Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in great support for Congressman Hill's bill, the TRID Improvement Act. This bill will lower consumer costs and lessen regulatory burdens for growing businesses, which will lead to healthier and well-functioning financial markets.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Hill for his great work and leadership on this issue.

I am pleased that this legislation does include the Credit Access and Inclusion Act, H.R. 435, which I cosponsored with Congressman Ellison, and which we introduced together.

H.R. 435 is designed to give hardworking Americans better access to affordable credit by providing more opportunities for them to build their credit on their own merit without Federal funds or new bureaucracy. At a time when access to credit is a practical necessity for economic and social mobility, tens of millions of Americans are hamstrung because they have little or no credit history.

Currently, on-time utility and rent payments are not reflected in credit scores. The Credit Access and Inclusion Act amends the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, to allow for nonfinancial service providers, such as telephone, cable, wireless, electric, and gas companies, as well as landlords, to report their customers' on-time payments to credit reporting agencies, or CRAs.

By incorporating these on-time payments, called alternative or additional data, into credit reports, more Americans can access affordable and responsible financial products and services, buy homes and cars, and build wealth, thus strengthening or entire economy.

In total, our bill would enable nearly 100 million Americans to establish or raise their credit score, all without Federal mandates. Ultimately, this legislation will give every American the ability to build a better life.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Ellison for actively working together on this very important issue, and I thank Congressman Hill for his work on the TRID Improvement Act. Please join me in supporting this commonsense legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and chairman of the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, Mr. Luetkemeyer, for his active work on this important legislation.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Basel Committee expanded regulations on operational risk requirements imposed on financial institutions. Unfortunately, like many of the implemented regulations, unintended consequences were brought about. The complexity and nature of the current operational risk capital requirements have greatly diminished the availability of credit for consumers, resulting in increased costs and prices for families and small businesses.

To address these concerns, H.R. 4296 limits the burden of operational risk capital requirements to a bank's current activities and businesses and permits adjustments to lessen operational risk. This will ensure that banks are holding increased capital more efficiently and will expand the credit market to better meet the needs of hardworking Americans.

Let me be clear: This bill does not eliminate operational risk capital requirements but, prudently, ensures that requirements are forward-looking and appropriately tailored to a bank's current financial risk profile. As a key provision of the CHOICE Act, which passed the House in June, I want to thank Mr. Luetkemeyer for his persistence and continual leadership on this important issue.

I urge all of my colleagues to please join us in supporting this commonsense, bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Hultgren for assembling this great group together. We treasure this opportunity to honor Dr. Billy Graham. Each of us has a special memory of Billy Graham.

I can recall having graduated from college, my first job was with Campus Crusade for Christ. I lived in Dallas, Texas, to prepare for a big meeting, a convocation that brought 84,000 young people. I was asked in 1971 if I would like to caddy for Billy Graham. He was playing in the Byron Nelson Golf Classic with Arnold Palmer, Bob Hope, and Byron Nelson. I can assure you we chased golf balls all over the golf course. It was a great occasion.

But what I saw as a young believer in Christ--I had come to Christ in my senior year in college--I saw a man who looked you in the eye. He didn't look at his watch. He cared about people. Billy Graham didn't walk over people to reach the world. He understood the

importance of every person before God. I think that is why his ministry and his mission was so outstanding with Presidents, kings, or cab drivers, whoever it might be, the millions of people who came to Christ because of him.

On this meeting that we planned in Dallas, 250,000 people came to downtown Dallas. They heard Billy Graham and Johnny Cash. It was a great assembly. But through my years, the next decade, working for Dr. Bright with Campus Crusade, I had the occasion to be around Dr. Graham on many occasions.

On one such occasion, I picked him up at the airport in 1975 here in Washington and was taking him back to the hotel. He said to Dr. Bright: the next challenge we have in the world today is terrorism. He said that this group who doesn't honor God and they don't honor Christ are going to be the force we deal with.

How remarkable that it was Billy Graham who helped heal our Nation after 9/11 as he spoke to that National Cathedral to bring the message of hope in God.

