Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3919, the Secure Equipment Act of 2021, as amended.

For over a decade, I have raised concerns about how the vulnerabilities in our telecommunications infrastructure directly impact our national security. On November 2, 2010, I wrote to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressing grave concerns about Huawei and ZTE, which have opaque relationships with the Chinese government.

Sadly, in the intervening eleven years, telecommunications companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment made by Huawei and ZTE because the equipment is the cheapest available.

On March 12, 2020, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 (STCNA), which directed the FCC to: (i) establish a list of companies deemed to be a national security threat; (ii) prohibit the use of federal funds for purchasing equipment made by those companies; and (iii) authorize funding for U.S. carriers to rip and replace equipment made by those companies. The FCC's list includes Huawei, ZTE, and other companies linked to the Chinese government.

STCNA was a significant step forward for our national security. However, U.S. companies can still privately purchase equipment from these companies. This allows potentially vulnerable equipment into our wireless systems which is a threat to our national security because compromised equipment can include hard-to-detect surveillance capabilities.

On June 15, 2021, Representative Steve Scalise and I introduced H.R. 3919 to prohibit the FCC from approving any telecommunications equipment made by companies deemed to be a national security threat. Senators Marco Rubio and Ed Markey have companion legislation in the Senate. The legislation is supported by the FCC's Democratic Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The bill was considered and favorably advanced by voice vote, first by the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and then by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The companion bill was favorably advanced by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

As I stated when STCNA was being considered by our chamber, no one bill can fully protect our telecommunications networks. The threats we face are constantly evolving, and Congress must remain diligent in ensuring our communications are secure, private, and reliable.

H.R. 3919 is a highly important and necessary complement to STCNA and I urge my colleagues to vote for it.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring my distinguished constituent, a recipient of the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Stanford University Professor Guido W. Imbens. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, more commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, is given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm and was established in 1968, joining the five original prizes established by Alfred Nobel in his 1895 will. Dr. Imbens is being honored with his colleague Joshua D. Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.

Guido Imbens is the Applied Econometrics Professor and Professor of Economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). He is a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Amman Mineral faculty fellow for 2021-22. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and the Econometric Society, served as a Stanford GSB Trust faculty fellow in 2013 and 2014, and holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of St. Gallen. A graduate of Brown University, where he earned his Ph.D., he taught at Harvard, UCLA and UC Berkeley before joining the GSB in 2012. His research focuses on developing methods for drawing causal relationships in observational studies, using matching, instrumental variables and regression continuity designs.

Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in congratulating Dr. Guido W. Imbens on receiving this most prestigious award, recognizing his contributions to the field of economics. It's my privilege to represent him, pay tribute to his brilliance, and thank him for making every American proud of his accomplishments.

Madam Speaker. I rise to honor the Internet Archive on the 25th anniversary of its founding in 1996. The organization has developed an extraordinary and highly accessible digital library and has become an indispensable asset to society.

While physical records of books, newspapers, videos, and audio have long been conserved by libraries and archives, no such record keeping existed for the internet in its infancy. Aware of the importance of saving digital documents, the Internet Archive was founded with the mission to conserve digital cultural artifacts for the public and for generations to come. That mission is vital in an age where the internet plays such a central role in all of our lives.

To date, the Archive has stored an astonishing 588 billion web pages, 28 million digitized books and texts, 14 million audio recordings, 6 million videos, 3.5 million images, and 580,000 software programs. Millions of people around the world contribute to the Archive and countless more benefit from having access to it. The world-class team of employees and volunteers that administer the Internet Archive are a major reason why the project has been such a success, and I'm proud that many of my constituents contribute to the Archive.

The Internet Archive's success is also due to the fact that it is managed as a values-driven nonprofit organization. The Archive is a large part of how we will tell the story of our time and it's a privilege to congratulate the Internet Archive on celebrating 25 years of cataloging the world.

Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in congratulating all of the employees, volunteers, and users of the Internet Archive for celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Women's Health Protection Act.

Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of every woman to make decisions about her own life, her own body, her own future.

Now that right is under horrible threat by a shameful and unconstitutional law in Texas that bans abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant. That is a law in defiance of the Federal law. It turns private citizens into snitches to turn women in. That is reminiscent of the Third Reich. And if that sounds staggering, it is because it is.

Every day, women in our country face deeply personal decisions of whether to continue their pregnancies. They should be able to make their own decisions, free from politicians' interference.

