Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair and my colleagues who have co-led and provided leadership on this important bill: Representative Steube, Representative Thompson, and Representative Panetta.

I rise today, like so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, to honor our friend Doug LaMalfa. He understood that the disaster after the disaster happens when families cannot recover and return to their hometowns because the funding and resources they receive just don't stretch far enough or, worse, are taxed and taken away from people who need absolutely every single dollar to be able to rebuild.

On Saturday, I stood above Lahaina, and for a moment--the briefest of moments--in the darkness, the town almost looked normal. Immediately, you realize that something is missing: no warm glow from homes and businesses, no kids riding bikes, and no neighbors gathering in garages.

The people of Lahaina were not counting on that day. They did not seek or ask to lose their homes, their businesses, their livelihoods, their history, or their loved ones.

They should be able to count on this: that every dollar and every resource meant to help them rebuild, recover, and return home stays with them in their pockets, not in government coffers.

As I stand here today wearing Doug's pin above my heart, I know he is up there smiling right now. Doug believed recovery should not come with a tax bill, and the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act makes sure of that.

As we all know too well, the burden of those touched by fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, or disaster is already too much to bear. It is already far too heavy. We should not be making it heavier.

Mr. Speaker, for my constituents, and disaster and wildfire survivors everywhere, let's stand with them in this moment and every moment to come. Let's show them some aloha. Let's make sure that we all vote ``yes'' on this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1011.

Last month, back-to-back Kona Low storms brought catastrophic flooding to our islands. In the span of just a few days, our State was inundated with more than 2 trillion gallons of water. Some areas received over 36 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, far exceeding what scientists expected in a once-in-a-thousand-year storm event.

More than 200 people needed emergency rescue--some being picked up with excavators and farm equipment to be able to get away from the floods. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed. Over 100,000 people throughout our islands lost power for an extended period of time. Some of our ``seniors''; ``kupuna'' were trapped in their homes without food or electricity for days at a time.

While people and businesses across our State face a tough road toward recovery, our farmers have had an especially difficult challenge. Over the last 3 weeks, I have walked through farms and fields in my district and witnessed the devastation firsthand.

From Waialua and the North Shore through Koolauloa, Wailuku, and upcountry Maui, across Molokai, and in Kona, I saw flooded fields, washed-out topsoil, collapsed roads, culverts completely blown apart by flooding, ruined farm equipment, crops dying in the fields, and animals stuck in mud. I saw entire seasons of crops wiped out, and real questions as to when their next harvest will be still remain unanswered.

Early estimates put the damage across Hawaii's farms at nearly $70 million and counting. One in three farmers across our State was negatively impacted by the storms.

Our farmers and ranchers are resilient, tough, and proud. They will come out on the other side, but it is going to take real, sustained support to get them there. That is why this bill is so important.

This isn't the first time, sadly, that our farmers experienced such tragedy. Farmers in my specific district deal with some of the most relentless climate pressures and diverse natural disasters anywhere in this country--wildfires, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides, and floods caused by increasingly powerful Kona low storms.

Each disaster we face chips away at our ability to grow our own food in an island State where we import 80 to 90 percent of the food that we consume. In a place as remote and geographically isolated as Hawaii, food security is fragile.

As we know, food security is also our national and State security, as well. Every farm that we lose, every farmer who decides that he is just going to give up after this last disaster, makes it more difficult for us to feed ourselves.

USDA disaster assistance programs like the ones we are talking about today, ECP and the forest restoration program, play a critical role in helping our farmers not just recover but to rebuild stronger and more resilient. I am grateful to the FSA, the NRCS, and the Rural Development offices in Hawaii that are already working to enroll storm- impacted farmers and get help out the door.

Let me be clear: USDA programs also work only if they have the funding and staff to deliver them. The President's budget proposes slashing USDA by nearly 20 percent and eliminating more than a quarter of Farm Service Agency staff. I need those people in our farms and fields helping them to make it through one more disaster, one more storm. This is the wrong decision if we are looking to pass bills like this and, at the same time, slash funding and the staff that we need to get that funding out the door.

When farmers are facing millions of dollars in losses, they cannot risk delays caused by hollowed-out agencies. We need USDA to be fully resourced and ready to respond.

