Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight a bipartisan resolution introduced alongside my northwest Ohio colleague, Bob Latta. It proclaims May 9 to May 18, 2025, as National American Birding Week.

Each spring, 3.5 billion birds from over 350 species migrate through the United States to their breeding grounds. They stop along the shores of our Great Lakes flyway before continuing their journey to Canada and beyond. They don't have to pay any tariffs.

Birding in our abundant freshwater kingdom draws environmental stewards from around the globe. Nationwide, 95 million birders generate over $90 billion annually for our economy.

The biggest week in American birding is sponsored by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Oak Harbor, Ohio. This event leverages public- private partnerships to promote conservation of migratory bird populations and promote millions of dollars of economic development through nature tourism, research, education, and outreach.

Ohio is proud to host our guests from near and far. We welcome everyone during America's Birding Week. Let this continue for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the members of Ohio's Lyons-Royalton Fire Department, a pillar of the Lyons community.

Firefighters recently saved the life of a local man while responding to a fire call. Homeowners Barb and Steve Bates reported a fire that had sparked in the woods. When the fire crew arrived, they contained the fire with the help of Mr. Bates, who then, sadly, experienced cardiac arrest.

Firefighter and EMT Tim Ellithorpe, Fire Chief Devon Kelble, and Lyons Fire Chief Zachary Miramontes launched into action, performing lifesaving efforts. They succeeded.

This illustrates how our brave first responders will always answer the call.

In honor of the bravery of all first responders lost in the line of duty and recognizing National Fallen Firefighters Memorial weekend, let us celebrate those who are sworn to serve and to their dedication to public service to others.

As members of our community who have made great sacrifices, first responders truly are the backbone of public safety. They are the heroes and sheroes of our northwest Ohio community.

Mr. Speaker, I stood yesterday with food pantry leaders from across northwest Ohio at the SeaGate Food Bank. We shared deep concerns about rising unemployment, rising food prices, and Federal cuts to food programs by the Trump administration.

This is creating greater hardship across the region I represent. The burden of tariffs and irresponsible Federal food cuts are negatively affecting food banks. They are lifeline to our families.

This coming Saturday, May 10, the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch No. 100 in northwest Ohio and postal workers nationwide will be holding their annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

They will head out on their routes this Saturday morning. I am urging all Americans to please find an empty paper bag and put protein, peanut butter, canned tuna, canned chicken, canned beef, green beans, and canned fruit in them.

Since launching their program in 1993, this has become the largest food drive in America. Believe me, senior citizens need this. Our families with children need it. Our unemployed workers and our disabled people really need this. I encourage all who want to help to put the food out this Saturday morning after 10 o'clock.

Mr. Speaker, may God bless America and Americans who care.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with immense joy and gratitude to celebrate the upcoming grand opening of the new Wayman Palmer YMCA in Toledo, Ohio. The event dedication will take place on May 12.

This new facility is more than a building; it is a beacon for enjoyment, a hub for our community, and a promise to our children, families, and neighbors that community life thrives in the heart of Toledo.

For decades, the Wayman Palmer YMCA has been a pillar of the Warren Sherman neighborhood. With this new state-of-the-art facility, Federal funds attracted local funds, and I thank Mayor Kapszukiewicz for joining in this great effort. The YMCA will reaffirm our commitment to the health, wellness, and future of the heart of our community.

This center will not only offer world-class fitness and recreation; it will also provide vital programs for youth development, mentorship, and enrichment. Every child who walks through those doors knows they are welcome.

I congratulate the city of Toledo and feel greatly honored to be able to join with all of the councilmembers and citizens for the upcoming groundbreaking. It will bring renewed hope with the dawn of spring, and I hope to be a party to planting new trees around the region and to celebrate the beginning of spring 2025.

I congratulate all.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening on behalf of the people I am privileged to represent in northwest Ohio: workers, family, farmers, and urban and rural communities where neighbors try to look out for one another.

However, too many families are struggling to put food on the table. They are being priced out of their own grocery store. Food prices have shot up--meat, milk, bread, eggs--basics that every family depends on. Households are getting buried under the weight of their grocery bill.

Now, to make matters worse, the Trump administration has unilaterally paused Federal food assistance and canceled shipments to food banks. We are feeling it. By withholding food and funds, the new administration has turned its back on the American people.

They feel the rising prices, and they feel the harm. Food banks in Ohio and across our Nation are seeing shelves go bare, school meal programs, senior nutrition, and food pantry lifelines short. The boxes going out to seniors don't have protein.

When Federal food dollars are cut off, it doesn't just hurt the hungry, it hurts the producers. Congress must restore these funds to feed our people, support the farmers, producers, and growers who make and grow what makes and grows America.

Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the House Great Lakes Task Force, I rise today to speak on behalf of our Great Lakes region.

My part of it is the Ninth District of Ohio that stretches all the way from Bryan, Ohio, all the way across the northern part of Ohio through Toledo, all the way to Sandusky and down to Fremont, Ohio, passing through places like Rossford, Perrysburg, Defiance, Ohio, and so many other beautiful places.

Our hardworking families depend on the Great Lakes not just for their livelihoods but for our way of life. They are the largest freshwater body on the face of the Earth, and we take the responsibility for tending that seriously.

