Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor a true Texas statesman, Bob Krueger. Decades ago, Bob and I were fierce political adversaries, but since then we have joined on behalf of our State and our Nation in common cause. Now I join so many of his former colleagues and many Texans in recognizing his remarkable contributions.

He is a proud native of New Braunfels, which remained his home in recent decades. He once served here in this House in a district that many parts of had more cattle than constituents that stretched from San Antonio to San Angelo and almost to El Paso.

After studying at Duke and Oxford, Bob served Duke as vice provost and dean before returning to Texas to win a rather improbable election and reelection as a Congressman. He was voted the most effective Member of his freshman class by colleagues here in the House.

He voted to prolong the life of the Voting Rights Act and extend its application to Texas, he supported the admission of women to the service academies, and supported an increase in the minimum wage, among other matters.

In those elections and a subsequent race for the U.S. Senate, he attracted talent like Land Commissioner Gary Mauro, media legend Roy Spence, and future Deputy Energy Secretary and Mayor of Houston, Bill White, among many others.

When the Senate race was unsuccessful, Bob was named by President Carter as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Mexican Affairs. In 1990, he won a statewide election to serve in the important position on the Texas Railroad Commission. A few years later, Governor Ann Richards appointed him to fill a Senate vacancy, but within a few months he was defeated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Yet, Bob never let these setbacks get in the way of lifelong civic engagement and public service.

After Senator Hutchison's victory, President Clinton appointed him as Ambassador to Burundi, which he described as the most fulfilling period of his life. There he met with Rwandan refugees fleeing massacres, which he documented, putting him at personal risk, as one of the first Western voices to report the genocide.

He discovered villages where children were massacred and livestock was left alive. Even after the front pages of two local newspapers there in Burundi called for his death, he continued this mission: Sounding the alarm, documenting the genocide and the atrocities. He survived an assassination attempt, and only after it became too unsafe for his family to remain there, he was evacuated and then appointed as Ambassador to Botswana.

He cut a singular figure: a Shakespeare-quoting, former East Coast professor who connected with Texas ranchers, a busy public servant, who nevertheless valued a few days of daily meditation.

Throughout all his types of service, whether he was driving a pickup truck around West Texas or in an armored vehicle in Burundi, he always was driven by the same values, the same faith, and the same guiding light: his family.

His partner for almost four decades, Kathleen Tobin Krueger, meant the world to him, they traveled it together. Recently, she has been involved in continuing their work in advocating for their close friend and San Antonian, Paul Rusesabagina.

Paul, who inspired ``Hotel Rwanda,'' and who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in saving people in Rwanda, remains wrongly imprisoned in Rwanda today.

Bob's wonderful daughter, Mariana, an accomplished photographer, who shares his love of Duke as both an undergrad and graduate of Duke, and now lives in Austin, continues his legacy.

His daughter, Sarah, a double Duke alumna, works as a senior reporter for WRAL in Durham, living there with her husband Will and their son Brooks.

His son, Christian, who worked here in the House recently as a legislative assistant for Congressman Joaquin Castro, lives in Texas with his wife Marion.

At the memorial service this spring after Bob passed away at 86 years of life well-lived, former Ambassador Scott DeLisi, who worked with Bob in Botswana, said Krueger had ``the most finely tuned moral compass of any man

that I worked with in over four decades of public service.''

A true gentleman and a scholar, it is a mark of Bob's character that after completing such important public service, it was Bob, as a visiting professor at Texas State in San Marcos back in 2004, who, despite our previous personal differences, graciously presented me a public service award rather than the other way around.

Today, by authoring this bill, I recognize his truly award-worthy service.

Madam Speaker, this legislation provides a modest way for us to honor one who did so much in so many ways to benefit so many people. So let's name the post office in the heart of the community that he called home, just a block away from a twist and turn of the great Guadalupe River, in honor of the great, late Bob Krueger, honoring his memory and make his rich legacy--his values, his grace, his kindness, his commitment to service--a part of our future.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for her leadership and for our Republican colleague, as well.

