Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Representative Bishop, for yielding and for his work on this legislation.

We do a lot of big, controversial bills. Sometimes, we can actually come together as Democrats and Republicans to get something done that serves the interests and needs of the American people. This is a good example of that.

The Beagle Brigade Act, which I introduced, as has been said, with Representative Bishop, Representative Ferguson, and Representative Adrian Smith, will help protect our food supply from foreign pests and disease.

The bill authorizes the National Detector Dog Training Center. This center extensively trains detector dogs and their U.S. Customs and Border Protection handlers to sniff out prohibited agriculture items that could carry foreign plant or animal pests and diseases into our country.

As we have seen over the past year, it is critical that we have processes in place to protect our country and our agriculture system from those prohibited products that could introduce pests or disease.

Authorizing the United States Department of Agriculture's National Detector Dog Training Center ensures that the U.S. has a critical tool in the fight against foreign pests and diseases that have the potential to devastate all sectors of the agricultural economy.

As Representative Bishop has said, over 50 prominent agriculture, veterinarian, and trade organizations support our legislation.

The center trains dogs, mostly beagles--hence, the name of the bill, our nickname for it--and their handlers to detect prohibited fruits, vegetables, and meats in international passenger luggage, mailed packages, and vehicles entering the United States.

Dogs are selected from animal shelters, rescue groups, and private owners. Those that retire from the program or do not complete the training are offered for adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I am glad we have come together to advance this important piece of legislation.

It has been said, the most likely path for these dangerous substances coming into our food supply is through those ports of entry. This legislation will have a positive impact in protecting not only public health, but also protecting the industry.

I am grateful to some of the organizations I have worked with on this back in Michigan: the Michigan Milk Producers, the Michigan Pork Producers, and the Michigan Farm Bureau.

I am especially grateful to my colleagues. This is one of the last couple of days that I will serve in the House of Representatives, as has been said. I have been pleased to have good friendships here, and those friendships have developed into the kind of work that we can do together to advance the interests of the American people.

Representative Ferguson and I have become very good friends over the years. Representative Bishop and I have a special bond. He helped me through one of my more difficult personal health challenges. I will always be grateful to him for that and grateful for the opportunity to serve with him.

I am particularly happy that we are able to put an exclamation point on our joint service together today by seeing this legislation come to the floor. I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my friend and colleague, Mr. Kilmer.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the House for the last time as a Member of this historic symbol of our democracy.

It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve my hometown and the people of mid-Michigan in Congress. I am so grateful to my constituents for putting their trust and faith in me to represent them for the last 12 years.

Every day that I have been in public service, I have been focused on doing what I can to improve the lives of the people back home. I am so very proud of the work that we have been able to accomplish together to make Michigan a better place.

I am particularly proud of what we have done to revitalize our manufacturing base and to bring jobs back to this country. As I have said a few times in this Chamber, I am from Flint, my hometown, so I know firsthand about how unfair trade deals and the lack of industrial policy has hurt working families in the communities that I represent.

In Congress, I got to work. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I helped to replace NAFTA with a better deal for America's workers. Under a Democratic Congress, we passed new laws like the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure law to incentivize us to make things in America. Those manufacturing policies strengthen our manufacturing and our U.S. supply chains. The real important aspect of that is it has grown our local economy.

These laws have worked. Already in mid-Michigan, we have seen major companies expand and invest like SK siltron in Bay City, Hemlock Semiconductor in Saginaw, and NanoGraf right in my home county, Genesee County. These companies are hiring hundreds of workers to produce American-made semiconductors, advanced manufacturing chips, and electric battery materials to help ensure that America leads the way in manufacturing in the 21st century.

To lower costs for families, again, I got to work passing new laws to put more money in the pockets of hardworking Michiganians. We authored the electric vehicle tax credit. We expanded the child tax credit to lower costs. In fact, I consider the refundable tax credit, the child tax credit, to be perhaps the best vote I have cast in my career in public office.

We all come to Congress with our own priorities. Revitalizing mid- Michigan manufacturing was certainly one of mine. The beauty of public service is that we are always learning something new from the people that we work for, from our constituents.

I am very grateful to advocates in my district who first educated me on one of those issues, and that is the issue of PFAS contamination, chemical contamination. Today, most Americans now know the dangers of PFAS to their health and the environment, but back then when we first got started on this, most Members of Congress couldn't even spell PFAS, let alone know what it is.