The Great Lakes form the beating heart of our regional economy. They support hundreds of thousands of jobs, from the auto and steel industries, manufacturing to shipping, farming to fishing, and tourism to technology.

Our freshwater coast is a national treasure, and it is also a global economic engine, the third largest economy in the world that we share with Canada. We work on this together. We have from the beginning.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative--or some people call it the GLRI--has been a bipartisan lifeline and a vital investment that has brought over $3.7 billion to our complex ecosystem to restore our wetlands, to clean up toxic waste in hotspots, and to protect our fresh drinking water. It is complex with lots of industry, lots of agriculture, lots of people, and lots of freshwater.

We must fully fund the GLRI. Every dollar brings back four to our economy, and that just makes common sense.

Let me be clear to this new administration: Keep your hands off our lakes. We will not stand by while shortsighted proposals gut the programs that have protected our water, our health, and our jobs. I would urge the President, while he is in Michigan, to go visit Flint, Michigan, and look at what we have to do to restore enterprise and freshwater across our region.

Mr. Speaker, currently, our Great Lakes economy is being choked by reckless tariffs and inside-out trade policies that hit us hard, including the district I represent in northwest Ohio. It hits our pocketbooks and it hits the balance sheets of thousands of companies.

Take a drive through the Port of Toledo. You will see mountains of aluminum and steel stockpiled, stalled, waiting. Waiting for what? Our workers and small businesses are paying the price for a trade war that didn't need to start, and we certainly can't win as a joint economy.

Our region, the Great Lakes region, we share with Canada. What is all of this commotion for? Tariffs on Canada, our friend--I underline that--and ally, mind you--the Trump tariffs have inflated costs across our industries, including auto manufacturing, crushing competitiveness in an industry that has long been the pride of northern Ohio and for which we have struggled for 40 years to reinvest in.

In Sandusky, in Perrysburg, in Warren, Michigan, in Windsor, Ontario, and across the industrial belt, plants are being squeezed or idled, shifts are being cut, and paychecks are being threatened.

It doesn't stop there. Tariffs on Canadian lumber, potash, and energy have disrupted supply chains our region relies on. It is our life beat.

Construction costs are soaring. Eight percent for a mortgage, who can afford that? Farmers can't access the nutrients they need, and they are in the planting mode right now. The tractors are going into the fields.

As mortgage interest rates rise, we need Canadian lumber. The cost of housing is through the roof. Energy bills climb higher and higher. This is not economic patriotism. This isn't putting America first. It is self-inflicted damage. Somebody doesn't understand where these lakes exist. We share them with Canada.

Trump tariffs on the U.S. and Canada put our workers not first but put them last. Rising prices for consumers are hitting us hard across the board.

Let's not forget tourism, one of our region's most vital and underestimated economic engines. Lake Erie supports billions of dollars of recreational boating and sports fishing, along with a boating industry second to none. We share it with Canada. Cedar Fair, with Cedar Point, the roller coaster capital of the world, draws millions, including from Canada, and they are boycotting our facilities right now. Tourism generates billions.

I ask the President, please, while he is in Michigan, to review how damaging his tariffs are to our Great Lakes nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to share the latest photo of the founding of another billionaire private club here in Washington, D.C., in Georgetown, for the superrich, spearheaded by Donald Trump, Jr.; JD Vance; and their billionaire buddies.

Members can join for the low price of half a million dollars. They offer the richest of the rich a red carpet to buy influence and their way to power.

Meanwhile, working Americans are being crushed with high interest rates, 401(k)'s losing value, unaffordable housing, and rising grocery prices. At a time when reckless U.S.-Canada Trump-era tariffs are devastating our farmers and manufacturers, when layoffs are funding cuts and gutting communities, and the Trump elite are toasting champagne and eating caviar. Really?

This executive branch club isn't just an insult to the working class, but it is a vivid, grotesque portrait of ruling billionaires focused on totally enriching themselves and neglecting our Nation. Imagine what a half million dollars would buy in our communities for children or for seniors.

This excess reminds me of the disgusting behavior of Emperor Nero, who rightly has been relegated to the dustbin of history.

Mr. Speaker, this evening, along with several colleagues, I am here to discuss Ukraine and the necessity of Ukraine winning the war

against Russia's invasion. I will be joined by Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.

As I begin, please let me remind the President of our country, our Vice President, and Secretary of State that freedom means never surrender. Liberty must never capitulate to dictatorship. America does not live alone on this Earth. Our Nation lives in a free world alliance, and this alliance is being tested globally every single day.

Especially America's leaders cannot turn their back to Russia's murderous forces bearing down including illegally on Ukraine. History is clear. The dictatorship of Russia takes what is not theirs. Russia invades territory that does not belong to it.

If one looks at this map, Russia is a vast country of 11 time zones. It does not lack for territory. Here is Ukraine. Just think about that. West of that lies Europe. Study the map. Mr. Speaker, if you know nothing about Europe and that vast continent, think about 11 time zones and then our closest allies in the free world. Let that settle.

The facts speak for themselves. If my colleagues need more proof, ask Poland, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and a dozen other countries that Russia covets. They cast off the Russian bear just a few decades ago, and Russia wants them back.

