Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I missed some votes on Wednesday, December 19, all votes on Thursday, December 20, and some votes today. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows:

Roll Call Vote Number 440 (Passage of H.R. 7327, the SECURE Technology Act): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 441 (Passage of H.R. 7279, the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 442 (Passage of H.R. 6227, the National Quantum Initiative Act): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 443 (Passage of H.R. 6652): YES;

Roll Call Vote 444 (Passage of S. 1520, the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 445 (Passage of S. 3530, the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 446 (Agreeing to H. Res. 1180): NO;

Roll Call Vote Number 447 (Agreeing to H. Res. 1181): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 448 (Concurring in the Senate Amendment to the House Amendment to S. 756, the First Step Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 449 (Passage of H.R. 7328, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 450 (Concurring in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5075, the Ashanti Alert Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 451 (Passage of H.R. 7093, the Clean Up the Code Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 452 (Passage of S. 2896, the Justice Against Corruption on K Street Act of 2018 or JACK Act): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 453 (Passage of S. 2961, the Victims of Child Abuse Act Reauthorization Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 454 (Passage of S. 2679, the Veterans Small Business Enhancement Act): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 455 (Passage of H.R. 7227, the Taxpayer First Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 456 (Concurring in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 4227, the Vehicular Terrorism Prevention Act of 2019): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 457 (Passage of S. 2652, the Stephen Michael Gleason Congressional Gold Medal Act): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 458 (Passage of S. 2765, the RBIC Advisers Relief Act of 2018): YES;

Roll Call Vote Number 459 (Concurring in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5509, the Innovations in Mentoring, Training, and Apprenticeships Act):

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Mr. William Gray on his retirement from Gray-Bowen-Scott, a company William founded and served as President of for over 30 years.

Before founding Gray-Bowen-Scott, William served as the Chief Deputy Public Works Director of Contra Costa County. He served as an active participant in supporting major civic efforts regarding transportation issues in the region. It should then come as no surprise that William is credited with spearheading several innovative and successful land development plans such as Pleasant Hill BART, the first transit- oriented development in the county.

After his tenure as Chief Deputy Public Works Director of Contra Costa County, William founded Gray-Bowen-Scott and through his leadership and vision championed many collaborative ventures that impacted economic vitality, improved movement of goods and people, and enhanced the quality of life for the East Bay. Though his accomplishments over more than 30 years are innumerable, there are a few achievements we should mention for the extraordinary impact they had on our community.

William was instrumental in the completion of the Interstate 680/ Highway 24 Interchange. He helped facilitate the three-county partnership for the I-680 Sunol Grade Express Lane Project. And, he was a key figure in the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel.

William also had vision beyond singular projects and helped shape two specific pieces of legislation. These were Measure C, the original ``self-help'' transportation sales tax measure, which included the model for growth management policy and state congestion management agencies, and Measure J, which ensured continued progress for Contra Costa County of meeting the transportation infrastructure needs of the region.

I want to thank William Gray for the significant contributions he has made to the Bay Area and wish him the best of luck in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the following local winners of this November's elections for positions covering all or part of the Fifteenth Congressional District of California, which I have the honor of representing. I look forward to working with them on behalf of the East Bay over the coming years.

State Senate, 10th District: Bob Wieckowski

State Assembly, 16th District: Rebecca Bauer-Kahan

State Assembly, 20th District: Bill Quirk

Alameda County Assessor: Phong La

Pleasanton Mayor: Jerry Thorne

Pleasanton City Council: Kathy Narum, Julie Testa

Dublin Mayor: David Gregory Haubert

Dublin City Council: Jean Josey, Shawn Kumagai

Livermore Mayor: John E. Marchand

Livermore City Council: Bob Woerner, Trish Munro

Fremont City Council, District 1: Teresa Keng

Fremont City Council, District 2: Rick Jones

Fremont City Council, District 3: Jenny Kassan

Fremont City Council, District 4: Yang Shao

Hayward Mayor: Barbara Halliday

Hayward City Council: Aisha Wahab, Sara Lamnin

San Leandro Mayor: Pauline Russo Cutter

San Leandro City Council, District 1: Deborah Cox

Union City City Council: Emily Duncan, Jamie Patino, Pat D.

