Floor Statements

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

I rise in support of H.R. 5867.

Colonel Kittinger was born and raised in Florida. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1949 as an aviation cadet and received commission as a command pilot.

From 1959 to 1960, Colonel Kittinger was a member of Project Excelsior, an effort of Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories that pioneered research on safety and survival in high-altitude emergencies. On August 16, 1960, he set the record for the longest free fall from a gondola, 4 minutes and 36 seconds, before deploying his parachute.

Colonel Kittinger went on three tours in Vietnam for the U.S. Air Force. When his plane was shot down, he faced adversity and stayed resilient as a prisoner of war in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Among many awards, Colonel Kittinger received two Purple Hearts and a Prisoner of War Medal.

After retiring from the Air Force, Colonel Kittinger became the first person to complete a solo balloon trip across the Atlantic. His efforts helped advance developments in spacesuit technology and safety procedures in high-altitude environments.

On December 9, 2022, at the age of 94, Colonel Kittinger passed away. I urge my colleagues to honor the life and valiant service of the colonel by naming a post office in Casselberry, Florida, after him.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, today I am rising to thank and congratulate Dr. Hugh Auchincloss who is retiring this month as the longtime principal deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, at NIH, and its former acting director.

Among other extraordinary accomplishments, Dr. Auchincloss' leadership at NIAID put U.S. scientists and researchers in a position to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, the fastest vaccine program in world history, a stunning and successful response to this staggering centennial emergency.

For decades, Dr. Auchincloss has served his patients and our Nation with a ferocious work ethic, unshakable integrity, and disarming humility and humor.

It is no exaggeration but rather a plain statement of fact to say that all of humanity has benefited from Dr. Auchincloss' devotion to the public's health, and I am very proud to be his Congressman.

I am wishing him, his wife, Dr. Mary McCain, and his children, Kalah, Hugh, and my always inspiring colleague, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, the very best during this next chapter of his career and his life.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of the International Day of Democracy, which was Sunday, September 15. This day is an opportunity to promote the principles of democracy and freedom against an alarming resurgence of authoritarianism and fanaticism across the globe.

The enemies of freedom seek to destabilize and destroy the constitutional democracies.

It is estimated that in 2024 alone, two billion people across 64 countries will have exercised their right to self-determination at the ballot box. But already, we have also witnessed sham elections, most notably in Bangladesh, Belarus, Venezuela and Russia, where the incumbent regimes suppressed political opposition and manipulated the electoral process.

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of democracy and the foundation of a free society. Yet, far too many dictators, budding autocrats and monarchists of the world have undermined the will of the people, using coups d'etat and electoral autocracy to stifle democratic voices. According to Freedom House, a leading American organization devoted to the support and defense of democracy around the world, in 2023, political rights and civil liberties were diminished in 52 countries, while just 21 countries made improvements.

In June, I met Dr. Amir Khasru Chowdhury, a leader in the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Dr. Chowdhury was arrested on dubious charges three months before Bangladesh's January 2024 elections. He languished in prison for six months until the Bangladeshi government, then controlled by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, conveniently released him two months after ballots had been cast. Dr. Chowdhury was not alone in his politically motivated imprisonment; his was one of nearly 8,000 arrests of BNP leaders and political dissidents. But despite the government's sinister ploy to subvert the electoral process, Dr. Chowdhury and the other jailed Bangladeshi dissidents were vindicated, and their cause ultimately prevailed. After a historic youth-led movement to end Prime Minister Hasina's despotic reign, the Bangladeshi people have earned the right to redirect their future. It's now time for the international community to support the fundamental principles of democratic governance in Bangladesh.

Meantime in Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to erode the city's political independence. In July, a Hong Kong court taken over by the CCP denied a request to resume the trial of pro- democracy activist Jimmy Lai. The case prosecuting Mr. Lai for what is essentially a ``thought crime'' lays bare the CCP's authoritarian takeover of the once-free Hong Kong. I was proud to adopt Jimmy Lai as a prisoner of conscience through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project and will continue to passionately advocate for his release.

