Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a highly respected Silicon Valley leader, a friend and a constituent, Brad D. Smith, on his retirement as President and Chief Executive Officer of Intuit, Inc. During his 11 years at the helm of the company, Brad's exceptional leadership doubled Intuit's customer base and tripled the company's earnings. His commitment to Intuit's employees and workplace culture has made Intuit one of the best companies to work for in America according to Fortune.

Brad D. Smith was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on April 6, 1954, and grew up in the nearby town of Kenova, a community of 3,500 that Brad credits with teaching him integrity, humility, and teamwork during his formative years. He graduated from Ceredo-Kenova High School and was accepted by and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. He ultimately decided to return to West Virginia and enroll at Marshall University where he graduated in 1986 with a degree in Business Administration.

Brad has been a very generous benefactor of Marshall University over the years, and in November, 2018, Brad and his wife, Alys

Smith, made a $25 million gift to the University's Lewis College of Business. Brad and Alys also established the Brad and Alys Smith Family Scholarship at Marshall University for West Virginia and Ohio students, with a preference for first-generation college students.

Brad joined Intuit in 2003 as Vice President and General Manager of Intuit's Accountant Central and Developer Network in Plano, Texas. Intuit is headquartered in Mountain View in California's 18th Congressional District and is the highly successful maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and related tax preparation and accounting software. Over the next five years, Brad held a number of executive positions and headed each major division of Intuit before being named President and Chief Executive Officer in 2008. While serving as Intuit's CEO and President, the company grew to 9,000 employees worldwide, its revenue doubled, and its stock rose from $31 in January 2006, to $205 as of December 2018. In January 2016, Brad cemented his legacy with the company when he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Brad Smith is a trusted friend who has informed my thinking and my understanding of a number of important public policies and as he prepares to begin a new chapter of life, I congratulate him on a job done exceedingly well and wish him every success in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and my classmate, Mr. Green, for his distinguished service here in the House. He is retiring, and I want to salute him.

I also want to salute my partner in this effort, Mr. Lance from New Jersey. He is going to be missed at the committee and missed in the House. I think he has always been value added to the Congress, and we all wish him well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bipartisan legislation. The shorthand for it is the PREEMIE Act. It is legislation that I introduced with Congressman Lance to expand research, education, and the prevention of preterm birth.

Preterm birth, or birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the leading cause of newborn mortality and the second leading cause of infant mortality in our country. In 2016, over 388,000 infants were born too early; and, every year, over 20,000 babies in the United States will die before their first birthday, many of them from complications of preterm birth.

In addition to being the leading cause of newborn death, premature birth can cause a lifetime of health challenges and intellectual disabilities for children who survive.

In addition to the emotional and physical toll of prematurity, there are significant healthcare costs to families, medical systems, and our overall economy. A report by the Institute of Medicine found the cost associated with preterm birth in the United States was $26.2 billion annually--that is a staggering amount of money--or $51,600 per infant born preterm. While employers, private insurers, and individuals bear about half the costs of healthcare for these infants, 40 percent of this amount is paid for by Medicaid.

Moms and babies face higher risks than ever before. After the statistics decreasing for over a decade, which is exactly what we wanted them to do, for the third year in a row now the preterm birth rate in our country has worsened, so the passing of this legislation has come at the right time.

I am proud of the work that we have done on this Reauthorization Act and that it is going to head to the President for his signature, and I am proud to have authored the original PREEMIE Act with Congressman Fred Upton in 2006.

This updated reauthorization builds on the important investments that have been made, and we add to them. I think that is the most important thing to say.

With the incidence of preterm birth increasing across the United States, we need to do everything that we can for the mothers and for the newborns so that we improve the outcomes for them because it is their lives.

The PREEMIE Act did pass the Senate unanimously on September 12, and I have every confidence that the House is going to double the record.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me and, again, pay tribute to him for his exceptional service here in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Jack Lucier and to extend my condolences to his wife, Judy, his children and his grandchildren.

Jack Lucier was born in Millbrae, California, on April 19, 1928, and died on November 14, 2018, in Menlo Park, California, having reached the age of 90.

Jack was fondly known to all those who knew him as `First Class Jack', a fitting sobriquet for a kind and gracious man. A graduate of Bellarmine Prep and Santa Clara University, he joined Levi Straus in 1952. It was at Levi Straus that he met his future wife, Judy Roche, and they married in 1961. Jack and Judy soon created an interior design company which they ran for more than a quarter century. They also created a beautiful family of two daughters and two sons.

