Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the St. Helena Star and Napa Valley Vintners Tasting Panel upon the occasion of their 10th Anniversary of informing wine lovers with thoughtful information about Napa Valley wines.

In 2007, David Stoneberg from the St. Helena Star, Terry Hall from the Napa Valley Vintners and Stefan Blicker from Blicker, Pierce and Wagner Wine created the Tasting Panel. Each month, the 20 to 25 person panel hosts a wine tasting and judging. This community tradition has helped journalists and the wine community build stronger relationships.

In March 2017, the Editor & Publisher, a trade publication for the newspaper industry, recognized the Tasting Panel in their article, ``10 Newspapers that Do It Right.'' This article praised the Tasting Panel for creating ``a better way to report on the wines they were recommending to readers.''

The Tasting Panel has held more than 100 tastings of Napa Valley wines. The articles that journalists write about these tastings help consumers learn about wine and appreciate the hard working winemakers in our community.

Mr. Speaker, the St. Helena Star and Napa Valley Vintners Tasting Panel has been providing quality information to our community about Napa Valley wines for the past 10 years. I am proud to have such a great tradition to showcase the best wine in the world. Therefore, it is fitting and proper that we honor them here today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Ms. Evelyn Javier Centeno, whom I have selected to receive the American Dream Award. This award recognizes the achievements of immigrants in my district who have made remarkable contributions to California's 5th Congressional District communities in the areas of Arts and Culture, Professional Achievement, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, or Community Service. Ms. Centeno exemplifies these attributes and is very deserving of this award and recognition.

Ms. Centeno was born in Manila, Republic of the Philippines and immigrated to the United States in 1971. Prior to leaving Manila, she earned a degree in Chemistry from the University of Santo Tomas. She earned three more degrees after moving to California. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Golden Gate University, and she earned her Master of Science degree in Education from Chapman University. Ms. Centeno is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Inspire Learning Institute, a nonprofit organization for educational empowerment.

Prior to founding Inspire Learning Institute, Ms. Centeno worked in the fields of engineering and education. Through her leadership, Inspire Learning Institute established a free

science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) summer camp and after school STEM enrichment programs. Since March 2013, they have served 2,000 students in Contra Costa County and disbursed $10,000 in scholarship funds.

In addition to her work with Inspire Learning Institute, Ms. Centeno is an active member of her community in Martinez, California. She is a member of the East Bay Leadership Council, founder and past president of the Filipino American Democratic Club, former president of the Martinez Citizens Oversight Committee and a former member of the Contra Costa Mental Health Commission.

Mr. Speaker, we recognize Ms. Evelyn Javier Centeno for her achievements and for enriching our community. It is fitting and proper that we honor her here today with the American Dream Award.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this reckless and fiscally irresponsible bill that is going to add $2.3 trillion to our national debt.

There is a reason why airports, universities, the Fraternal Order of Police, home builders, and veterans groups are opposed to this bill. It is because it will increase taxes on tens of millions of middle class families. That is according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

One of the most heartless provisions would make it harder for middle class families to rebuild after disaster. When you vote today, you are telling the survivors of the California fires that you don't care about them or about the middle class families in your district who one day may face a tornado or a hurricane--all to save a few dollars so that we can give a tax break to corporations.

We have a chance today to reject this bill, to come together, hold hearings, and hear from experts--something that wasn't done when the Republicans wrote this bill.

We can take ideas from both side of the aisle and write a tax bill that helps middle class working families. Let's reject this bill and work on real tax reform that will not raise taxes on the middle class and won't add $2.3 trillion--that is with a T--to our national debt.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

It is not often that I come down and participate in these Special Orders, but

I have got to tell you I was in my office watching the previous speakers, and I started to get a little queasy from the spin that they were providing from the floor, talking about what they say this bill will do. I can tell you that there were a lot of inaccuracies in some of the things that they were trying to convince the American people that they would benefit from this.

