Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding and for his leadership. I especially want to thank Michelle Fischbach for her leadership and compassion by offering and authoring this legislation to protect pregnancy care centers from discrimination and to ensure that they can continue their important work of assisting families in need.

Mr. Speaker, I was at a New Jersey pregnancy center dinner a few years ago when two women through tears of joy expressed their deep and abiding gratitude for the incredible love, respect, and care that persuaded them to reverse their decision to abort their babies.

They spoke of how desperate, even hopeless, they were. They spoke about the pressure that they were under to abort until they met the director of the pregnancy resource center who reached out to both of them at different times but within about a month in a gentle and nonjudgmental way.

They chose life and thanked God, the director, and the pregnancy resource center for helping them avert the loss of their precious babies' lives.

Then, Mr. Speaker, two teenaged girls took to the podium and spoke about their lives: schools, sports, friends, and their reverence for the sanctity of human life.

Near the end of their remarks, they turned toward the director of the center and thanked her for being there for their moms through those very difficult times and said: If you weren't there for them, we would be dead.

This is coming from two girls standing at the podium, and that has been replicated many, many times throughout the country. There are more than 55 pregnancy care centers in my district. I have been to many of them. They are filled with the most loving, compassionate, and honest people I have ever met.

So I find all the smear that we always hear so objectionable. They are an amazing group of women. They are almost all women, who run these pregnancy care centers.

Consider the story of Jean Marie Davis, a mother and a survivor of human trafficking.

I know a little about human trafficking. I have written five laws on trafficking, including the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. There is a big, heavy, trauma-informed emphasis on victims, and we have one now pending to further that effort.

This woman, Jean Marie Davis, is a survivor of trafficking who says that her life was saved by a pregnancy care center.

She said: ``I was trafficked in 33 States.''

She went on: ``Even though I was losing weight from the drugs, my belly kept growing, and I soon discovered the pregnancy that would ultimately save my life.''

Fighting despair and with only $1.38 to her name, she had almost no place to turn. She was connected with a woman named Phyllis at a local pregnancy care center.

She says:

The pregnancy center provided me with free resources and support, and then when the child was born to take

care of my son. I was able to realize and pursue dreams I had never imagined.

That is because these people have such compassion, not the smear we hear from the other side. They have compassion, and I am just amazed at that, that the other side says these things about these wonderful people.

Years later she applied, and now she is the executive director of the Branches Pregnancy Resource Center in Vermont. She is giving back. She was given so much by these individuals, and now she is giving back.

Across the U.S., there are more than 2,700 pregnancy centers offering mothers and their precious children an oasis of love, compassion, and care.

One report found that in 2024, $452 million in free medical care was provided. I have been to these. There are so many nurses at these pregnancy care centers. They do ultrasounds.

Frankly, when the woman does see the baby, it is transformational. Mr. Speaker, you don't get that in a Planned Parenthood clinic at all. They talk about the child being a nonentity and not a human being.

Recognizing the extraordinary care provided at these centers, some States--there are at least six of them, including the distinguished chairman's from Missouri--do provide TANF funding. Biden was in the process of promulgating a rule that would have precluded that.

We can't allow that to happen now or ever. This important legislation--again, I can't thank Michelle enough for it--would ensure that pregnancy centers cannot be excluded or restricted from receiving TANF funding as a result of discrimination and the smear campaign that they suffer.

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will soon render its decision on a very important case coming out of my State, and I do think it will be favorable. These are amazing centers, and we ought to be supporting them, not smearing them.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, Hyde amendment protections need to be added to this bill. Taxpayer funds should not be forced to subsidize the killing of an unborn child by dismemberment or by baby poison pills.

The Hyde amendment was not--I will say it again, was not--included when the ACA was enacted in 2010, nor was it included when President Biden significantly expanded subsidies during COVID.

It has gotten so bad, Mr. Speaker, that, according to a 2025 article by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 12 States, including my own State of New Jersey, absolutely require all plans on the ACA marketplace to cover abortion on demand. We permit abortion until birth in my State, as do many others. That is all covered by ObamaCare.

The House has passed my bill, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, on four separate occasions beginning in 2011. It is pending again in this Congress, but every time it has gone over to the Senate, it got nowhere, sadly.

I remember the day, Mr. Speaker, when my friend and colleague, the author of the amendment, Henry Hyde, first learned that about 1 million children were alive because of his amendment. He was overcome with joy. He had a tear in his eye. I was there when it happened, when he found out that 1 million mothers were spared the agony of post-abortion pain, and 1 million children were alive and well, growing up, going to school, playing sports, dating, marrying, and having kids of their own.

Today, that number is estimated at over 2.6 million children not aborted, all because abortion subsidies have been prohibited by the Hyde amendment in Federal Medicaid programs and other HHS programs.

It is time to add the Hyde amendment to the ACA.

I believe it is time, as well, for all of us to face the harsh reality of what abortion does to children and look beyond the slogans and the surface appeal arguments.

The so-called abortion pill, mifepristone, is baby poison. It kills the unborn child by how? Starving the innocent child to death. That is its operation. They can't get food, so they die. Then, the body of that baby is often flushed down the toilet.

We know, however, now, that mifepristone is extremely dangerous to women. A big study, the biggest study ever done, found that 1 in 10 women experienced serious adverse events.

Mr. Speaker, that is not what you hear from the abortion lobby. You hear about how safe it is. It ain't safe. They suffer things like sepsis, infection, and hemorrhaging, all within about 45 days.

Let me also say to my colleagues, another method of aborting a baby is dismemberment. It tears the child's fragile body to pieces and includes decapitation. Until rendered unconscious or dead by this hideous procedure, the baby feels pain with every cut of the knife.

It is no wonder that the polling shows that the majority of Americans do not want public funding for abortion. Abortion is the polar opposite of healthcare.

Mr. Speaker, abortion is not healthcare unless one construes the life of an unborn child to be analogous to a tumor to be excised or a disease to be vanquished.

I appeal to my colleagues: Don't ignore or trivialize the battered victim in the womb. Unborn babies need Members of Congress to be their friends and advocates, not powerful adversaries.

Abortion violence must be replaced with compassion and empathy for women and respect for the weakest and most vulnerable.

Mr. Speaker, I rise, to commemorate the work of my friend and colleague Donald Payne, Jr. on what would have been his 67th birthday had he not passed away far too soon.

As we remember Donald Payne, we first and foremost recall that he was a kind man and compassionate lawmaker who cared deeply for the people of his district, our State, the country, those in need, and especially the sick.

Like his father before him--Congressman Donald Payne, Sr., who I served with--Donald, Jr. was a dedicated public servant.

As a diabetic, he fought to lower the cost of insulin. He wrote the House-passed Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act and the Amputation Reduction and the Compassion Act which would provide full coverage for peripheral artery screening tests for patients at risk of Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) to help reduce PAD-related amputations.

I was proud to work with him on his Payment Choice Act that would ensure retail stores accept cash--which is the only available payment option for millions of Americans.

His TEST for Lead Act was designed to protect children from lead- contaminated drinking water in schools, and he wrote the DHS Interoperable Communications Act that became law in July 2015.

As chairman and then ranking member of the House Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, Donald helped lead the charge to improve America's transportation infrastructure, played a key role in securing the Gateway project for New Jersey and New York, and was a powerful ally of Amtrak.

Before coming to Congress Donald Payne served two terms on the Newark City Council, including as president, and beginning in 2005, three terms as an Essex County freeholder, which we now call county commissioner.

We are grateful for his public service, and offer our continued prayers for his soul and our continued support to his wife, Beatrice, and their children, Donald, III, Jack, and Yvonne.

Donald Payne, Jr. is deeply missed. May he rest in peace and may God's perpetual light shine upon him.

Mr. Speaker, it is an extraordinary honor to welcome His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, to Washington, D.C. We are grateful to receive not only the spiritual leader of more than 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, but also a man whose life and ministry have embodied courage, compassion, and an unshakable commitment to peace and human dignity.

He was born Demetrios Arhondonis in 1940 on the island of Imvros in Turkey--most inhabitants of Imvros were Greek until the 1960's, when the Turkish government forced them to emigrate. In 1970, the Turkish government officially renamed Imvros to Gokceada. Thus, Patriarch Bartholomew's journey has been marked from its earliest days by faith and perseverance in the face of religious persecution and nationalistic intolerance. Educated at the Theological School of Halki and later in Rome, Munich, and Switzerland, he distinguished himself in the fields of theology and canon law, becoming a respected scholar even before his ordination. In October 1991, he was elected the 270th Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, assuming the role of ``first among equals'' in the ancient Patriarchate founded by the Apostle Andrew.