Jack gave generously of his time and considerable talents to his community, including Sacred Heart Schools, the Menlo Park Library and Church of the Nativity. He was a golfer, a cook, a great reader, and he loved world travel.

He leaves his beloved wife of 57 years, Judy; his son Daniel Lucier and wife Moira; Mary Askins and husband Mark; Anne Ashendorf and husband Michael; and Christopher Lucier. He also leaves his six grandchildren whom he adored: John and Michael Lucier, Julia and Emily Askins, and Charlie and Molly Ashendorf.

I've been blessed by the friendship of Jack and Judy Lucier and their family for over four decades. They are respected throughout our community as a family of deep faith, of community engagement, and as contributors to the betterment of our community and our country.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in honoring the life of Jack Lucier and in extending our most sincere condolences to his entire family. He will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him, and we are a grateful nation for all Jack Lucier did to strengthen our country by living a life of values.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the passage of the Senate amendment to H.R. 390, the Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act of 2017 in the House on November 27, 2018 by voice vote. The legislation has been presented to the President for his signature and I urge him to quickly sign the bill into law.

H.R. 390 is the culmination of years of work in Congress to help ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria who suffered horrific oppression at the hands of ISIS. The legislation will better channel humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery aid to genocide survivors through organizations currently working on the ground to help displaced populations return to their homes and rebuild their communities. Iraq is home to some of the oldest Christian communities in the world, yet less than 200,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from 1.4 million in 2002.

In March of 2016, Congress took historic action when it declared that the brutal and systemic persecution of Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria by ISIS constituted genocide, one of only three times in history that Congress has made such a declaration.

Despite the powerful message Congress sent when it declared these atrocities as genocide, and appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance for these communities, U.S. aid has not reached these populations due to longstanding policies and practices of the federal government that prevent faith-based groups and other organizations from distributing foreign aid. Many of these faith-based groups are the only organizations working directly with survivors on the ground and have the expertise and knowledge of the region, its history, and culture to deliver this aid in the most effective way possible. Outdated policies in the Executive Branch should not stand in the way of the U.S. helping these suffering communities.

H.R. 390 supports entities conducting investigations into the perpetrators of these crimes to ensure they are held accountable. It is critical that evidence be collected and preserved so it can be used in court. It is also critical that our government works with foreign governments to identify and apprehend suspected perpetrators. Finally, the bill requires the U.S. government to identify and determine warning signs associated with genocide and crimes against humanity to help policymakers better respond to future campaigns against at-risk populations.

As the daughter of parents who fled religious persecution in the Middle East, I'm proud to have helped carry H.R. 390 through the Congress with the bill's sponsor in this effort to help the tens of thousands of survivors of genocide in Iraq and Syria, Congressman Chris Smith. He's been a tireless advocate on behalf of these persecuted communities and I applaud him for the work he has done to get this bill through Congress and to the President's desk.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate my constituent, Keshav Goel, of Monte Sereno, California, on being selected as a George J. Mitchell Scholar.

One of our nation's most prestigious scholarships, the program was created 20 years ago by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance and named in honor of Senator George J. Mitchell's contributions to the Northern Ireland peace process. The program selects future American leaders for one year of graduate study in Ireland. Keshav Goel is one of 12 Mitchell Scholars selected this year out of 370 students who applied from more than 200 Congressional Districts across the U.S.

Keshav is a dual major in Biology and Economics at Williams College. Understanding that socioeconomic inequality is one of the greatest public health concerns in the U.S., he has conducted research on ailments that disproportionally affect the world's poor. Growing up in Monte Sereno, California, Keshav co-authored his first published clinical paper at the age of 16 on the automated detection of congenital heart defects in newborns. He is currently conducting a year-long senior biology thesis to uncover the causes of asthma which disproportionately impacts children in impoverished countries. He has also conducted health economics research with Harvard Medical School to assess the quality and effectiveness of federally funded clinical trials. Outside the classroom, Keshav serves as a peer mentor with an organization in Western Massachusetts that provides drama therapy to adolescent survivors of trauma. An aspiring physician, Keshav will study Immunology and Global Health at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Keshav embodies the spirit of leadership and academic excellence that led to the creation of the Mitchell Scholarship program. I congratulate him on his selection as a George J. Mitchell scholar and wish him every success during his year in Ireland.

