Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of Marine Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo, a daughter of Lawrence, Massachusetts. She and twelve other brave American servicemembers tragically lost their lives on Thursday, August 26th at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Sergeant Rosario Pichardo will be remembered as a hero for her valiant service and commitment to protecting the freedoms and values that all Americans hold dear. This tragic loss serves as a reminder that when our troops bravely volunteer to serve, both they and their loved ones sacrifice more than we can ever imagine. My heart goes out to Sergeant Rosario Pichardo's family and friends during this difficult time.

Sergeant Rosario Pichardo's legacy lives on through the many people who carry her memory forward. In particular, the residents of Lawrence, especially those who knew her well, will remember her passion for service and her commitment to family.

I am grateful for heroes like Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo who volunteer to risk everything to make the United States and the world a better place and are prepared to give what President Lincoln called the ``last full measure of their devotion.'' We are incredibly fortunate that such brave men and women are among us.

Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo and her fellow servicemembers represented the very best our country has to offer. They will never be forgotten.

Madam Speaker, I was in a meeting. Had I been present, I would have noted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 286.

Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress

Babin (Nehls)

Boyle, Brendan F. (Jeffries)

Carter (TX) (Calvert)

DeFazio (Brown)

DeSaulnier (Thompson (CA))

Escobar (Garcia (TX))

Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA))

Fulcher (Johnson (OH))

Grijalva (Garcia (IL))

Higgins (NY) (Tonko)

Issa (Calvert)

Johnson (TX) (Jeffries)

Kim (NJ) (Underwood)

Kirkpatrick (Levin (CA))

Latta (Walberg)

Lawson (FL) (Evans)

McEachin (Wexton)

McHenry (Banks)

Meng (Jeffries)

Morelle (Tonko)

Napolitano (Correa)

Norman (Timmons)

Payne (Wasserman Schultz)

Porter (Wexton)

Reschenthaler (Meuser)

Rice (SC) (Timmons)

Rush (Underwood)

Ryan (Kildee)

Sewell (Cicilline)

Stanton (Levin (CA))

Stefanik (Miller-Meeks)

Strickland (Torres (NY))

Swalwell (Veasey)

Vela (Correa)

Wagner (Walorski)

Wilson (FL) (Hayes)

Amendment No. 105 Offered by Mr. Bowman

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the PFAS Action Act of 2021 because this overdue legislation will save lives.

We know that PFAS chemicals, otherwise known as forever chemicals, have been linked to harmful health effects, including increased rates of cancer.

Yet, for far too long, they have been unchecked and unregulated.

Now, these same chemicals are being discovered at toxic levels in drinking water supplies in communities that I represent and across our country.

In fact, as many as 200 million Americans are currently drinking PFAS-contaminated water, often without even knowing it.

While my home State of Massachusetts has led the way in responding to PFAS contaminations in recent years, including the groundbreaking of a new 10,000-square foot treatment plant in my district in Littleton, most States are falling further and further behind, leaving their residents at risk.

Madam Speaker, we have the ability to change that today.

Passage of the PFAS Action Act will bolster State and local initiatives like those already under way in Massachusetts.

This legislation will provide the resources and policies necessary to clean up contaminated drinking water sites, support families who have been exposed to PFAS chemicals, and take critical steps to prevent future exposures.

I am grateful to Representatives Dingell and Upton, as well as our chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Pallone, for their bipartisan work on this issue.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, not because it will hurt corporations who want to continue the unregulated use of these dangerous chemicals, but because the health and well-being of the hardworking families they represent are at stake if they don't.

Madam Speaker, I rise in full support of the equal rights amendment and to debunk some of the nonsense being spouted by my colleagues across the aisle.

This legislation is not about special rights, it is not about preferential treatment, and it is not about erasing sex differences. It is about finally guaranteeing equal rights, plain and simple.

Critics of the ERA know that, or at least they would if they actually read the legislation. It is right there for all of us to see. ``Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,'' period.

Everyone in this Capitol has a mother, and some of us are blessed to have daughters. This amendment is about them. It is about completing the work of generations of women before us who marched for full equality, and it is about finishing that journey so that the next generation will experience nothing other than full and fair rights under the law.

I urge my colleagues to give our daughters that chance. Join us and pass this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the leadership and legacy of a mentor and a friend, Maria Cunha, who will retire as Associate Dean and Director of the Out of School Youth Development Program at Middlesex Community College. Her most recent years at MCC have had an immense impact on students and faculty alike, advising and supporting them in their educational and vocational pursuits.

Maria was born in the Azores and moved with her family to the United States in 1967, eventually settling in Lowell among a vibrant, proud Portuguese community. After graduating from Lowell High School in 1974, she went to Regis College and became the first in her family to graduate from college four years later.

