Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, more than a century ago, a group of enterprising self-starters, inspired by the beauty around them, began plans to build a park on the Barnegat Barrier Island in Ocean County.

Although the harsh barrier beach sand precluded their dream of building a park, their desire to create a strong, spirited community centered around the island's natural charm succeeded with the founding of the Borough of Seaside Park exactly 125 years ago today on March 9, 1898.

Throughout this coming year, the residents of Seaside Park are celebrating their 125th anniversary--a remarkable occasion for a thriving community that has accomplished so much over the years and has never lost its beauty or charm while proving to be incredibly resilient in the face of some unfathomable challenges.

Today, the borough is guided by the outstanding leadership of Mayor John Peterson, Jr.--who has served for a total of more than 15 years-- and the diligent members of the borough council: President Matthew DeMichele, Frank ``Fritz'' McHugh, Gina Condos, Ray Amabile, Marty Wilk, Jr., and William Kraft. The Seaside Park community has so much to be proud of as they continue to build on their profound legacy as a community of neighbors who care for each other, warmly welcome tourists and visitors, and cherish the natural beauty of their area.

A life-long resident of Seaside Park and true steward of its breathtaking beaches, Mayor Peterson has embodied the spirit of Seaside and has been outspoken about the dangerous threat posed by the enormous and rushed offshore wind projects to the Jersey Shore, our local environment, the livelihood of local fishermen and the tourism that is the lifeblood of the region. His deep care for the people and our community-wide love for the environment will help ensure Seaside Park continues to prosper well into the future.

Seeing its enormous success today, it's important to note that Seaside Park had a very modest beginning--established first with only a small year-round population.

Reportedly, residents hauled sand to build the first roads in the early days of the borough, and many families raised cattle, horses and chickens.

Just a year after its founding, Seaside Park Union Church--then known as ``Chapel by the Sea'' was built, soon followed by St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church.

Several markets, five movie theaters, a furniture showroom, an automobile dealership and a blacksmith were the foundation of the town's commercial activity, and a small room over Franklin Harris' General Store on Third and Central Avenues was used as the first classroom for students before a one-story schoolhouse was built in 1902.

Seaside Park's Life Saving Service--established in 1872--played a significant role in the development of the barrier island with stations located nearly every three miles from Barnegat Inlet northward. These buildings later became Coast Guard stations upon the creation of the service in 1915, and most of them still exist and are used today for other purposes.

In 1913, Seaside Park's volunteer fire department was founded, and its company built their first vehicle--a horse drawn hose truck. The large iron gong that alerted volunteers of an emergency sits outside the firehouse at the Municipal Complex to this very day.

Undoubtedly, the extraordinary spirit that moved the founders of Seaside Park to build such a close-knit community on this beautiful island continues to sustain its residents, who have overcome unimaginable trials with incredible fortitude in recent years.

Just a decade ago, Superstorm Sandy devastated Seaside Park, forcing families to abandon their homes that bore the brunt of the historic storm's wrath. Less than a year later, a raging fire caused by a wire damaged from the storm's intense flooding engulfed several blocks of boardwalk that had been finally rebuilt.

Not too long after, Seaside Park came under attack in 2016 when a terrorist inspired by ISIS and Al Qaeda detonated a bomb along the route of the Seaside Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5k race. Fortunately, no one was injured--but the shocking explosion on the streets of this small town shook the community, which had suffered three losses in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Through all these tribulations and more, the residents of Seaside Park have bounced back with great strength and unbelievable resilience. Despite the years, the storms and even the terrorist threat, their incredible tenacity and enduring perseverance--which is the very foundation of their storied beginning--offers great promise for the future of this vibrant community for decades to come.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for offering this very important and very timely resolution. It asks many of the tough questions that have to be asked, and we need answers.

Mr. Speaker, journalist Paul Bedard wrote an incisive article on February 3 entitled: ``Dry run: Balloons called top `delivery platform' for nuclear EMP attack.'' It points out that, obviously, the grid would be fried; we would be unable to do just about anything. Here is a balloon going over our military installations, including our ICBM base, with the capability to launch an EMP attack. Did we know it? Did it have such a payload? We have no idea.

Let me also say surveillance was at a minimum what was happening. It should have been shot down much sooner over the Aleutian Islands in a way that would have just stopped this unbelievable breach of U.S. sovereignty.

He quotes in this article a man by the name of David Stuckenberg, who is an EMP expert, and he says: ``A high altitude balloon could be designed, created, and launched in a matter of months.'' And that is what they did. ``There is nothing to prevent several hundred pounds of weapons material from being delivered'' from that altitude. He talks about the flyover as being a dry run.

They are testing us, and we did not rise to that challenge.

Let me say to my friends and colleagues: The militaristic aspirations of the PRC and Xi Jinping are global. He watches his enemies, obviously, in the region, but he looks at the entire world, and he has a multi-year plan for conquest.

Finally, I have chaired 76 congressional hearings on human rights abuses in China. I am barred from going there by the CCP.

Xi Jinping and the CCP systematically murder, jail, torture, persecute, and commit genocide against their own citizens. As we all know, it does pose an existential threat to its neighbors in the region and to the United States.

We need to up our game and mitigate the threat to our own people. Americans deserve better, and this resolution is asking the tough questions so that happens.

Madam Speaker, two women spoke at a pregnancy care center dinner I attended in New Jersey.

Both women were effusive in their thanks that the director had approached them in absolute kindness and empathy as they were literally walking from the parking lot to an abortion clinic. They changed their minds and were helped through their pregnancies and after the birth of their children, as well.