Russia taunts our closest military allies across the European Continent. Together, we and our allies honor our collective memory of our collective sacrifice and bloodshed that built the free world that the generation before us gave us.

The Trump administration has proposed that the United States abandon and even scold our European allies. Let me be clear. Our Nation intergenerationally and painstakingly has built the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a global fortress of democratic nations.

Across Europe, from the ruins of World War I and World War II lie the precious graves of 411,516 American soldiers and--no one knows exactly--35 million to 50 million Europeans who died fighting or in the crossfire.

These heroes and heroines fought for the cause of liberty. Then they built a world order in which they attempted to enshrine it. Forged from that coalition of suffering, our joint commitment to defend freedom above all else prevails.

This moment for Ukraine--Russia and Ukraine--is a key moment in history. It is our generation's crucial test of freedom or subjugation. No succor can be allowed to a murderous dictatorship, no matter how many of Russia's rich oligarchs seek to plunder and steal from the sacred soils and minerals of Ukraine. The free West must stand united and say no.

Lovers of freedom must not ignore history. Putin's illegal invasion of Crimea and other stolen territories in Ukraine should be forbidden and turned back. Conquest is his perversion and his corruption. No stolen territory from Ukraine should be ceded to Putin. Spanning 11 time zones, Russia holds enough territory.

Having traveled there many times, Vladimir Putin ought to take care of his own country. They have got major problems. Putin should help his own nation thrive again. He has no need for Ukraine, which is among the poorest Nations in Europe. Look how they are fighting for liberty. It brings tears to my eyes.

Putin's plunder seeks to reconstitute the dictatorship, the vanquished Soviet dictatorship, that extended as far West as here. He wants those smaller countries. He wants them back. He longs for them, but they are not his.

Putin now issues an ultimatum. He says there will be no peace deal unless Ukraine agrees to surrender territory that Russia ruthlessly and illegally seized and invaded, this little country, just as he did in Georgia.

The United States, as leader of the free world, must never, ever genuflect to tyrants. Aggressor Putin wants the United States to walk away from the negotiating table. According to the terms the U.S. Vice President and Secretary of State laid out today, those terms include ceding Ukraine's territory to Russia. I say no. Nyet. Nemaye. No.

The fact is Russia is losing the war it started without provocation. In 2014, she began during the Olympics, so no one would notice how she went in the back door. It is losing the war that Putin started. He escalated it in even bloodier fashion when he initiated a full-scale invasion in the year 2022.

Sadly, every step of the way, the Trump administration has conceded to Putin's demands without Ukraine's consent. He cannot negotiate for Ukraine. It is not his. Russia does not recognize international agreements. It never has.

For example, following World War II, Russia broke its border commitments made at the Yalta Conference with its conquest of Poland. That caused Poland to disappear as a free nation until the very brave ``solidarity,'' ``solidarnos'c''' demonstrators in Poland trip-wired the collapse of the Soviet Union beginning in 1989.

Then in 1994, Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum to guarantee Ukrainian security. For that, Ukraine gave up all the nuclear weapons that were staged in Ukraine.

In 2014, while the Olympics were ongoing in Sochi, Putin invaded Ukraine when people were distracted around the world and later turned that into a full-scale invasion in 2022. To his surprise, Ukraine has held them off.

Recently, Putin even violated the cease-fire on targeting energy and civilian infrastructure just negotiated by the Trump administration a few weeks ago. Putin cannot keep a deal.

This should make it crystal clear that dictator Vladimir Putin and his thug state cannot be trusted. Read history. Why would the U.S. President, Vice President, Secretary of State, or any world leader believe that communist dictator Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime will hold to any peace agreement? Russia never keeps its word.

The only way to force Russia to abide by such an agreement is to include strong security guarantees for Ukraine. The world community must do that. A peace accord must ensure Russia will remain inside its own borders or face serious global sanctions, so severe they will cripple and collapse the Russian economy.

Short of that, with the apparent abdication of the U.S. President, Vice President, and Secretary of State, Ukraine has everything to lose and Russia everything to gain. Who would want that outcome? What kind of mindset would want that?

The White House isn't leading a legitimate peace process. It is enabling the globally aggressive reach of the most lethal dictatorship in Europe. The free world must not allow this. Putin will take everything he wants and more unless he is stopped.

America must not appease dictators. We should support our fierce allies to fight dictatorship with every fiber in our being. Ukraine needs ammunition and arms. We must send them. They are not asking us to fight, but they are asking us to help arm them along with our European allies.

Defending freedom's alliance is our highest calling here--to protect and defend the American people and our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley) and from the great city of Chicago, our capable co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Quigley for his strong and constant support of Ukraine. I thank the gentleman so much for representing the State of Illinois and the thousands and tens of thousands of citizens there who so deeply care about victory for Ukraine.

Let me now move to a highly capable Member from the eastern part of the great State of Pennsylvania, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Dean so very much for joining us and for her firm, firm support of Ukraine and all she has done to give light to the children of Ukraine and thousands upon thousands, over 20,000 minimum, stolen by Russia and taken back to Russia from the arms of their parents in Ukraine as Russia tries to reprogram their brain to become Russian.

