Floor Statements

I thank the gentleman rice farmer from northern California for the opportunity to speak here today.

Where do you start with something like this? I grew up a dairy farmer in Kings County and continue to be a dairy farmer in Kings County to this day. I spent my first 2 years in elected office in the California State Legislature on a budget subcommittee and watched as this project moved along; and right before election when this was passed back in '08 and up until my election in 2010, the project didn't seem that bad. It seemed like something that was just voted on and put on the shelf and they would continue to build on it. Then, at the last minute, some money showed up and it basically put this project in high gear, and the project wasn't ready for it.

As the Congressman from the northern part of the valley mentioned earlier, there is no real plan. When you show up at the last minute and say, ``Here. Here is some money. Start building right away,'' as if it is shovel ready, it set this project up for a really, really tough time.

What we are facing now today, we see a train system being built, a high-speed rail, and like was mentioned earlier, older technology. Forty years ago, rail with wheels was the technology. Now maglev is the new technology. So to see a project that is starting today with technology that is already 40 years old that probably won't be running for another 30 years, I think we are setting ourselves up for failure.

When you look at what else has been going on with this project, as far as what the opportunities are, when you look at my district specifically, California District 21, you have got communities like Hanford, Corcoran, Wasco, who all rely on a system that we have today, Amtrak. Amtrak doesn't really pay its bills, but it gets people from A to B, and it serves its purpose. You have got a system there where people who live in those communities are able to get to the doctor in Fresno or get to the doctor in Bakersfield or get to work, but a small, commuter train that gets them where they need to be for relatively low cost.

You look at high-speed rail, and as the map that was up on the screen earlier showed, what we have there is a track that will basically pass from Hanford, if Hanford ever gets built, but for sure Fresno to Bakersfield, and it leaves all of the people in California 21 basically out to dry. That is sad. I mean, when you see a project that was supposed to help those less fortunate, or those people who need it the most, you have a project now that is actually going to hurt them and put potentially at risk what they have today, Amtrak, their mode of transportation.

Because this project lacks so much money, that is why it puts us in that position. We have a system in place that is built on someone else's train tracks. It is on Burlington Northern's train tracks in my area, and I am sure it is on other tracks in other parts of the State, but if the project that they have today starts to move forward and they run out of money like we expect them to do, part of the plan is to move Amtrak over there. So what happens to those stations in my district? That is just one of the issues I see.

In California 21, like I mentioned earlier, and a good portion of the valley, we face a water shortage, a drought. Some of that is natural, but a lot of that is regulatory. We have also got a severe lack of infrastructure to deliver water. We have Tempered Flats and we have Pikes Reservoir, we have a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built, and that is infrastructure that would benefit not just California but the whole State in general.

When you look at a project like high-speed rail, if that project was to go forward and be built, you would have a high-speed rail that most people couldn't afford to ride.

If you build water infrastructure, you now have water to grow products, water to feed families, water for our communities, and once you have that, you start to grow crops and produce product. You start to improve an economy and produce a product that you actually can sell and bring dollars back into your community. That, in my opinion, makes a lot more sense.

Education. California has struggled with funding for education for years. We have seen plenty of programs that were cut out or cut back or just flat out gotten rid of. If you have a project like high-speed rail spending money when they are not prepared for it, when we should be investing in our future, education, making sure our kids have the best opportunities, the best foundation to bring, to improve our economy, to be good, productive members of our society and to make a real difference--I think education should be our first priority.

You look at everything we could be spending money on. Right now in California, we have been letting prisoners out of prisons because we don't have enough money to build facilities for them and to keep some of the community correctional facilities open. There is a lot going on, and we have to be spending money on a project like this when we should be focusing on something that helps keep our communities safe.

Those are all things that we should be paying attention to that we are not because of this project. They are in a hurry to build this project right now because they say it creates jobs, but, like was pointed out earlier, those numbers are all bogus. They were pushed up. They were not honest numbers. We are starting to see this project that will put our children and grandchildren into debt for a long time for a small amount of jobs that we really can't account for and we can't ensure will be our own community jobs.

