Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in honor of the memory of Yuba County Sheriff Gary Dennis Tindel.

Gary was born in October of 1947. He graduated from Marysville High School in 1965 and then went on to attend UC Davis and Cal State, Chico shortly afterward.

He joined the Yuba County Sheriff's Department in 1971. In 1975, he married his wife, Irene Chesini, and together they raised three children: Josh, Michelle, and Alicia. In 1990, he was elected Sheriff in Yuba County and served two terms in that role.

In his spare time, he taught law enforcement classes at Butte College and served as assistant coroner down in Marin County.

Even after retiring from public service, he continued to serve his people, his community, as an active member of the Kiwanis Club, helping with local Little Leagues and Boy Scouts.

He was a devoted family man and a paragon in his community. From his outstanding public service to his volunteering to keep our streets safe, his influence was felt everywhere.

It is with deep condolences to Gary's family and everyone who knew him that I rise today. This ideal American man will be dearly missed. May he rest in eternal peace.

Mr. Chair, I missed the 2 minute vote while speaking to the press. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall No. 111.

Amendment No. 3 Offered by Mr. Golden of Maine

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life, career and the memory of former Yuba County Sheriff Gary Dennis Tindel. During his nearly 30-year career at the Yuba County Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Tindel worked at all levels, starting in the County jail and working his way to be elected Sheriff. His moral character and strong work ethic set him apart from others. Most importantly, Sheriff Tindel was a family man; setting a great example for his children and grandchildren to follow. His public service commitment was to put community and service before self.

Gary was born on October 24, 1947, to parents Marvin and Antonette Tindel in Marysville, California. He was a loving brother to his two siblings, and in those early years he was often seen in his Dad's welding machine shop and neighborhood store, Tindel's Market. He also attended St. Joseph's Catholic Church. His early learning of faith, along with his parents' love and strong moral code, set him on his path of public service.

Gary graduated Marysville High School in 1965, attending college first at UC Davis for a short time, then transferring to CSU Chico where he graduated with a degree in Engineering. Upon graduation, Gary sought a public service career in law enforcement, joining the Yuba County Sheriff's Department in 1971. He also attended the Butte College Police Academy. Gary was introduced to Irene Chesini in 1973, and were married in 1975. By 1979, they had three children: Josh, Michelle, and Alice. Gary would also earn a master's degree in Criminal Justice from CSU Sacramento in 1980, while continuing to climb up the ranks in the Yuba County Sheriff's Office.

After many years of dedicated work, Gary was elected Sheriff in 1990 and would go on to serve two terms as Sheriff. Additionally, he taught law enforcement classes at Butte College, and was active in both the California State Sheriffs' Association and California State Coroners Association. Gary would go on to work for the Marin County Coroner's office as the Assistant Coroner for about 10 years. During that time, he continued to stay involved with the California State Coroners Association, even serving as President for four years. Upon his retirement, he moved back to Yuba City to enjoy time being a grandparent.

Gary continued to serve his community, church, family, and friends in retirement. As an active member of the Kiwanis Club, he helped with local little leagues and Boy Scouts. He coordinated many fundraising dinners for many causes. He also enjoyed taking family vacations and spending time in Lake Tahoe with his family. Gary held another deep passion for fishing.

Gary will be missed by many friends and family. From his outstanding public service career to his volunteerism; Gary's influence will be felt for a very long time. Gary is survived by his wife Irene, his children Josh, Michelle, and Alicia, and his seven grandchildren. Sheriff Tindel was a true friend to many. I thank him for his service to the people of the North State. May he rest in eternal peace. God Bless.

Mr. Speaker, let's just sort this out in our minds for a minute here.

Giving the privilege that our soldiers have fought for, the very cornerstone privilege of voting in this country, to people that have broken into this country and are here in this city illegally, granting them the right to vote, the people all across the fruited plain have got to believe that they are out of their minds here to extend that privilege to people whose first act was to break into this country. Now, they want to confer the privilege of voting and deciding who the decisionmakers in Washington, D.C., are going to be for them. It is absurd.

