Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, as I said last night before the Rules Committee, I don't disagree with this legislation. Every day I hear from my constituents, gasoline prices are way too high. They have got to choose between paying for groceries and filling up their gas tank. I agree, we should ease the burden on American taxpayers. However, I disagree that this is the right way to do it.

Just last year, the Inflation Reduction Act made historic investments in home energy rebates, tax credits, clean energy vehicles, land and water conservation, and grants for greenhouse gas reduction.

This legislation, in contrast, does not make any new investments. It simply walks back all the progress we have made before we can see the results of those investments.

That is why I introduced last night an amendment to simply say that any future investments in gas and oil be equaled in clean energy investments.

Why? Because we want to make sure we keep America on the world stage as leaders in energy production.

Sadly, my colleagues across the aisle will not be bringing up my amendment for a vote this week.

Coach Rollinson, congratulations. You put not Santa Ana but Santa Ana on the map.

Thank you very much. You have often said that you create the effort and God controls the outcome. These are words to live by. Thank you very much.

Last year, I had the opportunity when I was at home on a Friday night--one of my favorite activities is to go and watch high school football games. Santa Ana Bowl is about a mile away from my house.

This night you were there coaching Mater Dei vs. St. John Bosco. It was an epic game of course.

As I got there and looked around, I was on the sidelines--your side, by the

way, not Bosco's side--and next to me I saw the USC head coach and Bama's head coach. There must have been every head coach in the top 20 schools in this country watching your game and watching your athletes play football that night.

It was unbelievable.

At the end of the game we had a bunch of helicopters come by and take these coaches away. It was an unbelievable night.

We are going to honor you today, an honor well-deserved. You are Orange County's all-time leader, and the winningest coach.

You graduated from Mater Dei High School in 1967, and in 1966, you played against Anaheim High School--my High School. I am a Colonist too. You played against my coach, Clare Van Hoorebeke.

This is our helmet, sir. Do you remember it?

I wore this helmet that night in 1966. It was the game of the decade. Anaheim Stadium, a record number of people attending that night; almost 33,000 people in attendance that night in 1966.

Coach Rollinson, if I look at this poster here, we edged you out that night. We won, 12-7. It is my understanding that you scored those 7 points. Of course, as you can see, the players at the bottom there, I think that is probably you, one of those players is you.

Coach Van Hoorebeke preceded you in Anaheim, Orange County. I think we all learned from him. If I think back to the days I played football under Coach Van Hoorebeke, the one thing the coach taught me is when you get hit, when you get knocked down, when you get bloodied, you get up, and you keep going.

I still remember those days. Three-hour football practices. No water, no rest. Heaven help you, if you made a mistake; you had to go run laps, full uniform on, helmet on. That was the discipline we grew up with in Orange County.

Coach Rollinson, I am telling you what you already know; we were a community. We are a community in Orange County. I am honored to say today that we are a family.

I often would drive down Bristol Street to take my kids to the local elementary school, and I would watch your team practice, admiring you and respecting you because, sir, you put us on the map again and again and again.

You graduated from Mater Dei. You came back to teach in 1976 at Mater Dei. That is the year I graduated from Anaheim High School. Like my colleague Mr. Womack said, four national championships. With the exception of maybe one or two universities, more Heisman trophies than anybody else in the country.

I am not going to say good-bye, sir, but I will say that you will be missed as a head coach, and I know and I do hope your successor will carry on your tradition because we need to make sure we continue to build champions in Santa Ana, California.

Let me conclude by saying that success of individuals like you, you have got to have a team partner. Mrs. Rollinson, thank you for giving him the strength to do what he does. I think at the end of the day, we all married up, and we did well.

Like my colleagues have said, you are a great American. I would also say you are a great member of our Orange County family. Thank you. God bless. Go Colonists and go Mater Dei. Thank you very much, Coach Rollinson.

Mr. Speaker, all of us can agree that the most precious gift God can give us is our children. I am a parent of four children-- four children--who all attended public education, K-12. As a parent, I was active and participated in the local school board meetings, teacher-parent conferences, and I was involved with the local PTA because it was my responsibility to know what was going on in my children's life, especially educational life.

All of us here as Americans, regardless of party affiliation, can agree that protecting our children is one of our most important responsibilities here in Congress. I agree with my colleagues across the aisle that we need to protect all students, especially, I would say, undocumented students, some of the most vulnerable students in our society.

Last night, I introduced an amendment that would bar any local educational agency, State agency, elementary school, or secondary school from requesting or disclosing a student's immigration status. Schools, I would say, are the one place in our society that students should feel safe. My amendment would advance this principle. It would say that our students are safe in their schools.

Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues across the aisle would have voted for my amendment last night, then they would have voted for safety for all of our students in school. Yet, they didn't do that. By failing to vote for my amendment, they left our most vulnerable students hanging.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the achievements of Claudia Alvarez, an Orange County Superior Court Judge.

Prior to becoming a judge, she served as the Orange County Deputy District Attorney for over 22 years. Claudia Alvarez graduated from California State Fullerton in 1991, before attending Loyola Law School. After graduating in

1994 with her Juris Doctorate, Claudia created her own firm where she managed a law practice specializing in family law matters serving low- income clients in Santa Ana. Following her time at her firm, she started serving as an Orange County Deputy District Attorney in 1999.

While working at the Orange County District Attorney's Office, Claudia was elected to the City Council of Santa Ana from 2000 to 2012 and actively worked to improve public safety of the city. She joined the Orange County Water District's Board of directors in 2007 to 2012 and ensured clean waters for more than 2.5 million county residents. From 2012 to 2020, she joined the Rancho Santiago Community College District as a Governing Board Member and oversaw the management and operation of the college district, including its two sister colleges, Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College.

Aside from her roles in public office, Claudia has invested countless hours in her community through her volunteer work. Claudia has been a mentor for the Puente (Bridge) and Hermanita (Little Sister) programs, has served as president of the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association, vice president of Kinder Caminata, and president of MANA (Orange County Chapter). Claudia has also served as a board member of Community Service Programs (CSP) (now known as Waymakers). She also has volunteered in the award-winning Orange County Gang and Intervention Partnership since 2011.

Her merit has earned her several accolades such as the Past President's Award from the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association in 2000. She has also received California State University of Fullerton's ``Distinguished Alumni Recognition--Querer es Poder: 50 Examples'' in 2008. In 2016, she was recognized as the Woman of the Year by the National Hispanic Business Women Association in Orange County. Claudia Alvarez has been described as instrumental in improving public safety and quality of life for her community. She has made her community proud and served as a role model that many aspire to follow.

For this reason, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and recognizing my constituent Claudia Alvarez, for her humanitarian accomplishments and her commitment to her community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the achievements of Gualterio Santos.

Gualterio Santos was an immigrant from a village in Oaxaca, Mexico who came to the United States when he was only sixteen years old and fought to avoid being separated from his wife, Sebastiana Morales, and their seven children.

In November of 2017, he learned of a deportation order for him. He spent the past two years, thinking that at any moment the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would come to arrest him.

In October of 2019, the situation worsened when ICE agents were transporting him to the Mexican border into Tijuana was stopped when his attorney Crooms obtained an order pausing his expulsion.

In December of 2019, a few days before Christmas Day, a miracle happened. Monica Crooms, an attorney fighting his case told him that his deportation order had been cancelled.

Santos has lived in the United States too long to not consider the country, like Mexico, his home. He came to the United States in 1991 and was a street vendor in Washington Heights, New York for nearly a decade.

In 2000, he got lost in Michigan and crossed into Canada, and when he returned to the United States, ICE officers warned him that they were filing a complaint for which he had to appear before a judge in Detroit, Michigan.

In 2003, without receiving a notification, Santos and his family moved to Southern California. The Santos opened a small flower shop called Santos Flowers that today became a chain of several stores, employing more than twenty people. He became known as ``the king of flowers.''

He submitted his application for a green card when he thought about regularizing his situation. In August of 2017 he was summoned to a hearing, only to learn that the Detroit judge had waited for him and in his absence, had ordered his deportation in 2000.

Santos was a well-liked man in the city for his contribution to the local economy, fifteen years he had created a distribution network that took his flowers to more than one hundred and fifty supermarkets. The judge received letters from politicians and community leaders asking him to seek legal pathways for Santos not to be deported. Gualterio Santos, an Oaxacan entrepreneur, considers the support given to him by officials in Santa Ana helped him recover his freedom. Santos is grateful for his second chance in the United States of America.

I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and celebrating the achievements of Gualterio Santos.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the achievements of Mr. Mike Gonzalez.

Mr. Gonzalez is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and immigrated to the United States of America at age 17. After immigrating to the U.S., he began his new life by obtaining a license from the State of California to start his career as a private investigator and bodyguard, eventually starting his own company.

A resident of Santa Ana, California, since 1987, he now owns several businesses, including Santa Ana Security Services, Inc., and employs 250 men and women. Mr. Gonzalez is a community leader and activist in Santa Ana, where he organizes the annual May Day March for immigrant rights, workers' rights, and human rights for all. He also coordinated the historic ``2006 March'' to protest a law that sought to criminalize those who help undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Mr. Gonzalez is an active member in the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and he serves as the organization's vice president of Immigration Reform. In this role, he participates in historic campaigns such as, but not limited to, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the 2018 VOICES Act, and the 2019 ``Keep California Families Together'' law.