So this is something that has had me concerned my whole time in the legislature, and I have talked about it for a long time. It is something that I am going to continue to fight. It needs to be talked about and pushed out there.

The more people who get involved--you take groups like my Kings County group of residents who have sued the State and sued the Federal Government over this project. When they first got involved, they looked at this project and said this is going to affect our families and homes, let's fight it. Once they started getting into the details and saw where the funding was coming from, or the lack of funding, the amount of deceit that goes into this project just to get it rammed down our throats, they decided to keep fighting no matter what, even though the alignment was moved off their property across town to another part of town. The high-speed rail people thought all of these people will back off now because it doesn't affect them personally, but once they knew what was really in this project, they thought there is no way we can let this fight go. So the group actually grew.

Now that the new constituents were affected by the new alignment, the new guys joined with the old guys and the group grew. Now they have moved the alignment back. The first group is continuing to fight, and the second group is in it as well. It is just amazing how the more you get to know about this project and how it is being pushed and how it is being run, the more you want to fight it, and the more you want to shut this thing down.

Just to close, California high-speed rail comes at a tremendous cost to taxpayers while delivering no benefit to my constituents. This project will destroy homes and businesses throughout

California's 21st Congressional District and divert precious tax dollars away from water infrastructure, public safety, and education.

I will continue to uphold my promise to my constituents and do whatever I have in my power to stop this project as fast as possible.

Over the years, there have been a lot of things built in the valley--freeways, just different things that obviously needed to be built for the good of the State. Farmers, and constituents in general, if they understand why it is being taken and it makes sense for the State, usually it is an easy deal.

But once they get involved in the details of this project and start to see how they are being treated themselves and how the project is going to end up looking, because it is pretty apparent with the lack of funding and with the rest of the Federal Government looking at this project and understanding that it is pretty much ruined now because of the management, they are not happy. They are fighting this thing tooth and nail.

When it comes down to their own personal property, obviously they are offended with some of the prices and some of the numbers they are seeing. If they owned the property or if their family owned it, if it is a generational thing, or just in general an eyesore running alongside their home, affecting how they drive to work or how they move around the district in general, it is just offensive to many of them, depending on the different route or how you want to approach it.

We have a rendering plant that is right in the middle of the alignment as the alignment is today. Obviously, the alignment moves on a weekly basis, but the rendering plant has been in the alignment twice now. The first time, and we are back in there again.

As far as permitting for a new rendering plant, back in 2006 during the heat wave, we struggled in the Central Valley to handle the amount of animals that were needing to be processed at that time. Permitting for a new facility was nearly impossible, and we were never able to upgrade or expand the facilities. So to actually build a new one today I would say is nearly impossible.

We have no guarantees on any of that. Some of the things that affect some of our constituents, somebody that has a restaurant and the high-speed rail goes through their property, they go in and give them what they assume is the value of that, but no one takes into account replacement value. Or they bought their first home when prices were high, and now prices have come down, and now it is an opportunity for high-speed rail to come in and offer them market price, which basically leaves that person homeless and in debt. So there are a lot of situations.

We have farmers with long-term leases on property who do not own the property, but own the permanent crop on top of that. High-speed rail hasn't taken into account the value of that crop on top. People will invest $10,000 to $15,000 an acre to get trees planted, and if they are only buying the land for the value of the land but not what is on top of that land, that obviously will put a lot of people upside down in a really bad position and affect a lot of jobs.

One of the biggest economic drivers in the valley, and in California, we export a lot of agricultural products. That brings a lot of dollars in. That will have an impact on our economy as well.

Well, you can't. When it is a project necessary for the benefit of the country, benefit of the State, one that actually makes sense with a good plan behind it, it is a little easier to swallow, but when you see this project in general and how big of a disaster it has been and how little information has been out to the public, how they plan on funding it, how they plan on moving forward, if people are going to be able to actually afford to ride this thing, it makes it that much worse. This is important. I mean, when you look at how hard some people have worked to build their homes and build their farms and companies, we have restaurants and we have a little bit of everything that is being affected by this. When you see their blood, sweat and tears, you can't put a price on that.