Madam Speaker, I would just address for the Record the comment that was made about the sponsorship. There were 34 of the 36 Members of the Texas delegation who have indeed cosponsored this bill. The other two Members who chose not to cosponsor have indicated they have no objection to the bill.

We are, by presenting this bill, applying the same standard that will apply to the next bill up honoring properly our former colleague, Mr. Wright, in legislation sponsored by Mr. Cornyn and by House Members here, treating them the same way. I think both are well-justified pieces of legislation, and I look forward to their approval.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Hydrocephalus Awareness Month. Every September patients, caregivers, and their families come together throughout our Nation in support of the more than 1,000,000 people of all ages living with hydrocephalus in the United States.

As co-chair of the Congressional Pediatric and Adult Hydrocephalus Caucus, I believe Congress has an important role to play in raising awareness of this condition and crafting policies that result in better treatments and potentially a cure. I urge my colleagues to join the caucus to learn more about this devastating condition. In addition, I urge you to join Representative Chris Smith and me in showing your support for this community by cosponsoring our resolution, H. Res. 20, which supports the goals and ideals of Hydrocephalus Awareness Month.

Hydrocephalus is a complex, chronic neurological condition caused by an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. From newborns to seniors, anyone can develop hydrocephalus at any time.

The breathtaking prevalence of this condition is reflected in my own district. I recently met a constituent in Austin who described the challenges she has faced due to the limited treatment options available for hydrocephalus.

Hydrocephalus is the most common reason for brain surgery in young children. The physicians and staff at the Children's Hospital of San Antonio perform the brain surgeries necessary to treat many of the one in 770 babies across the country who develop hydrocephalus each year.

Veterans and active military personnel, such as those stationed at Joint Base San Antonio, are disproportionally affected. Since 2000, more than 370,000 U.S. service members have sustained a traumatic brain injury, and it is estimated that 14 percent of those individuals with severe TBI--over 50,000 service members--could develop hydrocephalus as a result.

Let's join together in recognizing Hydrocephalus Awareness Month. Congressman Smith and I welcome all colleagues to become members of the Congressional Pediatric and Hydrocephalus Caucus and cosponsoring H. Res. 20.

Madam Speaker, weapons of war are designed for war. They are designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Our country is exceptional in making these weapons of war, these assault weapons, available in the civilian sector, and we have quickly--because those weapons are easier to qualify for than getting a driver's license; they are easier for a teenager to get than to buy a beer, because we have done that, we have turned our churches, our schools, our shopping centers, our entertainment venues, almost any place, into a battleground with one massacre after another.

There is no Second Amendment right to own a machine gun, which has been banned in this country since, I believe, the thirties. But if you talk about rights, how about the rights of those little children in Uvalde to live, the rights of those families to be whole? They have rights, also. And that is what we are protecting today.

I think that we just cannot continue to live like we have been living in the shadow of fear, a terrible kind of American exceptionalism where we are horribly exceptional to the amount of dead children gunned down in their best tennis shoes after end of the school year celebrations, of young parents having to bury their still younger little children; where we are the exception in how many congregants die where they are massacred in their churches or in their temples; where we are the exception, the outlier in how many gruesome bullet-ridden bodies our doctors see month after month.

And God help us because Texas has been among the worst. From El Paso to Uvalde to across the center of the State to the Houston area, murderers, massacres with assault weapons, where one family or another grieves.

Madam Speaker, Texas children right now have no reality as they will soon be returning to school than to duck and cover and learn new exercises. We can do something about that and banning assault weapons is the most critical issue in doing that, not the kind of weak, modest measure that will never change things in Texas that we passed earlier in the year since it is dependent on the Texas legislature, but a direct effort to limit the access to assault weapons that are weapons of war that kill and kill and kill that make us exceptional in quite the wrong way.

