Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on roll call votes 168 and 169, I was not present

because I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted: on Roll Call Vote 168: AYE; and on Roll Call Vote 169: NO.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend Adin Segal, Tal Shauder, Eli Eiston, Isana Singh, and Zach Bodin, five students from Palm Beach County who have come together to say enough is enough with the gun violence in our country. While Congress refuses to enact common sense gun safety legislation, a new generation is taking action.

These students enrolled in the Peres Leadership Program, named after former Israeli President Shimon Peres' vision of leadership. For Peres, leadership was a noble cause defined not by personal ambition, but by moral values and a call to do the right thing. These students are all too familiar with our collective failure to protect them from gun violence. They reject calls for arming teachers and placing armed guards in schools. They do not accept the idea that the answer to gun violence is more guns. They see their schools as sanctuaries of learning in which guns have no place.

To support and honor the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the students created the National Association of Students Against Gun Violence, establishing chapters in their schools to connect and unite students as they fight against gun violence. Their organization seeks to register every student to vote on their 18th birthday, facilitate town hall forums, and advocate for accountable leadership that supports reasonable solutions to gun violence.

Since its founding only four weeks ago, their group has grown to nearly 1,000 members in 70 chapters in high schools across Florida, with more on the way in high schools and colleges around the country.

I commend their activism, leadership, and dedication to their communities and I look forward to working with them to advance common sense gun legislation, like expanding background checks and banning the sale of assault rifles, high capacity magazines and bump stock devices. This is the least we can do.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the leadership of this committee for their work.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the en bloc amendment, and I wanted to specifically mention a provision that is very important to the folks who are in Palm Beach County and also Bedminster, New Jersey, which is this constituency of Mr. Lance.

Mr. Chairman, regardless of what your political ideology is, it is very important for the President to be safe whenever he travels, and this often results in travel restrictions in the locality he visits.

In terms of my locality, Palm Beach County, Florida, Mr. Trump has spent 70 days this year at Mar-a-Lago, dubbed as the winter White House. But here is what happens when he visits a small business operating airport called Lantana Airport, which is 10 miles from Mar-a- Lago: It is completely shut down, which means basically there is a lot of lost income. It is estimated almost $1 million a year.

Mr. Chairman, if you translate that out, that would be $4 million.

As I said, the President's safety is paramount, and the impact to the local business is a problem. So there is a provision in this amendment that requires the FAA to study the economic impact of flight restrictions, which I think is a good thing, and to analyze the possibilities of some other options.

Mr. Chairman, again, I do support this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize Sergeant Thomas H. Corey, Vietnam veteran and tireless advocate for his fellow servicemen and women.

Mr. Corey was leading his squad in what came to be known as the Tet Offensive in early 1968 when he was paralyzed from the neck down by an enemy bullet. After his recovery he moved to South Florida where his activism work began. He joined the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) in 1980, and the following year became the founding president of VVA Palm Beach County Chapter 25, now known as the Thomas H. Corey Chapter. Mr. Corey was the first recipient of VVA's Commendation Medal, the organization's highest award for service to veterans, their families, and the community. He has held a multitude of leadership positions within VVA, culminating with his election as National President in 2001. In addition to his work with VVA, he is a member of the National Association of Uniformed Services, Disabled American Veterans, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the 1st Cavalry Association, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart Association.

Since 1994, Mr. Corey has made 16 trips to Vietnam to bridge the gap between former foes. While there he has discussed issues of mutual importance, such as the treatment of prisoners of war and the effects of Agent Orange. In recognition of his efforts, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I have been privileged to know Mr. Corey for many years and have seen first-hand his incredible work throughout our area. It has made him a truly beloved member of the South Florida community.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to honor Louis Silber, who has recently been awarded the Florida Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award. I include in the Record an article from the Florida Bar News which made the announcement:

``Louis Marc Silber is known for his tenacious advocacy in

two unrelated areas: the rights of homeowners facing

fraudulent foreclosure practices, and the reproductive rights

of women. His legal victories on the foreclosure front

resulted in much-needed windfalls for legal aid, while his

pro bono work has helped keep a West Palm Beach women's

center in operation.

