Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1112 and H. Res. 134. Both of these bills support democracy and stand with the people of Burma, also known as Myanmar.

New York's 22nd District is home to more than 4,000 Burmese refugees and new Burmese-American citizens. They have been coming to our region for over 20 years. They are demanding action and a return to civilian rule in Burma. I stand with them and all of my colleagues in condemning the atrocious human rights abuses that are taking place at the hands of the military coup last month.

I am honored to be an original cosponsor on both of these bills on Burma as a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where they received strong bipartisan support. Though these bills will not solve the problem in Burma, this will provide continued pressure on the military and a strong unified international condemnation will add to that. However, these bills are a very important step in the right direction.

The Burmese refugees and American citizens I represent in New York's 22nd District remain resolute in support of their friends and families who are suffering through this tragic process. In Utica, for example, they continue to advocate peacefully and protest in solidarity with those in their home country, displaying signs that read: ``Save Democracy, Save Burma.''

The passion and courage of the Burmese people both in my district and in Burma is inspiring. I am honored to provide a voice for them in this august body.

Madam Speaker, I urge all to remain committed to the Burmese people's quest for democracy and to oppose the assault on their free and fair government.

Again, I thank Chairman Meeks, Ranking Member McCaul, and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for being so strong on this initiative. It is critically important to the Burmese refugees in my community.

To the citizens: We stand with you.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 1799, the Paycheck Protection Program Extension Act of 2021.

This bipartisan legislation will extend the PPP application period, allowing the Small Business Administration more time to process loans. The PPP has been a vital tool for small businesses across the country and throughout New York's 22nd Congressional District.

Extending the application period will give small business owners the tools they need to continue paying their employees and keep their doors open, helping to reopen our economy even faster.

In my home State of New York, PPP has provided 140,000 loans, totaling $12 billion, and saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. PPP has been an effective, bipartisan COVID-19 relief program, and I am pleased to cosponsor this legislation. It will extend relief to small businesses that need it the most.

As a member of the House Small Business Committee, one of my top priorities in Congress is to deliver targeted relief to families and small businesses across New York's 22nd District. H.R. 1799 does just that. It will ensure that the remaining $120 billion in PPP funds under the CARES Act gets to the small businesses that desperately need it.

As we look to reopen our economy and get back to normal after a tremendously difficult year, particularly in my district, where over 94 percent of the jobs are created by small business owners, this will make all the difference.

I thank Chairwoman Velazquez, my friend from New York; Ranking Member Luetkemeyer; and everyone who is joining on this legislation. I appreciate your leadership. As a small business owner, I am grateful.

Madam Speaker, the GOAT, the Greatest of All Time, that is how Coach Mike Callan, the winningest women's basketball coach in my hometown of New Hartford, New York, described junior sensation Kaia Henderson.

Not only is Kaia one of the top 50 women's high school basketball recruits in the Nation, she is also a straight-A student, a humble leader, and a viral sensation. Kaia scored her 2,000th point this week, even with a dramatically shortened season due to the COVID virus.

Coach Callan describes Kaia as a special player whose work ethic shows on the court and in the record books, where she holds at least 12 other school records for the Spartans. Kaia herself remains humble, noting she is focused on winning and helping her team get to sectionals next season.

Kaia is inspired by her beloved mom, Kristen, who passed away in 2014, who was devoted to Kaia's success. She also credits her dad, Aurelius, and four big brothers--Troy, Isaiah, and twins Jared and Jordan--who push her to new limits each day.

But there is more. She has now started a viral 10,000-hour challenge during the height of the pandemic to inspire others to perfect a craft. Check out the 10K hours challenge.

Congratulations to Kaia on her incredible success on and off the court.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to honor the selfless bravery and service of a member of my community in New York's 22nd Congressional District, Timothy Chadwick, Sr.

Mr. Chadwick served our country in the Air Force during the Vietnam war. Timothy's story is shared by so many Vietnam veterans across our country. While serving in Laos, Timothy was exposed to Agent Orange, which has plagued his health ever since.