I also want to be honest about the long-term challenges we face, not just in Hawaii but across the country. Climate change is real, and intense storms, more destructive wildfires than we have ever seen in our lifetimes, prolonged droughts, and extreme weather events of every single kind will continue to increase in frequency and intensity.

Farmers and ranchers are on the front lines of that reality, and our Federal programs must be designed to help them meet and overcome these challenges.

The Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025 would take important steps to ensure disaster assistance programs are responsive to the needs of our producers by providing more flexible, upfront cost- sharing payments. This will help farmers and foresters to begin rebuilding immediately after a disaster rather than waiting on reimbursements they simply cannot afford upfront.

Most farmers in Hawaii are small, mom-and-pop, family operations. When a disaster hits, they don't always have the cash on hand to pay tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in recovery costs while they wait months for reimbursements from the Federal Government. That is not how their finances work. Frankly, it is not reasonable to ask them to make that kind of investment upfront for people who have lost everything.

By expanding advanced cost-share payments and extending upfront assistance for select programs, this bill would make sure our farmers can access the help that they need quickly enough to actually make a meaningful difference--not after the season is lost and the crops gone, not after they have had to walk away from most of their livelihoods, seen it washed away in a disaster, but right when they need it most.

I thank my colleague Representative Letlow for introducing this urgently needed, bipartisan legislation. I look forward to working together to strengthen USDA disaster assistance programs so that we can meet the needs of our farmers today and help them prepare for the challenges they will encounter tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this very important bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I thank my colleagues for their support, specifically my colleague from Louisiana, on behalf of the farmers, ranchers, and forestry caretakers in my State. This bill is important, and I am so glad that she brought it forward.

Before we vote, I want my colleagues to see what I saw. I stood in a field where 20,000 saplings ready to be planted drowned before they ever had a chance to grow. I saw thousands of coffee trees lost, including heritage trees planted by the original owners generations ago, gone in a single storm. I saw banana fields buried in water and silt. I saw fruit contaminated and roots rotting in the ground. I saw livestock lost, mature animals and their young, newly born, swept away, with only empty pens left.

Even where crops are still standing, farmers don't know if they are safe. They are unsure of what flood waters carried into their soil and are unsure if their land will produce food again next season or the season after that.

This is not just damage. This is devastation. These are livelihoods hanging in the balance.

Farmers told me how they tried to fight back, saving seedlings by hand, rushing to harvest whatever they could before it was gone, and building up pens in the middle of the storm just to keep their animals from drowning.

These aren't just fields as we all know here. These are fields that feed families. For some, these are fields that are also their homes, and now they are asking a simple question: Can we recover?

Make no mistake, Hawaii needs help now, but farmers in every State and district are one disaster away from asking those same questions because disasters don't discriminate.

While the bill we are considering today will not make disaster- impacted producers whole overnight, it would help the Federal Government deliver support faster and give farmers and ranchers the resources they need to continue growing the food, fuel, and fiber that keeps this country running.

Our farmers are not asking for a handout. They are asking for a fair shot. That is what this bill delivers, not delayed help, not paperwork and waiting, but real support when it actually matters most. That is because disasters aren't slowing down, and neither should we.

Our farmers are doing everything that they can to hold on, making sure that we have food on our table and fuel in our tanks, clothes to wear at the end of the day, and real cotton grown here in America.

The question is whether we will meet them with the urgency they deserve. By passing this bill, we can say yes.

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

Madam Speaker, last week, two back-to-back storms brought the most catastrophic flooding Hawaii has seen in over 20 years: landslides, washed-out roads, emergency evacuations, and destruction in every single county.

What we saw during these Kona lows was a hard truth: Nature will find a way, and water will go where she wants.

We grew up preparing for hurricane season. That was a threat that we knew. Now, disasters don't wait their turn. Hawaii experiences wildfires and floods year-round. What we are experiencing today is more than our infrastructure was ever built to handle.

I saw it firsthand. Roads ripped apart as water surged through storm drains too small to contain it. Four feet of rock and silt slammed against guardrails, pushed down from the mountains. Fields flattened where water jumped its bank, bypassed overgrown ditches, and raced toward the ocean.

In its path were homes, cars, farms, hospitals, schools, churches, entire communities, our ``family''; ``ohana.''

Madam Speaker, even in our darkest hour, I also saw Hawaii at its very best: neighbors showing up for our neighbors, no one waiting to be asked; volunteers feeding families; and first responders and healthcare workers going above and beyond. That is aloha. That is who we are.