Later in the program, two young, teenaged girls spoke of the sanctity of life and the good work of the pregnancy care center. In a very dramatic moment from the podium--because they were standing side by side--they turned to the director, thanked her, and said that had she not reached out to their moms that day and followed up with such love and compassion, both of them would have been dead.

Pregnancy care centers across the country have suffered a surge of violent attacks, firebombing and vandalism by pro-abortion activists in a coordinated effort to intimidate frontline volunteers and licensed medical professionals providing critical support to mothers in need and their unborn baby girls and boys.

Now more than ever the Biden administration and law enforcement needs to enforce the law.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding, and I thank Ann Wagner for authoring this important legislation.

Madam Speaker, in a Florida abortion clinic, Sycloria Williams delivered a live baby girl at 23 weeks. The clinic owner took the baby, who was gasping for air, cut her umbilical cord, threw her into a biohazard bag, and put the bag in the trash.

Heartbroken, Ms. Williams later had a funeral for her baby girl, who she named Shanice. CNN has reported since that Ms. Williams suffers PTSD from that ordeal.

Madam Speaker, why are these live births from abortion little known? Dr. Willard Cates, former head of the Centers for Disease Control's abortion surveillance unit, said several years ago live births are little known because organized medicine, from fear of public clamor and legal action, treats them more as an embarrassment to be hushed up than a problem to be solved. ``It is like turning yourself in to the IRS for an audit,'' he went on. ``What is there to gain? The tendency is not to report because there are only negative incentives.''

Madam Speaker, Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, one of the few who got caught--and it was under a State law, not Federal, and many States don't have such laws--was convicted of murder for killing children who were born alive after attempted abortions.

The grand jury report described it in this way: ``Gosnell had a simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered: He killed them. He didn't call it that. He called it `ensuring fetal demise.' The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that `snipping.'''

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act seeks to end or at least mitigate this egregious child abuse by requiring that a healthcare provider must exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life of that child as they would a child of similar age.

The bill empowers the woman upon whom the abortion is performed to obtain appropriate civil relief. I am sure had it been available then, Ms. Williams would have done that, as well.

Madam Speaker, this is humane, pro-child, human rights legislation.

Mr. Speaker, for over three decades post- Tiananmen Square massacre, Congress was deeply divided; not between Republican and Democrat, but among the majority here and in the Senate who favored unfettered engagement and

trade without serious human rights conditionality.

Indeed, President Clinton delinked human rights in trade on May 26, 1994. I went up there and gave a press conference. I was joined by a few others saying how serious that was to give up on human rights and allow profits to trump human rights.

We have seen the brutal nature of the Communist regime, especially under Xi Jinping, and the Chinese Communist Party's ultimate desire to seek hegemony.

Over the years, I have chaired 76 congressional hearings on China and authored several pieces of legislation, including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, and was the Republican sponsor of Jim McGovern's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. We now have to make sure those laws are being faithfully implemented.

Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago when China became a member of the WTO, most Members of Congress, and certainly in the business and community on foreign policy establishment, bought into what James Mann rightfully called ``the China fantasy.''

In other words, if you just trade more with a dictatorship, somehow they will matriculate into a democracy.

That fantasy has been shown to be demonstrably naive, at best. The CCP has become more powerful because of the trade and dual use items that have accrued over there that are now being used by their military and by their police.

I would note, parenthetically, I chaired two hearings on why China should not be invited into the WTO and no one--no one--listened.

The record is clear, Mr. Speaker. As predicted, we have become more like them. Thankfully, that is changing, but many in our corporate establishment, as we saw with the Olympics, were standing right by Beijing and the CCP and Xi Jinping and wouldn't utter a word, including Coca-Cola and others, about the terrible killing of the Uyghurs and the use of forced labor camps.

We have stood by as the Chinese embassy and the Ministry of State Security have harassed people of Chinese heritage and nationality living lawfully in the United States.

We have not done all that we can do for the people of Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur people in the autonomous region.

But today, thankfully, we are turning a page, and I applaud our Speaker for pushing hard for this select committee. Hopefully, it will make a difference.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding and for his leadership, and I thank my friend on the other side of the aisle for his support.

Madam Speaker, in late March 2019, University of South Carolina senior Samantha Josephson--``Sami'' to friends and family--left a late- night outing with her friends alone because she had to work in the morning. The extraordinarily talented student, who had just earned a full scholarship to Drexel University law school, ordered an Uber.

In a congested part of Columbia known as Five Points, a predator, pretending to be her Uber driver, took her in his car and brutally murdered her. Less than 24 hours later, Sami was found dead in a field.

The murderer, Nathaniel Rowland, was caught. In a heart-wrenching trial in July 2021, Rowland was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Presiding Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman noted the ``horrific and most brutal nature'' of Sami's murder and said: ``It is the most severe murder that has occurred that I have been a witness to, as far as presiding in court or participating in as a lawyer.''

Almost immediately, however, after her death, and notwithstanding their excruciating agony over the loss of their precious daughter, Sami's parents, Seymour and Marci, began pushing for comprehensive new protection policies at Uber and Lyft and legislation to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that no one else is ever killed, raped, or assaulted by a rideshare driver.

They created the #WHATSMYNAME Foundation in honor of their daughter to educate the world on rideshare safety. ``Samantha may be gone,'' they wrote, ``but our goal for the rest of our time on Earth is to share her story and make a lasting change.''

Seymour and Marci have, and are, making a lasting change. Their advocacy has saved lives and made so many more of us situationally aware of the dangers of using Uber and Lyft.

