Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor one of Dubuque, Iowa's most respected citizens and a fixture in the community, Mayor Roy Buol.

Serving 10 years on the city council and 16 years as mayor, Roy dedicated the last 26 years to shaping the vibrant community of Dubuque.

Roy's leadership and his contributions transformed Dubuque into the ``Masterpiece of the Mississippi'' and have allowed this community to flourish.

Dubuque truly is a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

Mayor Buol's service to Dubuque is a reminder that effective leadership begins with understanding the community and is best carried out through partnerships and collaboration.

I know I speak for many when I say thank you, Mayor Buol, for your service.

Madam Speaker, in accordance with CDC guidelines and under the advice of the House Attending Physician, I was not able to be present on the House Floor for votes today, due to having tested positive for COVID-19. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 10 (S. 2959).

members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress

Baird (Walorski)

Bass (Cicilline)

Blumenauer (Beyer)

Boyle, Brendan F. (Gallego)

Brownley (Kuster)

Bush (Bowman)

Carey (Balderson)

Carter (LA) (Jeffries)

Cawthorn (McHenry)

Chu (Clark (MA))

Cohen (Beyer)

Costa (Correa)

Craig (Kuster)

Crist (Soto)

Cuellar (Correa)

DeFazio (Brown (MD))

DeGette (Blunt Rochester)

DeSaulnier (Beyer)

Deutch (Rice (NY))

Doggett (Raskin)

Donalds (Cammack)

Doyle, Michael F. (Connolly)

Evans (Mfume)

Fallon (Gooden)

Fortenberry (Bilirakis)

Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA))

Gohmert (Weber (TX))

Gonzalez, Vicente (Correa)

Grijalva (Garcia (IL))

Hagedorn (Carl)

Hayes (Clark (MA))

Jacobs (NY) (Katko)

Jayapal (Raskin)

Johnson (TX) (Jeffries)

Joyce (PA) (Smucker)

Kildee (Panetta)

Kilmer (Bera)

Kirkpatrick (Pallone)

Lamb (Golden)

Lawrence (Stevens)

Lawson (FL) (Soto)

Lee (CA) (Khanna)

Letlow (Cammack)

Lofgren (Jeffries)

Lowenthal (Beyer)

Malinowski (Pallone)

Maloney, Carolyn B. (Wasserman Schultz)

Mann (Pfluger)

McCollum (Blunt Rochester)

McEachin (Wexton)

Meng (Kuster)

Moore (UT) (Meijer)

Moore (WI) (Beyer)

Nadler (Pallone)

Napolitano (Correa)

O'Halleran (Schrader)

Ocasio-Cortez (Garcia (IL))

Payne (Pallone)

Pingree (Cicilline)

Pocan (Raskin)

Porter (Wexton)

Reed (Arrington)

Rogers (KY)

(Reschenthaler)

Roybal-Allard (Levin (CA))

Ruiz (Correa)

Ruppersberger (Raskin)

Rush (Kaptur)

Ryan (Perlmutter)

Schneider (Connolly)

Schrier (Spanberger)

Scott, David (Jeffries)

Simpson (Fleischmann)

Sires (Pallone)

Stewart (Crawford)

Strickland (Carbajal)

Thompson (MS) (Brown (MD))

Timmons (Armstrong)

Titus (Connolly)

Trone (Brown (MD))

Vargas (Correa)

Vela (Correa)

Velazquez (Clark (MA))

Waters (Takano)

Watson Coleman (Pallone)

Welch (McGovern)

Wilson (FL) (Cicilline)

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize retired Dubuque Police Chief Mark Dalsing. He retired after 32 years of service to the city of Dubuque, Iowa.

Chief Dalsing is an absolute pillar in the community of Dubuque because of his devotion to protecting his community. He built a phenomenal legacy of successfully incorporating community engagement into law enforcement.

While serving as Dubuque's police chief, he instilled a passion for public service into his team of officers, bringing community engagement to the forefront of their work.

