Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise to offer my strong support for the rule and for the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act.

This is an important retirement savings measure that has the support of a wide range of stakeholders, from the United States Chamber of Commerce to the Girl Scouts. What a credit to the committee for taking up this important legislation for the people.

I want to highlight section 105, a provision that the committee included to offer a tax incentive to small businesses for setting up automatic enrollment for their employees' retirement plans.

Madam Speaker, while half of private-sector employees have access to a retirement plan through their employer, it is estimated that just 15 percent of small businesses offer a retirement plan. Yet small businesses employ approximately half of the Nation's private-sector workforce.

Ensuring that small business employees have retirement options just like those who work for larger companies will increase small businesses' competitiveness at a time when the job market is tightening, and it will position these employees for a secure retirement.

Establishing automatic enrollment in retirement plans is critical. Participation rates in defined contribution plans like a 401(k) are above 90 percent among new hires when automatic enrollment is the default. Moreover, 80 percent of participants increase their contributions over time. Alternatively, when employers do not offer automatic enrollment, new hire participation is below 50 percent.

Section 105 is based upon a bill that Mr. Kelly and I introduced, the Small Employer Retirement Savings Auto-Enrollment Credit Act. It would provide small businesses--those with up to 100 employees--a $500 tax credit to defray the start-up cost of offering automatic enrollment. The tax credit would also be available to small businesses that convert their existing employee retirement program from an opt-in to auto- enrollment.

I was pleased to work with the chairman and his staff as well as the gentleman from Pennsylvania on this issue. I urge adoption of the resolution and the SECURE Act.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the passage of the 19th Amendment 100 years ago today.

It is remarkable to imagine that the fundamental right to vote was only granted to women this recently. If only the suffragettes who sacrificed so much for so long could see the results of their movement, that I would be serving in Congress shoulder to shoulder with 131 women, the most in our Nation's history.

We know that better decisions are made when more women are at the table, from the boardroom to the floor of this historic Chamber.

Women have been blazing the path of social progress in the United States for centuries, marching for civil rights, striking for workers' rights, organizing against gun violence, and speaking out on sexual harassment. Today, we continue to reshape our country, writing new history in the Halls of Congress.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, women like Susan B. Anthony, Shirley Chisholm, Edith Nourse Rogers, and many more, and make sure we do our part to pave the new path for women to follow after us.

Madam Speaker, I am proud and honored to take part in celebrating the anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

Madam Speaker, I rise during National Law Enforcement Week 2019 to honor the valiant men and women who protect and serve the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts. The Haverhill Police Department consists of outstanding public servants who devote their lives to keeping the citizens of the city safe, while improving the lives of countless individuals.

Like most Americans each day, they get up, say goodbye to their loved ones, and head to work. But their work, and the work of police officers around the country, is like no other. From the moment they put on their uniform they have answered a call that at any moment may put their lives in harm's way.

I thank the Haverhill Police Department for their continued and unwavering service and wish them well in their careers and future endeavors to come.

Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I recognize the Officers of the Haverhill, Massachusetts Police Department.

Madam Speaker, I rise to offer my strong support for the rule and for H.R. 5, the Equality Act.

Recent years have brought extraordinary progress in the fight for full equality for our LGBTQ community. Like millions of others across the country, I joined with friends and family to celebrate Supreme Court rulings paving the way for same-sex couples to marry. But in the midst of these joyful and historic victories, we knew that the work was just beginning.

Though LGBTQ people could now get married, in a majority of States they could still be fired for having a picture of their spouse on their desk or kicked out of their home just for being who they are. The fact is, LGBTQ people are still at risk of discrimination across key areas of life in huge swaths of our country.

Recent national surveys of LGBTQ people show that 42 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people; and 78 percent of transgender people have experienced discrimination or harassment on the job because of who they are.

Only 21 States have explicit laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and employment, housing and public accommodations, and only 20 States have such protections for gender identity.

The time to end this patchwork of protections once and for all is now, and to do that, we must pass this important legislation.

The promotion of fairness and justice is a hallmark of who we are as Americans. Everyone should be afforded all of the rights provided for in our Constitution and outlined in our Declaration of Independence. These rights are fundamental to all human beings, and all Americans deserve the same civil rights regardless of gender, race, and sexual orientation. We don't need to amend that.

Let's pass the rule and let's pass the Equality Act.

Madam Speaker, I rise during National Law Enforcement Week 2019 to honor the valiant men and women who protect and serve the city of Haverhill, Massachusetts. The Haverhill Police Department consists of outstanding public servants who devote their lives to keeping the citizens of the city safe, while improving the lives of countless individuals.

Like most Americans each day, they get up, say goodbye to their loved ones, and head to work. But their work, and the work of police officers around the country, is like no other. From the moment they put on their uniform they have answered a call that at any moment may put their lives in harm's way.

I thank the Haverhill Police Department for their continued and unwavering service and wish them well in their careers and future endeavors to come.

Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I recognize the Officers of the Haverhill Massachusetts Police Department.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Antonio ``Tony'' Frias of Hudson, Massachusetts who is turning 80 years old on Saturday, April 6, 2019. Tony dedicated his life to his community and business, as the co-founder of S&F Concrete Contractors, Inc. Tony has lived his life admirably, and his legacy of hard work and public service continues to inspire many in our community.

Tony Frias was born in Santa Maria Island, Azores and left school after the 4th grade to immigrate to the United States in 1955 with the earnest pursuit to create a better future. Before becoming involved in construction, Tony challenged himself in various positions, building skills, determination, and exploring interests to cultivate. After seven years of working in the concrete construction industry, Tony and his brother Joseph joined forces with Jack Santos to establish S&F Concrete Contractors, Inc. Today, he continues his work with over 50 years of construction experience at the forefront of the company.

Tony's lifetime commitment to our community and his work at S&F Concrete Contractors has been invaluable to Massachusetts. I am proud to rise in honor of Tony's 80th birthday and look forward to his continuing to inspire others in our community.

Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I recognize Mr. Antonio Frias today.

Madam Speaker, I rise to offer my strong support for the rule and for H. Res. 124. We should approve both and send a powerful message that Congress will not tolerate such a cruel and self-defeating policy.

Last month, the Armed Services Committee's Military Personnel Subcommittee held a hearing that was the first of its kind. The chairwoman, my colleague from California, invited transgender servicemembers to testify. We heard from an impressive panel of five dedicated servicemembers. They asked for nothing more than to be permitted to continue to serve their Nation honorably.

Before the hearing, I met Staff Sergeant Patricia King. Patricia grew up on Cape Cod. She is a combat-tested and decorated infantry soldier who has served nobly for over 20 years in the Army. Her life was turned upside down by a tweet nearly 2 years ago, one that put her military career in jeopardy.

We should never treat our servicemembers so callously. But if Patricia's story isn't sufficiently convincing, consider how shortsighted this ban is as well.

The DOD's total cost for transition-related care in fiscal year 2017 was $2.2 million, which is one-tenth of 1 percent of DOD's annual healthcare budget for the Active component. Yet the cost to train a single fifth-generation fighter pilot is $11 million. The retraining cost of losing just one transgender military pilot would be five times more than the entire transition-related care for the military for a year.

Meanwhile, the Army missed its recruitment goal for the first time in more than a decade last year. Now is certainly not the time to turn away well-qualified and patriotic soldiers.

Let's approve the rule and the resolution and say ``no'' to discrimination.

Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

Madam Chair, before addressing the pending amendment, I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) for his leadership and also express my profound appreciation for my friend from Connecticut. She has been a tireless champion over the years for equal pay on behalf of those who have been discriminated against unfairly.

Madam Chair, I imagine that most of us agree that unfair pay discrimination needs to be stopped. Unfortunately, despite the progress we have made in offering greater opportunities to more and more Americans, pay discrimination persists, and, at times, it occurs in stealth ways that cannot be easily detected. That, in fact, is a key reason why I oppose this amendment.

Keeping this bill intact is necessary to prevent the kind of unfair discrimination that occurs when one employee is compensated less than another despite doing the same job just as well for just as long and with the same credentials.

I worked in the private sector for 13 years before coming to Congress. I know firsthand that unfair pay disparities still occur.

Across industries, I worked with employers to confront this inequality, to bring more women to the decisionmaking table and create work environments where people of any sex, gender, race, or ethnicity were truly empowered.

Pay discrimination derails a workplace. It holds back talent and undermines trust, a toxic mix for any business.

A key component of the Paycheck Fairness Act requires that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collect wage data, disaggregated by sex, race, and national origin. This provision is particularly necessary to respond to the administration's attempt to block the EEOC from collecting data.

Earlier this month, the National Women's Law Center won an important case to reinstate the EEOC's ability to collect this data. Nevertheless, attacks on collecting data of this type continue. We should not make it easier to hide pay discrimination.

This provision is necessary to ensure that equal work does, in fact, lead to equal pay. It will reveal trends in hiring, compensation, and advancement, and it will expose sex-segregated jobs, and unequal salaries, benefits, or bonuses.

This provision is a critical component of the bill, and I urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment and keep the bill intact.

Madam Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Madam Chair, reporting this data allows the EEOC to see which employers have racial or gender pay gaps that differ significantly from the pay patterns of other employers in their industry and region.

To be clear, this pay data will not conclusively establish that any employer is violating the law, and it isn't intended to. What it will do is aggregate millions of data points to establish gender and racial pay patterns within job categories, industries, and localities, allowing identification of firms that significantly depart from those benchmarks that may warrant further analysis.

Simply put, we cannot end unfair pay discrimination if we don't have the data.

I join my colleague from North Carolina in celebrating a record number of women entering the workforce, but let's compensate them fairly for their work, and let's use data to inform our decisions.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment and support the underlying bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge this Congress to provide permanent relief to the Dreamers, Deferred Enforcement Departure, and Temporary Protected Status holders whose lives have been turned upside down by the Administration. We must pass H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act, without delay.

Fourteen months ago, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was ending TPS for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans in the United States. The Department's decision about Salvadorans' TPS was just the latest in a string of such announcements since the fall of 2017--which also threaten Sudanese, Haitian, and Nicaraguan immigrants. Families have been living in a state of fear and uncertainty for a year and a half, and for no good reason.

Madam Speaker, I'd like to explain why this is not only cruel policy, but also unnecessary and short-sighted. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Irma Flores. Irma is a community engagement specialist for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, where she assists the Spanish-speaking community. She lives in Haverhill, in my District, with her daughter, who goes to school at UMass Boston. Her son graduated from Suffolk University with degrees in International Relations and Political Science. Irma, herself, studied International Relations in her native country at the University of El Salvador. However, she and her kids fled to the United States 18 years ago because of a devastating earthquake.

For nearly two decades, the United States has been Irma's home and her children's home. The people of Somerville depend upon her; and she is a beloved part of the Haverhill community.

It is estimated that there are more than 12,000 people living in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Temporary Protected Status--half of whom are from El Salvador. However, people like Irma have had their lives upended by the callousness of the Administration's policy.

If Irma's story isn't persuasive enough for Congress to act, consider the fact that the law, despite the Administration's claim, does not require her return. That's because we have the power to permit extensions if these residents are unable to return in safety.

The United States does not--and should not--return people to disaster areas or warzones. In January, our State Department renewed its travel advisory to El Salvador. The warning reads: ``Violent crime, such as murder, assault, rape, and armed robbery, is common. Gang activity, such as extortion, violent street crime, and narcotics and arms trafficking, is widespread.'' These are not conditions under which families should be forced to return.

But if the legal argument is not persuasive either, consider the fact that TPS holders contribute nearly $650 million to the Commonwealth's economy. One analysis found that if Salvadoran, Honduran, and Haitian workers with TPS were removed from the labor force, the United States would lose $164 billion in gross domestic product over the next decade.

Again, Madam Speaker, this is cruel, unnecessary and shortsighted policy. This Congress should approve the Dream and Promise Act, which provides a permanent fix for Dreamers, DACA, and TPS recipients without delay, so that people like Irma and her family can remain safely here as members of our communities.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I commend my friend, the Congressman from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes) for offering one of the most significant reforms to our election system in a generation. I am particularly pleased that H.R. 1 puts redistricting in the hands of independent commissions, where it belongs.

Under the bill, each State will create 15-person independent redistricting commissions that represent the public's interests first and foremost, without consideration of political party advantage.

However, to prevent the real or perceived risk of bias, H.R. 1 excludes several categories of people from serving

on these commissions, including political candidates or officeholders, campaign officials, big donors, and lobbyists.

My amendment would simply add to this list those individuals who are registered agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA.

FARA has been in law since the 1930s. It requires disclosure when an individual is acting as a political representative of foreign governments.

As with H.R. 1's current exclusions, adding foreign agents will help ensure that those serving on the independent redistricting commissions are not at risk of actual or perceived conflicts of interest.

Coming from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which gave our Nation the term ``gerrymander,'' I am pleased that H.R. 1 will put an end to this device by allowing voters to choose their representatives rather than the other way around.

My amendment aims to close a loophole by ensuring that registered foreign agents, like lobbyists and big donors, may not serve on redistricting commissions.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Illinois. I also look forward to working in a bipartisan way to restore our government to the people.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment. I urge a ``yes'' on H.R. 1. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, under current law, our brave men and women serving our country in uniform are able to maintain their residency status for the purposes of voting during deployment. Current law also protects voting residency status if a spouse of a servicemember is absent from their State in order to accompany the servicemember on a deployment.

However, current law does not protect the residency status of a spouse if he or she is absent but without accompanying the deployed servicemember.

My amendment fixes this loophole. It will ensure that these spouses may maintain their voting residency status, regardless of whether they accompany their spouse. Moreover, my amendment would extend the same protection to voting-age dependents.