I first heard from constituents like Cathy Wusterbarth and Tony Spaniola about water quality issues in Oscoda, and we got to work urging faster cleanup of PFAS contamination surrounding the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.

I helped establish with my friend, Brian Fitzpatrick, the first Congressional PFAS Task Force, which brought together Democrats and Republicans around this issue to more urgently address a real public health threat and to ensure that those exposed, and especially our servicemembers, have access to the healthcare that they deserve.

Finally, after years of advocacy, we have made progress. This year, the Biden administration announced the first-ever drinking water standard for PFAS and designated certain PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances to ensure the polluters, not taxpayers, have to pay to clean up that contamination.

There is a lot more work we have to do to deal with cleanup of PFAS chemicals, but I am proud of what we have done and I am proud that we have done it by working together in a bipartisan fashion. I look forward to watching what my colleagues will do to continue to address this really important public health issue.

Of course, throughout my time in Congress, the issue of clean drinking water has defined much of my work. In the richest country on the planet, at the richest moment in its history, drinking water should be something that is a right, not a privilege.

One of my really proudest accomplishments here in Congress was working to provide real relief to Flint families during that terrible Flint water crisis. I worked to replace those lead pipes, expand healthcare services, and to establish the Flint Registry, which gives access to ongoing support for the long-term effects of that terrible crisis.

What happened in my hometown wasn't an anomaly. It was a warning to the rest of the country that we have got to be serious about commonsense regulations to protect public health. From the moment that that manmade crisis began, I knew we had to get to work.

Throughout the crisis, I organized numerous delegations of Members of Congress to come to my hometown of Flint. Democrats and Republicans responded. They came and met directly with the families affected by this terrible crisis. They learned about the decisions that led to the crisis in the first place, and they helped build support for Federal action.

I brought President Obama to Flint to hold a townhall with the families affected. For over 2 years, I worked with the Obama administration to expand Medicaid, Head Start, and healthy nutrition programs for families that really needed those supports because of the exposure to lead.

Because of that work, in 2016, despite the fact that then, like now, I was serving in the minority, I was able to secure $170 million in an aid package to help replace those terrible lead service lines, to create the Flint Registry, and to expand healthcare services.

I will be forever grateful to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, then our Democratic leader, who recognized that a Republican majority needed Democratic votes to pass a year-end budget bill, and she deputized me to go finish the deal. She sent me directly over to meet with Speaker Ryan, and we were able to include that single Democratic priority in that budget bill that provided the aid to the families of Flint.

As I also prepare to leave Congress, I am frequently asked, what will I miss the most. It is not hard to list the things I won't miss. It is also not tough to list those things I will miss the most: the friendships that I have made in this body. I thank my colleagues.

First and foremost, to Michigan's congressional delegation, it has been a real honor to be the dean of our Democratic delegation and to work alongside our two great Senators, Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator Gary Peters and to previously be able to work with one of my mentors, the late Senator Carl Levin. We came together to protect the Great Lakes, to support the hardworking men and women of the auto industry, and to clean up that terrible PFAS contamination that I mentioned.

Specifically, to Speaker Pelosi, a masterful legislator, a masterful tactician: Simply put there is no one better in this business or who I have learned more from. I thank her for never forgetting about the people of Flint and always fighting for America's children, to give a punch and to take a punch for those kids. She has done that her whole career.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is a true and honest friend, a classmate

from our 2012 class. We often joke about how the term ``my good friend'' is tossed about in this body pretty loosely, but he is an honest and true friend and an incredible leader for our House Democratic Caucus. I thank him for the trust that he placed in me to serve in the House Democratic leadership and to serve as the co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.

Hakeem and I came to Congress together, along with an amazing group of people in 2012. They are all friends. We share a special bond. I am especially grateful to three members of my class--one of whom you just heard from--who are not just friends but became my roommates over the years: Jared Huffman from California; of course, Derek Kilmer, my buddy from Washington State; and Ami Bera, also from California. They have not only been roommates, but in that role have helped me get through some of the good times. They also were there as a listening ear to help me get through some of the really tough personal challenges that I faced during my time here in Congress. These are friendships that will last forever.

