Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 363.

personal explanation

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my constituent from the City of Montclair, Council Member Emeritus Leonard Paul Paulitz. It is with more than a heavy heart that I share that Leonard Paul Paulitz passed away on August 24, 2021.

Leonard committed his life to serving his community. Leonard served his country in the U.S. Army after getting drafted for World War II during his senior year of high school. Shortly after earning his degree in accounting at Gannon College in Erie, Pennsylvania on the GI Bill, Leonard met Constance Marie Howard and married her in August, 1954 in Ohio. Leonard, his wife, and his children shortly after moved to Montclair, California in 1960 and into the home where he lived the rest of his life.

Leonard took an active role in local policymaking soon after moving to Montclair. He served on the Planning Commission starting in 1965, and then was elected in 1978 to sit on the City Council. Leonard served humbly for nearly thirty-seven years on the Montclair Council Chamber and is the longest-serving council person in San Bernardino County, from March 1978 to December 2014. During this time, he also served as Mayor Pro Tem for eight years.

Leonard's leadership and vision resulted in countless projects that bettered Montclair and the region, including the expansion of Montclair Plaza before it became Montclair Place, Holt Boulevard, the Montclair Police facility, the Montclair Youth Center, and the Montclair Senior Center. He also served for 12 years on the South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board, as Montclair's Representative to Omnitrans, the San Bernardino Association of Governments, and the League of California Cities, among many others.

Leonard's passion for local government and the betterment of his Montclair community is just one reason we will miss Leonard. Along with being dedicated to his public servant role, his love for gardening and tending to his citrus trees led Leonard to start the Montclair Community Garden and Orchard.

Montclair would not be the beautiful community it is now if it wasn't for the 49 years of wise leadership Leonard provided. His service and contributions to Montclair will serve as a model for many generations and will be a good example for future leaders.

Today, Madam Speaker, for his decades of commitment to our community and country in so many ways, we honor Leonard Paul Paulitz and thank him for the legacy he left in the City of Montclair and the greater Inland Empire community. May he rest in Peace.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 60th Anniversary of the Peace Corps Act and the dedicated heroes who work tirelessly to bring a positive change in communities across the world.

President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Act into law in 1961 and presented the opportunity for American citizens to be innovators and trailblazers in communities abroad. In the last 60 years, over 240,000 American citizens have humbly worked across the globe with local leaders to meet the needs of the host country's communities.

It makes me proud to know that for more than a decade, California has led the nation in recruiting Peace Corps Volunteers. Since 1961, 31,752 Californians have decided to share their heart, creativity, and ingenuity in over 140 countries. Our nation is thankful for the Peace Corps volunteers who go to their host country to bring a greater understanding of American values. And we can't forget the lessons that volunteers learn during their time abroad, and how their service helps them become more compassionate leaders back home. Peace Corps volunteers don't only serve as ambassadors for the global community but also as role models for a younger generation in the U.S. I hope their passion to serve others continues to transform and inspire our communities.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic temporarily suspending all operations in 2020 and evacuating all 7,000 volunteers across the world, the Peace Corps stands at the ready to once more promote peace and friendship in every corner of the world.

So, I want to take this moment to say thank you, not just to the men and women from California in the Peace Corps, but also to all those who serve and have served proudly with the Peace Corps.

Today, Madam Speaker, it is my honor to recognize the 60th Anniversary of the Peace Corps Act and the men and women who intrepidly go out into the world to bring change and peace through hard work and American values.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to present my amendment No. 435.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment--a very simple amendment. My amendment seeks to restore congressional notification requirements on a category of munitions export licenses.

For decades, when a U.S. company wanted to export these munitions, the sale required authorization from the Federal Government. The State Department has the responsibility for issuing approvals for most types of weapons once it has assessed any impact on our national security or our foreign policy.

The State Department was also required to notify Congress every time it approved a license. Unfortunately, the Trump administration changed all of this. It moved the licensing of firearms export sales from the State Department to the Department of Commerce, and it changed the standard review process.

They also ended the congressional notification process. The Department of Commerce is not currently required to notify Congress when they issue a munitions export license.

I strongly opposed those changes.

Given the serious national security implications of foreign munitions sales and the possibility that those weapons could end up in the wrong hands, Congress has a clear policy interest in understanding when they occur.

This amendment will restore those notification requirements by mandating that the Department of Commerce follow the same procedure and guidelines that was in place prior to that change.

Frankly, I am surprised that anyone is objecting to restoring longstanding congressional oversight powers.

I hope my colleagues will support my amendment to ensure that foreign munitions sales receive the careful scrutiny they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we can reserve the debate whether the State Department or the Commerce Department should have jurisdiction over gun sale exports.

This amendment is not about that. This amendment is very simple. It restores a longstanding requirement to notify Congress--a notification. That is not dictating to anyone where they should sell or whom they should sell weapons to. Simply report to Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I respectfully request a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation, and I thank Congresswoman DeLauro and Chairwoman Lee for their hard work and support of the priorities that I have included in this bill as it relates to the Central American region.

We must ensure our aid to Central America helps the people it is intended to help and advance our policy goals, including reducing migration.

My Republican colleagues yesterday noted that what we have done in the past is not working and has not worked, and I agree with them 100 percent.

The Trump administration turned a blind eye to corruption in the region and emboldened predatory, corrupt government officials.

For the last 4 years, we effectively looked at the symptoms and not at the systematic failures that forced the region's most vulnerable asset, their young people, to flee to our border.

So if Guatemalan President Giammattei truly does believe in the rule of law, he should show us with his actions. Recently, they have fired Francisco Sandoval. He needs to be reinstated. The Guatemalan people in Guatemala deserve a judicial sector and leaders with his credibility to advance his cases of corruption.

I am so glad to report that my priorities in this bill include restricting 75 percent of the funding that has gone to all three governments--El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala--to ensure that the money is actually reaching the people that it is intended.

Furthermore, we have never in the past restricted or put conditions on funding to their attorney general's office. In this bill, we have included an amendment that restricts all funding to the attorney general.

Our goal here is to reduce migration and to ensure that the young people in the region can see a future for themselves and take their governments back.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill. I thank our brand new congresswoman and her staff for the hard work that she has put before us in this committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier).

Mr. Speaker, I am ready to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important proposal contained in this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my friend, California State Senator Jim Beall. After more than 40 years of dedicated public service to Santa Clara County, Jim recently retired at the end of his term.

As a Santa Clara County native, Jim spent his formative years in San Jose as one of ten children. He lived in a home where money was tight and worked in the crop fields as a teenager, learning the values of a hard day's work, self-reliance, and giving back to his community. Jim put his passion for public service to work at the age of 24 when he served on the San Jose City Planning Commission, and at age 28, he became the youngest person ever elected to the San Jose City Council. As a council member, Jim worked to fix and update the county's infrastructure and expand affordable housing. His role in creating San Jose's Housing Department was key to the development and growth of the city he loved serving. Jim's efforts to bring new and updated access to the San Jose Community as chair of the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority led him to be the first in California to successfully pass a half-cent sales tax increase to raise funds to help build Highways 85, 101, and 237. Later as a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Jim followed through on his commitment to increasing access to healthcare and mental health services and worked with his colleagues to pass the Children's Health Initiative, which ensured every child in the county had health insurance.

Jim continued his public service as a member of both the California State Assembly and California State Senate. Jim passed major infrastructure bills including SB1, one of the largest infrastructure bills in California's history which created over 150,000 new jobs and repaired and updated roads, and SB 595 which supported regional transportation projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also worked on a number of public safety bills including passing Audrie's Law, a bill that empowered survivors of sexual assault by reforming juvenile sexual assault statutes. As a lifelong advocate for foster youth, Jim authored first-in-the-nation legislation to extend foster youth benefits to more young people and passed college access bills that have led to higher graduation rates of foster youth. Jim also championed the cause to improve mental health treatment by authoring several bills that increased access to such services and played a critical role in ensuring California healthcare plans included mental health and substance abuse disorder treatment. Through his final term in the California State Senate that ended in December 2020, Jim has worked tirelessly and selflessly for his community and the list of his legislative accomplishments goes on and on.

