Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations (the ``Federation'') and to congratulate its recently elected officers who will serve in leadership positions for the 2018-2019 term.

Founded in 1940 and re-incorporated in 1995, the Federation is a coalition of civic and homeowners associations who work together to promote and support initiatives that will benefit the community as a whole. The Federation realized early in its existence that by joining with other civic and homeowners associations from every comer of the county and speaking with one unified voice, its influence and contributions would be far more powerful and effective.

The Federation is comprised of thousands of volunteers who actively participate in matters of local and state government that impact their communities. Individual members serve on countless task forces , boards and commissions to help preserve the quality of life that is enjoyed by all who call Fairfax County home. As a former two-term President of the Federation, I understand that those who volunteer their time, energies, and talents to civic activities play a vital role in making Fairfax County one of the best places in the nation in which to live, work; and raise a family.

The Federation would not be nearly as successful and effective without the leadership of its officers. It is my great honor to include in the Record the names of the following newly elected Federation officers:

President: William S. Barfield. Bill resides in the Braddock District and has an extensive history of civic engagement including serving as President of the Country Club View Civic

Association, Chairman of the Braddock District Council of Community Associations, founding member and vice-chair of the Braddock District Land Use and Environmental Committee, and 2nd Vice President of the Federation.

First Vice President: Matt Dunne. Matt and his family live in the Mount Vernon District. He is active in the Stratford Landing Citizens Association and serves as the Educational Liaison to the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens' Associations.

Second Vice President: Alejandro Mattiuzzo. Alejandro and his wife live in the Mason District and he is an accounting professional by trade. He has served as Treasurer for the Federation and is committed to using his skills to best suit the mission of the organization.

Treasurer: Leslie Braun. Leslie resides in the Sully District and has served on the Franklin Farm Community Association Board and the Foxfield Community Association Board. In addition, Leslie served for more than two years as Treasurer of the Northern Virginia Section of the American Society of Quality.

Recording Secretary: Flint Webb. Flint resides in the Providence District and is a member of the Dunn Loring Gardens Civic Association. In 2011, he received the Providence District Council's Community Service Award. In addition, he has served as Chair and Co-chair of the Environmental Committee of the Federation and has represented it on the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee Technical Advisory Committee.

Corresponding Secretary: Erica Yalowitz. Erica resides in the Providence District and serves on the board and various other committees of the Rotunda Condominium Association where she resides. She is the current Vice-President of the Providence District Council and a member of the Emerging Leaders Council of the Tysons Partnership.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking all of the individual members of the Fairfax Federation of Civic Association and in congratulating the 2018-2019 officers on being elected to lead this dynamic organization. I commend them for their efforts on behalf of the community and wish them continued success.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize Pastor Marshal L. Ausberry and the congregation of Antioch Baptist Church on the occasion of their 30th anniversary.

Founded on January 8, 1989 by Pastor John Q. Gibbs, Antioch Baptist Church has been a thriving member of the Fairfax County community. Pastor Gibbs was responsible for many of the significant milestones in the church's history, including the purchase of the land where the current building now stands, as well as the construction of the building that would become the new and expanded sanctuary.

Just as the physical presence of Antioch Baptist Church has expanded over time, so too has their presence in the community. The congregation provides witness to their faith through a variety of missions, including programs assisting the homeless population, the elderly, those suffering from illness and those who are incarcerated. The congregation has also participated in international relief efforts, such as the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

As someone who attended seminary and seriously considered entering the Catholic priesthood, I can attest that being called to ministry is a special responsibility. The burdens and rewards that are represented by this calling are neither widely understood nor appreciated, but they are uniquely enriching.

I have often found a pastoral aspect to my constituent service work as a Member of Congress and I trust that Antioch Baptist will continue to be a pastoral force in the community for many years and decades to come. I am confident that Antioch Baptist Church will continue to prosper and provide the community with the spiritual guidance so needed in today's complex world. Their dedication to ministry and to their faith is to be commended, and I thank them for their dedication to their congregation and our community.

On behalf of the 11th Congressional District, I again congratulate Pastor Ausberry and the entire congregation on this momentous anniversary. I ask my colleagues to please join me in offering their congratulations to in wishing Antioch Baptist Church continued success in all their future endeavors.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize NACHA--The Electronic Payments Association, and to congratulate them on their recent designation as one of the 2019 Best Places to Work in Virginia by the Virginia Business and Best Companies Group. Determined by a statewide survey competition, the annual list honors the best places of employment in Virginia.