Jimmy Lai is not the only prisoner of conscience detained by an autocratic regime. In July, I wrote a letter to President Biden and Secretary Blinken urging the administration to demand the release of those wrongfully imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for exercising their basic human rights. Thousands of courageous activists, journalists, religious clerics, and human rights defenders have been silenced for simply speaking out about their dreams for democracy--such as their desire to move freely, speak openly and wear whatever they choose. In response to their impassioned advocacy, the repressive Saudi Arabian regime has unjustly imprisoned critical voices, issued violent threats, and imposed severe travel bans. This draconian reign of terror must end immediately.

The governments of Bahrain, Turkey, Belarus and numerous other nations are also holding prisoners of conscience hostage to suppress the voices of their fellow citizens. Our foreign policy must not overlook these human rights violations, be it governments' subversion of electoral processes, obstruction of justice, or the crushing of dissent. I invite my colleagues to use their various platforms to support prisoners of conscience everywhere to tell their stories in the pursuit of justice. Joining the Defending Freedoms Project is one excellent avenue to do so.

In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that democracy and voting rights could shrink and shrivel away or grow and expand. Today, our world is embroiled in a period of democratic backsliding. In reverence to the International Day of Democracy, I'm asking each of my colleagues to join me in boldly advocating for democracy and freedom across the world.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for organizing this Special Order hour on the most important problem of our time, which is democracy.

Will we have democracy, or will we lapse into some other form of government, like autocracy or theocracy or plutocracy?

I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership and for leading us in that

beautiful and moving moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attack on our country on 9/11.

A true Republican President, the founder of the Republican Party, spoke of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That has been the beautiful, tantalizing vision of America, but we can't say that is how America began. We began as a slave republic of White, male property owners over the age of 21 years old.

It has been through successive waves of popular, political, social struggle and constitutional amendment that we have opened America up and come much closer to forming a more perfect union and reaching the ideal that President Lincoln proclaimed from the battlefield of Gettysburg in 1863.

Still today, Members will come to the floor, Mr. Speaker, and say: We are not a democracy. We are a republic. My colleagues think that they have struck some kind of knockout blow against the overwhelming sentiment of the American people, including President Reagan, who gave a great speech in Europe about American democracy and never once used the word ``republic,'' but constantly invoked democracy.

Yet, there are Members who say: We are not a democracy. We are a republic.

Well, what is a republic? A republic is just a representative democracy because 300 million people can't fit in the U.S. House of Representatives or in a school board meeting. We use republican institutions in order to have the democratic will expressed.

If the Constitution is read the way I read the Constitution, the whole trajectory of American historical and constitutional development has been toward greater democracy.

Look at the amendments we have had since the original Bill of Rights.

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery.

The 14th Amendment gave us equal protection and due process.

The 15th Amendment said no race discrimination in voting.

The 17th Amendment shifted the mode of election of U.S. Senators from the legislatures to the people.

The 19th Amendment doubled the franchise in America by giving women the right to vote and establishing their political equality in the country.

The 23rd Amendment gave people in Washington, D.C., at least the right to vote for President of the United States, although not voting representation.

The 24th Amendment abolished poll taxes and the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18. The whole movement of our history has been toward incorporating, encompassing, and including people who had been formerly disenfranchised, marginalized, and excluded from equal political participation.

It has been a seesaw struggle throughout our history. There have always been people who have wanted to revoke other people's voting rights, undermine other people's voting rights, disenfranchise them, strip away their ability to register to vote.

Tocqueville said in ``Democracy in America'' that he observed that democracy and voting rights in our country are either shrinking and shriveling away or they're growing and expanding.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Progressive Caucus for this session because we have got to get democracy back on the growth track in America. We have got to get away from all of the voter suppression and interference tactics that we have seen grow up, at least since 2013 when the Supreme Court rendered its dreadful decision in Shelby County v. Holder, essentially decapitating the Voting Rights Act, knocking out the preclearance requirement for covered jurisdictions, saying that no longer did they have to submit voting changes to the Department of Justice or to our Federal district court before they could implement those voting changes.

