Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank Representative Steve Russell for introducing this bill, along with Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, and Representative Stephen Lynch.

This bill would provide important protections to whistleblowers who handle classified information and want to report waste, fraud, and abuse.

Under this bill, an employee who is covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act could disclose to any supervisor in his or her direct chain of command classified information the employee reasonably believes shows wrongdoing.

Under current law, if a whistleblower discloses classified information, the whistleblower is protected only if he or she makes those disclosures to the Office of Special Counsel, an inspector general, the head of the whistleblower's agency, or an employee designated by the head of the agency.

This bill would encourage employees who handle classified information to use proper channels to blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse. Allowing employees to go to a supervisor with evidence of wrongdoing may be less intimidating than going to the agency head or an inspector general.

This bill is modeled on language in the Presidential Policy Directive issued in 2012. That directive, PPD 19, provided whistleblower protections to intelligence community employees who are not covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act.

This bill will provide a more consistent approach for employees who handle classified information by ensuring that employees who are covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act will blow that whistle to a supervisor, the same way that intelligence community employees who are covered by PPD 19 can do so.

This is a good bill. I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the All Circuit Review Act.

This week the House is considering several bills to strengthen protections for whistleblowers. This is a bipartisan bill introduced by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Cummings and Representative Blake Farenthold.

This bill would help level the playing field for whistleblowers by making permanent a pilot program that allows

Federal whistleblowers to file appeals in courts where they work or live rather than in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Federal circuit has a terrible track record on whistleblower cases. Allowing other courts around the country to hear whistleblower cases will provide a check on the monopoly the Federal circuit has held for many years.

The bill would also authorize the Office of Personnel Management to appeal a decision of the Merit Systems Protection Board to any appeals court with jurisdiction.

This bill was listed on the Project On Government Oversight's list of legislative reforms Congress should enact in 2017. Protecting whistleblowers is not a partisan issue. It is a patriotic issue. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will support this bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), ranking member of the full Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the lead sponsor of this bill, Representative Andy Harris, for working closely with me on the bill of which I am a cosponsor, and I want to thank my good friend Representative Russell, who is managing on the other side, for also being a cosponsor of this bill.

My thanks also to Chairman Trey Gowdy, Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for bringing this bill to the floor in time to begin the commemoration, in 2018, of the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Douglass.

I am pleased that this bill has not only bipartisan, but bicameral support. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin have introduced the companion bill in the Senate.

The bill would establish a commission to plan and carry out programs and activities, as well as to recommend to Congress programs and activities that the Federal Government could undertake to honor and celebrate the life of Frederick Douglass during the bicentennial of his birth in 2018.

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He learned basic reading skills from his mistress and continued to teach himself and other slaves to read and write despite the risks he faced, including death. After two attempts, Douglass successfully escaped to New York and went on to become this country's leading abolitionist and antislavery lecturer.

He served in several administrations, including as close adviser to President Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia under President Rutherford B. Hayes, and District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds under President James Garfield. In 1889, President Benjamin Harris appointed Frederick Douglass to be the U.S. Minister to Haiti. He was later appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to serve as secretary of the commission of Santo Domingo.

Douglass dedicated his life to achieving justice for all Americans. He lived in the District of Columbia for 23 of his 57 years as a free man, and his home at Cedar Hill is an official National Historic Site in southeast Washington, D.C. Every year, thousands of Americans and others visit Cedar Hill. The Frederick Douglass statue that stands in his honor in the United States Capitol is a gift from the nearly 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3031, the TSP Modernization Act of 2017.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation, which would help modernize the Federal Government's Thrift Savings Plan by aligning it with current practices for private sector 401(k)s.

I thank Ranking Member Cummings and Chairman Meadows for their work on this important, bipartisan bill that would give TSP participants more flexibility in making withdrawals from their accounts.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3031, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), who is the ranking member of the full committee.

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), the sponsor of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, H.R. 3243, the FITARA Enhancement Act.

FITARA is bipartisan legislation that has made significant strides in reforming government IT and making agencies more accountable. I thank Representative Connolly for all his hard work on this bill, as well as my good friend who has just spoken, Mr. Russell.

This bill would extend three provisions of FITARA that are set to expire. These provisions include the provision on Federal data center consolidation; transparency and risk management of major IT systems; and agencies' IT portfolio, program, and resource reviews, also known as PortfolioStat.

