Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the public service of Ron Green, a U.S. Navy veteran.

Ron Green is the director of the San Joaquin County Veterans Service Office, advocating for veterans and helping them navigate the Department of Veterans Affairs. After nearly 14 years of service, as the county's VSO director, Ron Green will retire on February 1.

Before his career with the county, Mr. Green worked at the Sharpe Depot and the Defense Distribution Center at Lathrop and as a VA claims examiner. In total, Mr. Green has more than 30 years of service to veterans and the public.

As someone who knows Ron Green personally, I can attest to his commitment and dedication to the veterans in San Joaquin County. Mr. Green has been personally responsible for lowering the number of homeless veterans in San Joaquin Valley. He has supported our local Veterans History Project efforts and has been a valuable partner on veterans' issues over the years, including advocating for the VA to locate an expanded regional outpatient clinic and a new community living center in San Joaquin Valley.

He will be missed by the veterans of San Joaquin County, and I wish him all the best in the years ahead. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the public service contributions of Ron Green.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing and celebrating the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation for its efforts on AgVenture, an innovative program that teaches students about agriculture and our nation's food supply.

California's San Joaquin Valley is one of the most bountiful agricultural regions in the world. From cucumbers to walnuts, from tomatoes to cherries, the Valley is vital to the United States' food security. In 2012, San Joaquin County alone produced $2.8 billion in agricultural revenue, an extraordinary 28 percent increase from the previous year, and is responsible for countless jobs in the region.

To help raise awareness about local agriculture, the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation started AgVenture, which educates 11,000 elementary school students per year in San Joaquin County farming techniques, the history of certain crops, and the food they eat.

AgVenture helps rebuild a sense of community between those who live in urban and suburban cities and people in rural areas. AgVenture and other efforts by the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation promote healthy diets, ensure affordable food, and honor the rich agricultural history of the United States. I am proud to represent San Joaquin County farmers in Congress.

I urge my colleagues to join me in commending the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation, its AgVenture program, and its dedication to improving the education and nutrition of California's youth.

Mr. Speaker, the evidence for climate change is overwhelming, be it superstorms, megadroughts, migration of biological systems, the disappearance of historic glaciers, ocean acidification, or the melting of the polar ice cap. The potential for catastrophic change grows every year.

Unfortunately, House Republicans continue to push legislation that exacerbates climate change. Last year, Republicans reduced funding for the clean energy technologies, interfered with R&D at the Department of Energy, and prevented the EPA from addressing carbon emissions.

Our economy is expected to grow this year; and with that growth, carbon emissions will rise. The United States is a leader in technology and innovation. We should use this leadership as

an opportunity to foster cooperation between public and private interests, to work together to provide low-cost, clean energy. Instead, it has been used by the House Republicans to bludgeon the EPA and to roll back the environmental gains of the past half century.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to honor Bear Creek High School's newspaper, The Bruin Voice, which has been recognized as the best in the Nation. The Bruin Voice recently won the prestigious National Scholastic Press Association's Pacemaker Award for excellence, in addition to receiving Best in Show for its coverage of student protests.

The student journalists at Bear Creek High School put a tremendous amount of effort toward producing a newspaper of outstanding quality. They have displayed exceptional writing and reporting skills and have produced compelling editorials and cartoons. The accomplishments of Bear Creek High School's student journalists are emblematic of their pursuit of excellence and commitment to their fellow students, faculty and our community.

I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing Bear Creek High School's journalism students, and their extraordinary dedication to producing an award-winning newspaper.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Liberty High School in Brentwood, California. Liberty High School was the recipient of the Lawrence Livermore National Security's (LLNS) Community Gift Program for the school's AP Environmental Science and Calculus Classes. These classes engage students in science through a water quality monitoring project that allows students to sample, analyze, and interpret water quality data for Marsh Creek.

I also want to recognize the World of Wonders Science Museum in Lodi, California, which also was a recipient of the LLNS Community Gift Program. This museum offers hands-on, science-based exhibits and programs to disadvantaged schools within San Joaquin County.