We have since seen more than 100 voter laws passed all over the country, around half of them in the original covered jurisdictions under the Voting Rights Act. We have seen new obstacles to voter registration. We have seen massive closure of precinct voting places, mergers of different precinct voting places.

I just got back from Texas where a group of students came to see me from the University of Texas to say this is going on there right now where the Governor has closed down a polling place and then relocated one in Austin on the campus of the University of Texas away from a well-traveled thoroughfare, a big, bright building to putting it in the basement somewhere else on campus. These kinds of tactics are used all over the country in order to suppress the vote.

We need to be moving forward in terms of voting rights, and I am very eager to hear what my colleagues have to say about that.

Mr. Speaker, I will point just a couple of things out.

We are in 2024. This is the 21st century. It is time for us to be electing the President of the United States the way we elect Governors, Representatives, Senators, mayors, and everybody else. Whoever gets the most votes win. We have had five popular vote losers become President, twice in this century in 2000 and 2016, under the creaky, antiquated, and obsolete mechanisms of the electoral college, which is subject to fraud and manipulation.

As we saw in this very Chamber, the electoral college can get you killed in the 21st century because it offers more opportunities for strategic bad faith actors like former President Donald Trump to try to revisit a result and reopen results in an election.

We need to be moving forward to a national popular vote for election. We spend tens of millions of dollars a year all over the world teaching people about democracy and the one thing they never come back to us with when they are writing a new Constitution is the idea that, oh, you know that electoral college thing you have? We think we will import that to our country. We never hear that, right? We should be able to learn from our own experience and from the experience of democracies around the world.

Another important ingredient to democracy is statehood. That is how communities that have been formerly disenfranchised and subordinated have been able to lift themselves up. We are in the Nation's Capital, which is the only Nation's Capital on planet Earth which is not represented in their own national legislature. Mr. Speaker, 713,000 taxpaying, draftable U.S. citizens are completely disenfranchised in the House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. They don't have representation.

If you told the people of Paris they could not be represented in L'Assemblee nationale because they breathed the same air that other people's representatives breathed, you would have another French Revolution on your hands.

When we passed it in the 117th Congress, the D.C. statehood legislation, and I was one of the floor leaders for that, I had the honor of telling the people of Washington, D.C., this: Thank you for having a bona fide real political grievance and not coming down here and beating the daylights out of our police officers the way that the MAGA mob did when Donald Trump falsely convinced them that they had won the Presidential election, which Trump had lost by more than 7 million votes, 306-232 in the electoral college.

They didn't come down and storm the Chamber and try to overthrow the Constitution. They did it the right way. They had a Statehood Constitutional Convention. They are asking for admission. We should admit the people of Washington, D.C., as an equal State into the Union using our powers under Article IV of the Constitution.

It is the same thing with 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico. They should be given the opportunity to become a State, as well.

We have got to keep the trajectory of democracy moving forward so we don't lapse into some other form of government. This has been a tough time with challenges to the basic constitutional structure when you have Presidential candidates saying, just set the Constitution aside. We saw a violent insurrection supporting a political coup in this very Chamber. That is the alternative to moving forward with everything that we are going to be talking about tonight in terms of improving representation through ranked choice voting, in terms of campaign finance reform so we don't have money drowning out the voice of the people, filibuster reform, ethics reform at the Supreme Court, all of those things are essential and we need the momentum of

a prodemocracy movement to keep us from becoming like Vladimir Putin's country or Viktor Orban's country, the close buddies of Donald Trump that he invoked in the Presidential debate last night that he conscripted as character witnesses for him in this election.

We have got a very clear choice for America moving forward. I thank the Progressive Caucus for offering so much leadership. We know that it is tough, and it is a struggle.