Yes, I went with Billy to his crusades in Cleveland, Dallas, and Charlotte. In fact, the first time he ever brought together young people, he had a Friday night big crusade for young people. They came out by the tens of thousands. Michael W. Smith played, Jars of Clay, and D.C. Talk.

Billy could reach anybody because he was real and he was personable. They understood him. His message was clear--so simple--that God loves us, He has a plan for our life, and Jesus Christ is the means to that plan. He died on the cross for our sin, that we could receive Christ, know Him, and know eternal life.

He gave that message all over the world. I have met people in Romania, Czech Republic, and the former Soviet Union--now Russia--all over the world who met Christ because Billy Graham came, and he took the gospel to them.

Probably in my funniest moment to have a conversation with him was with Franklin, his son. Now, Franklin will charge hell with a water gun. Franklin will go anywhere. He was headed to Moscow. I was with him on a little plane, it was a twin engine Mitsubishi. We stopped in Burlington, Vermont, and then we stopped over in Nova Scotia to stay overnight at a little $6 motel. The phone rang while we were checking in. The man said: Yes, he is here, and he gave the phone across the counter to Franklin.

Franklin said: Hello? Yes, Daddy. Yes, sir, I am headed to Moscow. Yes, sir. I have got another pilot. Yes, sir. Robert Pittenger. He is going with me.

At that point, his father, said: Robert Pittenger? I thought he had more sense than that.

That was Billy. He knew his son, and he loved his son. But Franklin will take his gospel just like his father, just like every single person in that family.

Probably the greatest legacy to Billy Graham is the testimony in all of our lives through his own children who followed him into the ministry.

So I commend our Nation for honoring him in the way that we are. He will lay and he will be a part of this great assembly, this great Capitol, forever as a statue. I thank Mr. Hultgren for bringing us together, and I thank the Lord for sending His messenger, Billy Graham.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his leadership, and I thank Congressman McHenry, also.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to just, regretfully, say that this ruling, Madden v. Midland, is just another layer of Big Brother, a misguided ruling by some people of good intentions and goodwill, but the net effect is fewer choices for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I think we have seen what has happened as a result of Dodd-Frank. We saw what happened to the American economy. We saw what happened to the American consumers.

Mr. Speaker, regrettably, it is the low-income, minority people who have suffered the most in the last decade as a result of the misguided regulations that were put upon the American people. Big Brother really doesn't have the answers.

What we do have is the opportunity to provide choices for the American people, and that is what H.R. 3299 is all about.

Mr. Speaker, in North Carolina, we have lost 50 percent of our banks because of this misguided regulatory overmanagement by the Federal Government. There is less access to capital and credit for small business. There is less access to capital for that individual who has a real need. Maybe they want to start something, or maybe they have an emergency in their family.

This is what this bill is all about, and we need to be behind it. We need to support it. We need to understand that the American people know how to make good choices. We need to trust the American people and not trust Big Brother and the Big Government.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Pembroke, North Carolina, named 2017 Small Town of the Year by the North Carolina Rural Assembly.

Pembroke, population 3,000, is home to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, as well as the Lumbee Indian Tribe, two wonderful organizations with whom I am actively involved.

Much of southeastern North Carolina has been decimated by poorly negotiated international trade deals and the loss of traditional industries. Pembroke is fighting back by participating in a first-in- the-Nation innovation and entrepreneurship program and is working to build its economy by focusing on healthcare, construction, and agribusiness.

Congratulations to Mayor Charles Gregory Cummings, Council Members Locklear, Jones, Sampson, and McNeill, Town Manager Tyler Thomas, UNC Pembroke Chancellor Robin Cummings, Lumbee Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin, and the entire Pembroke community on this outstanding achievement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on behalf of our Nation's greatest tragedy. I would like to thank Chairman Smith so much for his leadership over the past 35 years. He has been unrelenting in his commitment and support of life, and I have the deepest respect for him.

Today marks Roe v. Wade's 45th anniversary. Since that ignoble decision, over 60 million precious, innocent unborn babies have been intentionally killed by abortions in the United States.