For more than 3 years, almost 4 now, especially given the pain due to the unimaginable loss of their daughter, Seymour and Marci have been heroic, tenacious, and selfless. They have inspired modest reforms by Uber and Lyft but are the first to say that so much more needs to be done.

Marci and Seymour have made frequent trips to the Capitol to meet lawmakers and staff from both sides of the aisle, including Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy, as well as Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman DeFazio, Ranking Member Graves, and subcommittee Chair Norton and Ranking Member Davis.

Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, when she met with them, was so greatly moved, moved to tears, when they told their horrible story about what happened to their daughter.

I am grateful that Chairman Pallone has waived the bill through the Energy and Commerce Committee today to ensure its consideration.

I am grateful to the Speaker for her strong commitment to this cause, and there was that empathy. You felt it when you were in the room. They said, ``What can we do? We have to do as much as humanly possible,'' so I thank them.

I offer my special thanks to Tom Suozzi for his tremendous support and for being the lead Democratic cosponsor all these years on this legislation.

Robert Edmonson, with the Speaker, and Ryan Long, with Kevin McCarthy, and other staff members have done stellar work trying to push this and additional reforms forward because, hopefully, we are not done.

The need for Sami's Law is absolutely compelling, I tell my colleagues. I ask all of us: Do any of us really believe that ridesharing, particularly late at night, particularly around college campuses, especially for women, is safe when you are in an Uber or Lyft? It is a big, open question.

Two reports released by Uber found that, over a 4-year period from 2017 to 2020, there were 9,805 allegations of serious sexual assault by Uber drivers in the United States, and 39 people were killed in physical assaults during or soon after an Uber ride.

Lyft's own safety record revealed 4,158 allegations of sexual assault in a 3-year period from 2017 to 2019.

In September, NPR reported that ``Lyft is facing 17 new lawsuits brought by users of its service from around the country, who claim the company failed to protect passengers and drivers from physical and sexual assault.''

``The new lawsuits come 3 years after 14 women filed a lawsuit against Lyft, claiming that, after being sexually assaulted or raped by drivers, Lyft failed to take action even when it was aware of drivers who were accused of assault and purposefully ignored victims' reports.'' Not a stellar record.

Just last week, Eziya Bowden, a 17-year-old woman from North Carolina, jumped out of a moving Lyft vehicle and ended up in the emergency room out of fear that her driver, who made several disturbing comments, was trying to drug her. She was only a few miles away from her home.

Sami's Law under consideration by the House today is an important first--I say ``first''--step to enhance safety for both passengers and drivers and to mitigate future violence.

Sami's Law makes unlawful the unauthorized selling or offering for sale of ridesharing signage, making it more difficult for imposters like Sami's murderer to pose as rideshare drivers.

Let me just point out that when Tom Suozzi testified before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Chairman DeFazio, when we talked about this factor, that you can go to Amazon or Walmart and get a sign that says you are an Uber driver, he went online as we were talking and said: There it is. I can buy an Uber sign.

You would think the companies would want to control the signage. This legislation will make it illegal to sell it in those outlets and anywhere else unless approved by the companies.

Sami's Law also requires the GAO to investigate and provide an independent, comprehensive report to Congress on the incidence of assault and abuse of both passengers and drivers, and to do it annually, and requires that the GAO examine the nature and specifics of background checks conducted by companies and the varying standards set by States regarding background checks.

We want to know: What do they do when they find out who their drivers are? We have asked the hard questions. The answers have not been all that good.

It also assesses safety steps thus far taken by rideshare vehicles, taxis, and other vehicles for hire.

I am disappointed to say that opposition from Uber and Lyft has resulted in dropping other lifesaving provisions that were in the original bill that was passed by the House in the last Congress with Tom Suozzi and I leading on that, as well.

One required Uber and Lyft and other transportation network companies to implement a simple digital method of verifying that the passenger and driver have been specifically matched by the TNC prior to the ride beginning, so that match is made right before you take off. Yes, that is who the driver should be, and the person in back has ordered that Uber. It also gives a record going forward if any kind of assault does, indeed, occur.

The opposition to this digital security feature is mind-boggling to me. Uber has the technology and even a program in place, but they offer it only as an opt-in program, a program so well hidden that few riders even know about it.

Our legislation passed in July 2020 said that transportation companies may offer a passenger an option out, an opt-out. If you want to be out of it, get out of it, but the default would be you are in it, and it is all for your protection.

It is like safety belts. There was a time when that was controversial. Now, we all put them on. The buzzer goes off, or the bell or the ring, if you don't have that on.

A second provision that we lost was Sami's council, which would simply empower a working group to continually make upgrades as to how better to utilize all of this.

Let me just say, finally, Marci and Seymour at the sentencing or before that at the trial--they inspire us--they also spoke. I will read only a few of the words that they said. I remember watching it on television, and it just broke my heart.

Here is what Marci said. ``I close my eyes, and I feel what she endured at his hands 120 times''--he stabbed her, remember--``over and over and over, fighting for her life, locked in his car. I used to have dreams for her. Now, all I have are nightmares--120 times. The final moments, her bare feet kicking and fighting for her life. I visualize the blood flowing from her body, her joyful body, 120 times. For what? The $35 a college student has in her bank account?

``The excruciating pain he put her through is unimaginable. . . . In one second, our lives changed . . . Her death sliced through my heart.''

In his statement, Seymour questioned how this could have happened at all, challenging us to prevent it in the future. Again, they have spent so much time, dedicating their lives so nobody else ever has to go through this.

He said, at the trial: ``I have repeated nightmares and visions of him, the monster, stabbing her. I have visions of her foot on the back window. I have visions of her screaming and fighting. I have visions of her taking her last breath.

