Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, in recent weeks, it has been sad to read that a judicial nominee, Brian Buescher from Nebraska, has been targeted for his membership in the Knights of Columbus as a part of his Senate Judiciary Committee's review of qualifications.

The assertion that being a Catholic and being a member of the Knights of Columbus would prevent Mr. Buescher from properly and effectively serving our Nation is preposterous.

Religion should not be a factor when measuring someone's ability to serve their country.

I remind Senators that our Constitution, in Article VI, states that ``no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.''

The Knights of Columbus was originally founded over 120 years ago. It is a society for working-class and immigrant Catholics and is still true to its founding principles of charity, unity, and fraternity.

As a Catholic, my faith plays a significant role in every aspect of life and fosters a respect for the religious rights and freedoms of others.

I was encouraged to see last month that the Senate unanimously passed a resolution confirming that membership in a religious organization does not make a person unfit for public office.

Fundamental American values, among which are commitments to religious freedom and human rights, will always be the cornerstones of U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

I will continue to advocate for the rights of individuals to express their feelings without living in fear of violence and persecution.

Recognizing Matthew Zajac

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Matthew Zajac, a double amputee Army vet, for his remarkable service to our country and welcome him to his new home in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 2007, during a deployment to Iraq, Matt and members of his unit encountered an IED, which exploded under their Humvee.

Matt lost both of his legs; shrapnel tore through his wrist; and severe burns covered the right side of his body. He received the Purple Heart for his injuries and was medically retired.

Mr. Speaker, 2013 marked the start of a downward spiral for Matt after losing his grandmother and his dad, a man who had stood by his side throughout the entire recovery process.

Matt came to Arkansas seeking more than just help. He needed a community. Today, central Arkansas community groups, veterans support organizations, and our VA hospital are helping Matt restart his life.

He is seeking proper treatment for his PTSD and acts as a spokesman for our Second Congressional District veterans group, We Are the 22, which offers assurance and hope for veterans who are considering suicide.

Matt's sacrifice for Arkansas and America will never be forgotten, and I join all Arkansans in offering Matt a heartfelt welcome to his new house in North Little Rock.

Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela

Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the ineffective, inhumane, and irresponsible actions of the Maduro government.

For years, Venezuela's United Socialist Party has pushed a once- prosperous nation towards desperate poverty and open tyranny.

Today in Venezuela, Maduro celebrates while his people eat garbage.

For too long, the authoritarian regime has acted without accountability. Water sanitation is nonexistent, and hospitals stand without power or medicine, the results, Mr. Speaker, of 20 years of irresponsible socialism under the Chavez and Maduro regimes--all this while 200 tons of U.S. food and medical assistance sit unused at the Venezuela-Colombia border, blocked by Maduro from entering the country.

I stand with the Organization of American States and over 50 countries

with interim President Juan Guaido and call on Maduro to step down so that humanitarian aid can flow to the Venezuelan people, who are sick, starving, and scared.

All Americans stand with Venezuelans, who want their republic back; they want their rights back; they want their freedom back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of National Cancer Prevention Month and to highlight the long-term, exceptional work of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock.

The Rockefeller Cancer Institute opened in 1989 and serves as Arkansas' only comprehensive cancer treatment and research facility. Now in its 30th year, the Rockefeller Cancer Institute is in the process of pursuing designation as a National Cancer Institute.

In 2018, approximately 44 Arkansans a day were diagnosed with some form of cancer, and 6,910 Arkansans lost their lives to this terrible disease. NCI grant funding would increase Arkansans' access to clinical trials and new therapies, expand services for patients, and create more healthcare jobs in central Arkansas.

With 70 NCI-designated cancer centers across the country, not one is in Arkansas, and therefore, this is a vitally important mission.

I applaud the Rockefeller Institute's objective.

Recognizing Bill Holmes

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my friend, Bill Holmes, who passed away peacefully late last year. He left an indelible impact on the Arkansas business community.

Bill dedicated over four decades of his life to financial services, community banking, and government policy, most recently as CEO of the Arkansas Bankers Association. I was fortunate to work with him throughout my business career in Arkansas.

