Floor Statements

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

I rise in support of the Comment Integrity and Management Act again, as I was saying. I was very eager to support my friend Mr. Higgins' legislation here.

The basic issue is that it has gotten easier for people to post comments online in a rulemaking. That is a really good thing because it means that the process of implementing regulations is more accessible, more transparent, more open, and more participatory, but a number of the agencies have found, I think, what Members of Congress have found. Sometimes you get the same paragraph 100 times, 1,000 times, or 3,000 times.

This bill would simply allow agencies to post a representative sample of mass comments like this. If they choose to do that, they still are required to post the number of such comments received so that the volume of public sentiment is still fairly and effectively registered.

The bill would also require agencies, within 1 year, to establish policies for handling computer-generated comments, which is a growing concern to manage with the recent remarkable advances in artificial intelligence.

I am eager to hear from Mr. Higgins because I view his legislation as one that supports the administrative rulemaking process, which is so much under attack these days. There are people who say that we shouldn't have rules and regulations. Of course, the way our system works is that, in Congress, we pass laws like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, but we don't get into all the fine details. That is left to the executive branch to do a rulemaking. That, too, is an open process where people can register their concerns and send comments in.

We want to make sure that that process continues to operate effectively and is not overwhelmed and overburdened by AI and computer- duplicated comments.

So I thank Mr. Higgins, and I thank Chairman Comer and his staff for working with our side to address some of the concerns we had with the original language.

I understand the administration and some outside groups have also registered some concerns about the legislation that have been addressed. We have worked with them and our majority counterparts to incorporate their feedback into this revised version of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the bill at this time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation introduced by Mr. Connolly.

Between 2021 and 2023, truck drivers contracted by the Postal Service were involved in at least 68 different traffic accidents, and 79 people were killed in them.

On February 27, 2024, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that the Postal Service failed to record all mail transport accidents in a central database, including accidents involving truck driver contractors. As a result, the Postal Service failed to have a complete understanding of traffic accidents and the comprehensive safety performance of its mail transport drivers.

With this new information from the inspector general, it is clear that the level of fatalities across this period could even have been higher.

The Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act, the excellent bill brought forward by Mr. Connolly, would resolve these serious oversight deficiencies by increasing transparency, comprehension, and understanding of the full scale of mail transport accidents and ultimately improve safety for postal transport drivers and for the public. The bill would require all Postal Service mail transport drivers, including 4,600 postal trucking contractors, to adhere to a range of reporting, tracking, and accountability measures.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Subcommittee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly from Virginia for his great leadership in strengthening Postal Service mail transport safety, and I am pleased to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for the purposes of a colloquy.

Mr. Connolly, is it the case that rules that would clearly apply to USPS trucks carrying postal mail have not been applied to the contractors?

In other words, the postal truck drivers who are working for the Postal Service have to have all the proper licensure and all the proper certification and training. Presumably the brakes are checked on their trucks, but because of the contracting out, they somehow have been able to escape all the rules we have with respect to road safety?

Well, again, I commend the gentleman for bringing this to public attention. That is an extraordinary number of people to lose their lives on the road to private contractors, who seem to have completely escaped the grasp of the rules that have been adopted under the Postal Service. Additionally, we know that the Postal Service traditionally has taken far more serious interest in public safety and public welfare.

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

Mr. Speaker, this is excellent bipartisan legislation with Congress acting just as it should to address a serious public policy problem, and let's hope that we pass this quickly, the President signs it quickly, and we don't lose any more Americans or Postal Service workers on the road.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, Mr. Mfume, for yielding me time. I am grateful to him for his extraordinary leadership through this catastrophe and for leading us through this Special Order hour this afternoon.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about the devastating collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in our beloved home State of Maryland.

In times of catastrophe across the country, from earthquakes in California to hurricanes in Florida to flooding in Louisiana to wildfires in the West to terrorism in New York or Washington, D.C., we come together as a country to help our communities recover and rebuild, and we cannot allow any of the political divisions in America today to interfere with this process of coming together to help a community struck by catastrophe in this way.

Disasters befall all of our States and all of our districts, and they are not partisan in character. We have to stick together to support all of our communities, and that is what we are going to do in Maryland, and we are going to do as a Nation to rebuild the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge.

I thank Governor Moore's administration, the Coast Guard, Secretary Buttigieg, the Army Corps of Engineers, first responders, the Maryland Transportation Authority, and everyone who is working overtime to address this disaster. The Unified Command convened by the Coast Guard has been hard at work in removing the bridge debris from the river and restoring access to the port, salvage and recovery operations are ongoing in a very difficult and complicated process.

The Dali vessel, weighing 213 million pounds, is the same size as the Eiffel Tower with pieces of bridge weighing as much as 4,000 tons laying on top of it. The water is frigid and murky, complicating the ongoing and heroic rescue efforts that began immediately.

