Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, the climate crisis we face is one of the most important challenges of our time. There has been a lot of alarming news--the last four years were the hottest years on record, and we are seeing more and more extreme weather events devastate our communities. However, one of the success stories that we've seen in our efforts to combat climate change is the growth in renewable energy, particularly among wind and solar energy.

Today Representative Darin LaHood and I are introducing the Renewable Energy Transferability Act to increase the deployment of renewable energy resources by making them transferable. This bipartisan legislation allows any entity involved in a renewable energy project to make a transfer after the due date of return (including extensions) of the Production Tax Credit and the Investment Tax Credit on a limited basis.

These two tax credits are some of the most successful renewable energy policies on the books, yet they have been hampered by requiring their beneficiaries to enter into complex tax arrangements. Transferability will allow these credits to reach a wider base of investors, expanding the deployment of renewable energy and lowering carbon emissions for consumers.

At a time of unprecedented climatic changes and public calls for action, Congress must act. While this legislation can only play part of a role in helping address the climate crisis, it takes an important step in assisting a key industry. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass the Renewable Energy Transferability Act into law.

Madam Speaker, America's water systems are in crisis. While our clean water needs are estimated to be nearly $14 billion per year for the next 20 years, funding has averaged less than $1.5 billion annually since 2011. Drinking water infrastructure is in worse shape-- the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that we need to invest over $23 billion annually for the next 20 years to ensure the provision of safe drinking water, while Congress typically appropriates less than $1 billion a year. Though most of our water and wastewater systems are 75-100 years old, these growing challenges are not due to age alone: federal investment has fallen more than 85 percent since 1977. Last year alone, American communities suffered more than 250,000 water main breaks and saw overflowing combined sewer systems. These problems will only increase with inadequate and inconsistent funding. That is why I am introducing the Water Infrastructure Trust Fund Act of 2019.

This legislation will provide a small, deficit-neutral source of revenue to help states replace, repair, and rehabilitate critical clean and

drinking water facilities. Half of the trust fund revenue will be distributed to local governments as grants and loans through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) for wastewater treatment construction, while the other half will be distributed through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) to finance projects to meet federal drinking water standards. The Water Infrastructure Trust Fund will be capitalized by a voluntary labeling and fee system, to which businesses that rely on a clean water source can opt-in. Participating businesses would include a small label on their products indicating their commitment to protecting America's clean water, contributing $0.03 to the trust fund per labelled unit. Businesses and products that could take advantage of the labeling system include: water-based beverages, products disposed of in wastewater, and pharmaceuticals.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to reduce pollution, protect public health, and provide the funding communities need to ensure clean tap water.

Madam Speaker, today I am reintroducing the Maintaining Appropriate Protections For Legal Entry (MAPLE) Act. This bill, which is included within the Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act (H.R. 1119), would exempt cannabis-use and/or participation in the cannabis industry as a disqualification for entry into the United States from a country that has ended its marijuana prohibition and would protect foreign nationals who participate in cannabis activity in states where it's legal from deportation.

Our federal cannabis laws are outdated and out of touch. They also have negatively impacted countless lives. Congress cannot continue to be out of touch with a movement that a growing majority of Americans support. It's time to end this senseless prohibition.

Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I note the passing of Larry Hanley, the international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

He was a big man with a big heart and a passion for transportation-- not just for what it meant for his members; although, he was their tireless champion. He had a bold vision for what his union meant, to enrich tens of millions of lives every day for people who use transit and another hundred million who benefit, even if they don't ride.

He started as a bus driver and rose through the ranks to become not just the Amalgamated Transit Union president, but one of the finest of American labor leaders.

We are sad for the loss for Larry's wife, Thelma; his daughter, Monica; son, Larry, Jr.; and almost 200,000 of his members.

We are grateful for the enormous contributions he made to enrich the lives of us all.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Preparing Localities for an Autonomous and Connected Environment (PLACE) Act. This legislation would create a federally funded highly automated vehicle clearinghouse to examine the secondary influences of autonomous vehicles on land use, real estate, transportation, municipal budgets, urban design, the environment, and social equity.