Among his friends, Bill was known for his quick wit, mischievous smile, and ability to connect with others. Bill's contributions to our State and our community banks will not be forgotten. I join all Arkansans in recognizing Bill for his remarkable career and his life well-lived.

I extend my respect, affection, and prayers to his wife, Rita, and their family and friends.

Recognizing Sybil Jordan Hampton

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my friend, Sybil Jordan Hampton, who was recently awarded the alumni award from the University of Chicago for providing leadership in advancing social justice and equity in our society.

Sybil grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and in 1962, in the aftermath of the Little Rock Nine integration of Central High in 1957, Sybil became the first African American student to complete her entire education at Little Rock Central High School.

She went on to earn her bachelor's degree from Earlham College, a master's degree in elementary education from the University of Chicago, and a second master's degree and doctorate from Columbia University.

After working as a higher education administrator and philanthropist, Sybil returned to Little Rock to become president of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, focusing on building a better Arkansas. She continues to be involved in many local community service organizations and is a life member of the Girl Scouts of America.

As a local educator and civic and community leader, Arkansas has been an enriched place to live and work due to the outstanding accomplishments of Sybil Jordan Hampton.

Recognizing Jim Hinkle

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the achievements of Mr. Jim Hinkle, who was inducted into the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame last year by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Born and raised in Mountain View, Arkansas, Jim graduated from the University of Central Arkansas before pursuing a lifelong career in community service and the outdoors. He served as commissioner of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission before transitioning to 14 years on the board of the National Wild Turkey Federation, ultimately serving as president of the national chapter.

Jim's leadership helped lead toward the expansion and improvement of habitat throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. His service to the State of Arkansas and to wildlife and conservation causes will not be forgotten, and I join all Arkansans in congratulating Jim on this achievement and wish him much continued success.

Recognizing Thurman Booth's Retirement

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life of Thurman Booth. Thurman retired earlier this year after serving more than 52 years in wildlife services, most recently as the Arkansas director of Wildlife Services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Thurman's journey began at Louisiana State University. He quickly joined the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife as a trainee and then became assistant State supervisor in the Division of Wildlife Services. He served as the Wildlife Services lead in Arkansas since 1968.

We appreciate his service to conservation and to the Game and Fish Commission, and I wish him a great retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from North Carolina and appreciate his distinguished service on behalf of the citizens of North Carolina, his leadership of our Republican Study Committee in the last Congress, and his leadership as our Conference leader for this Congress. And I greatly appreciate his personal engagement to help continue this conversation with the American people about the need for enhanced security along our southwest border.

Like my colleagues you have heard from, I have been to the southwest border four times as a Member of Congress. I worked in Texas for nearly a decade, so I am very familiar with the southwest border in Texas. But, as a Congressman, I have gone four times to get at the root of what is the balance that we want between border fencing, barrier, the use of technology, screening technology, enhancements at our ports of entry, and the manpower issue.

Mr. Speaker, we need all of that, and that is, in fact, what we have produced time and time again on the floor. Just in the last year, Mr. Speaker, we have proposed these kinds of commonsense border security issues, and we have not gotten sufficient votes to pass them.

So this is why we find ourselves hearing from the Border Patrol and our officials at Homeland Security that we need additional barrier construction, additional boots on the ground, new judges, additional screening technology--all of the things I hear about from county judges, county sheriffs, Federal law enforcement--to make our border, in fact, safe.

But tonight I want to reflect on the impact in my home State of Arkansas. I see it every day. I have two young adults now, Mr. Speaker, a 19-year-old and a 22-year-old.

When I was in high school, I didn't know anybody who had died of a drug overdose. I didn't know anyone who had committed suicide among my peers in my high school. And I am brokenhearted tonight, Mr. Speaker, to report that my kids and their age group have seen deaths from deadly addiction to these drugs that are coming over our border, our southwest border. It breaks my heart to see them at funerals when they should be at soccer games.

The opioid crisis has killed more than 100 Americans a day and caused 45,000 deaths last year, alone, almost as many as we lost in all of the Vietnam conflict. A third of these deaths were attributable to fentanyl, much of which is manufactured in China.