Many U.S. servicemembers who were stationed in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic herbicide known as Agent Orange. As a result, our veterans are at an increased risk of developing cancer, Parkinson's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and many other deadly illnesses.

These brave veterans risked everything to defend our freedom, and they deserve our support as they overcome the effects of their service. I will never stop standing up and fighting for veterans like they stood up and fought for us.

God bless men like Timothy Chadwick and so many others who served our Nation honorably, and God bless all the men and women currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor the outstanding work of Kelly Britton and Kathy Caruso, two residents of New York's 22nd Congressional District.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to call up H.R. 682, the Reopen Schools Act, to get our kids out from behind screens and back in the classroom.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose the previous question and to offer an amendment to help our schools safely reopen their doors for in-person learning.

Madam Speaker, millions of children around the Nation have been out of the classroom for the better part of a year. This has taken a serious toll not only on their learning and social development but also on their working parents, who have been forced to juggle home-schooling their children and working full-time jobs.

The data is in, and it makes abundantly clear that at-home learning is not a sufficient substitute for in-person education. One recent study found that children began to fall significantly behind in math. The study concluded that it would take students in grades 5 and 6 at least 12 weeks, on average, to catch up to where they were expected to be.

Madam Speaker, the science is in, and it, too, makes abundantly clear that schools can reopen safely if the right precautions are taken. Commonsense social-distancing measures significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools and make the classroom a safe place for our students and our teachers. The CDC Director said last month that the science shows our schools can reopen safely even before every teacher is vaccinated.

Madam Speaker, this is what the science tells us. Yet, despite these facts, too many children in my district and around the country are still not in the classroom. Students are losing out on a true, sound, basic education guaranteed them by the New York State Constitution, and parents are being forced to choose between going to work to earn a paycheck or staying home to teach their children. It is an impossible decision that no parent should be forced to make.

In my home State of New York, Governor Cuomo has said one thing and done another. The result has been confusion across the State and a patchwork of incoherent and conflicting policies. Governor Cuomo claims to support the science. Yet, it is March 2021, and New York still does not have a statewide plan to reopen our schools. It is clear that he is putting special interests before our students' education.

Sadly, we New Yorkers aren't surprised. Governor Cuomo has already lost credibility due to his unconscionable coverup of nursing home deaths. He failed to put our seniors first, and now he is failing to put our students first. We can and we must do better.

Madam Speaker, under the American Rescue Plan that the House will consider again later this week, nearly $130 billion is set aside for schools. But if you read the fine print, 95 percent of that money won't be spent until after 2021 is over. If you keep reading, you realize that there is no requirement that the funding be used to reopen schools safely, something our Nation is desperately crying out for.

The rescue plan fails to prioritize our students and does not do enough to return safely to in-person learning, which our students desperately need.

If we defeat the previous question, we will move to immediately consider the Reopen Schools Act, which states that schools, which accept a portion of the COVID-19 funding, must reopen. In order to receive full funding, schools are required to allow at least 50 percent of their students in the classroom, in person, at least 50 percent of the time.

This is what New York families are requesting, and it is exactly what families across the country are demanding from their leaders in Washington.

Madam Speaker, the money is coming from the American Rescue Act that the gentleman voted for, but what we are doing here is prioritizing the spending.

Madam Speaker, I would just like to address the question that the gentleman from Massachusetts posed.

What is allocated for this bill?

$54.3 billion is going to be appropriated immediately.

Madam Speaker, at this point, the bill that he is talking about has no money--only 5 percent until after 2021.

We have students and parents and everyone coming to us, and they want to open their schools because the children are falling far behind. This is particularly difficult in New York, where we have no plan in place and the Governor has failed to give us a plan, and our students are failing and we need to have our students back on track.

That is all that we are asking for, is that this money be allocated now and not wait for only 5 percent to be allocated until after 2021.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to honor the life and memory of New Hartford, New York Police Officer Joseph Corr. Fifteen years ago last month, Officer Corr was shot and killed in the line of duty while in pursuit of a robbery suspect.