Frederick Douglas from my State said that if there is no struggle, there is no progress. The struggle may be moral, it may be physical, it may be more unphysical, but there must be struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand.

John Dewey said that there are no ills to democracy that cannot be solved without more democracy. Democracy is the corrective to the impediments to democracies.

What we are suffering from today is the obstacles and the impediments to democracy, but we have got the means, and we have got the will in the country to move forward.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Ramirez for giving me this opportunity.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 890. I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership.

The bill is titled the Guidance Out Of Darkness Act, suggesting that agency guidance documents are currently secreted away behind closed doors, shrouded in mystery. This is a bit melodramatic, gothic, and not exactly the reality.

Federal agencies are presently required to disclose any statement of policy and interpretations that are not otherwise published in the Federal Register, but it is true that there are not standardized requirements now for how and where to publish these guidance documents.

The GOOD Act would establish such requirements, directing agencies to publish them on a dedicated website of the agency. It would also require the OMB Director to designate a single website where all such guidance could be found.

This step to make agency guidance documents more organized and accessible makes good sense.

I appreciate my colleagues for working to address a number of concerns raised about the bill as originally drafted. For example, the bill now includes an exception to publishing a guidance document if that document is exempt from disclosure under FOIA, ensuring that the bill does not result in sensitive information winding up in the hands of our adversaries.

However, some valid concerns remain outstanding--chiefly, that the bill's definition of ``guidance document'' may be overly broad to the extent that it undermines the transparency the bill is meant to advance.

I won't oppose this bill today because I appreciate its stated goal of promoting transparency. I do ask our GOP colleagues to continue working with us in good faith to thoroughly examine and address some lingering concerns before it moves any further through the legislative process.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am in favor of this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

I rise in support of H.R. 7887, the ACCESS Act, which is intended to address degree inflation, the growing trend of college graduates filling jobs that don't require college degrees. This can lead to reduced earnings for college degree holders, reduced employment opportunities for nondegree holders, and an overall drag on the economy in a time of very low unemployment, like ours, and of labor shortages.

Committee Democrats are supportive of efforts to eliminate minimum education and experience requirements for jobs that don't actually require such associated skills for successful performance, expanding opportunity for the more than 62 percent of the population, age 25 and older, who do not hold a bachelor's degree.

The ACCESS Act would prohibit Federal agencies from specifying minimum educational requirements for contractor personnel in solicitations, unless the solicitation also includes a written justification explaining why such requirements are actually necessary.

I had been concerned that this might create a blanket requirement that could be unnecessarily burdensome for Federal agencies in the instances in which minimum education or experience requirements are commonly and reasonably understood to be necessary, but changes made to the bill after our committee markup have alleviated those concerns.

There are certainly some jobs for which some minimum education or experience appears to be totally unnecessary. For example, approximately 39 percent of postings for construction managers require a college degree, as do 52 percent of web developer postings and 34 percent of distribution manager postings.

This suggests that these roles are frequently performed in the economy totally successfully without a college degree and that the requirement is more about the subjective preference or traditions of the employer than the actual demands of the job. It makes sense for agency contracting officers to have to provide a written justification for choosing to require that contractors hire only college degree holders for such jobs, as this bill would require.

However, there are also an array of jobs for which some minimum education or experience requirements are indeed necessary. For example, in 2022, the Federal Government spent almost $30 billion on medical services contracts and another $29 billion on engineering and technical support services contracts. We do not want our contracting officers to have to provide a written explanation every single time they put out a solicitation that requires healthcare and engineering professionals to have advanced higher education degrees, and the bill has been appropriately and gratefully refined to eliminate this unnecessary burden.

I understand that the North America's Building Trades Unions have expressed concerns about just this point, but in cases where highly trained and educated Federal contractors are required to perform technical, scientific, and professional services, nothing in the bill would prevent the hiring of such individuals.

I am happy to continue supporting this legislation as an important step to expand opportunity to more Americans and to welcome more talent in service to our country.

