Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Madam Speaker, my colleagues and I are here today for this Special Order hour to celebrate Pride Month.

Pride is a time of celebration of our community and its diversity. It is a time to uplift LGBTQ+ people all across the country and honor our identities and how these individuals have shaped our lives.

Pride is also a time of action. Fifty-three years ago, LGBTQ+ patrons fought back against discrimination and police harassment at New York's Stonewall Inn. Now, we need to harness that same strength and determination to fight back against State legislatures' attacks against our community, especially trans and nonbinary kids.

For every person able to celebrate Pride Month, there are others who are struggling. There are countless people unable to come out because of discrimination, harassment, and threats of violence. In too many States, this discrimination is being led by elected officials.

Here in Congress, the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus fights every day so that all people, regardless of sexual identification or gender identity, can live their lives openly and have every opportunity to be successful and to lead happy lives.

I am proud to have introduced the Equality Act, along with every single member of the Democratic Caucus as cosponsors, to ensure that LGBTQ+ people are protected from discrimination in key areas of life. I also introduced the Global Respect Act to deny

visas to those who commit gross human rights abuses against members of the LGBTQ+ community around the world.

Both of these bills passed the House with bipartisan support, and I urge the Senate to quickly do the same and advance LGBTQ+ equality both at home and abroad.

As chair of the Equality Caucus, I will never stop fighting so that all LGBTQ+ people, no matter where they live or how they identify, can live their lives openly with the full protections of our Federal laws.

We have made important progress this Congress. In addition to passing several LGBTQ+ bills through the House, two key caucus priority bills have also become law: H.R. 49, to designate the Pulse nightclub as a National Memorial, and S. 937, which included the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, which provides for grants to improve data collection of hate crimes, including hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity, and grants for States to create hotlines to assist victims of hate crimes.

I am so grateful we have a devoted ally to the LGBTQ+ community in the White House who signed both of these bills into law. President Biden has been a champion for our community. Just last week, he signed an executive order advancing LGBTQI+ equality during Pride Month. This executive order aligns with the goals of numerous bills introduced by Equality Caucus members.

But we are not done fighting for LGBTQ+ equality. Later this week, we will be voting on the LGBTQI+ Data Inclusion Act to ensure Federal surveys collect information on the LGBTQI+ community. We know better data leads to better policies, and this bill will ensure we have the data we need to draft the best solutions to address the needs of our community.

It has been an especially difficult year for our community, particularly for transgender and nonbinary youth who are under attack across the country.

Please know that the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and I will never stop fighting for you. You deserve to live your lives openly, free from discrimination or harassment, and to have every opportunity to succeed as your non-LGBTQ+ peers.

This Pride Month, we all have to recommit to fighting for true equality for all, every single person in our country, no matter where they live, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.

I am so grateful to be joined today by several of my colleagues who are helping to lead this fight for LGBTQ+ equality in the Halls of Congress, and I look forward to hearing from them during this Special Order hour.

I again extend a happy Pride to everyone.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moulton), a member of the Equality Caucus, a strong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, who took time out of a markup to be sure that he could be a part of this Special Order. For that, we are incredibly grateful.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his very powerful words and for being here tonight.

As Congressman Moulton was speaking, I was thinking of Congressman Pappas, because Congressman Pappas has been a great champion for veterans. He serves as a distinguished member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee and in that role has been an extraordinary national leader on veterans' issues.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Pappas), a co-chairman of the Equality Caucus and a champion for the LGBTQ+ community.

Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Pappas so much for his powerful words and for his leadership and the example he has set.

Madam Speaker, I will now call on another co-chairman of the Equality Caucus, an extraordinarily distinguished member of the Financial Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee and someone who, though he is very young, has, throughout his entire life, been a great inspiration to young LGBTQ Americans and continues that great tradition as a Member of Congress.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres).

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words and for the example that he set.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stevens), my friend, a member of the Equality Caucus, and an incredibly strong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, a cosponsor of the Equality Act, and a cosponsor of every single piece of legislation that has come to the floor of consequence to our community.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her words and her tremendous support of the LGBTQ+ community.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), my friend, a member of the Equality Caucus, a strong and consistent advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, the lead sponsor of the House LGBTQIA+ Pride Month resolution for many, many years, and a great champion for our community.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Green, and I know Glen is looking down very proud of your words tonight and the difference it is going to make to those who are watching.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Manning), a very thoughtful member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as someone who serves on the Education and Labor Committee, a member of the Equality Caucus, and a longtime champion of equality, justice, women's reproductive healthcare, and so many issues important to the LGBTQ+ community, and my friend.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her beautiful words and for her great support for the LGBTQ community.

Madam Speaker, before I conclude tonight's Special Order hour, I want to make some final comments.

We celebrate pride as a community and very often people think of pride celebrations as joyous public events with lots of people gathering. We just had a pride celebration in Providence last weekend. The estimates were that over 100,000 people attended.

Part of the importance of pride is that it is a moment of great visibility for our community. For too long, members of the LGBTQ+ community were taught to be ashamed of who they are, to hide their true identity, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Pride was not only a time to celebrate the importance of our community but to be visible--to stop being invisible people but to be visible in the communities where we live and work.

Over the years, we have had extraordinary leaders from our community in business, medicine, politics, the arts, education, and all areas of life.