NACHA's designation as one of the 2019 Best Places to Work in Virginia is a fitting acknowledgment of its many contributions to Virginia's economy, workforce, and business community. Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, NACHA proudly employs 61 Virginians, and three of their 42 Direct Members are based in the Commonwealth: Navy Federal Credit Union, Capital One, and ePayResources.

NACHA serves as trustee of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network, enabling payments such as direct deposit and direct payment via ACH. Today, NACHA's work is more important than ever, as more than 80 percent of U.S. workers now receive their regular pay using Direct Deposit via ACH, and consumers now pay 800 million bills each month with Direct Payment via ACH. In 2018 alone, 23 billion ACH payments, valued at a total of $50 trillion, moved across the ACH Network.

I am thrilled to recognize NACHA's commitment to creating and fostering an award-winning work environment, and I commend them on their efforts to strengthen the ACH Network. I am proud to represent in Congress one of the 2019 Best Places to Work in Virginia.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing NACHA's successes, and in congratulating them on the well-deserved honor of being named one of the 2019 Best Places to Work in Virginia.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the nominees for the 2018-2019 Prince William County Public Schools Principal of the Year Award.

Principals who meet the criteria for the award are those who effectively manage, demonstrate, and encourage creativity and innovation, foster cooperation between the school and community by maintaining an open dialogue with students, parents, faculty, and staff, and exemplify commitment to providing a quality education for all students to learn and develop. The selected winner will be named the Prince William County Principal of the Year.

As the second largest school division in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Prince William County Public Schools educates 90,000 students in ninety-eight schools. The efficiency and impact of these teachers is apparent as PWCS ranked the highest in the entire state with their on- time graduation rate.

I extend my personal congratulations to the following nominees for the 2018-2019 Prince William County Public Schools Principal of the Year Award: Neil Beech, Osbourn Park High School; Mary Jane Boynton, Parkside Middle School; Hamish Brewer, Fred Lynn Middle School; Kathryn Forgas, Coles Elementary School; Latiesa Green, Potomac View Elementary School; Sheila Huckestein, Saunders Middle School; Richard Nichols, Stonewall Jackson High School; Jennifer Perilla, Tyler Elementary School; Amy Schott, Rockledge Elementary School; Aerica Williams, River Oaks Elementary School.

Madam Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in commending the nominees for 2018-2019 Prince William County Public Schools Principal of the Year Award and in thanking them for their dedication and leadership to the students, teachers, and faculty to ensure a bright future for all who pass through the doors of their schools. Their continued service is truly commendable and worthy of our highest praise, and their efforts ensure that our Prince William County students are provided a world-class education in a vibrant learning community.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the recipients of the 2019 Prince William County Human Rights Commission Awards.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) implemented the Human Rights Ordinance January 15, 1993, formally establishing the Human Rights Commission. Two years prior, the BOCS formed the Human Rights Study Committee to explore the needs of a community that was growing in population and diversity. An exhaustive effort that included numerous committee meetings and public hearings identified a strong community desire for a human rights ordinance and an agency to enforce it. The Human Rights Ordinance prohibits discriminatory practices based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, marital status, or disability, as well as in the consideration of employment, housing, public accommodations, education, and credit, in Prince William County.

The BOCS approved the ordinance in September 1992 to ensure that ``each citizen is treated fairly, provided equal protection of the law, and equal opportunity to participate in the benefits, rights, and privileges of community life.'' Residents enlist the services of the commission if they feel their rights have been violated in the areas of employment, fair housing, credit, education and public accommodation.

In celebration of Universal Human Rights Day, the Human Rights Commission recognizes individuals and organizations that promote the principles of human rights in Prince William County. It is my honor to include in the Record the recipients of the 2019 Prince William County Human Rights Commission Awards: Phyllis Aggrey, John Harper, The National Coalition of 100 Black Women--Prince William County Chapter, Potomac Health Foundation, Graham Park Middle School, Minnieville Elementary School's Family Engagement Team.

Madam Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in commending the recipients of the 2019 Prince William County Human Rights Commission Awards. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to these honorees for their efforts to safeguard our most basic rights and remind us of our common humanity. Let us use their example to rededicate ourselves to the fight against inequity and injustice.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chair, H.R. 1, the For the People Act of 2019, of which I am a proud cosponsor, delivers on the promise to reform American democracy by protecting voting rights and our elections, improving the transparency of campaign finance, and promoting ethics and accountability.