Since that time, His All-Holiness has been ca]Ied many things: the ``Patriarch of Peace,'' the ``Green Patriarch,'' and, above all, a bridge builder. For more than three decades, he has labored under extraordinary difficulties. In a region where the Orthodox community has suffered harassment and intimidation by Islamic extremists, he has stood steadfast, not only defending the faithful, but offering reconciliation to their adversaries. He has endured hostility, threats, and attempts to silence his office, yet his response has always been guided by the Christian virtues of forgiveness, humility, and love.

His All-Holiness has taken that witness far beyond the walls of the Patriarchate in Constantinople. He has convened dialogues among Christians, Muslims, and Jews, creating unprecedented opportunities for mutual understanding in the Middle East, one of the world's most divided regions, and beyond. From Libya to Syria, from Egypt to Azerbaijan, he has sought not confrontation, but instead ``a dialogue of loving truth.''

Mr. Speaker, His All-Holiness is not only a voice of principle, but a leader of action. He presided over the historic Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete in 2016, granted autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine in 2019, and continues to strengthen unity within the Orthodox world while opening channels of dialogue with the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. His leadership is defined not by power or coercion, but by example--the examples of service, sacrifice, and fidelity to Christ's command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

As we welcome him, we are mindful that the challenges he faces are immense. Religious freedom is often denied to Orthodox Christians--and under constraint in many of the lands they have inhabited for centuries. Christians and other minorities in many regions still face persecution.

I thank His All-Holiness for his witness, courage, and example. Washington welcomes him, not only as a guest, but as a brother, a teacher, and a peacemaker. May his visit strengthen the bonds between our peoples, and may his ministry continue to inspire us all to walk humbly, act justly, and love mercifully in the service of God and one another.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chair, my amendment, similar to a previous amendment that I offered to the FAA reauthorization which passed the House in July 2023, requires the Secretary of Defense or his designee to certify that offshore wind turbine projects in the North Atlantic and mid-Atlantic planning areas will ``not weaken, degrade, interfere with, or nullify the performance and capabilities of radar relied upon by commercial aviation, military aviation, space launch vehicles, or other commercial space entities.''

Mr. Chair, many of us are deeply concerned over the safety, efficacy, and, likely, detrimental environmental impact of embedding ocean wind turbines, each the size of the Chrysler Building in New York City--that is how big they are--off our coast.

This amendment is not that. It focused exclusively on the serious, well-founded concerns that offshore wind turbines will interfere with radar capabilities and, as a consequence, create a dangerous and potentially catastrophic impact on both military and commercial aviation activities.

As far back as 2016, Mr. Chair, the Federal Interagency Wind Turbine Radar Interference Mitigation Strategy stated, in part: ``Wind development located within the line of sight of radar systems can cause clutter and interference, which at some radars has resulted in significant performance degradation. . . . [T]he probability for wind development to present conflicts with radar missions related to air traffic control, weather forecasting, homeland security, and national defense is also likely to increase.''

Many years later, where is the mitigation? I have asked that question repeatedly. It is nowhere to be found.

Matter of fact, a 2022 comprehensive study on offshore wind development by the National Academy of Sciences found wind turbine generation mitigation techniques have not been substantially investigated, implemented, matured, or deployed. It is not there. It is a hope, a wish, but it is not there. That puts people in airplanes, people in aviation, military and civilian, at grave risk.

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

Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Mr. Chair, let me just point out to my colleagues that the GAO looked at this at our request and found, again, that wind turbines reduced the performance of radar systems used for defense and maritime navigation and safety in several ways, and then they enumerated them.

There have been a number of other studies that have suggested that this is a problem. What does this amendment do? It says that there needs to be the due diligence that was lacking.

I asked the head of BOEM, Ms. Klein, at a hearing whether or not she had looked at this problem of the military and radar being disrupted. She didn't have a clue. It is in an open record that was held by the committee. I was shocked at it, frankly, but she didn't have any idea. We asked her staff to get back to us. They never did.

Why don't you want to have the due diligence that comes with a certification by the Secretary of Defense or his designee that this is a problem?

Other countries, Mr. Chair, like Sweden and others, have delayed or ended their offshore wind because of fears of radar interference. Sweden just recently did it.

Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris).

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the following letter, drafted by respected experts--including former Members of Congress--in the field of religious freedom, underscoring the dire state of religious freedom in Nigeria, and calling for that country to be designated a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Their stark appraisal of the situation, and the immediate threat to the lives of thousands of Nigerians, merits immediate action by the administration.

June 13, 2025.

Hon. Christopher Smith,

Washington, DC.

Dear Representative Smith: As religious freedom advocates

and leaders of grassroots organizations with millions of

American members, we thank you for sponsoring H. Res. 220

which recommends redesignating Nigeria as a Country of

Particular Concern (CPC) for particularly severe religious

persecution. We consider this a critical first step in

addressing the situation in Nigeria.

As you know, House Resolution 220 calls for the Secretary

of State to address the egregious, systematic, and ongoing

religious persecution, in Nigeria, specifically by

redesignating Nigeria as a CPC under the International

Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).

Nigeria is the world's deadliest country for Christians,

according to Open Doors' 2025 World Watch List. Of the 4,476

Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the

reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria. FIDES,

a Catholic news agency, indicated that over ten years least

145 priests had been abducted and eleven murdered.

In addition, designated terror groups such as Boko Haram

and the Islamic State West Africa Province have killed

thousands of Christians and Muslims who reject their dictates

and suppressed the rights of women and girls. Boko Haram

kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in 2014 in Chibok, Borno

State, half of whom remain captive, forced them into sexual

slavery and pressured them to convert to Islam. In another

case, Leah Sharibu remains enslaved following a 2018

terrorist raid on her school.

Most of this slaughter, however, is carried out by militant

Fulani Muslim herders, who have been allowed to target

Christian villages with impunity. In its recommendation of

CPC designation for Nigeria, the U.S. Commission on

International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) concluded in its

2021 Annual Report that the Nigerian Government has

``routinely failed to investigate these attacks and prosecute

those responsible, demonstrating a problematic level of

apathy on the part of state officials.''

Christians who are violently attacked and whose land is

confiscated by the militant Fulani Muslim herders, end up

living in Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, which are

unspeakably inhumane and unfit for animals. Currently there

are well over 2 million people living in such camps in the

Makurdi diocese alone. The Pontifical foundation, Aid to the

Church in Need, which works to help the Church in areas of

high distress in Nigeria, has collected this video evidence

from Makurdi of Christians living in such camps.

Authorities also enforce Islamic blasphemy laws that have

resulted in recent death sentences for Sufi musician, Yahaya

Sharif-Aminu, and two Muslim clerics, and ``religious

insult'' laws that led to a 24-year sentence for Nigeria's

Humanist Association head, Mubarak Bala. These laws have also

been accompanied by a routine grant of impunity for

extrajudicial attacks against their perceived violators. In

2023, there was the unprosecuted mob killing of student

Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu after she was accused of blasphemy

and the unprosecuted serious death threats against the Sultan

of Sokoto. Sokoto's Catholic bishop, and Rhoda Jatau, a

Christian woman, all three of whom were targeted for

expressing disapproval of Yakubu's murder.

On March 13, 2025 the House Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee

on Africa held the hearing: ``Conflict and Persecution in

Nigeria; The Case for a CPC,'' with Catholic Bishop Wilfred

Anagbe of the Makurdi diocese in Benue State, Nina Shea,

Hudson Institute's Senior Fellow and Director of its Center

for Religious Freedom, and Family Research Council's

President Tony Perkins--all testifying to the medieval-like

persecution currently targeting Christians in Nigeria's

Middle Belt region.

Ms. Shea stated that ``Nigeria's government has not

undertaken a thorough, objective, and transparent

investigation of the militant Fulani herders' organization,

leadership, motives, or intent in these attacks.'' Yet, Shea

noted, ``[s]urvivor accounts, collected by churches and

journalists on the ground, frequently report that their

attackers spoke Fulfulde and shouted `Allahu Akbar' or other

religious sentiments as they killed, as USCIRF noted in its

reports.''