In light of the anniversary and the March for Life event, I would like to share the words of the late Mother Teresa:

``But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.

``And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?

``How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us.

``So the mother who is thinking of abortion should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.''

Mother Theresa goes on to say:

``By abortion, the mother does not learn to love but kills even her own child to solve her problems.

``And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.

``Any country that accepts abortion''--Mother Theresa says--``is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the great destroyer of love and peace is abortion.''

The work of this body, Mr. Speaker, must be to correct this tragedy to protect the lives of those who cannot speak for themselves.

We hope and pray for those who stand in darkness on this grievous loss of life and who have been advocates of abortion. Who would know the mind of God regarding these 60 million precious souls, that He may have given to some of them the cure for cancer or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or many other diseases? God is merciful, but we must recognize our own responsibilities and affect for our own actions.

This week, we have the opportunity to outlaw the diabolical practice of killing babies who survive an abortion, something incredibly barbaric, by passing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

I also urge my colleagues to join me in support of the No Abortion Bonds Act, legislation I introduced to block Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from using tax-exempt, taxpayer-backed bonds to finance their abortion clinics.

Ours is a great cause, greater than us, greater than this generation. It is a battle for the very soul of what we stand for as a nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Officers Corey Helms and Dylan Cole of the Monroe, North Carolina, Police Department, who, on December 26, risked their lives to save two families trapped in a burning home.

Officer Helms was first to arrive but was pushed back by the thick cloud of smoke. Officer Cole arrived next, and together, the two men attempted to

find a ladder to rescue the five people trapped on the second floor. Unable to find a ladder, Monroe's two heroes disregarded their own safety by charging into the burning home and up the stairs before carrying and guiding the young families to safety.

Officers Cole and Helms rescued two adult sisters and their children, ages 3 years, 10 months, and 5 months. There were no injuries as a result.

Officers Corey Helms and Dylan Cole are living examples of what it means to serve and to protect. Please join me in honoring these two brave officers and all the men and women of the Monroe Police Department who work on our behalf every day. God bless them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my outrage at a detailed report by Politico which included testimony that President Obama and his administration obstructed a major DEA investigation into Hezbollah when they wanted to secure the Iran deal. These revelations are shocking and infuriating but, regrettably, not surprising. This is the same administration that sent $1.7 billion in cash ransom to Iran.

According to the DEA, Hezbollah was operating a global criminal enterprise worth over $1 billion, annually. They were selling drugs and running arms as a means of funding their terrorist activities.

A major DEA-led task force called Cassandra had procured mounting and incriminating evidence against them. Yet, according to senior Treasury and Defense officials, the Obama administration consistently obstructed and stonewalled the investigation in order to protect the Iran deal.

In essence, it seems President Obama and his administration were so focused on striking a deal with Iran that they let a major global terror group off the hook, even though the terror group was involved in global drug trafficking and sent massive amounts of cocaine and other drugs to our American communities.

I have sent this letter to Chairman Gowdy, urging an immediate investigation into this matter.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 638, and YEA on Roll Call No. 639

Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, I had the privilege of honoring six World War II heroes at VFW Post 2423 in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Each hero was awarded the French Legion of Honor Medal by the French consul. They were:

Charles Richardson, who flew 35 combat missions aboard a B-17 over France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

Andrew McMahon received the Purple Heart while fighting to liberate France.

William Rachui helped liberate Rome and southern France while earning five Bronze Service Stars.

James Crump landed at Omaha Beach on D-day and received two Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts.

Aster Rider landed at Omaha Beach on D-day. As a rifleman on the front lines, he was one of only a handful of soldiers to survive.

Harold Granger landed at Utah Beach on D-day. He helped save lives by finding and disarming landmines.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in thanking these brave patriots for their service to the United States and the cause of liberty.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Dr. Billy Graham, a revered national treasure, who celebrates his 99th birthday today.

The world honors Dr. Graham's birthday because of a decision he made 83 years ago. On November 1, 1934, at a Mordecai Ham tent revival in Charlotte, North Carolina, young Billy Graham accepted Jesus as his personal Savior and committed his life to telling others about Jesus' love and forgiveness. God used that decision to impact countless lives around the world.

