Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Freddie Louis Thomas, Sr. for his 50 years of service to the Central Valley community as the Senior Pastor of Jerusalem Mission Community Church of God in Christ.

Dr. Thomas, Sr. was born in 1934 in Marshall, Texas. As a child, he and his family relocated to California and settled in Los Angeles. In 1953, his family moved to Bakersfield, California. He went on to be a fixture in the Central Valley ever since. After. graduating from Bakersfield High School, Dr. Thomas, Sr. attended Bakersfield College while working towards his license as a building contractor.

After working years in building construction and contracting, Dr. Thomas, Sr. felt a calling from a higher power and made the admirable decision to dedicate his life to Christ. He went on to attend multiple seminary schools, eventually achieving a doctorate in divinity. Dr. Thomas, Sr. has used his knowledge to become a leader in the Central Valley religious community--spreading the word of God through his teachings to multiple congregations.

In 1963, Dr. Thomas, Sr. founded the Jerusalem Mission Community Church of God in Christ. He has served as the church's senior pastor since its founding and has become a true source of inspiration for Valley families for decades. In 2021, he became the Emeritus Pastor of the Church.

I ask all my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join me in congratulating Dr. Freddie Louis Thomas, Sr. for his 50 years of service to the Central Valley community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Hanford Fire Department Captain David Sumaya for his 33 years of service to the Central Valley community.

Captain Sumaya was born and raised in Hanford, California. As a young man, he knew he wanted to serve the community he had lived in all his life and found the best way for him to do so was to become a firefighter. In 1989, he began his work in the fire service and joined Hanford Volunteer Firefighters. As a volunteer firefighter, he ran calls out of the old Lacey Boulevard Fire Station, even working on fire engines from the 1940s.

In 1991, Captain Sumaya was hired as a full-time firefighter with the Hanford Fire Department. Throughout his decorated career, he held every position in the Department, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. Additionally, he served as one of the original members of the Hanford Fire Department Investigation team, helping the Department understand the causes of fires throughout the community.

Over his three decades of service, Captain Sumaya served as a role model for all members of the Hanford Fire Department. He has been a source of inspiration for young firefighters in the Department, and a great resource for veteran members. His dedication to his community is an inspiration to us all, and his legacy within the Hanford Fire Department will live on forever.

I ask all my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join me in honoring Captain David Sumaya for his 33 years of service and dedication to the City of Hanford.

Madam Chair, my constituents have faced drought conditions for years. Communities throughout the Central Valley and the entire American West are running out of water for daily use in homes, businesses, and agriculture production. Farmers are being forced to fallow their fields and dry out their orchards, and hundreds of thousands of acres will be unable to be planted again this year.

Instead of coming to the table to work on real solutions that would give families and farmers in my community the water they desperately need to survive, the majority has decided they would rather play politics with the most critical resource in the valley.

Apparently, passing political messaging bills to check a box is more important to my Democratic colleagues than trying to save the livelihood of thousands of valley farmers trying to put food on the tables of Americans across the country.

This bill is completely silent on the desperate need for enhanced water storage infrastructure to better prepare us during wet years. It does not cut red tape, decrease time delays, or address increased project costs due to redundant requirements under NEPA.

The bottom line is this bill is bad policy and bad for the Central Valley. My colleagues don't seem to understand that the fewer agriculture products the Central Valley produces, the worse off our own domestic food supply will be. Reduced ag means more of a reliance on other nations for our food, which is an issue for national security.

We must do better to address the severe drought we are suffering through in the American West.

The WIIN Act, which passed with bipartisan support under President Obama in 2016, provided real relief to valley farmers by increasing operational flexibility of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project. It also authorized millions of dollars for important water infrastructure projects to improve the Friant-Kern Canal, the Delta-Mendota Canal, and the California Aqueduct.

The WIIN Act was critical to ensuring that valley families in rural communities across the United States have clean, reliable water. We made great progress because of this legislation. Unfortunately, authorities under the WIIN Act expired in 2021.

