Floor Statements

Mr. Chair, due to illness, I was unable to be present today. Had I been present, I would have voted: ``nay'' on rollcall No. 134, ``nay'' on rollcall No. 135, ``nay'' on rollcall No. 136, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 137, ``nay'' on rollcall No. 138, and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 139.

Mr. Speaker, due to illness, I was unable to be present today. Had I been present, I would have voted: ``yea'' on rollcall No. 132 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 133.

Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Mr. Chair, our healthcare workforce is stretched to capacity after having spent now 3 years on the front lines of the pandemic, and add to that recent spikes in RSV and flu.

Our hospitals have been overpacked, with a shortage of available beds and a real worry and sometimes a reality that there won't be room in a hospital if we get sick or injured.

Due to stress and burnout, hospitals across the country are experiencing staff shortages. What healthcare workers and hospital workers really don't need right now is more stress on an already stressed system, and that is exactly what this bill will do.

As we all know, and as I can tell you, as a pediatrician, people who are not vaccinated have a significantly higher risk of being hospitalized if they contract COVID. Why in the world would we invite people from around the world to come to visit the United States without that protection and then put our hospital systems at further risk of overcrowding and collapse? Not to mention the higher risk of getting and spreading the disease around our country or even potentially bringing new variants to our shores.

Vaccination is safe. I speak as a doctor. It is effective in keeping people out of hospitals and curbing transmission. We should rightly expect that those traveling to the United States get immunized because we should not risk further stressing an already strained healthcare system.

It was only a few months ago when hospitals in my State, in Washington State, were full. Patients with life-threatening illnesses, bleeds, life-threatening injuries had to be flown to distant cities to get care. Whatever we can do to prevent that from happening again, we should do. Making sure we get vaccinated and insisting that those visiting our country get vaccinated help do just that.

Public health decisions should be made by doctors and public health professionals based on data, not by Members of Congress for political expediency.

This bill is a political stunt. It has no basis in science. It fails to recognize the reality that our hospitals are facing right now and that any one of us might face if a loved one needs a hospital bed and that bed is not available. Please leave public health decisions to public health professionals.

Mr. Chair, I include in the Record the text of my amendment.

Ms. Schrier moves to recommit the bill H.R. 185 to the

Committee on Energy and Commerce with instructions to report

the same back to the House forthwith, with the following

amendment:

Add at the end the following new section:

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Bellevue Police Officer Jordan Jackson, who tragically died while on duty on November 21st.

Officer Jackson was born in Spokane, Washington and attended Issaquah High School, then later attended Central Washington University. Even before his life as a police officer, Officer Jackson devoted his life to public service as a first responder. He was an EMT, volunteer firefighter, and a member of the King County Sheriffs Office Search and Rescue Volunteer K-9 Unit.

Officer Jackson was commended by the department for his leadership and enthusiasm to take on more responsibility and was recently awarded Employee of the Quarter for his excellent quality of work and service to the community.

Officer Jackson resided in Cle Elum and was known as a family man who volunteered often for community events and was always proud to show off his motorcycle to all the kids. He was an avid cyclist and previously worked at the ReCycle Bicycle Shop in Ellensburg. He is survived by his wife Kelsey and his two young children. Our community will miss him dearly, and I am so grateful for his lifelong service and dedication.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the lives of two outstanding Eighth District residents.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to honor the legacy of Carmen Louise Bossenbrock who passed away on July 31, 2022, at the age of 94. Carmen was a pioneering figure in the fight against polio, a tireless community advocate, and a beloved lifelong Wenatchee Valley resident.

As the polio epidemic rampaged across Washington State, Carmen became a medical leader in the Wenatchee Valley. Working at Deaconess Hospital and later Central Washington Hospital as a physical therapist, Carmen was often the only thing standing between polio patients and debilitating paralysis.

For 2 years, in the thick of the epidemic, she was the only licensed physical therapist practicing in north central Washington. As patients flooded through her doors, Carmen devoted herself to the recovery of hundreds of patients. As a reflection of her tireless leadership, Carmen became the head of physical therapy at Central Washington Hospital until her retirement.