This Congress, bipartisan, last year, decided to get screening equipment to our postal service to interdict and try to stop fentanyl. Senator Cotton and I want to increase criminal penalties for fentanyl possession and dealing because, Mr. Speaker, in this small Sweet'N Low packet that we are all familiar with, 1 gram has enough--if it were fentanyl--to kill 500 Americans. That is what confronts our kids as it is laced into heroin, pressed into pills, soaked into marijuana on the streets of our country, coming across the southwest border.

So my kids have suffered from it. I have watched their faces. I have hugged a lot of moms. And whenever I think of this issue, I think about Nate Gordon, who lost his life, whose mom I visit with and who has helped me in my roundtables on helping me cope with how to talk to our parents about this deadly addiction that has overtaken our country.

Nate was a kid who got addicted, and he tried to beat it. And he beat it. And then, one night, it took his life.

His mom doesn't have her son anymore, but she has dedicated her life to helping parents to educate kids, to get people in treatment. And that is what we need. We need an entire community to bond with this Congress to fight drug addiction.

I spoke to our attorney general, my friend from North Carolina, and she told me that over 1,000 illegals had been arrested in Arkansas recently, tens of thousands of pills, and over 1,000 pounds of drugs.

So this is something that challenges our whole country, and we have to work together. I commend our President for keeping it at the forefront of the American people, and I commend Mr. Walker for inviting us here to visit about it tonight.

Madam Speaker, today, I rise to bring attention to Majd Kamalmaz, an American being held by Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad.

In February 2017, Majd was detained by Syrian police while visiting the country for the funeral of his father-in-law.

When I spoke to Majd's children, last week, they told me they had tried to convince him not to go to Syria, but their father always put others ahead of himself.

Majd's personal motto is ``be in peace,'' and that motto has been on display throughout his life, in his work around the world, in places like Kosovo, Indonesia, Lebanon, and here at home after Katrina.

Majd's children have not seen or heard from their father for nearly 2 years. Madam Speaker, I echo their plea and call on President Trump to do what he can to ensure that their father is safely returned to his homeland in America.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chair for the opportunity to address the House today as we come together as Members of the House and read our U.S. Constitution.

Long-time British Prime Minister William Gladstone in 1878 said: ``The most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by brain and purpose of man.'' That is how he described the U.S. Constitution.

For 2 centuries the Constitution has dedicated the structure of our remarkable Republic and created the operation of the consent of the governed and the protection of a free people's individual rights.

All of us who work here in the people's House marvel at its daily majesty, of James Madison's checks and balances, separation of powers, and the institutional hybrid of Federalism.

Today, we gather at the heart of the Capitol, the heart of Article I, the first branch, to read our governing document:

``We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.''

``The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.''

Section 4:

``The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened, against domestic Violence.''

Article V:

``The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.''

Article VI:

``All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

``This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

``The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.''

Article VII:

``The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.''

Mr. Speaker, this historic reading of the U.S. Constitution on the floor of the House tonight, together with the Bill of Rights and all the amendments ratified as described in the original document, make the supreme law of the land. They are the law that we look to every day to guide the work of this House of Representatives. And I will remind my friends that 50 percent of the words in this historic document are governed and written in regard to Article I, the first branch, the Congress of the United States, the legislative branch.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues tonight who have joined us on the floor in reading the U.S. Constitution: Virginia Foxx, Tom Emmer, Warren Davidson, Mike Bost, Ted Yoho, Mike Conaway, Roger Williams, Tim Walberg, Jody Hice, Rick Allen, Peter Olson, Buddy Carter, Morgan Griffith, Andy Barr, Brian Babin, and Scott Perry. I am grateful for their participation in reading this historic document.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the choir from Immaculate Conception Church and School in North Little Rock, Arkansas, for being invited to represent our State at the inaugural Dublin Choral Festival in Ireland later this year.

More than 240 voices from around the United States will sing together at the festival, and Immaculate Conception is the only group from our State of Arkansas.