I think that the leadership of the gentlewoman has been very important during this entire period of the war and for all the people who have died needlessly, as Ukraine is the scrimmage line for liberty on the European Continent. As the map behind the gentlewoman so well illustrates, any American or reasonable person looking at that would say: Why is Russia picking on such a small country?

The fierce fighting that the Ukrainians have exhibited through bravery against that is profound.

I am just so honored, and I know the gentlewoman feels the same way, to have met President Zelenskyy and so many of his advisers, individuals in the military, and wounded soldiers. Russia has lost over 100,000 soldiers. We are not sure how many. It is a lot. Those soldiers didn't have to die. They could be doing things in Russia to help Russia.

I have traveled there. I have seen the level at which people live. The Russian people deserve better.

Why is Putin wasting all this money on arms? He needs to be investing in housing. I have gone up eight-story skyscrapers where--I won't even talk about the sanitary conditions, but they are not good. I have been into wards with people who are mentally ill, and I have seen the sad situation in which they live. I couldn't even imagine someone from my family having to exist in those conditions.

I have walked across the country in different places and met Russians who are trying to make a go of it by growing food and getting it into the bigger cities.

I have tried to visit religious institutions in Russia and learned how the government there suppresses free religious expression. They force any church there, if they even allow it in, to speak in Russian, not the native language, let's say, of where the people might come who would want to have that ceremony in multilingual or even translated and be able to listen to that. Russia doesn't do that. She is very inward.

The birthrate is going down in Russia. I have been in birth wards in Russia. I wouldn't recommend that to any

woman, if you could see how poorly they are accoutred and how poorly they are provided for.

There is a major alcoholism and drug problem in Russia, as well.

I think Vladimir Putin ought to take care of his own people and not have dibs on Ukraine just because he is one of the largest militaries in the world.

I think the Ukrainian valor has been astounding.

They need everything. They need tourniquets. I mentioned arms. They need to be remembered.

The Government of the United States is only about one-quarter of our economy, but 75 percent of our economy is private. People can send boxes. They can remember them. They can send money through Western Union to the people of Ukraine and to help those who are living in Poland in order to help them meet the costs of having the refugees who come from Ukraine into Poland. There is so much Americans can do.

People in my district raised money to send a shower, for them to buy a shower so they could put it in the local school so people could actually clean themselves where the lights keep going off and Russia makes it hard for people.

You can send seed, Mr. Speaker, so that it is easier for people to be able to plant in their gardens. They are very thrifty and practical people. They are educated. Many of the Ukrainians I meet speak several languages. They want to meet the world. They don't want to be put inside a cage again. That is really what they face.

I wanted to say a few things about my family if the gentlewoman wanted to add anything now. I wanted to mention a few of the people I have met who fought during World War II and allowed for some of Europe to be free.

Slava Ukraini. I know that the people who are listening tonight and will hear our words will say: What can we do, Marcy? What can we do to really help them?

I said that children in classrooms can write little notes and send them. If they use the internet and if they have internet capability, then send them a note. Teachers all over our country: Don't expect just the Government of the United States to do this. The American people are powerful in their own right.

If you do shoe drives where you have a school or a company and you see that everybody has some pairs of shoes that don't fit them that still have a lot of good wear, then put them in a box and send them off.

The same thing is true with aspirin and creams for people's hands. They work with their hands. They need gloves to work with the soil. They raise their own food. They live at a simple level.

Sweaters and boots for the men as they go through the forests, and bicycles--there are so many things that are needed there that we just throw away. We just throw away material and plastics so that they can keep the wind out of their very humble homes in the wintertime.

I think there are so many things that people just take for granted that are here but that are, especially during a time of war, so expensive for them. Their salaries have been cut, and I think Americans can do a lot. Be creative. Do for them what you would do for your own family, Mr. Speaker.

I want to mention, as I think about and reflect when I was first elected to Congress, there was a Congressman from California named Tom Lantos. He was a Holocaust survivor. He was from Hungary, and he was imprisoned by Hitler. He used to come to the floor, and he fought so hard for the fall of the Soviet Union and for liberty across Europe.

I remember him and I want to honor him this evening and say to his family--I know some live in New Hampshire, and others live in California. They are scattered in other places, I think. He was such a great inspiration to us because of what he had suffered. He was driven to ensure that what happened in his lifetime would never happen again.

That is what is at stake right now: liberty in Europe, our closest allies. We do not live in this world alone. We have 340 million people. China has a billion and a half. Russia has about 130 million. Other countries in Europe have much smaller populations, but when the United States puts its population and our military strength together with our NATO allies, with our allies in the Pacific, all of a sudden, you can see liberty's umbrella, and it is armed to protect our people. To date, we have been able to do that.

I give credit to Members like Tom Lantos.

Also when I arrived, we had a Congressman named Jack Brooks of Texas, who had been a pilot decorated during World War II. He never talked about it, didn't talk about his honors.

I can remember when John Kennedy was killed, Jack Brooks was on that airplane that came back to Washington with the body of John Kennedy, who fought during World War II, a young President that we lost because of an assassination here but who had fought for our liberty.

We paid honor today to John LaFalce. As a younger Member of Congress, I remember going with Congressman LaFalce on a delegation over to Europe during the 1980s, when I was first elected, the first decade of my service. I pay tribute to him and to what he taught us, what we saw.

