Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the career and honor the retirement of a remarkable public servant, Fire Chief Jeff Willis of the Big Bear Fire Department.

Chief Willis has had a career of over 40 years in providing fire protection services to our community.

I first met Chief Willis early in my own career in public service when I was a chairman of the Big Bear Lake Fire Protection District. Already, Chief Willis was an extraordinary leader. I learned so much from this man, not only about fire protection but about leadership.

Jeff went on to become not only a leader in our community but across the State of California, commanding multiple fire incidents across the State.

We owe Jeff a debt of gratitude for his long public service to our community. We celebrate his career. We honor his retirement. We wish him the best of luck as he enters this next phase of his career.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of this bipartisan bill that reauthorizes the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act programs from 2018.

Mr. Chair, we are facing an epidemic of fentanyl overdoses in this country and this bill provides meaningful steps in countering them. The programs that this bill reauthorize provide naloxone for first responders, funding for prevention programs, funding for treatment programs, funding for recovery services, and the efficacy of these programs

is shown in the difference in overdose deaths that we have seen in this country between when the program was first implemented in 2018 and last year.

We have seen, Mr. Chair, a dramatic decline in overdose-related deaths, but more work remains to be done.

Last year, Mr. Chair, over 50,000 Americans lost their lives to opioid overdoses. That is why this bill is so important to reauthorize. I thank my friend and the chairman for including my bill, the 9-8-8 Lifeline Cybersecurity Responsibility Act in this bill. I hope everyone in the Chamber is aware of the 9-8-8 lifeline and the vital services that it provides. It provides 24/7 crisis mental health counseling to Americans that are facing mental health crises and are in danger of committing suicide.

Mr. Chair, recently the crisis line was taken down by a cybersecurity incident and I think we should all be able to agree that that is unacceptable. My bill will solve that problem by improving information sharing between law enforcement agencies and the operators of the lifeline, which will keep that lifeline up for the people who need it.

Mr. Chair, this is a great bipartisan bill. I urge its support.

Mr. Speaker, I use today to recognize Terry Fahy who is retiring from his position as Vice President and General Manager of the Salem Media Group in Los Angeles after forty-three years of dedicated service.

After earning his bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Terry became increasingly drawn to the copywriting and music industry. Born into a family of salesmen, Terry began his career in broadcast as a sales representative for two stations in Santa Barbara--99.9 KTYD-FM and 990 KBLS-AM. As a testament to his sales development, leadership, and organizational skills, Terry also led the sales and marketing department at the number one Christian Teaching and Talk station in the nation.

Throughout his successful career, Terry and his broadcast stations have earned numerous accolades, including the Marconi Radio Religious and Gospel Station of the Year in 1995, the National Religious Broadcasters' (NAB) Station of the Year in 2000, and Radio Ink Magazine's Best Radio Manager in 2022. In addition to these impressive awards, Terry served as board chair of the California Broadcasters Association and executive committee and board chair of the Southern California Broadcasters Association.

Beyond his service to the Salem Media Group, Terry is a devoted husband to his wife, Cindy, father to twin boys, Garrett and Brian, and grandfather to his six grandchildren He is also a proud member of the Church at Rocky Peak.

Heather and I thank Terry for his years of service, and we wish him and his family well as they enter this well-earned next stage of life. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Terry Fahy and celebrating his retirement.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the lives and the legacies of two remarkable law enforcement officers from California's Inland Empire: Officer Seth Franklin of the Redlands Police Department, and Officer Shaun Jarvis of the San Bernardino Police Department.

These two men dedicated their lives to serving and protecting others not just as officers but as fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers. Their commitment to their communities was matched only by their love for their families.

Officer Seth Franklin passed away on April 6, 2025, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was just 34. He is survived by his wife, two young children, his parents, and three siblings. Seth was known for his leadership, compassion, and quiet strength; qualities that define not just his work, but every part of his life.

