Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the long career of Mr. Doug Nguyen, who is retiring after over three decades of service with the Social Security Administration. I want to share my gratitude for a job well done. I want to thank Doug for all that he has done for my constituents. While Mr. Nguyen's retirement is well-earned, I have no doubt that residents will miss his unselfish and diligent work on their behalf.

Doug Nguyen's life story is emblematic of a mantra that I repeat over and over as I meet residents of my congressional district: our Nation is stronger because of its diversity. Arriving in America after fleeing a tragic situation in Vietnam as a child, Doug set down roots and has spent decades improving his community and helping his neighbors live better lives.

Doug's dedication to setting the highest standard of public service is outstanding and his insistence that everyone who interacts with the Social Security Administration receives respectful and helpful treatment will have a lasting impact long beyond his many years of service. My staff have nothing but respect for Doug and his contributions and they actively looked forward to collaborating with him at every opportunity. We could not have asked for a better partner.

It is clear from Doug Nguyen's many acknowledgements and awards that our Nation recognizes the value he brought into whatever role he served on our behalf. Whether it is with his service with Social Security, with the White House Initiative on Asian American Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, or on the various boards upon which he has served, Doug has always been a strong leader who is helping to improve Americans' lives and pull our community and our Nation in the right direction.

Our Nation no doubt faces some difficult challenges in the months and years ahead. Federal employees like Doug Nguyen who have devoted their professional lives to serving our Nation are under siege. But I have confidence that we can emerge victorious from these challenges because of the foundation that Doug and so many like him have laid over their decades of work on our behalf.

On behalf of the residents of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, I again want to thank Doug Nguyen for his many years of service. Doug successfully bridged the gap between a federal agency and the human beings it serves, and that is an accomplishment that deserves endless praise. I wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the accomplishments and long career of my dear friend, George Van Dusen. George is retiring after serving as an excellent Mayor of Skokie for 25 years. I have had the privilege of representing the Village of Skokie for the entirety of my congressional career, and George Van Dusen has been a fierce and effective advocate for his community throughout my tenure. George was a partner who I knew I could rely upon, and my staff and I took every possible opportunity to work with him and his team.

Mayor Van Dusen has dedicated 52 years of his life to public service--41 of those years serving as an elected official with the Village of Skokie. Mayor Van Dusen has been a proud Skokie resident since 1974, and it comes as no surprise that his engagement in the community led him to serve as both a trustee and eventually mayor.

Mayor Van Dusen served as my predecessor, Congressman Sydney Yates' Director of Suburban Operations from 1973 until Representative Yates' retirement in 1999. This experience as a congressional staffer provided George with invaluable knowledge about how a legislative office works and how to best collaborate with me and my staff to improve the lives of Skokie residents.

While serving in his capacity as Director of Suburban Operations, Van Dusen was elected to the Skokie Village Board as a Trustee in 1984 and was appointed mayor in 1999. Thanks to Mayor Van Dusen's 26 years of leadership, the Village of Skokie is in very good shape. Skokie has seen significant growth and prosperity under his stewardship. Thanks to Mayor Van Dusen's steady hand, the Village has seen significant economic development and Skokie's population has consistently grown. George has been a leader on everything from infrastructure investment to promoting affordable housing to ensuring that sustainability issues are front and center for the Village. Mayor Van Dusen was a key supporter of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, which opened in Skokie under his tenure. This institution is now a landmark that has received national acclaim as it combats hatred and bigotry.

Skokie is a wonderfully diverse community where more than 90 languages are spoken, and has long been a village that welcomes, respects and values all residents. Mayor Van Dusen has lifted up and celebrated the cultural richness of Skokie, through events like the Festival of Cultures and by ensuring respect and access to village services for everyone.

I am grateful to have had Mayor Van Dusen as a partner within the 9th Congressional District of Illinois these past 26 years, and I am even more grateful to be able to call him a friend.

On behalf of the residents of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, I thank Mayor Van Dusen for his service and wish he and wife Susan all the best. He leaves shoes that will be very hard to fill. I hope Skokie's future leaders have the same skill and compassion that he showed throughout his career. I wish him nothing but the best in future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Ivey for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, this is so important, yet we should be ashamed of the way the Trump administration has been absolutely attacking our Federal workers, the people who go to work every single day to do important functions.

They don't have any ulterior motive. They are making sure our senior citizens get their medications and that we take care of our veterans who need help. These are the kinds of things they do. They are servants to all of our people. They are doing their best job, yet they are being criticized.

