Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution and call for the immediate release of Ryan Corbett and all unlawfully detained Americans.

Today marks the 671st day that Ryan Corbett, an American citizen, has been wrongfully detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan--671 days.

When you have these jobs, you never know who is going to call your office. I learned of Ryan's capture when his father, Drew, called our office to let us know that his son was being unlawfully held by the Taliban. We were shocked.

It is absolutely horrifying to get that kind of call, especially from another dad in my hometown. I can't imagine as a parent what it is like to have your child taken from you, knowing they are alive, knowing they are struggling, and knowing you can't get to them. To get that call just breaks your heart.

The reality is Ryan's whole family deserves to have him home. Ryan has been allowed only eight phone calls with his family since being detained in 2022, a total of 85 minutes in 671 days. We stand committed to bringing Ryan back for them.

I am so grateful to Representative Tenney for leading this resolution and for her persistence in fighting for Ryan and to Chairman McCaul and Representative Keating for their words here today, and I thank the Biden administration for working to get Ryan home as quickly as possible.

We are with Ryan's dad, Drew; Ryan's wife, Anna; his children, Ketsia, Miriam, and Caleb; and the rest of Ryan's family and friends. We are fighting for Ryan. This is a bipartisan effort, an American effort, and we will keep doing everything we can to bring Ryan home safely.

Today, Congress sends a clear message: We must bring Ryan home now.

Madam Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered to be the first sponsor of H.R. 3498, a bill originally introduced by Representative Higgins of New York, for the purpose of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 100 years of the legendary Mike Linnig's Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mike Linnig's is a cultural institution. New York City has Katz's Deli. New Orleans has Cafe Du Monde. Louisville has Mike Linnig's.

It started as a simple roadside stand on a working farm along the Ohio River, offering fresh fruit, vegetables, and hospitality to those who stopped by.

Before long, Mike's Place started selling fried fish sandwiches. Through floods, world wars, and recessions, the Linnig family has never stopped. That modest roadside stand is now 20 acres that can accommodate 1,000 people from all walks of life with an appetite for getting together with friends and family over the best fried cod and onion rings in America.

I congratulate Mike's grandchildren, Bill, Theresa, and Nancy, who continue to run this beloved Louisville institution. Let's keep it going for another 100 years.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Agency Accountability Act. I thank Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velazquez, and my colleague from Minnesota, Representative Stauber, for bringing this important bill forward and getting it to the floor.

As Representative Stauber said, small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. They are what keep things moving. In Louisville, our small businesses are so special. We have a saying in our small business community that says ``Keep Louisville Weird,'' meaning make sure our small businesses are here and they are thriving.

One of the reasons I enjoy being on the Small Business Committee is we get together every week, and we talk about what small businesses need and how we can make sure we are helping foster the growth and entrepreneurship that keep America's small businesses moving forward.

When you look at what small businesses need, however, they need a fair shot, among other things. The Federal Government is the largest purchaser of goods and services around the world, so we have recognized that the Federal Government must engage in purchasing things from our small businesses.

Representative Stauber, a former hockey player, knows a rule isn't any good unless it is enforced. With the Federal Government having a quota, what happens if it doesn't meet it? This bill answers that question, and it says that we must hold failing agencies accountable, that if they aren't meeting their quota of purchasing from small businesses, that they are going to have to come before the House and the Senate and testify as to why.

I am proud to support this bill because it makes sure that we are continuing to support our small businesses all over this country, and I am proud to be a cosponsor of the Agency Accountability Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Reporting Act.

I think too often the outside focus on this body is on what isn't working. There isn't enough attention paid to when things come together and when it works the way it should.

I thank Chairman Williams and Ranking Member Velazquez for their support. I especially thank Chairman Molinaro, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce, for his courage and compassion in personally navigating the maze of people who face intellectual and developmental disabilities.