I was lucky to serve with Jim in both the California State Assembly and in the State Senate. I was always impressed by his thoughtfulness and dedication to improving his community and state. As he moves on to a

new phase of his career, I am pleased to recognize his incredible work for the Golden State.

For his remarkable accomplishments, it is my honor to recognize Jim Beall. His decades of commitment and contributions to the City of San Jose, Santa Clara County, and the State of California are worthy of commendation and admiration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor National Police Week, and the brave, dedicated, and selfless heroes who work tireless long hours to keep the public safe in communities across this country.

This is deeply personal to me, as someone whose own loved ones wear a badge, and as someone who worked for nearly 18 years as a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department.

So I want to take this moment to say thank you, not just to the men and women in uniform on our streets, but also to their counterparts in service who answer the call whenever someone dials 911.

Dispatchers have a unique vantage on police work--they know how harrowing the situations police officers face are; how important police work is to people in their most vulnerable moments; and how committed officers are to serving the public.

After all, dispatchers are the ones who answer those calls for help in the first place.

But dispatchers also play a key role in keeping our officers safe. They gather situational awareness, so our officers know what to expect when they approach a scene; they send backup when more support is needed; and they send medical help if the unthinkable happens and an officer is hurt.

So as we honor those who serve, let's also honor the people who keep them safe every step of the way.

Public safety workers of all types are under new stresses right now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the uptick in gun violence that is tragically endemic to the United States.

So as we honor this valiant profession and acknowledge the harrowing circumstances they face, we must also take time to make sure they have the support they need, from PPE to mental health reources and everything in between.

Today, Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to recognize National Police Week and the men and women who keep us safe at great personal sacrifice, and at great sacrifice to their own families.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my constituent from the City of Chino, Council Member Mark Hargrove. It is with more than a heavy heart that I share that Mark Hargrove passed away on March 28, 2021.

Mark Hargrove served his country in the U.S. Air Force from 1983 to 1987, where he acquired the ranking of Sergeant. Following his service, Mark worked for the next thirty years at the California Department of Corrections. Twenty of those years were spent at the California Institute for Men in Chino, from which he retired as a Lieutenant.

Mark also played an important role in local policymaking. Mark served on the Planning Commission for the City of Chino and was then elected in 2018 to sit on the City Council. Mark became sick shortly after taking office but continued to fight for his community: he served as the City of Chino's representative on the Santa Ana Watershed Advisory Council, the Citizen's Advisory Committee to the California Institute for Men and Women, the Chino Valley Unified School District Measure G Oversight Committee, and the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce board. Such unyielding commitment to improving the lives of the residents of our community, even in the face of adversity, is just one reason we will miss Mark.

Along with being dedicated to his civic employment, Mark gave his time to supporting youth sports and education programs. He coached several youth sports and served as Chino High's sports boosters president and basketball boosters club president, which he also founded. In 2018, Mark received the Frank Elder Award, which honors individuals who have devoted their lives to the Chino community and the student-athletes of Chino High.

Today, Madam Speaker, it is my honor to recognize Mark Hargrove for his unmatched commitment and civic dedication to the City of Chino and to the contributions he has made to the greater community of the Inland Empire. May he rest in peace.

Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 233 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Madam Speaker, today, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 233, providing for consideration of H.R. 1620 under a structured rule. The rule self- executes a manager's amendment by Chairman Nadler, makes in order 41 amendments, and provides en bloc authority to Chairman Nadler.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 6, H.R. 1603, and H.J. Res. 17, under closed rules.

The rule provides 1 hour of debate each, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their designees for H.R. 1620, H.R. 6, H.R. 1603, and H.J. Res. 17.

The rule provides for one motion to recommit on each bill. The rule also self-executes a manager's amendment by Chairman Nadler for H.R. 1603.

The rule provides for consideration of H.R. 1868 under a closed rule. It also provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on the Budget or their designees.

Finally, the rule provides that H.R. 232 is hereby adopted and extends the deadline for the committee funding resolution until April 22, 2021.

Madam Speaker, we are here today to protect the vulnerable among us, to strengthen the foundation of our democracy, and ensure humane working conditions for the people who feed America.

We are here to live up to our best ideals as a Nation by creating protections against some of the worst threats that a person can face, threats like domestic violence.

In the minute that I have been talking, 20 people in this country have been abused by their partner. By the time we are done tonight, that number will be over a thousand.

As someone who worked as a 911 dispatcher for nearly 18 years, as someone who has been on the other end of the line from domestic violence, as someone who has heard gunshots silence a young girl's screams for help, I am telling you, the thousand people victimized while we are here tonight need and deserve our help.

That is exactly what the Violence Against Women Act does. It makes vital new investments in prevention. It strengthens essential protections for the most vulnerable among us, including immigrant, LGBTQ, and Native American women, and it improves services for victims, prevents abusers and stalkers from getting firearms, and much, much more.

VAWA is one of many vital protections we will discuss today, but it isn't the only one.

Madam Speaker, this September will mark 100 years since an amendment was first proposed for our Constitution to guarantee women equal rights with men. It finally passed Congress in 1972.

This simple amendment, which reads in part, ``Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged,'' is being held up on a technicality. States took so long to sign on that the arbitrary deadline that was set by Congress, this body, has passed, even as 38 States have ratified the amendment.

Congress created this problem, and Congress must fix it. H.J. Res. 79 will remove the deadline for ratification and finally allow us to ensure women are treated as equals to men in our democracy.

The need for equal rights under the law is not debatable. Too often, we have seen the results of unfair and unequal policies for women. This bill will help end those injustices.

As we strive to make our Nation a more perfect union, we need to consider how we treat immigrants, too. Immigrants are the invisible backbone of this country. They are our family members, our neighbors, our frontline workers, woven into every aspect of the American fabric.

Dreamers grew up in our communities. They pledge allegiance to our flag. They played in our fields, prayed in our churches, and worked in our stores. They want to contribute to the only Nation that they have ever called home.

The American Dream and Promise Act helps them do that. It creates a pathway to citizenship for our Dreamers. And it updates our temporary protected status and deferred enforced departure laws to prevent devastating deportations.

The fact is, too often the contributions of aspiring Americans are left out of our dialogue about immigrants. But this pandemic has put a spotlight on just how vital they are.

Without immigrants working our fields, your last meal would have looked much different. Without them enduring record-setting temperatures, facing threats of wildfires, and doing it all without proper PPE, the price you pay to feed your family would go way up.

Deaths among Latino farmworkers increased by 60 percent during the pandemic. They are sacrificing their lives to feed us. The question is: What are we willing to do in return?

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act creates a pathway to legal status for more than a million farmworkers and addresses our future labor needs by modernizing our outdated system for temporary workers. This bill will give farmworkers the dignity and recognition they deserve, while giving our farmers the stability they need to run their businesses.

Now, before I move on to another topic, I want to say something about my personal immigration story. Just like many other Dreamers, I was sent here by my parents to escape the violence my family faced in Guatemala. I know exactly what it is like to decide between the violence and poverty of staying or the dangers and unknowns of trying to immigrate here.

What I know is that we cannot legislate a solution for immigration when we ignore the factors that drive it. Strongmen, narco-traffickers, have taken hold in Central America, and the rule of law is under assault.

The organizations that once fought to hold corrupt actors accountable have been dismantled, and their former employees are now being pursued by those very same corrupt actors. Attorneys General, unfortunately, are asylum seekers in our own country.

We don't just have a responsibility to help stabilize the region; it is imperative if we are ever to stop the rush of people trying to come here.

I will close by saying every policy I describe today is a policy I am truly proud of. Just like the American Rescue Plan did last week, Democrats are making clear, with our actions, exactly what our priorities are.

It doesn't matter how good our agenda is if we can't deliver on the bills we pass. The one thing standing in our way right now is an inside-the-beltway term called ``PAYGO.'' If we don't address it now, it will trigger massive cuts. It goes without saying that this would be completely unacceptable at a time when Americans are in urgent need of more support, not less.

Republicans passed legislation in 2017 to avoid PAYGO, in order to provide tax cuts for the filthy rich, so they clearly understand the need to avoid draconian cuts. I expect them to join us in preventing them.