The transportation sector is changing at a faster pace than ever before. New mobility options like transportation network companies, bikeshare, scooters, and more have already disrupted how Americans get around. And with more than 300 companies and partnerships working toward bringing semi- or fully-autonomous vehicles to market in the near future, the landscape is set to change even faster. While Congress has started to debate autonomous vehicle legislation, little attention has been paid to the secondary influences of autonomous vehicles once they are deployed onto the roads. Done right, autonomous vehicles can solve some of the country's most vexing transportation problems while improving mobility for all. Done wrong, autonomous vehicles can exacerbate transportation's negative externalities, leaving communities struggling to make sense of an ever-changing landscape.

The PLACE Act will help communities better prepare for rapidly- changing environments while providing policymakers with the tools and research they need to make great places. I look forward to working with my colleague and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to enacting this bill.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Building United States Infrastructure and Leveraging Development (BUILD) Act. This bipartisan legislation will spur billions of dollars private investment in surface transportation and freight transfer facilities, while giving state and local governments an important instrument to improve their communities.

Across all sectors of infrastructure, the United States faces a $2 trillion gap between projected needs and projected funding. The sector with the largest gap is surface transportation, where the United States is projected to underfund our roads, bridges, and transit systems by $1.1 trillion by 2025. This is unacceptable. Americans are already paying for the cost of inaction through increased traffic, worse health outcomes, damage due to rough road conditions, and higher prices for household goods. Congress needs to use every tool at its disposal to deliver a better transportation system for the American people.

This legislation builds on the success of surface transportation private activity bonds by increasing the federal volume cap by $5.8 billion while clarifying that the use of the bonds must maintain robust labor protections. While public-private partnerships are not a panacea for solving all of our transportation challenges, they are an important piece of rebuilding and renewing America. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to enact this legislation as part of an infrastructure investment bill.

Mr. Speaker, it was an honor to preside over the House during the debate on H.R. 9 yesterday to uphold our commitment to the Paris climate accord, our first real piece of climate legislation in over 9 years. It may have been an honor, but it was jarring to listen to my Republican colleagues in denial.

For decades, Americans have seen with their own eyes rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and temperature increases, all terrifying prospects for our children and grandchildren, yet Republicans are defending the Trump administration's action to undercut and isolate the United States as the only country to withdraw from the climate accord, placing us firmly on the wrong side of history.

In contrast, I am thankful that today's action demonstrates that Democrats are on the side of protecting our children's future. H.R. 9 is a first step towards a future of climate action and climate justice, a Green New Deal for clean energy jobs, rebuilding and renewing our infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, and environmental justice.

We can't afford to wait, and neither can the planet.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the No Tax Subsidies for Stadiums Act of 2019. This bipartisan legislation returns hundreds of millions of dollars a year to American taxpayers by disallowing the tax-exemption for municipal bonds used to finance professional sports stadiums.

For more than a century, the federal government has supported state and local infrastructure projects by excluding the interest on municipal bonds from federal income taxes. Qualified projects eligible for a tax-exemption include roads, sewers and water systems, hospitals, schools, governmental buildings, and other projects for the public good. However, a loophole in the tax code allows billionaire owners of sports franchises to use public money to construct stadiums using tax- exempt municipal bonds.

For the first half of the twentieth century, professional sports franchises privately-funded the construction of most stadiums. But beginning in 1953, when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, most professional sports franchises have used public financing to construct or rehabilitate their privately-owned stadiums. Since 2000, 36 professional sports stadiums have been constructed or rehabilitated under financing provided by federal tax-exempt municipal bonds, costing taxpayers nearly $4 billion. While professional sports teams promise state and local governments that their stadiums will produce local economic development and job creation, there is no quantifiable evidence that they provide these benefits. Public financing creates a race to the bottom where teams worth hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars have all the leverage to exploit city budgets for their own gain. Too often, these subsidies also create budgetary constraints that result in offsetting cuts to critical public safety and economic security programs.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to pass this legislation and end the practice of subsidizing billionaires' sports franchises.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in yielding to me and the presentation that he made outlining the situation, along with Ranking Member Bishop, under whose leadership this legislation moved forward in the last Congress.

It is long overdue. It is jarring to visit these in-lieu treaty sites. The notion that it is unsanitary and unsafe really understates the case.

Along the Columbia River, I have passed one of these sites for years, never knowing that what may be a Tiger Woods three-iron shot off the freeway revealed these conditions.

These are sites that have been used by the Tribes for millennia, and sadly, they were a casualty of the Columbia River dam construction. Those dams have produced significant economic prosperity in our region with jobs and agricultural activities, but the Native people have been left behind.

