Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the READ Act reauthorization, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass), my good friend and colleague, for championing this effort. I am proud to be the Republican lead on this bill. There are 50-plus cosponsors on it. It is a bipartisan bill that seeks to encourage and strengthen our efforts at education overseas.

Mr. Speaker, investment in basic education is an investment in the prosperity and the security of the next generation and the communities they live in, and that applies both at home and abroad.

Without the opportunity to attend school and learn how to read and write, children around the world are falling behind and are more vulnerable to extremism, violence, and exploitation.

In the Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights Subcommittee, Ms. Bass and I--when I was chairman of the committee and now she as chair--have held a number of hearings about this challenge of helping these children so they can have good lives, care for their families, and be as well read and as well positioned in their communities as humanly possible.

That is why the United States is a leader in this sector. The United States provides $950 million to partner countries to support basic education around the world, making strategic investments in improving educational access, quality, and teacher training.

While important gains have been made, COVID-19 had a devastating impact on learners, both in the United States and around the world. We all

know that from our work within our own constituencies. According to the most recent report to Congress from the ILO on U.S. basic education programs, in 2021, 24 million additional students were at risk of dropping out of school; 22 million more girls and young women were at risk of forced marriages, early marriages especially, as a result of this; and 9 million additional children were at risk of child labor, all because of the impacts of COVID.

We need to do a hurry-up offense, I think, to try to get back to normalcy and back to a better regimen of training and teaching.

Despite these immense challenges, the U.S. Government's efforts to support basic education programs did reach 33.4 million learners in 73 countries around the world, and I am very proud of the United States' efforts to invest in future generations. It is a credit to our taxpayers that they are supportive of this--and they are--as well as this Congress on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 8503, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the Securing Global Telecommunications Act introduced by two of my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the gentlewoman from North

Carolina (Ms. Manning) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim).

The Chinese Communist Party does not hide the fact that its end goal is to replace freedom and democracy with dictatorship and oppression, and they use advanced communications such as 5G networks to spread their malign influence. The CCP seeks to spread that influence further by dominating the international standards-setting bodies that set the rules of the road for emerging technologies to skew those standards and industries toward their interests and industries.

This bipartisan bill seeks to bolster U.S. efforts that are already underway, but I think it takes it even further to promote secure telecommunications infrastructure around the world.

It will require, for example, that the U.S. Department of State submit a report on Chinese and Russian efforts to advance their interests at international standards-setting bodies, as my colleague from New Jersey just pointed out, like the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, and to identify opportunities for multilateral collaboration to promote secure telecom providers.

Lastly, it codifies the International Digital Economy and Telecommunication Advisory Committee, which the State Department created to provide expert advice to the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy on ICT policy matters.

Mr. Speaker, it is a good bill and deserves the support of Members on both sides. I urge its support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Countering Untrusted Telecommunications Abroad Act requires the State Department to conduct a report on the presence and risks posed by any Chinese telecommunications vendor like Huawei or ZTE in the networks of defense-allied countries.

It also requires the General Accountability Office, or GAO, to report on Chinese and Russian telecom suppliers serving U.S. embassies overseas.

Finally, it tasks the State Department with identifying telecom infrastructure projects that will strengthen U.S. national security, and with helping countries currently being serviced by Chinese vendors to build capacity for replacing those vendors.

I would hope by now that most U.S. officials understand the threats to U.S. national security posed by tech companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, like Huawei. But we must also ensure that our allies and partners are not duped by the seemingly low cost of telecom services provided by state-backed countries. While seemingly cheap, the real cost lies in giving the CCP control over all of your telecommunications data, which they will use to spread their malign influence globally.

So I support the bill strongly, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Russia Cryptocurrency Transparency Act, H.R. 7338, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this bipartisan legislation authored by Chairman Meeks and Ranking Member McCaul would exercise oversight of the State Department's use of cryptocurrency as part of its rewards program, as well as measures to improve the efficacy and enforcement of U.S. sanctions against Russia.

Emerging technologies like blockchain, the foundation for many cryptocurrencies, offer immense opportunities. For example, people around the world sent aid using cryptocurrency to those fleeing Russia's full-scale barbaric invasion of Ukraine.

However, this bill will ensure that the U.S. is taking the necessary steps to prevent these emerging technologies from undermining sanctions, including those currently aimed at bankrupting Putin's war machine.