I thank President Biden and his administration for their exemplary leadership in the face of this catastrophe and its characteristic commitment to help the local community rebuild.

The President has directed his administration to move heaven and Earth to rebuild the bridge and to recover the port as rapidly as possible, and within hours of receiving Maryland's request, the DOT and FHA swiftly approved $60 million in initial aid.

Mr. Speaker, I also acknowledge the devastating loss of the six construction crew workers who were killed in this nightmare when they were working what seemed like a routine nighttime shift fixing potholes. Our thoughts continue to go out to their families and all of their loved ones.

We have a long road ahead of us to rebuild the bridge in Maryland, and our bipartisan Congressional delegation stands ready to do everything which needs to be done to restore full access to the port and rebuild the bridge.

Mr. Speaker, I again thank Mr. Mfume for his extraordinary leadership and thank all of our colleagues who have expressed their support and their sympathy for the people of Maryland dealing with this crisis. Thank you for standing with us.

Mr. Speaker, as our nation confronts political chaos, the civilizational emergency of climate change, and existential threats to our democracy, I have found myself unable to sleep. This is an experience that it turns out I share with millions of Americans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that more than one third of all adults in the United States sleep fewer than the clinically recommended seven hours per night. As we mark Sleep Awareness Week, recognized this year by the National Sleep Foundation between March 10-16, we must elevate the importance of sleep health to our mental and physical health and confront the sleep disparities that closely correspond to racial and socioeconomic inequalities.

Sleep quality, it turns out, has been causally linked to mental health. Researchers from Keele University and the University of Sheffield found that greater improvements in sleep quality led to greater improvements in mental health. Though we have progressed by leaps and bounds in our society's discourse on mental health, we have yet to sufficiently emphasize the links between getting enough sleep and feeling mentally well.

The call to ``get more sleep'' is a tall order for many Americans, especially in light of the social disparities that already affect sleep health for so many. African Americans are 65 percent more likely and Hispanic Americans are 59 percent more likely to report poor sleep quality than white Americans, even though all groups report a similar ease in falling asleep. Americans who earn enough to make ends meet are much more likely to report a good night's sleep than people who are struggling to get by and living paycheck to paycheck. Closing these divides and achieving sleep equity must be one of our national public health priorities.

Our nationwide quest to get a good night's sleep is inextricable from our work for a more democratic society, where we want everyone to be fully functional and participatory. We need well-rested citizens who can participate and govern themselves, their families, and their communities. Our struggle to create the conditions for a peaceful night's sleep is as much a societal imperative as an individual question. During this National Sleep Awareness Week, we must commit to the fundamental importance of a good night's rest for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the Government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, a courageous pro-democracy activist, brilliant economist, and beloved husband and father, who has been unjustly detained for over seven months.

On July 23, 2023, Dr. Ibadoghlu and his wife, Irada Bayramova, were forced out of their car near Baku, Azerbaijan, seized by masked individuals, detained, and beaten. Dr. Ibadoghlu had returned to Azerbaijan earlier in July from a visiting fellowship at the London School of Economics to care for his ailing mother. Though Ms. Bayramova was released hours later, Dr. Ibadoghlu was not released. Ms. Bayramova and her family have been denied communication with her husband and she continues to expenence Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from this harrowing ordeal. The ``charges'' that President Ilham Aliyev's government has used to justify Dr. Ibadoghlu's detention and imprisonment without trial--that he organized the production of counterfeit money to support a political group and, as an avowed secularist, disseminates material that supports religious extremism-- are so dubious and baseless that they would qualify as satire in another context.

Dr. Ibadoghlu's true ``crime'' against the Aliyev regime is his devotion to the causes of democracy, freedom and anti-corruption in Azerbaijan. He is detained today because he bravely chose to return to Azerbaijan to care for his mother despite fleeing the country in 2017 to teach abroad after his civic activism prompted threats of retaliation. As an internationally acclaimed economist, he has also served as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Rutgers University. He was a 2015 Fulbright Scholar, a 2015 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, a 2018 Prague Civil Society Center Fellow, and a recipient of the 2018 Civil Society Scholar Award by the Open Society Fund.

During Dr. Ibadoghlu's seven-month detention, he has been subjected to crowded and inhumane conditions common to Azerbaijan's jails and denied sustained access to critical medication. Dr. Ibadoghlu's family is increasingly concerned that he has been denied the medication and medical treatment that he desperately needs to treat his chronic health conditions. He has additionally been repeatedly denied access to his legal counsel and has not received a fair trial while in custody. I join my fellow Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Baku, U.S. academic institutions and organizations, the European Parliament, and others in the international community to express my deep concerns about Dr. Ibadoghlu's health and demand his immediate release.