There are other groups--the baseball team, the guys in the corner, and the indespicables--Congressman Kilmer mentioned them. We will explain that off the record. Two of them are here, Derek Kilmer, of course, and Adam Schiff, a group that we have been able to bond over and strategize with and sometimes just listen to one another. Those friendships will go on and on. Even though Adam is moving over to the Senate, I expect he will still remember our names.

To my chairman, Richie Neal, the chairman of the oldest, and what I think to be the most powerful committee in Congress, the Ways and Means Committee, serving on that committee, especially under the leadership of Richie Neal has been some of the most meaningful work of my career: to pass fair trade deals, to cut the cost of insulin, to protect Social Security and Medicare and to cut taxes for working families, and especially expanding that child tax credit.

Mr. Speaker, it has been one of the greatest honors of my lifetime, of course, to work with the people here.

One of them was a special friend, a person who I was very fortunate to get to know first as a person I admired from a distance but then became a colleague and a true friend. I am, of course, talking about the late John Lewis.

I remember when we first got here how many times we would say to one another: As rough as it was, aren't we lucky we get to go to work every day with John Lewis?

I remember literally sitting on the floor here when John led an effort to call attention to gun violence. It is the kind of good trouble that John was known for. I was happy to participate in that moment, never fully understanding until recently what devastating impact the pain of gun violence can have on families across the country. I am now one of those families. I didn't know it then.

I got to call John Lewis for the last few months of his life every single time that we had a vote on the floor of the House because he designated me to cast his vote for him during the COVID proxy rules. He was too ill to be here.

He gave me this incredible gift to vote for myself and Michigan's Fifth District and then to come to that podium and announce to this Congress that I was about to cast a vote on behalf of the gentleman from Georgia's Fifth District, John Lewis. The person known most for the precious right to vote gave me a gift I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that was the opportunity to carry his vote to the floor of this House.

I thank my extended family, really, my staff. To the dozens of team members, the past and present members of my crew, thanks for your hard work, for your dedication. I have really had the most talented and selfless team, dedicated D.C. and district staff, I could have ever hoped for. They pour their hearts, their souls, and themselves into this work.

I have often told my staff that, while I carry the voting card and wear this pin on my lapel, they serve in Congress. They have done that extraordinarily well.

I especially thank my longtime chief of staff, Mitchell Rivard, who has been with me not just since my campaign but who came to work for me even when I launched my campaign in 2011. He has been with me ever since, on the good days and on the days that were not so good, like being sworn in for first time. Then, he and I were both here in the Capitol on that terrible day, January 6. He has become like family. He has done an outstanding job leading my team, and I am excited for the great things that each of my team members will accomplish as they move forward.

Mitchell and my district director, Jacob Bennett, were with me from the day I came to Congress until the day we packed up the office to go home. The country is really fortunate that they will both continue to serve in this institution.

I want to thank a couple of my other team members who were with me for most of my time here, Jordan Dickinson and Ghada Alkiek, who I have known since they were probably too young to vote. They have been an important part of this experience for me.

I said many times that while I have been elected to lots of different public roles, I have never felt I changed jobs. I just got different business cards and a different toolbox to do my work because my job responsibilities have been the same, which are serving, working for, and representing those people who I work for.

I was first elected to public office when I was 18 years old. Five decades later--hard to believe--I continue to love public service and believe that this important work is that, important and honorable service.

For me, it is time to go home. As I reflect on my time in Congress, I am thinking about the future. I am excited to see that Michigan has elected to be represented by a soon-to-be new Member of Congress, Kristen McDonald Rivet. I know Kristen. She will be a great, commonsense, pragmatic leader for our area. I am especially proud that I helped to elect the first woman ever to represent this district in Congress.

While I am stepping back from public office at the end of my term, I am most definitely not retiring. I am looking forward to a new chapter, continuing to serve Flint and that region but just outside of elected office.

I have a lot of friends to thank for helping me get here, and it is impossible for me to list all of them. I do want to mention one of them.

Larry Rosenthal would have turned 62 today. He has been my friend for almost 40 years, my closest political adviser, my confidant. We lost Larry over the summer. I wouldn't have been a Member of Congress without him. I wouldn't have been as successful as a Member of Congress without him being at my side, and he was there every step of the way. He really was family.

