Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today in unity with Americans suffering from ALS and their families, who are desperate for effective treatments and, one day, a cure.

I made it my mission to pass the ACT for ALS Act because people with ALS deserve a chance to fight the disease. They deserve a research and development infrastructure that is compassionate today while looking to the future.

My friend, Brian Wallach, who was diagnosed with ALS 4 years ago, told Congress that this fight is the closing argument for his life. I can't look him in the eye and tell him we have to wait. None of us should.

I am profoundly grateful to each and every one of the 325 cosponsors of this bill, as are families impacted by ALS all around the country. This is the most cosponsors of any bill that has not yet gotten a vote in this Congress.

It is time for us to act. It is time to act for ALS.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to join TTX Company CEO, Tom Wells, and his colleagues in honoring Mr. Patrick B. Loftus. Pat recently retired from his position as the company's Senior Vice President, Law and Administration.

Pat's retirement marks the end of a distinguished career as a leader in his company and in the railroad industry, including years as a spokesman and strategist for TTX and the industry here in Washington.

Pat has been with TTX for 35 years, beginning as a litigator when the company was known as Trailer Train, rising to General Counsel in 2001, Corporate Secretary a year later, and assuming his most recent wide- ranging responsibilities as Senior Vice President in 2013.

Pat was a leader in legislative fights for fair competition in surface transportation and spearheaded the company's successful relationship with its regulator, the Surface Transportation Board.

Pat's many friends on Capitol Hill, in the rail industry, and in his company will miss his insight, skills as an advocate, and trademark good humor. We wish Pat all the best.

Madam Speaker, please join me and all our colleagues in the House of Representatives in recognizing Mr. Loftus' years of service and congratulating him on his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss the ongoing conflict taking place in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

For over 10 months, the Tigray People's Liberation Front and the Ethiopian National Defense Force have clashed in and around Tigray. The TPLF and the Ethiopian government must come to a true ceasefire agreement and move toward peace.

The people of Ethiopia are suffering in the most horrific ways imaginable; starvation, murder, rape as a weapon of war, and other crimes against humanity. They are losing their lives, homes, and security.

Now is not the time to bicker about where the fault lies, with both parties blaming each other for varied and heinous acts. Innocent civilians are suffering as a result of this brutal conflict. Both the TPLF and the Ethiopian government must put the good of the people first.

It is time that we address the needs of the suffering Ethiopian people by prioritizing refugee visas, and aid that actually reaches displaced people. We must support peace in the region.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans who traveled to Washington, D.C. on August 18, 2021 with Honor Flight Chicago, a program that provides World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans the opportunity to visit their memorials on The National Mall in Washington, D.C. These memorials were built to honor their courage and service to their country.

The American Veteran is one of our greatest treasures. The Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who traveled here on August 18th answered our nation's call to service during one of its greatest times of need. From the European Campaign to the Pacific Asian Theatre to the African Theater, these brave Americans risked life and limb, gave service and sacrificed much, all while embodying what it is to be a hero. We owe them more gratitude than can ever be expressed.

I welcomed these brave veterans to Washington and to their memorials. I am proud to include in the Record the names of these

men and women for all to see, hear, and recognize, and I call on my colleagues to rise and join me in expressing gratitude.

Richard J. Aguinaga, Edward H. Baden, Victor B. Baker, Leo J. Barnes, Clifton Bartelt, James E. Bell, Donald N. Benkowski, Kenneth A. Benni, Curtis Bentley, Barry E. Boesch, Kenneth G. Bogda, Victor J. Bostjancic, Robert A. Bott, Michael Leon Brazzil, Obie Breaux, Edwin Ray Brookman, Sr., Bernard W. Bucholz, William Buckler, John Joseph Bush, Edward M. Cain, Whitney Carter III, Joseph J. Chandler, John H. Childers, Robert C. Ciner, Donald Ray Coleman, Thurman G. Collier, Lawrence Davis, Anthony Delaurentis, David Walter Deruntz, Michelangelo DiCosola, Edwin W. Dunteman.

