Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I am taking a moment to recognize a cheerful, spirited, and vibrant community member residing in my district, Ms. Lisa Eck, for her 40 years of public service at the downtown Roseville library.

Ms. Eck embarked on her journey as a young teen, starting at the library as a quotidian shelver in 1983. In her tenure, she has become one of the most beloved librarians in our region.

She is well known for her ability to captivate the magic of childhood through her lively readings. Dressing in full costume and performing books theatrically are just some of the ways that she captures the attention and adoration of Roseville children and residents.

Ms. Eck's determination and dedication to bringing these stories to life knows no bounds, and her unique approach makes her storytime sessions a cherished tradition. Her special touch reaches all generations, as she has marked the lives of tens of thousands of people over the years.

Ms. Eck has an unfaltering commitment to promoting literacy and educational opportunities for our local youth, and her efforts have made an indelible impact in our communities.

As a former English teacher, I understand the importance of developing a love for reading in students and value the efforts of those like Ms. Eck to foster that passion through her creative and innovative storytelling abilities.

Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am pleased to join the Roseville community in celebrating and recognizing Ms. Lisa Eck for her four decades of leadership as a librarian and her continued commitment to inspiring children and adults alike with a desire for knowledge and learning.

Celebrating Virginia Lakes Resort 100th Anniversary

Mr. Speaker, I am taking a moment to recognize the centennial anniversary of a special business in my district, the Virginia Lakes Resort in the heart of the High Sierra, located in Mono County, California.

In 1923, Walter Foster and Charles Foster signed an agreement with the Forestry Department to build a fish camp at Virginia Lakes. After the first year of operation, Walter Foster and his wife, Anita, became the sole owners and operated the business for 30 years.

They quickly found success, as within the first 5 years of the business they built several cabins that housed guests such as Hollywood stars Fred MacMurray, Betty White, and Lon Cheney. They are also known for hosting the 1938 USC football team for training before the team went on to win a national championship.

The resort had a few different owners, such as the Coopers and Bill Newman, before the current owners, John and Carolyn Webb, began their journey in 1974. The Webbs will celebrate their 50-year anniversary as owners next year and are well known by others for their commitment to community engagement and dedication to providing an exceptional experience for their visitors.

Today, the Virginia Lakes Resort offers key amenities such as rental cabins, boat rentals, tackle shop, and a cafe. Visitors enjoy the stunning scenery of the Sierra Nevadas while participating in a variety of recreational activities at the resort, such as camping, fishing, and hiking.

Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the Virginia Lakes Resort for their 100-year anniversary and commend them for their significant contributions throughout the years to their community and the local economy.

Thanking Jaime Robles

Mr. Speaker, I recognize an exemplary individual who interned in my district office this summer.

Jaime Robles ensured that people's voices were heard, by taking down their concerns and sharing them with me. He even helped people renew their passport and access the services and benefits they are entitled to receive from the Federal Government.

Jaime is a recent graduate of Sierra College in Rocklin and will be attending UC Berkeley in the spring to major in economics. He served as vice president and student senator of the Sierra College Student Senate, vice president of student engagement for the social science club, and is a Phi Theta Kappa honor society member. Jaime is also bilingual, and I have repeatedly been impressed with his ability to utilize that skill and serve our Spanish-speaking constituents.

Mr. Speaker, Jaime has been a pleasure to have in my office and, like all our interns, has been a tremendous help to me and my team in serving the people of the Third Congressional District of California. I am incredibly grateful that he chose to invest his time and talents with us.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I thank Jaime for his commitment to public service.

Mr. Speaker, a local business in my district, Snooks Candies and Chocolate Factory, is celebrating their 60-year anniversary on Friday. Founded by John Snook in 1963, John and his wife, Jeannine, started their business at the Arden Fair Food Circus.

The family opened up a store in Tahoe City in 1981 and later moved to historic Folsom in 1985, where the store remains today. Each one of John and Jeannine's 6 kids and some of their 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren have spent time working in Snooks. To witness the bond of family in the business community and the successful operation of a thriving small business is truly inspiring.

After retiring and entrusting the store to his son, Jim, and Jim's wife, Renee, in 1999, John continued to be a consistent presence in the store, talking to customers and helping with work when needed.

Sadly, John Snook passed away earlier this year, but his legacy as a husband, father, and successful businessman continues to live on.

Over the span of six decades, Snooks Candies has faced many challenges, from nationwide recessions to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, these challenges have only reinforced the status of Snooks Candies as a true pillar in Folsom and the surrounding communities.

I applaud the commitment to their business and to producing iconic candies and treats for all to enjoy. Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am proud to join Folsom and our surrounding communities in congratulating Snooks Candies and Chocolate Factory for reaching this momentous milestone.

Folsom Community Service Day

Mr. Speaker, today I recognize the 10-year anniversary of Folsom Community Service Day, an event which will be held this year on Saturday, September 16.

Organized by the city of Folsom and partner organizations, Community Service Day mobilizes hundreds of volunteers to complete projects across the city to improve public resources and benefit the community.

In its tenure, the Folsom Community Service Day event has made a considerable and positive impact on the area. Since its inception, over 19,000 volunteers have participated. More than 900 projects have been completed, and 500 of them have been performed to serve senior citizens. There have been 537,000 pounds of food donated by the Twin Lakes Food Bank, and thousands of care packages to Active Duty military members have been sent. In addition, thousands of donated items have been collected for local nonprofits.

Their efforts have truly made a remarkable and lasting impact. To witness the hard work of this community over the span of a decade to deliver necessary change, improve neighborhoods, and help those in need is truly inspiring.

Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am proud to recognize the city of Folsom and countless volunteers and partner organizations for providing 10 years of invaluable service and contributions to their communities.

Success Academy

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Education and the Workforce Committee hosted a roundtable with Eva Moskowitz, the founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, which was first opened in 2006 and now has 47 schools.

The network of schools is known for setting high expectations of academic excellence and achieving exemplary results. Black and Hispanic students, which make up most of Success Academy's students, achieve proficiency rates double to triple what their New York City district peers do.

As AEI senior fellow Robert Pondiscio put it:

If Success Academy were a stand-alone school district, it

would be by far the highest performing one in the State of

New York, including places like Scarsdale, and Jericho on

Long Island with multimillion dollar homes.

This is an example of why charter schools have been such an important innovation in American education and are a vital part of the landscape for school choice and why they are widely supported by the public.

In 2022, the Harris Poll found in a national survey that 81 percent of parents support expanding the number of slots at existing public charter schools in their area and 78 percent want more public charter schools in their area.

In California's Third District, we have many tremendous schools, both district schools and charter schools. Some of the popular charters include John Adams Academy, Placer County Pathways Charter, Newcastle Elementary Charter, Vantage Point Charter, and Plumas Charter.

As a former high school teacher and a member of the Education and Workforce Committee, I am truly inspired by schools like Success Academy and will work to support charter schools and to scale up successful models throughout our public education system.

Suspend the State Gas Tax

Mr. Speaker, today, I am calling on the California Legislature to

suspend the State gas tax, as other States--including just recently Georgia--have done to provide consumers with relief from soaring prices. The legislature can provide a modest measure of relief by passing Assembly Bill 53 by Assemblyman Vince Fong, which would immediately suspend the State's gas tax and lower prices by 58 cents per gallon. The bill would also assure that no funding is lost for road projects throughout the State.

At a time when Californians continue to struggle with the effects of inflation, this relief would make life a little easier for millions of people. It is a commonsense proposal that merits bipartisan support, and I urge the legislature to act on it immediately.

Mr. Speaker, today I am urging support for the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, which will prevent California from banning gas-powered vehicles.

I am as strong a supporter as anyone of clean energy, and I could not be more excited about the future of clean energy that awaits us, but the way to move rapidly towards that future is through innovation. It is not through regulation. No State has gone further down the road of overreaching, overbearing, inattentive regulation to the needs of its citizens than California has.

This particular measure that California is now attempting is more radical than any that came before it. Specifically, the California Air Resources Board approved a plan in August and is now asking the Environmental Protection Agency to approve a waiver under the Clean Air Act to implement its new rules that set yearly rising zero-emission vehicle rules starting in 2026 and would end the sale of vehicles only powered by gasoline by 2035.

This is no trivial matter. The majority of vehicles on the road today in the United States, 95 percent, run on internal combustion engines.

What is the consequence of this going to be?

First and foremost, there is the cost. The price of an electric vehicle is $17,000 higher than a gas-powered car. This is going to make life even harder for people in California where we already have the highest energy prices, the highest gas prices, the highest cost of living, the highest poverty rate, and far too many people having to leave our State because it is simply too hard to get by.

Make our State more affordable. This bill will save Californians from this burden and help many of my constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Jake's Journey Home, a local nonprofit in my district.

In September 2019, Jake Shuman, a Seabee veteran and small business owner, passed away unexpectedly. He left behind not just his loving friends and family but also a legacy of empathy, generosity, and humility.

In an effort to continue Jake's powerful legacy, his mother, Jean Shuman, founded Jake's Journey Home. This nonprofit has taken up the mission of assisting unhoused veterans and community members experiencing a life path change.

Jake's Journey Home provides the necessary wraparound support services and resources to those in need to fight against the growing problem of poverty and to help someone's tomorrow be better than today.

With the strong support of the community, the organization obtained a mobile day center last year to help connect people with VA benefits, mental health aid, drug and alcohol abuse support, job skills, medical assistance, and life coaching. Their mission is ongoing, with goals to expand their services into a permanent building.

Jake's Journey Home is a pillar in our community, and it is a true honor to represent in Congress exceptional organizations such as this one.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Jake's Journey Home for outstanding service and contributions to the Folsom community and greater Sacramento region.

Recognizing Judd Symons

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 2023 EMS Provider of the Year for Inyo County, Judd Symons, for his remarkable accomplishments and contributions in the southern portions of the Third Congressional District.

Mr. Symons' career in the Bishop area began when he was only in high school, during which he became certified as an emergency medical technician. For 3 years of his high school career, and a few summers following, he also served on the local search and rescue team.

He went on to earn his certification as a paramedic from the Stanford-Foothill Paramedic Program. Shortly thereafter, in 1989, at just 21 years old, he and his father began their local family business, an ambulance service named Symons Emergency Services.

With over three decades of offering superior emergency medical services, this establishment has become a leading provider in our region. Relied upon by many, his ambulance service provides care to those across many different types of geographic landscapes, from urban cities to the rural High Sierras to the remote wilderness.

Even in the face of obstacles, Mr. Symons' continued dedication to his community and commitment to the well-being of Inyo County residents and the surrounding area is inspiring.

As a longtime owner and operator of this service, Mr. Symons is regarded by others as an individual with professionalism, care, hands- on involvement, and a unique ability to remain calm under pressure.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to join the Inyo County community in thanking Judd Symons for his many years of distinguished service and leadership in both emergency medical services and search and rescue operations.

Recognizing Helen Chu

Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of National Zookeeper Appreciation Week, I wish to take a moment to recognize an outstanding zookeeper in my district, Helen Chu.

Ms. Chu serves locally at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary. The zoo is home to many rescued wild and domestic animals, including bears, wolf hybrids, monkeys, birds, cougars, insects, and more.

Ms. Chu has worked for the Folsom Zoo since 2019, but her service to wildlife has been lifelong. She graduated from the University of California Davis with a degree in wildlife, fish, and conservation biology and also earned a degree in exotic animal training and management from Moorpark College.

Prior to bringing this knowledge to the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary, Ms. Chu worked with animals as a zookeeper for the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and the Sacramento Zoo.

In Folsom, Ms. Chu has contributed significantly to the zoo's positive reinforcement animal training and behavioral enrichment programs, improving the quality of life of the animals.

Her diligent efforts and unique ability to problem solve have helped animals with health challenges participate in veterinary care without undue stress or danger to the animals and staff.

Throughout her tenure, she has exhibited the core values of a zookeeper through teamwork, excellence, and patience.

Her leadership and dedication to the care and well-being of the animals and the experience of Folsom residents is truly admirable.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Helen Chu and thank her for her service to the Folsom community.

Recognizing California's Third Congressional District Interns

Mr. Speaker, I will take a moment in the spirit of National Intern Day to recognize several truly exemplary individuals currently interning in my Washington, D.C., and district offices.

Over the course of their internships, these students and recent graduates have embodied the essence of public service.

They have made the government accessible to their neighbors by leading guided tours of the Capitol, ensured that people's voices are heard by taking down their concerns and sharing

them with me, and even helping people renew their passports and access the services and benefits they are entitled to from the Federal Government.

In my D.C. office, I am proud to have Alex McDonald, Khori Cranford, and Giavanna Chopra.

Alex grew up in Willows, California, just outside our congressional district. He has long had a passion for politics and public service. He even remembers watching the Obama-Romney debates from over a decade ago. Impressively, he is going into his sophomore year at Yale University, studying political science.

Khori graduated this past May from CSU Fresno with a degree in political science. She has also embraced her Armenian heritage and was selected to participate in the highly competitive Armenian Assembly of America as part of the Terjenian-Thomas internship this summer. After her summer here, she will work toward earning a master's degree in communications at San Diego State University.

Giavanna has been incredibly active in public service since a young age. She previously served as an intern in my State assembly office and as a deputy campaign manager on my race last year. During the same time period, she also won a national debate title and created a program to mentor young debaters. She will be entering college this fall at Northwestern University and, not surprisingly, was recruited to join Northwestern's debate team.

In my district office in Rocklin, I am proud to have Jaime Robles, Emma Worden, and Raghava Kodavatikanti, who are serving there as interns.

Jaime recently graduated from Sierra College in Rocklin and will be attending UC Berkeley in the spring to major in economics. He served as vice president and student senator of the Sierra College Student Senate, vice president of student engagement for the social science club, and is a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society member. Jaime is also bilingual, and I have recently been impressed with his ability to utilize that skill to serve our Spanish-speaking residents.

Emma is originally from the district, graduating recently from Whitney High School, and is pursuing a degree in economics and politics. Our Rocklin team and I have especially appreciated her leadership, teamwork, and collaborative approach in our office.

Raghava recently graduated from the rigorous IB program at Mira Loma High School and will be attending UCLA this fall, majoring in political science. Similar to Giavanna, he also had an early interest in public service. Raghava previously interned in my State assembly office, as well as for the California State treasurer and Sacramento district attorney's offices. He also serves as a youth advisory executive board member and moderator for the California Coalition for Youth.

Mr. Speaker, every single one of these six individuals has been a tremendous help to me and our team in serving the people of the Third Congressional District of California, and I am incredibly grateful that they have chosen to invest their time and talents with us.

On behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives, I thank them for their commitment to public service.

Recognizing Tyler Tate

Mr. Speaker, I will also say a few words about someone who is a model for all of these interns working at our offices here in D.C. and back home in Rocklin, someone who is a former intern himself and a constituent, having grown up in our district and graduated from high school at Woodcreek in Roseville. He has been the communications director for my office, a role that he will continue up until tomorrow, when he is starting his first year at Harvard Law School. That is Tyler Tate.

I first met Tyler in my 2016 campaign for the State assembly. I think I actually met him in 2015 because we got started pretty early. That was a true underdog campaign. There were 11 candidates, and Tyler was really one of the very first people to join and help lead what was truly a grassroots undertaking.

He went on to go to Georgetown for college and actually interned in my State assembly office and quickly gained a reputation as everyone's favorite intern. That is why I say he is a model on National Intern Day.