``I stand here . . . in bewilderment, asking how in the world did we get here? That night of her kidnapping and murder, she called me about using my credit card because supposedly hers didn't work with Uber or Lyft.

``I look at my wife, and she is not even close to being the same. I have lost a huge piece of her, along with Samantha. Every day, I look at her and only wish I could do something to take that pain away.''

So, I ask my colleagues that, in Sami's name, today, we act to protect rideshare passengers and their drivers, and we take an important first step to safeguard others from the unspeakable pain that Seymour and Marci Josephson now endure.

Madam Speaker, Loretta Charbonneau, an amazing wife, mother, friend, campaign volunteer and my congressional district director for 20 years, has passed away.

My wife Marie and I knew her as a gifted and compassionate leader since we began working together in the prolife movement beginning in the early 1970s.

Family and friends celebrated her life at a memorial Mass at St. Raphaels Catholic Church in Hamilton, New Jersey.

Loretta loved her beloved husband George so much and always talked about him and her kids.

One of her three children, Mary Roldan, gave a beautiful eulogy and said:

``You knew her greatness, her kindness, her strength, her

sense of humor, her positivity, her creativity, her ever-

encouraging way and most of all you knew her enduring LOVE.

I'm not sure that there are words that can truly express

the depth and breadth of our mom, Loretta Charbonneau. It is

an incredibly difficult task to try and sum up an entire life

in the allotted time given here today of 3 to 5 minutes.

But thank God all of you here today knew her. You knew her

greatness, her kindness, her strength, her sense of humor,

her positivity, her creativity, her ever-encouraging way, and

most of all you knew her enduring LOVE. Her love came with no

strings attached. She loved you simply because you were you.

That quiet acceptance was like being wrapped in a warm

blanket. The love that our mother gave was felt deep to your

core. She knew that giving that love away to someone else

would never take anything away from her but make her

stronger.

Since our mom's passing, I have had so many people make

comments to me about how much our mother impacted their lives

by not only the love that she so freely shared but also by

her encouraging way. She had such self-love that she always

looked to raise up someone else and knew that doing this

would not detract from her but add to her. She shared her

love and wisdom so freely. Her goal was always to life up the

life of another.

One of our dear friends from our growing up years said to

me your mother was my inspiration growing up. She was amazing

and we connected. That just makes me pause and say wow how

awesome is that, that someone outside of our family unit

could feel that same love we did.

Our mother would always say let's lift one another up and

make a difference. Well mom you did just that. You succeeded.

You lifted up so many, many people. You will be sorely-missed

on this physical earth, but you are always with us. Your

strength of spirt and love will never die. You have led by

example and have passed that love on to the next generation

so that we to can make a difference. The mantle has been

passed and we accept the challenge.

On a personal note, in this experience of losing my mother,

I don't think it is sorrow that I feel, but such a complete

sense of gratitude toward Life for granting me such a

blessing. So, to Life I'd like to say thank you, thank you,

thank you.

To conclude, my mother's favorite prayer was the prayer of

St. Francis. She lived this prayer on the daily. It sums her

up in a nutshell. In honor of her, I'd like to say it now.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is

hatred let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where

there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where

there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy. O'

Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be

consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand; to

be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it

is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that

we are born to eternal life.

Mom, you did all of those things. You led by example. You

will live on in us and our children forever. To a life well

lived. We love you and you will be missed.''

For all of us, Madam Speaker, we remember Loretta's extraordinary kindness and compassion and her deep and abiding faith in the Lord.

When we were expecting our first child, Melissa, in 1978 Loretta hosted a baby shower and boy did we need it.

Loretta had an amazing ability to work hard and effectively. She was a doer even for the most difficult tasks and was a great asset in my campaigns for Congress.

Loretta officially joined our congressional office in 1982 and it was clear right from the start that she had a remarkable empathy for people, especially those in need and assumed the position of district director in 1985, until she retired in 2005.

Twenty years of awesome leadership.

Loretta was a tough competitor and thrived on the challenges of political campaigns. Loretta was a problem solver and set a tremendous example of what hard work and leaving no stone unturned looks like.

I was always amazed how diplomatically but firmly she would question people seeking our help.

She wanted the facts, the truth with no hyperbole.

America's national program for assisting persons with Autism started in 1997 in my Whiting office with a meeting put together by Loretta that included the parents of two children with autism from Brick.

After a three-hour first meeting followed by many others, we mapped out a strategy and legislation that became law.

Like so many initiatives, it took years for our initiative to bear fruit.

Loretta was never a quitter.

When Navy Lakehurst was put on a DOD list for closure, Loretta put together a meeting of dozens of elected officials just two days after the bad news broke, and together we began the arduous task of saving the base, and against all odds, we succeeded.

Loretta is deeply missed, but is remembered with enormous respect, joy and love.

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

I am especially grateful that she has introduced the Uyghur Policy Act, which is particularly timely given the mass spontaneous protests we see arising in China.

It is particularly pertinent, given that the spark for the popular demands for freedom was a horrific incident that occurred in Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where due to Xi Jinping's draconian zero-COVID lockdown policy, at least 10 people were burned to death with many, many more injured.

The bill follows, I would point out, upon an amendment that I had offered at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs markup on June 30, 2021, to the EGLE Act that called for the creation of a special envoy for the Xinjiang region. Such focus is particularly necessary, given the amount of repression directed by the Chinese Communist Party at the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim Central Asian people, including the Kazakhs and the people from Kyrgyzstan.

