Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Robert J. Duke Short, U.S. Senate Official, on the occasion of his 89th birthday and to wish him a joyous birthday celebration.

Mr. RJ Short was born in Moultrie, Georgia on March 31, 1934. He graduated from North Georgia College in 1956, with a Bachelor of Science degree. Upon graduating from college, he worked as an industrial engineer before going back to school. He then attended Palmer College, in Port Orange, Florida afterward, to become a chiropractor. Mr. Short then joined the U.S. Army where he courageously served his country from 1957 to 1961.

After spending five years in the Army serving our great country, he joined the Department of Treasury for 2 years before becoming a Senior investigator for the Senate subcommittee on Internal Security.

Mr. Short quickly rose through the ranks to become the Republican staff director and Chief investigator for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, in which he served for 12 years.

In 1989, Mr. Short served 15 years as Chief of Staff to Senator Strom Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina. He was also a Counselor to the Chief Judge of the United States of America Military Court Appeals.

Duke and his wife, Denise, happily married on May 23, 1992. Mr. Short has risen above many personal challenges and has been a great public servant for his country. He is the epidemy of the American success story. Duke has also been decorated with many awards and achievements for his hard work throughout the years. Mr. Short has been listed as a noteworthy and honorable U.S. Senate official by Marquis Who's Who. He is a recipient of the United Service Organizations Appreciation award, Employees Support of Guard and Reserve Appreciation award, named one of the fifty most Powerful Staffers in Congress by Roll Call, honorary judge of The United States of America Claims Court, and Palmer Academy Chiropractic fellow. In 2002, Governor James Hodge gave Mr. Short the Order of the Palmetto, the state of South Carolina's highest honor. Robert J. Duke Short has set the gold standard for his years of dedicated service and commitment which will long be remembered and for that we all join in saying thank you, and wish him a happy birthday.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Houchin for bringing this important bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise and fully support H.R. 5. Folks, this bill could be called the parents bill of rights transparency bill because that is all it is, transparent.

As I look to the balcony, I see a lot of young people, middle-aged people, people with children and maybe grandchildren. Nowhere in this bill is it banning any books. Nowhere.

As my good friend from Texas yesterday pointed out during rules debate, my friends on the other side of the aisle had one book. I see they have a stack of books now. Let me see if they will give you an example of books that you can pull up on the internet that are taught in public schools all over the country.

Let me see if they are going to recognize the book ``Beyond Magenta.'' It documents stories on LGBTQ youth. It has very sexually explicit passages: I was sexually active from the time I was 6.

I won't go on to say the other things that they have. Are you going to highlight these books?

Another book, ``This Book Is Gay,'' discusses orgies and kinky sex acts. Are you going to highlight that?

``Gender Queer'' is a novel, and it had a debate in the libraries. It had explicit images of oral sex. Are you going to highlight that book?

Let's take ``Juliet Takes a Breath.'' This book discusses a woman's journey coming out as a lesbian and contains graphic descriptions of sexual encounters.

Folks, I could go on and on. It lists I don't know how many different books.

Mr. Speaker, I ask parents if this is something they want their children to read? Is this something that encourages academics and allows that child to compete in the 21st century? Is this a book that promotes what their child needs to know?

It is sad that this bill is even needed, but it is estimated that between kindergarten and the 12th grade, a student will spend over 15,000 hours at school. That is 15,000 hours when parents are trusting other people to do what is in the best interest of their child.

It is good that America's parents are taking a stand now. They are pushing back on these kinds of books that I don't think they are going to mention.

I have 4 children and 17 grandchildren. We got a notice a week ago where the parents are upset because the school is allowing boys to go into-- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. Speaker, bottom line: The school was allowing males to go into female bathrooms. This is intolerable.

This bill is needed. It gives parents the control, and it gives parents the right to know what their child is being taught.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the dedicated service and call to the ministry of Dr. Barry Dagenhart who has served as a pastor for over 40 years.