After college, Tyler got some experience in D.C. He did a stint at the White House. When I was running for Congress last year, I was in need of a campaign manager, and I couldn't think of anyone better for the job.

I was continually impressed by his mastery of the nuts and bolts of running a campaign, such as delivering the yard signs or designing precinct blocks, but also more intangible qualities of leadership, like his ability to inspire a very dedicated team of volunteers.

Just as one indication of the caliber of people he got involved, two of the interns he attracted to join the campaign will actually be joining him at Harvard next year where they will be starting themselves, respectively at the college and the law school.

After I was elected and took office, Tyler became our communications director. I would wager there is not a better or more dedicated communications director on Capitol Hill.

Shortly after I was sworn in, my district was hit by a series of truly devastating storms that wreaked havoc on many communities, and without having had more than perhaps a week or so in the office, Tyler threw himself into the very complicated but vitally important task of getting important information to all of our constituents on how they could deal with the storm and the resources that were available.

That quality of service has continued throughout his time with us. He does everything from dealing with the media and setting up press appearances to writing and editing our weekly newsletter and other releases that go out, and advising me on important matters of policy.

Through it all, he has truly demonstrated a remarkable ability to understand the nuances of politics and policy in a way that is really hard to believe knowing he is only a few years out of college. You would think he was a seasoned veteran of Capitol Hill.

When I wrote a letter of recommendation for him for law school, I was halfway tempted to sabotage the whole thing so that I could selfishly keep him with our office. I was not surprised at all when he got accepted. I know he is going to excel in law school. He will be a great lawyer, but I think there are also great things ahead of him in public service, as well.

For those who are watching at home, I would advise them to remember the name Tyler Tate. I thank Tyler for everything he has done to help me serve the people of the Third District.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of prioritizing veterans in our Federal budget by fully funding VA programs, fully funding healthcare for veterans, and fully funding veterans benefits. The veterans funding bill before us this week accomplishes each of these three objectives.

First, the bill fully funds VA programs. It actually increases the VA budget by $18 billion over last year's funding level. In concrete terms, this means more tax dollars spent on critical care for veterans, including fully funding care for vets exposed to Agent Orange, burn pits, and other environmental toxins while serving our Nation.

The bill also provides the necessary funds to revamp and enhance the effectiveness of the suicide hotline for veterans and provides funds for the electronic health modernization initiative, which will ensure a seamless transition between receiving care at a DOD facility while on Active Duty and receiving care at a VA facility after discharge from the military.

Second, the bill fully funds healthcare for veterans, and $138 billion is allocated to address the healthcare needs of our retired servicemen and -women, including over $20 billion for veterans to receive quality care at non-VA facilities.

Finally, the bill fully funds veterans benefits. Mr. Speaker, $181 billion is allocated to ensure that every benefit that was promised, every commitment that was made, is fulfilled by the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, we have an obligation to ensure our veterans receive the care they need and the benefits they have earned. Today's bill achieves exactly that by prioritizing veterans in the budget, and as a result, it has my support.

Plumas Broadband Project

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4368, which directly benefits my constituents in Plumas County by funding a critical high-speed broadband project in the A-15 corridor and Valley Ranch communities in eastern Plumas County.

In the 21st century, access to the internet is essential. It is essential for students to participate in online learning and access educational resources, for patients to receive needed telemedicine services, for workers to find job opportunities and engage in remote work, and for citizens to engage in open dialogue and participate in our representative democracy.

Too often, our rural communities are neglected and lack the basic telecom services necessary in today's economy and society.

That is why I prioritized funding rural broadband for my constituents in the Federal budget, and I am proud to report that a project I submitted to provide $4.2 million in funding to the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative is included in the funding bill that will be voted on by the House this week.

This funding will enable the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative to construct middle- and last-mile fiber-optic networks to provide high-speed internet to rural residents in the Valley Ranch and A-15 corridor communities in eastern Plumas County.

Rural households will finally be able to participate in online education, telemedicine, and remote employment opportunities that are out of reach for too many today.

Emergency personnel who are dependent upon internet-based communications will be able to communicate with one another to strengthen emergency response services.

Perhaps most importantly, high-speed broadband service will attract new residents, homeowners, and businesses to the region to continue to ensure the vitality of Plumas County for many years to come.

Ensuring our households are equipped with high-speed internet is imperative for an increasingly technological society. Leaving behind those in rural communities is a detriment not just to our local economies but it is also a disservice to our youth and the vitality of their education.

Today's bill is an important step forward in addressing the existing gap in broadband services for my Plumas County constituents, and it will have direct, tangible benefits on their lives. For that reason, I support H.R. 4368.

Mr. Speaker, it has been nearly 5 months since President Biden nominated Julie Su to be Secretary of Labor. That nomination remains stalled. The Senate has declined to confirm her. She now faces bipartisan opposition, yet the President has not withdrawn her nomination.

Worse yet, Su is continuing to serve as Secretary of Labor in an acting capacity, despite the Senate declining to put her in that position. It appears that this is now the plan, to simply cancel the vote and carry on as if she had been confirmed.

Su's leading supporter in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, said as much. He said: I hope she has the votes to become the Secretary. If not, of course, she should stay where she is. She is doing a great job, Sanders continued. Why would you not?

Well, why would you not? One simple reason is the Constitution. This is blatantly an end run around the Constitution's advice and consent requirement of Article II, section 2, clause 2.

As further evidence of the Biden administration's plan to simply keep Su on indefinitely, with or without a vote, after months of Department of Labor rulemaking being put on pause to spare Su negative press during the confirmation process, the wheels are now back in motion. The administration seems to be acknowledging that Su does not have the votes for confirmation but, again, plans to keep her at the helm of the Labor Department anyway.

Now, this administration has a disturbing pattern of seeking to do by undemocratic means that which it cannot do by democratic means.

For example, on the topic of student loan forgiveness, President Biden had said: I don't think I have the authority to do that, and then he went ahead and did it anyway by executive order.

On the issue of independent contracting, Congress has declined to adopt the destructive ABC test via the PRO Act, so the Labor Department is seeking to enact a functionally equivalent legal standard by rulemaking. This is the most brazen example yet. Having made the worst possible pick for Secretary of Labor, which the United States Senate is rightly rejecting, the President is trying to install his nominee as the permanent Secretary anyway.

Now, the student loan executive order, of course, was just struck down by the Supreme Court, but what the administration is attempting here is much more potentially disruptive. What is at issue is not just one policy, rather, it is every action the Department of Labor takes under Acting Secretary Su that will be put under a legal cloud.

Now, Su's allies have tried to make a legal argument relating to the interplay of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of the statute that created the position of Deputy Secretary of Labor. This argument is without merit. There is no statutory authority to have an Acting Secretary who has been nominated for permanent Secretary continue serving indefinitely, with or without confirmation; nor could there be because any such statute would violate the Constitution.

Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and I have sent a letter to Gene Dodaro, U.S. Comptroller General at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, requesting an opinion on the legality of keeping Su as the head of Labor indefinitely.

None of this should be necessary. The White House and Julie Su have had every opportunity to persuade the Senate. They have had a nightly war room and daily arm twisting for months. It is well past time to withdraw the nomination and for the President to nominate a Secretary of Labor who will be on the side of American workers.

The Fentanyl Crisis

Mr. Speaker, last month, the district attorney of Placer County in my district secured the first-ever murder conviction in California for dealing fentanyl. This is a very important moment in the battle against the fentanyl epidemic that is taking such a tragic toll on every community across the country.

As The New York Times reported: The novel prosecution in Placer, northeast of Sacramento, is being closely watched in law enforcement and legislative circles in California, which lost about 6,000 people to fentanyl and other opioids in 2021, the last year for which complete data is available. Prosecutors have been looking for ways to hold people distributing the drug accountable for the staggering death toll.

Now, I would like to share the details about this case and the successful legal strategy of the district attorney, but first a word about the scale of the fentanyl crisis in the United States.

Fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, surpassing car accidents, surpassing suicides, surpassing everything. It is now the leading cause of death for young people in our country. It is affecting every community, including my own.

It has been reported that 73,102 Americans died from fentanyl in the past year. That amounts to 200 deaths every day, one every 7 minutes. The reason is largely because of the lethality of fentanyl, which is unlike any other drug; 100 times more potent than morphine. Two milligrams, or the amount that fits on the end of a pencil, is a deadly dose.

Fentanyl is being added to street pills. Mr. Speaker, 98 percent of the pills sold on the street are fakes, and 60 percent have the potential to be lethal.

Many victims are teenagers, people with no prior drug use who perhaps were stressed out from isolation during the COVID shutdowns. They purchase what turns out to be fake pills, such as Xanax, over social media or the internet. Dealers often deliver these pills straight to the victims' homes.

A huge part of this problem is to prevent fentanyl from coming into the United States. The southern border is by far the primary source. In fact, in 2022 alone, the DEA seized 379 million lethal doses of fentanyl. Securing the border would diminish the availability and ability to traffic into the United States, and it would save many lives. That is the most important part of this equation.

There are other ways that we can tackle the problem, and that is where Placer County is leading the way. Like other communities across the country, our county experienced an astronomical 450 percent increase in fentanyl deaths from 2019 to 2021. Almost half of those were among residents 25 years of age or younger.

The case that was recently prosecuted involved the tragic death of a 15-year-old Roseville girl who passed away on June 21, 2022. The dealer was a Placer County area drug dealer named Nathaniel, who was involved in selling fentanyl to minors. He possessed and transported fentanyl in the form of M30 Percocet pills. The fentanyl was pressed into the pill.

One of his customers was a 15-year-old girl who overdosed on one of those pills and, as a result, passed away in June. Nathaniel witnessed this OD, and after his customer died, he continued to sell pills from the same batch to other individuals. This is why he was charged with murder. It is the first murder charge and conviction of a fentanyl dealer in California.

Specifically, he was charged by Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire and convicted of second-degree murder in Placer County Superior Court.

In order to establish his case, District Attorney Gire had to prove the following elements: first, that Nathaniel did in fact deal the deadly fentanyl pills to his victim; second, that the defendant knew that the pills he provided to his victim contained fentanyl; and, third, that he knew how deadly the fentanyl he provided was.

In other words, he had to know his actions could lead to the death of the customer and then choose to deal anyway. That is the basic predicate of the murder charges and conviction.

Other factors in play in this case involved callousness. District Attorney Gire indicated that he would only pursue murder charges if a degree of callousness is present, if a dealer continues to deal after he or she knows someone died of the pills and is pursuing profit. Gire said charges would be less likely in cases where addicts were simply sharing pills with one another.

A second additional factor in play here was deception, where the dealer deceptively markets fentanyl as something else. Gire said that that changes the legal landscape.

In an era of skyrocketing and tragic fentanyl deaths and the increasing prevalence of it in our communities, a multipronged approach of education, accountability, and stopping the supply is needed. The prevailing prosecutorial approach and many of the criminal laws on the books in California are failing to achieve an adequate level of this occurrence.

The strategy that is being pursued in Placer County is that by raising the cost of dealing fentanyl for dealers--we are talking about a 15-years-to-life sentence here for second-degree murder--we can keep these predators away from our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I want to add a quote from District Attorney Gire, which I think is a very important one. ``I have heard the criticism that this is a retread of the war on drugs,'' he said. ``It isn't. Fentanyl is something different.'' That is an argument that we really need to understand.

Whatever arguments we might make in terms of prosecution strategies, when it comes to other forms of drug use, there is simply no comparison to the damage that this drug is doing across our country. We must take action in every way possible.

This murder conviction, the first of its kind in Placer County, sends a loud and clear message to those who would victimize young people and Americans with this lethal substance. It says: Stay out of our community.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage prosecutors across California and across the country to look at the model District Attorney Gire has provided in California because it will save lives.

Pay Raise for Military

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the 5.2 percent pay raise for our servicemen and women provided for in the National Defense Authorization Act, or the NDAA.

Americans have been left struggling under the weight of runaway inflation and an ever-increasing cost of living--perhaps none more so than those in uniform.

Skyrocketing inflation has contributed to pay for servicemembers falling behind that of their civilian counterparts in terms of purchasing power. The much-needed pay increase that we are providing with this legislation is the largest in 22 years, and it will ensure that compensation for military service is at least commensurate with the rise in civilian wages.

In concrete terms, this means more income to cover housing, food, providing for a family, and other basic necessities that those in uniform serving our country shouldn't have to lose sleep over.

In addition to this across-the-board pay increase, the NDAA contains numerous provisions designed to make life more affordable for junior enlistees. Pay for our military's most junior enlistees, E-1s, is currently a paltry $22,000 a year. The NDAA increases that base pay rate to $31,000 a year so that the starting wage for junior enlistees isn't lower than that of a fast-food cashier in California.

The calculation of basic allowance for housing is also improved to provide a more accurate and higher level of aid for housing, and the basic needs allowance, which enables low-income servicemembers to support a family, is expanded, as well.

Finally, the Secretary of Defense is authorized to provide monthly bonuses to junior enlisted members to mitigate the impacts of inflation.

Mr. Speaker, we owe members of our military a debt that can never be repaid for their service and sacrifice to our country. Americans undoubtedly have an obligation to provide a level of compensation that matches at least that of their civilian counterparts and enables servicemembers to meet basic housing costs and provide for their families.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation fulfills that basic foundational commitment, and I am proud to support the pay increase for our military.

Vaccine Discharge Reinstatements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of offering reinstatement to the over 8,000 servicemembers who were discharged from the military for merely declining to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. As we speak, our Nation's military is in the midst of a severe recruitment shortage.

The Army fell short of its recruitment goal by 15,000 recruits last year. This year, it is on track to fall short by 20,000. The Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are facing similar challenges.

The consequences of failing to recruit enough volunteers are severe-- reduced combat readiness and a reduced ability to keep us safe. This is all the more notable given that our military, of

course, is all volunteer. We rely on citizens willingly stepping up and joining to serve our country.

These severe shortages have been exacerbated by our Secretary of Defense taking the same approach to COVID as, unfortunately, many civilian leaders did, an approach characterized by heavyhanded overreactions and a complete disregard for scientific evidence and informed policymaking.

Members of our Armed Forces, young, physically fit men and women, are the least at-risk population for COVID. Moreover, over 95 percent of the military has already been vaccinated against COVID before the discharges occurred.

Like students, small business owners, and many other groups of individuals, servicemembers were harmed and had their lives upended by wholly unnecessary actions pursued by politicians and political leaders who simply were not looking at data and evidence, and had no regard for personal freedoms.

The National Defense Authorization Act offers a corrective course to these mistakes. The act provides a pathway to reinstatement for any servicemember discharged for declining a COVID vaccine and requires the Secretary of Defense to fully inform discharged individuals of the steps they can take.

Further, it assures that veterans, for the time spent discharged, will be classified as a ``career intermission'' to prevent any negative impact on future promotions. It will also prohibit the Department of Defense from forcing cadets discharged from military service academies to repay tuition.

While the damage done by the original discharge decisions can never be undone, I am very proud to support legislation that at least allows Congress to do everything in its power to mitigate the harm that was done.

Providing Transparent Accountability

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act.

What this measure does is very simple. It requires that Federal agencies, when issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, simply include a link to a plain language summary of the proposal in 100 words or less.

