Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Nathan Mitchell and John Moroney, Naval Academy Appointees from Colorado's Fourth Congressional District. I believe America's greatest assets are our brave men and women in uniform. These individuals are making an incredible sacrifice for our country and deserve our utmost support for their service. It is with great pleasure that I give Nathan and John my endorsement to attend this prestigious institution.

Our nation owes no greater debt of gratitude than to those who fight to protect our freedom and liberty. I commend these young people and their families for their commitment. On behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, it is an honor to recognize Nathan Mitchell and John Moroney as appointees to the United State Naval Academy for their commitment to protect and serve our nation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Katie McGillicuddy, Kurt Voll and Owen Voll, Merchant Marine Academy Appointees from Colorado's Fourth Congressional District. I believe America's greatest assets are our brave men and women in uniform. These individuals are making an incredible sacrifice for our country and deserve our utmost support for their service. It is with great pleasure that I give Katie, Kurt and Owen my endorsement to attend this prestigious institution.

Our nation owes no greater debt of gratitude than to those who fight to protect our freedom and liberty. I commend these young people and their families for their commitment. On behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, it is an honor to recognize Katie McGillicuddy, Kurt Voll and Owen Voll as appointees to the United States Merchant Marine Academy for their commitment to protect and serve our nation.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), the ranking member, for yielding.

Madam Speaker, this bill we are debating today is fatally flawed. Republicans are for a compassionate solution to help DACA recipients, but that solution must be paired with commonsense border security, interior enforcement, and changes in policy to stem the tide of illegal border crossings, human smuggling, and frivolous claims of asylum. Tragically, this bill does nothing to address the crisis at our southern border.

Ninety-nine days ago, Chief of the Border Patrol Carla Provost testified before the Judiciary Committee that ``a humanitarian and immigration crisis'' was occurring at the border. By any measure, Chief Provost is correct.

Border Patrol stats show that total apprehensions in the first 7 months of the current fiscal year have already exceeded the total apprehensions from last fiscal year.

What does this bill do to address that reality and stem the tide of illegal border crossings? Nothing.

This year, the Border Patrol has also seen a 266 percent increase in apprehensions of aliens wanted by law enforcement.

What does this bill do to address that? Nothing. In fact, this bill contains weak screening requirements that will almost certainly put criminals on a path to citizenship. Republicans tried to fix this at committee, but our efforts were rejected by the majority.

The Border Patrol also reports a sharp increase in the apprehension of gang members.

What does this bill to address that? Nothing. The bill contains no additional enforcement resources, not even to apprehend and remove known gang members. This bill will certainly give green cards to gang members.

Republicans tried to fix this in committee. Democrats rejected the amendment, impugning the integrity of police departments across America in the process by suggesting that America's cops indiscriminately add people to gang databases.

Chief Provost also noted in her February testimony that the nature of illegal border crossings has changed significantly. A decade ago, the Border Patrol used to apprehend, primarily, single adult males. Today, there is an unprecedented influx in family units and unaccompanied minors.

Over the past 5 years, family unit apprehensions are up 621 percent. Unaccompanied minor apprehensions are up 105 percent. The Border Patrol has evidence showing that transnational criminal organizations are exploiting the law to traffic children, using a child repeatedly to aid in the smuggling of adults into the U.S.

Why is there a crisis involving family units and children? What changed? The law.

In 2008, a Democratic Congress enacted the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act, a law that offers perverse incentives, leading to the very problems we see today. In 2008, there were 8,041 unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border; last year, 50,036 apprehensions.

While the nature of the immigrants detained has changed, Congress has not kept pace with these changes. The Border Patrol is now in need of diapers, formula, meals, and medical care appropriate for children. Madam Speaker, you would think that Democrats could at least include more resources to care for young children at the border, but you would be wrong. This bill doesn't do that either.

Homeland Security is also hampered by a 2014 court order limiting how long Immigration and Customs Enforcement can detain not only unaccompanied minors, but also children traveling with parents and, in some cases, child traffickers. This means entire family units and criminals are released into the U.S. after 20 days of detention.

DHS desperately needs Congress to address this critical issue. Does this bill fix this issue? No, it does not.

We also know that there is abuse of our generous asylum laws. Aliens encountered at the border are being coached to claim fear, guaranteeing they will be released into the U.S.

