Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn) for leading this Special Order tonight on National Bible Week.

Last night, several of us had the privilege to attend a preview of the national Museum of the Bible. It was very impressive. I would urge everybody watching tonight and who hears about it to tour it when you get the chance here in Washington, D.C.

One of the things that struck me very early on in that tour was a banner hanging inside the museum that says: ``The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing to the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple''--Psalm 19:8.

That also applies to the Bible itself, the inherent and infallible Word of God.

Jesus himself used Scripture that was written before him. Jesus never belittled the Scripture, as some modern critics do, or set it aside, nor did he criticize it; although he criticized those who misused it or contradicted it, although he rejected many interpretations of it.

When we hear the Son of God's quotes to Scriptures, we need no further testimony. He believed every word of Scripture. All the prophesies concerning Himself were fulfilled, as my colleague, Mr. Lamborn, said.

Time and time and time again, the timelines prove the Word of God's prophesy. Matthew 19:4 and 19:5 were one of those that Jesus spoke of, documented in the New Testament, accounts by those over there with Jesus at the time.

We know Moses wrote the Pentateuch, Jonah wrote Jonah, Daniel wrote Daniel. Jesus attests to that. He believed the Old Testament was spoken by God, Himself, written by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, even though the pen was held by men. That is an important point for those who ask: How can the Bible be real, since it was written down by men?

The committed task of all writing of the Word of God, though they were fallible men, were guided by the infallible Holy Spirit. That is a faith we have and hold.

It does take some faith, yes, just as it takes faith for me to get on that airliner and fly back East each week. But the faith in the Bible is much stronger. It has never been proven wrong. All the prophesies that were made that have occurred already have been proven true.

The Founders thought it was a key element in the founding of this Nation, obviously. Right in this room, behind the Speaker's dais, is the inscription: ``In God We Trust.'' Facing me right now is the only forward-facing image in here of Moses looking over this House of Representatives.

Lastly, I would leave with this. As you watch the machinations of the Members of Congress, I think one of the most important guidelines we would have I find in Proverbs 4:25 through 4:27: we uphold the honor not only of this institution and our families, but those who walk with God, that walk with Jesus.

In Proverbs, you see: ``Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. Keep straight the passage for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. Keep your feet from evil.''

That is what the Bible inspires. As I read it on the plane coming back and forth and read it at home or at my bedside, this is what true faith is all about, proven time and time again.

I urge everybody not just to have the Bible at your home. The statistics are that every home has 2.2 Bibles, on average. It isn't that there aren't enough Bibles. It is that people don't open it often enough.

Mr. Speaker, as the House contemplates the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a lot of misinformation is getting around the country on that.

The intent here is to make the Tax Code simpler; the ability for Americans to spend instead of billions of hours and billions of dollars combined in dealing with their taxes, to get it down to a simple form, perhaps a postcard for many Americans, and the ability to weed through their taxes and get them done and put more money in their pockets.

What our plan does is put approximately $1,200 into the average middle-income family's pocket, leaves it there instead of taking it out; also, restoring more opportunity on Main Street for small businesses, medium businesses, and the jobs that we want to come back home to this country, those trillions of dollars we can repatriate back to this country and help the middle class, help middle-income Americans, help everybody to have a stronger, more vibrant economy, which helps everybody, instead of a complicated Tax Code put together by lobbyists.

We need to push forward on this and have a success for the American people.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this commonsense hydropower streamlining process for modernizing the way we permit in order to bolster the process for over 400 existing hydropower projects in the United States. It is very important in my area as well.

Hydropower delivers clean, reliable, and renewable power 24 hours a day, unlike other renewable power sources which fluctuate with time of day, weather, sun or wind, or lack thereof.

California has a long history of hydropower generation. In 2014, California, alone, produced 14,000 megawatts of electricity from hydropower facilities--again, clean, renewable, and reliable. You turn on the switch, hydroelectric power.