Mr. Speaker, I erroneously voted YES on roll call vote number 418, and I would like to reflect that I intended to vote NO.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor NASA's Kepler Space Telescope on its retirement and to commend the many thousands of NASA personnel who designed and maintained Kepler and analyzed data received from it.

Launched in March, 2009, Kepler spent nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky is filled with billions of hidden planets--even more planets than stars. Now

Kepler has run out of fuel, and will be retired in its current safe orbit, away from Earth.

``As NASA's first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond,'' said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. ``Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars.''

Kepler showed us the diversity of planets in our galaxy, and concluded that 20 to 50 percent of the stars visible in the night sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky planets similar in size to Earth. Many of these could possibly sustain life.

``When we started conceiving this mission 35 years ago we didn't know of a single planet outside our solar system,'' said the Kepler mission's founding principal investigator, William Borucki, now retired from NASA's Ames Research Center and the recipient of the 2013 United States National Academy of Sciences' Henry Draper Medal for his work with Kepler and the 2015 recipient of the Shaw Prize in Astronomy.

``Now that we know planets are everywhere, Kepler has set us on a new course that's full of promise for future generations to explore our galaxy.''

Kepler's retirement doesn't mean the end of its contributions to our scientific knowledge. Future missions will build on its results and scientists will mine the data Kepler collected for years to come.

NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very proud to represent NASA Ames and its extraordinary programs that advance our knowledge of our planet and beyond. I ask the entire House of Representatives to honor Kepler and each person and organization who contributed to its extraordinary success.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a remarkable woman, Barbara Hayms Weiss, who was born on March 15, 1931 in Chicago and passed away on July 21, 2018, in Palo Alto, California. She was predeceased by her beloved husband, Paul.

Barbara and Paul lived in Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto where they raised three children. They supported Jewish causes, arts organizations, and Democrats, especially women candidates.

Barbara earned her B.A. in Sociology from San Jose State University in 1976 at the age of 45. She then completed her M.S.W. with a focus on gerontology in 1981 from U.C. Berkeley. She worked at Little House in Menlo Park and joined Paul's auto dealership, Key Chevrolet, as a Dealer-Academy trained potential successor, and helped run the agency until they sold the business in 1988. Barbara was also Board President of the Jewish Community Center of Palo Alto.

Barbara and Paul moved from their large home in Los Altos Hills to a condominium in Palo Alto, where they continued, via their Donor Advised Fund at the San Francisco Jewish Federation, to support causes that were important to them. They enjoyed frequent trips to Santa Fe, New Mexico for the Opera and SWAIA Indian Market, where they collected stunningly beautiful Pueblo pottery.

According to Barbara's son Mark, his parents ``just wanted America to continue to give opportunities that they got and wanted to back the right people to accomplish that.''

Barbara leaves her son Mark Weiss of Palo Alto and his wife Terry Acebo Davis; Linda Weiss Moulding of San Carlos and her husband Mark Moulding, Rick and Nancy Weiss of Los Altos Hills, and her grandchildren Aaron and Jon Lipinski of San Carlos.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life of Barbara Weiss, a patriot, a mother and a highly accomplished woman. I will always miss her, as will all those who were privileged to know her and admire the values she lived out so faithfully over a lifetime.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present during roll call vote number 413, 414, and 415 on September 28, 2018, due to recent surgery. Had I been present, on roll call vote number 413, I would have voted YES; on roll call vote number 414, I would have voted NO; and on roll call vote number 415, I would have voted YES.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present during roll call vote numbers 409, 410, 411, and 412 on September 27, 2018, due to recent surgery. I would like to reflect how I would have voted:

On roll call vote number 409, I would have voted NO.

On roll call vote number 410, I would have voted NO.

On roll call vote number 411, I would have voted NO.

