Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Representative Salazar's House resolution denouncing the horrors of socialism.

I grew up in a home where the American ideals of personal freedom and limited government were cherished. My mother, Lala Suarez, grew up on a sugarcane farm in Cuba, where she was one of 14 brothers and sisters.

When Castro took control of Cuba by force, her entire world was destroyed. My mother was imprisoned by Fidel Castro for 7 weeks. Thankfully, they never found the gun she had hidden or they would have executed her and her friends. She fled communism to enjoy freedom and opportunity in America.

Today, over 60 years later, socialist policies have kept Cuba in economic ruin.

She met my father, Vincent Mooney, and became a proud American citizen. My father was a captain in the United States Army who served in Vietnam to stop the advance of communism.

Growing up, my parents impressed upon me and my three siblings that America is special. Unlike economically failing socialist countries, Americans' personal liberty is enshrined in our Constitution and must always be protected.

All citizens deserve basic freedoms, such as freedom of press; freedom of speech; the right to vote; the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, where in communist countries you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent; and the right to worship.

As President Donald Trump said right here in this Chamber in his State of the Union speech: ``America will never be a socialist country.''

America must never give up on our God-given rights. We must fight against socialism and for the American Dream.

Mr. Speaker, when the government takes away your rights and freedoms, as the socialist and communist countries want to do, they never give them back.

Every American should feel blessed to have been born in this country where we are free. Let's protect our freedoms.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, the House resoundingly passed my bipartisan bill, the Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act.

Rural small businesses face unique challenges that big city businesses do not. Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, yet businesses in rural areas raised under 2 percent of total capital over the last 3 years.

My home State of West Virginia is a very rural State where no city has a population greater than 50,000 people. My legislation simply requires the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to identify and report to Congress those challenges rural small businesses face when trying to access our capital markets.

My bill will make it easier for Congress to do our jobs to make sure rural small businesses, like those in West Virginia, are not left behind.

Mr. Speaker, I hope the Senate takes this bill up very soon.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the incredible volunteer work of my constituent, Ed Hannon, of Charles Town, West Virginia.

Ed began volunteering for fire and rescue services in 1978 at the age of 16. Ed took a job as a paid first responder in Arlington, Virginia, in 1983 but continued to give his time volunteering.

When he moved to Jefferson County in 1993, he joined the Citizens Fire Company. Jefferson County has no paid fire and EMS personnel, so they rely on dedicated volunteers like Ed to provide these critical services.

Ed ran his final calls on December 31, completing 44 years of dedicated volunteer service. I wish Ed well in retirement and thank him for his service to the citizens of Jefferson County.

Mr. Speaker, today, the Sun will set in Washington, D.C., at 4:47 p.m. Washington is known as a partisan place and labeled the capital of gridlock. However, there is one issue most Members of Congress agree on: Making daylight savings time permanent.

Earlier this year, Senator Marco Rubio introduced this legislation to help boost economic activity and improve physical and mental health. The bill passed the U.S. Senate unanimously.

My colleague, Vern Buchanan from Florida, introduced companion legislation in this Chamber that also has strong bipartisan support. Unfortunately, however, it has never been reported out of committee.

Today, I initiated a discharge petition to bring this legislation up for immediate consideration. In the last 5 years, 19 States have enacted similar legislation. The time to make daylight savings time permanent is now.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to sign this discharge petition and never reset your clocks again.

Mr. Speaker, the United States is facing an inflation and debt crisis not seen in over 40 years. West Virginians have seen the value of their savings erode before their very eyes because of reckless tax-and-spend policies.

We know who is responsible for the current inflation crisis, but what in our country's history has allowed us to get to this point? The answer can actually be traced back to 1971, when President Nixon took the United States off the gold standard.

The gold standard means tying the dollar directly to the value of gold. Under the gold standard, any American would be able to trade their dollars for a fixed amount of gold. By linking the dollar to the value of gold, the money supply could only be increased if the supply of gold increases. This connects and protects the purchasing power of your dollars.

That is why I introduced legislation to return the United States to the gold standard. Had we been on the gold standard or some other fixed standard, we would not be in the inflation crisis we are in today. I look forward to working with the Republican majority to make sure this issue gets attention.

Mr. Speaker, as a competitive college rugby player at Dartmouth College, I picked up a love for the game of rugby. I continue to enjoy watching the sport as a Member of the U.S. Congress. I proudly serve as the co-chair of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, and I am honored to be an advocate for the Rugby World Cup. I am thrilled to rise today to celebrate that the United States has been named the host site of both the 2031 Men's Rugby World Cup and the 2033 Women's Rugby World Cup, a monumental accomplishment that brings the third largest sporting event in the world to our shores.