William A. Edenhofer, Eddie G. Edmonds, Wesley J. Edwards, Leonard Fioritto, John J. Fisher, Leonard E. Fisher, Albert C. Fleuchaus, Blaine A. Fuhrman, Cruz R. Garcia, Kenneth J. Garhan, Edward F. Gniadek, Jr., David Hanna, Walter Hardy, Bruce R. Harken, Robert Hesek, William M. Hickey, Donald Hoefke, Charles R. Hubbard, James Michael Hudik, Michael Hurley, Walter Leslie Janusch, Donald Johnson, Mack Ester Jones, Donald Kalina, Dennis Dewain Keast, Cleo Edward Keen, Joseph W. Kilcoyne, Allyn Kleinert, John N. Kost, Ronald James Kurpiers, Thomas J. Langley, Richard J. LaVeau, Christopher Joseph LoPresti, Robert J. Lubek, Victor J. Martinka, Jr., William Rockwell McMurray, Peter J. Meier, Eugene J. Meske.

Marvin L. Metzger, Ronald T. Michalski, Edward J. Millar, Jr., Raymond James Miller, Thomas J. Minasola, James Montalbano, Roosevelt B. Moore, Joseph Michael Moravec, Jr., Michael Eugene Morrell, Ronald G. Navickas, James C. Nichols, Philip Edward Norton, Thomas Obrenski, Pierre E. Onnezi, Joseph G. Palmisano, Gary W. Paul, Robert Porter, Cloy Leonard Powers, Ronald M. Raczak, Edmund Rafalski. Jr., Stanley J. Rakauskas, Willie E. Reed, George L. Ridgnal, Edward J. Rios.

Orlando Rossino, Thomas W. Siener, George T. Smith, Charles Jasinto Solis, William F. Sonntag, Julius Ceasor Spognardi, James J. Sprecher, Jack Tinsley, Robert L. Usiak, Roy Joseph Veverka, James C. Vodnansky, Jerry Warren, Ray Weatherspoon, Anthony J. Wegner, Ronald Paul Wegrzyn, Richard A. Weihsmantel, Steven P. Williams, Patrick A. Windsor, James Harrison Woods, John H. York, and William Michael Zebleckis.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Veterans who traveled to Washington, D.C. on September 16, 2021 with Honor Flight Chicago, a program that provides World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans the opportunity to visit their memorials on The National Mall in Washington, D.C. These memorials were built to honor their courage and service to their country.

The American Veteran is one of our greatest treasures. The Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who traveled here on September 16th answered our nation's call to service during one of its greatest times of need. From the European Campaign to the Pacific Asian Theatre to the African Theater, these brave Americans risked life and limb, gave service and sacrificed much, all while embodying what it is to be a hero. We owe them more gratitude than can ever be expressed.

I welcome these brave veterans to Washington and to their memorials. I am proud to include in the Record the names of these men and women for all to see, hear, and recognize, and I call on my colleagues to rise and join me in expressing gratitude.