This is a basic, commonsense measure to make our government more accessible to Americans. I think right now that is something that is very important. After we went through a few years where many people felt like their ability to participate in government was foreclosed altogether, and where we have had a trend that has been decades in the making where more and more power is consolidated in Washington, D.C., and in Federal bureaucracies, ordinary citizens have less and less of an opportunity to participate. When there is some opportunity, such as a notice of public rulemaking up for public comment, oftentimes they are confronted by a blizzard of legalese that makes it very difficult to make heads or tails of what is going on.

What this measure does is it says, in 100 words or less, let's put it right there in plain English so everyone is on the same page, so we as a country can have a debate about whether this is good or bad policy.

It is a simple step, a modest step, but it is a step in the right direction.

Mr. Speaker, for that reason, I am proud to support this measure.

Commemorating Israel's 75th Anniversary

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of Israel's 75th year as a nation.

For these last 75 years, Israel has stood as a sanctuary for the Jewish people; as a beacon of freedom, democracy, and human rights in the region; and as a steadfast ally to our Nation.

The United States has been among Israel's closest allies from its very inception. In fact, President Harry Truman officially recognized Israel merely 11 minutes after its formation. Since that moment, the bond between our two nations--one based upon shared values, common interests, and a united vision for the future--has only grown stronger.

Our Nation's welcoming of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to speak before a joint session of Congress this Wednesday is just the latest reflection of this special relationship. I look forward to continuing to advance this partnership in every way I can in Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I will take a moment to remark upon the unique place Israel holds not only in the heart of its citizens but in people across the globe.

In 2018, I had the chance to visit, as part of a bipartisan delegation, and spend a week meeting with leaders from business, academia, government, the media, the IDF, and other facets of Israeli society. We also visited the West Bank, a kibbutz outside of Gaza, the Holocaust memorial, a hospital caring for the wounded from Syria, the Lebanon border, and much more.

Mr. Speaker, I came away with a sense of deep admiration for the tremendous dynamism and diversity of Israeli society, for the way such a deep connection to history coexists with a drive toward innovation and modernization, for the spirit of self-reliance and national service, and for the deeply felt sense of Israeli identity and pride in the nation's achievements.

The United States and the global community is enriched by the presence of Israel on the world stage. As a Member of Congress, I take great pride in supporting Israel, and wherever possible, advocating for Israel in the global arena. Today, I am honored to recognize and commemorate that fact by celebrating Israel's 75th anniversary as a nation.

Recognizing Rocklin Donuts & Cinnamon

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate an exceptional small business in my district, Rocklin Donuts & Cinnamon, for their recent recognition on Yelp as the top doughnut shop in the Nation.

Let me say that again: the top doughnut shop in the Nation.

This distinguished, family-owned establishment is operated by Ky and Anna Pho, a couple whose story embodies the American Dream. Over 40 years ago, Ky and Anna emigrated from Cambodia to the United States of America. After overcoming the many obstacles they faced in immigrating to a new country, they committed themselves to this enterprise and are now recipients of a well-deserved reward for their diligent efforts.

Their commitment to their business and strong work ethic is truly inspiring. They rise every morning between 2 and 3 a.m. to prepare fresh doughnuts for the many patrons who frequent their shop. They serve a wide array of delicious treats, ranging from an assortment of doughnuts to breakfast croissants, and, of course, the traditional cinnamon roll.

It was not long ago when they opened their doors, just in May of 2022, and they quickly rose to high regard in our communities, earning a five-star Yelp rating and national attention in this short period of time.

I have gone by there a few times recently, and I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, the line is out the door.

Therefore, on behalf of California's Third Congressional District and the United States House of Representatives, I am pleased to recognize Rocklin Donuts & Cinnamon for this outstanding achievement.

Recognizing the Downieville Classic

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the silver anniversary of the Downieville Classic, a world-renowned annual bike race staged in Downieville, California. Before becoming a cherished destination for mountain bikers, this historic gold rush town in the Sierra Nevada was known mainly for its past notoriety of vigilante justice, claim jumping, and boom and bust fortunes.

Downieville's famous--or inglorious--days, such as they were, were in the past until a pioneer of backcountry mountain biking named Greg Williams realized that the true treasure of the Sierra Nevada was not the gold in the rivers but in the recreational challenges of the mountains themselves. Greg's vision was to combine world-class ultra biking with spectacular mountain landscapes to revitalize the economy of his hometown.

Letting the mountains dictate the course, Greg and his team designed the premier classic point-to-point route as a 26.5-mile black diamond lung-busting endurance run from Sierra City to Downieville.

Riders climb to the 7,469-foot crest of the Sierra Nevada, then plunge 5,700 vertical feet along a route of flowing turns, rolling jumps, boulder staircases, and river crossings. This ordeal on wheels tests both the sturdiness of riders and their bikes.

Recognizing the challenge of the race and beauty of the course, Outside magazine named the Downieville Classic

one of the 10 best bike races in North America.

The combination of sustainable recreation, job creation, and world- famous athletic events has made Downieville a model for the economic recovery of struggling mountain communities throughout the Lost Sierra.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of the Downieville Classic in recognition of the profound impact the race has had on Sierra County and the broader region.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Music in the Mountains, a unique organization in Nevada County, California, that combines world-class orchestral, choral, and musical theater performances with a deep commitment to music education.

The Music in the Mountains season features live concerts and events showcasing the orchestra and chorus performing with world-renowned classical musicians and soloists. Performances are staged in several venues located in historic gold rush communities of Grass Valley and Nevada City.

At the heart of Music in the Mountains is the SummerFest Classical Festival, now in its 42nd year. Audiences are enthralled by powerful classical masterworks, modern favorites, and innovative pieces from brand new composers staged in an outdoor theater.

In the days leading up to July Fourth, the festival celebrates music, community, and our country's birth.

In addition to presenting inspiring concerts, Music in the Mountains offers innovative educational programs touching the lives of about 5,000 students each year.

To fulfill the goal of empowering children to perform, compose, and listen to music, Music in the Mountains offers a variety of activities, including Take 5 for Music, Carnegie Lineup, Full Circle Music Program, and Peer Performing 4 Peers.

The youth orchestra is a symphony orchestra program for string, woodwind, brass, and percussion players ages 8 to 21. Students in the Young Composers project study composition, notation software, conducting, melodic and rhythmic dictation, music theory, and music history.

The Side By Side program offers student musicians the opportunity to sit in with the orchestra at rehearsals and perform with their mentors in live performances.

Through its performance and educational endeavors, Music in the Mountains recognizes the power of music to heal and transform the individual and the community.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Music in the Mountains for the empowering programs and profound impact the organization has had on Nevada County and the broader region.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer congressional recognition to the Lake Tahoe Pizza Company to mark their 50-year anniversary in business.

For over five decades, this family-run restaurant has survived many challenges, including the Great Recession, a global pandemic, and the recent California winter storms. Despite these challenges, all the hard work and dedication the Touryan family has put into this restaurant has made it into quite the success story.

John Touryan, the founder, embodies the spirit of the American Dream. Mr. Touryan emigrated to the United States as a child. He began the restaurant in the bay area as a recent college graduate with no financial support, all while living in his Volkswagen bus.

After moving from the bay area to South Lake Tahoe in the late 1970s, Mr. Touryan's new home became a great location for his restaurant. In just 3 years, business was booming. In 1980, he had to move the restaurant to another location within South Tahoe to keep up with the pressing demand.

He grew a successful restaurant from the ground up and has kept it in the family throughout. Now ownership of the restaurant has been passed to his son, Brenon Touryan, and many, many members of the family have all played an important role in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.

It is truly special to witness a family that works so collaboratively and effectively together to run a thriving business, and it is inspiring to see that business being passed on through the generations.

The Lake Tahoe Pizza Company serves as a local gathering place in the Tahoe area and continues to contribute positively to the community. The restaurant has received both local and national recognition, including selection as the Best of Tahoe more than a dozen times through popular vote, and awarded the Best of Tahoe Pizza by the Tahoe Quarterly magazine, a feature on the Travel Channel's ``Best Places I Have Ever Been'' in an episode titled Pizza, and it was filmed by Discovery Channel's Monster Garage.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to acknowledge the Lake Tahoe Pizza Company for reaching this significant milestone, as well as for their invaluable contributions to our State and local economies and outstanding dedication to the Tahoe community.

Annastasia Maloney Exhibits Bravery and Winning Spirit

Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer congressional recognition to Annastasia Maloney, an athlete from Grass Valley, California, who will travel to Germany this summer to compete in the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Ms. Maloney is a tremendously talented athlete who plays basketball, softball, soccer, and flag football. She has also competed in throwing the mini javelin, but running is her main event. She has won gold and bronze medals in the 400- and 800-meters in track and field competitions in both local and national Special Olympics. This will be her first World Olympics.

The Special Olympics World Games offer the opportunity to unite the world like no other event can, where people of different nations, cultures, political views, and religions are brought together through the power of sport.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968 because she believed that everyone, regardless of physical or intellectual ability, can realize their potential for growth through sports and competition.

In addition to working full time and adhering to a daily training schedule, Maloney is a global messenger for the Special Olympics. This summer her message of persistence and excellence will be conveyed from the global stage, where she will compete according to the oath sworn by every athlete since the Games' inception: ``Let me win; but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.''

Maloney has undoubtedly already demonstrated her bravery and winning spirit. I am confident the crowds in Berlin this summer will cheer for Annastasia Maloney and the 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from 170 countries.

On behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives, I express admiration and best wishes to Annastasia Maloney, Special Olympics USA, and all the athletes in the Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Celebrating 75 Years of Auburn Area Recreation and Park District

Mr. Speaker, I rise to mark and celebrate the 75-year anniversary of the Auburn Area Recreation and Park District.

When the district was originally formed on July 1, 1948, it had one park aptly named Recreation Park and the use of the Gold Country Fairgrounds. Today, the district proudly maintains and operates many exceptional parks as well as open space and trail systems, recreation programs, community events and facilities, such as community centers, pools, and courts for sports, to name a few.

I had the pleasure of visiting last month and was very impressed with their award-winning Auburn Bike Park and the ever-popular preschool program. I even ended up planting a tree at Recreation Park and managed to fit in a quick game of pickleball.

Such a bounty of recreational opportunities promotes the health and quality of life of residents in the Auburn and Meadow Vista communities. For over seven decades, the Auburn Area Recreation and Park District has exhibited a strong commitment to providing safe, quality, and accessible parks and recreational activities that are enjoyed by all.

I wish to express gratitude and thanks on behalf of the Third Congressional District of California for the Auburn Area Recreation and Park District's service and dedication to enriching the greater Auburn area with comprehensive recreational opportunities.

Andrea Seastrand's Legacy will Endure for Generations

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer congressional recognition to a remarkable public servant, former Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand, whose unwavering dedication to her constituents and tireless commitment to public service have left an indelible mark on our Nation's history.

Andrea Seastrand was born on August 5, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from DePaul University with a BA in education, and moved to Salinas, California, to find work as an elementary schoolteacher. Before serving one term as a Member of the United States House of Representatives, she served as a member of the California State Assembly for 4 years, where she was part of the Assembly Education Committee and served as assistant minority leader.

After her time in public service, she founded the California Space Technology Alliance, a private nonprofit organization focused on promoting California's participation in space ventures. She has also served in leadership positions on local boards and civic groups focused on fiscal responsibility and citizen involvement.

The career of former Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand is a testament to the power of visionary leadership, dedicated public service, and a profound commitment to serving with dedication and responsibility to our fellow citizens.

Her contributions have shaped the aerospace industry in California, protected taxpayers, and improved the

lives of countless Americans. The impact of her legacy will endure for generations to come.

It is with the utmost respect and admiration that I commend her exceptional service and numerous contributions to our State and Nation.

Casa Diablo IV Groundbreaking Investment

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a groundbreaking investment in renewable energy development in my district, the Casa Diablo IV geothermal plant.

The Mammoth Geothermal Complex, located just outside of Mammoth Lakes, California, has been powering Inyo and Mono Counties since 1984. A new geothermal facility has recently been added to the existing three facilities of the complex.

With the addition of the Casa Diablo IV plant, the total generation for the complex will double and produce enough energy to power 45,000 homes.

Geothermal energy harnesses the power contained in the fluids and heat from the Earth's core to produce clean energy for our communities while producing zero nitrogen oxide emissions, virtually no carbon dioxide emissions, and presenting low visual and noise impacts.

I commend the owners and operators of the complex, Mammoth Pacific Geothermal and Ormat Technologies for their leadership in this industry, their dedication to promoting clean, renewable energy resources, and their meaningful contributions to the Mammoth community through their support of local projects, scholarship programs, and housing assistance.

I also applaud the Inyo National Forest for their close partnership and collaboration on this important project.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives and the Third Congressional District of California, I am pleased to celebrate today on the House floor this valuable addition to the Mammoth Geothermal Complex.

Honoring the Service of Dr. John A. Ungersma

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a truly outstanding individual in my district, Dr. John A. Ungersma for his heroic and invaluable service to our Nation and community.

Dr. Ungersma earned his bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University and his medical degree from the University of Southern California. He used his education and experience to serve our Nation in the United States military as a naval flight surgeon and senior surgeon in the 1st Marine Division. He also served with honor in both Desert Shield and Desert Storm and ended his 48 years of service as a captain of the Medical Corps in the United States Navy.

Dr. Ungersma established the first orthopedic surgery practice in Bishop, California, in 1966. He was the only orthopedic surgeon on the Highway 395 corridor between Los Angeles and Reno for almost a decade.

Dr. Ungersma additionally served for 18 years on the Northern Inyo Hospital Board of Directors as president, vice president, and director at large. During his tenure, he was active in the planning, financing, and construction of a new 25-bed critical access hospital, which became one of only 28 critical access hospitals in California. He also served as vice president and treasurer of the Association of California Healthcare Districts and was named the Association's trustee of the year in 2015.

Dr. Ungersma has touched countless lives, and his contributions have made a meaningful and lasting impact on the healthcare industry.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Dr. John A. Ungersma for his leadership and the years of service he has provided to the people of Inyo County, the State of California, and the United States of America.

Julie Su Nomination Stalled

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to discuss a hearing that was held last week by the House Education and the Workforce Committee where Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su testified as a witness.

Now, as background, Ms. Su, of course, has been nominated by President Biden to be Secretary of Labor. She has been in that role in only an acting capacity now for several months, and the nomination has been stalled for those months.

In fact, the Biden administration, as being reported by Bloomberg, has now set up a nightly war room to try to advance Su's nomination, but there is a reason that the nomination has remained stalled, and that is because she is exactly the wrong person for the job.

The testimony she gave at last week's hearing before the Education and the Workforce Committee was evasive, nonresponsive, and in some cases outright dishonest in a way that provided further confirmation that she should not be the next Secretary of Labor of the United States.

For starters, the hearing almost didn't happen because Acting Secretary Su tried to cancel at the last moment. Chair Virginia Foxx began the hearing as follows: She said to Ms. Su: `` . . . you have been a hard witness to schedule. The committee began working with the Department to secure your in-person testimony beginning in March. When you would not appear in May, we honored your request to appear in June, using a date, June 7, that was offered by your staff and to which you agreed.''

Chair Foxx continued: ``So why is it that on a late Friday evening, following the committee's public posting of the hearing a week ago, your staff told us that you were `no longer able to make June 7th work?' ''

The only reason Acting Secretary Su did appear before the committee is that the committee was going to resort to a subpoena to get her there otherwise.

That was the first major issue with Ms. Su's performance at this hearing, but there were several others.