The Women's Health Protection Act is exactly that. It protects women. It ensures that every woman has equal access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare. I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with my strongest support of H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. I'm very proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation which restores critical protections to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, protecting the right to vote for all Americans.

The disastrous Supreme Court decision of Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by eliminating the requirement that certain states or jurisdictions with a history of segregation and voter suppression preclear any changes to their election laws with the Justice Department. With preclearance no longer in place, dozens of jurisdictions across the country moved to restrict access to the ballot, especially for low-income voters and voters of color. The Supreme Court further gutted the Voting Rights Act in Brnovich v. DNC in 2021 by making it significantly more difficult to challenge voting laws that deny or abridge the right to vote based on race, color, or language-minority status.

Today, Americans face the worst voter suppression efforts since the Jim Crow era. In 2021, state lawmakers introduced over 400 voter suppression bills in 49 states, and at least 18 states have enacted 30 laws that restrict access to the ballot. These laws suppress the right to vote by restricting access to mail-in and early voting; reducing the number and availability of polling places; and allowing arbitrary voter purges. It's clear that voter suppression efforts are not a relic of the past and that we must have strong federal laws in place to protect the fundamental right to vote.

In my view, no legislation could be as important as this because the right to vote goes to the very core of our democracy. H.R. 4 was named in honor of the civil rights icon and late Member of Congress, John R. Lewis who dedicated his life to the sacred right to vote. This legislation continues John Lewis' cherished legacy and sends a clear message that will resound across our country that any efforts to undermine the sacred right to vote will not be tolerated in our democracy.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this historic legislation because our democracy depends on it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary work of Rayna Lehman, a champion of women and labor and a true patriot, who is retiring after serving with great distinction and effectiveness for 39 years as the community services director of the San Mateo County Labor Council. She will receive the well-deserved honor of the Cope Unity Award at the 41st Annual Cope Banquet to be held at the Hyatt Regency at San Francisco International Airport on August 13, 2021.

Rayna was born in the Bronx, New York, to a working-class family. She was educated in public schools and was a day camp counselor, a salesperson, and a TSP telephone operator, before she came to California in 1970.

The list of glass ceilings Rayna has broken began with the San Mateo County Union Community Alliance, and the list of the positions she has held that never had been held by a woman before is a long one. The honors she has earned include the San Mateo Labor Council Unity Award; PALCARE Outstanding Service Award; McCowan Takalo Anti-Hunger Advocacy Award; APALA Community Services Leadership Award; the UC Berkeley Labor Center Helping Hands Award; Menlo Park Hometown Hero; Senate District 13 2021 Woman of the Year; the Hispanic Chamber Community Leader Award; and many more.

She participated in the creation of PALCARE, was appointed to the San Mateo County Childcare Partnership Council, and represented Labor on the inaugural First Five Community Steering Committee. She created Health@Work and helped create the Community Health Reform Advisory Committee to introduce the Affordable Care Act to San Mateo County.

As the community services director of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, Rayna created the Union Hardship Fund, trained union counselors to assist local union members, and coordinated a partnership with Second Harvest Silicon Valley Food Bank to provide twice monthly food distributions that help more than 800 families. She's a member of Office and Professional Employees Local 29 and served as president of Painters Local 15 for nine years.

Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in thanking Rayna Lehman for her extraordinary work and in congratulating her on being honored for her exceptional leadership as San Mateo County Central Labor Council's community services director. The blessings of her work have touched thousands of families, and we are a better, stronger county and country because of her.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1250, the Emergency Reporting Act, bipartisan legislation I co-authored to improve how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports on and learns from the impact of natural disasters on our telecommunications networks.

The human impacts of disasters are worsened when our communications infrastructure is not resilient and this is an issue Californians know all too well. On October 28, 2019, 874 cell towers were out in California, caused by wildfires and power shutoffs. My constituents were panicked about not being able to call 9-1-1 during emergencies, receive emergency alerts, download evacuation maps, or check-in on loved ones. This horrific situation led my good friend, Congresswoman Matsui, and me to work on this legislation.

H.R. 1250, the Emergency Reporting Act, requires the FCC to hold field hearings after disasters, issue preliminary and final reports about each disaster, and ensure 9-1-1 centers know when outages will impact calls they may receive.

Wildfires are becoming more intense and more frequent because of climate change. Last year, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned 86,509 acres in my Congressional District, making it the 12th most destructive fire in California history. Seventy-seven thousand of my constituents were evacuated and the fire destroyed nearly 1,500 homes, businesses, and other buildings.