As Mr. Neal said, this bill, this vote, is an important vote. This is going to be around a long time. Numerous speakers today have mentioned the fact that the last time we did major tax reform, a major tax overhaul, was over 30 years ago. So if that is any indication, we are going to be living with the consequences of this bill for a long time, and I don't think those consequences are anything to be proud of.

We heard repeatedly that this bill is not going to help at all the wealthiest people in the country, and you just can't help but laugh.

The last speaker came out and stated that this does away with the alternative minimum tax. The alternative minimum tax was put in place to ensure that the wealthiest of taxpayers actually pay taxes because they were able to escape paying taxes, so that is why the alternative minimum tax came into play. They are the ones who pay this tax, so if you do away with it, I don't see how you can, with a straight face, say that this doesn't help wealthy Americans.

Inheritance tax was talked about a lot. As a matter of fact, it was a very dishonest discussion. They kept referring to it as the ``death tax.'' We have heard this ad nauseam. We heard it in committee. We hear it on the floor. We have heard it for the past few years. This has been a very clever campaign on the other side's part to discredit the inheritance tax.

If you open the Code, the Tax Code, there is nothing in the Code that says the death tax. It doesn't exist. It is not real. It is made up. It is fiction.

We heard some very compelling arguments about how farmers will lose their farms if they don't do away with the death tax. There is no such thing as a death tax.

We heard repeatedly that, after somebody dies, it is unfair to make them pay taxes. I am here to tell you, after you die, you will never have to pay taxes.

The inheritance tax refers to inherited wealth. If I inherit money from my parents, then I am taxed on that wealth that I inherit. And there is a provision in the law that says the first $11 million doesn't get touched, so it has got to be a pretty huge estate before you even pay any taxes on it.

If there was all this concern about losing the family farm, then the Republicans should have taken up my bill, a bill that I have had for a number of years with absolutely no support from the Republican side of the aisle, that says, if you inherit the family farm or a family business and you continue to farm it or you continue to run the business, you are deferred from paying any inheritance tax. Now, if you inherit it and sell it and take the money and move to a beach in Hawaii, then you would pay a tax on that inherited wealth.

So this is subterfuge, at best. It is dishonesty, at worst.

The last speaker said that American families are big winners in this bill. Well, I don't know whose American family he was talking about.

Mr. Neal was right when he said American families had a chance to be big winners if we had used this opportunity to invest in workers, invest in training, invest in community colleges, create jobs, create opportunities, build this tax reform from the middle class, the working class out.

But, instead, we didn't do that. We didn't even talk about it. We didn't talk about it because we didn't have a single hearing on one of the most important bills that we will cast a vote on in our time in Congress. We didn't hear from one expert witness.

They dropped this bill, written in secret. As a matter of fact, many of our Republican colleagues were complaining that they didn't get a chance to see what was in the bill. They dropped this on us at the last minute.

We could have worked with them. We could have addressed some of these issues. We could have figured out how to invest in the American worker. We could have figured out how to make investments that created jobs. But, no, we didn't get to do that because we didn't have any hearings. It was written in the middle of the night, in a dark room someplace way out of our wheelhouse.

They said they had to do this because the Tax Code was too big, and I agree with them. I think it is too big. I think it does need to be reformed.

But the fact of the matter is, and Joint Tax testified on this, if their bill is passed and signed into law, it won't do away with a single chapter of the Tax Code, but, instead, it will add one more to it. So this is literally making the Tax Code bigger.

And I want to know who those American families are who some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim will be helped by this, because this is what I see in reading this and reading the analyses from different experts.

If someone in your family has Alzheimer's, you will pay more because they are going to take away the medical expense deduction that you now can take advantage of.

Low-income folks with kids, you are going to pay more when you are excluded from the child tax credit.

If you are a teacher, dedicated to your students and to their well- being and you take money out of your own pocket to buy pencils, supplies, and things for your classroom, today you get a deduction for that because we know how important education is. But under this bill, you will pay more because they are taking that deduction away, too.