Or maybe fill in gaps where Amtrak doesn't serve today. Currently, if you want to go from Bakersfield to L.A., you get on a bus. There is no connection there. That would have been a great place to start this project.

That is one of the arguments we have. When you have got a project of this size and such a percentage of the

money that is needed to build this project, you can see the failure coming. But you have to make sure that whatever resources are spent are spent in a way that benefits the overall majority of the people.

Right now, if you are riding Amtrak from Fresno to L.A. and you get off at Bakersfield and you get on that Greyhound bus and ride over the hill, I am sure Greyhound does a great job, but that would be a great place to fill in the hole and build a rail, and build it up to today's standards and put something in place that we can build on in the future that makes sense.

Well, when we look at a company that wants to invest in the Valley, if they are in agriculture, obviously they are attracted to the area for those reasons. But if they are looking for an affordable place that makes sense between L.A. and San Francisco because of access to larger populations, they look at the Central Valley, but they also want to make sure that there is security there. If you are going to build a company, you are going to make sure it is in a great place for your employees.

I think the focus should be right now making sure that people have affordable energy to live there because obviously it gets hot in the summer, and the water situation. Are you going to move your family into an area where the water isn't safe to drink, which is commonplace in some of those communities that we have been fighting for funding for some of the water treatment facilities that are so necessary.

Then when you get into the infrastructure itself, if you are going to build a plant or anything or a processing facility for the type of commodities we grow, water is a necessity. It starts from growing the crop, to cleaning the crop, to making sure that the facilities are up to code and that we've got some treatment in place and that we have a product that we can sell and bring dollars to those communities.

That is how you create jobs, that is the right way to do it, and that is something that we should be focusing on and investing our limited resources on today. Obviously, we have been making some really tough decisions in the last few months over spending and budgets and everything else that we have got going on. Not just on the national level, but at the State level there are going to be some tough decisions as well.

Those decisions should be based on priorities, and those priorities should be making sure we have the resources, and resources today means water. Water is the number one priority, and that is where it should be focused at.

Well, we have got a lot of priorities here in Washington, D.C. The different Members from different parts of the State are not looking at California's high-speed rail project the way it is being rolled out today and thinking that is a good place to invest the resources that the taxpayers in their district want to see them spend the money on.

It is not going to be an easy lift. As this project seems to move forward and the press gets worse and worse, and when you've got judges involved saying that they are not following the letter of the law, what was asked of the voters when they voted for it, it just makes it that much harder to come up with the rest of the money they are going to need to finish this project.

So to get it started, just to build a big berm, or maybe even a berm with some metal on top to hopefully throw some older-style Amtrak trains on top, doesn't make a lot of sense, especially when you are going to cut off communities that need it today, need what we have got in place today and not put that in jeopardy.

Like I mentioned earlier, when this project was started, it was started as a long-term project; but then $3 billion showed up from the Federal Government and the project managers basically said put this thing in high gear, start breaking ground.

You have got a project of this type that affects so many people in so many different communities--how they travel around their homes to work, around their farms, around their businesses, transporting products between warehouses and processing facilities. You have so much going on, and you have got this project now that is going to disrupt all of that just because they have got a timeline that they have got to spend.

The timeline is really on a small portion of it. We are talking a couple percentages of the total cost of the project. It is not worth risking a project of this size over such a small amount of money.

That is probably one of the worst things that has happened to this project since its inception. It could have been something great. It could have been a project that could have made a big difference if it was given the time to be designed and planned in a way that benefited the State, didn't burden the State with debt forever, and actually helped the constituents of that State.

It is too bad this project has gone down the path it has; but, again, we are going to try to stop this thing so that this doesn't happen and doesn't affect our communities.

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Mr. Ernest Bedrosian, who passed away on January 1, 2014 at the age of 80. Ernest was a leading raisin grower and packer in California's San Joaquin Valley and played an instrumental role in the development of the raisin industry in the United States and abroad.

