Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore, I rise today along with my colleague, Representative Mike Quigley, to celebrate one of Chicagoland's very own, legendary meteorologist Tom Skilling, and his 45-year career as a beloved presence on our local airwaves as he embarks on his well-deserved retirement.

As the longtime chief meteorologist for WGN-TV, Tom Skilling has been one of the most trusted figures on television screens throughout the Chicago area for decades, expertly and calmly explaining the region's often unpredictable weather situations for generations of viewers.

I am especially proud to say that Tom Skilling is an Aurora, Illinois native, and a proud graduate of West Aurora High School. After completing his studies at the University of Wisconsin, Tom worked briefly on local television stations in Madison and Milwaukee before landing at WGN-TV, where he quickly became a daily fixture in households throughout Chicago and the suburbs.

Those of us who know Tom and have worked with him over the course of his career know how passionate he is about his work and how talented he is at communicating often complex scientific data to people of all ages and backgrounds. But his greatest strength is the kindness with which he treats everyone he interacts with; he is always ready to greet a fan with a warm smile and meaningful conversation.

Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating Tom Skilling and his decades of service to the Chicagoland community and offer him our most sincere best wishes on the next chapter of his life.

Mr. Speaker pro tempore, I rise today to recognize Fire Chief Joseph M. Cluchey on his over 42 years of service to the Illinois fire community as he begins his well-deserved retirement.

Mr. Cluchey began as an on-call firefighter in the South Elgin Fire Department and worked as a contract paramedic in the St. Charles Fire Department in 1981 before becoming a career firefighter. He worked hard and made his way up the ranks to become fire chief for the South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District. He valiantly served in this capacity for 12 years before suffering an injury from a roof collapse, which caused him to retire from South Elgin in 2014.

After his retirement from South Elgin, he took on a leadership role as the statewide operations chief for Mutual Aid Box Alarm System. In that capacity, Chief Cluchey served countless communities statewide through the organization's non-discriminatory mutual aid response system for fire, EMS, and specialized incident operational teams.

In November of 2016, after a nationwide search Mr. Joseph M. Cluchey was sworn in as Fire Chief of the Elburn & Countryside Fire Protection District. The district currently operates out of three stations which serve all or portions of ten communities including 2 large subdivisions located in the 11th Congressional district of Illinois.

Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore, I am proud to represent the community of Elburn, Illinois and I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Fire Chief Joseph M. Cluchey for his over 42 years of dedication and fire service to the community and wish him a happy retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the American Legion Post 1288 on their 50th Anniversary.

The American Legion Post 1288 is part of the National American Legion--the world's largest veteran's organization. Chartered in Bolingbrook on January 17, 1972. The Post 1288 has been serving area veterans and the Bolingbrook community for over 50 years. Post 1288 is active and participates in numerous activities and events such as: local parades and ceremonies; fundraisers to support area veterans; visits to area veterans in hospitals or long-term care facilities; support for youth activities such as Scouting, Boys State, and Baseball; and providing the Honor Guard detail at veterans' funerals or memorials.

Members include veterans from all branches of service who have proudly served their country and continue to serve through participation in the American Legion.

The American Legion proudly recognizes the contributions veterans have made to our country and shares their stories about their time in service. Post 1288 is an active participant in various activities including ``Gifts to the Yanks Who Gave'', Poppy Days, Veterans in The Classroom, Blue Star Service Banners, among many others. These services provide invaluable support to veterans and the local youth while unifying the community behind the cause of public service.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to commemorate the American Legion Post 1288 and proud to represent the communities it serves. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing this milestone with best wishes for many more to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of my dear friend Alderwoman Scheketa Hart-Burns and to recognize the important contributions she made to the City of Aurora, Illinois.

Mrs. Scheketa Hart-Burns was born in Fort Meyers, Florida on December 1, 1954, and moved to the City of Aurora in 1978 making it her home and her community. She dedicated herself to improving the lives of residents in the city she loved.

Alderwoman Hart-Burns is a history-making, award-winning elected official, community leader and mentor to many. She holds the distinction of being the first African American elected to Aurora City Council in 1991, originally in the 6th Ward. When the 7th Ward was added, she became its alderwoman. The ward is on the east side of Aurora, south of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad line. She was also appointed the first-ever African American Mayor pro term from 2016-2017.