We just heard from a veteran on the other side who said how great this is for veterans. Well, let me tell you, if you are a veteran and you get your duty station reassigned and you have to go someplace else and the house you have to sell in your first duty station, if you haven't lived in it for 8 years, you are going to be taxed on any profit from that. So if you are a veteran and you get transferred, you are not going to benefit from this. You are going to lose.

Do you have a student loan? And we all know how expensive those are these days. If you do, you are going to pay more because they are taking away your ability to deduct the interest payment on your student loan.

Do you own a home? If you do, you will pay more when they limit the mortgage deduction, mortgage interest deduction.

By the way, as we heard in committee during the markup on this bill, this could actually decrease the value of your home by 10 percent. Now, tell me how that helps working class, middle class families to say, all that money that you have been saving by buying your home, we are going to take 10 percent away from the value of that? That certainly doesn't create a big win for American families.

Are you in the middle class, that big win for American families, those middle class families? Because the analysis says that 36 million middle class families are going to see a tax hike in this bill.

Do you deduct your State and local taxes? Well, if you do, you are going to pay more because you are going to lose that deduction, too.

Do you care about infrastructure investments in your community?

I had a visit yesterday from the head of the San Francisco airport. He came in because of this bill. I don't represent San Francisco, but he came in to see me because I am a member of this committee, and he knew we were going to be taking this bill up.

They have a tremendous amount of infrastructure investment pending. They do it with the bonds that will be disallowed under this bill, the same, similar type of action that they are going to do in regard to low-income housing.

In my State, we need housing badly, and we are able to build low- income housing by using those bonds that are made available in our Tax Code. That goes away. That hurts homes. That hurts people who want to move into homes.

And I will tell you, in my district, it is a particularly raw subject right now because in one of my counties, Sonoma County, we had a 2 percent vacancy rate in residential housing about a month ago. And about a month ago now, we had the worst fire in California history. In Sonoma County, it wiped

out 5 percent of the residential housing stock. There were about 9,000 homes, total, in the fire that were destroyed, homes in Sonoma, homes in Napa, homes in Lake, homes in Mendocino, homes in Butte, homes down in southern California, and that just further deteriorated the housing shortage problem that we face. So to take away ability to construct new, low-income housing hurts.

But I think what hurt even more is, in this bill, they took away the ability for individuals and families, those middle class families that they are talking about helping, they took away their ability to write off their losses due to a disaster.

I don't know how they did that. I don't know why they would do that.

Well, that is--I wish I could say that is the $64 million question, but, sadly, it is going to cost taxpayers a lot more than $64 million when all is said and done. It is a mystery to me.

I asked the chairman, who wrote the bill, during the committee markup, why he would do that, and he had no response. He said: Well, we are going to fix it. We are going to make it better.

There were no hearings.

No hearings, and they didn't fix it.

No hearings.

Mr. Speaker, let me just thank the gentleman for drawing attention to the terrible fires that did so much damage in my home State, and the fact that they took the deduction for these types of disasters away from the American people. But I don't want anybody to think it is just about fires, nor is it just about my State.

They took away this provision in the Tax Code for anybody who has a disaster from now on. If it is a mudslide, an earthquake, a fire, any disaster, you will not be able to claim that deduction.

And to add insult to injury, the chairman grandfathered in the hurricane victims in his own district.

I will just say one more thing. If this isn't all bad enough, everybody should know that all of these costs that we have talked about are bad enough, but there is one cost in here that is crippling, and it is crippling to our children and our grandchildren, and that is the fact that this bill is not paid for, and it adds $2.3 trillion--that is trillion with a T--to our national debt, and that is going to be passed right along to our children, right along to our grandchildren, and that is going to hurt us in the years to come.

Mr. Speaker, there have been no hearings on this bill, there have been no expert witnesses. The only help that we have gotten are from the outside organizations and the universities that crunched these numbers to be able to give us some glimpse of what is going to happen and the benefit of some analysis from the Joint Tax staff, but there have been no hearings, there have been no experts, nobody from our district who lives and breathes this, no one from our districts who are going to be impacted by this.

This was done from the top down and crammed through in the most bastardized system that I have ever seen in my years here.