Daniel L. Anderson, Hector Andreos, Phillip G. Arazny, Richard Bambach, James B. Barg, Sr., Richard Bee, Edward Bernius, Ronald A. Berta, James T. Blaschek, Daniel G. Braglia, Thomas J. Brown, Irvin Anton Bryce, Jr., Marion J. Buliga, Joseph Byrnes, Dwight Russell Canfield, James J. Carson, Thomas G. Castleberry, Edward L. Christensen, Dennis M. Close, Robert Cocanig, Patrick T. Cooper, Paul H. Crites, Nicholas J. D'Ambrosio, Ermon Davis, John I. Demstrom, David G. Dietschweiler, John W. Dite, Jr., Benjamin Dominik, William Mitchell Ellison Sr., Stephen J. Fenes, Robert Erwin Ferkaluk, Earl I. Folkestad, Joshua Frank, Leonard E. Friddle, Sr., Ray P. Genis, Jerome Gillis, Arthur R. Gipson, Paul W. Goodwin, Salvatore V. Governale, Alfonso Granata, Charles Granholm, Romaine Gregg, Michael S. Halstead, Howard L. Hill, Jerry M. Hilsenbeck, Charles M. Holz, John P. Howatt, Henry G. Inselberger, Richard E. Jocius, Theodore N. Jones, Richard J. Keethers, Paul Kenneth Knox, Fred A. Koch, Keith J. Kolozie, Eugene J. Korus, Kenneth Robert Kovac, Clifford August Krueger, Leo Kubowitsch, Ronald J. Kupczyk, James Latta, Clifford J. Leber, Milton LeShore, Ronald Floiran Lewandowski, Donald L. Lines, Jay S. Lipa, Monty C. Lutz, Willie J. Lymon, Thomas E. Mara, Louis Marosi, Howard J. Martens, Lawrence A. Mayer, Orland F. McCarthy Jr., Clifton McSwine, Charles Robert Mead, Fred J. Moffatt III, William Moskal, Hugh L. Mulligan, James A. Muntefering, Thomas M. Myron, Dennis Lenard Myszka, Ronald G. Navickas, John N. Nuebel, Edward J. O'Connell, James A. Oftedal, Willie James Osborne, Kenneth V. Pacyga, Sr., Wayne H. Pearson, Richard D. Peters, Thomas Phebus, Arnold Yusuf Rashad, Sr., Carl F. Rollberg, Leo V. Sage, Jack Carrne Sasso, Victor J. Sassolino, Robert E. Schalund, David M. Schreiner, George Schuitema, David L. Shea, Anthony J. Siciliano, Jerry L. Siebersma, Dwight D. Smith, Gary Steger, Joseph C. Stendebach, John Charles Stevens, Bernard Francis Stiemann, Lee A. Thomas, Lawrence Vaillancourt, Jay Warbiany, Thomas R. Wertz, Kenneth J. Wilk, Henderson Yarbrough, Robert J. Zajac, Gerald J. Zeborowski, William Edward Zimmer.

Madam Speaker, 66 years ago this week, Emmett Till was brutally lynched by two white supremacists.

When his body was returned to his mother, Mamie Till, in Chicago, she held an open casket funeral because, in her words: ``I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.''

This was a galvanizing moment for the civil rights movement, but it was not the end of Mamie Till-Mobley's activism. She spent the rest of her life touring the country, speaking out about the injustice of her son's murder and the vital importance of eliminating racial discrimination, disenfranchisement, and segregation.

She also spent 23 years teaching in the Chicago public school system, continuing to speak to students in the Chicago area about civil rights as late as the year 2000.

Today, we are witnessing the reemergence of the kinds of voting discrimination that she spoke out against. We must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act for Mamie Till, for John Lewis, and for every hero who fought for civil rights.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to discuss the steps we must take to end child labor in the cocoa and chocolate industry.

This issue was brought to my attention by the students at Bell Elementary School in Chicago. Through the guidance of their teacher, Mr. Barash, these students learned the disturbing relationship between child labor and chocolate production.

During my visit with their class, they shared with me their concern for children who are forced into child labor in this industry. Some of these children are sold to traffickers or farm owners or are abducted only to be taken to cocoa farms for work. Some do not see their families again for years--some never again.

Most children in the industry begin their days before the sun rises and end it long after the sun sets. They are forced to wield dangerous machetes while climbing up and down trees to cut down bean pods. Then they must carry the pods in sacks weighing more than 100 pounds through the forest. If the children don't work fast enough, the farm owners beat them. When they are finally able to rest, they must sleep on wooden planks in small, windowless buildings with little or no access to clean water.

