Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased we are taking up this bipartisan legislation today to reauthorize critical programs to address mental health.

We cannot, however, address mental health without acknowledging and addressing the climate impact. Our children are experiencing twin crises of mental health and climate change anxiety.

Last week, the Oregon Health Authority released a report raising the alarm of the effect of climate change on our youth. From the impact of climate-related disasters to climate anxiety, our children are facing stress and trauma that we need to address with them.

If we want to invest in our youth and their mental health, we must acknowledge the impact and give them hope that we understand and are working to reduce that threat. We simply cannot leave climate out of the conversation.

I appreciate the work that Chairman Pallone has done for both youth mental health and climate, and I look forward to working with him to address both these critical issues.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's courtesy, and I appreciate her leadership on this. And she is right.

Looking at these issues in a comprehensive fashion, we see opportunities to not just save species, but to save money, and to deal with serious consequences that we are seeing.

I am from the Pacific Northwest. We are in the middle of a climate crisis. Last year, we had all-time records 3 days in a row for temperatures. And that same week, in British Columbia, they set an all- time record for Canada. And in the city that they set it, it burned down the next day.

Climate change, loss of habitat, severe weather, including wildfires, and the spread of invasive species, are taking their toll on animals, from fish and amphibians to birds and mammals.

As co-chair of the Animal Protection Caucus, I am particularly aware of the importance of saving our at-risk wildlife species.

More than 1,600 are already listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act because of our failure to act.

Oregon alone is home to more than 50 of these threatened and endangered species.

In States like Oregon, in partnership with Tribes, we have identified thousands more species that are at-risk and need conservation assistance.

With States and conservation partners working diligently to pass and develop conservation plans, we can make a significant difference. But we lack dedicated annual comprehensive funding to implement the plans which would be cost-effective.

With this bill, the Federal Government is stepping up in full partnership with the Tribes, with the conservation communities, and wildlife advocates.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act will provide more than a billion dollars in dedicated annual funding for proactive, cost- effective model efforts, collaborative efforts by the States and Tribes to recover and protect at-risk species.

I fear it is a false economy to sometimes engage in shortchanging these efforts. The long-term cost to the environment, to our communities, is immense. And I am pleased to support this legislation because I think we can change this dynamic. I strongly urge people to support its passage.

Madam Speaker, it has been heart-wrenching hearing the stories on the floor today.

America is not unique with gun violence. What is unique is that America has accepted the slaughter. Unlike Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, after horrific events they acted decisively to reduce gun violence, and it worked.

We have stood by while the carnage continues to our shame. America should not be the only rich country that cannot protect our children.

After events in Oregon, I met with victims of gun violence, and they developed a package that looks a lot like what we are voting on today.

It is no longer acceptable for gun violence enablers to hide behind thoughts and prayers. If other countries can protect their families, then so can we.

Madam Speaker, pass this package.

The avalanche of horrible news about mass shootings, especially at schools, has been painful but instructive.

America is not unique. But what is unique is that America has accepted the slaughter, unlike Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, who have acted decisively to reduce gun violence and proven that it works.

We have stood by allowing the carnage to continue to our shame. America should not be the only rich country that cannot protect its children.

This should be one of the defining issues of this election cycle. If candidates can't support simple, commonsense, and proven steps to reduce gun violence, then what is their answer?

It is no longer acceptable for gun violence enablers to hide behind thoughts and prayers.

If other countries can protect their families, then why can't we?

American families deserve to know where each politician stands.

Madam Speaker, Bob Tackett has been a cornerstone of Oregon's

labor movement for the past 12 years, heading up the Northwest Oregon Labor Council. This is an important forum for union members to come together, plan, and mobilize important support.

Bob has helped keep those communications on an even keel. He provided a welcoming forum for friends of labor to connect with the varied and diverse membership of the council. I often saw Bob on the frontlines of action; on a picket line, for instance, to rally and encourage the troops.

Throughout his tenure, Bob has continued to be a positive and productive force. He is part of the glue that keeps our local labor movement together.