Engaging young people in science, technology, math, and education programs is key to ensuring that the United States remains a world leader in technology advancements and innovation. We must challenge our children intellectually and find ways to keep them interested in making our world a better place.

It is in the classroom, the home, and our community that children are inspired to learn and explore. Liberty High School and the World of Wonders Science Museum represent what can be accomplished when all partners involved work together.

I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing Liberty High School and the World of Wonders Science Museum for earning a competitive grant and for the work they do with children in our community.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight a recent discovery by researchers at the University of California at Davis. Earlier this month, Professor Peter Armstrong, a professor at the university, published a new role for blood clots, absorbing bodily toxins.

Blood clots are known to be critical in protecting wounds by stopping blood flow and preventing contaminants from entering the body. Dr. Armstrong and his colleagues, knowing that lipopolysaccharide, a toxin in the body, is released during septic shock, demonstrated that this toxin is absorbed by blood clots inhibiting it from circulating within the body.

This study, funded by the National Science Foundation, brings us one step closer to understanding the human body and improving medical care. We must continue funding science and health research projects, as the next great discovery just may save your life.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of the wind power industry and the Production Tax Credit. The PTC has been instrumental in helping create jobs. The wind industry now supports 80,000 American jobs in 44 States.

Last week, a bipartisan Governors' Wind Energy Coalition wrote to the leaders of both Chambers of Congress asking for a multiyear extension of the PTC. They confirmed that, due to the delayed extension of PTC in 2013, only one wind turbine was installed in the first 6 months of this year, a 99 percent decrease from the $25 billion invested in 2012.

A year and a half ago, the American Wind Energy Association commissioned a report that found a 4-year extension of the PTC would secure some 54,000 jobs. The PTC expiration has resulted in an average 81 percent decrease in wind energy installations.

Democrats and Republicans have repeatedly come together to extend the PTC. That cooperation is needed again.

I urge my colleagues to support American jobs by supporting a multiyear extension of the Production Tax Credit.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 45th anniversary of El Concilio, Council for the Spanish Speaking. Since 1968, El Concilio has worked in Stockton, California, and throughout the San Joaquin Valley to provide assistance to the Spanish-speaking community. El Concilio offers programs that assist with a wide range of services, including immigration assistance, education, English language skills, and financial literacy.

El Concilio is the perfect example of an organization that is committed to working with and for the community to improve the lives of others. By partnering with local and corporate businesses and other organizations, El Concilio is able to engage with the public on a large scale and focus its efforts where they are needed most.

El Concilio's efforts and influence have been instrumental in assisting the Spanish-speaking community. El Concilio has helped unite neighborhoods, foster communication, and provide an anchor in the community where families can receive trustworthy advice and support. I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing El Concilio and its staff for their invaluable contributions over the past 45 years.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, to open the government and to go to conference on a budget so that we can end this Republican government shutdown and get our Nation back to work.

I certainly want to thank my friend and colleague from Dublin, California, Eroc Swalwell, for bringing this topic up tonight. I want to thank my friend, Zoe Lofgren from San Jose, for being an advocate and a champion of the labs long before I got here and carrying on that great tradition.

What I would like to do tonight is talk about my experience at the lab.

When I first got my Ph.D.--and I won't tell you how long ago it was-- I started working for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. I will tell you that there were a lot of great things about that experience. My colleagues were Bill Sullivan and Don Lobitz. There was Paul Veers. They were tireless; they were very well educated; they worked hard; and they were very inspirational to me as a young Ph.D. Our boss, whose name was Dick Braasch, went out there and delivered us the resources that we needed in order to carry out the research that was ahead of us.

In using that money and in using those tools and in using that resource, basically we developed wind energy technology from the very ground up. We were working on vertical access windmills, and we understood and worked very hard on the aerodynamics in order to understand exactly how to design blades to best maximize power and how to best maximize energy production from windmills so that wind turbines could be designed economically and make money. Now we see wind energy is a tremendous success. We see new windmills going up by the thousands--giant windmills that are 2,3, 4 megawatts. If you drive underneath them, they are just an incredible sight to see.