Officer Shaun Jarvis tragically lost his life on May 1, 2014, in a motorcycle accident. He was only 30. Shaun left behind his wife, Rachel; their two young children, Griffin and Aislynn; and his stepdaughter, Aubrey, who he proudly raised as his own.

He was a deeply devoted family man who made time for the moments that mattered, whether it was coaching Little League or walking his daughter to her first day of school year after year after year.

This year, Officer Jarvis' name was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial here in Washington, D.C. His service and sacrifice are now forever enshrined among the heroes who gave their lives in the line of duty or while still devoted to their uniform.

Madam Speaker, these men lived with purpose and served with honor. Their legacies endure in the lives that they touched, the families that they loved, and the communities that they helped keep safe. We owe them and their families a debt that we can never fully repay.

I ask my colleagues to join me in offering our deepest condolences and sincerest gratitude to these two men.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman and my friend for yielding. I rise as the proud sponsor of this bill, H.J. Res. 89, but also as a proud Californian.

This bill would overturn the EPA's waiver granting California the ability to decide for all Californians what cars they drive and what trucks they use to deliver their goods.

This waiver was granted in the waning moments of the Biden administration, and I believe it was shortsighted and misguided.

To be clear, I am not an opponent of electric vehicles, and I consider myself an environmentalist, but I feel strongly that my constituents ought to have the ability to buy for themselves the vehicle that will best meet their needs. For some of them, that is an electric vehicle. For some of my delivery companies, that is an electric truck; but for some, it is not. I believe our country was founded on the principles of freedom and liberty, and that means we are empowered to choose for ourselves about those decisions and not have our government make those decisions for us.

Make no mistake, it is entirely appropriate that we are taking this action here today. Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives this body, the United States Congress, the ability to regulate interstate commerce. As everyone knows, these vehicles, cars and trucks, are not just manufactured for one State, the State of California, they are manufactured for a worldwide audience. It is very much interstate commerce that is at stake here.

Also, let's be clear about this: If it were more efficient or less expensive to deliver using zero-emissions trucks, these companies would already be doing it, but the truth is it absolutely is not. It is more expensive. By forcing this choice on California consumers, we will also be forcing on them all of the concomitant increases in the prices of the goods that they buy every day.

Let me remind you, California already has the worst poverty of any State in the country. Madam Speaker, this waiver would have made it even worse. That is why I think it is entirely appropriate for us to be considering this action today.

Also consider how nonsensical it is for us to run a system of interstate commerce where trucks deliver goods from State to State to State. If we were to allow every single State in the country to establish its own emission standards for those trucks, every one of these goods would have to stop at every single State line and be transshipped from one truck to another truck. Madam Speaker, that is ridiculous, costly, inefficient, and unnecessary.

I believe this body is entirely appropriate in taking this action today, and I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this resolution, H.J. Res. 89, and the other Congressional Review Act actions we are taking today.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor Deputy Sheriff Hector Cuevas, Jr., of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Deputy Cuevas tragically lost his life in the line of duty on March 17 at just 36 years old.

Hector was a selfless and caring public servant, deeply committed to his community both in and out of uniform. In addition to his 6 years of dedicated service with the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, he previously served in the Upland community as a law enforcement officer.

He was active in youth sports, mentoring young athletes through the Rialto football community and the San Bernardino Spartans Football Association.

Hector embodied humility, generosity, and service, leaving a lasting impact on everyone who knew him.

He is survived by his wife, two children, parents, and siblings. We mourn his loss, and we honor his memory. I ask my colleagues to join me in offering our deepest condolences to his family and in celebrating his legacy.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise in support of my bill, H.R. 359, the Cost-Share Accountability Act of 2025. I thank my colleague and my friend from Illinois, Congressman Bill Foster, for leading this bipartisan piece of legislation with me.

Mr. Speaker, cutting-edge research and development and energy technology is often catalyzed through grants awarded by the Department of Energy. Normally those grants come with a cost-sharing requirement usually of around 50 percent. That is important because it makes sure that the entity that the grant is awarded to has some skin in the game, and it also ensures the taxpayers get the best value for their dollar when that grant is performed. However, the Department of Energy has the ability under Federal law to waive or reduce that grant amount.

