Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Old Glory Retirement Foundation, a veteran-founded nonprofit in Franklin, Ohio dedicated to ensuring that our Nation's flag, ''Old Glory,'' is treated with dignity and respect throughout its entire life of service, while also honoring the Veterans, first responders, and families who have sacrificed in service to our Nation and communities.

On July 4, 2026, as our Nation celebrated its 250th Anniversary, the Old Glory Retirement Foundation brought together Veterans, volunteers, civic leaders, and members of the community at Horsepower Farm in Middletown, Ohio, to conduct an extraordinary American flag retirement ceremony. During the ceremony, 17,169 unserviceable American flags were respectfully retired in a single event. The foundation believes this event to be the largest American flag retirement ceremony ever conducted. This remarkable community effort demonstrated the deep respect and patriotism that Americans continue to hold for our Nation's flag.

The foundation's mission extends beyond flag retirement. Through its ceremonies and educational programs, the Old Glory Retirement Foundation works to teach proper flag etiquette, preserve the stories of Veterans, recognize first responders, and inspire younger generations to understand the meaning behind the flag they proudly see every day.

It is also fitting to recognize September 12 as Old Glory Retirement Foundation Day. Following the tragedy of September 11, 2001, September 12 became a powerful reminder of the unity, compassion, and patriotism demonstrated by Americans across the country. People from every background came together, setting aside their differences and standing united under one flag.

The City of Middletown has officially proclaimed September 12 as Old Glory Retirement Foundation Day, recognizing both this spirit of unity and the foundation's commitment to preserving the dignity of the American flag and honoring those who have served our Nation and communities.

I am proud to recognize Old Glory Retirement Foundation, its dedicated Veterans and volunteers, and the countless members of the Middletown community who came together to honor the American flag. Their commitment to service, patriotism, and community serves as an example of the enduring values that unite us as Americans.

Mr. Speaker, for personal reasons, I was unable to make one vote on July 22, 2026. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 276.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1181, which is in this Rules package. I want to talk about the bill because it is going to make it harder for us to fight gun violence in America.

The majority is bringing to the floor a bill that would prevent credit card companies from coding the sale of firearms, meaning that if you buy a firearm from a gun manufacturer, from a gun seller, this Congress is saying we don't want to track that, we don't want to code it. We code everything, but we are not going to code this.

It makes it even harder for us to fight gun violence in America.

Some headlines from home:

``18-year-old dies after shooting near Westwood store.''

``Cincinnati Police Department investigating after shooting in Avondale.''

``1 shot in East Price Hill, search underway for suspect.''

``No arrests made after 3 weekend shootings in Greater Cincinnati.''

These are all headlines from this weekend.

Mr. Speaker, the question then becomes: Why are they siding with gun manufacturers and not law enforcement? Why are they siding with the gun sellers and not our kids?

It is a terrible bill based on a flawed ideology that somehow if you sell a gun, you are more important than the people who get shot by one.

Mr. Speaker, I hereby remove my name as cosponsor of

Mr. Speaker, I came down today to talk about the trans bill that the majority is pursuing this week. This is one of a ton of trans-obsessed bills.

I am struggling, Mr. Speaker, because this is another bill where the Federal Government is going to tell schools what they can and can't do. They are worried about bathrooms and pronouns. I just don't get it because, as a kid, when I was growing up, I remember thinking when I learned about this, that Democrats were for the little guy and for empathy, but I liked that Republicans were for local control. They didn't want a big Federal Government being intrusive in our lives. That is just not the case anymore.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is focused on bathrooms and pronouns, and it is a crazy turn of events for the party to be telling local communities what they can and can't do, and it is one of 126 trans-obsessed bills introduced in this Congress. That is an insane number. The majority has already passed nine. If this bill passes, it will be the tenth trans- obsessed bill that the majority has passed.

Imagine, Mr. Speaker, if the majority put a few bills on the floor to expand childcare, to expand preschool, to improve reading and math scores, to improve graduation rates, to improve enrollment in college and career training. That would really help schools.

Leave these trans kids alone. Stop going after schools because of their bathroom and pronoun policies. It is mean. It is expensive, and it is a distraction from the work of improving our schools and improving our economy.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Raskin for yielding.

This morning, in our newspaper in Cincinnati, there was a story about how we are spending $25 million on police overtime because we don't have enough cops. Our community, like communities across the country, is struggling to hire police officers. I don't understand why we are messing with monitors or one monitor. All of these issues that communities across the country are facing with public safety, crime, gun violence--cities, towns, counties, they all have this one thing in common: What they need is more cops.

In the middle of Police Week, we have got four bills, including this one. As Mr. Raskin said, I don't think any of them are going to become law. They don't have a companion bill in the Senate. I don't know what we are doing during Police Week except we are not funding cops.

In fact, since the Republicans took the majority, the cop funding has gone down. Byrne has gone down. The COPS grant funding has gone down. I have tried to get my bill on the floor, which would just allow folks who have the COPS grant to use that money to retain and recruit police officers, just the flexibility, but I can't get a hearing and can't get a vote.