I pay tribute to my own family, to Uncle Stanley Rogowski, who was D- day 4 on Normandy's beaches, wounded in action, came home, lived a full life, helped educate me about what liberty really is: freedom from oppression. Freedom is the condition of being free. Liberty is being freed from tyranny. He was a part of that.

I honor Alexander Drabik, from my own district. He was a great soldier who was in the Army and was the first man to cross the Remagen Bridge in Germany, which was the turning point of the war.

Finally, I honor Roger Durbin, a veteran of our Army who gave me the idea to create the World War II Memorial here where now over 100 million people have visited to honor our heroes and our heroines.

Slava Ukraini.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 9 o'clock and 3 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of representing Ohio's 9th Congressional District, a region known for its patriotic spirit, strong civic institutions, and deep respect for those who have served our Nation in uniform. Today, I am privileged to recognize a distinguished leader and devoted advocate from our community--Cindy Rice, National President of the AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary.

Whereas, Cindy Rice, a lifelong resident of Ohio and a dedicated advocate for veterans and their families, was elected National President of the AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary in August 2024, bringing with her decades of service, compassion, and unwavering commitment to the AMVETS mission; and

Whereas, Cindy Rice's journey of service began in 1984 when she joined AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary Post 22 in Vermilion, Ohio, becoming a life member in 1999, and since then, has risen through the ranks of leadership at the local, district, state, and national levels, including serving as Department President of Ohio in 2015; and

Whereas, Madam President has held numerous distinguished national positions, including National Historian, National Hospital Chair, National Honors and Awards Chair, and Vice President at all levels, as well as two terms as National Sergeant of Arms--roles in which she exemplified leadership, humility, and heartfelt service; and

Whereas, her steadfast volunteerism, including at the Sandusky Ohio Veterans Home, and her continued leadership as President of Ohio AMVETS Charities and Secretary of her local Auxiliary, reflect her deep and abiding dedication to the well-being of our veterans and their families; and

Whereas, Cindy Rice has played an instrumental role in raising funds and awareness for vital causes such as PAWS With a Cause, the John Tracy Center, St. Jude Children's Hospital, Founding Forward, and the AMVETS Scholarship Program, all while promoting the core values of the Auxiliary and strengthening the AMVETS family across the country; and

Whereas, during her presidency, Cindy has chosen the ``AMVETS Diabetes Research Center'' at Ohio University as her national project, dedicating this year of service to veterans, Auxiliary members, and family affected by diabetes, with the belief that Together We Can work toward a cure for this devastating disease; and

Whereas, Cindy Rice's eligibility for AMVETS stems from her proud lineage of service--her father, a World War II Army Veteran, and her husband, Roger, a U.S. Navy Veteran--and is further honored by two nephews currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corps; and

Whereas, with 48 years of experience in the field of dentistry, Cindy continues to serve her community even in retirement, offering her time and skills where needed and bringing the same care and diligence to her professional life as she has to her AMVETS mission; and

Whereas, Cindy Rice has traveled extensively throughout the United States to visit AMVETS Departments and Auxiliaries, sharing her message, promoting her project, and uplifting all with her inspiring theme--Together We Can;

Now, therefore, I, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, proudly recognize and commend Cindy Rice, National President of the AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary, for her outstanding service, leadership, and unwavering dedication to our veterans and their families. May her legacy of compassion, advocacy, and tireless commitment continue to inspire current and future generations of Auxiliary members across the nation.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand to honor Cindy Rice for her exceptional contributions and steadfast devotion to the AMVETS community and to the service of our great Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan, a trailblazer. Her decades of service have strengthened our Nation and brought pride to the people of Ohio.

Throughout her distinguished 40-year career, Admiral Fagan broke barriers. She led with strength of purpose. As the first woman to serve as Commandant of the United States Coast Guard and the first woman to lead a branch of our Armed Forces, she made history with integrity and fortitude.

Admiral Fagan's service spanned all seven continents. From the icy waters of the poles to ports around the world, she safeguarded our Nation's interests with professionalism and resolve. Her deep expertise in marine safety is unmatched, and she holds the title of Gold Ancient Trident, the first of that honor and a symbol of enduring leadership in one of the Coast Guard's most critical missions.

Yet, patriots must acknowledge with concern the abrupt dismissal of Admiral Fagan just 1 day after a Presidential inauguration, with only 3 hours' notice.

Actions that politicize our armed services undermine the trust and stability of these institutions. Admiral Fagan's legacy is not one of partisanship but patriotism.

Let us honor and thank her for her service. Our military remains above political winds, guided, as she was, by our Constitution, principle, high professionalism, and a deep love of country.

I thank Admiral Fagan for her service.

Now, we have the watch.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today out of deep concern for the manufacturing workers and families of northern Ohio, from Toledo Jeep to our numerous parts suppliers and union shops across the Great Lakes in both the United States and Canada. The Trump administration's reckless and arbitrary tariff policy is putting their jobs and livelihoods at risk.

These billboards just started to go up in our region. Trump's tariffs are a tax. They are a tax on everything.

While yesterday President Trump claimed to pause all tariffs, he left in place a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all global trade entering the United States, even in places like our region where we have a very wonderful relationship with companies in Canada. We are an integrated economy. We don't need any tariffs, not at our end of the country.

Let me be clear. Tariffs are not a strategy. They are a tax on working Americans and the firms that employ them. If not wisely applied, jobs hang in the balance on both sides of our border between the United States and Canada.

A part in a car or truck, in a steel mill, all of this that happens in our area can cross over the border six times. Is it going to be a 10 percent tariff put on every time it crosses the border? This is crazy.

Tariffs threaten good-paying jobs. They raise prices at the checkout line. They disrupt deeply integrated supply chains, like ours, especially with Canada, Ohio's largest fair trade partner that keeps our auto industry strong and globally competitive.

We don't need any more problems. We have been fighting global competition now for half a century, and it is rough. Instead of a blunt Trump instrument, we need a targeted approach that brings real investment to American manufacturing and in the communities hollowed out by decades of bad and broken trade deals and outsourcing.

I call on this administration. We do share in common a deep worry about the trade deficit, but work with us. Work with Congress to craft smart, strategic reciprocity agreements with each country. Ensure that workers, like United Auto Workers, have a seat at the table, a voice, and real power to negotiate on all sides of all borders.

For too long, what has been happening is billionaire companies and corporate executives have been taking our production and outsourcing it to penny-wage nations. It is slave labor, really, where people make hardly anything, if $1 an hour, maybe $2 an hour, competing against a First World economy like ours.

As the proud daughter of union workers, I know that the road to rebuilding American manufacturing runs straight through our heartland, through the working class, the people who work hard, the spine of America's industrial economy in our Great Lakes region and the Midwest.

America's enemies around the world today are applauding the self- inflicted tariff chaos that has been exacted on our people. They are also plotting as they watch the U.S. stock market plummet, and then bounce back a little bit, and then go down again, endangering and impacting markets around the globe. Reckless and cavalier economic policy could lead us into a Trump recession.

A record of trillions of dollars in U.S. wealth was just lost this past week due to chaotic moves on tariffs arbitrarily imposed by the Trump administration. This week, the hole was being dug deeper as markets continued to free-fall. There was a partial rollback. Where will the roller coaster head next week? Nobody really knows.

None of the tariffs that the President has proposed and implemented have ever had a single vote in this Congress. This is unconstitutional, and it has caused a loss in the 401(k) retirement accounts of tens of millions of Americans. Those took a nosedive. They have been yo-yoing up and down. We are talking about $10 trillion of market losses these past few days. That is unprecedented.

Where is Speaker Johnson? Is he asleep at the wheel? Where is the Republican Committee on Ways and Means? Is it on vacation?

The Trump administration's dangerous overreach is totally damaging to our economy and unnerving to our

trade allies around the globe. Crashing the U.S. and global economy is not in the short- or long-term interests of the American people.

President Trump thought his so-called liberation day was a huge success. If the goal was liberating Americans from their hard-earned money and making them pay more for everything, whether it is their car--thousands of dollars more are going to be placed on top of the purchase of a car--the price of energy they pay, the price of gas, and the price of food. Take your pick. Lumber and housing are outpriced for most people now.

Meanwhile, when asked about car prices going up, the President gave a rare, troubling response. He said: ``I couldn't care less.'' That is what he said about automotive prices.

President Trump, come to Ohio. Come to us. Visit us with Canada. Let us show you what we have done without your help for decades, trying to rebuild the industrial spine of America.

I will fight for the American auto industry without tanking our economy because, clearly, there are some people in charge who don't know what they are doing and are raising prices on every single citizen in this country.

Retirement plans should be sacred. What just happened on Wall Street made a whole lot of people nervous.

We got so many phone calls in our office. Not only are jobs at risk but retirement savings are put at risk. Investments are put at risk.

I spent too much of my time in this House and in this Chamber trying to repair the economic damage to our economy from trade deals like NAFTA, CAFTA, China PNTR. They said USMCA was going to fix everything.

Guess what? The trade deficit is getting worse every year. That means our jobs are being hollowed out to someplace else, and they need to be returned to this country. We need to negotiate that. It won't just happen because we want it to happen.

As a private businessman and billionaire, Donald Trump never lifted a finger to help us. He didn't stop the outsourcing of jobs during his first term. They got worse. Jobs were outsourced.

We had family farm after family farm collapse across this country through consolidation. He didn't do anything.

You need a partnership between the legislative branch and the executive branch working with our companies. This is complicated. It doesn't just happen.

As a result, we have these gigantic trade deficits. We haven't had a balanced trade account in this country in over half a century. There is a cost to that. It comes in jobs, wages, and the ability to pay your way forward in your own family. It is happening in manufacturing, agriculture, and energy, and there must be reforms in trade policy. We all agree on that. It is not a question of whether but how.

Huge trade deficits translate into growing U.S. debt. We hear a lot on the other side of the aisle about the debt. There would be a lot more economic strength if we hadn't outsourced so many jobs. With Canada, our largest fair trade partner, the books look pretty good.

The Great Lakes folks get along on both sides of the border, so why disrupt something that is working? That is absolutely insane.

Tariffs can be a tool to create jobs and wealth, as well as bring back jobs to our country, and we ought to head in that direction. Yet, the President's efforts seem to be adding more trade deficits, not balancing our trade accounts.

America can't import its way to jobs and wealth. It must export products. We must grow things, make things here, and export them. Thus, fair trade with nations that play by the fair trade rules must be our objective.

Let's start there. Let's work with our friends and then open up other markets and retool other markets where that isn't working in our interests. You can't just do it with a broad brush stroke.

Working with Canada is very different than working with China, believe me. At the same time, we must carefully ensure that we grow jobs here through our trade policies and prevent price gouging by adversaries that benefit from protection in the marketplace.

Here is what China does: It manufactures four times as much steel as the world consumes, and then it strategically dumps to wipe out production.

Come with me to Lorain, Ohio. It is deeply in my heart. I represented it for 10 years until they gerrymandered our State again and took it away. What happened to the workers in Lorain, Ohio, should happen to no worker in this country. They deserve better for the hard work that they do.

Mr. Speaker, let's stop the chaos of trade wars, arbitrary pauses, crazy tariffs, and threats. The American people sent us here for solutions. They don't need more tariffs that are really taxes on their cost of living.

America's trade accounts need balancing. We don't need to keep hemorrhaging. That will be the real test. The accounts will be the real test at the end of this year, but they are already not looking good.

Yet, you don't make it better by killing the patient, the American worker, with higher prices on everything that they buy and by jerking away millions of dollars, the cumulative wealth of their retirement accounts.

America must achieve free trade among free people, not more tariff chaos.

Passover and Easter Reflections

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to put in a word. In our office, as all of this has been going on, I thought a lot about my own faith and how to help the American people who are so worried about what is going on.

I did some reflection on the faith community in which I was baptized and still belong. Next Sunday, for us, is the most profound holy day. We commemorate Easter, and it holds profound meaning.

This coming Saturday, in Judaism, Jews around our globe and throughout our Nation will sit down for a Passover Seder.

For both religions, this weekend is one of the most significant religious holidays in the calendar year, with expression and remembrance on the importance of treasuring our heritage and endowment.

For 2,000 years or more, these days have expressed faith that can move the human conscience. Faith motivates people's behavior to think about the difference between daily life and the divine and what life could be.

Christians are encouraged to be a sacrificial people and, importantly, a resurrection people. Jews think of how hard it was for their ancestors escaping Egypt and are thankful for all the joys that they have in modern life.

With Easter and Passover in mind, I wish to place on the record today reflections as a result of the Trump administration's recent actions that are causing anxiety among the people who I represent. These holy days seem to be a proper time to pray for them, to remember them, and to seriously ask ourselves what we can do together to heal them, our Nation, and our people.

Days ago, I was approached by a kind nurse who had endured a hard day. She shared with me that a patient of hers in a local healthcare center had immigrated to our country legally to work as a common laborer. She had fled a troubled Latin American country where thugs controlled the streets.

Leaving all behind, the worker had journeyed here from a place where there was no hope for a better future. Then, last week here in America, very sadly, she attempted to take her own life with a fentanyl overdose because she feared being arrested by Trump administration immigration officials.

She could not imagine going back to the hell from which she had come. Here with no help to understand the law that she came here by, that she could work in America, she was frozen with fear because of what she saw on TV.

I immediately thought of the last words uttered by Jesus as he was put to death by those who could not accept his religious teachings. He asked: ``Father, Father, why have You forsaken me?''

This also parallels the story of Passover with the Jewish people fleeing Egypt in search of a better life, where they could live free from bondage and fear.

Are we not to care for strangers in a strange land, to treat our neighbors as we would want to be treated? Do we leave them to wander the desert or return to horror? Do we offer a hand out and up to ensure that they can live in safety and security? I think this is a weekend for examining our own conscience.

My office has heard an influx of others fleeing horror, seeking shelter, scared that they will be sent back somewhere. Haitians who were here legally and working were scared in Ohio that they would be sent back to the streets of Port-au-Prince that are controlled by warlord gangsters and roving bandits. Who would want to go back to that? These are people who are working, and every company I know is looking for workers right now.

Local churches, synagogues, and mosques help to resettle Ukrainians here legally who are fleeing war-torn regions in their homeland. Those Ukrainians all received an erroneous email last week.

Imagine, when their relatives are fighting and dying in another country, and they are here trying to hold their family together in some minimal way, them receiving a letter saying that they would be able to self-deport before it was claimed to be sent in error. In other words, some person in some agency sent out the wrong letter, which causes even more anxiety and fear in families who are already suffering.

What kind of a country are we becoming?

This week, our district staff took a call from a senior citizen who has ordered her prescription drugs from Canada for many years. She receives them by mail because she can't walk. She is deeply worried that, with the new 10 percent Trump tariffs across the board, the price of her medicine will go up beyond her ability to afford it.

There are a lot of people in charge of things here in Washington who can't think in front of their own noses. They have never faced these situations.

I asked myself: What would Jesus do? The Jewish people, who leave the door open and a seat for Elijah, what would they do?

Our President has even threatened higher tariffs on all imported medicine. Boy, that is a hard sock to the gut. This isn't something someone who cares about people and their health and well-being would do or should do.

