Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus condemns all forms of white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia in the strongest terms possible.

This could have been an issue that sowed further division among the country, but, instead, has united everyone around our shared values, condemning all forms of bigotry and hatred. The Congressional Black Caucus stands firmly against all expressions of hate, and is concerned by the recent uptick in hateful rhetoric and crimes targeting minority communities.

For example, a white nationalist murdered nine African American worshipers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on the evening of June 15, 2015, in hopes of igniting a nationwide race war; or the perpetrator of the deadliest attack on Jewish people in the United States' history at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers.

It is unfortunate that the President of the United States has shown a complete lack of leadership on these issues and has, in fact, fanned the flames.

As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the CBC remains committed to building a more perfect union by engaging in constructive dialogue that affirms America as a nation welcoming to all.

Madam Chair, I support H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019 as a commonsense measure to improve the current firearms background check system and to save lives.

Twenty-five years ago today, we began implementation of the Brady Background Checks Act. The system it employs to run background checks on those seeking to purchase firearms from licensed gun dealers has made us safer.

Now it is time to address the circumstances in which the FBI needs additional time to investigate information relating to a prospective purchaser when the records may not be immediately clear as to whether someone is legally allowed to purchase a firearm.

Under current law, after 3 days, a gun dealer has the discretion to sell a gun to a purchaser, if the system has not given a green light to the sale after 3 business days have passed without a denial being issued by the system. In these circumstances, it is the choice of the dealer as to whether to proceed with the sale, which we call a default proceed, or whether to wait for the check to be implemented.

The results of such a choice were tragic in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, when a young man filled with hate shot and killed nine worshippers at the Emanuel AME Church. The gun used in this murder had been transferred by a gun dealer to the shooter even though the check had not been completed by the FBI, but would have resulted in a denial had the check been finished.

This is not an isolated incident. Since 1994, gun sellers proceeded with between 3,000 and 4,000 default proceed sales per year. Analyzing data provided by the Department of Justice, one study found that such sales are eight times more likely to involve a prohibited purchaser than other background checks.

In 2017 alone, default proceed sales accounted for more than 4,800 transfers to purchasers who were prohibited from owning firearms. The FBI reported that, in 2007 and 2008, in cases a licensed seller sold a firearm through default proceed transfers----

The FBI reported that, in 2007 and 2008, in cases where a licensed seller sold a firearm through default proceed transfers, approximately 22 percent of the individuals investigated were legally prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm.

The additional time provided by H.R. 1112 is not too much to ask so that we may help prevent tragedies such as the Charleston shooting from happening. This is why I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill today.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which will extend the current Federal background check requirement to unlicensed sellers of guns.

It is about time that Congress takes this issue seriously, and I am pleased that this bipartisan bill has been brought to the House floor with the urgency this issue deserves.

In recent years, our Nation has experienced an increase in mass shootings, and our Nation is appropriately horrified. However, mass shootings are just one symptom of our gun violence epidemic. The daily toll of shootings occurs in communities across our country, on our streets, in our schools, and even in our houses of worship.

As Aalayah Eastmond testified before the Judiciary Committee earlier this month, 1 year after the terrible shooting that took the lives of 17 students and staff and injured 17 others at her high school in Parkland, Florida: ``Minority communities bear the heaviest burden of gun violence in this country.''

The impact on our young people is simply unacceptable. Every day, 47 children and teens are shot in this country. Eight of these young people die, and 39 are shot and survive.

Citizens across this country such as Diane Latiker, who also testified before the committee, are taking it upon themselves to organize and engage in community-based efforts to reduce gun violence and to assist the young people it affects. We in Congress must match their courage and commitment with action of our own.

I support H.R. 8 because it will reduce gun violence by narrowing the avenues for criminals and other prohibited persons from obtaining guns.

Certainly, there is no single change to our gun laws that will prevent every shooting, but enacting measures that will help prevent some of them is clearly the right thing to do.

Mr. Chair, that is why I support this bill, and I ask my colleagues to do the same.