Many of these children will never attend school or receive an education. The passionate elementary schoolers who told me about this made the compelling case that we must eradicate child labor from this industry and make sure these children are no longer forced into dangerous, unlawful working conditions.

How can we justify all of this for the sake of chocolate?

I am not the first Member of this body to be concerned about these practices. This fight was first taken up in Congress by former Representative Eliot Engel of New York who worked to establish a labeling standard to indicate on chocolate products that no child labor had been used in its production.

While this effort did not succeed, he was joined by former Senator Tom Harkin to establish what we call the Harkin-Engel Protocol. This protocol was an agreement between governments, chocolate companies, and cocoa producers to eliminate the worst forms of child labor within cocoa production.

While the protocol has been effective, this problem persists. In 2015, 14 years after the protocol's signing, the Department of Labor reported that more than 2 million children were engaged in child labor in cocoa growing regions of West Africa. Although the chocolate industry made a promise to end child labor almost 20 years ago, today, no company can guarantee their products are free of child labor. While chocolate producers have shown some concern for the lives of these children through dedicated funding to eradicate child labor in their industry, it has simply not been enough.

The three largest chocolate suppliers in the world are not even able to identify the farms where their cocoa is being produced. As Americans, we must recognize that much of the chocolate we enjoy is harvested and produced at the expense of these young children.

We cannot let this continue. Kids should be in schools. Kids should be playing. Kids should be with friends. Kids should be kids.

After speaking with the children at Bell Elementary, I was proud to take the first step in the Labor-HHS and Education appropriations bill by including language to reinvigorate the Department of Labor's role in the international Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group and to hold the companies in countries involved accountable for the promises they made almost 20 years ago under the Harkin-Engel Protocol. But there is still much to do.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress and Secretary Walsh to bring an end to child labor in the cocoa industry. I also want to acknowledge the amazing 12 and 13 year olds who brought this to my attention and are fighting for children they don't know halfway across the world. Standing with these students and working to further their mission is why I am proud to be a Member of this body: to ensure that students like this have their voices heard by Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to going back to Chicago and the Bell Elementary students to tell them that Congress is listening.

Madam Speaker, first, I want to thank staff on both sides for putting this together. On the majority side: Laura, Marybeth, Elliot, Aalok, Parker, and Matt. On the minority side, John Martens; and from my own staff, Charlie and Max.

I do want to thank Mr. Womack, the ranking member, who is a friend, a gentleman, and very easy to work with at a complicated time and his apparent insistence on being a Cardinals fan, as he just raised. He doesn't seem to mind when I bring up the St. Louis professional football and basketball teams, but we will leave that to another day.

As to the bill, the bill recommends $29 billion. This is an increase of $4.8 billion over the comparable year of 2021.

It includes $13.6 billion for the IRS, an increase of $1.7 billion above fiscal 2021, a first step toward restoring the cuts this agency has suffered. The increase will improve enforcement activities and support better customer service.

Notably, the bill includes $330 million for Community Development Financial Institutions, which is $60 million above the fiscal year 2021 level to provide critical resources to underserved communities.

The bill provides $324 million for the Small Business Administration's Entrepreneurial Development Programs, which is $52 million above fiscal year 2021.

It also includes significant funding for the General Services Administration, including $300 million for a new Electric Vehicles Fund, $100 million for the GSA to manage climate change risks, and over $1 billion to modernize and improve the GSA real property portfolio by reducing their climate impact and improving resiliency.

The bill also includes $300 million for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program, an increase of $10 million, and the Drug- Free Communities Program is funded at $110 million.

In the lead-up to our country's 250th anniversary, the bill includes much-needed funding for the modernization of the National Archives building, which houses the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

The bill includes $8.15 billion in discretionary appropriations for the judicial branch, an increase to fund protective services and physical security needed in courthouses and ensure the continued operations of the judiciary.

