Floor Statements

Madam Chair, I want to thank Chairman Calvert along with our friend and neighbor, Congressman Cook, on this issue which is, quite frankly, a matter of survival for two communities in my district.

I submitted an amendment to this Appropriations bill to ensure the city of Banning and the community of Banning Heights can continue to receive water from a conveyance flume that they have relied on for over 100 years. The water from the flume provides 100 percent of the water for the community of Banning Heights and approximately 30 percent of the water for the city of Banning.

This isn't a small matter for these communities. In fact, I understand that during times when Banning Heights hadn't received water from the flume, the city of Banning has had to use temporary means to deliver an emergency supply of water to them.

This shouldn't even be an issue. The two communities have an undisputed water right and a historic right-of-way to maintain the flume that brings the water to the community. The flume was previously used by Southern California Edison under a hydroelectric permit with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For more than a decade, Edison has been in the process of decommissioning this permit, and the city of Banning and Banning Heights are simply seeking to ensure that the flume can be repaired and maintained and continues to deliver water.

Earlier this month, the Forest Service issued a letter stating that they would require the inclusion of new instream flows as a contingency of the issuance of a special use permit just to allow the city to make repairs to the flume. This requirement would mean that in an average year, the two communities would receive no water from the flume on more than 100 days, I repeat, no water for nearly one-third of the year.

Additionally, during periods of drought, the Forest Service estimates that the communities could go more than 50 consecutive days during the summer months without water.

This is simply unacceptable.

While my amendment will not be debated on the floor today, I will continue to work with the Forest Service to resolve this situation in a way that protects the water rights of Banning and Banning Heights and makes sure that any new instream flows do not take away water from communities that need it.

Madam Chair, I thank Chairman Calvert again for his attention to this. I ask the gentleman for his commitment to work with me to resolve this critical issue for my constituents.

Mr. Chairman, I rise as the designee of Congressman Polis, and I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this bipartisan amendment with my colleagues Representatives Polis, King, and Renacci to support the brave men and women who serve as volunteer firefighters.

This commonsense amendment would add an additional $2 million for volunteer fire assistance grants. These grants provide matching funds to local and rural volunteer fire departments to assist with training and the purchase of communications and safety equipment.

California experienced one of the worst wildfire seasons in history last year, and this year is shaping up to be no different. Volunteer firefighters will provide nearly 80 percent of the initial defense of homes, businesses, and communities in the face of these fires before reinforcement arrives.

In my district, where we are under the constant threat of wildfire, departments such as Idyllwild Fire Protection District and the Riverside County Fire Department have benefited from the VFA grant program. These departments provide fire protection services to dozens of rural communities in my district that are at a heightened risk of wildfire due to the sustained drought and heat California is experiencing.

The volunteer firefighters who serve Idyllwild routinely overcome significant communications and topographical challenges. Grant programs,

like volunteer fire assistance grants, help them respond quickly and effectively to fire emergencies.

Throughout the rest of my district, interim Riverside Fire Chief Daniel Talbot has done an excellent job leading the department and preparing for what is already an intense fire season. This week alone, several new fires have sprung up as triple-digit temperatures continue to create a tinderbox across the Western United States. Images of blackened cars and houses reduced to their foundations are already far too common, images we will, unfortunately, only continue to see more of.

Despite this constant and recurrent threat, we still fail to treat fires like the devastating natural disasters that they are. The damage caused by wildfires in California, Colorado, and other States has been heartbreaking, and yet we still continue to underfund mitigation, suppression, and prevention efforts for these disasters.

Any additional assistance we can provide to those on the front lines to keep our communities safe is our social responsibility to protect the common good, especially when volunteers risk their lives to save our lives without pay.

Many of these departments who benefit from the VFA program operate in rural towns on shoestring budgets, so an additional $2 million will go a long way to helping them purchase critical extra equipment.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan amendment to give our firefighters the equipment and training they need to keep the public safe.

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

Mr. Chairman, I certainly appreciate and thank my colleague, who has given his time in fighting fires in his capacity.

I thank my colleagues, as well as the chairman and the ranking members for their work on this bipartisan bill.

Mr. Chairman, once again, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan and commonsense amendment to support the volunteer firefighters who protect our communities, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this week marks the 49th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, where, on June 28, 1969, a group of bar patrons led by transgender women of color began to fight for LGBTQ equality.

Over nearly 50 years, the LGBTQ community has celebrated many historic victories. In fact, just yesterday, we celebrated the third anniversary of marriage equality becoming the law of the land nationwide.

However, while we celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month, it is important to remember we still have a long way to go. In most States, LGBTQ individuals can still get kicked out of their housing, be refused service from restaurants and other businesses, or lose their jobs simply for being who they are.