Carmen remained a tireless advocate against polio in her later career. She was an active member of the Wenatchee Rotary Club--one of the first women to join. There she passionately led fundraising for global vaccine programs to ensure no family would have to experience the devastation of polio.

Friends remember Carmen as a pillar of the community, splitting her time between her beloved pear orchard in Dryden and her mission to eradicate polio.

We are deeply grateful for Carmen's service. Her legacy will forever be a part of the Wenatchee Valley and Washington State. I join Carmen's family and friends in mourning their loss of an extraordinary woman.

Honoring the Life of Gunnery Sergeant Arthur Branson Summers

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share the story of Gunnery Sergeant Arthur Branson Summers, a U.S. marine killed in action in World War II. After 76 years, his body has returned home to his family members and has been laid to rest in East Wenatchee, Washington.

Gunnery Sergeant Summers of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was killed in the winter of 1943 in the Betio Island battle with Japanese forces. Sadly, Summers was 1 of 1,000 servicemembers who died that day and 1 of almost 500 whose remains were never found. Tragically for his family, friends, and loved ones, they were deemed nonrecoverable in 1949.

But this changed in 2009 thanks to the tireless work of the nonprofit organization History Flight. After a small piece of military rain poncho was found near the site, History Flight began excavations in 2009 and discovered the body of Gunnery Sergeant Summers along with several other lost servicemembers. His remains were brought home to his family, nephews David and Donald McCannel. He received an honorable burial in East Wenatchee, Washington.

Gunnery Sergeant Arthur Branson Summers answered our Nation's call at a time of great need, and for his service, valor, and sacrifice, we are forever thankful.

I would like to recognize History Flight for their work to return Summers to his home and to thank David and Donald McCannel and their families for providing Gunnery Sergeant Summers an honorable burial on American soil.

On behalf of a grateful Nation and the entire Eighth District, we are proud to have Gunnery Sergeant Summers in his final resting place in East Wenatchee, Washington.

Honoring the Issaquah All-Stars and the Bonney Lake/Sumner Little

League Teams

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to honor some tremendous young athletes. The Eighth District had not one but two teams representing our State at the Little League World Series. The Issaquah All-Stars represented the northwest region at the Little League Softball World Series, and the Bonney Lake/Sumner Little League team, at

the baseball Little League World Series.

Mr. Speaker, I am so proud of these young athletes who represented our district and State so well on the national stage. Congratulations to them and their families on their success.

Madam Speaker, I am so excited to vote today for this climate and healthcare bill, and here is why: This bill is the answer to the questions that my constituents have been asking since day one.

Here is what I am hearing:

Dr. Schrier, you have diabetes, too. I can't afford my insulin. I am having to ration at the end of the month. Won't you do something about it?

Well, here is the answer: $35-a-month insulin.

Dr. Schrier, I am a senior. I have a fixed income. I can't afford these high drug prices. Why can't Medicare negotiate them?

Well, here is your answer: Medicare getting the power to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs.

Also: Dr. Schrier, I am a senior. There are too many out-of-pocket costs for me.

This caps them at $2,000.

And finally, right now, we have fires burning in Washington State. And I have farmers who have seen reduced crop yields because of extreme heat.

They say: Dr. Schrier, can't you do something about climate?

And here is the answer: The biggest investment in climate solutions that we have ever had.

This bill brings relief. It brings financial relief to families who are feeling the high inflation in gas prices.

And you know how it does it? By finally making sure that the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share of taxes, and it does it without raising tax on middle-class families.

Madam Speaker, I am so excited about this bill because it answers the requests of the people I represent, and that is why I am so excited to vote for it today.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, we are seeing increasingly catastrophic wildfires in the West, including in my home State of Washington. Last year, more than 50,000 acres burned in just one of the counties in the Eighth District that I represent. This was a record-breaking wildfire season with abnormally dry conditions. But this type of wildfire season is expected to become more and more the norm.