Gacoscos

San Ramon Mayor: Bill Clarkson

San Ramon City Council: David E. ``Dave'' Hudson, Sabina

Zafar

Danville Town Council: Karen G. Stepper, Robert Storer

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit)

Director, At-Large: Joel Young

AC Transit District Director, Ward 4: Mark Williams

AC Transit District Director, Ward 5: Diane Shaw

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Director, District 4: Robert

Raburn

BART Director, District 6: Liz Ames

Dublin-San Ramon Services District Directors: Ann Marie

Johnson, Georgean Vonheeder-Leopold

East Bay Municipal Utility District, Ward 7: Frank Mellon

East Bay Regional Park District Director, Ward 5: Ayn

Wieskamp

Eden Township Healthcare District Directors: Mariellen

Faria, Roxann V. Lewis, Gordon Galvan

Chabot-Las Positas Community College District (CCD)

Trustee, Area 2: Linda Granger

Chabot-Las Positas CCD Trustee, Area 3: Genevieve Randolph

Dublin Unified School District (USD) Governing Board

Member, Area 2: Megan Rouse

Dublin USD Governing Board Member, Area 5: Dan Cherrier

Fremont USD Board Members: Dianne Jones, Larry Sweeney

Hayward USD Board Members: April Oquenda, Ken Rawdon

Livermore Valley Joint USD Board Members: Craig Bueno, Anne

E. White, Emily Prusso

New Haven USD Governing Board Members: Linda Canlas,

Sarabjit Kaur Cheema

Mr. Speaker, I missed votes on Friday, November 16. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows: Roll Call Vote Number 419 (Passage of H.R. 5787, the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act): YES; Roll Call Vote Number 420 (Passage of H.R. 6439, the Manage our Wolves Act): NO.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the dutiful work of my former colleague, Mr. Elgin Lowe, on the occasion of his receiving the South Alameda County NAACP 40th Annual Service Award.

Elgin joined the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in 1996 after receiving his Bachelor of Arts in History from UC Santa Barbara followed by his Juris Doctor from UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

Elgin's accomplishments over the course of the last twenty-two years are innumerable. There are, however, a few achievements I will mention for the extraordinary impact they had on our community. In 2011, Elgin began prosecuting cases that resulted from gang violence on the south side of our county. His work resulted in the successful prosecution of several high-profile murders and brought resolutions and a restorative sense of justice to several victims and families whose cases were previously considered ``unsolvable.''

Elgin's deep understanding of criminal prosecutions is sought whenever the county is in need of someone to train newer attorneys in the areas of case investigation, testimony, trial preparation, and the unique set of challenges that prosecutions of gang members bring to the courtroom.

Our community is only in debt to Elgin not only for the work he completes in and around the courtroom, but also for the countless hours he volunteers in the community at large. He has prioritized speaking to at-risk youth about the perils that await those who enter the criminal realm or affiliate with a gang. Elgin has also actively participated with our local Regional Occupation Program center and mentored first- year law students in Berkeley's Boalt Hall moot court program.

Elgin draws his support from his amazing family. His wife, Briggitte, also works at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, and together they have two wonderful children, their son Kendall, and daughter Kori. It goes without saying that Elgin has made his mother Evelyn quite proud.

I want to thank Elgin Lowe for the contributions he has made to the 15th Congressional District and all of Alameda County. His work is consequential and appreciated.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today along with Congressman Jimmy Panetta to honor the life and memory of Benjamin Mario Beltramo who recently passed away.

Ben was the middle child of five born to Mario and Linda Beltramo. He grew up in Fresno where he attended catholic schools throughout his lower education. Upon graduating from high school, Ben decided to follow in his father's footsteps and attend the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in English. After completing his undergraduate studies, Ben again followed in his father's footsteps and chose to become a lawyer by gaining entrance into Berkeley's prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law. Soon thereafter, Ben accepted a job with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, to begin after completing a clerkship with a federal court judge in southern California.