Dr. Dagenhart grew up in Statesville, North Carolina, and was spiritually nurtured in the New Sterling Associate Reformed Presbyterian (A.R.P.) Church.

Graduating in 1979, he studied economics at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. He also holds a master of divinity degree and a doctor of ministry degree from Erskine Theological Seminary. While at Erskine, he met his loving wife, Sarah Lynn Richie, of Fairfield, Virginia, and they were married on June 26 of 1982.

Dr. Dagenhart had the honor and privilege of serving on various boards and agencies throughout the A.R.P. denomination. He served on the board of stewardship and A.R.P. Foundation, as well as the Erskine College and Seminary Board of Trustees. He was also blessed to serve as the vice moderator of the A.R.P. General Synod.

He currently serves on the Bonclarken Board of Trustees, the conference center for the A.R.P. denomination. In addition to his service at the Synod level, he also has served on various commissions and committees on the Presbytery level in First Presbytery, Second Presbytery, and, most recently, Catawba Presbytery where he served as moderator from 2013 to 2014.

Not only has Dr. Dagenhart generously served on various boards and committees in his community, he also enjoyed being able to use his call to the gospel ministry to impact youth, adults, and individuals with special needs at various week-long summer camps at Bonclarken located in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

Throughout his decades of ministry, Dr. Dagenhart has frequently served as camp minister for Camp Joy, a camp for those affected by physical and mental disabilities. Dr. Dagenhart's caring and generous heart is what makes him stand out as an honorable citizen and follower of Jesus Christ, sacrificing his time to help those around him.

Dr. Dagenhart has an encouraging and loving family--his wife Sarah, son Jamey, and daughter Rachel--who support him in walking his path of placing others above himself.

Dr. Barry Dagenhart has set the gold standard for decades of dedicated service and commitment to his congregation and to the community. He will long be remembered for that.

Madam Speaker, we all join in saying thank you and Godspeed in his well-deserved years of retirement.

I thank the gentleman for hosting this all important subject, really, on our entire country and the state of it.

Last night, Americans tuned in to the State of the Union. The State of the Union is a very important address for the American people for a lot of different reasons. One, the history of it.

Since 1790, 233 years that the President has addressed a body that has all three branches of government, the executive branch, the House, the Supreme Court, the cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all were here last night.

Now, what is the purpose of the State of the Union? The State of the Union is where the leader of the free world gives a vision for America. They give their solutions to problems facing America. They give answers to questions that have been asked by the American people.

What we saw last night from President Biden was a total embarrassment. What we saw last night was a President who was more eager to criticize this great Nation than he was to heal our wounds.

Here are my questions: Mr. Biden, why did you not offer solutions to these problems?

Why did you not offer solutions to the invasion of our border to the tune of five million illegals that are crossing our border every day?

Why do you not believe that a nation is not a nation unless it has borders?

Mr. Biden, why did you not address the drugs as a result of the invasion at the border, the drugs, fentanyl, primarily coming from China to Mexico, back into our Nation that are killing thousands of people, 100,000 last year?

Why do you not care about that?

Mr. Biden, why did you not address our gas and oil problems?

Why did you shut the Keystone pipeline?

Why do you like foreign oil of OPEC nations, many who don't like us, example, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran? Why do you like their oil better than American oil?

Mr. President, why did you not address our national debt?

Why did you not have solutions to what you are going to propose in a budget that you should have already produced that you have not done?

Mr. President, why have you not addressed our crime problem? You cannot turn on any TV station without seeing the blue sirens, the deaths of many innocent people, the rampant crime that is up double digits in every city of America. Instead, you chose to criticize our great police force.

Why did you not address the problem that we are all having with the police shortages that exist in this very Capitol?

Why did you not address, Mr. President, our national security threat from China?

Why did you not address the balloon that was allowed to go over our great country for 8 days?