A stalwart figure in the community, Alderwoman Hart-Burns spearheaded and served as a member and advisor to dozens of organizations and initiatives for Ward 7 residents and the City of Aurora as a whole.

Her ward and neighborhood initiatives include establishing a ward committee and several apartment-complex resident councils, establishing community gardens, and hosting annual holiday programs for Ward 7 communities.

Citywide she started the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon, started the effort to install commemorative street signs for prominent Black residents, established the annual citywide Black History Program, hosted annual holiday musicals for food pantries, and made holiday dinners for senior citizens and disabled persons.

She was especially committed to helping Aurora's children, founding many programs to help youth and their families. These include founding the Back-to-School Bash at Martin Luther King Park, which serves more than 5,000 students, co-founding the annual Coats-for-Kids drive which provides winter coats, hats, and gloves to thousands of students, acting as founding advisor and Mother Emeritus of Boys II Men, Inc., mentoring Aurora University Students pursuing degrees in social work, and co-founding the City of Aurora's STEAM Academy.

Alderwoman Hart-Burns was also involved in organizations serving surrounding communities, including working as the Chairperson of the Circle of Wise Women for the Kane County Health Department and the Chairperson of Weed and Seed with the Kane County State's Attorney's Office. She was a Board member and Advisor of the Quad County Urban League for 33 years, a founding Advisor for the City's African American Heritage Advisory Board, a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens, and a board member of the Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry and Childcare Center.

Alderwoman Scheketa Hart-Burns had a strong faith and was an Evangelist Missionary at Greater Mount Olive Church of God In Christ.

I am proud to represent Aurora, and I am grateful for the service and kindness Mrs. Scheketa Hart-Burns has shown over the years. Mrs. Scheketa Hart-Burns is an Aurora legend, and her commitment and contribution to the city will never be forgotten. I offer my condolences to her family and to the city for the loss of this trailblazer, and I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating my dear friend Scheketa Hall-Burns' incredible life.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of my dear friend, Alderwoman Scheketa Hart-Burns, and to recognize her important contributions to the city of Aurora, Illinois.

Ms. Scheketa Hart-Burns moved to Aurora in 1978 where she became the first African American elected to the Aurora City Council in 1991 and the first African American Mayor Pro Tem from 2016 to 2017.

Throughout her career, Alderwoman Hart-Burns spearheaded dozens of initiatives to benefit the people she represented and everyone who calls Aurora home.

Alderwoman Hart-Burns was an active member of her church, the Greater Mount Olive Church of God and Christ, and brought an inspirational spirit to everything that she did. She was my ambassador to the African-American churches of Aurora.

Although she had children of her own, she was known as mother to all for her nourishing spirit and her kind heart. Scheketa Hart-Burns passed away yesterday on June 19, 2023. She will be greatly missed and always remembered by those of us, like me, who are lucky enough to have known her and to have called her a friend.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize McHenry County's first Juneteenth celebration, entitled Juneteenth Freedom Day: Emancipation. Jubilation. Education. This event commemorates June 19, 1865, the date in which federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to ensure that all enslaved people be freed: coming two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth is a day of jubilee to celebrate the end of slavery, but it also is a day to recognize that the fight continues for equal rights and to end systemic racism. It is a time to reflect on the struggles of African Americans, as well as an opportunity to recognize the past and present achievements of the African American community.

The McHenry County celebration in Woodstock, Illinois serves as a celebration of the progress attained by generations who fought for freedoms and rights, and as a reminder of the work still needed to ensure a brighter, more equitable world for all children and future generations. By featuring notable speakers, musical performances, food, and other cultural activities, McHenry County is taking admirable steps toward this recognition and inclusivity.

I ask you all to join me in thanking Gloria Van Hof, Pamela Althoff, Deanna `Dee' Darling, Emily Ferguson, Patrick Murfin, Louisett `Lou' Ness, Regina Rakoncay, Jennifarre Urch, and many others for bringing this celebration to fruition in McHenry County. May this be an annual event that gains in popularity and impact for many years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Village of Lemont's Incorporation. Since 1873, the Village of Lemont has built a culturally diverse and hardworking community, contributing to the rich transportation history of Illinois as the epicenter of the Illinois and Michigan Canal which linked the Illinois River and Lake Michigan.