Bob will be greatly missed as he transitions into the next stage of his career, hopefully at a somewhat more leisurely pace. We deeply appreciate his leadership, his friendship, and being such a decent human being.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Mount Hood and Columbia River Gorge Recreation Enhancement and Conservation (REC) Act of 2022.

Over the last several years, I have listened to feedback from Oregonians, Tribal sovereigns, local elected officials, businesses, and others about Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. People have shared information about how they use these special places, their concerns, and their proposed solutions to improve management, address wildfire risk, enhance recreation, and protect natural resources. I worked to reflect those views in this legislation, which will create a leading model of Tribal co-management on the Forest, retain and restore healthy ecosystems, develop long term sustainable recreation and transportation plans for the region, and enhance community resilience through climate adaptation and mitigation.

This legislation represents many years of listening to community members and refining ideas. It also remains a work in progress. I look forward to continuing this community-focused effort to protect and improve access to Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to introduce a resolution to support designating May 7 as Brain Donation Awareness Day.

Today, brain disorder and diseases have a tremendous impact on individual patients and their families as well as the United States health care system. Approximately 100 million Americans are living with a brain disorder and an additional 1.2 million are diagnosed with adult-onset brain diseases or disorders every year. Brain diseases and disorders cost the

U.S. more than $1.5 trillion per year, a significant portion of which is paid for by the Medicare program. With an aging population, we can expect to see a continual rise of neurodegenerative diseases in the years to come.

Brain research is key to understanding underlying causes of these conditions. The scientific community has made great strides in recent years, but continued investment is needed. Postmortem brain tissue is an irreplaceable resource in neurological studies. However, communities of color and people experiencing poverty are underrepresented in these studies. Overcoming these disparities is critical to producing research results that have an equitable impact.

Brain donation is separate from the routine organ donation process. Educating the public on the distinctions can lead to increased donation that better reflects our communities.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan resolution.

Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions (SPACE) Tax Act so that the federal government taxes commercial space travel like it taxes commercial aviation.

For months, the American public has witnessed billionaires and celebrities with enough money to vaccinate entire countries, end homelessness, cure diseases, or feed a nation launch themselves into space to gain notoriety and create a new space tourism industry. These launches are yet another example of the disturbing trend in rising wealth inequality in the United States.

As this nascent industry takes shape, Americans cannot overlook the environmental impact of sending humans into space, particularly when there is no scientific value associated with the launch. While proponents of suborbital space flights point to transatlantic flights as having similar carbon footprints, these flights carry significantly more passengers and travel much farther. The result is space launches that account for an estimated 60-times greater emissions than transatlantic flights on a per-passenger basis. That is enough to drive a car around the earth and more than twice the carbon budget recommended in the Paris climate accord.

The SPACE Tax Act addresses these environmental and fairness concerns by establishing a new excise tax regime on commercial space flights that is structured like the excise taxes we all pay for commercial aviation.

The legislation would establish a 10 percent per-passenger tax on the price of a commercial flight to space. It also includes a two-tiered excise tax for each commercial launch carrying humans into space that is based on distance above the Earth's surface.

The SPACE Tax Act makes our tax code fairer, ends the tax holiday on space travel, and is part of the policy prescription to ensure that billionaires are paying their fair share.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's courtesy, as I appreciate her tireless leadership on this issue. Her committee has performed admirably. I am excited about the wide range of areas that you have enacted to be able to help the recovery that we have seen around the country, one of the reasons that we have had the largest increase in employment this last year in American history. I think what we have today is another chapter in that story.

Over 2 years ago, I received countless late-night texts and phone calls from the independent restaurants in my community. Portland, Oregon is known for its restaurant scene. We set to work listening to them to come up with an approach that would meet their needs. The so- called Paycheck Protection Program was not adequate. They didn't even know if they were going to be in business, let alone paying back a loan.

We developed this grant program after consulting with independent restaurants all across the country. The neighborhood bars and restaurants were the hardest hit since the beginning of the pandemic. They were the first to shut down in March of 2020, and they accounted for a quarter of the job losses; 5\1/2\ million workers in April 2020 alone. And they have been the slowest to reopen.