I commend Emin Bayramli, one of Dr. Ibadoghlu's sons who lives in my district, and his entire family for their steadfastness in seeking their father's freedom from his unjust imprisonment. I also commend my colleague Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey for adopting Dr. Ibadoghlu through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project.

Dr. Ibadoghlu is one of far too many Azerbaijanis that the Aliyev regime has unjustly detained to suppress freedom and civil rights. The Government of Azerbaijan's poor record of respecting human rights, civil rights and civil liberties is a moral stain that affects free people everywhere. Whether they live in Washington, D.C. or Baku, Hong Kong or Beijing, Moscow or Kyiv, everyone should have the right to determine their own destiny. Dr. Ibadoghlu's unjust imprisonment must end immediately.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Utah for yielding. I appreciate it.

It is just on a small bit of housekeeping business. I will be removing my name as cosponsor on H. Res. 902. My name was added to this as a cosponsor without my knowledge, without my consent.

I knew nothing about it, and that was at 6:18:38 yesterday and 1 second before another Member was also falsely added as a cosponsor to this legislation.

So I am going to work with the Clerk's office and the majority and the minority leader to just figure out how this is happening. Apparently, it has happened to some other people. I hope this can be removed immediately and that we can prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate 63 years of the United States Peace Corps' work in promoting world peace and friendship among nations. President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps as the United States' first global volunteer initiative on March 1, 1961. Since then, the Peace Corps has sent more than 241,000 Volunteers to serve communities in 143 countries. These committed Americans have formed enduring bonds of friendship across cultures and championed the best of our country's values abroad.

The founding Director of the Peace Corps, Sargent R. Shriver, observed that ``Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.'' Peace Corps Volunteers have performed immensely valuable and meaningful work to advance the vision of person-to-person peace-building by living and working in communities abroad. Over the past 63 years, Volunteers have learned the languages of their host countries to advance development work in public health, education, agriculture, youth organizing and community economics. Today, the Peace Corps' mission is in the capable hands of my constituent, Director Carol Spahn, who is herself a former Volunteer. This week, I am honored to celebrate her work as my Eighth District Local Hero to showcase the importance of her leadership of one of our country's most important diplomatic and service programs.

I am proud of the generations of compassionate and courageous Volunteers who have committed themselves to two or more years of service in a land previously unknown to them. Among their ranks are many of my constituents from Maryland's beautiful Eighth Congressional District. This year, my district has sent more Peace Corps Volunteers to serve abroad than any other congressional district in the country. It is my surpassing honor to represent the many individuals who are choosing to live, serve and learn in over 20 countries as Volunteers.

When they return to the United States, Peace Corps Volunteers bring their new vision home. After immersing themselves in the culture of their host communities, Volunteers continue to enrich our communities with the friendships they built during their time abroad. They bring not only their memories but new skills in languages, cross-cultural understanding and subject matter expertise. Many Volunteers continue to serve our country through other forms of public service.

As we honor the 63rd anniversary of the Peace Corps, I am grateful to the Volunteers and to the dedicated civil servants, led by Director Spahn, who make their work possible.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 56.

personal explanation

Madam Speaker, we are here because the madcap wild goose chase to impeach Joe Biden has produced no wild geese. Even FOX News is lampooning the fact that their own expert witnesses repeatedly say that President Biden did nothing wrong and that there are no grounds for impeachment. More than a dozen GOP Members in Biden majority districts don't want to go anywhere near that fantasy production.

So, the Trump-Putin-MAGA faction, headed up by the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene), has been given this worthless trinket of a consolation prize--the opportunity to bring this slapstick impeachment drive against a Cabinet member of unimpeachable integrity who has obviously committed no treason, no bribery, no high crimes, no misdemeanors, nothing indictable or even ``in-dict-able,'' if you prefer.

What makes this farce a tragedy is that Secretary Mayorkas and the U.S. Senate have been working for months to achieve precisely the immigration and border compromise the GOP has been demanding. Miraculously, they got to a bipartisan immigration agreement for billions of dollars for more Border Patrol officers, immigration judges, and fentanyl detection machines--a far tougher border.

It was good enough for Senator Mitch McConnell and dozens of GOP Senators, and it was good enough for The Wall Street Journal, but the House MAGAs would not take ``yes'' for an answer. Why? Because Donald Trump doesn't want a border solution. He wants a border problem. Nothing else to run on.

Vladimir Putin certainly doesn't want $60 billion going to the heroic people of Ukraine defying his filthy imperialist invasion. All over the world, democracy and freedom are under siege today and all our colleagues can think to do is to sell out our democratic allies and sell out the cause of human rights, and then impeach a Cabinet Secretary working diligently to solve the immigration problem that they claim to care about.

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

Madam Speaker, the gentleman's legislation, H.R. 5528, the Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act, would require the Director of OMB to review the procurement management practices of Federal agencies to determine whether the use of acquisition procedures focused exclusively on costs known as Lowest Price Technically Acceptable, or LPTA, poses any national security risks.

