Floor Statements

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5207, the Immigration Advisory Program Authorization Act of 2018.

H.R. 5207 authorizes an important function within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Immigration Advisory Program, or IAP. Under this program, CBP deploys officers to overseas airports to advise law enforcement partners about certain passengers before they board U.S.- bound flights. This important program seeks to essentially push out our borders to prevent travelers who may pose a threat to the U.S. from ever boarding an inbound flight.

Importantly, beyond simply authorizing the program, the bill requires CBP to notify Congress whenever a new agreement is put in place with a foreign partner. It also requires CBP to assess how the overseas deployment of officers may affect officer coverage at U.S. ports of entry.

While I certainly appreciate the sacrifice made by officers serving abroad, I would note that this authorization is coming at a time when CBP has acknowledged that it is currently 4,000 officers short of what it needs to carry out current operations, both domestically and abroad.

Mr. Speaker, there is continued bipartisan support for CBP to push out our borders to prevent individuals who pose a threat to the U.S. from making their way here to our country. H.R. 5207 authorizes an existing DHS program that has proven helpful to our foreign partners in carrying out our shared interest of preventing terrorism, and it reduces the burden of deporting individuals who would be denied entry into the U.S. upon landing here.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentlewoman for sponsoring the bill. I support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize LGBT Pride Month, a time to celebrate the diversity of the LGBT community and honor the strength and courage of LGBT people throughout history.

I was thrilled to attend the annual LGBT Pride Fest this past weekend in my home State of Rhode Island, a wonderful celebration that illustrated just how far we have come in the fight for equality.

But the struggle isn't over, Mr. Speaker, and it is more important than ever that we stay strong and vocal. We, as a society, cannot and should not accept that LGBT people face discrimination in this country every day, whether they are in a cake shop, the armed services, or in a school bathroom.

That is why I am proud to cosponsor the Equality Act, which was introduced by my good friend and colleague from the Ocean State, Congressman David Cicilline, and is cosponsored by 196 of my colleagues.

Discrimination is never justified. Let's celebrate our diversity and promote a culture of tolerance and acceptance, not only during Pride, but every day of the year.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6042, which will delay implementation of the Medicaid electronic visit verification system requirement by 1 year and promote stakeholder feedback as part of its implementation.

The Medicaid EVV system requirement under the landmark 21st Century Cures Act was established to ensure accurate billing and delivery of personal care services in the homes of Medicaid beneficiaries. We want to make sure that Medicaid patients are accurately getting the care that they received, that Medicaid is properly billed for those services, and that we do everything possible to wring fraud out of the system.

Unfortunately, the short implementation period, compounded by a delay in CMS guidance and a lack of stakeholder input, has presented significant challenges for affected populations, especially seniors and people with disabilities.

I am pleased to join my colleagues, Representative Guthrie and Representative DeGette, in supporting this important piece of legislation. I am glad to see that Representative Guthrie's bill largely mirrors the bipartisan, bicameral legislation I introduced to address this issue last month.

The collaboration and the inclusive approach it took to bring this bill to the floor is the same dynamic Medicaid beneficiaries, family caregivers, personal care and home health providers, and other stakeholders are hoping to see from CMS when the agency defines EVV system requirements so that States can design effective and thoughtful EVV programs.

Delaying implementation by 1 year and encouraging input from relevant stakeholders will be paramount to the success of the EVV programs and is a part of our enduring promise to protect vulnerable populations, people who would otherwise suffer from adverse outcomes should the policy be hastily implemented.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Guthrie, Congresswoman DeGette, Chairman Walden, Ranking Member Pallone, and all those who had a hand in bringing this bill to the floor today for the opportunity to join in leading this important effort.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4991, the Supporting Research and Development for First Responders Act.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4991 would authorize the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, also known as NUSTL, within the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate.

Established in 1947, NUSTL has a long, rich history of supporting the first responder community. This laboratory, located in New York City, is central to the research and development of technologies that give first responders the tools to mitigate, respond to, and recover from national security threats.

In recent years, NUSTL's work has fostered the emergence of thousands of innovative radiation detectors for use in the Securing the Cities program. NUSTL's engagement with homeland security stakeholders has ensured that as technology is developed, the particular concerns of end users, such as first responders, are taken into consideration. With the homeland security threat evolving daily, the importance of this lab to national security cannot be overstated.

While the good work of NUSTL is evident to myself and my colleagues on the House Homeland Security Committee, President Trump, unfortunately, does not have the same level of appreciation. In the last two budget cycles, the Trump administration, in its efforts to free up resources to build a wall along the southern border, has proposed completely cutting funding for NUSTL. The elimination of this laboratory as a first responder resource is absolutely senseless.