Chief Dalsing's years of service are a testament to the love that he has for his fellow Iowans and the compassion he led with.

I wish Chief Mark Dalsing and his family all the best in this exciting new chapter of life and thank him for his selfless service and dedication to the city of Dubuque for the past three decades.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding.

Madam Speaker, our amendment would ensure that students are no longer kept out of the classroom and forced to learn from behind a screen. It would ensure that parents are able to return to the workplace. It would help combat the ongoing youth mental health crisis spurred by school closures.

Madam Speaker, my bill, the Reopen Schools Act, would condition Federal COVID grants to schools on those schools actually being open and operating in the first place, which is what that money was intended to do.

I am proud that my home State of Iowa--and I am thankful to our Governor, Kim Reynolds--for ensuring that Iowa students could go back to school. In Iowa, kids have been back in the classroom, where they belong, for over a year. They get to socialize with their peers and they get hands-on learning help from their teachers. They get to run and jump at recess. They get to raise their hands to ask and answer questions instead of clicking a button from behind a screen. They get to write on white boards during their lessons.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in the rest of the country. So many students are still trapped behind screens. And what about the students who don't have regular computer and broadband internet access? What about students in households without computers or even households with only one computer where mom and dad are maybe trying to use it for work.

Virtual learning means we are leaving behind our most vulnerable students, our rural students, our students with additional learning challenges, and even kids who have every virtual advantage are struggling. Families are struggling. Working parents are challenged like never before, and American kids are suffering and paying the price for it.

As a mom, I have personally felt this pressure, and I know many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle know what it is like to have kids trying to learn at home while you are trying to work at the same time. So this is not a partisan issue. This is about our kids. This is about supporting working families. Kids need to be in school.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in defeating the previous question so we can reopen schools and prevent taxpayer dollars from keeping kids at home.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding today.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this massive tax- and-spend plan that was only posted late last night.

This entire process has been a sham. It has been full of nothing but partisanship, disrespect for taxpayers and late-night and all-day antics. No wonder my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are in disarray.

Late last night, the 2,100-page bill was finally posted. We certainly have not had adequate time to fully read or digest what is in it, let alone figure out how much it is going to cost my constituents.

Iowans deserve to know how much of their hard-earned paychecks are going to be wasted on frivolous, misguided priorities, like funding for butterflies or desert fish when my constituents are busy trying to put food on their tables, provide for their kids, and keep their family farms operating.

But no, we can't even get the most basic information. We don't have an official cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Instead, we have nonsense numbers, totally made-up numbers, handed down from the White House in the middle of the night. That is not how we govern responsibly in this body.

Madam Speaker, I came to Washington, D.C., to be an advocate for taxpayers, to make sure that Iowans' voices are heard and to bring a little bit of that Iowa commonsense to the Capitol. This place clearly needs it.

Working families in Iowa sit around their kitchen tables, they talk about what is important to them, they build a budget that fits within their means and they stick to it.

I know what that is like. Moms across the country know what that is like. It is not easy. We have to make hard choices. And frankly, it is disrespectful and embarrassing that we are even having this debate right now.

How can we spend taxpayers' money without knowing how much we are spending?

In the Speaker's own words, we shouldn't vote without a CBO score. I agree. Americans deserve to know the impact legislation will have on their lives. The best estimates that we have, which don't even include all of the provisions that Speaker Pelosi stuffed in there last night, ring up in the trillions.

We are spending approximately trillions of dollars on nonsense priorities when Iowans are dealing with real challenges, and we can't even give them the respect of waiting for a proper cost estimate. This bill bankrupts the economy, it benefits the wealthy, and it builds bureaucracy. It is a bust. Vote ``no.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and the passing of a hero with deep roots in the tight-knit community of Waukon, Iowa, Iowa State Patrol Trooper Ted Benda.

On October 14, Trooper Benda was on duty, answering the calls of citizens in northeast Iowa, when he experienced a tragic accident. He later passed from his injuries on October 20.

This is the devastating loss of a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a mentor, a dedicated public servant who made it his life's mission to keep his community safe in Iowa.