We need to ensure that we have more resources at our disposal to confront them. The earlier we detect wildfire, the more quickly our firefighters can respond, and my amendment does just that.

A lot of our effort in fighting wildfires has correctly been focused on suppression and prevention. But as our climate continues to change and catastrophic wildfires burn hotter and seasons last longer, we need a whole-of-government approach to address wildfires.

My amendment would further enhance the contributions of Federal science agencies as part of the National Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Program. The amendment would also require an annual post fire-season weather survey and assessment. These activities will help to identify data gaps, enhance efficiency and reliability of data, and evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of our fire weather forecasting.

My amendment will also formalize NOAA's role in wildfire detection and response. In Chelan County, in my district, there is a radar gap which makes it much more difficult to predict and track extreme weather. This gap also impacts our ability to track fires--something that is particularly critical to wildfire prone central Washington.

The language in my amendment builds off legislation I recently introduced with my colleague, Congressman Bera, H.R. 8449, the Fire Ready Nation Act, which is the House companion to Senator Cantwell's bipartisan bill. This bill would codify and support NOAA's ability to help detect and respond to wildfires.

My amendment will strengthen contributions of our weather science agencies like NOAA to improve coordination and response efforts when it comes to fighting fires. This will be particularly impactful in areas like my district which lack robust radar coverage.

As part of the needed whole-of-government response to wildfires, I am glad that the underlying bill includes language from two of my other bills. One, from my National Prescribed Fire Act, would direct the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to establish at least one prescribed fire training center in a Western State.

Prescribed burns during the offseason for fire allow for fuel reduction and prevent catastrophic forest fires. More training means more widespread use of prescribed fire. A recent report from the Washington Department of Natural Resources identified 3 million acres of forest land in need of restoration in my home State. Much of that area is rural central Washington where hot, dry weather and wind make wildfire especially probable and dangerous.

The second bill would allow the Forest Service to collect and keep the interest earned on settlement funds, much like other Federal agencies can, in order to supplement restoration efforts. This makes common sense and is a wise and fair use of the interest earned.

Wildfires are becoming more extreme and catastrophic every year in western States. They are even beginning to affect areas in my State that for a long time were thought to be too green and too wet for wildfires to happen, even the Olympic National Forest. Sadly, as our climate changes, this will become an increasing threat.

I am thrilled to have an amendment to this legislation to allow for more

science and evidence-based decisionmaking. We need every tool in our toolbox to prevent these fires.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, may I inquire how much time remains.

Madam Chair, I would like to clarify that we already have provisions in place to prevent wildfires, to remove underbrush, and to thin our forests and make they are more resilient. The thing is that the earlier we can detect wildfires with appropriate weather systems, the earlier our firefighters can jump on it and suppress those fires.

You need both. You need the prevention, and you need the ability to respond quickly. So make no mistake. This is a critical amendment.

I urge my colleagues to vote for the amendment and for the underlying bill.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I am thrilled to have worked with so many of my Republican colleagues on these bills to prevent wildfires. I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, Representative Manning, for introducing this very straightforward bill.

This bill affirms current law to ensure that women can determine the course of their lives and decide if, when, and under what circumstances to have a child. This is a fundamental right.

Despite broad public support for birth control, we have already seen States use the Dobbs decision as an opening to try to block or ban certain methods of contraception. These actions bring a new sense of urgency to make sure no one can take away this very important tool from women.

As a pediatrician, I have had the privilege of helping young women decide which method of contraception would be best for them, and not one of them wanted to become pregnant any time soon. Everybody should be able to choose the contraceptive that meets their needs without interference from politicians.

This is not a controversial bill. It affirms our right to use contraception and for doctors to prescribe contraception. Frankly, it should get unanimous support in the Chamber.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Mr. Chair, I am so glad that my amendment to fund the Research Facilities Act was included in this government spending package. We need to address our deferred research maintenance backlog and increase investments in next-generation agriculture research.