First, was her response on the topic of Proposition 22, which was a major labor initiative passed by California voters less than 3 years ago, in 2020. Now, Ms. Su was California's secretary of labor at the time. She would have been substantially affected by whether this initiative passed or failed. It ended up passing. California voters overwhelmingly chose to allow companies like Uber and Lyft and Door Dash to continue to use independent contractors, and thereby allowing them to stay in California.

When I asked Ms. Su how she, herself, voted as a California voter on Prop 22, she answered as follows: ``How did I vote on Prop 22? I don't remember how I voted on that.''

Now, Mr. Speaker, this utterly exceeds all bounds of plausibility, that the secretary of labor for our State would not remember how she voted on this major labor initiative less than 3 years ago. I think it is fairly safe to conclude that this was a false statement that Ms. Su made to our committee.

Just to be fair, I gave her several opportunities to correct her statement on that later in the hearing, and she still did not retract it. That is her testimony on the record, that she does not remember how she voted on this major labor initiative while she was California's secretary of labor.

Second, was her testimony with respect to AB5. Now, AB5 is a law that has made it virtually impossible for countless professionals in California to continue their careers. It has essentially abolished independent contracting in hundreds of professions and has been widely condemned across the partisan spectrum.

Now, Ms. Su has been called an architect of that law, AB5. As California's secretary of labor, she was the one who enforced it, and she did so in the most aggressive, ruthless, broadest way possible to ensnare as many people as possible.

After the law passed, she was on the record celebrating its passage, so you would think she would have a pretty good answer when I asked her whether she thought AB5 was a good law. However, after I asked that, here is what she said: ``I don't know what--I mean, I don't know. I don't know. Tell me what--give me a little bit more on what you mean by that.''

I took several other opportunities to ask her whether she thought AB5 was a good law. Each and every time she refused to answer.

I also asked Ms. Su whether she was involved in the drafting of AB5, and she responded simply no. However, she then contradicted herself later in the hearing when my colleague, Mr. Burlison, asked her about her involvement. She said that, oh, yes, she did, in fact, provide technical assistance.

When I asked Ms. Su whether she was aware that people have lost their livelihoods in California because of this law AB5, she said: I have heard from people who have said that.

She reiterated that exact language again: I have heard from people who said that. I have heard people who said something different too. I have had people tell me that. She responded, refusing each time to recognize the legitimacy of these claims, refusing to recognize that we have had countless people who have lost their livelihoods in California.

Also, it was no less than 2 days after that hearing that we got yet another example of this when the city of Los Angeles announced that it was having to terminate a contract with almost 100 truckers for a road repair program that had been around for about 130 years and the Department of Public Works in the city of Los Angeles specifically cited AB5 as the reason it was canceling that contract.

There are countless examples like this, and yet the most that Ms. Su is willing to say is: I have heard from people who have said that.

Next, I asked Ms. Su about her role with the massive $32 billion, at a minimum, unemployment fraud that occurred in California on her watch. I asked her several times: Do you take any responsibility for that fraud?

She evaded the question several times before finally saying: Yes. I do take responsibility to the fact the system did not deliver in ways that we would have hoped that it delivered.

I then asked her several times what she would have done differently, what she has learned if she could do it all over again, and she could not name a single thing that she would have done differently to prevent this $32 billion unemployment fraud, even though the independent State auditor and the leading Democrat lawmakers in California have blamed her specifically for the fraud.

I also asked Ms. Su about the migrant child labor crisis that has been uncovered by The New York Times, and I asked her whether she had communicated the scale of this problem to the White House prior to this year. Her response was: I don't know. I don't know that.

I, along with several other members of the committee, asked Ms. Su if she would commit to not changing the joint-employer rule or bringing a new joint-employer rule that would threaten the entire franchise business model.

She was evasive each and every time and would give no such commitment. She made comments such as: We do not have a plan to do that. It is not on our agenda.

She also said: I commit to following all of the rules of rulemaking, everything that we are required to do, I pledge to you that we will do under my leadership, under my tenure at the Department of Labor. I can't sit here at this moment and tell you with certainty everything that is going to happen.

Again, we tried several times, myself and several members of the committee. She would not commit to not bring a new joint-employer rule.

Finally, I asked Ms. Su about the economic performance of her home State, California, where she was the Secretary of Labor for Governor Gavin Newsom and was the labor commissioner for several years before that. I asked Ms. Su if she knew where California ranks among the States when it comes to its unemployment rank. She did not know.

The answer is that California has the second highest unemployment rate in the Nation. I asked Acting Secretary Su if she happened to know which State has the highest poverty rate in the country. She didn't know. The answer, once again, is California.

I asked Acting Secretary Su if she knew which State has the lowest rate of net earnings growth of any of the 50 States. She didn't know that either and, once again, the answer is her home State of California where she was the Secretary of Labor.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is clear, based on Acting Secretary Su's record, that she is not the right person for this role. She is not the right person for the highest labor position in the land, in our country, at this moment of such great importance for the American economy and American workforce.

I will, once again, encourage President Biden to withdraw her nomination and to nominate a secretary who will be on the side of American workers.

Mr. Speaker, I will take a moment to offer a little bit of background on the individual that President Biden is planning to appoint as the new director of the CDC. It is being widely reported that he will name Dr. Mandy Cohen of North Carolina to this post.

Now, interestingly, the position of CDC director will soon be a Senate-confirmed position starting in 2025, based upon legislation passed last year. It was recognized that this is a position of such great importance that during the COVID era was so relevant to the lives of so many people that it should be a Senate-confirmed position. However, that provision has not taken effect yet, so if President Biden does, in fact, move forward with this appointment, as has been reported, then there will be no opportunity for her to be vetted.

With the appointment not yet official, this really is the one opportunity that Americans have to weigh in on whether this is the right person for the job.

We need to recognize that there is a huge gap in the level of trust that Americans have in our entire public health establishment, based on many of the things that have happened in the last few years.

I will actually point to a comment from the CEO of Facebook, or Meta, as it is now called, Mark Zuckerberg, just a couple weeks ago. Mr. Zuckerberg said this: ``Just take some of the stuff around COVID earlier on in the pandemic, where there were real health implications, but there hadn't been time to fully vet a bunch of the scientific assumptions and, unfortunately, I think a lot of the establishment on that kind of waffled on a bunch of facts and asked for a bunch of things to be censored that, in retrospect, ended up being more debatable or true. And that stuff,'' Mr. Zuckerberg continued, ``is really tough, right? It really undermines trust.''

We are learning more and more about the role that the CDC and government authorities played in those efforts to censor certain facts or opinions related to COVID-19, many of which, in the words of Mr. Zuckerberg, ``ended up being more debatable or true.''

We also saw in the CDC, throughout the COVID era, take truly radical positions, such as recommending masks for children as young as 2 years old. This defied the international consensus. It was not what the WHO recommended. It was not what the European counterpart of the CDC recommended, yet it was the CDC's position.

We also saw how the CDC apparently changed its school reopening guidance in February 2021 after pressure from teachers' unions. Texts between the outgoing director of the CDC, Ms. Walensky, and Randi Weingarten have been uncovered showing this level of coordination and how the guidance was, apparently, revised based on input or pressure from the unions.

This, of course, is not a role, head of a teachers' union, that is selected for based upon one's scientific credentials, yet apparently played an important role in guidance that was then used to keep many, many schools across our country closed and to deprive millions of kids of the education that they deserve.

We also had time and again the CDC make statements on issues like the transmissibility of COVID for vaccinated individuals that turned out to be incorrect. We saw vaccine mandates struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

With all that as background, let's turn to the question of whether Dr. Mandy Cohen of North Carolina is the right person to restore trust in our public health system, and I would say, based upon her record, she absolutely is not the right person. Indeed, she manifested the very worst tendencies of the COVID era.

Let's start with the method she used for shutting down the economy in her own State. Now, I will first give you her words when she described it. She said: Our scientific team, in coordination with looking at recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and others, and really understanding, again, what we have learned this year about how this virus spreads. We know that there are settings and activities

that are lower risk. It doesn't mean that they are no risk, but lower risks. We know there are things that are medium risk, things that are higher risks, and so forth.

So you would think this is a very considered process that she went through. However, feedback from others in her State suggested the opposite.

Dale Folwell, who was the North Carolina State treasurer, said: I tried for months during COVID to get the council of State to convene with Dr. Cohen to explain the lack of transparency in the data used to shut down our economy and our schools. These decisions disproportionately hurt lower- and fixed-income adults and kids. By closing schools and the economy, it closed opportunity and upward mobility for students and citizens. The damage, he said, is generational.

That is how another Statewide elected official in North Carolina described the level of transparency and the implications during the COVID era, but what is even more revealing is comments that Dr. Cohen recently made herself.

In contrast to the more methodological approach that she claimed to have followed, she made these comments in a 2022 interview with the Duke Health Sector Management. When asked how she decided what to lock down, what could remain open, what wouldn't, she said: So I would call probably the person I called most was the Secretary of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts.

Dr. Cohen went on: When she was, like, are you gonna let them have professional football? And I was, like, nope. And she's, like, okay, neither are we. Neither are we.

At this point, Dr. Cohen laughs at this.

She goes on: So it was, you know, conversations like that, so or I'd be, like, when are you gonna think about lightening up on masks? They're, like, next Monday, and I'm, like, okay, next Monday.

See, this is what we all suspected was happening in many of these States that seemed to have no rhyme or reason to the way they went about these lockdown and reopening policies.

Here, you have President Biden's own presumptive nominee to be the CDC director saying, yes, that is exactly what she did. In a flippant and arbitrary manner, she decided what industries would be shut down and which would remain open, as well as what would be mandated and what wouldn't.

In addition to that, Dr. Cohen adopted many policies that were on the extreme end of the spectrum when it came to COVID mandates. For example, on July 26, 2021, she said: Schools with students in K-8 should require all children and staff to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

Now, we have already seen this was a position that is at odds with the international norm. She also repeated claims that turned out to be false with regard to transmissibility. She said in a 2021 interview with the Carolina Business review: What we heard from the CDC last week was even better than what we heard before, right. We had heard that vaccines protect you from getting COVID. I think the new piece of information for us was that we now have more definitive data to show that it prevents you from giving COVID to others. And that is really where masks come in, right, a mask is about protecting you from giving COVID to others even if you don't know you have it.

She also promoted masks for vaccinated individuals 7 months after the CDC dropped its mask requirement for vaccinated individuals. She said: We still need to mask--everyone. This was during a December 20 news briefing. Even if you are vaccinated, she said, you should wear a mask in public, indoor spaces, and if possible, wear a medical grade mask for more protection. This was in December 2021.

In addition to that, Ms. Cohen threatened to sue a school district, Union County School Board, for their decision to drop contact tracing and quarantine processes in September 2021. The dispute came after Union County Health Department officials would not work with the district on reducing quarantine times if students presented a negative test or other mitigation measures were used.

In other words, they were trying to get their kids back to school. School officials made this request to minimize the impact a quarantine has on students and their families; the Union County Public School's statement reads: Local health officials would not consider this request despite the fact that health officials around the State have implemented similar measures. The district also refuted Cohen's claims about infections in their district using her own agency's data.

Dr. Cohen also strongly supported vaccine mandates for healthcare workers. In July 2021, she said: Thank you to the North Carolina Healthcare Association and the health systems that are leading the way requiring vaccination for employees, for taking action to protect the healthcare workforce, their parents, our communities and the State. Vaccinations are our way out of this pandemic, she concluded.

Dr. Cohen also wore a double mask at an event in January 2021, and even posted a photo of herself wearing a mask with Dr. Fauci's picture on it.

Mr. Speaker, while this is not an appointment that will be subject to a vote in either House, I would simply encourage President Biden to acknowledge the lack of trust that exists right now in many parts of this country, with even Mark Zuckerberg saying that we had public health decisions that undermined public trust, and to instead appoint a CDC Director who will actually adhere to science, who will adhere to norms, and who will not take us down this road ever again.

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

Madam Speaker, we just heard a lot of speeches at a very high volume on the topic of the debt ceiling, and many of them had an accompanying visual that said, ``House Republicans are forcing a default on our debt.''

Now, that is a very strange statement, given that the House has already passed a bill to stop us from defaulting on our debt. Weeks ago, the House passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling. I will say that again. The House has passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling that protects Social Security, protects Medicare, protects our veterans, and puts us on the more fiscally sustainable path that Americans are demanding.

Now, that bill is sitting in the Senate right now. The Senate could pass it at any time, but, of course, the Senate isn't even here this week, so they haven't done so.

As we speak, Speaker McCarthy and President Biden are negotiating. This is precisely what the overwhelming majority of Americans-- Democrats, Republicans, Independents--say that they want: A bipartisan solution that raises the debt ceiling while making responsible reforms to spending.

The speeches we just heard are advocating precisely the opposite. They want to pull the rug out from under this ongoing negotiation, bring it to a stop, impose a one-sided, partisan solution that allows us to keep spending money without limit.

Indeed, I was particularly struck by a comment from the Congresswoman from New York, who in defense of this idea that we should keep spending money without limit said this: If anyone wants to entertain the thought that we spend too much, think about the last time that someone said the government does too much.

Those are her words. She said, think about the last time anyone said the government does too much.

Well, actually, my constituents say that a lot. The government does too much when it overtaxes and overregulates Americans.

The government certainly did too much when it shut down schools, shut down businesses, shut down churches, and imposed unlawful mandates.

The government does too much when it pays people more to not work than to work.

The government did too much when it went on a multitrillion-dollar spending spree that even Barack Obama's top economic adviser warned against and gave us this historic inflation crisis.

The government does too much when it unleashes 87,000 new IRS agents on unsuspecting American taxpayers.

The government does too much when it shuts down the Keystone pipeline and inhibits our ability to produce energy domestically and make us energy independent.

At the end of the day, though, we also need to ask, as we have seen the budget just grow and grow and grow without limit, what has the result of all that additional spending been?

Do you look around and see beautiful roads and infrastructure?

Do you see world-leading schools?

Do you see a prosperous economy?

No, of course not.

Therefore, I do think that as we make reforms to spending, we also need to focus on waste, fraud, and abuse. We need to focus not just on how much money is being spent but on how that money is being spent. Not just on the number of dollars that we are spending, but on the results that we are getting.

I am hoping that that is the new paradigm that will emerge from the negotiations going on right now between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, a paradigm of customer service, citizen service, a performance-based government. That is what Americans deserve, and I encourage the President to negotiate in good faith with Speaker McCarthy to move us in that direction.

President Biden Should Withdraw Julie Su's Nomination

Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the latest disturbing revelations relating to President Biden's nominee for U.S. Labor Secretary, Julie Su. The nomination remains stalled, and for good reason.

Ms. Su's record of gross mismanagement, historic, unmatched mismanagement as California's labor secretary under Governor Gavin Newsom is now well understood. For example, under Ms. Su's tenure, $32.6 billion in taxpayer funds were fraudulently paid to death row inmates, international criminal syndicates, and other fraudsters.

This fraud was possible because Su waived fraud prevention protections, actually removed guardrails despite repeated warnings, and she failed to follow the commonsense practices of other States, and then failed to take corrective actions as billions were lost to fraud.

At the same time that this fraud was occurring, by the way, Su improperly denied or delayed for weeks, months, sometimes indefinitely, legitimate unemployment claims for millions of Americans.

Madam Speaker, I have now spoken on this floor several times to make sure that Americans are aware of that track record and understand the risk that elevating Ms. Su poses.

