Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate Career and Technical Education Month.

In the construction industry, I spent over 40 years talking to young people in Georgia's 12th District about the benefits of working in a skilled trade.

As we all know, a 4-year degree is not the right fit for everyone, and oftentimes, our skilled and technical jobs are among the most in demand and highest paying in the workforce.

With 9 million unfilled jobs throughout our Nation, it is imperative that we bridge the gap between the business and education communities, ensuring our students are equipped with the skills necessary to compete in this modern economy.

The number one issue I hear about from businessowners is the need for a quality workforce, and career and technical programs offer young people an effective path to filling in-demand jobs.

This Career and Technical Education Month, we affirm that the American Dream is attainable, and it is different for everyone.

I am thankful for the educators and community leaders who remain committed to the success of America's future workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Joyce for hosting tonight's Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, just 2 weeks ago, in yet another example of President Biden caving to leftwing activists, this administration announced that they would pause all pending approvals of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export terminals.

Under the guise of climate change, this blatantly political decision will only serve to eliminate American jobs, increase costs for American consumers, and further jeopardize U.S. energy security, all to appease climate extremists and prop up President Biden's rush-to-green agenda.

Let me remind the American people that just 3 years ago, our Nation was energy independent for the first time in our history. We controlled the price of a barrel of oil. We dominated the world energy economy.

Studies show that LNG exports could increase the U.S. economy by over $73 billion by 2040 and could create more than 453,000 American jobs.

Mr. Speaker, the President should please listen.

It is no surprise that this reckless announcement was met with bipartisan backlash when a recent study showed that only 3 percent of Americans believe climate change is the most pressing issue facing our country.

I hear constantly from my constituents how high energy prices are. Indefinitely banning exports of LNG will not lower the cost of energy. We need to open our markets and domestic energy production to lower costs for the American people.

Now, more than ever, we need to embrace an all-of-the-above energy strategy and unleash the production and export of clean, affordable, and reliable American LNG to further reduce emissions.

Finally, President Biden's war on American energy is undermining our national security. As Chair Rodgers said, this is nothing more than a gift to Putin.

Mr. Speaker, if this administration wants to end the war in Ukraine and bring peace to the Middle East, then give us the permits for the pipelines and the LNG facilities, and we will power Europe. This will cripple Russia and Iran. In fact, Europe, like the U.S., would be burning their energy 42 percent cleaner.

I thought we wanted to reduce the carbon footprint and at the same time promote world peace. I proudly stand with my colleagues in calling out this political charade.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.J. Res. 98, which would nullify the

Biden administration's expanded joint employer standard, impacting franchises and small businesses across the Nation.

In October, President Biden's radical National Labor Relations Board appointees circumvented Congress to reimpose a broad joint employer standard that threatens the flexibility of businessowners, upends the franchise model as we know it, and negatively impacts the U.S. economy and workers.

We know and appreciate our local franchises and want to make sure they have the flexibility to operate efficiently and inspire future entrepreneurs. However, in a report released by the International Franchise Association, two-thirds of franchises expected the new standard to raise barriers to entry into franchising.

As a small business man, I know that in today's evolving economy, certainty in the workplace is a key ingredient to success for employers, job creators, and small businesses nationwide. Unfortunately, the Federal Government tends to get in the way, muddying the waters and blurring the lines in already difficult economic conditions.

Having started a small business, I know all too well how additional hurdles and barriers to entrepreneurship can stifle innovation. In fact, what we have in this administration is a war on small businesses.

At a time when workers and families are struggling to keep up with the inflationary reality of Bidenomics, it is appalling that this administration is now saddling entrepreneurs with further roadblocks.

Republicans will continue to promote policies that foster the entrepreneurial spirit and the small business community.

Madam Speaker, I urge support of H.J. Res. 98.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate House passage of H.R. 5378, the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act.

During my time in Congress, I have advocated for restoring patient- centered, cost-effective, and market-driven solutions to our Nation's healthcare system to drive down costs. For too long, families have faced the financial burden of unexpected medical bills, overly expensive prescription drugs, limited healthcare choices, and hidden fees.

In nearly every industry, consumers know the price of a product before purchasing it. Healthcare should be no different. That is why I am so proud of the work done on the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act.

