Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, my flight to Washington, D.C. was delayed this evening. As a result, I was absent in the House Chamber for the first vote in the series, roll call vote 130, on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted aye on roll call vote 130.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of our wonderful public schools across the country.

Every child, Mr. Speaker, has the right to pursue opportunity, and through our public schools our country makes that opportunity a reality every day. Education imparts practical and invaluable skills that kids carry with them for the rest of their lives, teaches our children to become engaged members of our society and our democracy, and public education is a great equalizer, having remained a means of mobility for generations of families. I know this firsthand, Mr. Speaker. I came to the United States when I was 16 years old by myself to go to college and take advantage of all the opportunities that an American education had to offer.

For much of our Nation's history, our public schools have served this essential purpose of helping students and their families to thrive. And public schools, which serve all students, regardless of who they are, are the only institutions where the vast majority of our kids can access these benefits.

It is those schools and the teachers, professionals, and staff who serve in them--and I use ``serve'' very deliberately, because it is a service to be in our public schools, where teachers could earn so much more elsewhere but choose to be in the public schools because that is the place where they can help the most kids. It is those schools and those amazing successes in my own district that I want to celebrate today.

Monserrat is a teacher at Concord International Elementary School where almost 80 percent of the students are from low-income families and more than half are English language learners. Last year, Monserrat created a writing lesson using both Spanish and English. Before this lesson, most of the kids wrote at a kindergarten or a first grade level, but by the end of that lesson, every single one of her students was able to write a complex complete sentence. And over the next year Monserrat's second graders became ambassadors for Concord International, giving tours of their school in both Spanish and English. It is clear that her investment in her students opened doors to achievement for these Seattle public school students.

Another story comes from Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Washington. Emily, a leader on her school's robotics team, wasn't interested in STEM until she got to high school because no one encouraged her to pursue it when she was younger. It wasn't until she learned about the lack of representation of women and girls in STEM that she realized that something needed to change. And last summer, Emily launched the Full STEAM Ahead Club, an all girls' mentoring group that encourages middle school girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. The youth mentors showed girls how important it is to engage in STEM fields early, and they work every day to expand girls' perceptions of what they can achieve, which is to say, anything.

And at Evergreen High School, a youth-led group called FEEST is working to combat food injustice in public schools. One of their campaigns recently made waves when youth leaders created the first student advisory committee with the district's nutrition services director. They provided the director with feedback on how to increase fresh and culturally relevant food items on school menus. And last month, they successfully got one of the recipes they created onto the district menu.

Through their work, these young people have developed relationships with their classmates, with decisionmakers at the school district level, and they are building power and using their own innate intelligence about the issues that matter to create change in their schools and communities.

Mr. Speaker, I share these stories today to highlight how critical public schools are to my constituents and all Members. And as Members of Congress, we have a responsibility to ensure that we continue supporting our public schools. For example, public money should go to public schools. It should not be used to bankroll private entities and corporations that don't deliver excellent, inclusive, equitable instruction.

Our public schools are under attack right now from the Secretary of Education and the Trump administration. Our public schools and public money should not be used to generate a profit. And teachers, Mr. Speaker, should be teaching and not carrying guns to try to protect their students.

As tens of thousands of students across our country and here in the capital have rallied and called for attention to safety in our public schools by passing sensible gun reform legislation, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, this body has yet to address the issue of guns and safety in our schools and in our classrooms.

And if we want to support education for our kids, we should make sure that they have the right to live. That is what we are talking about: kids who go to sleep at night wondering if they are going to cower in the corners of their classrooms the next day because somebody has a gun because Congress has not done our job.

The Trump administration and Secretary DeVos have demonstrated that they want to make sure that the money is what prevails. And, Mr. Speaker, today as we honor our public schools, we also need to honor the responsibility of Congress to protect our students and protect our public education.

Mr. Speaker, today is the 53rd anniversary of Bloody Sunday. This is the day that our incredible colleague, Congressman John Lewis, and Dr. Martin Luther King led 600 marchers from Selma to Montgomery. They didn't get very far. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were viciously attacked by Alabama State Troopers wielding clubs and were beaten and left bloodied.