This is why I introduced the RENEW WIIN Act, to extend storage and operation provisions of the WIIN Act and authorize funds for critical water storage projects.

Over three quarters of the Democrats in this House supported these positions in 2016. But this week, they refused to include my bill in this so-called drought relief package. They are blocking an actual solution to the crisis in the name of environmental justice.

Madam Chair, where is the justice in letting thousands of valley farmers lose their livelihoods because they cannot get something as basic as water?

If this drought bill was truly about solving the water crisis in the West, the House majority would include the RENEW WIIN Act in this package instead of actively blocking its consideration.

Madam Chair, I am once again urging the House majority to consider this legislation that will bring water to the people in my community doing everything possible to survive this terrible drought.

Madam Chair, I urge the Democrat majority to stop playing politics with the resource that the entire country is so reliant on.

Madam Chair, I include in the Record the text of the amendment.

At the end of division A, insert the following:

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

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

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this. Telehealth is critical for rural and low-income communities like many in my district, and I absolutely support this bill.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was widely used since we were not able to see our healthcare providers in person. Even before the pandemic, many of my constituents were not able to go to their health appointments because oftentimes the office was way too far, or they did not have the transportation to get to their provider.

Through this legislation, the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act, some of the healthcare flexibilities we have seen since 2020 would be extended for another 2 years. This action is very necessary, but I also believe it is in the

best interests of our constituents to take these flexibilities and make them permanent.

I introduced a companion bill with my colleagues that would make permanent the expanded list of practitioners eligible to provide telehealth services.

Congresswoman Cheney's bill is a great starting point, but I encourage my colleagues to make these flexibilities permanent so our constituents can have access to the care even after the public health emergency declaration has ended.

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

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

Mr. Chair, I request support from my colleagues on a very simple amendment.

This amendment would prohibit the Department of Energy from sending America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China. Supporting this language is common sense, especially since we need to focus on increasing energy production and not supporting our adversaries while Americans are still suffering from outrageously high fuel prices here at home.

These reserves are meant to be used for emergencies only. They are not meant to be used when our leadership has failed us by unnecessarily restricting domestic energy production.

What is even more concerning is that under the Biden administration, our Strategic Petroleum Reserve supplies have been severely diminished. It does not make sense that we are using our already depleted energy supplies to help China build up their own strategic reserves.

It is irresponsible and dangerous for the United States to provide our foreign adversary with fuel that we desperately need to keep here in the United States in case of an emergency. It seems the Biden administration is helping to support China's national security at the expense of our own.

It has been suggested that selling resources from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will help reduce fuel prices here at home. That is simply not true.

What we should be doing instead is supporting our energy producers here in the United States. We have abundant resources here that can and should be used. We are deliberately holding our country back by overregulating and stifling our domestic energy producers. The very last thing we should be doing is sending our precious resources from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China. I urge all of my colleagues to support the United States national security by supporting this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I include in the Record the text of this amendment.

At the end of division C (before the short title), insert

the following:

Mr. Chair, thank you for allowing me this time to talk about the importance of the three amendments I submitted to this bill that, unfortunately, we won't be voting on today.

The severe drought throughout the American West has been negatively impacting my constituents and local community for years.

In the Central Valley, our farmers have had to turn to pumping groundwater to protect their high-value crops. Towns have been forced to pump more and more groundwater to meet their communities' needs. As a result, these communities have experienced land subsidence at the expense of critical water infrastructure.

In the worst cases, farmers are forced to fallow their fields and dry out valuable orchards due to access to little or no water.

My constituents are farmers who feed the world, and with record-high food prices, the inability for our domestic farmers to grow food is going to impact the entire country. The situation is dire and only getting worse.

We can't produce more water, but we can work with the water we already have and apply commonsense solutions to make this water available to our agricultural communities.

My first amendment would have addressed water storage capacity issues by extending the storage provision of subtitle J of the WIIN Act. It would have also created a program to assist in funding the repairs to damaged canal facilities.

Unless these canals are completely restored, the issue of subsidence and resulting unnecessary water loss will continue and conditions will worsen.

