Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize one of my constituents from back home in Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Paul Nelson.

Mr. Nelson's commitment to the Erie and surrounding communities has existed for decades. He began working at Waldameer Park and Water World at the age of 11 and took over the park in 1965. His loyalty and tireless efforts have positively impacted not only the people of Erie, but those who visit. Mr. Nelson is truly a Community Champion and should be honored with highest regard for his dedication and commitment.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Lamborn for organizing this Special Order hour tonight to talk about the Bible.

When we have so much reverence for the Bible--and even though from this very city we have been ridiculed for clinging to our guns and our Bibles--I find it so unusual in a country that has been so blessed, a Nation that has been so blessed by God that we would actually at times ridicule His Word.

President Franklin Roosevelt, as we have been told, first declared National Bible Week in 1941. Why did he do that? It was on the eve of World War II. Throughout history, the Bible has been our source of hope, inspiration, and strength for many. In times of peril, adversity, and tragedy, its words provide even greater comfort.

President Lincoln said, ``I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.''

And that is when we turn to our Bibles, that is when we fall to our knees. That is when we know, as men, we are not able on our own to change the things that need to be changed, and we have to cling to our Bibles. That is where we find solace. That is where we find faith. That is where we find trust.

What a wonderful opportunity not only for this House but for the people of the United States of America to stop and take survey of where we are and where we are going, and then go back and reference in the greatest book ever written to find out what it is that we need to do.

It is when we turn away from God that America fails, and it is when we do fall to our knees when it seems like there is no other place to go that we find great solace, great faith, and great confidence in our God, through the Bible.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Lamborn for what he did tonight. This is the time for the United States of America to open her Bibles and follow what is written there. It comes directly from God.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I think a lot of us go out and actually do our own shopping.

And I know now when I go out to shop, I not only look at the front of the box, I look to the back to see what is in it.

So we have here the Biden build back better sauce. Here it is. It is flavored with SALT tax, by the way, so don't worry about your sodium content. And trust them. ``It is in there.''

What is in there; 150 new government programs. How about this? This is a great bargain for the hardworking American taxpayer. Now, they're saying it is only going to cost you $1.7 trillion, and only in Washington would they say ``only''.

The cost per American, $53,000 apiece; $550 billion for the Green New Deal; $412 billion in small business taxes; $80 billion for those wonderful guys from the IRS that are coming to tear you apart; $7.8 billion on environmental justice; massive electric vehicle subsidies for the very wealthy; government paid leave for high-priced CEOs; subsidies for wealthy families; a SALT tax break for millionaires; and the Tree Equity Program.

Who in the world would not buy this package? They will if they turn around and look at the back and understand that it is on sale right now in this House for $4 trillion. Hurry up, American taxpayers, before we run out of money.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the great men and women who serve and have fought in our military and risked their lives to protect this great country of ours.

Each November, we are reminded of the heroism our veterans displayed both at home and abroad. My Congressional District, Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, is among the largest constituencies of military veterans in our Commonwealth. More than 45,000 veterans call PA-16 home. That is 1 in 15 of my constituents, and it would be hard to go to any home anywhere in the district that I serve and not find people who have served in the military.

Our office has a dedicated veterans' outreach program. Some of our representatives--right now it is Francis ``Chookie'' LaCamera; 36 years he served. We also had John ``P.K.'' Galanski, a Vietnam vet who never stopped serving. After he came home, he has been part of our service outreach program and has dedicated his entire life to taking care of our veterans.

Also, a good friend and a guy who has done such a great job, Tony ``Gunny'' Digiacomo, another Iraqi war veteran who served in our office taking care of our veterans and now is a Crawford County VSO.

And last, but not least, John Cuneo, who is an Afghani war veteran. When I talked to John about the Afghanistan withdrawal, I said: John, I just want to make sure you are okay. And he said: Mike, I haven't slept for 5 days. I lost friends in Afghanistan. I held them as they died. Some of them came back home, but they were deeply wounded and injured and probably will never fully recover. And I just don't understand how we arrived at this type of a withdrawal.

I keep thinking to myself: Was it worth it? The loss of lives, the loss of limbs; was it really worth it?

All I can say to him is: John, for 20 years our men and women in uniform have kept the home country safe. I don't know what more you could have done. I, too, have the sense of what your loss is and how deep it is. But please just remember that the American people will always be indebted to you for what you have done. And we know how difficult these last few months have been.

We look back at what happened in Afghanistan and our withdraw from Afghanistan and I keep wondering, why? Why, this true 1 percent of Americans go and serve? How can they look at what is happening and think things are all right?

