Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, this year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first National EMS week and honor the first responders delivering urgent lifesaving care to people across our country.

I rise to recognize a constituent who embodies the courageous and dedicated spirit of our emergency medical services professionals. Last month, Delco's own John Goddard, an EMS professional with Riddle Emergency Services at Main Line Health, was awarded the Pennsylvania Paramedic of the Year Award.

John has served our community for nearly three decades, including as a flight paramedic and as a trainer and mentor for the next generation of EMS professionals. Since starting as a volunteer in 1996, John has shown up for our community day in and day out, delivering compassionate critical care to alleviate suffering and make our communities safer.

It was heartwarming to attend the ceremony at which John received his award and to see the love and respect in which his colleagues and his family hold him.

I thank John Goddard for his devotion to serving our community and inspiring the next generation of EMS professionals. We are lucky to have him.

In Recognition of Tyshawn Sorey

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a constituent who just earned the prestigious 2024 Pulitzer Prize for music.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey was awarded the 2024 prize for his composition, ``Adagio (for Wadada Leo Smith),'' which premiered in March 2023 at Atlanta Symphony Hall.

Sorey is known for his extraordinary ability to blend composition and improvisation in his work and for his effortless mastery of highly complex scores. The Pulitzer board describes Sorey's work as ``an introspective saxophone concerto with a wide range of textures presented in a slow tempo, a beautiful homage that's quietly intense, treasuring intimacy rather than spectacle.''

This Pulitzer is just the latest addition to Sorey's list of accomplishments. It comes 1 year after he was named a Pulitzer finalist for his acclaimed composition, ``Monochromatic Light (Afterlife).''

He was a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, and, after the 2018 Opera Philadelphia premiere of his ``Cycles of My Being,'' a set of songs exploring the African-American male experience, he was named the opera company's composer in residence from 2019 through 2023.

He currently serves as the Presidential assistant professor in the departments of music and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he maintains a vigorous touring schedule in addition to his academic duties.

In the future, Sorey plans to continue pushing boundaries, extending

cultural norms, and reformulating public perceptions of modern Black creative practice through the breadth and depth of his works.

I congratulate Mr. Sorey on this prestigious and well-deserved recognition.

Mr. Speaker, over 60 million Americans live with a disability, including many of our seniors and veterans. When they travel, these passengers deserve a safe and dignified flying experience, but I have heard all too often from constituents living with disabilities that their air travel experience can be anything but safe and dignified. Inaccessible restrooms and aircraft, damage to wheelchairs, or an absence of assistive devices can make air travel unpleasant or even impossible.

I was proud to vote for the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act, which expands the rights of passengers with disabilities and makes important strides for consumer protection and accessibility, including protections for powered wheelchairs, safer handling of assistive devices, new aircraft with accessibility standards, deadlines for DOT to investigate and respond to disability-related complaints, improved accessibility for airline mobile apps, and important updates to emergency medical kits on commercial planes.

Many of these measures are key provisions from the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act, which I have proudly fought to advance since coming to Congress and will continue working to include.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about ghost guns. They have been called the Ikea of firearms. You can order them online, and in less than an hour, have a firearm as deadly as any sold by a gun dealer.

These fully functioning, untraceable firearms can be bought without a background check, and they are wreaking havoc on our communities.

That is why they have become the weapon of choice for people who would otherwise be banned from purchasing a gun, including known violent offenders, gun traffickers, and increasingly, teenagers, whose digital literacy enables them to purchase ghost gun kits freely online.

Prior to 2019, Philadelphia police discovered five or fewer handmade firearms per year during criminal investigations; but by 2022, 575 ghost guns turned up in investigations, and that number has only grown.

Last summer, the mass shooter who killed five people in the Kingsessing neighborhood had two ghost guns in his possession when he was arrested.

Recently, Delaware County was rocked when a 15-year-old killed another 15-year-old using a ghost gun.

These guns are reaching into every community, including the heartland, and not just our big cities.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the number of ghost guns seized by law enforcement has skyrocketed in the last decade from less than 3,000 in 2017 to nearly 26,000 in 2022 alone.

They have become a lucrative business for gun traffickers.

In the last couple years, district attorneys in three suburban and rural counties near Philadelphia have busted gun traffickers assembling and selling ghost guns for profit.

In one instance, the trafficker had set up shop across the street from the county courthouse.

This has to stop.

We hear all the time from lawmakers who oppose gun safety laws that we should focus on violent crime. Well, that is exactly what H.R. 4992, the Ghost Guns and Untraceable Firearms Act of 2023, would do.

There is no reason why anyone would want an untraceable gun that can be purchased without a background check, except to use it in a crime.

Chairman Jordan likes to say that bad guys aren't stupid, they are just bad. But this bill has been waiting for consideration since it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee nearly a year ago.

In the absence of Federal action, cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and L.A. have been forced to undertake creative legal strategies like suing ghost gun manufacturers to block them from selling these guns without background checks.

However, that is far from enough to stem the tide.

The White House also stepped up to issue a regulation that would require ghost guns to be traceable and subject to background checks, but that regulation has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Get this: The argument is that the White House cannot regulate guns because it is Congress' job to regulate guns.

It is time for Congress to stop arming people who should not have access to guns.

Members of Congress need to make a choice. Will they stand with Americans who want to live free from gun violence, or will they stay in the pocket of ghost gun manufacturers? Americans--our children--deserve to know where their Representatives stand.