Joe Corr, who was born and raised in my hometown of New Hartford, New York, was a dedicated father to Kaitlyn, a loving husband to Tracie, and a hero who served and protected our community with honor.

Today, the Officer Joseph D. Corr Foundation proudly honors Joe's memory and gives back to his fellow members in blue by supporting other families who have experienced similar tragedies. His parents, Dave and Kathleen, continue to provide their love and counsel to those families as well.

Officer Corr's death is a sad reminder of the dangers our brave men and women face each day in the line of duty. These heroes deserve our unwavering respect for the sacrifices that they make each and every day to keep our communities safe.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to raise awareness of the grave human rights violations taking place in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

For decades, the country of Burma has been working diligently to establish credible elections, democratic civilian governance, and a peaceful transition of power.

However, this progress came to a halt after the military violently seized control on February 1, 2021. The military has since used this unlawful control to violently oppress ethnic minorities, including firing artillery into Burmese villages and displacing over 7,000 people.

Peaceful protests for freedom have been met with deadly force, killing 18 and imprisoning nearly 700. One protester, a 16-year-old boy, was reportedly shot in the head by an army sniper.

Utica, New York, my hometown, is home to over 4,000 Burmese refugees and new Burmese-American citizens. Many fear for the lives of their friends and families in peril in Burma.

In Utica, they have peacefully stood in solidarity with their home country, holding signs that say, ``Save Democracy, Save Burma.''

I met recently with a group of these refugees to hear their grim accounts of the conditions in their native country. Their passion and courage are inspiring.

We must also condemn the cruelty and genocide against the Rohingya people, an ethnic minority who also desperately need our support and assistance.

The U.S. remains a symbol of democracy to the world. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Burmese people in their quest for freedom and democracy.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1, the so-called For the People Act.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are touting this sweeping legislation as a win for transparency and election integrity. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This bill is an attempt to destroy democracy by federalizing aspects of U.S. elections constitutionally delegated to the States. It would prohibit commonsense voter ID rules, encourage ballot harvesting, require no-excuse absentee and early voting, permit felons and noncitizens to vote, and make colleges and universities trusted voter registration agencies.

I know firsthand the need for election reform and the consequences of

elections run without transparency and oversight. I was sworn into office over 30 days late, after an exhaustive 100-day postelection count in the race for New York's 22nd Congressional District. In the run-up to the 2020 election, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo rushed through a series of executive orders that mirrored many of the policies the Democrats are now proposing in H.R. 1. The result was one of the most poorly run elections in the entire Nation. It was a disgrace to our system of government.

If H.R. 1 had become law, I can confidently say it would have been virtually impossible to conduct a fair and transparent race. New York's election debacle reveals H.R. 1's real-world consequences.

If this legislation had been adopted, the errors exposed in my race wouldn't be the exception. It would have been bureaucratic chaos and that would have been the norm.

Mr. Speaker, it is clear we need reforms to restore confidence in our elections, but what my Democratic colleagues are proposing would dramatically change election law. The American people are demanding a commonsense framework for election reform that strengthens security without compromising integrity.

Congress should focus on delivering results to the American people, not perpetuating their own power at an irreversible and grave cost to our democratic principles.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of an inspiring woman in my community, Jessie Clemente.

Jessie will be celebrating her 103rd birthday on Thursday with her family.

Born and raised in Utica, New York, Jessie has committed her life to being a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She enjoys spending time with her family, especially her beloved 5-month- old great-granddaughter, who she enjoys cooking and baking with. Jessie is also incredibly proud of her great-nephew David, who is serving our Nation in the U.S. Army.

The Clemente family has been a pillar of the Utica community for many generations. They own and operate Clemente Novelties, where Jessie often helped with day-to-day tasks and supported her son, who is currently running the family business.

I want to wish Jessie a very happy birthday and a safe and healthy year. Her zest for life and love of her family are an inspiration to all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a few special constituents in my region who deserve recognition.

Honoring the Life of Bill Chanatry

Mr. Speaker, this past October, the Mohawk Valley lost a local businessman, leader, and a dear friend when Bill Chanatry, owner of Chanatry's Hometown Market in Utica, New York, passed away at the age of 89.