Key to safeguarding voting rights is ensuring that our voting system is secure and free from interference by foreign actors.

My amendment to H.R. 1 would help States implement voting system security improvements in order to enhance the integrity of our Federal election infrastructure.

Adapted from the FAST Voting Act, H.R. 1512, which I recently reintroduced with my colleague, Representative Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, this amendment to H.R. 1 would award supplementary grants to State applicants based on evidence of previous election security reforms and plans for implementing additional innovations.

This race-to-the-top model would incentivize States to adopt best practices, including providing voting machines that are less than 10 years old, maintaining offline backups of voter registration lists, and providing a secure platform for disseminating vote totals.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in the 2016 Federal elections, voters relied on outdated voting equipment that was more than a decade old in 43 of the 50 States, Mr. Chairman.

My amendment would also instruct the Election Assistance Commission, when evaluating State grant applications, to consider evidence of collaboration between relevant stakeholders, including local election officials, in developing the grant implementation plan and the State's plan to evaluate the effectiveness of its grant activities.

We now know that Russia directly targeted State voter databases and software systems in 39 States during the 2016 Federal elections. That effort by Russia and additional foreign entities to conduct robust influence operations persisted, sadly, in the 2018 midterm elections, and the U.S. intelligence community expects such attacks to continue through the 2020 Federal elections.

Numerous witnesses before the Homeland Security Committee testified on the ongoing need for investment to protect us from such attacks. The need to strengthen the integrity of our voting system is crystal clear, Mr. Chairman. We have a moral obligation as Members of Congress to protect the sacred nature of the results of every election, and it is urgent.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this simple but, I think, helpful amendment to move us toward voter security in the next election and enhance cybersecurity for all of our Federal election infrastructure.

Mr. Chairman, I am delighted to see there is no opposition here on the floor, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 145, the rule providing for consideration of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 (H.R. 8) and the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019 (H.R. 1112).

These critical bills would ensure that there is a comprehensive background check on every firearm purchase, something that 97 percent of American voters, including 97 percent of gun-owning households, support.

H.R. 8 requires background checks on all firearm sales, including those conducted by unlicensed gun sellers, closing what has become known as the ``gun show loophole.''

H.R. 1112 closes another loophole in current statute that allows gun dealers to transfer a firearm after three business days if they have not received a definitive response from the background check system.

Tragically, this gap became known as the ``Charleston loophole'' when it contributed to the brutal murder of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015.

Congress must act immediately on the ABCs of gun violence prevention.

A is for Assault Weapons Ban.

B is for Background Checks Reform.

C is for Closing the Gun Show Loophole.

These measures make progress on B and C, and I urge my colleagues to support them.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1235) to provide that the term of office of certain members of the Merit Systems Protection Board shall be extended by a period of 1 year, to limit such members from concurrently holding positions within the Federal Government, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank House leadership for bringing H.R. 1235, the MSPB Temporary Term Extension Act, so quickly to the floor at the request of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Chairman Cummings and I introduced this bill to prevent a potential crisis at the Merit Systems Protection Board, a vacant Board without any members. Acting Chairman Mark Robbins is and has been the sole member on the Board since January 2017. His holdover term expires at the end of this month, the 28th of February, and it cannot be extended without legislation. We planned to address this issue through regular order, but circumstances arose that prevented us from doing so.

The subcommittee I am going to chair originally scheduled a hearing to examine the problem on February 14, but the hearing was postponed to the end of this month to allow all Members to attend the funerals of our colleagues John Dingell and Walter Jones.

We hoped that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee would take action to address the problem during its business meeting on February 20. Although the Senate committee was able to approve two nominees for the Board, Chairman Johnson indicated he would withhold those nominations from the Senate floor pending the naming of a third nominee by the White House.

The Senate committee was also reportedly working on language to extend Mr. Robbins' holdover term for another year, but no legislation was considered at the markup, thus our action today.

Given these events, it appears less and less likely that the Senate will be able to confirm new Board members before time runs out this Thursday. That is why the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Chairman Cummings and I, introduced this stopgap measure, H.R. 1235, to ensure some work by the MSPB will continue. The legislation will provide a one-time, 1-year extension for Mr. Robbins' term to give the Senate more time to confirm the additional Board members.