Following the recent congressional hearing and subsequent

international scrutiny, Nigeria's President, Foreign Minister

and other governmental authorities, such as the Governor of

Benue, have undertaken an aggressive public affairs campaign

to deny and deflect the truth about their inaction to stop

the Fulani aggression against defenseless Christian farming

communities occurring in several Nigerian states. Bishop

Anagbe has even been personally threatened following his

testimony in Congress.

We were alarmed to hear reports that between May 24-26,

2025, Fulani Muslim militants waged another massacre in Benue

state, possibly in reprisal for Bishop Anagbe's speaking out

about Fulani violence in his testimony before Congress. This

recent attack was against the bishop's home village of

Aondona, as well as its surrounding villages of Ahume,

Tyolaha, and Tse-Ubiam. Reuters reports that at least ``42

people were shot dead by suspected herders'' in those attacks

and that 32 of the villagers' bodies were recovered in

Aondona and Ahume, alone. In response, the U.S. Mission in

Abuja issued a statement on X strongly condemning these

brutal attacks and urging Nigerian authorities to investigate

and hold the responsible parties accountable. Other

governments also issued similar statements. Experience shows

that the Nigerian government has routinely failed to ensure

such investigations and accountability on what have become

relentless Fulani herder assaults on defenseless Christian

farming villages.

Encouraged by the example of Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, others

are also speaking out against the government's grant of

impunity in the face of such atrocities. This is a critical

time for Congress to act, as Nigerians in the Middle Belt

area are supporting international attention.

Nigeria wields significant influence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

By allowing severe religious persecution to proliferate

within its borders, Nigeria is compounding already heightened

regional insecurity.

We respectfully ask you to co-sponsor House Resolution 220

and urge the passage.

Sincerely,

Ambassador Sam Brownback, Co-Chair, International Religious

Freedom Summit; Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director, Center

for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute; Frank Wolf, Member

of Congress (VA) 1981-2015, retired; Dr. Mary Ann Glendon,

Former Ambassador to the Holy See and Chairman of the State

Department Commission on Unalienable Rights; Douglas Burton,

Director, Truth Nigeria; Richard Ghazal, Esq., Executive

Director, In Defense of Christians (IDC); Patricia Streeter,

Co-leader, Anglican Persecuted Church Network; Faith J.H.

McDonnell, Director of Advocacy, Katartismos Global; Mark

Tooley, President, Institute on Religion and Democracy; Dr.

Gregory H. Stanton, Founding President, Genocide Watch Chair,

The Alliance Against Genocide; Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett,

President, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice;

Steven Wagner, President, Solidarity with the Persecuted

Church; Troy A. Miller, President & CEO, National Religious

Broadcasters (NRB); David Trimble, President, Religious

Freedom Institute; Michael Arthur Vacca, Director,

International Catholic Jurists Forum; Travis Weber, Vice

President for Policy & Gov't Affairs Family Research Council;

George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E.

Simon Chair in Catholic Studies Ethics and Public Policy

Center; Dede Laugesen, Executive Director, Save the

Persecuted Christians; Kelly (Monroe) Kullberg, General

Secretary, American Association of Evangelicals (AAE); The

Rt. Reverend Andudu Adam Elnail, Anglican Bishop of Kadugli

and Nuba Mountains, Sudan, Co-leader, Global Anglican Future

Conference (GAFCON) Suffering Church Network.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor one of the bravest and most highly decorated combat soldiers of World War II--Leonard G. ``Bud'' Lomell--by naming the new Veterans outpatient clinic in Toms River, New Jersey in his honor.

While Bud Lomell passed away in 2011, at age 91, his dear wife Charlotte is turning 104 in September; she and her family deeply loved Bud and continue to deeply cherish his memory. I spoke to Bud's youngest daughter Renee on the phone this morning and they are very pleased that Congress is poised to honor him.

I also want to extend special thanks to former Toms River Mayor and retired Admiral Mo Hill for originally coming up with this idea to name the clinic for Bud Lomell, as well as, his incredible advocacy on behalf of Bud and his family.

On June 6, 1944, D-Day, First Sergeant Bud Lomell of D Company, 2nd Ranger Infantry Battalion, and his Army Rangers were tasked with the nearly impossible mission of scaling the 100-foot cliffs at Pointe du Hoc and to destroy the Germans' 155-millimeter artillery guns with a range of 10 to 15 miles that threatened the entire allied invasion, which they believed were positioned at the top of the cliffs.

Bud Lomell and his Rangers, upon successfully climbing the cliffs despite heavy casualties--Bud was actually wounded leaving the landing craft but tenaciously continued and said in one interview, ``I lost half my guys''--were dismayed to find at the top of the cliffs, that Allied military intelligence was misled by decoys, and that the entire invasion was now at risk.

After forming patrols to search for the guns, First Sergeant Lomell and another Ranger, Sergeant Jack Kuhn, found the five guns camouflaged in a nearby orchard. He discovered they were all aimed at Utah Beach, but could reach Normandy as well. With Kuhn providing cover, Bud Lomell used thermite grenades to singlehandedly destroy three of the Nazi big artillery guns, got more thermite grenades and went back and destroyed the other two, five massive artillery guns destroyed, ultimately helping to ensure the success of the Allied invasion and saving countless lives.

Historian Stephen Ambrose has described Bud Lomell as the single individual, besides Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, who was most responsible for the success of the D-Day invasion.

In his book, The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw devoted an entire chapter to Bud Lomell, who he first met forty years after the invasion at D-Day. He noted that during their interview, even after several decades, he ``could almost see the tough, young First

Seargeant Lomell directing his men as they landed under the withering fire of the German forces.''

For his amazing leadership and extraordinarily brave acts, Bud Lomell received the Distinguished Service Cross--the second highest military decoration. The citation said in part: ``First Sergeant Lomell led a patrol of men through the heaviest kind of automatic weapons fire to destroy an enemy machine gun nest. Later on, the same day, while leading another patrol, he penetrated through the enemy lines to the rear and discovered five enemy 155-mm. guns . . . he gallantly led his patrol against the enemy and successfully destroyed the guns . . . First Sergeant Lomell's bold and outstanding leadership in the face of superior numbers is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.''

Lomell also received a rare battlefield promotion to Second Lieutenant, and it was said that ``there was not a man who did not feel proud to serve under him.''

Six months later, Bud Lomell served in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, where he and D Company helped capture and defend the Notorious Hill 400, which had claimed thousands of his fellow servicemembers' lives. He was subsequently awarded the Silver Star for his valor in combat. His Silver Star citation states:

``Conspicuously leading from the front, Lomell directed the successful defense of the hilltop in the face of a nearly overwhelming German counterattack midday . . . Refusing shelter and, at risk of life with blood oozing from his ears, nose, and mouth, firing his machine gun cradled in his bandaged left arm with his right hand, he continued to lead his men against another ruthless German assault throughout the entire afternoon.''

Bud was wounded at Hurtgen and again weeks later in the Battle of the Bulge.

In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star, Bud Lomell received other awards including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters and France's highest medal--the Legion of Honor.

A little further background: born in Brooklyn in 1920, Bud Lomell was adopted by Scandinavian immigrants and raised in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, along with his four siblings. His parents instilled in him a strong work ethic and he often worked odd jobs to help support his family during the Great Depression, which included delivering mail, caddying at Manasquan River Golf Club, and selling his father's paintings to guests at local hotels. This relentless drive also followed him in sports, where he became a stellar boxer and played football and baseball. He earned a partial football scholarship at Tennessee Wesleyan University, where he worked part time to support his aging parents.

Bud Lomell married Charlotte Ewart, a public health nurse in Long Branch. They settled in Toms River, where they raised three daughters, Georgine, Pauline, and Renee. They also took in Elizabeth ``Buffy'' and Jay Bergson, the children of Charlotte's sister who passed unexpectedly, and raised them as their own. Lomell's daughter Renee describes her beloved dad as a caring and devoted father who loved and valued their mother and taught them to, as he would say, ``work hard, be respectful, and do the right thing.''