Honoring the Legacy of Marian Anderson

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the legacy of

Marian Anderson. The world knows the story of Marian Anderson, the legendary singer who, after being barred from performing at the DAR's Constitution Hall here in D.C. because of her race, instead sang at an open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial before more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions.

What is not so well known is that she was a proud daughter of Philadelphia. Born in 1897, she lived there most of her life, almost 100 years, and she is buried in the Eden Cemetery just outside of Philadelphia in Delaware County.

Marian Anderson's home in south Philadelphia, which she purchased in 1924 and where she entertained famous Black musicians including Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and the like, is a museum celebrating her legacy as an outstanding artist, a champion of modern civil rights, and a true Philadelphian.

Between 1925 and 1965, Marian Anderson performed opera, spirituals, and American classics in major venues across the United States and Europe.

She sang at the White House in 1939, and in 1955 she became the first Black soloist to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.

She served as a delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Committee and a goodwill ambassador for the United States Department of State.

But the acclaimed contralto's talent was never fully recognized in her native country because of the color of her skin, until now.

On June 8, 2024, 85 years after she sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the Philadelphia Orchestra is renaming its principal performing venue in the heart of Philadelphia as Marian Anderson Hall. This will be the first major concert venue in the world to honor Marian Anderson, and it is fitting that this honor will be bestowed in her hometown by the renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, which has its own history of cultural diplomacy as a proud global ambassador for our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler) for yielding the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today's rule provides for the consideration of a partisan package of pro-polluter energy and environmental bills. Half of these bills have already been considered by the House last year, and the other half are toothless resolutions simply declaring a sense of Congress, albeit a partisan sense of Congress. A package like this is what we have come to expect from this Republican majority in the House.

In the 118th Congress, Republicans can rarely find agreement with each other, let alone negotiate bipartisan legislation capable of being passed by both Houses and signed into law by the President. Therefore, what we get week in and week out are old bills chopped up and repackaged to give Republicans something to talk about for the week while we all wait for the next budget crisis deadline.

Republicans have run the House for the past 15 months and have used that precious time not to lead but to pick fights and air grievances. As my Republican colleague on the Rules Committee, the gentleman from Texas, keeps reminding us, House Republicans have nothing to show for their majority. They haven't done anything to address the most important issues confronting America.

Let's look at the record of this feckless Republican majority thus far.

House Republicans spent a month fighting with each other to pick a Speaker, only to kick out Kevin McCarthy a few months later and spend another month selecting the current Speaker.

House Republicans brought the country to the brink of fiscal calamity to extort a budget deal that they then failed to honor.

House Republicans walked out of a bipartisan deal to overhaul the immigration system after claiming it was their number one priority.

House Republicans are blocking bipartisan legislation to provide military aid to Ukraine and our allies.

Also, House Republicans are blocking a funding package for increased border security.

Although we hope to finish the 2024 budget this week, it is already 6 months late.

All of which is to say, this majority has done nothing. My Republican colleagues have squandered their majority. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have squandered the country's time and taxpayer dollars and have nothing to show for it.

Mr. Speaker, the legislation in this rule, if enacted, would be disastrous for our environment and would set back much of the progress we have made to tackle the climate crisis.

Legislation in this rule would make it easier for companies to pollute our water. These bills roll back important Clean Water Act provisions that prevent companies from dumping waste and harmful chemicals into our public waterways.

This rule would also make it easier for oil and gas companies to avoid responsibility for cleaning up drilling sites after finishing production. The rule would block efforts by the Biden administration to make Big Oil companies pay their fair share to remediate the environmental damage they have caused.

The rule would cut billions of dollars in funding to help communities like mine mitigate the harmful effects of air pollution. Time and again, we see that the Republican energy agenda means putting polluters and their profits over regular people.

Bills like this make my colleagues wonder just who exactly House Republicans represent. The vast majority of Americans support making energy and mining companies financially responsible for site cleanup. The vast majority of Americans want clean air and clean water. They want to protect their health, and they want their kids to have a healthy future.

Yet, these partisan Republican policies would mean more pollution in our communities so that Exxon and Chevron can boost their stock prices. That doesn't seem like a fair trade for the American people. We need to solve the climate crisis, not enable it. We need to put people over profits and polluters.

Congressional Democrats and President Biden are united behind that goal. In stark contrast to our Republican colleagues, Democrats have passed landmark legislation to combat the climate crisis, grow domestic energy production, and bring our energy infrastructure into the 21st century.

Democrats passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Combined, these bills used tax credits, lending programs, and public-private partnerships to invest billions of dollars in electric vehicles, renewables, energy production, and improvements to the electric grid.

This investment is growing our economy, creating good-paying jobs in green manufacturing, and helping to lay the foundation for the mass adoption of renewable energy sources. Already, the Inflation Reduction Act has created over 170,000 jobs, and it is projected to create more than 1.5 million jobs over the next 10 years.

The Inflation Reduction Act puts America on pace to cut our carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030 so that we can meet our obligations under the Paris Agreement. The Inflation Reduction Act also caps abandoned oil wells, cleans up Superfund sites, and provides funding to communities to mitigate the effects of industrial pollution.

In the long run, the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill will save American families up to $38 billion on electricity bills, reduce industrial and manufacturing emissions, double the share of American electricity generated by renewables, and accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

That is what a real energy agenda looks like. It is not grandstanding, and it is not handouts to oil and gas companies.

The Democrats' energy initiatives and agenda have been wildly successful. Right now, the United States is the number one energy producer in the world. We produce more energy from both renewables and fossil fuels than any other country. This is directly translated into lower energy prices for Americans, more jobs, and higher economic growth, and it has allowed us to provide natural gas to our allies in Europe who have been squeezed by a belligerent Russia.

