency loan from the general fund in order to cover payments. | ||
| And on top of that, he has asked the legislature to appropriate even more money, billions more. | ||
| So think about what this means over, let's say, the next 10 years. | ||
| If the cost has grown from a few billion to $9.5 billion just in this first year, what can we expect year over year going forward? | ||
| We are likely talking about hundreds of billions of dollars of money from California taxpayers that will be spent this next decade implementing a policy that exists nowhere else in the country to provide comprehensive care, comprehensive, government-provided health care to those who are in our state illegally. | ||
| And here's the worst thing. | ||
| Not only is this fiscally unsustainable, but those are funds that could be going to shoring up Medicaid, Medi-Cal, and improving the system, improving access to care, improving the quality of care for our own legal residents. | ||
| If you are a California citizen on Medicaid right now, the kind of coverage that you get, the kind of actual delivery of service that you get, likely is not that good. | ||
| Doctors throughout the state simply will not take Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rate is so low. | ||
| And so this policy of Governor Newsom and the supermajority in California is a conscious decision to put the entire solvency of our system at risk to diminish access to care for our own residents to, in fact, make it harder to get appointments because now there's a whole new population that's looking to get into the system and doing so in a way that has no precedent anywhere else in the country. | ||
| In fact, in many cases, it actually costs the state more money to provide Medicaid to a person who is in the state illegally because, number one, there is no federal funding for such enrollees, and so the state bears almost the entire cost. | ||
| But even the overall cost, forgetting about who's paying for it, can be higher. | ||
| Because when you look at, for example, the rebates for prescription drugs that are available at the federal level because the federal government negotiates in bulk, that's not available for this population that's covered by state funds. | ||
| So we're actually paying more than we would for our own citizens. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this outrageous policy simply cannot continue. | ||
| I am calling on Governor Newsom and the state legislature to reverse it immediately. | ||
| That should be the obvious next step when the system has gone insolvent to the extent that the governor is forced to take out an emergency loan. | ||
| Here in Congress, I've introduced legislation that will preserve Medicaid benefits in California and across the country for only those who are legal residents of our country. | ||
| I also think we have an opportunity to rein in what Newsom is doing through the reconciliation process. | ||
| And I look forward to doing that in order to protect Medicaid for Californians. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'd like to provide an update on the latest unbelievable revelations concerning high-speed rail, the high-speed rail disaster in California. | ||
| Yesterday, California's legislative analysts testified before the state legislature that the project faces a $7 billion budget gap and the funds must be secured by next June. | ||
| The legislative analyst's spokesperson said there is no specific plan, this is a quote, there is no specific plan to meet that roughly $7 billion gap. | ||
| We also think there is some risk that that gap could grow. | ||
| Indeed, the hearing at which the legislative analyst testified was very brief because the high-speed rail authority submitted an incomplete update to those who had organized the hearing. | ||
| So the high-speed rail authority can't manage to complete anything on time, even its own reports to the legislature, let alone building a high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco or even that very first segment from Bakersfield to Merced, which is now projected to miss the 2033 deadline. | ||
| Listen to the bipartisan pushback that this is getting. | ||
| Assemblymember Stephen Bennett, Democrat from Ventura, he said, quote, we have no plan. | ||
| We have a good likelihood it's going to get worse and we have a short time to solve the problem, he said. | ||
| The definition of insanity, said Democrat Assembly Member Cottie Petrie-Norris, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. | ||
| Now here's the truly amazing thing. | ||
| Is the legislative analyst testified that this update that the rail authority provided, even this incomplete update, assumes there will still be federal dollars. | ||
| So they're saying there's a $7 billion budget shortfall for just the next few months that has an unrealistic assumption that goes with it that there's going to be further federal funding. | ||
| I can say this right now. | ||
| There will not be further federal funding. | ||
| How do I know that? | ||
| Because I was at a press conference with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, where it was made very clear that this project is a failure. | ||
| And in fact, there is now an investigation that has been launched by the Department of Transportation to claw back billions that have been granted. | ||
| I have also asked for an investigation by FBI Director Kash Patel to figure out how it is exactly that they've already spent $17 billion, that the overall cost has grown to an excess of $130 billion, and yet no track has been laid after 16 years of some kind of work supposedly being done. | ||
| And finally, I have introduced legislation to make the high-speed rail project ineligible for further federal funding at any point going forward. | ||
| Which again, the Rail Authority is entirely reliant on the assumption of federal funding just to get to a point where there's only a $7 billion budget gap for just the next few months. | ||