To my family, especially my wife, Jennifer, I say thank you. She has stood by me and given up the most through my public service here. I know, at least I think, she will be glad that I will be home full time. She has put up with a lot.

Thank you, Jennifer.

She has done so while having to deal with her own health struggles. She is my hero.

I am grateful to my kids, to my son Ryan, my daughter-in-law, Ginger, and their children, the two most perfect grandchildren to ever occupy the Earth, Caitlin and Colin.

To my son Kenneth, who lives in New York, and my daughter, Katy, they have put up with my schedule. They have given me the reason and the inspiration to continue to fight on. They have supported and defended me, even when the unfair critics chose to take their grievances to them instead of directly to me.

To my mom, Margaret, my greatest defender, and my late father, Jack, I thank you for all you did to make this journey possible. I was happy to look into this gallery 12 years ago and to see you as I took this oath of office. I miss my dad every day, but I know, when I watched them up there, how proud he was. Thinking of that day still makes me smile.

To my siblings, most especially my late brother, Tim, who we tragically lost this past March, they and their families were always a part of this experience, so much that one of my former staff, Ghada Alkiek, once

coined the term the B.I.C. for my family, the Built-In Crowd.

My family has endured a lot. I wouldn't be who I am, and we couldn't endure the recent pain our family has experienced, without one another.

Of course, I want to mention my late uncle, Dale Kildee, my predecessor in Congress, a mentor and a teacher to me since childhood. He was a man who set an example, an example that I have tried to live up to, that you can fight hard for the things you believe in and still respect the human dignity of everybody around you, even those with whom you disagree.

Thank you, Dale, for that lesson. Congress needs to heed your example now more than ever, and that lesson has been tested even on me. I still remember the chair I sat in and the wall I hid myself behind on January 6, knowing that some of the people who I share this Chamber with contributed to the necessary precondition for that attack.

I have not been able to look at them the same. I have tried to take the lessons that my uncle provided me and continue to treat those people with dignity. It has been a challenge, but it is one I believe I have been able to overcome. I encourage future Congresses to continue to look at Dale Kildee as an example.

Mr. Speaker, I will end where I started, expressing my deepest and most sincere gratitude to the people of my home communities and to the people in Michigan. It has been an honor of a lifetime to be your voice. I did my best. I will see you back home.

Now, Mr. Speaker, for the very final time, I yield back.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to attend due to a memorial service. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 474 (H.R. 3012).

Madam Speaker, the bill before us is really nothing more than a distraction, a distraction from the real issues facing American seniors and retirees. What seniors want is their government to lower the cost of everyday necessities like groceries, gas, water, and electric bills. They want their hard-earned savings protected. They don't want Congress dictating to them where and how to invest for their retirement.

If Republicans were truly serious about protecting American retirees, they would be working to restore the pensions of Americans who have lost their retirements, their pensions or seen them cut, like the thousands of Delphi salaried retirees across the country.

Americans who work their whole lives should not have to worry if they will be able to retire in dignity, but when General Motors filed for bankruptcy during the Great Recession, the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the PBGC, unfairly cut retirement benefits by as much as 70 percent for more than 20,000 Delphi salaried retirees.

These cuts have been devastating for these retirees. We have heard stories from Delphi salaried retirees facing extreme hardship, even forgoing medical treatment because their pensions were slashed so much.

Under the past administration, the former President made a promise that he would fix this issue. He did not. He didn't even try.

Last Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Democrats, this body passed my legislation, the Susan Muffley Act, to be clear, in a bipartisan fashion, to restore the pensions of thousands of Delphi workers--as I said, a bipartisan bill that would restore those pensions. We had 218 Democrats, 36 Republican Members of this body voting for it.

These men and women worked hard. They followed the rules, and then they got the rug pulled from under them. When the government rescued GM and left these workers behind, their families were left hanging, and that was wrong.

At the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules had permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to the bill. My amendment would substitute this legislation with the Susan Muffley Act, my bipartisan legislation that would right the wrong for the Delphi salaried retirees, restoring their pension benefits that they were expected to receive before the bankruptcy.

Again, this bill is a commonsense, bipartisan bill that has already passed the House of Representatives in a bipartisan fashion. I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.

