Michael Waltz

Mr. Speaker, I am excited to rise today in support of this bill, H.R. 8012, the bipartisan, bicameral Jackie Robinson Ballpark National Commemorative Site Act to honor the location where Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and played his first game.

This bill would designate Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach as a National Commemorative Site and add the ballpark to the African American Civil Rights Network.

Additionally, this bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a feasibility study to give the site the designation of a national historic landmark.

H.R. 8012 honors the location where Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier when he played his first professional game with the Montreal Royals on March 17, 1946, in Daytona Beach, at the then-named Daytona City Island Ballpark.

This is the first time in modern baseball that a Black player and a White player played on the same team. Incidentally, it is just down the street from the HBCU Bethune-Cookman. Its founder, Mary McLeod Bethune represents Florida just down the hallway here in Statuary Hall.

Jackie Robinson then led the Montreal Royals to a minor league championship the same season, and the next year, he was promoted to the Dodgers making modern Major League Baseball history.

In his book, Mr. Speaker, ``My Own Story,'' Jackie Robinson reflected on the importance of this game, stating that: I knew, of course, that everyone was not pulling for me to make good, but I was sure now that the whole world wasn't lined up against me, and when I went to sleep, the applause was still ringing in my ears.

Since that day, Daytona Beach's ballpark has been a historic landmark and a reminder of Jackie Robinson's impact, of the civil rights movement, and of the integration of modern professional baseball.

Its preservation and recognition are even more important and more crucial now following the demolition of Ebbets Field, home to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1960, which again, was the first Major League Baseball team to sign Robinson, but now that that stadium is destroyed, we must preserve and honor Jackie Robinson's legacy.

I thank Chairman Westerman for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor, so that we can pass it into law and protect and commemorate the Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona for all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great American and an exceptional leader in our U.S. Air Force.

Colonel John ``JD'' Foy has distinguished himself through his professional character and dedication by serving this Nation in uniform. For the past two years, Colonel Foy served admirably as the Director of Congressional Affairs for U.S. Transportation Command where he led his team to plan and execute over one hundred congressional engagements between the Commander of U.S. Transportation Command and Members of Congress.

Colonel Foy has had a remarkable twenty-three-year career after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy and commissioning as a Second Lieutenant. After graduating with honors from Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training and C-130 Navigator Qualification Training, Colonel Foy deployed seven times and accrued over eight hundred combat hours, earning the Air Medal six times in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, he won the U.S. Air Force's Cheney Award for leading thirty-six Airmen to establish an airfield in Pakistan providing aid and relief to over 20 million flood victims. From 2018 to 2020, as a Squadron Commander in Japan, he led over three hundred maintainers and aerial porters to support over twelve thousand missions throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

Later, the Commander of U.S. Transportation Command selected Colonel Foy to serve as her Director of Legislative Affairs after graduating U.S. Marine Corps War College. As the primary liaison between Members of Congress, our staffs, committees, and U.S. Transportation Command, Colonel Foy communicated the commander's legislative priorities and ensured appropriations for three sealift vessels valued at $300 million into the Ready Reserve Force and enrollment of the first ten tankers into the Tanker Security Program. Colonel Foy also led the charge in coordinating the commander's support for appropriations of a digital U.S. Coast Guard credentialling system that will drastically improve accountability of our U.S. merchant mariners.

Mr. Speaker, next month Colonel Foy will assume command of the 621st Contingency Response Group at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. It has been a great pleasure to work with Colonel Foy during his time representing U.S. Transportation Command on Capitol Hill. On behalf of our grateful Nation, it is my honor to recognize the selfless service and sacrifice of Colonel Foy and his wife, Natacha. I wish them the very best as they continue their journey in our U.S. Air Force. They have dedicated their lives to the service of our great Nation.

Together, We Deliver.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge passage of my bill, H.R. 5613, the Sanctions Lists Harmonization Act.

Mr. Speaker, sanctions are a critical tool in America's foreign policy toolkit, and that has been the case really since the end of World War II.

Unfortunately, the U.S. faces significant challenges in coordinating its sanction policy to support our national security objectives. For example, entities that we sanction in the U.S. are not similarly sanctioned by our allies in Europe, even when our policies are aligned. We spend a significant amount of time and effort coordinating these actions to target actors like Iran and other malign actors, even when we are all rowing in the same direction.

Mr. Speaker, it is often even worse than that. We don't even coordinate within our own government. Under current law, our Federal agencies are not required to communicate with each other when foreign entities are added to their sanctions lists.

For example, if the Department of Defense has concerns and they communicate those concerns, an entity may be denied an export license by the Department of Commerce but then still allowed to conduct banking transactions regulated by Treasury.

Mr. Speaker, there are many other examples, but at the very least, our agencies should proactively notify and coordinate with one another to maximize the penalties to these bad actors when it makes sense.

My bill simply requires the Department of Treasury, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Defense to notify each other and communicate with each other within 30 days

when placing a foreign entity on certain sanctions lists, whether it is with the Office of Foreign Asset Control, OFAC, BIS, or somewhere else.

From there, these other agencies would then have to determine whether that entity that is sanctioned should be added to their own sanctions list.

It is required, Mr. Speaker. It is not optional. It is not when the agency gets around to it, if ever. It is required.

Subsequently, each agency will be required to submit a report to Congress specifying which entities they chose to include on their list and explaining their process.

Let me be clear: This bill does not mandate inclusion of any entity on any list. It doesn't tie the hand of the executive branch, but it does require the executive branch agencies to communicate with each other.

I view this as a simple way for the interagency to coordinate, maximize penalties on foreign bad actors, close loopholes they may take advantage of, and it also creates the bureaucratic incentive to better coordinate our sanctions process.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman McCaul for his leadership and Ranking Member Meeks for working with us to get this language to a bipartisan agreement in the Foreign Affairs Committee. I urge its swift passage on the floor.