We had a subcommittee hearing, and Chairman Molinaro brought up Maeve, a young woman from New York, talking about her coffee shop. I brought up Cody Clark from Louisville, a truly inspiring young man who not only is an entrepreneur who told us about his experience, but I think he performed the first-ever magic trick in front of the Small Business Committee this year to highlight his point of what we can accomplish.

This bill helps ensure that every American--every American--has the opportunity to become that type of successful entrepreneur. After all, isn't that the fundamental promise of the American Dream, that any person in this country can work hard, take risks, and hopefully find success?

What we highlighted in this hearing and through the stories of Maeve and Cody and others is that Americans with disabilities, like other underprivileged groups, see fewer opportunities to make this dream a reality.

In fact, 74 percent of people with disabilities do not participate in our Nation's labor force. Too many barriers--both physical and intangible--block their way to joining the workforce or starting a business. The Federal Government must do more to help break those down.

To do that, we have to better understand what these challenges are, and this bill takes a really important first step in that process. It will require the Small Business Administration to submit a report to Congress on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs with disabilities. This report will assess the entrepreneurs' challenges and needs, detail the resources the SBA currently provides, and recommend what actions we can take to improve how the Small Business Administration serves entrepreneurs with disabilities.

The better Congress understands these challenges, the easier it will be to knock them down to take these barriers away and make sure every American has the chance to succeed.

I again thank Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velazquez, Chairman Molinaro, and everyone else involved for their leadership and support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 7985.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today, I rise this week, with a heavy heart.

It is exactly 1 year since tragedy struck my community in Louisville, Kentucky. It was just last year, a Monday morning, the day after Easter, the first day back from spring break.

You know what kind of day this was. It was a Kentucky spring day. The air was crisp. The sun was bright. It was perfect. The type of spring morning that had families heading back into school and had us heading back into work with a sense of rebirth and renewal.

Unfortunately, it didn't last. Spring's ritual beauty was shattered by the unfamiliar booms from an AR-15, the acrid smells of smoke, the sounds of sirens, of screams.

It was a Monday morning, April 10, 2023, that a lone gunman took an assault rifle into the Old National Bank on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, and opened fire on his colleagues. He took the lives of five innocent Louisvillians: Josh Barrick, Deana Eckert, Jim Tutt, Juliana Farmer, and my friend, Tommy Elliott.

Eight other people were injured, including officer Nick Wilt. He was in just his fourth shift as a police officer when he ran headfirst into gunfire. His heroism saved lives, but he took an AR-15 round to the head. Miraculously, he survived, and he continues to recover and get stronger every day.

That wasn't it. Just hours later and just a few blocks away, Chea'von Moore was killed at the Jefferson Community & Technical College. Another young woman was struck by bullets in the crossfire between classes. Thankfully, she survived.

That was a Monday morning. It got worse. There was another mass shooting in Louisville later that week. Combined with the tragedies of everyday gun violence, five more Louisvillians were killed by gunfire by week's end.

It was awful. It ripped into us as a community. The scars are still there for so many to see, especially now, especially this week. I think any decent person hearing this story recognizes that it is tragic. Anyone with an iota of compassion for the families, for the lives lost, for the senseless waste of human potential knows how sad this is.

If I told you this story 20 years ago, the world would have stopped. It would have been all you heard about on the news, on the internet, and in newspapers. It would have been a national crisis that would have demanded urgent action and all of our attention.

Today, it was off the news quickly.

Why? I can answer that.

We have grown accustomed to this. Unbelievably, this is our norm.

Now, Louisville, Kentucky, on a perfect spring morning, the day after Easter, the first day back from spring break isn't unique in the horrors it experienced from a mass shooting that day. No, it just got added to a very long list of American cities experiencing this tragedy.

Gone are the days of recognizing American cities for their contributions to our culture--Motown, the City of Brotherly Love, the Big Apple, the Gateway to the West, the City of Angels, the Big Easy.

No. Now we define our cities by their tragedies, Aurora, Uvalde, Las Vegas, Highland Park, Newtown, Orlando, Buffalo, Nashville, El Paso, Monterey Park, and Louisville, Kentucky.