Ernest was born in Parlier, California and attended California State University, Fresno, where he graduated with high honors receiving a bachelor's degree in Agriculture. Upon graduation in 1955, Ernest joined the United States Army and was a food specialist stationed in New York. In 1958 Ernest moved back to the San Joaquin Valley and started working on his family's raisin and wine vineyard. Shortly after, he began serving on various raisin boards and committees. Ernest established the Raisin Bargaining Association (RBA) in 1966 and served as the first acting President. The efforts of the RBA organized raisin growers, stabilized the national raisin market, and expanded domestic and international demand for raisins.

Ernest and his brothers opened the National Raisin Company in 1969 and developed the ``Champion'' brand for raisins and other dried fruits. Today the Champion brand is the largest independent raisin, prune, and dried fruit operation in the world and the National Raisin Company provides hundreds of jobs to Central Valley residents.

Ernest served as an elder at his Church, the First Armenian Presbyterian Church of Fresno, and was also a member of the church's various building committees. Ernest will be remembered as not only a great businessman, but also as a devoted family man with a strong faith and an eagerness to help his community.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the House of Representatives to join me in paying tribute to the life and service of Mr. Ernest Bedrosian.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Dave Borcky for his efforts in support of the newly renovated City of McFarland's Veterans Community Center.

A native of McFarland, California, Dave served our country as a member of the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. Since his return, he has worked tirelessly in the community to ensure veterans receive the recognition they deserve. Dave is an active member of the Lions Club and coaches 27 students from McFarland High School in the aptly named the LEOS Club. Dave and his fellow Lions organize local food drives, back-to-school drives and many other activities that improve the lives of the McFarland residents.

In December 2011, Dave was named Grand Marshall for the McFarland Christmas Parade. Mr. Borcky is also an active member of his American Legion Post, Boys and Girls State activities.

Without a doubt, Dave has been a key player in McFarland's community for a number of years. It is with great pride that I recognize Mr. Dave Borcky for his service and leadership and congratulate him on his efforts to memorialize American heroes through the McFarland Veterans Community Center.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Earl P. Williams on his retirement and celebrate his over 20 years of service to the cotton industry and the Central Valley's agriculture industry as a whole.

A native of Arkansas, Earl moved to Buttonwillow, California in 1958. He received a Bachelor of Science in Crop Production from California Polytechnic State University in 1965 and began his agricultural career in California.

Earl was one of fifteen charter members of the California Cotton Ginners Association's Board of Directors and served on the board from 1972 to 1980. He joined the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations as the Executive Vice President in 1993, and was later named President and Chief Executive Officer.

Earl is also the past President of the Buttonwillow Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. He is a past member and chairman of the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Crop Science Department's Advisory Council. In 1963 he

was the Crops Club President and in 1996 received the Crops Club's Distinguished Agriculturist Award. Additionally, he served two terms on the California Industrial Welfare Commission's Wage Board #8. He is a past board member of the Agricultural Energy Consumers Association and a past board member of the California Agricultural Education Foundation.

In his various leadership roles, Earl has worked closely with California Governor Gray Davis, and other Democrat and Republican legislators, as well as his colleagues in the agriculture community to pass legislation to assist farmers and agribusinesses in California. Additionally, Earl has been a champion for air pollution and water quality issues facing the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Without a doubt, Earl has been a key player in California's agriculture industry for a number of years. It is with great pride that I recognize Earl P. Williams for his service and leadership and congratulate him on his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Delano- Earlimart Irrigation District on its 75th anniversary.

The Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District was organized in 1938 to protect the underground water resources in the area and to secure a long-term surface water contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Since 1950, the District has delivered more than 7.7 million acre-feet of water to water users in the Delano-Earlimart area of California.

Water is the lifeblood of the Central Valley's economy because of the strong agricultural industry in the region. Ensuring adequate supply of water is important for both farmers and families in the Central Valley. The investments and improvements to water infrastructure made by the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District over the past 75 years have played a vital role in ensuring water resources are available to the farmers who feed the nation, and the families who call the Central Valley home.