Public service has always guided Maria's career. She worked as a teacher, interpreter, and mentor serving on countless non-profit boards and dedicated her life to advocating fiercely for families, children, and immigrants in our community.

For twelve years at the International Institute, Maria helped families navigate government agencies on their path to becoming citizens and creating a new life in the Greater Lowell region. She carried that passion for advocacy to her next role as Constituent Services Director in former Representative Marty Meehan's District Office. There, she continued her mission to provide the highest quality services to our community and exemplified the nobility of service-- picking up the phone and listening to someone in crisis and delivering assistance; not giving up on someone in need of a hand; and advocating for resources and laws that fix our broken, inequitable systems.

Over the years, Maria has served as a role model and mentor to so many, myself included. She is what we all should aspire to be as public servants--a shining and tangible example of how government, education, and community are supposed to work.

Even in retirement, Maria will continue to champion those who don't have a voice, her rich Portuguese heritage, and immigrants in search of a better life here in our community.

Through her many years of service, Maria has made the City of Lowell a better place to call home. Thanks to her efforts, the City's future is bright, and I join Lowell residents and so many throughout our region in thanking her for her dedication to this incredible community.

Mr. Speaker, there is a rampaging public health emergency that has been with us for far too long. And there have been countless chilling examples of what happens when we fail to act, or only take half measures, anodyne placebos. Each time, more lives are lost.

Moreover, we have seen a particular community unjustly suffer scorn for this emergency. They have been scapegoated rather than recognized as the fellow victims of this crisis. But there is no question that the harms of this crisis haven't fallen evenly, and the disparate harm offers all the more reason for actual solutions, not mere talk. By now, my colleagues know that I am not talking about COVID. I am referring to gun violence.

Today, the most commonsense, broadly popular, and impactful thing that we can do is pass H.R. 8, and bolster our pitifully weak background check system in the United States. Keeping deadly weapons out of the hands of those fueled by hate is as common sense as it gets.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 8.

Mr. Speaker, the aggressive concentration of wealth in corporate boardrooms, the unending attacks on unions and their attempts to organize, and the passage of so-called right-to-work laws, which we now know are really the right-to-deprivation laws, have left America's workers begging for scraps, rather than receiving the fair compensation and full benefits they deserve.

My father was a proud member of the Ironworkers Union. He showed up every day and worked hard, erecting buildings and bridges across New England.

And while he was at work, he knew that his union was fighting to defend him and his brothers and sisters and their families by looking out for our interests at the negotiating table.

It is thanks to the strong benefits and wages secured by his union that my parents were able to provide for my sisters and me.

The PRO Act is about making sure that other families have that same chance. It is about restoring dignity and power to where it belongs: with our workers.

After all, it is our workers who kept us afloat, fed, housed, and safe this last year. For that I urge this bill's passage.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in support of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1, and I commend the Speaker, the majority leader, Chair Lofgren, and Representative Sarbanes for their unwavering leadership.

Madam Speaker, we live in a cynical age. Some of this is due to the fact that the wealthy and well-connected have been granted access and influence in the halls of power far beyond what is fair. The results speak for themselves--massive economic, health, and wealth disparities. It is also due to the fact that we have seemingly entered a post-truth era in which facts have less of a grip on public debate, particularly on our social media platforms.

Madam Speaker, the race to the bottom continues, whether it is the big lie about the election, or gaslighting the American people about the political leanings of insurrectionists, or the denial of climate change.

The roots of these problems cannot be solved unless we reform our government, starting today. H.R. 1 is needed to help dissolve the cynicism and ensure that facts and honesty have a place at the table once again.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us in passing H.R. 1.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Equality Act, and I associate myself with the remarks of the bill's sponsor, the gentleman from Rhode Island.

Because Mr. Cicilline and my colleagues have already said all that there is to say about the clear merits of the bill, I would simply ask, through the Chair, that if our colleagues on the other side cannot find it within themselves to support this bill out of a sense of fairness and goodwill to those enduring discrimination, then please do so out of concern for their parents, people just like our colleagues on the other side, mothers and fathers who love their children every bit as much as our colleagues love theirs.

We want nothing more than to send our kids out into the world with confidence and a reasonable expectation of being treated fairly and equally. It is never too late to do the right thing.

Please join us in voting ``yes'' on the Equality Act.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to mark the passing of my friend, Don Motaka. Today, would have been his 69th birthday.

Don was truly one of a kind and he made an impression on everyone he met. I will always remember his quick wit, huge heart, irreverent sense of humor, and booming laugh. He was not someone that could be easily overlooked, as his positive energy could take over a room.

Unfortunately, Don died suddenly on December 21, 2020 in Oxford, Michigan of complications unrelated to COVID.