It was one of those moments as a lifelong Louisvillian you will always remember. I know where I was when I got the call. I was still with my family. In these jobs there are times you try to shield your children from some of the things you have to deal with here, but it was too shocking. I looked at my wife and I said: ``There has been a mass shooting.'' My elementary school daughter heard me. Her face sank. She was ashen. She just looked at us, and she said: ``Which school?''

Of course that was her first reaction. In elementary schools they now do active-shooter drills instead of tornado drills. Gun violence is the number one killer of kids in America. We can't be shocked by that reaction.

Even though it broke my heart--and maybe it should--we can't let it break our brains.

I actually think we agree that 20 years ago these tragedies would have hit much harder, that they would have been an anomaly instead of the norm.

What has changed? Why is it different?

Well, I can point to one thing: The assault weapon ban has expired. Since then, the gun culture has exploded, and I don't mean hunting and responsible gun ownership. I mean the toxic culture promoted by gun manufacturers and the NRA. The idea that weapons of war are toys and status symbols. That the right to arm yourself with the capacity to kill en masse trumps our right to live.

America's epidemic of gun violence that takes more than 40,000 lives per year and more children than any other cause almost always has a slew of common denominators: a firearm--often a semiautomatic-- purchased under a legal framework that only exists in America.

Nowhere else in the world has seen this epidemic of death and done absolutely nothing about it.

Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle insist that this is a coincidence, that the very instrument of death for hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans makes us safer, and that the more we have, the safer we will be, that somehow if every American had a gun, rates of gun violence would decrease.

It would be comically absurd if it weren't so dangerous and so heartbreaking. It should break our hearts, each time, each loss of life, as if it were happening 20, 25 years ago; the gut-wrenching disbelief we felt over Columbine. We can't let it break our brains. It isn't that complicated.

This is not the world we are forced to live in. This is the world we have chosen to live in. We in this body can do something about it.

No, nobody is talking about coming to your house and taking your guns. Nobody wants to stop hunting trips. We are talking about the most basic, commonsense measures: Like safe storage,

waiting periods, universal background checks, stopping the free flow of assault weapons and armor-piercing ammo.

Will these measures end gun violence in America? No, sadly they will not.

Will they save American lives? Absolutely. Immediately.

We can debate how many lives, but isn't even one worth saving?

This is not some fringe fantasy either. These are literally some of the most popular bipartisan proposals in America. They are approved by 70, 80, 90 percent of the American public.

Today, the Biden administration announced a new rule expanding background checks for gun sales. This closes the gun show loophole, ensures that guns aren't sold or traded for profit without a background check.

Good. However, there is more to do.

Our constituents are crying out to us. We are all tired of seeing children killed in their schools and worrying that ours could be next.

Commonsense gun reforms, not only are they overwhelmingly popular everywhere, they are necessary. While they are overwhelmingly popular everywhere, they are not overwhelmingly popular where they need to be. Here. In this building.

Last year, after the shooting in Louisville, I approached many of my colleagues across the aisle. I did it one-on-one, not in front of the cameras, not for social media, but to really ask and say, I think we agree. We want our communities to be safer. Where can we meet on this? What can we do to protect our kids and our communities and save lives?

I had really great conversations, talked about things that we have in common, things what we can do. However, routinely I was told that at the end of the day you know that is not something we can get through here.

Why not? We are ready. We are waiting. I am tired of waiting. The American people are tired of waiting. We can start saving lives today, and we know it.

I know that my friends on the other side of the aisle are good people, and I mean that. I don't know in this instance, though, what we are afraid of by simply putting these things to a vote.

Gun violence right now is a choice, and it is time to make a new one. We can start saving lives today, and we should.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib), my colleague.

Mr. Speaker, as a parent, this is heartbreaking. I had a parent tell me after the Uvalde shooting they now look at their child's shoes every day before they go to school just in case they have to identify them.