I've long called on FCC leadership to visit California and hold field hearings following the wildfires and associated power shutoffs, and many of my colleagues from California have done the same. We need to learn from every disaster, especially by listening to and learning from local public safety leaders, municipal, county, and state officials, and members of the communities impacted. This should be required.

Last Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing on February

27, 2020 on the Emergency Reporting Act. On March 10, 2020, the Subcommittee marked up the Emergency Reporting Act, and the full Committee did so on July 15, 2020. On September 21, 2020, the full House passed the bill via voice vote. Sadly, the Senate did not take up this critical bill.

On February 25, 2021, the legislation was reintroduced by Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Thompson, Jared Huffman, Gus Bilirakis, and myself. Senators Klobuchar and Burr have companion legislation in the Senate.

H.R. 1250 is critical legislation for Californians impacted by wildfires. It will also help those on the Gulf Coast victimized by hurricanes, Midwesterners who've had their communities destroyed by tornadoes, and those in the Northeast who have experienced far too many superstorms.

I urge my House colleagues to once again vote for the Emergency Reporting Act and urge the Senate to do so as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 678, the PHONE Act, a simple but powerful bill to ensure that Americans who lose their homes in natural disasters do not also lose their home phone numbers.

Last year, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned 86,509 acres in my Congressional District, making it the 12th most destructive fire in California history. Seventy-seven thousand of my constituents were evacuated, and the fire destroyed nearly 1,500 homes, businesses, and other buildings.

This figure includes nearly 1,000 families in my district who couldn't return home because their home was destroyed. The PHONE Act helps these families and thousands of other American families who lose their homes in wildfires and other disasters.

The PHONE Act has three parts. First, if the President issues a major disaster declaration and a governor designates a disaster area, phone numbers in that designated area cannot be reassigned for one year. Second, if someone in the disaster area needs more than a year, they can get a one-year extension because rebuilding can take years. Third, the bill allows consumers to cancel phone service without a cancellation fee if their home is inaccessible or uninhabitable. The bill also prohibits resubscription fees if consumers get phone service somewhere else in the area.

Some may ask why we need all of this for a simple phone number. One of the first things parents teach their children is their phone number. Many of us still remember our parents' home phone numbers. While many are opting to live with just cellphones, it's important to consider who depends on landlines: older Americans and retirees who often have multiple doctors, caregivers, and loved ones using long-held phone numbers.

Congressman Mike Thompson authored the bill to help the survivors of the Atlas and Tubbs fires that ravished his Congressional District in 2017. Thousands lost their homes and were further frustrated to learn they also lost their phone number, because phone companies had given the numbers away.

The bill is carefully drafted to plug a small gap in the law, but this gap means the world to our constituents for whom this bill is written to protect.

Last Congress, the bill was marked up on March 10, 2020, by the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and on September 9, 2020, by the full Energy & Commerce Committee. At both markups, I offered amendments to ensure the bill would have broad, bipartisan support and would be as effective as possible. On September 29, 2020, the House passed the bill by voice vote. Sadly, the Senate did not consider the measure.

I urge my House colleagues to pass this bill once again and urge the Senate to take it up and pass the bill as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2668, the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act. This legislation restores the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) authority to protect consumers and businesses from scammers.

In April 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the FTC can no longer use section 13(b) of the FTC Act to ensure monetary relief to Americans who have fallen victim to fraudsters and scammers. This ruling gutted the FTC's authority and we must act quickly to restore it. The FTC has returned $11.2 billion to consumers in the last five years alone, and since 2018, the FTC has recovered more than $171 million dollars for almost one million Californians. Section 13(b) has also helped veterans who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges and provided relief to low-income families gouged by payday lenders.

The FTC has relied on this authority for four decades, and if Congress does not act with urgency, millions more Americans will fall victim to fraudsters with no pathway to reprieve. The urgency of this situation cannot be underscored enough. There is more than $2 billion dollars in 24 pending cases that are currently threatened by the FTC no longer having this authority.

If Congress is to protect consumers across every state in every district, then we must act now. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and vote yes.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Paul O. Reimer, a California native who was born on July 15, 1927, and died on April 25, 2021, at his home in Portola Valley, California, at the age of 93.