Last weekend, I had the incredible honor of joining Congressman John Lewis and a bipartisan group of Members in a pilgrimage to Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis. I had many epiphanies on that trip, but perhaps two were most profound. First, that determined and disciplined nonviolent resistance works. Back then, 53 years ago, it led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. And, second, that we in this body have a critical responsibility to ensure that we move forward and not backward on voting rights.

Our trip was amazing. One of the best experiences of my life, actually. I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join next year. We heard incredible stories of abiding love, even for adversaries that had left people without much dignity. Newer activists of all ages are reimagining these same nonviolent methods for the world that we are in today.

Today, as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, let us recommit ourselves to restoring and strengthening the Voting Rights Act and making sure that we continue to protect these critical rights in our country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Raskin for his leadership on the Progressive Caucus and for his leadership on the Judiciary Committee. Nobody understands the Constitution better than a constitutional law professor.

I appreciate you bringing the reality of the situation to us. Nobody is talking about trying to take guns away from everybody. We are talking about making sure that we have safety with anybody who owns a gun and that we have the ability to check any of the dangerous contexts for which guns can be used. We have a responsibility, really, to protect our country, to protect our young people, and to do something for all of the families that have been affected by gun violence.

In addition to all of the things that he mentioned, we need to consider gun violence as a public health crisis. That is what it is. And when we look around at the millions of people who are dying from gun violence, you think about this, and you think about the way in which we treated vehicle fatalities as a public health crisis and we instituted laws around seatbelts, and the way we thought about smoking as a public health crisis and we instituted laws around smoking. But, in order to do that, we had to first do research into those areas and figure out what were the best ways for us to move forward as a country in preventing those kinds of fatalities that are preventable.

Unfortunately, what happened in this country is that Congressman Dickey, some time ago, passed an amendment called the Dickey amendment. While it didn't explicitly prohibit research into gun violence, it all but did that.

There have now been many, many calls to repeal the Dickey amendment. Interestingly, Congressman Dickey passed away last year, last April. Before he died, in 2012, he actually came out on the record and said that he wished he hadn't been so reactionary, that he wished he hadn't passed that amendment, because he realized that it did lead to a chilling effect on research into gun safety. The way that it did that is, when they passed the amendment, it essentially said that no Federal funds should be used for advocacy, but, at the same time, the amount of funds that were used for research were cut by exactly that amount.

So this is not about advocacy; this is about how do we protect our country, how do we treat this as what it is: a public health crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I am here to say that I am really proud of my home State of Washington. Just yesterday, we became the latest State to ban bump stocks. And we also had a senate committee pass a bill to mandate that people purchasing rifles go through the same background checks required for pistol purchases and that we increase the legal age to buy rifles to 21.

So, in less than a month, my home State has finally advanced meaningful proposals to prevent gun violence. I wish I could say that we were doing that here in Congress. I truly believe that there are Members on both sides of the aisle who would like to pass sensible gun safety regulations and legislation.

Unfortunately, I feel like we are being held hostage not by the reasons that we all came to Congress to get sensible things done that protect our constituencies, but by lobbying interests in the National Rifle Association; and every time there is a small movement towards progress, somehow they come in and, essentially, squash those efforts.

In October of last year, Congress stood by after 58 people were killed and over 500 injured at a music festival in Las Vegas. One of my constituent's, Zach Elmore, sister was shot. Luckily, she was one of the lucky ones who survived the shooting.

I read a letter on the floor that Zach had read to me--it was an incredibly moving letter--about his deep anger and frustration at Congress for not protecting his sister and millions like her, those who were not as lucky as she was.

In November, Congress failed to act, after 26 people were killed and 20 injured at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas; and then a few weeks ago, on Valentine's Day, as we all know, 14 students and 3 teachers were killed, and 15 injured, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Already, in 2018 alone, there have been 2,581 deaths because of gun violence, including those precious lives that were lost at Parkland; 105 of those deaths were children ages 11 and under.

Let me just say that one more time: 105 of the 2,581 deaths, this year alone, were children ages 11 and under.

As Members of Congress, we need to make sure our kids are safe.

I am so grateful to the energy and the commitment and the passion and the smarts and the organizing strength of the Parkland students, because, as you say, they were not first graders who couldn't organize for themselves. They are students who are soon going to be voters. And they understand that they can't vote right now, but they also understand that they do have a voice, their parents' vote, and they can make sure that people across the country understand that we have a responsibility to them, to our children, to the people across the country who are afraid of sending their kids to school.

