Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Petaluma's Liberty Elementary School for its selection as a 2017 National

Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. Chosen for its exemplary high performance, as measured by state and national assessments, Liberty Elementary School was one of 342 schools to attain this honor from across the nation and one of only 25 schools selected from California. This highly competitive award reflects outstanding achievement and the highest caliber of professional service, family commitment, and community engagement.

With 219 students across seven grades, Liberty Elementary School offers comprehensive educational programs that academically challenge and instill a joy of learning in its students while ensuring that all children have the skills and knowledge to reach their full potential.

Mr. Speaker, this hard-earned distinction reflects true community success. From the students and their families, to the staff and administrators, and the extended community, Liberty Elementary School has developed an education model for the state and the nation: empowering today's students to be tomorrow's problem-solvers, inventors, and pioneers. Please join me in congratulating Liberty Elementary School on this impressive achievement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Scott Rasmussen, an important member of my team for many years who will be leaving my office after this week to travel and pursue his varied interests.

Scott is a native Californian who graduated from Brown University in 2010, then returned to the Bay Area where he worked in the areas of law and technology. I was soon fortunate to have him join my campaign team, where he demonstrated the confidence, intellectual curiosity, diligence, and political instincts that have served him so well over the years I have known him--and which I am sure will continue to bring him success in the future.

Scott helped to form the initial core of my congressional staff in 2013, showing a willingness to pitch in and cover any topic that was thrown to him, from answering phones to tackling policy questions. Over the ensuing years, Scott has taken on new roles and regularly delivered results for my constituents and the planet. Notable successes include the passage of the Point Reyes Coast Guard Housing Conveyance Act, which will allow a former property in West Marin to be repurposed as affordable housing and community space, and his work on our successful bipartisan effort to strike a nearly half-century old congressional earmark that cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year to ship Pennsylvania coal 3,000 miles to American bases in Germany.

With diligence and finesse, Scott has helped to develop a number of key legislative initiatives, and his intellect and maturity have allowed me to entrust him with sensitive foreign policy matters as well. Major projects have included my work to expand broadband access to rural communities, and our ongoing efforts to make sure that homeowners are protected from an unexpected tax bill when they work to reduce water use. Finally, he has worked on the tribal policy portfolio that is a priority in my office, helping to devise several complex and meaningful bills for the tribal members I represent.

For six years I have had the benefit of Scott's good work, and I am deeply appreciative. Along with my family and my staff, I wish Scott the best of luck as he moves on the next phase of his career.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, this bill that we are debating today has been touted as Congress' solution to the longstanding issue of fire borrowing that has plagued the Forest Service.

I represent a district that has experienced a lot of wildfire. Thankfully, the recent devastating fires in the North Bay were not caused by this fire-borrowing issue. They did not involve Federal public lands. However, I have had a lot of wildfire in my district over the years, and fire borrowing is a top priority for me. Unfortunately, as it is currently written, this bill introduces more problems than solutions on this issue. Let me explain.

The title in the bill pertaining to fire borrowing repurposes the Stafford Act, which Congress enacted to provide assistance to State and local governments in case of emergencies. This requires Congress to appropriate the 10-year average for wildfire suppression before the Forest Service can access emergency funds. That is not the way to solve this problem. In fact, I saw that just yesterday the administration issued a SAP because of this problematic provision.

If Congress is serious about fixing the budget issue, we should be making funds available ahead of an emergency situation, and we should remove the cost of fighting catastrophic fires from the agency's base budget. That will enable them to invest in proactive measures to make our forests more resilient and healthy.

Although the Rules Committee added title XI to this bill, which increased the overall cap for disaster spending, the problems with using the Stafford Act approach still remain.

The second point. This bill, essentially, is a gutting of environmental protections and an attack on sustainable forest management that threatens equal access to justice. We should just call it what it is.

Title I of this bill allows intensive logging projects of 10,000 to 30,000 acres each. That is as big as the entire city of San Francisco. Projects of that size can proceed on Federal public lands without any environmental review under NEPA, without any compliance with the Endangered Species Act.

Title II of the bill eliminates the requirement that the Forest Service consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and, essentially, let's the Forest Service decide for itself if it wants to follow the Endangered Species Act consultation requirements regarding any of its projects on public lands.

Title III further chokes judicial review by prohibiting the recovery of attorneys' fees for any challenges to forest management activity under the Equal Access to Justice Act, including meritorious successful challenges. This severely limits public review of logging projects on Federal public lands.