Bill was raised in Utica and graduated from the highly acclaimed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute--many of you known as RPI--and enjoyed a 40-year career as an engineer, eventually serving in the Army Corps of Engineers in Japan during the Korean war; and later he joined General Electric Aerospace Electronics Division, where he served as a project manager for the U.S. Navy E-2C Surveillance Radar Team in Utica, New York.

Chanatry's, the family grocery store, was founded in 1912 by Bill's father and his two uncles. In 1991, Bill eventually retired from General Electric, GE, and became the president of Chanatry's and oversaw a significant expansion and innovation, using his unique skills in engineering to really bring Chanatry's into the forefront and to maintain it as a family, home-owned business catering to the needs of families in our community.

But along with all of these lifelong achievements that Bill had, Bill's legacy is better defined by his terrific family: his loving wife, Janet; five children, Ameena, Joanne, Michael, Bob,

and Mark; and, of course, all of their children, grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren as well.

The strong personal relationships that Bill cultivated with so many people in our community are thanks to his integrity, his loyalty, his ultimate belief in the goodness of humankind. Much of the love that he had came from his very strong devotion to faith. He also was known to attend daily mass.

He also was such a good friend to so many as he worked in his post- retirement, in his post-GE life, retirement life at Chanatry.

Bill's son, Mark, a long-time friend of mine, dear friend, stated that his father's greatest lesson to him when it came to rebuilding the number one grocery store in Utica year after year is simply: ``Chanatry's business was built on treating people right.'' And that was Bill's message. Mark and his family continue that great legacy left by their father, Bill.

For anyone who has been to Chanatry's, it is really hard to imagine walking through the market and not seeing Bill attending to every aspect of the business, taking the time to talk to individuals, to help consumers and people coming in and individual customers, which is something that he did every single day. It was a big part of his life.

He was also just hard to miss. He was full of energy, full of excitement, a lot of fun to be around. Our community will dearly miss Bill Chanatry, and especially his friends, his family, and his customers.

Mr. Speaker, our entire community really lost a true leader in Bill Chanatry, someone who was always able to innovate and actually reinvent himself, and someone who--I think what is most important--actually made a difference.

Honoring the Life of James VanSlyke

Mr. Speaker, next, I would like to recognize another really terrific person, a dear friend of my family. I would like to honor the incredible life of a man named James VanSlyke of New Hartford, New York.

Jim VanSlyke passed away on June 6, 2018, 1 day before his 89th birthday. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Virginia, whom we all know as Ginny; his children, Matt, Patrice, Andy, and Mary; his grandchildren, great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

Hailing from Hamilton, New York, Jim stayed in his hometown after high school, attending Colgate University, also in Hamilton. He received a full academic scholarship and graduated in 1952 with a master's degree in science.

My mother's hometown also happens to be Hamilton, where she and Jim attended high school together. At Colgate, Jim also met my father, who was a college classmate of his.

Immediately following Jim's graduation from Colgate, Jim went on to serve in the United States Army. After honorably serving our Nation, Jim continued his lifelong journey of service and moved back to Mohawk Valley, where he dedicated 66 years of his life in the town of New Hartford.

Upon his return, James began his 31-year career in New Hartford School District, serving as a math and science teacher, a coach, a guidance counselor, and a principal for both the junior high and senior high school.

I had a the honor of attending New Hartford High School during his tenure as principal. Back to Mr. VanSlyke, as I always called him. He was respected, sometimes feared, but always a person with common sense and someone who could be relied on for sage advice for many high school students, including me.

Later in his life, Jim ventured into another form of public service, where he served seven terms as the town and village justice for the town of New Hartford.

Jim was regarded as a knowledgeable, fair, and hardworking man, always making sure that he knew each aspect of the law relevant to the case at hand.

If Jim didn't know the answer to something, he was quick to admit it and also quick to find the answer. He was willing always to listen to another's perspective, including other attorneys. His intelligence was self-evident but humbly portrayed.