The Equality Act would end this injustice by extending civil rights protections to LGBTQ individuals nationwide. I am a proud sponsor of the Equality Act and urge Speaker Ryan to bring this commonsense bill to the House floor for a vote

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mr. Mike Stutz on his retirement as General Manager of KESQ, CBS Local 2, and KUNA Noticias at Gulf California Broadcast Company in Thousand Palms, California.

During his esteemed career, Mr. Stutz always sought the truth throughout his accomplished career in journalism. He has overseen newsrooms in cities across the country--in St. Louis, Missouri; Jacksonville, Florida; Denver, Colorado; and San Diego, California. In his most recent position, he oversaw television and radio news stations across the Coachella Valley, directing the operations of diverse and bilingual news departments that inform my constituents and connect them with their communities.

Along the way, Mr. Stutz has won many national awards for excellence in journalism, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence and a National Headline Award. His success is a testament to his trust in his reporters, commitment to holding power accountable, and above all, his dedication to the thousands of viewers who have looked to his newsrooms to stay informed about the issues and events that matter most.

Mr. Stutz is also a cancer survivor, and since winning his battle against the disease, he has served on the Board of the Leadership, Council of the American Cancer Society in Palm Springs. He has dedicated himself to his community in service to this and other organizations, serving on the Boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley, the FIND Food Bank, and the N H & Frances C. Berger Foundation.

Mr. Stutz's generosity to his community and tenacity as a reporter have brought light to the lives of so many in our community. In retirement, I am confident he will continue to share his wisdom--as well as spend some well-deserved time with his wife Ellen, three sons Tim, Teddy, and Andy, and five grandchildren.

On behalf of the thousands of Coachella Valley residents who have come to rely on the products of his journalistic leadership, I congratulate Mr. Mike Stutz on reaching this milestone, and I wish him a long and happy retirement.

Mr. Speaker, as an emergency medicine physician, I know firsthand what this devastating opioid crisis does to families, to individuals, to children, to parents. I have taken care of many who have come in overdosed, blue in the face, not breathing, many of which I have been resuscitated successfully and a few tragic losses along the way.

I know that many of them rely on being able to get the treatment whenever we are able to convince them to get treatment, but one of the biggest concerns that they have is: How much is this going to cost?

Many of them rely on Medicaid to be able to take advantage of some of the rehabilitation and the medication-assisted treatments that are offered to them. But, unfortunately, many of them, being uninsured, are unable to do so, and so then they repeat the cycle of abuse and misuse, and unfortunately, again, they present themselves overdosed in the emergency department.

I have an article here that sheds light on the importance of Medicaid. I bring Medicaid up because I feel like we are taking a few good steps forward in this opioid crisis, but we are missing the big picture when we have to defend Medicaid over and over again. Up to 45 percent of opioid-addicted patients rely on Medicaid to get their opioid rehab or misuse treatments to get back on steady footing.

There is an article here that I brought by Alana Sharp, et al., that was published in the May 2018 American Journal of Public Health, entitled: ``Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Access to Opioid Analgesic Medications and Medication-Assisted Treatment.''

Basically, by using Medicaid enrollment and reimbursement data from 2011 to 2016 in all States, they evaluated prescribing patterns of opioids and the three FDA-approved medications used in treating opioid use disorders by using two statistical models--I won't bore you with which ones they used--and they found that although opioid prescribing for Medicaid enrollees increased overall, they observed no difference between expansion and nonexpansion. These are States that expanded Medicaid.

By contrast, per enrollee rates of buprenorphine and naltrexone prescribed increased more than 200 percent after States expanded eligibility, meaning that States that expanded Medicaid increased medication-assisted treatments for opioid misuse disorders by 200 percent. That means it works. That means when people get Medicaid, they use their Medicaid insurance to help get off of their dependency on opioids.

In the States that did not expand Medicaid, only less than 50 percent expansion of use.

Mr. Speaker, the States that didn't expand their Medicaid enrollment, you saw that there continued to be a disparity of patients between those States and States that expanded their Medicaid in their ability to seek treatment.

So when we attempt to cut Medicaid in order to pay for the tax breaks we gave millionaires and billionaires, when we continue down that terrible path--or, I should say, government continues down that terrible path--to repeal the Medicaid expansion, which we must protect, then we are hurting patients. We are not providing them with tools that they need to get access to treatment.

The other big picture here is that mental health and emergency care payments are part of the essential health benefits. We have just passed experiences where we had to defend keeping these essential health benefits within the Affordable Care Act from being repealed.

We know that those patients who go to the emergency department at their last wits' end or that are suffering from overdose or severe side effects from misuse of the opioid medication, then they won't be covered if we repeal those essential health benefits.