How would any of these measures promote forest health? It wouldn't. So let's call this bill what it is. It is an environmental wrecking ball that weakens standards and protections, limits public participation in the review of Federal agency actions, and won't make our forests any healthier or safer.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained on October 25, 2017. As a result, I was absent for Roll Call votes 585 through 587. Had I been present for Roll Call vote 585, on agreeing to Amendment No. 3 to H.R. 469, I would have voted yes; had I been present for Roll Call vote 586, on agreeing to Amendment No. 4 to H.R. 469, I would have voted yes; and had I been present for Roll Call vote 587, on agreeing to Amendment No. 6 to H.R. 469, I would have voted yes.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Cheryl Seidner, who will be honored as Humboldt County Citizen of the Year on October 27, 2017, an award she richly deserves.

Cheryl Seidner's contributions to the Wiyot Tribe and advocacy for American Indian rights are exemplary. As Chairwoman of the Wiyot Tribe from 1996-2008, Ms. Seidner was essential to the establishment of the Table Bluff Reservation, now home to permanent housing for tribal members and a community center. She was instrumental to the repatriation of Indian Island in Humboldt Bay, the site of a terrible massacre in 1860 that nearly exterminated the Wiyot Tribe. And, as an author and poet, Ms. Seidner also organized an annual vigil commemorating this massacre and brought back the Wiyot young women's coming-of-age ceremony.

Cheryl Seidner has served on the executive committee of the National Congress of American Indians and the Northern California Indian Development Council. She worked as a mentor for students during her 28 years in the Humboldt State University Educational Opportunity Program and was an advisor to the American Indian Alliance, which supports American Indian students' academic efforts. In 2008, Ms. Seidner was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Humboldt State University for her activism on behalf of American Indians at the local, state and national levels.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in expressing deep appreciation for Cheryl Seidner's extraordinary leadership and devotion to American Indian activism and achievement and congratulating her on decades of service to the North Coast's Indian communities.

Mr. Speaker, I have spent a lot of time with my friend, Congressman Mike Thompson, over the past week because our districts neighbor each other. While the worst of this

fire was in Congressman Thompson's district, portions of that terrible Santa Rosa fire spilled over to affect my constituents, and I had a separate fire in Mendocino County, the Redwood Complex, that itself would have ranked among the top 20 wildfires in California history. The fact that all of these fires happened together is truly an unprecedented and a dreadful crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Thompson. He has been everywhere in the region. I thank our local government partners, and I thank our colleagues, Minority Leader Pelosi, and Majority Leader McCarthy. The support has been bipartisan and it has been nationwide. FEMA has been on the ground along with first responders doing heroic work to get the recovery and the rebuilding process started. We are grateful for all of that, but we are only at the beginning.

If you want to see your government doing good work, go to the local assistance center in Santa Rosa or in Ukiah and watch how the wraparound services are there. Every need that these fire victims, these devastated families, can imagine is there to be met. But we are at the beginning, and we are going to need that support over a long- sustained period.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for standing with us at this early stage of dealing with this crisis. We are going to need them over the long haul. We will be talking more about this going forward.

Mr. Speaker, during the week of October 10 to October 13, 2017, I remained in my district in California to assist with relief efforts for catastrophic wildfires that displaced hundreds of my constituents. As a result, I was absent for Roll Call votes 558 through 568.

Had I been present for Roll Call vote 558, on suspension of the rules and passage of H.R. 1858, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 559, on suspension of the rules and passage of H.R. 2464, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 560, on ordering the previous question of H. Res. 562, I would have voted no.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 561, on agreeing to H. Res. 562, I would have voted no.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 562, on suspension of the rules and passage of H.R. 452, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 563, on suspension of the rules and passage of H.R. 3243, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 564, on instructing conferees on H.R. 2810, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 565, on closing portions of the conference on H.R. 2810, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 566, on suspension of the rules and agreement to H. Res. 569, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 567, to recommit with instructions S. 585, I would have voted yes.

And had I been present for Roll Call vote 568, on passage of S. 585, I would have voted yes.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of Patricia Yates, who passed away on October 2, 2017, after a lifetime of public service to her community. Born in San Francisco on February 18, 1921, Mrs. Yates was raised in a family with a well-regarded history of public service at both the state and local level. This environment helped mold in her a passion for service. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1941 before immediately going to work for the federal government.

During World War II, Mrs. Yates worked as an economist for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and traveled across the country to inspect stores and track the prices of vital goods. This exposure to people from all walks of life and their diverse lifestyles, contextualized her dedication to public service.