Under President Biden's leadership, the United States is more energy independent today than at any time in our history. This is an amazing achievement and one that should be celebrated by this Chamber.

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

Mr. Speaker, we keep being presented by a false choice here--a choice between being environmentally responsible and having economic opportunity, and that is just not true. We can do both.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a letter from nearly 50 organizations in opposition to H.R. 7023.

They write, ``This bill contains several misguided attacks on clean water and the Clean Water Act, puts polluter profits ahead of public health, and would jeopardize the waters that our families, communities, and wildlife depend on.''

H.R. 7023 is clearly not the answer.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a letter signed by over 50 conservation, climate, and public lands organizations strongly opposing H.R. 6009.

This letter reads, in part, ``This legislation circumvents and undermines the administrative process, ignores significant public input across the West, and halts a long-overdue update to the Federal onshore oil and gas leasing program that protects taxpayers, public lands, and the wildlife and communities who rely on them.''

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a letter from the National Parks Conservation Association strongly opposing H.R. 6009.

Mr. Speaker, this letter reads, in part, ``The current leasing system and onshore oil and gas program is antiquated and does not offer proper oversight or ensure protections and fair returns to American taxpayers. Passing this legislation would leave BLM unable to properly oversee this program and could cause unnecessary harm to our special places.''

Finally, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a Forbes article

entitled: ``U.S. Energy Independence Soars to Highest Level in Over 70 Years.''

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

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

Mr. Speaker, it is a little bit difficult to believe these crocodile tears for our allies when the House Republicans are holding up the National Security Supplemental, which passed weeks ago in the Senate by a 70-30 vote, it is broadly bipartisan legislation that our allies deserve an up-or-down vote on, and we should see that on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to energy, House Republicans are also presenting us with a false choice. They would have us believe that renewable energy and energy independence are at odds. They want us to think that sustainability and a strong economy are a tradeoff. It is simply not true, and we cannot afford to make this false choice.

As we have seen with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, we can have it both ways. We can lower emissions while creating jobs and growing the economy. We can make the transition to solar and wind without displacing businesses or workers.

The Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill demonstrate that not only does a green transition come hand in hand with economic growth, but also that that growth can be spurred from the middle out and the bottom up.

All over the country, new manufacturing facilities for batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles are being built. These factories are offering long-term, good-paying jobs that will drive economic development for years to come. It is an American manufacturing renaissance that has been made possible by legislation passed by Democrats and President Biden.

It is a testament to what is possible when legislators roll up their sleeves and solve problems as opposed to playing to their most extreme Members. That is what real leadership looks like.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in honor of Charles Blockson, a native of Norristown, Pennsylvania, who dedicated his life to the preservation of African-American history.

A prolific writer, collector, historian, and activist, Mr. Blockson authored 13 books and was a leading expert on the Underground Railroad.

Charles Blockson dedicated his life and career to traveling and acquiring rare documents, publications, and photos to explore and expand the study of the Black American experience.

He donated his remarkable collection to Temple University in 1984. Today, the world-renowned Blockson Collection houses more than 700,000 items relating to the global Black experience, serving as a resource not just for Temple students and faculty but for the Philadelphia community and beyond.

An exhibition documenting Mr. Blockson's life's work can also be seen at the Centre Theater in his hometown of Norristown.

Charles Blockson passed away last summer. As a tribute to his tremendous legacy, I am proud to join my colleagues Madeleine Dean and Dwight Evans to introduce a bill designating his hometown post office in Norristown as the Charles L. Blockson Post Office.

Mr. Speaker, we just learned that Congress is being sent home early yet again this week because the Speaker doesn't have the votes to pass the bills he scheduled for this week. This keeps happening because Members of House leadership are unwilling to do the hard work of negotiating legislation that is supported by the majority of Congress, much less the majority of the Senate or the American people.

It is bad enough that they are wasting time and taxpayer dollars to have Congress spinning its wheels with failed bills and stupid stunts, like impeaching Cabinet members for policy disputes, but the Speaker is blocking real legislation to solve real problems, like passing the overdue budget or immigration reform or passing commonsense gun safety bills.

Early yesterday morning, the Senate passed a comprehensive national security package with a vote of 70-29, including strong bipartisan support.

If Speaker Johnson would put that bill on the House floor, it would pass with strong bipartisan support here, too.

The bill provides urgently needed humanitarian relief, as well as support for Ukraine, our allies, and our national security.

Instead of taking the day off, the Speaker needs to put that bill on the floor.

Mr. Speaker, last week law enforcement officials in Chester, Pennsylvania, announced that this community has seen a 72 percent decrease in shootings with victims since 2019.

2023 saw the fewest gun homicides in two decades and a 68 percent decrease in gun homicides since 2019.

Chester was once ranked among the most dangerous cities in the Nation for gun violence.

So how did this happen?

Since 2019, law enforcement, community members, faith groups, and local government have all been working together as the Chester Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods.

During a period when we saw gun violence spike across the Nation, we have seen year-over-year reductions in gun violence and other violent crimes as community partners have worked together to implement a community-based violence prevention program with support from State and Federal funding, including the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

It is time to recognize the success of these pivotal programs with more than a pat on the back. Rather than offering sound bites and saber-rattling, the Chester community, a democratically led community I might add, rolled up its sleeves and did the work of identifying the resources and community partnerships needed to reduce gun violence and create a safer community.

I want to congratulate DA Stollsteimer, Police Chief Gretsky, Cory Long from Making a Change Group, and all of the community members who have been so important in this effort.