I thank Chairwoman Mace and Chairman Comer for working with us to improve the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 7887, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, the legislation would require additional reporting on certain Federal projects that are over budget by $1 billion or 5 years behind schedule. Federal agencies would be required to include this information in their annual performance and accountability reports made to Congress and the President.

Congress, of course, has a duty to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being well and efficiently spent in the ways that we appropriate them. Additional oversight of projects that are vastly over budget or behind schedule makes good sense, and I support this bill.

I appreciate the fact that this version of the bill takes into consideration some technical comments that were provided to us by OMB.

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, the American flag should be made in the USA. The All- American Flag Act is a bipartisan bill that I invite all Members to support. It would require all Federal agencies to purchase American flags that are manufactured right here in the USA, using materials grown and produced in the United States.

Under current law, this requirement applies only to the DOD and VA. This bill would extend it to all Federal agencies. I commend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Sorensen), our distinguished colleague and the author of the House bill, for his diligent and important work on this issue.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Sorensen).

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Sorensen), and 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. 6162.

Mr. Tidwell was a lifelong resident of Dothan, Alabama. For 86 years, he was committed to a life of public service. He joined the Navy during World War II and was a radio operator. Following the war, he returned to his hometown and took a job at the oil mill.

Mr. Tidwell performed an essential role as a letter carrier for the Postal Service until he retired in 1985. In 2009, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. He passed away in 2012 at 89 years old.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to honor the life of Bruce Tidwell and his wonderful career in the Postal Service by naming the post office in Dothan, Alabama, after him, and I am pleased to offer my support for this legislation.

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

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. 7385.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan) for any remarks she may have.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of an extraordinary Marylander, John ``Paul'' Molloy, who we lost two years ago this week. Paul was a public servant and a former Capitol Hill staffer with a storied career in both the House and Senate, having helped craft and pass such landmark laws as the National Rail Passenger Act of 1970 establishing AMTRAK, the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act of 1976, the nation's bedrock law governing the safe disposal of solid and hazardous waste. He was always committed to bipartisanship and insisted on celebrating the passage of every bipartisan law with the teams--Democrats and Republicans alike--who made them happen. Even in the midst of all these professional achievements, all was not as it seemed. In 1975, Paul found himself living on the streets, divorced and alone because of his stubborn battle with alcoholism.

Fortunately, Paul was able to seek help and begin the long road to recovery. He checked himself into a Montgomery County-run halfway house in Silver Spring. This started a new chapter in his life that would in turn come to touch the lives of so many others in similar situations.

When the County-run halfway house closed, Paul joined with his fellow residents to take over the house's management. They all agreed: they would split the rent and utilities equally; they would all contribute to the cooking and cleaning together; and they would accompany one another to treatment. If anyone relapsed, they would have to leave to protect the health of their fellow residents. They called this new sober-supportive living environment ``Oxford House,'' and began a new addiction recovery model that would spread across the country and the world. Today, there are over 3,300 Oxford Houses helping people maintain their sobriety in a supportive environment.

The reason the first Oxford House wasn't the only Oxford House is simple--one of its cofounders was a congressional staffer. Paul had the knowledge, experience and contacts that proved instrumental in passing provisions in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 that created a revolving loan fund for supportive sobriety models like Oxford House. This fund was instrumental in establishing the network of recovery residences that has spread across the country.

From the 1980s until the end of his life, Paul found renewed purpose as the Director of Oxford House, overseeing its resident-driven expansion into new neighborhoods and new states. Even as Paul carefully stewarded the expansion of new Oxford Houses, he was

careful to maintain the organizational commitment to democratic self- governance within each house, which has empowered generations of Oxford House residents to navigate the inevitable obstacles of life with persistence and patience.

After his recovery, Paul and his wife, Jane, decided to remarry, and enjoyed another 34 years together. When he passed away two years ago, Paul left behind not only his beloved Jane but his five children and eight grandchildren. He is sorely missed, but his legacy of good humor and incomparable compassion lives on among his family and Oxford House family. I join the people of Maryland's beautiful Eighth District and people across the United States in expressing the warmest gratitude for Paul's work as we celebrate his life.