My district in northern California is home to two of the largest facilities in the country: Oroville Dam and Shasta Dam. Each of these facilities delivers cost-efficient power, provides flood control, and generates significant local economic activity for the community via stored water and recreation.

With local input, which is very important, we need to address the streamlining of this process and expanding renewable hydropower production in this country to pave the way for new jobs and affordable power to consumers everywhere.

Relicensing permits ought not be a wish list for every special interest, but, indeed, on measures of the power that can be generated.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the time, and I wholeheartedly support and urge this House to support H.R. 3043.

Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to recognize and thank our veterans. We will all be doing that this coming Saturday on Veterans Day. They sacrificed so much and we are so glad to have them here to be able to celebrate and thank them.

I recommend that everybody please take part in the events that you have in your community. Go to the parades, go to the barbecues, and take a minute to thank a veteran.

Things we can do around here as legislators are like we did this week with several pieces of legislation, helping veterans with VA so that they would have more access for telemedicine, which makes technology more available and provides better doctors for diagnosing veterans and giving them what they need.

The VICTOR Act considers the travel veterans have to take to go for transplants. Wouldn't it be better for them to be closer to home instead of traveling long distances so they and their families can get the care they need and have the access they need locally?

Lastly, I will mention the Veterans Crisis Line Study Act. When a veteran is in crisis, when a veteran is contemplating suicide, as happens so much these days--20, 22 veterans per day giving up--we need to have the Veterans Crisis Line Study Act in place to better modify the crisis line to be effective for them; so that there is someone there so they can have immediate help to get through that time.

These are some of the things we can do for veterans as we wish them a happy Veterans Day and thank them for their service. God bless them.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania, Mr. Thompson, for yielding. I appreciate his efforts tonight in pointing out the nuances of the SNAP program and what it means in a disaster situation, such as what we have had all over the country in hurricanes, and even in my own backyard with the wildfires that we have been hearing about in the West in general, in my own district, where several have affected us very negatively, and adjacent areas of northern California and the wine country, indeed in southern California as well.

So the flexibility that has been needed, as we found in the SNAP programs through what is known as D-SNAP, which is Disaster and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has been very helpful to many in northern California and even southern California counties as well.

So when the California Department of Social Services requested the D- SNAP to be put in place, the Food and Nutrition Service did, indeed, grant that in several instances, including October, and more so in northern California, but in other instances as well in this case, indeed, as Mr. Thompson so well explained earlier in tonight's Special Order.

Due to power outages from the fires knocking out power, we have food loss and spoilage due to those power outages, as well as other instances, and even the ability for people to buy food. Maybe their home is okay, but they wouldn't have the markets available to them in their community to buy food that they need locally. So the D-SNAP program has given the flexibility and the ability to source it and have it available after these families have suffered losses, including the waiver for some folks who don't have the ability to produce and prepare hot food, where, in that case, families can have fairly normal meals in a time of crisis that is, indeed, a comfort for them and a positive that the flexibility of the program has made available for them.

So, indeed, destroyed homes due to fire, the power outages that have extended to so many areas and for so long have, indeed, caused these crises for families here. The flexibility of this program, as Mr. Thompson has pointed out here tonight, has been very helpful in that time of disaster and relief that is needed, and the compassion that comes from people helping each other in these times and these instances where we have had so much volunteerism, people stepping forward to help others in times of crisis, but you need that little extra push sometimes that this program can be helpful for.

So I appreciate the FNS stepping forward and approving what the California Department of Social Services has looked at as, indeed, worthy disaster relief that has been needed in these areas.

It wouldn't just apply to wildfires as well, where we have had so much hitting California this year, northern California especially. We had the issue of a possible flood and the crisis at Oroville Dam, when the spillway broke and 188,000 people had to be evacuated due to great concerns about additional failure of the dam.

So the ability to have this available, should the timing be right, and the qualifications for it being deemed that type of disaster, indeed is a comfort for a community when basic needs like putting food on the table during crisis after a disaster come into play; whether it is fire, as was declared here, or it could be possible flood and evacuations, things of that nature, that make this a good part of an integral part of keeping a community fed and together.