As an attorney, I appeared before Jim on many occasions in court. He always asked me about my family, and especially my mother's sister, whom he was quite fond of, my Aunt Polly, who was also a classmate at Hamilton High School.

Jim was also a very talented high school athlete and a college athlete, as I learned from my mother kind of the hard way. I am always going to remember, there was an article written by someone I actually went to Colgate with, I believe, and it was in Sports Illustrated. It described Jim's famous son, who is a professional baseball player and also my classmate in high school. He used to sit right behind me, a baseball player named Andy Van Slyke, who many know, who also later became a coach. I remember the article described Jim Van Slyke and Andy as coming from a family with no athletic talent, to which my mother immediately said:

He was the star of Hamilton High School in every sport, and

he went on to Colgate to be a star as well.

Though Jim never served as a professional athlete like his son, Andy, Jim was a star in all of our minds. He was a terrific person, a great educator, and later in life found a passion for cooking. His culinary skills provided another way to express his deep love for his family by bringing them together at the dining room table.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in recognizing the life of one of New Hartford's greatest educators, Jim Van Slyke. Our community will forever remember the life and legacy of Jim Van Slyke. We will also remember Jim's sense of humor and his kind and humble manner in every aspect of his life.

Expressing Gratitude to Constituents, Members, Supporters, Family, and

Staff

Mr. Speaker, I now want to just say a few words about my term in the 115th Congress and what an honor and a privilege it has been for me to serve.

I want to first thank my constituents who have been terrific. I have really enjoyed my time with them, serving them, and working very hard every day to try to find results--actually excellent results--in the 115th Congress. I think we have reached some unprecedented levels in our last 2 years.

I also want to thank my supporters. They were terrific, a lot of fun. It was a great time, a lot of hard work, a lot of anguish, and a lot of frustration. But through it all, they were very tough and hung in there in spite of our loss this past November.

A lot of my volunteers, also among the supporters, were terrific. I want to thank them for so much work, so many phone calls, and just a great opportunity to serve with them.

I also want to thank a lot of the people in our community who serve in social service agencies who have done so much to help the truly neediest people in our communities. I am grateful that they reached out to me and I was able to give back to them and provide much-needed resources on the Federal level. I really appreciate their good counsel and care and what they provided to me and my staff in making sure that we were able to understand the issues and bring those issues back to Washington and deliver to our constituents.

I wanted to also thank the local officials in my district throughout the community who have been an invaluable resource for bringing issues to the table that needed to be resolved and their hard work, their belief in me and some of the amazing accomplishments we had throughout the eight-county region and to the many towns and villages, it was really an honor to serve.

Some of the resources we brought back to the city were tremendous. So I want to thank them for their sage advice, their counsel, and their good friendship. I hope that we can continue to provide solutions and realize good things for them in the future.

Also I thank my friends and my family who have been through a lot in my rather short time in public service. It has been very exciting and filled with a lot of ups and downs, but a lot of challenges. I am just grateful for them to kind of hang in there with me through all of this.

I stand here today as a Member of the 115th Congress. I also served three terms in the New York State Assembly. I have been a lifelong Republican. I never missed a vote since I was 18.

Oddly enough, I have never been endorsed by my local Republican committee for any office I ever sought until this year. So maybe it is bad luck in the end. But I wanted to just say thank you to so many of the rank and file and people who serve in this capacity in both sides, in all parties, in what they bring to the table and how important it is to our constitutional Republic and democratic principles. I want to just say I am grateful to them.

Toward that, I also want to just say thank you, especially to my colleagues. You hear so many terrible things about Congress, and I myself thought: What is wrong with these people here?

But I have gotten here and realize there really are terrific people who care about this country. They care about their constituents, they care about preserving our constitutional Republic, they care about democratic principles, they care about serving mankind, and they recognize the importance of where we are in the world. I say that about people I have met genuinely on both sides of the aisle, there are really terrific people who serve in this office. I may not agree with everything that they have to say, but they have been really terrific to me.

