Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, we often say the words ``never forget.'' Never forget the worst genocide in history, we say.

Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we must acknowledge the uncomfortable reality that we as a country are not adequately passing the critical lessons from the Holocaust on to the next generations.

As the Representative of Borough Park in Brooklyn, with the largest population of Holocaust survivors and their families in the country, and as a proud American Jew from New York State, this is deeply personal to me and my constituents.

We must continue to educate the next generations of Americans to understand the importance of the Holocaust so that it is not lost and that we never forget.

I would like to stand here and read the names of my neighbors, those in my community who lost family and other loved ones in the Holocaust, but that list is just far too long.

Instead, I ask that each of us take a moment to reflect today, to confront our past, and to acknowledge the work that must be done in the future to make sure that we truly never forget.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk, No. 16.

Mr. Chair, this bill is simply a Big Oil bill that is a massive gift to fossil fuel interests.

We are facing a climate crisis. In my district, 10 years ago, a little more, Hurricane Sandy decimated New York City, and it was considered to be a 100-year storm. Now, as we are trying to make our district and our city resilient, we are told that this storm may happen in another 10 or 20 years. Climate change is real, and this bill just continues to destroy our climate.

Consistent with our Nation's commitment to tackling climate change, my green equity amendment would turn a planet-killing corporate giveaway into a recommitment to energy independence and a comprehensive and equitable green energy transition.

Rather than increase our production, we should be investing here at home in green energy. This amendment would kill the GOP's attempted giveaway to Big Oil and instead require that in order to release oil from the SPR, the executive branch must first certify to Congress that, first, the United States is meeting the Paris climate accord's targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and, second, the recommendations of the Justice40 Initiative, requiring that 40 percent of Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution, are met.

While tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can be a critical tool to protect American families from high gas prices, we have an obligation to future generations to make dramatic and sustained progress toward an equitable and sustainable future. That is why I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.

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

Point of Order

Mr. Chair, I am not surprised that my colleague across the aisle thinks this is not germane because I understand that my colleagues on the other side don't believe that oil production has an impact on climate change.

The sad reality is that fossil fuel production is what is causing our climate to burn and is what is causing the climate crisis that we are facing. Whether it is in California recently, after years and years of drought that now has torrential downpours, or other extreme weather events around the country, the reason for that is greenhouse gas emissions, and that stems directly from fossil fuel production.

So, yes, this is precisely germane to what the issue is in terms of additional oil production and the----

Mr. Chair, I was getting to the point that it is very germane to meet our climate change promises, pursuant to the Paris accords, to meet the Justice40 Initiative, to make sure that economic justice is also at the forefront of our energy production. It is very germane.

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

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I was not able to be present to

vote on H.R. 400. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 35.

Offered By: Mr. Goldman of New York

Amendment No. 16: Page 2, beginning on line 4, amend

Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about freedom, specifically, individual freedom, a core American value, a value that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have for years co-opted, weaponized, and distorted.

I simply do not understand how my Republican colleagues can demand the individual freedom to spread a deadly disease to other people by not getting vaccinated or wearing masks yet have the gall to deny the individual freedom to make decisions about one's own body that has no impact on anyone else.

How can it be that autonomy to wear a mask or not is of greater importance than the autonomy over whether to have a baby or not?

Let me say it plainly: We cannot talk about preserving our individual freedoms while simultaneously ripping away a fundamental freedom for women in this country. Control over one's reproductive health is a human right.

We are in the first week of Congress, and what are we focused on?

Is it to fight inflation? No.

To create jobs for Americans? No.

To protect children from gun violence? No.

It is to continue the assault on our autonomy, on women's autonomy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to make something crystal clear: The primary purpose of this special subcommittee is to interfere with the special counsel's ongoing investigation into a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

This is a shocking abuse of power, but it is not just the usual efforts by Members on the other side of the aisle to, once again, do Donald Trump's dirty work. This time they are trying to protect themselves.

One of them, a Member from Pennsylvania, had his cell phone seized pursuant to a court order finding probable cause that he committed a crime. Yet, he has indicated that he wants to be on this subcommittee so that he can undermine a criminal investigation into himself.

My Republican counterparts can dress up the subcommittee with a menacing name, but let's call it what it really is: the Republican committee to obstruct justice.

The American people don't want that. They don't want yet another front of the Republican war on democracy and the rule of law.

Mr. Speaker, I will vote ``no'' and urge everyone to do so.