Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at noon on Monday next, June 9, 2025, for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor an American hero in every sense of the word. It is my distinct privilege and honor to recognize Charlie Duncan in the Congressional Record in celebration of his 106th birthday.

Charlie was born on May 27, 1919, and grew up on a farm near Hickory Flat. He spent his early years assisting his father as they grew cotton, peanuts, corn, and sweet potatoes. After the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Depression, Duncan relocated with his family and stopped attending school to work full time to help support his family.

In 1944, Mr. Duncan was drafted into the United States Army and went through basic and advanced training in Virginia and Texas. From there, he was sent to England, where he fought with General George S. Patton's Third Army as a combat engineer. He delivered temporary bridges to the frontline, repaired and rebuilt damaged bridges, and demolished German military infrastructure along the way.

Upon his return home, Mr. Duncan worked as a craftsman, specializing in staircase bannisters and was active in the real estate market. Throughout his life, he has served as a community leader and an exemplary figure who has handled some of the most trying events in American history with valor and grit.

Mr. Duncan exemplifies all the values we aspire to as Americans: duty, sacrifice, reliability, and bravery. I wish him a happy birthday and best wishes for a fantastic year ahead. Semper fidelis.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Mast and the minority party for supporting this bill.

Since illegally invading Ukraine, the Russian Federation has become reliant on the People's Republic of China for its supply of semiconductors and other critical dual-use technologies. The State Department notified Congress last year that the PRC exports of semiconductors significantly increased in 2023 compared to pre-invasion levels.

These semiconductors are critical key aspects to the Russian war effort, including economic and electronic warfare, command and control, and targeting. These components allow Russia to terrorize Ukrainian civilians with ballistic missile strikes, as well.

The prevalence of U.S. manufacturing equipment in global semiconductor production means nearly all are subject to U.S. export controls if destined for Russia or Belarus.

My bill seeks to reduce Russia's access to these semiconductors by authorizing sanctions on any foreign adversaries that materially support Russia's military and intelligence services, violate U.S. export laws, and steal U.S. intellectual property.

It further requires a report on whether China is providing significant support to Russia's military and updates existing law to provide greater flexibility to pursue sanctions against China and other foreign adversaries if they violate these export controls.

The PRC may publicly claim that they do not provide material support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but their continued supply of dual- use technology clearly shows otherwise.

Cutting off the supply of semiconductors will seriously hamper the Russian war effort and show the world that we will not allow our adversaries to work together to destroy sovereign nations and undermine the international system.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1486.

Mr. Speaker, it is my great honor to recognize Lee Irwin on the week of her 90th birthday.

She has lived an extraordinary life. Mr. Speaker, she has spent 90 years of serving the community, making tens of thousands of dresses and britches for those young people over in Africa that don't have very much, serving her community and the Methodist Church that she served as both a secretary and now a volunteer teaching accordion, and raising three lovely children, also known as my cousins.

Welcome to just a great woman here in the House to recognize a life well lived. Happy birthday. I love you, and God bless you.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 56.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Fire Chief Joe Pennino and the brave men and women of the City of Roswell Fire Department on being awarded the 2025 Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Service Safety Leadership Award by the Congressional Fire Safety Institute.

The Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Service Safety Leadership Award honors organizations that have made noteworthy contributions to firefighter health and safety. The award celebrates those who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation, and dedication in promoting a safer environment for firefighters.

The City of Roswell's Fire Department is recognized for its collaboration with researchers in the analysis of the impact that new shift schedules and adjusted start times have on the performance and well-being of firefighters. The study evaluates both the immediate and long-term effects of these changes on the health, responsiveness, and capability of these firefighters.

Through their collaboration in this study, the Roswell Fire Department has shown a strong commitment to the well-being of their firefighter personnel and dedication to assuring that they are well- rested and in peak condition for the daunting schedule that those who wear the uniform face. This innovative leadership shows Roswell Fire Department's commitment to not only their firefighters but also to the well-being of firefighters throughout the United States

The mission of the Roswell Fire Department is to protect life, property, and enhance the quality of life by providing dynamic services, including emergency response. Through these thoughtful studies, they are taking that seriously by ensuring their personnel are at peak performance capability.