Mr. Speaker, our colleagues invite us today to become the first Congress in the history of the United States to hold someone in contempt for complying with our demands, and their target is the Attorney General of the United States.

Attorney General Garland gave us the special counsel's report on President Biden in full. He made the special counsel available to us in committee for hours of testimony, where he answered all our questions, and he provided the full transcript of the President's voluntary 5-hour interview with the special counsel, all 250 pages of it.

The whole world can read President Biden's interview and his answers unedited, but that is apparently not enough. Now they want to hold the Attorney General in contempt for not turning over the audiotape of the interview that we have the verbatim transcript of.

Why is that important? Well, in case America has lost the thread of this madcap wild goose chase, remember, this is an impeachment investigation. Do they think that the Holy Grail of the 118th Congress evidence of a Presidential high crime and misdemeanor is lurking in the pauses or the background throat clearings and sneezes on the audiotape? Well, of course not.

They know there is no high crime or misdemeanor to be found because they have spent the last 17 months and millions of our taxpayer dollars looking for it, and it simply does not exist. They literally don't even know what they are looking for anymore.

Why do they want it? Well, they are hoping that in the 5 hours of President Biden's testimony, they can find a mispronounced word or phrase or a brief stammer which they can then turn into an embarrassing political TV attack ad.

Get it, America? That is what this is all about. Holding the Attorney General of the United States in contempt is one more useful distraction from the complete and devastating implosion of the Biden impeachment probe which, of course, was the number one priority of these talented leaders.

Remember, they promised to reveal the greatest Presidential high crime and misdemeanor in American history, an act of treachery and deceit that dwarfs even the incitement of a violent mob insurrection and an attempted political coup that took place right here against our Constitution, our Congress, and our Vice President in this Chamber.

However, after their truly prodigious investigation, punctuated admittedly by some unfortunate mishaps like Chinese spies, fake evidence, pornographic displays in committee, and their own witnesses testifying that there were no grounds for Presidential impeachment,

they have nothing to show for their arduous work other than one more debunked Russian disinformation operation and one more indicted GOP informant and star witness.

Rather than admit defeat in this bumbling operation and look for some other way to actually aid the public good, they have decided to flail about in mock outrage against a series of phantom tyrants in the hopes of distracting everyone from this epic flop.

Their first distraction was to impeach Secretary Ale Mayorkas as a paltry consolation prize, but that pathetic decoy action blew up in their hands. Then, the plan was to skip the mundane work of casting votes and actually doing committee business to travel on a collective spiritual pilgrimage on Amtrak to New York City to attend the criminal trial of an unmentionable American felon, 1 of 19 million in the country.

That strange journey to mecca also blew up in their faces when this mystery political false prophet was convicted unanimously by a jury of his peers on dozens of felony criminal counts in a fair American trial.

They tried to salvage the credibility of this bizarre expedition by blaming the American justice system for being weaponized against Republicans, but this political extremism quickly melted away when the son of President Biden, the original target of their wrath, was also prosecuted and convicted, like another disarmed felon whose name may now not be spoken on the floor, apparently, by a unanimous jury of his peers on all counts against him.

That trial, unlike the trial whose very existence must be sent down the Orwellian memory hole to save someone's hurt feelings, was actually tried in the Federal system.

What is left to do now? Well, let's hold the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, in contempt, of course. This will be sure to placate an unrepentant and anonymous convicted felon from New York and distract everybody else for a day or two.

I confess it is a bit rich, Mr. Speaker, to be asked to hold the Attorney General of the United States in contempt of Congress for overwhelmingly complying with the committee's demands by Members who voted against contempt citations for Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, two persons subpoenaed by the January 6th Select Committee who never spent a single minute with the January 6th Select Committee.