And then, finally, having an addiction is a chronic condition. It is a mental health disorder with addiction characteristics, and this can be considered a preexisting illness.

We have States that are trying to repeal this through litigation. And when the government decides not to defend those protections for people with preexisting illnesses, they basically agree with those that want to repeal it and allow and facilitate the case to repeal those protections for preexisting illnesses. If that happens and if they are successful in doing so, that means that insurance companies can deny those who are addicted to opioids the insurance.

So I just want to keep the big picture in mind as we go forward that taking 2 steps forward doesn't justify taking 10 steps backwards.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 5605, the Advancing High Quality Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders in Medicare Act.

I introduced the bill to give older Americans across our Nation more access to comprehensive addiction treatment services through Medicare. Seniors are frequently prescribed opioids to treat chronic illnesses with constant, lasting pain issues, such as arthritis and other issues related to their musculoskeletal system.

The frequency and chronicity of this prescribing puts them at risk of developing a dependency, as seniors are more physiologically vulnerable to experiencing dependency and overdose effects. That is because as you get older your physiology changes, which makes seniors less able to deal with the side effects of opioids and more prone to respiratory depression, the leading cause of opioid-related death.

When you consider that roughly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received an opioid prescription in 2016, with over half a million receiving a high dose, it makes sense that the hospitalization rate related to opioid misuse in patients over 65 has increased by 500 percent in the past two decades.

Despite these heightened risk factors, many seniors still do not have access to comprehensive, evidence-based treatment under traditional Medicare, and we cannot leave our seniors behind as we work to address this national crisis. Our seniors deserve access to the gold standard of care for treating opioid addiction. It is that simple.

My bill, H.R. 5605, the Advancing High Quality Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders in Medicare Act, will open doors for older Americans to get that gold standard of care by strengthening Medicare for our seniors. My bill does this by creating an alternative payment model demonstration program through Medicare for comprehensive treatment and care programs for opioid misuse disorder and will establish quality measures that reward comprehensive treatment programs that actually produce the best patient outcomes.

It works by giving providers and institutions that choose to participate a case management payment, which they would use to provide wraparound services for Medicare beneficiaries. Teams with an addiction specialist would also receive a higher incentive. Seniors participating in this program will receive medication-assisted treatment alongside psychosocial support, such as psychotherapy, treatment planning, and appropriate social services.

This coordinated care approach is considered the gold standard of care, and if we want to successfully address this crisis, we need to ensure that individuals have access to treatments that will result in successful outcomes. I have seen firsthand the importance of this with my own patients in the emergency department. Getting medication- assisted treatment is important, and the success of that treatment is enhanced if that patient is also participating in psychotherapy and receiving the appropriate social services.

That is why this demo is supported by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the California Medical Association, among others. It is critical that all Americans, regardless of their age or how much money they make, have access to high quality, comprehensive treatment. My bill will strengthen Medicare so we can help seniors address opioid dependence by ensuring they get the care they need.

I also want to thank Ranking Member Pallone and Chairman Walden for their support of this legislation and of our seniors.

Also included in my bill is H.R. 3528, the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act, introduced by Representative Katherine Clark from Massachusetts, with the assistance of Representative Mullin.

I want to thank Representative Clark for her hard work to address this crisis by expanding the use of technology to reduce fraudulent prescribing.

Her legislation will direct providers to use electronic prescribing for controlled substances technology for Medicare part D by 2021 to cut down on fraud and overprescribing. Already, seven States have implemented this system in an effort to combat this crisis and keep illicit opioids off the streets.

According to the Department of Justice, most fraudulent opioid prescriptions are obtained either through doctor shopping, forged prescriptions, or theft, all of which can be addressed by an effective electronic prescribing for controlled substances system.

As amended, my bill, H.R. 5605, will improve care for our seniors and help get illegally obtained opioids off the streets.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to raise awareness about a silent killer that has quickly grown into a public health crisis endangering the lives of millions of Americans.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, known as NASH, is a metabolic disease that, if left untreated, can lead to non-alcoholic cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer, and even death. The disease is estimated to affect between 3 and 12 percent of all American adults--including as many as 70,000 of my constituents.

There are only a few physicians in Congress, and although our constituencies differ, we share a profound and personal connection to the individuals we serve. We also share an understanding that when a threat of this magnitude arises, we must take proactive steps to effectively diagnose and treat the disease.

The most difficult part is that NASH is ``silent''; it does not present symptoms until late in the disease's progression. Most Americans with NASH in my district and across the country don't even know they have it.

There is no approved cure for NASH and no alternative to an invasive and painful liver biopsy to diagnose the disease, and researchers have yet to get a full understanding of what causes it. With more research and professional awareness, we can start to improve early detection and halt disease progression while waiting for approved effective treatments.