Why did you shoot it over the Atlantic Ocean and not the Pacific?

Why did you not shoot it over Alaska?

Why did you not shoot it down or allow it to be shot down over Montana, which the worst that could have happened would be a deer and an antelope that may have been hurt from a falling balloon?

Mr. President, why did you not answer why you left $80 billion of our finest military equipment in Afghanistan? Why did you turn that over to our enemies?

Why did you close Bagram, the Bagram base, our military base, which is strategically located?

Why did you not make sure every American was out before you pulled the military out?

Mr. President, these are just a few of the questions that you are directly responsible for, and the reason you did not answer them is because your position is you are causing them and it matters not to you.

Last night, it became apparent we have a President who not only refuses to acknowledge the realities that we face today, but you are doubling down on it. The spending that you are now placing on the American taxpayer will bankrupt this country, and you are perfectly content to move along with this insane spending that this country cannot take.

We are at the end of the runway with the spending that you are putting on the American people. The taxpayers deserve better. The American people deserve better.

Now I am happy to join my Republican colleagues; we are going to come up with a budget. We are going to put this country back on a path of financial security. Financial security is national security, and I am happy to say that we are finally willing to address it.

No longer can we turn a blind eye, and no longer can we allow the leader of the free world to inflict the pain that he is inflicting on America.

I am proud of my Republican colleagues to address this; and I will say this. I will say one good thing this President did in his speech. He united all true conservatives to fight the policies that are destroying this Nation and that he is willing to happen on his watch.

I thank the gentleman for doing this.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and I appreciate him for putting this together.

Mr. Speaker, as citizens of the United States of America, we are privileged to have a constitutional right of free speech. This right entitles us to the ability to speak, but not the right to be heard.

Favoring liberal voices over conservative ones, while pretending to be neutral, is both hypocritical and profoundly unfair. However, no law compels private companies to be fair and evenhanded arbiters of information.

Censorship of conservatives online and by Big Tech has become a commonly used mechanism by the left to silence conservatives. Silencing people because you simply disagree with them dangerously infringes on the rights of free speech as protected in the First Amendment of our Constitution.

When I learned that DIRECTV dropped Newsmax from its channels, I was outraged. Newsmax is the fourth highest-rated cable news channel and is watched by 25 million Americans.

Everyone should be allowed to choose what news outlets they want to hear from, especially with the dominance of the democratic media. I frequently reach a wide audience of my constituency to communicate the ongoings of Congress and can personally speak to how large the audience is based on the feedback I receive from my constituents in South Carolina's Fifth District and from other States.

I am glad that House Republicans will hold hearings on this matter to get to the bottom of the blatant censorship of conservative views so that we will know, once and for all, if DIRECTV has been selectively targeting Newsmax.

DIRECTV should be held accountable for its actions, and I fully stand behind conservatives having their voices heard.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision.

A year ago, the Supreme Court has decided to allow the States to handle the issue of abortion themselves, ending more than 49 years of heartbreaking Federal precedent.

When we celebrate pro-life victories like this, we should not do so in a way that causes emotional pain to those women who have had an abortion; nor should we back down from being unapologetically pro-life. I believe that abortion as a matter of convenience or everyday birth control is flatout wrong.

I would like to recognize the contributions of pro-life pregnancy centers throughout our Nation that offer compassionate support and care to women as they choose to become mothers and bring life into this world.

The Palmetto Women's Center in my district is focused on uniting hope, health, and healing to women as they bring children into the world. The center is working to lower the number of abortions in South Carolina and supporting women as they choose life for their children. I applaud the work that pro-life centers are doing, and I will continue to be an advocate for all that they do.

Although giving the power on how to handle the issues of abortion back to the States through the favorable Dobbs ruling is a big win, it does not mean the work of the pro-life movement is done. Action at the State and local level will only grow in importance in the coming years. I will continue to be a voice for the voiceless.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to condemn the violent attacks on the pro-life organizations and facilities in the wake of the Dobbs leak and subsequent overruling of Roe v. Wade.