Mr. Speaker, Bannon and Navarro never spent a minute with the January 6th Committee and never turned over a single document to our committee. These people had zero percent compliance with Congress. They demonstrated true contempt, which is why they have been sentenced to jail.

Chairman Comer, in his wisdom, would hold the Attorney General of the United States of America in contempt for what I think is 100 percent compliance, but in any event, it is something like 98 or 99 percent compliance.

If you think a Federal official has not rendered proper compliance, you take them to court. You don't hold them in contempt. It is rich beyond measure, like billionaire rich, to be asked to hold the Attorney General in contempt by people who themselves received subpoenas to testify before the January 6th Committee who never rendered a single document nor a single minute of testimony to the January 6th Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Congress to reject this absurd motion.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize my constituent and beloved friend, Ms. Gigi Godwin, as she concludes a chapter of exemplary service to the people and businesses of Montgomery County. Gigi's vision as President and CEO of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) expanded the organization into a nationally recognized resource for innovative business practices and inclusive programming. The communities of Maryland's beautiful Eighth District owe her a debt of gratitude for developing vital services for local business owners from all walks of life.

Gigi's career has spanned across the U.S. Congress, the National Academy of Sciences' Climate Research Board and the alternative energy sector. She found her way to MCCC in 2003 as Director of Education and Outreach before rising to become MCCC's President and CEO. She played a pivotal role wearing the additional hat of the MCCC Foundation's Treasurer, developing educational programs and initiatives to support the Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation's Veteran Institute for Procurement. This remarkable program has provided training at no expense to nearly 2,500 veteran-owned small businesses to improve their access to the federal contract and procurement process. Gigi not only recognized our important obligation to ensure that economic opportunities are available to veterans--she made it happen, and earned a Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition for her efforts in 2010.

As a passionate advocate for Montgomery County's local economy, Gigi also helped broaden government contracting opportunities to many more businesses in Montgomery County. In addition to her work to establish veteran-centered procurement training, Gigi seized on the potential of Montgomery County's proximity to the engine of federal government to start the GovConNet Council, which educates business owners on the latest contracting opportunities, and advocated for the unanimous passage of the Small Business Runway Extension Act.

Gigi's service has extended beyond MCCC to encompass some of Montgomery County's most beloved and foundational institutions. She earned an Honorary Degree from Montgomery College for her five years of service advancing education equity on the College's Board of Trustees. She also served on the boards of the Montgomery County Business Roundtable on Education, the Committee for Montgomery, the Montgomery County Executive's Business Advisory Board and Imagination Stage.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention Gigi's signature grace and her steady leadership during some of the most tumultuous economic periods in American history. Her service as the head of MCCC spanned the depths of the Great Recession and a global pandemic. The economic recovery in Montgomery County and the resilience of our small businesses is due

in no small part to Gigi's leadership and agile responses to these crises and her focus on building the resources, infrastructure, and capacity to support our local small businesses.

In addition to her outstanding professional achievements, Gigi is also a beloved wife to her husband Jeff, and amazing mother to three children. As she begins this exciting new chapter, I am extending my warmest wishes to Gigi and my deep gratitude for her plentiful and enduring contributions to the businesses and people of Montgomery County.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in very strong support of H.R. 3608. Megan McClung was raised in Orange County, California, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1995. She was tragically killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Iraq, on December 6, 2006, and thereby became the first female officer to be killed in the Iraq war.

We stand united in honoring the life of Major McClung by naming a post office in Mission Viejo, California, after her.

Madam Speaker, I encourage the entire body to join us today, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in very strong support of H.R. 5476, and I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his remarks.

Susan Barnhart was a beloved public servant in the Bucks County community. She was a resident of Titusville, New Jersey, but was a longtime postal service worker at the Newtown and Washington Crossing offices.

She passed away during an extreme flash flooding incident on July 15, 2023. Designating the post office in her honor will ensure that her legacy of passionate dedication to the community and public service will be forever recognized and remembered.

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