This past Tuesday, June 12, marked the first-ever International NASH Day. Medical experts in seven cities across the U.S. joined over 20 international experts in the field of NASH to educate potential patients and other interested stakeholders to increase awareness and improve health outcomes.

I ask my colleagues--physician or not--to remain vigilant and work to improve access to information about this disease, ensure access to healthcare, and provide adequate funding levels for research and care. It is the right prescription for a better, stronger, and healthier America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mr. Kent Braithwaite on his retirement after 39 years of service as a teacher, counselor, and role model for the students of Coachella Valley High School.

During his tenure, Mr. Braithwaite has left an indelible impression on countless students. As a social studies and English teacher, an adviser, and a mentor, he has helped countless students prepare for and pursue a college education. More importantly, he instilled in his students a lifelong love of learning.

Many years ago, I was one of those students in Mr. Braithwaite's English class. I like to think I tried my best in every class, but Mr. Braithwaite was the kind of teacher who not only taught, but inspired his students to work even harder. He challenged my classmates and me every day, pushing us to write clearly, read carefully, and question the beliefs and assumptions we brought to his classroom.

In the Coachella Valley, the region I grew up in and have the privilege to represent, there are still far too many young people who drop out of high school before they can graduate or pursue a higher education. Teachers like Mr. Braithwaite are helping to show these students that they can achieve their dreams by pursuing their education.

During his nearly four decades of teaching, Mr. Braithwaite has served his fellow teachers and the Coachella Valley Unified School District in various leadership positions and received prestigious recognitions from the California State Assembly, the House of Representatives, and many local advocacy organizations for his excellence in teaching. Most importantly, he has the gratitude of thousands of Coachella Valley High School alumni.

Mr. Braithwaite is joining his wife and fellow teacher, Jennifer Braithwaite, for a well-earned retirement. Over her 38-year career, Mrs. Braithwaite invited Holocaust survivors and Vietnam veterans to speak to her classes, gave out scholarships to her students, and helped bring the Advanced Placement program to Coachella Valley High School. Like her husband, Mrs. Braithwaite has always gone above and beyond to serve her students.

On behalf of all the students whose lives Mr. and Mrs. Braithwaite have touched, I would like to offer my sincerest thanks and congratulate them both on their inspiring and meaningful careers.

Congratulating Rafael Barboza on His Retirement

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mr. Rafael Barboza on his retirement after more than 30 years of service as a guidance counselor for the students of Coachella Valley High School.

For more than 30 years, Mr. Barboza has spearheaded Coachella Valley High School's efforts to make attending college a reality, leading college application workshops and connecting students with financial aid and scholarship opportunities. He has influenced countless students' lives, and our entire community is grateful for his dedication and commitment to the next generation of leaders.

When I was a student at Coachella Valley High School, my goal was to one day attend medical school and become a doctor. That dream often felt very far away, and at times I wondered whether it might come true. If it wasn't for the support and encouragement of my teachers and counselors, especially Mr. Barboza, I do not know whether I would have achieved my lifelong dream of becoming a physician.

Mr. Barboza was my guidance counselor and mentor, as he has been for thousands of students over the years. Few people have had such a positive impact on my life. Mr. Barboza drove me to become a better student and a better person. He taught me the value of hard work, integrity, and perseverance.

Like me, many students in my congressional district aspire to pursue a higher education but often struggle to afford the application fees, tuition, textbooks, and many other expenses. When the time came for me to apply for college and money was tight at home, Mr. Barboza paid for my application, as I am sure he has done for others. Without his generosity, the first step in my journey towards becoming a doctor would never have been possible.

Mr. Barboza has also lent his voice to local and national conversations about the rising cost of higher education. As someone on the front lines of our public school system, I hope he will continue to enrich this discussion with his insights.

In recognition of the positive impact he has had on my life and the lives of countless students and alumni of Coachella Valley High School, it was my privilege to host Mr. Barboza as my guest for President Barack Obama's 2015 State of the Union Address. Now, on the eve of his retirement, I am honored to congratulate my counselor and mentor, Mr. Rafael Barboza, on his well-earned retirement and wish him health and happiness in this new chapter of life.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mr. Rafael Barboza on his retirement after more than 30 years of service as a guidance counselor for the students of Coachella Valley High School.

For more than 30 years, Mr. Barboza has spearheaded Coachella Valley High School's efforts to make attending college a reality, leading college application workshops and connecting students with financial aid and scholarship opportunities. He has influenced countless students' lives, and our entire community is grateful for his dedication and commitment to the next generation of leaders.