There has been very little accountability for the leaked draft opinion and ensuing violent intimidation against pro-life activists. That is why this resolution is so necessary. It makes it crystal clear that violence, property damage, threats, and intimidation tactics must be condemned, and they must have consequences for those who do this violence.

I am proud of the work of the Palmetto Women's Center in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in my district, as it does tremendous work.

The Biden administration needs to use all appropriate law enforcement mechanisms necessary to uphold public safety and protect the rights of these pro-life groups and facilities. Just because this administration doesn't agree with protecting the unborn doesn't mean they should turn a blind eye to violence and intimidation.

Mr. Speaker, it is a new day in Congress.

Mr. McGovern, you mentioned the 72-hour rule was put in by you and the Democrats. Why didn't you enforce it? You didn't. We were forced to vote on bills like the omnibus that was 4,155 pages long.

The American people are tired of it. Last week was a great week. You saw democracy at its best.

Guess what? We were off 24 weeks during the last session. We can take however many days it is to debate something that the American people should see.

The great part about this rules package is it restores financial sanity. That is why I am proud to support, along with Speaker McCarthy, this new rules package that implements fiscal and budgetary restraints on Congress. Provisions included are huge wins for the American people for everybody to see.

We were given the assurance that this package will do the job, and we could not continue the downward trajectory that your party has put the American people on over the last 2 years and last 4 years.

Now is the time that we deal with what is the growing insanity. I am just thankful that we are here.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the dedicated service and enlightened research of Dr. Kashyap Patel, the chief executive officer of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates.

Dr. Patel was born and grew up in Gujarat state, India, where his father taught him about the great activist Mahatma Gandhi. During this time, he learned life's guiding principles: You walk with people. You don't walk over them; you don't talk over them. Be a voice for the voiceless, marginalized, and underprivileged citizens.

In 1996, Dr. Patel immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom on an EB-1 as an individual of extraordinary ability due to his achievements in cancer research. He became a naturalized citizen in 2002.

Upon moving to the United States, he completed his residency at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York, primarily serving a low-income minority population.

As the CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, a practice with eight providers, Dr. Patel and his colleagues have never turned away any patients with cancer in more than two decades, irrespective of ability to pay.

This is all due to his 501(c)(3) foundation, No One Left Alone, or NOLA, which supports uninsured cancer patients. All proceeds from his book, ``Between Life and Death,'' also go to the NOLA Foundation.

Dr. Patel has an encouraging and loving family. His wife, Alpa, his son, Maharshi, and his daughter-in-law, Hirangi, support him in walking his path of placing others above himself.

In 2022, Dr. Patel was recognized for his work in ``The ASCO Post Narratives in Oncology,'' an annual special issue commemorating oncology leaders from across the world. He is the first community oncologist to receive this distinction.

Just a few of his other awards and outstanding achievements include: president of the Community Oncology Alliance; Living the Mission Award NCODA 2021; Lifetime Achievement Award, SCOS, for contributions to cancer; 2022 nominee of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at VCOM in Spartanburg, South Carolina; medical director of the Internal Oncology Network for diversity, equity, and inclusivity; and associate editor in chief at AJMC's ``Evidence-Based Oncology.''

Dr. Kashyap Patel has truly set the gold standard for decades of dedicated service and commitment to his patients and to the community, for which he will long be remembered. For that, we all join in saying a big thank-you.

In the words of Winston Churchill, there is a time when doing your best is

not enough; you must do what is required. Dr. Patel has done what is required to serve his patients and live a lifetime of dedicated service.

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

I rise in total support of S. 2607. It is a bill that will award a Congressional Gold Medal to the former hostages of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1981.

Mr. Speaker, on November 4, 1979, Iranian students in Iran's capital city, Tehran, stormed the American Embassy, trapping more than 50 American workers within the embassy grounds. This violent act was carried out to declare a break from Iran's past and put an end to the perceived American interference in the region.