Xi's genocide--and it is Xi Jinping's genocide; he is directly responsible for this. We know that there are recordings of him saying, ``show no mercy,'' as people are being dragged into concentration camps, as my two previous colleagues pointed out. Forced abortion, forced sterilization, and a whole host of human rights abuses are being committed each and every day, right up to this very moment, and it shows no signs of abatement.

In short, this bill is timely. I believe it is necessary, and I urge my colleagues to give its strongest support.

Madam Speaker, each October we recognize National Spina Bifida Month and pay tribute to the nearly 166,000 Americans living with Spina Bifida--the most common permanently disabling birth defect compatible with life.

Literally translated as ``split spine,'' Spina Bifida is a condition that occurs when a baby's neural tube fails to develop or close properly. Typically occurring within the first 28 days of pregnancy while the neural tube is forming, Spina Bifida often develops before a woman even knows she is pregnant.

Sponsored by the Spina Bifida Association (SBA), National Spina Bifida Awareness Month is a time to highlight the needs of the community and recognize the importance of the work done year-round to advance research, programs, and policies aimed at meeting those needs.

As co-chair of the Congressional Spina Bifida Caucus, I've had the honor to work alongside SBA to advance Spina Bifida awareness, research, and public health efforts in Congress. Founded in 1973, SBA is the Nation's only organization solely dedicated to advocating for and assisting those living with and affected by this debilitating birth defect.

Through its nearly 60 chapters in more than 125 communities, the SBA brings expectant parents together with those who have a child with Spina Bifida. This interaction helps to answer questions and concerns, but most importantly it lends much needed support, solidarity, inspiration, and hope.

Madam Speaker, Spina Bifida is a birth defect that can happen to anyone. Every day, an average of eight babies are affected by Spina Bifida and approximately 3,000 pregnancies are affected by this birth defect each year.

We do not know the exact cause of this condition, but research has found that if a woman takes 400 mcg of folic acid every day before she becomes pregnant, she reduces her risk of having a baby with Spina Bifida or another neural tube defect by as much as 70 percent.

No two cases of Spina Bifida are ever the same and so this birth defect is commonly referred to as the ``snowflake condition.'' Children born with Spina Bifida typically undergo dozens of surgeries before they reach the age of 18. And during their lifetime, someone with Spina Bifida will face at least $1 million in medical expenses, including multiple surgeries, and most can expect to spend much of their lives in a wheelchair or walking with braces.

Despite these challenges--and thanks to advances in research and medicine, along with policies supportive of children with disabilities--nearly two-thirds of Americans currently living with Spina Bifida have made it to adulthood. And while these strides are certainly worth celebrating, people with Spina Bifida--particularly adults--continue to face a crisis of care that could be largely prevented with the right resources and policies.

There are number of concrete steps we could take that would make dramatic improvements in the ability of adults with Spina Bifida to access quality care. One is to increase funding of the CDC's National Spina Bifida Program--the sole federal program tasked with improving the care and outcomes for people with Spina Bifida.

In 2008, the Spina Bifida Program created a National Spina Bifida Patient Registry to collect the scientific data needed to evaluate existing medical services for Spina Bifida patients, and to provide clinicians, researchers, patients, and families a window into what care models are effective and what treatments are not making a measurable difference.

Building on this in 2014, the Spina Bifida Program funded the development of a Spina Bifida Collaborative Care Network to identify and to disseminate best practices for the care of people with Spina Bifida at all ages. However, with only $7.5 million in annual funding, there are only 11,000 patients in the national registry, limiting the ability of medical professionals to glean knowledge that would advance research in areas critical to improving quality of life.

Even modest increases to this funding would make an enormous difference. Spina Bifida research needs dedicated funding to ensure a better future for Americans with Spina Bifida.

This past summer, Christopher Rosati--a young man living with Spina Bifida--worked as an intern in my Washington, D.C. office.

I originally met Chris during an advocacy day nearly 18 years ago when he was just 4 years old. After those early days, Chris and I met again when he worked as an intern in my NJ office. Based on his good works, we offered him an internship in my office on Capitol Hill. At each location, during each internship, Chris proved to be a smart, hardworking, reliable member of the team.

Undeterred by physical challenges inherent in a commute and in some workspaces, Chris has set his sights on public policy and making a difference. This fall he returned to school as a senior at The College of New Jersey. My entire staff and I have been truly inspired by Chris' determination, dedication, good nature, and success. I am grateful for his contributions in my office, and we all look forward with enthusiasm and anticipation to the positive impact he will bring and the advances he will help achieve--for himself and the populations he will act on behalf of--in any career he pursues.

Madam Speaker, with added federal support, more people living with Spina Bifida could receive assistance they need along their life's journey. I invite my colleagues to join me in this mission and join me in the Spina Bifida Caucus to broaden our efforts and advance the goal of a better future for people living with Spina Bifida.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) for his leadership and for his kind words. I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee for sponsoring this extraordinarily important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing--I was in Washington here chairing a Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing--when a group of radical jihadists hijacked four airliners to perpetrate the worst act of terrorism in American history.

Today, 21 years later, we remember the horror and pain suffered by those who were murdered and the anguish felt by their families and friends both then and now.

On the morning of 9/11, I got a mere glimpse into the sense of horror suffered by the victims' families when I couldn't reach my own brother, Tom, an American Airlines 757 captain who often piloted Flight 11 from Logan to L.A., the flight that crashed into the north tower. After several hours, when I finally made contact, he was okay, but he was friends with the crew of Flight 11, all who were killed that day.

I ask my colleagues to strongly support H.R. 8987, the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act. This legislation addresses a significant shortcoming in programs made available to the widows and children of 9/11.