To those who say that there is nothing we can do about gun violence, I say: Shame on you.

Programs like this work, and we need to recognize and support them.

Honoring the Life and Legacy of Anita Santos Singh

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Anita Santos Singh, a champion for access to justice.

At the age of 32, Anita became the founding executive director of Philadelphia Legal Assistance Center, the federally funded legal services program serving Philadelphia.

It is never easy to head up a program that provides legal services to the poor.

While legal aid is supposed to assure access to justice for low- income Americans, these programs are chronically underfunded and have been so since their inception. We spend more on Halloween costumes for our pets in this country than we do for legal services for the poor. It is no surprise that study after study shows that 80 percent of low- income Americans cannot afford or access legal help for civil problems like eviction, child custody, or gaining access to their veterans' benefits.

Nonetheless, Anita faced additional challenges of leading a brand new program which had been formed in response to the drastic service and funding cutbacks imposed by Congress in the 1990s, and she did so in the poorest large city in the country, with a shoestring budget and a couple dozen attorneys to serve thousands of clients.

I headed up the search committee that hired Anita, and we knew she was up to the job. Under her leadership, Philadelphia Legal Assistance grew into a frontline organization that now helps over 6,000 clients a year fight systems of injustice and disparity.

Anita's colleagues describe her as a tireless advocate for access to justice who dedicated her life to helping Philadelphia's most vulnerable populations meet critical needs.

Anita constantly developed innovative projects to meet the ever- changing needs of Philadelphia's poorest citizens. She created the first low-income tax clinic in Philadelphia. She expanded legal services for migrant farm workers, including addressing issues of domestic abuse. She leveraged Federal funding sources to expand family law services which is one of the highest legal needs in Philadelphia. She created the Medical Legal Community Partnership which brings community-based legal assistance to low-income patients at 17 different sites.

During the 2008 recession, she developed programs to assist families in danger of losing their homes. In 2021 she helped develop an eviction diversion program for tenants which became part of a national model.

Until her premature death last month, Anita Santos Singh was a legal services champion and advocate for access to justice in Philadelphia for 34 years.

Because of her work, thousands of Philadelphians were able to stay in their homes, put food on the table, and live a life free of partner violence. Her legacy will live on through the thousands of lives she has touched through her efforts.

Her story is a reminder that access to legal aid remains a continuous challenge in this country. For many, a single legal problem can spiral into a mountain of debt, homelessness, or unemployment. Many Americans facing legal challenges are not aware of their rights or options which can lead to stress and confusion and can often exacerbate the legal challenges they face.

We have an obligation to ensure that all Americans are aware of their legal options, and, more importantly, that they have access to representation under the law.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to honor Anita's work by ensuring that every American has access to quality legal assistance whenever they need it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding the customary 30 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, here we are, a little more than 48 hours from a devastating government shutdown. The deadline to pass a Federal budget is already 3 months overdue, and the clock keeps ticking.

Unable to get control of their majority and act responsibly, Republicans keep kicking the can down the road. They have struggled to pass any legislation because they choose again and again to appease an extremist minority rather than to advance policies supported by the majority of Americans and their Representatives here in the House.

Moreover, now, as we face pressing challenges at home and around the world, they have brought us to the brink of disaster once more, all because they chose to renege on a bipartisan deal to fund the government.

So, with these serious problems we are facing, what are House Republicans' priorities for today? They are to attack the President and pass more anti-abortion bills. It is a new year, but for House Republicans, it is the same old story.

Distracted by their own chaos and infighting, they have repeatedly failed to deliver for the American people. They have wasted time and tax dollars on baseless investigations and divisive culture wars, dragging the American people with them down rabbit holes of conspiracies and untruths.

They throw tantrums when they can't get their way, ousting their last Speaker and, just last week, bringing all work in the House to a halt because their new Speaker had dared to try to

strike a deal to keep the government open.

They put on dramatic acts of political theater, hoping to hide the fact that they are unable to complete the most basic tasks of governing. In 2023, they led the least productive session of Congress since the Great Depression.

We think the American people deserve better.

With that in mind, Mr. Speaker, let's look at the three bills that the House leadership has chosen to spend Congress' time on this week, and it is more of the same.

The first bill in this rule is the grotesquely misleading H. Res. 957, a resolution that repeats lies and distortions about the migration challenges at our southern border, starting with the title of the resolution and its false claim that this administration is promoting an open border. This is MAGA fiction, and it is an effort to keep campaigning on the fear of immigrants rather than any serious attempt to address the complex issues created by global migration forces and decades of congressional inaction.

It has become obvious that our Republican colleagues don't really want to fix our broken immigration system. They just want to campaign on it.

They have rejected--before even reading--the bipartisan solutions proposed by Senate Republicans, Democrats, and the administration.

They have refused to consider supplemental border funding requests from the President because the truth is they don't want solutions. They want political stunts. They want to rant, complain, blame, and campaign.

Immigration and border issues are complex. That is why they have remained on the table for so many years. They require comprehensive and nuanced policies, not acts of cruelty and dehumanization marked by barbed wire, family separation, or needless tragedies.

As we have seen over and over again, our Republican colleagues would rather use this issue to sow anger, division, and fear. They will use meaningless resolutions that do nothing to change the status quo, like this one, to distract from their failed Congress and their do-nothing agenda.

Mr. Speaker, if you want to see just how House Republicans view immigration and the border as a purely political issue, look no further than House leadership. After saying for months that border security is a crisis and just last month taking a field trip with over 60 House Republicans to the border, this week House leadership refused to even consider a bipartisan deal negotiated by the Senate before they have read it.

