Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, which I had the privilege of introducing in the House last week, with 27 cosponsors.

Named after the courageous Nobel laureate, Elie Wiesel, this legislation honors the legacy of his life's work to expose evil around the world.

Mr. Wiesel was just 15 years old when the Nazis deported him and his family to Auschwitz. Rising from literal ashes, he became a writer and spent his life defending the persecuted across the globe. He died nearly 1 year ago, but his passion for victims of injustice lives on.

Elie Wiesel believed that from the Holocaust to South Sudan, from Burma to Syria, the world has witnessed far too many genocides and mass atrocity crimes. The true horror is that most of these devastating crises are, indeed, preventable.

My heart aches for those whose lives are being torn apart, and the fact that over 65 million people are currently fleeing preventable crises makes clear that the U.S. Government must improve its response to these conflicts.

Genocide and atrocity crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, include

shocking acts of violence perpetrated by governments and nonstate actors, resulting in the murders of millions of civilians across the globe.

The Elie Wiesel Act establishes that the official policy of the United States is to regard the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes as a core national security interest and moral responsibility. The legislation would establish an interagency mass atrocities task force to strengthen the U.S. Government's prevention and response efforts.

The legislation encourages the Director of National Intelligence to include a review of countries at risk of genocide and mass atrocity crimes in his or her annual report to Congress.

The bill also authorizes training for U.S. Foreign Service Officers on early signs of atrocities and transitional justice measures to ensure that America's diplomats know how to respond to conflict on the ground.

Lastly, the legislation authorizes the Complex Crisis Fund to support programs to prevent emerging or unforeseen crises overseas.

These tools will empower the United States to strengthen protection efforts and protect the innocent.

By supporting civil society, enhancing cooperation among ethnic and religious groups, promoting accountability, and holding murderers accountable, America can promote global stability and fundamental human rights. This time, when America says ``never again,'' our actions will reinforce our platitudes.

Mr. Chairman, I am proud to stand before you today to speak on H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act.

I would like to thank Chairman Hensarling and all my colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee for their hard work on this legislation, including holding 145 hearings on Dodd-Frank and the CHOICE Act.

For nearly 10 years following the financial crisis, our country witnessed one of the weakest recoveries of our lifetimes as Dodd-Frank held small businesses and families hostage and prevented our economy from growing. Now it is harder for families to qualify for a mortgage, obtain an auto loan, and access other forms of credit that they depend on every single day.

The only beneficiaries from Dodd-Frank have been Washington bureaucrats, who have grown more powerful; and big banks have only grown bigger at the expense of your personal freedoms and your freedom to make your own financial decisions. Dodd-Frank has failed the American people.

Instead, the CHOICE Act, which stands for creating hope and opportunity for investors, consumers, and entrepreneurs, represents a better way from this Republican Congress that will provide Americans with the financial opportunities that they deserve. The CHOICE Act is about helping Main Street, not Wall Street, and will increase lending in our communities, open up our economy, end taxpayer-funded bank bailouts, and hold Wall Street and Washington accountable.

It will allow us to impose the toughest penalties on Wall Street executives who engage in fraud, deception, and self-dealing. Unlike before, executives who commit financial crimes will be held accountable, rather than innocent taxpayers and shareholders.

Americans deserve relief from the regulatory burden and lack of financial options that Dodd-Frank has created. Americans deserve the ``Right'' CHOICE Act.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 10.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand before you today to speak on the rule and in support of H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, which represents years of hard work by our chairman, Jeb Hensarling, and the entire Financial Services Committee.

For nearly 8 years, Dodd-Frank has targeted Main Street pocketbooks and stripped families of real opportunities for financial success and independence. For instance, the CFPB has spent years removing choices and making access to financial products more difficult to obtain. Under these regulations, it is now harder for families to qualify for a mortgage, to obtain an auto loan, and to access other forms of credit that they have depended on every day of their lives. Meanwhile, the CFPB fails to monitor and prevent actual and real instances of consumer fraud like we saw with the opening of millions of unauthorized customers' accounts at Wells Fargo.

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of chairing the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on Financial Services, and today--today--we released a report titled, ``Was the Cop on the Beat?'' This is regarding the CFPB's wholly inadequate role in investigating the Wells Fargo fraudulent account scandal.

We have received numerous records from both Wells Fargo and the OCC and others that indicate that the CFPB was asleep at the wheel when it came to investigating Wells Fargo. Unfortunately, the CFPB has produced no such documents, even under subpoena, that contradict this assertion and support the testimony of Director Cordray in front of this committee earlier in the year. This report highlights the need for reforms to the CFPB that are contained in the CHOICE Act.