This version of the bill before us eliminates the provision prohibiting dual appointments because Mr. Robbins assured us he would continue to recuse himself from working on matters related to OPM and that he would recuse himself from OPM matters that related to votes he had taken at MSPB if this bill is enacted.

This amendment is in response to many of the concerns raised by our Republican friends.

We urgently need to pass this bill because we need to ensure that MSPB can continue its operations. If Mr. Robbins' term expires without new members confirmed, it will be the first time in the agency's history that the Board has no members at all. We will be entering uncharted new territory, and not good territory.

If there is no principal officer to lead the agency, not only is it unclear

which agency functions may continue and which ones must be suspended, but, also, whether the entire agency must shut down completely. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues not to risk that shutdown.

There is a lot at stake here. MSPB protects whistleblowers from retaliation, veterans from job discrimination, and Federal employees from prohibited personnel practices. The agency ensures that the Federal civil service is nonpartisan and complies with the merit system principles.

Since 2017, MSPB has been operating under certain constraints without a quorum on the Board. This has prevented the Board from hearing final appeals of agency adverse actions.

The absence of a quorum has also prevented the Board from issuing special studies of the civil service and reviews of OPM rules and regulations, as is required. This has resulted in a backlog, Mr. Speaker, of 2,000 final appeals which will take more than 3 years to process and eight Merit Systems studies pending issuance by the Board.

The current situation is certainly less than ideal, but let's not make it worse by doing nothing and creating a complete vacancy on the Board.

This would cause decisions made by Mr. Robbins, by the way, to be voided, exacerbating the backlog, and any new Board members who are finally confirmed would have to start again from square one.

We should not and cannot allow that to happen. Addressing the problem should be a bipartisan concern, and I believe it is. We cannot let politics prevent MSPB from doing its job.

The bill in front of us is supported by the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union, the National Federation of Federal Employees, the Government Accountability Project, Public Citizen, Project on Government Oversight, the Make It Safe Coalition, the Senior Executives Association, and the National Taxpayers Union.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record letters of support from those organizations and a coalition of other stakeholders.

American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO,

Washington, DC, February 22, 2019.

Hon. Elijah E. Cummings,

Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Reform,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Jim Jordan,

Ranking Member, House Committee on Oversight and Reform,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Cummings and Ranking Member Jordan: On behalf

of the American Federation of Government Employees. AFL-CIO

(AFGE), I am writing to urge support for the ``Merit Systems

Protection Board (MSPB) Temporary Term Extension Act,''

introduced by Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). This

legislation would allow the term of the current and only MSPB

member to be extended and avoid having a vacant Board.

An employee may appeal an adverse action to the MSPB, a

third-party agency that hears and adjudicates civil service

appeals. MSPB administrative judges (AJs) hear the matter in

an adversarial setting and decide the case in accordance with

established legal precedents. If dissatisfied with the AJ's

decision. either the agency or the employee may appeal the

decision to the full three Member MSPB. Currently, the Board

does not have a quorum. Mark Robbins is the only member on

the Board and his term expires on February 28, 2019. Robbins'

original term ended in March 2018, and he is currently

serving under a maximum one-year statutory extension.

When Robbins' term expires, the Board will have no

Presidentially-appointed members. The ``MSPB Temporary Term

Extension Act.'' would allow for Robbins to extend his term

for one additional year and avoid having an MSPB with no

members. AFGE believes that the MSPB serves an important role

in upholding the Merit Systems Principles and the rights of

federal employees. Therefore, AFGE strongly urges you to

support the ``MSPB Temporary Term Extension Act.'' to allow a

temporary carryover of the current and only member of the

MSPB. Thank you.

Sincerely,

J. David Cox, Sr.,

National President.

NTEU, The National Treasury Employees Union,

Washington, DC, February 19, 2019.

Hon. Elijah E. Cummings,

Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Reform,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Cummings: On behalf of the National Treasury

Employees Union (NTEU), representing over 150,000 federal

employees in 33 agencies, 1 write to applaud your efforts to

support the important work performed by the Merit Systems

Protection Board (MSBP or Board) and ensure that it can

continue. We believe that your bill, the MSPB Temporary Term

Extension Act, is the appropriate response to address the

impending loss of leadership at the Board.

As you know, Mark Robbins is the Acting Chairman and the

only Member left on the Board. His original term expired last

year and his holdover year will expire on February 28, 2019.