| The fact of the matter is that this project has failed. | ||
| It is not going to happen. | ||
| And there is absolutely no justification for spending another dollar of taxpayer money, especially when our roads continue to crumble and be rated among the worst in the world. | ||
| So I'll be advancing my legislation here, and I'm calling on Governor Newsom and the legislature to do the right thing and bring an end to this failed project, this embarrassing project, once and for all. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today on the House floor, there was an amendment offered that suffered the most overwhelming defeat that I have ever seen in the United States Congress. | ||
| And for good reason, because it is perhaps the most abhorrent legislative proposal I have ever seen in the United States Congress. | ||
| The representative from Michigan, Representative Tlaib, introduced a measure that would classify Israel as an adversary of the United States alongside the likes of China, Iran, and North Korea. | ||
| Fortunately, this proposal was swiftly and nearly unanimously rejected by the House of Representatives. | ||
| Look at the vote total. | ||
| A grand total of three people, including the author, voted yes. | ||
| Every single other member, Democrat or Republican, over 400 members, voted no. | ||
| This sent a very important message regarding what was being suggested with this proposal here. | ||
| To suggest that one of our most important allies in the entire world, Israel, at this time where it faces so many challenges, is somehow a country of concern, an adversary of the United States comparable to Iran or North Korea. | ||
| And to single out Israel, this one country, to single out this one country of all the countries in the world. | ||
| You know, we've seen across America, and in particular on college campuses, deeply disturbing, disturbing, abhorrent anti-Semitism that has absolutely no place, that we never thought we'd even see anything like it in this country. | ||
| And I think that when you have proposals in Congress that encourage that, that are very much thematically aligned with the pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic encampments that took over universities across the country, it is very important that that is condemned strongly and unequivocally. | ||
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January Job Growth Crisis
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| And I'm very proud that that is exactly what the House of Representatives did today. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the California Center for Jobs and the Economy has just released an absolutely stunning report that shows how deeply Governor Gavin Newsom has driven our state's economy into the ground. | ||
| Among the findings was that for the month of January, job growth in our state was, well, non-existent. | ||
| The number of net jobs that were added to the California economy was exactly zero for the month of January. | ||
| By comparison, Texas added 27,900. | ||
| Florida added 16,500. | ||
| Even New York added 20,100. | ||
| California added zero. | ||
| Indeed, California is one of only five states in the country that has not recovered the jobs that it lost during the COVID shutdowns. | ||
| And as things now stand, our unemployment rate is the second highest in the country, second highest out of all 50 states. | ||
| And indeed, there are a million Californians who are unemployed, and that has been true for 13 straight months. | ||
| What's more, even those jobs that have been created in the COVID recovery are entirely government or government-dependent jobs. | ||
| So to quote the spokesperson or the head of the California Business Roundtable, Rob Lapsley, to put it more directly, other than in trade, California has not grown jobs during the past four years of recovery. | ||
| It has bought them with public funds. | ||
| We would have zero job growth, zero recovery, if it weren't for government jobs. | ||
| And what's more beyond that, even when you look at folks who are employed, the average number of hours per week is shrinking in California as well. | ||
| This is truly stunning when you consider everything that our state has to offer. | ||
| Not only being a place that has a greater diversity of natural wonders and attractions and beauty than just about any place on earth, but has so many dynamic, thriving industries, so many incredible companies and employers, such a rich history of innovation, of driving the nation forward. | ||
| Somehow, this governor and the existing legislature have managed to turn it into the state that does the absolute worst when it comes to jobs of any state in the country. | ||
| So why is that the case? | ||
| Well, it's no mystery. | ||
| You can just look at misguided policy after misguided policy, which has served to discourage companies from starting, discourage companies from adding jobs, discourage companies from staying here, and indeed has made more people leave this state than any other for several consecutive years. | ||
| I'm working on legislation in Congress in as much as we can use the levers we have here at the federal level to try to bring some sanity back to the economic policy environment in California. | ||
| Because there are areas where federal and state policy intersect. | ||
| For example, we are getting rid of all of these EV mandates or electric train mandates or electric truck mandates or electric lawnmower mandates. | ||
| And I will soon be introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution to end Gavin Newsom's plan to ban gas-powered cars in California. | ||
| But beyond that, there are a number of state policies that everyone knows are causing immense harm and yet remain on the books. | ||
| So if our state's leadership has the chance to look at this report and get a little dose of reality and has any inclination to actually try to turn things around and help folks in our state, here are a few suggestions. | ||