Madam Speaker, in closing I will just say this: I hope my colleagues join me. This is something we ought to be able to do together. We ought to solve this problem in a bipartisan fashion. I ask you to join me in voting for the motion to recommit to right this historic wrong for the Delphi salaried retirees.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) who is a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. In closing, I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

Madam Speaker, when it comes to the future of auto manufacturing, we have basically two options. We can either let China continue to dominate manufacturing, including the production of electric vehicles, as they have now for years, or we can invest in American manufacturing to create American jobs and make sure American workers are building these vehicles here in the United States.

The electric vehicle tax credit is helping us to compete with China, lowering costs for our consumers, and making sure we continue to make vehicles here in America with American workers and not overseas.

During the pandemic, of course, we had an economic crisis. Now, America has one of the strongest economies in the world. Over the last several years, 16 million new jobs have been created. There has been record small business growth. The stock market is near all-time highs. Wages are up and inflation is, in fact, coming down.

Additionally, for the first time in a long time, we are seeing a manufacturing boom right here in America. Under the last administration, we were shipping American jobs overseas. Currently, hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs have been created here in the United States with more manufacturing projects being planned or under construction.

To protect these jobs and to combat China's unfair trade practices, the Biden-Harris administration has announced that tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles would go from 25 percent to 100 percent. We are seeing the results of these efforts in my district, huge economic projects and investments that are putting people to work in good-paying manufacturing jobs, jobs at companies like SK Siltron in Bay County and Hemlock Semiconductor in Saginaw County, jobs you can raise a family on and that are helping us to lead the way to a new, clean energy economy.

The bill that we are debating today would reverse all of that work. Let's see it for what it is. It is a partisan attempt to undermine efforts to boost American manufacturing, to onshore our supply chains, and to lower costs for consumers. This is important: Ironically, this bill would make it harder for us to compete with China.

These new, unclear restrictions under this bill would make it completely unworkable and lead the auto industry and battery manufacturers to pull back their U.S. investments and to pull back on investing in manufacturing for those critical elements right here in the United States and from friendly countries and to, instead, go back to relying on China.

The outcome would undermine our economic competitiveness, undermine our national security, and undermine our resilience in our automotive supply chain. It would jeopardize billions of dollars of investment, and it would jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs. This bill is the wrong direction for American workers, it is the wrong direction for American consumers, and it is the wrong direction for our economy.

For these reasons, Madam Speaker, I urge my colleague to oppose this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, let me first just quickly respond because I have heard this point made several times in reference to luxury vehicles purchased by wealthy individuals. It is interesting because the electric vehicle tax credit was first put into law and came into effect in 2009. In 2017, the entirety of the Federal Government was controlled by Republicans, and by their own definition they scoured every line of the U.S. Tax Code to present to this Congress and pass legislation to address what they saw as the weaknesses in the Tax Code.

Looking at everything, including the electric vehicle tax credit, what was the result?

It was huge tax cuts to those very wealthy individuals, and unlike our policy, no cap on the price of a vehicle.

Madam Speaker, when my friends on the other side of the aisle look at the electric vehicle tax credit in 2017, they allowed a millionaire to buy a vehicle priced at any price. What we did when we wrote our electric vehicle tax credit is put a cap on the income of individuals who qualified for the credit. My friends on the other side of the aisle did not put a cap on the price of a vehicle that is eligible for the credit. They had no cap on the price of the vehicle.

Let's see this for what it is. It is not an attempt to make right the electric vehicle tax credit. It is an attempt to stop the electric vehicle tax credit and to end the electric vehicle tax credit.

Instead of having, perhaps, some de minimis elements and untraceable elements that may come from another country included in a battery, what the majority is proposing is policy that would have the entire car come from China, 100 percent of its value built in China. That is the wrong direction for this country.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Chu), who is a great member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Dingell), who has been a leader on all issues related to the auto sector and has been a great partner as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee to myself and on the Ways and Means Committee in promoting electric vehicles, allowing America to reclaim its manufacturing heritage.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, as Members have heard, the electric vehicle tax credit is helping the U.S. compete with China, lowering our costs for our consumers, making sure that we can continue to make those vehicles here in America with American workers.

As my colleague from Michigan (Mrs. Dingell) pointed out, history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. It was in the early 1970s that the U.S. auto industry and the U.S. economy failed to see the future, failed to embrace it. We lost market share, from which we have not ever quite recovered. We can't let that happen again.