Mr. Speaker, we need to bring accountability and transparency to a Bureau that has been thwarting congressional oversight and due process.

Additionally, the CHOICE Act will increase lending in our communities, open up our economy, end taxpayer-funded bailouts, and hold Wall Street and Washington accountable. Americans today deserve the ``Right'' CHOICE Act.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much for the opportunity to co-lead this Special Order with my dear colleague, Congressman Ted Poe, for Human Trafficking Awareness Week.

I was thrilled, Mr. Speaker, that yesterday the House passed my legislation, the Put Trafficking Victims First Act. Together, we can get victims of trafficking out of dangerous and abusive situations and create better, more accessible trauma-informed services. Victims don't just need to be rescued. They need opportunities to rebuild and sort through trauma and to live well.

My bill advances a survivor-centered approach to addressing human trafficking that ensures the safety, confidentiality, and the well- being of victims. It encourages stakeholders to recognize symptoms of trauma and coping mechanisms that may impact victims' interactions with law enforcement, the justice system, and service providers.

One of the key ways we can address the upsetting realities of human trafficking in the U.S. justice system is by giving victims a pathway to vacate and expunge their criminal records for offenses that they were forced to commit. I have met with many survivors in my home State of Missouri and across our great country who struggle to rebuild their lives because they are trailed by criminal records. Traffickers and pimps intentionally push victims to commit crimes as a means of control.

My heart breaks for these women who have suffered horrendous abuse and bear the mark of a record on top of it. Criminal records make it difficult for survivors to get jobs, medical care, education, and even housing assistance. These records haunt survivors and can even lead to revictimization.

Mr. Speaker, if we are serious about giving survivors of trafficking a second chance, we must enact serious, foolproof vacatur laws that erase the collateral consequences of treating trafficking victims like criminals. This is why I introduced, along with the support of many of my colleagues, the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act. This bill would give victims of trafficking relief from Federal or D.C. criminal convictions or arrests.

We know well that Federal courts are not--and I underscore ``not''-- infallible, and that many victims are trafficked within the District. These women don't deserve criminal records. They deserve restitution, civil damages, and the empowerment to walk with their heads held high.

I am adamant that these women get a second chance at life, that they find housing, therapy, jobs, new friends, and new chances. I am adamant that the United States of America will no longer punish people for trauma that most of us cannot even imagine. I am adamant that the United States Congress will have the moral aptitude to enact the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act. I am adamant that not one more victim of trafficking will be mistreated in our criminal justice system. Mr. Speaker, I am adamant that we pass this bill into law.

Well, I will tell the gentleman that the legislation that he and I have worked on for a number of years and that he has spent the better part of a lifetime as a judge and as a legislator on is saving lives; but, sadly, my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, would be ranked in the top 20 counties or cities in the Nation for human trafficking. So the problem is prevalent. It exists still.

What breaks my heart most of all are those children who have been victimized, whether it is by online predators or other means, those who are the most vulnerable in our society. We have been able to work with many of the safe houses, with our prosecutors, with our law enforcement, with our advocacy groups.

As Congressman Poe and I both know, we can't always legislate all the ills of society away. What I appreciate about the work that we do is not only passing laws and legislation to help those victims, but also the education and awareness that is so very important. So anything that we can do to lift those advocates up, to bring a spotlight to this modern-day slavery is so very important.

I commend the gentleman from Texas for his work and for the Special Order here tonight. I look forward to a day when this heinous crime, this modern-day slavery no longer exists in the United States of America.

I thank the gentleman. I would say, Mr. Speaker, that these online predators are the bane of our existence. It is a dark underbelly of the human trafficking and sex slavery trade that is out there, and it is absolutely unconscionable that crimes can be committed online that would not be allowed to be committed offline. We are going to go to the heart of the Communications Decency Act with my next piece of legislation that so many attorneys general and States and prosecutors and law enforcement and advocacy groups are begging for Congress to act to make sure that there is clarity so that States and the Federal Government can prosecute, and to make sure that we make the changes that are necessary in a very specific and narrow way to make sure that those online predators are not victimizing the children, women, and young boys of our land.

I look forward to working with the gentleman and my colleagues on much more work in this arena.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) for his leadership on this area of human trafficking, along with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass), my good friend, for all of her support on this human trafficking issue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present the Put Trafficking Victims First Act to the House of Representatives. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to address the concerns of victims of human trafficking across our country.