With land in DuPage, Will, and Cook Counties, Lemont currently has over 16,000 residents, many of them descendants of laborers who dug the I & M Canal and later, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. They immigrated from Germany, Ireland, Scandinavian, as well as from French and English Canada, all looking for a better life. While digging the I & M Canal, an exceptionally fine grade of dolomite limestone was discovered, called ``Athens Marble'' for the original name of Lemont, leading to decades of stone quarry development. This distinctive limestone is seen in landmarks throughout Illinois and prominently in Lemont and neighboring communities. The quarry industry attracted immigrants from Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy. Labor history was made during sometimes violent struggles for fair wages and safer working conditions between quarry workers and owners.

Home to The Lemont Heritage Quarries Recreation Area, Lithuanian World Center, the Heritage Corridor Business Alliance, and numerous vital community organizations, residents of Lemont have much to celebrate. With pride, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing this milestone for the Village of Lemont, a vibrant community ready to optimistically face its next one hundred and 50 years.

Madam Speaker, the obvious solution to this threat to our economy is for the U.S. to join the rest of the world and simply repeal the debt limit.

For years, I have been introducing legislation to do just that. House Republicans now insist that they want to drag budget negotiations into this discussion. Fine.

Both parties agree that default is unacceptable. Both parties agree that our national debt must be dealt with.

There are two basic ways to do this: First, by cutting tax breaks that allow billionaires to pay lower taxes than middle-class Americans or by cutting programs that help ordinary Americans: retirees, veterans, students, or just families that are trying to get their kids through school.

As long as Republicans insist that the only thing that they will consider to solve this problem is 100 percent on the backs of the middle class and zero percent on the backs of the billionaires who fund their campaigns, then they are not negotiating. That refusal is putting our economy at risk.

Mr. Speaker, as Congress' physicist and computer chip designer, I rise to make this simple point, that the massive levels of UI fraud and identity fraud generally did not happen in countries that have a secure and trusted digital ID system.

This is well known to residents of many States as the mobile ID, or digital driver's license, that allows a REAL ID compliant driver's license to be placed under your smartphone and to use the unique hardware ID of your phone and its biometric login capabilities to prove that you are who you say you are online or in person and to prevent anyone from impersonating you.

Last session of Congress, we came within a whisker of getting it included in the omnibus, that the Federal Government should start recognizing this proven form of digital ID.

Unfortunately, H.R. 1163 is a bill that is designed to fail in the Senate. If we start working with our Senate colleagues, I think we have a chance of making real progress on this.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. George Crabtree, an energy trailblazer and fellow scientist whose over five-decade career at Argonne National Laboratory advanced a number of scientific disciplines and inspired colleagues and friends, here and around the world.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, George eventually moved to Illinois where he graduated from Proviso West High School. He ultimately joined Argonne National Laboratory as a lab technician in 1964 and received his Ph.D.

George was widely recognized and admired as a brilliant materials scientist and champion of superconducting materials and better batteries. As director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, George bolstered the national agenda to tackle the climate crisis and build a clean and equitable energy economy. He helped pioneer early research into high-temperature superconductors and in them, he discovered new phases of superconducting vortex matter. George's research on superconductors gained him recognition as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to his work at Argonne, George was a professor of physics at Northern Illinois University for 13 years and a Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago for 12 years.

George was a luminary in every sense of the word, and his work and dedication to the global scientific community will not be forgotten. Mr. Speaker, please join me as I celebrate the life and legacy of Mr. George Crabtree.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service of one of my district staff members, Wendy Salberg, as she marks 10 years serving in my office and 15 years serving the people of Illinois.

Wendy began her work as a congressional staffer in the office of Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert, who for many years represented the old 13th District of Illinois.

In 2012, after I was fortunate to win the election to represent the newly created 11th Congressional District, which incorporated many of the areas of the old 13th District, it soon became clear that we needed to keep Wendy Salberg on the job.

Wendy has dedicated herself to serving constituents, no matter what their background, helping them navigate the world of the Federal agencies. Wendy quickly earned a reputation throughout the Illinois congressional delegation as being one of the best advocates for people with immigration and international travel issues, from simple passport applications to complicated citizenship cases.

I was fortunate that Wendy agreed to stay on and manage immigration casework for my office, and countless constituents who have worked with her over the past 10 years would undoubtedly agree. I cannot tell you how many people have reached out to me over the years or come to me at events I have attended to tell me how grateful they were for the work that Wendy put into their cases.