Earlier this year, my caucus co-chair, Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, and I introduced a bipartisan concurrent resolution to recognize and support the efforts of USA Rugby and its partners to bring upcoming Rugby World Cup tournaments to the United States. Rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States with more than 100,000 USA Rugby members playing in over 2,500 clubs nationwide.

The United States possesses all the necessary state-of-the-art infrastructure in its stadiums and potential host cities to ensure that the tournaments set a new standard of quality, comfort, security, and safety for players, fans, and sponsors. The eventual location of U.S.- based Rugby World Cup events will be chosen from a group of over one dozen cities in the United States.

Rugby is about so much more than the tailgaiting and tackling. At its core, rugby teaches comradery, resilience, and respect for the opposition. It is also a sport with a massive international reach. With rugby boasting 405 million fans across the globe, the Men's Rugby World Cup has become among the most popular sporting events in the world. I congratulate all the hardworking individuals at USA Rugby who have spent a huge amount of time and effort on the lengthy and involved bid process. I would also like to recognize the efforts and vision of the leadership from World Rugby and the World Rugby Council.

This moment marks a pivotal turning point for the sport of rugby in the United States and around the world. This will be the first time a Men's Rugby World Cup has been held in North or South America. A new hosting concept has been put in place as the United States stages consecutive men's and women's events within the same organizational structure.

A projected 4.1 million fans will attend both the men's and women's Rugby World Cup events in the United States. Recent Rugby World Cup tournaments have brought more than 242,000 international fans from around the world into the host countries and seen more than 1.7 million spectators flock to the stadiums, generating significant revenue at the local and national level.

USA and World Rugby will now lead a multi-year effort to build anticipation for 2031 and 2033 while developing infrastructure to guarantee successful tournaments. Additionally, USA Rugby will use the next decade to drive significant investment in the game at the youth level, increase access to and diversity in rugby, take rugby to the next level at the high school and college levels, and grow USA Rugby membership to 450,000 members.

Bringing this event home is great news for our country and for the future of the great sport of rugby in our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to share the story of an American patriot from Charles Town, West Virginia, which is where I live.

Corporal Frank Buckles lived to be 110 years old. He died in 2011 and was America's last known World War I veteran. Buckles had enlisted in the Army by giving his age as 18 rather than his actual age of 16. He drove an Army ambulance in France in 1918 and came to symbolize a generation of embattled young Americans as the last of the World War I doughboys.

Buckles later spent 3 years as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II after being captured in the Pacific while serving as a U.S. contractor.

Buckles lived on a 330-acre West Virginia cattle farm, where he drove a tractor until 102 years old. I am honored to introduce legislation to designate the United States Postal Service located in Charles Town, West Virginia, as the ``Corporal Frank Buckles Post Office.'' He was a true patriot and is most deserving of this honor in the town he called home for 50 years.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, one of the latest partisan games being pushed by the radical left is the call for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from certain cases or face impeachment.

These demands stem from an email and other digital private communications of Justice Thomas' wife to and from government officials at the time.

If it becomes the standard that an elected official or a judge or a commissioner or other government appointees can be attacked because of the views and political actions of a spouse, then everyone is fair game.

How many members of the Democratic Caucus would like to be held accountable for the politics or actions of their spouse? How many governors, State legislators, or judges at any level would be able to withstand an assault based on the beliefs of their husband or wife? No good will come of this effort.

There are those who argue that the radical left wants such a toxic environment. The feeling is that those who

wish to radically transform America know that they are facing a harsh verdict from the American people come this November. These activist partisans are willing to literally throw our country into a frenzy of hate, suspicion, and personal vendetta in order to divert attention from the failure of their policies.

I pray that the members of the Democratic Caucus making these extremist demands are ignored and that statesmen can take the lead. But if, once again, the Democrat leadership is so beholden to the extremist fringe that they send us into such a fight, you will not succeed.

I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, I stand before you to share a story of West Virginia's Second Congressional District's own hometown hero, Tyler Baldwin.

Tyler Baldwin is a 17-year-old young man from Newville, West Virginia, who risked his own life to rush into his neighbor's burning home.

On the morning of November 29, 2021, Tyler was going through his daily routine of getting ready for school, and he noticed his neighbor's house was on fire.

