Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 1276) to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to furnish COVID-19 vaccines to certain individuals, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

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

Mr. Speaker:

(English translation of the statement made in Spanish by Mr. Takano is as follows:)

The American people need our help.

That's why Democrats have been fighting for more economic relief. President Biden's stimulus package will help the people who need it the most and it will make investments to improve vaccine distribution, to open our schools, and to support small businesses.

Thousands of families in my district are worried because they don't know how they will pay their rent and the Latino community has been the most affected by this virus.

We have to help everyone during these difficult times and ensure that the communities that have been most affected have access to the vaccine.

Congress must approve this legislative package immediately. There is not time to waste.

El pueblo americano necesita ayuda.

Es por eso que los Democratas estamos luchando por mas ayuda economica. El paquete de estimulo economico del presidente Biden ayudara a las personas que mas lo necesitan y hara inversiones para mejorar la distribucion de las vacunas, para abrir nuestras escuelas, y para apoyar a los pequenos negocios.

Miles de familias en mi distrito tienen angustia porque no saben como van a pagar su renta. Y la comunidad latina ha sido la mas afectada por este virus.

Tenemos que ayudar a todos durante estos tiempos dificiles y asegurarnos que las comunidades mas afectadas tengan acceso a la vacuna.

El Congreso debe aprobar este paquete legislativo inmediatamente. No hay tiempo que perder.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman McGovern for yielding.

Madam Speaker, as of this week, over 10,000 veterans and 130 VHA employees have lost their lives to COVID-19. Over 226,000 veterans and 18,000 VA employees have tested positive.

It is clear: We must act now.

This bill would provide funding to increase VA's claims and appeals processing to reduce the backlog caused by COVID-19. It would deliver critical funding for the Veterans Health Administration, bolster VA's supply chain modernization, and support State veterans homes to upgrade and enhance their safety operations. It would also fund stronger oversight through the VA's Office of Inspector General, secure assistance for unemployed veterans, and prohibit copayments for veterans during the pandemic.

This bill is critical to ensure the health system that veterans rely on can continue to meet their needs and serve as a backup to America's overwhelmed healthcare systems.

While a return to handshakes, hugs, and visible smiles is on the horizon, the

path to get there requires this Congress to do quick and thorough work to ensure we all get there together.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler for yielding.

``We the people'' is a bold opening statement enshrined in our Constitution. But for far too long, LGBTQ Americans have not been included in that statement.

A gay couple can get married in all 50 States. A trans worker has legal protections from discrimination in the workplace. But despite this progress, a lesbian mom can be denied housing in most States because of her sexual orientation. A queer person can be turned away from serving on a jury.

In 27 States, there are no laws protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in education, housing, and public accommodation, and this is wrong. No person, no matter where they live in America, should face discrimination. Equality should not depend on the ZIP Code where you live. Now is the time for ``we the people'' to include LGBTQ Americans.

My Republican colleagues are desperately trying to derail this legislation by cloaking their bigotry with high-minded arguments about religious freedom and appealing to people's worst instincts with transphobic attacks and grossly exaggerated examples. Their main argument seems to be that America doesn't want a law that will protect the dignity of trans people who get murdered and beat up for being who they are.

In reality, trans people are among those in our community who need this protection the most. Republicans want to vilify people who are the most severe victims of injustice.

What this law does is simple and just. It guarantees that LGBTQ people in every State cannot be discriminated against because of their identity. We have a moral imperative to get the Equality Act signed into law.

Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez for leading this Special Order hour, and I thank her for the bravery she exhibited by sharing her story.

January 6 was unlike any other day I lived through during my time in Congress. I awoke with Georgia on my mind, with hope in my heart, after the runoff victories delivered us a Senate Democratic majority. That morning, it felt like we were turning the page on a dark chapter and entering a chapter of reckoning, progress, and, ultimately, unity.

To fully turn that page, Congress needed to count the electoral college votes and certify the historic election of President Biden and Vice President Harris. That was supposed to be a perfunctory, procedural action. But it became, instead, the target of an angry mob incited by the President, who encouraged that very mob to interfere and stop the counting of the ballots.

Too many Republican colleagues empowered the lies that Trump told instead of standing up for the truth and for our democracy.

Earlier that day, I had followed press reports about a rally being organized by Trump supporters in Washington, and my staff warned me to be careful as I carried out business in and around the Capitol. I got to the Capitol early because I did not want to run into too many crowds, but I never imagined what was coming after Trump encouraged his supporters at a rally to storm the Capitol and disrupt the electoral college count.

About midday, shortly before 1 o'clock, I was returning back to my Cannon House Office Building when the Capitol Police told me: Sir, we are closing down Cannon. We are evacuating Cannon. You need to go to either the Longworth House Office Building or Rayburn and take cover.