We have nine members of the LGBTQ community serving right here in the House and two in the United States Senate, examples of political leadership all across the country so that young people can see themselves in people who are accomplishing things in all areas of life--in the law, politics, medicine, and education.

It is a time of celebration, but we have to acknowledge this year that we are facing great challenges as a community. Particularly young trans kids and nonbinary kids are living in States where the adults are putting forth legislation that will make them invisible, that will subject them to horrific discrimination, that will not recognize the humanity of those young people.

It is a time of celebration. It is a time to take stock of all that we have done. But it is also a time for action to remind ourselves and the rest of the

country that we demand to live in a country where we enjoy full legal protections and we can live our lives free from discrimination of any kind.

The good news is, overwhelmingly, a vast majority of the American people support equality for LGBTQ people. They think discrimination is wrong.

Equality is a founding value of this country. In every State in America, a majority of voters believe that discrimination against LGBTQ people is wrong because a cornerstone of who we are as Americas is that we know discrimination is wrong.

It is only in the Republican Conference that we have to convince people that discrimination against the LGBTQ community is wrong. It is time for Congress and our Republican colleagues to catch up to the rest of the country that understands that when you deprive a member of the LGBTQ community of full equality, you not only hurt that individual but you hurt the whole community because the community is deprived of all that that person can accomplish and contribute.

That is the real harm of discrimination. It is not just to the individual. It is to the whole community and to our whole country.

Madam Speaker, as we mark Pride Month, we not only celebrate, but we also commit ourselves to make additional progress to continue in our fight for full equality. The LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus here in the House will continue to lead that fight in solidarity with all of our colleagues.

I am proud to be part of a political party that fully supports LGBTQ equality. When we introduced the Equality Act, it was cosponsored by every single Democrat in the Caucus. Everyone wanted to be a partner in this fight for full equality, and that is what the American people expect.

Madam Speaker, I say to the young people out there who may be struggling with their own sexual orientation, their own gender identity, feeling alone, feeling like they don't belong, feeling like they are not valued: I am standing on the floor of the House of Representatives as the chair of the Equality Caucus to tell you that you are valued. You are exactly how God created and expected you to be. You are loved by your community and your family. You will continue to be valued. You have people here in the Congress of the United States who are fighting every single day to make sure you can live in a country that will provide you with full protections and that you can live a life free from discrimination of any kind.

I hope that will be some comfort to know that you have a President who said right from that rostrum, Madam Speaker, to the trans kids: I have your back.

That was the President of the United States who is the most powerful person on the planet saying to young people from our community he has your back.

So that has to give us a lot of hope of what future Pride celebrations will mean and the kind of country we live in. I thank all my colleagues who participated in tonight's Special Order hour.

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

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7072) to amend title 18, United States Code, to modify delayed notice requirements, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 7072.

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

Madam Speaker, as a proud cosponsor, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7072, the NDO Fairness Act, crucial bipartisan surveillance reform legislation that recently passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a voice vote.

This legislation would establish important guardrails for when the government seeks to access someone's electronic communications without that person's knowledge. Under current law, after the government obtains a court's permission to search the contents of a person's electronic communications, prosecutors must then compel the email service provider to produce the relevant data. To avoid having the service provider turn around and tell its customer about the search, the government can also ask the court to grant a nondisclosure order, colloquially referred to as a secrecy or gag order.

Right now, there is no time limit to these orders. There is no standard to meet. All the government needs to do is cite one of five potential adverse results, with no showing that it is necessary, and the court may grant the request.

This bill requires the government to show and the courts to be convinced that the secrecy order is actually needed, rather than allowing both to treat this as a check-the-box activity. Gag orders would be granted for a much shorter period of time, with the opportunity for extensions only as necessary. When the orders expire or are no longer necessary, the government would need to provide to the customer the warrant, details regarding the search, and a copy of any information disclosed.

Prosecutors frequently seek secrecy orders in cases where there is clearly no need and in situations where the government alone benefits. Unlike when a physical search occurs and a person has the right to go to court to dispute the warrant, NDOs can keep the subject of the search in the dark until a court reverses the order. In the 21st century, Federal prosecutors no longer need to show up to your office. They just need to raid your virtual office secretly.

The NDO Fairness Act would do away with that rubber stamp by ensuring that courts apply a strict scrutiny standard to government requests with a written determination explaining their reasoning. By time- limiting nondisclosure orders, raising the standard of review, and ensuring that service providers have standing when they object, H.R. 7072 inserts transparency, reason, and balance into a system that for too long has been a free-for-all for government prosecutors simply by virtue of it being too easy to overuse.

If history and recent reporting has taught us anything, it is that we cannot trust the Department of Justice--under any administration--to police itself. It is imperative that the House of Representatives fulfill its role and ensure our laws are keeping pace with rapidly changing technology.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler and Congressman Fitzgerald for their leadership on this bill and our friends, Senator Leahy and Senator Lee, for their leadership in the Senate.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers. I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

H.R. 7072 will insert due process protections into a system too often abused by Federal prosecutors.

Under the Stored Communications Act, the government often has no obligation to tell you that they have requested access to your email records. It can prohibit your service provider from informing you of the search, even if your contract with the provider requires such notice.