The gentleman is absolutely correct. Thank you for pointing that out.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Mulas Family for being recognized by the Golden Gate Salmon Association for their achievements in sustainability.

The Mulas Family has been using reclaimed water for their pastures, crops and dairy since the 1960's and in their vineyards since the 1980's. Excessive water diversions are a major threat to salmon in California's rivers. Recycling water allows families to meet their needs without threatening the salmon. The Mulas Dairy is a leader in water recycling, which is one of California's major potential sources of new water.

Vickie, Ray and Mike Mulas run the daily operations of the Dairy and Vineyards with their mother, Nilda. Their father, Mitch, was a very active member of our community before his passing in 2011.

In addition to running their dairy and vineyard, the Mulas Family members are consistent leaders on community fire issues, resource management and agricultural issues. Vickie is the Director of the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission, a member of the Sonoma Resource Conservation District Board, and has coached cheerleading at Sonoma Valley High for the past 26 years. Ray is the Chief of the Schell Vista Fire Department, and Mike is the Assistant Chief. Ray is a member of the Sonoma County Fire Chiefs Association, the Elks Club and the past president and current board member of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau. Mike is the Director of the North Bay Water District, past President of North Bay Dairy Herd Information Association, and has coached the Sonoma Valley High School Dragons for the past 35 years.

Mr. Speaker, the Mulas family works hard on their dairy and in their vineyard. They are leaders in sustainable farming and contribute honorably to our community. I am proud to have such a hardworking family living in our District. It is fitting and proper that we honor them here today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleagues today to commemorate the Honorable Anna G. Eshoo for 25 years of incredible service in the United States House of Representatives. She has represented constituents in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties in California since she was first elected to Congress in 1992.

Representative Eshoo has authored and championed significant legislation on healthcare, technology, intelligence and the environment to improve the lives of her constituents and the American people. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama together signed 39 of her bills into law. She recognizes the goodness of the American people, the tremendous value of diversity that immigrants bring into our country and the power of technology to transform and improve our communities.

She has a remarkable legacy in her healthcare legislative history. Her work enables states to provide care to women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer. Her reforms made the Food and Drug Administration more effective and responsive. She introduced legislation to eliminate lifetime caps on health insurance 14 years before it was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Many of Representative Eshoo's accomplishments in Congress involve modernizing technology to solve problems. Firstnet, a nationwide public safety network of next generation 9-1-1 services, connected public service agencies across the nation, shortening emergency response times and making everyone safer.

As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Eshoo played a key role following the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. She chaired the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management, where she focused on policy and management challenges affecting all 16 agencies that comprise the U.S. Intelligence Community. She worked to ensure that U.S. intelligence efforts were consistent with our nation's values, which are embodied in our Constitution. She also worked to modernize our intelligence gathering capabilities and to improve Congress' ability to construct meaningful oversight of these programs.

Because of legislation introduced by Representative Eshoo, thousands of acres of California's public lands are protected, including preservation of Sand Hill Bluff and significant areas of the California Coastal National Monument, the expansion of the Moffett Field Bay Trail, renovation of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and the purchase of Bair Island to include in the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. These priceless lands are protected for future generations because of her leadership.

Representative Eshoo has received many well-deserved commendations, including the Dean's Medal Award from the Stanford School of Medicine and the President's Medal from Menlo College. She received the Angel Award from the Child Abuse Council of Santa Clara County and the Thomas Jefferson International Religious Freedom Champion Award for her work to protect religious minorities in the Middle East. She received the Statesmanship Award from the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress for her work to empower tomorrow's technology leaders.

Mr. Speaker, the Honorable Anna G. Eshoo is an important and valued Member of this body. She serves her constituents with great integrity, strength and compassion. It is therefore fitting and proper that we commemorate her for 25 years of service and send her our best wishes as she celebrates this impressive milestone.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate former United States Representative Lynn C. Woolsey on her 80th Birthday. She represented California's 6th congressional district, including Marin County and most of Sonoma County from 1993 to 2013.