The group of 48 parishioners, ranging in age from 10 to 87, is led by Music Director Steve Guilmet.

While there, the choir will travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where they will attend mass and perform during the service. Along with their performances, the parishioners will be raising money to support local hunger and poverty programs, and the parish there will host them.

I congratulate those parishioners on their hard work, and I join all Arkansans in wishing them the very best as they represent our State in Ireland.

Arkansas Canoe Club Trash Removal Team

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the achievements of Cowper Chadbourn and the Arkansas Canoe Club Black Ops Advanced Trash Removal team.

Cowper founded the black ops team in 2014 to promote water quality and clean up trash in the watersheds throughout Arkansas.

Since the formation of the group, they have retrieved two giant dumpsters, portable toilets, refrigerators, washers, stoves, and countless tires out of our State's streams. In total, over the past 2 years, they have hauled out more than 2,400 tires and 124,000 pounds from Arkansas waterways.

Mr. Speaker, I extend a hand of gratitude to Mr. Chadbourn and the entire Arkansas Canoe Club Black Ops Advanced Trash Removal team for their worthwhile commitment to our environment and our natural resources.

ASH Hospital of the Year

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize North Little Rock's Arkansas Surgical Hospital for being awarded the Physician Hospital of the Year by the Physician Hospitals of America.

This award recognizes a hospital with a long and exceptional record of high-quality community service and leadership.

Arkansas Surgical Hospital was one of only 19 hospitals in the United States, and the only one in Arkansas, to receive double five-star status from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, CMS, and obtained the highest rankings for both overall quality and patient satisfaction.

The hospital opened in 2005 with 16 beds and 5 operating rooms, but quickly outgrew its space. To meet increasing demand for patient care, in 2006, the hospital broke ground on expansion that brought the facility to 51 beds and 9 operating rooms.

The facility continues to grow and helps 15,000 patients on an annual basis.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the dedicated workers at the Arkansas Surgical Hospital for their service and leadership in patient-centered care in central Arkansas.

Arkansas Children's Beacon Award

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Little Rock's Arkansas Children's Hospital. They have received the silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

The Beacon Award for Excellence recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and demonstrate effective leadership and communication. Arkansas Children's Hospital is the only hospital and unit in the State to earn this recognition and one of only 497 hospitals that currently hold the award.

Its history of excellence in patient care dates back to its founding in 1912.

As a former director and supporter of Arkansas Children's Hospital, I congratulate them on their 106-year legacy of leadership in patient- centered care; this recognition of the Beacon award; and their unqualified, wonderful service to the kids of Arkansas.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member, and I, too, add my thanks to Chairman Engel and his predecessor, Chairman Royce, for their intense and passionate work on this important subject.

I was an original cosponsor, and I support the passage of H.R. 31, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act. This legislation imposes new sanctions on Syrian human rights abusers and those who facilitate the regime's atrocities. It also authorizes the State Department to support entities that are collecting and preserving that chain of evidence for eventual prosecution of those who have committed war crimes in Syria since the war began in 2011.

The world has witnessed many examples of butchering and genocide by menaces throughout history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. They are joined in the last 8 years by a new name, and that is Assad and his Russian and Iranian collaborators.

Until Mr. Trump's strategic airstrikes, for the prior 8 years, the world has blustered and twiddled while these modern menaces murdered the innocent civilian population in Syria. Systematically, they savagely bombed, bludgeoned, gassed, electrocuted, and tortured their people. I have seen this evidence on full display in Washington's Holocaust museum, and I urge all Americans to look at that exhibit.

I have heard eyewitness testimony from the Syrian Emergency Task Force. Listen to the horrors, Mr. Speaker:

A survivor of a gas attack told The New York Times in 2017:

My eyes were burning, my head was throbbing, and my throat

was blocked. I was suffocating. I tried to inhale, but all I

heard was a horrible rasping sound as my throat closed up. An

unbearable pain drummed in my head. The world began to blur.

I pounded my chest, but I couldn't breathe. I thought my

heart was going to explode.

Does this Congress need any more testimony, Mr. Speaker?

