Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of the work the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems has done on this legislation. It is our subcommittee's job to get cutting-edge technologies into the hands of our warfighters as quickly as possible so that they never enter a fair fight.

I am certain now, more than ever, that we are putting the Department on the right track when it comes to confronting emerging challenges with innovative solutions. This bill strengthens the R&D ecosystem and more closely aligns the Pentagon with the successes happening throughout private industry.

The bill also prioritizes research and development efforts in other key technology areas, such as hypersonics, software, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, and directed energy, among others, and it makes robust investments to accelerate quantum applications.

It also makes long-overdue investments in our laboratories and test and evaluation infrastructure. We know that we simply cannot develop 21st century technologies and attract the Nation's top talent with crumbling infrastructure.

We provide robust support for our teammates at innovation centers, like DIU and DARPA, across the Department, who are taking risks in pursuit of game-changing payoffs.

It provides the U.S. Cyber Command and the Cyber Mission Force the resources they need to keep us safe in cyberspace and ensures that our cyber operators have the training and career trajectories they need to succeed.

This bill also includes a provision that I am very proud of, the Joint Collaborative Environment, which would enable the sharing and fusing of threat information and other relevant cybersecurity indicators across the Federal Government and between the public and private sectors, strengthening those public-private partnerships that are so vital to protecting our country in cyberspace.

It is this subcommittee that has always looked ahead to a dynamic future, seeking to fundamentally change the balance of power between the United States and our adversaries. Our warfighters are depending on our success here today.

In closing, I thank Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Rogers, and Ranking Member Banks for their partnership and their leadership over the years. Serving on this committee throughout my time in Congress has been a true honor and a privilege.

I would also like to thank the subcommittee's professional staff, as well as my personal staff, for their hard work on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, in this era of great power competition, we are in a race for top talent, and our continued military superiority depends on scientific breakthroughs in innovation.

My amendment provides that if the Secretary of Defense determines it is in the national interest, it would allow a pathway to citizenship for the best foreign talent to work in the U.S. national security innovation base and on defense research projects. We want the brightest minds in the world working for us and not our adversaries. This amendment helps us in that race.

This Chamber, I should mention, has recognized the need to face this challenge before and during the consideration of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. My amendment was passed on the floor with bipartisan support, and I hope we will do it again today.

The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population, so the majority of the best scientific minds will undoubtedly be born outside the U.S. borders. So we enjoy world-class universities and an innovative private sector that attract talent from around the world in critical technologies like physics, computer science, and biotechnology; but our constricted pathways to residency and citizenship drive this talent into the arms of our economic competitors at best and our adversaries at worst. So we face intense competition from other countries who offer large research grants and expedited citizenship to lure this talent away.

In a world where a small group of driven visionaries can upend the status quo, losing these gifted individuals puts us in danger of chasing future technological developments rather than leading them.

My amendment is modeled after a 1949 law granting the director of the CIA the authority to obtain permanent residency for anyone deemed ``in the interest of national security or essential to the furtherance of national intelligence missions.''

So this idea is not new. Today, the Secretary of Defense has no mechanism to encourage immigration for researchers with technical or scientific skills vital to national security.

Under this amendment that I offer today, the Secretary of Defense will implement a competitive annual process to select the top 10 scientists with technological expertise that would advance the development of critical technologies aligned with the National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Science and Technology Strategy and recommend them to the Secretary of Homeland Security for proper, robust processing and vetting.

It is in our national security interests not only to have these scientists working on defense research on our behalf and their innovations within our economy, but also to prevent this talent from working for our adversaries' defense industrial base and economies.

This amendment has passed this Chamber twice previously as an amendment to both the fiscal year 2022 NDAA and to the America COMPETES Act. I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment, once again, to ensure our continued military and technological superiority.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

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

We have before us a concept that already exists in law, that already has that authority with the Director of the CIA. This bill before us would allow this authority to be exercised now by the Secretary of Defense for only 10 individuals, I should say, and it waives no special vetting or security background checks. There would be thorough background checks before any pathway to citizenship would be given.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, there would be no passes given. It would be thorough background checks that would occur.

Experts agree that we must now keep the brightest minds working on our behalf or we risk ceding the commercial benefits of technological development, as well as sacrificing our military's technological advantage.