There was a pledge that we would be able to accommodate their sites that were flooded, but that has been observed mainly in the breach. It has reached the point now where we have on each of these sites people who naturally want to gravitate to what is part of their tradition. There is, as was referenced, a need for Tribal housing, but the fishing experience, the proximity to the river, and this being part of their historic heritage draws them there.

In many cases, they do have sites where people are living on a year- round basis in conditions that really should not exist anywhere in America.

It is interesting, when we started this saga two centuries ago, Native people had almost 2 billion acres that was theirs to hunt, to fish, to live, and there was some cultivation. The Federal Government, over a series of years and a series of treaties, narrowed that range. In fact, the Federal Government started giving away Native American people's land before there was even a treaty to White settlers.

The history is checkered and disturbing. There have been acts that can only be described as genocide--disease, attacks on Native people, forced marches. We had our own Trail of Tears in the Pacific Northwest. And, consistently, we have not met our obligations to more recent treaties.

I am pleased that the committee has brought this forward on a bipartisan basis. I am pleased that the administration is aligned with us in, it looks like, being able to move forward to deal with what needs to happen with some of these sites.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we have a partnership in the Senate with my friend and colleague, Senator Jeff Merkley, and Senator Patty Murray, who has been deeply involved with this, so that we are positioned to take action that is long overdue, keeping faith with the Tribal people, keeping faith with our commitment through history, being able to make sure that the progress that we have been working on here for 4 years is poised to move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I deeply appreciate the work that has been done with the committee on a bipartisan basis to get us to this position. I look forward to its passage in the House and the Senate and being executed by the executive.

It is going to make a big difference to people who are worthy and deserving of our best efforts.

Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to introduce the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act. As the opioid crisis continues to devastate our communities, this legislation would help to address the opioid crisis by ensuring that medical providers have access to the full medical history of patients suffering from substance use disorders.

Currently, because of an antiquated law from 1972, substance use treatment records are kept expressly separate from a patient's medical record. This life-threatening barrier prevents medical providers who treat patients in recovery for substance use disorders from knowing their full medical history, which can lead to poor, and in some cases, tragic patient outcomes.

The Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act would align the outdated and restrictive law, known as 42 CFR Part 2 (or ``Part 2''), with the patient privacy protections currently in place under HIPAA, ensuring substance use records are treated as all other medical records. The legislation also incorporates language to guard against unauthorized invasions of patient privacy, discriminatory activities, and authorizes penalties and breach notification requirements for these transgressions not currently available under Part 2.

As our health care delivery system moves towards more robust, integrated care models, every member of a patient's treatment team needs to understand a patient's full medical history, including substance use disorder history. Current Part 2 regulations stand as a hindrance to whole-person care and must be changed to ensure all patients, regardless of diagnosis, have access to safe, effective, high-quality treatment and care.

If substance use disorder treatment is not included in your entire medical records, then they are not complete. It makes care coordination more difficult and can lead to devastating outcomes. This bill works to remove the stigma that comes with substance use disorders and ensures necessary information is available for safe, efficient, and transparent treatment for all patients. I urge all of my colleagues to join me to pass the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act.

Madam Speaker, this week commemorates Brain Awareness Week which presents an important opportunity to educate lawmakers, students, and the broader public about brain science, and its many impacts and benefits. This is critical when you consider that brain disorders and diseases affect the lives of nearly 100 million Americans--from Alzheimer's to ALS to mental illness.

Neurological and neurodegenerative disorders are among the leading causes of disability in the United States and around the world--greater than heart disease and cancer put together. As society ages, this number will increase exponentially as will the cost to the healthcare system and to the economy. Yet, the underlying causes of most neurological diseases remain unknown.

Neuroscience is the next great frontier. Research and work being done in this field needs to be front and center in both the private world and Congress.

The bipartisan Congressional Neuroscience Caucus' mission is to build awareness of the intrinsic role brain research plays in understanding ourselves and our society. As the co-founder and co-chair, I am committed to working on these important issues and hope my colleagues will join our efforts as members of the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Move American Act of 2019. This bipartisan legislation will spur private investment in airports, ports, transit, freight and passenger rail, bridges, flood projects, inland and coastal waterway improvements, wastewater and sewage facilities, and broadband infrastructure.