That is why this month, this November, this Veterans Day, it is absolutely critical that we take time out of our daily lives and anybody we know that served, we thank them for their service. We thank them for their sacrifice. We thank them for everything they have done for this great country.

I ask people to please remember: When they left to go serve us and to protect us, some of them never came home; never got a chance to celebrate another Thanksgiving; never got a chance to celebrate a Christmas. Most never had a chance to get married, have children, and enjoy the American life.

They did it because they love this Nation. They gave everything they could possibly give. And there is a saying out there that all gave some, but some gave all. That is so true and that is why on November 11 every single American should stop and say a prayer for those who not only lost their lives but those who came home injured, and some injured in a way that they will never be able to have the life they had before they left.

They are entitled to everything they have been promised, and, more importantly, they deserve it. They deserve that.

So on this date, November 11, let's all stop just for a minute and think just how much this country, this Nation meant to those who served. I thank the gentleman so much for having the Special Order.

Madam Speaker, Representative Keller and I indeed are very good friends and in complete agreement on what it is we are trying to do tonight.

Madam Speaker, there are 54,511 veterans in Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District. These are men and women that have served in all types of activities in the military.

Nearly 1 in 13 of my constituents are military veterans. Roughly 520,000 pending VA claims for disability, compensation, and benefits are out there right now. And 191,000 of those that are considered to be backlogged are older than 3 months old, 4 months old, and they can't even get the information that they need.

Thirty-six percent of these cases this summer were considered backlogged. Again, over 4 months, these people are waiting for their records to be pulled.

The National Personnel Records Center is operating at 45 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity--45 percent--while almost every other business and government entity is operating at full capacity.

This delay prevents veterans from getting the benefits they deserve for months or even years. A lack of digital records prevents staff from accessing those records while working remotely during the pandemic.

Representative Keller's bill would require the National Personnel Records Center employees to return to the job at 100 percent of capacity and improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the operations at the center.

This is not just a request. This is honoring the service of those who have given all to defend this country.

They are not looking for anything special. They are not looking for anything out of the ordinary. They are not looking for anybody to go beyond what they were hired to do. All they are asking for is for their records to be processed in the right time so they can receive their benefits.

How can this Nation turn its back, and how can this group refuse to do this in a timely fashion and prevent this from happening further?

All we are asking for is people to do their jobs. What an unusual concept for somebody to go to work every day and be asked to do their job, not doing it from home, but going on the job and actually doing the job for those who put their lives on the line for this Nation.

Incredible that it would take a bill from Congress for people to actually do the job they were hired to do and fulfill their responsibility to our incredible veterans.

I thank Representative Keller for bringing this forward, and I would urge this body to take a look at what we are doing right now and somehow come to an agreement that there is not--this shouldn't be a request. This is a responsibility to those who have served us so well.

I thank Representative Keller for including me tonight and all the rest of my colleagues.

Again, this is not just a request. This is a responsibility.

I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, and we do sit on the Committee on Ways and Means together.

Madam Speaker, I just think that where we look at today, I have heard so much in the last couple weeks about looking at this as kitchen table economics.

Madam Speaker, if you want to talk about it in real terms that every single American would understand, people who actually do their bills at their kitchen table, that figure out what their future looks like at their kitchen table, then we need to start talking in terms that they understand.

So when we talk about what America gains in revenues, what this Federal Government gains in revenues each year is $3.5 trillion. This Federal Government spends $6.5 trillion.

Now, people say, well, that is not too bad. That is only a $3 trillion difference. But what it comes down to, if you want to use kitchen table economics, let's talk about what it means to people who actually sit at a kitchen table, sometimes work two jobs, sometimes not only the father but the mother gets up and go to work every day to put food on the table and put a roof over the head of their children and plan for the future.

Let's talk about kitchen table economics, and let's reduce it down to terms that people actually understand: A person making $35,000 a year thinks it is okay to spend $65,000 a year.

Nobody with any type of economic sense or common sense would say: I think that is okay. I think that is the way I should live my life. I think that is the way I should plan for the future because I think it is going to be really great for my kids and grandkids going forward.

$3.5 trillion in revenue from taxpayers, and the government is spending $6.5 trillion. That is a difference of $30,000 a year for the average person on their kitchen table who is spending $30,000 more a year than they bring in. That is lunacy. Nobody would tell their sons or daughters to plan their life that way.

The reason I brought this picture of this iceberg is because I believe America right now is facing a Titanic moment. The truth of the matter is, we can't really see what our total debt is.

It is below the surface. Funded and unfunded liabilities right now, which the American taxpayers are responsible for, is $130 trillion.

