Riley M. Moore

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and service of Corporal Clovis Eugene Ferguson, a United States Army Veteran and beloved member of the Salt Rock Elementary community.

Born and raised in West Virginia, Cpl. Ferguson joined the United States Army to serve his country during the Vietnam War soon after graduating from Barboursville High School. After his military service, Cpl. Ferguson and his wife, Connie, settled in Salt Rock, West Virginia, where he was a career member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 521.

Together, they had two children, Amy and Jason, were respected members of their local church, and generous neighbors to many in the Salt Rock community. Cpl. Ferguson coached basketball, softball, baseball, and soccer. He was especially dedicated to the children and faculty of Salt Rock Elementary, where he shared joy with the students through his annual tradition of dressing up as Elvis for Halloween and Santa Claus for Christmas. He also dedicated countless hours to sharing his knowledge and practical wisdom with students.

The principal of Salt Rock Elementary School wrote that Cpl. Ferguson was ``especially proud of his service to the United States of America'' and that his love for our great Nation was evident in the way he lived. He will be remembered as a familiar face, trusted friend, and source of joy, and his legacy will continue to live on through his family and the students whom he loved and mentored.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that Cpl. Ferguson and his contributions to our Nation and his communities be honored for his service.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this legislation, and I thank Chairman Cole and Chairman Diaz-Balart for their leadership on this bill.

This bill reinforces the important work we have championed to combat the persecution of Christians in Nigeria where nearly 100,000 Christians have been killed since 2009.

Last year, President Trump asked Chairman Cole and myself to investigate the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, with myself and Chairman Diaz-Balart going to Nigeria.

Since then, we have worked with the Trump administration to develop a strategy that provides assistance to the Nigerian Government in their defense of Christians while holding President Tinubu's government accountable if they fail.

The U.S.-Nigeria security agreement is already bearing fruit, including eliminating ISIS' number two globally.

This bill bolsters our strategy by conditioning 50 percent of all U.S. assistance to Nigeria on measurable actions to protect Christians. It also puts a spotlight on the Middle Belt where we have not seen nearly enough progress in protecting Christians against Fulani Islamic terrorists.

With this vote, we will express the support of this Chamber for the report we presented to the White House on how to end the Christian genocide in Nigeria.

Mr. Chair, the United States must never turn a blind eye to our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. My bill preserves two fundamental rights: the right to privacy and the right to bear arms. Americans should not be forced to disclose to payment processors when they buy firearms.

The bill preserves Americans' rights by prohibiting the creation of a separate merchant category code for firearms. This would, of course, become a de facto gun registry. The bill also preempts harmful State laws and gives the Attorney General authority to take any bank or payment processor that assigns or requires a separate code to Federal court.

For too long, the American people have had their rights undermined by the radical left. The bill's premise is simple: no gun registries, period. In fact, this very body has twice prohibited these unjust registries, once in 1986 and again in 1993, to prohibit the left from destroying Americans' rights.

However, the gun-grabbing left never stops trying. In 2021, the progressive Amalgamated Bank lobbied the International Organization for Standardization to create a separate merchant category code for firearm retailers to advance a backdoor gun registry. Previously, these retailers had always been accurately categorized as miscellaneous retail stores or sporting goods stores.

Amalgamated Bank was hell-bent on tracking firearm purchases. It pressured a faceless, unaccountable, foreign standards body in Geneva to stand up a new merchant category code explicitly targeting American gun owners and American businesses. When I was State treasurer in West Virginia, we said ``no'' to the gun-grabbing progressive bank partnering with a European NGO destroying American rights.

Under my leadership as State treasurer, West Virginia enacted one of the first bans on separate merchant category codes for firearms retailers, protecting the privacy of our State's gun owners. Nineteen States after that followed suit.

However, a patchwork of State regulations is not enough. California, Colorado, and New York currently mandate that firearm stores have a separate merchant category code, creating a de facto registry in some of the most populous States in our country. This cannot be allowed to stand. We have already seen the Biden administration pressure financial institutions to hand over data on their customers. A private database of gun owners falling into the hands of a future anti-gun administration is a threat that we cannot accept.

Our God-given right to own a firearm does not stop at the border of blue States.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Representatives Barr and Hudson, for their work on this bill. I also thank Chairman Hill for getting it across the finish line. I also thank Representative Stefanik for her leadership on this issue.

These are our God-given rights, spelled out in our Constitution, and we proudly exercise them. We will not allow an elitist bank partnered with a foreign, faceless bureaucracy to rob Americans of their right to protect themselves. In West Virginia, we don't ask permission to protect ourselves and our families, and no American should ever have to wonder whether buying a firearm will land them on a government watch list. Privacy and gun ownership go hand in hand.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''