On February 13, 2025, the Roswell Fire Department will be honored here in Washington, D.C., during the 35th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner for then leader ship and commitment to innovation and safety.

As their Representative in Congress, I am proud to have these types of leaders who strive to serve the public residing in my district. I have no doubts that the City of Roswell and its Fire Department will continue their trajectory of excellence, and I wish them all the best in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a true leader in our community. It is my distinct privilege to honor him and his team by sharing their achievements.

Ben Reaves, Jr. is the Head Football Coach of the Milton High School Eagles, who on December 17, 2025, beat Langston Hughes High School Panthers scoring 56-35 to clinch back-to-back State Championship titles in the highly competitive 5A Division of Georgia High School Football.

Their high-powered offense, led by starting Quarterback and Miami University bound Luke Nickel, University of Georgia commit Tight-End Ethan Barbour, and electric Running Back T.J. Lester, steamrolled opponents over the previous two seasons. Football is in genetics. Coach Reaves inherited his passion for coaching and mentoring young athletes from his father, who was a longtime coach at Newton High School. After playing for his father in high school as a standout wide receiver, Coach Reaves played for a season at the University of Georgia before he transitioned to his true calling: coaching. After making multiple coaching stops on his journey, Coach Reaves joined Milton High School's staff as an offensive coordinator in 2017. As a member of the football coaching staff, he helped turn Milton High School into a football powerhouse building on top of the three region titles and playoff games the team has won since 1950.

In 2022, Coach Reaves took over the program from his successor, Coach Adam Clack, and has since led the Eagles to a strong 23-6 record. Coach Reaves exemplifies the tradition of football excellence in our community and is known by all as an incredible mentor, coach, father, husband, and friend. The success of the Milton High School team is a culmination of efforts, from the players to the coaches, parents, teachers, and training staff. However, there is no question about who the glue is that holds the program together and drives it toward excellence. I extend my best wishes to Coach Reaves and the entire Milton High School team going into the next season, Go Milton Eagles.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to express my most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Roswell Police Officer, Jeremy Labonte, who was senselessly killed in the line of duty in a heinous act of violence.

Officer Labonte was a member of the Roswell Police Department since November of 2021, where he served as a night-shift patrol officer. As a member of D-Squad, he was beloved and respected by his fellow officers and peers.

On Friday, February 7, 2025, while responding to a call, Officer Labonte was killed, leaving his family, fellow officers and the entire community devastated. This tragedy is the first of its kind in the community since the 1980's.

Officer Jeremy Labonte was a hero. He was someone who had dedicated his entire life to public service and has long stood for the values which all Georgians hold dear. Serving the community was just what he did, and he did so with honor.

Today, I honor the life of this brave young man. He is a shining example of excellence, sacrifice and honor. I will continue to pray for his family and friends during this tragic time. I also pray for the protection and safety of all the brave men and women who wear the uniform and protect our communities every day.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a true leader in the Forsyth County Community, Mr. Bobby Thomas.

Mr. Thomas was born on November 3, 1946, and spent his youth in Coal Mountain, Georgia. Signs of future success were evident early on, as Mr. Thomas won ``Most Likely to Succeed'' during his senior year at Forsyth County High School. Upon graduation in 1964, Mr. Thomas went on to Georgia Institute of Technology, where he excelled, and earned his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in 1969.

During his time at Georgia Tech, Mr. Thomas met the love of his life, Brenda. They married three years later and enjoyed 57 years of wedded bliss together. Upon graduation, Mr. Thomas enlisted in the United States Navy and was commissioned as a supply officer, serving on a destroyer warship stationed out of Jacksonville, Florida and Glassboro, New Jersey. After returning home, he bought into the family lumber business, and by the mid-1980's he had turned the Thomas Lumber Company into the leading manufacturer of Western Red Cedar Products throughout the Southeast.