When I was a student at Coachella Valley High, my goal was to one day attend medical school and become a doctor. That dream often felt very far away, and at times, I wondered whether it might just be a fantasy. If it wasn't for the support and encouragement of my teachers and counselors, especially Mr. Barboza, I do not know whether I would have achieved my lifelong dream of becoming a physician.

Mr. Barboza was my guidance counselor and mentor, as he has been for thousands of Coachella students over the years. Few people have had such a positive impact on my life. Mr. Barboza drove me to become a better student and a better person. He taught me the value of hard work, integrity, and perseverance.

Like myself, many students in my congressional district aspire to pursue a higher education, but often struggle to afford the application fees, tuition, textbooks, and many other expenses. When the time came for me to apply for college, and money was tight at home, Mr. Barboza paid for my application, as I'm sure he has done for others. Without his generosity, the first step in my journey towards becoming a doctor would never have been possible.

Mr. Barboza has also lent his voice to local and national conversations about the rising cost of higher education. As someone on the front lines of our public school system, I hope he will continue to enrich this discussion with his insights.

In recognition of the positive impact he has had on my life, and the lives of countless students and alumni of Coachella Valley High School, it was my privilege to host Mr. Barboza as my guest for President Barack Obama's 2015 State of the Union Address.

Now, on the eve of his retirement, I am honored to congratulate my counselor and mentor, Mr. Rafael Barboza, on his well-earned retirement and wish him health and happiness in this new chapter of life.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mr. Kent Braithwaite on his retirement after 39 years of service as a teacher, counselor, and role model for the students of Coachella Valley High School.

During his tenure, Mr. Braithwaite has left an indelible impression on countless students. As a social studies and English teacher, an advisor, and a mentor, he has helped countless students prepare for and pursue a college education. More importantly, he instilled in his students a lifelong love of learning.

Many years ago, I was one of those students in Mr. Braithwaite's English class. I like to think I tried my best in every class--but Mr. Braithwaite was the kind of teacher who not only taught, but inspired his students to work even harder. He challenged my classmates and me every day, pushing us to write clearly, read carefully, and question the beliefs and assumptions we brought to his classroom.

In the Coachella Valley--the region I grew up in and have the privilege to represent--there are still far too many young people who drop out of school before they can graduate or pursue a higher education. Teachers like Mr. Braithwaite are helping to show these students that they can achieve their dreams by pursuing their education.

During his nearly four decades of teaching, Mr. Braithwaite has served his fellow teachers

and the Coachella Valley Unified School District in various leadership positions, and received prestigious recognitions from the California State Assembly, the House of Representatives, and many local advocacy organizations for his excellence in teaching. Most importantly, he has the gratitude of thousands of Coachella Valley High School alumni.

Mr. Braithwaite is joining his wife and fellow teacher, Jennifer Braithwaite, for a well-earned retirement. Over her 38-year career, Mrs. Braithwaite invited Holocaust survivors and Vietnam veterans to speak to her classes, gave out scholarships to her students, and helped bring the Advanced Placement program to Coachella Valley High School. Like her husband, Mrs. Braithwaite has always gone above and beyond to serve her students.

On behalf of all the students whose lives Mr. and Mrs. Braithwaite have touched, I would like to offer my sincerest thanks and congratulations to them both on their inspiring and meaningful careers.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer an amendment to H.R. 5895 to provide $2 million in additional critical funding for Bureau of Reclamation environmental restoration projects that will benefit our public health within a region such as the Salton Sea in my congressional district in southern California.

The Bureau of Reclamation is responsible for managing, developing, and restoring our Nation's waters to support the interests of the American people, and there are few interests more important than protecting the public's health.

To demonstrate why projects that support the public's health are so important, I want to talk about the Salton Sea, the largest inland body of water in the entire State of California.

Located in Riverside and Imperial Counties, the Salton Sea was once the jewel of the southern California desert, drawing thousands of tourists, birdwatchers, and other outdoors and water sports enthusiasts.

Having grown up near the Salton Sea, I have wonderful memories of going fishing there with my father and picnicking with my family.

However, for decades now, deteriorating water quality and reduced water inflows have made the declining lake bed of the Salton Sea a public health danger to the residents in the surrounding area. If we do not take decisive action now, the sea will harm the public's health in cities all across southern California.

You see, as the sea dries and the water level recedes, the exposed lake bed releases windblown contaminants containing selenium, arsenic, and pesticides. These are in small particulate matter small enough to go through your lungs and straight into your bloodstream.

Exposure to these contaminants has been shown to increase the number and severity of asthma attacks, decrease the growth and development of lung function in school-age children, and increase the risk of cardiac disease, heart attacks, and mortality in adults.