It is a reasonable inference that a nominee who failed in her role as State labor secretary would likewise fail in the role as U.S. Labor Secretary, and certainly has failed to earn such a promotion.

Well, now that is no longer merely an inference. It is the reality because as her nomination has stalled, Ms. Su has all the while been serving as the Acting Secretary at the Department of Labor, and unsurprisingly, she has brought her record of mismanagement from California to the Department of Labor as Acting Secretary, with terrible consequences.

A recent report from The New York Times has uncovered evidence of a major spike in unaccompanied migrant minors, children, being funneled to work in dangerous jobs in violation of Federal labor law. The article is titled, ``As Migrant Children Were Put to Work, U.S. Ignored Warnings.''

The Times reports the White House and Federal agencies were repeatedly alerted to signs of children at risk. The warnings were ignored or missed.

To take one example from The Times article: ``. . . a boy working construction said he felt ashamed about not knowing how to read. He, too, was released in 2021--at age 12--and was immediately put to work by a man who had sponsored at least five children.''

In another case: ``At a day-labor pickup site, a 13-year-old released last year to a man he had never met, said he wished he could enroll in middle school and start learning English.''

The problem is much broader than a handful of cases. Signs of migrant child labor have been uncovered inside industrial workplaces, including several auto part factories. Additionally, over 100 children were found working the overnight shift scouring meatpacking plants across the country, according to The Times.

Now, I should note, monitoring workplaces to prevent child labor is the job of the Department of Labor. Julie Su was Deputy Labor Secretary and is now Acting Labor Secretary. She held those roles as children were exploited to work in grueling conditions in violation of Federal labor law.

This pattern of conduct almost exactly mirrors Su's tenure in California: repeated warnings of a serious problem, little to no preventative action, followed by a refusal to accept responsibility or change course when her failures are brought to light.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only major concern that has emerged during Julie Su's short time as U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor. At the same time that children have been exploited in workplaces, Ms. Su has failed to properly manage the H-2A program for bringing in temporary agricultural workers on a legal basis.

Just this morning, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and I sent an oversight letter to Acting Secretary Su regarding serious delays in the processing of H-2A applications. In the letter we write: ``It has come to the attention of the Committee on Education and the Workforce that employers applying for labor certifications at the Department of Labor for H-2A agricultural workers are facing substantial delays. These delays can be tremendously harmful for American agriculture. The arrival of workers can be delayed by weeks, causing inefficiencies and supply chain disruptions. . . . The planting and harvesting windows offer only a short amount of time to meet the season's needs. Our understanding is that this worsening problem is caused by unnecessary and avoidable delays at the Department of Labor.''

Incredibly, a Department of Labor official, Mike Rios, who serves as regional agricultural enforcement director at the Wage and Hour Division, is

quoted as saying this: ``You can see that the H-2A program literally is the purchase of humans to perform difficult work under terrible conditions, sometimes including subhuman living conditions.''

This is a bipartisan program that has been created and has existed for a long time. But that is what he had to say about it. He is also quoted as saying: ``You can throw a rock and hit a violation in the agricultural industry.'' That is a strange thing for him to say considering that it is his department and Julie Su's department, the Department of Labor, that is responsible for preventing those sorts of violations, for enforcing our labor laws.

Under Julie Su's leadership, the Department of Labor is failing to protect workers, including children, is unfairly attacking America's farmers, and is failing to support our agriculture sector's workforce needs under a program authorized by Federal law.

She has been Acting Secretary for only a matter of months and was Deputy Secretary for 2 years. In that time, she has directly transferred her record of mismanagement from California to the rest of the Nation.

I should say, in California right now, we have the Nation's largest budget deficit. We have the Nation's second highest unemployment rate. We have the Nation's lowest rate of income growth. We have the highest rate of poverty. This is the direct result of the mismanagement and the antiworker, antibusiness, antiopportunity policies from the likes of Julie Su and Gavin Newsom.

With everything we now know, to elevate Ms. Su would be to take our country down the failed path of California with eyes wide open. I urge President Biden to choose a different course. It is past time to withdraw this nomination.

Fentanyl Trafficking Must Be Stopped

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier today. This bill fixes a critical loophole and empowers law enforcement to continue to have the tools they need to prevent fentanyl distribution in communities across America.

We are seeing staggering amounts of fentanyl pour across the southern border, flooding our communities with illicit and lethal pills, killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. This is now the leading cause of death for young people in our country; more than car accidents, more than suicides, more than anything. It is affecting every community in our country, including my own.

During the State of the Union a few months ago, I was honored to have as my guests two of our Nation's leading advocates for fentanyl awareness, the parents of a young man named Zach Didier, who tragically lost his life to fentanyl. He was a senior at Whitney High School, a standout student with no history of drug use, and from one pill, he tragically lost his life. His parents had to go through the gut- wrenching experience of seeing him get letters in the mail accepting him to some of our Nation's leading universities after he had passed away. There is simply no doubt that addressing the fentanyl crisis will save the lives of many of my constituents and of people in every community in our country.

This act, the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, is a major step in that direction. In fact, the act itself is common sense.

Fentanyl is currently classified as a schedule I drug, which gives the Drug Enforcement Administration the power to enforce and arrest criminals involved in producing and distributing fentanyl. To avoid prosecution, criminals have begun to manufacture drugs nearly chemically identical to fentanyl.

Now, these drugs are just as deadly. They mimic fentanyl in every way, but they don't fall under the technical definition of fentanyl.

In response, the Department of Justice and DEA temporarily classified these fentanyl-related substances as schedule I drugs. This commonsense act makes this temporary classification permanent rather than letting it expire.

Giving law enforcement the tools they need to prosecute those responsible and involved in the fentanyl crisis, from producers to dealers, is a critical component of the multipronged approach needed to save lives and stop fentanyl from destroying our communities. We know this approach works.

After the DEA classified fentanyl-related substances as schedule I drugs, law enforcement encounters of these fentanyl copycat drugs fell by over 90 percent.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support a proven measure that will save lives and to vote ``aye'' on the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, which just passed the House today with bipartisan support and has the support of President Biden, as well.

Replacing Senator Feinstein

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the situation surrounding the senior Senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.

The latest news is that our Governor, Gavin Newsom, is now talking about appointing Oprah to the U.S. Senate as a replacement.

Now, Gavin Newsom has been talking about replacing Senator Feinstein for over 2 years. He started publicly speculating in 2021 about who he would replace, and at that point, Senator Feinstein was barely a third of the way through her term.

California's other senator, Alex Padilla, himself first got his office through appointment by Governor Newsom, so if there was, in fact, an appointment for Senator Feinstein, then both of our U.S. Senators would have been handpicked not by millions of voters but by a single person to initially get their jobs.

At this moment, pressure is coming from all directions when it comes to this situation and with a race for 2024 already underway. A number of sitting Members of the House have actually overtly called on Senator Feinstein to resign.

Ro Khanna said: ``It is time for Senator Feinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.'' That is what he said.

We also had Congresswoman Tlaib, as well as Congresswoman Kamlager- Dove, make similar comments, urging the Senator to vacate her office.

The individual who is being supported by Congressman Khanna, Barbara Lee, told KQED that she would accept an appointment to the job if Governor Gavin Newsom offered it to her.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who, of course, herself is from California, is supporting another candidate, Congressman Schiff, and there have been a number of recent headlines related to this.

This comes from Politico, which says that Feinstein's primary caregiver is Pelosi's daughter. The subheading says: ``A quiet caretaking arrangement has raised questions about whether Nancy Pelosi has the ailing Senator's personal interests at heart.''

Another headline from Washington Examiner: ``Pelosi's secret campaign to aid Feinstein and get Schiff into the Senate.''

From FOX News: ``Pelosi's office denies her daughter is aiding Feinstein to help Adam Schiff win a Senate seat.''

This is just a mess. None of it right now is about what is in the interest of Senator Feinstein, the interest of our State, or the interest of our country. It is all about politics.

I believe the solution is to do away with the possibility of a gubernatorial appointment altogether. That way, Senator Feinstein can make a decision on her own terms. She will know that whether she finishes her term or whether she steps down before the end of her term, it is California voters who will decide who her successor will be. That is what will allow her to make a decision without all the distractions of politics at the moment.

To that end, I have introduced a constitutional amendment doing away with appointed Senators. Now, this would make it so the Senate is the same as the House. You don't have any appointed Members of the House who step onto this floor. Yet, you have had a lot of appointed Senators. I want to make it the same way, that if you want to represent your State as a United

States Senator, you need to be elected to do so.

Indeed, this is really an anachronism, this process of appointing Senators in the case of a vacancy, and it has been subject to rampant abuse.

We had Governor Rob Blagojevich go to prison after he essentially auctioned off Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. We have had Governors who have appointed their family members, who have appointed their spouses. Several Governors have even appointed themselves.

I am calling on Members of the House and Senate to join me in passing that to do away with this anachronistic, antidemocratic process of appointing Senators.

In the meantime, this almost certainly will not take effect prior to the current situation with Senator Feinstein being resolved, so I am calling on the California State Legislature, which has oversight over election laws and itself is responsible for creating the procedure for gubernatorial appointment, to address the situation.

There is actually a little bit of a backstory here. When Senator Padilla was appointed to the Senate following the election of Kamala Harris as Vice President, I raised an issue at the time with the legality of that appointment. Actually, the California State Legislative Analyst's Office, the legislative counsel's office in California, agreed with me that it would not be constitutional for the Governor to appoint a Senator who would then serve out the remainder of Kamala Harris' term, which was set to expire in 2022.

The reason for that is that the Constitution, the 17th Amendment, only allows temporary appointments. So, if you appoint someone who serves the rest of the term, that is not temporary. That is permanent.

What the legislature did in response to the legal issue I raised, and that the legislative counsel's office agreed with me on, is they passed a bill to say that they will have a special election to determine who the new Senator is going to be and who is going to finish the term, but we are not going to have that special election until the next election. That actually happened in November 2022 at the exact same time we held the election for who would serve the new 6-year term.

It was an absurdity. We literally had the same election on the ballot twice. One was for the new 6-year term, and the other was just for the last couple of months, the lame duck portion of the existing term.

That was the way our legislature figured out to give basically as much advantage to the Governor's chosen appointed Senator as possible while still abiding by the letter, if not the spirit, of the 17th Amendment.

What I have been in conversations with some members of the legislature about is that they should change this law or, at the very least, make an exception to it for the current situation with Senator Feinstein, to say that if there is a vacancy, then there will not be an appointment, that there will be an immediate special election, and that is how the successor will be chosen for the remainder of Senator Feinstein's term, which is set to expire in 2024.

I think that this is what will allow for fairness in the process of choosing our next Senator. It will give millions of Californians a say, rather than just one individual, and it will give Senator Feinstein the ability to make a decision that is best for her, best for the State, and best for the country.

I urge that action on the part of the California Legislature and Governor.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to recognize one of my constituents, Jan Cantwell, for her exceptional service and dedication to our community. Jan has devoted her life to serving others. Starting at a young age, she was an active participant in her community as a Girl Scout and a camp counselor for the YMCA. As a former small business owner, she volunteers full time in order to help her friends and neighbors. Since 2018, she has managed the Lake of the Pines Facebook group ``The Voice,'' known as the lifeblood of information for her community. At all hours of the day and night, Jan tirelessly keeps thousands of residents apprised of any potential threats to the community in real time, whether from floods, fires, crimes, or other potentially dangerous situations. She stays up long into the night monitoring scanners for danger, usually not going to sleep until the early morning hours around 4 am. Jan spent over a decade serving on the Nevada County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team, specifically working with the ManTracker and Crisis Team sections before transitioning into the Command and Evidence Collection section. To this day, she maintains her first aid certification and emergency first responder training. Her commitment to public safety and community service is admirable, and California's Third Congressional District is fortunate for Jan Cantwell's leadership and involvement. Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Jan Cantwell for her extraordinary efforts to serve her community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Madam Speaker, I rise to encourage President Biden to withdraw the nomination of Julie Su for Secretary of Labor. At this pivotal moment for the American workforce, we need a Secretary of Labor who is on the side of workers.

With Ms. Su's nomination stalled, the Biden administration is currently going to extraordinary lengths to try to save it.

In a story headlined, ``Pressure Mounts to Confirm Julie Su to be Labor Secretary,'' The Washington Post reports that the White House is engaged in a full-court press to confirm Su and has launched a daily war room call to strategize on how to get her confirmed.

The Bloomberg headline reads, ``White House Prods Senate Holdouts to End Stalemate Over DOL's Su,'' reporting that White House officials are launching a final lobbying push to convince undecided Senators to vote for President Biden's embattled Labor Secretary nominee.

Politico's headline reads, ``Biden World Goes to the Mat to Get Julie Su Confirmed,'' reporting that the Biden White House is ramping up its pressure on Senate Democrats and deploying some big guns to get her nomination over the line, saying a full-court press

is on for the Labor nominee as confirmation remains in doubt.

Madam Speaker, if this were a qualified nominee, there would be no need for a full-court press, a war room, or a lobbying push. There would be no need for prodding, ramping up pressure, or going to the mat.

Even at this late hour, we are receiving additional information that further disqualifies Ms. Su from being confirmed. In addition to her track record of gross mismanagement and attacking workers, she has also demonstrated a disrespect for the rule of law.

At a recent hearing I chaired of the Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, a former administrator of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, Tammy McCutchen, testified that the Department of Labor, which is currently led by Acting Secretary Su, is ignoring current law when it comes to classifying independent contractors. Even though the courts have determined that the Trump administration's legal standard, which protects independent contracting, is still the law, this standard, she testified, is nowhere to be found on DOL's website, which instead contains a different set of factors that isn't the law, but that Acting Secretary Su would prefer to enforce because they are designed to deprive freelancers of their livelihoods. Ms. McCutchen testified, ``The DOL's website is providing erroneous information and misleading the public,'' and she further testified that enforcement activity appears to ignore current law as well.

This disregard for the law was a hallmark of Julie Su's tenure in California, where she served as Governor Gavin Newsom's secretary of labor. For instance, a memo recently released by the agency she headed in California shows that Su directed her staff to obstruct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who visited state labor offices. This memo was only obtained, by the way, directly from the California agency after Su repeatedly ignored and refused requests to provide it as part of the confirmation process.

In the memo, Ms. Su provided instructions to her staff for obstructing Federal immigration authorities, writing, ``Labor commissioner staff should not voluntarily permit a Federal immigration agent to enter any part of our office. Staff should ask the agent to leave our office, including the waiting room, and inform the agent that the labor commissioner does not consent to entry or search of any part of our office. Doors that lead to the inner office suite, and office doors that are generally locked or shut, should not be voluntarily opened for the agent.''

In addition to obstructing immigration enforcement in her role as California labor secretary, Ms. Su also defied the will of Congress. At our recent hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, witness Karen Anderson, a leader of independent contractors in California, testified how during the COVID shutdowns, Secretary Su withheld benefits from independent contractors that Congress had provided under the CARES Act.

Ms. Anderson testified that Ms. Su tried to entrap independent contractors into applying for regular State unemployment benefits even though they weren't qualified for them. This was a ploy designed to get independent contractors to characterize their clients as employers, thereby triggering an audit of their businesses under the State's notorious AB 5 law, which Ms. Su was an architect of. This not only placed an additional burden on these small businesses, which were already in many cases on their last legs because of the lockdowns, but it delayed independent workers from receiving the benefits that Congress had authorized and that they were entitled to by law. Even California Congressman Adam Schiff wrote a letter to Su at the time, instructing her to release the benefits as Congress had intended.