Paul was the only child of Ruby and Paul Reimer and was raised in Alturas, California. He enlisted in the Army at the age of 17 and was assigned to the University of Idaho to learn basic engineering. After basic training he was sent to Japan and Korea. After his WWII service, Paul earned a Civil Engineering degree at the University of Nevada. It was at Reno that he met his wife, Kathryn Ann Brennan, and where he developed strong loyalties to his professors and friends, and he was a very proud and supportive alum.

Paul and Kathryn married in 1951 and moved to Palo Alto, California. They had three children, Mark, Ted (who died in 2018), and Kristie. Kay died in 2005, and Paul is survived by Mark and his wife Ana, daughter Kristie, seven grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren, and many beloved nieces and nephews.

Paul formed Reimer Associates, Consulting Civil Engineers, in 1976, and went far beyond engineering design services. He was joined at the firm by his daughter Kristie in 1990, and together they gained national recognition for their work with the communities impacted by the Base Realignment and Closure Committee. Paul was a member of the Defense Environmental Response Task Force and appointment to this nine-member Task Force required House and Senate confirmation. He was an active member of many professional societies and received many honors for his work.

Paul gave back to his community through his work researching the path that Gaspar de Portola took during his 1769 expedition to the San Mateo and San Francisco County coasts, and through his long service with the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District and the Peninsula Open Space Trust.

Madam Speaker, Paul Reimer has been described as a poet, a wit, a true gentleman, a gifted engineer, a gracious host, a best friend, and most importantly, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and godfather. He was a great and good man who made his community and his country better places for all of us. I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in extending our most sincere condolences to his family and in honoring the life of this extraordinary American.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me and certainly for his wonderful leadership on this issue.

Anyone that is tuned in this evening from across the country is hearing a lot of passion spilling over at the podiums here, and for very good reason. In 2017, despite the opposition of every single Democrat in the United States House of Representatives and some Republicans, Congress passed a tax law that bulldozed the State and local tax deductibility. This hurts a lot of people.

Now, that was close to a $5 trillion package and so why was this bulldozed? They went through the Tax Code looking for things that were deductible to lower the price tag of a highly inequitable tax package. And the SALT deduction, as it is known, was then capped at $10,000 for both individuals and then for married couples filing jointly.

I viewed this then, as I do today, as an assault on the middle class of our country. It was one of the main reasons that I voted against the 2017 tax law. Now I think that if you ask the question of 435 Members of the House: Do you support the middle class? They would all say ``yes.'' But the Record shows something else.

We know that everyone aspires to get into the middle class, and we know that the middle class, as my father always used to say, is made up of extraordinary, ordinary people who are the backbone of this country. And that is why this policy is so wrong and it is so hurtful.

This is a very important deduction for the middle class. Middle class, you file long term, and you have four areas that you can deduct: mortgage interest deduction, charitable contributions, healthcare expenses, and State and local taxes. And they wiped that out.

Now, you tell me whether that is fair or not. I don't think so. And I don't think people across the country do either. Capping the SALT deduction affects nearly 200,000 families in my congressional district.

I am not talking about the whole State of California. I am talking about California's 18th Congressional District, and it has raised taxes on over a million households in the State of California. Prior to this harmful cap, my constituents--hold on to your seats, hold on to your hats--deducted an average of $63,083 in State and local taxes. Wiped it out.

Some have unfairly, I think, maligned the SALT deduction as a benefit for the wealthy. I think it is an essential deduction for taxpayers in high-cost, high-tax States like California. And that has been spoken to earlier. That is a very important legitimate case to be made. In the bay area, the beautiful bay area of California, northern California, the cost of living is really very expensive, and it keeps going up.

And it is so high that the Economic Policy Institute estimates that a family of four needs to earn more than $100,000 to earn a modest but adequate standard of living. That is simply a fact.

So prior to the law, more than 3 million households in California with an income of less than that annually claimed this deduction, as did nearly one-third of taxpayers nationwide.

This evening, I think each one of us can outline why this is wrong; why the deductibility needs to be restored. Congress needs to reform our tax code. And when we do, so should the restoration of this deductibility be restored.

Why?

Because, again, the middle class is the backbone of America. We should not be assaulting them. We should be assisting them.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for leading this effort this evening. It is a worthy one.

Madam Speaker, I'm proud to join my fellow members of the Equality Caucus in celebrating Pride Month and the progress our country has made in securing equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. As we recognize our progress, we must keep fighting because the LGBTQ+ community has yet to be granted full equality.