The NDO Fairness Act will require that the government show a need for a gag order. It installs commonsense protections to ensure that any such orders are time-limited and subject to scrutiny for renewal.

Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' and pass this important legislation today, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3285) to amend gendered terms in Federal law relating to the President and the President's spouse.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3285.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3285, the 21st Century President Act.

A century ago, women in this country had only barely won the right to vote. Today, we have the first female Vice President, a female Speaker of the House, and record numbers of women running for Federal office. Although we still have a long way to go both in equality and representation, our country's government is growing closer to finally representing our Nation's brilliant diversity.

Our laws must reflect the fact that a President and their spouse can be of any gender. That concept may have seemed impossible a few decades ago, but today it is, thankfully, a true and real possibility.

Currently, our criminal code defines a spouse in the ``immediate family'' of a President as ``the wife of a former President during his lifetime'' and ``the widow of a former President until her death,'' implying that the spouse must be female and the President must be male in order for a threat against a former President's family to be treated as a crime.

This completely disregards the fact that a President may be female and the President's spouse may not be. This does not reflect the progress we have made in this country.

I am proud to vote ``yes'' for this bill, which passed out of this Chamber by a voice vote last Congress, and I encourage all of my colleagues to vote for its passage to support equality in our highest branch.

Madam Speaker, I again thank my colleague and friend, Congressman Pocan, for introducing this bill and being such a strong advocate for it. I look forward to seeing it made law.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan), the author of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 3285, the 21st Century President Act, does indeed take our criminal code into the 21st century by removing gender terms and assumptions about who can be President from our criminal code.

It passed, as I said, on a voice vote last Congress. I ask my colleagues to again stand with me in supporting this legislation.

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

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6538) to create an Active Shooter Alert Communications Network, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 6538.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this bill, H.R. 6538, the Active Shooter Alert Act, bipartisan legislation which I introduced with Congressman Upton and 16 other original Republican and Democratic cosponsors to help keep our communities safer in the event of an active shooter.

Between 2000 and 2020, there were close to 400 active shooter events, including 40 active shooter incidents in 2020 and 61 such incidents in 2021 alone.

In 2016, in Congressman Upton's backyard, we saw a Michigan Uber driver go on a shooting rampage and then continue picking up passengers.

In 2019, a shooter drove around a community in Texas, killing 7 and wounding 25 people.

In 2021, a shooter traveled 30 miles, murdering eight people at various Atlanta-area spas.

Just this past April, a shooter attacked a subway station full of people in Brooklyn and was then on the run for 24 hours before police finally detained him.

Such active shooters have become ubiquitous, so frequent that some of these horrific events barely make headlines. This is not normal, and we cannot let it become normalized. We cannot become numb to these events or settle for the status quo. We need to act now to make our communities safer, and that includes providing law enforcement with every tool they need to do so.

Law enforcement has asked for ways to better alert their communities when active shooter incidents arise. This legislation answers that call.

The Active Shooter Alert Act creates an AMBER Alert-like program for active shooter events. This bill will provide law enforcement with cutting-edge technology to send notifications

to our smartphones and let communities know if there is an active shooter in a certain area so they know to stay away.

The bill also instructs the Department of Justice to consult with police safety experts, including officers who have responded to these incidents, to develop best practices and protocols for sending out these alerts. This will allow law enforcement to learn from each other as they adapt this alert system to the needs of the communities, if they so choose.

Developing this kind of technology and infrastructure, and identifying best practices, would be a massive undertaking for many local police departments. Some communities simply don't have the resources to do it on their own. However, we already have these resources at the Federal level.

This legislation simply gives every law enforcement agency across the country the option to access the Federal alert system so they can send alerts in their area.

Nothing in this bill is mandatory for law enforcement agencies to adopt, but it will provide access to an important tool for law enforcement departments across the country, regardless of their size or location.

It is, sadly, becoming more and more necessary to have these protocols in place. As we have seen time and time again, when there is an active shooter situation, law enforcement does all they can to keep people in the surrounding area safe, including going door to door to either evacuate or tell people to shelter in place. But that takes time, time that could cost lives.

More than anyone, law enforcement understands the strain an active shooter puts on a community in an ongoing crisis. In these stressful, life-or-death situations, law enforcement is too often, in many cases, relying on social media to communicate with the surrounding community so that no one accidentally walks into the line of fire, including other members of law enforcement.

Law enforcement deserves the best tools available, certainly better than Twitter, to communicate with their communities.

Now, if you look at the after-action reports in so many of these active shooter incidents, they all recognize that it would have been so helpful to have a way to quickly and safely communicate with other members of law enforcement or the local community about an active shooter.

I am proud that this bill has the endorsement of law enforcement organizations across the country at the national, State, and local levels and that it is a resoundingly bipartisan effort.

I thank all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have supported this commonsense measure and Mr. Upton for leading this effort with me. I encourage a ``yes'' vote.

Just to be clear, this is legislation endorsed by the National Sheriffs' Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Police Foundation, the National Association of Police Organizations, Major Cities Chiefs Association, National District Attorneys Association, and many other local law enforcement agencies.

The men and women who are protecting our communities are saying they need this. It is bipartisan. I urge everyone to vote for it.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Dean), an important member of the House Judiciary Committee.