In fact, children in this underserved area already have the highest pediatric asthma hospitalization rate in the entire State of California. So adding this insult and adding this exposure is going to be devastating for the surrounding pediatric population.

As an emergency medicine doctor, I care deeply about the health of our communities and have seen firsthand the effects of poor air quality in these underserved communities. So the public health danger to families and children from the Salton Sea is very real and must be addressed at all levels of government--local, State, and Federal--and through public-private partnerships. We are making progress.

I also appreciate the committee's strong support of the memorandum of understanding that I helped broker between the Department of the Interior and the State of California to support the State's mitigation plan by including report language in the underlying bill.

In addition to the Salton Sea, funding for the Bureau of Reclamation supports restoration projects across the Western United States that protect public health. For example, in Congressman Ken Calvert's district which neighbors my own district, the Bureau of Reclamation helped to mitigate public health concerns and water quality issues at Lake Elsinore.

Lake Elsinore, like the Salton Sea, has faced chronic challenges relating to water level, water quality, and associated public health concerns. However, a collaboration between the city of Lake Elsinore, Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, Riverside County, and the Bureau of Reclamation came together to finally address these challenges. Together they built levees to contain the lake, established a supply of recycled water to help maintain water levels, and installed aerators to prevent fish die-offs by keeping oxygen levels high.

So it can work. Lake Elsinore now supports many local businesses and has a flourishing tourism industry. Most importantly, the water is now safer for residents to enjoy all the benefits the lake has to offer, including swimming and water sports.

There are countless other examples of Bureau of Reclamation restoration projects helping to protect public health. That is why I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and provide an additional $2 million to these types of projects. That is why, if we know that this can work in other areas with pending public health crises, it can and will work in my district with the Salton Sea if they are so fortunate to receive some grant moneys and work in a collaborative way like Lake Elsinore. The health of the American people must be put above politics.

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

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the chairman for not opposing. I also want to thank the ranking member for yielding me the time and allowing all of this to proceed.

On behalf of those children with pediatric asthma, on behalf of our seniors with COPD, chronic bronchitis, and on behalf of the doctors who work in emergency departments, I truly want to bring this awareness to everybody here that this is a pending public health nightmare catastrophe that, if we do nothing, will cost up to $9 billion to address the effects--the public health and the economic effects--that this will do. So putting money in the front end is going to save money in the back end, and it is going to prevent the bad health of our pediatric and our senior populations.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the leadership for both listening, understanding, and proceeding with this amendment.

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

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment to H.R. 5895 to provide $1 million in additional critical funding for the VA to conduct educational outreach to veterans about the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry.

Our military uses burn pits to eliminate tons of waste, including chemicals, plastics, medical waste, human waste, computers--you name it--creating giant plumes of black smoke containing carcinogens, particulate matter, and other toxins.

For years, the Department of Defense used burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, even while recognizing that exposure to burn pits may pose a health risk to our troops since about the late 1970s. Now veterans all across the country--young veterans in their twenties and thirties-- are developing rare and severe pulmonary diseases, cancers, and autoimmune diseases despite living healthy lifestyles, being healthy enough to be sent to war, and not having any other risk factors.

This may bring up thoughts of Agent Orange that our Vietnam veterans faced. Burn pits exposure and the negative health outcomes are being described by our veterans as our modern-day Agent Orange, and we must learn from our past mistakes and act now.

For more than a decade, veterans exposed to burn pits and their families have been given the runaround to get the care they have earned and deserve and to have their concerns taken seriously. My commonsense amendment would provide additional funding for the VA to conduct an educational outreach campaign on the burn pits registry to ensure more veterans register.

The purpose of the registry is to collect data from veterans and servicemembers exposed to burn pits to highlight health patterns and create cohorts for research on the health effects of exposure.

Mr. Chair, 3.7 million veterans are eligible to enroll in the VA burn pit registry; yet, after 4 years, only 144,000 veterans have enrolled. That is only a dismal less than 4 percent enrollment rate. It is clear that more outreach and education must be done to improve awareness about the registry.

These additional funds will also improve health outcomes by raising awareness for our veterans and their physicians so they can be on the lookout for subtle changes in their health, including respiratory issues, early signs of cancer, or even autoimmune diseases.

We have a responsibility to protect our men and women in uniform and veterans from the harmful effects of exposure to burn pits. If there is a high enough suspicion of a severe enough consequence, then we need to act now.

The four things we need to do are:

One, stop our troops' exposure to burn pits out on the battlefield;

Two, outreach to doctors and veterans about the illnesses they may face so they can be vigilant and seek and get the appropriate care;

Three, give veterans and servicemembers the treatment that they have earned and deserve; and

Four, simultaneously do the research that is needed to understand the full scope of the dangers associated with exposure to burn pits.