H.R. 1868, the final bill we are here to discuss today, will do exactly that. I look forward to a fruitful debate on these bills.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Madam Speaker, let the Record show that Oklahoma's Fourth District has 146,168 eligible Medicare beneficiaries that will be harmed if H.R. 1868 does not pass.

Let the Record show that Minnesota's Seventh District has 152,451 eligible Medicare beneficiaries that will also be harmed if H.R. 1868 does not pass.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record an October 18, 2019, USA Today article entitled, ``1 in 3 American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped, but survivors rarely find justice on tribal lands.''

[From USA TODAY, Oct. 18, 2019]

1 in 3 American Indian and Alaska Native Women Will Be Raped, But

Survivors Rarely Find Justice on Tribal Lands

(By Maren Machles, Carrie Cochran, Angela M. Hill and Suzette Brewer)

Twila Szymanski lowered the scope on her rifle, took aim

and hit a target in the distance. The shooting range is where

she and her husband go to relax and forget the things they

worry about, she said.

Some experiences are hard to shake.

``To trust somebody you know after a sexual assault happens

. . . it has been so difficult to work through that,''

Szymanski said.

Szymanski, 40, has lived on the Fort Peck Reservation in

northeast Montana since she was born and is an enrolled

member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. She

said she's been assaulted three times.

``I was a victim when I was 13, a victim when I was 14 and

a victim when I was 34,'' she said.

Twila Szymanski is a lifelong resident of the Fort Peck

Reservation. ``Native women have told me that what you do

when you raise a daughter in this environment is you prepare

her for what to do when she's raped--not if, but when,'' said

Sarah Deer, University of Kansas professor and author of

``The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence

in Native America.''

More than half of American Indian and Alaska Native women

will experience sexual violence in their lifetimes, according

to the Department of Justice.

``You talk to Native women who have lived their whole lives

on a reservation, and they say, `I can't think of anyone, any

woman that I know who hasn't been victimized in this way,' ''

said Deer, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of

Oklahoma.

National data on sex crimes in tribal communities is

scarce, so Newsy spent 18 months focused on two reservations:

the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana and the Fort Berthold

Reservation in North Dakota. After analyzing exclusively

obtained documents and conducting dozens of interviews, a

stark picture emerged.

Sexual assault investigations can fall through the cracks

when tribes and the federal government fail to work together.

Even for those few cases that end in a conviction in tribal

court, federal law prevents most courts from sentencing

perpetrators to more than a year.

Survivors who come forward to report assaults often find

themselves trapped in small communities with their

perpetrators, and several said the broken legal system

contributed to their trauma.

The federal government has a unique political and legal

relationship with the 573 federally recognized tribes. The

tribes are sovereign and have jurisdiction over their

citizens and land, but the federal government has a treaty

obligation to help protect the lives of tribal members. This

legal doctrine, called the ``trust responsibility,'' goes

back to the treaties the United States signed with tribal

nations in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The array of Supreme Court decisions and federal laws that

followed resulted in a complicated legal arrangement among

federal, state and tribal jurisdictions, making it difficult

for survivors of sexual assault to find justice.

Sarah Deer is author of ``The Beginning and End of Rape:

Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America.'' ``A lot of

times, when I try to explain it, people don't even believe me

because it's so bizarre,'' Deer said. ``And the reason it's

bizarre is because there's been this patchwork of laws that

don't talk to each other over the last century.''

Only one year

The tribal courthouse on the Fort Peck reservation is a

small brick building. The front desk is lined with pamphlets

about dating violence and sexual assault.

``The trauma that has developed over the generations . . .

some of the assaults are generational, and they're within the

same home,'' said Chief Judge Stacie Smith, a member of the

Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. ``Pretend it wasn't

there, and maybe it'll go away, you know, the next

generation, it won't happen again. But it continues.''

Smith wants to break the cycle, but tribal courts face

major restrictions, including a one-year limit on sentences

regardless of the crime and almost no jurisdiction over non-

Indians.

Stacie Smith is chief judge of the Fort Peck Tribal Court.

``When you think about rape and you think about somebody who

is a perpetrator of that kind of crime, and you think, `What

do they deserve?' one year doesn't usually sound like the

right answer,'' Deer said.

In 2010, the sentencing cap was expanded to three years per

offense through the Tribal Law and Order Act as long as the

tribes met certain requirements. Only 16 tribes have

implemented the three-year sentencing enhancement.

Fort Peck is one of them.

When the law took effect, there were no attorneys, no one

with a law degree in the court system.

Smith decided to leave her young daughters to attend law

school hundreds of miles away. This would help the tribal

court meet the federal requirements and give it more

authority.

The tribal court was able to hand out three-year sentences

starting in late 2012. From 2013-2018, there were three

sexual assault convictions, but none of them had enhanced

sentences. The longest sentence was still one year.

``We use the enhanced sentencing sparingly because we want

it to have meaning,'' said Scott Seifert, a member of the

Comanche Nation of Oklahoma and Fort Peck's lead tribal

prosecutor.

Going federal

Tribal court is not the only option for those seeking

justice for sexual assault. In most cases, the FBI, Bureau of

lndian Affairs (BIA) and U.S. attorneys' offices are

federally mandated to work with the tribes to investigate and

prosecute ``major crimes,'' which include sexual assault.

``So if you have a rape case or a child sex abuse case and

you do want to see that perpetrator put away, the best

possibility for you is that it will go federal,'' Deer said.

That responsibility falls to the U.S. attorneys' offices,

which have seen their funding and staffing in Indian

communities cut by more than 40% in the past seven years,

according to the Department of Justice.

Data Newsy obtained from the DOJ shows that the Montana

U.S. Attorney's Office declined 64% of cases of sexual

assault in the past four fiscal years.

Kurt Alme is the U.S. attorney for Montana. The U.S.

attorney for Montana, Kurt Alme, said a lot of cases are

declined because of weak or insufficient evidence, ``and it

is something that has to be worked on,'' he said.

According to the BIA, tribal courts received less than 5%

of the funding that was needed in 2016. Law enforcement

received 22% of what was needed, and jails received less than

50%.

Less than half of the law enforcement agencies that the

bureau funds and oversees are properly staffed, said Charles

Addington, director of the BIA Office of Justice Service and

a member of the Cherokee Nation.

In August 2018, Fort Peck tribal police had funding for 21

positions, but nine of them were vacant, said Ken Trottier,

criminal investigations supervisor for the Fort Peck Tribes

and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

``We have a hiring pool that is literally nothing here on

the reservation, even though we open it up to off-reservation

people,'' he said. ``There's no houses for sale. No houses

for rent. Where's that person going to live?''

Constant turnover and understaffing can lead to an under

trained police department, Deer said.

``[The survivor is] waiting for help. They don't know if

help is coming. They don't know if the help is going to be

compassionate and trained,'' Deer said. ``The system is not

feeling like a safe, productive system to them anymore.''

Big money but little justice Three hours east of Fort Peck,

the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota sits on the

Bakken oil basin and has an annual budget of $400 million.

The reservation is home to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara

Nation, or the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Driving around the remote reservation, council member

Monica Mayer pointed to a multimillion-dollar housing project

that she said will soon have an aquatic center, baseball

diamonds and mini golf.

A $17 million public safety and judicial center was built,

and staffing increased in the court system. In the past three

years, the reservation has hired more than a dozen additional

officers to help an understaffed police department.

Monica Mayer is a tribal council member on the Fort

Berthold Reservation. Despite this financial independence,

the justice system appears to be failing sexual assault

survivors who report.

``At every level, we are not adequately functioning to

provide the services that are needed in a critical

situation,'' Mayer said.

The Fort Berthold tribal court does not have enhanced

sentencing. The court sentenced three people for sexual

assault from 2013 to mid-2018, according to court records.

Sentences ranged from eight days to six months.

The tribes' relationship with its federal partners--the

BIA, the FBI and the U.S. attorneys--is crucial to helping

survivors get justice. Based on interviews and records

obtained from federal and tribal agencies, it's unclear

whether all sexual assaults on Fort Berthold were fully

investigated by any agency in the past six years.