So I appreciate Mr. Thompson allowing me to speak here tonight and to be able to point out how this has worked in northern California during just this last month in these horrendous wildfire situations we have seen in so many counties. I thank the gentleman for leading this tonight and for his attention to this.

Mr. Speaker, after the near disaster we had in Butte County, near Oroville, with the breakage of the spillway at Oroville Dam, I am very happy to congratulate the folks of Kiewit Construction, and so many others, on their reconstruction of the spillway, phase 1. We will have a working, viable spillway for this upcoming rainy season, if needed, due to the intense and incredible efforts to rebuild that project.

If you had seen the size of, basically, the canyon that was carved out where the old spillway stood from having to release water to keep the lake level, in February, at a safe level, you would see how amazing it was, the work that was done in order to rebuild that spillway in its current phase. It will be able to handle 100,000 CFS and be able to keep the lake stable for the upcoming year.

However, we do need to have balance in the process and have that lake be able to store enough water for California's needs this coming year, because we will still have those needs in 2018, and not drain the lake all the way because of an overcautious thought process.

So congratulations on a viable lake that works for all.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 606 on passage of H.R. 3922, I am not recorded due to a family concern. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, first, a hearty congratulations to my Texas colleagues from northern California, Giants country. Orange October feels good, doesn't it, especially when you defeat the hated southern California franchise?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in support of the new tax reform bill that was released just today by the Ways and Means Committee. This legislation contains many provisions that Congress has been promising the American people a long time: doubling the standard deduction, lowering the corporate tax rate, cutting taxes for small businesses.

That is what these reform measures are about: saving money for millions of Americans and simplifying the act of doing your taxes, as well as creating an environment for American business to thrive and come home and bring the jobs with them here in America and invest in the American economy.

The American people want tax reform, they need tax reform, and they have waited a long time, indeed since 1986. They shouldn't have to wait more years than actually the last time the Dodgers won the World Series to kick start their economy and help American jobs.

Mr. Speaker, we need to make this happen now.

Mr. Chairman, nationwide, this year has been the most expensive year on record, with over $2 billion spent to combat fires that have burned almost 9 million acres of land.

As of October 29, State and Federal firefighters responded to 8,300- plus fires, covering over 1.1 million acres in California alone, nearly doubling the amount of acres burned in 2016.

A complete lack of forest management in California has left our forests more combustible than ever, leading to one of the worst wildfire seasons in our State's history. That is why the bill of my colleague, Mr. Westerman, H.R. 2936, is very important.

The Resilient Federal Forests Act includes what I believe to be critically important reforms in forest management, such as expedited environmental reviews and the availability of categorical exclusions for forest management activities to help achieve these goals.

Our Federal lands are hurting. They are in desperate need to be managed in order to not have these disasters each and every year. We can either thin the trees and the brush out, or watch them

go up in smoke every year and become part of our brown skies, instead of the blue skies that we would normally enjoy.

We can't afford this inaction anymore. We need to move this legislation and clean up California's forests for all.

Mr. Chairman, I rise for the purpose of engaging in a colloquy with the chairman to seek a clarification on the applicability of the provisions in title I and title II of this bill to national forest lands.

As my colleagues know, the State of California has been on fire. We have all seen the devastation across the State, ranging from the Sierra Nevada to the Bay area, and even the wine country. Even today, CalFire and Forest Service personnel remain deployed on fires across the State.

Ensuring that the Forest Service returns to active management of our forests is critical to promoting forest health and helping reduce the risks and likeliness of catastrophic wildfires that we have seen already this year.

The Resilient Federal Forests Act includes what I believe to be critically important reforms to forest management, such as expedited environmental reviews and availability of categorical exclusion for forest management activities, to help achieve these needed goals.