So, I followed the instructions. I made my way back to Longworth, where I took refuge in a colleague's office. Eventually, I made it to a secure location in the Veterans' Affairs Committee offices in the Longworth basement.

It was there my phone started to blow up with anxious constituents who asked me if I was okay, and they made me aware of what was going on outside. I turned on the television, and I could not believe what I was seeing.

What I saw were Capitol Police being overwhelmed and the violent mob of Trump supporters breaking into the Capitol and bringing the electoral college vote count to a halt.

As the violence unfolded, I have to say I was in a secure location, as safe as I could be for that moment. I was fine but shaken, concerned about what this meant for our democracy.

I worried about the safety of my colleagues. I worried about the safety of the staff. I wondered when the National Guard would arrive, when reinforcements would arrive, because it was extraordinarily distressing to see our Capitol Police so greatly outnumbered by the crowd.

I was safe. I turned out to be fine. I still am fine. But that is not the case for everyone. Unlike my colleagues and me who are here, most of the people who lived through the horrors of that day can't share their experiences on the floor of the House today.

I am here to give voice to and acknowledge the experience of hundreds of congressional staffers, Capitol support staff, maintenance workers, and Capitol Police officers who also lived through that deadly insurrection. They experienced and lived the trauma, and it is just as valid and real as the stories that are being shared here today.

Staff barricaded themselves in offices. They heard banging on the doors from insurrectionists who could harm them. Staff also evacuated the House Chamber in gas masks. They were alone, gathering any items they could use as weapons in case the insurrectionists broke into the very room they were sheltering in. They were in danger as well. This is their workplace, hundreds of people who answer the phones and keep our buildings running and keep us safe every day.

When you run for office, you are confronted with the reality that you may be putting yourself in harm's way. Staff didn't ask for this, they didn't sign up for this, to be put in harm's way. They shouldn't have had to have dealt with an attack like this. They were just doing their jobs.

Those who lived through that dangerous day or watched as the Capitol was attacked from home are also experiencing pain and trauma. To them, I say: What you are feeling is valid, and we are here to support you, and don't let anybody gaslight or diminish or belittle what happened on January 6th. It was a serious event.

Over the past few weeks, I learned that following the insurrection, the Office of Employee Assistance has been overwhelmed with requests for counseling and support from our staff. After my staff on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and I were made aware of this overwhelming of requests at the Office of Employee Assistance, we worked with the VA to bring Mobile Vet Centers to the Capitol complex to provide mental health services and resources to Capitol Police, the National Guard deployed at the Capitol, congressional staff, journalists, and anyone who needs it.

I visited one of the vet centers this morning, and they told me, vaguely, ``Congressman, the numbers are there. The numbers, out of confidentiality, we won't tell you how many, but people are using these centers, and they are asking for help.''

The Mobile Vet Centers can accept walk-in appointments every day, including weekends, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. If someone would like to schedule a next-day appointment, they may call the Washington, D.C. Vet Center at 202-726-5212.

I just want to emphasize, if you work at the Capitol, as part of the Capitol workforce, whether you work as a maintenance worker, whether you work as a staffer, this is available to you.

I thank my colleagues and the staff who keep our democracy running. The only way to make this right and to help heal our Nation is for the Senate to do the right thing and hold Donald Trump accountable for the insurrection he incited.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I am painfully aware of the toll this pandemic has taken on our Nation's veterans. I hear from veterans who are struggling to find work as unemployment numbers rise. I hear from veterans who have had their critical compensation and pension exams postponed, delaying much-needed benefits.

Sadly, we have lost over 8,900 veterans and 120 VA staff to the pandemic so far.

Across the Nation and at the height of the pandemic, veterans have stepped up to serve their country, a trait not uncommon for the thousands of veterans whose services continue even after they pack away their uniforms. Their service as first responders and healthcare workers battling COVID-19; as essential employees keeping our economy moving, packages delivered, and hospitals sterilized has served as an example of how strong America can be when we act together.

Despite all of the setbacks our Nation has faced, it is our duty to be optimistic. Our veterans have shown the way.

Mr. Speaker, VA has responded to crises across the country through its Fourth Mission, even landing on the Capitol Grounds yesterday to deploy mobile vet centers to support U.S. Capitol Police, members of the National Guard, and the congressional staff after the insurrection on January 6.

Throughout this pandemic, veterans and VA have continued to step up and serve their communities, not just their fellow veterans.

The time for decisive action is now. Passing this resolution does not negate the need for bipartisan cooperation. The need now is real, and the pain caused by this pandemic is deep. The best way to provide direct relief to the American people and continue serving all those who have served is to act fast and to do it now. We cannot afford to wait for higher case counts, for additional variants of the virus to emerge, for more Americans to go without work or watch their savings dwindle. We must act fast, and that is why we are here today.