Pride Month commemorates the Stonewall Uprising, the now-famous targeting of the gay community at the Stonewall Inn by police in New York City in June 1969. In the subsequent four decades since Stonewall, LGBTQ+ individuals can serve openly in the military, same-sex couples can wed, and the Supreme Court has upheld certain federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Much work remains to be done. Transgender individuals still face high levels of violence. Federal, state, and local laws still allow many forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And just last week in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court found that anti-LGBTQ+ religious objections can override a government agency's policies to ensure equality. While the case focused on same-sex couples adopting children, it could have much broader ramifications.

For all these reasons, I'm proud to be an original cosponsor of H.R. 5, the Equality Act, which extends anti-discrimination provisions in federal law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. I'm proud that the House passed this legislation on a bipartisan vote of 224 to 206 on February 25, 2021. I urge the Senate to take up this legislation and send it to the President's desk as soon as possible.

As we celebrate Pride Month, let us also remember the victims of anti-LGBTQ+ hate, mourn the loss of countless loved ones whose lives were lost in the battle against HIV/AIDS, and reaffirm our commitment to fighting for an America where all are equal, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a great American and life-long friend, Dee Circle.

Dee died peacefully at home in Rancho Mirage, California, on May 20, 2021. He was predeceased by his father, mother, sister, and grandson, Taylor. Dee leaves behind his loving wife, Candace, daughters Lori (Gil Solon), Jenny (Dermot Cronin), and Jamie, grandchildren Ryan, Tommy and Lily, and his brother Dick Circle.

Delos Oran Circle was born in Selah, Washington, on August 20, 1938, to Gracia Fern Lancaster and William Oran Circle. He had two older siblings, Dick and Sharon, and spent his childhood in Washington. After high school he joined the Coast Guard and moved to northern California. He was a Peninsula resident for over 50 years.

In 1974, Dee married Candace Lee Edmondson and their flower girl was my daughter, Karen. They had two daughters, Jennifer Dee and Jamie Leigh. Dee was a successful real estate loan broker and developer in the San Francisco Bay area. He was an avid golfer and sports fan, cheering on his beloved Warriors, 49ers, and SF Giants, and never missed a minute of The Masters. Dee was Jenny's No. 1 fan as she played basketball through college.

In 2003, Dee and Candy retired to the desert and built a home at PGA West. Dee was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. He was kind, generous and funny, and was always the biggest personality in the room surrounded by friends.

Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in honoring the life of this good man. Dee Circle lived a purposeful life by being a loving family man, a loyal friend, a patriot and a man of integrity. He will be sorely missed by all those who had the good fortune to know him and he will always be remembered as a true blessing to each of us.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for recognizing me and yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution to repeal the AUMF resolution of 2002. Here we are, in 2021.

Mr. Speaker, I voted against that AUMF, and to this day, I believe it produced one of the worst foreign policy disasters in U.S. history. It was built on a lie; it claimed the lives of over 4,400 Americans and countless Iraqi civilians; and it cost our Treasury trillions of dollars.

The Iraq war ended 10 years ago, but this AUMF is still on the books. It is a blank check, and we need to get rid of it. We run the risk that administrations will misuse it to justify future military action and directly undermine Congress' Article I war powers authority.

The House has voted three times to repeal this AUMF, and today, it is time to pass it. Let us have a victory here on the floor--and celebrate another victory that the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Clayton Edward Francis Derderian, who passed away at his home on May 16, 2021, at the very young age of 15, having fought a long battle against a devastating form of brain and spinal cancer for 12 years of his much- too-short life.

Clay was known to family and friends as Clay-Bear, Chili Bean, Mr. Dunderfuss, and Busby. He was an aspiring chef, inventor, and entrepreneur. He was a braille reader but always preferred to be read to, ideally ``in character''. At mealtime he often announced: ``I am not hungry, what's for dessert?'' He loved a good joke or a good story and despite his disease, somehow managed to love life and especially the people around him.

Clay leaves his mother, Mary Bannon, father, JD Derderian, sister Grace Derderian and grandmothers Rainette Bannon and Inez Derderian, as well as loving aunts, uncles and cousins.

The tributes paid to Clay by those who knew him well say he was wise beyond his years, that he could make a whole room smile with just a few words, and that he was welcoming and always smiling. He was an amazingly funny person with a great sense of

humor and brought joy and sweetness to every interaction.

Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in expressing our deepest condolences to Clay's family on their profound loss. May they take solace from knowing that their beloved son was given the best care possible and that he was loved deeply. I believe he is now with the angels, making them laugh and brightening heaven, just as he did during his life with us on earth.