The tribes are supposed to refer every major crime to

either the BIA or the FBI for investigations. Both are

charged with overseeing all major criminal investigations on

Fort Berthold and will determine which agency takes the lead.

The tribal criminal investigators had records of 66 sexual

assault cases from January 2016 to September 2018. The BIA

had records of only 10 investigations during that same time

period. The FBI declined to provide any records.

After Newsy asked about the status of these cases, Three

Affiliated Tribes Police Capt. Grace Her Many Horses, a

member of the Oglala Sioux tribe from the Pine Ridge

Reservation, said she would do a case file review.

``The priority for me, right now, is to go through those

case files to find out what's been declined, why, and is

there anything we can do to make it happen,'' she said. ``I

guess part of that is on me, too. I should know this by

now.''

Her Many Horses said she finished the case file review

nearly a year later, but she did not provide the details of

what she found, nor did she disclose whether the police

referred all 66 cases up to their federal partners.

Exactly one week after Newsy's last trip to Fort Berthold,

during which reporters asked how sexual assaults and rapes

are handled on the reservation, the Department of Justice and

the BIA released a joint statement saying, ``A number of

concerns have been raised about public safety and criminal

investigations on the Fort Berthold Reservation.''

Citing ``the high rate of violence against women and

children,'' it said the BIA was increasing the number of

special agents from ``one to two.'' As of the start of

October, no second agent had started working on Fort

Berthold.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued two reports on

funding in Indian communities, one in 2003 and an update in

December 2018, called ``Broken Promises.'' The report said,

``The federal government continues to fail to support

adequately the social and economic well-being of Native

Americans,'' and this ``contributes to the inequities

observed in Native American communities.''

Trying to make a difference

Twila Szymanski works as the deputy court administrator for

the Fort Peck Tribal Court, maintaining records and stats.

Szymanski reported only one of her three assaults--the one

when she was 14. Her case made it into federal court.

The defendant pleaded guilty in 1995. He was sentenced to

three years' probation and no prison time.

Twila Szymanski is the deputy court administrator for the

Fort Peck Tribal Court. ``Justice wasn't served, in my

opinion,'' she said. ``He was back in the community quickly,

and I had to see him when this was all fresh.''

Szymanski is confronted with the memory of what happened to

her each time a case comes up and each time she sees her

perpetrator in the community.

She said she uses her position in the court to go through

cases and stop them from dropping through the cracks, and she

is running for Fort Peck associate judge in the election this

month.

``When the system has failed you time and time and time

again, you don't feel empowered,'' Deer said. ``It feels like

a disconnect between this moment of `Me Too' and the reality

of lndian country and sexual assault.''

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, the situation at the border has nothing to do with the Dream and Promise Act. If anything, former President Trump's attempt to eliminate all resources contributed to the crisis at the border. The Dream and Promise Act does not apply to future migrants, just those who were already in the country before 2021.

This Dream and Promise Act has a very high criminal bar. An applicant is disqualified if they have any one of the following: A felony conviction, one misdemeanor conviction involving moral turpitude, more than two misdemeanors, or one misdemeanor for domestic violence.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, my colleagues across the aisle are not supportive of provisions to protect LGBTQ-plus individuals in this bill, but LGBTQ-plus members of our community experience domestic violence, too. Abusers do not discriminate based on sexual orientation, and neither should this body.

Legislators who oppose equality are trying to turn this into a debate about abortion to distract from the issue at hand. I would like to clarify that the ERA doesn't include any requirement to provide specific healthcare services, including abortion. It is about equality under the law.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a March 16 USA Today opinion piece from activists Dolores Huerta, Carol Jenkins, and Eleanor Smeal titled ``There is no deadline on women's equality. Add the equal rights amendment to the Constitution.''

[From USA TODAY, March 16, 2021]

There's No Deadline on Women's Equality. Add the Equal Rights Amendment

to the Constitution.

(By Dolores Huerta, Carol Jenkins and Eleanor Smeal)

For the second time in a century, a global pandemic has

occurred at the height of a determined movement to expand

women's rights under the U.S. Constitution. The 1918 flu

pandemic nearly halted the drive for ratification of the 19th

Amendment on women's suffrage. But advocates rallied, lobbied

President Woodrow Wilson for support and urged Congress to

pass a joint resolution adopting the amendment. That was

followed by ratification by the states and final

certification in August 1920.

Today, the campaign for ratification of the Equal Rights

Amendment is in the middle of another global pandemic with

women losing jobs at a much higher rate than men, especially

affecting women of color. In these first 100 days of the

Biden-Harris administration and during Women's History Month,

there is a real opportunity to make constitutional history

again with lasting change for women's rights and gender

equality by adding the ERA to the Constitution.

No rights denied 'on account of sex'

Congress approved the ERA in 1972. It says, very simply,

that ``equality of rights under the law shall not be denied

or abridged by the United States or any state on account of

sex.''

President Joe Biden and Congress now have the opportunity

to rally as well. This week, the House of Representatives

will consider a joint resolution clearing the way for the ERA

to be added to the Constitution. If the Senate also adopts

the resolution, it could become part of the Constitution this

year.

The ERA won ratification by the necessary three-fourths of

the states when Virginia became the 38th state last year.

Earlier, Nevada ratified in 2017 and Illinois in 2018.

However, the ERA has yet to be formally enshrined into the

Constitution because of an arbitrary timeline in the

amendment's preamble--not the legislative text sent to the

states for approval--which set 1979 for ratification.

Congress changed the timeline by extending it to 1982.

Congress can again weigh in by removing the timeline and

recognizing the final three states, because Article V of the

Constitution puts the amending process with the Congress and

ratification with the states.

Button supporting the Equal Rights Amendment on April 2,

2013, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Congressional action is

needed to support the attorneys general of Virginia, Nevada

and Illinois, who went to federal court asking the national

archivist to include the ERA in the Constitution.

But a U.S. district judge ruled this month that the three

states did not have standing to bring the case, and the 1982

deadline remains in effect.

Now is the time for Congress to recognize there can be no

time limit on equality. The

House and Senate should approve a joint resolution ``removing

the deadline for the ratification of the equal rights

amendment.'' The measure, introduced in the House in January,

already has more than 200 co-sponsors.

The vast majority of Americans across demographic and

partisan lines agree that women should have equal rights with

men in this country. In a 2020 Pew Research Center survey,

more than 9 in 10 U.S. adults said it is very important (79%)

or somewhat important (18%). Fully 78% of U.S. adults--

including majorities of women, men, Republicans and

Democrats--favored adding the ERA to the Constitution.

`All men would be tyrants if they could'

Abigail Adams is often quoted as saying, ``Remember the

Ladies.'' In March of 1776, she wrote more than these three

words to her husband, John, just months before the

Declaration of Independence was adopted and as he was engaged

in drafting the U.S. Constitution. She had some ideas about

what should be included ``in the new code of laws' he was

making: ``I desire you would remember the ladies and be more

generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. . . .

Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If

particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we

are determined to formant a rebellion, and will not hold

ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or

representation.''

That rebellion has been taking place through the hundreds

of peaceful ERA marches and rallies that led up to the 2017

Women's March, events that galvanized millions of women and

men nationwide to new levels of political activism. The

#MeToo movement sparked public outrage over sexual assault

and misogyny in the workplace.

In 2020, women again far outnumbered men as voters with a

gender gap that has become decisive in presidential, Senate

and House elections. And women and men alike supported the

Equal Rights Amendment by electing a pro-ERA majority of

members in the House and Senate.

An estimated 1 million more women than men have lost their

jobs during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and the pandemic shows

that most essential workers are women, most of them are Black

and Latina, and most still have the majority of caregiving

responsibilities. These along with other economic realities

make constitutional rights for women more urgent than ever

before.

The pandemic has sparked a reexamination of the role of

government and the need for social safety net and economic

policies that work for all. In short, the new reality of 2021

demands that Congress approve the ERA resolution. It will

mark a historic commitment to women's rights by ensuring

equality under the law for current and future generations.

Madam Speaker, COVID's impact on women shows the continued need for equality. We have the power to remove the ERA ratification deadline and make it a reality.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, President Biden inherited a dismantled and gutted immigration system. The prior administration's strategy of cruelty, chaos, and confusion was ineffective and set the stage for our current challenges.