I always said every policymaker in America should have been required to drop their kids off at school the day after Uvalde like I did.

This is something we can do something about.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative DeSaulnier for

his wonderful words and his courage in telling his personal story.

We have talked about mass shootings today, and I think it is also important that we put some focus on everyday gun violence. We have talked about guns. Let's also talk about crime. Let's talk about the root causes of crime as well, and make sure that we are doing everything we can--from public safety to guns, to things like jobs, affordable housing, healthcare, hunger, education.

We also do need to talk about mental health and make sure that people in this country have the mental health support they need and they deserve. There is no argument that the number one cause of gun deaths in this country is death by suicide, but when you talk about suicide and death by a firearm, there are ways to help prevent it.

I met this week with the UofL trauma team, who did an amazing job on April 10, 2023, keeping people alive and navigating an incredibly difficult situation. And because suicide is the number one cause of gun deaths in this country, I talked with them about it.

I spoke with Dr. Jason Smith, who is a trauma surgeon at the University of Louisville, and he shared a person is most at risk of taking their own life when they reach their lowest point, and that lowest point typically only lasts for about 10 minutes. If you can get someone through that lowest point, they have an amazingly increased chance of living a full life.

We know that there are laws that work to protect us. In my State of Kentucky, we watch it across the river in Indiana where they have a State red flag law.

We can make this a national priority, through law and through funding, to help people get what they need, to help people who are in crisis and temporarily remove them from a firearm while retaining their rights.

Representative DeSaulnier referenced that suicide is growing among young people, and, unfortunately, it is. But that is not the only group affected. In fact, a statistic that worries me, because Louisville is located just north of Fort Knox, we have about 50,000 veterans who live in our community. The single-most at-risk group for death by suicide with a firearm are White men over the age of 50 who own a firearm and are a veteran.

Mr. Speaker, I sit on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, where even today in a committee hearing with the Secretary, death by suicide was brought up for veterans. The people who were brave enough to put on a uniform and sacrifice everything for us, we should be brave enough to pass policies in this body that will help them.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Neguse), my distinguished colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Neguse for his wonderful words. I can't believe it has been 25 years since Columbine, another tragedy which I can remember exactly where I was when I found out that news. We went to our TV screens to watch in horror as students fled from the building, as parents wondered if their kids were alive. We grieve with Colorado, not just for Columbine, but for Boulder and for Aurora, for the tragedy you all have endured.

Hearing Representative Neguse talk about the tragedies in his community reminded me that when the mass shooting happened in Louisville on April 10 last year, I had several Members of Congress reach out to me immediately. They were not only offering their condolences and their sympathies and asking what they could do to help--many of them had experienced the same tragedy in their communities--they offered advice on how to deal with it and how to help your community get through it while you yourself grieve. In essence, there is a playbook on what to do after a mass shooting.

Mr. Speaker, I would like this body to act and have a playbook on how to stop the shootings from happening in the first place, because we know how to do it.

We know the damage that assault weapons cause. We know the need for safe storage and universal background checks, and I am tired of hearing there is nothing we can do when we are doing nothing.

We can solve this uniquely American problem, and we can solve it together, keeping our kids and our communities safer. It just takes the political will from this body to do it.

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

Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago today in Louisville, Kentucky, it was a crisp, bright Monday morning. The Easter sun had silently set the night before on blooming dogwoods and azaleas, and a new day had sounded in with only the squeaking of school brakes interrupting the birds chirping to signal the changing of the seasons. The perfect spring awakening to welcome families back to school from spring break, while ushering the rest of us into work with a sense of rebirth and renewal.

Louisville is lucky to be blessed with such scenes of beauty on an annual basis. The sounds, sights, and smells are familiar and wonderful. Instinctively, we know that antihistamines are coming out of our bathroom cabinets and the Derby is right around the corner. Spring is when Kentucky's natural beauty, pageantry, and homegrown hospitality are on display for the world to see. This is why it was so shocking. You never think it is going to happen in your community; that no one could do this, but this is why we truly did not think it was possible-- not in Louisville, not now.