Bud Lomell was appointed to serve as the first director of the newly organized Ocean County Veterans Service Bureau to assist veterans with their transition to civilian life. He later graduated from Rutgers Law School and opened one of Ocean County's largest and most successful law firms. Initially a member of the prestigious Ocean County Lawyers' Club, he resigned in protest when the club would not admit a Jewish lawyer whom he had recommended. ``I'm not going to tolerate any anti- Semitism,'' he said at the time. ``I didn't fight Nazis in Europe to come home and find anti-Semitism in my backyard.''

He was an active participant in civil life, serving as president of the Ocean County Bar Association, a director of the First National Bank of Toms River, a member of the Dover Township Board of Education, and a co-founder of the Garden State Philharmonic.

The 68,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, which we hope will soon bear his name, provides both primary care as well as specialty care, including dental care, women's health care, mental health counseling, physical therapy, and laboratory services. It is only fitting that a clinic that has already done so much for our community be named after a true war hero who dedicated his life to the service of his country and its veterans.

As President Reagan famously put it in his speech at Pointe du Hoc, the men who invaded Normandy, including and most especially Bud Lomell, ``had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.'' They were ``the men who took the cliffs.'' They were ``the champions who helped free a continent.'' They were ``the heroes who helped end a war.'' In enduring gratitude to them, Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in bestowing this posthumous honor on Second Lieutenant Bud Lomell.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the distinguished chairman, for yielding and for the job he is doing as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. I once served in that position. I know how important it is to defend our veterans so vigorously. I thank the chairman for that leadership. I thank the ranking member as well for his support of this important piece of legislation.

Let me just begin.

Today, the House of Representatives has the opportunity to further recognize and honor one of the bravest and most highly decorated combat soldiers of World War II, Leonard G. ``Bud'' Lomell, by naming the new veterans outpatient clinic in Toms River, New Jersey, in his honor.

While Bud Lomell passed away in 2011 at the age of 91, his dear wife, Charlotte, is turning 104 in September, and she and her family deeply loved Bud and continue to deeply cherish his memory. I spoke to Bud's youngest daughter, Renee, again this morning. They are very pleased that Congress is poised to honor him today.

I also extend my special thanks to former Toms River mayor and retired admiral, Mo Hill, for originally coming up with this idea to name the clinic for Bud Lomell, as well as his incredible advocacy on behalf of Bud and his family.

On June 6, 1944, D-day, First Sergeant Bud Lomell of D Company, 2nd Ranger Infantry Battalion, and his Army Rangers were tasked with the nearly impossible mission of scaling the 100-foot cliffs at Pointe du Hoc and

to destroy the Germans' 155-millimeter artillery guns, which have a range of between 10 and 15 miles, that threatened the entire invasion which they believed were positioned at the top of the cliffs.

Bud Lomell and his Rangers, upon successfully climbing the cliffs despite heavy casualties, were dismayed to find when they got to the top of the cliffs that the Allied military intel was misled by decoys and that the entire invasion was now at risk. Bud, I know parenthetically, was actually wounded leaving the landing craft but tenaciously continued. In one interview, he said: I lost half my guys.

First Sergeant Lomell and another Ranger, Sergeant Jack Kuhn, found the five guns camouflaged in a nearby orchard. He discovered they were all aimed at Utah Beach, although they could easily reach Normandy as well. Remember, they have a 10-to-15-mile range. They could have taken out ships, landing craft, and, of course, the infantry soldiers and others making the beachheads.

With Kuhn providing cover, Bud Lomell used thermite grenades to singlehandedly destroy three of the Nazi big artillery guns, then got more thermite grenades and went back and destroyed the other two. Five massive artillery guns were utterly destroyed, ultimately helping to ensure the success of the Allied invasion and saving countless lives.

Historian Stephen Ambrose has described Bud Lomell as the single individual, besides Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, as the most responsible for the success of D-day.

In his book, ``The Greatest Generation,'' Tom Brokaw devoted an entire chapter to Bud Lomell, who he first met 40 years after the invasion of D-day. He noted that during their interview, even after several decades--these are his words--he ``could almost see the tough, young First Sergeant Lomell directing his men as they landed under the withering fire of German forces.''

For his amazing leadership and extraordinarily brave acts, Bud Lomell received the Distinguished Service Cross. As we all know, that is the second highest military decoration. The citation said in part: ``First Sergeant Lomell led a patrol of men through the heaviest kind of automatic weapons fire to destroy an enemy machine gun nest. Later on the same day, while leading another patrol, he penetrated through the enemy lines to the rear and discovered five enemy 155-millimeter guns. . . .

``[He] gallantly led his patrol against the enemy and successfully destroyed the guns . . . . First Sergeant Lomell's bold and outstanding leadership in the face of superior numbers is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.''

Lomell also received a rare battlefield promotion to second lieutenant, and it was said that ``there was not a man who did not feel proud to serve with him.''

Six months later, Bud Lomell served in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, where he and D Company helped capture and defend the notorious Hill 400, which had claimed thousands of his fellow servicemembers' lives.

He subsequently received the Silver Star for his valor in combat, and that citation says in pertinent part: ``Conspicuously leading from the front, Lomell directed the successful defense of the hilltop in the face of nearly overwhelming German counterattack midday . . . . [Refusing] shelter and at risk of his life with blood oozing from his ears, nose, and mouth, firing his machine gun cradled in his bandaged left arm with his right hand, he continued to lead his men against another ruthless German assault throughout the entire afternoon.''

What an amazing, amazing hero. He was wounded at Hurtgen and again several weeks later at the Battle of the Bulge. In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star, Bud Lomell received other awards, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart with two oakleaf clusters, and France's highest medal, the Legion of Honor. Those are just some of the most remembered ones. There were others as well.

As was pointed out by my colleagues, he became an unbelievably effective lawyer, had his own law firm, and was very active in the community in Ocean County. He was even the head of Veterans Services in Ocean County, the first person to take on that position.

As President Reagan famously said in his speech at Pointe du Hoc, the men who invaded Normandy, including and most especially Bud Lomell, ``had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.'' They were ``the men who took the cliffs.'' They were ``the champions who helped free a continent.'' They were ``the heroes who helped end a war.''

Mr. Speaker, in enduring gratitude to them, I ask my colleagues to vote for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago today, the infamous holding of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were reversed by the Dobbs decision, brilliantly written by Justice Samuel Alito, who hails from my State and from my home county, joined by the majority of the Supreme Court.

They said this: ``The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion . . .''

They went on to say: ``. . . the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.''

A new national debate on abortion began 3 years ago. While there will be setbacks along the way, every human rights struggle has them. I believe that growing numbers of Americans are finally recognizing the cheap sophistry, the megadeception, and the culture of denial that devalues and disrespects unborn baby girls and unborn baby boys and trivializes the harm suffered by women.

The comprehensive 2025 nationwide Marist Poll found that Americans are against taxpayer-funded abortion, both at home and overseas in our foreign aid; strongly support pregnancy care centers, I mean very strongly support them; and want significant restrictions on abortion.

A large number of elected representatives have passed pro-life laws to protect unborn children, including the State of Texas; and when a heartbeat can be detected at around 6 weeks in States like Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina; or when the child suffers excruciating physical pain, as we know they do, from the abortion procedure, particularly as the child is being dismembered. That is a procedure used to kill these children at about 12 to 15 weeks. To date, 24 States have enacted pro-life laws to protect unborn children and women from the violence of abortion.

Meanwhile, I am happy to say there are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States, each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and care for both mothers and their precious children.

Abortion extremists in several States, on the other hand, including in my own State of New Jersey, have enacted anti-child laws that legally authorize killing unborn babies right up until the moment of birth and also forcing taxpayers to subsidize the violent deed.

Twice the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed extremist legislation that would have explicitly sanctioned abortion throughout all 9 months of pregnancy, again, right up to the moment of birth, and would have nullified even modest restrictions enacted over the past half century, including informed consent, waiting periods, and parental notification statutes.

Let me just point out to my colleagues, the so-called abortion pill, mifepristone, is baby poison. It kills the unborn infant by starving the innocent child to death.

I have done a lot of work on the Foreign Affairs Committee over the years on food security. I have written two bills that passed the House, called the Global Food Security Act. I am all about, as we all are, mitigating hunger in our hometowns and across the world. What does mifepristone do? It starves the baby to death. The little child can't get the nutrients he or she needs to survive.

This statement by Dr. Francis makes it clear:

It leads to starvation and eventual death to the fetal

human being.