Given the uncertainty regarding the operations of the Board

once Mr. Robbins' term ends, we appreciate that your bill

would temporarily allow Mr. Robbins to remain on the Board

for a short period of time while the President's nominees for

the MSPB undergo Senate consideration. We also appreciate

that the bill stipulates that the individual who would be

allowed to extend their term would be unable to hold another

position in the government at the same time.

NTEU fully supports your carefully crafted temporary

extension bill and we appreciate your efforts to safeguard

the employee protections envisioned in the Civil Service

Reform Act. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Anthony M. Reardon

National President.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1235, a commonsense stopgap measure to prevent serious injury to hardworking civil servants who expect the Merit Systems Protection Board to function.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Briefly, in responding to my friend: I agree with him. I think we need a full board. Our problem is the Senate. They didn't get around to acting in a timely fashion, and so we are faced with this.

I think it is also important to note that, although a quorum is necessary for most work of MSPB, it isn't necessary for all of it.

So Mr. Robbins, in a caretaker, interim position, can still do some of the work of the board, including issuing stays, reviewing some of the work, and helping to avoid adding to the backlog.

He can't substitute himself fully, obviously, for a quorum in the board. My colleague is quite right about that.

What we are trying to do here is not to compel him or coerce him to stay against his wishes; it is to try to buy some time and have the board at least do some of its basic functions so that we don't come to a complete standstill. That would not be necessary, frankly, had the Senate acted.

I think my friend is right in suggesting that is the ultimate answer, and I would join him in calling on the Senate to act as swiftly as possible. But I think we have no choice but to act on this bill now.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I thank the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It is a delight to call him that title.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.J. Res. 37, directing the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting Yemen within 30 days.

Since 2015, the United States has provided support to the Saudi-led coalition in its war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In addition to claiming an estimated 60,000 Yemeni lives, this war is fueling the world's largest humanitarian and refugee crisis. Humanitarian agencies estimate that 85,000 children have died from malnutrition, more than half the population currently requires emergency food assistance, and 1 in every 10 Yemeni children has been forcibly displaced from their homes due to the conflict.

In September of 2018, Secretary Pompeo certified to Congress that the Saudi and Emirati Governments were mitigating harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure in Yemen. Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition conducted attacks killing dozens of civilians at a time, often with U.S.-provided munitions.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution states unequivocally that Congress shall have the power to declare war and to raise and support armies and other Armed Forces. That is Congress' prerogative in the Constitution.

Pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, the President must remove U.S. Armed Forces engaged in hostilities outside U.S. territory without a specific statutory authorization from Congress.

Congress must reclaim its constitutional role, and American complicity in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen must end. That is why I am glad to support H.J. Res. 37, which

would direct such a removal of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities associated with the Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen.

Importantly, this legislation defines hostilities to include in- flight fueling of non-U.S. aircraft conducting counter-Houthi missions.

Mr. Chairman, I urge support of this resolution.

Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 840, the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act, which permanently authorizes the Veterans Affairs' (VA) Child Care Program.

Absent Congressional action, the VA's Child Care Pilot Program will expire on October 1, 2019.

This bill would ensure that all veterans who are primary caretakers have a safe, reliable, and cost-free option for child care when they access VA healthcare.

I have previously supported this bill, when the House of Representatives passed H.R. 95 in the 115th Congress.

I support H.R. 840, and I would vote for this legislation tomorrow. However, I will be speaking at the funeral of a dear friend.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend, the distinguished new chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform. I am so proud to call him that.

Mr. Chairman, let me just say, I heard the arguments from my friend from North Carolina, and I know he does care about the Federal employees, but his arguments ring hollow when you support a 35-day shutdown of the Federal Government.

If you believe in regular order, then you never shu down the Federal Government, nor do you advise the President of the United States to shut down the Federal Government, nor do you use shutdowns as a tool to get some policy goal achieved.

That is never acceptable. It shouldn't be acceptable to Washington. It is not acceptable to the American people. It certainly is not acceptable to the 800,000 Federal employees and an equal number of Federal contract employees and small business owners who were affected negatively by this shutdown.

So it is hard to listen to a lecture about regular order in the midst of that wreckage.

That is what we are trying to do here. It is not a messaging bill to embarrass anybody. It is a bill to try to begin to restore the integrity of respect and dignity to the men and women who serve this country. They are called Federal employees. They were innocent victims of political games, as if they were pawns, Mr. Chairman, for a wall. We are just trying to begin the process of making them whole again.

