Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today I would like to recognize the life and service of my friend, Anthony Wayne Halby.

Anthony was a 40-year resident in Nevada County, a devout family-man with a heart of gold. His hard work and devotion to our community will be felt for generations. He will be missed by all of us.

In 1971, Anthony graduated from Woodbury Business College in Los Angeles; married Charlene his wife of 40-years and started his business, The Halby Group. During his career Anthony built a very successful business where he was known as an, `excellent salesman with integrity.' His work ethic was to always help people and ensure that they received the very best value.

One of Anthony's many contributions to our area was his service to our first responders through his work on the Nevada County Law Enforcement and Fire Protection Council. Since the organizations beginning in 1999, they have raised and donated more than $1 million worth of equipment, support, and training for local first responders. They also hold the Nevada County Red Light Ball celebrating the hard work and dedication of our first responders. Anthony was a massive part in organizing and ensuring this celebration occurred. Every year, we can look forward to the Red Light Ball and the recognition of our First Responders. I have many fond memories attending this event and seeing the outpouring of community support for our first responders.

Anthony was someone you could count on and turn to. In my many trips to Nevada County, I will always have fond memories of stopping by to see him and catching up on world events, or just to have a few minutes with a friend.

The only thing we never agreed about was baseball and muscle cars as he was a devoted Dodgers fan and a Corvette guy, as I drive Mustangs and root for the Giants, our rivalry was among friends.

Anthony enjoyed spending his weekends driving his Corvette around Northern California and was an active member of his local Corvette club.

Anthony was a patriot who loved our Country and a wonderful friend and will be greatly missed by all. Upon his passing, he leaves to cherish his memory and celebrate his legacy his wife Charlene, their five children: Gabriella, Matthew, Mark, Michael, and Joseph; eight grandchildren; and numerous other family members and friends. Today, I stand beside Charlene and their family in this time of sorrow and profound personal loss. May God bless my friend. He is not forgotten.

Madam Speaker, I was in a conference with a constituent and inadvertently missed the vote. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 447.

members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress

Amodei (Balderson)

Armstrong (Johnson (SD))

Axne (Wild)

Baird (Bucshon)

Barragan (Beyer)

Bass (Cicilline)

Beatty (Blunt Rochester)

Bera (Aguilar)

Bilirakis (Fleischmann)

Blumenauer (Beyer)

Bonamici (Kuster)

Bowman (Pocan)

Boyle, Brendan F. (Evans)

Brooks (Moore (AL))

Brownley (Kuster)

Buchanan (Waltz)

Butterfield (Kildee)

Carl (Joyce (PA))

Calvert (Garcia (CA))

Cardenas (Gomez)

Carter (TX) (Weber (TX))

Case (Correa)

Cawthorn (McClain)

Clark (MA) (Kuster)

Cohen (Beyer)

Cole (Lucas)

Crist (Soto)

Cuellar (Green (TX))

Curtis (Stewart)

DeFazio (Brown (MD))

DelBene (Larsen (WA))

DeGette (Blunt Rochester)

DeSaulnier (Beyer)

Diaz-Balart (Burgess)

Doggett (Raskin)

Doyle, Michael F. (Evans)

Escobar (Garcia (TX))

Espaillat (Correa)

Fletcher (Raskin)

Frankel, Lois (Kuster)

Garamendi (Sherman)

Gimenez (Cammack)

Gohmert (Weber (TX))

Gonzalez, Vicente (Correa)

Gosar (Boebert)

Gottheimer (Sherrill)

Granger (Arrington)

Graves (MO) (Fleischmann)

Green (TN) (Fleischmann)

Grijalva (Stanton)

Guthrie (Bucshon)

Hagedorn (Moolenaar)

Hartzler (DesJarlais)

Hayes (Wild)

Hern (Lucas)

Herrera Beutler (Rice (SC))

Horsford (Carter (LA))

Huffman (Levin (CA))

Jacobs (CA) (Correa)

Jacobs (NY) (Garbarino)

Jackson (Van Duyne)

Jayapal (Raskin)

Johnson (TX) (Beyer)

Jones (Craig)

Joyce (OH) (Garbarino)

Kahele (Mrvan)

Katko (Meijer)

Khanna (Connolly)

Kilmer (Kildee)

Kim (CA) (Gonzalez (OH))

Kinzinger (Meijer)

Kirkpatrick (Pallone)

Krishnamoorthi (Brown (MD))

LaHood (Wenstrup)

Lamborn (Bacon)

Lawson (FL) (Evans)