Now, we must match that same spirit with action. We need a whole-of- government approach in response right now: disaster, SNAP, and hot food waivers for families who can't access their kitchens; debris removal so that people can begin to rebuild; the Army Corps of Engineers clearing and dredging our waterways; EPA testing soil and water to keep our communities safe from whatever ran off the farms or the mountainsides behind them; and National Health Corps support for wound care, mental health, and recovery that doesn't end when the water recedes.

To every ``family,'' ``ohana,'' to every friend, and member of our community back home in Hawaii clearing out the mud, mourning what was lost, searching for some stable ground again, you are not alone. We see you. We will always be standing with you. We will not stop fighting to bring every possible resource to help our communities recover, rebuild, and come back even stronger.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present for the vote series today, as I was dealing with the immediate aftermath of the Kona Low Storms, the most severe floods in more than 20 years, which caused extensive damage, displacement, and evacuations across the State of Hawai'i. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 97.

Mr. Speaker, on a hilltop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, there is an interpretive plaque on a boulder. It stands where the government locked up thousands of Japanese as so-called enemy aliens.

My great-grandfather, my GG, was one of them. He was locked behind barbed wire while his son, my grandfather, joined the Military Intelligence Service in service to a country that saw him as the enemy. That small stone marker is all that remains to tell their story.

Today, the Trump administration is removing national park signage that tells the truth about slavery, the genocide of indigenous Americans, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 7148 because for rural communities like mine in Hawaii, this bill isn't abstract policy. It is about whether people can get care and whether caregivers can keep going.

I have met grandparents caring for grandchildren, parents caring for children with disabilities, and adult children caring for aging loved ones, often with no backup and no break.

That is why the 5-year reauthorization of the Lifespan Respite Care Program in this bill, which I was proud to co-lead with Representative Langworthy, matters so deeply. Respite care isn't a luxury. It is the difference between a caregiver burning out and a family staying together.

This bill also reauthorizes the Teaching Health Center GME program, the National Health Services Corps, extends telehealth, and increases funding for critical rural health programs. Taken together, these investments will grow the workforce, expand access to care, and improve health outcomes.

Providers and patients need certainty now. Rural health systems are fragile, and delays have real consequences. Passing this bill will change lives and save lives, and we cannot afford to wait.

Mr. Speaker, today marks the anniversary of Citizens United. This decision did not rewrite campaign finance law; it sold our democracy to the highest bidder.

Before Citizens United, elections were about persuading voters. After it, they became about courting billionaires.

As of 2025, there are 2,502 super-PACs. For the 2024 election, they have taken in over $5 billion, much of it dark money, much of it undisclosed, and much of it designed to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.

Let's be clear: This isn't free speech. This is legalized corruption.

Super-PACs were supposedly independent. In reality, they have become shadow campaigns, circumventing coordination laws, allowing unlimited, often anonymous, contributions, and turning elections into auctions.

What does that buy? For a bargain price of $300 million, Elon Musk bought a gilded seat inside the Federal Government and walked away with billions in contracts from the very agencies he later DOGE'd. It is a parasitic, pay-to-play system disguised as innovation.

Meanwhile, teachers, nurses, construction workers, and police officers pay higher effective tax rates than private equity executives. Families struggle with housing costs, healthcare, and childcare while Congress stalls, paralyzed by fear of angering the super-PACs that bankroll campaigns.

That fear is the point. Dark money doesn't just influence policy. It changes behavior. It makes Members of Congress think twice before doing the right thing because they know one vote could trigger a massive smear campaign.

The losers aren't Democrats or Republicans. The losers in all of this are the American people, across parties

and across States, whose voices are being drowned out.

Fifteen years later, the verdict is in: Citizens United has sold out our democracy and all Americans across the country. It is past time to end the era when billionaires buy access, buy silence, and buy power.

Congress must act to close the coordination loopholes, rein in the super-PACs, and restore the simple idea that in America, people, not money, govern.

Mr. Speaker, only 50 years ago, we made a promise as a nation. When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, we affirmed a simple and profound truth: Every child, no matter their disability or ability, has the right to a

free and appropriate public education; not as charity, not as an afterthought, but as a civil right.