Our adversaries are focusing on closing the capability gap in critical technologies, and we must respond. They are not standing still. We need to continue to keep the technological edge that we enjoy here in our country.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 2938, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

As we speak, our Nation is being wracked by an epidemic of gun violence. Every year, 40,000 Americans die from guns, more than 110 every single day, many of them children. We have the power to prevent this carnage, but for decades, Congress refused to act. Well, no more.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is not perfect. No bill is. But this legislation will save lives. Once signed into law, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will help keep guns out of the wrong hands. It will protect survivors of domestic abuse by closing the boyfriend loophole. It will crack down on straw purchases and improve background checks for people under 21. It will deliver hundreds of millions of dollars for improved mental health services, community-based violence prevention initiatives, and school safety.

The issue of gun safety is personal to me. It is about time that Congress takes action. Let us pass this historic, bipartisan bill and send it to the President's desk today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pell grant, a Federal program named after my mentor, role model, and friend, the late Senator Claiborne Pell, who proudly served Rhode Island for 40 years in the United States Senate.

Senator Pell was one of Rhode Island's finest statesmen who embodied the highest ideals of public service. He was also a fierce advocate of education and deeply believed in supporting the next generation of American leaders. In fact, one of the reasons I am here today is because of Senator Pell.

When I interned in his office as a 19-year-old college student, Senator Pell placed his faith in me, and it was one of the things that inspired me to run for office myself.

It is only fitting that the grant program which bears Senator Pell's name is now the single largest source of Federal grant aid for undergraduate students.

Last year, over 6 million students received $27 billion in Pell grants to help them complete a college degree. Pell grants have made higher education accessible and affordable for tens of millions of Americans, which I know made Senator Pell enormously proud.

Mr. Speaker, it has been 13 years since we lost Senator Pell, but his remarkable legacy lives on.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act.

Every day, I hear from Rhode Islanders rightly frustrated by the rising cost of everyday goods.

Exacerbated by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, grocery bills are climbing higher, gas costs more than $5 per gallon, and tangled supply chains continue to fuel inflation.

The American people are being pushed to the breaking point. The status quo is simply unacceptable.

This bill will provide relief to Americans feeling the pain at the pump by boosting domestic biofuel production, and it will drive down costs at the grocery store.

Best of all, Democrats have worked hand-in-glove with our Republican colleagues to advance this bipartisan legislation out of committee and onto the House floor.

Madam Speaker, this legislation is a great step in the right direction, but we must do more. We must crack down on gas companies exploiting this crisis for profit.

Like President Biden suggested, we must work with oil companies to address supply and capacity shortages.

Finally, if we don't want to be back to this point ever again, we must accelerate our transition away from fossil fuels once and for all. The American people are counting on us.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to plead with my colleagues to support H.R. 7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act.

We gather just days after an 18-year-old mowed down 19 schoolchildren and two of their teachers with an AR-15. Just days earlier, a racist conspiracy theorist used that same type of weapon of war to murder 10 Americans, turning a grocery store into a bloody battlefield. Nineteen families in Uvalde and 10 families in Buffalo are permanently shattered, never to be the same again. On average, more than 110 Americans suffer the same fate, death by gun, every single day.

Madam Speaker, no one can tell me that I don't know what I am talking about when it comes to damage that guns can do. Forty-two years ago, I was a sixteen-year-old police cadet when a gun misfired, severing my spinal cord, and changing my life forever.

Of course, we will never be able to stop every single gun injury or death, but we have the power to act, to pass commonsense gun safety laws that reduce the preventable heartbreak experienced by far too many families in this country. We must get illegal guns off our streets. We must pass red flag laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands. We must raise the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic assault weapon to 21, and we can.

These are commonsense policies, backed by broad, bipartisan majorities of Americans. But instead, some of my colleagues have the audacity to suggest that we turn our schools into armed fortresses.

What is next? Armed churches? Armed movie theaters? Is this the country you want to leave to your children and grandchildren? I certainly don't.

Madam Speaker, guns are now the leading cause of death for children in this country. No other developed country on Earth would ever tolerate this level of gun violence, and we shouldn't, either.

Those children in Uvalde deserved to grow up.

The victims in Buffalo deserved to return home safe.

And the 40,000 Americans who die from guns every year deserved to live.