Leger Fernandez (Gallego)

Lesko (Joyce (PA))

Long (Banks)

Loudermilk (Fleischmann)

Lowenthal (Beyer)

Luetkemeyer (McHenry)

Maloney, Carolyn B. (Wasserman Schultz)

Mast (Waltz)

McCaul (Burgess)

McEachin (Brown (MD))

Meng (Kuster)

Meuser (Burgess)

Miller (WV) (Van Duyne)

Moore (UT) (Stewart)

Moulton (Beyer)

Nadler (Pallone)

Napolitano (Correa)

Neal (Beyer)

Neguse (Perlmutter)

Nehls (Fallon)

Newman (Wild)

Nunes (Garcia (CA))

Ocasio-Cortez (Garcia (IL))

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Owens (Stewart)

Pascrell (Pallone)

Payne (Pallone)

Peters (Kildee)

Pingree (Kuster)

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Posey (Cammack)

Price (NC) (Connolly)

Reed (Rice (SC))

Reschenthaler (Burgess)

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Roybal-Allard (Connolly)

Ruiz (Aguilar)

Ruppersberger (Aguilar)

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Trahan (McGovern)

Trone (Brown (MD))

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Velazquez (Clarke (NY))

Wagner (McHenry)

Walorski (Banks)

Watson Coleman (Pallone)

Welch (McGovern)

Wilson (FL) (Brown (MD))

Wilson (SC) (Dunn)

Zeldin (Timmons)

Madam Speaker, I am here today to recognize the great work of a fellow rice farmer, Nicole Montna Van Vleck. She was just named the USA Rice Federation's 2021 Rice Farmer of the Year.

She is a third-generation rice farmer in northern California and serves as president and CEO of her Montna Farms in Sutter County.

At Montna Farms, conservation is a priority. America's rice farmers have a longstanding commitment to protect and preserve natural resources.

Not only is she involved with her family's California rice operation, but she also makes time for her passion of promoting the U.S. rice industry.

She previously served as the chair of the USA Rice Farmers board of directors, where she collaborated with growers across the country to solve difficult policy issues and strengthen the industry.

Today, U.S. rice farmers produce more rice using less land, energy, and water than they did just 20 years ago while providing critical habitats for many, many species.

With leaders such as Nicole, America's rice farmers continue to serve as leaders in farming by producing a very healthy, conservation- friendly food that generates jobs and economic opportunity in rural areas.

Congrats, Nicole, on this great honor.

Mr. Speaker, this week, we pay tribute to the lives lost on December 7, 1941.

Eighty years ago, Japan launched a surprise sneak attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack on Pearl Harbor took well over 2,000 military and civilian lives.

This unprovoked act of war served as a rallying cry for all Americans to stand up for their brothers and sisters in the name of freedom, liberty, and security.

In my home district, a local treasure, Lou Conter, one of the last two living survivors of the USS Arizona, resides in Grass Valley. We could not be more proud of Mr. Conter and what he fought for. It is my honor to be his Representative.

This last September, Lou turned 100 years old. He is still full of vigor, verve, and a smile for everybody. He is truly a pleasure to be around.

Lou's efforts and our eventual triumph as a country over the evil at Pearl Harbor and all through World War II is proof of the unbounded determination of people like Lou and of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I recognize today the lives lost at Pearl Harbor and salute all who served to ensure the safety then and now of all of our families in this great country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Mr. Scott, and I have appreciated working with Ms. Schrier from Washington and helping her lead this bill and letting me help do so. I am glad to be able to support this bill here today.

Of course, this bill is just common sense. It will allow the Forest Service to use the interests they gather on settlement accounts to continue the important restoration work we have in our forests, especially after so many horrific fires.

Currently, the U.S. Forest Service must transfer the interest they collect to the General Treasury accounts. Now, this feels a little bit like if my kids are out gathering aluminum cans and plastic bottles and I keep the money when we take it down to be recycled.

The Federal Government should be allowing the money generated by these settlement accounts to build up and go for the much-needed work instead of skimming that money off the top.

Now, other agencies like the Department of the Interior are allowed to retain the interest that accrues on their accounts and allows them to spend that additional money on needed restoration in their projects.

The 2021 fire season, as we know--which is getting to be every year-- was devastating for the West and left millions of acres that will need to be restored, including one in my district known as the Dixie fire, which was right at a million acres. A million acres, one fire.

Without this legislation amending the Forest Service's ability to retain this interest, the value of the settlement accounts diminishes over time.