I thank the majority leader, Mr. Hoyer, for bringing this bill to the floor. The bill would end the current freeze for Federal employees, recommended by President Trump, and provide hardworking civil servants with a 2.6 percent pay increase, matching that for military employees.

On the heels of this largest government shutdown in U.S. history, and the longest, I believe it is appropriate for the House of Representatives to take up this legislation to make a statement in the people's body that we do respect the work of our civil servants and our Federal employees and that we are prepared to provide concrete measures to do that.

During the shutdown, some of these individuals reported to work without knowing when, or if, they would receive their next paycheck, while others were willing to work, but were told they couldn't.

Even though the Federal Government has reopened, most Federal employees are still waiting to receive that first paycheck. Under statute, Federal employees should have received a 2.1 percent pay increase for 2019. Instead, the recommendation from the White House was zero.

This bill represents a pay increase for Federal employees above that statutory level equal to an additional 0.5 percent over and above the statutory level that would have otherwise been provided.

While the House of Representatives passed appropriations bills that included a 1.9 percent pay increase for Federal employees, the continuing resolution agreed to by the House and Senate did not reverse the President's pay freeze. This bill would.

Historically, Congress has tried to ensure parity in pay between Federal civilian employees and military servicemembers. This bill would continue the tradition of pay parity for which I have advocated since I came to Congress 10 years ago.

A Federal employee pay increase of 2.6 percent is, in my view, further justified, as the distinguished chairman of the committee pointed out, by the hardships just suffered and those suffered over the last 10 years: three pay freezes, hiring freezes, compensation cuts, and benefit cuts. Federal employees are the only group on the planet that actually has contributed nearly $200 billion to deficit reduction.

In 9 of the last 10 years, Congress has failed to enact an increase in basic pay consistent with the statute. Not true on the military side. That is why we are trying to have pay parity.

In 8 of the last 10 years, basic pay increases trailed increases in the cost of living itself.

I will point out that the legislation in front of us has been endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees; the National Treasury Employees Union; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers; the Senior Executives Association; the Federal Managers Association; and the Professional Managers Association.

Mr. Chairman, I include in the Record letters of support from these groups.

American Federation of

Government Employees, AFL-CIO,

January 29, 2019.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the American Federation

of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), which represents

more than 700,000 federal and District of Columbia government

employees within 70 agencies, I write urging you to support

H.R. 790, the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness

Act of 2019, introduced by Representative Connolly (D-VA),

when it comes to the floor this week. This legislation

provides federal workers with a FY 2019 pay adjustment of 2.6

percent. This modest adjustment would allow federal employees

to make up some of the purchasing power they lost over the

last decade and restore the long tradition of parity in the

rate of adjustment for civilian and military employees of the

United States government.

January 25, 2019 marked the end of our nation's longest

government shutdown, and federal employees have been without

a paycheck since December 21st. As a result of the funding

lapse, many federal employees have fallen behind on their

monthly bills and are experiencing serious financial

hardship. Although some federal employees make more, among

AFGE's own membership, the average take home pay is just $500

per week after they pay their taxes, health insurance

premiums, and mandatory retirement contributions. Many

federal employees were struggling to make ends meet before

the shutdown, and H.R. 790 would not only help agencies

recruit new employees, and retain a workforce battered by the

shutdown, compensation cuts enacted in the wake of the 2008

financial crisis, it would also demonstrate that the Congress

values the federal workforce's dedication and commitment to

serving the American public.

For decades, Congress supported pay adjustment parity

between federal and military employees. The civilian

workforce not only works alongside the warfighters to keep

our nation safe, they are also public servants who have

dedicated their lives to providing the American public with

invaluable benefits services. Federal employees work across

the country securing our borders, keeping travelers safe,

providing benefits to the elderly and disabled, caring for

our veterans, and keeping our air and water safe and clean.

Unfortunately, in recent years pay adjustment parity has not

been upheld and federal civilian salaries have continued to

lag standards set by private employers. H.R. 790 would help

narrow this gap.

As you work to pass legislation to fund the remaining seven

appropriations bills, AFGE urges you to support H.R. 790 when

it comes to the floor this week, and we strongly urge you to

support inclusion of a 2.6 percent federal employee pay

adjustment in the final funding measure for FY 2019.

Sincerely,

J. David Cox, Sr.,

National President.