Let's be honest. That promise has never been self-executing. Making IDEA real has required vigorous Federal oversight, strong civil rights enforcement, litigation when necessary, strong parents who demand only the best for their child, and a willingness to demand more--not less-- resources and accountability.

That is why the Trump administration's dismantling of the Department of Education, the decimation of special education enforcement, and the hollowing out of the Office for Civil Rights is so dangerous. This is not reform. This is retreat. It will set public education back more than 50 years.

In Hawaii, we know what happens when FAPE is treated as optional. The Felix Consent Decree raised the alarm more than 30 years ago that we were failing our children. We are the tenth largest school district in the Nation. One in ten of our students have an IEP. Many live on our neighbor islands in rural and remote communities, where even access to services or reliable internet is a challenge. Federal enforcement is not abstract to us. It is the difference between support and neglect.

The reality is, IDEA has also been an unfunded mandate. You have heard it here today from my colleagues. The Federal Government once promised to cover 40 percent of the cost. It has never met that promise, never rising above 10 or 12 percent at best. Now, instead of finally doing what we owe our children, our families, our communities, this administration wants to walk away altogether.

I am a proud product of our public schools. I am a proud parent of public school students, and I believe deeply that an injury to one is an injury and insult to all.

The dismantling, defunding, destaffing, restructuring of the Department of Education is death by a thousand cuts. If we allow this to continue, if we walk back all the gains we have made as a result of IDEA, it will leave all our children behind.

We must not, cannot let this happen, and I assure you, all of us here today on this floor will stand in the way of the destruction of the Department of Education and the demise of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Mr. Speaker, I chuckled when Ken mentioned pet peeves and names. We need to add quinoa and potatoes to that list. He definitely didn't like those. For the record, my nickname was Barracuda, so figure that one out.

God works in mysterious ways. In the face of disaster, I found a friend in Doug. Doug and I didn't agree on a lot of things, but we always showed up for each other. We cosponsored bills, worked on disaster funding and rural health, and traded a lot of jabs and took funny pictures of each other in our Agriculture Committee hearings. I gave him Spam musubis, and he brought me my favorite lemon almonds from Oroville.

I will never forget November 8, 2023. Doug stood here on this floor, and he marked 5 years since the Camp fire. I was marking 3 months since the Lahaina fire in Maui. He came up to me and gave me a hug after, and he said: We are going to get through this together.

I believed him. I still do. He gave me hope.

Doug and I are two very different people. It would have been the most unlikely of friendships, except that he was one of the kindest, most gentle, and genuine people I have ever met.

I don't know about you, Mr. Speaker, but the House floor feels a little less warm and a bit empty without Doug, but maybe I just miss my friend.

To his wife, Jill, and the LaMalfa ``family''; ``family,'' our prayers, our aloha, and our love are with you.

May you rest in aloha, my friend, until we meet again.

Mr. Speaker, imagine being a farmer choosing between insurance and seed, a small business owner weighing a doctor's visit against payroll, families hoping nothing goes wrong because they are one ER visit away from being homeless. This is the reality for rural America today.

The big, ugly bill took a sledgehammer to rural healthcare, and letting the ACA enhanced premium tax credits expire will accelerate the damage and hasten the harm.

In rural America, places like Hawaii, insurance coverage is the business model that keeps hospitals, clinics, and emergency rooms open. When premiums rise, coverage drops, revenue disappears, and hospital doors close. Without those credits, rural Americans will see their monthly healthcare costs rise by 107 percent. A single premium hike will make the difference between whether a family eats, pays their rent, or sees a doctor.

Mr. Speaker, 2.8 million rural Americans will lose coverage. For them, this is not politics. This is life or death.

Healthcare should never depend on your ZIP Code. This clean extension of the ACA tax credits will save lives.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the life of Hawaii County Fire Chief Kazuo Todd.

I was fortunate to spend time with Kazuo--visits to the firehouse and dispatch center, meetings and conferences, catching him around D.C. and Hawaii Island. He even suited me up in full fire gear to break down a door so I could experience the training his firefighters endure.

In all the time I got to spend with him, one truth came through very clearly: Kazuo cared, deeply and genuinely, about people. He was a devoted son, a loving husband, and a proud father who cared for the Hawaii Island people the same way he cared for his own ``family'' ``ohana,'' with a calm sense in crisis, humility in leadership, and an unshakable sense of responsibility and aloha for others.