As I think Members know, in 2015, Congress created the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund to provide compensation to Americans injured in acts of international state-sponsored terrorism. Despite the obvious connection to the 9/11 surviving family members, however, a misinterpretation of the law by the fund's special master unjustly barred spouses and children of 9/11 from participating in the fund.

In 2021, at the behest of Congress, the GAO conducted an investigation and found that 5,364 victims, spouses, and dependents were excluded from the fair restitution due to a technicality in the administration of the Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.

H.R. 8987 provides immediate relief, with a lump-sum catch-up payment to the victims' immediate families.

For two decades, Mr. Speaker, I have worked with the Jersey Girls to achieve justice--that is what they call themselves--wonderful, wonderful widows who have tried to achieve justice for those who committed these horrific crimes and for those who suffered and were left behind.

Because of them, we got the 9/11 Commission. I was the chief Republican sponsor of that bill, but that wasn't because of what we did here as much as it was because of the work

that they did in walking the halls and trying to get people to support a 9/11 fund.

I point out to my colleagues that Tom Kean, our former Governor, headed that up, along with Lee Hamilton, the distinguished former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. What they produced after their hearings became the blueprint to protect America.

As they noted in their opening statement--and I chaired two hearings about implementing the report--what they said was, We are safer but not safe, and they prescribed both administrative and legislative actions that should be undertaken to protect America.

I would note that Kathie Wisniewski, who works on my staff, and lost her husband, Alan, is with us today, Kristen Breitweiser; Mindy Kleinberg; Lorie Van Auken; Kathy Maher and her sons, Joseph and Daniel; and the next generation of 9/11 family advocates, including Angela Mistrulli and Brett Eagleson, who lost his parents on 9/11, were the driving force in achieving this win today, which, again, is a modicum of justice for their egregious loss.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Malliotakis, our colleague from Staten Island, for her work on this and her bill, as well as the chairman's bill, which has a pay-for. I think this is an important, important piece of legislation. I hope every Member of the body will support it.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding.

Madam Speaker, as the former chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the prime author of 14 major laws to assist veterans, including the Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act and several healthcare laws as well, I have always deeply respected and strongly supported the unique mission of VA healthcare.

Comprised of 172 medical centers and over 1,100 outpatient clinics, the VA operates the largest integrated healthcare network in the entire world. VA medical personnel--371,000 professionals and support staff-- are absolutely committed to healing, nurturing, and rehabilitating.

So it is beyond disappointing that President Biden issued an illegal rule--I was here when section 106 of the Veterans Healthcare Act of 1992 was enacted, and it couldn't have been clearer--to turn the lifesaving, life-enhancing mission of the VA into new venues for abortion on demand.

And the word health--Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton couldn't have made it more clear, and Doe v. Bolton with the companion opinion issued by the Supreme Court, they defined health. They used the World Health Organization's definition, and it is everything including any kind of mental stress. So it is completely wide-open, abortion-on-demand language. It is not rape, incest, and life of the mother. Health is included in Biden's rule.

The new Biden VA abortion rule authorizes and forces taxpayers to fund the violent death of unborn baby girls and baby boys by what?

By beheading, dismemberment, forced expulsion from the womb, deadly poisons, and other methods at any time until birth.

Abortion, Madam Speaker, 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.

For decades, Madam Speaker, abortion advocates have gone to extraordinary lengths to ignore, trivialize, and 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 it is not the beginning of life. Modern science and medicine today treats unborn children with disability or disease as a patient in need of diagnosis and treatment, not death by abortion.

Unborn babies are society's youngest patients and deserve benign, life-affirming medical interventions and not medicines that kill. The weakest and most vulnerable unborn babies deserve our respect, empathy, protection, and love.

The legislation before us today will be used to promote the VA's new abortion-on-demand mission.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose it, and, hopefully, we will see a change in the policy sometime in the near future that President Biden has issued.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bicameral, bipartisan Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2022. I especially want to thank my good friend and colleague, Betty McCollum, for her authorship of this important legislation that will help so many.

Today's vote on global food security will show that we can come together to advance the good. For the Global Food Security Act is a model of cooperation, from the collaboration between Congresswoman McCollum and I on previous iterations, which began back in 2014 when I first introduced it, and the House passed the legislation.

Madam Speaker, like PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, our food security policy is a remarkably effective, relatively low-cost lifesaving, life-enhancing initiative, championed by both Republican and Democrat administrations.

Indeed, we are fortunate that President Bush, beginning in 2002, had the initial foresight to elevate the important role of food security in U.S. foreign policy, especially in Africa, via the Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, or the IEHA, which was funded through development assistance and implemented through USAID. The objective was to help meet the nutritional needs of millions and to elevate self-sufficiency over dependency.

At the same time, the Millennium Challenge Corporation began making substantial investments in ag-led economic growth programs, particularly in Africa. The food price crisis of 2007-2008 accelerated and underscored the need for robust food security policy.

President Obama, in 2009, announced further enhancements to our food security strategy at the G8 summit in Italy, and this became known as the Feed the Future initiative.

Our emphasis on ag-led economic development and food security self- sufficiency continued through the Trump administration and now into the Biden administration.

Madam Speaker, last week a World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization, WFP and FAO, report said the world faces its ``largest food crisis in modern history.''

The report sounds the alarm: 2022, as they put it, is a ``year of unprecedented hunger.''

``As many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night, the number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared from 135 million to 345 million since 2019. A total of 50 million people in 45 countries are teetering on the edge of famine.''

``Conflict,'' they point out, ``is still the biggest driver of hunger, with 60 percent of the world's hungry living in areas afflicted by war and violence. Events unfolding in Ukraine are further proof of how conflict feeds hunger, forcing people out of their homes, and wiping out their sources of income.''