It has become clear in recent years that it is not transparent when the DOE uses that authority. It is hampering our ability as Members of Congress to provide the oversight necessary into the activities of the

Mr. Chair, I thank the chairman of the Budget Committee and my friend from Texas for yielding.

Mr. Chair, this year we will borrow almost $2 trillion, which represents almost a third of all Federal spending.

For the first time in the history of our country, this year we will spend more on interest paying the national debt that we have already borrowed, and in several years three-quarters of all Federal spending, borrowing, will be just to pay interest on the money that we have already borrowed.

Several years after that, we won't even have enough money to pay the interest on the national debt, which will signal a devastating default for our country.

Mr. Chair, we cannot allow that to happen. Yet, Mr. Chair, we have a spending problem. We do not have a revenue problem. Last year, we collected more dollars in Federal tax revenue than ever in the history of our country.

That is why this budget resolution is so important. It starts us, finally, down the path of reducing Federal spending rather than increasing Federal spending, and it does it without increasing taxes on hardworking Americans. That is why I am proud to urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.

This bill would permanently classify fentanyl and its analogues as schedule I controlled substances, which will give our law enforcement officers more tools to use in tracking down and stopping the dealers who are trafficking this substance into our communities.

Mr. Speaker, this is a deeply personal issue for me. I represent parts of Los Angeles County, which has experienced an over 1,000 percent increase in fentanyl deaths in the last few years.

Mr. Speaker, the most difficult day in my 19 years in elected office was several years ago when I tried to console a constituent, a grieving mother who had lost both of her sons in the same day to fentanyl poisoning. As the father of two boys myself who were about the same age at the time, I can't imagine how devastating that must have been.

This bill would give our law enforcement agencies more tools to help stop this problem. That is why I am proud to be a cosponsor of it, and I strongly urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to testify in support of my bill, the Honor Our Living Donors Act.

Mr. Speaker, I think everyone can agree that there are few acts more selfless than a living donor donating an organ to somebody else in need.

There is a desperate need for those organs. We have over 100,000 Americans currently actively awaiting a donated organ to save their lives, yet we don't have enough donations to go around.

It will also come as no surprise that the act of donating an organ comes with substantial financial liability and risk for the donors. There is time off work to be considered. It is an invasive medical procedure with, in some cases, an extensive recovery. There are expenses like childcare and travel. All of these things make it very expensive to donate an organ.

That is why the National Living Donor Assistance Center was established by Congress, to help fund these badly needed donations. However, it is not enough. Over 90 percent of the active living donors who donate an organ currently do so at their own expense.

One of the reasons for that is because it is so difficult to qualify under the current guidelines. In fact, it is means tested so that it is dependent on the sum of the income of the organ donor and the organ recipient. I think we should all be able to agree that that is nonsensical. Only the income of the donor should matter.

That is why this bill is so important. This bill makes that simple change that will hopefully incentivize more people to undertake the selfless act of donating an organ.

I thank you for your consideration, Mr. Speaker, and I respectfully urge adoption of the HOLD Act.

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

Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent that my amendment be modified with the form I have placed at the desk.

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

Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the opportunity to present my amendment to the Fix Our Forests Act.

Mr. Chair, I represent a very mountainous region of California, and every year we have wildfires burn in my region.

The problem is particularly acute this year. We have two major wildfires that are still burning in my district, the Bridge fire and the Line fire. Mr. Chair, together, these fires have consumed nearly 100,000 acres.

Thankfully, relatively few structures have been affected this year, but Mr. Chair, I was convinced 2 weeks ago that we were going to lose over 1,000 homes in my district.

This problem is particularly acute because the fires spread so quickly. Unfortunately, the Line fire that caused the evacuation of parts of my hometown in California was started by arson, and that arsonist started three different fires that day.

Two of them, Mr. Chair, firefighters were able to jump on quickly and extinguish. It is the third one that spread quickly enough that it became the conflagration that threatened many communities in my district.

