Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, Indiana is the Crossroads of America. This National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, and I thank the professional drivers who deliver what our farms grow, our factories make, and our families need.

They work long hours, they miss time with their families, and they take seriously the responsibility that comes with driving a big rig.

Last month, I hosted our Nation's top trucking safety official in Indiana to hear directly from our Hoosier drivers and trucking businesses.

Truckers who follow the rules of the road shouldn't have to compete with operators who cut corners, and the families traveling beside them deserve to know that every commercial driver is properly trained, licensed, and qualified.

Whether someone is behind the wheel of a semi or riding in the family car, they deserve to get home safely. To the drivers who make that their business every day, I thank you.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 284, S. 307 and YEA on Roll Call No. 285, S. 32.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the House's consideration of my bill, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act.

The purpose is straightforward: Qualified American mining and mineral processing projects should have access to a coordinated, transparent, and timely Federal permitting process.

That is what FAST-41 provides. It brings Federal agencies together. It establishes a public timetable, and it holds the government accountable for reaching decisions.

No environmental law is waived. No project is rubber-stamped. FAST-41 simply ensures that our Federal Government conducts its reviews efficiently and reaches a decision.

Mining was added as an eligible FAST-41 sector back in 2021. It was the right decision. In my home State of Indiana, we build things. We build cars, engines, aerospace systems, defense equipment, and the infrastructure that powers communities.

All of these depend upon reliable access to minerals and processed materials. Copper carries electricity. Iron ore and other inputs become the steel used in our vehicles, bridges, and buildings. Critical minerals support our military and advanced-manufacturing base, in Indiana and across our country.

Yet in 2023, the Biden administration proposed narrowing the mining projects eligible for FAST-41. Under that proposed rule, a company could invest millions of dollars developing an American project, only to learn that a shifting Federal definition had made it ineligible for that coordinated review. It creates uncertainty, discourages investment, and pushes mining and mineral processing abroad, often to supply chains dominated by China.

We should not make the United States more dependent upon a strategic competitor for minerals essential to our economy and our national security.

My bill does two things. First, it writes mining and mineral processing directly into the FAST-41 statute. Second, it prevents implementation of the 2023 proposed rule that would narrow the sector's eligibility.

America can maintain high environmental standards and still build. We can conduct thorough reviews without accepting needless delays, and we can produce more of the materials we need here at home, under American laws, with American workers, and in support of American national security.

I thank Chairman Westerman for his leadership and Congressman Blake Moore for partnering with me on this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support the Protecting Domestic Mining Act.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of fiscal year 2027 National Security and Department of State Appropriations Act.

This legislation candidly and simply delivers on conservative promises, helps put America first while conducting vigorous oversight of our foreign assistance programs. It upholds longstanding pro-life protections, and holds foreign governments that violate religious freedoms are held accountable.

Importantly, this legislation delivers on my number one priority, pushing back on the Chinese-linked foreign scam operations that have bilked Americans out of countless of billions of dollars. It provides the critical tools to fight human trafficking these syndicates engage in and, frankly, rely upon while building up the law enforcement capacity of partner nations to stop these scammers.

Mr. Chair, I support these commonsense provisions in the underlying bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember Brett Scrogham, a young Hoosier from Greenwood, Indiana, whose life was taken in Indianapolis nearly 2 weeks ago.

Brett was 23 years old. He was a son, a brother, and a friend to many. He had recently graduated from IU's Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis, where he was among our top students.

He had just started his career in Indianapolis, working in commercial real estate for a good friend of mine.

That part of Brett's story hits close to home for me. I started my own career in Indy at that age in the same field. He was headed to an Indianapolis Indians game in the light of day with his family when he was killed in a carjacking attempt right downtown.

That happened in my hometown. It happened in our hometown, and it is painful for me to say that out loud.

A family should be able to go to a ball game in our capital city and come home safely.

Parents should be able to watch their son build a career, start a life, and become the man they raised Brett to be. Instead, his family is grieving a loss no family should have to endure.

Today, I want his family to know from this well of the House that Brett is remembered and that his life mattered.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 190, Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in vigorous support for the 2027 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act.

This bill delivers for Indiana servicemembers, our veterans, military families, and our taxpayers.

This includes $27.5 million for a new aviation maintenance hangar and operations building at our Shelbyville Army Aviation Support Facility.

This investment matters. It gives 900 Indiana guardsmen assigned to our 38th Combat Aviation Brigade the modern facilities they need to support rapid homeland deployment, strengthen readiness, and improve recruitment and retention.

This bill also includes more than $1.6 billion for two sorely needed VA centers in central Indiana, a replacement to our 75-year-old Roudebush VA Center in Indianapolis and a new outpatient care facility in Fishers, Indiana.

Together, these facilities will serve 250 million veterans across Indiana and provide the quality care they have earned through their service to our country. This bill is a win for Indiana, for our National Guard, our veterans, and Hoosier taxpayers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Daniel J. Riley for his decades of distinguished service to the City of Greenfield and the State of Indiana.