Too often, victims of trafficking are overlooked and underserved. This must stop. America needs to afford trafficking victims the same justice, protections, and dignity that other victims of crime receive.

In my home State of Missouri, I have met with countless survivors, along with survivors across this country, and I have listened to their painful stories. They need help to rebuild their lives, and that is exactly what my bill will do.

One important place to start is in the courtroom, where we need victim-centered practices oriented toward justice and recovery. For example, victims technically have access to mandatory restitution in Federal courts, but the sad reality is that, according to one estimate, sex trafficking victims get restitution in only 14 percent of Federal sex trafficking cases. This, Mr. Speaker, is unacceptable. My bill will direct the Attorney General to make mandatory restitution mandatory and implement victim-friendly procedures in Federal criminal cases.

Another big problem is that we just don't have good data on how to identify and rescue victims and put them on a path toward success. We don't really know where to find victims, what portions may be coming from foster care, or what their age, ethnicity, or other characteristics are. We can't help them if we can't find them. So we desperately need good data and reporting in order to improve victim outreach.

To answer this need, my bill establishes a national working group to develop robust methodologies to determine the prevalence and trends of tracking and evaluating how to best identify victims and address their needs. My bill will establish a national survey of survivors so we can better understand how victims are accessing help.

Yet another problem is that we are failing to provide trauma-informed care to victims, care that would help victims recover and cooperate with criminal investigations so we can put pimps and buyers behind bars. Lack of help for victims in the justice system can lead to revictimization, or even result in victims being criminalized for offenses they were forced to commit.

That is why we will train agencies, law enforcement, and prosecutors across the country to implement victim-centered approaches to investigating and preventing trafficking. We encourage law enforcement and prosecutors to make every attempt to determine whether an individual's participation in trafficking is, in fact, free from fraud, force, or coercion before arresting or charging them.

Finally, victims of trafficking are mostly served at the State level, so it is critical that States improve how they respond to victims. My bill encourages States to improve outreach, screen children entering child welfare services and the justice system, screen foreign nationals who may be labor trafficked, create safe harbor laws, and develop emergency response plans.

Mr. Speaker, together we can get victims of trafficking out of dangerous and abusive situations and create better, more accessible trauma-informed services. I urge my colleagues to put trafficking victims first and to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Alabama for yielding, my good friend, Martha Roby, who has been such a leader on this issue. It has been my great privilege to be a sponsor of the Working Families Flexibility Act in the 113th Congress, in the 114th Congress, and now again in the 115th Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017, which will remove a Federal restriction on private sector employees who would like the option of comp time compensation in lieu of cash for their overtime work, the same as public sector employees. Mr. Speaker, we are talking about a voluntary choice made by employees for cash overtime or for comp time.

The last thing our Federal Government should be doing is dictating how our small-business employees and entrepreneur compensation operates. Mr. Speaker, in November, Missourians and many Americans spoke loud and clear: it is time to get government out of the pocketbooks and off of the backs of hardworking Americans.

Americans are also desperate for job flexibility. I know I was also as a working mom when I worked at Ralston Purina in St. Louis, Missouri. They want to have a better balance of obligations of their day-to-day jobs while taking care of family and family matters.

The Working Families Flexibility Act will help us do just that. For the past 30 years, public sector employees have enjoyed the benefit of choosing voluntary paid time off, or comp time, instead of cash wages as compensation for working overtime hours. Private sector workers, who make up an incredibly large portion of our economy, should also reap this benefit. It is simply common sense.

Amending this overtime restriction through this legislation will help bring our workforce standards into the 21st century and allow our workers to do their jobs while still providing them with the voluntary flexibility to raise a family, pursue a college degree, care for aging parents, or tend to the day-to-day obligations that come their way.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Working Families Flexibility Act, as it safeguards workers' time and wages, and protects their use of the comp time they have earned. Most importantly, as we work each day to get our economy back on track, this legislation empowers the American worker with more options and flexibility that will ultimately lead to a better quality of life.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure. And I must say, since we do have time, that her being a champion of this in the last three Congresses that I have had the pleasure of working--and my constituents in Missouri's Second District have sent me--it is wonderful to see a working mom like her, who is juggling all of those day-to-day needs, to stand up for private sector workers who deserve the same kinds of options and flexibility that our public service has enjoyed for some 30 years. So I thank her for being a

champion in this way. She is a wonderful legislator and a wonderful mother, too.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of life and in respect for the conscience rights of all citizens of this free Nation.

I was proud to preside over the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives a few short weeks ago as we voted in favor of No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act to strike down an Obama administration policy that forces Americans to fund abortion providers.