He knew his neighbor had mobility issues. Without hesitation, Tyler sprinted into the blaze and smoke and helped his neighbor escape. Tyler was treated for minor injuries, and the homeowner was shaken up but okay.

It is an honor for my staff and me to present Tyler with a formal letter of gratitude and a Congressional Certificate of Recognition at a ceremony put together by his school. I want to thank him for selflessly putting others first and congratulate him on being an upstanding citizen in his community.

Mr. Speaker, soon the Supreme Court will rule on the challenge to the Texas abortion law case. The law implements the Nation's toughest restrictions on abortions.

Signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in May, it prohibits abortion after a heartbeat is detected in the unborn child. This usually occurs around 6 weeks. The law makes exceptions for medical emergencies.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing challenges to this bill by pro- abortion groups that want the law overturned. The upcoming ruling will be closely watched as an indicator as to whether the Federal courts will uphold future States' rights to implement pro-life legislation rather than continuing to overreach their Federal court authority.

Unborn babies are human lives. All too often, abortion is referred to as simply a medical procedure, and the sanctity of life is devalued.

At 6 weeks, an unborn child has a heartbeat of approximately 98 beats per minute. Blood vessels begin to form in the circulatory system, and the brain is rapidly developing. This is a human life.

By 10 weeks, an unborn baby has arms and legs, fingers and toes. The baby's pain receptors have been developing for weeks. This is a human life.

By 15 weeks, all the unborn baby's major organs have formed, and the baby has a fully developed heart that pumps 26 quarts of blood per day. The baby can feel pain.

All too often, these facts are overlooked and sidelined and not even addressed in the issue of abortion.

It is my hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will see the merits as to why the State of Texas heartbeat bill was implemented. According to CDC statistics, 619,591 babies were aborted in the United States in 2018. That is 619,591 lives that could have been the next teacher, firefighter, parent, or President of the United States. Upholding the heartbeat bill would save the lives of countless unborn babies, both male and female.

Here in Congress, I continue to be the protector of life and champion for the Hyde amendment in Federal legislation. Taxpayer money should not be used to end the lives of innocent, defenseless babies with beating hearts.

The right to life is our most fundamental, natural, and God-given right. I will continue to fight to oppose pro-abortion plans to force taxpayer funding for abortion. Your taxpayer dollars should never be used to be funding abortion on demand.

Mr. Speaker, I believe in the sanctity of life, and I will continue to fight for the rights of preborn babies.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Craig Brandenburg, a true public servant, on his retirement following five decades within the federal government.

The majority of Craig's career was spent as a civilian employee within the United States Navy. Most recently he has served as the Director of Business Operations for Logistics, Maintenance, and Industrial Operations at Naval Sea Systems Command. In this capacity he has been responsible for policy development, mission direction, program execution, operation and evaluation of naval ship life cycle logistics, information systems, and corporate leadership of the Naval Shipyards, and Supervisors of Shipbuilding. You could say he has come a long way from his beginnings with the federal government as a typist with the National Archives in the 1970s.

Throughout his long career, Craig has championed cutting-edge ideas, coordinated Navy-wide support of sailor's and their family's needs, and overseen a variety of efforts to include billion dollar programs. Thanks to his

strategic leveraging of IT solutions, the warfighter can now reach out and touch the shore-based infrastructure anytime any day. In fact, we have Craig to thank for many new and groundbreaking developments within the United States Navy.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Navy, Craig has received the Chief Information Officer eBusiness Government Award, the Civilian Meritorious Achievement Medal, the National Partnership for Reinventing Government Vice President Hammer Award, the CNO's VADM Stanley Arthur Logistics Excellence Award, and the American Society of Naval Engineers Clifford G. Geiger Award recognizing his 25 years of significant career contributions to logistics readiness of the Naval services.

Craig managed many large programs throughout his impressive career, but his true passion was for leading those who worked for him. He has touched many programs and many people, and I know he will be missed by them all. I thank Craig for his contributions to this country and congratulations on his retirement. We know that his family and his children Lauren and Connor are proud of his accomplishments.

Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the Congressional Rugby Caucus, along with D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, I am very excited to see the legendary New Zealand All Blacks take the pitch against the U.S.A. men's national rugby team when they face off this Saturday, October 23. We hope to pack FedExField here in the D.C. area.

The All Blacks of New Zealand are the world's most famous rugby club. They strike fear in their opponents with their world-famous traditional pregame war dance, called the haka.

As a bonus, the Army Black Knights will face off against the U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen in the curtain-raiser match.