| Repeal AB5, which has effectively banned independent contracting in our state and put countless freelancers out of work. | ||
| Overturn the Private Attorney General's Act, PAGA, which is the bane of many small businesses' existence and accounts for the non-existence of many that have been forced to close because of the harassing lawsuits that it leads to. | ||
| Re-examine every mandate that we place on employers, especially those that don't exist in any other state, and evaluate the impact they have on the incentive to hire. | ||
| Take a cue from President Trump, who has said we are going to repeal 10 regulations for every new regulation that we offer. | ||
| If there's any place where the regulatory thicket can rival or even surpass that of the federal government, it is the bureaucracy that we have in California. | ||
| And speaking of the bureaucracy, find ways to rein in these massive, unelected, policy-making bodies we have in California, such as CARB, the California Air Resources Board. | ||
| These are just a few suggestions. | ||
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Welcome Home Astronauts
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| But our state has absolutely enormous potential that currently is being dramatically underutilized. | ||
| And it's truly a sad thing as we see it in every community in this state. | ||
| You see your favorite restaurant or another cherished small business that suddenly closes its doors for good. | ||
| And you see so many of our fellow citizens who are lacking for the sort of opportunities that a well-governed state would allow them. | ||
| So I would hope, if anything could be a wake-up call, then this latest stunning report with this very round number of zero new jobs will serve as that wake-up call that can catalyze and motivate some real reform in California. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate and thank SpaceX and its Crew Dragon capsule for successfully returning the two astronauts. | ||
| Barry Wilmer and SUNY Williams, who had been stranded in the International Space Station for 286 days. | ||
| Most Americans are now familiar with the story, with the issues that arose with the Boeing Starliner that made them unable to return on that vessel, and the delays that ensued after that, such that these astronauts had to overstay their planned trip by many, many, many weeks. | ||
| And it was just on March 18th, a little over a week ago, that they finally were brought home, thanks to SpaceX, and splashed down in the Gulf of America. | ||
| This was a great moment for our country, certainly a great moment for the astronauts and their families. | ||
| And I think it serves as a reminder of how important America's lead when it comes to the commercial space industry is. | ||
| We saw just this last year repeated efforts by the Biden administration to hold back that progress and to specifically target SpaceX. | ||
| Now it needs to be noted that SpaceX accounts for over 90% of the total payload brought into orbit in the entire world. | ||
| And so targeting SpaceX is truly weakening our own country, given how important our global dominance in space is. | ||
| And so this latest demonstration of the capacity of this particular company and American ingenuity in general to accomplish amazing feats should hopefully serve as a reminder that we have now turned a page, | ||
| that we are now encouraging innovation, and we must never return to the misguided policies and frankly discriminatory treatment that prevailed during the administration of President Biden. | ||
| So thank you again to SpaceX and welcome home. | ||
| A long-delayed welcome home. | ||
| Welcome back to Earth to our astronauts. | ||
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Closing Achievement Gaps
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| Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of chairing the subcommittee that has jurisdiction over all of K-12 education. | ||
| And I wanted to let folks know about a very important hearing that we're having next Tuesday at 10.15 a.m. Eastern Time on artificial intelligence and its uses in education. | ||
| Now, some folks might hear the topic of that hearing and think about things like, well, is AI making it easier for students to cheat? | ||
| Or is this going to absorb young people even further into digital worlds? | ||
| And those are certainly concerns. | ||
| But the focus of our hearing is going to be on the upside, on the tremendous potential, the boundless opportunities that AI, even as it exists right now, let alone what it's going to be, what its capabilities are going to be in a matter of weeks and months and years, the unbelievable opportunities to close achievement gaps and advance student achievement. | ||
| I firmly believe that if it isn't already true now, it'll be true in a very short time. | ||
| That every child in America now has the ability to get a richer, more immersive education than any child did just a few years ago. | ||
| I was part of an organization when I was a teacher that was aimed at closing achievement gaps in America. | ||
| And the different opportunities that are afforded to young students depending on the zip code that they live in is an ongoing failure of our public education system. | ||
| And there are many policy changes that we need to make to address that, such as providing for greater choices for students and their families. | ||
| But the use of AI is another tool, an incredibly powerful tool for closing these achievement gaps. | ||
| Because now, no matter where you're born, the zip code that you live in, or the neighborhood school that's closest to you, you, as a young person growing up in America, can access the entirety of human knowledge and have it given to you in a way that meets your own starting knowledge level, your own ability level, | ||