The bill also increases funding for agencies to protect everyday consumers and retail investors, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I am proud this bill removes several longstanding policy riders, including many that dictate to the District of Columbia how to manage its own affairs or spend its own money or that harm and limit transparency in political spending.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to highlight an issue that is a priority of mine, election security.

This bill today includes $500 million for payments to States to help them meet the challenge of ensuring the real security and integrity of American elections. This represents our continued commitment to long- term funding for election security.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Gary T. Johnson on concluding a lengthy and illustrious career as President and CEO of the Chicago History Museum.

After nearly three decades of legal practice in Chicago, Gary made his arrival at the Chicago History Museum in 2005, beginning his tenure as President by transitioning the Chicago Historical Society into the Chicago History Museum as we know it today.

For more than 15 years, Gary spent his time as President focusing on community outreach and strengthening the institution's financial capacity. Along the way, he also headed Museums in the Park, a group of 11 museums on land owned by the Chicago Park District.

During his time as President, Gary brought significant improvements to the museum. He completed a $27 million campaign and implemented the Museum's 2006 ``reinvention,'' which included renovating 75 percent of its space, announcing a name change, and installing the highly praised Exelon Crossroads exhibition, the Museum's foundational overview of Chicago history. Additionally, he increased the museum's annual attendance by 89 percent over a 10-year period and extended school visits to 60,000 students annually.

One of Gary's most important and more recent accomplishments was the completion of the landmark five-year, $50 million This Is Chicago campaign, an effort which involved raising $11 million for the museum's endowment, acquiring millions of artifacts, increasing education program offerings, and more.

Educated at Yale College, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School, Gary never lost his commitment to supporting the educational aspirations of students in Chicago and beyond. For over ten years, he led the Rhodes Scholarship selection process for the district that includes Illinois, while also dedicating his time to visiting over 300 of Chicago's grade schools--bringing with him artifacts from the Museum's collection to ensure that all Chicagoans had access to the city's greatest treasures.

Madam Speaker, please join me and all of our colleagues in the House of Representatives in recognizing Mr. Gary T. Johnson's years of service to the City of Chicago and congratulating him on his retirement.

Madam Speaker, the January 6 attack obviously revealed the flaws in security of the Capitol.

Subsequent attacks on the Capitol complex have provided further stark evidence of the need to improve the physical security of the complex and other Federal buildings.

This supplemental provides the vital, urgently needed funding for security within the jurisdiction of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.

In this Chamber, I remember one of my colleagues asking when the cavalry would arrive. The closest thing to the cavalry arriving was the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

The courage and dedication of the MPD in defending the Members, the Capitol, and our democracy, saved lives and helped this Congress return to business more quickly.

This bill includes funding to reimburse MPD for the costs associated with the events of the 6th, as well as other costs they have incurred due to the Federal presence in the District because we cannot allow the District of Columbia to shoulder the burden of defending Congress on their own.

In the aftermath of the events of the 6th, all Federal buildings and employees face additional increased security threats. This bill provides funding for additional security expenses for Federal judges and Federal court facilities, including security upgrades to exterior perimeter security camera systems at priority Federal courthouses.

This bill also includes General Services Administration buildings.

We must provide funding to conduct security assessments of Federal buildings, including blast mitigation and collapse studies, taking the first steps in being able to address security vulnerabilities.

No one should have to go to work afraid for their safety, none more so than our public servants. We must protect our democratic institutions, Congress, the courts, and all Federal agencies, so no elected official or public servant ever goes to work scared to execute their duty.

These threats are real, they are happening now, and lives are at stake. We cannot wait and must move quickly to pass this bill.

For those who would vote against the commission, or did, for those who would deny there was an insurrection, for those who would vote against this bill to protect us, you embody the new twisted world.

We grew up believing the phrase, ``I will believe it when I see it.'' You embody the phrase, ``I will see it when I believe it.'' God help us.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss what we must do to prevent the next pandemic and why it is not only a global health issue, but also an environmental one.