I just loved the experience, and I hope that we can continue to provide the resources for young scientists and young engineers who understand and who have the passion to go out there and make a difference and discover new technology and develop new energy sources and develop new health technology so that we can move forward.

The United States of America is truly the leader in this kind of technology. We lead in health care. We lead in health science. We lead in energy development. We lead in all kinds of sciences. Our universities are tremendous resources, but our laboratories are where the seasoned scientists go and produce real technology that can be transferred to the public sector.

Right now, if you look in Livermore, which is right outside of my district, there is a technology transfer operation. There is a cooperative organization between the laboratories--Sandia National Laboratories; the Livermore National Laboratory in the city of Livermore; in the city of Davis; Berkeley National Laboratory; Berkeley University; and so on. All of these institutions are working together with private companies to develop this technology and to transfer it into the private sector to give our businesses and our companies the edge they need to become successful and to create jobs and to lead our Nation.

One of the things they are doing in Livermore that is so exciting, which my colleague Zoe Lofgren talked about, was the National Ignition Facility, the fusion facility there in Livermore. If you don't know about fusion, I will back up a little bit. ``Fusion'' is when you break apart a uranium or a plutonium atom to create energy. It is a source of what you call the atomic bomb nuclear power, but fusion is the other side of the scale at which you actually fuse nuclei together to form bigger nuclei, and even more energy is released. The prototype is the hydrogen bomb. What they are doing in Livermore is actually trying to understand how to contain fusion energy. There is an unlimited amount of fusion fuel out there. The ocean. It's heavy water. The ocean contains heavy water. It contains tritium.

So it is a matter of understanding this basic force of nature and controlling this basic force of nature. As Zoe Lofgren mentioned a few minutes ago, what happened in Livermore just this last month was that they were successful in creating more energy in the fusion reaction than was put into the energy. It was put in the reaction.

So we see progress being made month by month, year by year. I've been out there to that facility. I've met with these scientists. I've met with the leaders. I can tell you that they have the same exact environment of just encouraging young scientists to do their best to make a difference, to understand science. It is very exciting for me to see that, and I would love to see that operation, that type of research continue at our national laboratories.

Los Alamos Laboratory, in Albuquerque, is also another fine institution like Sandia National Laboratories, like Livermore National Laboratory, and like Argonne Laboratory. There are several across the Nation. They do basic research, and they do basic development. My understanding is that the United States, with the NIP facility, have about a 5-year lead over other countries--over China--which are desperately trying to catch up with us.

When we furlough those scientists, when we stop that process, we set back our scientists for not just the amount of time they are laid off, but we stop the infrastructure. When you develop the technology that they have developed, this is several years of lead time to get the mirrors, to get the amplifiers that they use for this equipment. When you tell your suppliers, Well, we are not going to be using you for the next few months, those suppliers go away.

It takes years to develop the new technology, the new infrastructure, for these scientists to be able to purchase these items that are right now available. As we furlough these scientists and shut down that program, those people are going to go away. Maybe they will find customers in China. I hope not. So this is very, very critical for our national energy security and for our national security to keep on top of that and to not let that lapse.

The labs do other very useful things, like nuclear arms reduction. Some of the nuclear inspectors are from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We have chemical weapons inspectors. I would bet some of the inspectors who are getting ready to go to Syria right now are from these laboratories. I would bet a bottom dollar on that. If you are worried about cybersecurity, if you know the threats that we may face in our country with cybersecurity, then you are going to want to know what they do at the Livermore National Laboratory and at the Sandia National Laboratories. They have some of the top--I don't want to call them ``hackers''--they have some of the top

folks who really understand how to get into computer systems and how to protect them and how to attack if they need to attack. We have some of the very best people in the world at these laboratories who are working on cybersecurity. We want to make sure that we continue to employ those folks and to get the best we can out of these folks who have so much passion on this subject.