I thank them, and I pledge to all of our Federal workers that I will be here to praise them, to protect them, and to say that they have not only every right but every privilege of serving the American people as they have done day in and day out.

Mr. Speaker, I say hooray to the workers who do so much every single day. They don't ask for any special awards but do the work that the people of the United States need. We have to thank them every single day for their work and not denigrate them as the Trump administration has done.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Kids In Danger and its longtime Executive Director and my friend, Nancy Cowles. Headquartered in my home state of Illinois, Kids In Danger is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting children by fighting for product safety. After over 25 years of protecting children, Kids In Danger will be closing its doors by the end of the year.

Founded in 1998 by the parents of sixteen-month-old Danny Keysar who died when a poorly designed and recalled portable crib collapsed around his neck in his childcare home, Kids In Danger's mission is to save lives by enhancing transparency and accountability through safer product development, better education and stronger advocacy for children.

Nancy Cowles has been Kids In Danger's executive director since 2001 and has passionately advocated for stronger safety standards for children's products to protect all our children, and educated parents, caregivers, and health professionals about recalled and dangerous children's products.

Nancy and Kids In Danger's hard-fought victories for children include the landmark 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, including Danny's Law requiring strong standards for cribs and other nursery products.

Nancy oversaw the development of the KID Design Safety Toolkit, a free online course for children's product developers to educate them about design safety in the product development process to prevent injuries.

For over two decades, Nancy has been a leader and mentor for parent advocates who lost their children due to hazardous products and assisted them in their advocacy for stronger safety measures at both the national and local levels, including safe infant sleep and preventing furniture tip-overs and button cell and coin cell battery ingestion.

I thank Kids In Danger and Nancy Cowles for their work to protect all our children and grandchildren from hazardous products.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate and congratulate Metra on ita 40th anniversary. For the last forty years, Metra has provided safe, reliable commuter rail and hundreds of millions of rides to the communities it serves in the Chicago area, including many in the 9th Congressional District.

The first Board meeting of the newly formed Commuter Rail Division, created as part of a reform of the Regional Transportation Authority, was held in June of 1984. That Board adopted ``Metra'' as a unifying name for all the disparate parts that made and still make up the commuter rail system in the region.

At the time, Metra inherited a threadbare system and was tasked with modernizing and unifying commuter rail in Chicagoland.

Since then, Metra has come a long way, acquiring new lines and subsidizing operations on others owned by freight railroads, continuing to improve the rider experience, and expanding the communities it serves.

Most recently, Metra purchased zero-emission, battery-powered trainsets. I am proud to share that Metra will be one of the first in the nation to operate this innovative technology.

The trainsets will also have low-level boarding and will be equipped with lifts to make them ADA-compliant. They will include features like passenger information signs, bike racks, luggage racks, and more. The purchase demonstrates Metra's committment to cleaner, more inclusive, and rider-friendly transportation options.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Metra for forty years of service. The future of Metra is bright, and I look forward to many more years of reliable, safe commuter rail service for my constituents.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me for the privilege of saying a few words about Bill Pascrell.

I love Bill Pascrell. I say that in the present tense because every time I think of him he makes me smile, not because he was a funny guy-- oh, no, he was serious. He was intense. He is the most honest, and I am going to have to say he did not have a phony bone in his body.

I was a neighbor of his at Hill House, and I would see him sometimes coming and going. One time when John Larson and I knocked on his door, he opened that door and I guess to describe what he was wearing or not wearing, I will say shorts, but he didn't flinch. I didn't flinch. I was happy to see him, and he didn't care because he is his natural self.

Let me just say that honesty and clarity was what he was about. There was nothing that was contrived about this man. There aren't that many people who I know that I could say that about.

I miss him so much. I think about him every day, and I am honored to say I loved him.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the distinguished career of David Lecik. After 37 years of dedicated service in state government, 12 of which were spent working with the Illinois Department on Aging's Senior Health Insurance Program, Mr. Lecik will be retiring as Education Specialist and technical expert on Medicare and Medicaid, and he will be missed by many.

Mr. Lecik served in the U.S. Air Force for 12 years while married to his wife Sheila and raising three children, Stephen, Dan, and Rosemary. His armed forces career started as a dental assistant, and he later retrained in computer operations. He was stationed in Maryland, Southern Illinois, and Athens, Greece and rose to the rank of Master Sergeant.