He was a counselor to the previous four Presidents of Mexico electors at the Consulate of Mexico. In 1995, he actively participated in campaigns that led to an amendment to the Mexican Constitution. In the period of 2005 through 2008, he was a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (CC-IME). From 2012 through 2015, he was an inventor and coordinator of the Commission of Art, Culture, and Mexican Traditions Abroad.

Mr. Gonzalez is a practicing Catholic and gives thanks to God for his many blessings. He is a man who has made many positive contributions to his community.

I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and celebrating the exceptional achievements and career of Mr. Mike Gonzalez.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to honor the 100th birthday of my constituent, World War II veteran, Joe Juarez, a member of the Greatest Generation.

Joe was born in Fullerton, California. While growing up, his favorite sport was baseball.

In 1942, Joe and his high school baseball team were on their way to the CIF championship game, but they never made it because Joe and his teammates were drafted and served in World War II.

As a private first class, Joe fought in the Pacific and was awarded the Asia-Pacific Campaign Medal and a World War II Victory Medal. Joe spent 2\1/2\ years in the Pacific before returning home. Several of his teammates, including one of his brothers, never made it back.

Joe and his wife, Novel, were married for 68 years and raised three children.

Throughout his life, Joe has never forgotten his Band of Brothers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this great country.

Happy birthday, Joe. Happy birthday. You are a true American hero.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary career of Jennifer Carpenter, the Chief Operating Officer for D'Amore Healthcare.

As the COO for D'Amore Healthcare, Jennifer is a Certified Treatment Executive and holds credentials in the behavioral health field, including certifications as a Qualified Mental Health Specialist and Certified Admissions and Marketing Specialist with CCAPP. Before finding her passion in Admissions with D'Amore Healthcare, Jennifer worked for a nonprofit organization as the Financial Administrator.

Her own personal journey led to her dedication in helping others struggling with mental health and substance abuse and allows her to be the point of contact with individuals and their families looking to start their recovery.

Throughout her incredible career, Jennifer made sure that her clients are aware of the individual care they will receive while at D'Amore Healthcare, which includes screening and assessment before admissions and following through with the patient's intake from start to finish, in addition to discharge planning.

It is my privilege to honor this humble and hard-working woman. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in acknowledging the career and accomplishments of Jennifer Carpenter.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of George Fraser (AHS Class of 1970), who was one of Anaheim High School's greatest sports legends. George passed away suddenly last weekend on February 12, 2023.

As a sophomore, George famously stepped in as quarterback and proceeded to lead the Mighty Colonists to the 1967 CIF Football Championship. George would go on to star for the Colonist football team during his junior and senior seasons, in which Anaheim reached the 4-A Division semifinals each year. He became the first and only football player to ever be named to the All-CIF-SS 4-A Division team three times. George eventually returned to coach football at Anaheim and was on staff when the Colonists again reached the CIF finals in 1987 and 2006, spending more than 20 years coaching at The Colony up to and including last season. George also coached youth sports in the City of Anaheim for decades. George's legacy will live on in our community and through the halls of Anaheim High School. Let us join in mourning the loss of this great Colonist who was a tremendous asset to the Anaheim Community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of my constituent, Orange County Public Defender Elliot Blair, who passed away while celebrating his first anniversary with his wife in Mexico.

Elliot graduated from Cal State Fullerton and earned his degree in law from Loyola Marymount University. Elliot was a devoted public servant and advocate for the underserved and underrepresented. He was a young attorney, a promising young attorney that was loved by our community.

On the evening of his passing away, he called his mother and he said, mom, I am going to have dinner at your favorite restaurant. Those were the last words he uttered to his family.

Elliot will be missed, but he will not be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to honor my good friend, World War II veteran Jess Saenz, who was a member of the Greatest Generation. He passed away at the age of 98.

Born in 1924, Saenz was 19 and had recently graduated from Anaheim High School when he joined the military in 1943.

Jess was 1 of 50 young men from the historic Colonia Independencia, a segregated Mexican-American community in my hometown of Anaheim, California, who fought in the Great War.

Jess fought the Germans in the Ardennes of France and would later tell us his stories of how he lived in foxholes for 14 months, withstanding cold winter nights and drenching rains.

The war, he said, taught him to be responsible and made him a greater man.

Upon his return to the United States in 1946, he married Nellie, raised four children, became a carpenter, and helped build this great country.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in saluting World War II veteran Jess Saenz, a true American hero and a member of the Greatest Generation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition. COVID-19 has been the worst pandemic we have had in this world in 100 years. It is a medical issue to be addressed by doctors and not a political issue.