This monumental bill delivers much-needed transparency and ensures Americans have access to timely, quality, and affordable healthcare that suits them best.

Specifically, this bill requires hospitals to disclose their actual prices and forces insurance companies to show patients what they will pay before receiving care.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to serve on both committees that helped craft this historic overhaul of our healthcare system.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to stand here in this Chamber and commemorate National Bible Week along with my colleagues here tonight.

Tonight, I want to talk about what the Bible has meant to me and its impact on our Nation's history, the divisions we see across our country, including in this Chamber, and highlight the challenges we are facing.

I am currently reading the Bible, with a prayer group here in Congress, in its entirety for the third time. I am constantly reminded of the answers this book provides to the current issues we are facing in our Nation.

Unfortunately and regrettably, we are a Bible-illiterate society. Just above our flag here in this Chamber is ``In God we Trust.'' How do you put your faith and trust in God if you don't know Him and understand His Word?

I was baptized in a small, rural church at the age of 9 in Georgia, and, of course, I began to go my own way in high school and college. After marrying my wife, we found another church home. For some 30 years, that meant so much to our family, raising our children in that church, but it became more of a ritual and somewhat meaningless to me. I had my priorities out of order.

A friend asked me to join him in a Bible study. Some 6 months later, I realized that God didn't want my rituals; He wanted my heart. I have had this urge to know God since then and study His Word intently and try my best to understand His will for me. What I have learned is that God created the church through Jesus Christ to evangelize, and God created government to moralize and restrain evil.

Today, both the church and the government are divided on these issues. We have Moses, his full face looking down on the entire Chamber, who gave us the first five books of the Bible, the moral law. It should be pretty plain to us what God expects.

As I said earlier, ``In God We Trust'' is above the flag, and it is on our money, yet in this body we are without excuse.

Joshua 1:8 says: This book of the law, the Bible, shall not depart from your lips, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do what it says and what is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

God's Word is full of great promises.

So where are we today?

My fellow Americans, Billy Graham offered a prayer on inauguration in 1969, and I would like to read it.

I will read just part of it: Our Father and our God, Thou hast said, ``Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord.'' We recognize on this historic occasion that we are ``one Nation under God.''

As the prayer goes on, Reverend Graham describes the current situation in 1969. Today, we are struggling with the same issues. Emotional health has become an epidemic because so many do not have hope and understanding.

Mr. Speaker, I ask you to seek God's Word, pray, and meet with others and your colleagues and seek understanding.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4468, the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act, or CARS Act.

The American people shouldn't be told by unelected bureaucrats which car best suits their needs and the needs of their families, but the Biden administration is seeking to do so through some backdoor policymaking aimed at taking gas-powered engines off the market.

Let me be clear: This is not about being anti-electric vehicle. This is about being pro-consumer choice. Demand should be driven by consumer preferences and budgets.

Let's look at the facts. According to a report from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, gasoline-powered cars and trucks represented 93 percent of all new vehicle sales in 2022. According to Congressional Budget Office projections, electric vehicles will account for only 30 to 56 percent of new car sales by 2032.

Even with the outrageous incentives for electric vehicles that are being subsidized by taxpayers, which are included in Biden's so-called Inflation Reduction Act, this policy will fall well short of EPA's goal of two-thirds of new car sales being electric vehicles.

No matter how much the government floods the market with requirements that squeeze out internal combustion engines and require electric vehicles, if consumers don't want to buy the cars, then they should not be forced to do so.

The CARS Act will stop the EPA's current light- and medium-duty vehicle regulations and, instead, allow consumers and the market to determine the cars and engine technology needed and save billions in taxpayer subsidies.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill and consumer choice.

Mr. Chair, had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall No. 700.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today to urge support for my amendment, which would prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to finalize the Biden administration's destructive proposed fiduciary rule.

I believe saving for retirement is crucial for American families, and access to professional financial advice should not be hindered by burdensome overregulation. However, the Biden Department of Labor's recently proposed fiduciary rule is nothing more than a recycled Obama- era disaster that does more harm than good to the very people it is claiming to protect, American retirees and savers.

