Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the AlvaradoSmith law firm in California. Since 1993, AlvaradoSmith has provided legal counsel to public agencies, large non-profit corporations, municipalities, emerging businesses, mid-sized companies and Fortune 500 companies. Since then they have opened three offices across California in Santa Ana, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in addition to international locations in Latin America. AlvaradoSmith uses state-of- the-art technology and attorneys with a wealth of experience in different sectors to provide clients with innovative solutions.

The AlvaradoSmith firm was established by Ray Alvarado and Ruben A. Smith with core principles around diversity, excellence, integrity, and community leadership. They have shown their commitment to these values as one of the largest minority-owned law firm in the nation and the largest certified minority-owned law firm in California. Their highly- qualified attorneys attended the nation's prestigious law schools including Berkley Law, Cornell, Georgetown, UCLA, USC and Yale. Their attorneys have breadth in their expertise ranging from business litigation to intellectual property. Their clients include Netflix, Shell, University of California, Restoration Hardware, Southern California Edison and Northrop Grumman.

Today, AlvaradoSmith serve as champions for diversity in legal counsel and continue to set the example for other law firms. AlvaradoSmith fosters inclusivity through their ability to speak over five different languages, investment in a multi-generational workforce, creation of women's leadership forum, and multi-disciplinary practice. I am honored to recognize AlvaradoSmith and its 25 years of dedication to diversity and inclusion.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take some time today to honor Duncan McCulloch, an explementary constituent who I am immensely proud to represent. Mr. McCulloch has served the public schools of Southern California for more than 25 years as a teacher and administrator. Before becoming principal of Segerstrom High School in Santa Ana, he served with distinction as the assistant principal of Costa Mesa High School, and then Corona del Mar High School. Each school he has worked at has been touched by his outstanding leadership and enthusiasm, and his students have been inspired by his dedication.

Mr. McCulloch has served as Segerstrom High School's principal for 5 years, and during that time he constantly strove to provide more opportunities for the enrichment of his students. Among his many accomplishments are introducing a program in American Sign Language, creating the only Aerospace engineering program in Southern California, and implementing an ACT preparation program to help students reach their goals.

His dedicated focus for his students became evident to all that witnessed him teach and guide his students. He was not only a principal, but a mentor, friend, and at times even a father figure to his students. He carries the qualities that every principal should strive for--dedication, genuine interest, and being a role model for all of his students.

Mr. McCulloch enriches the lives of everyone he encounters and is a pillar of his community. Every role that he has held was served with distinction and leadership. His time as a principal for Segerstrom High School will be forever remembered, and we are saddened to see him leave. His actions deeply impacted all of his students and colleagues who will now carry on his legacy and continue to make a positive impact in our community.

Even though he is retiring, he will continue to be a teacher, leading by example and demonstrating the best qualities of a life. I am truly honored to recognize Mr. McCulloch today for improving and guiding the lives of future generations.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Walters for bringing this most important issue to the attention of the American public.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as well to address the issue of Mr. Michael Phuong Nguyen, an American citizen and a resident of Orange County, who is currently being detained by the Vietnamese government.

As Representative Royce just said, we seem to be enjoying a stronger, closer relationship with Vietnam on trade and security. Then we have this contradiction, a contradiction that an American citizen is being detained.

On July 7, Michael Phuong Nguyen was touring Vietnam, visiting relatives, and he was arrested. It has been almost 2 months. The charge is penal code 109, which is activity against the People's government, yet there are no facts that have been presented, no evidence. He is being held. He has been arrested with no evidence being presented.

His wife and his family, they are also personal friends of mine. I know this family. They are strong members of our community. That is why I don't understand how Michael could have been arrested in Vietnam.

I ask the Government of Vietnam to please release Michael. Please release him back to his family and to his country, the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, student loan debt has risen dramatically over the past decades. Today, many borrowers find themselves unable to repay their student loans. In the past, Congress has determined that allowing borrowers to easily discharge student loans under bankruptcy could threaten the student loan program and therefore have made student loans non-dischargeable. This decision has limited the circumstances in which a borrower may discharge their student loan debt.

That is why I am introducing the ``Student Loan Bankruptcy Act,'' a bill to provide both private and federal student loan borrowers an opportunity to obtain relief from insurmountable debt.

Currently, student loans are among the types of debt that require debtors to provide proof of an ``undue hardship.'' The interpretation of undue hardship has varied drastically in the courts throughout the United States. My bill would allow a borrower with student loan debt to file for bankruptcy after five years in the same way they would with any other type of debt. Of course, just because one files for bankruptcy, does not mean one will be granted it and their debt will be discharged. However, the opportunity to file for bankruptcy can provide relief for debtors who are truly struggling and can no longer afford to pay off their debt.

