Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act

Mr. President, I rise today to sound the alarm on the national security threat that corruption represents and to echo the determination made earlier this year by President Biden that corruption constitutes a core national security threat to the United States.

Along with many colleagues in this body, I have worked long and hard to fight corruption--which undermines democracy, human rights, and the rule of law and is behind so many of the persistent problems that we seek to solve.

The recently released Pandora Papers investigations--coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and involving 150 media outlets, including The Washington Post and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project--reveal the astonishing extent to which questionable financial flows are entering our country and those of our allies. This warrants further review. Although we had known that such a system of offshore finance exists, it is still shocking to see the scale of the corruption, documented in great detail by emails, contracts, and other documents. Foreign dictators, their associates, and other foreign officials have stolen untold sums-- billions of dollars--and moved that dirty money into our democracies, into real estate, bank accounts, trusts, and other financial instruments.

This is a profound threat to our national security. It hollows out the rule of law abroad and now it threatens to hollow out the rule of law at home.

Foreign kleptocrats cannot do this alone. Although kleptocrats may steal abroad, to taint our political system with that money requires the assistance of enablers--American lawyers, accountants, trust, and company service providers, real estate professionals, and the like--who put aside any moral qualms they may have about working for the enemies of democracy to obtain a small slice of the illgotten gains.

The Pandora Papers make clear that U.S. enablers apparently play an outsized role in helping to move stolen assets from dictatorships and struggling democracies into consolidated democracies--an appalling and corrupt transference of wealth from those who need it most to those who have no need at all.

All told, the papers include documents from 206 U.S. trusts in 15 States and Washington, DC, and 22 trustee companies. While there is obviously much legitimate business to be done in creating and managing trusts and investments--and we should be careful about overstating or generalizing without careful examination of each case--it appears that some Americans may have knowingly played a significant role in facilitating corruption.

The papers include 300 politicians and public officials from more than 90 countries and territories--though no Americans and exceedingly few Western Europeans. This comes as no surprise. The movement of corrupt money runs east to west, not west to east. It is the tragedy of the post-Cold War world that corruption has come west along with dirty money rather than democracy going east. There are names in the papers that also come as no surprise--Putin cronies Konstantin Ernst and Gennady Timchenko are both named. Both are included on Alexey Navalny's list of 35 human rights abusers and kleptocrats. Timchenko is already under U.S. sanctions, though Ernst is not. Now would be a good time to consider sanctions on him.

The Aliyevs of Azerbaijan also make an appearance. They collectively own a real estate empire in London worth $700 million. A Chinese Communist Party official also was found to have used an offshore company to trade in U.S. stocks.

However, there is good news. It does not have to be this way. The triumph of global kleptocracy is not inevitable. We can fight back, and we are. Never before has there been an American administration so focused on the countering corruption or a Congress so creative and aggressive in facing down the threat. President Biden is the first President ever to declare countering corruption to be a ``core U.S. national security interest.'' Congress has formed a Caucus against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy. The House recently passed no fewer than six different counterkleptocracy measures in the National Defense Authorization Act, which included bills of mine. Now it is incumbent upon us in the Senate to do the same.

First is the Combating Global Corruption Act that would create a public and tiered country-by-country reporting requirement on compliance with international anti-corruption norms and standards. Those countries in the lowest tier of this report would have their leadership evaluated for Global Magnitsky sanctions.

Then there is the Global Magnitsky reauthorization that would reauthorize and enhance these critical sanctions for targeting global kleptocrats and human rights abusers--exactly the sort of people identified in the Pandora Papers. I am also proposing a new measure-- and I am introducing it today--that would mandate the administration evaluate the ``Navalny 35'' for Global Magnitsky sanctions. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden earlier this year, called for the United States to impose sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials, whom it credibly accuses of political persecution, human rights abuses, and corruption. I agree with the Navalny team and urge the administration to move forward on this.

All three of these measures have been included in the House National Defense Authorization Act, and I urge my colleagues to include them in the Senate National Defense Authorization Act.

The Pandora Papers are a wake-up call to all who care about the future of democracy. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, it is time for democracies to band together and demand an end to the unprecedented corruption that has come to be the defining feature of the global order. We must purge the dirty money from our systems and deny kleptocrats safe haven.