Does this bill do anything to reduce frivolous asylum claims? No.

Does it require asylum seekers to apply at a legal port of entry? No.

Does it hold people accountable for filing or assisting in filing fraudulent claims? No.

Does it impose any kind of asylum quota? No. This bill fails to advance even basic asylum fixes.

Make no mistake about it, Madam Speaker: The policies passed by this House, even if they never become law, will send a message.

If the House passes this bill, Democrats will be sending a clear message to DACA recipients, those young adults brought here by their parents illegally, that Democrats are willing to hold these young adults hostage in the push for open borders.

If the House passes this bill, we will incentivize illegal immigration, just as Congress did in 2008, and we will certainly get more of it. That is exactly what this bill will do.

This is not compassionate. It is reckless. It is misguided.

Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize Bruce Benson for his dedication and service to the University of Colorado.

Bruce Benson is the longest-serving president of the University of Colorado in more than half a century. Since becoming the President of his alma mater in 2008, Bruce has enhanced the university's standing as one of our country's leading public universities.

Throughout his tenure, he's been a national leader in ensuring that campuses are forums for free speech, he has welcomed intellectual diversity, and he has a long history of bettering the lives of Coloradans. He will also be remembered for the tremendous strides he made to advance conservative thought and policy, as well as his fundraising efforts to support the Center for Western Civilization, Thought and Policy at the University of Colorado--Boulder.

Before joining the University of Colorado, he established a career in business, where he had been involved in banking, real estate, cable television, and the restaurant industry. He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts in Geology and founded the Benson Mineral Group in 1965. Later, in 2009, he was named to the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.

This July, Bruce will be retiring as the President of the University of Colorado system--where he oversees four campuses and roughly 70,000 students.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the 4th Congressional District of Colorado, I would like to thank Bruce for his service to our great state of Colorado.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Lisa Hudson on receiving the 2019 Colorado/Region VIII Small Business Development Center's Excellence and Innovation Award.

As Director of the East Colorado Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Lisa provides consulting and training to maximize the success of businesses. Small Businesses are the backbone of our economy, and it is vital that we give them the tools they need to succeed. I applaud Lisa's efforts to support entrepreneurs in Eastern Colorado.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, I extend my congratulations and best wishes to Lisa Hudson. We look forward to her continued success.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 75th anniversary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Auxiliary in Sterling, Colorado.

Sterling VFW Auxiliary No. 3541 has proudly supported veterans in our community since 1944. This chapter also received the ``Buddy'' Poppy VFW National Home for Children Award in 2018-2019 for member contributions to military and veteran families needing a fresh start. Their dedication continues to benefit our brave men and women in uniform.

Our nation owes no greater debt of gratitude than the one we owe our veterans. VFW Auxiliary President Lori Davison, Auxiliary members and volunteers should be commended.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, I extend my congratulations and best wishes to VFW Auxiliary No. 3541. We look forward to their continued success.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the critical role that brewers and beer importers play in our Nation's economy.

American beverage companies and brewers employ more than 2.2 million people nationwide, providing more than $103 billion in wages and benefits. In my home State of Colorado, breweries have become a significant component of my State's culture and economy.

But in order to compete, American beverage companies and brewers need a fair and transparent pricing system for aluminum. That is why I along with my friend, Mr. Lawson from Florida, are introducing legislation this week giving the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight authority of the aluminum market. These unfair market practices have not only cost the beverage and brewing industries hundreds of millions of dollars, they have also had harmful effects on consumers.

With the help of the CFTC, I hope we can resolve these pricing irregularities that have been plaguing the market so our Nation's beverage companies and brewers can continue to produce some of America's most popular beverages.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding to me.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose H.R. 8, a bill that criminalizes gun transfers between law-abiding citizens who have no criminal record and no criminal intent.

The bill includes several flawed and unworkable exceptions. Take the law enforcement exception. It allows the police to transfer a firearm, but criminalizes transfers to law enforcement.

Under this bill, a parent whose child finds a gun in a park commits a Federal crime if the parent surrenders the gun to police.

Under this bill, a citizen commits a Federal crime if they participate in a local gun buy-back program.

Under this bill, an attorney commits a Federal crime when they turn a client's gun over to the police to clear the client through ballistics testing.