Now, there are a lot of things going on with D.C. politics and demands for the area here. I understand, on some level, part of it. But D.C. is about one-eighteenth the size of Rhode Island. Its population is only a little bit larger than Fresno, California, one of the towns in my home State.

They are demanding statehood?

It is right in the Constitution that the District of Columbia will be kept separate from any State, so it doesn't have undue influence by a State in conducting the business of the city and of the district and of the Federal Government housed here.

It just shows that Congress, having been authorized and given the duties of overseeing the district, needs to reassert itself once again, because the council here is out of control, thinking that that is a good idea, with some of the crime legislation that is being talked about. But the right to vote being conferred upon people whose very first act was to break into this country, people are really wondering if this place has lost its collective mind.

I support this legislation to put D.C. back on the right path, the right foot, of following the law. It would undermine elections all across this country to have the idea of illegal immigrants voting in this city or other ones around the country.

Mr. Speaker, travel detainment caused missed vote. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 94.

Mr. Speaker, I was home over the weekend and saw a lot of folks in the district, and they are baffled by the handling of this Chinese spy balloon situation.

Regular folks are wondering: Why in the world was this thing handled or not handled the way it was? Why was it allowed to travel across the entire North American Continent, through the NORAD system, from Alaska through Canada down through our Midwestern States, and finally exiting at Carolina?

Why wasn't another way found to bring the balloon down slowly, maybe just a couple of bullet holes in the balloon itself instead of allegedly a million-dollar missile hitting the spy array so there is not going to be any evidence as it got dumped into the ocean?

There are a lot of questions to be answered about this, and we are not getting very good answers out of the military or out of the White House.

Tomorrow night, the President is going to be standing about 10 feet away from this spot right here, and I hope he has some really good answers on what our air defense system looks like in this country. How much spying is allowed to go on by balloon, for crying out loud?

We know the satellites that are up there and stuff, but this is a breach of the trust of our country, and we are looking foolish around the world by allowing this to happen.

Mr. Speaker, today, I join my colleagues in celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Our female athletes deserve a level playing field in competitive sports. Unfortunately, that is under attack today by the far left.

The far left's gender interpretation has created chaos in women's sports. Biological men who would otherwise not be competitive in male sports can now identify as women and dominate girls' sports. Time and again, we have seen biological men win championships in women's and girls' swimming, running, and wrestling.

By distorting reality, the left has made a mockery of competitive sports and has forced many talented female athletes to watch as their dreams are being crushed by biological males.

Mr. Speaker, whatever happened to the fight for Title IX so women's sports and activities could be on their own and have equal opportunity?

It is time for logic and reason to return to the discussion. Biological men have no place competing in women's sports.

We have gender-specific sports for a reason: Men and women are biologically different. That is not news.

Women and girls deserve to have their own women-only sports.

Mr. Speaker, so the national emergency declaration was on March 13 of 2020, nearly 3 years ago.

This legislation we are talking about today passed the Senate twice with the votes of nearly two-thirds of the Senators. But the former Speaker repeatedly blocked the resolution from coming to the floor in the House.

The President is granted more than 120 special statutory powers-- statutory, which usually means passing a law--through the national emergency declaration, all of which he continues to wield as long as this emergency is in place.

The President has extended the emergency twice, which would otherwise have automatically terminated on the anniversary of the first declaration.

These powers are meant for the time of actual emergency. President Biden himself has said the pandemic is over in his ``60 Minutes'' interview in September of 2022.

This administration has continually abused these powers and used the national emergency to enact liberal policies without the approval of Congress. These are things that probably wouldn't pass muster in Congress, because I don't think a lot of my colleagues would want to vote for them on the record.