This rule would raise costs and reduce access to financial advice for Americans with low and moderate incomes, as well as small businesses. However, don't just take my word for it. A Deloitte study demonstrated the damage resulting from the 2016 fiduciary rule, finding that 53 percent of U.S. financial advisers limited or eliminated access to brokerage advice for retirement investors.

Not to mention, having shifted their position on what it means to be an investment advice fiduciary three times in the last 2 years, the Department of Labor has created confusion in the marketplace with their reckless indecisiveness. By requiring financial advisers to adhere to a strict, burdensome, and unworkable regulation, retirement advice will no longer be accessible to those most in need of retirement security.

At a time when inflation is soaring, families' budgets are shrinking, and our Nation's credit rating has been cut from stable to negative, I am dismayed as to why President Biden would make it even harder for Americans to receive financial advice to plan for the future, all while blatantly skirting responsibility for the economic turmoil that we are currently experiencing.

This rule is a prime example of regulatory overreach by unelected bureaucrats in government agencies. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment which would block taxpayer money from going toward a rule that would only threaten their financial well-being.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment will help protect the millions of hardworking taxpayers who rely on financial advisers to assist in planning for their future. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this amendment and fight against this administration and unelected bureaucrats who want to grow big government.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the formal renaming of Fort Gordon to Fort Eisenhower, a well-known name in history throughout the world.

Located in Augusta, Georgia, this military base has experienced a major transformation over the last 10 years and is widely considered a top-tier installation that will continue to grow, all while training and housing thousands of the best and brightest who serve our country.

As the home of the Eisenhower Medical Center, which provides top- notch healthcare services for our veterans and men and women in uniform, as well as the U.S. Army Cyber Command and the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence, this renaming is a true representation of President Eisenhower's commitment to science and innovation and his love for the surrounding community that he so frequently visited for fellowship and sport.

A beloved visitor of Augusta, President Eisenhower's deep ties and admiration for the area were well known. My team and I worked side by side with local community members to ensure that if the base was to be renamed, its new name would reflect both the history of our community and the significance of the mission.

President Eisenhower made 45 trips to Augusta--5 before he became President, 29 while in office, and 11 after his first term--taking full advantage of all that our community has to offer, including the world- renowned Augusta National Golf Club, one of his favorite destinations.

President Eisenhower always found time for his faith, as well. At the Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church in Augusta, there is a pew known as the Eisenhower pew. It has a plaque on it where the former President would worship when he was in town.

With a name like Fort Eisenhower and the international renown that comes with it, as well as the critical missions housed there, this military base will endure from now on.

As President Eisenhower's granddaughter Susan Eisenhower stated at the renaming ceremony: ``If Dwight Eisenhower were here today, he would be full of heartfelt appreciation for the focus and dedication this community has placed on serving our country and keeping it safe.''

I couldn't agree more.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today as a cosponsor of H. Res. 798, a resolution that demands Congress' immediate attention and action in condemning the recent surge of support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations at American universities.

Let's be clear. The targets of Hamas on October 7 were not Israeli military installations. The targets were innocent men, women, and children. It was demonic and barbaric.

What are we seeing on our college campuses?

This is not just cause for concern, it is an outrageous affront to the principles of peace, tolerance, and safety that our educational institutions espouse.

From the explicit endorsements of violence to the violent targeting of Jewish students, we are witnessing a blatant disregard for the well- being and security of young people.

This is not a matter of political correctness. It is a matter of ensuring the safety and dignity of every individual on our college campuses. The incidents outlined in this resolution are occurring across the Nation and threaten the very fabric of our educational institutions. From student organizations calling on fellow students to demonstrate with armed confrontation to school administrators failing to clearly speak out, it is time to take a stand to safeguard the well- being of our students and to uphold the principles that our Nation was founded on and holds dear.

Madam Speaker, I implore my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 798. We must send a resounding message that we will not tolerate the spread of hatred within the halls of our universities.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which would prohibit funding for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. I appreciate my friend from California's concern of cost.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which would prohibit funding for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. My friend mentioned the cost overruns, and I appreciate his concern with that.

Let me tell you. I spent 40 years in the construction business. In the last 2 years, concrete has doubled in price, steel has doubled in price, and there is a lot of concrete and steel in plutonium. We do need to deal with the inflation we are seeing out there.