That should be our number one priority is keeping our kids safe. Our kids should be able to walk into schools knowing that they can fully focus on learning. Our parents shouldn't have to wonder whether their kids will come home from school.

My heart goes out to the families that lost someone in the Parkland shooting and all of the shootings across the country. I am proud to stand alongside incredible young people who wasted no time to demand action and justice for their friends and teachers. They are determined, they are brave, they are unafraid, and they are depending on us to pass meaningful legislation to end gun violence.

One of the interesting things that I heard them say when I met with them is: We are not looking for the whole package. We just want to see steps along the way that show us that it is possible for us, on a bipartisan basis, to make some progress on this critical issue, to make sure that no child, no parent, no community, ever again, has to experience the unspeakable tragedy of another school shooting.

I am tired of seeing men, women, and children die because the gun lobby puts profit over people. That is not, as Mr. Raskin so eloquently said, what our Founders intended by the right to bear arms. Support for stricter measures to prevent gun violence is at an all-time

high, on a bipartisan basis. Eighty-seven percent of gun owners and 74 percent of NRA members support commonsense solutions like criminal background checks.

I have a plea for gun owners across the country. My husband used to be a hunter. We had guns at home. And I understand the need for people to have guns for recreational purposes, to ensure their own safety. But this is not about that. It is not about taking guns away from people, who legitimately exercise responsible behavior. It is about making sure that we have the protections in place so that no more children, no more people die.

So here is my plea for gun owners: urge the NRA to represent your views, show them that you mean business, maybe even consider terminating your NRA membership if the organization continues to advocate against these kinds of sensible gun reforms.

Here in Congress, I hope that we act now. I really truly believe--and I have talked to some of my Republican colleagues who also want to do something about this. They don't want to be hamstrung. They want to move legislation forward, but not by attaching legislation that actually loosens gun restrictions into legislation that helps us.

We need just one or two pieces of commonsense gun reform legislation so that we can show these young people that we are responding to their pleas: no more shootings in schools, no more shootings in places of worship, no more shootings in our streets, no more mass shootings, period.

Let's show these students and students at schools across the country that we are not afraid to protect them. Let's show them that we can choose our country over the gun lobby. Let's stand with our kids. Let's pass commonsense gun violence prevention legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I join Mr. Raskin in hoping that in the Judiciary Committee, which is the committee of record for this issue, that we can at least have some hearings on this.

What is so problematic about having a hearing on public health research into gun violence? What is so problematic about having a hearing on multiple pieces of legislation that have bipartisan support? Isn't that what we are supposed to do? I know that is why I came here.

I am a first term Member, and I know our speaker is as well, and I believe that we have much more in common than we do that divides us.

We don't have to necessarily tackle every piece of this, but let's make some substantial progress forward together, and let's show our students that we will protect them.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman again for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I'm proud today to join in the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the City of Burien in Washington's seventh congressional district.

The story of Burien's incorporation begins with a desire for the people to have their voices heard. Nestled between the peaceful waters of the Puget Sound and the bustle of Sea-Tac Airport, Burien's residents felt underrepresented as impacted communities of the airport. Through determination and organizing, the residents were able to reclaim their own agency and set forth on a path to incorporation and representation. The City's vision commits to, ``A vibrant and creative community, where the residents embrace diversity, celebrate arts and culture, promote vitality, and treasure the environment.''

This vision has guided Burien long before its incorporation. Driven by family and immigrant owned businesses, Burien is ever expanding and innovating new opportunities for its people. Together, long time Burien residents, Americans and immigrants from places like Vietnam and Mexico form a tight-knit city that bustles with traditional foods, celebrations, and neighborly spirit. These communities have laid a foundation for Burien to thrive.

Burien's investment in a just and sustainable city for all has been critical in the fight against climate change and will continue to be critical as we transition to a future powered by renewable energy. Individuals such as Burien's first mayor Dr. Arun Jhaveri have been leading Burien in climate solutions like solar centering a commitment to clean air, clean water and healthy communities.