During the 1980s, debtors had a temporal discharge option. It used to be law that debtors had two options for discharging student loans: the borrower would (1) demonstrate an undue hardship or (2) prove that the loan first became due at least five years before the debtor filed for bankruptcy. This in turn made student loan debt dischargeable as all other types of ways to file for bankruptcy, after five years.

Mr. Speaker, one should never fear to pursue an education because of the cost. Borrowers with growing student loan debt should have the opportunity to file for bankruptcy without the need to jump through bureaucratic hoops.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor John Mason on his retirement.

John was born in 1927 in Madrid, Nebraska, and spent his childhood on a family farm in Nevada before moving to Los Angeles at the age of 22 to fulfill his dream of becoming an artist. He enrolled in the Los Angeles Institute of Art where he collaborated with other artists and visionaries.

It was through clay that he first found the tools to realize his vision, and he quickly became an innovator in the field of ceramic sculpting. His creations pushed the limits of what clay could do and forever changed how artists thought about the material's possibilities.

After moving to New York in the 1970s, Mr. Mason expanded his artistic pallet further, working with firebricks and welded steel pieces to construct even more abstract sculptures in his future career.

Mr. Mason has been recognized by countless venues around the world. His passion for making art is unmatched throughout the world. His contributions to the field of sculpting and the many young artists he has inspired make me proud to honor John Mason today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5693, the Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act. This bipartisan legislation will expand veterans' access to medical foster homes, an alternative to nursing home care, by allowing the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover such care for up to 900 veterans every year.

The Medical Foster Homes program allows eligible veterans who require day-to-day assistance to live in private homes with trained caregivers who provide around-the-clock care and the services needed to help these veterans with their daily tasks, such as getting dressed. The program requires that caregivers be licensed and involved in frequent inspections by the VA.

Most importantly, the Medical Foster Homes program provides aging veterans the option to live in a private setting that may feel more like a home than a nursing institution.

Additionally, the amended bill creates a fourth administration within the VA, headed by a new Under Secretary, to administer the educational and employment benefits currently managed by the Veterans Benefits Administration.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 5693.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to say I represent the Golden State of California, and I am proud to say that California was the first State in the Union to implement, to accept the Affordable Care Act a number of years ago, and when we did so, we knew it was a work in progress. After all, Medicare continues to be a work in progress after 60 years. One of those areas we knew we had to change was the medical device tax.

In California, there are over 1,000 medical technology companies, many of which are small to medium, that employ more than 70,000 Californians. Many of those live and work in my district, and these are good-paying middle class jobs.

The research and development of groundbreaking medical technology helps improve patient care and treatments not only for Americans, but for folks throughout the world.

In recognition of the medical tax device's negative impact on innovation and investment, Congress delayed its implementation on two separate occasions. Unfortunately, the temporary suspension of this tax is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. If reinstated, this tax will impede future investments and domestic innovation and restrain hiring and job growth.

Since research and development in this area of technology takes a number of years, the uncertainty about the future of this tax will delay essential research and development and growth in many areas of the State of California. That is why repealing the medical tax device permanently will encourage economic growth and hiring in Orange County and in my area.

The medical device industry represents jobs not only for the next generation, but for the next 20 to 30 years in this country. Mr. Speaker, therefore, I urge passage of H.R. 184.

Mr. Speaker, tonight I want to discuss the importance of NATO to our Nation and to Europe.

In 1949, the United States and 11 other countries created NATO. Today, 29 countries make up this alliance.

At the heart of NATO is article 5, which says that an attack on one ally is attack on all allies.

On September 12, 2001, for the first time ever, article 5 was invoked. 9/11, an attack on America, was an attack on all.

Most recently, the country of Montenegro joined the NATO Alliance. And last week, sadly, the President expressed doubt that the U.S. should come to Montenegro's defense. This is disturbing.

The only time article 5 has been invoked has been for America. When our Nation was at its most vulnerable point, NATO stepped up and had our back. We must uphold our commitment to this critical alliance.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise today in support of

Mr. Speaker, as you know, many of us in Congress and the Nation are working hard to reunite children with their parents. Family reunification should be a time of joy, but, sadly, that is not always the case.

One mother waited for 4 months to wrap her arms around her little boy. Another mother waited 3 months. These should be moments of joy, yet, when the children did not recognize their parents, this became a troubling situation.

As a father of four, I know what it is to be loved by your children. As a father of four, I know what that parent-child relationship is like. To have children that fail to recognize you after a number of months because you haven't seen them, well, that is just not right.