This tragedy is a reminder that brave law enforcement officers often sacrifice for a purpose greater than themselves. So I join all Iowans in mourning the loss of Trooper Benda, and my heart is with his family, his friends, and fellow troopers during this very difficult time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding to me today.

Mr. Speaker, President Biden and Speaker Pelosi are moving full steam ahead with their Big Government, big spending vision for this country. One of the most egregious proposals in their multitrillion-dollar reconciliation package would give the IRS access to nearly every single American's bank account by requiring financial institutions, like your local bank or your credit union, to report every account with more than $10,000 of transactions annually to the IRS.

This proposal would give the IRS unprecedented access to sensitive personal information and unprecedented power to target working families across Iowa and across America. This government snooping is a complete invasion of privacy and a massive overreach into our lives and our livelihoods.

This spying scheme is a lose, lose, lose. It will increase the existing backlog at the IRS exponentially. It will jeopardize the privacy of millions of Americans. It will destroy our community financial institutions. And it will hurt rural communities and working families hardest of all.

Democrats claim this is about tax evasion. Everyone should pay the taxes

that they owe. That is not the argument here. But this misguided proposal isn't about tracking down missing revenue; it is about expanded government control, plain and simple.

This proposal, by design, will hit normal working families' bank accounts. A total of $10,000 in transactions in a year, that is a year's rent or a series of farm equipment bills, for example. The IRS should be focused on being more efficient at its current job, not emboldened and certainly not unleashed on hardworking Americans.

We do not need to be throwing more money at the IRS to put Americans' daily transactions under a microscope. Iowans have been very clear with me. They do not want the IRS snooping around in their bank accounts at that granular level.

I have also heard very serious concerns from our community financial institutions. These are the folks that are helping our farmers, our families, and our small businesses access credit. They told me this proposal could force them to shut down for good, leaving Iowans without access to credit and capital that they need to help keep our rural economy going to fuel and feed the world.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to put a stop to this madness and stand up for our constituents by voting ``no'' on the previous question, keeping the government out of Americans' bank accounts.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Chief Michael Nesslage, who has served as fire chief in Hiawatha, Iowa, for the last 16 years. I want to congratulate him on his well-deserved retirement this week.

Chief Nesslage dedicated his professional life to protecting and serving others. As Hiawatha's fire chief, Chief Nesslage successfully started ambulance service in the area and spearheaded the creation of a volunteer firefighter program. Not only did Chief Nesslage help establish the program, but he also closely coached and mentored those seeking careers as first responders.

Chief Nesslage continues to be a role model for our entire community.

When I was a State representative, we worked very closely to pass GEMT legislation. I am very proud we got that done.

Madam Speaker, I know I speak for the entire Hiawatha community in saying that we are so thankful for Chief Nesslage's years of selfless service and dedication to keeping Hiawatha safe.

I thank Chief Nesslage and wish him and his family the best as they begin this new chapter.

Madam Speaker, it is an honor to now serve Chief Nesslage in Congress, and I appreciate his service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on my colleagues to consider the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, legislation that would preserve the longstanding Hyde amendment.

For the first time in over 40 years, the administration's proposed budget does not include Hyde protections, protections that have long ensured taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions.

Mr. Speaker, Hyde protections have saved 2.4 million babies. Reversing this longstanding pro-life policy is wrong. The right to life is the most fundamental of all of our rights. We must defend those who cannot defend themselves.

I will always lend my voice to the voiceless and fight to ensure that Iowa taxpayers are never forced to fund abortions against their will.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 18, and I ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to call for immediate consideration of my See the Crisis Act. This legislation would prevent Vice President Kamala Harris from using taxpayer dollars to travel internationally before seeing the southern border crisis firsthand.

Vice President Harris was named as the administration's point person on the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border 80 days ago, and this crisis is worsening by the day. Yet the Vice President has refused to go to the border herself and talk to the brave law enforcement officers, the men and women who are fighting this on the front lines.