By 1952, Mrs. Yates moved with her husband to Marin County, where she would reside for the rest of her life. She attained a Masters of Arts in teaching from Dominican University in 1967, and became a teacher at San Domenico High School in San Anselmo. There, she endeavored to instill her passion for civic engagement into her students, eventually becoming the chair of the school's social studies department. After 8 years of teaching, Mrs. Yates retired in order to pursue her growing passion for land and resource conservation in Marin County.

Following years of volunteer work with Marin Conservation League, Mrs. Yates became one of the first women to be elected to the Board of the Marin Municipal Water District in 1982. She occupied this role for six years over the course of two terms, serving as the Board President for two of those years. Even after retiring from the Board in 1991, she continued to volunteer her time teaching students and the public about ecology and the importance of the natural environment.

Mr. Speaker, the depth of Mrs. Yates' service to her community has left a lasting legacy in Marin County, and she will be dearly missed. It is therefore appropriate that we pay tribute to her today and honor her many contributions.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Darlene Tooley, as she retires from Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority (NCIHA) after 39 years of exemplary service.

NCIHA was formed in 1978, with Ms. Tooley as its founding Executive Director, to provide affordable housing to native families in Northern California. Under her leadership, the organization has worked with member tribes to acquire and place into trust over 1,000 acres of land, created 371 affordable homes, and replaced over 30 dilapidated homes in native communities. Ms. Tooley also created First Time Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance and Tenant Based Rental Assistance programs, which have helped numerous individuals secure housing.

The breadth of Ms. Tooley's civic contributions include her service as a founding member of Indian Dispute Resolution Services, treasurer of the Nevada/California Indian Housing Association, and member of the board of directors of the Southwest Indian

Housing Association. She was selected by the Secretary of HUD to be a member of the first two negotiated rulemaking committees to develop regulations to implement Native American Housing legislation.

Darlene Tooley has led a career of service, dedicated to providing affordable housing to the Native American community. Please join me in congratulating her on her retirement and expressing our deep appreciation for her outstanding contributions to the tribes of Lake and Mendocino Counties.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Jacoby Creek Elementary School, which was selected as a 2017 National Blue Ribbon School, in the Exemplary High Performing Schools category, by the U.S. Department of Education. This highly competitive award reflects outstanding academic achievement and the highest caliber of professional service and family and community engagement.

With over 400 students from a variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds throughout rural Humboldt County, Jacoby Creek Elementary School offers a well-rounded educational program that challenges its students academically in a safe and inclusive climate while fostering a lifelong love of learning. In addition to a staff dedicated to helping students meet their fullest potential, Jacoby Creek Elementary School's educational success is uniquely supported by extremely high parent and community participation in all aspects of the school program. The school has earned a strong reputation for academic excellence and prides itself on developing students who are kind, productive, and considerate citizens.

Mr. Speaker, this hard-earned distinction reflects a true community success. From the amazing students and their families to the staff, administrators, and extended community, Jacoby Creek Elementary School has developed an effective education model for the state and nation, empowering students of today to be the problem-solvers, inventors, and pioneers of tomorrow. Please join me in congratulating Jacoby Creek Elementary School on this impressive achievement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today along with my colleague Congressman Mike Thompson, to recognize the 80th anniversary of Sonoma County's KSRO radio station.

When the station first began broadcasting in 1937, KSRO was California's largest radio station north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Originally located in an old Navy Air Station, KSRO provided homecare, music, and news programs throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The station adopted several formats over the years to match the interests of the day, leaning more heavily into music programming by the 1960s before transitioning into a talk and news centered station in 1987, a format the station continues to maintain to this day.

As KSRO continued to grow in listeners and programming, so too did the station's broadcasting talent. Some of the region's most popular broadcasters built their careers at the station, including Jim Grady, Merle Ross, Reg Lester, David Wesley Page, Curtiss Kim, and Steve Jaxon, to name a few. Some of the station's current broadcasters have been radio mainstays across the region for over 30 years.

During KSRO's 80 years of broadcasting, the station has played a critical role in keeping the region informed of the most pressing local and national news. By providing a platform for debate and discussion the station has also been instrumental in shaping public discourse year after year. The station's weather reports and emergency broadcasts have helped to save lives in a region prone to flooding, wildfires, and sudden storms.

Today, KSRO serves as more than just a drive-time distraction during a morning commute, but rather a familiar voice to a diverse community of people from all walks of life. And at a time when our sources of information are increasingly fragmented and tailored for individual needs and tastes, stations like KSRO are that much money important for creating and maintaining a shared sense of community.