I especially want to thank my freshman class. They have changed my life in so many ways. It has been such an honor, including, Mr. Speaker, a couple of my favorite colleagues here, but I wanted to say that I really appreciate the fact that our freshman class, the incoming class for the 115th Congress, took a very special measure. It was spearheaded by my colleague, Congressman Mike Johnson. We signed a commitment to civility; something that I thought was a really great idea, a terrific idea, something that really meant a lot to us who have signed on to this. We have endeavored to stick to that commitment to civility. I know I have.

Among some of the pledges we made was to introduce legislation and make every effort to make sure it was bipartisan. I am honored to say that every piece of legislation that I authored, unless it was district specific, was cosponsored by one of my Democratic colleagues, and I always wanted to get one of my freshman class members when I could. So I am grateful to all the Democrats and the Republicans, everyone who signed that commitment and came forward to try to work on resolutions to stand together and to really work to get to know each other.

I think we did make a difference. Unfortunately, it isn't sound-bite worthy. The media didn't really cover it. But I think it is something people should really look at that makes our class so unique and why we accomplished so much this first term.

I really want to just say thank you all to my family. My family has been terrific. They stood through a lot. It was very hard for my family to go through the political process, as ugly as it has become, which is why that commitment to civility is so important and why I was so dedicated to it.

It is okay to advance your cause, to argue, and to disagree. I am a lawyer. That is a natural instinct, and that is good. But to make sure in the end that we don't hold grudges, that we stand for each other and respect each other when we walk away, and I think our freshman class showed that this year. I am honored and proud to be part of that.

I am not done, but I think that my colleague from Texas (Mr. Arrington) would like to say a few words.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Arrington.

Thank you so much Representative Arrington. You are terrific.

I might add something about the commitment to civility and why it really reflects who you are also and why it was such an honor to serve with you. I remember all of us having the discussion, the freshman class, with the Democrats. We were at one of our social events, and you were just always the consummate ``let's get along, let's be ladies and gentlemen, let's work together. We have got to do this, because in the end the tables are going to turn. You are going to be in power, and we are not, or you are going to be in the majority, and let's just not look at that. Let's go beyond that.''

I still remember those conversations with you. You are a terrific Member. You served honorably. You have a wonderful family. I really am grateful for your friendship and your support.

None of these friendships end here. This is an amazing 2 years in this 115th Congress. I think it was really special. Maybe everybody feels that way when they go to Congress, but I think our group was really different, and I am including the Democrats in that as well.

We had a great group, and as we move into 116--I am sorry I am not going to be joining you all--but let's keep on the tradition of what we have done. Let's stay together and continue to work to protect our constitutional Republic.

I am a huge Lincoln fan, and I have said this many times, certainly in my community, but I look back on some of the tough times that we are facing ahead, and I remember what Lincoln said at one point. I would say the enduring message from his body of work was: Can we save this Republic? Can we save it? Can we be self-governing?

We can, but we have to work together. We have to fight the fight. We have to stand on our principles and find a way to compromise in the end. I feel like that is what we have done with so many great bills and so many accomplishments. If you look at what happened in the 115th--and I think we can all take credit for this across the board--the accomplishments are something that we haven't seen in decades in Congress. In just one Congress all of our agenda was passed and done, and much of it was bipartisan. I wish it all were, but maybe as we go into the 116th we can make that happen as well.

But I just want to say thank you so much to you and all my colleagues who served with me, whether they are in the freshman class or not, I love you guys. You have been terrific. My life has changed, and my life is better because of my service here and meeting all of you and finding out, yes, there are really good people who serve this Nation, and they are here in Congress--not everybody. But there are a lot of us out there.

I am so proud and honored to have been serving here for 2 years and to have met the people I met, whether they are in Congress, whether they are the great staff or the people who work here, the people behind me who we keep up at late hours to do their job, but it has really been an honor. I want to say thank you so much to you.

One last thing, I do want to say thank you to--first of all, I want to thank again the chairman of my committee, the Honorable Jeb Hensarling--who is retiring--for his terrific service and great work and what an honor it was to serve on the Financial Services Committee.