After the Air Force, Mr. Lecik worked for Victor J. Andrew High School in Tinley Park while earning a bachelor's degree in psychology at Governors State University. In 1997 he was hired by the State of Illinois at the Department of Human Services (DHS) and worked as a Human Service Caseworker and Staff Development Specialist. The work at DHS laid the foundation for his incredible ability to teach advocates and counselors on Medicare and the many benefits that are offered to Illinois citizens.

Mr. Lecik joined The Senior Health Insurance Program-SHIP in 2012 and mastered the Medicare program. David's dedication to serving older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers across the State of Illinois is remarkable. His passion to ensure access to quality healthcare for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries has been at the forefront of his career. He shared his knowledge and talents with the 1,000 SHIP counselors who work with both Medicare and Medicaid programs to assist eligible beneficiaries with lifesaving programs and benefits. He re-wrote the training manual for SHIP and restructured charts and desk aids that summarized difficult subjects for optimal understanding.

His ability to explain the medical programs for seniors and the technical support he has given to hundreds of SHIP counselors is exceptional as he has championed high quality education and advocacy within in the SHIP program. Mr. Lecik has not only supported Medicare recipients by providing counseling to ensure they retain and navigate their health care benefits but has also been a pillar of support for Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP) counselors and professionals throughout the State by helping them navigate the complex Medicare and Medicaid systems. He has provided countless older adults and professionals with the information needed to make informed decisions about their benefits and championed for the most vulnerable and limited income beneficiaries to ensure they have quality health coverage.

Mr. Lecik has presented to numerous audiences such as retirement groups (City of Chicago, Cook County Courts system, and AFSCME), case managers, caseworkers, and advocates from every area of the state. During his career at SHIP and has attended and spoken at national conferences, the Age + Action conference, and has worked with legislators to bring Medicare/Medicaid education to beneficiaries in many local areas of the state. He has worked closely with Social Security outreach staff, liaisons with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the state agency--Healthcare and Family Services. Dave is known throughout the country for his knowledge and expertise with SHIP. He never steers away from a challenge, and he sticks with an issue until it is solved to a successful end.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I thank David Lecik for all the work he has done for the citizens of Illinois. We are so grateful for his invaluable service and wish him the best of everything in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the long- distinguished career of Sandra Galassi, a dedicated public servant. In April 2022, Sandra Galassi retired from the Social Security Administration after 48 years of service to our Nation and our residents.

For almost five decades, Ms. Galassi was the epitome of dedication, commitment, and service excellence within the Social Security Administration. She was based in the Chicago North field office, the Chicago Region's most culturally and ethnically diverse field office. Throughout her tenure, Ms. Galassi exemplified the highest standards of professionalism and compassion. She would often work tirelessly to ensure members of the public were assisted. From her early days as a fresh recruit, to her eventual role as a Title II Claims Specialist, she navigated each challenge with grace, wisdom, and an unwavering commitment to serving the public with integrity and empathy. Each day, Ms. Galassi approached her work with a sense of purpose and a genuine desire to make a difference in the lives of others. With 48 years of service, Ms. Galassi touched tens of thousands of lives, each one better for having encountered her.

Ms. Galassi's tenure is not merely a testament to longevity but also to her enduring passion for public service. The numerous awards of recognition she has received serve to solidify the indelible impression Ms. Galassi has left on the Social Security Administration. This was not her only time spent on behalf of the public. Prior to joining the Social Security Administration, she spent time working for both the United States Treasury Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Ms. Galassi was born and raised in Chicago, and then raised a family of her own with her husband Robert in Niles, Illinois. I am proud to have her as a constituent of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, and I know that she is an irreplaceable member of the local community. On behalf of the constituents of the 9th Congressional District, we thank Ms. Galassi for her 48 years of service and dedication.

Mr Speaker, I rise today to commemorate a brave and compassionate resident of my district; Erik Archambeault. On April 9, 2024, shortly before noon, Erik was quietly celebrating his 47th birthday. He was interrupted by the sound of gunfire which appeared to be coming from the nearby Red Line CTA train station. Erik ran towards the gunfire to assist a resident who had been walking their dog. It turned out that a shooter jumped out of a car, opened fire, killing one--James Craig Smith, Jr.--and injuring the neighbor that Erik Archambeault was rushing to assist.