Yes, they can pivot and adapt, but frankly, the unemployment in the industry remains stubbornly slow to recover. Approximately 90,000 restaurants have already closed permanently since the start of the pandemic, and there are a number of others that are just hanging on by their fingertips, encouraged, in part, by the hope of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund being replenished.

Restaurants are the cornerstone of a livable community. They have employed nearly 60 percent of Americans at some point in their career, myself included, and I know a number of people in this Chamber identify with that.

They are a major source of employment for people of color. And they support a trillion-dollar supply chain all across America.

The Federal Government has provided some help to them through the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, based on my RESTAURANTS Act that I first introduced in June of 2020.

But the program fell short. It did not have enough money to meet all the applicants. There were 100,000 grants that were life-changing for a number of them, but 177,000 hanging in the balance.

The Relief for Restaurants and other Hard Hit Small Businesses Act finishes the job and completes the promise.

This legislation is simple: It funds restaurants that did not receive awards that they were otherwise entitled to; it helps other battered industries, like live events, travel, hospitality, and fitness; and supports shuttered venues. And it will be paid for with the fraudulent pandemic relief funds yet to be recovered.

Now, while the COVID case numbers are low and the American public is ready to move beyond the pandemic, our small, independent restaurants and other businesses have not fully recovered. This is why the legislation is critical.

It is a response to very real challenges, thinking about what they faced in terms of that brittle supply chain; what they faced in terms of changing regulations; the public being deeply concerned in terms of health. It is time for us to finish the job that we started.

It is time to finish the job that we started. We don't want any ruthless, free-market ideology getting in the way of these hardworking, innovative people who have put their lives and careers on the line investing everything, hoping that they could have the promise of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund fulfilled. This legislation does that, and I strongly urge its adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy and I appreciate his leadership and tenacity in terms of trying to help our beleaguered neighborhood restaurants.

Mr. Speaker, our friends on the other side of the aisle--even if they got their dream piece of legislation--would not

make any difference on the price of gasoline this year or next year. We are dealing with global supply. One of the things that will make a difference to break the grip that we have with the oligarchs and the sheikhs is being able to deal with renewable energy that is not going to hold us hostage.

We have seen remarkable progress that is made. I am sad that our friends on the other side of the aisle have been resistant to these innovations in terms of solar, wind, electrification, the things that will really make a difference today and tomorrow and help fight the crisis that we face with climate change and global warming.

This legislation will make a difference to 177,000 small neighborhood restaurants and other distressed businesses. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, these neighborhood facilities have been the hardest hit. You have heard already that they were subject to over 4 million jobs lost in the first few months of the pandemic.

The unemployment in the restaurant industry remains stubbornly high, and approximately 90,000 restaurants have permanently closed since the start of the pandemic. We have heard from countless others that are teetering on the edge.

Restaurants are the cornerstone of a livable community. They have employed nearly 60 percent of Americans at some point in their career. I would venture to say that many of us on the floor of the House have had that experience. They are a major source of employment for people of color and women, and they support a $1 trillion supply chain from farm to table.

The Federal Government has provided help for those institutions through the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a program based on my RESTAURANTS Act that I introduced in June of 2020, but the program was oversubscribed and underfunded. Only one-third of all applicants were funded, leaving 177,000 hanging in the balance.

The relief for restaurants and other hard-hit small businesses will finish that job. More than 235 Members of the House are cosponsors of this legislation, the RESTAURANTS Act, including two dozen of my Republican colleagues.

My legislation will provide $42 billion to help fund those restaurants that had not previously received awards finishing everybody who is in line.

The legislation provides $13 billion for a separate industry neutral fund for small businesses that have been disproportionately hard hit by the pandemic, such as live events, travel, hospitality, and fitness. We have all heard from them in our Districts.