| your own strengths and weaknesses is conveyed to you in the modality that fits for you. | ||
| And we're seeing incredible things, incredible things that are being done already at different schools across the country as well with platforms like the Khan Academy, where you can have a direct dialogue with a chat bot or, for example, a reanimated version of Albert Einstein that teaches you physics. | ||
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Celebrating 100 Years of Rotary
00:03:46
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| Or you can have a dialogue with a historical figure as you're learning history, or with a literary character as you're reading a classic novel. | ||
| And beyond giving the student this novel, immersive experience that's uniquely tailored to them, it also liberates teachers to focus on those sort of things that only a caring human instructor can do. | ||
| So we are still in the very early stages, and the capabilities of AI systems are growing by the day. | ||
| But I think this is going to be a very important moment for us to look at what's being done now and what we can do going forward to expand these incredible learning opportunities to every child in America. | ||
| So you can tune into our hearing next Tuesday, 10.15 a.m. Eastern Time. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley, based in California's 3rd Congressional District. | ||
| The Rotary Club of Grass Valley was established in 1925 by 25 local business and professional leaders who were inspired by the Rotary Movement's ideals of service and ethical business practices. | ||
| Club members represented a cross-section of the community and included businessmen and professionals associated with and directly involved with the major regional economic activities of mining and timber harvesting. | ||
| The outbreak of World War II had a profound impact on the activities of the Rotary Club, as many of its members were called to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. | ||
| Those who remained in Grass Valley continued to support the war effort through various initiatives such as organizing blood drives, collecting scrap metal, and helping military families. | ||
| The history of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley is a testament to the power of community spirit and collective action. | ||
| Today, the Rotary Club hosts several community events meant to support the numerous programs and activities that provide the resources needed to promote the quality of life of Grass Valley residents, the surrounding region, and communities across the globe. | ||
| For more than 10 decades now, the club has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to service, fellowship, and leadership. | ||
| Their contributions are an indelible part of the Grass Valley community and have made a lasting impact on our region. | ||
| Therefore, on behalf of California's 3rd Congressional District and the United States House of Representatives, I am pleased to recognize the Rotary Club of Grass Valley for your outstanding contributions throughout your 100-year history and commend them for their ongoing and tireless devotion to community service. | ||
| Here's to another great 100 years. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| Does the gentleman have a motion? | ||
| I do move that the House now adjourn. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| The question is on the motion to adjourn. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The motion is adopted. | ||
| Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until noon on Monday next for morning hour debate. | ||
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The House has finished legislative work for the week. | |
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C-SPAN: Democracy Unfiltered
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Lawmakers voted to change the threshold for colleges to report gifts from foreign sources to $50,000. | |
| They also approved the repeal of two Biden administration energy efficiency rules on commercial refrigeration equipment and on walk-in coolers and freezers. | ||
| More live coverage of the House when members gavel back in here on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| We're funded by these television companies and more, including Charter Communications. | ||
| Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. | ||
| And we're just getting started, building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. | ||
| Charter Communications supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | ||
| American History TV, Saturdays on C-SPAN 2, exploring the people and events that tell the American story. | ||
| This weekend, at 6 p.m. Eastern, Calvin University art history professor Henry Ludekaisen talks about political cartoonists with a particular focus on Pat Oliphant and his depiction of presidents. | ||
| Then at 7 p.m. Eastern, watch American History TV series First 100 Days as we look at the start of presidential terms. | ||
| This week, we focus on the early months of President Ronald Reagan's first term in 1981, including the release of American hostages in Iran and the assassination attempt on the president by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30th. | ||
| At 8 p.m. Eastern on Lectures in History, Santa Clara University art history professor Andrea Pappas on the mid-19th century American landscape painting movement known as the Hudson River School. | ||
| And at 9.30 p.m. Eastern on the presidency, Court of Oakland retired CEO Walter Abernathy recounted the storied history of the USS Potomac. | ||
| Franklin Roosevelt used the yacht throughout his presidency, including to arrange a clandestine meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. | ||
| After FDR's death, the Potomac had a colorful history and is now a National Historic Landmark docked in Oakland, California. | ||
| Exploring the American Story. | ||