Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, as we enter the heart of hurricane season, it is important to understand hurricane storm surge.

Storm surge is the abnormal rise in water caused by hurricanes and the deadliest part of the storm. For large storms, mathematical models can predict a storm surge up to 48 hours before landfall. However, a 48-hour window is not sufficient for emergency management to make decisions on an evacuation order needed to save lives.

I recently met a young woman named Cindi-Ann Findley who has been working on solutions to this problem as she completes her undergraduate studies. With a National Science Foundation grant, Cindi-Ann is spending the summer exploring the sensitivities that lead to errors in forecasts by simulating previous storms using a detailed operational model. She hopes to find the characteristics that cause the largest storm surge errors.

Her work illustrates just one way that mathematics can be used to approach real-world problems and save lives.

Mr. Speaker, during Roll Call Vote number 358, I mistakenly recorded my vote as nay when I should have voted aye.

Mr. Chair, I understand my colleague's position on this. Water is a scarce commodity. You want to have access to water. You want to plant your trees. You want to feed your stocks and all that.

But what you are not saying is what is going to happen if you continue to take more water from the delta. The delta is a finite water supply. The more you take water from the delta, the more saltwater from the ocean comes in and poisons our facilities, our docks, our fishing, it changes the whole environment. And we are going to cost jobs if you do that, so it is really a balance.

Now, I think it is okay to work together to find a proper amount of water to ship out and a proper amount of water to stay in the delta. When we have bigger rain events, the water pushes the saltwater back out toward the ocean. It clears out water a little bit.

So, I mean, it is not like we are just trying to save water to hurt you guys. That is not what is going on here. We have our own interests to take care of.

This is always a fight. What we need to do is sit down and compromise and find some way to get through this so that we don't end up hurting one another, which is what happens.

Again, I understand the position you are in. I understand the need for water. California is a dry State. We have years and years of drought. But continuing to demand access to water when there is only a finite supply, every year you want more, that is not going to work. It is just not going to work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Northern California Power Agency, which is celebrating 50 years of service this year.

Back in 1968, a group of municipal electric utilities, including the city of Lodi in my district, joined together to form the NCPA. The NCPA continues to harness the power of clean energy today.

For 50 years, NCPA has utilized new technologies to provide clean, renewable energy for its consumer-owners. This includes the Lodi Energy Center, a fast-start, combined-cycle natural gas project.

The NCPA's commitments to innovation and clean power have made significant contributions to their California member communities, resulting in low electric rates and CO2-free generation.

I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the NCPA and its members on 50 years of service, achievement, and success.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life of Toni Ellison, who passed away on June 16, 2018.

Toni was born and raised in Stockton, California, where she attended Franklin High School and graduated in 1988. After high school, she worked in a number of fields, from technology to early childhood education. Supporting the young members of the community was her passion.

She was an active participant and volunteer as a Co-Youth Advisor with the NAACP Youth Council, and worked as a Case Worker for Head Start of San Joaquin County. She took great pride and joy in giving back to her community, and ensuring that children received a quality education. Toni was a dynamic member of many community churches, where she became known as ``Coach Toni'' and the first ``B.O.S.S. the Movement'' trainer in northern California.

After being diagnosed with cancer in 2013, she began to take courses to become a certified holistic health coach and was inspired to someday create her own wellness charity to promote natural and integral health for the body.

Toni dedicated her life to the success and spiritual wellbeing of her community, friends, and family. Her legacy will undoubtedly continue to live on through those who knew and were inspired by her.

Mr. Speaker, I rise, along with my colleagues from the Bay Area, Representatives Mark DeSaulnier, Anna Eshoo, John Garamendi, Jared Huffman, Barbara Lee, Jackie Speier, Eric Swalwell and Mike Thompson.

As members who represent Bay Area communities, we are proud to stand in support of the Bay Area Climate Action Forum, which will be held both before and after the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

Science continues to produce overwhelming evidence that climate change is accelerating and bringing increasingly negative impacts around the globe. The devastating, and in some cases irreversible, costs impact our economy, health and the general wellbeing of all residents in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the globe.

The United States was one of the original United Nations member countries to vote to adopt the historic Paris Climate Accord, which commits to a global initiative to combat climate change and its effects. Unfortunately, this administration has withdrawn the U.S. from this vital global agreement.