Mr. Speaker, telehealth is good. Telehealth fraud is not. The Cheney bill is remarkably similar to a bipartisan measure that I worked on last year and got the support of 22 health-related stakeholders after holding a productive bipartisan hearing.

I applaud Representative Cheney's support for telehealth and her valued service to our Nation in general. Through no fault of hers, this bill contains a glaring omission.

Whenever billions of Federal dollars are available anywhere, some will try to steal it. That is what has happened with telehealth. The Justice Department has brought one charge after another against hundreds of defendants for stealing through fraud billions of taxpayer dollars, including charges that they brought last week.

What happens is that someone using the telehealth mechanism is ordering expensive genetic tests, allergy tests, and medical equipment that the patient does not need and billing the taxpayer through Medicare.

My effort to address this is not just to see a prosecution of theft after it has occurred, but to prevent it and to protect taxpayers with an amendment that was designed to employ the recommendations of a nonpartisan commission to prevent and reduce this kind of fraud.

It enjoyed bipartisan support. I saw that it was not included under this rule. I think that is unfortunate. Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I do not support the rule or the bill.

Madam Speaker, with telehealth helping so many throughout this pandemic, we should certainly continue its benefits, as I proposed in bipartisan legislation last year, and for which I secured the support of 22 health-related stakeholders. But we don't have to accept billions of dollars of fraud, of theft of taxpayer funds as the price for maintaining telehealth.

Here is what has been happening: Information for some patients who wanted a COVID-19 test was used fraudulently to bill Medicare for expensive cancer genetic tests and allergy tests without any medical necessity or any knowledge of the patient. In other cases, expensive medical equipment in no way needed by the patient was ordered.

The wrongdoing has been exposed by the General Accountability Office, the Health and Human Services inspector general, and is the subject of Justice Department prosecutions for literally billions of taxpayer dollars. Through no fault of the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Cheney) or Chairman Pallone, this bill fails to address this theft. I offered an amendment to the bill that was recommended by an independent, nonpartisan commission called MedPAC, mandating reasonable steps to prevent or at least significantly reduce this telehealth fraud. Outrageous interference with the consideration of this bill is denying the House today any opportunity to consider this antifraud amendment.

My amendment would have required in-person visits within 6 months prior to ordering this high-cost lab testing or DME--medical equipment--as well as an audit of outlier clinicians whose orders for these very high-cost services and devices are largely made through a telehealth appointment. This has to stop, and we need to prevent the fraud, not just prosecute it and get back a few pennies for the taxpayer per dollar after it has occurred.

Madam Speaker, this bill costs $132 million per month. Without these targeted provisions to prevent Medicare from being looted, I must vote against it.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from Texas, the Honorable Mayra Flores, be permitted to take the oath of office this evening.

Her certificate of election has not arrived, but there is no contest and no question has been raised with regard to her election.

Madam Speaker, central to the preservation of our democracy is recognition of the results of fair elections you lose just as much, if not more, than the elections which you win. Tonight, we welcome to this Chamber a new Member and recognize a fairly won Republican victory in my home State for the 6 months remaining this year in the term of our recent colleague, Filemon Vela, who resigned.

Mayra Flores was born and raised in Tamaulipas, Mexico. She came legally to the United States at 6 years old with the help of her father and became a naturalized American citizen.

Mayra graduated in 2014 as a respiratory care practitioner and currently works caring for those with chronic respiratory issues. With Latino Texans bearing a very disproportionate burden from the pandemic, she has been on the front lines combating COVID. She graduated from South Texas College, and her husband serves as a Border Patrol agent. Mayra will be the first Mexican-born woman to serve in the House and the first Hispanic Republican woman to serve in our Texas delegation.

She ran a very vigorous campaign. I congratulate her on her success. I see that she brings a beautiful family to our Chamber. I look forward to working with her this year.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), who is the senior Texas Republican in my Ways and Means Committee.

Madam Speaker, tonight we stand with courageous Ukrainians who refuse to give in to Putin's war crimes.