On November 12, 2002, Ben officially began serving the citizens of Alameda County and the State of California as a Deputy District Attorney. He joined his brother Matt there, who in part had inspired him to join the District Attorney's Office. In less than a year, Ben's work ethic, intelligence and commitment to justice was recognized when Ben was asked to sit second chair on a high-profile case involving corruption in a local police department. Ben impressed not only the Senior District Attorney assigned to the case but gained the respect of the defense attorneys and the judge presiding over the case. Ben played an active role in the prosecution of that case and was subsequently assigned to the Felony Trial Team at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland. During his career, Ben held a variety of important assignments; specifically, he was assigned to the Law and Motion division, the Strike Team which targeted dangerous felons within the City of Oakland, and Felony Trial Staff on three separate occasions. He also headed the Narcotics Task Force, and on November 22, 2013, was assigned to the Alameda County Gang Team. He served on the Gang Team until his untimely death.

An effective trial lawyer is equal parts effort, determination, intelligence and charm. In all of these aspects, Ben excelled. Even before his untimely passing, Ben was often described as ``the best of us'' by many of his friends and colleagues. Ben successfully handled several high-profile cases as a trial lawyer. In August 2006, Ben obtained a guilty verdict in the brutal beating death of a homeless woman in Berkeley. In February 2010, Ben prosecuted the murder of a 17- year-old young man who was tragically killed a short time before he was scheduled to attend the University of Oregon on a football scholarship. In May 2014, Ben prosecuted two gang members responsible for the fatal shooting of three-year-old victim Carlos Nava. Ben treated victims and their families, defense attorneys and their clients and the process with the utmost professionalism.

Even with the professional accolades and quiet contentment Ben received from his accomplishments, he would argue, and convince everyone, that his real success was in his personal life. On October 7, 2006, Ben married his amazing wife Shara Mesic Beltramo. The two of them met at work as Shara was also a Deputy District Attorney. Ben often remarked how lucky he was to have found Shara. From their union, Mateo, age 8, and Luke, age 6, were born. Anyone who saw Ben with his boys knew that he had no greater joy than being a father. Ben loved spending time with his family and was always the proud father and husband. In addition to all of these remarkable qualities, Ben was a bit of a renaissance man. He really enjoyed the outdoors and working with his hands. He worked diligently to remodel his family home, removing and replacing most of the woodwork in the house, as well as installing skylights in his master bedroom. Making his and Shara's house a home was foremost among Ben's many goals.

On October 8, 2018, Benjamin Beltramo's family, the citizens of Alameda County and everyone touched by Ben's life, suffered a tremendous loss. Despite this loss, we are made better by having known Ben.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat this previous question so that we can immediately take up Mr. Nadler's legislation that would protect Bob Mueller's special counsel investigation.

The rule of law right now is under attack by a wrecking-ball President who does not respect it, who has fired his investigator and, as we speak, seeks to hire a judge who would protect him.

But Bob Mueller, despite the attacks that I hear in this Chamber, is making progress. His investigation started in May 2017. Since May 2017, he has obtained a lot of guilty pleas and indictments.

October 5, 2017: a guilty plea against General Michael Flynn, campaign adviser and national security adviser to Donald Trump;

December 1, 2017: the statement of offense from Michael Flynn detailing what he had done;

October 5, 2017: statement of offense and guilty plea from George Papadopoulos, senior adviser to candidate Trump;

February 2, 2018: indictment against Richard Gates, adviser to the President;

February 23, 2018: guilty plea from Richard Gates;

February 12, 2018: guilty plea from Richard Pinedo;

February 16, 2018: guilty plea from Alex van der Zwaan;

Indictment, February 16, 2018, against 16 Russians for weaponizing social media to help the Trump campaign, including the Internet Research Association, directly tied to Vladimir Putin;

February 22, 2018: superseding indictment against Paul Manafort, campaign chairman for Donald Trump and Richard Gates;

February 23, 2018: guilty plea from Richard Gates;

June 6, 2018: superseding indictment against Paul Manafort, chairman to Donald Trump, and Konstantin Kilimnik, associated with the Russian intelligence services;

September 14, 2018: guilty plea, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, just about 1 month after he was found guilty on a number of counts by a jury of his peers;

And, finally, July 13, 2018: 12 Russians indicted for the hacking and stealing of Donald Trump's opponent's emails.

Mr. Speaker, the special counsel is making progress. The best thing we can do to uphold the rule of law in this country, to allow him to continue to investigate who attacked us, who worked with the Russians, and to make sure we know all we can do to protect this great democracy is to protect that investigation, to not allow the President to threaten it, and to do our job: protect our great democracy.