While the rise of digital assets like cryptocurrencies promise innovative financial opportunity, digital assets could be ripe for abuse as Russia seeks to evade the unprecedented sanctions the United States and Europe have imposed for Vladimir Putin's brutal war of choice on Ukraine.

This legislation will provide greater oversight in the State Department's rewards program, helping ensure that these hard-to-trace funds are not falling into the hands of bad actors. It also will help the State Department develop sanctions enforcement mechanisms to prevent sanctions evasion through the use of cryptocurrencies.

Given the tremendous need for humanitarian support as Europe faces the largest influx of refugees since World War II, this legislation also asks the State Department to assess how crypto can be used to support humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians fleeing the war.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), who is the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee. He is author of this important legislation, and in the past, Mr. Speaker, he served under George Herbert Walker Bush as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury. He also was the special assistant for economic policy under 41, George Herbert Walker Bush, so he brings a wealth of knowledge and information that we are blessed to have here in this House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, French Hill, for authoring this very, very important piece of legislation. It mandates an interagency strategy on how the U.S. is responding to the destabilizing Captagon drug trade in the Middle East.

Captagon, as I think my colleagues know, is a highly addictive amphetamine that is fast becoming the most widely abused drug in the Middle East. Given the growing threat Captagon poses to the stability in the region and to individual human lives, the lack of resources devoted to address its proliferation is alarming.

In addition to this drug trade creating a crisis along Jordan's border, there is growing evidence that the murderous Assad regime is deeply involved in Captagon trafficking. This narco trafficking fuels Assad's war on the Syrian people and further threatens regional stability. The administration clearly is not doing enough, as was pointed out by my good friend and colleague, French Hill, to focus on this threat, which is why we need this bill to admonish the administration and to force the administration, the executive branch, to acknowledge this problem and to respond to it.

The CAPTAGON Act will help ensure that we are countering this destabilizing drug trade which is helping to bankroll one of the most brutal tyrants of our time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution.

I would like to start off by thanking my good friend and colleague, Ted Deutch, for not only introducing this important resolution but his tremendous work during his tenure in the House, particularly in combating anti-Semitism. There is no better friend of Israel than Ted Deutch, and there is no better friend of the Jewish community that is under siege here in the United States and around the world than Ted Deutch.

He and I co-chaired the House Anti-Semitism Task Force. As we all know, and many of my colleagues know, he is leaving on October 1 to head up the American Jewish Committee, AJC.

What is AJC's gain is our loss, for Mr. Deutch has brought character and leadership to this Congress, and he will be deeply missed, and I thank him again for his very, very strong voice.

Mr. Speaker, as the Lebanese lira continues its downward decline, Hizballah has become increasingly reliant on illicit criminal networks across Europe to help finance their criminal enterprise.

Combating Hizballah's malign activity requires robust transatlantic law enforcement cooperation. This can only take place once Hizballah is designated as a terrorist organization in its entirety.

Recognizing an arbitrary distinction between Hizballah's political and military wings gives Hizballah space to operate across Europe, providing legal cover for its military wing to continue financing terrorism through its political branch.

There is no distinction between Hizballah's political and military wings--both serve the same ugly malign agenda that seeks to undermine the stability of the Lebanese state, prop up the murderous dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, and threaten Israel's security.

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the recent steps taken by Germany and others to designate Hizballah in full as a terrorist organization, and all of the European Union needs to do likewise.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, today Jean M. McDermott would have turned 94. The ``adored wife, awesome mother, successful executive assistant and cherished

friend,'' died earlier this year on April 1, and now is rejoicing in Heaven with our Lord and her husband, Jack, who predeceased her and, we are sure, received her with wide open arms.

At Jean's funeral Mass on April 9th, her two children John and Mary gave heartwarming, moving eulogies. I share them today to remember Jean on her birthday through the words of her two ``favorite accomplishments.'' The statement of John J. McDermott, III. The statement of Mary McDermott Noonan.

``Jeanne'' McDermott: a woman of unwavering guiding principles. by John

J. McDermott, III

I have recently had the distinct pleasure to speak at 2

very special, though different, ceremonies:

My daughter, Tara's wedding to Sean; and

My Mother, Jeanne's heavenly reunion with my Father, Jack,

her sweetheart of 70 years.