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

I will make a couple of points quickly. This legislation has nothing to do with limitations on the Second Amendment. It has nothing to do with red flag laws. It has nothing to do with this claim of defunding the police.

I have lots of material for the Record that shows police departments have been cut in other communities led by Republican mayors and Republican Governors. Let's not have that debate. This is about a simple provision that will save lives.

With all due respect to my colleagues who claim they understand what this legislation is about, I trust the judgment of the men and women who are actually going into active shooter situations. I don't think there is a single Member who has spoken who has been responsible for responding to an active shooting incident. I think it is time we respect the men and women who actually do that every day.

The men and women of law enforcement are pleading for this legislation to help keep them safe, as well as the communities they serve. I won't be so presumptuous, Madam Speaker, to think I have better judgment on that question than they do. That is why they have all endorsed this bill.

The third thing I will say: Mr. Massie said, Madam Speaker, that this question wasn't answered. I will answer it again, the same way I answered it in committee.

The standards are established by law enforcement. Active shooter alerts already exist in some States and in some local communities. There are a set of protocols.

Obviously, they don't wait until the shooting has concluded to notify people. They use common sense, their own standards about when they see a danger; someone with a gun that is expressing some intention to use it or whatever standard they consider appropriate as members of law enforcement to alert the community. This is common sense.

The problem is, there are a lot of small departments that don't have the ability to access this system or to understand best practices or to see the research about how it is used most effectively. This would allow them to have access to that.

Not a single jurisdiction that doesn't want to use it is required to. There is no Federal Government power here. It is making it available. If you decide as a local law enforcement agency or State you don't want to use it, you don't have to, but it is making it available. This will save lives.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for his thoughtful words.

I also want to mention that some of my colleagues earlier in the debate said creating this is going to create a fear of shooting. That is what Democrats are really up to, and the 15 or 16 Republicans that are the original co-sponsors of this bill.

Well, I would ask one question: When we created the AMBER Alert to help families find a child who is lost, or the Silver Alert, it didn't create any great fear. It effectively made sure when seniors were lost, they were found. When children were lost, they were found. So that is a specious argument.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I will respond briefly to the last speaker suggesting that somehow this isn't going to solve all the problems of gun violence. No one suggested it is.

This is a simple bill that is introduced to protect law enforcement and members of the community when an active shooter happens. We can continue to fight about how we should reduce gun violence, but when it occurs, this will save lives. It is not intended to be the solution, the big answer to everything. It is intended to save lives.

I will repeat again--with all due respect to my Republican colleagues who think they are experts in policing, who think they know better than law enforcement what they need when they run into danger--it is easy to say that in the comfort of the House Chamber, where you are protected by Capitol Police and you get alerts.

These are men and women who are running into bullets and communities that are threatened. You raised what happened on 14th Street. A young man who works for me received a notice 35 minutes after the scene was cleared through his Ring security system in his building that there was an active shooter. Had there been one in place, he would have been notified and not walked into danger.

You have the National Sheriffs' Association, the FOP, and others saying this will be very helpful. These are people who, admittedly, actually are responsible for keeping communities safe, unlike anyone who just spoke on the Republican side. They say it will help us keep communities safe.

The CEO of the National Sheriffs' Association said: ``This alert system will be another excellent tool for law enforcement to do its job.''

Bryan Porter from the National District Attorneys Association: ``This bipartisan legislation creates a new alert system for law enforcement to alert the public when there are active shooters while also providing resources as our members work to keep our communities safe.''

Jeri Williams, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association: `` . . . which will undoubtedly be a valuable tool and resource for law enforcement agencies.''

Bill Johnson, the National Association of Police Organizations: ``The Active Shooter Alert Act will assist law enforcement in alerting citizens of an active shooter situation in their vicinity, keeping them away from the incident and maintaining their safety.''

Finally, Patrick Yoes, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police: This bill will help ``improve the ways officers and agencies communicate with the public about active threats.''

I could read 10 more quotes from people who actually do this work.

The North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police has also endorsed this bill, which I think should be important to Mr. Bishop, who just spoke.

Look, these are men and women who do the job every day, and they are saying they need this, that it will be useful. It doesn't solve all the problems, but it works, and the notion that, ``Well, you can just do it. It is redundant,'' it is just not true.

This bill has in it provisions that will provide for the development of protocols, the sharing of best practices, a law enforcement advisory group, things that will make sure the active shooter alert works even better. It is made available to communities that may not have all those resources to support the implementation of this system.

Can anyone say that every single American doesn't deserve to get this information, and every member of law enforcement doesn't deserve to get this information, so they don't go into a dangerous situation?

I know it is difficult because you somehow have it in your head that Democrats are up to something. Fred Upton, Victoria Spartz, Peter Meijer, Nancy Mace, Don Bacon, Andrew Garbarino, Jay Obernolte, Jefferson Van Drew, Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, Brian Fitzpatrick, John Carter, Tom Rice, Michael McCaul, Kelly Armstrong, David McKinley, and Julia Letlow are all Republican original cosponsors. Do you think they are up to something, too? They are just trying to keep their communities safe and give law enforcement the tools they need.

We can argue about the underlying cause of crime. I am happy to have that debate. This bill is not about that. It is about protecting people when an active shooter incident happens.