In California, there are six national monuments managed by the Forest Service or jointly between the Forest Service and BLM. Oftentimes, management activities in these areas are highly restricted, which only leads to hazardous fuels buildup and increased risk

of catastrophic fires. We see the results every year in the West.

H.R. 2936 clearly identifies certain national forest lands that these provisions do not apply to. This includes wilderness areas, national or State inventoried roadless areas, or areas where timber harvesting is prohibited by statute.

However, it is my belief that provisions of this bill, Mr. Chairman-- based on the definition of National Forest System lands in the bill-- apply to all other Forest Service lands not explicitly prohibited in the bill.

Respectfully, I would like to clarify with the chairman that it is his intent that provisions in title I and title II of H.R. 2936 apply to all other Federal lands managed by the United States Forest Service. This includes national monuments managed by the Forest Service.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for his work on this critical bill.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment made in order by the rule.

Mr. Chairman, believe it or not, according to Federal agencies, the wildland firefighter does not exist. That is correct. There are men and women around this Nation who work daily to protect our communities from the fires that devastate especially the Western United States, but they are not allowed to call themselves firefighters.

Instead of ``firefighter,'' the Forest Service, BLM, and other agencies use bureaucratic terms like ``forestry technician,'' which fails to recognize the dangers they face and the sacrifices they make to protect others.

My amendment, which I am pleased to offer with my colleague, Representative Mark DeSaulnier from California, represents a bill we have both sponsored, H.R. 3907, as well; which seeks simply to designate these brave men and women the title they have earned by directing the Office of Personnel Management to create employee classes designated as ``wildland firefighters.''

Mr. Chairman, 15 ``technicians'' have passed away this last year fighting wildfires. Several of them are from California. It is unconscionable that, while they perished fighting fires, the agencies that employ them refuse to call them firefighters. We should take action to rectify that failure, and I urge Members to consider our bill, H.R. 3907, to do so.

However, Mr. Chairman, I know that there is additional work to be done with the very bureaucracies which refuse to use the term ``firefighter'' with last-minute concerns and clarifications needed so that the firefighters indeed don't lose benefits, and I note that we will be back.

Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment from further consideration at this time.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness I rise tonight to honor the passing of Stanley Coolidge and his fiancee, Roseann Hannah.

Their lives were tragically lost on October 9, 2017, while trapped in their northern California home as it was destroyed by wildfire. What began as the faint smell of a distant fire quickly turned to tragedy as the area surrounding Stanley's longtime home was ignited rapidly by a fast-approaching fire. As Stan and Roseann attempted a hurried evacuation, the house was engulfed by flames before they could escape.

Stan was a retired attorney, born in San Francisco, but lived his last 50 years in the mountains of Loma Rica, California. Roseann was a resident of Grass Valley, California. Both she and Stan were very valued members of their communities.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Coolidge and Hannah families as we ask the Lord's blessings for comfort and healing at this very tragic, very sad time, as well as the families of all who we have lost as a result of the fires in the West.

Stan and Roseann, you will be missed.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise today to honor the passing of Stanley Coolidge and his fiancee, Roseann Hannah, whose lives were tragically lost on October 9, 2017 while trapped in their Northern California home as it was destroyed by the Cascade wildfire.

Coolidge, a retired attorney and father to Chico City Council member Andrew Coolidge, was born in San Francisco and spent the last 50 years in the mountains of Loma Rica, California. What began as the faint smell of a distant fire quickly turned to tragedy as the diverse trees and wilderness surrounding Andrew's childhood home were ignited by the rapidly approaching Cascade fire. With little warning, gusts of wind brought the fire sweeping down across Stan's 100 acres of land, leaving only ashes behind. As Stan and Roseann attempted a hurried evacuation, the house was engulfed by flames before they could escape. Their cars, still parked in the driveway, were also destroyed by the flames. Only a brick chimney remained of the house.