The Thomas Lumber Company, founded in 1927, is the oldest family- owned business in Forsyth County. As an active member in his community, Mr. Thomas was a founding member of the Forsyth County Rotary and later President, a 30-year member and leader of the Development Authority of Forsyth County, and maybe most importantly, an active member of Oak Grove Baptist Church, serving as a clerk and Sunday School teacher. Sadly, on January 6, 2025, Mr. Thomas passed away. He is survived by his wife, Brenda, two children, and 7 grandchildren. My prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time. His impact on the lives of the people and community of Forsyth County will not soon be forgotten, and the entire community is mourning the loss of this great man.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Tigran Gambaryan and celebrate his return home to the United States of the America, and to his friends and family.

Mr. Gambaryan is an American citizen, a resident of Georgia, and a dedicated former public servant. While on a business trip to Nigeria in February, he was arrested and charged with false accusations of tax evasion and money laundering. Tigran was detained in the notorious Kuje Prison for months, repeatedly denied access to medical care as his health deteriorated, denied basic due process rights, and otherwise treated inhumanely. Despite these severe hardships, Mr. Gambaryan displayed remarkable resilience and an unwavering determination to return home.

Finally, on October 23, 2024, Nigeria dropped all fraudulent charges against Mr. Gambaryan, and he was able to return safely to the United States. I want to thank the hard work and dedication of the Department of State officials for the role they played to bring Mr. Gambaryan home. I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to my colleagues on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for their unwavering support and advocacy in urging the Nigerian government to secure his release. Most importantly, I want to commend Mr. Gambaryan for his courage and for never losing hope during this tumultuous situation.

It is an honor to represent brave individuals like Tigran Gambaryan in Congress, and I celebrate his return home to his wife Yuki and their two young children. God bless their family.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule providing for consideration of H.R. 7673, S. 4199, and H.R. 5009, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.

I am confident that this year's NDAA will have a lasting, positive impact on our national security, and I urge my colleagues to support the rule providing for its consideration.

The fiscal year 2025 NDAA authorizes targeted, responsible investments in critical technologies and future capabilities while restoring our military's focus on lethality.

I served with sailors, marines, and Army folks from all walks of life during my time on Active Duty. We all bled red and were all green at heart, and we were all united in our mission to protect the United States.

Putting our differences under the microscope only divides us and distracts us from our mission, so I am pleased that the NDAA gets things like DEI and critical race theory out of the military's divisive issues.

I am also glad that it reauthorizes language I put in last year's NDAA to improve the Defense Department's transparency on how it works with entities that discriminate against conservative voices by steering advertisement dollars away from them.

I was also proud to champion specific provisions in this bill that will help us deter and, if necessary, defeat our allies in the future fight. Things like using drones to clear land mines, changing how we do aircraft maintenance by using AI to bring down costs and improve readiness results, and making it easier for the Marine Corps to procure critical capabilities like LPDs and CH-53K helicopters will all help us maintain our edge over our adversaries using these techniques.

Perhaps most importantly, the NDAA will drastically improve our servicemembers' quality of life, especially for the junior enlisted. The least we can do for our fellow Americans who take up the mantle of service is to make sure they have good housing, quality medical care, and the tools and resources to raise a family in the military if they so choose.

This NDAA deters our adversaries, supports our allies, and exercises Congress' lawful oversight mandate to cut down on waste and improve the way our military does business within the private sector.

Mr. Speaker, I express my sincerest thanks to Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Smith, my fellow committee members, and all the staff for their work on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have helped with this bill, and I urge swift passage for the rule and swift passage of the fiscal year 2025

Mr. Speaker, I will take the time to talk about the biggest threat to our Nation, our ability to thrive as a nation and an economy.

It is not really being addressed, even with the Herculean efforts of the DOGE and everybody else talking about what cuts we are going to make to the budget, which is around $7 trillion right now. We need to have a realistic conversation.