It is truly a Titanic moment. We are steaming toward an iceberg that is going to sink the ship. We sit back and talk about these things in terms that don't really matter. We talk about tree equity. We talk about this equity and that equity. What we don't talk about is the equity to hardworking American taxpayers.

We don't talk the truth to them, and we hope that we will pass a bill that they can't possibly imagine it can't possibly be paid for by only those making $400,000 or more a year.

The constituents that I represent in Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District know what it is like when they go to get a gallon of gas. They know what it is like when they have to heat their home this winter and know that it is probably going to be 50 to 60 percent more this winter than it was last winter.

Their gas, their groceries, everything that they consume is going up at a rate that they can't possibly imagine. And they can't imagine it because they are not being told the truth.

We are talking about we are going to build it back better. We are going to ruin the greatest Nation the world has ever known by unsustainable spending and by an administration that fails to tell the whole truth and what is below the surface and what is going to sink the ship.

The tip of the iceberg is the only thing the American people see right now. The truth lies below the surface. Getting the truth out is almost impossible, especially in this House, in the people's House on this floor.

Madam Speaker, I am sorry to interrupt you. I know you are busy reading something there, but perhaps you ought to read that bill. You ought to see exactly what is being proposed. I don't believe the majority has read that bill. I don't believe the majority really believes in that bill. But I do know the majority will continue to keep their heads down, read their phones, read their cards, and listen to a false narrative coming out of the White House and a complicit media that refuses to tell America the truth.

We are at a Titanic moment. We are facing debt we cannot possibly sustain. We are taking ourselves out of a position to be the strongest country in the world, and we are doing it right here in the people's House. We are discussing taxes and cost of living that are off the charts, that we have never seen in our life before. And we can continue to read our phones, read the teleprompter, and whisper to people: Just pay your fair share.

Really? Really? Is that the way we are going to run it? Is that the way we are going to go forward? Are we going to go home to our home districts and say: Look, you are just going to have to pay your fair share.

That is what we are going to keep telling them. We will whisper our way through this crisis, and it will end up as a disaster.

How anybody can sit on the floor of this House representing their home districts, three-quarters of a million people is what most of us represent, and go back home and tell them: I did what was right for you.

Never before has this country ever faced the crisis it is facing now. It is not because of a foreign power. It is not because of somebody trying to take us over. It is the rotting that is taking place right inside this House in this session.

Madam Speaker, I would implore every single Member of the House--I don't care if you are a Democrat; I don't care if you are Republican; I don't care if you are liberal or you are a conservative, just stop being stupid because there ain't no fixing stupid.

The path we are on right now is a complete disaster. Everybody knows it. Not everybody speaks it because they just don't want to break ranks.

This is a Titanic moment. This is what America is facing. I would implore each Member of this House to wake up and do what is right for the American people.

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

Mr. Speaker, I was sitting in my office, and I couldn't help hearing that this is kitchen table economics, so I just want to reduce it down to what kitchen table economics actually is.

This is a country that has an income of about $3.5 trillion a year. Meaning, if you were a regular family, that means you make about $35,000 a year. Let's reduce it to kitchen table economics.

But we then turn around and spend $6.5 trillion, so that is telling the average family back home: Mr. and Mrs. America, understand something, you make $35,000 a year. You should be spending $65,000 a year and just increasing your total debt.

We are at right now is between funded and unfunded liabilities. America is on the hook for $130 trillion. This is a pathway to destruction. Now we are going to point fingers back and forth: Well, you guys raised it, and you should have raised it.

Mr. Speaker, you know what? There is no such thing as a debt ceiling here. There is no debt ceiling here. This is a sunroof. All we do is open it any time we want to irresponsibly spend money, and we just go ahead and keep spending and spending.

It all falls on the backs of not only our grandchildren and our children but also on this current generation. This is absolutely insane and totally irresponsible.

Mr. Speaker, tonight we are going to be talking about the leading causes of death in the United States. I just want to go over this because I think sometimes we become disillusioned with what is actually happening.

The National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports on the leading causes of death in the United States but does not include abortion among their list of causes of death.

Here is an accurate representation of the leading causes of death for 2019, which includes the number one cause of death. That is abortion. Also, deaths due to COVID in 2020 and 2021 are included for comparison.

You start off with suicide or intentional self-harm, 47,511 Americans died.

Influenza and pneumonia, 49,783 Americans died.

Nephritis and nephrotic syndrome, kidney disease, 51,665 died from that.

Diabetes, 87,647.

Alzheimer's disease, 121,499 deaths.

Stroke, 150,005 deaths.

Chronic lower respiratory, 156,979 deaths.

Accidents, 172,040 deaths.