With over 50,000 residents and over 50 different languages spoken, Burien brings people together across difference to celebrate what we have in common, whether basking in the glow of giant illuminated flower sculptures at Dottie Harper Park for Arts-A-Glow, dancing in the streets for Pride Fest, or eating strawberry shortcake while checking out vintage cars at Strawberry Days.

Mr. Speaker, my hope for Burien is to continue growing with compassion, love and understanding. To harness the power of collective action and grow in ways that supports their vision for a brighter, more inclusive, and sustainable future. With the election of Jimmy Matta, Burien's first Latino mayor and this passionate City Council, will lead a vision of unity and strength for Burien's community. Together this community will tackle challenges with grace and courage ensuring that we leave the world a little better for our youth. A legacy that we can celebrate with pride.

I again offer congratulations to all in the City of Burien on their 25th anniversary and wish them the best for your next 25 years.

Mr. Speaker, here are the facts: the first shutdown in modern history when one party has controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House; the fifth Republican shutdown in 30 years; and four continuing resolutions since September.

Four Republicans joined Democrats in voting ``no'' on the House bill last week because it is not a solution.

Mr. Speaker, this Trump shutdown is no way to govern. Republicans had plenty of time to pass CHIP reauthorization, but instead, they want to use it for hostage taking. They have the will to act on the GOP tax scam to benefit corporations and the wealthiest, but not on pensions for working families.

And they certainly had no interest in a solution for DREAMers, an issue that 87 percent of the American people agree on, and Republicans right here would vote with Democrats to pass a solution to.

There are two bipartisan bills in the House to protect DREAMers and one in the Senate, but this isn't about real solutions. Republicans just want to continue to use immigrants as a scapegoat and end legal immigration as we know it.

Mr. Speaker, as an immigrant myself, I am tired of being called the worst of the worst. I am tired of hearing Mexicans be called rapists or Africans called vulgarities that I cannot even repeat on this floor.

Mr. Speaker, let's end the shutdown now with real solutions for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 4872, the End the Shutdown Act of 2018, a continuing resolution that would immediately reopen the government through Tuesday while negotiations continue on a budget agreement that adheres to parity and on other critical issues.

Madam Speaker, this bill is yet another inflammatory and unnecessary attack on women's rights, namely, a woman's constitutionally protected right to an abortion.

Of course we support proper care for infants who are born. Those of us who are mothers know that we want what is best for our children, but that is not what this bill is about.

This so-called Born-Alive bill seeks to further politicize abortion and criminalize providers. It is clearly unnecessary because doctors are already bound by guidelines that require them to provide emergency care when facing life-threatening circumstances.

Abortion care providers, including Planned Parenthood, are highly skilled and highly professional. They do not deserve to be criminalized. This is pure political theater.

Instead of ensuring that women have access to reproductive healthcare, the Republican majority is attempting to interfere with patients' relationships with their doctors, a provider's ability to practice medicine, and our constitutionally protected right to make choices about our own bodies.

And let us be clear: the impact of this will fall disproportionately on low-income and rural women and women of color.

And let's also be clear about this: Roe v. Wade gave women the right to access an abortion, and 7 in 10 Americans support that right across rural and urban America.

The vast majority on both sides of the aisle see through these cynical attempts to strip women's access to healthcare from the 20-week and 6-week abortion bans to these attempts to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. Our focus, Madam Speaker, should be on ensuring that every person in America has access to comprehensive healthcare, rather than harmful bills that strip healthcare or the Republican obsession with undermining the Affordable Care Act, which the American people have already said a loud ``no'' to.

We have so much real work to do: passing a real budget, passing a clean Dream Act, and fighting climate change.

Madam Speaker, I reject this bill. Let's do that real work instead.

Mr. Speaker, we are back again for the third continuing resolution this fiscal year. This makes no sense, and it is no way to govern. And let me be clear and repeat what my colleagues have said: Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, but they just can't seem to pass a real budget.

If Republicans want Democratic votes, they need to have our priorities reflected in that budget--priorities like protecting the American Dream for 1.5 million DACA recipients with the Dream Act, thousands of young people who fear deportation because of the cruel termination of the DACA program; priorities like community health centers and protecting the retirement savings of working families; priorities like addressing the opioid epidemic that ravages our communities; priorities like infrastructure, and education, and real healthcare protections for everyone.