Mr. Speaker, you can't say that the border is in a state of emergency yet reject a bipartisan deal to address the crisis.

We can and must do better than this. Moreover, we owe it to our constituents and our country to work toward real, thoughtful solutions rather than partisan talking points like H. Res. 957.

Now, let's turn to H.R. 6914 and H.R. 6918. Supporting the health and well-being of mothers and babies should be something we can all agree upon, and we would welcome some real collaboration in that area.

Nonetheless, that is not what the majority has brought to the floor today. The fact is that both of these bills are designed to advance an extremist agenda to limit Americans' fundamental freedoms, particularly with respect to reproductive healthcare.

It is nothing but a political exercise that our Republican colleagues undertake every year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It is designed to cater to the most extreme supporters as they descend on Washington, D.C., for an anti-abortion rally.

The fact is that the MAGA majority's anti-abortion agenda is wildly unpopular in this country. The vast majority of Americans do not support it, and they have proven that at the polls repeatedly in the last couple of years.

Americans do not want politicians and rightwing extremists undermining their freedom to make their own medical and reproductive healthcare choices based on their own individual circumstances.

In the face of the overwhelming and repeated rejection of these extremist attempts to interfere in private medical decisions, Republicans are now cloaking their efforts in family-friendly rhetoric and misleading talking points. So, it is important to dig a little deeper and see what these bills are and are not.

If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle really wanted to support pregnant women, children, and families, then they would work with us to address the shameful fact that maternal mortality in our country far exceeds that of our peers. Childbirth is dangerous here in the United States, particularly for Black women and their babies, not because we don't know how to support healthy outcomes but because of a lack of will or interest from Congress.

It is a full-blown crisis, but it doesn't have to be. When it comes to giving our kids brighter futures, we should be talking about powerful tools like the expanded child tax credit, which lifted millions of children out of poverty. We should be strengthening WIC and SNAP, nutrition programs that serve as lifelines for pregnant women, mothers, infants, and families. Instead, this MAGA majority has proposed deep cuts to these nutrition programs.

We should pass policies to improve access to high-quality childcare and early education services, nutritious food, comprehensive maternal and infant healthcare, stable housing, and family-sustaining jobs because those are the things that would really help our kids and families.

The policies that our Republican colleagues have brought before us today in these two bills do none of that.

In fact, they would actually divert money away from vulnerable families and ultimately endanger women's lives.

H.R. 6914 purports to be concerned with providing information to pregnant college students.

Of course, there are obvious and unique challenges to balancing school and parenting, although students and their families can thrive with the right support. Unfortunately, this bill doesn't actually provide such support.

Instead, it requires that colleges inform students only about the rights and resources for carrying a pregnancy to term--resources, I will add, for which this House majority has sought to dramatically slash funding.

The bill purposely leaves out any requirement for schools to distribute medically accurate information regarding all of the healthcare options available to pregnant women. If this bill were truly about ensuring that pregnant college students have the necessary information to make informed decisions to meet their unique reproductive healthcare needs, it would include information about contraception, abortion, miscarriages, and the services that might be available to them during their pregnancy and after.

If the underlying intent of this bill were not clear enough in its one-sided substance, we need only look to the alleged funding section of the bill, which would write into law completely unproven and even false anti-abortion talking points.

These are findings that the bill's author could provide no evidence to support when it was marked up in committee. However, don't take my word for it. Advocates dedicated to advancing civil rights and resources for pregnant and parenting students have expressed deep concerns about this bill, including groups that are experts on this issue like The Coalition For Pregnant and Parenting Students Advocacy.

It is obvious that this MAGA majority doesn't really care about educating and supporting pregnant and parenting students. Instead, they would rather leave them in the dark and attempt to deny women the freedom to make informed decisions about their own bodies and futures.

Lastly, I will talk about H.R. 6918, which is another example of House Republicans doubling down on an extreme and unpopular agenda to try to ban abortion care nationwide. This bill is cloaked in a title that most Americans would agree with, the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act.

In fact, Congress has passed bipartisan legislation to do just that, including through TANF funding, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

However, in recent years, there has been growing evidence and a raft of studies showing that critical TANF aid for families is being diverted to purposes not authorized by Congress.

One of the greatest causes of concern is the siphoning of Federal TANF taxpayer dollars to support so-called crisis pregnancy centers, most of which are part of a well-funded arm of the global anti-abortion movement.

There is a growing body of evidence that these crisis pregnancy centers use deceptive and coercive tactics to target vulnerable people facing unplanned pregnancies, and they often prevent them from accessing a full range of appropriate reproductive healthcare, including safe abortion care and contraceptives.

Just as this bill is cloaked in benign pro-family rhetoric, these pregnancy centers distribute diapers and formula in order to disguise their underlying anti-abortion mission.

One of the great dangers of these crisis pregnancy centers is that they present themselves as legitimate healthcare facilities, but the reality is that most are unlicensed, understaffed by medical professionals, and unbound by the privacy laws that govern medical providers.

This has led to women being misled and given inaccurate or even dangerous information about their pregnancies and the options for care that are available to them, including women who have suffered life- threatening undiagnosed complications in their pregnancies, women who have been denied the information and opportunity to access appropriate reproductive healthcare for them, and women who have been encouraged to undertake dangerous and medically contraindicated procedures.