Roseann was a resident of Grass Valley, California, and both Stan and Roseann were incredibly valued members of their communities. An avid Harley Davidson enthusiast, Stan was an active member in The Americans Motorcycle Club. He often used that platform to help the club raise money for children's cancer research, as well as periodically staging puppet shows for young and sick children.

Thousands in Northern California have evacuated as their homes have been destroyed by these catastrophic fires, with many still missing and dozens confirmed dead. My thoughts and prayers are with the Coolidge and Hannah families, as well as the families of all who we've lost as a result of these fires in the West. Their loss will take a heavy toll on both of their families, as well as the many people they have impacted over the years. Stan and Roseann will be missed.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Championing Healthy Kids Act.

For years, programs such as CHIP and community health centers have been lifelines to underserved, especially rural communities: 9 million children rely on CHIP for health coverage; 25 million patients use community health centers; and 750 residency spots were created by teaching health centers to combat doctor shortages.

Yet, despite months of assurances to work together, Democrats continue to stall the reauthorization. It is not unreasonable to ask Medicare recipients making over $500,000 to pay a little extra in premiums or to roll back lengthy enrollment periods so people can't game the system. It is certainly not unreasonable to ask lottery winners who hit the jackpot to forego Medicaid coverage.

We can't afford any more delay. These programs are supported time after time in a bipartisan fashion. This bill is worthy of that same support. I urge my colleagues to come together to get this bill done this week.

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the wildfires in the West have been very devastating for a lot of people, a lot of property, and a lot of habitat.

One of the subjects this week in the Natural Resources Committee was a sage-grouse habitat that has affected so many western States, including my own district in northern California, and my friend in Nevada as well. We worked very hard to have a good sage-grouse plan, except what is the common bond in all this and the inability to have a successful recovery of this species as well as use of the land? The Federal Government.

In the past, its involvement has been to merely slow down a process or say no to wise management practices. Cattle graze is a very effective tool, when prescribed correctly, to help make this habitat better and more sustainable long-term.

We need more cooperation, we need the Federal Government to be more

bold in putting out the type of policy that will help the grazing be an effective tool in that and not cower every time an environmental organization may come along and wish to threaten the entanglement of lawsuits that are stopping good management like that. It is hurting the habitat, it is hurting the sage-grouse population, it is hurting western lands, and western economy.

Mr. Speaker, we need solutions coming from Washington, D.C., not impediments.

Mr. Speaker, California, northern California, where I am from, has been suffering, as so many people know, from devastating fires these last few weeks. I think it is very appropriate to point out the incredible efforts of our first responders and our firefighters in saving so much valuable property and the lives that have been saved, as well as citizens pulling together to help each other.

We see the best in Americans during these times of crisis, and that has not gone unnoticed in northern California as well. Our hearts are with those folks who have suffered losses and more loss of life than could be imagined in modern-day America with all the firefighting apparatus and prevention we have. Still, it shows you have to have preparedness; you have to have defensible space; and you have to be ready, at any given time, during this type of fire season.

Again, our hats are off to our first responders and our firefighters for the amount of property and lives they have been able to save under these conditions. God bless them.

Madam Speaker, I want to commend President Trump's decision this week with executive orders to do some of the work we have been unable to do so far in the House and the Senate, helping people overcome the problems with the ACA, the Affordable Care Act.

One of the measures he put forth was association health plans to allow employers' employees to form health plans that suit them--indeed, to associate with their type of business, their type of industry on a small scale in their neighborhoods. It makes perfect sense, if you want to give people more choices.

Also, short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans, which allow people to have, if they are in between jobs, instead of limiting it to just 3 months, perhaps just a little longer. In the interim, while they are in between jobs, they have choices that they could afford with the elements in the plan they would like.

Finally, health reimbursement arrangements, which make it where employees--if they want to provide benefits to their--employers to their employees, that they can reimburse for more issues in their plan, such as helping them pay for their premiums, if that is how the employee wishes to have that.

Flexibility is what we need; choices are what we need; and then Congress needs to be able to accomplish something in the Senate so we can bring it back and give this to the American people.