As we all know, the weakest and most vulnerable are dying, and many, many more are at risk of death while millions more are made susceptible to opportunistic diseases while many children continue to suffer from stunting. Many, however, are rallying to mitigate this suffering.

As my good friend and colleague from Minnesota pointed out, many of the organizations that have done so much for so long are doing even more now to make sure that we get to the point where people are food secure. And, of course, that includes the secular groups and the faith- based groups all working in tandem for this noble goal.

One of the objectives of the Global Food Security Act was to take a whole-of-government approach, led by USAID, in promoting food security. In conducting oversight hearings with regard to its implementation, however, we found that there were several places where a whole-of- agency approach, let alone a whole-of-government approach was lacking.

One area that needed attention was to make sure that our nutrition efforts were firing on all cylinders. While the original bill, law, and subsequent reauthorization placed great emphasis on reducing stunting-- and I have seen it all over Africa, as have Betty and many others. You go to Nigeria, and stunting is endemic to this moment. That can all be alleviated through the right kind of nutritional interventions, including the first 1,000 days of life, from conception to the second birthday, with nutrition that helps both mother and baby.

We have seen pictures of children with distended bellies caused by worms that rob them of needed nutrients. I chaired several hearings on worms, horrible things to see, growing in little kids, causing them to die, but certainly to be very sick in most cases.

USAID, when it came to deworming, often had a more stovepiped approach to it, while this legislation integrates the whole idea of deworming with the food security so that we don't feed the worms, we feed the future, and we feed these wonderful children and all those who are at risk.

We also have put in and continue the integration of water, sanitation, and hygiene, or WASH programming, which is also extraordinarily effective.

This is a great bill. I hope it gets total support of this body. Again, I thank Betty. I look forward to this vote and enactment into law.

Madam Speaker, I thank Vicky Hartzler for authoring this very important and extraordinarily timely resolution.

Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party is waging war against all faiths: Christians, Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims, Uyghurs. He is actually committing genocide against the Uyghurs and has been doing it for some time now.

Thankfully, this Congress has spoken out before, particularly on the Uyghurs, but we need to speak out again on the Christians who are suffering, the most persecuted group in all of China.

Let me say, too, that in calling for sanctions, we have sanctions, Madam Speaker. The Global Magnitsky Act and other sanctions are in place for the violation of the Religious Freedom Act of 1998, and the sanctioning could occur there as a CPC country, a country of particular concern.

I believe we need to do more to hold individuals and, collectively, the Chinese Communist Party to account. That goes for all. That goes for Trump when he was in office. It goes for President Biden now.

We should have done more. We need to do more now because it is all- out war on religion.

I wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in 1998. I titled it ``The world must stand against China's war on religion'' and noted that the sinicization, making all faiths comport to Xi Jinping's horrible, nightmarish vision for that country, needs to be incorporated. Whole texts, the Bible texts and sacred scriptures of all faiths, are being rewritten in order to comport, again, with his socialist ideology.

In 1994, after Tiananmen Square, I went to China. I went there many times--barred from going now. I know Bishop Shu of Baoding Province. Here was a man who spent years being tortured, being deprived of food, but especially being tortured because there were terrible usages of cattle prods and all the other terrible things that they do in Chinese prisons, Laogai.

I couldn't believe when he looked me in the eyes and said: I pray for my persecutors.

I mean, we all get a little mad when we get a bad editorial or something politically. Here is a man saying he has endured all this, and he prays for the people of China and for his persecutors.

I held a hearing as co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, asking Xi Jinping, just this Congress: Where is Bishop Shu?

He disappeared. He may have passed away due to the mistreatment, but that is what they do, as well. People all of a sudden just disappear. Numbers of Christians and other believers just go off the face of the Earth.

This resolution couldn't be more timely. The Chinese Communist Party is getting worse by the hour. Xi Jinping may get reelected by his peers to a third term as dictator. Our hope is that the Chinese Communist Party will realize they bring gross dishonor to China by their gross misbehavior.

Thankfully, the U.N. High Commissioner, as we all know, just released a report calling out China for its genocide. They called it crimes against humanity. That is good. Hopefully, the U.N. Human Rights Council will take this up, as well.

We need to do sanctioning, and we need to do it now.

Madam Speaker, patients, caregivers, and other advocates across the country come together every September to raise awareness of this condition. As Co-chair--with Representative Lloyd Doggett--of the Congressional Pediatric and Adult Hydrocephalus Caucus I want to express my support for Hydrocephalus Awareness Month and urge my colleagues to join our caucus and cosponsor H. Res. 20, the National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month Resolution.

The mission of our caucus is to raise awareness and inspire members of Congress to consider policy options that assist the hydrocephalus community. Hydrocephalus affects over one million Americans--infants, children, adults, and especially our seniors--with a prevalence in our elderly (175/100,000) equal to more than twice as that for infants and children (88/100,000).

We need members of Congress and their staff to understand that anyone can acquire hydrocephalus at any time.

Hydrocephalus--a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain--is colloquially known as ``water on the brain.'' Everyone, from babies to the elderly, can develop it. While some cases are congenital, it can also be caused by a traumatic brain injury, an infection, or even just develop as part of the aging process.

Brain surgery is the only treatment--many patients endure dozens of surgeries in their lifetime. There is no cure--yet--but Congress can play a role in moving the ball forward.