Will criminalizing cooperation with law enforcement make us safer? The majority apparently thinks so, and I think it is crazy.

The Democrats' bill gives special privileges to the bodyguards of the wealthy elite, like former Mayor Bloomberg, who is funding the special interest advocacy for this bill. He can afford to hire bodyguards. But average Americans, who rely on the Second Amendment as their source of personal protection, are not given similar protections.

Nothing should be more offensive to this body than a bill that denies citizens their endowed rights while giving wealthy elites special protections, privileges, and dispensations. But that is H.R. 8.

Take the family exception; the rule allows a vote on an amendment to ensure that transfers between parent and child include stepparents and stepchildren. What about transfers between a foster parent and foster child? This bill says foster relationships are not worthy of the same respect and equal treatment. Every Member of this body should be ashamed to vote for this bill that reflects such terrible policy and discrimination.

Take the Good Samaritan exception, allowing transfers where a threat of death or harm is imminent. Imminent means death is menacingly near, a standard so strict that it is, frankly, too late to transfer a gun once it is obvious a gun is needed for protection.

Under this standard, it is illegal to loan a gun to a victim of domestic violence for her protection until the transferor is practically witnessing a murder in progress.

This standard would also prevent a gun owner who has intermittent suicidal thoughts, a known side-effect of certain prescription medications, from legally transferring a gun--his own gun--to a friend for safekeeping.

Because this bill criminalizes transfers between law-abiding Americans, while doing nothing to curb criminals' access to guns, this bill provides the American public with a false sense of security.

Because this bill includes unworkable exceptions that will mislead people

into thinking a gun transfer is legal when it is not, this bill provides law-abiding gun owners with a false sense of immunity.

Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``no'' vote on this totally and completely unconstitutional legislation that would deprive people of their constitutional rights to keep and bear arms.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Arizona for yielding, and I thank him for his leadership on this important issue.

Madam Speaker, we have $22 trillion of debt, over $22 trillion of debt now. We are accumulating debt at approximately $1 trillion a year. America is financially bankrupt, and if we continue to place this burden on our children and grandchildren, we are also morally bankrupt.

We are threatening our ability to react to world affairs, our ability to deal with the dynamic threats that we face in this world, not just land, not just sea, not just air, but space also.

We need to balance the budget, but it requires us to make difficult decisions today, to ensure a prosperous future. And it requires us to make significant cuts to our discretionary spending.

One of the amazing, unique characteristics of this place, of Congress, is that for some reason, we make a distinction between discretionary spending and mandatory spending.

My grandchildren don't care if they have to pay back a debt that was created by mandatory spending or a debt that was created by discretionary spending. They don't care. A dollar is a dollar to them, and it should be to us, and we should take control of mandatory spending, just as we take control of discretionary spending.

Since I was elected to Congress, I have fought hard against our country's out-of-control spending, and I have advocated for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would force Congress to pass a balanced budget every year.

For the economic well-being of our country, I am proud to join my colleagues in cosponsoring this important resolution, and I would like to thank my dear friend and colleague, Mr. Biggs, for recognizing our country's serious spending problem before it's too late.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Town of Deer Trail, Colorado for commemorating its 150th year of rodeo competition.

The first rodeo in the world was held in Deer Trail, Colorado on July 4, 1869. Multiple organizations, including the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, History Channel, and Guinness Book of World Records have recognized this milestone. Deer Trail should be appropriately recognized for fostering and promoting rodeo, and thereby helping to preserve our Western culture.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, I extend my congratulations and best wishes to the Deer Trail Rodeo. We look forward to their continued success.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I am an original cosponsor of this resolution, and it was my understanding at the time that I cosponsored this that we would have the opportunity to make this resolution better. This amendment that I have offered does just that.

I actually thought of this amendment after the chairman of the committee held a hearing on this issue, and I listened carefully to the witnesses.

The witnesses talked about the fact that our intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia helped target sites in Yemen to bomb and reduced civilian casualties.

I want to make sure that we continue to help Saudi Arabia reduce civilian casualties. I want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to avoid the humanitarian crisis there. At the same time, we recognize the geopolitical significance of our relationship with Saudi Arabia.