Madam Speaker, it is beyond doubt that if confirmed Julie Su would not be a partner of this Congress. She would readily defy the will of Congress and defy the law when it suited her or the administration's purposes. She is manifestly unqualified to lead the United States Department of Labor, and I urge the President to withdraw her nomination.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer congressional recognition to Detective Christopher Drury of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Detective Christopher Drury began his career in 2011 and was hired as a deputy sheriff on call. He was assigned to the Sacramento County Main Jail. Detective Drury was hired as a full-time deputy sheriff in 2013, where he remained assigned to the main jail.

In February 2015, Detective Drury was transferred to the Court Security Division, where he remained until he was transferred to the North Patrol Division in December 2015.

Detective Drury was selected to the Rancho Cordova Police Department in 2017. The Rancho Cordova Police Department is a contracted city that is fulfilled by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. While assigned there, Detective Drury regularly interacted with the community during his shift and answered numerous calls for service.

Detective Drury quickly became known for his tremendous work ethic and commitment to the community. His proactive enforcement of violent crime prevention was highly appreciated and noticed by his supervisors.

In 2019, Detective Drury was selected to be a narcotics detective in the Impact Bureau. The Impact Bureau focuses on large-scale drug trafficking, which operates from Kern County to the Oregon border. Additional duties include the dismantling of drug clandestine labs.

While assigned to the Impact Bureau, Detective Drury has worked several major narcotics investigations, which have led to the seizure of hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. He continues to dismantle large-scale drug trafficking organizations and positively interacts with the community in numerous ways.

Despite having this very demanding position, in his off time, Detective Drury actively contributes to the community. He was a regular volunteer at his children's elementary school. He also volunteers for Sacred Heart Home Tour, which is an organization that raises charity proceeds to help individuals attend private Catholic school. The organization raises roughly $200,000 a year for the charity.

Finally, Detective Drury is involved with the nonprofit Sponsoring True Advocacy for Challenged Youth, or STACY. This nonprofit is an organization advocating for children with special needs and their families through diverse programs and partnerships in the greater Sacramento area.

Mr. Speaker, for these reasons and more, I am honored to include Detective Christopher Drury of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office in the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Secure the border. Mr. Speaker, this isn't something we should have to insist upon. It shouldn't be controversial. It shouldn't be a source of partisan contention. It is a basic and foundational responsibility of government, and one that is currently being neglected like never before with devastating consequences all across the country.

Perhaps the worst of those consequences is the fentanyl crisis. We are seeing staggering amounts of fentanyl pour across the southern border, flooding our communities with illicit and lethal pills killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.

We know exactly where these drugs are coming from. The Biden administration's own Drug Enforcement Agency admits that Mexican-based cartels are responsible for the vast majority of fentanyl and meth that is killing Americans. Just over the past year alone, the DEA seized 193 million deadly doses of fentanyl. This is now the leading cause of death for young people

in our country--more than car accidents and more than suicides--more than anything.

It is affecting every community in our country, including my own. During the State of the Union, I was honored to have as my guests two of the Nation's leading advocates for fentanyl awareness, and those are the parents of a young man named Zach Didier, who tragically lost his life. He was a senior at Whitney High School, a standout student with no history of drug use, and from one pill, he tragically lost his life. His parents had to go through the gut-wrenching experience of seeing him get letters in the mail accepting him to some of our Nation's leading universities after he had passed away.

There simply can be no doubt--it is beyond doubt--that the current failure to secure our border is resulting in tragic and avoidable loss of life every day.

Today, we have a chance to do something about it by passing H.R. 2. This is one of the most important bills that will be considered in the 118th Congress. It is one of the most important pieces of legislation that we will ever vote upon.

It is a comprehensive border security package, Mr. Speaker, and I urge an ``aye'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), who is the chair of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Recognizing Marcus Smith

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the ongoing collapse of one of the world's most beautiful cities.

San Francisco has been deteriorating for years, but it is now in a state of total free fall. In just the last few weeks, Nordstrom announced it is closing its San Francisco stores, which Westfield Mall is blaming on the ``lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.''

Whole Foods Market is closing its flagship mid-market location citing the safety of employees after 568 emergency calls in 13 months.

T-Mobile just announced it is permanently shuttering its flagship location, and Anthropologie and Saks also announced closures this month.

My district starts about 100 miles inland from San Francisco. I have many memories of visiting San Francisco as a child. Tens of thousands of my constituents used to visit every year, visiting Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, riding the trolley cars, going to Giants games, and countless other forms of art, entertainment, and culture.

By and large, that is not the case anymore. People have learned to stay away, and that is because, as the San Francisco Chronicle put it, the city is on ``the verge of collapse.''

Mr. Speaker, let's zoom out for a moment and look at the State of California as a whole. The census recently reported new population estimates for 2022. We lost residents again, dipping below 30 million people. Over the last 3 years, California has lost a net 871,000 people to other States. That is unusual in our history. In fact, prior to 2020, it was unprecedented. For every year on record, going back to 1900, our State's population grew.

Over decades, the Golden State forged an identity of historic significance and was at the leading edge of social, political, and technological progress. Ronald Reagan, in his inaugural address as Governor, said California should never take second place. We were the State where anyone could get ahead.

Now, sadly, we have become the State many can't wait to leave behind. We do lead the Nation, but in all of the wrong ways: Poverty, inequality, taxes, regulation, income stagnation, and, yes, departures.

The decline of California matters not just for people in our State. It is a grave national concern. Beyond being the most populous State in the Union, the identity of California is central to the identity of America. A loss for one is, by definition, a loss for the other.

California's problems are becoming America's problems in a larger sense as well. California's Governor, Gavin Newsom, has touted California as a ``model for the Nation.'' President Biden is taking him at his word. From crime to immigration, to education, to economic and workforce policies, this administration's governing motto might as well be: As California goes, so goes the Nation.

If California offers a preview of where our country is headed if we don't change course, San Francisco offers an even starker warning. Indeed, before he was Governor of California, Newsom was mayor of San Francisco. Fittingly, it was during his red State tour last month, where he left his post as Governor to lecture other States on how to govern themselves, that Newsom's own home city reached the point of total collapse.

Upon his return, Newsom had no choice but to recognize how dire the situation had become, taking the extraordinary step of sending the National Guard into San Francisco. His model for the Nation is one that requires military intervention just to maintain order.

San Francisco is the part of our State where failed policies, radical politics, and public corruption are in their most advanced stage, and where residents are most rapidly fleeing.

In an article headlined ``San Francisco Falls Into the Abyss,'' UCLA economics professor Lee Ohanian writes, ``No major . . . city has failed at the same level as Detroit, whose population dropped from 1.85 million people in 1950 to about 630,000 today. Move over Detroit, here comes San Francisco,'' he writes, ``which lost 6.3 percent of its population between 2019 and 2021, a rate of decline larger than any 2- year period in Detroit's history and unprecedented among any major U.S. city.''

The reasons for this are not a mystery. They are readily apparent, just by visiting and walking around the city. Foremost among them are crime, drug addiction, homelessness, waste, unaffordability, and failing schools, all as a result of failed governance.

Starting with crime, California has essentially legalized many forms of it, making theft of merchandise below $950 a misdemeanor as well as the possession of even class A drugs. In practice, this means offenders are rarely, if ever, prosecuted, and businesses have stopped even reporting losses.

San Francisco's anti-law enforcement policies have dramatically compounded these problems. Under former District Attorney George Gascon, crime rose significantly across the board, including aggravated assault, sexual assault, carjackings, retail theft, and much more.

Gascon's successor, another so-called progressive prosecutor, elected through substantial outside funding, was so reckless in not prosecuting crime that dozens of his own prosecutors quit, and the voters of San Francisco overwhelmingly recalled him from office.

To make matters worse, in 2020, San Francisco defunded the police, shifting $120 million away from law enforcement.

Last year, the Castro Merchants Association, representing 125 businessowners, wrote a scathing letter regarding the city's failure to address the lawlessness around them. One

member said: We are just seeing constant vandalism, constant drug use in public, people passed out on the sidewalk, people having psychotic breakdowns, and it is just not something a small business owner should have to deal with.

One facet of the crime problem, drug use, is now ubiquitous to the sights and sounds of the city. Walking through San Francisco, you will see open drug use and drug dealing, with an open-air drug market that even Gavin Newsom is now sending in the National Guard to disrupt. While California has among the highest rates of illegal drug use in the country, San Francisco is well above the State average. Tragically, the number of overdose deaths has skyrocketed in recent years, from 222 in 2017 to 647 last year.

This only got worse during the COVID shutdowns, as far more people in the city died from overdoses than from COVID. Facing among the most punishing lockdowns in the country, emergency room mental health visits increased substantially, especially for young people.

It certainly doesn't help matters that the supply of drugs is so abundant, thanks to the crisis at our border, and San Francisco declared itself a sanctuary city even before California became a sanctuary State.

Very much connected to the crises of crime, drug use, and mental health is the explosion of homelessness in San Francisco. Once again, while California leads the Nation in homelessness, San Francisco is worst of all. Between 2005 and 2020, the number of homeless increased from 5,404 to 8,124. During that same period, homelessness declined significantly nationwide. Within the 3-year span, complaints of homeless encampments to the city's 311 line increased from 2 to 62 per day, and the share of the homeless population that is unsheltered has also gone up significantly in recent years.

Another feature of the San Francisco landscape that contributes and is a sign of the continuing deterioration is the appearance of waste. Between 2014 and 2018, calls about human feces doubled to 20,933. $100 million was spent on street cleaning in 2019 alone. In a 3-year span, the city replaced 300 lampposts corroded by urine. The overall condition of many areas is something no American should ever have to experience, especially kids, while they are on their way walking to school.

Speaking of schools, San Francisco Unified has the second widest achievement gap of any school district in California with over 5,000 students. A CalMatters investigation from 2017 found that San Francisco had the highest Black student achievement gap of any county in California. Just 19 percent of Black students in San Francisco passed the State's reading test compared to 31 percent statewide, and this was before COVID.

While California was last in the Nation getting students back to school, San Francisco was again worst of all, keeping schools closed not only in 2020, but through the end of the 2020-2021 school year. While they refused to actually operate schools, the district instead spent time on a commission to rename them, even proposing taking Abraham Lincoln's name off of an elementary school. The district then came up with a scheme to scam the State by pretending to open for the last 2 weeks of the school year in order to get millions of dollars in extra funding. Predictably, after these school closures, test scores have since plummeted even further. The citizens of San Francisco responded by recalling three of the school board members from office, each by over 70 percent of the vote.

As if these basic quality of life issues weren't enough, the city has also become completely unaffordable. A survey from The Economist Intelligence Unit found that San Francisco is one of the 10 most expensive cities to live in in the entire world. Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is over $3,500. According to data from the California Association of Realtors, a San Franciscan needs to make nearly $400,000 to buy a median-income home. The cost of utilities, groceries, and other goods is also well above the national average.

At the root of all of these problems is uniquely bad governance. The San Francisco Chronicle put it this way: ``San Francisco's bureaucracy isn't just incompetent and comically inefficient, it is a corrupting force in our city life. Spiritually, yes.'' They wrote, ``But also literally.'' They called it a ``corruption born of needlessly complicated government bureaucracy.''

To take a few examples, it costs an estimated $100,000 to build one tiny home for the homeless in San Francisco. That is 10 times more than even other places in the bay area. It costs almost $1.2 million to build a single unit of affordable housing. It can take 87 permits, 1,000 days of meetings, and $500,000 in fees to build residential housing projects. Recently, San Francisco politicians boasted they had ``brought home the bacon'' by securing $1.7 million in taxpayer dollars for a single toilet.

The public transportation system is a model of mismanagement, with Bay Area Rapid Transit facing a $1.1 billion deficit over 5 years, with trains that are dangerous to ride and that rarely ever show up on time. No wonder ridership has plummeted. The city itself, by the way, is projecting a $728 million deficit over just the next 2 fiscal years.

I don't want to see California, and San Francisco in particular, continue to decline, and I certainly don't want its problems to continue to spread to the rest of the country. The Federal Government provides an abundance of Federal funding to San Francisco, and it must start treating this jurisdiction for what it is: A failed city. With all of this Federal funding going to San Francisco, those funds are often being used in ways that seem to do more harm than good. For future funding, it is important to give extra scrutiny and oversight to how these funds are being used, and the funding should be accompanied by conditions that will stimulate reform.

I believe it is not too late to turn around this city or our State. For proof, you can look at the communities of my district. While California as a whole is declining in population, the vast majority of my district is growing. Placer County and Folsom, for instance, are growing as much as anywhere in California. Our communities are rated among the best in California to live, raise a family, and retire. While California as a State leads the Nation in U-Haul departures, Roseville is the second-place city in the entire country in U-Haul arrivals.

Many of the people leaving San Francisco are coming to my district for safer communities, a more manageable cost of living, better schools, and an overall better quality of life. During the COVID-19 era, we kept our businesses and schools open, got them open earlier than anywhere, avoiding much of the damage experienced across the State, and we also had among the State's best public health outcomes.

We still face the headwinds of misguided policies enacted at the State level, but we strive to use tools of local governance and community partnerships to do what is best for our citizens. This is the model that our State should strive for, and it is the model that many other States are already following. It is the model for our country to reverse the policies that have gotten us so off track in recent years.

In this way, the collapse of San Francisco is a wake-up call, a warning to the Nation about the need for a course correction. I look forward to working with people of good faith on both sides of the aisle to save this beautiful city and to prevent the rest of our country from going down the same path.

Recognizing Brave Law Enforcement Officers

MR. KILEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer congressional recognition to the brave law enforcement officers who work tirelessly and at great personal sacrifice to keep our communities safe. From keeping our schools secure to apprehending violent criminals and protecting our children and citizens from the scourge of drugs, every single American benefits daily from the tremendous dedication and commitment to community exhibited by the men and women who protect and serve.

Unfortunately, in recent years, our police have come under often baseless and sometimes callous criticism that has made an already daunting job all the more difficult to accomplish. In fact, I have personally heard from numerous police chiefs, sheriffs, and other law enforcement leaders from my district in California that these unwarranted attacks and charged rhetoric

are directly posing recruitment challenges in our community and endangering public safety.

This is all the more jarring considering the extent to which our police selflessly give up things you and I regularly take for granted. These individuals are regularly willing to insert themselves into life- threatening situations to protect the life of others, actively pursuing violent felons and other hardened criminals that threaten our most fundamental rights and freedoms, spending evenings and weekends away from their families to serve us. In fact, multiple officers have made the ultimate sacrifice, given up their lives in the line of duty to keep the people of California safe.

Although we can never truly repay the debt we owe to these individuals, at the very least, we owe it to them to do everything in our power to correct the record and shift the public paradigm to return to giving law enforcement the level of respect and honor that they have undeniably earned.

In that spirit, I would like to propose a national congressional police honor roll. Each Member of Congress would accept nominations from local law enforcement leaders in their community and select a handful of outstanding officers, detectives, and sheriffs to recognize on the House floor during National Police Week for their service, sacrifice, and dedication to community.

My office has been receiving nominations for such an honor roll. Today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the time to recognize the individuals I have chosen for the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Mr. Speaker, I offer congressional recognition to Officer Wesley Collins of the Lincoln Police Department.