I commend President Trump for hearing these cries and his leadership to carry out airstrikes to block Assad's mass murder, and I call on him again to strengthen his resolve against Assad's barbarous acts and think of these innocent Syrian people who face these terrible atrocities nearly ever day.

Finally, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 31, and I call on the Senate to not twiddle their thumbs any longer and act with expedition and pass this legislation. Let's not waste any more time bringing Assad and his coconspirators to justice.

Madam Speaker, I would like to include in the Record the following Presidential Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day 2019.

Office of the Press Secretary

[For Immediate Release--January 15, 2019]

Religious Freedom Day, 2019

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on National Religious Freedom Day to announce that I am reintroducing my resolution in the House in support of the Coptic Christians in Egypt.

I sponsored a nearly identical resolution last Congress, and I truly appreciate the support I received from more than 50 of my House colleagues who cosponsored that resolution.

Egypt and the United States are important partners in the fight against terrorism in the region. Egypt's role at Camp David has led to some of the closest ties between the United States, Egypt, and Israel in their history.

I am reintroducing this resolution because the Egyptian Government can do more to protect its Christian citizens.

I have great respect for President el-Sisi, someone I have had the opportunity to meet with on two occasions, and I applaud the changes and message that el-Sisi has made in the areas of religious tolerance and plurality.

He continues to say and do the right things at the top level of government: having a good relationship with the Coptic Pope, attending mass on multiple occasions, getting some churches reconstructed while constructing the largest Christian cathedral in the Middle East in the new administrative center outside Cairo, and holding terrorists accountable for their atrocities.

But, Mr. Speaker, there is more to do. I stress to the Egyptian foreign affairs officials when I meet with them that this is not an attack on President el-Sisi. To the contrary, I acknowledge the support and partnership and friendship that we have with Egypt. But there is more that can be done in the area of protecting religious freedom and human rights, especially in the rural parts of the country.

The State Department's 2018 religious freedom report on Egypt names Minya province as a particular area for concern. The Egyptians routinely claim that they have no minorities in Egypt. ``We are all Egyptians, and we all take our water from the Nile,'' is something that is frequently said.

But from my studies and in my view, there is a population in Egypt that does not have the same protections of rule of law as others. The country must do better in places like Minya province.

Following Secretary Pompeo's recent visit to Egypt, Hamza Hendawi of the Associated Press wrote: ``El-Sisi's widely publicized policy to staunch sectarianism, however, has done little to protect Christians in rural Egypt, where Muslim extremists frequently attack their homes and businesses or force them to leave their homes after violent disputes.

``Critics and activists say discrimination against Christians there is often tolerated by local authorities and branches of the security agencies.''

Mr. Speaker, my resolution calls on the Egyptian Government to end this culture of impunity for attacks on Christians and to undertake the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of individuals who carry out attacks on Copts and other Christians in Egypt. It calls on the government to hold accountable these local government officials who fail to enforce the law.

I stand with Secretary of State Pompeo and support his message that: ``More work certainly needs to be done to maximize the potential of the Egyptian nation and its people. I'm glad that America will be a partner in those efforts.''

However, as the second highest recipient of American military aid in the world, the United States Government must use the tools that it has to hold our allies to a higher standard, if they are to continue to receive our aid.

I encourage Egypt to live up to the legacy of Camp David at home, working to achieve what former President Anwar Sadat called ``permanent peace based on justice.''

Today in America, we commemorate Virginia's 1786 adoption of Thomas Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom. In his proclamation today, President Trump urged all Americans to help ``secure this blessing both at home and around the world.''

All people around the world, regardless of their religious affiliation, deserve the same freedom to practice their chosen religion like we have enjoyed here in the United States of America for more than 200 years.

Permanent peace based on justice for the Coptic Christians of Egypt, that is my goal with this resolution.

As President Reagan said: ``Respect for human rights is not social work; it is not merely an act of compassion. It is the first obligation of government and the source of its legitimacy.''

Mr. Speaker, the respect for human rights and religious freedom is fundamental to the American position, and I will continue to promote this issue for Coptic Christians and all Egyptians who take their water from the Nile.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Tommy May and his inspirational example of leadership throughout his life and courage in battling ALS.