There already isn't enough money to replant and restore to get our forests growing again after devastating fires, so why are we skimming this interest off the top and thinking we are doing something by putting it back in the Treasury? Why wouldn't we want the focus to be on restoring and replanting our forests after so many devastating fires year after year.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Schrier for stepping forward and sponsoring this bill, and I look forward to hearing her comments on this. Somehow, I got ahead of her in order here. I also look forward to working with Ms. Schrier.

Madam Speaker, as we reflect upon yet another horrific fire season in California and the West, we cannot allow ourselves to forget or get complacent.

This week, we have had several good meetings here in D.C. with various groups talking about the need for better forest management.

This is more or less what the average forest looks like that is unmanaged. You can hardly see through it. You could never ride a horse through it. An owl can hardly fly through the thing. So what does this mean, an overcrowded forest? It means fire danger.

These trees compete for a limited amount of water supply. Insects attack and weaken trees because they don't have enough water and soil nutrients.

The right amount of trees per acre would look something like this. See, we are not cutting all the trees from Mexico to the Canadian border, we are leaving some behind, a healthier more sustainable forest. We will have much more success and much less fire danger.

Indeed, over a million acres in my district burned this year--a million acres. That is terrible for water quality, air quality, for the wildlife, and for the habitat. We could do so much better and put people back to work managing our forests in a way that is better for everybody with access to the forest. Let's get on it.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to announce tonight the lighting of the Capitol Christmas tree on the west steps in just a few minutes.

The tree each year is selected from a different national forest around the country. This year the tree comes from the Six Rivers National Forest in Northwest California, a four-county area I share with Mr. Huffman from the Second District.

The marking of the lighting tonight indeed kicks off the Christmas season here in Washington, D.C., here at the United States Capitol.

Forestry, of course, is a very important part of our life in northern California and in the West, and positive forestry practices are extremely important if we are ever going to control wildfire and not harm the habitat and economies of our areas there.

I hope we can see in the lighting of the Capitol Christmas tree all the good things that come with good forestry and the holiday season.

Merry Christmas.

Madam Speaker, as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, I stand before the House to proclaim strongly my commitment to being pro-life.

Three years ago Mississippi passed a law by an overwhelming majority to limit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with reasonable exceptions. The State legislature and then-Governor Phil Bryant supported this bill to protect the life of mothers and the dignity of the unborn. Abortion precedents established in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey have prevented States from passing laws to protect unborn babies before viability--the age at which a child could survive outside the womb.

Medical advancements like ultrasounds and prenatal surgeries have shown the humanity of the unborn which points to the value of life from the moment of conception. Unborn babies have a heartbeat as early as 5 weeks, and by 15 weeks they can taste, make facial expressions, and, of course, feel pain.

Confronted by a culture that continues to take human lives for granted, I applaud the State of Mississippi for their pro-life stance and their challenge of outdated precedent that prevents protections for the unborn.

Madam Speaker, I will always stand for life.

Madam Speaker, this Friday the Congressional Budget Office allegedly will release their assessment of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda under budget reconciliation.

Their assessment will determine whether the Democrats have come up with enough tax increases and other measures that will actually cover the cost of the bill over the next 10 years.

But the White House seems to now believe that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office isn't qualified to provide us with an objective cost estimate, even though that is the entire point of the

Madam Speaker, I rise tonight as we talk about this issue with our upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, expected, of course, to be the most expensive meal in the history of that holiday.

This is more proof that the Democrats are driving up inflation with their spending policies. Spending piles of dollars does not create an economy, it actually hurts the value of the dollars.

USDA's Turkey Market News Report showed the price of turkey itself is going to be up 22 percent from last year. Pumpkin pie, potatoes, cranberries, all up in price.

Inflation, of course, is the most regressive of actual taxes on the people because it hits those on a fixed income the hardest. Low and middle-income have tough decisions to make on whether it is going to be--how they are going to handle their food costs and upcoming heating oil and gas to stay warm this winter.

Democrats have been touting that they will tax billionaires and the rich and corporations but, instead, we have seen them advocating for policies that lead to inflation, directly harming those low and middle- income Americans, as well as making tax breaks for the rich while they are touting them.

Congress cannot spend its way out of a problem, as some in the administration have suggested. It would only make the issue worse.

We must stop passing massive spending bills and, instead, work on the burdensome regulations and get out of businesses way so they can thrive, expand their businesses, and hire employees.