Mr. Speaker, it appears the stated reason for this resolution, listening to my colleague who just spoke from South Carolina, is the rule of law, integrity, upholding our democracy, all things that I think people on both sides of the aisle support and can get behind.

But, when you read the resolution, you would also think that we have a nationwide problem of undocumented immigrants voting and influencing our election. I would expect that, if that is the case, the sponsors of this legislation would introduce evidence that shows this widespread problem. I would hope that they are not relying upon the bogus, false claim that Donald Trump put forward that there are undocumented voters--3 million of them, he said--which has been panned and rebuked by every expert in the country.

I would hope they are not relying on the voting rights commission that Donald Trump put in place after the election that could best be compared to an airplane that is still at the gate with a lot of maintenance problems and is probably never, ever going to get off the ground.

There is zero evidence to support this resolution. But you know who did interfere in our last election; you know who did seek to influence the American voter? The Russians.

You know who does not care about the rule of law? The Russians.

Do you know who does not care about integrity at the ballot box? The Russians.

Our intelligence community unanimously concluded--unanimously, across the board--that the Russians sought to interfere and influence the last election. So I thought, well, if my colleagues across the aisle are interested in addressing integrity at the ballot box, they would accept an amendment that would also condemn what the Russians did.

They will not accept that amendment, and I would yield to my colleagues if they were open to accepting that amendment and showing the American people that they truly are interested in protecting the integrity of the ballot box.

After this attack on our elections, I put forward legislation with Elijah Cummings to have an independent commission look back at our better days where, after September 11, Republicans and Democrats on the House stairs united and sang ``God Bless America'' but also came together, worked together, and used unity as an antidote against an adversary's attack. Only two Republicans have signed on to that bill.

I thought on the Intelligence Committee we could look at who was responsible, how the Russians did this, identify U.S. persons who worked with the Russians, and tell the American people how this would never happen again. Instead, that investigation has been shuttered, and we learn almost every day from new indictments from the special counsel's investigation that there is evidence that U.S. persons worked with the Russians.

I thought on the Judiciary Committee we would look at the government response to what the Russians were doing.

I thought on the Judiciary Committee we would look at some of these issues in our democracy. Instead, we have gone back in time and we have reopened and relitigated the Hillary Clinton emails.

This resolution does nothing but divide Americans even further. It stokes an issue where there is no evidence of it even occurring, and it fails to address our true common enemy: any adversary, from any country who would seek to interfere in our election.

Let's not miss this opportunity now to address that threat and unite and say we are not going to tolerate it.

Mr. Speaker, I missed votes on Tuesday, September 4. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows:

On Roll Call Vote Number 380 (Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 6157, the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019): YES.

On Roll Call Vote Number 381 (Passage of H.R. 6439, the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program Authorization Act): YES.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present for votes taken Tuesday, June 5, due to it being primary election day in California. I also missed votes on Tuesday, June 12. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows:

Roll Call Vote Number 231 (Passage of H.R. 5005): YES

Roll Call Vote Number 232 (Passage of H.R. 2991, the Susquehanna National Heritage Area Act): YES

Roll Call Vote Number 233 (Passage of H.R. 5655, the Camp Nelson Heritage National Monument Act): YES

Roll Call Vote Number 258 (Passage of H.R. 1815, the Comprehensive Opioid Recovery Centers Act): YES

Roll Call Vote Number 259 (Passage of H.R. 5041, the Safe Disposal of Unused Medication Act): YES

Roll Call Vote Number 260 (Approving the Journal): NO

Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with Representatives John Garamendi, Barbara Lee, Jim Costa, Salud Carbajal, Adam Schiff, Tony Cardenas, Brad Sherman, Grace Napolitano, Linda Sanchez, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Maxine Waters, Anna Eshoo, Ed Royce, Mark DeSaulnier, Ted Lieu, and Nanette Barragan, to recognize Gerard ``Jerry'' Giovaniello in celebration of his retirement as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Chief Lobbyist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

After earning a graduate degree from New York University, Jerry served the United States as a U.S. Army officer in both Vietnam and Washington, DC from 1968 until 1970. Jerry then spent time working as a policy analyst and writer for the National Journal.