I am glad to see that our committee worked in a bipartisan fashion to craft this legislation, which would ensure that the work being performed at NUSTL will continue.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in advancing research development of technologies for first responders by supporting H.R. 4991.

Mr. Speaker, NUSTL's work is integral to protecting our Nation's first responders from threats.

On the one hand, it is unfortunate that the Trump administration's proposal to cut spending for NUSTL is what prompted the creation of H.R. 4991 in the first place; however, it has given this Chamber an opportunity to recognize the value of NUSTL and push for it to maintain its place at the Department of Homeland Security.

So I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 4991, and I thank my colleague across the aisle for his work on this important bill.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5762, the Joint Task Force to Combat Opioid Trafficking Act of 2018.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from New York, Chairman Donovan, for his kind and strong words of support for this bill. This has been a truly bipartisan effort on the committee, and I thank the gentleman for his work on this and for his support.

Again, Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a public health emergency that is devastating communities across the country, including my home State of Rhode Island. No matter your race, gender, age, religion, or socioeconomic status, Americans are suffering from the opioid overdose epidemic.

We know that approximately 42,000 fatalities were attributed to opioids in 2016, and we know that fentanyl is exacerbating the problem. This powerful synthetic opioid, which is 25 to 50 times stronger than heroin and 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, has caused 15 times more deaths in Rhode Island during 2016 than in 2009.

In its purest form as a powder, or as grains similar to the size of salt, fentanyl's lethal potency often harms people when unknowingly mixed with other illicit drugs, like heroin, or marketed on the street as a different substance entirely.

Since the majority of opioids interdicted by the United States are seized at ports of entry and the southern border accounts for at least 75 percent of all opioids collected, I am pleased to offer a solution that will strengthen the Department of Homeland Security's fight against this drug crisis. This bill authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a task force to enhance the internal integration of the department's border security operations to detect, interdict, disrupt, and prevent narcotics, including fentanyl, from entering the United States in the first place.

Secretary Jeh Johnson was the first to use the joint task force model to achieve better unity of effort across the department's components when it comes to fulfilling the Homeland Security mission.

All of DHS' many agencies, from Customs and Border Protection to the U.S. Coast Guard, have an important role to play when it comes to combating opioid trafficking, which makes the joint task force a particularly apt structure to address the crisis. If Homeland Security Investigations is looking into a fentanyl distribution ring in Omaha, they need to coordinate efforts with Customs offices in El Paso so that packages en route to Nebraska are properly inspected.

The JTF model is intended to ensure this coordination is baked into the culture at the various components and that cases don't slip through the cracks. The goal is not to add red tape for the hardworking DHS personnel protecting our Nation but to keep them all on the same page as a single, unified effort. This coordination is worth it.

Mr. Speaker, Congress recognized the value of Secretary Johnson's pilot

JTFs when we formally authorized them in 2016. As new challenges confront the department, we must make use of this organizational structure in innovative ways to maintain the synergies that drove the creation of DHS in the first place.

Stopping the proliferation of fentanyl is particularly well suited to the JTF approach. Unlike many more traditional narcotics, fentanyl is often shipped directly to dealers from overseas. Fentanyl's extremely high potency allows these shipments to be small enough to go undetected unless carefully scrutinized.

That is why it is essential that the joint task force on opioids collaborate with private-sector organizations and any other Federal, State, local, Tribal, territorial, or international entity to increase operational effectiveness, coordination, and information sharing.

We need to work with partners, especially the United States Postal Service and private parcel delivery services like UPS and FedEx, to ensure suspicious packages are inspected. Having a single task force coordinating the department's efforts makes it much easier for other organizations to know to whom to go.

The collaboration called for in this bill, combined with the implementation of Ms. Tsongas' INTERDICT Act, which focuses on drug detection technologies, will ensure that DHS is maximally effective in combating the flood of synthetic opioids trafficked into the United States.

The crisis gripping our Nation, Mr. Speaker, is complex. We recognize that. We cannot succeed in stemming the opioid epidemic unless the Federal Government recognizes the opportunity to integrate and collaborate not only across agencies but also with our private-sector partners.

I hope my colleagues will join this bipartisan effort to curb the prevalence of illicit opioids on our streets, in our communities, in our neighborhoods, and in our homes by supporting H.R. 5762.

Mr. Speaker, now more than ever, we need to take action to curb the flow of synthetic opioids into America. The need plays out in tragedies around the country every day.