May served in Vietnam in the United States Marine Corps before returning home to the University of Arkansas and the Walton College to earn his degree in business. He would go on to establish a remarkable banking career, eventually becoming president and CEO of Simmons First National Bank in 1987.

In 2005, May was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, becoming one of about 20,000 people living with that disease in the United States. Although statistics show that the average survival time is only 3 years, May has survived far longer, continuing his leadership for more than a decade at Simmons First National Bank and at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Since his diagnosis, he has helped spearhead a new effort at UAMS to speed up research on the disease. He has been recognized for those efforts by the university. My friend's example of perseverance and courage in continuing to live his life on his own terms is one that all Americans and Arkansans can admire.

Mr. Speaker, I was delighted to read that President Trump has reflected on his initial instinct to pull our 2,000 soldiers out of eastern Syria based on his conclusion that ISIS is defeated, and, instead, he is ordering a withdrawal at a proper pace consistent with American objectives.

To meet our goals of a safe American homeland and progress towards regional stability, America must first develop a strategy to eliminate ISIS from northeast Syria along the lower Euphrates valley at the border of Syria and Iraq.

This plan must include a productive role for our partner and ally, the Kurds. It is not in America's interest to abandon our long friends, the Kurds, to Turkish treachery and annihilation.

Recent open-source data suggests there are 30,000 ISIS-related fighters in the lower Euphrates valley. With our allies, we must press this villainous band to its inglorious end.

Our leaving with no plan will squander our immense success in cutting off funding and winning back hard-fought territorial gains from the occupation of ISIS.

Second, America must block Iran. A key here is a small base and deconfliction zone at al-Tanf, a small force of 200 anchors that base along the key highway between Damascus and Baghdad. Not only is this a strategic imperative, Mr. Speaker, but 50,000 refugees are tenuously housed in this deconfliction zone at Rukban. Withdraw, and death awaits them.

Neighboring Jordan can take no more. We must ensure that an allied force remains at al-Tanf, blocking the Iranian-planned autobahn being considered from Tehran to Damascus. Withdraw, Mr. President, and you will leave Israel fully encircled by its greatest enemy, the Ayatollah in Tehran.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, America must achieve peace and stability in Syria. Our small elite presence, our supply lines, and our air superiority offer pressure on the murderous regime in Damascus to reach a settlement to return Syria to peace and return millions of refugees to their towns and ancestral homes.

Leave, Mr. President, and you will squander the great moral victory of your strategic strikes against Assad from his illegal use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs.

Your early decisive actions made our friends, villagers huddling in fear and from the Euphrates to Idlib, shout with joy. ``America is back,'' they shouted.

Leave, Mr. President, with no plan and no strategy, and they will hang their heads as they did during President Obama's shameful abandonment.

Mr. Speaker, this unfortunate chapter unfolding in the tragedy known as Syria foreshadows an unflattering flashback to a time long ago when Great Britain abandoned a role of stability in the Holy Land and India.

In 1948, Churchill rose in the House to oppose Prime Minister Atlee's own unplanned precipitous withdrawal from the Holy Land, saying:

A time limit imposed--a kind of guillotine--will certainly

prevent the full, fair, and reasonable discussion of the

great, complicated issues that are involved.

Indeed, as Churchill foresaw, mayhem, terror, and destruction were the result of Britain's precipitous withdrawal.

It is said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Mr. President, let's not repeat this historical mistake nor let our actions even result in a rhyme.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the accomplishments of Colonel Erica Ingram, who recently became the first African-American female colonel in Arkansas National Guard history.

Colonel Ingram is a native of Wilmar, Arkansas, and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She began her military career as a second lieutenant on Active Duty with the United States Army in 1995.

Throughout her two decades in the Army, Colonel Ingram has earned the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, the

National Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Arkansas Emergency Service Ribbon, and the Arkansas Service Ribbon.

She has served as the president of the National Guard Association of Arkansas, and she is a graduate of Leadership Greater Little Rock.