Cancer, 599,601 deaths.

COVID, 656,488, and that is 18 months total.

Heart disease, 659,041.

And we all know about these deaths because you cannot watch TV or listen to any news when you are not constantly hearing about what people in America are dying from because it is a crisis for us.

Abortion, 849,000.

All the data are from one year, 2019, except for COVID. Deaths in the United States of America from COVID reached 528,600 at the one-year mark of March 2020 to March 2021, but the entire 18-month death toll is included in the comparison above.

More unborn babies died daily from abortion in the United States of America than born children and adults from the COVID pandemic.

We are asked to wear masks, we are asked to social distance, we are asked to self-quarantine. What we aren't asked is to address deaths by decision. Abortions.

I would like to suggest that, not only all Members of this Congress, but the 330 million Americans that we represent, if they have the opportunity to do it, call their parents and thank them for being pro- life.

How can we possibly be debating on this floor the destruction of life by a decision, not from a disease but from a decision?

849,000 souls cry out to us. They cannot defend themselves, but we can defend them. We will pass a law--it will get passed here on this floor.

And people will say: Well, you don't understand. You know what, Kelly, I am really not for abortion, it is not my personal preference, but gosh darn it, it is what the Supreme Court issued.

I tell all those Members, you have a voting card that is actually your personal preference and your decision. Please do not try to fool the American people about what is taking place right here in this House, the people's House, and say that somehow your personal preference would not be to see all these children aborted, but there is nothing you can do about it.

Yes, there is. Vote the right way. Turn this down. Abortion right up until birth? Are you kidding me? How in the world can we ever talk about ourselves as being a Judeo-Christian moral country whenever we do things like this?

Mr. Speaker, I just hope that America wakes up and looks at what is taking place right now and says, not on our watch, not ever on our watch, not at this time or any time. The greatest country in the world, the greatest nation in the world, the greatest protector of freedom and liberty cannot sit back and blindly accept what is happening in our country.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank my good friend from the State of Texas (Mr. Gohmert.) It is always a pleasure to be with him.

Today I want to talk about something that is near and dear to all of us. Maybe I am exaggerating when I say dear to all of us. But I am referring to a Federal agency that at one time former Senator Orrin Hatch described as the most feared Federal agency in our country. I am talking about the IRS; I am talking about right now the operations of the IRS.

In recent months we have learned that the agency has yet to process millions and millions of tax returns filed over the past 3 years. People across this country have been waiting to receive money that is theirs far longer than is reasonable. The agency should be working night and day to catch up.

I want to take this opportunity also to thank my friends on both sides of the aisle, because for most people in our districts, we are the IRS. We are the people answering those tough questions and helping them navigate in an almost impossible Federal agency in order to get things done.

Now, at the same time as this backlog persists, the agency is doing things that take us back to the last time that Mr. Biden was in the White House, and we have returned to those bad, old, dark days of the Obama administration when Lois Lerner and her cronies were targeting conservative, nonprofit organizations because of their political views.

Just weeks ago, the IRS was caught red-handed, once again. In a letter declining a nonprofit status to a Christian organization, the agency decried biblical teachings as a nonneutral, politically oriented form of speech. These bureaucrats had the audacity to say that the organization's Bible teachings about the Christian faith, which are shared by millions upon millions of Americans of all different political views, were too aligned with the Republican Party to warrant nonprofit status.

Now, upon learning of this shameful decision, my friend from Texas, Kevin Brady, and I joined Americans across this country to demand answers as to how the IRS could come to such an egregious conclusion. Thankfully, and only because of this oversight and the exposure to what happened, our legislative oversight and the public's righteous indignation caused this agency to reverse its course; but, again, only because of our oversight and the exposure to what was actually taking place within this agency.

This IRS needs more oversight and accountability if we are to expect it to do the right thing. But the one thing I want to explain to all of our citizens across the country, if you get a call from the IRS, understand that that call is not from the IRS. The IRS will only contact you by mail. When I go home, and I think all of my colleagues are the same, I hear people tell me, ``The IRS called me.'' I say, ``That is not the IRS. That is a scam.''

But you know what? There are things we have to do. We have not only an obligation, we have a responsibility to improve all Federal agencies.

Now, it is sad to say that the only scandal entangling the IRS this year isn't the one I just talked about. In an outrageous criminal act, someone, either inside or outside the IRS, breached IRS systems and leaked the confidential tax records of thousands and thousands of Americans to a left-wing propaganda outlet, Pro Publica, which proceeded to publish these private financial details in pursuit of a political narrative on tax policy.