Finally, the legislation extends the period of time that Shuttered Venue Operators Grants can be spent to harmonize it with the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

Best of all, this bill can be paid for with fraudulent pandemic relief funds that are recovered.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to finish the job protecting our neighborhood restaurants and other distressed businesses. I am proud to have sponsored this. I deeply appreciate the broad bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, and I hope we will enact it today. I support the rule.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman for his courtesy and his leadership, and all the people that my friend, Barbara Lee, just acknowledged.

Mr. Speaker, a century ago, we were in the midst of a prohibition against alcohol. And the problems that my dear friend from Oregon highlighted in terms of the prohibition against cannabis, I agree with him about the horrific situation in southern Oregon, and I look forward to working with him to try and remediate it. But the solution is to be found in this legislation.

The problem of the cartels, the illegal activity, the black market, is a result of the fact that the Federal Government does not have its act together. People across the country have acted to take it into their own hands and, as a result, we have a piecemeal approach.

Mr. Speaker, 48 States have some form of legalization. What Chairman Nadler and the committee has done is provide a framework to be able to harness the forces, to be able to do the research so we can deal with impairment. The Federal Government interferes with that now. We have an opportunity to solve the horrific problem of lack of access to banking services, which makes dispensaries across the country sitting ducks.

It adds to expenses for minorities. It adds to the problems of law enforcement. We face a situation now of great racial injustice in this country that the legislation faces.

We have an opportunity to unlock untold benefits for more medical research and be able to channel the efforts into a legal matter, to be able to have a taxing system federally, and to be able to strengthen the legal cannabis market so that the profits flow to the people who should do it rather than the cartels and the corner drug dealers that are still cutting corners.

My friend is right about the problems in southern Oregon, but he is wrong about the solution. The MORE Act is a solution to provide the framework, provide the research, redirect the resources to be able to solve the problem that has been created by the failed prohibition on cannabis.

This is historic legislation, in part, because we will send this to the Senate where there is a different mindset for the leadership. We have opened the opportunity to solve these problems. I urge us to take advantage of it and move forward.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and allowing me to speak on this.

I think it is worth the wait to bring these important provisions together to the floor to work on a path forward and maybe a little hint of restoring regular order.

It is important that we invest in innovation for our future. And I would note not just the cutting edge, high-tech future developments that are so important in my State and in many others that are going to help keep us on the front lines, but it is also important to invest in legacy technology, legacy chips.

We had the manufacturing supply chain all over America halt for lack of chips that cost only a few pennies because it wasn't profitable for some to create the legacy chips moving forward. And I hope some of these billions will be invested in opportunities to ramp up that production. It happened very fast, and it will make a difference from automobiles to microwaves and washing machines.

I am proud of the work we have done in the Ways and Means Committee under the leadership of Richie Neal to develop pro-worker responsive efforts and deal with the Chinese challenge.

Now, because the benefits of trade are broadly understood and spread but the problems are localized, the impacts often hit individual communities. That is why our provision has a strong Trade Adjustment Assistance program. Sadly, it expired a year ago, setting us back, leaving people desperately in need of this help out of luck.

We have a very strong, carefully crafted provision that will help workers and communities alike with an updated, modernized Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

We hear a lot of concerns about China, and I share those concerns. Our provisions are tough on China.

For instance, we closed the de minimis loophole that allows 2 million packages a day to be imported into the United States directly to our consumers, uninspected in the main and evading tariffs. It is time for us to close that de minimis loophole.

I note that the Chinese give Americans $7 of an exemption, and ours is $800. The least we ought to do is close that de minimis loophole.

The trade title is strongly supported by American business and organized labor. We are dealing with a TSP and MTB that will improve global standards and strengthen American manufacturing.

The title is supported by AFL-CIO, American Alliance of Manufacturers, the autoworkers, machinists, electricians. People who want to build products in America are advantaged under this.

It meets workers' needs, bolsters America's ability to compete, and is attuned to what Americans want.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to the work with the committee moving this forward, and ultimately, its passage.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the chairman's courtesy for permitting me to speak on this issue and his leadership on an issue that concerns us all.

We are facing a retirement crisis in this country. Too many people do not have adequate resources. The aging population is exploding, and we have seen financial uncertainty in the midst of the COVID crisis, in particular.