These provisions provide transparency and accountability for agencies and should be continued. GAO reports that if we allow these provisions to expire, we will miss out on major savings. IT spending makes up roughly $100 billion of government spending each year. We cannot afford to allow this legislation that will save funds and help modernize IT assets to simply expire.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to strongly support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing United States Coast Guard Community Affairs Officer Jonathan Schafler for his years of service as liaison to the District of Columbia.

Prior to his service as a Community Affairs Officer, Lieutenant Commander Schafler served as a drilling reservist. He was deployed overseas several times, including for one year in Iraq with Patrol Forces Southwest Asia as the Liaison to the Iraqi Coastal Boarder Guard, and in Spain with Port Security Unit 305.

Since Lt. Cmdr. Schafler began his position as a Community Affairs Officer for the District of Columbia, he and his coworkers have contributed more than 55,000 volunteer hours to the District; delivered over 200,000 pounds of food to pantries in the Ward 8 community as part of the ``Feds Feed Families'' outreach program; loaned over 2,300 tents to various community outreach events; and implemented a successful ``Partnerships in Education and Services'' program at six D.C.-area schools.

In addition to his work as a Community Affairs Officer, Lt. Cmdr. Schafler served as the Coast Guard liaison to the Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC), a group that has been dedicated to the Ward 8 community since 1983. Lt. Cmdr. Schafler was designated as the liaison when he approached Vice Admiral Manson Brown at an ACC meeting.

Lt. Cmdr. Schafler also worked at the United States Department of the Interior for 25 years as a National Park Service Ranger, Federal Game Warden and Wildlife Refuge Manager at nine locations, from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

Therefore, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan Schafler for his years of service to the U.S. government and the District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the remarks of my good friend from Pennsylvania, and I, too, rise in support of S. 1617, a bill to designate the checkpoint of the United States Border Patrol located on United States Highway 77 North in Sarita, Texas, as the Javier Vega, Jr. Border Patrol Checkpoint.

Javier Vega, Jr., was killed in the line of duty on August 3, 2014, while trying to stop a criminal act and trying to protect his family in Raymondville, Texas. While fishing with his wife, with his children, and with his parents, two men approached him and tried to rob his family.

Agent Vega attempted to stop the robbery by drawing his gun, and we know that Border Patrol agents may carry their guns when they are off duty because they are law enforcement officials. He was shot in the chest. Agent Vega was rushed to the hospital after he was shot but died soon thereafter.

It was determined that Agent Vega was aware of a pattern of robberies in the area due to his role as a Border Patrol agent and that he identified himself as an agent before he was fatally shot. The U.S. Border Patrol considered those facts and later determined that Javier Vega, Jr., was murdered in the line of duty, ensuring that Agent Vega's name was enshrined at the Customs and Border Protection Valor Memorial.

Agent Vega was a U.S. Marine veteran and had served with the United States Border Patrol for 6 years before his untimely death. He served his country with honor and distinction.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this legislation honoring the life and death of Javier Vega, Jr., by naming this checkpoint after him. I urge my colleagues to pass S. 1617, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce a bill to require the removal of a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, which is currently located on federal land near Judiciary Square in the District of Columbia. This statue was authorized by Congress in 1898, and was paid for by both federal and private funds--the Freemasons, of which Pike was a member, donated the majority of the money needed to build and install the statue in 1901. I oppose tearing down Confederate statues, because I believe they should be moved to more appropriate settings, like museums, to avoid erasing an important part of history from which Americans must continue to learn. However, Pike was a Confederate general who served dishonorably and was forced to resign in disgrace. Soldiers under his command were found to have mutilated the bodies of Union soldiers, and he was ultimately imprisoned after his fellow officers reported that he had been misappropriating funds. Adding to the dishonor of taking up arms against the United States, Pike dishonored even his Confederate military service. He certainly has no claim to be memorialized in the nation's capital. Even those who do not want Confederate statues removed will have to justify according Pike any honor considering his history.

After meeting with the Freemasons, I believe that the best course of action is to remove the statue and find a more appropriate place for it. The Freemasons themselves have said they ``will support an action . . . to remove the statue forthwith so that it shall not serve as a source of contention or strife for the residents of our community.'' The Mayor of the District of Columbia and the D.C. Council also support the removal of the statue.