This is an astonishing breach of trust that should cause every American to wonder if his or her own tax information could be weaponized against them. It is not farfetched. When President Donald Trump's tax returns were leaked to The New York Times last year, I noted that if this could happen to the President of the United States, it could happen to any American.

Now, Mr. Speaker, here we are. In 2019, the late Representative John Lewis and I worked together to figure out how we could reform the IRS so that it would better serve our taxpayers. We worked as friends, set aside any political differences we may have had, and authored the Taxpayer First Act, which was passed with overwhelming support from this entire Congress and signed into law by President Trump 2 years ago in July of 2019.

The primary intent of this legislation was to make the IRS a customer-service-oriented agency. Our tax system is a voluntary system. After all, this is one of the few Federal entities that Americans will interact with consistently for their entire lives. From their birth until their death they will have actions within the IRS.

There are few things more intimidating than having to resolve a dispute with the IRS, so making it a resource rather than an adversary was our chief aim. That is what we were trying to get to.

But how can an agency that takes years to process tax returns, leaks private financial records to damage certain taxpayers, and wields its vast power to punish people or organizations with certain political or religious views be seen as anything other than an adversary?

The IRS is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. I have heard this so many times when I go back home, and I am sure you have heard it, and I am sure most Americans feel the same way: People tell me, ``I don't mind paying my taxes as long as those moneys that I put in get used the right way, but I do fear the agency with which I have to interact.''

Let's work together to hold this agency accountable. It is not all members of the IRS who we are criticizing or who we are looking at right now. We are talking about certain things that happen within that agency that absolutely are terrifying to the average American.

We, as a body, representing everyone in this country, need to take a look at where it is that we are failing and where it is that this agency has failed and why it has become such an intimidating agency.

If you want to restore the faith in any of our agencies or any of the things that we do in our life, you do it by actually working within the framework of that agency and looking at what we can do as the personal representatives of the American people to cure the situation as it is now and make the IRS a service-based agency and not one of intimidation.

Madam Speaker, I would like to include in the Record the following speech that was written by local Butler, Pennsylvania historian and my constituent, Bill May. It was delivered at a headstone dedication ceremony for Civil War veteran Andrew Gomer Williams. Mr. Williams was a longtime resident of Butler where he practiced law. Born in Richmond, Virginia, Williams fought for the Union in the Civil War as a member of the 63rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He also attended Duff's Business College and was a tradesman, nail-maker, bookkeeper, and notary public. Williams served the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a member of the state House of Representatives and state Senate as well as the Soldiers' Orphans School Commission. After a long life of service to his community and our Nation, Mr. Williams died on April 6, 1923 in Butler and was interred in the North Side Cemetery.

Mr. Williams is an American hero, which is why Chad Slater began placing the ``Grand Army of the Republic'' star and flag at his grave. The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the American Civil War. However, since Williams was not identified on his headstone as a veteran, the star and flag were routinely removed. As a result, Mr. Slater, Jason Tindall, and VFW 249 began a quest to install a proper headstone that would appropriately recognize Mr. Williams' service to the people of Butler, Western Pennsylvania, and our country. I thank each of them for working to preserve this vital piece of American history for future generations.

(By Bill May)

``Monuments are as old as our race and all along the

history of the dim and dusty age down to the bright and

joyous present we have been perpetuating the memory of heroic

men''. These eloquent words, so very appropriate this

morning, are not mine, but were the actual words of Andrew

Gomer Williams whose monument we gather here this morning to

dedicate. He delivered them in a speech on September 11, 1889

on the Gettysburg Battlefield during ceremonies dedicating

the monument to his regiment, the 63rd PA Volunteers, who

fought during the famous battle on July 1 through the 3rd of

1863. Much like they gathered on that field 132 years ago, we

gather here today on this field to perpetuate the memory of a

heroic man.

Ironically, Williams, who had fought for the Union, was

born in Richmond VA, the Capital of the Confederacy on

September 8, 1840 to a Welsh immigrant father and an Eastern

Maryland mother. His family moved from Richmond to Pittsburgh

in 1847 and from Pittsburgh to Etna one year later. The

recipient of very little education, Andrew Williams went to

work as a nail cutter in the local factory at the young age

of 10.

Maybe it was the sense of patriotism that swelled in Andrew

Williams heart or maybe it was wanting to escape the dullness

of factory work for the great unknown adventure of war, but

regardless of the reason, we do know that at age 21 in 1861,

Williams was helping to raise three companies of men to

become part of the newly created 63rd PA Volunteers and leave

the smoky city for the battlefields of his native South. He

was elected Captain of Company E, but declined the honor and

the rank to initially serve as their 3rd Sargent when their 3

years of service began on September 9 of 1861.