The response by the Carter administration at the onset was limited to, one, asset freezes; and two, blockading the shipment of goods to Iran. There was fear that anything more would encourage the students to destroy the embassy and harm the hostages.

I am sure we all remember Walter Cronkite ending his nightly program reporting the number of days the hostages were held captive, a daily reminder of those who were still trapped.

During this time, the hostages were subjected to intense physical and psychological torture, but their spirit never wavered. Those held captive showed extraordinary courage by continually engaging in acts of resistance against their captors, such as by refusing to sign condemnations of the United States despite the gross violations of their human rights.

This infamous incident in American history lasted 444 days, and it is important that we continue to remember the bravery shown by those courageous Americans.

S. 2607 will honor the captured United States diplomats, military personnel, and civilians with the recognition that they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I wholeheartedly support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it as well. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will say, this is the least we can do for these American heroes, what they sacrificed, the abuse they took. This is such a worthy cause.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Major General (Ret.) Tom Mullikin, PhD, JD and the SC7 Team for successful deployment of the Smart Reef Project. This project increased integrated real time environmental observations and advanced modeling supporting an array of beneficial applications. A secondary focus was on technology development to enable cost effective distributed observing.

The Smart Reef Initiative advanced numerous goals of the South Carolina Floodwater Commission recommendations: data collection to advance modeling for predicting and engineering of coastal environments to deal with issues of sea level rise and flooding; exploring the utility of artificial reefs to potentially be designed to effect coastal beach erosion while also supporting recreational fisheries; and, data collection for similar ideas of ``living shorelines'' such as oyster reef restoration projects to help mitigate marsh erosion in estuaries as well as the potential to employ further up the watershed.

The Smart Reef system adds data and facilitates real-time data feeds into the Coastal Carolina University Center's interactively coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-hydrologic modeling system to improve the advanced model applications to help inform discussions about tropical storm impacts (e.g., flooding, and storm surge) and eventually broader pressures and threats to our coastal environmental and economies. The data also supports broad research interests related to the growing of reef system interactions with waves and currents as well as a wide range of natural resource management concerns.

The SC7 Team Expedition along with the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor, Coastal Carolina University, University of South Carolina, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Force Blue, Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina Office of Resiliency, South Carolina Department of Veterans Affairs, Toadfish and other private sector partners successfully overcame rough seas to deploy the Smart Reef technology to protect the Palmetto State. A special thanks to my friend MG Tom Mullikin for his continued and tireless efforts to protect South Carolina's beautiful environment.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of Mr. William F. Thornton on his 80th birthday. Born on October 1, 1942 in Oakland, California to Mr. Frederick Lyle and Mrs. Evelyn Lenore Thornton, Mr. Thornton left home to live and work with his aunt and uncle at their dairy farm at the age of 13.

On November 2, 1966, Mr. Thorton enlisted in the Army at the age of 23. He served as a combat medic for 21 months in Vietnam and was later stationed in Germany, where he remained for the next 2 years.

Later, Mr. Thornton was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas at their medical training center. He was then sent to Apalachicola, Florida to take part in weapons testing for helicopters.

In January 1967, Mr. Thornton was awarded the Silver Star, the Army's third highest award for valor. Mr. Thornton was cited for heroism

while serving as a medic. When his unit was hit by intense hostile fire and sustained several causalities, Mr. Thornton was called forward to administer first aid to two seriously wounded soldiers. He crawled forward while exposed to oppressive enemy fire and successfully administered medical treatment to his comrades.

Throughout his career, Mr. Thornton's courage saved the lives of countless soldiers and inspired his comrades.

ln 1967, he was discharged and returned to live in Apalachicola, Florida where he worked as a seafood broker.