We also know now, however, that mifepristone is extremely dangerous to women as well, and this is especially important because this dangerous drug is used to procure abortion 60 percent of the time, 6 out of 10 abortions in the United States.

On April 28, 2015, the Ethics and Public Policy Center released a report titled: ``The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.'' The key findings were that women who take this drug experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, and other serious adverse events within about 45 days of taking it. It was the largest study ever, known study of the abortion pill, 28 times as many abortions as were included in all FDA- cited clinical trials combined. This is the megastudy, and it found what was not found earlier because in many cases those trials were sham trials.

Let me also point out that it needs to be revisited. We call on the FDA to look at what has been done to women because of this terrible, terrible abortion drug.

Let me just conclude before yielding to my very distinguished colleagues: I believe that future generations of Americans will some day look back on us and wonder how and why a society that bragged about its commitment to

human rights could have legally sanctioned and aggressively promoted abortion by child starvation or by dismemberment, beheading, chemical poisoning, and forced expulsion from the womb. I call on my colleagues to defend life.

I also would point out, in an information age, they will wonder, as I do now, how was it that so many were deceived into believing that somehow abortion is safe. It is never safe for the baby, and it is certainly not safe for the mother, as well.

The injustice of abortion violence need not be forever, and we stand united in trying to protect those innocent human beings.

I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson), our very distinguished Speaker of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our very distinguished Speaker for his remarks. No one is more articulate, more passionate, or more informed on the issues of life across the board than our Speaker, and what a leader he is. I can't thank Speaker Johnson enough for his leadership. It is for times such as this he is here and doing a tremendous job.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller).

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend (Mrs. Miller of Illinois) for her leadership and legislation. We have to get that passed. She has been a tremendous spokeswoman for years and to this day, so I thank her very much.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Fulcher), my good friend and colleague who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Madam Speaker, I thank Russ Fulcher for his leadership as well. He is on point.

Madam Speaker, I recognize the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), a distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee, a very good friend, and a very powerful voice on so many issues, including defending the unborn.

Madam Speaker, I thank Andy Biggs for his leadership for so many years and for his articulate protection in defense of innocent human life, which, again, was on full display today. I really appreciate his leadership.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Shreve), a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and we serve together on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his strong statement. It is really an honor to serve with him on the Foreign Affairs Committee. We have many battles there as some try to push international funding for abortion.

We have a couple more speakers who will be joining us. One will be the presiding chair, who is making her way down to the podium. I thank her for her leadership, as well.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for reminding us of that very profound truth from ``Horton Hears a Who!'' ``A person is a person, no matter how small.'' I love that.

I remind my colleagues that when we talk about pregnancy care centers--I briefly mentioned them earlier--they are just areas where women find help during their unintended pregnancies and afterward.

I was speaking at a pregnancy care center fundraiser some years ago, and there were two women who got up and thanked the director of the center, who was out near an abortion clinic just gently and very nonjudgmentally saying: Please reconsider. We can help you.

The two women who spoke decided right there, when they were right outside the abortion clinic and were going to abort their babies--they reconsidered, and they had their children. They thanked, with tears, that director. She was there that day between both of them and an irrefutable, unchangeable decision that would have ended the lives of their children.

Later on in the program, two young girls got up. They were teenagers, 12, 13, or 14 years old. They both stood next to the podium, side by side, and talked about sports. They talked about the value of life. It was a very good speech. At the end, they turned to the director and said: Thank you. Had you not been outside of that clinic that day 12, 13, or 14 years ago, we would have been dead.

That is the reality. We are trying to save precious lives.

Birth is an event. It is not the beginning of life. It is an event that happens to each and every one of us. Children, once born, are incredibly vulnerable. They need to be held, fed, and loved.

The idea that somehow before birth there is a nonperson there is absolutely illogical and absurd. We need to love them both. Love the women the way these wonderful pregnancy care center leaders do, and also love their babies and care for both. That is what we need to be doing as a Congress. We need to step up and do more.

Andy Biggs mentioned the over 60 million babies who have died from abortions over the years. That number is staggering. It is numbing to think so many children have lost their lives.

My wife, Marie, and I met in the pro-life movement more than 50 years ago. We were both student activists in New Jersey, at The College of New Jersey. We also worked with so many through outreach, both in the churches as well as in the secular space, with post-abortive women, to love them, too, and tell them that there is a way forward. The loss of that child is heartbreaking in the extreme, but there is a path forward. There is reconciliation. There is a way to find peace even after the fact.

My wife and I know many women who have had abortions. One woman, Alveda King, the niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, has said, parenthetically, in one of her speeches: ``How can the dream survive?'' The dream she is talking about is that of her uncle, Martin Luther King. If we murder the children, how can the dream survive?

She has had two abortions, and she knows the reconciliation that God can provide. Now, she speaks out to other women to say that there is a way forward.

I encourage post-abortive women to know that there are many out there, many loving people, mostly women, who will reach out and help you in that very difficult time.

I can't thank enough my colleagues who have participated.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McGuire), my colleague who is a member of the Armed Services Committee and a distinguished Member of this body.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend and colleague and welcome him to the House. He is doing a great job. I thank him.

I would again point out that we do have one final speaker on his way, Dr. Bob Onder, who is the new co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. He will be here momentarily.

I will say, as we are awaiting his arrival, life is the first human right. If we don't have that, every other right--religion, speech, every assembly--falls. Republicans are trying to on our side and we need friends on the Democrat side to join us and to say that the most fundamental of all human rights is the right to life.

Ultrasound has exploded any myth that somehow the child is not human and not alive. My wife and I have four children. We had ultrasounds with them. We have nine grandchildren. Each of those grandchildren had a very, very significant ultrasound.

The modern ultrasound today, the details that it depicts of that baby moving, sucking his or her thumb, we see that and we know we are parents. We are not going to become a parent. We are not expectant. We know we are a parent because we have seen our child. The bonding begins even more earnestly after viewing that child on the ultrasound.

We have got to do far more. We called on the President, and the President is pro-life. I am happy to say that. He has done much by way of executive orders and also by reversing previous executive orders that were anti-life. I could go through all of them.

I think we are on the road now to protecting the innocent and the most vulnerable. I have so many good friends on the Democrat side of the aisle. I ask them to reconsider. There needs to be a reevaluation. The surface appeal arguments that have prevailed for 50 years about abortion and the slogans that have prevailed with so many need to be pierced and exposed for what they are.

One of them, as I said in my opening, is about how safe abortion is to the mom. Now we have this abortion pill. The new data shows beyond any reasonable doubt almost 11 percent of the women who take the abortion pill, mifepristone, are suffering very serious consequences within 45 days. That study needs to enlighten the FDA and others within our government to say the past trials were sham trials.

Let's not forget RU-486, the abortion pill, which was brought over by Bill Clinton. It was done in a way I find appalling. He sent FDA Commissioner Kessler to Roussel-Uclaf, the company marketing it, and told him to please bring the abortion pill to the United States. The trials, like I said, were not honest.

Then President Obama--and he was doubled down on by Biden--said don't report adverse events when somebody takes this pill. He said don't report them and that we don't have to.

How do we know if any drug is effective or is healthy and does not pose a risk if we don't report adverse events? Name a drug that says there is an adverse way of saying--that there is an adverse event and saying this drug caused this and sometimes it results in a new black box warning. We have seen that with a number of drugs over the years where they found out, oh, my God, there has been a subsequent, unanticipated consequence, a deleterious effect to the user. Let's get that out. That is not the case with mifepristone.

The Biden administration said nothing. They said to say nothing. That has to change because this new study that was just released 2 months ago shatters any thought that somehow this was a safe drug for women. It is not. It is very, very dangerous.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Onder), a new member of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and our co- chair. The gentleman also serves on the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Education and Workforce, and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Representative from Missouri (Mr. Onder) for his tremendous work, including in the legislature before he came here. He was the author of several important initiatives. We are very grateful for that. We thank him and really appreciate him. It is an honor to have him as a co-chair of our Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their important statements today. I will just say that we will be tenacious in defense of life. We will never quit. We pray and hope for reconciliation in America when it comes to this and all other issues that so seriously divide us.

Mr. Speaker, three years ago today (June 24th), the infamous holdings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were reversed by the Dobbs decision brilliantly written by Justice Samuel Alito--joined by the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court--which said: ``The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion'' and then went on ``to return to the people and their elected representatives . . . the authority to regulate or prohibit abortion.''