This amendment prioritizes emerging technology, such as early- detection technology and the artificial intelligence techniques required to process it in the pilot program that this bill establishes.

Mr. Chair, there is a lot of promise in early-detection technologies. Conventional satellite detection relies on satellites and geostationary orbits that are far away from the Earth, and therefore, have very poor spatial resolution. Those satellites can only detect a fire when it is already quite large.

Mr. Chair, new low-Earth orbit satellites with thermal detection technology have much better spatial resolution, and they can detect a forest fire when it just begins.

Moreover, these new technologies can be transmitted to the Earth in minutes instead of hours. If you combine that with the artificial intelligence processing technology that looks at these images and can distinguish between a campfire and a tree that is hit by lightning that is the potential source of a forest fire, that is a game-changing development in wildfire technology.

Combine that with fast, aerial, firefighting platforms, and we will be able to put out fires before they get started and avoid some of the catastrophes that have afflicted my district in recent years.

I think this is a commonsense amendment. I am thankful it is bipartisan. I thank my bipartisan sponsor, Congresswoman Pettersen from Colorado, who shares my concern about this, and I urge adoption of my amendment.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), the chair of the Natural Resources Committee and my friend.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this action taken under the Congressional Review Act to overturn the EPA's misguided tailpipe emissions rule.

This rule, if enacted, would force the majority of Americans to buy electric vehicles instead of vehicles powered by other technologies.

Madam Speaker, let me be clear. I have nothing against electric vehicles. I do, however, think that Americans should be empowered to make their own decisions about what vehicle technology works for them and their families.

The fact is that EVs cost on average $12,000 more than the equivalent gasoline-powered vehicle. That is just the purchase price.

The same misguided policies that the EPA is pursuing here are also forcing the cost of electricity generation to go up in this country.

In fact, in my own hometown in California, the electric provider recently submitted a rate case that seeks to raise the base rate for residential electricity to $0.45 a kilowatt hour.

Try doing the math on what it costs to drive an electric vehicle when you are forced to pay $0.45 a kilowatt hour for the energy to charge it.

Madam Speaker, Americans should be empowered to make their own decisions about what vehicles to buy, not forced into that decision by misguided government policies. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

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

Mr. Chair, last year the California Air Resources Board proposed a new regulation that would have disastrous consequences for my constituents, for the people of California, and for the people of the United States.

This so-called in-use locomotive rule would phase out the use of diesel-electric locomotives and require all locomotives entering the State of California to do so in a zero-emission configuration within just a few short years.

Mr. Chairman, there are several problems with this regulation. The first and most obvious is that there are currently no electric locomotives that can take the place of a diesel-electric freight locomotive. In fact, the best electric locomotives that exist currently are those so-called switch locomotives that are used to move cars back and forth between trains within freight switchyards. There are no locomotives that can take the place of a diesel-electric locomotive and haul millions of pounds of freight from place to place over hundreds of miles.

Mr. Chairman, the physics suggest there will be no locomotives that can accomplish this any time in the near future.

Requiring this regulation would raise prices for every consumer in California, a State, Mr. Chairman, which already suffers the worst poverty of any State in the country.

Mr. Chairman, this would also have a disastrous effect on my constituents. BNS Railways is currently constructing a $1.5 billion project in the city of Barstow within my district, an intermodal transfer facility that will allow freight from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to be shipped by rail to Barstow and then transshipped by rail or by truck to other places in the country. Currently, Mr. Chairman, that freight leaves those ports on trucks.

BNSF has said, quite reasonably, that if California will not let their locomotives enter the State, they will abandon their plans for that intermodal transfer facility.

Mr. Chairman, that will result in the loss of not just $1.5 billion of investment in my community but over 20,000 jobs in the region of California that I represent.

Mr. Chairman, the most nonsensical part of this legislation is that it actually will be much worse for the environment. It is three times more efficient to transfer freight by rail than it is by truck. That is one-third the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.