I am pleased that we are able to come together as a Congress on a bipartisan basis to advance this legislation.

Recently, we watched people come together dealing with trade relations with Russia, ratcheting up sanctions on a bipartisan basis, and this is another strong signal, I think.

I also appreciate Chairman Neal for his leadership in spearheading the SECURE 2.0 which takes the Oregon auto-enrollment model to the Federal level and provides new incentives to promote and expand employee stock ownership plans, ESOPs.

I have long supported ESOPs as a successful model that provides a company's workers with retirement savings through their investment in their employee stock. I have been stunned at the stories I have heard about people who have what one would think are unexceptional jobs who, through this mechanism, have been able to retire with significant savings as a result.

Now, by giving employees skin in the game, the ESOP structure produces employees that are more likely to set aside money for retirement. They can retire earlier and worry less about retirement income.

The companies that use this mechanism are fundamentally different. We have seen in times of economic strife, employee ESOP-owned companies are more generous with their employees. They are slower to lay people off, they bring them back, and, in fact, they are more profitable.

It is an encouraging mechanism that I think epitomizes the best of the American ingenuity and the creation of wealth.

This is a structure that works and one that is being expanded by this legislation. By allowing for a deferral of gain on a small amount of the proceeds of sales of employer stock to an ESOP, there will be even more companies incented to sell stock to ESOPs, promoting and expanding this innovative model.

I am honored to support this legislation. I hope that we will be able to promote greater awareness and understanding of this powerful model. This is an important step forward.

Madam Speaker, it is great to see the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) come together with the ranking member.

Congressman Doggett and I introduced legislation 3 weeks ago. This completes what we had. I am sorry that we were unable to move forward, but I am pleased that the White House now feels comfortable moving forward with this legislation.

It is important that we are moving in concert with our allies, but I think we need that sense of urgency, based on what we heard again yesterday from President Zelenskyy.

What we have done in Congress with the administration has damaged the Russian economy for decades, watching what has happened in terms of the collapse of the ruble, the cratering of their stock market, raising the cost of living for ordinary Russians, not just chasing the yachts of the oligarchs.

We have a quarter of the WTO that accounts for about 58 percent of the global domestic product. Moving to suspend this MFN standing means the Russian economy will face higher tariff rates, export bans, investment restrictions, export licensing requirements, customs hurdles, restrictions on cross-border services, and unequal treatment for intellectual property and rules of origin.

All of these further cripple the Russian economy. This is another tightening of that noose, sending a signal.

I hope there is more that we can do economically in terms of weapons, maybe even find a way to get MiGs to the Ukrainians without starting World War III.

But in the meantime, it is critical to move forward, to finish the job we started 3 weeks ago. I am pleased to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the underlying bill, but I want to acknowledge the comments from my colleagues about the bipartisan approach that we originally advanced. It is, I think, unfortunate that we are not stripping away the most-favored trade status from the Russians. I am convinced that we will be able to get there with the expression that we have had on both sides of the aisle. I think it is important that we can remain committed to advancing this in terms of tightening the economic noose around Russia.

Mr. Speaker, I am a little disappointed with the rhetoric that we have heard attacking the administration for not coming forth with fanciful efforts to increase domestic production. As has been documented on the floor repeatedly in the course of this debate, there are ample leases that are unused now, some 9,000 such leases.

Everything that my friends on the other side of the aisle are talking about is not going to produce one additional gallon of oil next year or two years afterwards. These are longer-term issues that relate to the mechanics of production, the economics of the industry.

Where our salvation is going to rise is taking advantage of the elements that the Democrats have advanced in terms of clean energy production. This is reliable, sustainable, and not subject to the whims of international global petrochemical arguments and disputes.

In the meantime, I strongly urge support of the legislation and renew my commitment to work on a bipartisan basis to be able to strip away the most-favored nation status, working together to accomplish this in as expeditious a fashion as possible.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the cooperation of the chairman of the committee being able to move and take advantage of the expressions of my friends on the other side of the aisle.