This research is critical, as farmers in my district face daunting challenges. For example, the ability for researchers to conduct experiments on plants under various environmental stresses is critical for understanding how crops respond to new climate conditions. Modern facilities can also help researchers screen new crop varieties and understand the impacts of a changing climate on things like nutrient density and susceptibility to pestilence.

Many farmers in Washington State rely on the tremendous research done

at institutions like Washington State University. Ensuring that they have modern facilities, cutting-edge facilities, will make it easier for them to attract and keep world-class researchers.

These investments will reposition the United States for leadership, long-term success, and competitiveness around the world, and make sure we are leading in agricultural research and food research.

Madam Speaker, I will tell you, my constituents are up in arms. They are emailing me, and they are calling my office outraged that the freedoms that they have had for 50 years are being stripped away from women in one-half of the States in this country. They are furious when they hear about victims of rape not being able to end a pregnancy and when they see a 10-year-old girl who has to flee to a neighboring State so she won't be forced to carry a pregnancy to term-- a 10-year old.

This is barbaric. My constituents are worried about what might come next in our home State of Washington.

I am the only pro-choice woman doctor in all of Congress. In fact, I am a pediatrician. And I have been in the exam room with teens facing unplanned pregnancies and with mothers who find out that the pregnancy they are so excited about is not a viable one. These are deeply personal circumstances. Frankly, when, whether, and under what circumstances to become a mother is the single most important decision a woman will ever make, and that must be hers to make. The government has no place in the exam room.

Today I am voting to make sure that every woman--no matter where she lives--can access abortion, to plan their pregnancies, protect their health, and chart the course of their lives. I want my constituents to know I will fight every day to protect their rights.

Madam Speaker, this new post-Roe reality that we are living with is still sinking in for most of us, but if you are a woman who is pregnant now and needs to end that pregnancy, and you are in one of the States that has outlawed abortion, every day is filled with panic and horror, trying to figure out how to get the care you need. This is a crisis.

Now, politicians in some of those States are threatening to criminalize travel to another State for abortion care and to criminalize doctors and anyone else who might help, for example, with transportation. This is outrageous.

Such extreme laws are nothing less than an attack on women--on our autonomy, on our freedom, on our health, and on our privacy. These are backward positions. They are extreme and draconian.

The decision to have an abortion is one for a woman to make in consultation with her doctor--no one else, definitely not politicians.

As a doctor, I have been in the room with women making the extremely difficult and personal decision about whether to end a pregnancy. Politics has no place there. I have been in the room with a woman with an ectopic pregnancy for whom abortion is the standard of care.

Let's be clear, State laws that criminalize abortion and also criminalize travel across State lines for abortion put doctors in an impossible situation and put women at risk.

As a doctor, I took the Hippocratic Oath to ``first, do no harm,'' and I want you to think for a moment about the harm of a delayed or more complicated abortion, or that ectopic pregnancy, or the harm of having a rape victim carry a pregnancy to term, or the rates of maternal mortality in this country.

Make no mistake. These bans are draconian. Banning travel is extreme, controlling, and dangerous. Women will die because a bunch of politicians decided that they should be in charge of women's bodies. This is reprehensible.

I will keep doing everything I can to protect women's access to abortion no matter where they live, and I implore my House and Senate colleagues to pass these bills.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier), a real champion for women, for health, and for families.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), where this is top of mind.

Madam Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wilson).

Madam Speaker, once again, I speak as a woman, a mom, a doctor, and a pediatrician who has rescued many babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.

I tell you that we have heard a lot of statistics on the other side of the aisle, but one statistic that has not been said is that 100 percent of women who choose abortion make that decision on their own and for themselves, and that is the way that it needs to stay.

This is a healthcare decision that only a woman can make in consultation with her doctor. That is why we are here today, to protect women's autonomy over their own healthcare, over their own lives, over their own destinies, and that is a fundamental right.