I include in the Record a March 15 Columbus Dispatch article titled ``Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes each year--and have been for 25 years.''

[From the Columbus Dispatch, Mar. 15, 2021]

Undocumented Immigrants Pay Billions in Taxes Each Year--and Have Been

for 25 Years

(By Danae King)

Every year, Arturo pays thousands of dollars in taxes from

the revenue produced by his central Ohio-based painting

company.

But he will never receive Social Security benefits. Or

Medicare. Or Medicaid.

That's because Arturo, whose last name is not being used

for his safety, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico--one

of about 6 million who pay taxes annually, according to the

Congressional Budget Office.

Jorge Beltran is a Columbus tax preparer who is certified

by the IRS to file taxes for undocumented immigrants. He

hopes to shatter misconceptions about immigrants not paying

taxes and being drains on society.

A report from the office shows that 50% to 75% of

undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes each year--and

have been since the Internal Revenue Service created a

program 25 years ago allowing people without a Social

Security number to file taxes.

When it comes to state and local taxes, undocumented

immigrants pay more than $11 billion a year, according to a

2017 report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic

Policy, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. In

Ohio, they paid $83.2 million in state and local taxes in

2017, according to the institute.

Jorge Beltran, left, reviews tax documents with client Ana

Narciso. Beltran is a Columbus tax preparer who is certified

by the IRS to file taxes for undocumented immigrants. He

hopes to shatter misconceptions about immigrants not paying

taxes and being drains on society. Narciso has legal status

to be in the United States.

``When you hear people who are citizens--who may be against

immigration or immigrants, especially undocumented--say, `Oh,

they're here and sucking up all the government resources and

taking handouts and

welfare.' That's not the case,'' said Jessica Rodriguez Bell,

a Columbus immigration attorney who has undocumented clients.

``These people are not eligible for those benefits, and

many times they're paying into the system like we are. It's

frustrating to hear that a lot.''

Still, many attorneys recommend their undocumented clients

pay taxes, Rodriguez Bell said.

``The reason for that is that, one, it's income they've

been paying in and are likely entitled to a refund of some

sort,'' Rodriguez Bell said. ``Then, also because in the

future, even if they don't have a current immigration case

pending or even if they're not eligible for relief at this

time . . . oftentimes you want to demonstrate good moral

character and that you've been an upstanding citizen while

you've been here.''

Years of tax returns also establish that a person has been

living in the United States, she said.

To some, though, the issue is not whether or not

undocumented immigrants pay taxes, said Mark Krikorian,

executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a

Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank.

``There's this sort of implicit assumption that if you pay

your taxes everything else is fine,'' he said. ``Paying your

taxes doesn't wipe away everything else that you've done.''

Krikorian said that the real question is what is the

balance of taxes undocumented immigrants pay versus the

services they consume.

``There's no real debate about less-skilled workers,'' he

said. ``Whether they're legal or illegal, they use more in

services than they pay in taxes.''

A 2010 report from another Washington, D.C., think tank,

the Brookings Institution, however, suggests that while U.S.-

citizen children of undocumented immigrants can be costly

when they're young, those costs are paid out through a

lifetime of taxes.

The mere act of filing taxes could be seen as a risk for

undocumented immigrants because it could result in the

federal government pursing legal action to return the

immigrants to their home country. But Rodriguez-Bell said she

hasn't seen any such negative consequences.

``The IRS is a separate department, so it's not something

where we've ever seen information exchanged between the IRS

and, say, ICE,'' she said, referring to Immigration and

Customs Enforcement. ``This is not something that's going to

get you in trouble, and you're not doing something illegal by

doing that. It can only help your situation in the future if

you are filing.''

In 1996, the IRS created the Individual Taxpayer

Identification Number (ITIN) to allow people working in the

United States without Social Security numbers to pay taxes.

It is a 9-digit number, the same length as a Social Security

number, issued only to those who are not eligible for Social

Security numbers.

In order to help undocumented immigrants get a tax ID

number and file, the IRS certifies what are called acceptance

agents. There are 13 in Columbus, 79 in Ohio and more than

5,000 nationwide.

Jorge Beltran, the owner of Belmont Services LLC, a tax

preparation company on Columbus' Northwest Side, has been a

certified acceptance agent with the IRS since 2008. The vast

majority of Beltran's clients are undocumented immigrants,

and he's passionate about letting people know that they pay

taxes.

``Imagine if more people knew this,'' Beltran said. ``These

are not people asking for a handout. They're not asking for

unemployment. They're not asking for any benefits. Even if

they wanted to, they couldn't.''

Consider his clients Javier and Norma--whose first names

only are being used, as with other undocumented immigrants in

this story, for their safety--who both worked in food service

before the pandemic. In March 2020, Javier got laid off but

had no access to unemployment or COVID-19 relief payments due

to his status. Over the course of the rest of the year, he

worked six different jobs to support his family, which

includes their three U.S.-born children.

The couple made $56,369 in 2020 and got a refund of $3,337,

which made a big difference in their lives, Beltran said,

possibly paying for five months of their rent. If they had

Social Security numbers, they could've gotten $6,900 in

federal COVID relief payments in 2020 to help support their

family, Beltran said.

``They contribute to all of our communities,'' he said.

``They pay the school system from their taxes. They pay for

the roads from their taxes, and they spend money they make in

the grocery stores and movie theaters and everywhere but

nobody knows about it.''

Beltran shared the story of another two of his clients,

Cirilo and Patricia, who live in Mount Vernon and have been

in the country for almost 20 years. Cirilo works two jobs as

a cook, but only made $26,784 last year, paying $3,706 in

taxes. His earnings had to support his six children--four of

whom have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

status, allowing them to work and go to school legally, and

two of whom were born in the United States.

Nicole, who owns a painting business with her undocumented

immigrant husband, Arturo, both pose for a portrait on

Friday, March 12, 2021. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes and

own businesses that employ people and help the local economy.

Arturo and his wife, Nicole, a U.S. citizen whose family is

from Mexico and who owns their painting company with him, are

Beltran's clients as well. They employ 47 people and paid

$118,250 in estimated taxes this year, according to Beltran.

``Talk about being productive members of society,'' he

said. ``Forty-seven people can feed their families, help pay

the schools, whatever, with the employment they have and

that's generated by this company.

More than $11,000 from the family's taxes went to the city

of Columbus.

The couple started their business after Arturo got injured

in his job as a butcher and was fired. He started working for

a friend as a painter, but had always dreamed of working for

himself and owning a business. So, with the help of a friend,

they started their own business six years ago and now support

themselves and their four children.

``He comes from nothing in Mexico. His parents are farmers,

and he has just a middle school, almost high school

education,'' Nicole said, of her husband. ``It was really

important for him not to be stuck. He came to the United

States to make something for himself, to provide a better

future for his children.''

Immigrants are here to make the country better, Nicole

said.

``This is what makes America great,'' she said.

``immigrants coming here and finding their way and helping

the country prosper, too.''

Madam Speaker, during the last 4 years, millions of immigrants faced uncertainty as the Trump administration pursued cruel immigration policies. With passage of H.R. 6, we are beginning a new chapter in our Nation's immigration policy.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a statement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas in which he states the many issues associated with the southern border and what we are doing to address those issues.

For example, Border Patrol facilities and border personnel that had not had complete access to a COVID-19 vaccine now have complete access to the vaccine. It talks about the disruptions of the previous administration and their lack of commitment to deal with tender-age children and many other issues that could help inform this conversation moving forward.

[From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Mar. 16, 2021]

Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas

Regarding the Situation at the Southwest Border

There is understandably a great deal of attention currently

focused on the southwest border. I want to share the facts,

the work that we in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

and across the government are doing, and our plan of action.

Our personnel remain steadfast in devotion of their talent

and efforts in the service of our nation.

The situation at the southwest border is difficult. We are

working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to

do so. That is our job. We are making progress and we are

executing on our plan. It will take time and we will not

waver in our commitment to succeed.