Madam Speaker, I would like to honor the life and memory of a pioneer in the field of health policy, my long-time friend, colleague and fellow organizer, Dr. Loretta Jones, who passed away on November 22.

She was a founding member of the Community Coalition for substance abuse Prevention and Treatment. In fact, she was the first staff person hired and developed the Coalition's Prevention Network. That network brought together social service providers from South LA to address substance abuse in the community.

Loretta had a towering passion for justice and a caregiver's attention to detail. She founded Healthy African American Families (HAAF) in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising to engage universities, think tanks, and community members together to seek solutions to longstanding health problems, including the scourge of pre-term births in the African American community. For this work she received two honorary doctorates and, last year, she received the UCLA Medal, the university's highest honor, for her career of working to address inequalities in health and health outcomes.

She is best known for co-developing methods that give underserved communities a greater role in planning and implementing academic research. Community-Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) calls for transparency, accountability and equal power-sharing between academics and communities. In 2007, with UCLA professor Kenneth Wells, she published the CCPR model in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In doing so, she demonstrated another tenet of CPPR--that community members co-author research publications alongside academics. Loretta had that rare ability to serve as a bridge between the worlds of policy and research, and the everyday lives of the people she cared about most. She mentored hundreds of physicians, nurses, public health practitioners, social scientists and community members to do the same. Those people went on to become tenured faculty members at medical schools, state officials and senior advisers in Congress and the White House.

A native of Massachusetts, she earned a BA in psychology in 1963 and Master's degree in criminal justice in 1972, both from Northeastern University in Boston. She had been community faculty member at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science since 2010. A former foster youth herself, she fostered 20 children in addition to raising her daughter. She made a real difference in the world during her 77 years.

Loretta always insisted that ``Everyone deserves the right to live, everyone deserves good health care, and we are all responsible for making it happen.'' I mourn her passing with all of those who loved her. I am grateful for her compassion, her dedication, and the work to which she dedicated her life: to empower families to lead truly healthy lives.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 450) to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide an additional tool to prevent certain frauds against veterans, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support H.R. 450, the Preventing Crimes Against Veterans Act of 2019, as amended, which would make it a crime to knowingly engage in any scheme to defraud a veteran of his or her veterans benefits.

This legislation provides an important, additional tool for Federal prosecutors to use to combat veterans benefits fraud.

Because we honor their service and because of the sacrifices our veterans have made for us, it is particularly important that we protect them from fraud and ensure the integrity of the system of benefits we provide for them.

Currently, there are about 21 million veterans of the U.S. military, men and women who selfishly serve our Nation. Unfortunately, many of our veterans, as a result of their service, have been scarred, whether physically, mentally, or both. Often, it is the scars that we cannot visually see that are the hardest to address.

There are well over 1 million American veterans with service- connected disabilities.

The suicide rate among veterans is 300 percent above the national average, and it is estimated that about 30 percent of all Vietnam veterans and 20 percent of veterans of the recent Middle East conflicts suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder in a given year.

In addition, veterans are more likely than nonveterans to become homeless. They comprise 17 percent of our homeless population. On any given night, an estimated 50,000 veterans are sleeping on American streets. That is just not right.

In recognition of the extreme sacrifice by our veterans and the hardships many of them continue to face after their military service, it is our duty to provide, to the best of our ability, an appropriate measure of compensation for them, particularly those in need.

This is the least we can do, and it is still not enough. There continue to be issues with the medical care we provide our veterans and problems about some benefits never being processed and paid because of the loss of claims by the Veterans Benefits Administration.

That is why we must prohibit any schemes that would defraud a veteran of their benefits. Under H.R. 450, anyone convicted of such crime could be fined, imprisoned, or subject to both penalties.

This bill is important because it fills in a gap in enforcement for the protection of veterans. Under current law, the VA allows agents or attorneys to assess a nominal fee to assist claimants who are appealing different aspects of their benefits.

It is illegal for a nonattorney or a person not registered as an agent to assist such claimants. However, if an unauthorized individual offers a veteran assistance in person, they cannot be prosecuted under current Federal law. The wire fraud statutes do not extend to such in- person contact.