But on April 10, 2023, a lone gunman with an assault rifle walked into the Old National Bank on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, and opened fire on his colleagues. Spring's ritual beauty was shattered by the unfamiliar booms of an AR-15, the acrid smell of smoke, sirens, and screams.

Five people were killed--Josh Barrick, Deana Eckert, Jim Tutt, Juliana Farmer, and my friend, Tommy Elliott. These five innocent lives were taken from us far too soon.

Josh was a loving husband and young father; Juliana Farmer was expecting another grandchild; Deana Eckert was known for her generosity and her compassion; Jim Tutt was a community leader; and Tommy Elliott, who was a longtime friend of ours, loved life, people, jokes, and stories. All will be missed.

Eight others were wounded in the shooting, including LMPD Officer Nick Wilt, who took an AR-15 round to the head as he selflessly ran toward the gunman and saved lives. Miraculously, he survived.

On the same day, just blocks away at Jefferson Community and Technical College, Chea'von Moore lost his life at 24 years old, and another woman who was caught in the cross fire between classes miraculously survived. Our thoughts are with them, their family, and their loved ones, as well.

It has been 1 year since we lost Tommy, Josh, Juliana, Jim, Deana, and Chea'von. They have been missed at milestones such as birthdays, graduations, and holidays, and every moment in between.

We will never forget them. Their memories live on in all of us who remember and love them.

As we honor those we lost, our community remains so grateful to every first responder who arrived on the scene that morning and leaped into action. They saved lives.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Louisville Metro Police Department, the Louisville Fire Department, the FBI, EMS, and the UofL Hospital trauma team. I thank them for their incredible service to our community on April 10, 2023, every day before, and every day since.

I stand here today not just as a Member of Congress, but as a lifelong Louisvillian whose community joined the long list of cities touched by senseless, preventable gun violence.

It is not just mass shootings that rock communities; everyday gun violence in Louisville and across our country has taken far too many lives too soon. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death in children. Children.

There is so much more we can and must do, like combating the root causes of crime and expanding mental health services as well as pushing commonsense gun reforms like universal background checks, extreme risk protection orders, and banning assault weapons.

Last year, days after the Old National Bank shooting, I stood on the steps of the Capitol with other members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force and asked the majority to bring gun safety legislation to the floor. I am here today asking again for my colleagues across the aisle to work with us like they have before to make our communities safer.

Reflecting on what this day means to me and our community, I am reminded of how strong Louisvillians are.

Friends, neighbors, and loved ones came together to support one another through an unimaginably tough time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Louisville's own Simmons College Lady Falcons on their first-ever Division II women's college basketball national championship.

They defeated the Toccoa Falls Screaming Eagles 79-70, bringing a national championship trophy to Louisville's only HBCU for the first time ever, and this is only the second year that Simmons College has even had a women's basketball team. What an incredible feat and what a great legacy they have started in just 2 years.

Congratulations to Head Coach Earl Ruffin, who was named the regional coach of the year for his success in leading the Lady Falcons to victory.

Congratulations to Simmons Sophomore Morgan Defoor, who scored 30 points in the championship game and was named a first team All- American.

Congratulations and thank you to our Lady Falcons for making all of us proud.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because on March 1, a four- car crash on the Clark Memorial Bridge left a semitruck dangling dangerously over the Ohio River--with the driver still inside.

Police officers, Coast Guard members, and firefighters immediately rushed into action to save the driver from plummeting some 100 feet into the river below.

No firefighter acts alone. They train as a team. They work as a team. It took all of Rescue Company Two working together to save this semi driver. Ultimately, it was Firefighter Bryce Carden who was the fearless first responder lowered off the bridge from the back of a fire truck to perform the daring rescue that brought the truck's driver back to safety.

Bryce Carden is a Louisvillian through and through. He grew up in Valley Station, went to Butler High School, and still lives in Louisville with his wife, Caitlynn, and their 17-month-old daughter.