We are $35 trillion in debt. We bring in less than $5 trillion per year to pay those debts and to pay for the entire budget. If we didn't have a budget, if we spent nothing on the United States, if we spent nothing for the military, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or anything in our budget, it would take us over 7 years to pay off our debt. That doesn't count the trillion dollars of interest we are paying right now per year.

Let's have a realistic conversation. This problem is bipartisan. The real divergence of the debt-to-GDP ratio started about 2004, so about 20 years ago. It happened when we had a Republican President, and it has continued regardless of who was in control of the Presidency--or the House or the Senate, for that matter.

If we talk about the future, 75 percent of the budget is nondiscretionary. Some people call it mandatory, but we are Congress. There is nothing mandatory about spending. If we don't address these issues, we are in trouble as a nation. If we are out of balance and our debt-to-GDP ratio becomes too extreme, our currency will fail, and we will no longer hold the position we have in the world as an economic powerhouse.

If you think that I am threatening Social Security, not at all. As a matter of fact, it is just the opposite. I want to secure it because, quite frankly, if we don't do something about Social Security, it will be insolvent in less than 10 years. It will take an automatic 21 percent cut without a vote.

We have no control over that, or we can, as Congress, say no we won't just print a whole bunch more money and saddle our children and grandchildren with that burden in the future and increase our debt ratio, again threatening our currency.

If you think I am here to threaten Medicare, you are greatly mistaken. If we do nothing, within about a decade, it will be cut automatically by 11 percent, or we will have to make the emergency standard to print more money and, again, saddle our future generations with debt they cannot pay, debt that will saddle our economy, saddle our ability to function as a government, debt that will disrupt everything we know in America to be good: our abilities, our opportunities, all the things that make us thrive as a nation.

As Coolidge famously said: The business of America is business. Business cannot thrive if we don't have American currency as the standard of the world.

Therefore, I want us to have those serious conversations. I want us not to have those automatic cuts. I want to make sure that we do what we can to cut as much of the deficit spending as possible.

Remember, a 30 percent deficit per year cannot be conquered just by one budget, but we have about 2 years to take this opportunity because, quite frankly, so many times I keep hearing my peers in this Congress talk about the things we need to give away. That comes at a cost, a cost to all Americans, and it doesn't matter if you are Republican or Democrat.

We have to have real reform in not just our discretionary budget, which is only 25 percent of what we discuss, but we have to have an entire budgetary process that is bipartisan so we can have a solution for all Americans going forward.

Mr. Speaker, after giving prior notice to House leadership, I was not present for floor votes on November 20, 2024 while attending to a personal matter.

Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 474; YEA on Roll Call No. 475; and YEA on Roll Call No. 476.

Mr. Speaker, since illegally invading Ukraine, the Russian Federation has become reliant on the People's Republic of China for the supply of semiconductors and other critical dual-use technologies.

The State Department notified Congress this March that the PRC exports of semiconductors significantly increased last year compared to the pre-invasion levels.

These semiconductors are critical to aspects of the Russian war effort, including electronic warfare, command and control, and targeting. These components allow Russia to terrorize Ukrainian civilians with ballistic missile strikes at will.

The prevalence of U.S. manufacturing equipment in global semiconductor production means nearly all are subject to U.S. export controls if destined for Russia or Belarus.

My bill seeks to reduce Russia's access to these semiconductors by authorizing sanctions on foreign countries and adversaries that materially support Russia's military and intelligence services, violate U.S. export laws, and steal U.S. intellectual property.

It further requires a report on whether China is providing significant support to Russia's military and updates existing law to provide greater flexibility to pursue sanctions against China and other foreign adversaries if they violate these export controls.

The PRC may publicly claim that they do not provide material support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but their continued provision of dual-use technologies with military applications demonstrates otherwise.

Cutting off the supply of semiconductors will seriously hamper the Russian war effort and show the world that we will not allow our adversaries to work together in destroying sovereign nations and undermining the international system.

I thank Chairman McCaul, Ranking Member Meeks, and my bipartisan colleagues on the Committee on Foreign Affairs for supporting the bill before us today. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 8361.