The final thing I would say is, if you look at the after-action reports that are done after active shootings, almost without exception, they all reference that it would have made a real difference if we had a good communication system.

In the situation Mr. Upton talked about in Kalamazoo, in their after- action report, they said neither the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety nor the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office ``had a strong social media presence at the time of the shooting,'' which ``hampered the departments' ability to update the community on the progression of the incident, notify them when the arrest was made, and reassure them that they were indeed safe from further violence.''

In the Columbine shooting, in the after-action report, they say: Our schools' greatest vulnerabilities exist because of voids in basic security policies and strategies, such as effective communications and notification systems.

In the Broward County incident at the Hollywood airport in 2017, they write in their after-action report: ``Review and budget for improvements to public notification systems, including visual paging, overhead announcements, and mass notification systems'' would be helpful. It was noted during the event that airport patrons lost personal items except one, their cellular phones. The ability to reach every cell phone with messages enables law enforcement to provide instant information directly to victims. It goes on and on and on.

Again, police are asking for this. The after-action reports underscore the need for it.

Set aside the fact that the lead sponsor or the author is me. There are 15 other Democrats, 15 other Republicans, very bipartisan, and I haven't heard any argument why we shouldn't give law enforcement what was identified as one of their top priorities during National Police Week.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, if I were a classroom teacher right now, I would say to the gentleman from Ohio: Focus. Focus. Pay attention to what we are talking about.

What we are talking about is an active shooter alert. We are not talking about a red flag bill. We are not talking about any effort to undermine the Second Amendment. We are not talking about education policy. We are talking about one thing: Can we help keep people safe?

This is not redundant because while it is being used by 1,400 cities and towns around the country, there are thousands and thousands who have not used it because they can't access it because they don't have the resources, the protocols, the best practices. This will allow them.

If we save one life, if because of the active shooter alert we save one child, one police officer, it will have been worth it.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 6538. Give our brave law enforcement men and women who keep our communities safe every tool they need to keep themselves safe and keep the communities they serve safe. Don't take my word for it; take theirs. They have all endorsed it. They are asking for a ``yes.''

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act.

Across the country, workers are calling out sick because of COVID, truck deliveries and other shipments are facing delays, and people are panic-buying, all leading to product shortages and soaring prices.

Yet, while we know the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly challenged our Nation's supply chain, we also know there are systemic imbalances in our economy. Decreased competition, driven by market concentration, has allowed companies to further drive up costs and their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans in one of our most vulnerable moments.

In the beef-processing market, for example, four dominant companies control 85 percent of the market. The four largest poultry processing companies made up more than half of the market in 2015, up from 35 percent of the market in 1986.

We have seen this trend all across our economy, as large corporations have squeezed out independent businesses, eliminating competition. As a result, hardworking Americans throughout this country are paying more as food prices skyrocket, particularly for meat.

Provisions included in the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act will help us tackle this very issue and help bring prices down across the board.

The Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act and the Butcher Block Act, for example, will help strengthen our investigatory and enforcement tools to address market competition issues while also investing in additional meat processing capacity.

The PRECISE Act will improve farming efficiency and help ensure farmers' resiliency to future disruptions in fertilizer supply.

The Renewable Fuel Infrastructure Investment and Market Expansion Act and the Year-Round Fuel Choice Act will help drive down prices at the pump for Americans and increase available fuel supply.

These are just a few of the provisions in this comprehensive package that will help ease the economic burden on American families and help create an economy that works for all of us.

I urge my colleagues to come together to help hardworking Americans by driving down these costs and supporting this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, this Pride Month we need to both celebrate the LGBTQI+ community and take action to further LGBTQI+ equality. A vote for today's bill is a vote to do just that.

The Financial Services Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act includes a portion of my bill--the Equality Act--to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in credit.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill and my amendment to explicitly clarify that all forms of sex discrimination are prohibited by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Importantly, my amendment makes clear that discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, pregnancy, childbirth, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics, including intersex traits, are all forms of unlawful sex discrimination under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

No one should be denied access to credit because of who they are or who they love. Yet, 7.7 million LGBT adults 18 and older live in states without statutes explicitly prohibiting LGBT discrimination in credit.

A vote for today's bill and my amendment will ensure long-lasting explicit nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQI+ community and others in credit.

I thank Chairwoman Waters for introducing this bill and ensuring it is inclusive of the LGBTQI+ community. I urge my colleagues to

stand with the LGBTQI+ community this Pride Month and vote for my amendment and the underlying bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support reinstating the assault weapons ban.

The AR-15 has become the weapon of choice for shooters looking to kill as many people as possible in as little time as possible. Researchers estimate that if we still had a Federal assault weapons ban we would see 70 percent fewer mass shooting deaths.

The number of mass shootings has skyrocketed since the original assault weapons ban expired in 2004. These weapons have been used in the deadliest shootings in our history from Sandy Hook to Parkland to Uvalde. They are weapons of war that have no place in our community.

This is the amount of damage which is done by one bullet fired by an AR-15 as it enters the body. That is the bullet. That is the size of the damage. The bodies of kids in Uvalde were riddled so badly with wounds that their parents had to use DNA tests to identify their own children. One family identified their child by their shoes--their shoes.