Because of this, fraudsters routinely take advantage of this loophole. I am aware of at least one specific instance in which a bad actor visited an assisted living facility in Florida and asked the staff to round up all veterans for a seminar. He could not be prosecuted under the law as it stands today. This is unconscionable. We need this bill, because the example I just gave is not an isolated incident.

More broadly, those who defraud veterans or their surviving spouses or dependents endanger our system of veterans benefits not only by harming the victims, but also by diminishing resources required to pay the claims and fund the programs that are needed to help those who have served our country.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the bill's sponsors, Mr. Deutch and Mr. Meadows, for their hard work and bipartisan efforts to address this critical problem.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutch).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. Speaker, we should do everything we can to protect our veterans who have given so much of themselves to our Nation.

Our veterans have laid their lives on the line. We owe them much, and we should repay our gratitude whenever we can. Certainly, helping to ensure that their veterans benefits are protected against fraud, as H.R. 450 would do, is one way of expressing our appreciation, and it is the right and the just thing to do. For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 507) to direct the Attorney General to study issues relating to human trafficking, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I introduced H.R. 507, the Put Trafficking Victims First Act, with my colleague, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner).

I thank Mrs. Wagner for her hard work over the years on this important legislation. We are here today because of her dedication and willingness to work in a bipartisan manner to address the problems faced by victims of trafficking. We both recognize that Congress must do more to combat this heinous crime.

H.R. 507 is designed to ensure that survivors of human trafficking do not go unnoticed. First, it expresses the sense of Congress that law enforcement set aside a portion of the funds they receive for combating human trafficking to ensure that victims receive support that is trauma informed and victim centered. This will provide victims with a better chance of recovering from their experiences.

Second, this legislation addresses the tremendous need for expanded victim services, improved data gathering on the prevalence and trends in human trafficking, and effective mechanisms to identify and work with victims in an effective and respectful manner.

It directs the Attorney General to form a broadly representative working group to assess the status of the collection of data on human trafficking and recommend best practices, conduct a survey of providers regarding the provision of services to them, as well as prepare a report to Congress on Federal efforts to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking, the effectiveness of current policies addressing victims' needs, and analyzing the demographic characteristics of trafficking victims, and recommendations on how to address their unique vulnerabilities.

The bill also directs the Attorney General to implement a pilot project testing the methodologies identified by the working group and requires the Attorney General to report on efforts to increase restitution to victims of human trafficking.

With this type of information in hand, Congress can provide appropriate oversight of efforts to combat human trafficking; and researchers, advocates, and law enforcement agencies will all have a shared resource as they continue to develop innovative approaches to stop traffickers.

Finally, the bill expresses the sense of Congress that States should implement trauma-informed, victim-centered care for all trafficking victims.

Forced labor and human trafficking are among the world's fastest growing enterprises. Globally, these inhumane practices generate an estimated $150 billion a year in profit. That is three times the amount that the top Fortune 500 companies made in 2016.

Criminals are profiting from the systematic abuse of vulnerable people around the globe. Sadly, women and girls represent approximately 71 percent of these victims.

The U.S. State Department estimates that between 14,000 and 17,000 people are trafficked into our country from other nations every year. These victims are part of the estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of trafficking currently living within our communities.

My home State of California has the ninth largest economy in the world. It is also one of the Nation's top four destinations for human traffickers, especially for child sex trafficking.

In 2018, of the 5,000 reports to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 760 of them were from California. As the founder of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, I am very aware of the risks to vulnerable youth. Foster youth, along with runaways and homeless youth, are at the highest risk of being sex-trafficked.

Experts agree that the foster care system is yielding a disproportionate number of human trafficking victims. Nearly 60 percent of all child sex trafficking victims have histories in the child welfare system. We cannot allow this to continue.

Washington, D.C., is home to the most powerful government in the world, yet even in D.C., women and girls are being trafficked.

Organizations like Courtney's House are working to improve the outcome of trafficking survivors.

H.R. 507 will improve the implementation of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015.