Officer Collins began his law enforcement career as an explorer in 2001 with the Placer County Sheriff's Office. In 2003, he became a full-time correctional officer with the Placer County Sheriff's Office. He then worked for the Grass Valley Police Department as an officer from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, he joined the Lincoln Police Department, where he has served since that date.

While assigned to the patrol division, Officer Collins assumed the role of range master, providing tactical training to sworn staff and overseeing compliance requirements for the department.

In 2020, Officer Collins applied for and was selected for the assignment of school resource officer. His assignment required him to be a presence at Lincoln High School, interacting with students and assisting staff with a variety of topics. Though the basic needs of the assignment were simple, Officer Collins observed a number of areas that could improve student safety at the school.

Since that time, and primarily in 2022, Officer Collins accomplished the following for Lincoln High School and other schools in the district.

First, he worked with district administration and school staff to assist with school site threat assessments.

Second, he assisted the district in overhauling the school safety plans. This included painting large numbers on the roofs of all buildings for easy identification by air ops and added and will be adding dozens of new security cameras, fencing, and bullet-resistant 3M window film to all sites.

Third, he created a school response binder that contains updated maps with important contact information for all district staff and school locations, along with master keys to all school sites.

He worked with district administration to show the need for STOP THE BLEED kits. He assisted in obtaining over 500 STOP THE BLEED kits for the school sites using COVID medical funds. Every classroom and high- risk area in the district was equipped with a kit, and Officer Collins assisted in training the entire district staff on the use, philosophy, and prepping of the kits with the district's RNs.

He worked with the Lincoln Kiwanis Club to raise $1,000 to purchase STOP THE BLEED kits for John Adams Academy. The kits were delivered to the staff and have been dispersed around the school site.

He created and trained the LPD staff on active-shooter response in 2022, with the assistance of city and school staff.

He worked on creating and teaching the combined active-shooter response training for 2023 with the Lincoln Fire Department to be conducted at LHS.

He built close working relationships with the district staff, from the superintendent down to line staff, and helped rebuild the SRO program. This includes adding a third SRO position for the 2023-2024 school year, which was fully funded by the school district.

He assisted district administration with establishing reunification sites for students and families around the district and city in case of critical incidents.

He gave a comprehensive presentation for the WPUSD board to update them on all the school safety updates that have been accomplished and ones that are being worked on.

He actively conducted youth development network trainings with city and district staff and was given an award by the Lincoln Kiwanis Club for his work with the youth of Lincoln.

He also has become an informal liaison between the LPD and the district and has built relationships with the staff and the school wellness centers to identify and help students with mental health needs. The early intervention and relationship building has created an environment where students can approach him or the staff so they can guide students to help before a true mental health emergency occurs.

I should note that the accomplishments I mentioned are outside of the basic requirements of Officer Collins' assignment. He has a heart for serving the youth of the Lincoln community and has gone far beyond what has been expected of him in this position. He has become a critical asset between the Lincoln Police Department and the school district and has dramatically filled the safety void our district was experiencing.

On a near-weekly basis, he attends meetings, functions, or other school-related events outside of his regular workday. He is a model school resource officer who other school resource officers should strive to emulate.

For these reasons and more, I am honored to include Officer Wesley Collins of the Lincoln Police Department in the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Congressional Recognition of Sheriff Mike Fisher

Mr. Speaker, I offer congressional recognition to Sheriff Mike Fisher of the Sierra County Sheriff's Department.

Sierra County is the second smallest county in California, with a population of about 3,000 individuals. Sheriff Fisher has lived in Sierra County most of his life and has had a significant positive impact on the community.

Sheriff Fisher began his law enforcement career as an explorer from 1986 to 1990 and served as deputy sheriff from 2001 to 2007 and as a detective from 2007 to 2018. He was elected as sheriff in 2018 and has served in that position since.

Sheriff Fisher has a long history of service in Sierra County, and residents showed their appreciation and approval of his work by electing Mike as sheriff for a second term in 2022.

He is truly a hands-on sheriff. In addition to the administrative duties that come with running the sheriff's office, he goes on patrol and EMS calls, bailiffs when needed, and assists with high school senior projects, including a recent Every 15 Minutes program and a mock trial. He recently took over as the Office of Emergency Services supervisor for Sierra County, as well.

Sheriff Fisher has extensive training and experience in locating and eradicating illegal marijuana grows in Sierra County and is skillful in doing overflights to spot the illegal grows and obtain search warrants. He has a pilot's license and is a drone operator.

Since taking office, Sheriff Fisher has made significant improvements, including extensive training for deputies, new radios, and new vehicles.

He is also very organized and levelheaded. Sierra County had its first murder in 20 years in July 2020, which required assistance from outside agencies. He was able to coordinate numerous agencies, and the suspect was successfully apprehended.

Sheriff Fisher is familiar with all areas of our rural county and is able to supervise our somewhat frequent search and rescue activities.

Our county is known for outdoor activities and is home to the Downieville Downhill, a mountain bike race. We also have a few mountain bikers who

go off-trail, and Sheriff Fisher seems to know where they are. In addition, he is an avid fly fisher and knows all the great spots for fishing.

Sierra County also has a marine patrol, off-highway vehicles, including snowmobiles, and a new canine unit, which was implemented during Sheriff Fisher's first term.

For his dedication to Sierra County, organizational leadership, and selflessness in helping his neighbors, I am honored to include Sheriff Mike Fisher of the Sierra County Sheriff's Office in the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Congressional Recognition of Sergeant Dave Scobie

Mr. Speaker, I offer congressional recognition to Sergeant Dave Scobie of the Bishop Police Department.

Sergeant Dave Scobie was promoted to his current rank in March 2022. Sergeant Scobie began his career in the Mammoth Lakes Police Department in 2004 and also worked for the Mono County Sheriff's Department prior to joining the Bishop force.

Sergeant Scobie is married with two children. When not working as a member of the Bishop Police Department, he is active with the local Boy Scouts.

Sergeant Scobie has also been involved with the Eastern Sierra Shop with a Cop program since 2012 and has taken charge and spearheaded the annual event since 2015. This event provides holiday gifts to local children and their families from Mono and Inyo Counties. Since the inception of the program, there have been over 500 children and their families who have participated in the event. Despite the restrictions of the COVID pandemic and the loss of the only department store in Bishop, Sergeant Scobie still managed to ensure the Shop with a Cop program was successful.

For going above and beyond to deliver results for the Eastern Sierra, I am honored to include Sergeant Dave Scobie of the Bishop Police Department in the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Congressional Recognition of Detective Ken Nakamura

Mr. Speaker, I offer congressional recognition to Detective Ken Nakamura of the Roseville Police Department.

Detective Nakamura began his law enforcement career in 1999 with the San Jose Police Department. He worked for SJPD for 2 years, assigned to their patrol division.

In 2001, Ken Nakamura began his employment with the Roseville Police Department. Detective Nakamura began his career with RPD working in the patrol division until 2005 and during this 4-year timeframe was awarded numerous awards, along with the 10851 pin, which is the Stolen Vehicle Award for apprehensions and stolen vehicle recoveries.

In 2005, Detective Nakamura was assigned to our crime suppression unit and worked in CSU until 2010. Detective Nakamura was a driving force of the unit and vital in the team's mission to make Roseville a safer place for its citizens.

Detective Nakamura was a gang investigator and worked hundreds of cases that resulted in arrests of violent felons and drug dealers. The impact that he had while working in CSU is still unmatched to this day.

From 2010 to 2013, Detective Nakamura worked in a uniform patrol capacity. He was assigned as a field training officer. In that capacity, he was able to instill his experience and work ethic in our newly hired officers.

From 2013 to 2018, Detective Nakamura was assigned to our investigations unit. He worked both property and crimes against persons cases, and his tenacity with his investigations led to hundreds of arrests during his tenure in investigations.

From 2019 to the present, he has been assigned as the Roseville Police Department's threat assessment detective. As a threat assessment detective, he is assigned cases of high priority that usually involve persons that are a high risk to society.

Detective Nakamura's caseload varies but includes the following: stalking cases, domestic violence, threats to the public, and threats to schools and places of worship.

While working as a threat assessment detective, he saw the need to form a threat assessment committee of law enforcement agencies in Placer County. Detective Nakamura was the leader and the driving force to start this threat assessment committee. The TAC is a committee formed in cooperation with the Placer County District Attorney's Office. This allows all law enforcement agencies to meet on a regular basis to discuss individuals that are of concern and a threat to the community.

The TAC is a tremendous benefit to all agencies in Placer County since we know that criminals who pose risks to the public do not commit crimes within a geographical boundary.

Detective Nakamura developed a plan and process as to why the TAC would be beneficial to our county and held a meeting to propose its formation to allied agencies in the county. The stakeholders from around Placer County agreed with him and saw the need for the TAC, which was founded in 2021.

I commend Detective Nakamura for bringing the TAC to reality and working with stakeholders of multiple disciplines to make this happen. Since its inception, it has grown into something that all agencies are now participating in, in Placer County.

Detective Nakamura has made countless arrests during his time as a threat assessment detective. His investigations have made the public safer by taking dangerous criminals off the streets, folks that commit acts of violence.

Detective Nakamura was also the driving force to bring behavioral threat assessment management to the Roseville Joint Union High School District. This process was presented to all district employees in 2022 and will help all RJUHSD employees identify threats to individual high school campuses, making our kids who attend these schools safer.

Detective Nakamura was an instructor and presenter of the BTAM when it rolled out in 2022. In addition to being a BTAM instructor, Detective Nakamura is also a certified master trainer for the Department of Homeland Security regarding behavioral threat assessment and management.

For these reasons and more, I am honored to include Detective Ken Nakamura of the Roseville Police Department in the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Officer Chad Quirarte Congressional Recognition

Mr. Speaker, I offer congressional recognition to Officer Chad Quirarte of the Roseville Police Department.

Officer Quirarte started his career with the Roseville Police Department in 2019 and was assigned to the patrol division. Officer Quirarte was a very proactive officer and made countless arrests for property crimes, DUIs, drug arrests, and violent crimes, as well. While working in our patrol division, Officer Quirarte received several commendations for his efforts.

In 2021, Officer Quirarte was selected to work as a school resource officer assigned to Adelante High School, which is now called Pathways High School.

The student population at this school includes the kids who did not meld well with a comprehensive campus site. Students at Pathways have not had access to sports equipment and sports programs, so Officer Quirarte has been a champion for this effort by raising money for the students to compete in high school sports events. During his tenure, Officer Quirarte has also had a significant impact at Adelante.

To take one example, Officer Quirarte saw the need for a sports program on his high school campus. It was driven not just by the need for physical activity for the kids, but also as a way to get the students engaged in school and do well academically. This approach built a great relationship between Officer Quirarte and the students at his school with a segment of students who might have otherwise had issues with law enforcement.

Additionally, Officer Quirarte's goal was to have flag football, basketball, baseball, and softball on campus starting in 2021. However, there was no funding for these sports programs. Officer Quirarte worked with Bayside Adventure Church, and they donated $5,000 to the school, which fully funded the sports program.

From the beginning of the sports programs through that year, Officer Quirarte could see a change in the athletes as people, and there were positive changes in their academics as well.

In 2022, Officer Quirarte received the California Continuing Education Association PLUS School Resource Officer of the Year award. The school staff at Adelante High School nominated him for this award due to his unique approach to his duties as an SRO.

These duties included developing a new sports program, securing funds and transportation for sporting teams, organizing games, and most importantly, helping to include kids from all walks of life in the sports program so they can feel a sense of belonging and achievement.

What is even more amazing is the associated statistical data regarding student grades. Since the sports teams were developed, Adelante staff noticed better student performance and a rise in student GPAs.

In December of 2022, Officer Quirarte worked with Tilton Pacific Construction in Rocklin on a year-end Christmas charity fund drive for a local charity. Tilton Pacific knew of the need for additional funding for the sports programs at Pathways High School. Due to Officer Quirarte's efforts, they raised $22,000 for the sports programs at Pathways High School, which will fund these programs for the next couple of years.

Officer Quirarte has had an impact on his campus outside of athletics, as well. He has helped several students on and off campus that have been in mental health crisis. Due to Officer Quirarte's efforts, these students were able to receive services for their individual issues. In one case, Officer Quirarte worked with a local business to get mattresses delivered to a student's house because the student did not have a bed to sleep on at night.

Officer Quirarte has the most challenging students in the district that attend his high school. Due to Officer Quirarte's efforts, he has made an impact on campus and has changed lives in a positive manner.

For these reasons and more, I am honored to include Officer Chad Quirarte of the Roseville Police Department in the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll.

Mr. Speaker, I should note that in addition to the five law enforcement officials recognized, there were several others that were chosen for the Third District of California's Police Honor Roll that, due to the sensitive nature of their work, would not be appropriate to recognize in a highly public setting.

On behalf of the Third District of California, I extend my most profound thanks and gratitude to the officers included in this inaugural Police Honor Roll.

Additionally, I invite my colleagues to join me in the future to expand the Congressional Police Honor Roll program.

Welcoming Bosch to Third Congressional District of California

Mr. Speaker, I would acknowledge some very noteworthy individuals, organizations, and occasions in my district.

Mr. Speaker, I welcome a groundbreaking investment in our community's economy by tech and consumer goods manufacturer, Bosch.

Bosch recently acquired the Roseville-based chipmaker, TSI Semiconductors, and announced plans to invest $1.2 billion into the existing Roseville facility.

This major investment will significantly expand their production of silicon carbide chips, create good-paying jobs and opportunities throughout the entire region, and position Roseville as a regional leader in receiving investment from a rapidly growing business sector producing cutting-edge technology.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Bosch's leadership prior to the investment announcement and now wish to publicly convey a warm welcome on behalf of California's Third Congressional District.

In choosing to invest in Placer County, Bosch has selected a community where local government is strongly supportive of creating jobs and opportunities for investment, where citizens enjoy a high quality of life, and where private sector investments in the economy have a strong track record of paying off for both businesses and the broader region.

I will continue to encourage businesses to choose to invest in the people of California's Third Congressional District to help grow our economy, create more middle-class jobs, and expand opportunities for our residents.

National Teacher Appreciation Week

Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of National Teacher Appreciation Week, I wish to take a moment to recognize the outstanding educators of California's Third Congressional District.

The communities I represent offer both outstanding public and private school education to our students due in large part to the dedication, sacrifice, and hard work of our community's teachers.

On behalf of our community, I thank you for all you do to position our students to succeed in the workforce and participate in our democracy as active and informed citizens.

As a former high school teacher myself, teaching 10th grade English, I understand the unique challenges our educators face and the level of passion and dedication it can take to help students succeed. In fact, from those experiences, I am committed to supporting educators in every way I can.

Most recently, I partnered with the Library of Congress to host a special townhall for educators in order to bring the vast resources, collections, and curriculum materials the Library offers to local teachers in California.

If you are an educator, I encourage you to reach out to my office or visit Kiley.house.gov for Federal resources available to local teachers.

Mr. Speaker, again, on behalf of the Third Congressional District of California, I thank educators for their commitment and dedication to positively impacting our youth.

Celebrating the 100th Annual Portuguese Holy Ghost Festa

Mr. Speaker, I wish to celebrate the 100th Annual Lincoln Portuguese Holy Ghost Festa. The Portuguese Holy Ghost Festa is a celebration cherished by the community and looked forward to by all who call Lincoln home.