JEANNE'S FAITH and GUIDING PRINCIPLES.

Jeanne Margaret McDermott was a woman of strong faith and

unwavering guiding principles.

And like Jack, Jeanne was a dedicated practicing Catholic,

who was devoted to Mary, the Blessed Mother.

Notably, my sister, Mary, was named after the Blessed

Mother, having been born, not coincidentally according to

Jeanne, on December 8th, the Feast Day of the Immaculate

Conception.

And at various times, Jeanne regularly attended Mass at:

Mary Mother of God in Hillsborough, NJ; Queen of Apostles in

Alexandria, VA; and Immaculate Conception in Mauch Chunk, PA.

And for good measure, her grandson, Johnny, has spent more

than half of his life at Notre Dame, the Irish Catholic

University of Our Lady.

Known as a first-class communicator, one of Jeanne's

guiding principles was that:

``Do one more version, as you can always improve your

communication.''

I am sure that this is why, with Jeanne looking over my

shoulder from up above, I have continued to edit these

remarks right up until game time.

Another guiding principle for Jeanne was her intolerance

for anything but the whole truth, agreeing with Judge Judy,

that:

``If you tell the truth, you don't need a good memory.''

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the bill, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I want to convey my special thanks to Chairwoman Karen Bass for her exceptional leadership, partnership, and friendship.

For years, we have worked together to combat the unspeakable crime and abject cruelty of sex and labor trafficking.

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act is just the latest bold initiative in our mutual commitment to end modern-day slavery.

I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and especially Chairman Meeks and Ranking Member McCaul for having favorably reported the bill from the Foreign Affairs Committee on February 9.

Majority Leader Hoyer was especially helpful and has ensured timely consideration during this month of July, just in time to commemorate the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

As my colleagues know--we have all been through this--but in this case there were five full committee referrals for this bill. It can be very challenging getting the committee chairmen and ranking members to agree, and I am grateful to them for their good faith in coming together for this important human rights cause and making sure that this legislation was brought to the floor.

Madam Speaker, I have been working on human trafficking since 1995. I have chaired more than 35 hearings and written five anti-trafficking laws including the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Many in the United States--and I'm grateful that this is so bipartisan--and many around the world have rallied to stop

this hideous abuse, yet it couldn't be clearer that much more needs to be done.

Traffickers never take a holiday, nor can we. Because traffickers and the nefarious networks that they lead always find new ways to exploit the vulnerable, we must aggressively strengthen our laws, and we must be equally aggressive in the implementation of those laws.

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act is a bipartisan, survivor-informed bill. Karen and I first introduced the bill nearly 11 months ago on Frederick Douglass' 183rd anniversary of his self-emancipation, and we were joined at the introduction by Kenneth Morris--Frederick Douglass' great-great-great- grandson. Ken has been a tremendous friend and ally in this human rights struggle and helped us write the bill.

Born a slave--as I think many people know--back in 1818, Frederick Douglass disguised himself as a sailor and traveled from Baltimore to New York. A renowned abolitionist and statesman--and a Republican--he continued to lead the fight to end slavery, Jim Crow laws, and advance respect and equality.

The Frederick Douglass TVPRA honors this great man by significantly enhancing programs, strengthening our laws and adding new ones, and adding accountability for programs at the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and State to combat human trafficking and to offer sustainable solutions, solutions that work.

This bill ensures robust prevention through trafficking prevention education--situational awareness for our children, their teachers, and parents--stabilization of survivors once they are no longer in the hands of traffickers, and long-term solutions that facilitate healing and survivor empowerment.

Frederick Douglass once said: ``It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.''

We want to prevent trafficking from occurring in the first place. That is why we have authored this legislation. We create an age- appropriate, scalable program to train the trainers, use proven and tested best practices, and include training parents and guardians in trafficking prevention education. This bill also properly designates these grants as the Frederick Douglass Prevention Education Grants.

I know all of my colleagues are aware of Megan's Law which protects children domestically. In 2008 I introduced International Megan's Law. It passed the House three times and almost died in the Senate until the third iteration of it. It was signed into law in 2016, and now it is being reauthorized in this bill as well.