It will take hard decisions and difficult reforms, but we can do it. We already have the bipartisan momentum. Now we only have to see it through.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 2959) to provide that, due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, applications for impact aid funding for fiscal year 2023 may use certain data submitted in the fiscal year 2022 application.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 2959.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge Members to support the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act introduced by Senator Smith from Minnesota and Senator Thune from South Dakota. The companion bill was introduced by the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) and the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson).

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Impact Aid for our Nation's children. For over 70 years, this program has been critical to ensuring that schools that serve children connected to Federal lands have the resources to help their students thrive.

Unlike most public schools in America, these schools do not receive funding from property taxes from these Federal assets. This means that without Impact Aid support, because they still have to educate the children attached to those assets, this means that without Impact Aid schools serving the children connected to military bases, affordable housing units, or Native Americans on reservations and many other institutions would be significantly shortchanged, and therefore, unable to offer high-quality education.

The need for this program is now greater than ever as our school communities grapple with a resurgence of COVID-19.

In response, Democrats and Republicans worked together in the last Congress led by, again, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) and the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) to enact the Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act. That bill ensured that during the pandemic schools continued to have access to Impact Aid funding that accurately reflected their student populations, whether or not those students could accurately be counted as physically in those schools because of the complications created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Today, we have the responsibility to, once again, join together in providing schools the support and flexibility they need to serve their students.

The Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act will go a long way toward ensuring that all students in this country, no matter where they go to school, will have access to high-quality education.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney), the sponsor of the House version of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, over the last 2 years, Congress has taken historic steps to help schools recover from the pandemic because we know that every school and every student and every family has felt the tragic effects of COVID-19.

However, we cannot fully achieve that goal if we fail to address the unique challenges facing schools that serve students connected with military bases, affordable housing, Native American reservations, and other Federal properties.

Last Congress, Democrats and Republicans came together and, as a Nation, tackled the first strain of COVID-19. We came together to address these challenges and to provide urgent support for Impact Aid schools.

Now, as we confront a new COVID threat, we must provide the support that federally connected children need under the Federal Impact Aid program. By providing the support and flexibility in this legislation, we will help ensure that Impact Aid schools can keep their teachers and staff on the payroll, purchase textbooks and learning supplies, and keep the lights on in their classrooms. And this bill will help ensure that hundreds of thousands of students have access to a quality education.

Again, I thank the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith) and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Thune), as well as, in the House, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) and

the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) for sponsoring the legislation; and the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens) and the committee ranking member, Ms. Foxx, as well as the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), for their help in advancing this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bipartisan Impact Aid Flexibility Act, S. 2959, which is a companion bill to H. 6126, which I introduced on December 2, 2021. I thank Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Foxx, and her representative this evening, Mr. Owens, of the Education and Labor Committee, and the committee staff for accelerating consideration of this important measure which provides Federal support to 11 million K-12 schoolchildren across America, and whose passage is very time sensitive, which I will explain in a minute.

Mr. Speaker, Federal Impact Aid is our Nation's oldest K-12 Federal education program. Impact Aid has its origins in 1821 when Congress first authorized support for schools to educate military dependent children.

In 1934, Congress passed the Johnson-O'Malley Act, which extended help to school districts located at federally recognized Tribal lands. Congress recognized that, like military school districts, kids residing on Native American Tribal lands, which were not subject to State or local taxation to fund schools, deserved assistance.

In 1950, President Harry Truman signed into law the statutory framework for Impact Aid which still stands today. Impact Aid is an important statement to communities that host children who reside in and are connected to Federal property and facilities, namely, that the Nation will not force them to bear an unfair disproportionate cost to public education.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent a district with two of those host communities, Groton and Ledyard, Connecticut. Groton is the home to our Nation's oldest Navy submarine base with approximately 9,000 sailors and officers who work every day to protect our Nation. Ledyard is the town next door where many personnel live. Groton has over 1,000 Navy kids, and Ledyard has 850. Ledyard is also the site of the Mashantucket Tribal Nation, many of whose children attend Ledyard schools. Impact Aid is critical to these towns' school budgets.

The bill before us addresses an urgent logistical problem with Impact Aid, that, unless we act, will harm military and Tribal districts all across the country, namely, the obstacle created by COVID, to get an accurate headcount of eligible students that must be filed with the U.S. Department of Education by January 31, 12 days from now. And that, again, is the time-sensitive urgency this evening. Military and Tribal districts across the country have reported that COVID restrictions have slowed down the paperwork process, and this hindrance will result in an undercount, and thus, an artificially low Federal reimbursement.