This out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach is a disgrace, Madam Speaker, but let's back up and look at how this crisis has developed on the Biden administration's watch.

On day one of this administration, President Biden stopped construction of the border wall. Shortly after, he reinstated catch- and-release. Now, this turned on the green light at our border. It incentivized the historic surge of illegal immigration that we are currently experiencing in this country.

Open border policies are music to the ears of the cartels, the drug smugglers, and the traffickers who make their living on human suffering. Make no mistake, business is good for cartels and drug smugglers under this administration right now.

Snuck into this rule here tonight is a provision to set the spending levels for Congress, and these historic spending levels rise in nearly every category except for one, the Department of Homeland Security. This sends a pretty clear message to the cartels that the U.S. Government doesn't think it is a priority to stop them.

Madam Speaker, I recently visited the border to see the crisis for myself, hear what those on the front lines are facing every day. They told me they are completely overwhelmed. There are major vulnerabilities along our border. These are vulnerabilities that the cartels and the drug smugglers are exploiting every day.

Border Patrol officers are apprehending sex offenders, gang members, even people on the terrorist watch list trying to come into our country illegally, and these are just the people that they are catching. Deadly drugs are pouring across the border in droves. Fentanyl seizures at the border have increased by 233 percent this year. 233 percent.

When I was at the border I heard from both Democratic sheriffs and Republican sheriffs about these devastating realities and the damage that is being inflicted on our communities.

But apparently, even as the administration's point person on the illegal immigration crisis, hearing from those on the ground is too much to ask for the Vice President.

She has been the border czar for 80 days. She has been to yarn shops, she has been to bakeries, and she just flew right over the crisis at our southern border to meet with foreign countries, with the taxpayers' checkbook in hand.

When asked why she hasn't visited the southern border, she laughed. She laughed, and this is not a laughing matter.

The border crisis impacts the safety and security of every Iowan, of every American. Every State is a border State right now.

As Members of Congress, regardless of our party, it is our job to hold the administration accountable when it is failing the American people.

Right now, Vice President Harris, Madam Speaker, is failing the American people. She is failing law enforcement at the border. She is failing the families who will suffer because of the drugs coming across our border and falling into the wrong hands.

Vice President Harris needs to see the crisis for herself and take action. That is exactly what my See the Crisis Act will force her to do. This bill will prevent the Vice President from traveling internationally on the taxpayers' dime until she visits the southern border and reports back to the American people on how the administration will secure our border.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle tonight to join me in defeating the previous question and holding this administration accountable for the border crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2704, the Improving VA Accountability to Prevent Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Act.

I was proud to introduce this legislation alongside Congressman Chris Pappas and Senator Maggie Hassan, as well as my fellow Iowan, Senator Joni Ernst, who is a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor herself.

Last year, a Government Accountability Office report exposed disturbing failures at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to handle sexual harassment and discrimination at the agency properly. The report also revealed that between 18 and 27 percent of VA employees experienced some form of sexual harassment at work between 2014 and 2016.

This is completely unacceptable.

This bipartisan, bicameral bill will improve the way sexual harassment is

handled at the VA and will crack down on instances of harassment and discrimination within the Department.

Nobody should feel unsafe at work. The care VA employees provide for our veterans is absolutely critical, but they cannot provide that best care, the care our veterans deserve, if they are suffering in a hostile work environment.

Not only is this an accountability and workplace safety issue, it is a disservice to our veterans who rely on the VA for high-quality care, and a disservice to taxpayers who fund the Department.

We can do better, and this legislation will ensure that those who serve our veterans feel safe at work so they can do their jobs effectively.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this important bipartisan legislation.

Madam Speaker, today, I rise in support of H.R. 2441, the Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans Mental Health Act.

I want to start off by thanking my colleague, Congresswoman Cindy Axne, for introducing this legislation and for her leadership. I was proud to join the gentlewoman and our entire Iowa delegation, as has already been mentioned, to introduce this very important bipartisan bill for our veterans.