There is strong evidence that many pregnancy centers are using the public money that States allocate to them through TANF for purposes that are not authorized by Congress. That is why last year, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed regulation to better guide the States in what services were eligible for TANF funding, and that is why this bill, H.R. 6918, is so dangerous and dishonest.

When we have a growing mountain of evidence of misuse and even fraudulent use of TANF dollars by crisis pregnancy centers, this bill by its term would prevent the Department of Health and Human Services from any regulation of pregnancy crisis centers.

House Republicans would green light the unregulated use of public money to fund these anti-abortion facilities, many of which have been proven to promote false medical claims and misinformation; misrepresent their services as providing a full range of reproductive healthcare, despite having only anti-abortion services and usually lacking any medical personnel. Horrifyingly, they are unbound by HIPAA privacy restrictions, and some of these centers collect and distribute women's sensitive personal information to organizations within the larger anti- abortion movement.

This is what Republicans are trying to push upon American women with these bills, and I wholeheartedly disagree.

Thus, here we are. It is another week, and the House GOP still can't get their act together. Their majority is on track to become one of the most ineffective in modern history.

Again, we are just hours from a government shutdown, but instead of dealing with that or any of the real problems Americans are facing today, this House majority is desperately trying to mask its own failure with misleading rhetoric and bills that will never become law. It would be a joke if it weren't so serious.

Led by their most extreme Members, it is clear our Republican colleagues don't want to make Congress work better for the American people. They want to break it, and they want to campaign on it. They want to bring chaos to this Chamber and pass legislation that feeds the flames of their desperate culture wars.

It is irresponsible, it is reckless, and it is not what the American people want.

Mr. Speaker, I deeply oppose this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

We have heard from our colleagues over the course of debate on this bill that they think that they need more discretion to spend TANF dollars, but if this bill were to pass, a pregnancy center would be unregulated. That is what the bill literally says, We cannot regulate pregnancy crisis centers. So if they wanted to use TANF dollars to stage a Taylor Swift concert, they could because there is to be no regulation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record the executive summary of a report titled, ``Designed to Deceive: A Study of the Crisis Pregnancy Center Industry in Nine States,'' written by the Alliance: State Advocates for Women's Rights and Gender Equity.

Mr. Speaker, this report studies crisis pregnancy centers in Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Overall, its findings show that crisis pregnancy centers provided virtually no medical care, promoted false medical claims, and used deceptive practices; State-funded crisis pregnancy centers are more harmful than privately-funded centers; and crisis pregnancy centers appear to be local, but are actually part of a global anti-abortion network.

It is clear that these sorts of manipulative and unregulated centers are not what is best for women and children's health, and actually have been proven to misuse Federal taxpayer dollars. We absolutely shouldn't be allowing Federal dollars to flow to them without any scrutiny.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Rules.

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record a letter from the Coalition for Pregnant and Parenting Students Advocacy and other organizations dedicated to advancing civil rights protections and resources for pregnant and parenting students in opposition to H.R. 6914.

Mr. Speaker, this letter expresses concern that this bill is

based upon unproven anti-abortion rhetoric and seeks to limit students' ability to make reproductive healthcare decisions with a full range of information.

It goes on to say that the bill does not contain any meaningful support to help pregnant and parenting students meet their educational goals, and it notes how the bill leaves out policies we know would actually make a difference, like strengthen Title IX protections, accessible childcare and early education, basic needs security, and accountability measures for institutions that fail to protect pregnant and parenting students.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, could you please advise how much time is remaining?

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 12, a bill that would ensure every American has full access to essential reproductive healthcare services, including abortion care.

Since the Dobbs decision, every State in the Union has taken action on abortion in some way. Many States have used it as an opportunity to enact laws that ban specific instances of abortion or abortion care entirely. Republicans have reiterated time and again that that is their goal, to ban abortion nationwide.

The abortion access landscape is deeply fractured, and Americans continue to face the devastating consequences of abortion bans and restrictions on both patients' health and the greater healthcare ecosystem.

H.R. 12 ensures every American has full access to vital reproductive healthcare and will stop the devastating health consequences for women when abortion access is banned or limited.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, to discuss our proposal, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

This MAGA majority has a bleak and nihilistic vision of our government. It is a vision where congressional power is wielded to take down political rivals; to force extremist beliefs on every American, particularly women; and to shamelessly sow division and fear, not to actually serve all Americans.

It is a vision where the idea of working together across party lines on behalf of all Americans is so anathema to the Republican Party that it can cause a Speaker to lose his gavel or rank-and-file Members of Congress to lose their primaries. It is where standing up against lies and for the Constitution results in death threats and where the integrity and core values of our country's institutions are continually chipped away.

This is an unacceptable way to govern. It is not governance at all. Americans deserve so much better. Let's stop playing these ridiculous games and get to work on the work that the people sent us to do.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is here in the Capitol today. The President of Ukraine left his war-torn country to come to the United States to plead for our help in repelling Putin's murderous and unlawful invasion, in protecting his people, and in preserving their democracy.

As he did so, Putin unleashed a devastating missile attack on Kyiv and was captured on video drinking champagne and toasting the downfall of Ukraine if its Western allies falter.

President Zelenskyy came here to ask the United States to stand tall and honor its commitment to an ally, its commitment to democracy, and its commitment to upholding international law. In response, the United States House of Representatives is debating the merits of chocolate milk.

We will not long remember the MAGA majority's great gas stove war of 2023 or their attempts to make it easier to kill the endangered lesser prairie-chicken, but the sad fact is, these bills have consumed weeks of precious floor time this year as the House majority struggles to pass any legislation of note.

The world will, however, remember if the United States fails to support Ukraine in its hour of need.