I just will say to the gentleman from Missouri that I know that we have billions of dollars that came to the State of California, but I would like to remind the gentleman that California is a net donor State, including money that I am sure has gone to the State of Missouri.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the impeachment of President Donald Trump. The gravity of the moment demands it, and the fate of our Republic depends on it.

He committed an impeachable offense by inciting a violent and deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. For this, Congress must hold him accountable to preserve our democracy, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

He should serve not 1 minute more and be barred forever from public office. He is toxic to our Republic and toxic to our democracy.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of my amendment that would preserve parole in place for the loved ones of our Active-Duty servicemembers.

Parole in place allows military family members who have come to the United States illegally and are unable to adjust their immigration status to temporarily remain in the country.

My amendment would preserve the parole in place program and reaffirm the DHS Secretary's authority to keep families together and to minimize disruption to our servicemembers through this vital program.

Now, under parole in place, a servicemember and their prospective spouse, widow, widower, parent, son, or daughter is eligible for temporary protection under the Immigration and Nationality Act. This program is imperative to ensuring our troops are free of the burden that their loved ones will be subjected to deportation while they dutifully serve our Nation.

The current administration is interested in scaling back the program, further waging a war against immigrants. Ending parole in place would be detrimental to the troops and the fabric of our Nation.

Regardless of military branch, all servicemembers should be granted

peace of mind that their families are safe at home while they risk their lives abroad.

Deployments are tough enough on our military families to endure, conflated with the looming shadow of deportation, the emotional toll is simply unbearable. Our troops must be consistently prepared and focused on protecting our freedoms. The least we can do is to protect their families.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I wish to respond to a couple of points that my colleague has tried to make.

I want to stress that eligibility for this program does not mean finality. The Secretary of Homeland Security still retains final authority over whether parole in place will be granted.

This is a program that is administered on a case-by-case basis and not categorically. This program has been in place for 9 years.

I appreciate that my colleague has said that he agrees with the underlying policy. The underlying policy is that we want to give peace of mind to the men and women of our military who are laying their lives on the line for our country while their undocumented relatives at home may be under threat of deportation.

We want to give them the peace of mind that their families could stay, with the final decision, on a case-by-case basis, being made by the Secretary of Homeland Security. Nothing is categorically mandated in my amendment.

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

Mr. Chair, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close as well.

Mr. Chairman, let me just say that I believe that I have answered the main concerns of the gentleman from Mississippi.

As I said, nothing in this amendment categorically says that eligibility means finality in terms of who is finally adjudicated to actually remain on a temporary basis, under temporary protected status.

What this amendment does is what the gentleman has agreed to is the underlying policy, which is a humane policy, which is a policy that furthers the national interests of our country in assuring the peace of mind of our military servicemembers who have family members in our country who are undocumented.

I don't think any American would begrudge someone who is putting their life on the line having the peace of mind that their family members are in this country under temporary protected status and that they are judged to have that status by the Secretary of Homeland Security on a case-by-case basis and that the Secretary remains in full control of the final decision.

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

Mr. Chair, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 405.

Amendment No. 268 Offered by Ms. Jayapal

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2109) to amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in awarding a contract for the procurement of goods or services, to give a preference to offerors that employ veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 2109.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2109, the Boosting Rates of American Veteran Employment Act, or BRAVE Act.

We know that overall veterans' unemployment rates are below the national average, and that includes a 3.5 percent rate for our younger post-9/11 veterans. However, this hides an alarming statistic: nearly one-third of veteran jobseekers are underemployed at a rate 15.6 percent higher than nonveteran jobseekers.

Both parties agree that men and women returning from our most recent conflicts deserve to come home to a reliable, good paying job. We owe them that.

We can start right here in the Federal Government. The VA establishes long-term contracts with private companies for medical equipment, construction supplies, services, and more.

Currently, the VA gives a preference for these contracts to veteran- owned small businesses.

The BRAVE Act would expand this contracting preference to allow the VA Secretary to give a preference to companies that actively employ veterans, a policy that would incentivize companies to hire more veterans, already a smart approach for companies, because veterans bring to a job the skills they earned and learned in their years of invaluable military training.

This bipartisan bill would not add any additional costs or burdens to the taxpayers. It allows for the debarment of any company that knowingly misrepresents its proportion of veteran employees in order to receive a contracting preference.

The BRAVE Act represents a win-win for the private sector, the Federal Government, and most importantly, veterans themselves.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Representative Rice for her hard work on this excellent bill, and Ranking Member Roe for beginning work on this bill last Congress. I urge my colleagues to support it today.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Miss Rice), my good friend, who is a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, and the sponsor of H.R. 2109.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support the legislation sponsored by Miss Rice, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2196) to amend title 38, United States Code, to reduce the credit hour requirement for the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 2196.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2196, a bill to reduce the credit hour requirement for the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship program.