A new national debate on abortion began three years ago--and while there will be setbacks along the way--I believe that growing numbers of Americans are finally recognizing the cheap sophistry, mega deception and pro-abortion culture of denial that devalues and disrespects unborn baby girls and boys and trivializes the harm suffered by women.

The comprehensive 2025 nationwide Marist abortion poll found that Americans are against taxpayer funding of abortion at home and in foreign aid, strongly support pregnancy care centers and want significant restrictions on abortion.

A large number of elected representatives have passed pro-life laws to protect unborn children including Texas, and when a heartbeat can be detected at around 6 weeks--Florida Georgia, Iowa, South Carolina--or when the child suffers excruciating physical pain from the abortion procedure at 12-15 weeks.

To date, 24 states have enacted pro-life laws to protect unborn children and women from the violence of abortion.

Meanwhile, there are more than 2,700 pregnancy resource centers throughout the United States--each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and care for both mothers and their precious children.

Abortion extremists in several states, on the other hand, including my own state of New Jersey, have enacted anti-child laws that legally authorize killing unborn babies right up to the moment of birth while forcing taxpayers to subsidize the violent deed.

Twice the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed extremist legislation that would have explicitly sanctioned abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy--right up until birth--and would have nullified even modest restrictions enacted over the past half century, including informed consent, waiting periods and parental notification statutes.

The so-called abortion pill--mifepristone--is baby poison that kills the unborn infant by starving the innocent child to death.

We now know however, that mifepristone is extremely dangerous to women as well and this is especially important because this dangerous drug is used to procure at least six out of ten abortions in the United States.

On April 28, 2025, the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) released a report entitled, ``The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.'' This report, led by researcher Jamie Bryan Hall, is the first in an ongoing series.

Key Finding: The report found that more than one out of ten (10.93 percent) women who take the chemical abortion drug mifepristone experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days.

Study Methods: EPPC analyzed data from an all-payer insurance claims database that includes 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions between 2017-2023.

Large Dataset. EPPC states that this is the ``largest-known study of the abortion pill'' and includes ``28 times as many [abortions] as were included in all FDA-cited clinical trials combined.''

Recent Data: While the EPPC study uses data that is no older than 2017, EPPC notes that ``the FDA approval of mifepristone relies on data from more than a decade ago.''

Representative Sample: EPPC explains that this ``real-world, post- market study'' is ``representational of the women who obtain mifepristone abortion in the U.S.'' Unlike other clinical trials that have been conducted, this study does not recruit ``a prescreened group of generally healthy women.''

Policy Implications: The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decision under the Obama and Biden Administrations to progressively weaken the safety protocols around mifepristone is based on old, flawed data.

On the Mifeprex label, the FDA claims that less than 0.5 percent of women taking mifepristone experience serious adverse reactions. This claim is based on ten older clinical trials studying a combined total of 30,966 participants. The recent report suggests that the number of serious adverse events is at least 22 times higher.

FDA has conveniently failed to collect comprehensive safety data while making unsupported claims that mifepristone is safe.

Future generations will someday look back on us and wonder how and why a society that bragged about its commitment to human rights could have legally sanctioned and aggressively promoted abortion by child starvation, beheadings, dismemberment, chemical poisoning, and forced expulsion from the womb.

And in an information age how so many were deceived into believing that abortion was safe.

The injustice of abortion violence need not be forever.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 4 o'clock and 27 minutes

p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of H. Res. 481, authored by my good friend Mr. Van Drew.

This resolution condemns the shocking and horrifying spike in antisemitic attacks on U.S. soil, including the recent murderous attacks in Boulder, Colorado, at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and the attack on Gov. Shapiro in Pennsylvania.

It rightfully points out that these attacks are ideologically motivated--that is politically motivated.

What a sad thing to have to say--in our country, a growing number of people are embracing a political ideology that leads them to murder Jews. All of the recent murder attacks have been carried out by some who identified closely with antisemitic hatred of Israel, organized around the rhetoric of Palestinian terrorism.

And in each case the attackers chose not to attack Israel at all-- they decided to murder Americans who happen to be Jewish. In their twisted minds, any Jewish person substitutes for Israel as a target for their sick hate.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the fight against this ideology, which has repeatedly in recent weeks proven to be an incitement to terroristic murder, needs to be a top priority in the U.S. Government.

In the past two months I met with Harmeet Dhillon, the new Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, who will be walking point on this issue within the Department of Justice. I also met with Yehuda Kaploun, President Trump's nominee to the Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism--he will lead this fight internationally, within the State Department.

These are both extraordinarily capable and energetic people--and determined. I have no doubt they will do excellent work--they understand, they can name, and will fight the poisonous ideology that is motivating murder in America today.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend, Dan Evans, for introducing this resolution condemning the antisemitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado in which the attacker threw a Molotov cocktail while shouting an anti-Israel slogan.

This terror attack underlines the importance of ramping up the vetting of everyone who applies to enter the United States, and of vigorously, quickly, and responsibly removing from the U.S. people who violate the terms of their visas.

I've chaired seventeen congressional hearings on antisemitism--my first one was in 1997--so I have seen the sickening rise of left-wing antisemitism in the United States and Europe.

At a Congressional hearing I chaired in 2002, Dr. Shimon Samuels of the Wiesenthal Center in Paris testified and said, ``The Holocaust for 30 years after the war acted as a protective Teflon against blatant anti-Semitic expression (especially in Europe). That Teflon has eroded, and what was considered distasteful and politically incorrect is becoming simply an opinion. But,'' he warned ominously, ``cocktail chatter at fine English dinners can end as Molotov cocktails against synagogues.''

He was sadly right--we saw in the following years how antisemitism spread through the political elites of progressive Europe, and was followed by dramatic and terrifying increases in antisemitism throughout European societies--and then the increase in murderous attacks.

Now we see something like what Dr. Samuels talked about is happening in our country--the antisemitism that has crept into progressive America opened the door to more aggressive forms of antisemitism at American universities. And the antisemitic riots at universities, excused or condoned by America's educational elite, has empowered a murderous breed antisemitic extremists that perpetrated the recent wave of attacks.

Our response has to challenge this antisemitism at every stage--as elected officials, we have a responsibility to denounce antisemitism whenever it rears its ugly head, whenever it tries to marginalize or humiliate or exclude a Jewish person due to his or her faith. We have to fight it at the university level, at the administration is gearing, up to do, by preventing public universities from being turned into sanctuaries for antisemitic riots and threats. And we have to fight it at the law enforcement and immigration level, by providing community security and rigorously vetting people coming in to our country.

Mr. Speaker, one of my constituents, Ms. Rebekah Fischoff, graduates today from Rutgers University at Camden.

As a student at Rutgers-Camden and before that at Brookdale Community College in my

district, Ms. Fischoff has been an outstanding advocate for higher education reforms, particularly with regard to investment in student aid and greater professional development opportunities for students. I first met Ms. Fischoff when she came to my office to discuss legislation regarding higher education, and I was struck by her poise and professionalism, as well as her personal story. I'd like to congratulate Ms. Fischoff on an outstanding academic career and to wish her the best in all her future endeavors. It is my pleasure to include in the Record, her personal account of her work and advocacy, from her time as an undergraduate student:

My name is Rebekah Fischoff, and I am currently a senior at

Rutgers University graduating from Rutgers-Camden on May

21st, 2025, with a degree in Business Administration. I

simultaneously work at Two River Wealth Management Group at

Ameriprise Financial as a Client Service Manager three days a

week, while studying to become a financial advisor. I was

invited to and was inducted into the Rutgers-Camden Chapter

of Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society, (an honor by

invitation afforded to the top 10% of business students). In

addition, this spring as was the case last year, I was again

selected to join the Rutgers Advocacy Corps, to lobby and

advocate on Capitol Hill for increased investments in federal

financial aid. I previously served as the Graduate Trustee on

Brookdale Community College's Board of Trustees. My path that

led me to Brookdale was fortuitous but was far from planned.