Also to the staff of the Financial Services Committee, I want to say thank you. They were terrific, and they helped us every day come up with an incredible agenda and very bipartisan work. I am grateful to them to have had a number of bills that were originally sponsored by me that either

were included in other bills, the S. 2155, or others, and for their help in getting those across the finish line and having five original sponsored bills that ultimately became law.

So I want to say thank you to them.

I also want to say thank you, last but not least, to my hardworking staff. First of all, I put them in alphabetical order so you don't know who is better than the other, but I want to say I loved having them on my staff. They did a tremendous job.

Let me just say a hearty thank you to my staffers, Hannah Andrews, Alexandra Cade, Haim Engelman, George Iverson, Maria Giurastante--I can never say Maria's name--Kate Kelly brought me to New Orleans my first time, Samantha LaMarca who was with me from the times in the assembly, Rebecca Lumsden, Patrick O'Brien, Nick Stewart, Robert Simpson, Michael Stademeier, Kathy Vences, Brett Wakeman, and Katie Ziemba.

I want to thank so many terrific interns who joined us and inspired us every single day with their excitement, their youth, their enthusiasm, and the fact that they were all so much more technically proficient than I was, so I could just hand them my phone with trust that they could fix whatever it was that was wrong with it. I want to say thank you to them for the hard work and the hours that you put in throughout the last 2 years.

It wasn't easy. We were in a tough position, whether it was the media, whether it was just the position we were in as a targeted seat in the Nation. But you came through. We did terrific work. We made groundbreaking strides in our community.

I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you for what you have done and what you have done to serve us and serve my community and always have a servant's heart as you dealt with all the constituents and the literally, I don't know if it is thousands, but every time one of my constituents contacted me directly and I got to the message, I copied, I pasted, and I sent it to you, and you reacted and helped the constituent out.

I really am grateful to all of you for doing that because I love the job that I do. I love serving. I love doing this kind of work to help people. For the first time, I really felt like we got to help people in the last 2 years.

Again, I want to say the last thank you to my family members: my son and my parents. My parents, who passed away, never got to know that I actually got here. I just want to say thank you to them for instilling in me the integrity, the loyalty to people and the compassion for fellow human beings and for helping this world, and also for the tenacity that I got from my mother, who was really my inspiration.

I want to just say one of my favorite quotes that my dad used to always say when I used to be in all the sports I attended, whether it was curling--yes, I am a curler--whether it was basketball, horse shows, equestrian--I did that as well--golf and a lot of sports I got into, my father would quote, when I was disappointed that I didn't win, from Rudyard Kipling's poem ``If.'' I am just going to pick out part of it. ``If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same,'' and the poem goes on. But that is exactly what it is. It isn't about winning and losing. It is about how you play the game. We did a great job.

I want to say thank you, lastly, to my son, who has been my inspiration. I am hoping that I get to see him at Christmas, but I am not sure I will, because he is currently serving as a captain in the Marine Corps. So we are very proud of him in our family for answering the call to serve.

But I do want to say thank you so much again to everyone who has been so kind to me. Whether it is Pat and Doris, the ladies in the Lindy Boggs Room, everyone who is working here, it is really a highly professional operation. You hear terrible things about Congress, but it is not true. There are a lot of terrific people that work here that aren't just Members. They are the people who keep the trains running on time, the people who make this happen.

I just want to say thank you again for letting me have this tremendous honor to do what I have done for the last 2 years. I wish everyone the best of luck and God bless.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to say thank you, again, to my colleague, Jodey Arrington, of west Texas, for his terrific remarks. Yes, we did accomplish basically everything we set out to do in the 115th Congress.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention one more thing that Mr. Arrington just referenced, the gentleman from Texas, is that every one of us contributed in the freshmen class to perpetuating and finding a new part of our commitment to civility.

I just wanted to mention our colleague from Florida, Mr. Charlie Crist, who actually came up with these nice bands that so many of us wear. It says: Practice the Golden Rule. It is emblematic. We wear them because we are endeavoring to meet our pledge for our commitment to civility.