Today, my colleagues are asking us to support a bill to terminate the COVID public health emergency, yet the Biden administration's current extension of the public health emergency is a rational one. It is rational in the way we exit from this emergency declaration: We let our healthcare system adjust from this tremendous terrible pandemic that continues to evolve in our society. I would say a politically driven end to COVID-19 is not the way to run our healthcare system.

Furthermore, while my colleagues are saying there is no need for a public health emergency, they want to keep title 42 at the border because of its public health emergency implications.

My colleagues, I say to you, if you truly believe the pandemic is over, then you can't say that title 42 is still needed at the border because of a healthcare crisis.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to wish one of my constituents from my hometown of Anaheim, Ms. Margaret Marie Peters, a very happy 94th birthday.

Margaret was born in the year of the Great Crash. From an early age, she wanted to learn, and her grandmother taught her how to read and write. She graduated first in her high school class, and she was the first to graduate from high school in her family.

Later, Margaret married a decorated World War II marine. Together, they raised five daughters in Anaheim. In her forties, she attended college classes. It was something she always wanted to do. Later on, Margaret spent 29 years working for Disneyland.

Margaret will turn 94 on February 2, and she has witnessed many changes in this great country. Clearly, the United States today has come a long way since 1929.

Margaret, happy birthday to you and many more.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary achievements and career of retired California Superior Court Judge Frederick P. Aguirre.

Judge Aguirre attributes every opportunity he had in life to the heroism of his family, particularly his father, who played a major role in helping desegregate the schools he and his siblings attended in Placentia, California.

A graduate of the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles Law School, Judge Aguirre learned to appreciate that it was the service of his father in the U.S. Military, along with numerous other family members, that gave his padre the power to stand up to the inequity he saw after returning home from World War II.

Aguirre's father, Alfred, Uncles Richard and Joe, and 23 assorted cousins all served in Germany, Italy, North Africa, the Pacific in all branches of the U.S. Military during World War II, He also had 6 cousins who served in the Korean War and others who are still military members.

After returning from war, many of those servicemen, now accustomed to receiving the same treatment as white soldiers, did not stand by when their children were expected to attend separate schools. Aguirre's father, who worked in construction the rest of his life, joined the fight to integrate Orange County Schools, eventually becoming the first Hispanic City Councilman in Placentia.

Because of the sacrifices of his antepasados ancestors, Aguirre achieved success as a lawyer and as a judge. His wife, Linda, whose father and 5 uncles served in World War II and Korea, also experienced an accomplished career as a teacher for 3 decades in the Anaheim Union High School District. The couple, who never forgot the freedom and opportunities their forefathers provided, realized it was now time for them to reciprocate by researching and documenting the pivotal--and largely unknown--role Mexican Americans from Orange County played in U.S. military history,

Under the non-profit Latino Advocates for Education, Frederick and Linda, along with research partner Rogelio Rodriguez, produced books, a documentary and a website, which is now managed by the Orange County Department of Education.

Their recognition efforts also involved holding numerous community events to honor Latino veterans at local colleges and universities. These events continue today, most recently with Chapman University's History Department, which has taken on the task of recording oral histories of Orange County's Latino veterans.

Judge Aguirre's efforts to recognize and honor Latino veterans calls attention to his dedication in uplifting his Hispanic community. Throughout his professional career, he served as the President of the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association, as well as the President of the League of United Latin American Citizen.

Among his many accolades, he was recognized in 2014 as one of the ``101 Influential Latinos in the U.S.'' by Latino Leaders Magazine. Additionally, Mr, Aguirre was named Judge of the Year by the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County in 2003.

Frederick Aguirre has created a legacy with roots that trace back to his father, a WWII veteran, his mother, Julia, who supported the war effort as a Rosie the Riveter working at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, and to his many relatives who served honorably in the U.S. Military,

For his efforts, the world now knows the names of the Mexican- Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the legacy of Judge Frederick P. Aguirre's work to ensure that Mexican-American veterans will be remembered honorably in American history.

Mr. Speaker, this is a great country. I rise to honor the life and legacy of Judge James Ortega Perez. Part of the Greatest Generation, Judge Ortega Perez grew up in my district, in a segregated community, a farmworker. When World War II started, he answered the call of duty and joined the Army where he served as a sergeant with the Army Corps of Engineers.

After fighting for this great country, he came back and finished his high school graduation at Santa Ana High School, but he wasn't done. Then he enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he got a bachelor's degree and then went on to USC Law School. He then became the first Latino attorney in Orange County, California. Then he was appointed as the first Latino judge in Orange County, California.

It is a great country. Judge Ortega Perez went from being a farmworker to the halls of justice in Orange County. Today, we honor the life and legacy of Judge Ortega Perez.