Mr. Speaker, if y'all want to help police officers and communities, especially during Police Week, hire more cops, help communities pay for police officers.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Pallone for yielding. I am a newer Member of Congress, so this one was crazy to me: this idea that we didn't allow farmers to produce this biofuel all year-round; that we didn't allow consumers to have this option; that there was a law that said that only when we say so can E15 biofuels be produced.

The question with this bill is: Do we want to allow farmers to produce more ethanol, to produce E15 all year-round whenever they want? Do we want our consumers to be able to buy lower priced gas all year- round?

Unfortunately, the answer isn't obviously yes for everyone. There are some folks who don't agree that in the land of the free somehow our farmers can only produce this ethanol and bring it to market sometimes, that consumers can only get this lower-priced gas sometimes, and they will vote against this bill.

Hopefully, a majority of us will get this thing done. It will pass the Senate, and this country will finally have a policy where E15 biofuels can be sold all year-round. Our farmers can produce this all year-round, and consumers can buy it all year-round. Those are families and small businesses.

Permanentizing E15 sales obviously grows domestic demand for ethanol. It is nearly 7 billion gallons every year. That will make a huge difference for our farmers who are struggling with higher costs associated with these tariffs. This will save drivers in the United States more than $150 million just this summer--$150 million just this summer. For every single driver and every driver in Ohio, that is a 30- cent savings with every gallon. That is how much more affordable this option is.

Any car that was made from 2001 on, which is 96 percent of cars, can take E15. So that is the vast majority of Americans get 30 cents off per gallon when we pass this.

Why did this take so long? It took so long because oil refineries and Big Oil, these big companies and folks who have a lot of money, they spent that money or some of that money convincing Members of Congress not to bring this to the floor even though it is better for farmers and better for consumers.

I am a farmers first guy. There are a lot of farmers first Members of Congress here on the Republican side and on the Democratic side, and we banded together. We got this thing on the floor, and, hopefully, it will pass and provide meaningful support for our farmers who desperately need it and meaningful relief at the pump for consumers and for our families.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member, Mr. Pallone, for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, America is in the middle of a healthcare crisis. More and more Americans can't afford their healthcare. They just can't pay for it. Hospitals are cutting back services. Many of them are closing their doors.

Then, Trump and congressional Republicans made things much worse when they spent trillions of dollars on tax cuts that mostly benefited the wealthy. To pay for it, they kicked about 15 million Americans off of their health insurance, a cut of approximately $1 trillion to healthcare for tax cuts for the wealthy.

Then, they refused to give 24 million Americans a break on buying healthcare, and now this. This week, congressional Republicans are bringing three bills to the floor that will make it harder for people to breathe.

One of those bills, the so-called FENCES Act, directs the EPA to use accounting gimmicks that will allow industries to pollute our air without consequences. It is an air pollution bill.

This bill will make Americans sicker while Trump and congressional Republicans have cut healthcare for millions of Americans. Congress should be focused entirely on expanding healthcare and protecting our air and water. Fortunately, the Senate won't take these bills up, and they are not going anywhere.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the 35,000 children in Ukraine that Putin and others have stolen during this unprovoked and brutal war.

Shockingly, our government just made things worse as it relates to these children. Last week, Trump waived sanctions on Russian oil companies, including two Russian oil companies that, based on recent reporting, have directly funded and facilitated the abduction and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

Lifting the sanctions will do little to nothing to ease gas prices but will significantly benefit these two Russian oil companies. These companies are helping to steal children, and Trump just helped them out. They will make billions of dollars.

In the coming days, we will work to rally Congress to compel Trump to reverse these sanctions. Every single person responsible for stealing Ukrainian children must be held accountable.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about a friend and a constituent, Shane DiGiovanna.

Shane was born with EB, a rare and painful disease that makes the skin incredibly fragile. There is currently no cure. It is sometimes referred to as the worst disease you have never heard of.

Shane has bandages across most of his body. This disease, because of what happens to the skin, leads to infection, illness, and the kind of cancer he is fighting now.

Over the course of his life, Shane has had over 150 surgeries. Yet, he is one of the kindest, most spirited human beings I have ever met in my entire life. He is a remarkable person and, truly, one of the best people who I know.

Shane is brilliant. He is funny, curious, deeply empathetic, and full of joy. He graduated from college at Rice University, even though it is not something people expected of a child with EB. Yet, if you know Shane, it is not surprising. He was already reading, I think at college level, in the second grade.

Shane sends me pages of ideas and notes about history, politics, and why he believes the country can always be better. Shane has already lived longer than just about anyone with EB. He has used that time to make the world better for others, and his advocacy began when he was just a child.

After one of his first surgeries, Shane brought a stuffed animal named ``Doggie'' with him to the hospital. It made such a huge difference for him, so he created Doggie's Friends, Shane's charity at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, to provide a stuffed animal to kids who are undergoing surgery. He saw something that he knew would help, and he got it done. It is just who Shane is.