Rhode Island's Brandon Goldner was just 23 years old when, after being revived seven times in a 2-month period, he tragically lost his life to an opioid overdose. Losing Brandon and so many others to opioids demands that we, as lawmakers, act quickly to reduce the stigma associated with drug use and ensure that there are adequate treatment options that are available.

I am proud to come from a State that has developed a comprehensive strategy to combat the opioid crisis by supporting local and State partners at every level of education, treatment, and prevention through the creation of a statewide overdose prevention and intervention task force.

This is a constant battle, and reducing the prevalence of opioids available to those who might use or abuse the substance is an important step that we can take today by passing this bill. Every one of my colleagues has their own Brandon story. Everyone has talked with grieving parents, children, friends, and coworkers.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud that the Committee on Homeland Security is doing its part to ensure that we bring a whole-of-government approach to combating this whole-of-society problem, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

The bill before us today will enhance internal DHS operations, force the collaboration across Federal agencies, and develop partnerships with the private sector to limit opioids coming into our country and getting distributed throughout our communities.

Like every bill that makes it to the floor, this legislation is the result of a collaborative effort.

Mr. Speaker, I must thank Senator Claire McCaskill, who has been a true champion in driving policy to address the opioid crisis and who first proposed applying the JTF model to this epidemic. She has been a true leader on this issue.

I also thank my good friend and long-time colleague on the committee and cosponsor, Congressman Peter King, who has helped ensure that this effort is a bipartisan one.

Likewise, I owe a debt of gratitude to our ranking member, Mr. Thompson, and our chairman, Mr. McCaul, who worked with me in turn to make a good idea even better legislation.

Like anything we do, nothing would have been possible without the tireless work of our staff, in particular that of Rosaline Cohen and Alex Carnes with the committee, and Elyssa Malin in my office.

Mr. Speaker, I have said before that the opioid epidemic is incredibly complex. With the number of factors driving this tragic increase in overdoses, there is no silver bullet to this public health emergency. Rather, it demands a whole-of-society approach. This bill will bring that unity of effort to the Department of Homeland Security, so that it can be a more effective partner in turning the tide against opioid abuse.

I hope all of my colleagues will join with me in supporting the creation of this joint task force and support this bill. Again, I thank Chairman Donovan, the gentleman from New York, for his words of support and his effort to see that this bill got to the floor in the first place. I hope to see it pass.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4627, the Shielding Public Spaces from Vehicular Terrorism Act.

Mr. Speaker, the tactics and targets of terrorist organizations are ever changing. Most recently, ISIL-inspired groups have called for jihadists to use vehicles to carry out attacks on so-called soft targets like shopping malls, mass transit centers, and other places where people gather.

ISIL has claimed credit for 21 vehicular terrorist attacks in major cities like Berlin, Nice, London, and Barcelona. These attacks have also hit closer to home, including in October 2017 in New York City, when a terrorist used a rented pickup truck to mow down pedestrians on a popular bike path, killing eight and injuring 13.

In light of the elevated terror environment, H.R. 4627 would direct the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to conduct research on emerging and evolving terrorist threats, like vehicular attacks.

The bill would also provide flexibility for homeland security grant funding to be used for securing public spaces through target-hardening activities, including the installation of bollards.

Additionally, I am pleased that the bill includes key language authored by my friend Representative Val Demings, the gentlewoman from Florida, to codify a current Department practice that prohibits the use of grant funding to purchase firearms or for training on the use of firearms.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Donovan) for his words of support on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 4627 to help secure our public spaces from emerging terrorist threats, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Demings).

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

In closing, I once again thank Chairman Donovan from the great State of New York for his support of this bill and for his comments, and I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Demings) for her work on this important piece of legislation.

I want to reiterate my support for the Shielding Public Spaces from Vehicular Terrorism Act. Passing this bill will reenforce our commitment to combating emerging and evolving terrorist threats and protecting public spaces.

As the co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, I am well aware of how technology can dramatically alter our conceptions about homeland security. The advent of more connected devices from pacemakers to power grids has only impacted the attack surface, and the internet makes it possible for these devices to be targeted from anywhere on the globe.

With respect to vehicle attacks, imagine a connected car being hacked to run down pedestrians or an autonomous vehicle's sensors being tricked to not see humans at all. These are the emerging challenges that we face, and it is imperative that we continue to do whatever is necessary to strengthen the capabilities that we depend on to keep all of our citizens safe.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this very minute, terrified children are crying in cages, put there by our government at our Nation's borders. Innocent babies, taken from their mothers and fathers, are being held hostage by the President. This is wrong, Mr. Speaker. I never thought I would witness such cruelty in our country.