The bottom line, Mr. Chairman, is that our Federal civil servants are like any other workforce. More than 900,000 of those Federal employees earn less than $60,000 a year. They are not rich. They are not living high on the hog. They deserve and need this adjustment, especially after the longest, most reckless shutdown of the government in American history.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friend from Maryland for his leadership on this amendment, which I support.

The Secret Service do put themselves on the line, and the studies my friend from North Carolina cited had to do with bad management and bad working conditions that really affect morale and productivity at the Secret Service. The gentleman's amendment is designed to try to help that situation.

The idea that an across-the-board cost of living increase doesn't distinguish between productivity and nonproductivity, performance or nonperformance, would also apply to the military.

My friend has no objection to an across-the-board increase for the military, but apparently on the civilian side, that is different. We are making the opposite argument. We are making the argument that pay parity is the right thing to do, especially after this reckless shutdown.

Mr. Chairman, I congratulate my friend from Maryland on his amendment, and I support it.

Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend from Massachusetts, and I congratulate her on this amendment.

I can't believe that the distinguished ranking member of our committee would continue to engage in conspiracy theories that have been, in fact, disproved and, worse, would actually paint the entire 41,000 or more workforce of the IRS with one brush. They are all, apparently, out to get us.

You would never know these are hardworking public servants who serve their country nobly and often under very difficult circumstances, because they are hardly the most popular agency in town.

Of course they deserve a pay raise. They were affected by the shutdown. Many of them were called back by the Trump administration to come back without pay because certain industries needed paper being processed. They did it because they are noble public servants and they are patriots, as the distinguished chairman of our committee indicated.

So instead of slandering public servants, we want to honor them.

You are right. We are proud of this amendment, and it is anything but the most ridiculous to come to the floor. It is a very important amendment. I support it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Mr. Clay of Missouri, and a distinguished member of our committee, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I hope the American people are listening to what is being said here on the floor, because they are actually getting an honest flavor of where some of my friends on the other side of the aisle actually are.

Everybody, Mr. Jordan says, agrees we need a wall, a barrier on the border. Actually, not everybody does. Actually, most polls show most Americans don't support that, and that number is increasing: the opposition.

Federal workers make more than their private sector counterparts, despite the fact that the official study shows they are 31 percent behind their private sector counterparts, and there are differences because of the differences in the nature of the work.

What you are also hearing, besides Darwinian ``survival of the fittest'' rhetoric and Marie Antoinette, ``let them eat cake'' kind of rhetoric coming out of this administration and some Members of this body, which I think reflects poorly on an understanding about where the average American, including the average Federal employee, actually is and what their needs really are--and they don't demand much--but respect is something they do demand, and it is something we offer them. That is why this resolution in front of us is so important.

Is it that hard to come together? Yeah, it is nonbinding, but it is aspirational. And even that, apparently, some of my friends on the other side of the aisle find difficult to swallow: a commitment not to shut down government for any reason.

Mr. Speaker, let's not hold Federal employees, and the American public they serve, hostage ever again. We will deal with our policy disputes separately, but we won't engage in shutting down the Federal Government. It is disastrous, it is reckless, it is dysfunctional, and it is a disservice to the people who sent us here. It is that simple. Never again shut down government.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the slander we have just heard.

Mr. Speaker, I have rarely heard such cynicism on the floor of the House of Representatives. Oh, no. My friends on the other side are right to kind of cabal because there is so much cynicism; but this one takes the cake.

We are here to honor the Federal workforce, not slander them with insinuation.

To listen to the gentlewoman from Indiana, one might infer that the Federal Government is riddled with people who are guilty of all kinds of nasty, near crimes and offenses, and should not be rewarded for it.

I wonder if we would use the same standard ourselves here in the House of Representatives. How many in the last Congress, especially on a particular side of the aisle, have resigned over sexual harassment charges? And that wasn't insinuation, that was real. So let's not have a double standard.

And by the way, I say to my friends, especially on this side of the aisle, let us not be distracted by what is really going on.

We are simply trying, after the worst shutdown in American history, to say to our own employees, 2.1 million: ``You are valued. You are respected.''

To actually vote for this is not only to say the opposite and deny them a simple cost of living increase that we have already given the military; it is, in fact, to say: By the way, we buy into this cynicism. We think you are riddled with guilt by association and insinuation.

So we have an opportunity, in defeating this MTR, one of the most cynical I have ever heard, to actually make a positive statement to our Federal employees.

Stand up and be heard. Say ``no'' to shutdowns. Say ``yes'' to our Federal employees, and restore their sense of respect with our dignity.