My father's health downturn and subsequent long-term

rehabilitation, coupled with his income loss, altered my

original plans to attend either the College of William & Mary

or the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University

of Maryland, forcing me to change plans. I was fortunate to

qualify for the New Jersey STARS Program, a program that

allows academically qualified students to attend tuition-free

for up to five semesters. It wasn't long until a fortuitous

introduction led me to join the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society

(PTK) and the Honors Program. Soon after I was appointed Vice

President of Scholarship for PTK, we were challenged by

Brookdale President Dr. David M. Stout to help develop a Peer

Mentoring Program for incoming students. As a result of our

efforts, I earned a Distinguished Chapter Officer designation

at the regional and International PTK Conventions. Feeling

the obligation to repay Brookdale for the successes it

afforded me, I saw that opportunity presented if I were able

to win the election for the Graduate Trustee position. With

the good fortune of being supported by those who believed in

me, I won the election and by taking Rutgers classes here at

the Brookdale campus, I found a way to stay engaged in the

school that I love and to repay in a small way, my gratitude.

After I took office as a Graduate Trustee, I actively

engaged with Brookdale's student body and advocated and

championed various interests. This included promoting

awareness of the transferability process and requirements,

enhancing the expansion and marketing of our Honors Program,

the ongoing growth and development of the peer mentoring

program, improving financial literacy resources for all

students, ensuring student satisfaction with the advising

department, and emphasizing the importance of soft skills and

interpersonal abilities. With the help of President Dr. David

M. Stout, we revived the Graduate Trustee Advisory Council on

campus. This initiative will play a pivotal role in enhancing

student involvement and engagement in the college's decision-

making processes. The purpose of this council is to bring

together a diverse cohort--dedicated and committed--fostering

multiple perspectives of the student body. By amplifying

student voices, this initiative ensures their concerns are

heard but also prepares future leaders, providing them with

invaluable experiential learning opportunities. Serving on

this council could serve as a catalyst for inspiring students

to pursue the Graduate Trustee position themselves, ensuring

a succession of well-prepared and confident representatives

on the Board. This program will enhance the effectiveness of

serving as Graduate Trustee by adequately hearing the voice

of the student body while also affording members the

opportunity to engage in the process. The Board of Trustees

has been very supportive of this program, and it is set to

become a permanent fixture of the college, ensuring the

serving Graduate Trustee is better equipped to bring the

voice of the students to the table.

Among the various initiatives that I advocated for during

my term, the importance of the transferability of credits

process was especially important to me. Community colleges

and four-year institutions need to be better aligned to

ensure a streamlined process of the transferability of

credits. Many students go to community college for

affordability, proximity, or the desire to explore programs

and interests, but students need transparency early on about

whether these credits will transfer. Students may take

courses at the community college but later find out that

those courses won't transfer to the four-year institution,

wasting students' time, money, energy--and if the students

are on financial aid, they're also wasting federal funding.

Students are essentially using the federal funding twice if

they need to retake a course because the credits would not

transfer.

One bill that had been introduced last Congress, H.R. 2957,

``Utilize Accountability and Transparency Policies that

Reflect Needs of Community Colleges could help this issue

because this bill would hold the four-year institutions

accountable for how many credits will transfer and how much

won't. There are limited resources online regarding the

transferability of credits, highlighting the significance of

this bill being enacted. This lack of transparency affects

many areas including student satisfaction, how long they'll

stay in school, how much federal aid they'll use, the cost of

college, and when they'll graduate. Students are hard-pressed

for time and needing and using this federal funding twice is

a waste. Similar legislation will encourage and influence

these four-year institutions to accept more credits and

transferability pathways because they will be held

accountable.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his support and for yielding this time.

Mr. Speaker, every year under Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party, tens of thousands of young women and men, average age 28, are murdered in cold blood to steal their internal organs for profit or to be transplanted into Communist Party cadres, leaders and members alike.

These crimes against humanity are unimaginably cruel and painful. Between two and six internal organs per victim are extracted. It is murder masquerading as medicine.

Ethnic groups targeted include Uyghurs, who suffer from Xi Jinping's ongoing genocide, and the Falun Gong, whose peaceful meditation and exercise practices and exceptional good health make their organs highly desirable.

The Chinese Communist Party has declared the Falun Gong practitioners to be an evil cult fit for butchering.

Mr. Speaker, over the years I have chaired several hearings on this barbaric abuse, and 2 years ago, on March 27, the House passed my bill, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, 413-2.

Like many other House-passed bills, however, it died in the Senate. If approved today, I respectfully appeal to the Senate to pass it this time.

Special thanks to Majority Leader Scalise, Chairman Mast, and Ranking Member Meeks for ensuring reconsideration in this new Congress, and special thanks to Bill Keating for cosponsoring.

Mr. Speaker, I have chaired several hearings over the years on forced organ harvesting beginning over one-quarter of a century ago. In June of 1998, 27 years ago, I chaired my first hearing on forced organ harvesting in China. A Chinese security officer testified that he and other security agents were executing patients with the doctors right there and the ambulances right there ready to put them in the back to take their organs after the bullets were fired.

At one hearing in September of 2015, Ethan Gutmann, a true expert and author of the book ``The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem,'' has testified more than half a dozen times in our hearings. Mr. Gutmann has pointed out that in 1994, the first live organ harvest of death-row prisoners was performed on the execution grounds of Xinjiang in northwest China.

He points out that over the years it just kept building and growing, and then by the year 2005 the apparatus was in place in order to systematically slaughter all of these wonderful people in order to take their organs.

Ethan Gutmann today says that the prisoners' organs in Xinjiang are being harvested at a rate that translates annually, every year, into 25,000 to 50,000 victims. That is 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghurs, along with Kazakhs and other central Asians.

He also points out that if we use the lower number, we are talking about 175,000 murdered victims, all young people, for their organs in a very, very short period of time.

The Falun Dafa Information Center, which does a lot of good work for the Falun Gong, points out too that it is very hard to get precise information. It is a dictatorship and a closed society. They said the number had even jumped to 20,000 victims by 2018.

At another hearing about forced organ harvesting in China, we heard expert testimony from Sir Geoffrey Nice, who conducted the world's first global independent legal analysis of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China.

Sir Geoffrey Nice said that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale. He said the Falun Gong and the Uyghurs in the PRC each qualify as a group for purposes of the crime of genocide.

Robert Destro, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, testified as well at that hearing: ``The size and scope of the organ harvesting and organ trafficking `market' is staggering.''

Mr. Speaker, we also know that there are hospitals dedicated just to dealing with and helping to assist Chinese Communist Party leaders. One of them is the Army Hospital 301 in Beijing. Where do they get these victims? From the very groups of people who they hate so much: the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong, and some others.

We have introduced again this year the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act to amend the Foreign Assistance Act to require the imposition of serious sanctions on any person the President determines funds, sponsors, or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking for purposes of the removal of organs. If enacted into law, it requires very comprehensive reporting on this, which has not happened and needs to happen.

What does all this mean, really? It means civil penalties of up to $250,000 and criminal penalties, including a fine of up to $1 million and imprisonment for not more than 20 years or both.

Mr. Speaker, we are serious about sanctioning this egregious human rights abuse.

Sanctions also include blocking and prohibiting all transactions in property and interests in property and making such persons ineligible to come into this country if they are a foreigner and ineligible for a visa.

State-sponsored forced organ harvesting is big business for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, and we will not and cannot rest until we stop it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the organizations to my left, a group of 9 organizations--there are now 10; another has joined--that support and called for passage of this bill. These are great human rights organizations, and I include in the Record a May 4, 2025, letter from them.

May 4, 2025.

Re Vote in favor of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of

2025.

Dear Representative: We, the undersigned organizations and

individuals, ask you to vote in favor of HR 1503, the Stop

Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, sponsored in the House

by Rep. Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Keating (D-MA).

Forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking are

interlinked crimes where organs are taken from victims

through coercion or without informed consent and sold

illegally. This means that patients undergoing organ

transplants abroad are at-risk of receiving trafficked

organs.

In many countries, impoverished people are targeted and

coerced to sell an organ from which the traffickers make a

significant profit. The `donor' is left without medical care

and with significant health risks.

In China the situation is vastly different. For years, the

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically harvested

the organs of prisoners of conscience, primarily Falun Gong

practitioners, and there is mounting evidence of Muslim

Uyghurs being targeted as well.

Since 2015, China's organ transplantation system has

claimed to only source organs from voluntary donors, but

evidence demonstrates that this data has been falsified. A

close examination shows that Chinese hospitals have performed

at least several times more transplants than even the largest

estimates of death row prisoners can account for.