In addition to impacting people across the country, I've seen the success of treating people faced with hydrocephalus in my own district. The pediatric division of New Neurons Neurosurgery Institute (NNNI) in New Jersey, for example, plays a critical role in addressing the needs of thousands of children with hydrocephalus in New Jersey and around the country. With the expertise in the kinds of brain surgeries essential for survival, dedicated medical professionals such as Dr. Lawrence Daniels and his colleagues at NNNI save lives every day.

NNNI with Carly Weisman, who organizes the annual Jersey Shore WALK to End Hydrocephalus, are advocating and fighting hard in my district to bring greater awareness and help find a cure.

Nationwide, over 400,000 babies a year are born with hydrocephalus. Yet, the United States is not alone in this struggle--it is a worldwide problem--which is why I have introduced the Global Brain Health Act. This Act authorizes hydrocephalus funding from the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. This approach would ensure more robust foreign assistance for treating people in developing countries with hydrocephalus and other brain health-related conditions.

It is essential for members of Congress to better understand this condition and its profound impact on the people we represent, and the hydrocephalus caucus is a great way to help achieve that goal.

I urge my colleagues to mark Hydrocephalus Awareness Month by joining the bipartisan Congressional Adult and Pediatric Hydrocephalus Caucus and by cosponsoring H. Res. 20. As a member you will not only help raise awareness but may also play a role in creating public policies that lead to better treatments and possibly even a cure.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill, S. 3895, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I and my good friend and colleague, Anna Eshoo, have worked together on many religious freedom issues over the many years and have introduced the House companion bill to the Senate bill before us to authorize the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

It is both timely and essential that we pass this legislation. Timely, because USCIRF's authorization runs out at the end of this month; and essential, because the cause of religious freedom is under sustained and escalating threat around the globe, particularly in the world's remaining communistic dictatorships, from Cuba to Vietnam to North Korea to Iran, and to the world's largest oppressor of religious freedom in the world today, the People's Republic of China under Xi Jinping.

Indeed, just today, we see that the great defender for religious liberty, 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, has been put on trial in Hong Kong, a city-state which was once a bastion of freedom, but which now sadly has buckled to the dictates of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. All of us here in Congress and the White House need to raise our voices in defense of Cardinal Zen.

Sadly, we also need to add to that list of oppressors Nicaragua, where Comandante Daniel Ortega has reestablished his Sandinista dictatorship along communist lines and is waging a relentless war against the Catholic Church, the one institution which has consistently stood up for freedom throughout his tenure of abuse.

I would note parenthetically that I met with Ortega in 1984 on a human rights trip with Tony Hall and Frank Wolf, and the man is back. He has been back for a number of years, and his proclivity toward dictatorial rule, imprisoning the very people who run against him--I held a hearing earlier this year with the wives of two of the opponents for him in the general election. What does he do? It was with their wives, and they were very articulate, very passionate, very courageous in speaking out for their husbands. But Ortega says, ``I don't like what you are doing; I don't like that you are running against me,'' so he throws them in prison, and they are still in prison. And his oppression of the church has reached new lows as we speak.

Mr. Speaker, USCIRF also calls attention to other issues around the world, including whether you are a Christian or a Muslim or you happen to be Jewish or happen to be a member of a lesser-known faith, such as Baha'i or Falun Gong, USCIRF reports--I encourage everyone to go to their website and read their reports. They are fact-filled, they are very persuasive, based on all these kinds of investigations. The human rights NGOs all feed information to them about what is going on. They talk to the State Department, but they are really a good check on the State Department in terms of getting it right.

That is particularly true when it comes to designating certain countries to be CPC countries, countries of particular concern. Unfortunately, the State Department has a less-than-stellar record of picking and choosing and giving passing grades artificially to some countries that ought to be on the CPC designation, which is the worst violator and, therefore, susceptible to sanctioning by the United States Government.

As a matter of fact, this just happened with regards to Nigeria, where USCIRF accurately labeled Nigeria a top-tier violator of religious freedom while the State Department gave it an unwarranted upgrade right before the Secretary of State went to Abuja to meet with the President there.

We should have said to the President of Nigeria, President Buhari: ``You have got to clean up your act. The killing of Christians, of churches, houses of worship and schools, has to come to an end.'' Some of it he can't stop, but the response could be far better for much of it. Unfortunately, there is serious allegations of aiding and abetting, particularly with Fulani, the killing of Christians there.

I would also point out to my colleagues that Nury Turkel, who is the Chairman of the Board of USCIRF, was born, of all places, in a Chinese detention center during the cultural revolution. He has been a leader on behalf of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, as my colleagues on both sides of the aisle

know--we all know it--they are committing genocide. Now, we have walking point of USCIRF, a man who was actually born in a detention center, and he has been articulate and strong.

Last week, in the China Commission, which I serve as ranking member, when he testified, he just hit it out of the park in terms of good, factual information, persuasive, what next to do, with regards to that genocide and other concerns of all religious faiths that are being oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party.

I will end by saying that it is this great Commission that keeps speaking out so boldly about de-Sinicization of all religions in China. That means they all comport with Xi Jinping's etiology. Whether you are Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Uyghur, or Falun Gong, they are breathing down your neck and putting people in prisons if they do not adhere and comport with Xi Jinping's mandates.

Frank Wolf is now a member of the Commission, and I congratulate him on that. Here is the guy that wrote the law in 1998, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. We had real opposition to it. I was one of his cosponsors, and I put together a number of hearings in my committee where the bill first originated. But it was Frank who was the absolute champion, and we named the 2016 act after him to honor the champion work that he is doing, the life-changing work across the globe.

I thank Frank for his tenacious defense of religious freedom of all people.

Mr. Speaker, USCIRF needs to be reauthorized. I thank my colleague, and I yield back the balance of my time.