Trafficking victims face many challenges, even after they are freed from trafficking rings, ranging from access to social services and utilizing assistance programs. Survivors face difficulties navigating social services and assistance programs.

A component of H.R. 507 encourages law enforcement and prosecuting agencies to make every attempt to determine whether an individual has been a victim of human trafficking before charging them with offenses that are the result of their victimization. This is of particular concern to communities of color.

Mr. Speaker, Congress' intent is clear. Protecting victims from the heinous crime of human trafficking is of the utmost concern. I am proud to have worked across the aisle with Congresswoman Wagner on this important legislation, and I urge our colleagues to support it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas, (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).

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

Organizations like Courtney's House are working to improve the outcomes for sex trafficking survivors. Tina Frundt, the director of Courtney's House right here in D.C., asserts that African American and Latino communities are not immune to human trafficking. Her organization provides trauma-informed services to sex trafficking survivors between the ages of 12 and 19.

Tina is also a child sex trafficking survivor. As a 9-year-old girl in foster care, she was sex trafficked. By the time Tina was 14, she became one of 2 million children who run away from home each year. Nearly 200,000 of them will be sex trafficked.

In Tina's case, her adult abuser was more than twice her age, and forced her to become a child sex worker. It took her years to escape. Now Tina helps children like her recent client, a 12-year-old girl whose 25-year-old abuser called himself her boyfriend rather than her trafficker.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 507 supports efforts to stop human trafficking. We are making progress in protecting those who have been caught up in this horrific criminal activity, and this bill is a great example of what we can accomplish when we focus on helping the most vulnerable among us.

We have an obligation not only to end human trafficking, but to support people who undergo horrific experiences like these. This bill is yet another step in the right direction.

Once again, I would like to thank Congresswoman Wagner and Congresswoman Jackson Lee for all of their efforts in this regard. I was very pleased to team up with Congresswoman Wagner again on this legislation, and hope that we can continue to work on these issues in the future.

Mr. Speaker, for these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill today, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I would like to honor the life and memory of a pioneer in the field of health policy, my long-time friend, colleague and fellow organizer, Dr. Loretta Jones, who passed away on November 22.

She was a founding member of the Community Coalition for substance abuse Prevention and Treatment. In fact, she was the first staff person hired and developed the Coalition's Prevention Network. That network brought together social service providers from South LA to address substance abuse in the community.

Loretta had a towering passion for justice and a caregiver's attention to detail. She founded Healthy African American Families (HAAF) in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising to engage universities, think tanks, and community members together to seek solutions to longstanding health problems, including the scourge of pre-term births in the African American community. For this work she received two honorary doctorates and, last year, she received the UCLA Medal, the university's highest honor, for her career of working to address inequalities in health and health outcomes.

She is best known for co-developing methods that give underserved communities a greater role in planning and implementing academic research. Community-Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) calls for transparency, accountability and equal power-sharing between academics and communities. In 2007, with UCLA professor Kenneth Wells, she published the CCPR model in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In doing so, she demonstrated another tenet of CPPR--that community members co-author research publications alongside academics.

Loretta had that rare ability to serve as a bridge between the worlds of policy and research, and the everyday lives of the people she cared about most. She mentored hundreds of physicians, nurses, public health practitioners, social scientists and community members to do the same. Those people went on to become tenured faculty members at medical schools, state officials and senior advisers in Congress and the White House.

A native of Massachusetts, she earned a BA in psychology in 1963 and Master's degree in criminal justice in 1972, both from Northeastern University in Boston. She had been a community faculty member at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science since 2010. A former foster youth herself, she fostered 20 children in addition to raising her daughter. She made a real difference in the world during her 77 years.

Loretta always insisted that ``Everyone deserves the right to live, everyone deserves good health care, and we are all responsible for making it happen.'' I mourn her passing with all of those who loved her. I am grateful for her compassion, her dedication, and the work to which she dedicated her life: to empower families to lead truly healthy lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the First Step Act. For 40 years, our failure to adequately reform our criminal justice system has resulted in punitive mandatory minimum sentences and mass incarceration. African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans have borne the brunt of this legacy.