While Presidents have sought his counsel over many decades and millions have gone forward to accept Jesus Christ at his meetings, Dr. Graham is remembered most for honoring and following his Lord and master.

On a personal note, I first met Dr. Graham back in 1971 when I served as his caddy at the Byron Nelson Pro-Am, playing with Byron Nelson, Bob Hope, and Arnold Palmer. That was a fun time, but I have admired his walk with Jesus ever since.

Happy birthday, Dr. Graham.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in support of H.R. 2148, the Clarifying Commercial Real Estate Loans Act. I would also like to thank my colleague, Chairman Huizenga, for his leadership on our behalf.

This bipartisan legislation makes commonsense reforms to the high volatility commercial real estate loan process and clarifies the existing regulations to help simplify real estate financing in high volatility markets, including economically depressed urban communities.

The complexity of the current HVCRE definition, combined with the failure of Federal regulators to clarify and define HVCRE rules and how and where they are to be applied, has made certain that these development loans have become way too expensive. This has increased borrowing costs and reduced credit availability.

These failures directly impact local communities. We have seen fewer jobs, less economic growth, and increased costs for community projects, in addition to setbacks for local banks and developers.

My bipartisan legislation addresses many of these concerns by broadening the types of equity the developer may place towards the heightened risk requirements of an HVCRE loan. We also clarify which types of loans should and should not be classified as HVCRE. We must codify and improve the HVCRE rules to ensure market and industry stability.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman David Scott, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and Ranking Member Waters, who actively worked with me on this important legislation. Please join us in supporting this commonsense, bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the No Abortion Bonds Act, to end Federal tax-exempt bonds that support abortion providers.

Under a loophole in the current law, cities, counties, and States can issue Federal tax-free bonds to finance construction of abortion clinics.

In 2012, the New York City government issued a tax-free $15 million bond for a $30 million renovation of Planned Parenthood's national headquarters, which was subsequently sold 3 years later for $60 million. In 2007, Sarasota County, Florida, floated an $8 million tax- free bond to pay for a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.

These tax-free bonds are intended to finance schools, hospitals, infrastructure--not abortion clinics.

The No Abortion Bonds Act has over 30 bipartisan cosponsors and is endorsed by Americans United for Life, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life, March for Life, the Family Policy Alliance, and the Eagle Forum.

Please join me today in applying the spirit of the Hyde amendment to the Tax Code by preventing tax-free bonds from going to abortion providers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Pastor Loran Livingston and his wife, Sandra, in recognition of their 40 years of ministry at Central Church of God in Charlotte, North Carolina.

God has used the Livingstons to grow and lead a church that truly impacts the Charlotte community and the world. Each week, over 6,000 people gather together for a wonderful praise and worship experience, along with a dynamic biblical message from Pastor Livingston.

Under their leadership, the congregation actively serves those in poverty, provides help for women facing an unplanned pregnancy all the way through life, and programs to assist seniors. Central Church also hosts an annual 5K race to raise awareness in the fight against human trafficking.

If you want to address race relations in Charlotte, a good place to start is Central Church, where 40-plus nationalities worship together every Sunday hearing the love of Jesus.

Thank God for Pastor and Mrs. Livingston and their dedication to Christ, Central Church, the Charlotte community, and their various missions around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which I was among one of the first cosponsors. God bless Representative Trent Franks for his tireless leadership.

This is a commonsense, pro-life bill that prohibits late-term elective abortions on unborn babies after 20 weeks postfertilization. At this tender age, they can feel the excruciating pain of abortion.

America has always been a beacon for human rights. Yet, according to a 2014 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the U.S. is among just seven countries that permit elective abortion

past 20 weeks. These countries include China and North Korea.

Our Nation suffers an egregious offense to be listed with North Korea and China, two oppressive regimes that show no respect for human life or human rights in allowing the killing of these precious babies as they endure these cruel abortions.

This bill is important, as we speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. As an engaged and active member of the Congressional Pro- Life Caucus, I fully support this bill, as I stand for life.