Megan Kanka was from my former hometown of Hamilton. She was just 7 years old when she was kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered in 1994. Her assailant lived right across the street. Unbeknownst to her family and other residents in the neighborhood, he was a convicted, repeat child sex offender. Her parents, Maureen and Richard Kanka, are heartbroken to this day. They have been amazingly effective, courageous, and heroic in successfully pushing every State in the Union to enact Megan's Law.

So why International Megan's Law?

We know from law enforcement, academia, and media documentation that Americans on the U.S. sex offender registries are frequently caught abusing children all over the world: Asia, Central and South America, and Europe--as I said, everywhere.

Under International Megan's Law, convicted child sex offenders who travel abroad must provide notice to the U.S. Government through the Angel Watch Center prior to departure of all planned destinations. Failure to do so carries a significant jail term. Upon receipt of the travel itinerary, the U.S. Government informs the destination country or countries of those plans.

In just a few years of working--and that is with people not traveling as much during Covid-19, the pandemic--the U.S. Government has notified foreign governments of the planned travel of 19,000 covered child sex offenders, and more than 7,000 individuals who were convicted of crimes against children were denied entry to these nations.

The Douglass bill, Madam Speaker, also requires international programs to focus on best practices in their integration of counter- trafficking efforts into their development portfolios. This way we can make the best use of our foreign assistance at the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The bill realigns efforts to meet fundamental needs of survivors through wrap-around social services with case management, including assistance with obtaining housing, life-skills training, and mental health care, while also providing long-term solutions through job coaching and training, and assistance with obtaining employment and higher education. This approach is fundamental to meeting survivors' needs on their continuum of healing.

As Frederick Douglass, again, once said: ``Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.''

Rather than quick fixes that can leave survivors vulnerable to re- trafficking, the Frederick Douglass bill invests wisely in systemic and dignified solutions by providing survivors opportunities for the education and jobs they need to become self-reliant and even leaders.

It provides, for the first-time, $35 million for Housing Assistance Grants For Victims of Human Trafficking. The number of people without housing in the U.S. continues to climb, while trafficking victims are extraordinarily vulnerable if they don't have a place to live.

We cannot forget what is happening in Ukraine. There is good language in the bill calling to our attention all of those who have been so horribly mistreated and trafficked. I thank Chairwoman Bass for really bringing a focus to foster care and the fact that so many of our foster care children have been trafficked. It is a place of extreme vulnerability. She has very good language that she has put into this bill--we worked together--but it was her initiative on that issue.

The ILO says that there are nearly 25 million people in the world who are enslaved and that most are women and children. That is unconscionable. Every human life is of infinite value. We as lawmakers have a duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable from harm.

I yield such time as he may consume to gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for his very fine statement, and I look forward to a recorded vote.

I also want to say very clearly that we have a very, very broad bipartisan group of stakeholders who are for this, including, as I mentioned a moment ago, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, the Douglass Leadership Institute, Frederick Douglass Foundation,

along with 300 anti-trafficking and human trafficking organizations, over 500 advocates and survivors, and they have worked tirelessly with us over the last 18 months, with both Karen Bass and me in crafting this legislation. We even had more. Some of them did drop out, but we will come back some day in the future to get some of that. But it is a good solid bill.

Survivor leaders like Bella Hanoukey and Robert Lung provided valuable insights and expertise for this bill. As I said, Kenneth Morris was outstanding in the work that he provided for us.

As a matter of fact, as the special representative for human trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, a couple of years ago, I brought him into one of our big parliamentary assembly meetings, and there were at least 100-plus lawmakers from the European space that heard him speak about the importance of prevention. If young people know what is out there and what is waiting--particularly run-aways-- they will be forearmed and forewarned and, hopefully, can mitigate the possibility of being trafficked themselves. He hit it out of the park, and he has been a great friend on this.

We also have 3Strands Global Foundation; the Safe House Project; America First Policy Institute; End Child Prostitution and Trafficking USA; ECPAT, with whom we work very closely; the American Hotel and Lodging Association; the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, that is known as ATEST. They have a great group and consortium of groups.

We have the International Justice Mission, IJM; World Vision; United States Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking; Shared Hope International; Hope for Justice; National Child Protection Task Force; Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, also known as RAINN; the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who also worked with us closely on it; the National Center on Sexual Exploitation; and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

They all provided valuable insights, as I mentioned a moment ago.