Sergeant Ketchum from Davenport served our country honorably overseas in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But let's be real: Not every war wound is visible.

Many veterans struggle when they come home with serious mental health challenges. When Sergeant Ketchum returned home from his tours, he battled again; this time with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sergeant Ketchum sought help at the Iowa City VA hospital but was turned away. Shortly after, he did take his own life.

No veteran should be denied the help and the care that they need after dedicating their lives to serving our country. No veteran should ever be turned away like Sergeant Ketchum was.

Unfortunately, veterans who live in rural areas face increased challenges and additional barriers to accessing the treatment that they need.

Our legislation, named in honor of Sergeant Ketchum, will improve access to mental health services for veterans in rural areas. Our veterans put their lives on the line every day to protect our freedoms, and we have a duty to ensure that they can receive high-quality treatment once they return home from service.

We have a duty to ensure that our veterans know they aren't alone and that we have their backs, regardless of where they live.

I am proud to work alongside my colleagues in Iowa to improve access to mental health services for veterans in rural areas and to help ensure that no veteran is denied the care that they deserve.

I urge all of our colleagues to support the Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans Mental Health Act. Vote ``yes'' in honor of Sergeant Ketchum and the thousands of veterans like him who need and deserve our support.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Sergeant Jim Smith, who died tragically in the line of duty this past Friday night in Iowa.

Sergeant Smith honorably served as an Iowa State trooper for 27 years. He was an incredible man who loved his family, his State, God, his fellow troopers, and his community in Independence, Iowa.

My heart goes out to his wife, Kathy, and their two children. I hope that the family can find some comfort in knowing that he died a hero protecting his community, as he did every day for well over two decades.

Sergeant Smith and his service and sacrifice for Iowans will never be forgotten.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to call up H.R. 682, the Reopen Schools Act, to get our kids out from behind screens and back in the classroom.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the rule. I think we can all agree that guns should not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. But these bills do nothing to stop the bad guys from illegally purchasing guns or reduce gun violence meaningfully. Instead, they punish law-abiding gun owners and arbitrarily deny Iowans their Second Amendment rights.

H.R. 1446 allows the government to delay the sale of a firearm for an indefinite amount of time. H.R. 8 infringes on the rights of law- abiding gun owners, criminalizing everyday transfers of guns between friends, family, and neighbors, including lending of weapons that were obtained lawfully.

Madam Speaker, these bills trample on the constitutional rights of Iowans, and I strongly oppose them.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today as a voice for the thousands of students across this country who have not stepped foot in a classroom or on a playground for over a year.

In Iowa, our Governor has put students' education, their mental health, and their safety first. Our schools have reopened safely in Iowa.

My kids got on a school bus this morning and went to a classroom, and they rode that same school bus home. They got to play with their friends. They got to learn in a classroom.

Schools nationwide have to have a plan to reopen before it is too late for our students. The mental health toll of long-term school closures on our students is staggering. Recent data shows that mental healthcare claims for children ages 13-18--these are our teenagers, our next generation--have doubled over the past year, according to that data.

Emergency room doctors are saying that they are treating more and more young people in crisis than ever before. Now, it is being reported that students across the country have fallen off the grid. That is right. We don't know where they are. School districts can't find them.

As weeks out of school have turned into months, and months have turned into a year, our kids are the ones who are falling through the cracks, academically, emotionally, and physically.

Thousands of our youngest, most vulnerable Americans are unaccounted for. Enrollment is dropping, especially in rural areas in States like Iowa. So now, 1 year out of the classroom is turning into 2, at least. Who knows?

We must act. We must act today. We must act quickly. That is why I introduced the Reopen Schools Act. This legislation would ensure that our school districts are using money that was appropriated from this body, $54 billion of it, on proven safety measures that will allow them to reopen safely as soon as possible and have a plan to do so.

Throwing more and more money at this problem, and then letting it go unused, is truly a disservice to taxpayers, and it is an injustice to our students.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in standing with our kids by defeating the previous question. It is an important issue for our next generation.