Between 1980 and 2014, there was a 700 percent increase in the number of women in custody. This was nearly twice the rate of male imprisonment. Women are often held for nonviolent, low level drug offenses. Unfortunately, these women are entering a male-centered penal system that is not designed to meet their physical or mental health needs. What is needed is criminal justice reform that understands that women in the system have unique needs.

This is the first step toward addressing the needs of women. Improving the health outcomes of pregnant women who are in custody is in the First Step Act. My language would restrict the use of restraints on pregnant women, which increases the risk of complications during childbirth. Some of the stories shared by women who were restrained during pregnancy are horrific.

One woman was shackled in labor and dislocated her hip. She experienced

stomach muscle tears and an umbilical hernia. She was left with permanent deformities and pain. Another woman tripped over her shackles, fell to the ground, and miscarried at 20 weeks. The idea that a woman needs to be shackled at the end of her pregnancy or in labor and delivery as though she is going to escape while delivering a child is ridiculous, brutal, and, in my opinion, a human rights abuse.

One mother recounted being shackled after having an emergency caesarean section. She stated: ``With the weight [from the shackles] on my stomach, it felt like they were ripping open my C-section.''

Mr. Speaker, do we have no shame? This egregious abuse of human rights in Federal prisons must end. I hope Congress continues to address this issue. In the 116th Congress, we will continue to move the needle forward by developing comprehensive criminal justice reform that specifically looks at the needs of women in the system.

I thank the Members who supported this legislation, and I thank Representative Jeffries, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Representative Collins, and Representative Nadler for introducing and passing the First Step Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly support H.R. 6207, the Democratic Republic of the Congo Democracy and Accountability Act of 2018.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of this important piece of legislation that seeks to promote free and fair elections in the DRC by imposing sanctions on high level individuals who are undermining democratic processes and institutions in the country as well as those who are responsible for extrajudicial killings and have engaged in public corruption.

The DRC has the potential to be one of the richest countries on Earth. It has abundant deposits of copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, and many other minerals. The Congo River is the second largest river in the world and the most powerful river in Africa, making way for enormous potential to generate hydroelectric power, and some scientists say it could provide enough power for all of sub-Saharan Africa's electricity needs. DRC also has great agricultural potential, with its 80 million hectares of arable land, climate conditions, and water resources.

This country has all the conditions to thrive and flourish, but it has not. Instead, continued delays in holding elections have increased tensions and unrest. Ongoing conflict in many parts of the country has resulted in hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees. The country is in a human rights crisis, and on top of all of this, the DRC is suffering from an Ebola outbreak. The humanitarian crisis in the DRC has been exacerbated by the political crisis over elections.

With respect to the ongoing political situation, the current crisis in the DRC started in 2015 when President Kabila, who is constitutionally barred from reelection, deliberately stalled planned elections. President Kabila remained in post, although his second constitutional term ended in 2016.

Since then, the political situation has steadily declined. The Congolese government and security forces have cracked down on anti- government mobilization through excessive use of force on peaceful protesters, shut down media outlets, and targeted arrests of activists.

In August 2018, President Kabila finally said he would uphold the constitution and not stand for a third term. Even with this announcement, the pre-electoral environment remains tense and unsafe for activists, journalists, political opposition, and religious leaders.

Additionally, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, just this month the government made a new round of arrests of pro-democracy activists ahead of presidential elections scheduled for December 23. This heavy-handed display of police and government security forces ahead of the long-awaited presidential election undermines and threatens people's ability to freely participate in the electoral process.

The government must immediately release all people arbitrarily detained for peacefully protesting, including the numerous pro- democracy activists, political opposition leaders, and journalists.

Finally, the government must investigate and hold to account those responsible for human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, and other serious abuses.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation is extremely important for addressing conditions in the DRC, but it is also important for sending a message to the world that the United States has not retreated from its commitment to protect human rights and advance democracy around the world.

The late former U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and nine former African presidents said Congo's future ``is in grave danger.''