Beyond her day-to-day work, Wendy's value to our office cannot be understated. No matter what she is doing, she will drop everything to help her coworkers with whatever they need, whether it be advice, a good laugh, or just an ear to listen. Day in and day out, she is a warm, welcoming presence who truly embodies our mission to serve the people of Illinois and to serve those around her.

I could not be prouder to have her on my staff, and her former boss, Representative Judy Biggert, agrees. In joining me in celebrating Wendy's service to the people of Illinois, she wrote, ``Helping constituents navigate their way through layers of government bureaucracy is seldom easy, but no bureaucratic barrier was ever a serious match for Wendy's tenacity and inventiveness. When she is on your case, it is like a dog with a bone--dedicated, persistent, and completely involved. If there is a way to solve your problem, Wendy will find it.''

All of us who know her know that these words could not be more true.

It is my distinct honor to recognize the service of Wendy Salberg on behalf of the people of the 11th Congressional District and the old 13th District of Illinois.

Mr. Chair, on rollcall No. 138 for H.R. 140, I mistakenly recorded my vote as ``aye''. As a strong supporter of unions, I oppose the Perry/Foxx amendment, and I intended to vote ``no.''

Amendment No. 6 Offered by Ms. Jackson Lee

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Dr. Jennifer Norrell's achievements as she is honored as the 2023 African American Leader of the Year. Since her historic appointment in 2018, Dr. Norrell has become a central figure in the support of the district's 14,000 students, their families, District 131's faculty and staff, and the East Aurora Community.

As the first woman to serve as superintendent of the state of Illinois' first public school district, Dr. Norrell has made impressive strides in her work to improve academic success. She has cultivated an academic culture that allows students to build a sense of positive identity, healing, resilience, and overall academic success.

During her five years with District 131, Dr. Jennifer Norrell has played an instrumental role in helping to increase the high school graduation rate by 17 percent to an impressive 87 percent which is steadily improving.

Dr. Norrell's passion for improving the quality of education for students has always been apparent. Before joining District 131, Dr. Jennifer Norrell served as assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, assessments, and grants for Bloom Township High School District 206.

I am proud to represent Aurora, and I am grateful for the dedication Dr. Jennifer Norrell has shown to improving the academic quality and success of District 131 students. Join me as I celebrate Dr. Jennifer Norrell as the 2023 African American Leader of the Year.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life and legacy of Mr. Fred Rodgers, a fierce champion and advocate who helped guide the City of Aurora's young people onto a path of success.

Mr. Rodgers was the City of Aurora's first ever youth services director, a role he held for 25 years. During his time, he directed the City of Lights Sports Tournament, the Aurora Sports Festival, Stepping Into the Arts Music Program, and several summer camps. He also coordinated several city events, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations.

Upon his retirement, Mr. Rodgers was recognized with the creation of the Fred Rodgers Community Center in 2009. He believed that our youth are essential for our community's future success, and it is estimated that Mr. Rodger's advocacy work impacted the lives of

more than 25,000 Aurora children. In 1996, he traveled as part of a group to meet with former Alabama Governor George Wallace to offer his forgiveness for the Governor's racist views, which ultimately led to the Governor repenting his past remarks.

Fred Rodgers always taught Aurora's youth to work with compassion in order to be good and productive citizens. I am proud to represent Aurora, and I, and many others, know that the incredible legacy left by Mr. Rodgers on the City of Aurora will provide a blueprint for our youth and community for years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life and legacy of Mr. Fred Rogers, a fierce champion and advocate who helped guide the City of Aurora's young people onto a path of success.

Mr. Rogers was the City of Aurora's first ever youth services director, a role he held for 25 years. During his time, he directed the City of Lights Sports Tournament, the Aurora Sports Festival, Stepping Into the Arts Music Program, and several summer camps. He also coordinated several city events, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations.

Upon his retirement, Mr. Rogers was recognized with the creation of the Fred Rogers Community Center in 2009. He believed that our youth are essential for our community's future success, and it is estimated that Mr. Roger's advocacy work impacted the lives of more than 25,000 Aurora children. In 1996, he traveled as part of a group to meet with former Alabama Governor George Wallace to offer his forgiveness for the Governor's racist views, which ultimately led to the Governor repenting his past remarks.

Fred Rogers always taught Aurora's youth to work with compassion in order to be good and productive citizens. I am proud to represent Aurora, and I like many others, know that the incredible legacy left by Mr. Rogers on the City of Aurora will provide a blueprint for our youth and community for years to come.