The origins of the pandemic we are battling now are clear: unsanitary, unsafe wildlife markets.

These markets, which are prevalent in some areas of Asia and Africa, but are present everywhere, including in the United States, are fed by trade in wildlife; some of it legal; some of it illegal; all of it very dangerous.

They are breeding grounds for a strain of viruses known as zoonotics, which are diseases born from the unnatural intermingling of the bodily fluids of different species in an unsafe and unsanitary market that sold wildlife, living and dead, for human consumption.

Other zoonotics include SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, swine flu, bird flu, HIV/AIDS, and now COVID. COVID-19 has truly opened the world's eyes to the danger of these markets and the global impact, and it should open our eyes to just how urgent the need for legislation around this is in order to prevent the loss of millions of lives.

That is why over the course of the last year I wrote the Preventing Future Pandemics Act along with my friend, Mr. Fred Upton, and Senators Cory Booker and John Cornyn in the Senate. We may not agree on much, but we agree on this: We have the power to prevent the next pandemic, and to do nothing would be an act of negligence.

A vital lesson that we need to learn from COVID is that we must fundamentally change the way that we interact with wildlife globally if we want to stop this from happening again. This means stopping deforestation and other habitat destruction, slowing and ending global climate change, and global shutdown of live wildlife markets.

Already we have seen how changes in temperature and weather patterns and encroaching human development have brought people and wildlife into more frequent and more intimate contact. Human consumption of wildlife is simply the most dangerous form of that contact.

To get at the root of this problem, the Preventing Future Pandemics Act would establish the official foreign policy of the U.S. to be that we would work with other countries to shut down these markets, end the trade in terrestrial wildlife for human consumption, and build international coalitions to reduce the demand for wildlife as food.

The bill would authorize funding for USAID to work on reducing demand for consumption of wildlife from wildlife markets, and support shifts to alternate sources of food and protein in communities that rely upon this consumption for food security.

Moreover, to truly lead by example, this bill would end the import and export of wildlife for human consumption in and out of the United States.

While wildlife is not a major source of protein in our country, these markets do exist here, and they still pose a danger. If we are to establish and maintain a position of international leadership on this issue, we must practice what we preach.

This bill will help us take significant steps to break down the silos between global health and conservation, because we know unequivocally that if we try to treat these as separate problems, we fail to solve either problem.

After the economic and social devastation of the past year, and the way that COVID-19 has upended all of our lives, it is my view that the Preventing Future Pandemics Act is a national security bill, a conservation bill, an animal wildlife bill, a small business bill, a travel industry bill, a manufacturing bill, a retail bill, a mental health bill, a housing bill, and a public transit bill. It is a bill to protect our lives and livelihoods from the threat of human consumption of wildlife and the associated wildlife trade.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to rally around this in order to potentially save the world from suffering the consequences of inaction and standing by hopelessly as we watch another pandemic ravage our world.

The next pandemic can be stopped, and the Preventing Future Pandemics Act is a vital first step. Let's do it together.

Madam Speaker, I get it now. This is all about protecting women. This intolerance is the Republicans' effort to show us how much they want to protect the rights of women. They want us to believe that protecting LGBTQ Americans somehow hurts women and girls. But they know better, and history will accurately reflect what it really is.

It is an ugly, twisted use of feminism. It is what it is. It is homophobia. It is transphobia. It is intolerance, and it is hatred.

There is no constitutional right to hate. There is no constitutional right to exclude, and there is no right of conscience to hate.

Trans rights are human rights. LGBTQ rights are human rights. We must pass the Equality Act now.

Madam Speaker, by rejoining the Paris Agreement, President Biden has promised the world that America will retake its position as a global leader in the fight against climate change and be true to its word to meet our commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. It now falls to us--it falls to Congress--to prove the President right.

Despite all the confused, disingenuous, and flatly false rhetoric around the Paris Agreement, in reality, it is simply a framework for catalyzing, measuring, and improving action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate impacts.