``We are deeply concerned about the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], which represents a threat to the stability, prosperity and peace of the Great Lakes region. . . .''

Mr. Speaker, the situation in the DRC is deteriorating as we speak. It is time we act.

Following a call from the region, please join my colleagues Chris Smith, Chairman Ed Royce, and Ranking Member Eliot Engel, and I, and support this bill that supports human rights, democracy, and accountability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to take official note of the visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali to the United States to order to engage Ethiopian Americans in the new direction he plans for his country. Confirmed and sworn in just a few months ago in April 2018, from the time of his acceptance speech he has made clear his desire for political reform, unity among the peoples of Ethiopia, resolution of the long-standing border conflict with Eritrea, and engagement with opposition groups both inside and outside of Ethiopia.

These priorities resonate strongly with the Ethiopian diaspora in the United States, as has his work to act on those priorities. He has announced political reforms, released thousands of political prisoners, negotiated guarantees for the release of Ethiopian prisoners in Saudi Arabia, and earlier this month he became the first Ethiopian leader to meet with an Eritrean counterpart in more than 20 years. That meeting resulted in the signing of a ``Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship'' declaring an end to tensions, reopening direct telecommunications, road and aviation links, and regularizing access to ports.

I am proud to represent a district that is home to thousands of Ethiopian-Americans, and which includes Los Angeles' Little Ethiopia neighborhood. Los Angeles has the second-largest concentration of Ethiopians outside of Addis Ababa, behind only Washington D.C. The University of Southern California's Galen Center, also in my district, will play host to the meeting.

My constituents have proudly taken part in committees planning for this visit. I congratulate them, as well as the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Ethiopian Consulate in Los Angeles on what I am sure will be a successful event. The meetings in Washington on July 28 and in Los Angeles on July 29 are expected to attract tens of thousands in the Ethiopian diaspora.

Those constituents have told me that they hope the Prime Minister's presence, and his message, will inspire renewed interest in learning about, visiting and investing in their country of origin. As Ranking Member of the Africa Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have worked to promote economic ties between the U.S. and the many nations on the continent, including Ethiopia.

I welcome the Prime Minister, and I hope this visit marks the beginning of an ongoing relationship with my constituents who proudly claim Ethiopian heritage, and who are now looking forward to contributing to a promising future for Ethiopia.

Mr. Speaker, for fifty years, the Brotherhood Crusade has pursued its vision of South Los Angeles as a safe, thriving, culturally relevant, and inclusive community, a community that provides all residents equitable access to human and social services, a community continually improving its quality of life.

On June 15, 2018, the Brotherhood Crusade held a gala celebration, and welcomed supporters to the California Science Center, a fitting location given the organization's unrelenting focus on education. Founder Walter Bremond, Jr. would surely be proud that the dream he funded with a personal loan has grown to be one of the most effective organizations in South Los Angeles, lifting up young Black men and their families and creating countless stories of success.

Upon joining forces with Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., Walter's vision really began to take shape. Together, they designed a viable charitable institution to aid the Black community. Danny Bakewell, Sr. would go on to lead the organization for 35 years with a relentless focus on social justice.

In its five decades, the organization has reached hundreds of thousands of underserved and under-represented youth in South Los Angeles. I applaud the organization's current leadership by my dear friend, Brotherhood Crusade President and CEO, Charisse Bremond Weaver.

Following in the footsteps of her father, Charisse has worked hard to expand services in the 13 years since she donned the mantle of leadership. She has added programs in youth development, educational enrichment, financial literacy and health education programs that reach thousands of South Los Angeles residents in need.

I am pleased and proud to offer my congratulations to the Brotherhood Crusade's leaders, staff, volunteers, participants and alumni, and to call attention to its legacy and accomplishments, as well as its thriving programs and promising future.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 644, strongly condemning the slave auctions of migrants and refugees in Libya, and for other purposes.

In November 2017, CNN broke a story about modern-day slavery in Libya with a grainy video that shows an auctioneer standing in front of a group of young men shouting: ``Big strong boys for farm work. 400, 700, 800.'' The video left people shocked and sparked protests outside of Libyan Embassies here in the U.S. and across Africa and Europe.