The morning after this unprovoked attack, I authored the first sanctions legislation in this Congress. Eventually, it may help. But what is needed immediately is more weapons and humanitarian relief.

Undoubtedly, Putin was encouraged by those he hoped would divide the West, like his admirer President Trump, who declared Putin ``a genius'' and called this ``a peacekeeping mission,'' and his close adviser who, even after the bombing got underway, claimed that Putin was being too gentle.

With our weapons, Ukrainians defend not only themselves, but freedom and democracy everywhere. Tonight, I hope that Republicans will join Democrats in what is truly a test of our commitment to freedom. Together, we offer strong support for Ukraine to push back on the brutal aggressor, end this terror, and maintain its independence.

Mr. Speaker, I thank both of the gentlemen for their bipartisan effort on this bill.

Six weeks ago today Putin began his bloody aggression in Ukraine. The next morning Representative Blumenauer and I introduced legislation to revoke normal trade relations with Russia and expel it from the World Trade Organization.

On March 9, this House overwhelmingly approved action on the World Trade Organization but deferred the PNTR provision and added the important Magnitsky provisions--which the Senate has weakened today in this legislation--and a ban on Russian energy. Thereafter, on March 17, the House approved overwhelmingly again the PNTR provisions.

It has taken 6 long weeks to approve this first economic sanctions legislation, but today it is finally done. We know that it will not immediately end the funding of the Putin war machine, but it is a step in the right direction.

Let us hope that the administration will move forward more expeditiously on getting Ukrainians every weapon they need to defend themselves and that it will move faster than this bill did.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill's relief for Mary in Austin whose grandson, like so many others, will be able to get some relief. They are paying up to $300 per month for insulin, and now they would pay $35 per month.

But 5\1/2\ million Texans and 28 million Americans are uninsured. This bill offers them no help whatsoever. In our upside-down healthcare system, those who have the least continually get asked to pay the most for essential pharmaceuticals. Sixty-eight percent of those without health insurance are forced to pay full monopoly prices for their essential insulin. They are being denied any relief today, despite the fact that I and 12 of my colleagues offered a simple amendment that could have provided that assistance.

Nor does this bill represent the slightest progress toward preventing prescription price gouging. It is so true, as many have said, that many Americans are paying 10 times the price for insulin as do consumers in other countries. This bill does not do anything, however, to lower it to nine times. Indeed, this bill does not lower the price of insulin by one penny, it just shifts the burden of paying for the insulin off the shoulders of insured insulin users, and shifts it on to the rest of us who are paying insurance premiums, and will pay higher premiums because of this, and $11 billion more in costs to the taxpayers.

Mr. Speaker, I assume Big Pharma supports this bill because it is not facing any additional duty to lower its prices for this lifesaving product. Some day this Congress will break free of the shackles of Big Pharma, which fills these halls with more lobbyists than there are Members of Congress.

Some day we will provide genuine relief to all Americans burdened by soaring drug prices, but that day, sadly, is not today.

Madam Speaker, to assure a stable supply of insulin and better health at $35 instead of $300 monthly, I fully support this bill for Yolanda, a retired Texas teacher, and one-quarter of insulin- dependent patients forced to ration their insulin because of predatory pricing.

Yet, instead of addressing pharmaceutical price gouging, this bill really only shifts how Big Pharma is rewarded. Since this bill does not reduce any insulin prices by one penny, all of us who are insured will ultimately pay through our premiums while taxpayers are on the hook for $11 billion. For Americans who rely on other types of lifesaving drugs, there is also no relief. Big Pharma remains immune from any restraint on its monopoly prices from a Congress that is simply unable to hold it accountable.

My further concern is that this bill widens the coverage gap for nearly 5.5 million Texans and 28 million Americans who are uninsured, wrongly excluded from any benefit, and who do not receive any benefit today. While the uninsured population represents 17 percent of the insulin-dependent population, they constitute 80 percent of the people who pay full, monopoly prices. So, help for some--which is important-- but there is a need to do more for the many who are not covered today.