Indeed, we need to work on the important supply chain issues that are still clogging our ports, keeping our products from being exported, from agriculture, all those things that need to be shipped out. Instead, we aren't cutting very good deals with China when they can just send their stuff over to us.

So that would insulate our economy from inflation by having a real economy at home that is not dependent upon borrowed dollars for big spending.

Indeed, I keep asking, Biden administration, whose side are you on?

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman and appreciate him hosting this Special Order for us here tonight.

Madam Speaker, so what do we have? The Biden administration has been trying to keep their fingerprints off of it for a long time. They have been trying to let others do their dirty work; the airlines, the hospitals, forcing these vaccines on people. Why is that? They

don't want to have their fingerprints on it.

So now they are getting impatient. You can go back and look at clips where they say, Oh, it is not the role of the Federal Government, by Jen Psaki, by others in the administration. It is not our job. We are not supposed to do this. Now they don't care. They are pushing forward.

So the Fifth Circuit came in and said, You are going overboard by getting OSHA to do the dirty work for you. They said it was ``staggeringly overbroad,'' and they told them take no steps to implement or enforce the mandate until further court order. It raises serious constitutional questions. It likely exceeds the Federal Government's authority.

So they have stepped out of line and they have been slapped back. It is amazing, because the people on the front lines this year-and-a-half our nurses, doctors, and others that are called the essential employees, have been playing good ball. Now, they are being told, Oh, that is not good enough anymore. You can't have your job anymore unless you take this vaccine.

Personal decisions. You can't undo a vaccine once you have had it taken. And so the aggressiveness of this administration towards people's personal decisions is just amazingly overbroad. I am really pleased we are doing this Congressional Review Act to nullify OSHA's mandate that has been, at least for a while, set aside by the Fifth Circuit Court and hopefully joined across the street by the Supreme Court.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the time.

Madam Speaker, the American supply chain crisis has reached a very critical point. A record number of container ships are waiting to enter U.S. ports, especially off of L.A. and Long Beach. They even miss the trip up to Oakland sometimes, too.

This leaves small businesses and grocery stores with empty shelves. It leaves farmers and others that produce things in California and the U.S. waiting and wondering if they can get their products on to ships.

At the same time, reckless spending has caused inflation for Americans to skyrocket. Food on the shelves is more expensive. This isn't just a problem for upper-class people, as some in the administration are saying. This hits all Americans, especially those on fixed incomes, really hard.

Now, a good thing, everyone saved 16 cents on their Fourth of July barbecue that the Biden administration was touting recently; though Thanksgiving is predicted to be the most expensive meal in the history of the holiday this year.

The current inflation rate has forced households to spend another $175 a month on food, fuel, and housing; let alone what is coming in the home heating oil this winter.

Inflation has climbed over 6 percent in the last year, making it the worst year since 1990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We need to get to work solving this problem for the American people, not focusing on unprecedented spending sprees.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Madam Speaker, the Fifth Circuit Court has very recently blocked President Joe Biden's coronavirus vaccine mandate. The Court wrote that the mandate ``grossly exceeds OSHA's statutory authority.'' This reaffirms that the President and OSHA simply cannot make up laws and penalties as they go or from thin air. So let's stop making health decisions for an entire population. Instead, let the individual and their doctor decide what preventative measures will suit them best, not a bureaucrat guessing one week to the next what that might be.

Some said--many are saying--that they would rather retire or let themselves be fired than to continue in a job situation where they are being forced to take a vaccine. I can't believe this is happening in this country. I can't believe they are trying to pin it on some 1905 State court decision of Massachusetts v. Jacobsen.

Losing our doctors, losing our healthcare workers to retirement would be a devastating one already to our underserved rural and urban areas. Other employees represent years and years of knowledge and talent that would be lost because of this unconstitutional mandate.

I say to President Biden: Whose side are you on?

Madam Speaker, one of the many concerning provisions in the Democrat's reconciliation bill is nationalization of our elementary schools.

The new childcare provisions drastically expand Federal oversight of schools, allowing the Biden administration to determine the education standards for three- to four-year-olds, and places no limit on what additional requirements Democrats can impose upon each States' primary education system.

This bill also delegitimizes family and faith-based education, by limiting funded preschool options to only facilities which teach curriculum that the Biden administration approves of.

The Secretary of Education recently told Congress that parents were not ``the primary stakeholder'' in ``determining educational programming.'' Really? This means Democrats believe government knows better than what parents think is right for their children.

Allowing the nationalization of elementary schools will further politicize what our kids are being taught, such as divisive ideologies, like critical race theory, or exposed to very inappropriate instructional materials that I can't speak of here.