These weapons don't just kill. They slaughter, and they decimate. They are designed for death and maximum destruction. They have no place in our schools or in our streets or anywhere in our communities.

We know that the original assault weapons ban worked. We have to reinstate it before more innocent lives are lost.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act. Before the Emanuel church shooting, before the Uvalde, El Paso, and Parkland shootings and so many others, shooters showed warning signs or even flat out said what they were going to do.

Before many die by suicide by gun, they show warning signs that they may be a danger to themselves.

In these situations, there is often evidence that something terrible is going to happen. We know it, we can even articulate it, but we are often powerless to stop it.

This bill remedies this situation. This bill would help prevent individuals who pose an imminent threat to themselves or others from accessing firearms, by allowing law enforcement and family members to file a court petition in Federal court to temporarily--temporarily-- block dangerous individuals' access to guns.

Despite the claim that this bill invades due process, this is absolutely false. It is a thinly veiled attempt to prevent any and all regulations of firearms in this country. As the chairman has said, it has been found constitutional. There is a hearing before the seizure with a judge, with witnesses, testimony under oath, affidavits. The judge makes a finding. It happens all the time in domestic violence cases.

These guns can only be taken away for a temporary period after a hearing with a judge, who determines on balance that it is necessary to do so for the safety of the gun owner or the community.

This bill is so common sense. It has historically been bipartisan. The last Republican President supported it, introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham in the Senate.

I thank Congresswoman McBath. Our Republican colleagues this morning have been talking about their passion for the Second Amendment, their devotion to the right to bear arms. If only for a moment they showed the same devotion, the same commitment to preserving the life of young people, the right to live a life free from gun violence, to go to a movie theater or church or synagogue and not worry

about their life and their liberty because they are gunned down by someone who shouldn't have a firearm.

This is absolutely the most commonsense proposal that will come before Congress on guns. Keep them out of the hands of people who are dangerous to themselves and others. For God's sake, vote for this bill.

Madam Speaker, almost 6 years ago I sat down right here on this floor with the late, great John Lewis and so many colleagues to protest the Republicans' unwillingness to take up gun safety legislation after the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub.

We promised to the American people that if we were given the majority, we would deliver on gun safety legislation.

Last year, we passed bills for expanded criminal background checks and to close the Charleston loophole to ensure criminals can't buy firearms. And today, we will pass groundbreaking legislation to address gun violence and the epidemic of gun violence in our country.

Gun violence is the crisis of this generation. There isn't a person or a community in this country that isn't affected by gun violence. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, in a city or suburb, young or old. We are all a text message away from this happening to any one of us.

In the last 159 days alone, we have had more than 240 mass shootings in

this country; almost 19,000 dead from guns, and 27 school shootings. Children killed in Uvalde, Parkland, Sandy Hook, and many more places across the country.

Enough is enough. It is time to do something. Every minute we wait, every minute we fail to act, we sentence more Americans and more children to death by guns in this country.

The Protecting Our Kids Act is a smart, commonsense package that will save lives. I urge my colleagues to take this first step with us. Help reduce gun violence in this country. Protect your constituents from the gun violence that is ravaging communities all across America.

And we can't stop here. This is a great bill. There is a lot more work to be done to make certain that kids and all the members of our communities are safe.

But have the courage to stand up. Actually, it doesn't take a lot of courage. Do your job. Protect your constituents from these horrific acts of gun violence.

Vote ``yes'' on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 3823, the ``Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act.''

This important bipartisan, bicameral legislation introduced by my colleague, Congressman Neguse, will ensure that our bankruptcy system works for the entrepreneurs, small businesses, homeowners, and American families who are the backbone of this country and of the communities where they live and work.

If there is one foundational principle of American bankruptcy law, it is the promise of the ``fresh start.'' The fresh start is a quintessentially American idea. It is the promise that even when your best efforts have failed, you will have a chance to get back up and try again. It is the promise that your debts will not destroy you.

By increasing the debt limit for small businesses electing to file for bankruptcy under subchapter V of Chapter 11 to $7.5 million, and for individual Chapter 13 filers to $2.75 million, this legislation will provide much-needed certainty that the bankruptcy system will be responsive to hardworking Americans and their families trying to stay afloat in a world that can get turned upside down by global economic shocks.

We all benefit from the fresh start. When it works as intended, it boosts economic growth, reduces unemployment, and encourages innovation and entrepreneurship. This legislation represents a major step toward ensuring that our bankruptcy system makes good on that promise.

I thank my colleagues, Representatives Neguse and Cline, for their leadership on this bill and for their work to ensure that small businesses and families have meaningful access to the bankruptcy process.

I urge my colleagues to support S. 3823.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to show my united and unwavering support of LGBTQI+ people across the globe and their right to live their lives openly, free from discrimination, harassment, and violence.

Yesterday, May 17th, we marked the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. I had hoped that by 2022, we would no longer need this day to draw attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by LGBTQI+ people around the world.

In too many countries, it is still a crime to be LGBTQI+. At least 68 countries have laws that criminalize same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults. In six of those countries, people can be sentenced to death for same-sex sexual relations. And at least nine countries have laws criminalizing forms of gender expression that target the transgender community.

In countries like Russia, LGBTQI+ people are targeted for discrimination. And under Putin's regime, they also have seen their ability to organize and fight for their rights curtailed.