The American people are counting on us to deliver change. I pray that we won't let them down.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 107th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Empire embarked on a genocidal campaign to wipe out more than 1.5 million innocent Armenians. For too long, the world denied the Armenians' plight. But thankfully, leaders like President Biden and this House of Representative have recognized the Armenian genocide for the tragedy that we all know to be true.

My home State of Rhode Island boasts one of the largest Armenian communities in the country, and I have been proud to represent them for the last 22 years.

Yet, as Winston Churchill famously said, ``Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.''

Mr. Speaker, another genocide is unfolding before our eyes in Ukraine. The scenes from Bucha, Mariupol, and the villages across the country are heartbreaking and haunting. But like the Armenian people, Ukrainians are strong, and they have shown their unmatched bravery to the world.

I strongly reiterate my harsh condemnation of Vladimir Putin's war crimes. We must do all that we can to support the Ukrainian people in their battle for freedom. The consequences of failure are far too dreadful to imagine.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act.

In the spring of 1941, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the United States to rapidly deliver weapons and military supplies to Allies like Great Britain, assisting their heroic fight against Adolph Hitler. Once dead set on creating a global empire, he failed.

In the spring of 2022, another murderous dictator has emerged, committed to destroying a sovereign democracy and reconstituting old borders of the USSR. We must ensure that Putin also fails.

Since Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has made impressive progress in the delivery of crucial security assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. And yet, it is time to cut through the remaining bureaucratic red tape and accelerate the delivery of critical equipment to the brave warfighters on the ground in Ukraine.

Mr. Speaker, they deserve nothing less than our swift and unwavering support. Freedom and democracy are at stake.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and pass the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act. We must stand with the Ukrainian people in their fight for their democracy, for their freedom, and for their homeland.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the 6 million Jews who were systematically hunted down, rounded up, and murdered in cold blood by the Nazi regime and their evil collaborators.

Millions of other innocent civilians were also targeted by the Nazis, including people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ community, Roma, Sinti, Slavs, and any other person deemed to be inferior by Adolph Hitler and his coconspirators. And yet, Mr. Speaker, the anti- Semitism that fueled the Nazi's genocidal campaign sadly is still alive and well today.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 2,717 anti- Semitic incidents in the United States last year, averaging more than seven incidents per day. That is the highest number ever recorded by the ADL since it began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979. More than 75 years after the Holocaust, that is plainly unacceptable.

On this day, Yom HaShoah, we must recommit ourselves to rooting out anti-Semitism wherever we find it. We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Madam Speaker, this is an important week for the future of American diplomacy, especially as it relates to cybersecurity. An open, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet is foundational to U.S. foreign policy and national security in the 21st century, but this vision for the global digital ecosystem faces greater challenges than ever before.

Cybersecurity absolutely must become a core foreign policy priority of the United States and, this week, we have taken a major step forward in that regard.

On Monday, the Department of State formally launched the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy. On the international stage, this bureau will lead U.S. efforts to uphold standards of responsible state behavior in cyberspace, shape digital standards that govern new technologies, and protect digital freedoms around the world. I congratulate Secretary Blinken and Deputy Secretary Sherman on this significant accomplishment.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that this new bureau receives the funding it needs to accomplish its critical mission. And beyond that, I also look forward to enshrining this new bureau in statute through the Cyber Diplomacy Act, a bipartisan bill, which will ensure its long-term viability and the preservation of cybersecurity as a key foreign policy priority for the coming decades.

Madam Speaker, this evening, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1916, the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act, a bill which would require health plans to cover medically necessary services related to congenital anomalies.

I would like to share the story of one of my constituents, Caleb Locke, a young man from Ashaway, Rhode Island, who was born with ectodermal dysplasia. As a result of his condition, Caleb's lower jaw is both thin and short with no ridge, and his posterior upper jaw lacks sufficient bone structure.

Caleb is missing teeth, and he needs dental implants, but this process will require multiple surgeries, including bone grafts from his hip to reconstruct his jaw and sinuses.

Unfortunately, and unbelievably, Caleb's health insurance has deemed these procedures as ``cosmetic'' and has consequently denied coverage.

Madam Speaker, Caleb needs these surgeries, and they are clearly not cosmetic. It is wholly unacceptable that coverage can be denied on those grounds.

Caleb, and anyone else with a congenital anomaly, should never be denied coverage for medically necessary services related to their conditions.