We will also not waver in our values and our principles as

a Nation. Our goal is a safe, legal, and orderly immigration

system that is based on our bedrock priorities: to keep our

borders secure, address the plight of children as the law

requires, and enable families to be together. As noted by the

President in his Executive Order, ``securing our borders does

not require us to ignore the humanity of those who seek to

cross them.'' We are both a nation of laws and a nation of

immigrants. That is one of our proudest traditions.

The Facts

We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the

southwest border than we have in the last 20 years. We are

expelling most single adults and families. We are not

expelling unaccompanied children. We are securing our border,

executing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's

(CDC) public health authority to safeguard the American

public and the migrants themselves, and protecting the

children. We have more work to do.

This is not new. We have experienced migration surges

before--in 2019, 2014, and before then as well. Since April

2020, the number of encounters at the southwest border has

been steadily increasing. Border Patrol Agents are working

around the clock to process the flow at the border and I have

great respect for their tireless efforts. To understand the

situation, it is important to identify who is arriving at our

southwest border and how we are following the law to manage

different types of border encounters.

Single Adults

The majority of those apprehended at the southwest border

are single adults who are currently being expelled under the

CDC's authority to manage the public health crisis of the

COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuant to that authority under Title 42

of the United States Code, single adults from Mexico and the

Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and

Honduras are swiftly expelled to Mexico. Single adults from

other countries are expelled by plane to their countries of

origin if Mexico does not accept them. There are limited

exceptions to our use of the CDC's expulsion authority. For

example, we do not expel individuals with certain acute

vulnerabilities.

The expulsion of single adults does not pose an operational

challenge for the Border Patrol because of the speed and

minimal processing burden of their expulsion.

Families

Families apprehended at the southwest border are also

currently being expelled under the CDC's Title 42 authority.

Families from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries are

expelled to Mexico unless Mexico does not have the capacity

to receive the families. Families from countries other than

Mexico or the Northern Triangle are expelled by plane to

their countries of origin. Exceptions can be made when a

family member has an acute vulnerability.

Mexico's limited capacity has strained our resources,

including in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas. When

Mexico's capacity is reached, we process the families and

place them in immigration proceedings here in the United

States. We have partnered with communitybased organizations

to test the family members and quarantine them as needed

under COVID-19 protocols. In some locations, the processing

of individuals who are part of a family unit has strained our

border resources. I explain below additional challenges we

have encountered and the steps we have taken to solve this

problem.

Unaccompanied Children

We are encountering many unaccompanied children at our

southwest border every day. A child who is under the age of

18 and not accompanied by their parent or legal guardian is

considered under the law to be an unaccompanied child. We are

encountering six- and sevenyear-old children, for example,

arriving at our border without an adult. They are vulnerable

children and we have ended the prior administration's

practice of expelling them.

An unaccompanied child is brought to a Border Patrol

facility and processed for transfer to the Department of

Health and Human Services (HHS). Customs and Border

Protection is a passthrough and is required to transfer the

child to HHS within 72 hours of apprehension. HHS holds the

child for testing and quarantine, and shelters the child

until the child is placed with a sponsor here in the United

States. In more than 80 percent of cases, the child has a

family member in the United States. In more than 40 percent

of cases, that family member is a parent or legal guardian.

These are children being reunited with their families who

will care for them.

The children then go through immigration proceedings where

they are able to present a claim for relief under the law.

The Border Patrol facilities have become crowded with

children and the 72-hour timeframe for the transfer of

children from the Border Patrol to HHS is not always met. HHS

has not had the capacity to intake the number of

unaccompanied children we have been encountering. I describe

below the actions we have taken and the plans we are

executing to handle this difficult situation successfully.

Why the Challenge is Especially Difficult Now

Poverty, high levels of violence, and corruption in Mexico

and the Northern Triangle countries have propelled migration

to our southwest border for years. The adverse conditions

have continued to deteriorate. Two damaging hurricanes that

hit Honduras and swept through the region made the living

conditions there even worse, causing more children and

families to flee.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation more

complicated. There are restrictions and protocols that need

to be followed. The physical distancing protocol, for

example, imposes space and other limitations on our

facilities and operations.

The prior administration completely dismantled the asylum

system. The system was gutted, facilities were closed, and

they cruelly expelled young children into the hands of

traffickers. We have had to rebuild the entire system,

including the policies and procedures required to

administer the asylum laws that Congress passed long ago.

The prior administration tore down the lawful pathways that

had been developed for children to come to the United States

in a safe, efficient, and orderly way. It tore down, for

example, the Central American Minors program that avoided the

need for children to take the dangerous journey to our

southwest border.

The previous administration also cut foreign aid funding to

the Northern Triangle. No longer did we resource efforts in

El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to tackle the root

causes of people fleeing their homes.

And, there were no plans to protect our front-line

personnel against the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no

appropriate planning for the pandemic at all.

As difficult as the border situation is now, we are

addressing it. We have acted and we have made progress. We

have no illusions about how hard it is, and we know it will

take time. We will get it done. We will do so adhering to the

law and our fundamental values. We have an incredibly

dedicated and talented workforce.

Actions We Have Taken

In less than two months, Customs and Border Protection

stood-up an additional facility in Donna, Texas to process

unaccompanied children and families. We deployed additional

personnel to provide oversight, care, and transportation

assistance for unaccompanied minors pending transfer to HHS

custody.

We are standing up additional facilities in Texas and

Arizona to shelter unaccompanied children and families. We

are working with Mexico to increase its capacity to receive

expelled families. We partnered with community-based

organizations to test and quarantine families that Mexico has

not had the capacity to receive. We have developed a

framework for partnering with local mayors and public health

officials to pay for 100% of the expense for testing,

isolation, and quarantine for migrants. ICE has also

developed additional facilities to provide testing, local

transportation, immigration document assistance, orientation,

travel coordination in the interior, and mechanisms to

support oversight of the migrant families who are not

expelled.

Working with Mexico and international organizations, we

built a system in which migrants who were forced to remain in

Mexico and denied a chance to seek protection under

the previous administration can now use a virtual platform--

using their phones--to register. They do not need to take the

dangerous journey to the border. The individuals are tested,

processed, and transported to a port of entry safely and out

of the hands of traffickers. We succeeded in processing the

individuals who were in the Matamoros camp in Mexico. This is

the roadmap going forward for a system that is safe, orderly,

and fair.

To protect our own workforce, we launched Operation

Vaccinate Our Workforce (VOW) in late January. At the

beginning of this administration, less than 2 percent of our

frontline personnel were vaccinated. Now more than 25 percent

of our frontline personnel have been vaccinated.

We directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

to assist HHS in developing the capacity to meet the surge of

unaccompanied children. FEMA already established one new

facility for HHS to shelter 700 children. They have

identified and are currently adding additional facilities. We

are working with HHS to more efficiently identify and screen

sponsors for children. In two days, we recruited more than

560 DHS volunteers to support HHS in our collective efforts

to address the needs of the unaccompanied children.

We are restarting and expanding the Central American Minors

program. It creates a lawful pathway for children to come to

the United States without having to take the dangerous

journey. Under this expansion, children will be processed in

their home countries and brought to the United States in a

safe and orderly way.

In addition, DHS and HHS terminated a 2018 agreement that

had a chilling effect on potential sponsors--typically a

parent or close relative--from coming forward to care for an

unaccompanied child placed in an HHS shelter. In its place,

DHS and HHS signed a new Memorandum of Agreement that

promotes the safe and timely transfer of children. It keeps

safeguards designed to ensure children are unified with

properly vetted sponsors who can safely care for them while

they await immigration proceedings.

The Path Forward

We are creating joint processing centers so that children

can be placed in HHS care immediately after Border Patrol

encounters them. We are also identifying and equipping

additional facilities for HHS to shelter unaccompanied

children until they are placed with family or sponsors. These

are short-term solutions to address the surge of

unaccompanied children.

Longer term, we are working with Mexico and international

organizations to expand our new virtual platform so that

unaccompanied children can access it without having to take

the dangerous journey to our border. As mentioned, we are

expanding the Central American Minors program to permit more

children to be processed in their home countries and if

eligible, brought to the United States in a safe and orderly

way.

We are developing additional legal and safe pathways for

children and others to reach the United States. While we are

building a formal refugee program throughout the region, we

are working with Mexico, the Northern Triangle countries, and

international organizations to establish processing centers

in those countries so that individuals can be screened

through them and brought to the United States if they qualify

for relief under our humanitarian laws and other authorities.