The Savannah River Site, also known as SRS, is a Department of Energy site conducting important work to defend our national security, and Georgia's 12th District is home to approximately 30 percent of the workforce.

Currently under construction at the Savannah River Site is the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. Required by law, this is part of a two-site strategy with Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site tasked with producing plutonium pits to help improve resiliency and mitigate risk in the United States' pit production. Let me say that again: to mitigate risk in the United States' pit production.

This shortsighted amendment would critically threaten this urgent national security mission. The Savannah River Site is committed to nuclear modernization to ensure America's nuclear

deterrent is safe and reliable. To say otherwise is simply not true.

Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life of an American patriot, Vietnam veteran, and amazing man who couldn't be more deserving of having his name displayed on the U.S. Post Office in Mount Vernon, Georgia.

Second Lieutenant Patrick Palmer Calhoun, a native of Mount Vernon, Georgia, located in the 12th District of Georgia, my district, was born on March 19, 1941.

After graduating from Montgomery County High School in 1959, Second Lieutenant Calhoun attended the University of Georgia, where he joined the ROTC and earned his pilot's license while finishing his junior year of college. That next year, Calhoun graduated and enrolled in his first year of law school at the University of Georgia, where he met the love of his life, Jane Dunham, whom he later married in 1963. That same year, Jane and Patrick's only child, Catherine Ruth Calhoun, was born on November 29.

Shortly after Catherine was born, Second Lieutenant Calhoun answered the call to serve and willingly put down his books and put on his uniform, joining the United States Army, where he was first stationed at Fort Benning, now known as Fort Moore, near Columbus, Georgia.

Later, after completing flight training in Mineral Wells, Texas, Calhoun was deployed on his first assignment in Vietnam in 1964.

A born leader, Calhoun served as a rotary wing aviation unit commander in South Vietnam, where his helicopter was tragically shot down under hostile fire while dropping off troops in the spring of 1965.

Calhoun was declared missing in action before being declared deceased at the young age of only 24 years old.

Lieutenant Patrick Palmer Calhoun was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism and extraordinary achievements while engaged in aerial flight.

Known for his contagious personality, Calhoun never met a stranger and always enjoyed cutting a rug, as we say down South.

I am pleased to stand here today to ensure his name lives on for years to come in his hometown of Mount Vernon, Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in honoring Second Lieutenant Calhoun, his entire family, and his sacrifice to the Nation we call home by voting in favor of H.R. 3944.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5110, the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act, which would correct the Biden Department of Education's misguided interpretation of Federal law to now prohibit the use of funding for school-based hunting and archery programs. The Department's effort is not only facing bipartisan backlash but also blatantly skirts congressional intent.

H.R. 5110 is an important step toward ensuring American schools have the resources and funding necessary to continue teaching students important safety skills as they engage in these outdoor activities.

Many of my constituents in rural Georgia, including me and many of my family, are passionate about hunting, and we should be encouraging our Nation's youth to get outside more, not cutting off funds for programs that help achieve that goal.

One of my greatest memories is my son going to hunter safety school and spending time in the woods together. That is the greatest bond, I believe, between a father and son.

Members on both sides of the aisle believe students should be able to receive safe, responsible hunting and archery education.

I am proud to stand with the next generation of sportsmen and -women.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act.

Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 404.

Mr. LaMalfa. Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``YEA'' on rollcall No. 404.

Stated against:

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1435, the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, of which I am an original cosponsor.

Americans want choice. Consumers deserve it when they buy a vehicle. It is one of the biggest purchases they will make other than their home. Whether they choose an internal combustion vehicle or an electric vehicle, that decision should be left up to the consumer, not Federal bureaucrats. I amend that to say unelected bureaucrats.

This administration's rush to electrification has blinded their ability to recognize the inevitable consequences and shortcomings of such restrictive government mandates.

Take the Secretary of Energy's recent 4-day EV road trip debacle. Due to the limited availability of EV chargers in America, including in Grovetown in my district, the Secretary's advance team chose to use non-EV vehicles to reserve working chargers for the Secretary's use at the expense of my constituents. I didn't have a thing to do with that.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents do not have advance teams. Georgians who don't wish to wait for working chargers on a family trip should not have to do so. Demand for electric vehicles should be market driven, not government manufactured. I urge a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 1435.