Mr. Riley's career reflects steady leadership, sound judgment, and a deep commitment to public service. A graduate of Rochester High School and Indiana University Indianapolis, he has spent nearly his entire professional life investing in the people, institutions, and communities that strengthen our state.

As President of the Greenfield City Council, Daniel Riley has helped lead the city through a period of significant growth, working to ensure that Greenfield's expansion is guided by purpose, planning, and a clear vision for the future. Prior to his service in local government, he devoted much of his career to public education and community development.

Mr. Riley's contributions extend well beyond city government. Through his work with the Lilly Endowment, the leadership of his own consulting firm, and his service to numerous nonprofit organizations, he has consistently brought thoughtful leadership and practical problem- solving to every role he has undertaken. In recognition of those contributions, he was awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash.

After more than 50 years of service, Dan Riley will retire in June. Although his formal duties may be concluding, Dan's record of service will endure in the stronger institutions, better communities, and countless lives he has helped shape in Greenfield and across Indiana.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Daniel J. Riley for his outstanding service and wishing him all the best in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, this August, Washington will hear a sound we know well in Indiana, the roar of IndyCar engines.

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix will bring IndyCar to our Nation's Capital as we mark 250 years of American ingenuity.

IndyCar was born in my hometown of Indianapolis. It is rooted in a tradition that goes back more than a century, built by American workers, American engineers, and American manufacturers.

IndyCar reflects who we Hoosiers are: competitive, inventive, always pushing forward. I will be honest, Washington could use a little less gridlock and a little more green flag.

This event isn't simply a race. It is a statement. America leads. America builds. America innovates.

This August, we will put that on display at 200 miles an hour right here in our Nation's Capital.

Mr. Speaker and ladies and gentlemen of the House, let's prepare to start our engines.

Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 32.

Mr. Speaker, last night the country watched something nobody predicted: Indiana, national football champions. Our Hoosiers beat Miami 27-21, and finished a perfect season and brought the title home to Indiana.

I say that as a proud IU alum, former chairman of our IU Alumni Association, over 800,000 living alumni strong. My wife, Mary, and I have been cheering on our Hoosiers since our college days.

We will be talking about this play for a long time: Fourth and five, Fernando Mendoza puts his head down, bounces off defenders, spins, stretches, and powers in for the touchdown.

Coach Curt Cignetti took over just two seasons ago. There were no shortcuts and no gimmicks. It was just work and belief.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate IU's president Pam Whitten, our AD Scott Dolson, every player and coach, and our Hoosier fans who never gave up.

Coach Cignetti said of the season: ``It would be a helluva movie,'' and he is right.

Mr. Speaker, across my home State of Indiana, I hear the same thing time and again. People work hard. They pay their taxes, and they expect Washington to treat their dollars with respect.

Hoosier hospitality means that we help neighbors who truly need it, but fraud turns this virtue into a target, and hardworking Hoosiers foot the bill.

This is not left versus right. It is honesty versus the dishonest, trust versus waste. For every dollar stolen by fraud, it is a dollar we cannot spend on public safety, on our national security, or on helping working families get ahead.

We owe taxpayers accountability, stronger oversight, and closed loopholes that invite abuse.

Protect the taxpayers. Protect the programs, and punish the scammers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Affordable HOMES Act. Indiana ranks fourth in the Nation in manufactured home production and in Indiana's Sixth District, 7,000 manufactured homes provide key housing to our citizens.

For Hoosier families, the dream of owning a home has slipped out of reach. To right this ship, we need less Washington red tape in our own backyards and the freedom for families to choose the type of housing that works for each of them.

That is what this bill does. It cuts unnecessary Federal regulation. It streamlines the rules. It lowers the cost of manufactured housing, thereby making the American Dream a little more attainable for more families.

I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Erin Houchin, for leading on this legislation. She and I know Hoosiers want common sense coming out of Washington.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this.

Mr. Speaker, a simple principle should guide us: where we live should not determine the quality of healthcare that we can get, but for too many Hoosiers, especially in our rural communities, this isn't the reality.

That is why the Working Families Tax Cut Act matters. Through the new Rural Health Transformation Program, Indiana is receiving $207 million in first-year funding, the first of 5 years of support, to strengthen rural healthcare statewide.

This funding will support hospitals and strengthen emergency care for Hoosiers who can get that care close to home. For communities from Connersville to Richmond and across Rush, Shelby, and Henry Counties, this means quality care closer, shorter drives for appointments, faster response times when minutes count, especially for our seniors, veterans, and working families.

This is the right kind of investment, helping our rural communities stay healthy without raising taxes, without growing bureaucracy, and without leaving Hoosiers behind.

Mr. Speaker, before I was able to vote, the vote was closed. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 362, H.R. 498.