On roll call vote number 412, I would have voted NO.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present during roll call vote number 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, and 408 on September 26, 2018, due to recent surgery. Had I been present, on roll call vote number 402, I would have voted ``no,'' on roll call vote number 403, I would have voted ``no,'' on roll call vote number 404, I would have voted ``yes,'' on roll call vote number 405, I would have voted ``yes,'') on roll call vote number 406, I would have voted ``present,'' on roll call vote number 407, I would have voted ``no'', and on roll call vote number 408, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present during roll call vote number 400 and 401 on September 25, 2018, due to recent surgery. Had I been present, on roll call vote number 400, I would have voted ``yes,'' and on roll call vote number 401, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bipartisan legislation, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Innovation Act and I'm very proud to have Representative Susan Brooks as my partner. This legislation is the product of negotiation and compromise between the House and the Senate and I'm pleased that my colleagues were able to reach agreement on a bill that ensures our nation is prepared to respond to a wide range of public health emergencies, whether man-made or occurring through a natural disaster or infectious disease.

In 2001 our nation endured the horrific attacks on September 11th and the anthrax attacks that followed shortly thereafter. Congress realized that our country was not prepared to coordinate responses to mass casualty events or chemical attacks, and in 2006, I wrote legislation with then-Representative Richard Burr to address these shortfalls. That important legislation, the original Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, was signed into law the same year.

The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Innovation Act we're considering today is critical to our national security. The legislation updates the original PAHPA by directing federal agencies to respond to new and emerging threats, and strengthens our nation's existing preparedness and response programs. The reauthorization meets the challenges that we face today and those we anticipate facing in the future.

Events over the past few years including Zika, the reemergence of Ebola, and the constant looming threat of a biological attack by another nation or hostile non-state enemies underscore the real threats our country continues to face. In 2017, our nation experienced the most destructive hurricane season in recent memory, followed quickly by the most deadly flu season in decades. This year, parts of our country have already faced devastating hurricanes and the season is not over yet. Our experience with each of these hazards reminds us that our country is not yet adequately prepared to deal with potentially devastating widespread public health crises. That's why this legislation is so critical.

The legislation provides the authorization and federal resources to invest in programs that allow the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to maintain its nimble and flexible framework while responding to the existing and emerging threats our country may face. It also directs BARDA to address antimicrobial resistance which is critical to our nation's biodefense If we have a chemical or biological attack that leaves individuals with burns or open wounds, the medical countermeasures BARDA has developed to treat that attack will be useless if those injured contract secondary antibiotic resistant infections.

BARDA was created by my original legislation and has been extremely successful in investing in drugs that are needed to be stockpiled, and where the federal government is the only customer. There is no other market for these products and that's why BARDA is so important. BARDA has worked with over 190 partners and brought 35 medical countermeasures through research and development to FDA approval No private company has a track record that compares to what BARDA has accomplished in just over 10 years.

This bill restores multiyear appropriations for the Project BioShield Special Reserve Fund. My original legislation provided advanced appropriations for Project BioShield for the purpose of accelerating the research, development, purchase, and availability of effective medical countermeasures against biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. Restoring multiyear appropriations offers our partners with the government the certainty they need to invest in these important medical countermeasures which are a matter of national security. I urge the appropriators to fully fund the multiyear appropriations this legislation authorizes.

I'm proud that our legislation incorporates many provisions that were important to Members in both the Republican Conference, the Democratic Caucus, and to our colleagues in the Senate, to meet the needs of vulnerable communities during natural and manmade disasters.

The legislation also reauthorizes the HHS National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and authorizes the Children's Preparedness Unit at the CDC. This is critically important to address the persistent gaps in our nation's preparedness and response for the most vulnerable in many crises, our nation's children

The bill also establishes an Advisory Council for People with Disabilities and an Advisory Council on Seniors to focus on the needs of these special populations during a public health emergency.

It includes a proposal to prioritize bringing nursing homes back onto the power grid at the same time as hospitals after a disaster.

It includes provisions related to regional health partnerships, pregnant and postpartum women and environmental health.

I'm proud of this legislation and I urge my colleagues to support the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Innovation Act.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present during roll call vote number 397, 398, and 399 on September 13, 2018, due to recent surgery. Had I been present, on roll call vote number 397, I would have voted NO; on roll call vote number 398, I would have voted YES; and on roll call vote number 399, I would have voted YES.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present during roll call vote numbers 394, 395, and 396 on September 12, 2018, due to recent surgery. I would like to reflect how I would have voted:

On roll call vote number 394, I would have voted ``yes.''

On roll call vote number 395, I would have voted ``yes.''

On roll call vote number 396, I would have voted ``yes.''