Lynn was born in Seattle, Washington on November 3, 1937. A graduate of Lincoln High School, she attended the University of Washington from 1955 to 1957. Lynn received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1980.

As a working single mother in Northern California, Lynn spent several years receiving public assistance to help make ends meet. During her 20-year career in the House of Representatives, she focused on issues facing children and families. She describes herself as the ``first former welfare mom to serve in Congress.'' Prior to entering public service, Lynn opened her own human resources consulting and employment agency, Woolsey Personnel Service, and taught at the College of Marin and the Dominican University of California.

Lynn won her first election in 1984, when she ran for a city council seat in Petaluma. She served on the Petaluma City Council until 1992, her last year as Vice Mayor. The people of Sonoma and Marin Counties elected Lynn to Congress in 1992 and continued to elect her to eight more terms.

In Congress, Lynn served as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chair of the Committee on Education and Labor's Workforce Protections Subcommittee and as a senior member of the House Committee on Science and Technology. Lynn had many proud moments in federal public service. She secured federal funds for her district for a variety of projects, including funds for the Petaluma River flood control project and for the seismic retrofit of the Golden Gate Bridge. She voted against authorizing the invasion of Iraq and consistently voted to suspend funding for the wars. She was one of Congress' foremost advocates on education issues, offering legislation to expand school breakfast programs, expand childcare programs and encourage young girls to study science and math. Her measure to provide job- protected leave for family members of injured soldiers was incorporated into the FY 2008 defense authorization bill. Lynn's former colleagues, staff and constituents admire her immeasurably and continue to benefit from her dedicated years of service.

Mr. Speaker, former United States Representative Lynn C. Woolsey served her constituents diligently for ten consecutive terms. Her career is an excellent model of principled and dedicated leadership for members of this

body. It is therefore fitting and proper that we commemorate her on her 80th birthday and send her our best wishes here today.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, many of my colleagues have asked, because of the recent fires in my district, how I will be voting on this measure today. Well, I am a ``no.''

My district experienced the worst wildfires in California history. Fires burned close to 300,000 acres, killed 43 people, forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate, decimated some 7,000 homes, and left 10,000 people homeless in the city of Santa Rosa alone.

Our fires didn't burn Forest Service lands and they didn't start on public land, so nothing in this bill that we are discussing here today could have prevented the devastation in my district.

I agree that we should be doing more to prepare for catastrophic fire events, but this bill doesn't achieve that goal. Instead, it guts longstanding protections and fails to fix the budgetary issues that plague fire management. In

fact, this bill could make things worse by creating more red tape for agencies when they are actively responding to wildfires.

That is why I joined Representative Huffman to introduce an amendment that would have more directly addressed the risk of wildfires. We incorporated provisions based on:

Representatives Simpson's and Schrader's Wildfire Disaster Funding Act that gives land management agencies access to funding to fight wildfires without jeopardizing other agency programs;

Legislation that I dropped today that is the companion bill to Senators Cantwell's and Risch's Wildland Fires Act, which provides funding to help communities prepare for wildfires and target high-risk areas for prescribed burns. The gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei) is the coauthor of that legislation;

We incorporated Representatives LaMalfa's and Schrader's Electricity Reliability and Forest Protection Act, which passed the House earlier this year, and allows for hazardous vegetation management on Federal lands that abut electrical transmission lines;

We also incorporated Representative Ruiz's Wildfire Prevention Act that allows States to apply for hazard mitigation grants for wildfire prevention projects.

Instead of considering controversial measures that will meet a dead end once it gets to the Senate, we should pass these bipartisan, practical, and effective solutions.

The fires that tore across my State must not be used as an excuse to undermine fundamental environmental laws that protect public lands. They should motivate us to work together to protect communities from the devastation that my constituents are facing today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Mr. Jon Douglas Riley for his leadership and service to the people of Vallejo, California.