My second amendment would codify the 2019 biological opinions that were independently peer-reviewed and informed by the most accurate and best-available science.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration's Bureau of Reclamation has ignored science and reinitiated consultation with the BiOps with no explanation. Codifying the 2019 BiOps would put an end to senseless litigation and provide operational certainty for Valley farmers.

My third amendment was one focused on transparency and would direct the Bureau of Reclamation to provide the Committee on Appropriations with a justification on their decision to reinitiate consultation of 2019 biological opinions. We need to stop playing politics with a resource that the Central Valley is so reliant on.

It is extremely disappointing that the majority rejected each one of these amendments that would bring more water to the communities throughout the Central Valley who are doing everything they possibly can to survive these conditions and provide food for our Nation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore on its 60th anniversary.

Construction of the Naval Air Base in 1960 brought an important military presence to the Central Valley. On July 8, 1961, thousands came to witness the commissioning of the base, as it became the largest air station on the West Coast. For the next sixty years, NAS Lemoore has been a fixture in the community.

Throughout its history, NAS Lemoore has been critical to the United States Military. The base has trained thousands of Navy pilots since its opening and has been a consistent source of innovation and testing of the newest military equipment. In 1998, NAS Lemoore was chosen to host the latest in Navy aircraft technology, the F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet, and in 2017, the F-35 Lightning II onsite. Today, NAS Lemoore is the Navy's largest master jet base.

NAS Lemoore has not only been vital to the U.S. Military, but it has also been a source of public service for Valley residents. Over the past sixty years, the base has hosted job fairs, partnered with the non-profit group Habitat for Humanity to build homes for veterans, and has hosted air shows featuring the Blue Angels among many other community-centered events.

I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join me in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Naval Air Station Lemoore.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Tulare- Kings Police Academy at the College of the Sequoias on its 60th anniversary.

Since its inception in 1962, the Tulare-Kings Police Academy has been a vital part of training our future law enforcement officers in the Central Valley. The program initially began its operations out of the Tulare County Sheriff's Office and trained future recruits there for over a decade.

In 1973, the program moved to the College of the Sequoias campus in Visalia, providing even more access to young students looking to enter a career of public service. The program spent nearly forty years at the Visalia campus, with dozens of students graduating each year eager to begin protecting and serving the Central Valley. In 2010, the program made its most recent move into a state-of-the-art facility on the Hanford College of the Sequoias campus.

After sixty years of operation, the Tulare-Kings Police Academy has produced over 150 graduating classes from its programs across three different campuses. These men and women have gone on to protect our communities throughout the Valley. Their service has been a consistent display of duty, honor, and commitment to their communities--all traits instilled into them by the Tulare-Kings Police Academy.

I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join me in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Tulare-Kings Police Academy at the College of the Sequoias.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with Representative Jim Costa to honor the life of Central Valley agriculture leader Don Devine, who passed away on June 4, 2022.

Born in Central City, Kentucky, Mr. Devine personified the American dream. As a young man, he joined the United States Army and spent six years serving in Vietnam. Following his tour of duty, he attended Arizona State University and graduated with a degree in accounting.

After graduating from school and obtaining his CPA license, Mr. Devine joined Harris Ranch Feeding Company, an organization he would spend over forty years working for, eventually working his way up to Senior Vice President of Finance. In the 1980s, Mr. Devine invested in farmland within the Central Valley and co-founded Double D Farms, an institution in our agricultural community, which grew and evolved to grow Pistachios, Almonds, and many other food crops.

In addition to his hard work and success in business, Mr. Devine was also heavily involved in community issues. He was a leader on water issues throughout the Central Valley and served on multiple water board districts such as the Westlands and Pleasant Valley Water Districts.

Mr. Devine was an icon in the Central Valley business and agricultural community. His dedication to his country, community, and family is an inspiration to us all.

We ask our colleagues in the House of Representatives to join us in honoring the extraordinary life of Mr. Don Devine.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Chief George Turegano for his service to the Central Valley and over 40 years of law enforcement experience.