President Trump could stop this with a phone call, and congressional Republicans could end it with a vote. Their inaction is despicable, and it speaks volumes.

Mr. Speaker, I love this country, but today I am ashamed. I am sickened by the heartlessness of this administration.

These families are refugees fleeing violence, hoping simply to survive. How can we tear them apart and put them in actual cages?

Mr. Speaker, mark my words: This is a turning point in our Nation's history. We must decide what kind of country we want to be, what kind of people we want to be, and what we stand for as a nation.

I am proud to cosponsor the Keep Families Together Act to end this policy and turn the page on one of the saddest chapters in American history.

Mr. Speaker, this isn't over by a long shot.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to decry last week's Supreme Court decision in the Ohio voting case, Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute.

Mr. Speaker, the ruling appears to willfully misinterpret the plain statutory language of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. It lays waste to congressional intent and sets a dangerous precedent of being permissive of voter suppression across the country.

The NVRA was enacted with the express purpose of increasing voter registration and protecting against voter purges, and it plainly prohibits States from removing voters from rolls ``by reason of the person's failure to vote.'' Yet this is exactly what the State of Ohio is doing. Ohio officials are purging voters if they do not vote in three consecutive Federal elections.

I believe every person should vote in every election, but there may be valid reasons why they have not. We should be erring on the side of caution.

Our democracy is built on each person having a voice. Yet the Supreme Court has affirmed Ohio's right to silence those voices. Congress must now act to correct this injustice and restore the rights the Court has so carelessly cast aside.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with an aching heart for the innocent children being ripped from their parents' arms at our Nation's borders.

Families fleeing violence with legitimate claims of asylum are having their children taken from them thanks to an inhumane policy put in place by this administration. Weeping 2- and 3-year-olds have been forced onto immigration buses specifically equipped with car seats to be held in overcrowded cages, a crisis of this President's own making.

What kind of a country tears hundreds, if not thousands of families apart, inflicting trauma on the young and vulnerable? What happened to ``give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses''? What happened to America being a beacon of hope?

This zero tolerance policy betrays our core values, and it must stop immediately. I have joined my friend and colleague, Congresswoman DeLauro, as a cosponsor of her resolution condemning this policy, and I call on the administration to halt this horrendous practice and exercise some compassion for those who need it most.

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

Mr. Chairman, I offer this amendment today to direct $3 million to the Office of Science within the Department of Energy for important nuclear fusion science work being done across the country.

Specifically, these funds would support divertor test tokamak research and development. The fusion community has identified the need for a tokamak specifically designed for divertor testing as a necessary research facility to drive divertor innovation.

Fusion science, Mr. Chairman, is the future of energy production, offering unique and substantial advantages compared to other approaches. Fusion power is a safe, clean, and sustainable energy source that could provide the United States with energy independence and a nearly limitless energy supply. The future is closer than we think. Sustainable fusion energy production is a very real possibility within the next 10 years.

However, there are outstanding technical issues that must be solved before we can harness fusion as a practical energy source. Among them is dealing with extreme temperatures generated through the process, over a million degrees. A tokamak designed with divertor tests in mind could test potential solutions to this problem.

These funds support the immediate need of design conceptualization, which will help keep the United States as a world leader in this area. We must seize this opportunity and vigorously pursue this research and development work.

This work may also have critical national security implications. The House Report accompanying H.R. 5515, the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that recently passed the House, contains language asking the Department of Defense to explore this technology and its potential use towards our national security objectives.

History has shown, Mr. Chairman, that research funding fosters innovative ideas and new technologies that can produce order-of- magnitude improvements over those presently employed. The current fusion science research program suggests promising advancements in plasma and material science, which could readily support defense initiatives. To ensure this critical work continues and that we capitalize on its findings, Congress must act to fund this important work.

Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for taking my request into consideration. This investment is critical in providing for our collective national and energy security, and I respectfully urge its adoption.

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleagues for the consideration of this amendment. I think it is important to try and meet the future energy needs and national security needs of our country, and I again urge its adoption.

Mr. Chair, I yield back of balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Here is the bottom line. Ocean planning works, and I can assure you that this is not a top-down approach. Ocean plans are regionally led initiatives where stakeholders and researchers collect data and then come to the table to voice their concerns and work out their differences.

With ocean planning, we can use our waters wisely and sustainably. In the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, we have already finished our plans.