I had the honor of getting to know Don when we worked together as congressional staffers in the mid-1990s. Don was not your typical staff member, as his personal and professional life had taken him on a wondering and diverse journey by the time he made his way to Capitol Hill.

A native of Gettysburg, PA, his teenage years were marked by instability that resulted in Don being taken in and cared for by members of St. James Lutheran Church. In spite of those challenges, Don excelled as a student and went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Divinity School.

After graduating from Yale Divinity School, Don served as Pastor to two rural churches before leaving to lead Tabernacle Lutheran Church in West Philadelphia, a challenging assignment that left him looking for other ways to serve people. He held many different jobs during that time, including serving as a congressional aide to U.S. Representative Marty Meehan, where we met.

In 2013, Don returned to the ministry to become a monk at St. Augustine's House Lutheran Monastery, the only Lutheran Monastery in North America. Upon becoming a simple professed monk in 2015, he took the name Father Jude--who is known as the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes. At the monastery, he spent his time listening for God and regularly preaching at Sunday Mass. He also dedicated many hours to working in a woodworking shop he created at the monastery.

He is missed by his mother, Almena Motaka, his brothers at the monastery, and his sudden passing has impacted many who loved him and referred to him affectionately as ``Uncle Don,'' including Rev. Edward Keyser and his family, Rev. Fritz Foltz and Faith Foltz and family, Joe Moore and his family, and David Schildknecht and his family.

Don was passionate about politics and was a dedicated Democrat who loved this country and followed in great detail the twists and turns of public policy debates held in Congress. Like many, Don was troubled by what had happened to our country over the past four years and was overjoyed by the results of the election in November.

During my first campaign for Congress, Don was a voice of encouragement from the very beginning, and his daily prayers for me from the monastery were a source of comfort and strength. While it was many years ago that I last saw Don, I can still see his smile and feel the warmth of his personality like it was yesterday. I am grateful to have crossed paths with him and I hope his memory is a blessing to all who had the privilege of knowing him.

Madam Speaker, I stand before you today in disbelief-- disbelief that, after the President incited a violent mob to commit an act of insurrection and remained silent as police officers were assaulted, the Capitol was ransacked, and Members of this body fled for their lives, that there are still members of his party who refuse to hold him accountable.

It is because of that inaction that there is only one path forward to put an end to this Presidency. Donald Trump must be impeached, removed from office, and barred from ever holding the Office of the Presidency again.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the leadership and legacy of a great leader and friend, Mayor Daniel ``Dan'' Rivera, who will retire as the 59th Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Mayor Dan Rivera is leaving his second four-year term in office early to become the President and CEO of MassDevelopment; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' finance and economic development agency.

Mayor Rivera was born in New York City to a single mother who emigrated from the Dominican Republic in search of a better life for her family. His mother moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts to find work as a seamstress in the area's mills, and it was in Lawrence that Mayor Rivera was raised and began his career as a public servant.

After graduating from Lawrence High School, Mayor Rivera enlisted in the United States Army and became a Military Police Officer, serving in Germany, Iraq, and Kuwait. After his multiple tours overseas, Mayor Rivera returned home to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Indeed, he became the first person in his family to graduate from college--something that he and I have in common.

Prior to being elected as the City's mayor, he worked tirelessly to improve the growth and economic development of the Merrimack Valley for its residents. As an economic development director for Congressman Marty Meehan, Mayor Rivera continued to bring critical investments to his hometown and communities across the Merrimack Valley.

Not long after, he was elected to the Lawrence City Council where he served as the Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. He provided key leadership in adjusting the City's budget in order to restore key services and personnel. Then-Councilor Rivera worked to diversify the Lawrence Police Department by making it a majority-minority department with 53% of the officers making up individuals of color and tripling the number of women on the force, more accurately representing the people of Lawrence.

In 2013, he was elected as the City's mayor. Over the last seven years, he has led Lawrence through two major crises--the 2018 Merrimack Valley natural gas explosions and the COVID-19 pandemic. Time and again, he has demonstrated his leadership and dedication to the residents of the great City of Lawrence.

The Merrimack Valley gas explosions forced thousands of families to flee the area, damaged and destroyed dozens of homes, left many businesses with considerable financial losses, and tragically took a young man's life. Throughout that period, Mayor Rivera led with purpose and empathy in every decision he made to get the City on the path of recovery, while fighting to ensure the community received all necessary support and resources. He has been a close ally as we successfully advanced the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act. This legislation will ensure no community ever faces a disaster like this one again, becoming law in December of 2020.

Just as the City of Lawrence was recovering from the natural gas explosions, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Lawrence has been among the hardest hit communities in the Commonwealth by the pandemic, disproportionately impacting its large population of Black and brown residents. With the utmost transparency in communication, Mayor Rivera consistently urged the community to maintain social distance, enacted a city-wide eviction moratorium to protect renters, created two Emergency Small Business Relief Programs designed to help the Lawrence businesses and immigrant entrepreneur communities as they work to get back on their feet, and diligently collaborated with the State and Federal governments to set up testing sites around the city.