If we force freight to be shipped by truck instead of by rail out of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, that will be far worse for the environment than allowing it to be transported on the efficient diesel- electric locomotives that we currently have.

That is why this amendment would deny the EPA the funding that they need to grant a waiver to the State of California to implement this nonsensical rule.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I am very glad my colleague from Maine brought up the Clean Air Act because the Clean Air Act explicitly says that the right to set emissions requirements for locomotives is preempted from the States.

Mr. Chairman, that makes complete sense because how on Earth can we operate a national railway system if we allow each of the 50 States to come up with their own rules about what locomotives can cross their State lines? Mr. Chairman, that is a complete impossibility.

Mr. Chairman, to remind my colleague from Maine, the most nonsensical part of this rule is that these replacement electric locomotives do not exist, and they are not likely to exist anytime in the near future.

The current best battery technology that we possess can store about 5 megawatts of energy in the form factor of a locomotive. Mr. Chairman, to replace an existing freight locomotive would require about 20 times that amount of energy, about 100 megawatts of energy.

Mr. Chairman, this is a nonsensical rule. It is bad for the people of California. It is bad for consumers in California. It is bad for the people of the United States because this rule would result in more greenhouse gas emissions, not less.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of this commonsense amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Sergeant Jeffrey Neal Secrist's twenty-seven years of tireless work as a law enforcement officer and retirement from the California Highway Patrol (CHP).

Sergeant Secrist has proudly served our home state of California for nearly thirty years. After beginning his training with the CHP Academy on March 24. 1997, Officer Secrist graduated on September 17, 1997, and was proud to continue his family's tradition of service when he accepted his assignment to the Baldwin Park area. He was soon chosen as a Field Training Officer and was assigned to train new officers reporting to the office for their first duty assignment.

After serving in the High Desert for over twenty years. Officer Secrist was promoted to Sergeant and was reassigned to Santa Fe Springs. Despite working in an extremely challenging and busy area, he made time to coach and mentor young officers on topics like proper report writing, investigating crime, and making the most of a successful career with the CHP.

Sergeant Secrist's service to California would not have been possible without the support of his family. His wife of nearly forty years, Gretchen, his four children, Austin, Lyndy, Jessica, and Emeline, and seven grandchildren have been instrumental in supporting his work for California. Sergeant Secrist's family and decades of service in law enforcement represents the best of what our district stands for, and Heather and I thank them for their dedication to our community.

I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking him for his selfless service to California, in commending him for his steadfast dedication to our community, and in wishing him many years of joy and peace in his well-earned retirement with friends and family.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Dr. Mary Suzuki's retirement from the Bear Valley Unified School District in Big Bear Lake, California. Dr. Suzuki served as superintendent for nearly a decade, playing a vital role in building a safe and quality learning environment for all students in the Big Bear Valley.

Dr. Suzuki's service to Bear Valley Unified represents the very best of our community's values. An educator with over thirty years of experience, Dr. Suzuki taught students at a variety of grade levels while working tirelessly, including as a literacy coach, to ensure that all her students enjoyed an innovative, positive learning environment that prepared them for life's next steps.

Her administrative positions have been equally remarkable. Dr. Suzuki's work as principal, Director of Curriculum and 21st Century Learning, as well as her service as chairperson of the California Technology Assistance Project, were key in preparing her to be superintendent of Bear Valley Unified, allowing her to make an indelible contribution to our rural community. Dr. Suzuki's nearly three decades of pedagogical and administrative experience ensured that Bear Valley Unified remains a world-class district where all students receive a high-quality education.

In addition to Dr. Suzuki's impressive work in education, she and her husband of 42 years, Dan, raised a wonderful family. Their three children, Elizabeth, David, and Matthew, as well as their seven grandchildren, are a true testament to their strong familial bonds and her role as a loving and devoted wife, mother, and grandmother.

I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Dr. Suzuki for her selfless service to California's students, in commending her for her steadfast dedication to our community, and in wishing her many years of joy and peace in her well-earned retirement with friends and family.