Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Uni-Capitol Washington Internship Program. This program is a wonderful educational and cultural exchange for both the congressional intern and office. The Uni-Capitol Washington Internship Program annually delivers some of Australia's best and brightest university students for two month internships in our offices. During their time in our nation's Capitol, these student-ambassadors continue to develop their commitment to civic engagement and public service.

This year I welcomed student-ambassador Emma Lee who has been a great example of the high quality students who are involved in this program. Emma is a Masters candidate from the University of Sydney, with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wollongong where she was a Dean's Scholar. She has been an invaluable asset to our office these past two months.

Throughout her time in this office, she has had the chance to pursue her interests on a range of issues, from foreign affairs, human rights, and diplomacy to food security and the environment. She has attended committee briefings, drafted constituent correspondence, and assisted my staff with research. Her Australian accent has garnered the attention of many of my constituents on tours and over the phone. She is often asked to share her experiences in Washington, DC.

I ask my colleagues to join with me in recognizing the contributions of the Uni-Capitol Internship Program and to thank Emma Lee for her participation, time, and hard work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw the attention of the House of Representatives to the remarkable performance of one of my constituents, Specialist Joshua Fernandez, proudly serving in the California National Guard. A native of Soledad, California, Specialist Fernandez was selected as the 2015 California National Guard Soldier of the Year. This title is only bestowed to those soldiers who emerge victorious from the Guard's Best Warrior Competition; a grueling, four- day contest that includes a 6-mile road march, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear knowledge report, and a series of physical fitness and rifle and pistol competitions.

SPC Joshua Fernandez serves as a Team Leader with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment. He served three years active duty service at Fort Stewart, Georgia with the 3rd Infantry Division prior to enlisting in the California Army National Guard. He has served in one combat deployment during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan attached to a Special Operations Task Force.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute Specialist Joshua Fernandez for his steadfast commitment to service to our great Nation on behalf of the House of Representatives. He is a shining example of the dedication and sacrifices made by the men and women who serve in United States Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the remarkable public service career of Mr. John Collins, who is retiring from a 28 year career with Goodwill Industries as the Senior Vice President of Workforce Development Programs to Goodwill Industries for Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties. In that time John build a stellar reputation for compassionate service and insightful leadership. He is so well networked in the community that it seems that John can claim almost everybody in the Central Coast, including me, as a friend.

A native of Santa Cruz, California, John earned his Master of Public Health Degree from San Jose State University, and his Bachelor of Science Degree in Health and Human Services Administration from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. John has held positions in both the private and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining Goodwill, John provided consultant services to companies regarding troubled employees and health issues; Program Director for Dominican Hospital's EAP; and Director of Human Organ Recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

As Senior Vice President, Mr. Collins has been very active in the support and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, The Workforce Investment Act, and many educational strategies. As a CARF Surveyor, he has ensured that organizations around the world follow the standards for quality employment and training programs. John's work has also included extensive outreach in the Central Coast community. He serves on the Workforce Investment Board as well as having served on The Monterey County Tourist and Travel Alliance, the Board of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and Monterey County Hospitality Boards of Directors. He served as an elected Trustee and president of the board of Santa Cruz City Schools.

Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak for the whole House in sharing our gratitude to John for a job well done and extend our best wishes to John and his family in this next chapter of life. I know that even in retirement, he will still find himself involved in the community and helping people in need and will continue to stand as an example for others.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of Major Chad Erin Lamphere, an American hero who valiantly served his country while serving in the United States Army.

Chad was born on August 24, 1973 on a small family farm in Arkansaw, WI. Displaying a warm heart at a young age, Chad helped his family raise dogs, cats, pigs, and goats, while also contributing and giving back to his community through partaking in 4-H. Chad quickly rose to the top of his academic classes, graduating with two degrees and as Valedictorian from Hartnell College, and later attending UCLA for pre- medical courses, in which he graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Chad joined the U.S. Army in 2006 in pursuit of a degree in medicine. In 2009, Chad joined the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and as a doctor, provided much needed care and services to his fellow comrades who he valiantly served next to. Additionally Chad's selflessness and can-do attitude shined while serving in the U.S. Army, receiving multiple awards during his Active Duty assignments: the Bronze Star Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Ribbon.

In addition, to serving his country, Chad was a caring friend, loving father, and husband, and dedicated family man. Chad leaves behind his wife, Lindsay Della Valla, daughter, Emma Lamphere and son, Chad Erin Lamphere Jr., three siblings: Kirk, Jarrod, and Nicole, and his loving parents: Suzanne and Brad du Verrier.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of an accomplished American hero and loving husband, Major Chad Erin Lamphere. His life, legacy, and service to the United States of America will never be forgotten.

Madam Speaker, this bill is simply outrageous. It was bad enough that the Majority brought to the floor H.R. 36 outside the regular order. But the Majority had to pull that bill when the women in their Conference informed their Leadership just how bad the bill was and that they could not vote for it. Undeterred at its `war on women' the Majority pulled H.R. 36 and rushed to the floor an equally offensive bill, H.R. 7. This new bill, H.R. 7, the so-called No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015 is simply an attempt to substitute one anti-family bill for another. Timed to coincide with the annual pro-life march in Washington, this is a blatant attempt at pandering to their base.

During the last elections, the Republicans made quite a show of how they would run the Congress by regular order and make Congress work for the American people. However, we have had mere hours notice that this bill would even be brought to the floor. The bill was introduced yesterday and has already been fast tracked by the leadership to be on the floor this morning! Needless to say, there was NO committee debate and NO opportunity to amend the bill in any way. No one has even had a chance to read the bill. Who says those in Congress can't get things done quickly when they want to?