Since the emergency was first declared, the Federal Government has spent over $6 trillion in response to COVID-19. Students have lost invaluable time learning in school facilities. Countless businesses closed down that aren't coming back. Families have been separated from loved ones during holidays and at hospitals, unable to see dying loved ones and not even able to have a funeral for them. Heartless.

Nurses and docs, at one point called heroes, start to be called goats because they don't necessarily want to take an experimental vaccine.

We have Jekyll and Hyde ideas coming out of the administration now-- thinking like, well, we are going to sue to make people wear masks again on planes and trains at the same time he is saying we are going to end it all in May. It is crazy. We are going in the wrong direction.

Why don't we pass this legislation that the President won't do himself and put the power back into the hands of the people here that are elected by the people.

Mr. Speaker, socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried and has caused millions of deaths over the last century.

In 1932 and 1933, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin engineered a man-made famine in Ukraine that killed more than 3 million people. In 1938, 1 million people were executed by the Soviet Union's secret police in a campaign of organized terror.

From 1960 to 1962, over 50 million people died in Communist China during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward. Again, from 1966 until 1976, over 3 million people were killed by Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution.

In Cambodia, communist dictator Pol Pot killed 2 million people, 25 percent of his country's population.

Almost 2 million North Koreans have been killed by that country's communist government.

These are just a few of the examples of socialism leading to mass death and suffering for innocent people. These deaths are a feature, not a bug and not an anomaly.

Socialism never works, as its critics must be silenced by force. It might sound attractive going in, but people who have voted it in usually have to fight their way out of it.

Let's be on the side of victims of socialism, the tens of millions of them, and speak out and condemn it in all its forms.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and memory of Peter Paruccini of Yuba City. Mr. Paruccini, a loving father and devoted husband, was a bright light in Northern California that was tragically cut short, passing away at the age of 39. His footprint on our area was one of service. The North State has lost one of its heroes.

Peter was a life-long resident of Yuba City, and although he split time between Santa Barbara and Yuba City, he always loved coming home to see the Sutter Buttes. Peter attended college at UC Davis where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science. Peter continued to stay in the area, choosing to teach at an underserved junior high school in Davis. This was the beginning of Peter's lifelong call to serve.

Later in life, Peter felt the call to serve our country in the military. Exchanging his teaching credentials for military boots, Peter joined the United States Army in 2006 serving as an Infantryman. During his military deployment, he stood out for dedication to serve with the utmost distinction, bravery, and honor. Peter's service is something we should all try to emulate.

Upon his return from the military, Peter found a career in law enforcement. Peter worked in both the Bay Area and Ventura County before being recruited out of law enforcement to work with a large utility company thanks to his expertise in project/product management and logistics.

My heartfelt condolences are with the Paruccini family. It is with them that Peter's memory will be kept alive. Peter was a loving father to his son, George; husband to his wife, Celeste; and son to his parents, Stephanie and Luigi. May God bless their family, and may Peter find eternal rest at last. Rest in Peace.

Madam Speaker, our Nation is currently $31 trillion in debt. Unfunded liabilities, meaning debt we can't fund, are almost $124 trillion.

For the past 2 years, Democrat majorities have added $300 billion in new extra Federal spending. This level of spending is actually driving inflation. It is fueling runaway inflation that is driving up the price of everything from gasoline--we have known about that for a long time-- to eggs, which seems to be a more recent phenomena.

Why do we have to keep doing this? We shouldn't. America is the land of plenty. America is the land of innovation. We can produce anything we want. We can innovate new and better ways to do it in this country. We are being hampered by government, regulations, lack of planning. Overspending by government has taken away the initiative of people to be able to do things on their own instead of being harmed by government spending and regulation.

We have to address Washington, D.C.'s, reckless spending, which is driving inflation and a massive amount of debt. If the interest rates keep going up, we won't even be able to service the debt the way we should.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in sadness to acknowledge the loss of a local icon and hero, Ernie Reynolds, Sr., of Oroville, California.

Ernie was born in a very small cabin in the woods in 1930. He was one of ten children. Indeed, he knew the value of hard work and faith.