To the Todd ``family'' ``ohana,'' while our time with Kazuo was far too short, ``thank you'' ``mahalo'' for sharing him with us. He poured his heart into serving the people of Hawaii Island, and all of us are better for it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary service of Dr. Judy Mohr Peterson, who has dedicated her career to strengthening Medicaid and expanding access to high-quality health care for the people of Hawaii.

I first had the opportunity to work with Judy years ago at the state level in Hawaii, where we often found ourselves facing some of the toughest policy challenges that states encounter, balancing limited resources with the real

health needs of families, seniors, keiki, and people with complex medical conditions. Through many difficult conversations and complex decisions, Judy brought not only deep expertise but also a profound commitment to equity and aloha for people and communities across our islands.

As Administrator of Hawaii's Med-QUEST Division, Judy demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing innovative strategies that stretched every dollar of Medicaid to serve our most vulnerable residents. Under her guidance, Hawaii pursued expanded benefits and greater flexibility within federal Medicaid authorities, ensuring that the program could respond more fully to the holistic needs of those it serves. This included securing extension and expansion of Hawaii's Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration, strengthening coverage for health- related social needs, supporting continuity of coverage and care, and enhancing services for residents transitioning from incarceration or foster care to community living.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Judy's experience, leadership, and calm demeanor were indispensable. She mobilized Med-QUEST to implement emergency flexibilities overnight, protected continuous coverage for hundreds of thousands of Hawaii residents, and worked closely with providers to stabilize the health care system at a time when uncertainty and fear were widespread. Her steady guidance ensured that vulnerable families did not lose access to care, that providers were supported in maintaining essential services, and that the state swiftly responded to emerging public health needs.

Recognizing that health extends beyond clinical care, Judy also played a key role in expanding community-based services. Under her leadership, Hawaii became the first state in the Nation to secure approval to cover community-based palliative care through Medicaid, allowing individuals with serious illness to receive compassionate, symptom-relieving care outside of hospital settings.

These innovations on their own are challenging, and Judy did these while faces with significant public health emergencies and disasters, from the pandemic to the Maui fires. By embracing federal flexibilities such as Section 1135 waivers--she ensured that care continued uninterrupted for those most at risk. Her team's work earned national recognition from the National Association of Medicaid Directors for its rapid response and profound community impact.

More recently, as the Nation debated major changes in federal Medicaid policy, including the projected significant cuts and eligibility shifts anticipated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Judy was a critical voice in helping us understand and prepare for the impacts to medically vulnerable communities across Hawaii. She clearly articulated how new work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks will threaten continued coverage for hundreds of thousands of people in Hawaii, emphasizing the administrative burdens and risk of coverage loss, especially among working families and vulnerable populations. Throughout these transitions, Judy also worked to support providers in transforming care delivery to a more value-oriented model that rewards quality and outcomes, reinvesting in systems and programs that support Hawaii's most vulnerable residents and providers alike. Her approach always kept people at the center, ensuring that even as systems evolve, coverage, access, and dignity are preserved for those who need care most.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend my biggest ``mahalo'' and sincerest ``congratulations'' to Judy Mohr Peterson on her years of distinguished service as Hawaii's Medicaid Director and Med-QUEST Division Administrator. Throughout her tenure, she has shown visionary leadership, unwavering compassion, and a tireless commitment to improving health outcomes for children, families, kupuna, and communities across Hawaii. Her work has touched the lives of approximately one-third of our state's residents, and her legacy of innovation and advocacy will continue to benefit all of Hawaii for years to come.

Mahalo to Judy for her exemplary public service and for her enduring dedication to ensuring that Medicaid serves not just as a payer of services, but as a lifeline to health, equity, and opportunity.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to join my colleagues in honoring the life and service of Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and in lifting up Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe as he continues his recovery after the shooting that wounded them both while deployed to Washington, D.C.

Mr. Speaker, Specialist Beckstrom was only 20 years old when she died on November 27, 2025, from her injuries. She was a daughter, a student, an athlete, a caregiver, and a soldier.

In her civilian life, as we heard, she worked at a behavioral health clinic in Summersville, West Virginia, helping others heal. She initially joined the Army to help pay for college. She soon found a deeper calling in service, proudly serving as a military police officer.

At Webster County High School, she excelled both in the classroom and on the softball field, studied health science, and participated in the JROTC, learning early the values of citizenship, duty, and service in a democracy.

She dreamed of a future in law enforcement, possibly with the FBI, a dream rooted in her desire to protect others and to be a part of something greater than herself. Her life was far too short, but her example will endure.

Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, just 24 years old, also exemplifies that same quiet dedication to country. A lineman in his civilian life and a force management airman in the West Virginia Air National Guard, he serves in a role that rarely makes headlines but is essential to the readiness and effectiveness of our Armed Forces. His work ensures that our people, resources, and missions are aligned so the military can function when it matters most.

A graduate of high school in Inwood, West Virginia, Staff Sergeant Wolfe joined the Guard in 2019, stepping forward to serve, while building a life at home. I am encouraged by reports of his progress and that he is now breathing on his own and standing without assistance. I join all who are rooting for his full and speedy recovery.

Specialist Beckstrom and Staff Sergeant Wolfe represent the very best of our Nation. They are young Americans, driven by service, compassion, and a sense of duty. Their willingness to step forward and to serve their communities and their country reflects the highest ideals of military and public service.

Mr. Speaker, there is no place in a civil and democratic society for this kind of violence. I am deeply grateful to all who wear the uniform and to the families and the loved ones who stand behind them, often bearing the quiet burden and heavy sacrifices on their own.

I thank Representatives Miller and Moore for bringing forward H. Res. 923, and I am extremely proud to support its passage.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today outraged at the ongoing assault on the rights and protections of the Federal workers who serve our Nation, over 48,000 of them in Hawaii alone.

Just yesterday, this House passed the NDAA, meant to strengthen our national defense. However, the NDAA means nothing if we cut down, take away rights, and fail to protect the very workforce that makes national defense possible.

Earlier this year, President Trump issued an executive order dismantling collective bargaining agreements for more than 1 million Federal employees.

Let's be clear: The healthcare we fight to make affordable and accessible, the services we promise our veterans, the readiness we demand of our agencies, none of it is real if we undermine the employees who deliver these services on the front lines. Without them, these are just empty promises, just words.

Collective bargaining, grievance procedures, and whistleblower protections are the foundation of the strong civilian workforce that our national security, veterans, and communities across this country rely on.

Our Hawaii Government Employees Association calls the President's action a direct attack on working Americans. That is why I stand firmly with our union ``ohana'' ``family'' across the country in rejecting these union-busting efforts and urging passage of the Protect America's Workforce Act.

Mr. Speaker, 80 years ago, over 120,000 Japanese individuals were stripped of their rights and forced into barbed-wire camps because of the way they looked and the language they spoke.

My great-grandfather, my GG, was one of them. He was taken from his

home on Maui and imprisoned not for anything that he had done but for who he was. We said then, ``never again.'' Yet, here we are today.

Now, the very sites where Japanese-American families were incarcerated have been reopened. Fort Bliss, a World War II internment camp, is now the Nation's largest immigrant detention center.

To add insult to injury, the Trump administration is using the same law, the Alien Enemies Act that was once used to imprison Japanese Americans, to detain and fast track deportations, with zero due process rights.

While this administration insists it is targeting dangerous criminals, we know that more than 73 percent of those in ICE custody have no criminal convictions at all.

This administration is also intentionally dismantling legal pathways and stripping people of lawful status so they can be deported. We just saw this on Kauai recently, where a raid that swept up 44 people ended with six Venezuelan men--who were legally here seeking asylum--self- deporting after the administration revoked temporary protected status for their country. To anyone who thinks this could never happen to me, consider this: Two-thirds of the Japanese imprisoned in camps were American citizens. Their children, like my grandfather, serving in the United States military in defense of a country who saw them as the enemy.

Today, American citizens are also being rounded up, once again, stopped and detained, simply for the way they look, by officers who face no accountability. United States military veterans are being picked up, detained, and deported.

What we are witnessing is a slow methodical erosion of citizens' rights and a cold indifference towards treating entire communities as national security threats.

We are in the midst of history in the making, and history has already shown us the dangers of what this country can do when given unchecked, unfettered immigration authorities.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues on all sides of the aisle: How much are we willing to tolerate before we say enough is enough?

Eighty years later, this Nation still reflects with shame at what it did to our Japanese-American families. We apologized. We vowed to learn. We vowed to do better, and we have failed.

``Never again.'' ``Nidoto nai.''