So if the Republican majority--yes, the majority--shuts down the government because they won't look to get our Democratic priorities addressed, then they will have to answer to communities across the country who are looking for a permanent budget, not something that kicks the can down the road for another few weeks.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a real solution. We will not substitute one family's pain for another's gain. This is about the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. It is about the soul of our country, and Americans deserve a better deal.

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would effectively delay until 2025 the implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule that will help communities finally realize the goals of the Fair Housing Act.

This year is the 50th anniversary of that landmark law, which prohibits housing discrimination, and the AFFH rule aims to ensure our communities have the tools necessary to comply with it. Despite the law's passage 50 years ago, segregation still plagues our communities, resulting in grave inequities in all aspects of life. This is unacceptable.

In 2015, after years of public input, the Obama administration finalized the rule, taking the first meaningful steps to empower communities to develop solutions that better address the housing needs of all of their residents.

The AFFH rule reaffirms the strongly held American belief that your zip code should not determine your access to opportunity. But by delaying the rule, HUD is making it clear that equity and fair housing is not a priority of this administration.

Housing equity is not a choice--it's the law.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this bill that does nothing to stop the unconstitutional collection of Americans' international communications without first obtaining a warrant, and it codifies the practice of indiscriminately sweeping up massive amounts of domestic communications.

What makes us different from those who would harm us is our commitment to our constitutional values: that we are innocent until proven guilty and that our government must obtain a warrant and show probable cause that there is a legitimate reason to listen in on our conversations.

This bill will further expose people to warrantless prosecutions or detention and deportation in cases that have absolutely no connection whatsoever to national security.

I hope we reject this bill, unless we approve the Amash-Lofgren amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the upcoming holiday remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As a lifelong activist fighting for immigrants, civil and human rights, and now as a Member of Congress, Dr. King has been a deep and central inspiration throughout my life. His work has helped me to make possible the path that I have taken, from being a 16-year-old immigrant girl who came to this country by herself for college, to serving, now, as the first Indian-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives--and it is the courage and the fight of Dr. King that made my journey possible.

I knew of Dr. King first because of his connection to Mahatma Gandhi, a great leader from my own birth country of India. Like Gandhi, Dr. King was a once-in-a-generation leader. Like Gandhi, the problems that Dr. King tackled were once seen as insurmountable problems, institutional barriers of race and class that seemed as if, if taken on, would topple society as we knew it, tall walls of tradition and practice that kept our society segregated and divided.

But that did not stop him from speaking out, organizing, and leading a growing movement that reminded the leaders of our country of the very dream that made America possible: that all men and women were created equal and that we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin.

Dr. King's gift was in his unique ability to bring truth, compassion, and justice together for a better future and to remind us of how much we share even across our differences. He followed Gandhi's principles of nonviolent resistance, also known as satyagraha: ``satya'' meaning truth, and ``graha'' meaning adherence to truth.

Satyagraha then meant insistence on truth, and that is what Dr. King preached and acted upon: truth about ending segregation and discrimination, truth about ending the war in Vietnam, truth about lifting up sanitation workers and ending poverty, truth, ultimately, that it is love and not hate that builds our character and our collective society.

If Dr. King were here with us today, he would call on us to have faith in our fight for justice and to substitute courage for caution. He would call on us to work passionately and unrelentingly for the very vision of our country that inspires so many around the world, for that more perfect Union that we know is still ahead of us, for that society that remembers that we are all better off when we are all better off.

Dr. King would remind us that justice is what love looks like in public. He would call on us to move into that plane of higher education, that plane of moral consciousness where we simply cannot stand by as injustice occurs around us.

He would call on us to address economic inequality by raising the minimum wage and enacting real tax reform whose benefits accrue to the masses and not to the top 1 percent and the wealthiest corporations.

Dr. King would call on us to pass the Dream Act and support the futures of 1.5 million young people across the country. He would call on us to expand and support the Affordable Care Act and healthcare for everyone so that no one is one healthcare crisis away from bankruptcy.