The separation of immigrants from their children is just unconstitutional, un-American, and simply wrong, and I demand that all families be united immediately.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the subject matter of this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to address this body, once again, on the urgency of reuniting migrant children with their families.

The administration's zero-tolerance policy has caused chaos and systematically torn immigrant children away from their parents. Many innocent children are still being held under inhumane conditions at detention facilities apart from their parents. In total, almost 5,000 children--let me repeat--almost 5,000 children who have been separated from their parents because of this zero-tolerance policy are still suffering.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Sabraw ruled that children under the age of 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days. That deadline was yesterday. It came and passed, and only about half the children were actually reunited.

Mr. Speaker, this is unacceptable. There needs to be consequences for the administration's disregard for the law and failure to comply with the Federal Court order.

The United Nations has noted that children who arrive at the U.S. border who plead for asylum with their parents is a legal form of entry according to international law. Many of these children are fleeing from countries plagued with gang violence and drug wars. The administration continues to highlight the threat of the MS-13. Yet the administration does not acknowledge that actually MS-13 is one of the reasons why children and families are seeking protection in our country.

Asylum seekers are not illegal immigrants. They are individuals seeking refuge. It is the law to ensure that asylum seekers are given an opportunity to state their case in front of a judge. Furthermore, separating children away from their parents is an illegal violation of human rights.

This violation of human rights is being exacerbated by DHS' poor recordkeeping. Today the administration does not have the recordkeeping capability necessary to reunite children with their parents, and, instead, they are now relying on DNA tests to figure out what child belongs to what parent.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, 120 of my colleagues and I have called upon the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to investigate on how the administration plans to reunite children with their families. We are concerned that there are no records of the children to reconnect them with their proper parents.

The administration's actions are causing irreparable harm to these vulnerable children, and it is time for the administration to immediately reunite these families.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), who is my good friend and distinguished colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California, Mr. Salud Carbajal, my good friend and colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Maxine Waters), my good friend and distinguished colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Vicente Gonzalez.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), my good friend and distinguished colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from New York for her comments.

Mr. Speaker, just recently, a 14-month-old baby boy was reunited with his mother. The baby boy was traumatized after being separated for almost 90 days from his loving mother. Not only did he look like he wasn't bathed for that time, but he also was covered with lice.

His mom said that her son was not the same since they were reunited. He hasn't been the same since they have been separated. He cries for fear of being alone. Her son is afraid of losing his mother again.

Another parent, Milka Pablo, received a different response from her 3-year-old daughter, Darly, when they were reunited in Phoenix after 4 months of being separated. Let me repeat: after being separated for 4 months. Darly did not recognize her mother.

Milka was met with cries of rejection, and Darly, the daughter, screamed as she tried to wiggle away from her mother's arms.

I cannot believe these small children are subjected to such conditions. Mr. Speaker, some are as young as 1 year old. One of these individuals--a 1-year-old--was obligated to appear in front of a judge for deportation proceedings while separated from his parents.

These children don't have the rights to a court-appointed attorney and are clearly frightened, yet they are still forced--a 1-year-old--to appear in front of a judge and answer questions that, clearly, they cannot comprehend.

Many of these children can barely form sentences, yet they are expected to talk about the violence-plagued countries they are fleeing.

Even Judge John Richardson told a lawyer representing a 1-year-old that he was embarrassed to ask a baby questions on whether they understood the immigration proceedings before them.

The separation of immigrant children from their parents is unconstitutional and simply wrong. I demand that all families be reunited immediately.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, contemporary deportation policies are traumatizing families. The inhumane policy of separating families is terrorizing parents to detrimental ends. Currently, more than 1,300 families are going through unnecessary and harmful separation enacted under our current administration.

Last month, Mr. Munoz and his family crossed the border to apply for asylum. For 40-year-old Marco Antonio Munoz, the fear and anxiety became overwhelming. After being separated from his wife and 3-year-old son, Mr. Munoz strangled himself in a detention center in Texas. His suicide shows the fear they felt during the border crossing and on the road to safety in the U.S.

The law allows families to escape violence and prosecution by seeking shelter in the United States. Currently, the administration refers to asylum as a loophole and family separation as part of a zero-tolerance policy. This policy of zero tolerance is designed to deter and punish immigrants seeking asylum, making them illegal.

While we should all focus on the negative effects on the children, we can't forget the negative effects on the parents as well. Families that present themselves to border agents seeking asylum have not violated any laws. However, the administration is criminally prosecuting all immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

These families are following domestic and international laws, making their prosecution illegal and against our American values. We should not terrorize these families.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, unless you are an American Indian, we are all immigrants to this country. Whether we ourselves or our forefathers came to this country, we came to seek freedom, a better life, and a better future for our families. Asylum seekers, likewise, are not new. What is new is the zero-tolerance policy.