In addition, China still does not abide by global standards

of transparency in regards to organ sources, donor numbers

and organ transplant operations performed, and a previous

1984 law allowing for sourcing of organs from prisoners

without their consent or consent of their families if bodies

are unclaimed, has not been repealed.

The China Tribunal, an independent, international people's

tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, lead prosecutor of

Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for

the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has concluded ``unanimously,

and sure beyond reasonable doubt--that in China forced organ

harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced

for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial

number of victims.'' The China Tribunal's judgment presents

the first-ever independent legal analysis of all available

evidence regarding forced organ harvesting from prisoners of

conscience in China.

Multiple lines of evidence reviewed by the China Tribunal

over 12 months included undercover phone calls to Chinese

surgeons and officials who admitted that Falun Gong

practitioners' organs are available on demand. Other

undercover calls atso provided evidence that former Chinese

President Jiang Zemin issued the order to harvest organs from

Falun Gong practitioners. Based on the overall collective

body of evidence reviewed, the China Tribunal concluded that

state sanctioned forced organ harvesting in China amounts to

Crimes Against Humanity.

There is also mounting evidence that the Uyghurs are now

also a target for the CCP's forced organ harvesting campaign.

For years, China has been engaged in a systematic campaign of

persecution and oppression against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz,

Hui, and other Muslim ethnic groups from the Xinjiang Uyghur

Autonomous Region. Up to 2 million of Xinjiang's Muslims are

imprisoned in ``reeducation'' camps, subjected to forced

labor, and recent reporting has shown that the Chinese

Communist Party is also subjecting them to forced

sterilization. The CCP's persecution of the Uyghurs has grown

so severe that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has

recently announced that ``there are reasonable grounds to

believe that China is responsible for crimes against

humanity.''

According to the report: ``Organ Procurement and

Extrajudicial Execution in China: A Review of the Evidence,''

published by Matthew Robertson, China Studies Research Fellow

with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, former

Uyghur detainees ``now in exile have reported blood tests and

physical examinations consistent with those necessary to

establish organ health.'' The parallel between the forced

organ examinations on Uyghurs, and those forced on Falun Gong

practitioners, is deeply disturbing.

China has conducted a ``Physicals for All'' program in

Xinjiang. For numerous years, this program has collected DNA

samples and other data from Uyghurs, facilitating Chinese

surveillance and making it easier to identify targets for

organ harvesting in Xinjiang.

In June 2021, 12 United Nations Special Procedures mandate

holders raised the issue of forced organ harvesting with the

Chinese Government, in response to credible information that

Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and

Christians are killed for their organs in China. In the

correspondence, UN human rights experts called on China to

``promptly respond to the allegations of `organ harvesting'

and to allow independent monitoring by international human

rights mechanisms.''

To fight the global organ trafficking trade and to

specifically address the CCP's practice of forced organ

harvesting, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025

expands the U.S. government's powers to combat organ

harvesting, imposes harsher penalties for purchasing organs,

prohibits the export of organ transplant surgery devices to

entities responsible for human organ trafficking, imposes

sanctions on individuals and government officials in

countries who support human organ trafficking and forced

organ harvesting, and introduces mandatory reporting on human

organ trafficking in foreign countries and on U.S.

institutions which train organ transplant surgeons.

We urge you to vote in favor of HR 1503--the Stop Forced

Organ Harvesting Act of 2025.

Your support and passage of this legislation will ensure

that the United States is combating and not complicit in the

heinous practice of forced organ harvesting.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this

legislation.

Respectfully,

Susie Hughes,

Executive Director, International Coalition to End

Transplant Abuse in China.

Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett,

President, Lantos Foundation.

Kristina Olney,

Executive Director, The Remembrance Society.

Dr. Ellen Kennedy,

Executive Director, World Without Genocide.

Dr. Eric Patterson,

President, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Bob Fu,

Founding President, China Aid.

Levi Browde,

Executive Director, Falun Dafa Information Centre.

Turghunjan Alawudun,

President, World Uyghur Congress.

Louisa Greve,

Director of Global Advocacy, Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Mr. Speaker, we must act now, and we must act decisively. The lives of so many lie in the balance.

Mr. Speaker, today I joined Kristan Hawkins, Marjorie Dannenfelser from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and many distinguished pro-life leaders to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood--Child Abuse, Incorporated--an organization that has slaughtered over ten million babies in their clinics and kills more than a thousand defenseless unborn babies each and every day.

For far too long, politicians and much of the media have ignored, trivialized, enabled, and whitewashed the business of Planned Parenthood--decapitating and dismembering helpless babies with sharp knives or poisoning babies with pills that literally starve them to death and often result in their bodies being flushed down a toilet.

Child decapitation, dismemberment and starvation are not health care. It is violence--and at a minimum, taxpayers should not be forced to pay for this hideous form of child abuse.

Federal taxpayers provide Planned Parenthood with nearly $600 million dollars every year. That must end.

Reconciliation legislation offers an important opportunity to stop funding abortion purveyors like Planned Parenthood. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.

Let's not forget that undercover videos have exposed in numbing candor several high-level Planned Parenthood leaders gleefully talking about procuring children's internal organs, all while altering gruesome dismemberment procedures to preserve intact livers, hearts, and lungs from freshly killed babies.

In February, the New York Times published an in-depth article detailing horrible clinic conditions, including sewage that seeped into a recovery room for two days, and the shocking treatment women have received, leading to patient complaints and a malpractice suit.

Our Nation should invest in real health care options for women and their families. Federally Qualified Health Centers, for example, provide comprehensive services, including prenatal care, STI testing and treatment. A 2022 report found ``14 community-based health clinics and pregnancy centers for every one Planned Parenthood facility in the United States, including more locations in rural and underserved communities.''

And with love and compassion, the pro-life movement will continue to tangibly assist women and girls--especially through the extraordinary work of pregnancy care centers. There are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States--each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and quality care for both mothers and their precious children. According to a January 2025 poll, 83 percent of Americans support these centers, including 80 percent of the individuals who identify as `pro-choice.'

Mr Speaker, I'd like to include in the Record one of the many outstanding statements from the press conference, offered by Toni McFadden:

``Good afternoon! My name is Toni McFadden, and I'm here to

share my personal story--one that reveals exactly why Planned

Parenthood must be fully defunded.

I was a senior in high school when I walked through the

doors of Planned Parenthood's death facility. They had given

me a false hope that if I aborted my baby, my parents would

never have to find out, my already unstable relationship

would have a fighting chance, and my life would go back to

normal.

After receiving an ultrasound and asking the nurse multiple

times if I could see the screen that was strategically faced

against the wall, she reluctantly showed me but quickly

stated that my 7-week-old baby and I quote, ``was nothing,

just the size of a pea.''

It would have been too honest of her to tell me that my

baby already had a beating heart or that, at the moment of

conception, their DNA was unique to them and would never ever

be created again.

Instead of the truth I was given the poisonous chemical

Abortion pills. The first set was taken with the abortionist

and the second set was given to me to take in the comfort of

my home. I was told it would only be like a heavy period.

I had complications like many women who think this is a

simple thing to do. My pills didn't work correctly and when I

called the abortion facility they simply said: ``This is why

we gave you 2 sets of the pills. Just take the second set and

you will be fine.'' I wasn't fine. It would be the last I

would hear from them. I was so uneducated and had the goal of

no one finding out. I ended up experiencing severe

hemorrhaging that began while I was in school about a month

later.

I remember when I got home, keeping this secret from my

parents. I went to the bathroom to my bed for hours just

bleeding.

If I could go back, knowing what I know now--

I would give my baby life without hesitation.

Planned Parenthood didn't care about me.

They didn't care about my baby.

And they don't care about women, especially minority women.

They exploit women for their own financial gain.

This is why they must be defunded.

Abortion doesn't solve our problems--it adds to them.

Abortion doesn't bring healing--it leaves deep wounds and

lifelong regret.

No woman should have to walk through what I walked

through--

Believing lies, and left to suffer alone.

Abortion only reaps one thing: death.

So today, I stand not just for myself--

But for every woman who's been deceived.

For every child who was never given a chance.

We must stop funding the lies.

We must stop funding the pain.

We must stop funding death.

From the first heartbeat to the final breath, every life

holds value. Every soul deserves a chance. Life is a gift

worth defending.''