For years, the asylum system has been badly in need of

reengineering. In addition to improving the process by which

unaccompanied children are placed with family or sponsors, we

will be issuing a new regulation shortly and taking other

measures to implement the long needed systemic reforms. We

will shorten from years to months the time it takes to

adjudicate an asylum claim while ensuring procedural

safeguards and enhancing access to counsel.

President Biden laid out a vision of a ``multi-pronged

approach toward managing migration throughout North and

Central America that reflects the Nation's highest values.''

To that end, we are working with the Departments of Health

and Human Services, Justice, and State in an all-of-

government effort to not only address the current situation

at our southwest border, but to institute longer-term

solutions to irregular migration from countries in our

hemisphere that are suffering worsening conditions. This is

powerfully exemplified by the President's goal to invest $4

billion in the Northern Triangle countries to address the

root causes of migration.

Conclusion

The situation we are currently facing at the southwest

border is a difficult one. We are tackling it. We are keeping

our borders secure, enforcing our laws, and staying true to

our values and principles. We can do so because of the

incredible talent and unwavering dedication of our workforce.

I came to this country as an infant, brought by parents who

understood the hope and promise of America. Today, young

children are arriving at our border with that same hope. We

can do this.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, as difficult as the situation is at our southern border, we are addressing it.

The Biden administration has acted, and they have made progress. They have no illusions about how hard it is, because they inherited a dismantled program. And to protect our own workforce, they have launched Operation Vaccinate our Workers, VOW, in late January.

At the beginning of the Biden administration, less than 2 percent of our frontline personnel were vaccinated. To date, more than 25 percent of our frontline personnel have been vaccinated. That is leadership. That is not avoidance of the problem that we face.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Last week, we passed a historic American Rescue Plan, which set out a vision of who we are as a nation. We are a country that can conquer this virus, a country that cares about eliminating childhood poverty, and a country that is dedicated to ensuring that

everyone--everyone, not just the rich--are able to emerge from the pandemic and do better.

The bills before us today are a continuation of this vision of a country committed to doing better for the people. Too many people in America live in fear, fear because they are not protected under the law, but these bills before us today say: ``No more.''

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act says to domestic abuse survivors: ``You are safe. You are going to be safe.''

H.J. Res. 17, which removes the deadline for the ratification of the equal rights amendment says to women: ``You are equal.'' ``We are equal.''

The Dream and Promise Act says to Dreamers: ``You, too, can have a shot at the American Dream.''

And the Farm Workforce Modernization Act tells our farm workers: ``You can do your job without fear of deportation.''

H.R. 1868 tells Americans: ``Don't worry about draconian cuts. Let's focus on recovery.''

Madam Speaker, the bills before us today will continue the Democratic Congress' work to do better by all the American people.

Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the previous question.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Chair, for 17\1/2\ years, I worked as a 911 dispatcher.

My average day consisted of handling incidents, such as coordinating police vehicle and foot pursuits, talking to suicide callers, negotiating with barricaded suspects, and talking to their victims.

One call that has stayed with me and threw me into a political world that I never wanted to be a part of, I answered a call from a little girl who was

murdered at the hands of her uncle. I was her only witness. I heard her scream. I heard her head being bashed against the wall. I heard the five shots that ultimately took her life. Her last words: ``Uncle, please don't kill me. It's not my fault.''

This work requires a lot of training and tough attitude to deal with critical emergencies. Unfortunately, the Federal Government currently classifies 911 dispatchers as clerical workers--secretaries. My amendment would finally recognize the critical work they do by reclassifying them as protective service occupations.

This provision costs nothing, zero, but it would bring 911 professionals, civilian workers--primarily single moms--the dignity that they deserve.

Mr. Chairman, I urge its passage.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, my amendment would maintain congressional oversight over certain weapons sales and ensure that dangerous weapons do not end up in the wrong hands.

Whatever our views on firearm policy may be, we should all be able to agree that putting more firearms in the wrong hands would make the world a lot more dangerous.

Since the passage of the Arms Export Control Act in 1976, the State Department has overseen licensing authority for exporting deadly weapons, supported by congressional oversight authority.

Under Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents alike, this has been the system in place, so the experts who spend their lives monitoring hotspots around the world can put U.S. national security interests first, and not profits for weapons manufacturers.

That is why many Members have expressed concern about the Trump administration's plan to change our firearm export licensing system.

Under the administration's plan, firearms and other items in categories 1, 2, and 3 of the United States Munitions List would move from the Commerce Control List. That may sound like a technical change, but it would have real world consequences.

Congress would lose oversight over sales, preventing this body from objecting to sales that could harm national security or lead to human rights violations.

We would also be taking licensing authority for exporting deadly weapons away from the State Department and giving it to the Commerce Department, without any clear evidence that Commerce has the expertise or capacity to handle this new responsibility.

This amendment would stop that plan from going forward.

To be clear, this amendment would not prevent the export of firearms. This amendment would not create any new restrictions on firearms exports.

This amendment would simply keep the status quo in place so we can focus our efforts on strengthening the current system.

When it comes to keeping firearms out of the hands of terrorists and drug cartels, we should err on the side of caution.

That is what this amendment does.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, it is true that parts and components for military equipment have been moved to the CCL. However, none of the items previously transferred from the USML to the CCL were complete weapons that would allow a soldier to aim and fire on a target.

The Obama administration did not move, or even propose to move, firearms and ammunition. They saw what happened at Newtown and knew that we needed to be cautious about these weapons.

If the administration's proposal goes through, it would be the first time that the Commerce Department was put in charge of licensing for lethal weapons designed to kill people. This is not business as usual.

Voting ``yes'' on this amendment will prevent this administration from going beyond what the Obama administration chose to do by ensuring that exports of firearms and ammunition remain under the jurisdiction of the State Department, with congressional oversight.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith).

Madam Chair, no one here is arguing against firearm exports, and no one here is trying to place new restrictions on manufacturers. What we are asking is to keep the system we have so that Congress can continue to do its job and make sure that deadly weapons don't end up in the wrong hands.

Madam Chair, I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule.

Yes, indeed, we have a responsibility to act. As Speaker Pelosi has said, we must do this for the sake of the children, and I thank her for not capitulating to the Senate demands for a blank check.

When I reflect on the number of deaths that we have seen at the border, when I reflect on the horrific conditions in facilities where children are being held in ice-cold cells with no one to care for them but a child stranger--conditions in these facilities are horrific--I ask myself: Is this the America that I came to as a young child? Is this the America that my son swore to protect when he joined the U.S. Air Force? This surely isn't the country that welcomed me as a young child from Guatemala.

But we must work toward that American ideal that we all share. We cannot simply allocate funds to agencies where we have seen numerous children die in their custody.

No blank checks.

No more torturing of babies.

No more separating infants from their mothers.

This legislation brings funds to the children that are urgently needed.

It brings more transparency to CBP and ICE and HHS, and it contains important provisions to protect children. It ensures that the emergency funding that Congress provides is spent on what it is intended for and not the President's deportation force.

So I look forward to supporting this rule, and I urge all of my colleagues to join me in doing so.

Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Quigley and Ranking Member Graves for their hard work on the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. This legislation prioritizes public safety and invests in underserved communities like the ones that I represent.

I am especially grateful to the chairman for increasing funding to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program at its highest possible level. Drug trafficking is a major challenge for my district. It brings violence and crime to our streets. It is flooding our communities and schools with harmful, illegal drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioids.

Our local law enforcement is the first line of defense. They understand what is going on in our neighborhoods, in our schools, and in our families.

What I appreciate so much about HIDTA is that it creates a real partnership, a partnership between local law enforcement, State agencies, and Federal enforcement agencies. It provides them with important resources to bring to the fight against illegal drugs. It also supports prevention and education campaigns to ensure that our children do not suffer from addiction and deadly overdoses.

On the subject of public safety, I am encouraged that this bill prevents the administration from raiding funds from the Treasury Department's asset forfeiture funds. These are funds that our local police departments can use to purchase better equipment and keep our communities safe.