In 2007, Silber filed suit against David J. Stern and his

law firm over accusations of foreclosure fraud. Silber won

the class-action case, but some money went unclaimed, and a

Cy Pres award benefitted the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach

County. In 2017, legal aid again benefited when a court

agreed Silber could distribute the money to three charities--

the Legal Aid Society, the Lord's Place (a homeless shelter),

and the Miami Rescue Mission--in a second case involving

Stern's victims.

In all, Silber and his team of lawyers provided more than

$400,000 to the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County

through the two Cy Pres awards.

Silber's relationship with the Presidential Women's Center

began when the center opened in 1980. He has been an advocate

in important legal battles to protect reproductive rights in

Florida. He played a lead role in blocking Florida's

counseling law from going into effect and has provided local

counsel against a law that would have limited some later term

abortion procedures, all on a pro bono basis.

Silber has also supported patients with unique legal

questions and has helped to defend the safety of physicians

and staff.

For the first 16 years representing Presidential Women's

Center, Silber provided all legal services for free. Since

then, he has accepted pay for half his work at the insistence

of founder and director Mona Reis, who says: ``He is the

force that has kept me going.''

Silber, who earned his J.D. in 1973 from Georgetown

University Law Center, was an assistant state attorney and

then a partner with Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Hazouri and Roth

before forming Pariente & Silber, P.A., with now Justice

Barbara Pariente. That firm lasted until 1993, with

Pariente's elevation to the bench, and eventually became

Silber & Davis.''

Louis' persistent dedication to the rights of women is

laudable, and I can think of no one more deserving of this

award than him.

Mr. Speaker, I along with Representative Deutch, am pleased to honor Benjamin Ferencz, an investigator of Nazi war crimes following World War II and the chief prosecutor for the United States at the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg.

Benjamin was born in Somcuta Mare, a village in Romania, and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 10 months old. He attended Harvard Law School and joined the Army following his studies. Assigned to General Patton's Third Army, he was tasked with gathering evidence of the Nazi's war crimes. After the war he was named the chief prosecutor for the United States in one of the Nuremberg Trials, at only 27 years old, and his prosecution resulted in 22 convictions. Mr. Ferencz became a global advocate for the establishment of an international rule of law and the International Criminal Court, and served as an adjunct professor of international law at Pace University in New York.

Benjamin has contributed immeasurably to the international rule of law and his service to our country and the world is worthy of great recognition.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, on roll call vote 104, I was not present because I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY.

Mr. Speaker, I join with millions of Americans and the students who are walking out today and who are saying enough is enough for the gun violence in America.

Seventeen families in Parkland, Florida, are living a nightmare, and our hearts ache for them and the Parkland community. They join a growing club of grieving families all over this Nation because their loved ones were massacred in a place we expected to be safe: a concert in Nevada, a nightclub in Florida, a college in Virginia, an elementary school in Connecticut, a church in Texas, a McDonald's in California. The list goes on.

Last year there were 346 mass shootings in this country, making it the deadliest year of mass killings in a decade. Ninety Americans a day are killed by gun violence. These are not just statistics. Ninety Americans a day means 33,000 grieving families, heartbroken families who lose a child, a parent, in a click of a trigger.

We have had enough thoughts and prayers for grieving parents and enough thanks for the first responders that answer the call. The time now is for action.

I want to especially thank the young people in south Florida and now across the Nation for their courage, their passion, and persistence.

Students today are demanding we do more than shed a tear and wring our hands saying it is too complicated. Students are walking out today because they know there are too many guns in the hands of the wrong people; too many guns on the street that are made for war, not for civil society. They know that is why we should ban the sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and bump stock devices, expand our background check laws, and reinstate Federal funding for gun research. There is not just one solution, but it is not so complicated that we do nothing.

So today I am going to join America's students and I will be walking out because Americans deserve a better deal, and because enough is enough.

Madam Speaker, a person sends their child to school and expects that they are going to come home safely.

I am so sad for the grieving families of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Innocent children--gone in a blink. I am thankful for the first responders, but foremost, my thoughts are with the grieving families, the students, and the teachers affected by this horrific shooting.

We see this carnage over and over again. We know there is no magic solution, but that doesn't mean that there are no solutions. We need more resources for mental health, not tax cuts for billionaires. And, yes, Mr. President, are you listening? We need commonsense gun safety legislation, not these idiotic bills that expand gun usage.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my name be added as cosponsor to the bill, H.R. 676.

Mr. Speaker, I recently was not present because I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``NAY'' on Roll Call 64 and 66.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Poe and Ms. Jackson Lee for leading this debate today. And, of course, I want to thank Susan Brooks, my co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, for her support. This is an example of bipartisanship at its best. And, of course, I also thank Dianne Feinstein over in the Senate, whose bill we are taking up, our companion bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act. It is a long name, but it is important. It came about on the heels of reports of sexual abuse at the highest levels of USA Gymnastics.

Me Too has come to the Olympics, and we have heard from more than 150 very brave young women, extraordinary not only in their talent but in their courage, who have shared their harrowing stories of sexual abuse at the hands of a doctor, Larry Nassar, who they were told to trust.

One of these stories is from Mattie Larson, who was a budding young gymnast and a future Olympic medalist. At age 14, she hurt her hip and was sent to Dr. Nassar, the well-known and now disgraced doctor who cared for hundreds of athletes like Mattie.

Instead of healing her hip, he crippled her mind. For 5 years, this doctor molested this young woman. She became so desperate at one point that she feigned a slip and fall and a concussion just to try to get out of ever going back to the Olympic facility.

Mattie said: ``. . . I just couldn't take any more abuse. I was broken. Larry, my coaches, and USA Gymnastics turned the sport I fell in love with as a kid into my personal living hell.''

These children are children, like Mattie, who want to represent our country and who give up so much of their childhood, getting up early, practicing hard, on weekends going to competitions, and then only to be subjected to sexual abuse by the team doctor, and then either ignored or encouraged to keep silent.

I say shame, shame, shame on those who enabled this.

It may be too late to protect Mattie and Olympic stars like Aly Raisman, but this legislation, by requiring proper reporting and notifying procedures, will protect our future young athletes. I urge my colleagues to support this very, very good bipartisanship legislation.

Madam Speaker, I stand here to oppose this deadly legislation being proposed by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

When I was 15 years old--and that was in the days before abortion was legal--I found a friend bleeding to death because of a back-alley abortion. Those were the days that when a woman needed an abortion, she would rely on coat hangers and poison.

This bill is going to take us back to those deadly days. Its aim is to intimidate doctors and threaten their own freedom if they dare to use their own medical judgment, with the consent of a patient, to perform what is now a legal abortion.

Madam Speaker, I stand and I urge my colleagues to oppose this deadly legislation.

Mr. Speaker, my, my, my, here we go again, Republicans playing politics with deeply personal healthcare decisions that belong between women and their physicians.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is not going to save lives. It is going to wrench us back to the dark days of coat hanger medicine where women were killed and maimed in back alleys.

This legislation has one aim: intimidate good and decent doctors; threaten them with imprisonment if they dare to perform a legal abortion, exercising their own medical judgment and with the consent of their patient.

I strongly oppose this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, the women of this country are watching. We will not go back.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 676, a bipartisan resolution that expresses support for the citizens of Iran.

The Iranian people should be allowed to express legitimate grievances without violent retribution from their own government. As Iranians chant ``think of us,'' their government has responded with brute force. Twenty-one people have been killed and hundreds more await an uncertain fate after being arrested. Three young Iranians have died in jail, including Sina Ghanbari, a student who was being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison.

The regime's violent suppression of dissent should come as no surprise, given its long history of denying its own citizens fundamental human rights. Torture is widespread, members of religious minorities like the Baha'i face constant persecution, and the number of executions in Iran has skyrocketed under President Rouhani.

These protests also highlight how the Iranian regime has harmed its own people by spending billions of dollars to foment aggression and destabilize the region. While Iran suffers from a youth unemployment rate of nearly 40 percent and economic hardship, the regime continues to bankroll the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. The Iranian people are outraged, and their leaders should take notice when crowds are heard chanting, ``I give my life for Iran, not Gaza, [and] not Lebanon.''

Adoption of this resolution will send a clear message to the brave voices in Iran crying out for a better future that the United States stands with them.