We also passed H.J. Res. 43, which is another step closer to restoring the rights of States to decide how to distribute title X funding for women's health care. The measures ensure that States are not forced to fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

Based on its own annual report, Planned Parenthood performs the most abortions in the United States. It commits more than 320,000 abortions every year, 887 each day. Mr. Speaker, that is one abortion every 97 seconds. Three unborn children's lives will be taken by Planned Parenthood as I stand here this morning.

Recently, Planned Parenthood has begun attacking me as a supposed enemy of women's health care. Nothing could be further from the truth. All Missourians deserve quality health care, which is one reason I oppose taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. This organization does not provide general women's health or mammogram screenings. That is a fallacy.

In the State of Missouri, there are 12 Planned Parenthood facilities scattered across our 114 counties. However, Mr. Speaker, we are grateful to have 588 healthcare clinics that prioritize women's health and wellness. That is 49 healthcare clinics for every 1 Planned Parenthood health center. So instead of driving 100 miles or more to a Planned Parenthood in Missouri, women can receive the quality care they need within their own communities.

Last Congress, I voted to increase funding to those very clinics by hundreds of millions of dollars. Congress has a sincere duty to not only defund big abortion but to radically change the conversation around life issues.

Members of Congress and this administration understand that life is beautiful, that children are a blessing, that abortion is not healthcare. It kills children, and it hurts women.

Rest assured that our work to protect life, all life, has only just begun.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 209.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I missed the second vote series as I was accompanying constituents Elizabeth Snyder and Justin Sparks to the White House where they met Vice President Mike Pence and discussed the tragic murder of Elizabeth's husband, St. Louis County Police Officer Blake Snyder.

Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 105, NAY on Roll Call No. 106, NAY on Roll Call No. 107, and NAY on Roll Call No. 108.

I thank Chairman Hensarling for the time.

I thank my colleague, Mr. Huizenga, the chair of the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee, for his leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to cosponsor the SEC disclosure rule for resource extraction, which is an important tool for Congress to use in disapproving excessive red tape brought by Washington bureaucrats.

The previous administration placed crushing regulatory burdens on the American people. In 2015 alone, Federal regulations cost almost $1.9 trillion--nearly $15,000 per American family. This particular SEC regulation, which was issued by the Obama administration, regarding resource extraction disclosures will make it more expensive for our public companies that are involved with energy production to be competitive overseas with foreign state-owned companies.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support this resolution of disapproval. The SEC has estimated that ongoing compliance costs for this rule could reach as high as $591 million annually and fully admit that it has the potential to divert capital away from other productive opportunities, like growing a business and creating jobs.

Securities law should not be used to advance foreign policy objectives, particularly when the compliance cost of implementing those objectives is so expensive--with no added benefit of investor protection.

While this rule had already been vacated before the U.S. District Court of D.C. in 2013, I am happy that, through this resolution of disapproval, Congress--we the people--can now weigh in as well on this harmful rule. I urge the passage of this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from Tennessee, Diane Black, for her wonderful leadership on this issue along with Congressman Smith, also, for his wonderful leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my support for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. The Hyde amendment has received bipartisan support for 40 years because it is a testimony to the freedom of conscience for all Americans and the dignity of the unborn.

I am heartbroken that opposition to the amendment has become a political gimmick. All human beings--the born, the unborn, the young, the old, the sick, and the healthy--are entitled to a government that promotes their dignity, their conscience, and their gift of life.

This bill spells out Congress' commitment to all people--including children--across our Nation that the profits of Big Abortion should not be pilfered off the hard work of the American citizen. No tax dollar should be spent on the destruction of human life.

In passing this bill and making the Hyde language permanent, we affirm that protecting children and mothers is our most precious duty as Members of Congress. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for life.

Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Hensarling, the gentleman from Texas, for his leadership on this issue and on so many regulatory reform issues that we will be addressing this week and in the future.

Mr. Chair, I am proud to sponsor and bring to the floor H.R. 78, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act. This legislation fits perfectly with the theme of the week here in the House to advance key regulatory reform ideas as a change of pace from the outgoing administration.

For the past 8 years, the amount of regulatory burden that has been placed on Americans and small businesses has been crushing. In 2015, Federal regulation cost almost $1.9 trillion. That is nearly $15,000 per household in a hidden compliance tax.

The Obama administration issued over 600 economically significant rules, which are those that have an economic impact of over $100 million. As a result of this wave of regulations, we have been part of the slowest economic recovery in our lifetimes.