Mr. Riley was born at the Vallejo General Hospital on October 7, 1958. His parents, Jon Merton and Barbara Riley, raised him alongside his two sisters, Ronnette and Robin, at their house on Benson Avenue in Vallejo. His talent for recognizing and solving problems were evident in high school. As a student, he spoke in front of the Napa School Board and successfully argued for a smoking area to keep students from littering in the grass and creek. Mr. Riley graduated from Vintage High School in 1976.

From an early age, Mr. Riley dreamed of following his father and becoming a firefighter at the Vallejo Fire Department. He went

through the Solano County Fire Academy in 1977. Prior to landing his dream job at the Department in 1985, Mr. Riley worked as a full time employee for the City of Vallejo at the gas pumps and as a laborer. The City promoted him to Pipe Mechanic in 1982.

Mr. Riley led a successful career at the Vallejo Fire Department. He taught CPR training courses to health care professionals and the public for 15 years. As a member of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, he helped rewrite the Apprenticeship Standards for the department. His work contributed to the development of policies for the Department's Public Information Officer. He taught students at the National Fire Department Instructors Conference's Hands on Training classes in Indianapolis and Sacramento for five years.

Mr. Riley served as the Political Director for the Napa and Solano Counties Central Labor Council, and, at the time of his retirement, was a Vice President. He currently serves on the Solano County Civil Service Commission and Workforce Development Boards. He is the Co-Chair of Solano Counties Help in Recruiting and Retaining Employees Committee, where he coordinates job placement services.

Mr. Speaker, Jon Douglas Riley is a valuable leader and organizer in our community. Therefore, it is fitting and proper that we honor him for his many years of service to the people of Vallejo, California.

Mr. Speaker, on October 25th and 26th, I was in my District due to events related to wildfires and was unable to cast my votes for Roll Call votes 582 through 590. Had I been present, I would have voted:

Roll Call Vote No. 582: NO--On Ordering the Previous Question;

Roll Call Vote No. 583: NO--Providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to H. Con. Res. 71, establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2018 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2027;

Roll Call Vote No. 584: NO--On Approving the Journal;

Roll Call Vote No. 585: YES--Johnson of Georgia Part A Amendment No. 3;

Roll Call Vote No. 586: YES--McEachin of Virginia Part A Amendment No. 4;

Roll Call Vote No. 587: YES--Cartwright of Pennsylvania Part A Amendment No. 6;

Roll Call Vote No. 588: NO--Sunshine for Regulations and Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act;

Roll Call Vote No. 589: NO--Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2018 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2019 through 2027; and

Roll Call Vote No. 590: YES--Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act.

Mr. Speaker, October 10th through October 12th, I was absent due to activities in my District related to wildfires and was unable to cast my vote for Roll Calls 558 through 568. Had I been present, I would have voted:

Roll Call No. 558 YES--To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4514 Williamson Trail in Liberty, Pennsylvania, as the Staff Sergeant Ryan Scott Ostrom Post Office;

Roll Call No. 559 YES--To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 25 New Chardon Street Lobby in Boston, Massachusetts, as the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Post Office;

Roll Call No. 560 NAY--On Ordering the Previous Question;

Roll Call No. 561 NAY--Providing for consideration of S. 585, the Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017; providing for proceedings during the period from October 16, 2017, through October 20, 2017; and providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules;

Roll Call No. 562 YES--To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 324 West Saint Louis Street in Pacific, Missouri, as the Specialist Jeffrey L. White, Jr. Post Office;

Roll Call No. 563 YES--FITARA Enhancement Act of 2017;

Roll Call No. 564 YES--On Motion to Instruct Conferees;

Roll Call No. 565 YES--On Closing Portions of the Conference;

Roll Call No. 566 YES--Providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 2266, with an amendment;

Roll Call No. 567 YES--On Motion to Recommit with Instructions; and

Roll Call No. 568 YES--Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017.

Mr. Speaker, the worst fire in the history of California has devastated nearly 300,000 acres, destroyed some 7,000 homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, burned to the ground many businesses, and, most sadly, taken the lives of 42 people; and that number may, in fact, rise.