Madam Speaker, I cannot support a bill that would hand over more of our powers to the government, in an era where too many freedoms have already been relinquished.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the time and effort by my colleague from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), for leading the charge on this.

So what are we looking at here? Parents, their kids, they have the perfect right to know what is going on in the schools and what the kids will be subject to during those seven or so hours per day that we entrust that system with our kids. Indeed, this is a covenant we have had for many, many years.

Parents and families with the school system, with the government, that they are going to do the things and teach our kids and treat our kids in a way that we approve as parents during those hours a day in those formative years, all those hours they have together that they are not under our direct watch or supervision.

So what is this all about? The direction it is going right now is indeed very disturbing. As we saw last night just across the river over in Virginia, an issue has been brought to a head by two different Governor candidates, and a lot of people going before that, to express their views in a First Amendment fashion to their school boards that they elect to do the job for them.

Over here in Virginia we saw a real ground swell of things that we will be seeing a lot more of across this country. Indeed, we are seeing it in my own district at home. People saying no to what is being forced upon them in my own State by our Governor and a lot of health systems on the vaccine mandate for vaccines that are really unproven still for kids.

In information that I saw today, it says the down-sized vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds probably doesn't really prevent anything, but it just may lessen their symptoms if they get the virus. Well, maybe parents would like to opt out of that. Maybe that is not something that is good enough for their kids given the offsetting possible risks. It comes back to: Whose kids are they?

Going back to simpler and earlier times when the first settlers of this country came across and were settling in the West, and as the first roughnecks and those went and set up mining and cattle and settling in the West. Settling this Nation. They would then send for people to operate their schools as they got married and started families. A lot of one-room schoolhouses. I know that is not what we have right now, and, oh, he is getting all nostalgic and all that stuff. No.

Could you imagine that those pioneers would put up with the idea that you are not allowed to know what is going on in your school. You are not allowed to know the curriculum. You are not allowed to know what school activities are going on, or the medical or health issues that your kids are going through. Can you imagine that back then? Can you imagine those pioneers, those settlers, those early colonials, even just 50 years ago, can you imagine they would put up with that?

We have been lulled to sleep by allowing the system to do what it does. Well, people are speaking out, they are fighting back, and saying, no, we are not putting up with this anymore because the education system has gotten away from them.

We have seen it. We saw it at the school board meetings in Virginia, and we see it all over the country. I am seeing it my district in northern California. They are going to these meetings and demanding to know what it is you are teaching them.

As my colleague, Representative Miller, mentioned a little bit ago, it is amazing to watch when the parents--which really takes some guts-- stand up publicly and read back to the board some of the content that they are finding in the books that are in the library or even in direct curriculum, with the explicit sexual nature of what is being said and taught to kids at a very young age.

It is outrageous, and it makes everybody in the audience uncomfortable, what is being read off there. My hat is off to those moms and dads who are standing there in public reading these pretty ugly things to the board so they have to face it and so they have to deal with it.

That is putting the spotlight on what this is for many, many people around the country. It is getting people off the sidelines and out of their busy lives. I know it is tough. A lot of families have to do two jobs because of high taxes and all the other demands on them these days, but we have to come off the sidelines.

We are seeing more and more people making different choices for their kids in schools such as charter schools and private schools, whatever it is, because they want the best for their kid.

When you see a homeschool family, a charter school family, or private school parents doing that, they are extra dedicated because they have to make an extra sacrifice to make sure their kids are getting a good education.

And what do we get in this society here of public education?

They make fun of those people. They say: Oh, those kids are awkward, and they don't fit in.

They are some of the best-educated kids you have, Madam Speaker, and they are the ones who are moving forward to be in leadership versus the ones who are not given a school choice to break out of a bad situation.

Especially in our urban areas, wouldn't these inner-city families like to have choices sometimes to alternative education instead of the same thing from the same old standards?

So we are seeing people pushing back, fighting back, and demanding to be heard because your children do not belong to the government. They do not belong to the school system. They belong to you, given to you by God, and they are your responsibility.

So you have every right to have your voice heard, not to be called a terrorist and not to be monitored by the FBI or the Attorney General whose family might be making money off of this or somebody else.

You have every right to speak out. So do not be cowered by the left, by the media, and by the big school system that is trying to cower you into not being a part of it.

You move forward, and you be strong. You demand to know and demand to ask better for your children because they are yours. They do not belong to the government or any education system that is supposed to be working for all of us.

So I appreciate this Special Order hour tonight.