Madam Speaker, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, I introduced the centerpiece of today's legislation with Congressman Blumenauer. It denied Russia preferential trade treatment and would expel it from the World Trade Organization.

At that time, 3 weeks ago, there was hope that economic sanctions like this might limit the extent of Putin's brutal aggression. Now we have seen that economic sanctions are having no immediate impact to limit the slaughter from Putin's war of annihilation against Ukraine.

Uniting the world to isolate Russia has weakened the ruble, certainly, but it has not stopped Putin from reducing so much of Ukraine to rubble.

While I favor excluding every possible Russian import, this bill will grant President Biden appropriate authority to raise tariffs significantly on any Russian import that is permitted, and the same for Belarus.

This is largely the same bill on which I sought action last week until President Biden requested a delay.

Surprisingly, this bill does not include the ban on Russian energy imports that this House approved overwhelmingly last week on the bill that we considered then. I hope that ban will be restored in further work on the legislation.

Though important to finally approve this bill as another way to isolate Russia, we should recognize there is no substitute for getting Ukrainians all of the weaponry that they have requested, including jet fighters, to stop the mass murder we observe daily.

The financial pain imposed won't immediately ease the pain of Ukrainian families. They are paying in blood while we pay in dollars, but it is one way for us to hold Putin accountable and to act in solidarity with them.

To those who ask that we adopt further sanctions or more weapons only if Russia does something more, I say what more barbaric butchery need we see before doing everything we possibly can, short of sending troops into Ukraine. The time to do everything is now, the time to provide for Ukrainian refugees to enter our country is now.

This rule makes proper for our consideration legislation that I have offered to respond to the brutal aggression of Vladimir Putin destroying, hour by hour, Ukraine, and its people, with death and destruction.

I am pleased to hear from the gentleman from Oklahoma that he supports this legislation because it will be stronger if we are united in sending this message.

Like so many Americans, I have watched the horrors in Ukraine. I have seen the people standing with their blue and yellow Ukraine banners and flags on the steps of the State capitol in Austin day after day, rain and shine, to express their concern.

And like them, and like so many of us of all political persuasions, we wonder what we can do to prevent what is happening that we see played out, in real time, on our televisions?

Well, in my case, it has been advocating that we get all of the weapons that Ukrainians need to defend themselves to them yesterday. Immediately.

But to recognize that to put a squeeze on the Russian empire, we should respond with the most effective sanctions that we can. One of those sanctions arising out of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee is the ability to respond with reference to the World Trade Organization and Russia.

The week before last, I introduced with Mr. Blumenauer, the chairman of that subcommittee, legislation concerning the trade status of the Russian Federation.

The legislation that I introduced yesterday that this rule puts into effect is different from that, and I will discuss that in the course of our consideration of the bill.

But it continues to urge the expelling of Russia from the World Trade Organization, which I think we should do to attempt to isolate as completely as we can Russia from any benefits from the world economy.

To see now one American-owned company closing down hundreds of its locations throughout Russia, one American company, including some of the big oil companies withdrawing from the Russian Federation, they are acting in a way that supports what we need to do--put Russia in an economic vise.

I believe that there is much more that we need to accomplish but that we respond today on the number one issue on the world agenda, and that is what is happening in Ukraine and what we can do to prevent it.

Now, I understand some people continue to have their own ideological agenda to defend and ignore the climate crisis, deny climate science, and promote more and more fossil fuels.

They choose the Keystone pipeline, which is exactly 8 percent completed. It uses the dirtiest form of oil in the tar sands.

From the cold tar sands of Canada, completing the Keystone pipeline will not save one Ukrainian life nor will the adoption of the rest of their agenda.

Let me just say, I have only one agenda in this matter, and that is to respond to the aggression and do all we can to try to stop the brutal attacks unprovoked on the Ukrainian people.