Men's and women's rugby are fast-growing sports in America and give us all a chance to put partisan politics aside. That is why bringing an international event of this magnitude to the D.C. area is a tremendous accomplishment for U.S.A. Rugby, Events D.C., and Left Field Live. The match is an important barometer of the United States' ability to host future world-class events, including the Rugby World Cup.

Please support the game of rugby by joining me this Saturday, October 23, here in D.C. at FedExField.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the topic of the recent protests in Cuba, where individuals there are simply asking for freedom and liberty.

My mother is one of 14 children. Her maiden name is Suarez, Eulalia Maria Suarez. She came from Cuba at 20 years old in 1961. My mother and my father raised me to defend freedom, freedom of speech. My father fought in Vietnam against the communist advance there.

What we in America sometimes don't realize is, many other countries, especially communist countries that are tyrannical like Cuba, do not enjoy the basic human rights that we enjoy in this country and many other people in the world enjoy.

Those rights, such as free speech and uncensored internet access, they don't have that in Cuba. Freedom of the press, freedom to protest, freedom to criticize your government, the right to vote in an actual election with more than one candidate who doesn't get 100 percent of the vote, they don't have those rights in Cuba.

What they have is a tyrannical, evil regime that oppresses their people every day. They arrest demonstrators. We saw brave men and women in Cuba for the first time since 1994, almost 30 years, thousands of brave men and women, people in Cuba, protesting against their government, asking for freedoms, asking for basic rights like the ones I just mentioned that they don't have.

What did they do? They all got arrested. They put them in jail. They say it is for a year. When that year goes by, when the regime in Cuba hopes nobody else is looking, they are going to make it 5 years. And they abuse them in jail. That is what happens to protesters in these types of countries.

Now, look, I want to say that I actually agree with Joe Biden on this, on what he said. Joe Biden said, on July 12, this year, and I am going to quote him: ``We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba's authoritarian regime. The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights.''

President Biden continues: ``Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.''

Look, President Biden and, unfortunately not all, but many, Democrats and Republicans agree on this issue, but we need aggressive solutions to the issue.

If the United States of America does not lead, no one else will. They are looking to us for leadership. They are looking to President Biden for leadership. They are looking to Congress for leadership. We need every freedom-loving country to condemn this evil, tyrannical regime and their constant abuses of their people.

America and other countries should not do business with this Communist regime. As Biden himself said, they will only ``enrich themselves,'' and that is what they do. Instead, we should use every pressure point we can to defend freedom and the basic rights for the Cuban people.

This is a heartfelt issue for many. We enjoy these freedoms, and sometimes we forget how tough it is and how much support people need in struggling countries like Cuba. Right now is the time to show strong support for the people of Cuba and for their basic human rights.

Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 181.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss our most fundamental God-given right, our right to life.

Enshrined in our Declaration of Independence is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our government should reflect this commitment to life, but the continued practice of abortion-on-demand across the country runs contrary to this commitment. Abortion deprives innocent, defenseless, unborn babies of their right to life.

Thankfully, there are certain legal protections, like the Hyde amendment, in place to safeguard hardworking Americans' tax dollars and save lives. The Hyde amendment simply prevents the taxpayer funding of abortions. Since 1976, the Hyde amendment has saved 2.5 million lives.

According to a Marist poll taken this year, the vast majority of Republicans and Independents, and nearly a third of Democrats, believe that tax dollars should not be used to pay for abortions.

Since 1976, Republican and Democrat Members of Congress have found agreement in keeping the Hyde amendment. President Biden himself publicly supported the Hyde amendment for decades. In a 1977 letter to constituents, which I have right here, Senator Biden wrote that voting to support the Hyde amendment ``is the position which I have consistently supported.''

He goes on to say: ``The Senate, however, passed a broader definition of the circumstances under which Medicaid funds could be used to pay for an abortion. I did not support this version.'' Those are Senator Biden's words.

Furthermore, in 1994, in another letter to a constituent at the time, Senator Biden upheld his support of Hyde protections, saying: ``Those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.''

But today, President Biden has kowtowed to the radical left and has removed Hyde protections from his budget proposal. President Biden is turning his back on innocent life in their mother's womb.

The Hyde amendment has saved millions of lives and has stopped Americans who are morally opposed to abortion from being forced to pay for it.

I call on President Biden to return to his previous position, which opposed the taxpayer funding of abortion, abide by the teaching of his own self-professed Catholic faith, and follow the lead of his predecessors from both sides of the aisle who preserved the Hyde amendment in their Presidential budget proposals.