Jerry next moved into the realm of policy making. He became one the few serving here in the Capitol who has worked on both sides of the aisle, as chief of staff for former California Republican Congressman Jerry Pettis and former California Democratic Congressman James Lloyd. He also personally played a part in influencing the minds of future leaders as a political science professor in the Claremont Colleges Washington, DC Semester program.

Then Jerry moved on to legislative advocacy at NAR, fighting for a key part of the American Dream--owning a home. Spearheading the opposition to flat taxes in the late 1990s, fighting banks from getting into the business of real estate brokerage, and advocating for first time homeowners and those with mortgage debt, Jerry has been a progressive champion for homeowners throughout the United States.

In his accomplished 37 years with NAR Jerry has been recognized for his commitment, leadership, and work ethic as a top lobbyist by CEO Update, The Hill and numerous other publications.

Jerry currently resides in Falls Church, Virginia, with his wife Elizabeth. His many achievements will be long-remembered. We are grateful for his numerous positive contributions on behalf of realtors and homeowners, in California and throughout our whole nation. We want to wish him health and happiness in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Dale Eldridge Kaye of Livermore, California on her retirement. Dale has lived in the Tri-Valley for 17 years and has worked tirelessly to develop our community.

Prior to moving to California, Dale was involved in the Florida state government. She utilized her keen marketing skills to develop media strategies, execute presidential advance work, and to help bring the Super Bowl to Jacksonville in 2005. As Head of the Jacksonville Public Relations Department, Dale's exceptional marketing work for the Jacksonville Jazz Festival was nationally recognized by PBS. She continued to cultivate her love of the arts after moving to California as Vice President of the film company Gold'N Hen Productions in Los Angeles before moving to the Tri-Valley.

Upon moving to the Tri-Valley, Dale became the President and CEO of the Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce and Livermore Valley Film Commission. While at the Chamber, she helped promote Livermore businesses and began her work to attract top talent to the Tri-Valley area. One of her greatest accomplishments with the Chamber was the creation of the annual Innovation Forum. Each year this event attracts hundreds of business influencers and showcases innovative local companies.

After 12 years with the Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce, Dale founded the Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group. Utilizing the industry relationships she cultivated with the Chamber and her passion for business development and marketing, Dale transformed the brand and perception of the Tri-Valley. She has brought together 60 partner organizations, 25 board members, and 90 committee members to work towards the common goal of expanding the national influence of Tri- Valley innovators.

With Innovation Tri-Valley Dale launched both the annual ``#GameChangers'' Awards for business leaders and the ``DreamMakers and RiskTakers'' Awards for youth. Both of these events engage civic leaders and award local innovators for their groundbreaking work. Additionally, she was instrumental in launching the landmark ``Tri- Valley Rising'' report, which highlights the region's economic strengths and promise. Her advocacy and marketing efforts have assisted the Tri-Valley in becoming recognized, as Innovation Tri-Valley calls it, as ``The Heart of California Innovation.''

Dale has made an indelible mark on the Tri-Valley business community, and I am grateful to have worked with her to better California's 15th Congressional District. I want to congratulate Dale on a long and successful career. I also want to wish her and her husband Ted, who has been her faithful partner during her tremendous work for the Tri- Valley, all the best in Dale's retirement.

Mr. Speaker, it was in this Chamber in 1941 that Franklin Roosevelt told the world that every man, woman, and child in the world should be guaranteed four freedoms: the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from fear, and the freedom from want.

And Mr. Speaker, today, our President has taken a wrecking ball to all four of those guarantees. He has declared that the press is the enemy of the American people--going after that treasured freedom of speech, the right for me to speak here in this well, for people to assemble outside, and for the journalists behind me in the gallery to report on it--the freedom of worship that every man and woman and child could pray to the God of their choosing and not be discriminated because of it. Our country, as we speak right now today, has a Muslim ban in place.

Freedom from fear: Nearly daily, the President tweets out that the immigrants fleeing the harshest places in the world from violence and abject poverty are the problem, that they are murderers and rapists.

And freedom from want: The idea that if you work hard, it will mean something. Well, Mr. Speaker, this Chamber passed, and the President signed, a tax cut where 83 percent of the benefits went to the wealthiest among us. Not a tax cut that told our businesses: You can be more competitive, but you have to share the profits with those who generated your productivity.

Those four freedoms that we have all relied upon and depend upon in our country are being knocked down. We have an opportunity in this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, to unite and work together to restore those freedoms and rebuild them.