Defeat this MTR.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I do want to take a moment to clarify a conversation we had here on the floor last week on sanctions legislation against Mr. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch. My remarks were passionate and aimed at the administration's proposed policy to lift sanctions on that individual. In no way did my remarks intend to reflect on the integrity of my friend from Texas, who was, in fact, comanaging the bill to oppose that action.

As my friend from Texas knows, I admire him deeply, and I believe that he is a leader of integrity. Nothing I said last week was meant in any way to deflect from that. I wanted to clarify that publicly on the floor.

I thank my good friend for yielding me time, and I look forward to talking about the issue at hand. I, again, thank my good friend from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend, the distinguished chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and I thank my friend, the distinguished ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for helping Mr. Panetta bring this bill to the floor.

I rise today in support of H.R. 676, the NATO Support Act, reiterating congressional support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and prohibiting U.S. withdrawal from that organization.

As we mark 70 years of the NATO alliance this year, it is critical we recognize the invaluable role that NATO has played in protecting U.S. national interests and global stability.

NATO remains the foundation of U.S. foreign policy to promote a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace. NATO

has invoked Article 5, the commitment to collective defense, only once in 70 years, and that invocation was on behalf of the United States after we were attacked on 9/11.

As a result, nearly one-third of the fatalities suffered by coalition forces when we fought in Afghanistan to rid that country of al-Qaida and the Taliban--one-third of the casualties--were from non-U.S. NATO member and partner countries.

They put their blood and their flesh on the line on behalf of this country as part of that alliance.

Despite these sacrifices, unfortunately, our President has questioned the value of NATO and falsely claimed that NATO allies owe the United States money.

As head of the United States delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and rapporteur for the political committee of that assembly, I can attest to the anxiety within NATO regarding this administration's commitment to the alliance.

Case in point: one can't talk about the U.S. commitment to Article 5 in 2019 without mentioning President Trump's failure to embrace it in full view of our NATO allies during his first Presidential trip to Brussels in 2017.

This past summer at NATO's annual summit in Brussels, President Trump injected further discord into the alliance by calling our NATO ally, Germany, a ``captive of Russia'' and demanding that ``delinquent'' alliance members increase their defense spending ``immediately.''

The President's provocative comments undermined the summit's goal of projecting unity in the face of renewed Russian aggression, especially given that they occurred just days before what turned out to be a very difficult, if not disastrous, Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, Russia continues its forcible and illegal occupation in the Crimea, eastern Ukraine, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and parts of Moldova, and its attack on democracies throughout Europe and even in our own country.

Mr. Speaker, that is why I urge my colleagues to support Mr. Panetta's bill. This bill affirms the U.S. support for NATO and preempts any attempts to withdraw from the same.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the distinguished chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

I listened to my friend from Texas, who I admire, but he is defending the indefensible. Partisan? I rise strongly in support of the H.J. Res. 30 today disapproving the President's unimaginable proposal to lift sanctions on three companies affiliated with a Russian gangster oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, in August of 2017, to hold Putin and his cronies accountable for Russian interference in our election, Russian invasions of sovereign territories of other nations, and its other malign behavior.

Under that authority, the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally, and several of his companies, including United Company RUSAL, EN+ Group, and JSC EuroSibEnergo. In doing so, the Trump Treasury Department stated Deripaska has said he does not separate himself from the Russian state.

Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering and has been accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, extortion, organized crime, and racketeering. This is the man you want to lift sanctions on?

In addition, we have recently learned that Deripaska worked closely with Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, including on a lobbying project that Manafort said would greatly benefit the Putin government.

Manafort reportedly also offered to give Deripaska private briefings about the Trump Presidential campaign. Does this sound like someone deserving of exemption from U.S. sanctions?

Mr. Speaker, apparently, it does to the Trump administration, which has agreed to lift sanctions on three of his companies in exchange for Deripaska dropping his ownership

stake from 70 to 44.95, never mind that the new chairman of United Company RUSAL's board, Jean-Pierre Thomas, has himself defended the Russian illegal occupation, condemned by the world, of Crimea, part of sovereign Ukraine.

That is exactly why Congress required in CAATSA a congressional notification before sanctions could be lifted to prevent this President from allowing his inexplicable bromance with Putin to supersede U.S. national security interests.

Now is the time not to ease pressure on Putin. I urge my colleagues to support H.J. Res. 30.