We now have an opportunity to enact policy that ensures smart regulation going forward so that we are doing things in the best and most efficient way. The people have spoken, Mr. Chair. Business as usual in Washington is over and it is time to do things differently. There is, indeed, a better way.

This legislation is really about what everyday Americans do when they are making major life decisions in weighing the costs and the benefits, the pros and the cons. Whether it is buying a car, buying a home, deciding whether to take out a loan to go to school, everyone must consider the core economic factors when making important life decisions.

The SEC Regulatory Accountability Act places statutory requirements on the SEC when issuing rulemaking that ensures that, first, they identify the problem that regulation is trying to address; second, they weigh the cost and benefits to ensure that the benefits justify costs of compliance; and thirdly, they identify and assess whether there are any available alternatives to rulemaking.

Additionally, this bill contains a provision that requires the SEC to review its existing regulations every 5 years, at the minimum, to determine whether any such regulations are outdated, ineffective, or excessively burdensome, as well as requiring the SEC to modify, streamline, repeal, or even to expand regulations based on that review.

As a regulator of our capital markets, the SEC has an immeasurable influence on our economy and the ability of small business and entrepreneurs to be able to access capital in order to innovate, grow, and most of all, create jobs.

I strongly believe that this legislation is nonpartisan and common sense and what our government regulators should have been doing in the first place. The American people deserve a break from the irresponsible regulation they have grown accustom to over the past 8 years. There is a better way.

I ask my colleagues to support this commonsense piece of legislation and urge passage of it through the House.

New Hampshire: John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman.

Massachusetts: Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King.

Connecticut: William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman.

New York: Alexander Hamilton.

New Jersey: William Livingston, David Brearley, William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton.

Pennsylvania: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas FitzSimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris.

Amendment I:

``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.''

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to express my extreme disappointment in the Obama administration's betrayal of Israel. The administration's destructive decision to undercut Israel has given leverage to anti-Israel boycotters and anti-Semites across the world.

This act screamed of personal vengeance and hostility, directly harmed American interests, and undermined peace in the Middle East. It was a cowardly and foolish parting shot for an administration that flagrantly ignores serious global challenges--Syria, Aleppo, ISIS, Iran, China, Russia, and the list goes on.

By abstaining from the vote to censure Israel, President Obama vetoed the U.S.-Israel alliance and violated the faith of the American people. I look forward to a new day, to a new administration that will support Israel and refuse to abandon our allies on the world stage.

Mr. Speaker, for the past 8 years, President Barack Obama has used his pen and phone to create a fourth branch of government that overreaches through executive orders and Federal rules and regulations. But today is a new day--a day when this Congress begins to dismantle this fourth branch of government and drain the swamp in Washington.

Through the entirety of this President's administration, Republicans have fought against out-of-control growth of Federal bureaucracy and rules and regulations that have suffocated the American economy. The last time I checked, the President's job was to enforce existing laws and work with the elected Members of Congress whose responsibility it is to pass laws as the people's representatives. Instead, I believe he has undermined not only our Constitution but also the American people through this executive power grab.

It is time to get rid of the Washington-knows-best, top-down, one- size-fits-all rules like the EPA's waters of the U.S., the Clean Power Plan, the Department of Labor's overtime rule and restrictions on your retirement savings. These regulations have consequences, and what these bureaucrats do have, consequences. In 2015 alone, the Federal Government leveled 3,400 regulations on Americans. Those regulations cost us $1.9 trillion in lost productivity and growth--a cost of $15,000 per American household.

Now, for the first time during my tenure serving the Second Congressional District of Missouri, Congress has a unique opportunity. This week we will pass a bill that I have had the pleasure of cosponsoring and voted for twice before--the REINS Act, and I expect it to become law. The REINS Act puts power back in the hands of the people as Congress--the people's House--can implement an up-or-down vote on any new major rule before they can take effect. Congress should decide what rules are necessary for our constituents--not unelected bureaucrats.

We will also pass this week the Midnight Rules Relief Act which will allow Congress to stop the Obama administration's last minute regulations from taking effect as they turn out the lights and head out the door.

The American people spoke loud and clear: They want results. They are tired of working harder for less money and tired of wondering how they will make ends meet at the end of every month. They have had enough and are tired of the constant chipping away of their freedoms.

Taken together, these two bills clearly demonstrate that this Republican Congress is unified and will work with President-elect Trump to help alleviate the day-to-day burdens felt by Americans across the country. By passing these bills, we are demonstrating that we are listening to our constituents and we are telling them that their elected representatives are in charge, not Washington bureaucrats.