I met Shane as an advocate. I had just gotten elected to the United States Congress, and he had reached out to say that he wanted to talk about rare disease work, and he invited me over. I went to Shane's house and sat in his kitchen, and we went through all of the legislative priorities for the rare disease community.

I was all in immediately not just because the policy moved me, but Shane was so compelling, charismatic, and convincing. Since that day nearly 4 years ago, we have texted just about every day. We talk about politics, books, history, shows, life, and what else I should be doing to help families dealing with rare diseases.

Some of that work has already led to real progress. Congress reauthorized the Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher Program. The program helps to speed up treatment development for nearly 15 million children who are living with rare diseases.

Congress also passed the Accelerating Kids' Access to Care Act. The law helps children to get specialized care across State lines without delays or higher costs. Of course, there is also the funding for research. Rare disease research is a good idea for some. It is life or death for these families.

That is why Congress has to step up to fund this research and make sure that the research we have funded reaches the people who will turn that research into treatment and care, to support its innovation, and to keep families healthy, which leads me to Shane's bill.

We introduced Shane's bill just last week, a bill that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to study the impact of fully covering bandages for people who are living with EB.

Believe it or not, these families have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their bandages, even though the bandages help to ensure that these kids, young people, are less likely to go to the hospital, less likely to get an infection, and less likely to cost more.

The bill ensures access to these supplies to improve care, reduce hospital visits, and ease the enormous financial burden that families already face. This is Shane's bill, a bill inspired by his life and the families he has spent years fighting for.

Mr. Speaker, when you meet someone like Shane--someone who is curious, compassionate, and brilliant--you want to do more and be better.

I saw Shane's impact most clearly at his celebration of life, a room filled with people from across the country who have been touched by his kindness.

He is a funny, social, and gifted person, and his legacy is the life he lived, the people who he touched, and the work we will keep fighting to do, including this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Elizabeth Anne Keys, a Cincinnatian who dedicated her life to giving back. She graduated from Madeira High School as valedictorian and was, as her principal described her, a natural leader. She then attended Tufts University, where she joined the sailing team and spent the next four years creating lifelong memories with her teammates, including running the Boston Marathon.

While at Tufts, Elizabeth earned the Tufts Synergy Award for collaborating with students from various backgrounds, a commitment she continued through her service on boards dedicated to preserving diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

After graduating with a law degree from Georgetown, Elizabeth dedicated time to pro bono work, including representing plaintiffs in a federal case challenging an Arizona law that limited abortion care, a cause she was deeply passionate about. In 2023, Elizabeth was honored for her pro bono service by the D.C. Court of Appeals' Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll.

On January 29, 2025, her 33rd birthday, Elizabeth tragically died when an Army helicopter collided with American Airlines flight 5342 over the Potomac River.

We will remember Elizabeth for her dedication to improving the lives of those around her.

Mr. Speaker, America has become unaffordable for so many Americans. Many families, if not most families, are now struggling to pay their bills, including their electric bills. Congress should be focused entirely on lowering costs.

The bill does not do that, unfortunately. It is not about securing critical minerals. It gives the Department of Energy broad, open-ended, authority that this administration has already used to roll back environmental protections, cancel energy projects, and drive costs up.

The bill would be a win for coal and natural gas, not American ratepayers. For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered that motion with an important amendment.

My amendment is straightforward. The bill would not take effect until at least the Secretary of Energy certifies that the tariffs imposed after January 20 are not increasing costs and not disrupting the supply chain for critical minerals while, unfortunately, they, of course, are doing both those things.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of this amendment into the Record immediately prior to the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the House just voted on the SAVE America Act, which will make it harder for tens of millions of Americans to vote, not noncitizens. Noncitizens can't vote. They can't register to vote. If they do, they will be deported.

American citizens are being denied their right to vote by requiring, in this bill, all kinds of paperwork to register, all kinds of paperwork to vote.

Three examples: For married women, there are 70 million women with an ID that does not match their birth certificate. It will be harder for them to register to vote. Seniors, especially those who have been voting by mail, it will be harder for them to vote. College students and those who serve our country abroad would have to come home in order to register to vote.

This is a terrible, un-American, undemocratic, honestly insane bill that the Senate should not take up.

Mr. Speaker, due to travel delays, I was unfortunately unable to make votes. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 49, and YEA on Roll Call No. 50.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of all the NIOSH workers around the country, including the 400 in my district. For 50 years, NIOSH has been helping workers all over the country, making sure that workers are safe and healthy.

During all the DOGE cuts, 1,500 NIOSH workers lost their jobs. We got to work. We worked with labor and others, and 100 Members of Congress, and we started getting those jobs reinstated.

We asked Secretary Kennedy to work with us to make sure that every single one of these workers got their jobs back. Just a few weeks ago, we found out that every one of them did get their jobs back.

I thank the NIOSH folks for their ongoing support, for everyone in labor for working with us, and for the work of this Congress to stand up for workers, especially my colleagues over here.