The legislation before us would reverse the progress that we have made in competing with what has been Chinese dominance of electric vehicles. We have created American jobs. We have created American investments throughout our supply chain. This legislation would make it harder for us to compete with China.

Mr. Speaker, the Democrats and Republicans have stood together in the past on a bipartisan basis to stand up to China, to protect U.S. manufacturing from unfair trade practices. Of course, our historic work on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act ensures the products made in Xinjiang

with forced labor don't enter our markets and undermine American workers.

Just listening to the speakers, particularly the last speaker, we know what is going on here because it was now said out loud. Members on the other side of the aisle oppose not just electric vehicle tax credits, but Republicans oppose electric vehicles entirely. If Republicans don't want to buy an electric vehicle and if an American doesn't want to buy an electric vehicle, don't buy it. Let's not cede the future to China.

We hear a lot from folks who don't live and work among the people, whose jobs and lives depend on U.S. manufacturing. The practical effect of this legislation is to do what the majority has now said Republicans want to do, and that is end electric vehicle manufacturing in America.

What does that mean? It means China will build those vehicles. We have seen this before. We saw it in the early 1970s when we put our heads in the sand and decided that we could just dictate that everyone had to buy an American car rather than rolling up our sleeves and doing what we have to do to compete.

We don't want to have that happen again. China will win the electric vehicle war, will win the market if, in fact, we allow this legislation to become law.

The legislation that has been proposed is opposed by American companies, is opposed by American workers, as Mrs. Dingell just pointed out, because they know that this strengthens China's hand.

Mr. Speaker, the other point I make, which I made reference to earlier, is my Republican colleagues have scoured the tax code. The majority did it in 2017. I find it interesting. When my colleagues on the other side of the aisle looked at the EV tax credits back then, the majority didn't put an income cap on what Americans would qualify. Republicans allowed millionaires to qualify for the electric vehicle tax credit.

We said ``no'' to that. We included an income cap.

Republicans allowed the highest-priced luxury electric vehicles to qualify for the credit. We said ``no.'' We are going to put an MSRP cap so that moderately priced vehicles would benefit largely from the credit.

Most interestingly, when Republicans scoured the tax code to find anything that the majority wanted to change, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle didn't even include any restriction on the sourcing of any component of an electric vehicle from the People's Republic of China.

Under their tax policy in 2017, an electric vehicle tax credit could apply to a vehicle that had 100 percent of its battery fully constructed in China. We said ``no,'' and we developed a policy to transition us to American production and sourcing from American companies or our friends and allies.

Mr. Speaker, this bill does not reduce our dependence on Chinese vehicles. It increases our dependence on that. It is a partisan attempt to undermine the work that we have done to bring those manufacturing jobs back here. It will make it harder for us to compete against China. It makes it more difficult for us to secure our supply chains. It would raise taxes on hardworking families.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is the wrong direction for American workers, for American consumers, for our economy. American industry opposes it. American workers oppose it. I oppose it. I urge my colleagues to oppose it, as well.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I will be uncharacteristically brief.

This is tough. We all come here to do the hard work of representing our districts. I don't think a lot of folks understand that one of the things that makes this often difficult job tolerable in some ways and actually sometimes even enjoyable are the relationships that we develop with one another. It doesn't mean we agree on everything.

When I first got here 12 years ago, I got to know Billy right away because I was a member of that baseball team. I, too, am still trying to figure out how I am supposed to hit the back of the ball. I didn't know that a ball had a front or back or sides--it is round--but Billy was convinced that we had to hit the back of that ball, and I am going to keep working on that one.

Then I joined the Ways and Means Committee. We spent a lot of time together on the Ways and Means Committee, and I got to know him in a different way.

I won't tell the whole story--maybe the ranking member might at some point--but one particular moment that I will keep with me for a long time was when a few of us traveled to Mexico City to meet with the President of Mexico in the late hours of the USMCA negotiation.

Without getting into the details, let me just say that the experience that we have all had with Bill Pascrell is now an experience that the President of Mexico also had. It was a moment to watch. I will keep that with me for as long as I live.