President Zelenskyy, our NATO allies, and the American people should expect better from this Congress. Under this extremist majority, they are doomed to disappointment, which again brings us here today to debate chocolate milk.

When I was home this past weekend, I had the chance to talk with many of

my constituents. I met with women small business owners to discuss their challenges. I talked to college students about their concerns regarding attacks on reproductive freedom here in the United States. I gathered with people in our community who have lost loved ones, neighbors, and friends to gun violence, and I listened to their calls for action on commonsense gun safety legislation.

Overwhelmingly, people came to talk to me about making our country a place where all Americans, all children, can thrive. That means bringing down the cost of healthcare, childcare, household energy, and high-speed internet so families can care for their kids, heat their homes, and stay connected. This means investing in infrastructure, good-paying jobs, and public education so we can strengthen our economy, lower costs, build safer communities, and create opportunities so everyone has a shot at a brighter future.

These are the things I came to Congress to do.

In these last legislative days of the year, these aren't the things that House Republicans are doing. I would call it unbelievable except we have seen the same story play out over and over again in this Chamber all year.

For months on end, MAGA extremists have dragged our country to the brink of default, nearly shut down the government twice, and even ousted their own Speaker. Pushed by the most extreme members of their Conference, they have brought chaos to the House floor. They have put up bills only for them to tank and have to be withdrawn as they fight among themselves. They spent 25 days just arguing over which one of them should be Speaker. This is all on the American people's dime.

Now, with pressing challenges at home and around the world, they are pushing a completely discredited impeachment inquiry and other naked political stunts, all to distract from their own inability to govern. They have done nothing to deliver for the American people, and Americans deserve better than this.

House Republicans refuse to get their act together. Today, they have brought to the floor two misguided and marginal bills that fail to address any of the major threats or concerns our country or our constituents face. Both bills open the door to the influence of more special interests in our government's functions.

I should note that, today, we were supposed to consider two additional bills impacting our national security and individual rights. Due to infighting among Republicans and their own committee chairs, these measures were pulled last night from the schedule, leaving us with another wasted day of chaos and incompetence.

The first bill we have today is H.R. 1147, which makes changes to school nutrition standards in a way that would undermine science and undo important progress made over the past 13 years.

Schools play an essential role in our kids' health. For so many children, the meals they get at school represent the majority of calories and the most nutritious meals they consume all day.

We saw this reality clearly during the first days of the pandemic when, as schools closed down, the prospect of missed school breakfasts and lunches threatened the health of children across America.

The meals served in schools are based on the most recent set of dietary guidelines as determined by child nutrition experts. These guidelines stay current and are updated at least every 5 years. In fact, in February of this year, the Biden-Harris administration began the latest update.

When I served on my local school board, and before as a Home and School president, I was involved in efforts to improve and implement what was at the time new Federal improved nutrition standards for our district's meals.

Through that experience, I know just how important nutritious meals are to helping students succeed and form lifelong healthy habits. We have seen immense benefits since Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act in 2010.

The research shows that the millions of children who participate in school meal programs have better overall diet quality than those who do not. Studies prove, despite arguments to the contrary, that students eat and enjoy these meals. When presented with healthy choices, they take them.

Allowing whole milk, particularly flavored whole milk, to be served in schools is against current dietary recommendations and against the recommendation of experts, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Heart Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

We know that too much saturated fat can raise bad cholesterol levels, a known cause of heart disease. Most troubling, many varieties of flavored milk that are pushed by this bill contain unhealthy chemicals, such as artificial colors and flavors, and nearly twice the amount of sugar as plain milk.

At a time when one in five school-age children already has adverse cholesterol levels, we should not be making it easier to serve unhealthier meals in schools.

This bill blatantly ignores the science.

Even if you deny these facts, everyone should be able to admit we are long overdue for a comprehensive child nutrition reauthorization. We owe it to students and their families to consistently improve the meals that schools are serving. The last comprehensive reauthorization of the laws governing school meal programs was done 13 years ago.

I wish the Republican majority would spend more time helping to pass comprehensive policies to support our schools as they work to provide healthier and more satisfying meals to our students within current nutritional standards. We should not waste time on this one-off change to serve special interests that circumvent the normal process for updating meal standards.

I think we owe it to our children, their health, and their futures to let the experts guide what we are providing them to eat in schools. We should not allow politicians to make the decisions in what should be a science-based process.

Today, we are also considering H.R. 357, another attempt by the Republican majority to derail the Federal rulemaking process. This is an unnecessary and vague bill designed to undermine the critical work of Federal agencies.

It is part of a MAGA narrative that unfairly and untruthfully paints hardworking Federal employees, nonpartisan experts in their fields, as faceless bureaucrats who are somehow hostile to everyday Americans.

The fact is that the regulatory process that our Republican colleagues seek to frame as a battle against some vast bureaucratic conspiracy is actually an essential part of ensuring that we all have clean air and water to breathe and drink, healthy food to eat, and safe planes, trains, and automobiles to travel in.

The truth is that Congress already has a wide range of ways to exercise oversight and control over rulemaking.

If the majority is so concerned about improving the process, they would join Democratic efforts to ensure corporate interests can't game that process. They would advocate for incorporating more public feedback in those agencies' decisions.

They don't really want to make the process better. Instead, bills like this would create a bottleneck in our government's operations that will prevent rules that the Republican majority doesn't like.

This bill would politicize the process of confirming nominees to administrative agencies even more than it is already. Individual Senators would have even more incentive to block an administration's nomination for partisan and corporate goals. More corporate influence would be allowed to infiltrate the Senate confirmation process. Ultimately, our agencies would be obstructed from doing important work to protect the American people's health and safety and making government function better.