I want to thank Mark Iozzi and Jamie Jackson from the majority leader's office for working closely with Chairwoman Bass and me and who helped bring this to the floor today; Chris Bien and Will Dunham from the minority leader's office; Janice Kaguyutan--I want to thank her for her help as she has done before on trafficking and legislation; and Doug Anderson.

I want to thank Mary Vigil who is sitting right behind me. For the last 18 months she has been meeting with all the groups working and drafting this legislation. She has done an amazing job. I want to thank her for her leadership. She used to work at USAID. She has got a heart for vulnerable people, and I can't thank her enough for that.

I thank Piero Tozzi, our chief counsel for the Lantos Commission on the Republican side and Mary Noonan, my Chief of Staff, Tomekah Burl and Meghann Galloway, Karen Bass' staff who were also outstanding.

It was a full court press and a great deal of collaboration. I thank them and my distinguished staff and all the Members who got together behind this.

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

Madam Speaker, several pro-abortion policies are embedded in this bill, including section 4(b)(1), which states that ``any healthcare providers who provide contraceptives may not be singled out through any limitation or requirement.''

What does that language mean? Simply put, any Federal or State policy that ensures that taxpayer-funded family planning clinics are not colocated with abortion clinics would now be absolutely prohibited under the bill.

In 2019, President Trump promulgated the protect life rule, reestablishing Ronald Reagan's Title X rule that prohibited taxpayer funding of the hundreds of family planning clinics that were colocated with abortion clinics. All funds were then redirected to family planning clinics that were not taking the lives of unborn babies.

The original Title X statute of 1970 made clear that voluntary family planning projects should not be in a program where abortion is a method of family planning. President Reagan issued that rule in 1988. It was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Rust v. Sullivan.

Any future President now, if this legislation is enacted, would be precluded by law from reestablishing the protect life rule or any similar policy. Madam Speaker, Title X was intended to be about family planning, not abortion promotion.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the ranking member, for her eloquent defense of the unborn child and their mothers because there are two co-victims in every abortion: mother and baby. I thank her for her leadership. It is extraordinary.

Madam Speaker, according to the January 2022 Marist Poll, only 17 percent of Americans believe that ``abortion should be available to a woman any time she wants one during her entire pregnancy.''

When Americans were asked in late June--June 28 to 29--in a Harvard/ Harris Poll, a nationwide poll supervised by Mark Penn--and many of us know him; he is a very effective pollster--and the question was put: ``Do you think your State should allow abortions up to 9 months'' only 10 percent said ``yes.''

H.R. 8296 would legally authorize and enable the violent death of unborn baby girls and boys by dismemberment, beheading, forced expulsion from the womb, deadly poisons, or other methods at any time and for any reason until birth.

Don't believe it?

Read section 4 of the bill. It couldn't be clearer.

This bill is far outside the American mainstream and goes far beyond Roe v. Wade.

As a matter of fact, when the Harvard/Harris Poll asked whether or not we should be doing what we are doing today in Congress, they found--and I was a little bit astonished by this--that less than one- third of voters--31 percent--say that abortion laws should be federally set by a congressional vote.

Let me point out to my colleagues because mention was made of this earlier in the debate. Let me be clear, abortion is not healthcare unless one construes the precious life of an unborn child to be analogous to a tumor to be excised or a disease to be vanquished.

This legislation constitutes an existential threat to unborn children. Since Roe v. Wade, approximately 63\1/2\ million babies have been killed by dismemberment, chemical poisoning, and beheading--a number that equates with the entire population of everyone living in the country of Italy.

If enacted, this bill would nullify almost every pro-life restriction ever enacted by the States, including parental involvement laws in 37 States and pain-capable unborn child protection laws in 19 States.

I remember when a woman from Virginia formed a group called Mothers Against Minors' Abortion. That mom found out about her daughter's abortion when she was hemorrhaging in her bed. She came and testified before Congress and said: Please, we need to know. We love our daughters. Parental notification laws do work.

Sadly, these will be nullified by this bill.

For decades abortion advocates have gone through extraordinary lengths to ignore, trivialize, or cover up the battered baby victim. But today, thanks to ultrasound, unborn babies are more visible than ever before. Today science informs us that birth is an event--albeit, an important one--but only an event in the life of a child. Life is a continuum.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to oppose this bill. The youngest patients and their mothers need protection.