I am glad that I was able to spend so much time with him at the Democratic Club. I must have had I don't know how many hundred dinners with Billy, often hoping there would be a handful of other Members around, but on those few occasions when I showed up and it was just Bill sitting there and I was able to sit with him and have a drink or two and enjoy dinner with him, I got to know him.

Lastly, I guess the real testament of his goodness, you know, earlier this year my family suffered a terrible tragedy. Bill Pascrell called me. In those early days, he called me every single day. I am sure he pulled out that flip phone and dialed my number, and he called me every day just to check on me. He said to me--and I have one of those voicemails where he said: Danny, whatever you need, and I mean it. And I know he meant it.

He was a friend. He was a colleague. He was a fighter for his people. He was a poet. I hope someday we publish some of that poetry. He was just a good guy, and I really will miss him.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding.

Pakistan and the United States have worked together as partners on issues of counterterrorism, trade, investment, and helping to ensure regional stability and security.

It is because of this partnership that the United States must continue to work with the Pakistani Government to ensure democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are upheld in Pakistan and that the fundamental freedoms of the people of Pakistan are respected.

That is why, along with Congressman McCormick, we joined together to introduce H. Res. 901, legislation to affirm the House of Representatives' support for democracy and for human rights in Pakistan.

This resolution calls on the Biden administration to strengthen their engagement with Pakistan on these issues and calls on Pakistani authorities to respect the freedoms of the Pakistani people such as due process, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech.

Our resolution also supports free and fair elections in Pakistan, elections that represent the will of the people of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, Pakistan's most recent election that took place in February was not carried out under conditions that credible election observers considered free or fair.

While there were some bright spots in that election, including the record numbers of women, youth, religious, and ethnic minorities being registered to vote, the election was ultimately clouded by credible allegations of electoral interference, fraud, and violence.

That is why our resolution urges the full and independent investigations of these claims of interference or irregularities in Pakistan's February election.

H. Res. 901 is supported by over 100 Members of Congress and received a unanimous vote, 50-0, in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

I thank Mr. McCormick, Chairman McCaul, Ranking Member Meeks, and their staffs as well for bringing this really important legislation to the floor. This resolution sends a strong message.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us in passing this to express our strong support for democracy, for the rule of law, and respect for human rights in Pakistan.

Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member for allowing me to speak on my amendment. It is a bipartisan amendment expressing the sense of Congress that we should not permanently store nuclear waste near the Great Lakes.

My amendment responds to the Government of Canada's recent plans to build a facility that would permanently hold thousands of tons of high- level nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin, the greatest source of freshwater known to mankind.

Permanently storing hazardous nuclear waste so close to our Great Lakes does not make any sense at all. A potential accident involving nuclear waste would threaten the drinking water of millions of people in the United States and Canada and jeopardize thousands of jobs in the fishing, boating, and tourism industries.

Surely, absolutely, there must be a safer location to permanently store radioactive waste than adjacent to the world's greatest source of freshwater.

My amendment, which is included in this en bloc, has strong bipartisan support, and it would be an important step in protecting the Great Lakes.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this en bloc.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Democratic Caucus, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 119, H.R. 7888.

personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to attend votes due to a death in the family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 102 (H. Res. 1102), ``yea'' on rollcall No. 103 (Motion to Recommit on H.R. 1023), and ``nay'' on rollcall No. 104 (H.R. 1023).

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to attend votes due to a death in the family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 96, H. Res. 987; ``nay'' on rollcall No. 97, H. Con. Res. 86 ``yea'' on rollcall No. 98, H.R. 1836; ``nay'' on rollcall No. 99, Mr. Graves of Louisiana amendment No. 8; ``yea'' on rollcall No. 100, motion to recommit H.R. No. 7023; and ``nay'' on rollcall No. 101, H.R. 7023.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to attend votes due to a death in the family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 89 (Previous Question on H. Res. 1085), ``no'' on rollcall No. 90 (H. Res. 1085), ``yea'' on rollcall No. 91 (H.R. 7520), ``yea'' on rollcall No. 92 (Motion to Recommit on H.R. 1121), ``nay'' on rollcall No. 93 (H.R. 1121), ``yea'' on rollcall No. 94 (Motion to Recommit on H.R. 6009) and ``nay'' on rollcall No. 95 (H.R. 6009).

personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to attend votes due to a death in the family. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 87 (H.R. 4723) and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 88 (H. Res. 149).