For 100 years, with the exception of World War II and the COVID years, the Associacao Portuguesa do Divino Espirito Santo--APDES for short--has hosted the festa in accordance with the rich history and tradition of Portugal. The multifaceted, weekend-long festa kicks off on the 5th weekend after Easter with a candlelit procession from a designated member's home. After a weekend of festivities and ceremony, it concludes with a parade, sopas served to all at McBean Park, and a dinner consisting of the traditional Portuguese dish, bacalhau.

Every year, the members and volunteers of the APDES work tirelessly to make this festa happen. Without their love and dedication, Lincoln's festa would not have been sustained throughout the past century.

I wish to express gratitude and thanks on behalf of the Third Congressional District of California for the hard work and dedication of the APDES in enriching our community with this cherished event.

Celebrating the 130th Anniversary of City of Rocklin

Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and celebrate the 130th anniversary of the city of Rocklin.

For generations of Californians, Rocklin has offered a strong quality of life for residents and welcomed visitors from all walks of life.

As a Rocklin resident myself, I personally know what a special, tight-knit community this truly is. From a friendly business environment to world-class parks and recreation, stellar schools, and exceptional local services such as utilities, transportation, and public safety, Rocklin is a place over 70,000 residents are proud to call home.

It is also no accident that Rocklin has become a place that so many people want to move to. I thank the outstanding community members who work tirelessly to ensure Rocklin continues to maintain a high quality of life as well as the current and past leaders of Rocklin that have shaped the city into what it is today.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the city of Rocklin's 130th anniversary.

Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Auburn Symphony

Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Auburn Symphony.

For decades, the Auburn Symphony has served as the premier community

orchestra of Placer County and has engaged and enriched Auburn and the broader region with the gift of music for over 35 years.

The symphony originally began as the dream of local musician Monroe DeJarnette, who, despite the immense challenges of forming a community orchestra in a small town, partnered with Bruce Cosgrove of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce to make that dream a reality.

From there, the orchestra continued to grow and benefit the community. In fact, its programs have reached over 100,000 students in Placer County over the years.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the Auburn symphony for 35 years of benefiting our community.

Recognizing the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation

Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation for their Big Day of Service.

Last Saturday, I personally witnessed the foundation bring together hundreds upon hundreds of community members to work on 50 different service projects in the Sacramento area.

As someone who was raised in Orangevale, it was especially heartening to see individuals who exhibit the kindness, generosity, and selflessness that unites our community to prioritize the needs of others and coming together to serve their neighbors.

Even in just one weekend, their work made a profound and noticeable impact by completing many necessary regional projects. It is the active and engaged citizens, like the volunteers I spoke with, and the leaders of the foundation, who make the Sacramento region such a great place to call home.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation for their hard work and dedication to our community that was exhibited throughout the Big Day of Service.

Recognizing The Alliance: Defending the Cause of Kids & Families

Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize The Alliance: Defending the Cause of Kids & Families for their contribution and dedication to creating a supportive network of care for youth and families.

The Alliance is a group of churches, nonprofits, professionals, and agencies working to ensure all kids grow up in a safe, loving family.

For years, The Alliance has served countless foster youth, adoptive families, single parents, families in crisis, children who have experienced trauma, and refugees resettling locally in the Sacramento area.

In fact, for their efforts, The Alliance was recently recognized by the Sacramento District Small Business Administration as the 2023 nonprofit of the year.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize The Alliance for their hard work and dedication to our community.

In Recognition of Don Ashton on His Retirement

Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize retiring El Dorado County Chief Administrative Officer Don Ashton for his years of service to El Dorado County.

Don has served the people of El Dorado for more than a decade, most recently as CAO, and never wavered from his goal of making the county a better place.

Throughout Don's tenure, El Dorado County endured department head shakeups, COVID-19, and a series of catastrophic wildfires, most notably, the Caldor fire and recent Mosquito fire.

No matter the challenge, Don provided steady leadership to help the county weather every challenge it faced. Don also achieved many long- term county goals over the years, including financing and constructing the new sheriff's headquarters, improving various parks, and acquiring facilities on the West Slope and in South Lake Tahoe that will bolster the county's ability to serve the public.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Don Ashton for the steady, stable leadership and years of service he has provided to the people of El Dorado County.

Recognizing Sergeant Eric Dollar on His Retirement From Rocklin Police

Department

Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize Sergeant Eric Dollar of the Rocklin Police Department.

Sergeant Dollar has served the people of California for almost 30 years as a law enforcement officer, with the last 23 in Rocklin.

Throughout his career, Sergeant Dollar took care to mentor younger officers, served many special assignments, including crime scene investigation and narcotics, and was continually recognized by the department for his leadership. In fact, he was among the first five individuals promoted to corporal in Rocklin's century-long history. After decades of service and sacrifice, Sergeant Dollar has made the decision to retire from the Rocklin Police Department.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Sergeant Eric Dollar for his dedication to the community and the years of service he has provided to the people of Rocklin.

Recognizing William Jessup University Nursing Program

Mr. Speaker, I wish to take a moment to celebrate and congratulate William Jessup University for the successful launch of their Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program.

This past weekend, over 100 community members gathered at William Jessup's campus in Rocklin to honor this achievement. Jessup's program is especially noteworthy considering the nursing shortage in our community.

This new program provides state-of-the-art education and training facilities, including an innovative simulation lab with mannequins that talk and breathe for live simulation with their students that will equip the next generation of nurses with the tools they need to deliver exceptional care to individuals in need.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize William Jessup University for the service provided to our community through their new program.

Congratulating Tina Basich Haller, Local Snowboarding Legend

Mr. Speaker, I take this moment to celebrate and congratulate local snowboarding legend, Tina Basich Haller, for her official induction into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.

Along with her longtime friend Shannon Dunn, Basich Haller is the first female snowboarder to receive this honor and serves as an inspiration and role model to countless young women in Nevada County and beyond.

Throughout her snowboarding year, she won the 1998 X-Games by landing the first 720 in competition and served as a snowboarding pioneer in that sport's infancy.

Her commitment to her community, including giving back to the Nevada Union Snowboarding team and cofounding Boarding For Breast Cancer, is also truly inspirational.

On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Tina Basich Haller for her groundbreaking accomplishments and commitment to Nevada County.

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

Mr. Speaker, with the departure of Marty Walsh from the Labor Department, President Biden has nominated Deputy Secretary Julie Su to succeed him.

For those of us in California, this decision was very hard to understand. Ms. Su's record as our State's labor secretary under Governor Gavin Newsom is well known because it had such negative consequences for so many people.

Having seen my constituents suffer at the hands of Ms. Su's mismanagement and antiworker agenda, I have felt compelled to make sure the facts come to light in the confirmation process.

As chair of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, I held a hearing last week highlighting the countless livelihoods she destroyed as secretary of labor in California.

Mr. Speaker, I don't want the rest of the country to suffer the way California has. Our State had the highest unemployment rate for much of the

COVID era. We had the Nation's highest poverty rate. In recent years, we have been last in the country in income growth and first in the country in U-Haul rentals.

I am joined today by several colleagues who don't want this for their States or for the rest of the country. They have joined us here for this Special Order to discuss what a Julie Su-led Labor Department would mean for their constituents and to urge President Biden to withdraw this nomination.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Moran for his comments.

He really hit the nail on the head, that if this nomination goes through, it is hardworking Americans--millions of American workers--who will pay the price.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Good for his remarks. His point about making the rest of the country like California is explicitly what they are trying to do here.

President Biden has cited the labor law that Julie Su was in charge of enforcing in California as his model for labor relations nationwide. In fact, the Labor Department is now trying to emulate it in order to cause the same harm to all American workers that California workers have already suffered.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Miller for her remarks. She brings up a very important

point. With everything that has been going on with the economy and everything that happened during COVID, it really is stunning that we had people in positions of power like Julie Su who are looking for reasons to deny people the opportunity to work.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens), who is also part of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Owens for those very on-point remarks. He said it very well, that this nominee is antibusiness, antigrowth, and antiworker, as well.

I think it is important for us to have a sense of perspective here that this is such a vital moment and a moment of vital importance for the American workforce. We are coming out of an era of unprecedented upheaval, and we are heading toward an era of, in many ways, unpredictable transformation.

For the top labor position in America, we need a Secretary who is competent and qualified, who is proworker and pro-small businesses, who will work with Democrats and Republicans alike, who is fair, and who understands what has made the American workforce the greatest engine for human progress the world has ever known.

Simply put, Julie Su is not that person. Her record in California makes that all too clear. Indeed, during the pandemic, Julie Su and her Employment Development Department, known as the EDD, became the national poster child for government failure.

I saw this firsthand as a State representative. Millions of Californians had their legitimate unemployment claims wrongfully withheld for weeks, months, or sometimes indefinitely under Su's mismanagement.

You don't need to take my word for that. In July of 2020, 61 of the 80 members of the California Assembly, mostly Democrats, wrote the following:

``In our fifth month of the pandemic, with so many constituents yet to receive a single unemployment payment, it's clear that EDD is failing California:

``Millions of our constituents have had no income for months. As Californians wait for answers from EDD, they have depleted their life savings, have gone into extreme debt, and are in deep panic as they figure out how to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.''

The lawmakers went on to explain how the EDD, under Su's management time and again, failed to take responsibility and failed to correct its mistakes. They wrote that they had been met with long-winded excuses, fumbling answers, or unclear and inconsistent data, along with a lack of transparency and accountability, obfuscation and dishonesty in their dealings with Su's agency.

We have exhausted all avenues at our disposal, they said, as the agency has addressed only a few of the many issues we have highlighted for months and was only scratching the surface of the disaster that is

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. McCormick for his words. Indeed, the President should pick someone else. Almost anyone else.

What is so really puzzling, mind-boggling about this nomination is that the President has chosen to elevate the one person in the country who presided over a fraud on this scale, the single worst performing Secretary of Labor of any State in the country.

Why would he do that?

That brings us to the final facet of Ms. Su's tenure that I wish to discuss and that Mr. McCormick touched upon as well, which is her ruthless enforcement of the labor law known as AB 5, which President Biden has cited as his model for the Nation.

Su's historic failure to deliver unemployment checks to millions of Californians along with her allowance of this massive fraud is disqualifying in its own right, but I actually think it is her mistreatment of California workers that is most concerning of all.

AB 5 was a law passed in California in 2019. It rendered countless independent professionals unable to earn a living in our State. Writers, interpreters, court reporters, musicians, language pathologists, photographers, forensic nurses, people in literally hundreds of other professions were told they were no longer allowed to practice their profession and serve their clients as they had been doing their whole careers.

Instead, their only option was to find a single hiring entity to monopolize their services and make them a W-2 employee. For many, that simply was not possible, and so they lost everything.

Take, for example, a woman named Jodie, who said: I worked years to gain my skills as an American Sign Language interpreter. It was my goal since I was 9 years old. After AB 5, I lost all three of my agencies. The dream I worked for is lost. I can't provide for my family, and thousands of California deaf won't be serviced.

Andy said: I work with underserved artists of color. None of my career as an artist, technician, designer, and producer would have been possible under AB 5. Artists of color will be less able to create their own work in a field that doesn't favor them.

Jared said: AB 5 forced me to shut down my business. I went from making $80,000 a year in home services to a minimum wage employee. My family trade is gone. I have gone from working 4 days a week to spend time with my kids to not knowing if I can make ends meet working 7 days.

Kathy said: I am a 71-year-old transcriber. I raised six kids and went to work in my 40s, but I had to retire at 62 due to health issues. I depend on my at-home transcription pay to survive and pay my bills. For 8 years, I did okay, until AB 5.

Julie Su has been called an architect of this law, and she is supporting a Federal version that is estimated to cost millions of American workers their livelihoods. After her enactment in California-- and this is the important thing, given that this is now percolating up into Federal law--she used her position as labor secretary to broaden the destructive impact of the law by enforcing it as aggressively as possible.

In fact--and I think this is maybe the most concerning thing--she exploited the COVID-19 shutdowns to hammer the law in even more. She continued with harassing audits, trying to find businesses to hit with fines and penalties. I personally asked the EDD to stop doing this during the COVID shutdowns, and they refused to do so, continuing to target small businesses.

She even defied the will of Congress in the process. Congress had provided benefits to independent contractors through the CARES Act, but put States in charge of distributing those benefits. Under Julie Su, the EDD wrongfully withheld those benefits, as she aimed to exploit the sudden need that independent contractors had to interface with her department. She wanted them to go through the regular unemployment channel, which they weren't supposed to go through, so that she could get access to information that could be used then to conduct more audits and go after more small businesses and to put more people out of work.

You don't need to take my word for this, either. California Congressman Adam Schiff wrote a letter to Secretary Su in April of 2020 rebuking her for failing to release the benefits independent contractors were owed under the CARES Act and requesting urgently that she do so.

Now, tellingly, with Julie Su's confirmation for Secretary of Labor now appearing to be in doubt, her backers are making a last-ditch attempt to save her nomination by absurdly trying to dissociate her from AB 5. None other than the author of AB 5 itself, a major Su backer who now leads the California Labor Federation, told the L.A. Times that Su ``was not involved with the bill at all.''

Yet Su, in her own words, after the law was passed, described in detail her plans for enforcing AB 5 as California labor secretary: ``So we will be doing investigations and audits,'' she said, threatening fines and penalties, ``so that those who want to comply with the need to reclassify can do so and those who don't will understand that's not the kind of economy we want in California.''

``Not the kind of economy we want in California,'' those are her words. Julie Su didn't want an economy in California where you can pursue your own calling, support your family on your own terms, and thrive. She doesn't want that for America, either. That is why Joe Biden has selected her for Labor Secretary, to wage his war on independent contractors, and we simply cannot let that happen.

In closing, there are many, many organizations across the country who have expressed their opposition to the nomination and confirmation of Julie Su for Labor Secretary. I will just list some of them: there is the Air Conditioning Contractors of America; American Hotel and Lodging Association; American Trucking Associations; Americans for Tax Reform; Associated Builders and Contractors; Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers; Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise; Coalition of Franchisee Associations; Consumer Technology Association; Franchise Business Services; Flex Association; Heating, Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International; Independent Bakers Association; Independent Electrical Contractors; Institute for the American Worker; International Franchise Association; International Warehouse Logistics Association; Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed; Leading Builders of America; National Armored Car Association; National Association of Home Builders; National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors; National Council of Chain Restaurants; National Federation of Independent Business; National Franchisee Association; International Franchise Association; National Grocers Association; National Ready Mixed Concrete Association; National Restaurant Association; Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association; DoorDash; Lyft; Competitive Enterprise Institute; TechNet; Fight for Freelancers; Freelancers Against AB5; California Business and Industrial Alliance; Workplace Policy Institute; Job Creators Network; Institute for the American Worker.

You have also had State-level associations weigh in in opposition: for example, in Arizona, the Builders Alliance; Construction Trades; Franchise Action Network; Lodging and Tourism Association; Restaurant Association; Small Business Association; Transportation Builders Association; Trucking Association; and the Independent Electrical Contractors.

In West Virginia, you have the Associated Builders and Contractors; Independent Electrical Contractors Chesapeake; the Franchise Action Network; the Hospitality and Travel Association; the Manufacturers Association; Oil Marketers and Grocers Association; Retailers Association; and Trucking Association.

I encourage Members of the United States Senate to join this broad coalition of small businesses and workers across the country who know that we deserve and need better than the Secretary of Labor.

I urge Members of the United States Senate to reject this nomination, and I urge the President to appoint a Secretary of Labor who will be on the side of American workers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).

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