Now, Zoe Lofgren also mentioned the Stanford Linear Accelerator, SLAC. They have an x-ray laser. X-rays are incredibly hard to control, and designing an x-ray laser which makes laser beams which are monochromatic and coherent is an unbelievable achievement. The things that they are going to be able to do with that are beyond what we can imagine today. So keeping those types of operations in progress are absolutely essential.

We don't want to be laying these people off. We don't want to be giving them the message that their work is not essential. We don't want to be giving them the idea that, Well, maybe I would be better off in the private sector; maybe I would be better off making big dollars instead of working on things that are so important to our national security.

If you have watched in the last few months, I have been doing 1- minute presentations on science achievements in this country, science achievements that are funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. We have seen things like the Boltzmann equation move forward, which explains how gases behave, how they expand and contract. We have seen how statistics are used in neuroscience, how differential equations are factored to get new insights into the behavior of nature. These are ideas that are funded through grants from the National Science Foundation and also from the National Institutes of Health. They fund things on cancer, on understanding epidemics in order to keep us safe. If you understand what is happening in the biological world, there is always a threat of a new virus.

These folks are understanding that. They are giving us the tools to protect ourselves, and I think it is absolutely essential that we restore funding to the pre-sequester levels for the National Science Foundation and for the National Institutes of Health.

We see our colleagues--well meaning, I know that--who want to reduce the size of government. They want to reduce funding for science for the National Science Foundation and for the National Institutes of Health, and they think there are no consequences. There are consequences. The consequences are going to be that we see less science in this country and that we see more science in other countries. So we need to work together to find a solution.

Yes, we are absolutely willing to negotiate. Just don't hold a gun to our heads. Don't hold us hostage. Don't make this extortion. Come to us with reasonable ideas. We will sit down with you at any time, at any place, and if you want to demand that we eliminate the medical device tax, we will even be willing to talk about that but after we get the government functioning, after we pay our obligations. Then we can talk about things that we want, like funding for the National Science Foundation, like funding for the National Institutes of Health. Those are the things that we want to see. There are so many other things that have been reduced, like food stamps and the WIC program.

We want to make sure that our voices are heard and that the extortion sort of tactics that we have seen from the leadership and from the far right wing do not hold sway so that we can negotiate fairly, so that we can use the rule of law, so that we can use the traditions of this tremendous body--the House of Representatives--and the United States Senate within the standard practices of bringing bills to the committee, of negotiating, of adding amendments, and then of voting on them, and moving those forward to the Senate to agree and then to the President. That is the regular order. That is the order we want to use. That is the order that has been used in this country. If you decide that that isn't the way to do it, then we are going to fight you tooth and nail.

I want to thank my colleague again, Eric Swalwell. I see another colleague who represents Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, which is where I used to work. I appreciate the true effort tonight.

Mr. Speaker, what I'd like to know is why the Republicans are so afraid of the Affordable Care Act. Is it because it makes health care affordable to millions?

The Republicans have spread fear about the ACA for so long, it's no wonder people are afraid. Well, maybe they're afraid because the ACA is going to work. In fact, the ACA is already working--making health care accessible and lowering health care costs. It's increasing competition amongst insurance providers.

But here's what's happening: Republicans don't like the ACA, so they crash the government to get their way. That's no way to govern. You don't like the law, so you crash the government?

Republicans don't like environmental regulations and the EPA. Are they going to crash the government to eliminate them?

Are they going to crash the government to roll back the Dodd-Frank law?

This sets a horrible and reckless precedent, threatening 200 years of governance. There's a better way: Work together with people you disagree with to make this a better country.

Now the Republicans are using a cynical effort to peel Democrats to their side. The real way to honor veterans is to uphold the rule of law that they fought so hard and sacrificed for.

The ACA is the law. Let's fight to uphold the law. There will be glitches in the ACA, and some things should be improved. Let's work together to make it work for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published their latest report, confirming that climate change is happening and that it is the result of human activity.

The report was produced by 259 scientists from 39 different countries over the last 6 years, and it is the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the Earth's changing climate. The report shows that climate change is real, and it shows the urgency to reduce humankind's CO2 emissions. The scientists now have 95 percent confidence that their findings are correct.