Another way to strengthen public safety is by financially investing in our local communities. I am pleased that the bill rejects President Trump's proposal to cut funding for community development financial institutions by 94 percent.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the swift passage of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 436 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the Rules Committee met and reported the rule, House Resolution 436, providing for consideration of H.R. 2740, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020.

The rule provides for further consideration of H.R. 2740 under a structured rule and makes in order 115 amendments. The rule provides no further general debate.

The chair of the Appropriations Committee may also offer amendments en bloc consisting of amendments made in order by the rule and not earlier disposed of.

Finally, the rule includes one motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, it was only a few months ago that we were standing here voting to end the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States, a shutdown that hurt so many of our constituents, constituents like David Pesko, an FAA air traffic controller at Ontario Airport.

He was in escrow to purchase a home, and, without a paycheck coming in, he had to rely on his family and friends' generosity in order to make ends meet.

We owe David and the American people much more, and that is why I am especially proud of the timely introduction of these appropriations bills. It exemplifies the hard work of my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee and this majority's commitment to good governance.

Mr. Speaker, in years past, we have relied strongly on omnibus spending

bills to fund the government. But now, with the hard work done by Members on both sides of the aisle, this majority is leading us in a return to regular order.

As has often been said on this very floor, the primary job of Congress is to fund the American government and keep it open and operating. Our constituents deserve no less.

With this package under consideration today, the House will do just that with respect to 4 of the 12 spending bills.

In passing this bill, we will provide crucial funding for services across broad areas of the government and fulfill our promises to the American people. That funding includes historic investments in programs that provide opportunities for millions of people, including my constituents in the Inland Empire.

Perhaps more important than what is included in this bill is what is not included. This minibus rejects the President's draconian budget cuts that would have hurt every American, but especially women and children.

Instead, we have won increased funding for a number of important priorities.

This bill boosts biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, expands opioid abuse treatment and prevention programs, and launches new initiatives for maternal and child health.

I recently visited three health clinics in my district that provide 30,000 families with lifesaving care.

This bill provides $400 million for the Title X Family Planning Program so that everyone in the Inland Empire and across America can continue to have access to cancer screenings, STI tests, reproductive care, and other lifesaving services.

It also protects against the administration's policies that prevent a woman from making choices about her future, like when to have a child.

When women do decide to become mothers, this bill supports them by investing in working families and our children with $7.8 billion for the Childcare and Development Block Grant program.

Passing this bill will demonstrate our commitment to the ideal that all students deserve a quality, safe, and affordable education, and that commitment is realized in over $24 billion in funding for Federal Student Aid programs, almost $2 billion more than the President's insufficient request.

Just as important is this bill's acknowledgement of how far we have to go in helping underserved communities, the bill provides $917 million to assist minority-serving institutions, including $150 million for Hispanic-serving institutions like Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State San Bernardino, and UC Riverside, which prepare thousands of students in my district to be tomorrow's leaders.

Mr. Speaker, I am also happy to report that this legislation provides the funding necessary for a 3.1 percent pay raise for our servicemembers, who continue to serve our Nation around the world.

As the mother of an Air Force veteran, it is wonderful news to hear that our servicemembers are being acknowledged for the hard work that they do keeping our Nation safe, at home and abroad.

In addition to paying our servicemembers more, this bill will protect our men and women in uniform from one of the most common harms that they encounter: sexual assault.

The $38 million in additional funding for DOD'S sexual assault prevention and response programs will ensure that survivors have representation while navigating the complicated military justice process, that they will not have to wait years for a resolution--years, Mr. Speaker--as one of my constituents had to do.

This bill not only invests in our priorities at home; it advances our priorities abroad. I am particularly pleased with increased investments in certain areas, including global reproductive health and aid to Central American countries.

This bill empowers countless women who are the backbone of their families around the world by increasing funding for family planning programs, reversing the President's disastrous global gag rule, and contributing $55.5 million to the United Nations Population Fund.

Robust funding is included for counter-narcotics and law enforcement efforts in Colombia, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

This bill also ensures that the funding provided goes to the right people--the right people, Mr. Speaker--instead of the corrupt officials that undermine democracy and misuse U.S. aid. This is especially important given the recent report regarding corruption in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala and Honduras.

And, finally, the last part of this bill that I would like to highlight is what we are doing to invest in our energy and water infrastructure.

The bill rejects the President's shortsighted proposed cuts to key energy and water programs and, instead, invests $46.6 billion to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, build the next generation of clean energy technologies, and combat the urgent threat that is climate change.

This is a good bill. This is a bill that should be signed into law, and I urge my colleagues to vote for this rule so that we can get back to regular order and avoid another costly shutdown.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to remind my colleague that I also serve on the Appropriations Committee, and we had a very open and transparent process. Every subcommittee invited all Members to come before us to present their ideas or their requests to the subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee. We have also supported 95 percent of the written requests from all Members.

So to say that it was not transparent and that Members did not have an opportunity to come before and present their ideas is incorrect.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Frankel).

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is tiring to hear from so many * * * males on this floor talk about a woman's right to choose.

Mr. Speaker, if it pleases my colleague on the other side, I will withdraw my statement about sex-starved males on the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I will agree to withdraw my statement regarding----

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my statement.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I will put it in different terms. It is tiring to be here on this floor or in committee as a woman and to continue to be counseled about what types of affordable planning, whether it is family planning, conversations that rightfully I deserve to have with my own doctor.

Choosing when women want to have a family and to avoid pregnancies before they become pregnancies, it is unfortunate that that is something that continues to be denied to American women day in and day out on this floor.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, contraception for women is not something that should be debated here.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal- Allard) for a unanimous consent request.

(Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I will not. I will not yield for that purpose, and all time yielded is for the purpose of debate and debate only.

Mr. Speaker, I will not yield.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to remind my colleagues why we are here today. We are considering a bill that provides $7.97 billion in humanitarian assistance, a 3.1 percent pay raise for our troops, $1.9 billion for the Job Corps, $41.1 billion for mental health, for Alzheimer's research, HIV/AIDS, cancer research, and others.

I agree that we need to address the humanitarian situation at the border, and Democrats have been saying this for a very long time. We said so when crying toddlers were being torn apart from their mother's arms. We said so when children were being put in cages. We said so when children were being drugged. We said so when children were being sexually abused.

I visited those facilities. I saw the tragedy with my own eyes. HHS needs an influx of funds, and we cannot wait until this bill is enacted.

In the coming weeks, we will consider the administration's request for a supplemental appropriations bill. That supplemental, not the fiscal year 2020 appropriations bill, is the appropriate place to deal with this year's ORR funding. That is not just because we can't wait for the annual appropriations process to be completed; it is also because we have concerns about how ORR is managing some of those shelters.

With all the abuses that have come to light, I know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle agree with us that we need to have more oversight, additional oversight over these facilities.

Most importantly, this amendment increases and decreases the same account. It is not an actual effect. The children deserve more than a messaging amendment. They deserve better than that.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire if the gentleman has any remaining speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, while we may not agree on everything, I do want to thank my colleague from Georgia for his participation in this process. I hope we can agree that getting back to regular order is the right thing to do, not for Democrats and not for Republicans, but for the American people.

Congress cannot write a blank check and allow children on our southern border to continue to be abused while they are in our custody. We need transparency, we need accountability. Members of Congress need to be able to go and inspect these facilities without being denied entry.

On the issue of participation among Members of Congress through this process of appropriations, I want to state once again that ideas are absolutely welcome. However, the Appropriations Committee chairwoman cannot order Members to participate in the process. We can set up meetings and we can invite them to come and participate, and many did. They presented their ideas, they presented their requests for funding for their districts, and, guess what, 95 percent of those requests were agreed upon through a process of mitigating.

Now, if I was writing this appropriations bill myself, it would look very different. If my colleague from Georgia was writing this appropriations bill himself, it would look very different. He and I both know that. But our commitment is not to our personal agendas. Our commitment is to the rule of law, is to democracy, and is to the American people, our constituents, who sent us here to represent them.

The underlying legislation is a strong bill that is the result of good, hard work by Members of both sides of the aisle. It is about time that the House of Representatives got back to doing the business of the people in a timely manner.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.