My bill clarifies that no federal funds will be used to take the Pike statue down. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation as it celebrates its inaugural annual event, Hill Fest, during Capitol Hill Jazz Week in the District of Columbia.

The Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation was conceived after recognizing a need for jazz in the Washington, D.C.-area and the unique historical and educational opportunities it provides to musicians.

The mission of the Foundation is to serve the Washington, D.C. jazz community by providing a weekly jam session, an annual jazz festival and arts advocacy on behalf of D.C. jazz musicians. The Foundation seeks to assist Washington, D.C.-based jazz musicians, venues and jazz education programs.

This week, the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation celebrates its Hill Fest, which brings together musicians, community leaders and policy professionals to address policy concerns that directly affect musicians at the local and national level. Hill Fest will also serve as an outlet for local music vendors to be introduced to a broader audience.

Therefore, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation during Capitol Hill Jazz Week in the District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, I remind the House that the House keeps the District of Columbia from spending its own funds for low-income women who want to end a pregnancy at even 1 week.

But today I rise for Christy Zink, a District of Columbia resident who was a mother of one, soon-to-be mother of two. However, at 21 weeks, an MRI detected a fetal anomaly regarding her unborn son's brain. A critical part of the brain of the fetus had simply not developed. She decided to end the pregnancy at almost 22 weeks.

On behalf of Christy Zink, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 36. We must stop the bans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC) on its 25th anniversary and the retirement of its chairman Arrington Dixon, for his service to the ACC and the District of Columbia.

Arrington Dixon took his 25th boat ride down the Anacostia River while retiring as chair of the ACC on Saturday, September 30, 2017.

A boatload of District of Columbia residents proudly celebrated the silver anniversary of the ACC boat ride and, particularly, the service of Arrington Dixon as chair of the ACC.

Arrington Dixon has led not only the ACC, but also the ACC's annual boat ride on the Anacostia River. This year's boat ride provided a unique opportunity to celebrate Ward 8 and the one-of-a-kind fellowship offered by the boat ride.

The boat ride also proudly celebrates its sponsoring organization, the ACC. The ACC has been deeply embedded in the life and work of the Ward 8 community since 1983, when it was founded to organize support for the Anacostia Metro.

Arrington Dixon was born in Anacostia. Unlike many civic leaders, Arrington Dixon has held important elected offices in the District of Columbia. He was a member of the first D.C. Council of the District of Columbia (1978-1979), representing Ward 4; chairman of the Council (1979-1983); and at-large member of the Council (1997). In 1995, he was appointed to the National Capital Planning Commission and remains on the Commission. After such distinguished service, most leaders often believe they have done their work. However, Arrington Dixon has continued to serve without portfolio. His service as chair of the ACC is among his most notable civic achievements. He has built the ACC into a formidable organization much-admired for its leadership and many contributions.

Arrington Dixon's decision to retire on the silver anniversary of the ACC boat ride offered an appropriate occasion to recognize his many distinguished contributions to his hometown and to his Anacostia community as well as the contributions of the ACC for its annual boat ride.

Therefore, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing:

Arrington Dixon for his outstanding official and civic contributions to the District of Columbia;

The ACC for its civic and financial contributions to the District of Columbia; and

The silver anniversary of the ACC.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Mary Kelley of the District of Columbia on her retirement on September 29, 2017, after more than 34 years of service to the U.S. House of Representatives.

During Mary Kelley's tenure, she has worked for both the Office of the Clerk and the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). She is retiring as the Resource Manager for the Office of Acquisitions Management within the CAO.

Mary Kelley began her career in December 1983 as a Clerk Typist for the Office of the Clerk. During her time with the Clerk, she

worked for various offices, including Office Equipment Services and Office Systems Management. She also held various positions within these offices, including Equipment Accounts Clerk, Senior Accounts Payable Specialist and Manager.

In 1995, Mary Kelley began working for the CAO. She has worked for various offices within CAO, including House Support Services, the Office Supply and Gift Shop and Acquisitions Management. As the Resource Manager for the Office of Acquisitions Management, she was responsible for the development, analysis and execution of personnel and operational budgets and oversight of payment process activities, among other assigned duties. She planned and provided assistance to the management team in preparation of the annual budget.