He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on the field during the

Second Battle of Bull in 1862 and then in the Spring of 1863

he was promoted to the rank of Captain of Company E of the

63rd PA Volunteers. He fought in over a dozen battles and was

wounded four times including at the Charles City Crossroads

on June 30, 1862 and again at The Battle of Fredericksburg on

December 13, 1862. 1863 would find Williams leading his men

at the Battles of Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. During

the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864 Williams was

thought to have been mortally wounded after being struck in

the left temple by a Confederate minie' ball and left for

dead. Miraculously he was found barely alive four days later

on the Wilderness Battlefield. He was mustered out with the

rest of his regiment on August 6, 1864. Williams would carry

the external scars from the near fatal wound for the rest of

his life.

After his return home to Etna, he was unable to work for

the next 3 years due to his wounds. He entered Duff's

Business College in Pittsburgh to become a bookkeeper and

also read law at home. In 1868, following his father's death

in a boiler explosion at the Fort Pitt Foundry, he was forced

to return to cutting nails in the Etna Rolling Mill to help

support his family while continuing his law studies at night.

Besides his father's tragic death, Williams throughout his

life experienced the deaths of 13 members of his family by

explosions, railroad accidents, burnings and drowning.

In spite of all the personal and family trauma, Andrew G.

Williams marched on and came to Butler in 1875 and upon being

admitted to the Butler Bar the following year he immediately

formed a partnership with Alexander Mitchell. This

partnership would last until Mitchell's death 40 years later.

During these four decades together the men claimed to never

have had an argument or ever having signed a lease for their

office on the Diamond with their word as their bond. The only

day in the entire history of their practice they did not open

was when both men's Civil War Regiments were holding reunions

on the same date in Pittsburgh. The two lawyers closed up

shop each afternoon at precisely 4:45 p.m. It was said that

people along their walking route home could set their watches

by their passing. The house Andrew Williams came home to each

night was the home he built in 1887 for his second wife and

their 3 sons and 1 daughter and for his 3 children from his

deceased first wife.

Williams' military service in the Civil War continued to

play an important role in his life with his membership in the

local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic or GAR, a

Civil War veterans' group and contributing his time to help

those survivors scarred by the effects of the war. He helped

Civil War soldier spouses such as a Mrs. Kettenburgh of

Edgewood whose husband had served with Williams and who came

to Butler in 1908 accompanied by her two sisters to apply for

a Civil War Widow's Pension. Kettenburgh presented Williams

with the photo displayed in front of me taken just a few days

before William's near fatal wounding at the Wilderness. He

also volunteered serving on the Board of Directors of the

Civil War Orphans Home that was located on Butler's Institute

Hill from 1867 until moving to Mercer County in 1905.

Outside of his legal practice and his Civil War related

activities, Williams served one term in the Pennsylvania

House of Representatives and four years in the Pennsylvania

State Senate. He also served for 20 years as the Choir

Director of Butler's First Methodist Church and rose to the

rank of Grand Commander Knights of Templar of the State of

Pennsylvania in the Masons.

After a full life, devoted to his nation, his church, his

community and most importantly his family, Andrew Gomer

Williams died in his North McKean Street home on April 6,

1923 from pneumonia at the age of 83 @ 10:40 p.m. Fittingly

for a man who had been a soldier in the Civil War, his

funeral and burial were held on April 9th the same day only

58 years earlier that Robert E. Lee had surrendered his

Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at a place

called Appomattox Courthouse Virginia.

Madam Speaker, this has been a confusing time period I think for most of America, and why the confusion is becoming so cluttered among us all is because we are using definitions that sometimes don't seem to make sense for the situation that we are in.

So I was thinking back, and not too long ago we were told that we don't have to worry about our borders because we really don't have a crisis there, what we have is a challenge.

As we seem to constantly redefine or put different labels on what we know to be true, I think it is time for a moment of clarity. I went to Oxford Languages to find out just what a crisis is.

So this is not my definition. This is what Oxford Languages has said: A crisis is a time of intense difficulty or trouble or danger; a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

So what is it I am talking about?

I am talking about our crisis at our borders.

So why would a guy who lives in western Pennsylvania worry about what is happening on the borders in Texas and Arizona? That is almost 2,000 miles away from where I live. That is almost 2,000 miles away from the people I represent. How could it possibly impact them?

So I would tell my friends that if you don't think this is going to have an impact in the community you live in, this is coming to a town real close to you real soon.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, we are now housing about 150 young girls who have come from the border. Now, I don't know where their starting point was. I know where their entry came, and I know now that these unaccompanied young ladies--they are 7 to 12 years old--have now been shuttled to Erie, Pennsylvania, into housing which is much better than what they were experiencing at the border. They are living there now, and I am not sure that they know what the consequences of this relocation means to them.