Mr. Speaker, the Smith-Norcross amendment to the Fiscal Year 2023 NDAA directs the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure high-quality workmanship on federal construction projects by providing each of their districts with clarifying, uniform guidance and to enforce compliance more strongly with already existing laws--especially the Davis-Bacon Act--that mandate proper worker classification and the corresponding wages.

Additionally, it requires the Corps to investigate worker classification complaints and third-party related complaints within 30 days of filings and reaffirms transparency and disclosure requirements for certified payroll reports.

For years, we have witnessed disingenuous contractors purposely hire underqualified workers for military construction projects and put them in high-skilled jobs for which they lack the needed expertise--a practice known as ``worker misclassification''. These contractors dishonestly undercut their more skilled, better-value competitors, only to have those important projects mismanaged, understaffed, delayed, unfinished, and in some cases, rebid--then properly redone by high- skilled tradesmen and women who should have gotten the job in the first place.

There are two different types of misclassification: craft misclassification and independent contractor misclassification. Craft misclassification occurs when dishonest contractors misclassify high- skilled workers as general laborers or lower wage classifications in order to avoid paying the higher prevailing wage rate applicable to the high-skilled work actually performed. Independent contractor misclassification occurs when contractors misclassify employees as independent contractors to avoid paying prevailing wages thereby reducing labor costs and avoiding state and federal taxes.

These practices deny workers of their rights to critical benefits and protections, including

prevailing wages, worker's compensation, and unemployment insurance; and communities suffer because misclassification results in lower tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments.

Additionally, the end product is often compromised by shoddy workmanship which can lead to do-overs and substantial cost overruns.

Congress has passed laws to prevent such problems and punish the offenders. The Davis-Bacon Act is critical in this effort as it requires contractors working on certain federally funded construction projects to pay their workers a prevailing wage to ensure that our federal projects are completed by skilled workers who have been properly trained, classified, and paid according to their expertise and locality. The Act stands as a check and balance designed to protect employees from low-wage, low-bidding contractors who look to do the job cheaply while hurting the workers and the client, i.e. the federal taxpayer.

When it comes to domestic construction projects, the Army Corps of Engineers procures more than most divisions of the Department of Defense. As recently as 2019, the Corps obligated over $11 billion for domestic construction contracts, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO)--the federal government's ``watchdog'' agency.

Each federal agency is primarily responsible for enforcing the Davis- Bacon protections at its construction worksites. The Army Corps has a lot of construction projects and federal construction monies to properly oversee. Unfortunately, federal construction projects in my district, including Army Corps projects at Joint Base McGuire-Dix- Lakehurst--have fallen short in oversight and compliance and have run into trouble with unqualified, subpar bidders who avoid hiring needed skilled workers. We have seen cases of sophisticated work--HVAC, plumbing and sheet metal--needing to be ripped up and redone after the irresponsible bidders failed to properly do the work.

To combat this persistent problem and ensure these important laws are being enforced, in 2019, Congress passed an amendment I authored, cosponsored by Congressman Norcross, to the 2020 NDAA directing the GAO to study the contracting practices of the Corps with a focus on the monitoring and enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act.

The GAO conducted its audit from May 2020 to March 2021 examining Corps guidance, relevant documents about the Davis-Bacon Act, Department of Labor guidance and other relevant laws and regulations. They conducted semi-structured interviews in four Army Corps district offices--Louisville, New Orleans, New York and Walla Walla--based on the district's activities and representing ``various geographical areas in the U.S. and a mixture of volume and type of construction contracts (e.g. military and civil projects)''. They interviewed Corps headquarters officials, DOL officials and four external groups including two labor unions and two trade associations.

The GAO said that ``monitoring, including payroll reviews and on-site inspections, are key to ensuring that the Corps enforces contractor's compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act''.

But the report also described implementation inconsistencies across the various districts that can easily lead to gaps in compliance with Davis-Bacon.

The GAO concluded that aspects of the reviews and on-site inspections ``may not be sufficient.'' They found that ``Corps documents lack information'' and said that ``In the absence of directions to consistently document on-the-ground conditions, like the number of employees on site'' district officials ``may not be fully using on-site inspection to ensure contractors' compliance with the [Davis-Bacon] Act.''