My congratulations and best wishes to Colonel Ingram and her family, and I thank her for her service to our citizens and her bright future as a defender of our great Nation.

I thank my friend from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler) for her leadership on this issue. Thanks for letting us gather together on the people's House floor tonight and talk about this issue and try to lay out for the American people who are watching some of the facts associated with this situation. I am not sure they always get the full story.

When I came to Congress, I knew the only way to really understand this border security issue was to go to the border. Since I was elected in 2014, I have been down on the southwest border four times and am getting ready to go back in just a few days.

On those trips, I meet with Border Patrol agents, local law enforcement, county judges, citizens, and community leaders. We all talk about the issue of what is the definition of border security: the physical barrier aspect? the technology? the observation? the manpower? the coordination with local law enforcement?

We always talk about drugs and drug cartels. You have heard from our leader tonight that they outman and outgun American law enforcement, Federal and State.

Just last week, I got a note from my good friend that we lost another young person from my high school due to heroin and fentanyl overdose.

I carry a little packet of Sweet'N Low in my pocket, Mr. Speaker, because a gram of fentanyl, which is the size of a Sweet'N Low packet, has enough fentanyl in it to kill 500 Americans. So it is killing our kids, Mr. Speaker, and it is coming across the border with Mexico.

Physical barriers shape the strategic deployment of our force. That is why county judges support it, mayors support it, and our Border Patrol supports it. This is why, over the past 20 years, when President Bush proposed it, President Clinton proposed it, Bush 43 proposed it, and Obama supported it, we built fence, starting in San Diego. We see, where there is fencing, 90 percent reductions in people crossing illegally.

Fences work. Physical barriers work. Physical barriers shape our force deployment and allow us to better use our manpower and coordinate our very understaffed and undergunned forces.

Secondly, it is increasingly frustrating to me that this is a crisis of politics in this House Chamber and in the United States Senate. It is utterly hypocritical on the part of our leaders in the House and our minority in the Senate to not see this need for humanitarian assistance on the border and physical security on the border. Republicans have proposed this time and time again last year. We got no Democratic votes for it last year.

I want my friends on the other side of the aisle to be able to make the moral distinction between those who come to our country legally and those who come here illegally. It seems to me that is a straightforward promise. America is a nation of immigrants. We are the most generous and welcoming country in the world.

One other point I want to make before I close, my friend from Missouri, is to talk about people seeking asylum here, people coming to our border with no papers, no documentation.

There was a news story this week about the Bangladeshi pair of men trying to come in and cross the border, interviewed on national television. We see, time and time again, people come from Bangladesh and from all over the world. They come to Mexico; they come to our border; and they have no passport.

How do they come into the United States? They have no documents. They claim asylum, credible fear, and yet here, Mr. Speaker, is a driver's license handed to me by a Border Patrol agent in Chula Vista, California, of a Saudi Arabian born in the early 1990s, and yet we have no record of someone from Saudi Arabia crossing at Chula Vista in the time frame that this driver's license was found in the Chula Vista station outside San Diego.

We have a crisis on this border, and when people tell you there isn't one, they are not telling you the truth. That should terrify us that we don't know who is coming across our border, Mr. Speaker.

Therefore, I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for holding this hour. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the American people about the drugs and the impact on our youth and the impact on our national security by not having a secure southern border.

Madam Speaker, first, let me associate myself with the gentleman from Texas and his fine remarks about the strengths of this country and how this country has led the world in every way and is the envy of the world. I thank the gentleman from Texas for his inspirational remarks on this House floor.

Madam Speaker, I look forward, too, with optimism to the 116th Congress. I refuse to be pulled down by the vortex of negativism and profanity that is engulfing social media and cable television programming. Instead, I am

grateful for the opportunity to work to pursue policies that improve our Nation.

Madam Speaker, I spent my first two terms in Congress building relationships with my colleagues, in both the House and the Senate and in both political parties. I have done this based on my experiences that I had in the 1980s as a staffer on the Senate Banking Committee, as well as my 4 years of service in the executive branch in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

I value political leaders reasoning together to find common ground to tackle our Nation's policy challenges, large and small.