Many American cities and states, especially the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California, are committed to meeting the objectives laid out in the Paris Climate Accord. As their representatives in Congress, we are dedicated to maintaining the United States' role as a global leader and will continue to advocate for the U.S. to be an active participant in fulfilling the principles and objectives of the Paris Climate Accord.

Mitigating the effects of rapid climate change is a global imperative that requires participation from all levels of government, as well as private industry, non-governmental organizations and individuals in our global community.

We applaud the collaboration of those stakeholders in the San Francisco Bay Area who have joined together to hold the Bay Area Climate Action Forum. They are leading by example to show that a regional commitment to climate action is a critical component to finding sustainable solutions.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. He is a neighbor and a friend and a colleague, and I appreciate his passion tonight, and I think I am going to share that a little bit.

Mr. Speaker, I normally focus on policy. I came here to try to get things done for the people who sent me here to Washington.

You know, I don't bark every time this President sends out an outrageous tweet or makes a ridiculous statement. But when something happens that is absolutely despicable, I am morally obligated to call the President out and hold him publicly accountable for his actions.

Ordering young children to be separated from their parents in order to send a message and then blaming Democrats for the situation, this rises to the level of complete immoral behavior.

Desperate families come to this country fleeing for their very lives. Our history has been to give them shelter.

My wife's grandfather came from Mexico as a political refugee when he and his family were marked for death. America gave him refuge and he was able to bring his two-year-old daughter, my mother-in-law, to safety.

I built a life and raised a family here. Now I have children and grandchildren of my own. What would it be like to have them torn from my arms if I tried to provide them safety?

The American Conference of Catholic Bishops is very clear. It is immoral, and it is wrong. There is no greater moral obligation that we have than to care for the children of this world. Clearly, ripping children from the arms of their parents is completely unacceptable.

This President is too much of a coward to take responsibility for his actions. The President has power to stop this abhorrent policy right now. We, in Congress, will fight to keep families together.

Mr. Chair, during rollcall vote No. 254 on H.R. 5895, I mistakenly recorded my vote as ``yea'' when I should have voted ``nay.''

Amendment No. 16 Offered by Mr. Takano

Mr. Speaker, May is National Foster Care Month, a time to renew our commitment to the thousands of children in our Nation's foster care system. That is why I am proud to be a member of the Congressional Youth Foster Caucus, which is dedicated to strengthening our Nation's child welfare system.

Today, we are celebrating the Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Day, a special day when more than 100 foster youth from across the country come to D.C. to spend a day with Members of Congress as we conduct our Nation's business.

I have the privilege today of hosting Esmeralda Masco, who is from my district in Stockton, California. Esmeralda is currently a student at Grand Canyon University, where she is studying public policy and aspires one day to become a civil rights lawyer. She is passionate about helping current and former foster youth and wants, one day, to open a resource center to help others in the foster care system to graduate and achieve their full potential.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Esmeralda and all of the participants in the Congressional Youth Shadow Day to our Nation's Capital.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the Members of the House for talking about this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to S. 204, the Right to Try Act. I don't agree with my friend from Texas that there is no downside, and I will go over that here in these 2 minutes.

The House took up this issue before, and I voted against it then. This version is worse, so of course I am going to oppose it.

It would weaken the FDA's authority and provide broad access to unproven treatments. The FDA's oversight of experimental treatment plays a critical role in protecting patients from bad actors with malicious intent or from drugs that are grossly untested. The FDA's oversight protections protect patients from experimental treatments that might do more harm than good.

Chipping away at the FDA's authority would put patients in my district and around the country in great danger by providing liability protections for manufacturers and weaken the FDA's oversight ability. This legislation would leave patients with no recourse in the case of harmful side effects.

This legislation is even more flawed, as I said, than the House bill that I voted against back in March. Like the earlier bill, the Senate bill contains the same dangerous, unnecessary pathways to experimental treatments, but it exposes a much larger number of patients to serious risk--not just terminal patients, but patients that would like to try something that is not even tested. In fact, it is so broad, that it exposes patients of all chronic conditions to the risk of experimental treatments.

More than 100 major patient safety groups have voiced their strong opposition to this bill.