When we talk about freedom, we want to talk and we need to talk about the freedom of a woman to control her destiny, to make her own decisions; and that is why these bills are so important, to protect a woman's right to choose and to make sure that if her State does not allow it, she can choose, freely, to travel to another State and get the care she needs.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Pell Grant Program.

In 1972, Congress amended the Higher Education Act by creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant. This legislation provides direct financial aid to low-income students so they can have the same access to higher education and opportunity for success as their higher income peers. This program was later named the Pell Grant for its original sponsor, Sen. Claiborne Pell, Democrat from Rhode Island. The original bill was signed into law by Republican President Richard Nixon, and the program has maintained this original bipartisan support over the last 50 years.

The federal investment in Pell Grants is targeted to students with demonstrated financial need, with most families at incomes of $40,000 or less, and can be used to fund career and technical education, community college education, university education, and post graduate education. The investment pays off by increasing college completion and boosting economic mobility.

To date, more than 80 million students have received a Pell Grant to go to college since the program's creation. Currently, nearly 7 million students are going to college with Pell Grants, or about 40 percent of undergraduate students.

In my congressional district, 6,796 students are receiving $28,721,279 in Federal Pell Grant funds to pursue their higher education goals at our local colleges. In my state of Washington, 87,342 students receive $357,725,397 in Federal Pell grant funds.

I look forward to Congress continuing the bipartisan support for low- income student access to college through the Pell Grant for another 50 years.

Mr. Speaker, I express my support for H.R. 7666, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022.

In over 20 years as a pediatrician, I saw steadily escalating levels of mental illness in my patients. There was a big uptick after 2007 that many associate with ubiquitous social media use. Of course, the pandemic further accelerated rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-harm. We are seeing 9-year-olds with eating disorders and 10-year-olds with suicidal ideation. This is alarming.

We all agree that our children need help, but resources are limited. There just aren't enough behavioral health specialists out there to meet the need, particularly in rural areas like some of those I represent.

There are ways to extend the reach of people who have dedicated their lives to supporting our mental health, to leverage those resources so they stretch a little further. One example is the Partnership Access Line, or PAL, that I was able to access as a pediatrician. If I was seeing a patient with a more complicated behavioral health concern, something really beyond the scope of a general pediatrician, I could get a psychiatrist on the line and in-the-moment advice on how to treat that patient.

Another example is integrative care, where a mental worker works alongside physicians and other healthcare providers, providing support as needed throughout the day for patients who are struggling with mental illness.

These programs and more are supported in the package of bills we will be voting on this week, including mine, the Supporting Children's Mental Health Care Access Act.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this excellent bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for the opportunity to speak on this important bill, the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act.

American families are struggling. They are continuing to see rising gas prices even as oil and gas companies are making record profits.

Higher prices at the grocery store are making it harder to put food on the table, and a lot of this is because farmers are struggling with increasing fuel prices. Costs and availability of transportation to both domestic and export markets continue to be a challenge for the wheat, cherry, apple, and pear growers in my district.

This is a global problem, but it is a problem that we can take steps to ease right here at home. This bill provides the resources to do just that.

It addresses the cost of fuel by allowing year-round sales of higher ethanol blends, which are consistently less expensive than higher octane gas.

It addresses high food prices by helping farmers and helping our supply chain.

Fertilizer costs are at record highs since most of our fertilizer is typically sourced from Russia. This bill helps farmers spend less on inputs without lowering crop yields.

We are paying skyrocketing prices for meat at the grocery store, but farmers and ranchers don't see any of that additional profit because four companies control 80 percent of U.S. meat processing. That is unfair.

This bill expands the availability and capacity of meat processing and will create new jobs, provide more options for small- and medium- sized ranching operations, and help lower the cost of meat at the grocery store.

Finally, addressing the cost of trucking and transportation will help farmers get their crops to market.

The whole goal here is to make life a little easier for the people we represent, to help you fill up your tank and feed your family. As the only member on the House Agriculture Committee from the Northwest, I will continue to do all that I can to support farmers and lower costs for American families.