By investing in this educational campaign about the burn pits registry, my amendment will help tackle two of these fronts by improving outreach to veterans and providing the VA with a larger study sample size to help determine the full scope of the negative health effects linked to exposure.

I urge my colleagues, on behalf of Jennifer Kepner, a 39-year-old mother of two who died of pancreatic cancer after being exposed to burn pits, with no other risk factors, in Balad Air Force Base, I urge my colleagues, on behalf of all the others who have died of cancer at a young age and left behind families and those who have acquired pulmonary fibrosis and permanent disabilities who are now requiring oxygen, unable to work, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and to take concrete action to help those veterans who have been exposed to burn pits. The health of our veterans must be put above bureaucracy. We must help them get the answers and the healthcare services that they need and deserve now.

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

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the chairman and the ranking member and all those who are in support of this specific amendment, who will put our veterans above this bureaucracy and give them the care that they need by expanding their access to this burn pit registry. I want to, from the bottom of my heart, say thank you.

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

Mr. Chairman, as the designee of Mr. Carbajal, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment with my good friend from Santa Barbara, California, Congressman Salud Carbajal, to address an issue impacting veterans that prevents them from accessing healthcare services they have earned and deserve.

Right now, veterans calling their community-based outpatient clinics to make an appointment are automatically routed to central, busy call centers at major VA medical centers. This makes no sense.

This means that veterans end up waiting sometimes more than an hour, especially in Carbajal's district, to be connected to a scheduler, and that is if they can get through at all.

Additionally, some community-based outpatient clinics are not following up with veterans after the initial call at the busy hospital calling center, forcing veterans to find transportation to actually travel to the clinic just to make their appointment. As a result, many veterans get fed up and stop pursuing the care that they need out of frustration and lack of accessibility.

Our Nation's veterans deserve timely access to healthcare services. They should be able to make their medical appointments or at least speak to somebody without having to wait an hour on the phone.

This amendment directs the Secretary to ensure the VA phone system allows veterans to directly call their local community-based outpatient centers for appointments at those facilities, rather than having all calls be routed to the major busy VA medical centers.

In short, it would reduce call wait times for veterans in Congressman Carbajal's district, in my district, in your districts, and districts throughout our Nation.

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

Mr. Chairman, wonderful. This is a very easy, commonsense fix to a problem that our veterans face. They wait too long, they get fed up, they are not getting the followup that they need, and all this does is allows them to call the actual place where they need their appointments to schedule an appointment with them.

So I would really like to thank Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz for not opposing this amendment and for their support and for their support of veterans in the underlying bill.

I would also like to recognize and thank Congressman Carbajal and his staff for their work, and his efforts to improve the lives of veterans in his district, in my district, and all of our districts. I also want to thank my staff for their work on this amendment?

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment to help ensure veterans have easy access to healthcare benefits that they have earned and deserve, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, open-air burn pits pose serious health risks to our troops; yet, still to this day, our military uses them to dispose of waste and equipment--like human waste, plastics, computers, and jet fuel--on the battlefield.

I am a board certified emergency physician and a public health expert, and in public health and in the medical field, we know that, if there is a high enough suspicion with a severe enough illness, which we have with veterans developing rare and permanently severely disabling pulmonary autoimmune diseases and dying of cancer, then we need to act on that suspicion.

We can start to do that by doing these three things: one, stop our troops' exposure to dangerous burn pits out on the battlefield; two, conduct public health education for doctors and veterans to train them to recognize subtle changes in their health, help to catch cancer at an early stage when it

can still be treated, and save lives; and third, get our veterans and servicemembers the medical treatment they need quickly and ensure it is covered by the VA or the DOD.

My amendment will help accomplish this first step by directing the Department of Defense to conduct a feasibility study on ending the use of dangerous burn pits by using incinerators or other technology. I thank the committee leadership for their support of this amendment and on this emerging health crisis for our veterans. I urge a ``yes'' vote to help save our veterans' and men and women in uniforms' lives.

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the ranking member and the chairman for their support of my efforts to help veterans and servicemembers who have been exposed to burn pits.

We have a responsibility to protect the health of our men and women in uniform and veterans from the harmful health effects of exposure to burn pits, and we can start to do so by, first, stopping our troops' exposure to these dangerous burn pits out on the battlefield; second, conducting education and public health outreach to veterans and their doctors; and third, getting our veterans and servicemembers the medical treatment they need quickly and ensuring it is covered by the VA or the

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to speak on the House floor today in recognition of National Police Week and to memorialize the officers lost in the line of duty.

For me and for the communities that I represent, it is personal. Just 2 years ago, Officers Lesley Zerebny and Gil Vega from the Palm Springs Police Department were shot and killed in the line of duty, responding to what appeared to be a routine domestic disturbance.