He left home at the age of 12, and at only 16 he wanted to join the military. So he embellished his age and signed up for the Coast Guard. He went on and eventually served in the Merchant Marines during the Korean war and sailed around the world seven times.

After his service, Ernie and his wife, Sally, settled down in Oroville. He founded A-1 Masonry which went on to build many local projects, including brickwork on banks, the historic Eagles Hall, a sporting goods store, the Chinese Temple, and McDonald's, among many others.

He knew the value of service, having served on several local boards in districts that make his community better.

He was a local hero. One day in 1972, he was testifying at a trial in the downtown courthouse. A gunman came in, shot the judge, and killed an attorney. Ernie managed to wrestle this guy down and disarm him. For his courage, Ernie was awarded the Certificate of Valor from the State Attorney General.

Ernie raised a strong family who also knew the value of hard work, serving their community, and their Christian faith.

Ernie was preceded in death by his wife, Sally. After 72 years, he still has a beautiful, strong family who are going strong in Oroville, California.

Ernie was the man to come see and visit whether it was about politics or to just spend time in his living room or out on his front porch. We are going to miss him. He was a true hero and icon in our community.

Mr. Speaker, last week, President Biden decided to second-guess law enforcement once again.

Last Monday, he asked why they, meaning the police, should ``always shoot with deadly force.'' In the past, he has also told police officers to aim for the legs while criminals are charging at them. These comments show a complete lack of knowledge of policing and self- defense.

The fact is, criminals will sometimes violently resist arrest. In those instances, it is important for police officers to be able to defend themselves or others around them.

Any time a firearm is discharged, that is considered deadly force. Is the President suggesting cops never use their firearms, even in clear cases of self-defense or protecting others?

To sit on the sidelines and blame law enforcement, not criminals, for the outcomes of these deadly interactions encourages violence against police officers, excuses criminal behavior, and is very bad for recruiting new police officers.

The President should be standing with our law enforcement officers, not siding with or aiding and abetting criminals.

Madam Speaker, recently, my home State of California has suffered from a series of devastating storms on the flood side of the equation. We received at least 11 inches of rainfall and were hit by extreme flooding as a result.

Now, in California, unlike any other places, we have a simultaneous flood emergency and drought emergency; only in modern California. Many people were forced to evacuate. Twenty people lost their lives.

The damage was extensive, but the real disaster is that we already know how to reduce the fallout from flood events. If we built more water storage, such as Sites Reservoir, raising Shasta Dam, et cetera, we could store more of this rainfall that would not become floodwater, rather than also allowing it to flush out to the ocean where we will need that water in a regular drought period for agriculture, et cetera.

Storing water from these storms also allows us to weather our periodic droughts, such as in San Luis Reservoir. If we could run the pumps hard enough, we could be filling that facility.

So, again, that removes water from a flood zone and puts it into a good place where we can use the water.

We get fatalities from these disasters; they flood out roads; they do destructive damage to infrastructure.

We need better evacuation routes for people. We need to think ahead and plan for storage and for flood infrastructure, instead of letting climate change and environmental issues stop it.

Mr. Speaker, I stand tonight to offer my support for the National School Choice Week.

Our public education system is in dire need of reform. School administrators seem to prioritize indoctrinating students with critical race theory and other leftwing ideology, not even actually teaching them reading, writing, or math.

As a result, our students' scores in these subjects are far below other nations in the past. Schools are clearly failing to prepare our children for success. Instead, they are hiding their agenda from parents who have a right to know.

Parents have the right to know and they only want the best for their children. They want to put them in better schools and they want to have the choice to do so. National School Choice Week gives parents the option and flexibility to place their children in an institution that best fits the child's needs and their values.

It is a simple, popular solution to fix our failing public education system. School choice will incentivize public schools to compete for each student by offering a quality education that will improve their prospects for future success.

If the public education system doesn't work for students, it is time to reform it so that it does.