Zero tolerance is clearly a violation of U.S. laws. It violates international law. It is inhumane. It is shameful.

I ask that the administration come up with real solutions for these folks

seeking asylum. I ask the administration to follow the law, follow American law, follow international law. Let's do the right thing. Let's do the American thing. Let's reunite these families.

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

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pose a simple question: What is merit-based immigration? Because it would seem that we have a different interpretation from that of our President.

Panshu Zhao came to this country legally and joined the Army while pursuing a Ph.D. He came to our country to be an American and to contribute to the greatness of our Nation just like other generations before all of us. He is one of the more than 10,000 legal immigrants offered a chance to become a citizen through service and sacrifice.

These legal immigrants enlist in our Armed Forces with vital skills. They have education, they are meritorious, and they are needed. But this administration has now made going after legal immigrants one of its primary goals.

When they threaten to deport doctors in the Army, the administration is going after legal immigrants. When ICE arrests green card holders over minor charges in their distant past, they are going after legal immigrants.

If a soldier pursuing a Ph.D. does not qualify for merit-based immigration, then who does?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Walz, Mr. Valadao, and, of course, Chairman Roe for their leadership on H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act. This is a great example of how Democrats and Republicans come together to do what is right for our country, as well as our veterans.

Since the Vietnam war, veterans have reported numerous health complications, including different forms of cancer related to the exposure to Agent Orange.

While the Department of Veterans Affairs currently presumes that veterans who served on the ground in Vietnam or in the Vietnamese river system were exposed to Agent Orange, that presumption has not extended to the blue water Navy veterans, that is, those veterans who served off of the Vietnam coast.

This bill, thank God, corrects that decades-long mistake and expands that presumption to those who served in the blue water Navy off of the Vietnam coast and ensures equal treatment for all of our veterans.

Additionally, the bill expands the dates of presumption to those who served along the Korean Demilitarized Zone and authorizes benefits for children born with spina bifida due to a parent's exposure to Agent Orange.

This bill, Mr. Speaker, is long overdue, and the benefits will possibly change the lives of those veterans who served in the defense of our country and in the defense of freedom of those around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 299.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York, Congressman Nadler, for this opportunity to speak on this bill.

Madam Speaker, I was hired to work across the aisle, to come to Washington to get things done, to fix problems. Earlier this month, we had a discharge petition that we needed two more signatures on that would have given us the opportunity here on this floor to vote on four immigration bills under the queen-of-the-hill rule. Essentially, that means that whatever bill gets more votes moves ahead.

Among those four bills was Mr. Goodlatte's bill, and, of course, also one of those bills was the Aguilar-Hurd bill that was a product of both Democrats and Republicans coming together working on a solution.

Unfortunately, we weren't given the opportunity to vote on all these four bills. And the current bill on the floor today does not offer a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. Of course, it does not address the current problem of reuniting children who are separated from their families.

Madam Speaker, I ask today, my colleagues, please reject this legislation. And I ask the Speaker to give us the opportunity to vote on the Aguilar-Hurd bill.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to recognize and honor Dr. Thomas A. Parham, an exemplary constituent and university administrator who I am immensely proud to represent. Dr. Parham is ending his 33-year tenure at the University of California, Irvine to become the President of California State University, Dominguez Hills. I know that Dr. Parham will take to Dominguez Hills with the same passion and drive that made his time at the University of California, Irvine such a success.

Dr. Parham most recently held the position of Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of California, Irvine. Under his leadership, the Irvine student body was empowered to break down racial barriers in their classrooms and communities. Such work has been a staple of Dr. Parham's career as he played an integral role in chartering the Orange County chapter of 100 Black Men of America, eventually serving as President from 2002 to 2005. Through this organization, Dr. Parham spearheaded programs in Orange County and Los Angeles which set education goals for high school students that aimed to bring underrepresented students to the top of the educational ladder. This work demonstrates Dr. Parham's bearing to recognize vital areas of education that deserve continued attention and service. In addition to his work as a university administrator and community activist, Dr. Parham is also a voluminous author who has been published over 45 times. His written works bring to light the importance of the African American identity and the role this plays in counseling a historically marginalized group. His focus on the success of students demonstrates his caring and compassionate nature that has been a cornerstone of his career.

Dr. Parham has truly had a great impact on all the lives he has touched and his dedication to the service of others will truly be remembered. Though he is leaving Orange County, I am certain that he will be successful in this new endeavor and wish him well in his continuing mission to educate and mentor. With his vision and leadership, I am sure that the students at Dominguez Hills will be well served by Dr. Parham.