Ultimately, the GAO recommended that the Army Corps provide clarifying information on how they conduct payroll reviews and document on-site inspections to ensure the proper monitoring of the number of workers and work performed.

More work remains to be done to implement these recommendations and crack down on this harmful practice.

Today's amendment addresses those problems and instructs the Corps' to fully comply with relevant federal laws and regulations for: building quality facilities--labs, hangars, housing, and workspaces-- for our military men and women; providing an honest wage for construction workers; and providing the best investment for the taxpayer.

Mr. Speaker, working with partners such as the AFL-CIO, North America's Building Trades Unions, New Jersey trades like the IBEW and the Plumbers and Pipefitters, and my friend, Congressman Norcross, we can finally ensure that military construction is done with the best possible workmanship, that we make best use of the hardworking Americans' taxpayer dollars, and that the men and women who work with our military are treated fairly.

Madam Speaker, I respectfully ask the House today to adopt my

amendment--the Kyle Mullen Naval Safety Enhancements--that directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct an appraisal of and provide recommended policies for improved medical care and oversight of individuals in the Navy engaged in high-stress training like the Navy SEALS to better ensure sailor safety and prevent related long-term injury, illness, and death.

In February of this year, my constituent Kyle Mullen passed away after completing the rigorous training of `Hell Week' as a Navy SEAL candidate.

The autopsy report cited pneumonia and staph infection as the cause of death.

Kyle was an extraordinary talented and gifted young man--a true leader who selflessly enlisted in the Navy to serve our nation and protect our freedom.

Kyle was a world class athlete and was a basketball standout and Captain of both Manalapan High School and Yale University Football teams.

Kyle's mother--Regina--a nurse told me in a heartbreaking conversation in her home that Kyle's death could have been prevented had her son received timely medical attention.

Regina has many questions that demand answers.

Meanwhile, this grieving mom has made it clear and with great urgency and resolve that Congress and DOD must insist that medical care, aggressive monitoring, and oversight be provided now, without delay, to every Navy SEAL candidate during high-stress training.

Mr. Speaker, I, for many, many decades, have had a strong and very deep commitment to the people of the Republic of Georgia. As a matter of fact, after Russia invaded South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, I traveled to Tbilisi, and spent a week there, with a people at war.

As it turned out, there were three young people from my district who were stuck behind enemy lines. One being held up in and very fearful in Abkhazia, and two who were in South Ossetia. And when I went, several Members of Congress gave me names of people that were also behind the South Ossetia and Abkhazia Russia-dominated lines. It was very tense, with Chechens walking around with guns, drunk and committing atrocities. We were all concerned.

Within a week or so, we got all of the children out. We worked with the OSCE mission there, we worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and with the French, who had the chair in office that year for the European Union. That ambassador actually traveled to the place where the two children in South Ossetia were, put them in his car, and brought them to safety.

So, Georgia and the importance of our strong friendship with the Georgian people,

and their heroic resistance to Russia, has always been close to my heart.

And also, I note that past is prologue.

The same justifications Putin used for invading Crimea--that they were going in to liberate Russians--was the exact same pretext used in Georgia. What a lie and deception that was and is. Putin simply seeks to reconstitute the Soviet empire under himself.

So I'm very supportive of the intent behind the legislation.

I had offered an amendment at markup, which was voted down on strictly partisan lines, which I believe would have made this legislation more precise and also improved its chance for passage in the Senate.

Simply put, I had offered an amendment that would have replaced the vague and imprecise ``serious human rights abuses'' language with the phrase ``Gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights,'' which has a long-standing, defined meeting in U.S. law, as codified in the Foreign Assistance Act, 22 U.S.C. 2304(d)(1).

To wit, ``gross violations of internationally recognized human rights'' includes ``torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges and trial, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, and other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty or the security of the person.''

The reason this is relevant is because recently, our colleagues across the aisle sought to import the imprecise ``serious human rights abuses'' language into the Global Magnitsky Act, and again had rejected offers to negotiate compromise language that would have tied such abuses to specific treaties the United States had ratified, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture.

As a result, that held up passage of the Global Magnitsky Act, which otherwise had broad bipartisan support in the Senate, and caused a stalemate until the parties agreed to revert to the previous, precisely-defined ``gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights'' language.