That truck driver is alive today because of Bryce's selfless actions.

We thank Bryce and his brothers and sisters in the Louisville Fire Department for their bravery and dedicated service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3511, the Service-Disabled Veteran Opportunities in Small Business Act, which I am proud to lead with Representative LaLota.

I am grateful for his partnership, and I am grateful that the bill is on the floor today. I will echo the remarks of my colleague, Mr. LaLota. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the men and women who have put on the uniform who were willing to fight for us and, of course, were injured in their service. It is up to us to support our veterans coming out of the military as much as we support them going in, especially those who return with the wounds from their service, both visible and invisible.

So many veterans come home looking for ways to continue serving their communities, including by starting small businesses, and the Small Business Administration does a great job of connecting veteran and disabled veteran entrepreneurs to critical resources they need to start businesses, but the Federal Government must do more to ensure all veteran entrepreneurs have the tools and opportunities they need for their new businesses to thrive.

For disabled veteran entrepreneurs, opportunity can come in the form of sole-source or set-aside contracts, but Federal agencies all too often fail to meet their service-disabled vet contracting goals.

This bill requires the SBA to issue guidance to other Federal agencies to better meet the contracting goals for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and it would additionally require the SBA to provide training to agencies that fail to meet these goals.

If the agencies fail to meet their contracting goals, then this bill requires a report to Congress detailing which agencies haven't met their goals so we can better understand what works, what doesn't, and what we can do to continue improving business opportunities for service-disabled veteran businessowners. We shouldn't stop until we are delivering on all of our promises.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this good bipartisan legislation and look forward to its passage today.

Mr. Speaker, in 2011, our twins, Clara and Wilson, were born 14 weeks premature. They weighed a pound and a half and a pound and fifteen ounces. We spent 99 days in the NICU before coming home.

No journey through the NICU is easy. The fear, the ups and downs, and the helplessness that comes with having your babies in someone else's hands, that is only made worse when you have to fight the insurance companies--like my wife, Chris, and I did--to get your preemies the nutritional support they need to grow out of the NICU.

We were lucky. We won our fight with the insurance company, and we made a promise that if we could, we would do everything we could to help other families, as well. That journey took us to the Kentucky State Senate where I passed the first insurance mandate in over two decades.

Now it is time to go national. That is why I have introduced the Supporting Premature Infant Nutrition Act, so every family and every preemie is given the best chance to thrive.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate 25 years of fairness in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

When I was a kid, it wasn't uncommon for someone to be fired just for being gay or kicked out of their home or denied service in a store or restaurant. We don't know how common it was because there was no official body to report it to, because it was completely legal. It is painful to think about.

Fortunately, 25 years ago this week, a citizen-led effort in Louisville resulted in Kentucky's first fairness ordinance, one of the first in the Nation, banning discrimination against our LGBTQ+ neighbors.

I thank everyone who courageously fought for this life-changing achievement way back in 1999.

Today, 24 Kentucky communities and 31 States have these protections. It is time for the rest of our Commonwealth and our country to follow Louisville's lead.

For my entire adult life, fairness has been a reality in Louisville, and we are all better for it.

Mr. Speaker, my hometown of Louisville is the fastest- growing Cuban community in the entire U.S.

Mr. Speaker, 14,000 Cubans have arrived in our city in just the last 2 years, enriching our social fabric by building families, contributing to our economy, and adding pasteles and cafecito to our menus in the process.

The Cuban Adjustment Act creates a clear pathway to residency for Cuban nationals who immigrate to the United States, but court rulings threaten the ability of Cubans recently issued an I-220A form to remain in the U.S.

This is wrong. It robs Cubans of the rights guaranteed them by the Cuban Adjustment Act. No one should have to live in this legal limbo, including the thousands of individuals who live in my district.

Today, I am sending a letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas, urging him to correct this situation by granting parole in place status to any Cuban issued an I-220A. I know he is committed to ensuring no one is wrongly or arbitrarily removed from our country, and I will continue to work with him and my colleagues here until this is fixed.