That is why I was proud to support the passage of H.R. 1916 this evening, and I urge our colleagues in the Senate to promptly do the same.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor the legacy of my good friend and colleague, Congressman Don Young from Alaska, who sadly passed away the evening of March 18.

Don was an inspirational man who served the people of Alaska in the House of Representatives for nearly half a century and did so with a giant heart and tremendous passion.

Don cherished this institution. He was a strong proponent of bipartisanship and civility, and he consistently sought to find common ground. It is something I always admired about him.

There is something I want the country and the world to know: He was also a champion for the disability community, and I was proud to work closely with Don as co-chairs of the Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus.

Together, we worked across the aisle to break down barriers and provide opportunities for Americans with disabilities and to raise awareness of disability issues for our colleagues.

Don was a problem solver. He was a dedicated public servant. And, in many ways, he was larger than life. I was devastated to learn of his passing, and I am really going to miss him. He made a difference.

His wife, Anne, and his children, Dawn and Joni, are in my prayers, as well as his entire family.

Rest in peace.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because my constituents, like all Americans, are paying far too much at the pump. They are angry, and so am I.

In response to Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, President Biden rightly imposed crippling sanctions on Russia to bankrupt Putin's war machine and sever Russia's ties to the global war economy. That was the right move, and Russia is feeling the punishment from those sanctions. But, unfortunately, so are the American people.

The American people are willing to do their part in support of Ukrainians, who are fighting for their survival, fighting for their independence. But the fact is, we are too dependent on foreign autocrats for their oil and gas. It leaves us vulnerable to supply chain constraints and gives tyrants like Putin too much power over our way of life.

But with transformative investments in clean energy and electric vehicles, we could take back control, lower energy costs, and protect our national security.

That is why we need substantial tax credits so that all families can afford electric vehicles. To power them, we must bolster our clean energy production from solar wind and other renewable sources.

These investments will shake our reliance on fossil fuels, create good-paying jobs, and shield us from energy price shocks like we are feeling right now. We simply have no time to waste.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the National Defense Authorization Act. I begin by congratulating and thanking Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Rogers, as well as my counterparts on the CITI Subcommittee, Ranking Member Banks and former Ranking Member Stefanik for their bipartisan collaboration in helping to craft a national defense bill for the 61st consecutive year.

Thanks to the work of my subcommittee, this legislation includes a significant increase in early-stage research. Our research enterprise has always ensured our technology superiority. It is how we won the space race. Today, as the battlefield expands into cyberspace and outer space, we find ourselves facing a more aggressive Russia and China. I am proud that Congress has unlocked funds for hypersonics defense, directed energy, quantum computing, machine learning, and biotechnology so that we never send our war fighters into a fair fight.

Madam Speaker, I am most proud that this bill includes many recommendations from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, including funds to accelerate the deployment of new technology to the war fighter. I am also proud that in our first year as a subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, we have made significant investments in our cybersecurity forces, set a course for improved cybersecurity governance within the Department, and continue to strengthen the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The NDAA also fully funds key national security platforms, the Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarine programs. I thank the Rhode Islanders who build our Nation's submarines and make our country safer. Finally, this bill funds installation resilience projects to address the ongoing threat from climate change.

These achievements would not have been possible without the work of my subcommittee staff and personal staff.

I thank Michael Hermann, Josh Stiefel, Troy Nienberg, Payson Ruhl, Caroline Goodson, and Juliann Hitt, and former staffers Bess Dopkeen and Caroline Kehrli.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan commitment to national security.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the distinguished career of an extraordinary Rhode Islander, my friend Randy Rosenbaum.

For 27 years, Randy has served as the executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, where he helped Rhode Island artists to share their gifts and talents with the rest of the world.

From the up-and-coming artist to the well-established, the young artists to the old, Randy lifted up the work of a diverse, new generation of Rhode Island artists.

To put it simply, he is to the Rhode Island arts community what the smile is to the Mona Lisa.

Randy has left an indelible mark on the Rhode Island arts scene, increasing RISCA funding ninefold, putting the Ocean State on the map as a film location, and supporting Rhode Island's $2 billion arts economy.

Randy's leadership, now that he is retiring after 30 years at the helm of RISCA, will surely be missed, but his legacy lives on through his countless accomplishments.

Madam Speaker, I congratulate Randy on his retirement, and I wish him all the best in his next chapter.