Since our committee reported this bill last September, I appreciate that Mr. Donalds and the majority sought and incorporated feedback from the administration, and also earned bipartisan support with the cosponsorship of Mr. Connolly, a longtime expert in Federal operations. With these updates, I am happy to lend my full support to this legislation.

When Federal agencies purchase goods or services, they strive to achieve the best value for the American people. In the words of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, best value means that the acquisition should provide ``the greatest overall benefit in response to the requirement.''

Under LPTA procedures, price is the controlling factor in awarding a contract with no consideration given to any other factors. This contrasts with the more frequently used tradeoff approach which looks at the bigger picture and considers additional factors beyond just cost, perhaps assessing elements like quality and performance, or a bidder's technical or managerial expertise.

This bill, and the tradeoff approach to Federal contracting, take into consideration that focusing on contract price alone can actually increase the overall cost to the Federal Government and the people.

For example, cutting costs in the short term can lead to expensive project delays, or might result in taxpayer dollars flowing to adversarial nations that threaten our national security.

If no consideration is given to the strength and integrity of a bidder's supply chain, cutting costs in the short term could lead to inferior products or disastrous supply shortages at key moments.

Madam Speaker, I am happy to give my support to this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Madam Speaker, I rise to support S. 3427, the Overtime Pay for Protective Services Act. The legislation would see to it that Secret Service agents who work overtime get paid for the time they have worked.

The bill authorizes an extension of the Secret Service's current pay cap level of level II of the Executive Schedule through 2028 so that agents are permitted to receive compensation for the hours of overtime they work. Without this legislation, the pay of Secret Service agents would be capped at GS-15 level.

The Presidential campaign years place great challenges and strain on Secret Service personnel. According to the most recent data available, in 2022, nearly 1,600 agents worked so many hours that they maxed out their annual overtime in salary.

The amount of overtime worked resulted, on average, in more than $11,000 per agent.

This bill also includes extensive reporting requirements, including both quarterly and annual reporting on the number of individuals receiving overtime and estimates for future years.

This will help keep the agency focused on its personnel management problem, and keep Congress informed on the issue and funding needs of the agency.

This elevated pay cap for Secret Service agents has been in place since 2016. While the agency has made some progress in recruiting, this is, in essence, a management problem. The Secret Service must be able to pay its people in order to attract and retain the best talent that is available. The Secret Service needs to hire more people to reduce its heavy overtime expenses.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2754, introduced by my distinguished colleague from Texas, Representative Cuellar, which would designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 2395 East Del Mar Boulevard in Laredo, Texas, as the Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza, Lance Corporal Juan Rodrigo Rodriguez & Sergeant Roberto Arizola Jr. Post Office Building.

These three brave individuals made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives for our country.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

I would just say that Lance Corporal Espinoza, Lance Corporal Rodriguez, and Sergeant Arizola admirably served our country, and we thank them and their families for their extraordinary service.

Madam Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 2754, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

I rise in support of H.R. 3865 to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 101 South 8th Street in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, as the Lieutenant William D. Lebo Post Office Building.

I join Mr. Donalds in praising the work of Lieutenant Lebo. He had a remarkable 40-year career with the Lebanon City Police Department, but in March 2022, just 1 month before he was set to retire, Lieutenant Lebo was killed while on duty.

I encourage my colleagues to join us in honoring the life of Lieutenant Lebo by naming a post office in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, after him.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

I rise in support of H.R. 3947, a bill designating the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 859 North State Road 21 in Melrose, Florida, as the Pamela Jane Rock Post Office Building.

After graduating from the University of Florida, Pam started a long career with the WIC program and dietary education.

She worked with women and families from across the United States-- from Florida, Yellowstone, North Carolina, to Georgia--and even with the Peace Corps in Guatemala to advance critical nutritional goals for infants and children.

Following her long-term service with the WIC program, she transitioned into a new role of public service with the U.S. Postal Service in January 2022 as a letter carrier.

On August 22, 2022, she was unexpectedly and severely injured while delivering the mail and sadly passed away in Florida as a consequence of her injuries.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in honoring the life and the hard work of Ms. Rock by naming a post office in Melrose after her.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

I rise in strong support of H.R. 3728 to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 25 Dorchester Avenue, Room 1, in Boston, Massachusetts, as the Caroline Chang Post Office.

This legislation, introduced by my distinguished colleague, Representative Pressley, recognizes the contributions of Caroline Chang, who was born and raised in Boston's Chinatown.

I didn't know her, but I have learned from my colleague that she was a trailblazer, a passionate advocate for her community, and a very devoted public servant.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley).

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close, as well.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in honoring the life of Ms. Chang by naming the post office in Boston, Massachusetts after her, and we will all be proud to see it happen, pursuant to the remarks of Ms. Pressley.

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