Upon her retirement, Mary Kelley plans to do more traveling. In addition, she hopes to become a volunteer with the Washington Nationals, her favorite baseball team. I am pleased and proud that Mary Kelley is a D.C. resident.

Therefore, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Mary Kelley for her many years of dedicated service and outstanding contributions to the U.S. House of Representatives. We wish her many wonderful years in fulfilling her retirement dreams.

Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act, a version of which I have introduced since 1994, after working with the District of Columbia residents who were responsible for the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion ballot initiative passed by D.C. voters in 1993. This version of the bill now requires the United States to immediately begin negotiating an international agreement to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons, to provide for strict control of fissile material and radioactive waste and to use nuclear-free energy.

The bill continues to provide that the funds used for nuclear weapons programs be redirected to human and infrastructure needs, such as housing, health care, Social Security, restoring the environment and creating carbon-free, nuclear-free energy. This conversion to a peace economy would occur when the President certifies to Congress that all countries possessing nuclear weapons have begun elimination under an international treaty or other legal agreement.

The bill is particularly timely with the ongoing nuclear threat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Our country still has a long list of urgent domestic needs that have been put on the back-burner. As the only nation that has used nuclear weapons in war, and that still possesses the largest nuclear weapons arsenal, I urge support for my bill to help the United States reestablish our moral leadership in the world by redirecting funds that would otherwise go to nuclear weapons to urgent domestic needs.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is full of provisions that could pass in regular order, and I am afraid of using the FAA reauthorization, running out of time, again, because the planes can't fly if controllers are not in the air.

The FAA bill contains a lot of important provisions that our constituents are crying out for. Among them, airplane noise, which is ruining communities across the United States. A study of the health impact of that noise is as important as DACA, which we should pass, and I think could pass. And there are other provisions which would pass on regular order.

The FAA reauthorization bill is not the bill to fool around with. We have had too many near misses by letting these short-term extensions pile up on us. Pass a straight FAA reauthorization bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in honor of the first woman to be national commander of The American Legion. Her name is Denise Rohan. She knows that this is a milestone. Therefore, she is very proud to have been named to this position. She says: ``It is about time.''

From Ms. Rohan's perspective, women have always been leaders in the Legion. I am sure most of us didn't even know that.

She says: ``If you look back, women were post commanders early on. We have been in leadership positions. If we weren't leading from the front, we were still there, helping the organization along.''

She says she doesn't think of herself as a female legionnaire. She says: ``I want to be known as a great American Legion leader who happens to be a woman. I have been working hard for the Legion for more than 30 years and am humbled''--that the Legion--``chose me to be national commander. It is an honor.''

She was elected at the Legion's 99th national convention in Reno, Nevada, in August. She herself, of course, is an Army veteran and the second national commander from Wisconsin. She and her husband, Mike, belong to Mason Lindsay Post 385 in Verona. I am sure she would want that known here on the floor. They have lived 30 years in Sun Prairie.

Members have supported Ms. Rohan for a long time and are excited to see her at the top. She is regarded as very capable, outgoing, friendly, and able to bring people to a consensus.

Her parents, Joe and Dorothy Hulbert, set a strong example for three daughters. Both were volunteers and active in the local United Church of Christ.

She first encountered the Legion as a girl at Memorial Day services in a Catholic cemetery near her home. She waited patiently to receive a spent brass shell casing from the honor guard to use as a whistle.

``The town always had a parade that started at the cemetery, came down the hill, went across the bridge and ended up at another cemetery on the other side of the river,'' Ms. Rohan said. ``There was only one parade I remember going the other way, when they brought home the body of someone killed in Vietnam. It began at the high school and went up the hill. That memory stayed with me.''

Still, the idea of serving in the military herself certainly didn't occur to Ms. Rohan until a high school friend asked her and another girl to accompany her to Des Moines for an Army physical. Her friend failed, they passed, and Rohan had a choice. Unsure what she wanted to do with her life and reluctant to ask her parents to put a third child through college, she joined under the buddy system in 1974.

For a person who struggled with homesickness--that is what she called it: homesickness--she got along just fine.

``Somehow my mother lived through me sobbing on the phone every single call for a couple of weeks,'' Ms. Rohan said. ``Then I started realizing that I had another family: the women in basic training with me. They had my back, they made sure I was taken care of, and we became sisters.''