The absence of a servicemember who is deployed can be an enormous hardship on a family. It means a caregiver is no longer at home to share in parenting duties. In these cases, it is natural to rely upon friends and family, even those in another State, for support. However, these families should not lose the right to vote in their home district if they are absent while their spouse is deployed. Furthermore, my amendment extends those same protections to voting-age children.

This is an amendment about ensuring those who sacrifice the most for the defense of our Nation are treated fairly and that they have a voice and a vote in our elections.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman from Illinois once again. I thank the gentlewoman from California. She made this easy on me, and I appreciate that.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with a great sense of urgency.

Every day it seems as if there is another news story about a shooting in a school, a movie theater, a synagogue, or on a city block. We have lost far too many lives due to gun violence.

From my own community, I celebrate the life of Olivia Marchand from Westford, whose mother, Jody, endured years of domestic abuse. In 2010, she survived her husband's brutal attack but lost her beautiful Olivia when her husband shot and killed her and then killed himself.

This tragedy devastated our whole community. As a mother, this loss still fills me with grief and anger.

Today, Jody keeps her daughter's memory alive, educates women on domestic violence, and fights for tougher gun laws. We must answer America's call for action on gun violence, not the gun lobby's call to maintain the status quo.

Yesterday, we passed universal background check legislation, a necessary first step to tackle gun violence in America. I urge my colleagues to continue voting for these critical reforms.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend the gentleman from Arizona and his staff for their tremendous work on this bipartisan bill.

I particularly appreciate its inclusion of a provision originally authored by my predecessor, Niki Tsongas, to add the Nashua River to the Wild and Scenic River System.

Seeking this designation has been a labor of love for the communities in the watershed and local leaders like Marion Stoddart and Elizabeth Ainsley Campbell.

I also value the bill's funding cap adjustment for Essex National Heritage Area.

Finally, it is outstanding to see the bill's renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that has benefited nearly every corner of the Nation, including Minute Man and Lowell National Parks in the district I grew up in and am proud to represent today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the bill's swift passage.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk, and I ask for its consideration.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to commend the sponsors of this important bill that rewards the talent and commitment of our civilian workforce by granting them a 2.6 percent pay adjustment for 2019.

Mr. Chairman, the shutdown was a stark reminder of how crucial these workers are to protect our air and water, secure our shores, guide air traffic, and ensure that our tax returns are processed on time.

I heard desperate stories from many of these public servants, including workers at the IRS processing center in Andover. One of my constituents who works there wrote the following to me during the shutdown: ``Apart from selling everything I own to pay for food, bills, and the mortgage, I honestly don't know what to do and am truly scared that this may do me in.''

Mr. Chairman, this was an entirely avoidable tragedy that wreaked havoc on thousands of lives; yet he and thousands of others like him dutifully reported to work without any certainty of when or whether they would be paid next. The underlying bill is the least we can do for them and the dedicated

public servants like them. My amendment is a simple clarification that all IRS employees would be eligible for this pay adjustment.

We learned yesterday from legislative counsel that the bill could inadvertently exclude some of these employees hired under special provisions of chapter 95, title 5.

For example, title 5, section 9503 grants IRS special authority to hire employees for critical administrative, technical, and professional positions necessary to carry out the functions of the IRS. However, it is unclear whether such individuals would benefit from H.R. 790's pay adjustment. This amendment simply removes any doubt.

I hope that the amendment can be adopted.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Mr. Chairman, the employees I talked to at the IRS are noble. They are hardworking. They are working with the utmost integrity. They have endured cuts to their agency, at times doing jobs that used to require two, sometimes three people to do.

Again, my amendment merely makes a clarifying change to be certain that all of these employees, all IRS workers, receive the benefit of this well-deserved pay adjustment. I urge my colleagues to adopt the amendment.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mary Parziale of Dracut, Massachusetts who is turning 100 years old on Friday, January 25, 2019. Mary dedicated her life to raising a large family and working hard to help benefit those in her community. Mary has lived her life admirably, and her legacy of hard work

and public service continues to inspire many in our community.

Mary Parziale was born in Trapani, Sicily and arrived in the United States at the young age of 18 months. Mary lived in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts where she grew up to have 8 children of her own. At the age of 44, Mary received her driver's license and worked in a shoe factory until she was recruited by a police officer to work in the Labor Division at the Massachusetts State House. After 20 years of commitment to this new line of work, Mary retired.

Mary's lifetime commitment to our community and her work at the Massachusetts State House Labor Division has been invaluable to Massachusetts.

Madam Speaker, it is with great honor that I recognize Ms. Mary Parziale today.