It is clear my Republican colleagues don't want to make our government work better. These aren't traditional conservatives. They are nihilists dedicated to grinding government to a halt.

With this bill and their previous efforts to decimate Federal rulemaking, they prefer to upend the regulatory process, even if it improves the lives of Americans every single day.

The Federal Government has long played an important role in promoting

the health, safety, and welfare of the American people. We should ensure that it is able to continue doing so.

Again and again, we have seen this Republican majority prioritize the wrong things this year, and today is no different. They are using valuable floor time and committee time to pass marginal bills, enable their own infighting, and launch an act of petty political vengeance against the current President. Then, they are going to call it a year and go home for the holidays. This is an unacceptable way to govern. It is not governance at all.

Mr. Speaker, I deeply oppose this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

The epidemic of gun violence has touched every corner of America, tragically devastating families, tearing apart communities, and scarring schoolchildren.

In 2022, nearly 50,000 people died by guns, an average of one person every 11 minutes. This includes almost 20,000 homicides. Mass shootings skyrocketed from 272 in 2014 to 645 last year. In 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death for American children and adolescents. From 2013 to 2022, there was a staggering 87 percent increase in the child and teen firearm death rate.

In 2023, the heartbreak has only continued. As of today, there have been over 40,000 lives lost and over 630 mass shootings. Over 800 schoolchildren 11 years old or under have been killed or injured with guns. Over 4,000 school-age teens have been touched by gun violence.

The American people are crying out for Congress to act. Yet, the House of Representatives is using its precious time to debate chocolate milk. The American people deserve better.

House Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to tackle this epidemic. If we defeat the previous question today, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 715, a bipartisan bill to require a background check for every firearm sale.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record, along with any extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, as well, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

With the rule we consider today, the Republican majority ends a failed year in the choke hold of its most extreme members. They are finishing out 2023 as they started: unproductive, ineffective, and unconcerned for the American people. They have ignored the real problems facing our Nation today, issues like the gun violence crisis, ongoing threats to Americans' fundamental freedoms, access to economic opportunity and good-paying jobs, and threats to our national security.

They have filled this Chamber with culture wars and conspiracies and pushed policies that would hurt our children, families, students, seniors, members of the Armed Forces, and workers. They have turned their backs on our allies: democracies standing in the breach against forces that pose serious threats to our own national security. They have wasted days, weeks, and months with cheap political stunts all to the detriment and on the dime of our constituents.

Congress is supposed to work for the people, and this is not what the people sent us here to do.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to put people over politics and to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the portion of this rule which would once again throw our student loan system into crisis. Congress' failure to address the student debt crisis has left American borrowers with over $1.6 trillion in student loans, and Pennsylvania borrowers hold some of the highest student debt in the Nation.

This crippling burden is preventing generations of Americans from taking public service jobs, from buying homes and cars, and from fully participating in our economy.

The resolution we are considering today does nothing to solve the student loan crisis. It would undermine the income-based repayment program authorized by Congress years ago and will create more chaos and confusion for student loan borrowers.

Nearly 5.5 million borrowers across the country have enrolled in the SAVE plan in just the past 3 months. In my district alone, 13,700 people have signed up in anticipation of an average relief of $1,200 a year.

If this resolution were to pass, millions of borrowers enrolled in this program will be left in limbo again, unsure how they can meet their student loan obligations and keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Instead of shooting down every attempt to address this crisis, Congress must take action to provide comprehensive, long-term solutions to make higher education more affordable and simplify the repayment process for student loan borrowers.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this rule.

Mr. Speaker, while gun deaths in the United States far outpace those of other countries and now are the leading cause of death among children under 18, recent CDC

data shows a glimmer of hope: Gun homicides are down slightly from 2021.

We have seen this reduction in places like Philadelphia and Chester as a host of community violence prevention programs, funded by the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, take hold.

Tragically, the data also shows gun suicides reached a record high last year with nearly 27,000 people across the United States dying from gun suicide. More than half of gun deaths in Pennsylvania alone were from suicides last year.

We have ways to reduce gun suicide in this country, red flag laws, safe storage, and waiting periods, all of which have been proven to reduce gun suicide, but the NRA and extremist Republicans continue to block these commonsense constitutional measures which can save lives.

When we speak about gun violence, we often say there are solutions, research-based solutions. We don't have to live this way. Today, I will add that in the case of gun suicide, we should also be mindful that people don't have to die this way.

By creating legal space between a person in crisis and access to a firearm, more people will live and more families will be spared the immeasurable pain of losing a loved one. We need Congressional action now.

Election Misinformation Continues

Mr. Speaker, election misinformation continues to plague our country as leaders who know better repeat or fail to contradict baseless conspiracy theories and lies about the integrity of our elections. Not only do these lies and conspiracy theories undermine public faith in our democracy and elections, they cost taxpayer dollars.

Since the 2020 election, in the county where I live, we have seen multiple baseless lawsuits filed seeking to overturn or audit election results. None of them have produced evidence of misconduct or inaccurate results. What they have done is cost taxpayer dollars in legal fees, court resources, and time and effort by county employees and election officials that have to be diverted to defending these groundless suits.

I am proud of the professional administrators and volunteers who work so diligently every election to safeguard our democracy and make it work, but it is also important that leaders from across the political spectrum step up and stand up for our democratic processes and call out those who are trying to undermine them, as well as call out those who are wasting taxpayer dollars.