I support the resolution with the understanding that we have an opportunity to improve this legislation. I am concerned about how broadly the legislation is drafted, and it may inadvertently call into question our ability to maintain intelligence-sharing agreements around the globe; not just in this situation.

My amendment addresses these potential unintended consequences by guaranteeing that this resolution does not curtail our Nation's intelligence-sharing capabilities. It ensures our country will not face another major terrorist attack or be caught flat-footed in battle because the necessary intelligence information didn't reach our leaders.

My amendment keeps the spirit of this important legislation intact, while ensuring that this Congress isn't hamstringing our intelligence capabilities.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment that will keep our intelligence sharing agreements in place.

Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I appreciate the gentleman's remarks, but it doesn't. This resolution is not clear, and that is the problem. This amendment clarifies something that is unclear.

My friends on the other side of the aisle feel that we must cut our intelligence-sharing operations in order to fully withdraw our forces from the region. I don't believe that this is the right course.

The Middle East is a dangerous, war-torn part of the world where we need intelligence sharing more than ever. As such, we must ensure that we are not putting our intelligence agreements in jeopardy by passing this resolution.

My amendment keeps the intent of this legislation, allowing Congress to exercise its Article I powers, while ensuring that we are not cutting off our nose to spite our face.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service and sacrifice of Lieutenant (Lt.) Leila Morrison, and to congratulate her for receiving the French Legion of Honor Medal from the French government. I believe that our nation's men and women in uniform are America's greatest assets. They have made incredible sacrifices and deserve our utmost support and respect for their service.

Lt. Morrison honorably served to protect America and her allies during World War II. During the war, she served as a combat nurse with the 118th Evacuation Hospital. Lt. Morrison worked in the pre-operation section of the hospital and helped support wounded soldiers. Furthermore, she cared for liberated prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp. The French Legion of Honor Medal is France's highest distinction for military and civil service. Lt. Morrison is well deserving of this award.

Our nation owes no greater debt of gratitude than the one we owe our veterans. They and their families should be commended. On behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, I extend my best wishes and deepest gratitude to Lieutenant Morrison.

Madam Speaker, it is an honor to recognize Lieutenant Leila Morrison for her commitment to the United States of America.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service and sacrifice of Staff Sergeant (SSG) Philip Daily, and to congratulate him for receiving the French Legion of Honor Medal from the French government. I believe that our nation's men and women in uniform are America's greatest assets. They have made incredible sacrifices for our country and deserve our utmost support and respect for their service.

SSG Daily honorably served the United States and her allies during World War II. During his 25th mission as a B-17 tail gunner with the 772 Bomb Squadron, 463rd Bomb Group, 15th Air Force, SSG Daily's plane was shot down. He spent the remainder of the war at Stalag Luft IV Prisoner-of-War camp near Gross Tychow, Germany. SSG Daily's strength enabled him to survive the camp and endure the winter march of prisoners. The French Legion of Honor Medal is France's highest distinction for military and civil service. SSG Daily is well deserving for his assistance in liberating France from Nazi control.

Our nation owes no greater debt of gratitude than the one we owe our veterans. They and their families should be commended. On behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado, I extend my best wishes and deepest gratitude to SSG Daily.

Madam Speaker, it is an honor to recognize SSG Philip Daily for his commitment to family, community, and the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Colorado Young Farmers Educational Association (CYFEA). Since its founding, the organization has strongly supported Coloradans who are involved or interested in the agricultural industry.

CYFEA provides industry cooperation, educational programs, community service and recreational opportunities for all individuals. With upwards of 200 members, the organization provides resources for producers and consumers. A half-century after its inception CYFEA continues to honor Colorado's rich agricultural roots.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the 4th Congressional District of Colorado, I extend my congratulations and best wishes to the Colorado Young Farmers Educational Association. We look forward to their continued success.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend and congratulate Matthew Paris, a student at Eaton High School, for winning the Congressional App Challenge in Colorado's 4th Congressional District.

His app, ``Home Safe,'' helps users stay safe by offering a way out of problematic situations. I'm thankful for his desire to build an app that serves our community by improving public safety.

Matthew's investment in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills will pay off not only for his own future but for the future of our nation as well. Tomorrow's innovators and problem-solvers will be the students of today who are investing in the skill sets of the future.

I congratulate Matthew again and wish him the best as he continues his education.