The Impact Aid Flexibility Act will solve this problem in an elegant way by simply carrying over last year's student census, thus ensuring no Impact Aid district will be harmed financially. This is a 1-year fix, the same as the fix the last Congress passed in December 2020, the Impact Aid Coronavirus Relief Act, which I sponsored with my Republican colleague, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota.

Mr. Speaker, this vote is being watched nervously by school officials and military staff all across the Nation, such as Groton school superintendent, Susan Austin, Ledyard superintendent, Jason Hartling, and Miranda Chapman, the Navy School liaison officer at the Groton SUBASE, New London, who have worked with the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, and I salute them and all their colleagues across the country for their work raising this issue before Congress.

The bill before us has already passed the U.S. Senate unanimously and has the support of the Biden administration. It is a bill that keeps the promise to host communities that a high-quality education will not be denied because of military service or Tribal recognition.

I urge the House to pass this bill tonight with an overwhelming vote of confidence and thanks for those who wear the uniform of this country and our Tribal nations and their families.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 2959, the Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act. This bill would allow school districts participating in the Impact Aid program to use previously reported student headcounts on their Impact Aid applications for the 2022-2023 school year.

Impact Aid supplements funding for schools and students in areas that collect less in local property taxes due to the Federal Government's presence. School districts that receive Impact Aid payments include those with military bases, Indian reservations, and Federal low-income housing in or near the school district.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a big toll on school districts and communities across the country. It is especially difficult for federally impacted school districts to calculate headcounts due to fluctuations during the pandemic.

Headcounts determine how much aid more than 1,000 federally impacted school districts receive. That aid helps pay for staff salaries, bussing, technology, and other educational supports and services for students. This bill ensures the Impact Aid recipients will not be affected negatively by the pandemic and temporary falling enrollment that have resulted. This frees up valuable time and resources to help students, while schools maintain a reliable source of funding as they address the academic, social, emotional, and safety needs of the students.

This bill will have no impact on government spending because Impact Aid is a discretionary program, and its funding level is established through the annual appropriations process.

The trade association for Impact Aid school districts, the National Association for Federally Impacted Schools, is strongly supportive of this bill.

This bill is similar to the one signed into law by President Trump on December 4, 2020.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support S. 2959, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

The Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act ensures that students and schools relying on Impact Aid will not be affected negatively by the pandemic.

Specifically, the bill allows schools to use their previously reported headcounts so that services students rely on will continue. This frees up administrators to use their valuable time and resources addressing the educational needs of the students.

Students in over 1,000 federally impacted districts deserve the resources they receive from the Impact Aid program. This aid helps pay for a wide range of services that students rely on from bussing and technology to educational support services.

I encourage my colleagues to support S. 2959, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Fair Adjudications for Immigrants Act. This legislation would ensure that immigrants with criminal convictions do not face barriers to naturalization and experience unfair removals after their convictions have been dismissed, expunged, or pardoned by a Federal or State locality.

What the bill would do. The Fair Adjudications for Immigrants Act is important in ensuring immigrants are not unjustly treated after receiving a criminal charge that never resulted in a conviction or after a previous conviction no longer stands.

Specifically, this bill would ensure that immigrants whose convictions have been overturned are not penalized when they are no longer considered valid in the court of conviction or for sentences that have been fully suspended by the sentencing court.

By redefining the term ``conviction'' in the Immigration and Nationality Act, this legislation also clarifies that any adjudication that is appealable or in which the court has issued a judicial recommendation against removal or probation without judgment will not count as a conviction.

The bill would apply retroactively to any conviction, adjudication, or judgement entered before, on, or after the enactment of this bill. Finally, it establishes that an immigrant cannot be removed on the basis of a conviction if the sentencing court issues a recommendation against removal to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Why the bill is needed. Under current law, rather than having access to many rehabilitative measures that are afforded in the criminal justice system, immigrants with dismissed criminal charges, suspended sentences, or criminal convictions that are no longer considered valid in the court of conviction still face severe consequences in the immigration court system.

Some of the immigration consequences that immigrants can face include unjust removals, mandatory detention, and barriers to naturalization.

It is imperative that we resolve this disparity between immigration and criminal law to prevent those immigrants with dismissed criminal charges or with convictions that are no longer considered valid in the court of conviction from continuing to face punitive immigration consequences.