This fire was like no other, propelled by winds that reached speeds of over 70 miles an hour. It moved so fast, burning at times 200 feet per second--that is three football fields every 30 seconds--that people had little time to escape their burning homes.

People fled with only their night clothes--no time to grab even their medication, important papers, or personal belongings. Thousands of families were displaced and will have to find housing, rebuild their homes and businesses, and rebuild their lives.

Over 100,000 people were evacuated during the late hours of the first night of this monster firestorm. Many of you saw the news coverage play out on your television. The most covered area in the news is an area in Santa Rosa called Coffey Park. This is it. There alone, some 1,300 homes were burned to the ground. This area is on the far western side of the fire-devastated area, a county away from where it started.

The winds were so high that they pushed the blaze across eight lanes of freeway and over two frontage roads to destroy the homes and the lives of these 1,300 families. The winds were so high that cars were not only burned beyond recognition, but they were flipped over. There is a metal garage door that remains stuck about 35 feet off the ground in the remains of a burned-out pine tree.

Leader McCarthy was with me in Coffey Park and saw firsthand the devastation. I want to thank the leader for his commitment to work with us to help our communities and the many people so devastated by this unprecedented disaster. I thank also the 11,000 firefighters, the many law enforcement, and National Guard that put their life on the line to stop the raging inferno and protect the lives of the people of my district and the other fire-threatened areas of California. Some of those first responders lost their own homes, but worked 24/7 to help others.

The response was awesome and truly appreciated. Mutual aid came from every county in California, States across our great country, Federal agencies, and from other countries. The actions of civilian heroes and heroines saved an untold number of lives and continue to make life tolerable to those affected by this fire disaster.

The fallout from the disaster will be felt for years, if not decades. You just can't rebuild 7,000 homes and neighborhoods overnight.

The heartbeat of our community--doctors, nurses, workers, teachers, CEOs, and small business owners--were burned out and must start over. My colleagues and I appreciate all of their words of comfort and offers to help. The people hurt by this monster fire will need all of our help. As we move forward, we have to work together to address this devastation that has befallen the people of my district and other parts of northern California.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman).

Mr. Speaker, the worst fires in the history of California have devastated nearly 300,000 acres, destroyed some 8,000 homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, burned to the ground many businesses, and, most sadly, taken the lives of 42 people-- and that number may very well rise.

These fires were like no other, propelled by winds that reached speeds of over 70 miles per hour. The worst of the fires were in my district. They moved so fast, burning at times 200 feet per second. That is three football fields every 30 seconds.

People had little time to escape their burning homes. They fled with only the clothes on their back and, in some cases, with their homes already in flames.

The most covered area on the news is a neighborhood in my district in Santa Rosa called Coffey Park. There, alone, the entire neighborhood, some 1,300 homes, were burned to the ground. The winds were so high that they pushed the blaze across eight lanes of freeway and over two frontage roads to destroy the homes and lives of those 1,300 families.

Eleven thousand firefighters, thousands of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers put their lives on the line to stop the raging inferno and protect Californians in the line of the fire. Some of those first responders lost their own homes, but they worked 24/7 to help others. The actions of civilian heroes and heroines saved an untold number of lives.

The fallout from this disaster will be felt for years, if not decades. You can't just rebuild 8,000 homes and entire neighborhoods overnight.

My colleagues and I from California appreciate all of your words of comfort and offers to help, and the people hurt by this monster fire will need all of our help.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that the House now observe a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in this terrifying fire and to show our commitment to help rebuild the lives of the many thousands of people who have lost everything.

Mr. Speaker, it was almost 5 years ago that this Nation witnessed the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 first graders were murdered in their classrooms, along with six of their teachers. Congress did nothing.

A church in Charleston, a White supremacist walked in and murdered nine worshippers. Congress did nothing. And worse than that, Congress didn't even address what is called the ``Charleston loophole'' that allowed this deranged White supremacist to be able to buy a gun or obtain a gun that he was buying without completing the background check.

Orlando, Florida, the nightclub: 49 people murdered. Congress did nothing.