Mayor Rivera's leadership and hard work has been recognized by various organizations. He was awarded Masslnc.'s Mayor Bill Carpenter Award for Excellence in Gateway City Leadership in 2020, and in 2018 was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People of Color in Greater Boston by Get Konnected.

Through his many years of service, Mayor Rivera has made the City of Lawrence a better place to call home. Thanks to his efforts, the City's future is bright, and I join Lawrence residents in thanking him for his dedication to this incredible community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the contributions and legacy of Mr. Antonio Dias Chaves, a proud Portuguese immigrant who made Hudson, Massachusetts his home and dedicated his life and career to public service and the prosperity of the Portuguese community in Massachusetts. He tragically passed away due to COVID-19 on December 31, 2020.

From 1967 when Antonio immigrated to the United States from the Azores until his death, he worked tirelessly to make his country and community a better place. Shortly after his arrival, he enlisted in the Army and proudly served his country during the Vietnam War. His public service did not end there. Rather, it was just the beginning. In 1978, Antonio became the first Portuguese-American elected to the Hudson Board of Selectmen and just the second elected Portuguese-American in all of Massachusetts. His passion for politics blossomed and he developed friendships with many political leaders throughout the Commonwealth and beyond--all to give back to his country, support his community, and most importantly, help others.

Antonio's impact on the Portuguese diaspora in Massachusetts cannot be understated nor can his commitment to helping other immigrants achieve the American Dream. Antonio helped thousands of people make a life for themselves and their families in America as both an immigration consultant and a public servant with the Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants. As a former congressional staffer and member of Congress, I had the opportunity see first-hand Antonio's determined advocacy for helping others, his devotion to his community, his pride in his heritage, and of course, his passion for the Hudson Portuguese Club. I will miss seeing him among families and friends during dinners or feasts at the Club, where he could usually be found as the resident Master of Ceremonies, hosting in the restaurant, cheering on his favorite team (Sporting Clube de Portugal), having a toast with friends, or tending to duties as the president of the general assembly.

For his contributions and accomplishments, he was awarded one of the highest civilian honors bestowed by the Portuguese Government, the Order of Merit and the title of ``Comendador''. Throughout his life, Antonio would receive numerous recognitions from State and local government and other distinguished organizations for his work in the community through the Hudson Portuguese Club and Portugal 73, one of the oldest continually running Portuguese radio shows in the world. Recently, Antonio authored and published ``Os Meus Imperios'', a memoir of establishing the Holy Ghost Festival or ``Imperio'' in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Antonio will be remembered for his love for his family, our great nation, unparalleled friendship, passion for helping others, and pride in his Portuguese heritage. His contributions to our community and grateful nation will never be forgotten. My heart goes out to Zelia, Derek, and the entire Chaves family during this difficult time. Antonio's legacy will live on through his loving family and all of us who had the honor of calling him a friend

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this year's National Defense Authorization Act. This bill addresses many critical components of our national defense, including the urgent need to tackle sexual assault across the United States military.

Recent years have seen significant progress towards reforming how sexual assault claims are handled. Now it is time for Congress to confront the conditions that allow sexual assault to happen in the first place.

We have an obligation to protect and safeguard those who answer the call to service and wear the uniform of the United States. It is not good enough merely to have the best training and equipment on the battlefield; we must also protect our soldiers on base or wherever they are.

This NDAA includes an amendment I coauthored that does just that by directing the Secretary of Defense to create a civilian advisory committee on sexual assault prevention in the military. This committee would be comprised of civilians with expertise in campus sexual assault prevention, suicide prevention, public health, and perhaps, most importantly, culture change of large organizations.

We absolutely can make more meaningful progress to make military sexual assault a thing of the past. I am glad that opportunity is reflected in the NDAA before us now. I urge support of this bill.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman from Illinois, our Appropriations Committee chair, as well as members of the Rules Committee, for making this amendment in order.

I rise to offer an amendment that serves to remind the FCC that lawmakers who oversee and fund this agency want answers.

It has been over a year since Congress directed the FCC to investigate the sale of geolocation data by wireless carriers to third parties. Location data has been sold through a supply chain with little oversight, and we are seeing this information end up in the hands of bad actors. For just a few dollars, stalkers and predatory abusers can buy geolocation information to prey on unsuspecting victims, a reality that should set off alarm bells nationwide.

The FCC's delay in reporting their findings from this investigation puts consumers' security at risk. The FCC must act to remedy its lack of enforcement and transparency regarding this investigation.