In countries like Chechnya, LGBTQI+ people are subjected to state- sanctioned torture and violence, including murder.

The United States has a moral obligation to address these human rights abuses against LGBTQI+ people. That is why the House passed-- with a bipartisan vote--the Global Respect Act, legislation I authored to deny visas to those who commit human rights abuses against LGBTQI+ people abroad. This legislation will also codify reporting requirements on these issues in the State Department's annual Human Rights Report. The Senate now needs to send it to the President's desk.

We need to equip our government with the tools it needs to help secure LGBTQI+ equality and protect the rights of LGBTQI+ people here at home and abroad.

We are fortunate to have strong allies in the White House in President Biden and Vice President Harris. Their administration has stated unequivocally that it is the policy of the United States to ``pursue an end to violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics.'' They have done important work to advance those goals and have also taken meaningful action to ensure we are leading by example here at home as well.

In his State of the Union Address, President Biden specifically asked us, this Congress, to send him the Equality Act for his signature.

The Equality Act will, finally, explicitly prohibit LGBTQI+ discrimination in key areas of our everyday lives--including employment, housing, public accommodations,'' education, federally- funded programs, credit, and jury selection.

The House passed this bill, and I am now asking the Senate to do the same.

As we espouse values of equality abroad, we need to look inwardly too.

In too many states, LGBTQI+ people, especially trans youth, have been under attack. More than a dozen anti-LGBTQI+ bills have been signed into law in the states this year. These laws are discriminatory, and cruel, and are doing real harm to the LGBTQI+ community.

The Trevor Project recently published a study which found that in the past year 45 percent of LGBTQ+ children seriously considered attempting suicide.

Stop for a minute and take that in. Almost one out of every two LGBTQ+ children seriously thought about taking their own life. If that statistic was the same for your child, would you act?

The Trevor Project also found that 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary children attempted suicide and 60 percent of LGBTQ+ youth who wanted mental health care couldn't access it.

We must do better. And for us in Congress, that means strengthening protections for the LGBTQI+ community here at home and abroad. It means taking this meaningful action

to show these children, and all LGBTQI+ people that they are not alone.

And so I would like to thank the LGBTQI+ activists across the world.

Their work is so important. We know how difficult it can be to fight for LGBTQl+ equality, especially in countries where it is a crime to simply be yourself. The work that they are doing will have a positive impact for generations. They are on the right side of history, and we will use every lever of the federal government to support them and the fight for global equality.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021.

We are at an important crossroads in this country. With white supremacy on the rise and violent extremists fueling each other's bigotry and hate, we are seeing an alarming increase in domestic terrorism fueled by this hatred.

A recent analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that in 2020, domestic terrorism in America was at its highest level since information started being collected nearly 30 years ago.

In 2019, Michael McGarrity, Assistant Director for the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI stated that, ``racially motivated violent extremists are responsible for the majority of lethal attacks and fatalities perpetrated by domestic terrorists since 2000.''

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the safety and security of every American, and the targeting of already marginalized groups.

We also witnessed this just days ago in Buffalo, when a self- proclaimed white supremacist, fascist, and anti-Semite targeted the Black community, murdering ten victims in a supermarket.

We saw this last year in Atlanta when a gunman attacked Asian women in spas.

We saw it in the bomb threats at HBCUs and Jewish synagogues, and as terrorists have attacked Black churches, synagogues, and Sikh temples.

We keep seeing it over and over again. Congress needs to act.

We can start today by passing the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. This legislation will create offices at the DOJ, FBI, and DHS to monitor, investigate, and prosecute cases of domestic terrorism, a long-overdue update to not only help prevent these horrific crimes, but to also bring perpetrators to justice.

This bill would also improve and streamline information-sharing and training systems between different law enforcement agencies, including at the local and State level, to better our understanding of and response to incidents of domestic terrorism and white supremacy.

And finally, it would establish an interagency task force to combat white supremacist infiltration of our military and Federal law enforcement--a terrifying trend that we need to combat now before it gets any worse.

I thank Representative Schneider for introducing this desperately needed legislation. I am proud to be an original cosponsor. I thank Chairman Nadler for his leadership, and I urge all

my colleagues to support this important bill. It should be a strong bipartisan vote. Say ``no'' to white supremacy and domestic terrorism in America.

Madam Speaker, our economy is still recovering from 2 years of a once-in-a-generation pandemic that basically shut down our economy.

As Americans stopped going out and spending money, companies slowed production not only to meet this change in demand but also to allow for social distancing and COVID safety protocols for workers.

Now, as Americans have started to resume their normal lives, companies are struggling to keep up with the increased demand for goods. These supply chain issues and a worker shortage has resulted in higher prices across the economy.

These issues do not fully explain some of the skyrocketing prices that we are seeing. The pandemic, and the ensuing recovery, have laid bare systemic problems in our economy, including market consolidation and price gouging.

As our economy works to recover from the pandemic and the shocks to our supply chain, and as the world responds to Putin's reckless invasion of Ukraine, food and energy costs have skyrocketed for people around the world, including here in America and including in my district in Rhode Island.

While President Biden has taken a number of steps to tackle costs for Americans, including releasing millions of barrels of petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, expanding access to gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, and additional investments in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to help those most in need, systemic imbalances in our economy are enabling companies to further drive up costs.