The efforts made by the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District have helped create a district comprised of 56,500 acres that annually produce more that $360 million in crop value.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I recognize the Delano- Earlimart Irrigation District in celebrating 75 years of staying true to its mission to protect, enhance, and manage the District's water and energy resources and related assets to benefit its growers, the community, and the region it serves through outstanding customer service, commitment to quality, and leadership on the water resources industry.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1947, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013.

Over the last 4 years and after more than 40 hearings, the House of Representatives has produced a bill that implements needed commonsense reforms for America's farmers.

The FARRM Act is like any other farm bill previously passed. It has strong bipartisan support and makes substantial reforms, repealing outdated policies while streamlining and consolidating over 100 programs.

Advancing a new farm bill into law this year is crucial to the entire country, especially to those in California's Central Valley.

The legislation makes critical reforms to traditional farm programs. The Market Access Program, MAP, will improve export market development and assistance to programs that promote U.S. agricultural products overseas, allowing our specialty crop farmers here in the Valley to expand their businesses.

We eliminate direct payments. We move to a more market-oriented approach where we provide more risk management tools, instead of making payments regardless of market conditions. Many farmers in my district have questioned these economically unfeasible $5 billion payments that go out every year, regardless of market conditions.

The bill makes improvements to the crop insurance program through successful public-private partnerships that ensure farmers have skin in the game. This will eliminate some of the unrealistic requirements that crop insurance agents face every day, such as asking an agent to verify his or her customers' income.

The legislation relieves farmers of unnecessary burdens by including multiple regulator relief provisions. FARRM eliminates the duplicative permitting requirements for pesticides that are already federally regulated. Failure to remove the additional permit requirement will result in an administrative and financial nightmare for agriculture producers, public health agencies, and Federal Government and State agencies.

The FARRM bill makes even more important changes that substantially affect California's 21st Congressional District:

Reauthorizes, strengthens, and fully pays for livestock disaster assistance;

Continues to support specialty crops, just as the 2008 farm bill did, by fully funding core specialty crop industry priorities such as Specialty Crop Block Grants. These grants will fund innovative research for my district's fruit, vegetable, and nut farmers to combat disease and promote consumption across the U.S., and that is important for food security. A nation has to be secure in its food.

The FARRM Act of 2013 will implement the most significant reforms to traditional farm policy in history, while maintaining commonsense, fiscally responsible policies. Passage of this legislation will provide America's farmers and ranchers, especially those in the Central Valley, the certainty and resources they need to produce an adequate and affordable food supply for our country and the entire world.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this much- needed legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Joint Resolution 84, the Head Start for Low-Income Children Act.

Since its inception in 1965, Head Start has served over 30 million children and their families. The program's purpose has always been to serve children and pregnant women in centers, family homes, and in family child care homes in urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout our nation.

Last year, California Head Start received over $900 million in federal funding and taught over 111,000 children. In California, there are almost 23,000 Head Start employees serving children and their families.

My rural, low-income district relies heavily on the Head Start Program. Without it, families across the Central Valley would be unable to ensure proper care and early education of their young children.

Just last week, two of my constituents flew across the country to appeal to me and my California colleagues on the devastating impacts of this drawn-out shutdown on the Head Start Program.

After passage, this bill would provide immediate funding for the nation's Head Start program at the same rate and under the same conditions as were in effect last year ensuring that Head Start programs across the country will be able to keep providing education, health, nutrition and additional services to our 1 million enrolled children and their families.

Madam Speaker, today I rise in support of House Joint Resolution 75, the Nutrition Assistance for Low-Income Women and Children Act.

This bill would continue funding until December for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, commonly referred to as WIC. Across the country, over 8.9 million moms and kids under the age of 5 are living near or below the poverty line and depend on supplemental vouchers by the WIC program to purchase healthy food.

The WIC program is especially important to my constituents in the Central Valley of California. My district suffers from 14 percent unemployment. That's almost double the national average. Some regions of my district are suffering from more than 30 percent unemployment, making it nearly impossible for many mothers to find work, despite their best efforts, so that they may provide for their families.