Moreover, this bill is not even necessary. The FDA has an expedited approval process for terminal patients.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand up for patient safety and vote against this flawed legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing a group of talented young musicians from my district who recently traveled to Washington, D.C. as part of a select group of students, and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

Fremont/Lopez Elementary School in Stockton is one of twenty-seven schools in the State of California to partner with the Kennedy Center's Turnaround Arts program, which aims to boost arts education, increasing opportunities for student success. Thanks to the Turnaround Arts program, in 2014, Fremont/Lopez Elementary School offered visual arts, music, dance, and drama classes to its students, and even started a mariachi band.

The Mariachi Los Toritos band was one of four California partners invited to perform at the Turnaround Arts Talent Show at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. However, this isn't the band's first performance in our Nation's Capital. In 2016, Mariachi Los Toritos was invited to the White House for a special workshop hosted by former First Lady Michelle Obama before going on to perform at the talent show.

Through the Turnaround Arts program, Mariachi Los Toritos has also had the opportunity to receive mentorship from successful musical artists, including Smokey Robinson and Russell Simmons.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing and congratulating Fremont/Lopez Elementary School Mariachi Los Toritos for highlighting the importance of arts education and showcasing their impressive musical talents in our Nation's Capital.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor and thank Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for her 9 years of service at the Federal Communications Commission. During her tenure, she fought tirelessly for consumers. She has been a staunch defender of the public interest and a critical voice in the fight for a free and open Internet.

Over the last year, thousands of constituents reached out to me expressing their concerns about rolling back net neutrality provisions. When Chairman Pai denied my request to appear at the Commission's open meeting during which they would be voting to eliminate net neutrality, Commissioner Clyburn offered to submit my written statement for the record so my constituents' voices would be heard. Additionally, she came to my district to hear firsthand from my constituents about net neutrality.

I am also grateful for her work to protect the Lifeline program. Over 56,000 households in my district rely on this crucial program. Connectivity is a gateway for economic opportunity. It is an equalizer. And Commissioner Clyburn's leadership has been vital.

Thank you, Commissioner Clyburn, for your incredible work and public service.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 3053. I thank Ranking Member Tonko and Chairman Shimkus for their hard work on this very difficult subject.

This is a bipartisan bill that seeks a solution on how to remove and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. This bill recognizes the need to consolidate interim storage in an integral waste management program.

H.R. 3053 authorizes the Department of Energy to either develop its own consolidated interim storage facility or contract with private entities for such development. The bill also authorizes the development of one pilot CIS facility that is not linked to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision on the Yucca Mountain license application, and provides a solution for nuclear waste stranded at sites without an operating reactor.

This bill will help us create a path toward permanent storage, while also being inclusive and transparent about the process. One of the key additions to this bill is that it will reestablish the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. It also increases assistance to States and tribes for transportation safety, which is important when transporting radioactive materials.

Mr. Chairman, we cannot continue to put our heads in the sand about nuclear waste. There are about 120 sites across the country that store nuclear waste on a so-called temporary basis. With this situation, a serious accident is virtually inevitable. Nuclear waste can be transported and stored safely for the generations needed. This is really an engineering problem, and America has some of the best engineers in the world. We can do this.

H.R. 3053 is an important step toward safe storage, and I urge my colleagues to support this well-crafted legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2030, the Ceiling Fan Energy Conservation Harmonization Act.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the chairman on this issue. It is bipartisan, and we are going to go ahead and do this law right.

Now, S. 2030 is essentially identical to H.R. 3477, legislation introduced by my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Hudson and Mr. Butterfield. The purpose of the legislation is to align the current 2019 compliance deadline for ceiling fan light kit standards with a separate standard for ceiling fans set for 2020.

S. 2030 essentially extends the compliance deadline for the rule amending the standards for ceiling fan light kits by just over 1 year to January 21, 2020, so they can both occur at the same time.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, required the Department of Energy to put in place efficiency standards for ceiling light kits. The DOE has determined that increasing efficiency standards for ceiling fan light kits would conserve energy more, while being economically feasible. The DOE finally put forth the standard that, as stated previously, would take effect in January of next year. However, because the DOE did not meet the statutory deadline for promulgating a ceiling fan lighting kit standard, certain backstop requirements have been triggered that would be vitiated by the new regulations.