I am very pleased that this legislation that I introduced yesterday incorporates the good work of Chairman McGovern on the Global Magnitsky Act.

That is legislation that fits so well with what I have been urging about Russia because it combats human rights abuses there and all over the world.

He has strengthened the provisions of the Global Magnitsky Act, which would have expired at the end of this year. By incorporating it, it fits well with our agenda to respond to Russian aggression and human rights abuses that are going on as people are being murdered as we speak today.

Madam Speaker, in the face of death and destruction, President Zelensky and the Ukrainians are showing the world the true meaning of courage.

While the most immediate need is for additional military equipment, we could respond tonight by taking another step to isolate Russia from the world economy and ensure that Americans are no longer contributing the revenue to fund his war machine. To take the energy out of Putin's brutal assault, we place energy on our sanctions list. It may cost more to fill your tank, but we must work to stop Putin's tanks from crushing families and freedom.

Our legislation also calls for expelling Russia from the World Trade Organization. Russia should not be permitted to benefit from the world order and stability that it is destroying with each bomb dropped and each Ukrainian murdered. The financial pain we are imposing cannot ease the pain of Ukrainian families, but it is one way for us to demonstrate our solidarity with them.

Putin and his apologists here in America and abroad must know that those who support democracy and combat aggression are united like never before. As the flow of Ukrainian dead and wounded grows, so must the economy of Russia shrink.

This bill is both more and less than the original version which Representative Blumenauer and I introduced the week before last in immediate response to Russian aggression. It now omits the most-favored nation treatment provision.

Throughout Putin's initial saber rattling and subsequent bomb dropping, the administration has wisely rejected the go-it-alone approach that lead America to disaster under previous administrations. The President has united our allies and is determined to keep them united. I believe as he continues to work with our allies we will be able to move forward, as Canada has, as our original bill proposed, and eliminate this most-favored nation status for Russia.

I am very pleased that the bill adds to what we had initially, the extension and revitalization of the Global Magnitsky Act. This has done a tremendous job in reducing human rights abuses, and with its inclusion in this bill we reauthorize it remaining united against aggression.

Mr. Speaker, Putin thought he could divide us because our last President served Russian interests so very well--fawning over Putin, unrelenting criticism of our allies, undermining NATO, preferring Putin's word over American patriots, repeatedly pitting one American against another.

Recently, as Putin amassed tanks on the Ukrainian border, President Biden was not the one who hailed Putin's action as ``genius.''

As Putin ordered troops into Ukraine, it wasn't President Biden who called Putin's terror a ``peacekeeping mission'' and who then called Putin ``very savvy.''

Last Friday, as Russian bombs were killing hundreds of Ukrainians, it was not Biden's trusted adviser who said Putin had been ``too gentle'' and called President Zelensky ``a puppet'' and blamed him for failing to appease Putin by declaring a ``neutral Ukraine.''

As Biden has tried to unite, Trump and his cronies cannot stop licking Putin's boots, even as Putin was using those boots to kick Ukrainians in the teeth. Sadly, many of those who come to criticize our President and his efforts to bring us together have been sadly and totally mute, unable to voice a word of disapproval of those who would divide us, Putin's apologist-in-chief here in America.

Let's unite and stand with Ukrainian patriots and approve this bill.

Madam Speaker, this bill offers childcare; educational opportunities from pre-K to post-grad; and the first belated, substantial response to the climate crisis. My top healthcare priority is providing assistance to 2 million Texans out of 6 million Americans who were denied healthcare by sorry Republican Governors. Families left out and left behind can finally see a family physician. From my bill to strengthen Medicare, we at least cover hearing care, which is important to reducing depression and dementia.

Had we overcome Big Pharma's stranglehold over this Congress, we could have delivered much more. Savings from meaningful drug price negotiations could have financed vision and dental. Without further Biden administration action though, most Americans will still be victims of prescription price gouging.

While so much remains to be done, this historic legislation offers real hope and opportunity, reducing inequities and lifting up those too often forgotten.