Our Founders, in their wisdom, envisioned that you could have a wrecking-ball, out-of-control Presidency, and they did not leave us helpless. They envisioned that the Article I check and balance of a Congress, elected by the

people, could be a check on the President.

As our President right now is abroad, insulting our allies, drawing us closer to adversaries like Russia, we can be a check. We can say, when it comes to those families separated at the border, we are not going to put a single priority of the President forward until he reunites all of them. When it comes to the press, who are under attack in speech that is constantly being suppressed, we can pass the Journalist Protection Act, which I recently introduced, which would make it a Federal crime to commit violence against anyone in the news gathering business. There is a lot we can do together.

And as it comes to our democracy, Mr. Speaker, we are just 4 months away from an election. The adversary that our President is meeting with is determined to interfere again. The best antidote to stop that would be for us to unite and pass legislation to have an independent commission. That is bipartisan legislation that is out there.

We can be the check that our Founders envisioned. We can be the check that our constituents really need us to be during these trying times.

We are not helpless, Mr. Speaker. We can pick up the pieces, and we can rebuild and restore those freedoms that FDR stood in this Chamber and guaranteed to the world that we would have. That should still be true today in America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Rudy Grasseschi, who is celebrating 60 years in business as the owner and operator of the Cobblers shoe store and repair shop in Hayward, California.

Rudy opened Cobblers on June 13, 1958, but the store traces its roots much further back. Rudy's father, who arrived in the Bay Area in 1906 from Italy, sold and fixed shoes elsewhere in Hayward, as Rudy's grandfather had done in Italy. Today, Rudy's sons Dino and Rodney work with him in the store, as does his grandson Kenneth.

For generations of Bay Area residents, Cobblers has been a comforting throwback to the old-world tradition of mixing craftsmanship and fellowship, with Rudy working his restorative magic on all sorts of footwear while dispensing free wisdom and kindness to all who pass through his door.

A Hayward native who lives in nearby Castro Valley with his wife of 61 years, Lois, Rudy has tirelessly given back to his community--he is a director emeritus of the Hayward Area Recreation District Foundation's board, and a lifetime member of the Castro Valley Lions Breakfast Club. Cobblers was honored as the California 20th Assembly District's 2018 Small Business of the Year, and is among the Hayward Chamber of Commerce's oldest members.

At age 82, Rudy says he has no plans to retire. Like a well-made, well-worn, still-sturdy shoe, he remains the right fit for the East Bay.

I rise to congratulate Rudy Grasseschi on achieving six decades as the owner of one of the 15th Congressional District's quintessential businesses, a beloved community institution that continues to serve its customers with the highest degree of quality and care.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Marion Coleman in honor of her being named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow for her work as a traditional African- American quilter.

Marion first learned to sew from her grandmother and her great aunts in her home state of Texas. The love of quilting she garnered from her family inspired her to pass the quilting tradition down to the next generation through teaching. She began making quilts professionally in 2002 with her piece York in the Corp of Discovery, a quilt about the only African-American in the Lewis and Clark expedition. She went on to receive awards for her pieces, Neighborhood Watch and Ruby Bridges. These pieces all evoked narratives of the African-American experience.

Her professional career has taken her throughout the United States and around the world. In 2012, she was a guest artist at Quilt Week in Yokohama, Japan, and in 2013, her work was exhibited in the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem through the Art in Embassies Program. In 2016, her work was added to the Nelson Mandela Gateway Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.

While Coleman's narrative quilt work has received national and international acclaim, she has been committed to helping her local community. Marion regularly spends time volunteering with local female detainees, and in 2008 she started the Minerva Project with the Alameda County Arts Commission. Through this project, Coleman taught female youth detainees how to quilt, and she led them in a creative exercise that emphasized the qualities of courage, strength and wisdom.

The National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship is the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, it is only fitting, then, that Marion Coleman is one of nine fellows selected this year, joining the ranks of former honorees such as B.B. King and Mavis Staples.

Marion Coleman has made an indelible mark on the quilting and fiber folk arts community. Her extensive body of work, and her commitment to education throughout the community is well deserving of the National Heritage Fellowship Award. I am honored to represent Marion Coleman, and I am grateful for her numerous contributions to the East Bay.