Now, for some reason, many of my colleagues across the aisle don't believe in this open discussion amon stakeholders, but we have seen what happens when oceans are brought to the brink. Species have been pushed to the edge of extinction undermining the livelihoods of our fishermen and destroying the vibrant ocean ecosystem.

It baffles me that we continue debating this. Ocean planning is the way to ensure local and regional voices are heard and that we sustainably pass our waters on to the next generation.

So I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment, which I thank Mr. Beyer for leading.

I also want to recognize and commend my colleague in the other Chamber, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, for his extraordinary work in combating climate change and fighting for a sustainable ocean policy.

This is the right thing to do, again, regionally led, definitely not a top-down approach.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Month and the 33,000 American lives lost each year to gun violence.

These tragedies are preventable, Mr. Speaker, and it is truly shameful that Congress has yet to take meaningful action to address this epidemic. Even more appalling is the fact that 1,300 of these deaths are children, young lives cut short by meaningless and avoidable violence.

Last month I introduced the Child Gun Access Prevention Act, which would prevent children from accessing guns by holding gun owners responsible when they leave their firearms unlocked.

Millions of children live in homes with unsecured guns, Mr. Speaker, and they are at an increased risk of unintentional shootings and youth suicides. We have also seen the devastation caused when a child takes a parent's gun to school with the intention of causing harm. A child should never access a gun unsupervised.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation. We absolutely must do more to protect our children from gun violence.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by thanking Chairman Thornberry, Ranking Member Smith, and Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, the chair of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, on which I am proud to serve as ranking member. I thank them all for their contributions to this bill that is before us today. Each year, our committee's legislation addresses issues vital to the defense of our Nation, and their leadership was key in crafting this bill.

I would also like to thank the ETC staff for their work on this bill, particularly, Lindsay Kavanaugh, Pete Villano, Jamie Jackson, Eric Snelgrove, Katie Sutton, Mark Pepple, and Nevada Schadler, as well as my personal staff, Kathryn Mitchell-Thomas, and my two fellows, Brian Mandock and David Wagner.

Mr. Chairman, this bill contains many critical provisions that will enable and enhance our national security.

We added $1 billion beyond the President's request for the Virginia- class and Columbia-class submarines, ensuring continued naval and strategic superiority beneath the seas.

We also incorporated my provision to require the Department to include energy and climate resiliency efforts as a factor for consideration in major military installation master plans so that we can be better prepared to face climate change head-on.

The ETC portion of the bill ensures that we are also ready for future threats by strengthening cyber operations and increasing preparedness for countering weapons of mass destruction.

It also bolsters capability at the pointy tip of the spear, especially when it comes to supporting our Special Operations Forces, who execute our Nation's most difficult missions. We bolster this capability by embracing risk, enhancing innovation, and improving oversight.

To ensure we maintain strategic overmatch with near-peer adversaries, we invest heavily in research and development, with a specific focus on transitioning critical capabilities to the warfighter. For example, the bill includes $40 million in additional funding for electromagnetic railgun programs as well as $10 million to grow future cyber warriors through the DOD Cyber Scholarship Program.

The bill guides the Department as we confront new threats across the globe by expanding upon previous initiatives--for instance, encouraging the use of initiatives modeled on the successful Hack the Pentagon program to update cyber vulnerability and mitigation assessments of Department facilities--and by exploring ways to safeguard the integrity of increasingly globalized supply chains that support critical technologies.

As we look to protect our country from threats beyond the next ridge line, it is essential these science and technology initiatives remain prioritized. We will not defeat next-generation threats resting on the success of our past.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I again thank and congratulate Chairwoman Stefanik and all of the members of the subcommittee for their efforts as well as the members of the House Armed Services Committee for their dedication to national security.

Again, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their outstanding leadership of the committee.

I look forward to voting in favor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, I rise to recognize May as National Foster Care Month and to acknowledge the 437,000 foster youth across the country.

On Wednesday, I will be joined by Yolanda Washburn, a former foster youth from Providence, Rhode Island. Yolanda is a vocal advocate for children in care. She is committed to making positive change, and she is on track to become a counselor.

As someone who has aged out of foster care, Yolanda has overcome immense odds to find such success. I look forward to hearing her recommendations for improving the foster care system. No one understands the system better than those who have lived in it.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my good friend, Congresswoman Bass, for organizing Shadow Day again this year and for her tireless work as the leader of our caucus. I am thrilled by this opportunity to amplify her voice and the voices of foster youth everywhere.

Mr. Chair, I inadvertently voted ``no.'' I meant to be recorded as: ``yea'' on rollcall No. 202.