The congressional baseball game, one of our own was shot by some deranged murderer. Congress did nothing.

Las Vegas, just these past days, a country music festival: 59 people murdered. The biggest mass shooting in the history of the United States of America. Even as sad, it is the 273rd mass shooting in the United States of America this year.

So what is Congress going to do? More of nothing? That is not appropriate.

In the almost 5 years since Sandy Hook, we have been working on our side of the aisle diligently to try and come up with some ideas, some solutions to help prevent gun violence, and we have come up with some. As a matter of fact, one of them is a bipartisan measure with a bipartisan coauthor on my bill, Mr. Peter King from New York, and we have four or five Republican coauthors on that bill.

Have we had a hearing?

No.

Have we had a vote?

No.

All we are trying to do with that bill is expand background checks to make sure that criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can't buy firearms easily; make it more difficult for these people, who we know commit crimes with these guns, to get their hands on a gun. It is within the confines of the Second Amendment. It just expands the already existing background checks to include commercial sale of firearms across the country. No hearings, no votes.

Instead, our friends on the other side of the aisle have their own gun agenda. They want to legalize silencers. They want to remove the restrictions on silencers. Police entities, officers, chiefs, and sheriffs across the country have told us that this is dangerous. It puts the people that we represent at risk, but that is their gun agenda.

If you don't like the ideas that we have brought forward, please bring something forward, other than deregulating silencers, that will help with this epidemic that we are facing in our country.

Thirty people a day are killed by someone using a gun.

What are your ideas?

Nothing. Silence.

The only thing we have heard now is we hear from your leadership that we are not going to discuss policy in regard to gun violence prevention.

Well, that is why we came to Congress. That is why every one of us ran for Congress, to work on policy. That is why our constituents sent us to Congress, to vote on policy.

But on the heels of 59 people being murdered the day before yesterday, what are we told?

That we are not going to do policy on gun violence prevention.

That is not responsible.

The bill that my friend, Mr. McGovern, talked about, my bill that he is a coauthor on, would establish a Select Committee, Democrats and Republicans, to sit down at the same table and try and find some solutions to help prevent gun violence, and then move that to the House for consideration. That is all we want.

We want these issues to be heard. We want to be able to do our job. Our constituents want a vote on these issues that are important to the safety of every single person in the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that we defeat the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Clair and Harold Hill upon the occasion of their one-hundredth birthdays. Clair was born on August 14, 1917 and Harold was born September 16, 1917.

Clair and Harold were born and raised in Chico, California where they graduated from Chico High School. They were married on September 4, 1938. Harold enlisted in the United States Air Force during World War II, serving from December 1943 to January 1946. He attended radar school, and they moved to Boca Raton, Florida where he worked as a radar instructor. In 1956, Clair and Harold moved to Santa Rosa, California, where they have lived ever since.

Harold started a successful insurance business and Clair became an artist. She sold her beautiful landscape paintings all around Sonoma County. She also started a popular costume rental business, designing and sewing the costumes herself. They have three daughters, Patricia, Janet and Barbara, nine grandchildren and seventeen great- grandchildren. Their home is a gathering place for family, friends and neighbors who enjoy their warm hospitality.

Clair and Harold have been valuable members of our community and have served as strong mentors to our young people. Clair volunteered with the P.T.A., Campfire Girls and the 4-H Club. Harold was a member of the Lions Club and Elks Club. For many years, he volunteered in an elementary school classroom and as an after school mentor for children who needed extra support.

Clair and Harold have enjoyed watching their family expand and have continued to develop their interests and skills. Clair was an avid flower gardener and was active in the Redwood Garden Club. She is a talented cook and baker. Harold enjoys growing vegetables, and reading and writing poetry. He is a lifelong golfer, hitting a hole-in-one at the age of 98.

Mr. Speaker, Clair and Harold Hill have led long, wonderful lives. Their service during World War II, entrepreneurial spirit and lifelong community service epitomize what Tom Brokaw has called the Greatest Generation. It is therefore fitting and proper that we honor them on their one hundredth birthdays this year.