Mark Alford

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Marshfield Fire Protection District and congratulate Chief Michael Taylor, the department's firefighters and personnel, and the entire Marshfield community on this historic 100-year milestone.

The Marshfield Fire Department was established on July 26, 1926, by a dedicated group of citizens who answered the call to protect their neighbors. For more than 80 years, volunteer firefighters carried that mission forward, responding to emergencies with courage, skill, and an unwavering commitment to their community.

The Marshfield Fire Protection District was created in 2007 and continued to operate as an all-volunteer organization. As Marshfield grew and emergency-service demands increased, the district hired its first full-time firefighters in 2021. In 2023, it transitioned to a 24- hour, three-shift staffing model to strengthen its emergency response capabilities.

Today, 11 career and 44 volunteer firefighters serve side by side under Chief Taylor's leadership. Although the department has evolved to meet the community's changing needs, it's foundation remains unchanged: neighbors protecting neighbors. Its volunteers remain an essential part of the district, working alongside career personnel to protect the residents and visitors of Marshfield.

Last month, the community marked this historic anniversary through traditions that honored the generations of firefighters who have shaped the department. A bell-ringing ceremony paid tribute to those who served faithfully and have since passed away, while the ceremonial passing of an axe from retired firefighters to the department's cadets symbolized the transfer of responsibility, knowledge, and commitment to the next generation.

For a century, Marshfield's firefighters have carried forward a proud tradition of courage

and service. Their history belongs not only to those who built the department, but also to those who serve today and those preparing to answer the call tomorrow.

Please join me, in congratulating Chief Taylor, the firefighters and personnel of the Marshfield Fire Protection District, and the Marshfield community on 100 years of service, and in honoring every firefighter, past and present, who has helped protect this community.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro for their hard work in this endeavor.

Mr. Speaker, here we are again. I rise in strong support of this continuing resolution.

Last year, Senate Democrats manufactured a 42-day shutdown that punished troops, farmers, veterans, and working families. Airports were backed up and paychecks froze. Rural hospitals and local law enforcement felt the hit, and Missouri families paid the price for Washington games. We will not let that happen again.

This clean, short-term continuing resolution keeps the government open through early December. It pays our troops. It funds the Department of Veterans Affairs. It keeps SNAP and WIC operating for Missouri mothers and children. It sustains USDA programs our farmers and ranchers depend on. It funds disaster relief and surface transportation. It does not load the bill with poison pills that invite another crisis right before the American people vote.

House Republicans have already done the hard work. They have moved the appropriations bills. They have restored regular order. They fought for fiscal discipline and for real investments in rural America, including more than $20 million that was secured for Missouri's Fourth Congressional District in infrastructure, rural health, agriculture research, and public safety.

Mr. Speaker, a continuing resolution is not the finish line. Full- year bills are the finish line, but a shutdown is not a strategy. It is an abdication. It is a political stunt dressed up as principle.

The other side had a chance last year to help us fund the government, but they chose leverage instead. They chose chaos instead.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, the American people remember that.

Today, we choose competence and to keep the lights on. We protect the progress already made. We give appropriators the time to finish our full-year bills without holding servicemembers, farmers, and seniors hostage.

You see, Missourians did not send me here to shut the government down for talking points. The American people sent us here to fund the government, to cut the waste, to secure the country, and get results.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass this resolution to keep the government open and then finish the appropriations work the Constitution actually requires of us here in Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Steil for his dedicated hard work on getting this bill to the floor. It wasn't easy.

Mr. Speaker, public service is a privilege. It is not a pathway to personal profit. Yet, too many Americans look at us here in Congress and wonder if that line has been blurred, not proven, not assumed, but simply questioned. That question alone is a problem.

Mr. Speaker, that is because when lawmakers consistently outperform Wall Street, then people start asking questions. They start doubting. They stop trusting in us.

For example, Mr. Speaker, there is even a Member here in our body who entered Congress years ago with a net worth in the thousands, and yet now has a net worth of well more than $200 million. That is exactly why this matters, Mr. Speaker.

When I came to Congress, I made it quite clear: We should not be trading individual stocks while we are making decisions that shape our economy. That is why I introduced the PELOSI Act to draw a bright, unmistakable line, no stock trading, no gray area, and no doubt, to be above the appearance of impropriety as Chairman Steil said.

The very legislation we are debating today from my friend, Chairman Steil, advances that same principle. It says that if you have the privilege of serving in this body and serving your constituents, Mr. Speaker, then you don't get to personally profit from the markets that you help influence.

This isn't complicated. The American people shouldn't have to wonder if their Representative is working for them or watching their stock portfolio on their phones here on the House Chamber. Let's remove that doubt. Let's restore trust to this body. Let's raise the standard of each and every one of us here in this body today.

If I wanted to, I could have made a lot of money in the last 3\1/2\ years I was here trading stock and probably would be able to afford an apartment somewhere in D.C. However, I don't, and like a lot of Members who don't trade stocks, I sleep on my couch in my office.

Do you know what, Mr. Speaker?

I sleep well. I sleep well knowing that I am doing the right thing.

In closing, I grew up in the Church of Christ down in Baytown, Texas. I worked for a while in West Palm Beach. There was a preacher there named Dan Jenkins who used to say all the time: It is always right to do right. It is always wrong to do wrong. It is never right to do wrong, and it is never wrong to do right.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is the right thing to do, not just for the American people, but for our body to restore trust to us.