Congress must put aside partisan politics and come together, working across party lines to pass this critical legislation so that mothers in California's Central Valley and across the entire country can continue to feed their children.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Dr. Pete Mehas, an important figure in the central valley of California, who dedicated his life to improving education and helping young people in our local community.

Dr. Mehas was a local leader with passion for education. He started his career in education as a teacher and football coach at Roosevelt High School in Fresno, California.

He was elected Fresno County Superintendent of Schools in 1990, and was reelected three more times in 1994, 1998, and 2002. He also served as Secretary of Education for former Governor of California George Deukmejian. At the time of his passing, he served as a member of the board of trustees for the California State University system.

Dr. Mehas is remembered as a tremendous motivator who encouraged people to reach their full potential. The central valley lost an iconic advocate for education, children, and minorities.

Madam Speaker, I rise with my colleagues today to pay tribute to Dr. Mehas for his lifelong dedication to helping central valley youth through his work and education and his devotion to improving the community.

Mr. Speaker, I, along with my colleague Representative Devin G. Nunes, rise today to honor the Curti family, celebrating their 100 year anniversary as an integral part of the dairy and farming industry in the Central Valley of California.

Miro Curti emigrated from Italy and began dairying in 1910. In 1913, Miro and his wife Domenica moved their 32-cow dairy operation to Waukena, California.

Miro played an important role in the local dairy industry and was a valued member of the local community. He was a director of Dairyman's Cooperative Creamery Association, a trustee of Waukena grade school, an active member of the Sons of Italy, and in 1969, he was named the first ``Farmer of the Year'' for the Tulare District.

In 1975, Miro and Domenica passed away, leaving Curti Farms to be managed by their three sons, Amelio, Italo, and Leo. The three sons continued to grow the business and eventually Curtmaid Holsteins gained a reputation across the nation for their superior herd genetics. They mastered on farm embryo transfers and began exporting cattle internationally to Saudi Arabia, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. The family was again recognized for their contribution to the local agriculture community when, in 1984, Amelio was honored with Tulare's ``Farmer of the Year'' award.

As the Curti family dairy continued to succeed, they were able to start a second dairy in 1988 and a third in 2002. The third dairy consists of over 500 Jersey milk cows. The third generation of Curti's are carrying on the family tradition of dairying and farming. Today the Curti family dairies consist of Curtimade Dairy, owned by Ben Curti, Curti Family, Inc., owned by Phillip Curti, and Curti Terra Inc., owned by Ken Curti. In 2005 Ben, Phillip, Ken, and Jeff Curti were honored with Tulare's ``Farmer of the Year.''

Today, the Curti family dairy operations consist of a mixed Holstein and Jersey herd along with the farming of alfalfa, corn, and wheat at Curtimade Dairy, Inc., a second mixed Holstein and Jersey herd at Curti Family Inc., along with farming alfalfa, corn, and wheat. In addition to their dairy facilities they have a third diversified farming operation of pistachios, wheat, cotton, alfalfa, and beans at Curti Terra Inc.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that Mr. Nunes and I recognize the Curti family for their extraordinary impact on the farming industry in Central California and congratulate them on a century of successful business and farming.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the World War II veterans who today sent a clear message that they would not be locked out of their own memorial. This morning, because of the Senate Democrats' unwillingness to negotiate on a deal to fund the government, the National Park Service was ordered to close many of our Nation's monuments, including the National World War II Memorial. These memorials are not regularly closed for any purpose and remain open 24 hours a day. The government went out of their way to ensure Americans could not access their own memorial.

Not to be deterred, a group of veterans on an Honor Flight from Mississippi showed the resolve that made them America's Greatest Generation, moving barricades aside so they could appreciate the memorial that commemorates their generation's heroism and sacrifices.

Mr. Speaker, Americans--especially America's heroes--should not be punished because Senate Democrats refused to come to the table and do their job, negotiating a solution to fund the government. The bill before us would reopen America's national monuments and parks so that we, as Americans, can continue to honor our heroes in the manner they have earned.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the World War II veterans who made headlines today and the dozen more Honor Flights that will visit the National World War II Memorial this week by passing the bill before us and ensuring that the memorial will be open to welcome our Nation's heroes.