In 1988, he met his wife, Giannina Redaelli Thornton and married a year later. Together, they raised 3 children and relocated to Rock Hill, South Carolina in 2004. I congratulate Mr. William F. Thornton and his entire family on his 80th birthday celebration and I thank him for his years of dedicated service to this country and his community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding achievement of a very special church, Bethesda Presbyterian Church, located in Camden, South Carolina.

Bethesda Presbyterian Church was established before the American Revolutionary War. Its first sanctuary was destroyed during that war, and two more were built in 1790 and 1806. The sanctuary present today was designed by Robert Mills.

The edifice is more classical than some of his later work and is one of the few surviving ecclesiastical designs. The sanctuary, completed over 200 years ago in 1822, is the work of Mills' maturing architecture, strongly influenced by Jeffersonian classicism.

In front of the sanctuary is a monument that is dedicated to the memory of Baron DeKalb, a Continental Army soldier killed in 1780 at the Battle of Camden. In 1985, the church and the monument were declared national historic landmarks.

Bethesda Presbyterian Church's mission is: ``To know, love, glorify, and serve our Lord God.'' The church provides a strong sense of community, fellowship, and worship as the members walk in their faith journey during both the joyous times and challenging times. I know personally that their members experience tremendous personal and spiritual growth.

I am pleased to recognize Bethesda Presbyterian as an outstanding church faithfully serving the Camden community and proudly serving as a historic landmark in the Fifth District of South Carolina. May God continue to bless this church and its congregation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Richard E. Lewis's ninetieth birthday.

Born in Sedalia, Missouri in 1932, Mr. Lewis has lived a full and vibrant life for the last ninety years. His father, J.D. Perry Lewis, built the first automobile west of the Mississippi River in 1883. With the automotive business in Dick's blood, he graduated from General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan and later moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where he worked for the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors. During this time, Dick and his beautiful wife Darla fell in love with the Lake Wylie area. He retired in 1987, and the couple built a home in River Hills.

Following his retirement from General Motors, Dick began serving with Dick Keffer Automotive and helped establish the Keffer Management Company Foundation. In 1990, Dick was named Executive Director of the Greater Charlotte Automobile Dealer Association. He grew association membership from forty dealers to over 100 until his retirement in 2010.

Dick also founded the Charlotte International Auto Show, which remains one of the largest automobiles shows in the Southeast. The Auto Show raises money for charities in the Charlotte area and has donated over 7 million dollars to local charities since its inception.

In addition to his automotive business success, Dick has a passion for sparking synergy between people and groups and is always on the hunt for new projects, especially those that help his community. He has been an active member of the River Hills/Lake Wylie Lions Club for over forty years, during which he served as President of the Club for numerous years and received the Melvin Jones Award and other accolades in recognition of his service and involvement. Dick was instrumental in helping form the River Hills/Lake Wylie Lions Club Charitable Foundation, which provides ongoing support to local charities. He is also involved with the Charlotte Rescue Mission, which provides faith- based recovery programs to help those struggling with the disease of addiction.

Dick Lewis has lived a remarkable life full of success and service. On behalf of the Fifth District of South Carolina, it is my sincere pleasure to wish Dick a happy 90th birthday. May the next 90 be even better.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding work of hotel employees and the contributions of these hard-working men and women who provide critical service, welcoming guests at hotels across the country, and ensuring that travel is possible. I express my support for the designation of September 1, 2022, as National Hotel Employee Day.

It is true that hotel workers are a vital part of the American economy; they are crucial to enabling travel ranging from family vacations to business meetings.

Hotel workers also served as frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring other first responders and healthcare workers had a clean and comfortable place to stay while performing their duties. More importantly, nearly two million hotel workers across the country are driving the hotel industry's recovery and helping to rebuild their communities from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hotel industry and the AHLA Foundation provide opportunities for training and advancement for hotel workers across the industry.

I concur that September 1, 2022 would be an appropriate date to designate as National Hotel Employee Day for all the reasons above, and more.