Some have raised questions as to whether the enactment of this legislation would result in an extension of portions of these backstop requirements. I think it is important for manufacturers that we respond to this question, and it is my intent, later on in this debate, to enter into a colloquy with the chairman in order to provide direction to the DOE and make clear Congress' intent with regard to this matter.

New standards for these kits will save money and reduce carbon emissions, and I believe the sooner they are in place, the better for consumers and for our environment.

Having said that, the bill is not opposed by any environmental, community, or consumer groups. Perhaps this is because it is sensible legislation that will greatly help retailers by eliminating unnecessary burdens for sellers of the products, while only minimally delaying new standards.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to have a brief colloquy with Mr. Upton, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy.

As I understand the purpose of S. 2030, it is to delay the January 7, 2019, compliance deadline for the latest ceiling fan light kit efficiency standard so as to align it with the January 21, 2020, compliance deadline for ceiling fans overall. Thus the efficiency standards for ceiling fans and for ceiling fan lights will go into force at the same time on January 21, 2020. Is that correct?

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I further understand that, pursuant to current law, because the DOE has not yet promulgated a ceiling fan light kit standard, there are backstop standards that have taken effect. As a part of this backstop, no ceiling fan light kit can be offered for sale in interstate commerce whose lamps use more than 180 watts of electricity.

To ensure this result, ceiling fan light kits are required to include a device that limits lamp efficiency consumption to 190 watts or less. Am I correct in that understanding?

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, again reclaiming my time. I thank the chairman and acknowledge that correction.

I understand that, in preparation for ceiling fan light kit standards going into effect in January 2019, many manufacturers have already switched production and produced kits without the device that limits total lamp consumption to 190 watts or less.

Lighting manufacturers have informed me that the limiting device has been a major source of product failure and that, due to the vast gains in lightbulb technology and a huge drop in the price of highly efficient bulbs, it is no longer necessary to have such a device to keep consumption low.

Unfortunately, because the limiter requirement is tied by statute to the date of enactment of the new standard, technically this bill that is designed to ease regulatory burdens may inadvertently extend for an additional year the 190-watt limiter requirement. I do not believe this is the intent of this body or our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol, in other words, the Senate.

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the chairman for confirming that the provisions

of S. 2030 are not intended to delay the change to the 190-watt limiter requirement.

Mr. Speaker, I believe ceiling fan lighting kit manufacturers have acted in good faith in the run-up to the change in the standard and that they should not be penalized for producing light kits without the 190-watt limiting device.

In my view, DOE should take whatever steps are necessary to revise its rules to allow these otherwise compliant kits to be sold and should take no enforcement actions against manufacturers solely because a kit fails to include the 190-watt limiting device.

That doesn't mean the Department should stop all enforcement to ensure compliance with standards for these kits, but it should specifically forgo action against companies for failing to include a limiting device.

Mr. Speaker, I ask if the chairman shares my view.

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I want to thank the chairman for his indulgence in this important clarification of legislative intent.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I again want to thank the chairman and commend my colleagues in both Chambers, specifically Mr. Hudson and Mr. Butterfield, for working on this bill. The legislation enjoys support from both sides of the aisle on this committee; and, in fact, the House version of the bill, H.R. 3477, passed both the Energy Subcommittee and the full Energy and Commerce Committee by a voice vote with almost no debate. Similarly, the Senate companion, which is before us now, passed that body by unanimous consent. I hope that we can do the same today and swiftly send this to the President's desk for his signature.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of S. 2030.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, every year on March 14, mathematicians and dessert lovers around the world come together to celebrate a shared constant in our lives. It may sound irrational, but it is actually transcendental.

Pi Day is a day dedicated to celebrating everything fascinating in the world of mathematics by recognizing its most famous number: 3.14.

Pi represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, and has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits. It was first discovered in Ancient Greece and has captivated mathematicians like myself for over 1,000 years.

While Congress officially recognized Pi Day in 2009, it was in 1988 that the transcendental number got its day of dedication, when physicist Larry Shaw organized the first Pi Day at the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum.

Today, pi is used in all kinds of applications and can be found throughout our lives.

So to my fellow mathematicians, dessert lovers, and all of those celebrating today, I wish you a happy Pi Day.