Without hesitation, Erik guided the injured man into his business, Rogers Park Social, and tended to his wound until he was safely in the hands of the paramedics. Mr. Archambeault demonstrated tremendous bravery and compassion for a neighbor in need. This is not the first time that Erik has risen to the occasion in a tense situation. Several years ago, Erik faced another tragically similar situation and rushed to aid and comfort another shooting victim in his neighborhood. In that case, the neighbor sadly did not survive.

Mr Archambeault is the owner of Rogers Park Social and Rogers Part Provisions, two local businesses whose mission states:

``Founded and operated by neighborhood residents, we strive to mindfully infuse the spirit of community, diversity, and service in all that we offer.''

No truer words were ever spoken. Erik Archambeault personifies what it means to be a resident who gives back and plays an integral role in the broader community. On behalf of the residents of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, I thank Erik for being our neighbor. We are so grateful for the impact that he has had on our neighborhood.

Mr. Speaker, let me thank my colleague, Congresswoman Hayes, for bringing us together today to talk about something so important.

We do live in the richest country in the world at the richest moment in history, and the very idea that we would tolerate and even think about adding to hunger in America is beyond belief.

It is a moral issue, but how could we even think about cutting the opportunity for our children, for our families, for older Americans, for people with disabilities, for people who simply can't afford to put food on the table. This is not because we have a shortage of the food that is available. It is not because there is not the funding to make sure that we take care of those in need.

This is the beginning, pretty soon, of the hunger season because many schools that have provided school lunch programs and school breakfast programs may not be available in the summer months, and yet these children and families need to eat.

How can anyone think about cutting the SNAP program, 60 million people in the United States, half of whom are children? No. It is just not tolerable.

I beg that we are going to make sure that everyone in the United States of America who is hungry will have food on the table.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation, H.R. 3950, the TICKET Act.

As my colleague and the chair of the subcommittee, Mr. Bilirakis, has said, we worked for months to finally get to this legislation being here today. I am so excited about it.

Madam Speaker, we have been hearing about this issue for a very long time, and I appreciate Congressman Pascrell pushing it for as long as he did. Here we finally are. Totally bipartisan, this bill passed unanimously out of the Energy and Commerce Committee, but it took some work for us to finally get here. I am very happy that we have.

The bill really has three separate parts.

One is that we make sure that the price consumers think they are going to pay when they first go online or see an advertisement is the price they will pay. Right now, many consumers have found they think they know the price when they go online, but when they finally finish and are at the end of the contract that they want to sign, they find that it could be 10, 20, 30, 40 percent more than they thought it was going to be.

That is a decision moment. Are they going to be able to go to that venue? Are they going to be able to go to that concert? Are they going to be able to go to that ballpark or to that game? Can they really afford it? Their children are begging to be able to go to that concert, yet it is far more than they thought it was going to be.

This legislation will finally put an end to those hidden prices. The price consumers see is the price that they will pay.

Number two, for refunds, how many times have people gotten tickets and then found out that the concert or the event has actually been canceled? Now, they will have to be compensated fully if that happens.

The third is the scammers. There are websites that are fake that are hooking in people to buy from them, and now under this legislation, the Federal Trade Commission will go strongly after them.

This is not necessarily one of these pieces of legislation that saves your life, as we have heard today from the Energy and Commerce Committee, but it is one of the great aggravations that lots of families face when they want to have that special day.

I am very happy not only for consumers but also for artists and also for the venues that are going to benefit from this legislation.

I certainly urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important legislation, and once again, I applaud the bipartisan effort of all the players who were involved in getting this passed.

Madam Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to talk about this because Americans are very worried about how their data is being used. They want to know who is collecting it, where it is going, and how it is being used.

For far too long, people's privacy has been invaded. They don't know exactly how, and they don't know exactly who. In fact, one of the big players, of course, are the data brokers.

Now, Madam Speaker, ask anyone on the street: Who are data brokers? What do they do?

These are the people who buy, sell, and trade your information. Most people don't have a clue about that.

So this legislation makes a good step forward when it says that none of this information that is collected by data brokers can go to China or any other adversary information that we have listed in this legislation.

It is time, though, I want to add, that while this bill is important for national security and for the security of our people, right now people's data is at risk and children's data is at risk.

We need comprehensive reform on privacy, and we did that in the Energy and Commerce Committee last Congress where we passed the American Data and Privacy Protection Act, and we need to go forward.