After 16 years of service to the Capitola Police Department, Chief Turegano began his service to the Central Valley on August 1, 2012, after a unanimous decision by the Huron City Council. Throughout his career, he has found success in multiple positions in different departments. This includes solving a 1972 homicide case, the department's oldest, in 2007.

Under his leadership, the Huron Police Department has exceeded expectations. Chief Turegano helped obtain grants that would add police officers for community outreach, prevent tobacco sales to minors, and purchase an ambulance as well as an ambulance facility. Chief Turegano coordinated the location and funding for a Boys & Girls Clubs of America facility in Huron and has created employment opportunities for high school students at the Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant.

Chief Turegano's dedication, leadership, and commitment to excellence serves as an incredible model for all those who will follow in his footsteps.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Chief George Turegano for his lifetime of service.

Mr. Speaker, June is National Dairy Month, an opportunity to honor the contributions of dairy farmers throughout the country.

I am proud to represent our Nation's largest dairy district and the hardworking men and women in the Central Valley who work tirelessly to provide our Nation with milk, cheese, ice cream, and all the other dairy products we enjoy.

There are over 30,000 dairy farms across the United States, and many of those are farmer-owned and operated. As a lifelong dairy farmer, I know firsthand the impact that these burdensome government regulations have on day-to-day operations of these family farms and businesses.

We need to reduce the regulatory burdens on our domestic agriculture producers and incentivize more production here at home. Supporting American agriculture and our dairy industry will bring food costs down and provide stability to our global food supply.

Thank you to our dairy farmers and manufacturers in the Central Valley and across the country for their contributions to our community. Happy Dairy Month.

Madam Speaker, gas prices across the country have reached yet another record-breaking high. The pain at the pump my constituents are facing is a direct result of this administration's war on American energy.

Unfortunately, the administration continues to pass the blame for a crisis of their own making.

In California, we are suffering with out-of-control prices that reached over $6.30 per gallon this week. That is nearly $1.50 higher than the national average; thanks, in part, to the State's gas tax.

Central Valley families are struggling to drive their kids to school, get themselves to work, and buy groceries to feed their families. Any reduction in prices would provide much-needed relief.

I am, once again, calling on the State to immediately suspend the 51 cent per gallon tax. We need to unleash the power of our domestic energy production and suspend the gas tax to get these prices under control for Central Valley residents.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mrs. Alicia Conde for her 26 years of service to the Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District.

Since 1992, Mrs. Conde has served as a dedicated public servant, working tirelessly on behalf of the Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District. She has done critical work, such as overseeing the annual district crop survey program, managing the water billing and District Exempt Land Assessment tax installments, and maintaining the district's correspondence.

For decades, Mrs. Conde has been the first point of contact for anybody with business in the district. She has long been an excellent representative of the district, and a welcoming presence for those coming into the office. She has built longstanding relationships with landowners in the area and guided many of them through difficult regulatory changes over her years of service.

The loyalty and commitment to service by Mrs. Conde has been an inspiration to us all. I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Mrs. Alicia Conde for her decades of public service and contributions to the Central Valley community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Chief Wes Hensley on his retirement from the Tulare Police Department after 31 years of service.

Chief Hensley began his service to the Central Valley in 1984, starting as a police officer in the Visalia Police Department. Throughout his career, he has held multiple positions in different departments and sheriff's offices. Over his three decades of service to his community, Chief Hensley climbed the ranks, achieving the positions of Corporal, Sergeant, Captain, and finally Chief of Police.

Under his leadership, Chief Hensley has led the Tulare Police Department through unprecedented challenges, maintaining the respect and credibility of the Tulare Police throughout the community. His presence at the helm of the Department has been critical in advancing the goals of his officers and ensuring the safety of the community for all.

Chief Hensley's dedication, leadership, and commitment to excellence has been an incredible model for all those who will follow him. His presence will be truly missed.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Chief Wes Hensley for his lifetime of service to the Central Valley and congratulating him on his recent retirement.