In this context, I host periodic, bipartisan dinners. I call these the ``Longworth-Garner Dinners,'' so named for Nick Longworth from Cincinnati, Ohio, Speaker of the House from 1925 to his untimely death in 1931, and his great friend, Congressman Jack Garner from Uvalde, Texas, minority leader much of the time when his friend Nick was Speaker.

These two men could not have been more different. Longworth was from a patrician family who settled in Cincinnati in the early 19th century, and he was married to Teddy Roosevelt's oldest daughter, Alice.

``Cactus Jack'' Garner was a rough-and-tumble small-town lawyer from Uvalde who rose to be a successful county judge and then became a terrifically successful Member of the U.S. House. As Garner put it, ``I was the heathen, and Nick was the aristocrat.''

Longworth and Garner came to Congress at the same time in 1902. Both served with distinction; both rose to the top of their political parties; and both were terrific friends.

When Longworth was sworn into speakership for the last time in April of 1929, he paid tribute to his friend, the minority leader and future Speaker, by saying: ``The gentleman from Texas and I entered Congress together 26 years ago. That he is a better man than I, in the estimation of his constituents, is made clear by the fact that his service has been continuous, whereas mine was interrupted by a vacation of 2 years, by no means of my own motion. During all these years, our friendship has been continuously abiding, and our affection, esteem, and respect, the one for the other, is and has been, I am proud to say, mutual.''

For his part, on the untimely death of Longworth in 1931, Garner, who did become Speaker, said: ``He was an aristocrat; I am a plebeian. Perhaps . . . our different rearing intensified our interest in each other. I have lost one of the best friends of a lifetime, the country a good citizen, and the Congress a most valued legislator.''

It was ``Cactus Jack'' and Nick who cooked up the tradition in room H-128 of the U.S. Capitol. Each afternoon, no matter how much fighting took place on the floor of the U.S. House, they retreated to H-128, which they nicknamed the ``Bureau of Education,'' to have a drink and ``strike a blow for liberty.''

Room H-128 went on to even greater fame, as longtime Speaker Sam Rayburn from Texas continued this tradition that he had witnessed as a young Member.

The purpose of my Longworth-Garner Dinners is to get to know each other, to understand what our goals and objectives are for our constituents and how we can work effectively together on the House Financial Services Committee.

Madam Speaker, I will continue the tradition of Longworth and Garner in the 116th Congress. I look forward to working hand-in-hand and shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleagues in both parties and on both sides of the U.S. Capitol to move this country forward and seek a better Nation through our partnership.

Mr. Speaker, I want to again add my congratulations to the incoming chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee. I look forward to working with her and our committee in the 116th Congress.

But like my friend from Georgia and my friend from North Carolina, this bill is not a constructive effort today, Mr. Speaker. We voted on this bill last week. The McConnell Senate is not going to take it up. It is not going to produce our government reopening. It is not helping the government get reopened to put people back to work doing the people's work.

So this is really a waste of our time to be on the floor today. We should be putting that emphasis on a bipartisan effort to get Democratic leadership in the House and Senate working with the President on a solution to a comprehensive border security plan and reopen this government.

I want to also thank my friend for letting me talk about the insufficiency of the Senate bill, as it does not contain our bipartisan provisions, 20 provisions this House approved, that we worked on on a bipartisan basis, that will improve access to capital across this country for small businesses, for our capital markets, and will lower the cost and make more transparent home buying.

Two things in particular I worked on with my friend, Bill Foster, from Illinois. The Volcker Rule Regulatory Harmonization Act, which we passed in this House, was not included in the Senate provision; and a provision to make insurance disclosures more transparent and more accurate for consumers for home mortgages, which was also passed, strongly bipartisan, by our committee and by this House was originally in our proposal, and it is not in the Senate bill, Mr. Speaker.

Therefore, let's say to the American people, the bill we have on the floor today is not going to result in the government reopening; it is not going to be voted on in the Senate; it is not going to be approved by President Trump; and it is deficient. It does not include the bipartisan priorities in financial services ably included in the House version by Mr. Graves.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Graves for his leadership.