Our work is still to fight for justice and build that beloved community where each of us has a place to stand regardless of the color of our skin or where we live or how much money we have in our pockets, and in this beloved community, we would tackle the legacies of racism and implicit bias that we all carry with us with courage and with fortitude. We would work together to build that community that inspires us and to leave a world to our children that makes us proud, and, most importantly, we operate always from a place of generosity and abundance rather than fear and scarcity.

From that jail cell in Alabama, Dr. King wrote: ``We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,'' or, as the great civil rights leader Reverend Joseph Lowery once said to me during the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride: ``We may have come over on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now.''

To make a difference, to truly serve the people, it only takes courage and coming together as a collective, across the aisle, across rural and urban, across Black, White, and Brown. Dr. King showed us what that really looks like, and he died because he was compelled to stand for making a reality from a dream of what was possible only in a country as great as the United States of America.

Today, as we remember and honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we remember, too, that if we are courageous, if we put people over politics, our actions have the power to change lives, to push that moral arc of the universe more quickly towards justice. As Dr. King said: ``We must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the President's cruel decision to terminate temporary protected status for El Salvador, hurting 200,000 people and their 193,000 U.S. citizen children.

Mr. Speaker, many of these people have lived alongside us as friends and neighbors for decades. It is unfathomable that the administration would deport people back to one of the most dangerous parts of the world.

When it comes to the rights and lives of immigrants, we cannot be silent. Defending temporary protected status to protect those fleeing war, disease, and natural disasters is a priority that crosses party lines and political barriers. That is why, last month, I joined my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to introduce the ASPIRE-TPS Act that would help bring justice for immigrants who are deeply woven into the fabric of our society. It is apparent that congressional action is necessary now more than ever to protect people with TPS.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help us advance bipartisan legislation to protect the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on these protections.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to say no to this outrageous tax bill and do what is right for the American people.

This bill gives more riches to the richest Republican donors, at the expense of middle class families and the poorest. This bill does what the American people already said no to, which is, it dismantles the Affordable Care Act. It throws 13 million Americans off of their healthcare and increases premiums for millions more.

This tax bill eliminates most of the State and local tax deduction and shortchanges so many communities across the Nation, slashing education funding by as much as $152 billion over the next decade.

This tax heist runs up the deficit by $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion and triggers automatic spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and services that children and seniors depend on.

This tax scam gives 80 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent. That is a war on any idea of opportunity and income equality in this country. It is not tax reform, and I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart. Yesterday, my home State and my home district suffered a great tragedy. Amtrak Cascades 501, traveling from Seattle to Portland, Oregon, carrying 80 passengers and seven crewmembers, derailed near Olympia, Washington.

Early reports are that at least three passengers have died and nearly 100 people needed hospital care. My heart and prayers go out to all those families as they deal with this tragedy.

Our office stands ready to help any constituents in any way that we can. For up-to-date information, friends and family on Amtrak Cascades 501 can also call 1-800-523-9101.

I also want to thank our first responders for their skill and their courage. This could have been far worse without them.

But as Amtrak, the National Transportation Safety Board, and State and local officials help on the scene, there are still so many questions, like: Why was the train going 50 miles over the speed limit as it rounded the curve? Why was the train not using positive train control technology to slow the train down? How, Mr. Speaker, can we be sure that this never happens again?

Mr. Speaker, I will do everything I can to ensure that the investigation and our affected families have the resources and the support necessary to get the facts in the coming days and months.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize West Seattle High School students Will Rasmussen and Aidan Day as the winners of Washington's Seventh District Congressional App Challenge.

Will and Aidan developed an app that helps students and teachers maximize learning time in the classroom by automating the checking of attendance, which often takes several minutes of class. Will's and Aidan's design uses RFID technology to let students quickly tag into class using a keycard similar to ORCA cards, our region's transit access cards which allow passengers to pay their bus and train fare by swiping their cards.

Our diverse group of App Challenge judges praised Will's and Aidan's ingenuity. Microsoft enterprise specialist Hammad Rajjoub called it ``a great idea to bring to life,'' because ``time is the most important asset we all have.'' Other judges suggested scaling it up for use in other school districts.

Will's and Aidan's winning project is a model for all of us to use our creativity, knowledge, and ultimately the technology we create to benefit the greater good and improve our communities.

Congratulations, Will and Aidan.