People are tired of not only wondering how are so many people collecting our data but how are they buying and selling it. It is a national security interest. This bill is important, but we have to go a step further.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate one of the most renowned and beloved figures in Chicago, meteorologist Tom Skilling. Tom, a 9th Congressional District resident, has worked for 45 years on WGN-TV, enthusiastically and accurately providing weather forecasts to Chicagoland. His lifelong passion for weather and his connection with his audience has earned him a place in the hearts and history of this city and beyond. I am proud and honored to call him a friend. As he embarks on his well-deserved retirement and starts his next chapter, we offer our sincerest gratitude for bringing his sunshine to our TV screens for decades.

I commend Tom Skilling for his unrelenting and contagious dedication to the weather. As a boy growing up on the East Coast, he studied weather maps purchased with his allowance. Tom moved to Aurora, Illinois in 7th grade and brought with him a passion for meteorology so strong he had to share it with the world. At only 14 years old, Tom gave the forecast on the local radio station WKKD before attending class at West Aurora High School.

Upon completing his studies in meteorology and journalism at the University of Wisconsin, Tom embarked on a career that made him a Chicago area legend. Joining the team at WGN-TV, Tom accomplished what no other did before him--he didn't just say what the weather was, he told us why it was happening. Bringing a level of accessibility and authenticity like no other, Tom connected with viewers' hearts and minds.

Tom's last day on the air brought a 70-degree day in February, followed by rain and strong winds and a steep drop in temperatures. Tom speaks with tremendous knowledge and gravitas about climate change science, and the dangers of not acting to protect our planet. He has travelled across the country, including to Washington, to talk about ``climate disruption,'' and led a special series on WGN called Forecast--A Fragile Climate. He speaks about climate change frequently. I know first hand, since we participated together in a climate change forum several years ago.

He has and earned honorary doctorates at universities and colleges, but I'm sure none of those mean as much to Tom as the love and admiration of the millions of viewers who have trusted him to tell them about their weather and their environment for the last 45 years.

As his next chapter arrives Tom's lifetime love for weather persists. We are grateful for Tom's dedication and contribution to this city, and he will always be revered as Chicago's weatherman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember all the lives lost in this horrific event so many decades ago, and also to acknowledge the efforts of a particular and only more recently recognized hero of this period: Kadri Cakrani.

During World War II, Kadri Cakrani served as Commandant-General in the City of Berat, in Albania. Although his nation was occupied by Axis forces, Commandant Cakrani was able to utilize his position of relative authority to save lives.

Commandant Cakrani rallied soldiers under his command and the local citizenry to help shelter hundreds of Jewish people who would otherwise have been killed by Nazi forces. Cakrani repeatedly lied to Nazi officials, claiming no knowledge of Jews within his area of authority. At the same time, he was coordinating the movement of families from one side of Berat to the other to ensure they were not discovered.

Commandant Cakrani even went so far as to shelter Jews within his own home during this period. In 1943, Cakrani successfully sheltered three U.S. Army nurses (Wilma Dale Lytle, Ava Ann Maness, and Helen Porter) trapped in the area after a plane crash returning them safely to the Allied powers.

The risks that Kadri and those working with him faced while they carried out these brave actions were enormous. Eventually, the rise of Communist leader Enver Hoxha forced Kadri Cakrani to flee the country in November of 1944. Cakrani eventually found his way to the United States, where President Harry Truman granted him political asylum and where he then settled down for the remainder of his life.

Kadri Cakrani passed away in 1972, but his efforts to bend the arc of history towards justice have been only recently rediscovered. Cakrani had safely fled to the United States, but many of the heroes that worked beside him remained behind the Iron Curtain in an Albania under communist rule. As a result, to protect those who would otherwise still be at risk, Kadri did not talk about these accomplishments.

Today, Albania is a free and democratic society. Scholars have pieced together the story of this remarkable man and those who worked beside him for good. On behalf of the residents of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, I want to share my deepest gratitude to Kadri Cakrani and those who worked with him to save so many lives. These efforts and risks deserve recognition and remembrance, and I am so pleased to be able to share his story. Our world is better off because of the role that Kadri Cakrani played in it while he was here.

Mr. Speaker, I was otherwise detained and unable to vote today. Had I been present, I would have voted in the following manner: ``nay'' on rollcall No. 710, ``nay'' on rollcall No. 711, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 712, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 713, ``yea'' of rollcall No. 714, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 715, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 716, and ``nay'' on rollcall No. 717.

Personal Explanation