H.R. 2196 is a technical correction to the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship, which was codified into law with the passage of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, also known as the Forever GI Bill.

This STEM scholarship program, named after the former chairwoman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Edith Nourse Rogers, provides veterans who are enrolled in STEM programs with additional support if their GI benefits are exhausted before they complete an undergraduate degree.

Unfortunately, this much needed scholarship program is crippled by the qualification criteria, which necessitates that veterans must be enrolled in STEM programs that require more than 128 semester credit hours to graduate.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, these criteria only allow veterans enrolled in three programs at higher learning institutions to participate in this great scholarship program.

Now, this was not the intent of the Congress. H.R. 2196 would correct this oversight by reducing the required semester credit hours of a degree program from 128 to 120, to allow more programs at a wider array of institutions of higher learning to qualify for the program.

Now, veterans across the country are enrolling in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math based degree programs at rapid rates, and we should continue to encourage veterans to pursue STEM programs and employment in STEM fields.

By continuing to invest in our veterans, we are investing in the American economy and our great Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Representative Barr, Representative Levin, and Ranking Member Roe for their hard work on this excellent bill. I would especially like to thank Chairman Levin and the rest of the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee for their bipartisan work to get this bill to the floor in a timely fashion.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the rest of my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2196, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of En Bloc Amendment number eight, which includes my amendment to reaffirm Amtrak's legal obligations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

The WARN Act was created to protect workers and their families by requiring certain employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of mass layoffs. As many of my constituents learned first-hand, having advance notice of a major staffing decision is essential for employees so they can make thoughtful and deliberate decisions about their future and the future of their families.

Last year, Amtrak shuttered a reservation call center in my district. Hundreds of my constituents and their families had just 60 days' notice before having to decide whether to uproot their lives and accept another Amtrak job across the country--or accept a meager severance package and keep their families rooted in the community they grew up in and love. It was part of Amtrak's tactic to only meet the statutory requirement of providing 60 days' notice under the WARN Act and force attrition by applying pressure on its employees. Today, we must go further to protect these workers.

Congress must reaffirm the legal requirements under the WARN Act, but also strengthen these protections to ensure that workers have more advance notice of executive decisions that will impact their lives. Congress must also ensure that the penalties for violating this law will send a clear message to employers that this anti-worker behavior will not be tolerated.

Mr. Chair, I thank Representatives Ken Calvert, Brendan Boyle, and Paul Cook for joining me in putting forth this bipartisan amendment and I look forward to building on these protections for workers all across the United States.

Madam Chair, I rise in support of En Bloc Amendment No. 2, which includes my language that makes clear the intent of Congress to maintain federal protections under the Civil Rights Act.

Since 1964, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act has prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in all federally funded programs and activities. It is the law of the land. Unfortunately, there have been widespread efforts by this Administration to roll back protections under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Rollback of any parts of the Civil Rights Act, including Title VI, would have a devastating impact on countless people.

It is the intent of Congress to instruct that all federal agencies vigorously enforce and implement the civil rights protections guaranteed under Title VI and Congress will be opposed to any and all efforts to undermine these protections whether intentional or not.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in gratitude for the bravery and sacrifices made by American and Allied Armed Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of that longest day, a moment in history when servicemembers from across the globe stormed the shores of Normandy, France, to defend liberty and fight against the tyranny of Nazi Germany.

And as we pause to honor and express our gratitude to the tens of thousands of American soldiers, sailors, and airmen who bore the battle that day and for many days after until victory was achieved, we are reminded again that the cost of freedom can be very high.

As chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, it is my duty to ensure the promises we made to veterans and their survivors are kept.

To those veterans that remain with us still to those D-Day veterans who perished on that longest day and to those who lived to tell the stories of that day, I say to you that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs is committed to honoring your legacies by improving VA healthcare, providing accountability for the fair and timely delivery of benefits, and to ensure that we honor your memories.

Today I ask that all Americans reflect on the sacrifices made by the greatest generation in Europe 75 years ago and to join me in thanking those of this generation who have stepped up and every intervening generation who have answered the call to serve.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and congratulate John Corona who will be retiring after serving the Riverside Unified School District for 40 years.

Mr. Corona's tenure in education has left a lasting impact on the Riverside community. He received numerous awards throughout the duration of his career, which demonstrate the admiration his colleagues and students have for him.

One of Mr. Corona's proudest achievements was the creation of ``King High School Remembers.'' This annual project sparked continuous outreach to the veteran community and began an important dialogue between veterans and students. Since 2001, more than 300 veterans have been interviewed by high school students.

Above all, Mr. Corona touched the lives of hundreds of students through his teaching, coaching, and mentorship. I send him best wishes on his well-deserved retirement and thank him for his service to our community.