Thank you.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, implemented numerous taxes on the American people. One such tax, a nearly $30 billion medical device tax, took effect on January 1, 2013. This tax hurts American jobs and harms innovation in the marketplace.

As of this past July, the tax had already cost device manufacturers $1 billion. For fiscal year 2014, which starts October 1, the device will cost manufacturers over $2.5 billion. The additional cost burdens resulting from this tax will force manufacturers to reduce or freeze hiring or even eliminate current employees, putting over 43,000 American jobs at risk. That's why I cosponsored the Protect American Innovation Act, which aims to repeal the excise taxes on medical devices.

This is a bipartisan bill with substantial support from both Democrats and Republicans. Both parties know that the medical device tax hurts patients' access to medical innovation and the competitiveness of this important sector for manufacturing and high- skilled jobs. As legislators, we need to be promoting American innovation and protecting American manufacturing, not stifling it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the valiant efforts of Private First Class Arthur J. Jackson of the United States Marine Corps.

Private First Class Arthur J. Jackson was awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy in Japan.

When Private First Class Arthur J. Jackson's platoon's left flank advance was held up by the fire of Japanese troops, Private First Class Jackson charged a large pillbox housing approximately 35 enemy soldiers. Pouring his automatic fire into the opening of the fixed installation to trap the occupying troops, he hurled white phosphorous grenades and explosive charges demolishing the pillbox and killing the enemies. He advanced two smaller positions and stormed one gun position after another until he succeeded in wiping out a total of 12 pillboxes and 50 Japanese soldiers. His gallant initiative and heroic conduct in the face of extreme peril reflect the highest credit upon Private Jackson and the U.S. Naval Service.

It is for his courage and unwavering devotion to duty that I am proud to honor and remember the actions of Private First Class Arthur J. Jackson.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Doug Verboon, an important figure in California's Central Valley who was recently named the Lemoore Chamber of Commerce's 2013 Agriculturalist and Ag Supporter of the Year.

Doug is a lifelong resident of Hanford, California and a fellow graduate of Hanford High School. Born into a farming family, agriculture is more than just his vocation; it is his way of life. He began his agricultural career alongside his father and grandfather as a third generation farmer on the Gold Top Ranch, located in Hanford.

Doug has been an active member of his local community for many years. He has been a trustee of the Pioneer School District for 16 years where he played an important role in establishing the Pioneer School District as the first charter school district in the State of California.

Doug is also a member of the Kings County Board of Supervisors, representing District 3. Additionally, he is a member of the Kings County Farm Bureau, the District Advisory Council for Sequoia Walnut, and the Future Leaders Board for Diamond Walnuts.

The Lemoore Chamber of Commerce's Agriculturalist and Ag Supporter of the Year Award is given to a local community member who has made immeasurable contributions to the agricultural community in Lemoore. I appreciate the time and effort Doug has enthusiastically devoted to the communities within the Central Valley. I am pleased that his service and commitment to agriculture, and his community as a whole, is being recognized with this prestigious award.

Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

This amendment puts a lot of my district in jeopardy. My district relies heavily on irrigation and canals and other types of water projects. When you see a government agency, an unelected government agency come in and take jurisdiction without any of us in this body, 435 Members in this body who have a responsibility to represent our constituents and make sure that their voices are heard, when you take that power away and you give it to a bureaucracy in the dark of night where there's not an opportunity to speak their minds and have their voices heard, you set up a pretty bad precedent.

When you look at a constituency that feeds the country like we do in California on my part of the valley, we do feed a good portion of the country. We grow 350 different crops. We produce a lot of beef, poultry, and pork. All of these different products go to feed the Nation.

When you look at an idea like this which a lot of my constituents or most of my constituents all oppose, we're setting up for a really bad idea. So this should be presented and it should be talked about amongst the 435, not one agency, not one President pushing an idea. So, obviously, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.