I have been told that of those people who have come in, those little girls who have come in, approximately 30 of them have COVID.

We sit in this House--the people's House--and we debate issues that are sometimes very confusing and very conflicting and separate us as a people. This is not an issue that should separate us. If we truly believe that there is a humanitarian crisis, then we should fix it in a humanitarian way.

I have often been told that you can't beat something with nothing. The previous administration under President Trump had a very clear policy about how we were supposed to handle the surge at our borders, a very clear process, very clear what was to take place. That all changed. As the Biden administration came in, they said, no, this policy from the previous administration is untenable, it is not humane, and it is no longer going to be in existence.

Again, Madam Speaker, you can't replace something with nothing. My question to the administration through several letters and through several requests for the HHS and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, was answered with no answer at all. So if you have no policy you have no answer.

If you continue to say that we really don't have a crisis at our border, then you are either unaware or just choose not to say what you really have in mind, and you can only do that if you don't really have anything in mind.

Madam Speaker, I think that in the people's House--and we are always defined as who is in the majority and who is in the minority and who represents whom and whose best interests are being upheld, and I would just suggest that this is the people's House. It is not called the Republic House or the Democrat House. It is called the people's House, and the people--the American people--need to have an answer to what is our policy on the border?

What is our policy going forward?

How are we going to relocate these children?

They are children. My wife and I being the mother and father of four children and grandparents of 10 children, I cannot imagine in my life handing over my grandchildren or my children to somebody I don't know and saying: Would you please get them to America where I know they will be safe, sound, and well-treated?

This is truly a crisis. More importantly, this is a dereliction of duty by

the current administration. I am requesting that the Biden administration answer not just me from western Pennsylvania, the 16th Congressional District, but the people of America who deserve to know what this policy is, how it is going to be administered, and what do these contracts look like when we are transporting these children from one location to another, and, ultimately, where are they supposed to land?

Where are they supposed to find refuge?

Where are they supposed to find a loving family to take care of them?

I have been told that 90 percent of these unaccompanied children are going to end up with family members, and my question is: Where did you collect that data?

I have granddaughters who were 12, and I have granddaughters who were 7. I think it would be a difficult question to ask them what their future looks like whenever they have been shuttled off to someplace far away from home by people they don't know and then being told: Don't worry, everything is going to be fine, and 90 percent of you are going to end up with a family member.

Really?

Where is that data?

I will close with this--and I really appreciate the gentleman yielding--it is time for Americans to stand up and demand that we have an answer to what our policy is at our border.

What are we going to do with these children?

If we are truly calling this a humanitarian crisis, then we need to have a humanitarian answer. No answer, no process absolutely is not the way America works.

So I am calling on the administration today to please answer our questions. I will be in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday where I will be able to physically examine where these children are, and I will come back to Congress with what I have seen happen.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 76.

Stated against:

Madam Speaker, this has been an interesting day. And I know we want to debate this, and we brought up all kinds of things, all kinds of points of history and what happened and where it happened and all the rest of this, and we are very, very grateful to the Capitol Police and all those who came in to protect us.

But the real debate right now about Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania's Act 77. Was it constitutional or was it unconstitutional? All the rest of the trimmings you can set aside and just decide: Was it constitutional or unconstitutional?

Act 77 changed Pennsylvania's voting law and Pennsylvania's Constitution.

Now, Pennsylvania could change that law, but it is done through an amendment to the constitution. It is not just done because somebody would like to see that done.

We had a mail ballot that was available. It was an absentee ballot. We did not have a no-excuse ballot.

What did Pennsylvania have to do to get to the point where they would have a no-excuse mail-in ballot?

Number one, in two successive sessions of the Pennsylvania Legislature, that had to be passed in that legislation, one session after the other. If it passed both times, then it had to be published in every one of the 67 counties of Pennsylvania, twice. When that was finished, it then had to go before the Pennsylvania voters to decide whether they wanted the constitution amended.

Pennsylvania did the first one. They actually did take a vote, and it was overwhelming. But then they scrapped it, and they put it in an omnibus bill. That is an unconstitutional change. You cannot do it. It is that simple.

So I love the idea about Washington crossing the Delaware. I love the idea about Washington going through a terrible winter.

I hate the idea of what we had to go through today. But if oaths don't matter, and we have all taken them, and if the Constitution doesn't matter, why do we even do it? Why go through this charade that somehow we are really close friends, except when it comes to the really important things?

We have driven this country apart through the people's House, and we wonder what happened?