If I were his mother, I would scold him.

Our office is receiving numerous inquiries from retirees, working people who worked hard and are deeply concerned about the drop in value of their 401(k) retirement plans that they worked for.

Those just lost enormous value in the financial markets as the Trump tariffs traded away the value of their earnings. Meanwhile, the cost of everything keeps rising. Where I live, the price of gas rose 75 cents more a gallon than I paid a week before.

I have heard from mothers worried their daughters and granddaughters will lose their Medicaid coverage for mental health care and treatment. God bless every American family that has a child with mental illness or a relative with mental illness. You are saints caring for them.

A wife called worried her husband going through chemo for cancer treatment would lose his Medicaid because of the cuts that are being proposed here just 3 years before he becomes Medicare eligible.

If families are denied access to Medicaid without the finances to cover care, what will happen to them? If your family is lucky and you have never had an ill relative, you are lucky because there are millions of people across this country that are suffering as I deliver these remarks tonight. Walk in their shoes.

People on Medicare are about to lose access to telehealth. This is terrible. Many seniors can't walk. I have neighbors. One lady fell out of her bed. She couldn't get off the floor. She had one of those things on her neck that she pushes and then the ambulances came from the local fire department.

There are a lot of people living at the edge. We have to be concerned about them. We can't cut their benefits. These are just some of the countless stories and fears we hear. There are hundreds and thousands more reaching out to Members of Congress in fear for themselves, their families, their loved ones, and treasured members of their community.

America does not live in fear. That isn't why our country was founded. We have been a refuge for our entire history, and we need to continue to be a refuge for those seeking a better life. Who will speak up for these people while they are painted as worthless or not worthy of a place in our country by those who just want to slash and burn and tax and deport and destroy?

Jesus' last words were uttered in the Aramaic language, and he breathed his last breath asking why he had been forsaken. We can ask this for people we know and we can do something to help. Some of us must ask during Passover and Easter week who is being forsaken in this wild rush to endow the billionaire class with more, more vast infusions of money taken out of the hides and hearts of the American people?

What would Jesus do? What would Moses do? Why won't we as a country and a people ask ourselves the question of how we can help, not hurt? How can we help and not hurt?

Let us recommit to that objective in the greatest Nation in the world that needs caring leadership and those that truly are capable of loving one another and other people.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Boyle for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand against the GOP's billionaire bonanza. It cashes out precious healthcare dollars and enriches ultrawealthy billionaires and leaves ordinary Americans to pick up the tab.

My colleagues across the aisle proposed to add an astounding $14 trillion more to our debt over the next decade.

Why? It is to fund more tax cuts for billionaires.

How? Speaker Johnson cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, a lifeline for millions of our citizens, including more than 200,000 in the district I represent. Every hospital I represent sustains itself with Medicaid and Medicare.

This debate isn't just about the numbers on a balance sheet. It is about the health of the American people. How will we keep our hospitals open and our nursing homes open? How do we take care of the American people's health?

This Republican resolution is totally irresponsible. It is an abdication of our duty to serve all the American people, not just those at the top.

Mr. Speaker, the top 1 percent of earners in this Nation control more wealth than the bottom 50 percent. It is time for economic fairness. Vote ``no'' on this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, the United States has not had a trade surplus in over half a century. Trade deficits translate into lost jobs and lost wealth for the American people. Balancing U.S. trade accounts is an imperative and a worthy objective, but Trump administration tariffs on the American people's purchases are taxes that cost them more money on everything, a lot more: a lot more for food, for gas, for building materials, for cars, for trucks, for everything.

Today, after the market bled off nearly $10 trillion in lost U.S. wealth last week, the President adjusted some tariffs, but nothing he did is reshoring American reinvestment here in our country. Our Nation imports three-quarters of our fruits and vegetables. We need agricultural reinvestment here in the good old USA.

NAFTA caused the cataclysmic outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing in autos and trucks. The President should focus on incentives to reshore U.S. production, not build more barriers.

Focus on free trade among free people. Help us with our best trade ally, Canada, especially those of us who live in the north. We believe in our fair trade partners around the world. Build on success. The American people need economic growth, not any more tourniquets around their necks because of tariffs.

Mr. Speaker, with March Madness coming to a close last night, it is with joy that I rise to celebrate two exceptional young, local basketball stars from northwest Ohio: Makhi Leach from Whitmer High School and Elise Bender from Anthony Wayne High School, who were named the 2025 All-Blade Basketball Players of the Year.

Makhi Leach is a force to be reckoned with on the court. He dazzled all of the audience with his skill, determination, and unshakable leadership. A playmaker in every sense of the word, Makhi not only put up impressive numbers but also lifted his teammates, making everyone around him better.

Elise Bender has proven that hard work and passion are unstoppable forces. A true competitor, Elise has set the standard for what it means to be an elite student athlete, not just through her impressive performance, but through her sportsmanship, commitment to her team, and relentless drive to push beyond her limits.

Both of these young athletes have represented their schools, families, and communities with honor, and this is only the beginning. Makhi will play next year for Bowling Green State University, while Elise will suit up for Villanova. Their talent, determination, and leadership will take them far. Northwest Ohio will be cheering them on every single step of the way. They are the future.