Similarly, this Georgia bill otherwise enjoys broad bipartisan support, but for the vague and imprecise formulation, which now will likely have to be fixed in the Senate.

I also note that I had tried to find a solution which could have kept the ``serious human rights abuses'' language, but would have tied it to abuses that were specified elsewhere in the legislation so as to avoid vagueness, namely ``detentions, kidnappings, and other human rights violations committed in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia forcibly occupied by the Russian Federation including [] recent killings' and similar violations of human rights.''

My colleagues across the aisle, I anticipate will again say that we have used ``serious human rights abuses'' in other country- and region- specific legislation. Leaving aside the fact that that was before the recent attempted Global Magnitsky partisan end run, I would also point out that ``serious human rights abuses'' were tied to specific abuses specified in the legislation at issue.

Thus in past legislation we called out ``serious abuse or violation of human rights against persons associated with the protests in Nicaragua that began on April 18, 2018,'' or ``serious human rights abuses connected with forced labor'' in Xinjiang.

That was all that we were asking for here--either adopt a precise statutory definition, ``gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights,'' or tie ``serious human rights abuses'' to what is specified in the legislation.

But instead, we got a party line vote and a raw exercise of power, marring what should have been a unified statement of support of the Republic of Georgia and opposition to the butcher Vladimir Putin.

I have been in Congress for over 40 years. I have been in the minority, and I have been in the majority. On bills like this, we used to try to find unity.

I am sad to say that the raw exercise of political power that we have seen with regard to both the Global Magnitsky bill and this Georgia Support Act, and the unwillingness to seek compromise in the face of legitimate concerns that an ideologically-driven administration could use vague language to pursue an agenda that is not shared by over half the country, has disappointed me.

I am not going to oppose this bill, given the larger context of support for the oppressed people of Georgia. Majorities come, and majorities go. I wish that my colleagues across the aisle had been willing to compromise and find common ground, but they did not.

With passage, it is on to the Senate.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak in support of Chairman Meeks' Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, of which I am an original cosponsor.

While so much of the world's attention is rightfully focused on Russia's atrocities in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and his minions are also at work elsewhere around the world.

This is especially true in Africa, where we see the extensive presence of Russian Private Military Contractors, or PMCs, in particular the notorious Wagner Group, and extensive Russian entanglement in countries with mining and strategic mineral reserves.

In some cases, such as in the Central African Republic, we see mines guarded by Wagner Group mercenaries. Wagner Group PMCs are said to have also appeared recently in Sudan, where there had been earlier reports of Russia seeking a naval base.

We have also seen Wagner mercenaries implicated in atrocities in Mali, which seems to have taken a bizarre turn recently, with France accusing Russia of staging a false flag operation seeking to implicate the French.

Thus, the Chairman's bill is especially timely, and can serve as a template for other bills addressing Russian involvement around the world, including the Western Hemisphere, as came up during our markup.

Mr. Speaker, I support S. 812, which came to us from the Senate, and which calls for the Administration to develop a strategy for Taiwan to regain observer status at the World Health Organization.

As we know, Taiwan stands as a beacon of democracy in Asia--and indeed, an example for much of the world--and offers a stark contrast to the totalitarian model of Xi Jinping across the Taiwan Strait in Mainland China.

As a result, the People's Republic of China has doubled down on its longstanding efforts to delegitimize Taiwan and keep it from participating in international organizations.

As we rediscovered in 2020, however, a deadly virus doesn't play politics, and crosses borders without regard to diplomatic niceties.

To kowtow to Communist China and exclude Taiwan from having even an observer status at the World Health Organization is to play politics with global health.

It is especially galling when one recalls that pernicious misrepresentations were made by the PRC to the World Health Organization at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the warnings sounded by Taiwan as to the true nature and origins of the pandemic were ignored by the WHO.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to note that I, along with my colleague from New Jersey, Jeff Van Drew, also introduced legislation last year, H.R. 1775, to provide for a vehicle for victims of State misrepresentations to the World Health Organization to seek redress using US courts.

I urge my colleagues to support S. 812, and for this Administration to devise and implement the strategy this timely legislation calls for to allow our democratic partner Taiwan to accede to the World Health Organization as an observer.