Mr. Speaker, the science is not up for debate. Human-caused climate change is happening. The evidence is overwhelming. Science shows that, if we fail to curb our carbon emissions, we will face catastrophic consequences.

We cannot continue to ignore this overwhelming scientific consensus. Let's work together to reduce our CO2 emissions and prevent the most severe weather events.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize students from my district who demonstrated excellence in technical, academic, and employability skills at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference held this past June in Kansas City, Missouri.

The SkillsUSA Conference brings together high school students, college students, and teachers with industry experts to participate in contests that demonstrate their abilities in technology, business, criminal justice, culinary arts, and many more fields.

Students from the Weber Institute in Stockton received gold medals for their project in human services, and students from Bear Creek High School in Stockton, California, received the bronze medal for their project in health services. These students have proven that they will not only be successful in their future careers, but that they will excel and be leaders in their fields.

I urge my colleagues to join me in congratulating these young adults on their academic achievements and to recognize the importance of the SkillsUSA Conference.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize an important breakthrough in statistics and neuroscience research. Neurological conditions are caused by the brain's communication networks, and these conditions can be studied at a systems level. Functional MRIs capture 3-D images of the brain over time, resulting in millions of measurements per subject and billions of possible connections.

A Rice University statistics professor, Genevera Allen, and her collaborators recently developed statistical methods to model how each individual's brain is wired and then applied these methods to synesthesia, a condition in which individuals automatically associate specific colors with numbers and letters. The team discovered that areas of the brain responsible for processing colors are functionally connected to areas that process letters and numbers in synesthetes. This breakthrough is relevant to other neurological diseases, such as autism and Alzheimer's, and demonstrates how statistical science is vital to neuroscience research.

I urge my colleagues to support critical science funding so that this type of work may continue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the millions of Mexican guest workers who came to the United States under the Bracero program from 1942 to 1964. The Bracero program is being highlighted by the Smithsonian exhibit, Bittersweet Harvest, and is being shown throughout the country.

At a time when our Nation was at war and laborers were scarce, President Franklin Roosevelt and Mexican President Manuel Camacho created a guest worker program known as the Bracero program. In September of 1942, the first Braceros, under this agreement, arrived in Stockton, California, the heart of my district. These individuals embodied the American Dream by searching for a better life for themselves and their families, and worked hard to make it come true.

The Smithsonian exhibit uses personal stories from the Braceros to highlight their experiences in this program and what they endured while adjusting to a new life in the United States.

The San Joaquin Valley remains home to a strong and vibrant Mexican population, and the region's heritage and history has been enriched due to its diversity.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the contributions of the people who came to this country through the Bracero program.

Honoring the Life of Flora Arca Mata

Mr. Speaker, I also wish to honor the life of an education pioneer in my district, Flora Arca Mata. Ms. Mata was the first Asian American, specifically, the first Filipina teacher in the Stockton Unified School District, breaking barriers of stereotypes that Asian Americans faced immediately after World War II, thereby helping numerous minority teachers join the education field.

Ms. Mata retired from teaching in 1978 and passed away last Wednesday, at the age of 95.

Ms. Mata was born in Honolulu and moved to Stockton in the 1920s. Her family settled in the Little Manila section of Stockton. She attended the University of California at Los Angeles, where she met, and later married, her husband, Vidal Mata.

Upon graduating from UCLA, neither Flora nor Vidal could find teaching jobs, so they traveled to the Philippines to teach. Returning to Stockton in the aftermath of World War II, Ms. Mata responded to a Stockton Unified ad seeking substitute teachers. A year later, she was hired to teach kindergartners full-time in the south Stockton school area.

A steadfast public servant, Ms. Mata remained involved in the education system until her eighties, working as a substitute teacher and volunteering in her granddaughter's kindergarten class.

Ms. Mata's commitment to the success of our students is an inspiration for our entire community. I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing the barriers Ms. Mata shattered and the road she paved for other individuals to enter the teaching profession.