In the wake of this tragedy, our communities came together to remember Officers Zerebny and Vega and to do more for the entire law enforcement community.

Over the past year, I have worked with law enforcement, firefighters, and other local and national public safety officer leaders to draft the Heroes Lesley Zerebny and Gil Vega First Responder Survivors Support Act, legislation that honors those who have passed by serving the living.

We developed this bill with one central idea in mind: that those who risk their lives for our community deserve the peace of mind to know that if something happened to them their family would be okay--that they would be able to pay off their debt, put their kids through college, and have a fair shot of making it in the world.

So we did the math, looking at the existing Public Safety Officer Benefit Program to see if it achieved these principles, and we found that families of fallen first responders, those who gave their all to protect us, are being shortchanged and don't even have enough to pay off their debt and pay for the rising cost of an education.

Families of fallen public safety officers are still struggling. My bipartisan bill will correct this and provide needed relief for those who sacrifice so much. It will increase the Public Safety Officer Benefit from $350,000 to $500,000 in order to pay off the calculated national average debt most families have. It will increase the monthly education benefit from $1,024 per month to $2,000 per month to ensure they can afford the actual rising cost of an education. And it will fix a bureaucratic loophole that costs families tens of thousands of dollars for no fault of their own.

Right now, our men and women who risk their lives in order to save our lives are being shortchanged. I urge all Members of Congress to do the right thing, to follow words with action and actually do something pragmatic that will improve the lives of fallen first responders' families.

I hope that all Members will cosponsor and support my bipartisan Heroes Lesley Zerebny and Gil Vega First Responder Survivors Support Act, and I urge the Speaker to bring it up for a vote immediately. Let's support this bill and stand up for these families that have sacrificed so much for us.

Honoring Christopher's Clubhouse

Mr. Speaker, I want to honor an incredible organization in my

district that, for more than a decade, has served the community by providing information and resources to help children, the elderly, and vulnerable individuals protect themselves from violent crimes.

Christopher's Clubhouse was started in 1996 after Mika Moulton's son, Christopher, was kidnapped and murdered at 10 years old. The family made the brave and selfless choice to turn their grief into something positive. They realized that, while they had done everything right like telling Christopher not to talk to strangers, no one had told them that there was more that they could have done. They realized that they had not taught him what to do if someone had grabbed Christopher.

They didn't want any parent to face that same realization and that same grief, so they started Christopher's Clubhouse to provide safety skills and personal defense techniques for children, teens, and the elderly throughout the Coachella Valley.

Over the years, Christopher's Clubhouse has served more than 100,000 people through their programs in schools, community events, and churches. There is no doubt that they have made a difference and saved lives, preventing other parents from going through their pain.

I thank them and I applaud them for their years of service. While Christopher's Clubhouse may be closing, the legacy of their work will be felt for generations.

Mr. Speaker, each day law enforcement officers all across our Nation risk their lives to keep our communities safe. Today at the 37th Annual Peace Officers' Memorial, we remembered the 21,541 fallen officers lost in the history of our Nation.

It was an honor to sit in solidarity with the families of Officer Gil Vega and Lesley Zerebny, two fallen heroes from my district.

I am proud to welcome Officer Vega's wife, Susana; daughters, Andrea and Vanessa; son, Isaac; and grandchildren, Marshal, Raul, and Sophia; and son-in-law, Raul, who are in the House gallery with us today.

It is our solemn duty to honor and respect the sacrifice of our law enforcement and their families, and I am humbled to author H.R. 5006, the Heroes Lesley Zerebny and Gil Vega First Responders Survivors Support Act. This legislation will help ensure that no officer has to worry whether or not their family will be all right if something happens to them in the line of duty.

It is an honor to serve in this great House, and we must do what is right for those who serve us and risk their lives in the streets.

Mr. Speaker, while serving our country, many of our brave men and women were exposed to large plumes of black smoke and cancer- causing toxins from the burning of waste, chemicals, and plastics in burn pits. Now veterans from across the country who have no other risk factors are developing terminal cancer, leaving their families to wonder why, families of heroes like Jenn Kepner's, a 39-year-old Air Force veteran who died of pancreatic cancer late last year.

That is why today I am proud to announce the bipartisan Congressional Burn Pits Caucus, to help seek answers for our heroes exposed to burn pits. Representative Brad Wenstrup and I have started this caucus because bureaucratic red tape at the VA and the DOD is denying our veterans the answers they deserve and the care they need.

We can't afford to wait. I urge every Democratic and Republican alike to join the Congressional Burn Pits Caucus and start fighting for our veterans to get the care they need and deserve.