The Move America Act will bring billions of dollars of investment to state and local governments to help grow and repair America's aging infrastructure. The legislation creates Move America Bonds, which provides states the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds in partnership with private entities to expand infrastructure investment. The legislation also allows states to trade in some or all of their bond allocation for Move America Credits, which can be used to help finance individual projects, or be allocated to state infrastructure banks or infrastructure revolving funds. To be clear, this legislation is not a panacea to solve all of our infrastructure needs, we need more direct funding. The Move America Act is an important aspect of our strategy to rebuild and renew America. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass it into law.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2019. This bipartisan legislation will reinstate the bicycle commuter tax benefit, modify the benefit to be used in concert with parking and transit benefits, and expand the bicycle benefit to include bikeshare.

The bicycle is the most efficient form of urban transportation ever devised. Cycling reduces carbon emissions, provides enormous physical and mental health benefits, and is one of the most cost-effective modes of transportation available. Communities across the country have realized these benefits and substantially invested in building better bike networks and improving facilities for biking to work. Across America, more than 100 communities of all sizes have installed or permitted bikeshare systems, supporting a nationwide network of nearly 5,000 stations, more than 100,000 bikes, and more than 120 million trips since 2010. These investments are one of the reasons that rates of biking to work have nearly doubled since 2000 while driving and public transportation rates have increased by 16 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

Despite these impressive developments, there is currently no commuter tax benefit for biking to work. Public Law 115-97 suspended the bicycle commuting reimbursement benefit through 2025, taking away a valuable financial incentive for people who choose to bike to work. The Bicycle Commuter Act reverses the benefit's suspension, changes the structure of the benefit to be more flexible to, and adds bikeshare as eligible for the benefit. Employees don't commute the same way every day and our commuter tax benefits should reflect that. The Bicycle Commuter Act provides the flexibility that people need while also incentivizing a clean and healthy mode of transportation: the bicycle.

Mr. Speaker, I started in this business as a college student. Inspired by what was happening with the civil rights movement, I worked on the campaign to lower the voting age to 18 in my home State of Oregon and on the national campaign.

After that, I had the privilege to work on a series of nonpartisan efforts to expand the franchise, to improve voting rights, to streamline access--bipartisan, not particularly controversial.

It has been one of the biggest disappointments of my life to find that the issues that I worked on as a college student continue to vex us. But I am pleased today that we are in the process of advancing H.R. 1, the most significant democratic reform package in a generation.

H.R. 1 will make it easier to vote, regardless of income, ability, geography, or race. It fights to end the dominance of big money in our politics and enacts tougher ethics standards to ensure public officials actually work for the public.

I am particularly proud of three provisions that I helped incorporate into the bill from our Oregon experience.

Oregon is a pioneer of vote by mail, and bringing that model nationwide paves the way for all States to be able to offer vote by mail and early voting that is secure and verifiable. It even saves money for State and local governments.

We have a provision that has automatic voter registration for individuals interacting with State agencies. They are automatically registered to vote.

And it mandates that paper ballots ensure election integrity and the ability to audit.

I look forward to our moving forward, Mr. Speaker, to be able to deal with this significant conversation to make sure that we meet our responsibility for the democratic process to function.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's courtesy and my friend, Congressman Price, in bringing us together.

I am standing in front of the chair here on the floor that I routinely occupied, and Walter sat next to me hundreds of hours. It was fascinating watching the dynamic on the aisle. I think some people like to be on the aisle because it is a place where people come together.

I watched a parade of people in both parties who would stop, greet him, and talk about issues large and small, radiating a sort of humanity that at times is in short supply around here.

Walter epitomized what I think politics should be.

We talked often about how he was creating problems for himself at home. There is probably not a district in the United States that is more oriented towards the United States military, as we have heard already.

He comes from a district that is intensely patriotic and more than a little Republican. Yet, he charted a path--once he had determined that he had made a mistake--he charted a path to try and make it right, not just to the Gold Star families, but to having that interaction here on the House floor, not in an accusatory fashion for people who may have disagreed with him, but just humbly focused on the human consequences on the political foibles of Congress.

He willingly took that burden on; even though he knew that it could have cost him his position in Congress. And this is family tradition, as is mentioned, I mean his father before him. It mattered a great deal to Walter to carry that banner, to serve his constituents and his State, but he walked into that storm willingly because he thought it was the right thing to do.

We don't see a lot of that around here, people who can face up to mistakes--which we all make. How many of us have as graciously and publicly acknowledged our mistakes, attempted to make them right, and accept the consequences?

Walter was a singular human being, and I feel privileged to have sat next to him all those hours.