In April 2017, the U.N. Migration Agency, the International Organization for Migration, gathered evidence and issued a warning about slave markets in Libya. While there were warning signs from various organizations that migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers were suffering abuse, it took actual video evidence for the world to pay attention.

Libya has become a primary transit hub for migrants and refugees attempting to reach Southern Europe by sea, and various organizations estimate that there are between 400,000 and 1 million migrants and refugees in the country. Refugees and migrants are routinely subjected to grave human rights abuses committed by Libyan officials and security forces, as well as armed groups and criminal gangs who are often working in close cooperation and to mutual financial advantage.

How did we get here and what is the solution to this crisis?

Refugees and migrants in Libya are exposed to horrendous human rights violations in a country where institutions have been weakened by years of conflict and political division. The end of Qadhafi's regime in 2011 led to significant political turmoil and insecurity within Libya. Since then, there has been no effective government in place in the country. Today, three governments, divided along geographical and ideological lines, combine for power, each with limited control over parts of the country. The collapse of government and security institutions has made the trafficking in refugees a lucrative business.

This resolution condemns slave auctions and the exploitation of migrants and refugees as forced laborers in Libya. It also calls upon all parties to the conflict, including parties to the Libyan Political Agreement, to investigate and eradicate the slave auctions and to manage migration flows and migrant detention centers in a humane manner.

I want to also mention that the Congressional Black Caucus was at the head of this effort. We immediately called upon the Libyan Ambassador to come to the Hill to explain what was happening in the country and how the government intended to respond.

I have to say that she was very open in stating that the country needs the help of the international community to address this crisis. And she explained to us that she was aware that there were parts of her country that basically were not governed by any of the three governments and that they needed international assistance to manage this.

These auctions exposed the interconnected and complex nature of this crisis. Any solution to this problem will require a holistic and comprehensive strategy for Libya and the sending countries across Africa that promotes democratic governance, rule of law, respect for human rights, and creating economic opportunities.

The United States must remain focused and continue to promote U.S. values at home and around the world. This includes speaking out publicly when we see human rights abuses.

The bottom line is that slavery is a crime against humanity, and we cannot sit idly by while people around the world are exploited. I join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in support of this bipartisan resolution strongly condemning the slave auctions of migrants and refugees in Libya.

Mr. Speaker, mothers and fathers who sought a safe haven for their children watched helplessly as their children were being snatched away from them by our government.

These families were fleeing unimaginable violence. They had no idea where their infants were being taken. They had no idea the treatment they would receive. These parents, in many instances, still have no idea where their children are located or how to communicate with them.

The Trump administration established no formal process to return these children. I am terrified at the thought that these parents may never see their children again. If the parents are deported and their children are sent all over this country, how will the parents find their children?

Just imagine the mother from El Salvador who is deported back to El Salvador, who came here dirt-poor to begin with. She gets deported back to El Salvador. Her child is sent off to New York. How is she ever supposed to find that child again?

It appears that the only real plan was to separate families as a deterrent to legal immigration. Coming to America should not mean permanently losing your child, especially if you came to America and it was not illegal. If you came in search of asylum, that is not illegal immigration.

The zero-tolerance policy will have a lasting effect. Pediatricians and health experts agree that child-parent separation will result in neurological damage. I will tell you that I have received numerous phone calls from experts, pediatricians, social workers, and child welfare workers.

The other night, I even received a very long email from a distraught internationally known psychologist, Dr. Phil McGraw. He shared with me his concerns about the impact child-parent separation will have on children. He highlighted that, when children are torn away from their parents and raised in institutions without a stable caregiver, it disrupts the formation of attachments, that children become anxious and fearful, and that this can last for years, if not a lifetime. Dr. Phil also expressed how this impacts a child's brain development, which can lead to negative health and well-being outcomes.

We did this, and now we must undo this. If our government did this policy of separating children from parents, then it should be our government's responsibility to reunite those parents with those children, whether they remain here in the United States or, especially, if they are deported.