Mr. Speaker, KSRO has been a critical provider of pressing news and information to the public, while facilitating public discourse in the North Bay. It is therefore fitting to congratulate the employees, owners, and management of KSRO on their 80-year anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Craig Anderson and his 20 years of active stewardship as the Executive Director of LandPaths, a non-profit organization in Sonoma County that has become a national innovator in land conservation practices under his leadership.

Craig Anderson's career has consistently engaged his dual passions of land conservation and community engagement. Beginning in 1985, Mr. Anderson worked at the Yosemite Institute where he taught field science courses to high school students. Four years later he became the Director of Outdoor Classroom Programs for the Ojai Valley School, leading students on wilderness trips that exposed some of them to land use and natural history curriculum for the first time. During that same period, Mr. Anderson took his knowledge from the classroom and applied it in the field, when he became the site manager for the McCloud River Preserve. As the site manager he oversaw all activities taking places across the 2,200 acre preserve on a daily basis. All of these experiences prepared Mr. Anderson for his next role as the Executive Director of Land Paths, a position he took on in 1997, and continues to hold to this day.

As the Executive Director of Land Paths, Mr. Anderson has grown the organization from a single staff member working out of his apartment to a staff of 15. Pushing the organization's mission of connecting people to nature, Mr. Anderson successfully spearheaded the agency's efforts to create nature preserves with public access. LandPaths has created five such preserves throughout Sonoma County as a result of his leadership to date. In addition to these efforts, Mr. Anderson led the development of the award winning Bayer-Farm Park & Community Garden, which has now been held up as a model for expanding green spaces in urban areas. Because of his foresight in developing local preserves and community gardens, LandPaths has also been able to create student and community stewardship programs that use these properties to ensure the public's commitment to environmental conservation and land use practices. Beyond the local impact of Mr. Anderson's leadership, he has also been recognized on a national level for his innovative practices and stewardship programs.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in expressing deep appreciation for Craig Anderson's extraordinary leadership in the field of land use, conservation and stewardship, by extending to him congratulations on his two decades of service

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of longtime Bay Area anchor and reporter Cheryl Jennings on the occasion of her recognition by the International Association of Sufism with its Humanitarian Award on September 22, 2017. Ms. Jennings has dedicated her entire career to spreading humanity throughout the Bay Area and across the world, and it is fitting for her to receive this honor.

Born in Fort Benning, Georgia, to an Army family, Ms. Jennings lived in many places as a child around the U.S. and the world. This spurred in her a lifelong interest in travel and contributed to the development of her strong will, compassion, and strength. Ms. Jennings' successful career in broadcasting includes many achievements, including nine Emmy awards, seven ``Gracie'' awards from the Alliance of Women in Media, and many other honors and citations.

Her work at ABC 7/KGO has included frightening and memorable episodes. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, for example, she was the sole reporter in the studio, relaying critical information to a very scared public for hours. For this coverage, Ms. Jennings and her news team were awarded two of the highest broadcasting awards in the nation: the George Foster Peabody Award and the Radio-Television News Directors Association's Edward R. Murrow award.

In addition to her professional achievements, Ms. Jennings has volunteered her time to support numerous local charities and organizations over the years. For the past 15 years, she has been a stalwart supporter of Roots for Peace and has traveled around the world promoting landmine removal for countless families and communities. From Camp Okizu for children with cancer, to Performing Stars of Marin, to Marin Abused Women's Services, countless individuals and communities have been touched by her generosity and heart.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in expressing deep appreciation for Cheryl Jennings' humanitarian contributions, and in sending her best wishes for many more years of exceptional service.

Mr. Speaker, on September 6, 2017, I was unavoidably detained, and absent for Roll Call votes 445 through 456. Had I been present, I would have voted in the following manner: No on Roll Call vote 445, on passage of amendment 15; No on Roll Call vote 446, on passage of amendment 17; No on Roll Call vote 447, on passage of amendment 25; No on Roll Call vote 448, on passage of amendment 32; No on Roll Call vote 449, on passage of amendment 33; Yes on Roll Call vote 450, on passage of amendment 38; No on Roll Call vote 451, on passage of amendment 39; No on Roll Call vote 452, on passage of amendment 46; No on Roll Call vote 453, on passage of amendment 51; No on Roll Call vote 454, on passage of amendment 54; No on Roll Call vote 455, on passage of amendment 56; and No on Roll Call vote 456, on passage of amendment 58.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 3440, the DREAM Act, to protect California DREAMers like Oscar, who says that DACA has allowed him to go to school, to work, and has made him feel free.