Mr. Speaker, I was regrettably unable to vote on rollcall No. 722. Had I been able to vote, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 722.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor two remarkable physicians, a husband and wife, Mahender and Jayalakshmi Pampati, in recognition of their retirement from the healthcare field after nearly 33 years of dedicated service to the people of Eastern Kentucky.

Drs. Mahender and Jayalakshmi Pampati moved to Hazard, Kentucky in 1990 with a goal of providing high quality care to the underserved communities of Eastern Kentucky. Through their respective careers and the life they built together in Hazard, they became part of the fabric of the community. They raised three kids, Ashwin, Rudra, and Shivani, in Hazard, participating in the local Parent Teacher Association and engaging with their patients beyond their medical practices. For decades, both doctors centered their careers on providing quality care and service to their community.

Dr. Mahender Pampati, born in Hyderabad, India, son of Dr. Kishen and Mrs. Suwarna Pampati, started and grew a radiology practice upon arrival to Hazard. With his partner Dr. Ashok Patel, he built a radiology practice, Hazard Radiology Associates, that served the entire Appalachian Regional Hospital System in addition to Mountain Comprehensive Health Care. Mahender was the first specialty trained neuroradiologist in Eastern Kentucky and facilitated the installation of state-of-the-art CT and MRI equipment for more specialized care.

Mahender also brought the first mobile mammography and MRI services to Eastern Kentucky to ensure all patients had access to adequate imaging and screening services.

Dr. Jayalakshmi Pampati, born in Chennai, India, daughter of Mr. G.C. Krishnamoorthy and Mrs. G.Y. Thilakam, led a successful and patient forward career as the region's only rheumatologist. As one of few female physicians of her generation, she continuously broke barriers throughout her career, from medical school to her practice. She started her own rheumatology practice in Hazard, Kentucky shortly after moving there. Jayalakshmi was the only rheumatologist within a 60-mile radius for her entire career, serving a significant portion of Eastern Kentucky. Jayalakshmi diagnosed and treated several debilitating autoimmune diseases for the first time in the region and treated many of these patients for many decades. Jayalakshmi treated all patients, both insured and uninsured, guaranteeing all patients would be treated and advised on the most cost-effective and quality treatment plan.

Together they broke many firsts. Most significantly, they opened the first after hours clinic in the region in 1996, the Mountain After Hours Clinic (MAHC). MAHC provided a range of care, from primary care services to pediatrics to mental healthcare services. This groundbreaking clinic brought access to healthcare for the many patients who were unable to take off work to receive care during the workday and accepted patients whether they were insured or not.

Dr. Mahender Pampati received his medical degree from Magadh Medical College in 1979, and completed his radiology residency at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 1987 with a fellowship in neuroradiology from Stony Brook University in New York. Dr. Jayalakshmi Pampati received her medical degree from Madras Medical College in 1981, and completed her residency in internal medicine at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, New York in 1988 with a fellowship in rheumatologv from Stony Brook University in New York.

Dr. Mahender and Jayalakshmi Pampati have dedicated their lives and careers to providing specialized, quality, accessible, and affordable healthcare to the people of Eastern Kentucky, and their work has critically improved the healthcare landscape in an under-resourced and underserved part of our state. Mahender and Jayalakshmi Pampati will continue to be stewards of public service through their work with community organizations in Kentucky, the Bluegrass Indo American Civic Society and the Bharatiya Temple and Cultural Center. What a wonderful vocation for a truly special couple. I know their patients, fellow healthcare workers, and colleagues in Eastern Kentucky will miss their service. I wish them all the best in retirement and hope they enjoy time with their children, daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren. I ask that my colleagues here in the United States House of Representatives join me in thanking Dr. Jayalakshmi and Mahender Pampati for their lifelong commitment to serving Kentucky families and communities in need and congratulating them on their well-deserved retirement.