This proceeded without a plan, without foresight, and without a second glance at the law or what we stand for as a nation. This is chaos. That is why I am calling for a vote on my bill, H.R. 6236, Family Unity Rights and Protection Act, to require the Federal Government to reunite the parents with the children, to establish a database of children separated from families, and to make sure that parental rights aren't terminated.

We are told that parents can communicate with their children, but let me ask you how a parent in Los Angeles would communicate with a child who is 6 months old in another State.

Mr. Speaker, my bill also requires a report outlining the short- and long-term effects on these families and proposed solutions.

As it is, our foster care system is already overrun with over 400,000 children. We know that these kids are in detention right now, but ultimately they will wind up in foster care. Because of the opioid crisis, we don't have enough foster homes for kids who actually need to be in care.

The long-term neurological effects that I describe even apply to children who should be removed from home because their parents have either abused or neglected them. So even when the children should be separated, that separation causes tremendous harm.

Mr. Speaker, if that is what happens to children who should be removed from home, we must call for an end to State-sponsored child abuse, because that is what this policy is. This is our Federal Government that is abusing children.

That is why I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on ordering the previous question.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 6 and the foster youth who will benefit from its passage.

One of the most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act allows young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance until they turn 26. It is only fair that young adults who age out of foster care should keep their coverage until they turn 26, too.

But when the ACA was implemented, the Department of Health and Human Services gave States the option of covering young adults who aged out of foster care in a different State. For example, if a young adult aged out of the system at 18 and had coverage in California but then moved to New York, New York would have the option to cover them under Medicaid until they turned 26 or not.

This extended coverage was never supposed to be optional. After all, former foster youth should have every opportunity to move freely without the fear of losing lifesaving health insurance. This is why I introduced the Health Insurance for Former Foster Youth Act.

Last month, over 100 former foster youth were on the Hill and shadowed their Members of Congress. We celebrated that many of the young adults had been accepted to college, some out of State. This bill will ensure that when former foster youth age out of the system, they can keep their healthcare coverage until 26, no matter where they live.

This is about fairness. Former foster youth should be treated the same way we treat all young people.

I am grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for including my bill in this bipartisan opioid package.

Just this week, The Hill reported the States hardest hit by the opioid epidemic have seen the number of children in foster care or State care increase dramatically.

Again, I thank my colleagues for working with me to clarify this law, and I thank Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone for their leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I am sad to report the passing of my dear friend and colleague, and a former Congressional staff member, Earl Massey, laid to rest on June 16, 2018.

Devoted to Los Angeles and to serving its diverse communities, Earl was an activist, who worked with the faith community, small businesses, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to help the community thrive. Having grown up in a military family, he went to work for the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1980. He came to work with me at the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment shortly after the civil unrest in 1992, and he founded his own organization, Surviving in Recovery (SIR) that same year.

Earl aided in the development of prevention and intervention programs with a wide range of issues such as substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, police and community relations, violence prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, STD prevention, and teen drug prevention/intervention, including for Charles Drew University. He was a contributing author to Substance Abuse Prevention: A Multicultural Model by Snehendu B. Kar published in 1999, he worked on research projects with UCLA and the Rand Corp., and is accredited with contributions to multiple publications. When President Bill Clinton offered a long-overdue apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1997, he worked with the Presidential committee tasked with establishing trust between researchers and minority communities.

I welcomed him to my Congressional staff when first elected, and I appreciated his many community connections, his work ethic, and his focus on service and social justice.

Later in life Earl focused on emergency preparedness. Having survived the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 as a child, he knew the disruption and harm that results when people are unprepared for disaster. His firm, Disaster Awareness Project, conducted seminars for hundreds of people. At the time of his passing, Earl served as Vice Chairperson for the Latin American Bible Institute College Board of Trustees and advisor to the American Red Cross, USC's Southern California Earthquake Center, The Great Shakeout, CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and a multitude of nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County and Central California.

Earl touched many, many lives and his passing leaves a hole in the community that all of us must work to fill. May he rest in peace.