The biggest loss on November 3 was not by Donald Trump; it was the faith and trust that the American people lost in this voting system because we have allowed it to happen. It is unconstitutional.

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

Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize one of my constituents from back home in Western Pennsylvania, Mr. Sam Zurzolo. Sam is a lifelong resident of Butler County and an admirable veteran who proudly served as a Sergeant Major in the United States Marine Corps. Sam is the epitome of a service-minded citizen and his unwavering dedication to the community is inspiring and praiseworthy.

Sam had a successful military career, dedicating thirty years to the United States Marine Corps and the United States Marine Corps Reserves. During this time, Sam served in various capacities and was stationed all throughout the country. Regardless of the assignment or location, Sam displayed an exemplary work ethic and went above and beyond to serve the surrounding communities and volunteer where there was a need. His efforts did not go unnoticed and he was awarded numerous certificates of appreciation and meritorious mast, including the following: Navy Commendation Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal with Star, Marine Corp Good Conduct Medal with 3 Stars, Marine Corps Reserve Medal, Marine Corps Recruiting Ribbon, Cold War Certificate & Ribbon, Rifle Expert Badge and numerous Pistol Expert Badges.

After his military service Sam spent eighteen years working as a maintenance superintendent for Oxford Development, a real estate and construction company, before retiring. Driven by a desire to continue serving, he got involved with local government and in 2005 Sam was elected to serve as a Butler Township Commissioner, a position which he maintains today. Furthermore, Sam is the Vice-Chairman of the Butler Township Planning Commission and he serves on the Executive Committee for the American Legion Post 778.

Sam is actively involved with the Butler County United Way and the Butler County Rotary Club. As a tireless volunteer for these organizations, his involvement has been absolutely essential to the success of many projects. From taking the lead on a major west-end revitalization project to overseeing the construction of local playgrounds, Sam has spent thousands of hours working to enhance the community. He has installed flag poles, constructed monuments and memorials, remodeled homes for wounded marines, mentored local Eagle Scouts, and much more. In addition, Sam is a past master of the Masonic Lodge, a 32nd Degree Mason, and a lifelong volunteer with Lifesteps and the group Toys for Tots, which he started in Butler in 1983. His involvement does not stop there, Sam is also a member of countless civic organizations, such as, but not limited to: 2nd Marine Division Association, Sons of Italy, Loyal Order of the Moose, and Butler County Law Enforcement Association.

Sam has been a catalyst for improvement throughout the community and his passion and dedication deserve praise. He is a leader in the truest sense of the word and a role model for those who are privileged to know him. Sam has built a legacy based on selflessness, compassion, and integrity. He has set a standard of excellence and generosity that will inspire others for generations to come.

Therefore, on behalf of the 16th Congressional District, the State of Pennsylvania, and the United States of America, I would like to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to Sam Zurzolo--an extraordinary individual, a noble public servant, and a true Community Champion.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge you to designate June 28th as National Logistics Day. For centuries, the logistics industry has connected our world and our nation one shipment at a time. The logistics industry is a prime example of success not only in the United States, but also globally. The field of logistics employs over 50 million people around the world, 5 million of those being proud American citizens.

This year, Logistics Plus, a flourishing company proudly founded and based in Erie, Pennsylvania, requests that June 28th be proclaimed National Logistics Day. Along with being routinely regarded as a thriving contributor in the logistics industry, Logistics Plus, a global logistics company, has generated hundreds of valuable careers in Pennsylvania's 16th district. Since its establishment in 1996, Logistics Plus and its founder, Jim Berlin, have spread award-winning business solutions to their numerous locations worldwide.

The logistics industry is a prominent model of the success, achievement, and prosperity that American businesses and corporations strive for daily. Often, the current administration speaks on the importance of business and commercial activity in the United States and global community. Logistics Plus and the Logistics industry overall is an outstanding representation of the continuous economic growth, with approximately eight percent of products made and sold in the U.S. being attributed to logistics. The third-party logistics industry (3PL), which aids in business management of supply chains, represents an $800 billion industry on its own. The national logistics industry connects and unites the country by aiding in the transportation of more than 13 billion tons of freight domestically by means of roads, sea, air, and rail.

It is vital that we recognize the dedicated professionals in the logistics industry who unify and strengthen our world community through safe, reliable, and affordable transportation and storage services. National Logistics Day on June 28th serves as an annual show of appreciation and recognition to the industry, which has contributed to our national and global economies. I urge this committee to ensure that this sign of commendation to an industry that has demonstrated the value of hard work time and again be granted the national acknowledgement of achievement by declaring June 28th National Logistics Day.