I hope that you all and Congressman Crist and everyone continues on this great path next year, including both sides of the aisle. I hope everybody works on their commitment to civility.

But I want to say thank you again to my colleagues, also to our Speaker pro tempore, the great president of our class, the amazing General Jack Bergman, who is now a Member of Congress representing Michigan. I am really honored to be among some of the great people that serve here. I want people to rest assured there are good people in Congress. There really are.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the story of dear friends of mine, Robert and Donna Force, who are deeply committed to carrying on the tradition of family farming.

Robert served honorably as a member of the 106th Rescue Wing, a unit of the Army National Guard. In 1986, Robert and Donna Force purchased 96 acres of land in Gilbertsville, New York. It is where they would spend the next 26 years building their farm and growing their family.

All told, by 2010, the family had expanded to 111 acres of land in the beautiful Catskill region of upstate New York. The family viewed the farm as their retreat, a place of many happy memories. They cleared the land to build a barn, renovated their farmhouse, and planted new trees across the landscape.

Sadly, in 2014, the Forces were forced off their land due to an accounting error in their local county. The county failed to cooperate with them, instead putting their lovely farm up for sale and auction.

Mr. Force, as a veteran, also cared for his wife, Donna, who was suffering grave, life-threatening medical problems through this and up until today. The Force family believes this is part of a larger plan to push families off their property, auctioning land to the highest bidder.

Since that day, the Forces have continued to fight to save their farm, their

property, and their family legacy. For more information, see ``Save the Force Farm'' on Facebook and social media.

Thank you so much to the Forces and to Mr. Force for his honorable service to our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize my dear friend Melvin Phillips, a full-blooded Oneida Indian, who is facing eviction from his ancestral land by the illegitimate CEO of the Oneida Indian Nation, Ray Halbritter.

Mr. Phillips currently resides on ancestral land in Vernon, New York, which his family has possessed for centuries, long prior to the last treaty signed by the State of New York in 1842, of which all of his ancestors signed all of the treaties with the State and were codified into State law thereafter.

Melvin Phillips is an 82-year-old leader of the Orchard Party Band of Oneidas. Virtually all the elected officials in my region, including the Governor of New York, my 2018 opponent, and all of my predecessors who held this seat, overtly or tacitly, wrongly support the eviction of this genuine Native American and his family from their ancestral lands, in spite of all the laws in place to protect Mr. Phillips.

I have represented Mr. Phillips and his family pro bono because of his amazing story. He is the epitome of the American hero, albeit the Native American hero.

Mr. Phillips refuses to compromise his integrity. He is a fighter for the truth. He will not cash in to this corrupt casino leader or anyone else to protect his land or his culture.

Regardless of any official position I hold, I will not stop fighting for Mr. Phillips and his family no matter how many millions are spent to defeat me at the ballot box by Mr. Halbritter and his shills or how difficult the odds may be for this great American.

For more information, please go to www.melvinphillipsstory.com.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my longtime dear friend Rudy D'Amico, who will be retiring next year as the president and CEO of the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, also known as CABVI.

Rudy and his team at CABVI have touched the lives of so many. Their resources and services have improved the

quality of life for so many in our region, including my father, who spent the last 7 years of his life legally blind and confined to a wheelchair. CABVI and their compassionate staff enabled him to continue to serve as a full-time member of the New York State Supreme Court, despite his disabilities.

Rudy, a veteran of the New York Army National Guard, began his tenure with CABVI in 2003 as vice president of operations before moving up to president and CEO in May of 2008. He has overseen significant expansion and growth at CABVI, including expanding employment services into Onondaga County, the addition of more than 100 employees, and opening four base supply centers in Northeastern States.

Along with this work at CABVI, Rudy has also remained deeply involved in our community. He has served on the board of directors for the National Association for the Employment of People Who Are Blind, the New York Vision Rehabilitation Association, and the Community Foundation of and Oneida Counties.

To my dear friend Rudy D'Amico, thank you for your many years of service. From a grateful community, we wish you the best of luck in your retirement. Please sharpen up your golf game.