The agreement, signed by 195 countries in Paris and not simply for the benefit of that city, is made up of commitments from each nation, determined by that nation, and which they are each responsible for meeting.

President Biden's commitment, necessary as it was, will not itself reduce America's emissions enough to meet our 2015 promise to the world or to stem the climate crisis. For that, we must act urgently. We must reject the bad-faith talking points about a false dichotomy between environmental stewardship and economic growth and openly embrace the idea that a sustainable economy is dependent upon a sustainable environment.

Far from climate action costing us jobs, the truth is that our entire economy is at stake if we do act on climate. By contrast, climate action means clean air and better public health. It means more miles between fill-ups and more money in Americans' pockets. It means reliable, robust harvests and innovative and productive ways to make money farming sustainably.

It means passing America's beautiful natural heritage on to future generations and protecting the places and creatures that make our country the envy of the world. It means safe, livable coastlines that don't wash away our roads and our homes. And it means high-paying jobs that can't be outsourced--up to 24 million globally, according to the United Nations.

We have a lot of work to do: building out electric vehicle infrastructure and a modern electric grid; cleaning up our rivers and lakes; deploying clean, renewable power generation; and inventing the next leap in battery storage technology.

No one is better suited than American workers. Low-carbon, long-term, and resilient economic growth and ecological stability are within our grasp, but only if we have the courage to go after them.

This Congress must send legislation to the President's desk meeting this challenge and seizing this opportunity. Executive action cannot do it alone.

I am proud to serve as vice chair of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. This group has worked for years to advance commonsense legislation to create green jobs and seize low-carbon opportunities, exactly the type of legislation we will need to meet our Paris Agreement commitments.

Mr. Speaker, preliminary data indicates that 2020 will tie 2016 and go down in history as the hottest year on record. This means that the 7 hottest years have now occurred in the 7 last years.

The call for action from those whose homes have been destroyed by natural disasters and from those suffering through record heat waves and droughts is loud and clear. And we hear that same call from our constituents who see through the pandering misdirection of outdated thinking, understand the imperative to act, and increasingly vote only for those willing to take action.

President Biden corrected an egregious mistake when he moved to reenter the U.S. into the Paris Agreement. We must move with him and usher in the low-carbon economy of the future now.

Madam Speaker, now we hear talk of the President's notion of a peaceful transfer of power.

Which apparently means what? Minimal casualties?

Now we hear talk of healing after the criminal acts are completed.

Never, as a criminal defense attorney, did I say: Judge, yeah, my guy completed the armed robbery, but let's heal now.

No. There was accountability. There was accountability then, there should be accountability now, and there should be impeachment now.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise in support of my Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act, H.R. 22.

Mr. Speaker, it is a bipartisan bill that addresses the lack of transparency around the documents that explain why executive agencies are requesting funds from Congress. These justifications shed light on the work and priorities of the Federal Government far more effectively than high-level spending figures.

Mr. Speaker, in 2018 and 2019, Congress encouraged OMB to publish all executive branch congressional budget justification materials on a centralized web portal. However, there is no legal requirement for congressional budget justifications to be posted on a centralized portal or on agency websites.

For these reasons, agencies are inconsistent in posting congressional budget justifications online, making them difficult to access because they are either not publicly available or are scattered across the internet.

Mr. Speaker, my bill will strengthen Federal Government transparency by requiring Federal agencies to publish their annual budget justifications online in a central location. This will better allow oversight of our government and allow the American people to verify that their taxpayer dollars are being used wisely to invest in their communities.

All Illinoisans and Americans should get the transparency they deserve on government spending, and the bill does just that.

Mr. Speaker, I recognize Chairwoman Maloney and Ranking Member Comer for their unwavering support for this bill and for prioritizing this legislation early on in the 117th Congress. I thank them again for their leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill.