Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, it is always good to be here in a nice empty Chamber, the definition of debate here in the people's House. But such is the way of our current process of debate.

I always try to remind the American people that as they are no doubt all gathered around their living rooms watching C-SPAN, sitting around talking about the issues of the day that there are two Members of the House of Representatives here, and that this is somehow what debate looks like.

We just passed an inauspicious milestone last week in which we had the 6-year anniversary of not having offered an amendment on the floor of the House of Representatives in open debate. Not one Member of the House of Representatives for the last 6 years has been able to go down to the desk and offer an amendment to change a piece of legislation. That is not what the American people think we do. They think we actually sit down here and offer an amendment and we debate and go through stuff, but that never happens. I think that really is kind of endemic of the problem why people are so frustrated with this town, but I think there is something deeper going on in our country, something deeper that merits focus.

As the Marquis de Lafayette has famously said something along the lines of America is great because America is good. I believe that. But I am increasingly curious if all Americans do. We have a cultural problem in this country. We should be honest. We have been kind of fat and happy for a while. Robust economy, generally peaceful and secure communities over the last several decades, low interest rates, housing.

But now the chickens seem to be coming home to roost. Interest rates are rising. National debt is skyrocketing. Inflation is off the charts. Food prices are up. Home prices are up. Gas prices are at $5 a gallon and rising. Crime is rising in our communities, big cities in particular but across the country. Fentanyl is pouring in. Record deaths. Opioid poisonings and overdoses. Wide open borders. The cartels have control of our borders. The price of goods and services are crushing American families. That is the reality of what we are facing right now.

And I talk about those things a lot, and there is something that has been on my mind this week. This week for a lot of fathers is Father's Day. This week for fans of college baseball is the week of the College World Series. I am a big fan of college baseball, as is my son. I brought him up here to see the University of Virginia play in 2014 and again in 2015. It is next week. We have got the University of Texas, my law school alma mater, Texas A&M University, and six other schools playing in the College World Series.

But my pure sports love is golf. I was a not very good walk-on at the University of Virginia. Had I been better, then I wouldn't be relegated to this Chamber. I would be out and about making money playing the tour. But alas, here I am as a Member of Congress, and I am going to use floor time on the House of Representatives to talk about the PGA Tour, something I never really thought that I would do. It never really seems to rise to the level of something you would talk about in the people's House.

But here is the problem: Today, we have a few American players on the PGA Tour that are bolting for enormous, guaranteed checks by the Saudi Arabian bankrolled LIV Golf league. Now, that catches my attention because it gets to the heart of something that is wrong in this country. Those individuals are doing themselves, their reputations, their chosen sport, and the American communities in which they have previously allegedly invested, a very deep disservice in the process. The PGA Tour is absolutely right to sanction them for it.

This week is the week of the United States Open Championship. It is at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. That is particularly noteworthy for golf fans because it is the site of an epic story of a young, American man, Francis Ouimet, who was able to win the United States Open unexpectedly back in, I think, 1913--I'm pulling that from my memory--over a century ago. It was the site of the epic comeback of the American Ryder Cup team in 1999 when University of Texas Longhorn, Justin Leonard, sunk a 40-foot putt on the 17th hole. It is a historic venue right outside of Boston, a historic American city deeply rooted in our history.

And yet, there is a cloud hanging over the United States Open this week. And that cloud is the greed and the absurd self-absorbed nature of a handful of the PGA Tour's elites who are willing to sell their athletic soul, their professional soul to a Saudi Arabian league for their shekels. And it is absolutely an abomination.

Thankfully, most of the best players in the world are proudly and loudly holding firm, players like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, to name a few. But this issue is bigger than just a few players or a mere competition within the game of golf that some want to dismiss it as.

The LIV Golf league, as I said, is beholden to the Saudis and helping them whitewash their global reputation and history of human rights abuses and supporting terrorists, the very terrorists that attacked America 21 years ago.

The Saudi golf league is bad for professional golf for a host of reasons, from the Saudi's human rights abuses to the gouging of Americans on gas. The Saudis are not our friends. LIV is ignoring Saudi Arabia's connections to the national tragedy of 9/11 or the many other grave human rights abuses that the country has faced over the years, and it is disappointing to witness.

Handing tens of millions of dollars to professional golfers like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, and Phil Mickelson who can look the other way, ignore the questions all for their personal enrichment. What does that say about who we are?

Let's talk about the PGA Tour for a second. Total charitable dollars from the PGA Tour and its tournaments have totaled $3.37 billion for thousands of charities across this country in most States across the Union. $3.37 billion.

Let me stop for a second for those who don't follow golf and say, Why are you talking about golf on the floor of the House?

There are dozens of PGA Tour events across this country. There is one in the district I represent in central Texas, the Valero Texas Open. The Valero Texas Open is the sixth oldest professional golf tournament worldwide, including the majors, the third oldest on the PGA Tour not counting the majors, and the longest tournament held in the same city, the hundredth year in 2022.

Their charitable giving is one of the leaders in the clubhouse on the PGA Tour with $209 million in total and a record $22 million from the 2022 tournament. That is 209 million charitable dollars flowing in through the Valero Texas Open into the communities I represent. So many good things come out of that.

Now, let's talk a little bit about the guys that are bolting for the deep pockets of the Saudi Arabians. Phil Mickelson, famously six-time major winner. $133,772,000 in career earnings on the PGA Tour. Dustin Johnson, $107.5 million. Sergio Garcia, $66 million, Bryson DeChambeau, $35 million. Tiger Woods, $186 million.

Now, let me stop. Tiger said no. Tiger was offered, I have heard, upwards of a billion dollars, certainly something like $750 million to attach his brand and go join this so-called LIV Golf league, and he said no so far. That is the right thing to do. How many of us would have turned down $750 million or a billion dollars? How many of us would have turned that down? So far Tiger has turned that down, and he should be thanked for that.

Rory McIlroy has had $106 million of earnings on the tour. Jordan Spieth has had $75.8 million of winnings on the tour. They have all said no. But not Phil, not Dustin, not Sergio, not Bryson, not a handful of others who have all said, I am going to go sell my soul for $200 million. In the case of Phil Mickelson, $200 million of guaranteed money that came from the Saudi Arabians.

How can we condone a league funded by the same people who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, murdered journalists, promote anti- Semitism, and stage mass executions?

I had family who had to work in Saudi Arabia; one in the State Department, one in oil and gas. They had to be careful about whether they had a Bible with them. They had to be careful about what they said, how they acted. My female family members had to be careful about where they were, what they were wearing, what they were doing.

And now you have the 9/11 Families United that have spoken out against this LIV Golf league due to Saudi Arabia's role in training and financing the 9/11 hijackers, 15 of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia. It feels like a betrayal, the national chair of the 9/11 Families United said. My husband, who

died in the 9/11 attacks, was a scratch golfer. He was a Phil Mickelson fan. He even tried to be a pro before he worked on Wall Street. My youngest is the captain of his golf team. Our family understands the integrity that the sport requires, but these guys are not interested in any of that. And that is the story.

For those that are watching this or this clip, if you are watching this, if you are a golf fan, you have lived and breathed watching these majors over the last several decades. Phil Mickelson is about my age. When he was playing golf out in Arizona I was at the University of Virginia. We overlapped a couple years. He was good. I was terrible. Here I am. But I have been watching him his whole career as a fan. I have some friends who have been on tour. I have friends that are in the golf industry. But I am watching Phil Mickelson. We all cheered when he finally won the Masters in 2004. We cheered again when he won again in 2006, and again when he won in, I think, 2010. Then when he won the PGA Championship last year we thought, Oh my gosh, he won this over the age of 50. That is extraordinary. He is going to be able to sail off into the sunset and go out and get the adulation he deserves and carry golf forward.

Then over the last year he and all these others say, You know what, no, that is not good enough. The whole purpose of the PGA Tour is a meritocracy. You go out and earn it. Nobody gives you anything. It is a great American sport because no one gives you anything.

You walk out on the course, you tee it up, and you better your peers, and for that you win the purse. It is what draws people to the sport. An individual alone standing on the course, standing on a green with thousands of people watching, millions on TV, with a club in their hand and one ball and they have to execute.

What does Mickelson do? What does Sergio do? What does Bryson do? They sell their reputations. They sell their soul for Saudi blood money, the very money, the same wealth funds that are being used to challenge our national security and our well-being.

This isn't competition, as some say. What are you afraid of? This is another tour competing with the PGA tour. Okay. Then go prove an economic model and go out and compete, but don't go sell your soul to someone buying it.

The Saudi Golf League is exhibition golf. As many say, the PGA tour is for people who want to earn their success in the game of golf and compete against the best. Importantly, as I said--there is an old adage: Dance with the one who brung ya.

The PGA tour goes back a century. The game of golf is moving from the aristocracy of the gentlemen's amateur ranks to the world of the mid- 20th century with Ben Hogan, a Texan; Byron Nelson, a Texan; and Sam Snead from Virginia, and they built a tour.

They literally followed the sun: tournaments in California, tournaments in Florida, Texas, the South, they move up and they play up the East Coast. They follow the sun--it is a tour--and they made peanuts. They did it for the love of the game. They did it building a league. They came out in the sixties--Arnie's Army--Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and they built this tour up to what I just said, $3.37 billion in charitable giving.

In communities across the country--the Valero Texas Open, which I represent. All of the great spots around this country: Pebble Beach, Riviera, Colonial in Fort Worth. These are integral in our communities. These guys just walk away. Whatever. I don't care about building up the next generation. I don't care about what this sport means. I don't care about the fact that the PGA tour has to compete against the NFL, the Major League Baseball, the NBA, NHL, all the other forms of entertainment, college football, college basketball.

No. No. I want to look out for me. I want to look out for myself. I am going to go take $200 million in guaranteed money--or $120 million in guaranteed money, if you are Dustin Johnson, $20 to $30 million for Ian Poulter, and $100 million if you are Bryson DeChambeau.

Getting guaranteed money so you can go play golf with not the best-- with money that came from Saudi Arabia, the purpose of which is to target and disrupt the PGA tour, and nothing more. It is an absolute embarrassment.

As I said before, as I sit here on the floor of the House, why am I spending time on this? First of all, I have great passion for it as a personal matter. I have devoted a lot of my life to this sport. I love it. I teach my kid this sport. It is a sport based on honor. It is a sport based on integrity.

That is why things like The First Tee program are valuable. You learn the rules. You follow the rules. It is a meritocracy. You win by going to the course and beating the course. You treat each other with respect. It is a great sport. Now these guys are just throwing that away. Throwing the honor of your commitment to an entity, an organization, that made you wealthy for playing a game; you throw that away to go kiss the ring of Saudi royalty and get your check. Go cash your check.

Is that what life is all about? Is that where we are? I started this talking about America is great because America is good. Well, what is good about that? I am all for competition. I am all for people prospering and succeeding based on their skills and their talents: starting a business, playing a sport, whatever they are, artists. Go forward and sell your product.

You want to go start a rival league, a Canadian football league that competes with the NFL. We had the USFL for a while. Way back in the day we had the NBA and the ABA. We had the NFL and then we had the AFL, then they merged. We got the NFL with an NFC and AFC. I get that. Time changed.

But you are going to go sell your soul to the Saudis? Have some self- respect. Actually stand up for the sport that you said you love, and you want to share with the world. Stand alongside the tour, the sports franchise, that actually is building up the game, creating development leagues like the Korn Ferry Tour, which was built out of the Hogan tour, helping our communities across the country.

One last point of all this. I have heard the former President, President Trump, endorsing the LIV Golf League. Could that possibly be because Trump National Doral or Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey will host tournaments? I suspect so. Sure as heck not because it is an advocacy for what is good for the sport. It is not an advocacy for the tour that has allowed those individuals to be elevated and compete against the sports that get, frankly, greater notoriety.

Here is what is interesting about what the tour has done. These are the highest paid athletes of all time, as reported by Sportico: Number two, Tiger Woods, $2.1 billion--this is all in, endorsements and dollars earned; Arnold Palmer at $1.5 billion at number 3; Jack Nicklaus at number 4 with $1.38 billion; Phil Mickelson, $1 billion; Greg Norman, $815 million. These guys are all in the top 15.

The tour has made these guys wealthy, and they turn around and they stab the tour in the back to go chase their 30 shekels. It is absolutely unconscionable.

I stand with the tour. I stand with the players that I mentioned before, the Jordan Spieths, the Justin Thomases, the Rory McIlroys, the guys that are standing up and saying: No thanks, I am going to stick with the tour, I am going to dance with the one who brung ya.

I stand up for the tour events throughout this country that are raising millions of dollars for charity, providing jobs, providing economic growth and activity. And, importantly, standing up for this great sport, this great institution. As we sit here in U.S. Open week, what I believe is the greatest golf tournament in the world because it is open to anyone who can compete.

If you can go string together seven rounds of golf, you can be the United States Open champion. In the spirit of the country club right outside of Brookline, and the story of Francis Ouimet--made into a movie, by the way--that is the spirit of what you can do in America if you just set out to go do it.

The Good Book in Luke 12:48 says: To whom much is given, much is expected, much is demanded--depending on your translation.

These guys have made hundreds of millions of dollars playing a game.

They owe the respect to the tour and to the guys they play alongside. They owe to the communities that have enriched them and rallied around them, their courtesy of defending and standing up for the sport and the league and the PGA tour in this country that has enabled them to prosper and has helped grow this game into one of the great economic engines and sport franchises in the world.

Shame on them for walking away from the PGA tour. God bless the PGA tour for pushing back and saying: You don't get to do that. God bless the members of the tour that are standing strong, standing alongside the community members, standing alongside all of the sponsors and the people that have made that work and have built such a great institution.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for yielding. I know that he cares deeply about this issue and spends a whole lot of time working across the aisle and with our own Conference, trying to get this body to focus on this issue of spending. Frankly, that is on both sides of the aisle.

We are sitting here now, $30.5 trillion of debt. That is a number that nobody in America can possibly understand what that means. We talk about it. We say it. We put charts up, but nobody knows. $30.5 trillion, if you set out to count to that, one Mississippi, it would take you 967,000 years. I mean, think about that. It is patently absurd.

Yet, we are going to rack up another trillion and a half here in the next year, and then another couple of trillion. We are just going to keep piling it on. Interest rates are going up, and interest rates are going to keep going up, so that debt is going to pile up even further.

The American people know this. They can't live their lives that way. Yet, here we are in this body, this so-called people's House, and we haven't had a single actual debate on spending in this body the entire time I have been here, much less this year.

We just passed another milestone in this great body, the United States House of Representatives, in which we just spent the sixth year in which not one amendment was offered on the floor of this body in open debate, not one amendment.

Has any rank-and-file Member of the United States House of Representatives been able to come to the floor and offer an amendment? You wonder why this place is broken?

I mean, we just passed that milestone yet again. You never get a chance to have open debate here in the so-called people's House.

I gave a speech a little while back from this podium on this floor that I called the United States House of free stuff because that is the way people view this body.

Oh, we just got another check we can go write, another bill we can pass. It sounds good. It has something great in the title. You are talking about infant formula. Oh, you better vote for that. You can't vote against a bill that has infant formula in the title. Doesn't matter what it does. Doesn't matter if it will make it worse. Didn't matter what the power of the government is.

If you put ALS in the title, don't vote ``no'' on an ALS bill. Well, then you hate people with ALS, right?

Don't vote ``no'' on any bill that has something in the title. United States House of free stuff.

Yet, this week, what are we going to vote on? We are going to have a bill, H.R. 7606, which will likely come up, that will give $400 million to ethanol producers. Never mind that that jacks up 30 cents a gallon on the price of gasoline.

We are going to have a bill that has $12.7 billion over 10 years on wildlife recovery. Man, we are really being great stewards of the public trust here in the United States House of Representatives.

That is the problem. That is what is broken, and the American people see it. They see that we are here not doing the work of the people because we never actually debate, vote, and figure out something, roll our sleeves up and say: ``Do you know what? We have X trillion dollars of income so we can only spend X trillion.'' We never do that.

That fundamentally is what my friend from Texas is getting at, what my colleagues are here on the floor talking about.

I would ask the Speaker where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are having any conversation whatsoever about only spending that which we take in. But, no, we can never have that conversation in the United States House of free stuff because it is a hell

of a lot easier to go out on the steps and go preen and posture to a bunch of people in the media, saying about how evil people are if they dare vote against spending money we don't have.

Madam Speaker, we should do our job, both sides of the aisle, to stop spending money we don't have.

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

The gentlewoman from Texas asked: Do we want guns in the hand of dangerous people? The answer to that question is, of course not. But the question, the only question that matters, is, who constitutes a dangerous person? Who gets to decide, and why? That is the important part here. That is what we are talking about when we talk about due process.

We have laws on the books in, I believe, every State in the Union, so-called Baker Act provisions to civilly commit persons who are a danger to themselves and others.

We have such a law in Texas, but we didn't use it. We didn't use it against a young man who wasn't in school, was harming defenseless animals, was talking about raping women, was clearly not well. We didn't use it.

There are more people killed in the United States by hands and knives than rifles. I don't want a crazy guy in my school with or without the ability to have a weapon.

We should actually be serious about committing people who have mental health problems. That would actually solve the problem.

Everything we are doing here today is a pretext. It is a pretext for targeting, confiscating, and eliminating our ability to have weapons.

When people say things, it is a good idea to believe them.

President Biden: `` . . . whether it is a 9-millimeter pistol or whether it is a rifle is ridiculous. I am continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things.''

Representative Mondaire Jones: ``If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it. . . . We will do whatever it takes.''

Representative Ocasio-Cortez: Ban semiautomatics.

House Democrats just yesterday tweeted: ``Semiautomatic rifles are weapons of war.''

Future Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was applauding the New Zealand Prime Minister's commencement speech about New Zealand's banning semiautomatic rifles.

Representative Beto O'Rourke: ``Hell, yes, we are going to take your

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

Why do we have guns?

Why do we have the Second Amendment?

Is it to hunt? Sure.

Self defense? That is even more important.

The fact is, if you read the founders--Federalist No. 46, James Madison contrasts us with the tyrannical governments of Europe who are, ``afraid to trust the people with arms.''

Joseph Story in his Commentaries on the Constitution in 1833: ``The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic. Since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these were successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.''

We have a Second Amendment because we understand in this country that there are some things, inalienable rights, that you cannot justly take away from a free and equal human being. Tyrants disarm the people they intend to oppress. Those are the facts.

Jewish people in Germany were prohibited from owning firearms; 13 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis.

The Soviets instituted gun control and millions were killed; 20 million dissidents were rounded up and exterminated.

Mao disarmed the Chinese people; 20 million dissidents were exterminated.

In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge was able to take advantage of the fact that limited gun ownership to just hunters and killed 1.5 million to 3 million Cambodians.

Turkey disarmed Armenians, and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Armenian Genocide.

The South disarmed slaves and actively fought against their arming. And then in the 20th century, armed Black Army veterans, for example, in Louisiana, were able to defend against the KKK.

Even fact-checking organization Snopes said: ``We find it reasonable to conclude that gun confiscations, facilitated by laws requiring the registration and/or licensing of firearms, played a crucial role in carrying out of 20th-century genocides.''

This is not fiction. This is in our lifetime. This is in our grandparents' lifetime. This is in our recent history. This is why the Second Amendment matters. It is not trivial. It is not something you just brush aside. This is a foundation of liberty. It is who we are. But in order to sell a lie to the American people that the government will protect them from all manners of evil, while defunding the police, leaving our borders wide open--I am glad my colleagues can suddenly find Uvalde on a map--while allowing dangerous cartels operating hundreds of miles into Texas, allowing fentanyl to pour into our communities and kill tens of thousands of children--the very children my colleagues say they wish to protect.

In order to do this, Democrats in this body are willing to take away citizens' God-given right--yes, the God-given right that was mocked earlier--to protect himself or herself, or her family or his family, from harm--the very harm they foster by appeasing lawlessness, and importantly, from the very tyranny being applied to them to deny that right.

That is what is at stake, this bill; and it gets brushed aside, raise the age limit. Well, there are constitutional questions to that, in the 4th Circuit, 9th Circuit, and other circuits.

The second title in straw purchases, the very straw purchases the Democrat DAs don't even want to really prosecute, would prohibit a law- abiding citizen from giving a gun to a friend as a gift.

Safe storage would make it unlawful for me to have the 22- and the 20-gauge, propped up by my door right now in Texas, to kill coyotes and snakes. It would make it unlawful.

This will not do any good. It will harm Americans, and it undermines our foundational liberties that are crucial for a free state.

Mr. Speaker, I noticed my colleague from Texas down here a little bit earlier talking about the tragedy in Uvalde. And I can tell you, as someone who represents central Texas and the district and the county that shares a border with Uvalde County, it hits close to home.

But I would note that the President of the United States and my colleagues have suddenly found Uvalde and south Texas on a map. When we have got 15,000 people in a caravan coming to Texas; we have 700-some people, migrants, who have died along the border; we have mobile morgues being used in south Texas along the Rio Grande; and now suddenly, to go exploit a tragedy for political purposes, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can find Uvalde on a map. Because they sure as hell haven't been able to find Uvalde on a map over the last year and a half of this administration.

We will have more to talk this week about the politicization of this tragedy in Uvalde, and targeting the pretext and the false use by my colleague from Texas of ``automatic weapons'' as opposed to semi- automatic weapons.

But let's be clear: Our borders remain wide open, and Americans are dying in droves; hundreds and thousands of people across this country who are dying because of open borders. We will talk about it this week.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, today we congratulate the 2022 Service Academy appointees from the 21st Congressional District of Texas.

The following individuals have accepted Academy Appointments:

Hudson T. Baese, Canyon High School, New Braunfels, United States Air Force Academy. Austin G. Curtis, Robert G. Cole High School, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy. Walker L. Cunningham, Robert G. Cole High School, San Antonio, United States Merchant Marine Academy. Bradley J. DeMeritt, UTSA, Franklin High School, New Braunfels, United States Military Academy. Joseph G. Drastata, Canyon High School, New Braunfels, United States Military Academy. Logan J. Kitchen, Claudia Taylor Lady Bird Johnson High School, San Antonio, United States Military Academy. Austin W. Locke, UTSA, Boerne High School, Boerne, United States Merchant Marine Academy. John T. Murphy, Wimberly High School, Wimberly, United States Naval Academy. Noah A. Purify, USNAPS, Claudia Taylor Lady Bird Johnson High School, San Antonio, United States Naval Academy. Ella M. Rudik, BASIS Shavano, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy.

These outstanding students have much to contribute to their chosen Academy and to our country. We appreciate their talents and their patriotism.

I hope my colleagues in the House of Representatives will join me in congratulating these truly heroic young men and young women.

Madam Speaker, today we congratulate the 2022 Service Academy appointees from the 21st Congressional District of Texas.

The following individuals have accepted Academy Appointments:

Hudson T. Baese, Canyon High School, New Braunfels, United States Air Force Academy.

Austin G. Curtis, Robert G. Cole High School, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy.

Walker L. Cunningham, Robert G. Cole High School, San Antonio, United States Merchant Marine Academy.

Bradley J. DeMeritt, UTSA, Franklin High School, New Braunfels, United States Military Academy.

Joseph G. Drastata, Canyon High School, New Braunfels, United States Military Academy.

Logan J. Kitchen, Claudia Taylor Lady Bird Johnson High School, San Antonio, United States Military Academy.

Austin W. Locke, UTSA, Boerne High School, Boerne, United States Merchant Marine Academy.

John T. Murphy, Wimberly High School, Wimberly, United States Naval Academy.

Noah A. Purify, USNAPS, Claudia Taylor Lady Bird Johnson High School, San Antonio, United States Naval Academy.

Ella M. Rudik, BASIS Shavano, San Antonio, United States Air Force Academy.

These outstanding students have much to contribute to their chosen Academy and to our country. We appreciate their talents and their patriotism.

I hope my colleagues in the House of Representatives will join me in congratulating these truly heroic young men and young women.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.