At Fort Lee, Virginia, she completed quartermaster school and was the outstanding graduate of her class. Needing female instructors, the Army sent Ms. Rohan to more training. That is where she met Mike, who was working as a television production specialist.

``I had to have some time in the studio,'' she said, teasing him. ``My roommate at the time was a runner-up for Miss West Virginia the year before she joined the Army, so here is this beautiful blonde who probably did really good on camera because she was used to that kind of stuff. He doesn't remember meeting me that day.''

By Mike's recollection, they met through a mutual friend a couple of months later. He soon realized this girl had the qualities his mother told him to seek in a woman--and more.

``She never once told me to look for someone who could shoot an M-16, or crawl under barbed wire with live fire going on, or run 2 miles with a rucksack on her back, but that is what I found,'' he says. ``Denise has all those abilities of a soldier but is also a loving wife and mother.''

They started dating, fell in love, and Mike got orders to go to Korea. About the same time, Rohan was up for reenlistment. Wanting to stay together, they were married by a justice of the peace during one of Rohan's morning breaks. Their reception was at McDonald's. ``That is our romantic place we go every year, on May 21,'' she says.

Women are veterans, too. In the end, the Army couldn't guarantee Rohan an assignment overseas, so she left the service and became an Army wife. Of course, that would not be the case today.

Over the next few years, the couple lived in Korea, Texas, and, finally, Wisconsin. Mike spent the first half of his career as enlisted, then became a warrant officer in the National Guard.

Meanwhile, Rohan built her own career at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, starting as a program assistant in the student loan office. She eventually rose to the position of assistant bursar, managing a $120 million loan officer portfolio and helping to develop a computerized system to manage it all. She retired in 2012, after 29 years. She is missed a lot, say those who worked with her and under her.

Ms. Rohan's American Legion career has had a similar trajectory. She joined in 1984, when the new commander of Post 333 in Sun Prairie, a friend of Mike's, recruited her to join so she could serve as adjunct.

She laughs when she recalls an older veteran who was flustered by a woman's presence at the meetings. He was saying something, swore, and then he took his cap off and said: ``I am sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful.'' Later, he did it again. He said: ``I just don't know how I am going to do this.'' She told him: ``Hey, I was in the Army, too. I have heard those words before.''

Ms. Rohan really found her spot in the Sun Prairie Post when she was coordinating community blood drives: four a year, for two decades. ``Each pint of blood can help three people, and we collected hundreds at each drive,'' she says. ``The volunteers kept coming back, the donors kept coming back. It makes you feel like you are making a difference.''

From there, Ms. Rohan's reputation for hard work and willingness to serve opened door after door: district adjutant and commander, department historian--she is a four-time winner of the National American Legion Historian contest--and department commander.

On the national level, she is a former chair of the Veterans Employment and Education Commission, as well as the National Membership and Post Activities Committee.

Along the way, she volunteered for dozens of smaller jobs that have cemented the Legion's place in her community, like chartering a Boy Scouts

troop, organizing children's Christmas parties, and assembling troop care packages.

None of it would have happened if Ms. Rohan was the sort to hold grudges, however. When the couple lived briefly in Marshall, Wisconsin, a member of the local American Legion came by to recruit Mike.

Rohan identified herself as an eligible veteran, but the Legion recruiter told her that women could join the auxiliary only.

Years later, the Marshall Post realized its mistake and hung a photo of Ms. Rohan, then district commander, behind a sign that says: ``Remember, women are veterans, too.''

Today, the Marshall Post is one of her biggest supporters. ``I promised they would get one of my first national commander photos to put in that frame,'' she says. ``We can do that,'' is what Rohan has become known for. Her name is known in more than just Legion circles.

At the Wisconsin National Guard Armory in Madison, she and her husband are Aunt Denise and Uncle Mike. Since 2006, they frequented drill weekends so often that young servicemen sometimes assumed they are part of their unit.

Facing a rough situation with a soldier fresh off deployment and needing resources fast, Staff Sergeant Dan Killam was told to talk to the Rohans at the Legion. That call led to an unbelievable amount of care for troops and their families.

When soldiers needed satellite phone minutes to call home after a battle, the Wisconsin Legion family raised $50,000. At a spur run for the 105th Calvary, Legionnaires fed nearly 500 people.

I think after this lengthy--but I think much deserved--report on the first woman to head The American Legion, we understand why the bill that comes before us is much deserved.