Put simply, they are taking advantage of hardworking Americans and raising prices just because they can, all for the sake of extraordinary profits.

As Americans are working to recover from 2 years of an unprecedented health crisis and the economic downturn it caused, companies are reporting record profits as worker pay remains stagnant and families feel the squeeze on their pocketbooks.

This is especially true in the case of gas prices. Exxon, for example, is reporting that in the first quarter of 2022, its net profits have more than doubled, to $5.5 billion, compared to last year. Chevron has reported its highest quarterly profit in nearly a decade.

These record profits are a direct result of record gas prices. If these prices were solely based on inflation or supply chain issues, these companies wouldn't be seeing these obscene increases in profits.

To make matters worse, these record profits aren't being invested in new drilling sites to help us deal with energy shortages brought on by Putin's invasion of Ukraine but, instead, are going to massive company stock buybacks, shareholder dividends, and salary bonuses. This is pandemic war profiteering.

In grocery stores across America, the cost of food continues to rise as prices for goods like pork, chicken, and beef have spiked dramatically. While some may point solely to inflation for these increased prices, there is, once again, a larger systemic problem.

In the meatpacking industry, for example, the top four companies are estimated to control up to 85 percent of the industry. In industries all across the economy, the story is the same.

Three firms control 93 percent of the soft drink industry. Three firms control 85 percent of the baby formula industry. Three firms control 93 percent of the baby food industry. Four firms control 79 percent of the beer industry. Three firms control 79 percent of the dry pasta industry. And three firms control 73 percent of the cereal industry.

If history has taught us anything, this kind of market consolidation hurts product quality, market competition, and worker safety, all the things we need to have an equitable economy.

As simply put by President Biden: ``Capitalism without competition is exploitation.''

So, as we look to recover from this pandemic, and in a way that creates an

economy that works for everyone, for the people of this country, we need to hold these monopolistic giants accountable.

To start, Congress must pass the Big Oil windfall profits tax. Companies that have taken advantage of this moment and taken advantage of the American people in a time of crisis shouldn't be raking in record profits. Those profits should be returned to the consumers that they gouged.

We also should pass H.R. 7688 to be sure that we are taking on, in a serious way, price gouging in the energy sector. I am working with Congresswoman Schakowsky on an economywide anti-price gouging bill.

We need to be sure that we are funding the FTC to do this work so it can conduct rigorous investigations and look carefully at this kind of market consolidation.

But look, this is about corporate greed, about people taking advantage of this moment. As the American people are recovering from a very difficult couple of years, we should not, in addition to that, allow them to be victims of this kind of price gouging. We have the ability to do something about it.

We have bills that I hope we will bring to the floor. Return what was improperly taken from consumers at the gas pump. Return it back to them.

I also thank President Biden for the work that he is doing to bring down gas prices, to focus relentlessly on inflation, both for food and gas. This is the number one concern of my constituents in Rhode Island, and it will remain the number one concern in the weeks ahead as we do something to be sure that we are taking on these profiteers, the pandemic profiteers and war profiteers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5497, the BURMA Act, which would provide badly needed resources to civil society actors in Burma and impose sanctions on the Burmese military for upending years of progress, democracy, and human rights for a self-serving and brutal agenda of repression and violence.

Having visited Burma, I have seen the strength of its people as they have struggled to create and sustain democracy.

Now, under the authoritarian Tatmadaw, the divisions, prejudices, and violence have been exacerbated and progress has been reversed.

The Rohingya and other vulnerable populations continue to be displaced and assaulted. Journalists are purposely targeted for harassment and violence.

The political opposition has faced unspeakable violence and imprisonment.

We must commit to holding those responsible for the collapse of democracy and human rights to account, and we must support those that are working in dangerous circumstances to reestablish the rule of law.

As we continue to work against global authoritarianism and for democracy and human rights around the world, let us stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Burma and their struggle for freedom.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the MORE Act, legislation that takes an important step in rectifying some of the harm caused by the failed war on drugs.

The enforcement of marijuana laws has been a major driver of mass incarceration in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people are arrested each year for marijuana-related charges, very often just possession.

This has, in turn, led to our Federal prison system operating at 103 percent of capacity, and too many of these offenders are serving time for nonviolent drug-related crimes.

A drug-related conviction, even for possession, can be devastating for the rest of a person's life, making it difficult or even impossible to vote, get a job, be approved for a loan, or even qualify for a government program. As we know, these consequences have had massively disproportionate impact on communities of color, as Chairman Jeffries just mentioned.

This current system, frankly, doesn't work. It doesn't make any sense--not for community safety, not for the functioning of an effective prison system, and not for successful rehabilitation.

By removing marijuana from the Federal controlled substances list, allowing for the expungement of marijuana offenses, and providing support to communities most impacted by the failed war on drugs, the MORE Act is a long overdue step in restoring justice and reversing the harms caused by the war on drugs.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Nadler for his extraordinary leadership on this issue. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation and to support it here today. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting ``yes'' in reversing the gross injustice that the war on drugs has produced and bring sensible policy back into place.

I again want to end by thanking everyone who has worked on this for so many years, but particularly our chairman for his passionate and strong leadership.