Supporters of the bill argue that it will simply codify the Hyde amendment and permanently prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion. However, we all know that is false. H.R. 7 is actually much more nefarious than that. It seeks to restrict women's reproductive rights and access to health care; increase healthcare premiums for many Americans and small businesses; and, limit the private insurance choices of consumers. It will almost certainly guarantee that insurance companies will no longer offer abortion coverage to consumers.

The Republicans in the House are continuing the mission to completely eliminate women's reproductive rights and their access to healthcare. As with the previous version of this bill, H.R. 7 is nothing more than a statement bill.

In addition, this bill also undermines the D.C. home rule. H.R. 7 prohibits D.C. from using its own Medicaid funds to provide abortion, language that is already included in the annual appropriations bill. This is despite the fact that 17 states currently use their own state funds to provide abortion.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 7 is the antithesis of Republicans stated goal of ``small government.'' How can the Majority be so hypocritical? The Republican Majority is using this bill to reach into the lives of millions of Americans and make their health care decisions for them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw the attention of the House to the remarkable

public service career of Lou Calcagno. I have had the distinct honor and pleasure of working with Lou for nearly 40 years in many capacities ranging from local land use questions to federal farm policy. Today is his last meeting as a Monterey County Supervisor and I wanted to take a moment to recognize his record and example.

Lou was born in 1937 on his family's ranch in Moss Landing, California, the youngest son of Italian immigrant parents Pietro and Clara Calcagno. He grew up in his family's dairy operation and attended Monterey County schools. Hoping to take the family business to the next level, Lou left home to study dairy husbandry and manufacturing at Cal- Poly, San Luis Obispo. He then returned to put his expertise to use and built a career as a highly successful dairyman, which included service as: Chairman of the California Milk Advisory Board, Chairman of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board and Chairman of the California Co-Operative Creamery, and co-founder of the California Milk Advisory Board.

As Lou was building his successful dairy career, he married Carol Lanini. Together, Carol and Lou raised two children: Louis Franklyn (Carolyn) Calcagno and Debbie Calcagno Soares; and, they have three grandchildren: Adam (Colleen) Soares, Lauren Soares, and Jennifer Calcagno and one great-grandson, Bradley Franklyn Soares.

Lou's work in the dairy industry and agriculture more broadly pulled him into the world of public policy. Lou quickly became involved in local and state government and many other public service efforts, including leadership positions with the Monterey County Planning Commission, the Ag Land Trust, the Monterey County Fair, the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority, the North County Water Issues Advisory Committee, LAFCO, the Pajaro River Watershed Flood Prevention Authority, the Monterey Regional Waste Management District, TAMC, and is the only Republican to chair the California Coastal Commission, just to name a few.

The culmination of Lou's public service was the 16 years he spent as a member of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. As one of his predecessors on that board myself, I know first-hand how much difference you can make in the lives of the people of your community. Lou's service was definitive proof of that truth. He amassed a dynamic record of pragmatic leadership and problem solving that including turning around the finances of Monterey County's public hospital, prioritizing the preservation of prime ag land in local land use planning, and many more accomplishments than I have time to list now. Lou's retirement will diminish a voice leadership in Monterey County has known and relied on for half a century.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to extend the gratitude of the House to Lou and his family for his leadership and vision and for the countless hours devoted to the minutia of local democracy and governance. It is the service of people like Lou Calcagno that make America the world's greatest democracy.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Madam Chairwoman, I rise to thank my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee. I am a ranking member also. I know what type of work it takes to put together a $39.7 billion expenditure to protect all of the entities of domestic homeland security. It is a good bill. It was worked out last year. For all the new Members coming, I am shocked that they have to go through this learning process about how we take a good thing and screw it up.

This bill has bipartisan support. I think if we voted on it tonight, the underlying bill would pass overwhelmingly. I don't even know if there would be a negative vote. But tomorrow morning on this floor amendments are going to be made to this bill. I understand the other side already has them, and I wish the people who are thinking about voting for those amendments and those that are proposing them had listened to the people that we are funding in Homeland Security, because the last thing they would tell you is that America is going to be less secure with those amendments.

There isn't going to be a college campus or university that isn't going to be in revolt when you try to deport the students who are there. Your wives, your families are going to be upset when you try to deport your gardener or somebody taking care of your house. Our faith- based communities are going to be hiding these people from deportation.

You are coming in and creating this ugly government that is going to go around and round up people who have not committed a crime and deport them.

That doesn't make America more secure. In fact, it makes us ugly all over the world. So, I can't, for the life of me--when we go to such hard work to get such a great, balanced bill, to spend $39.7 billion on the Department of Homeland Security, then want to make sure that it doesn't work.

The President has said he is going to veto it. He is going to veto it because you are mad at him for providing leadership.

Thank you, Mr. President, for providing that leadership. The House should have joined with the Senate and adopted a comprehensive immigration bill, but we didn't. We sat on that for 2 years, did absolutely nothing, and now we are attacking you.

Shame, shame on the House. Defeat those amendments.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and accomplishments of a truly remarkable man and to mourn the passing of a dear friend, Rock Scully. Rock passed away just before Christmas following a long battle with cancer. The world knew Rock as the man who managed the Grateful Dead from their inception in San Francisco through their rise to prominence to become music legends. I knew Rock as the new kid in the 6th grade who became my lifelong friend. Rock taught the Dead about business. He taught me how to ski. We grew up together, spent time together exploring the wonders of Carmel-by-the-Sea, and later traveling together to serve in interfaith peace camps in Germany and Austria in 1958. Some of my fondest memories were created with Rock. As a Member of this House, I rise to honor Rock's contribution to American culture. But as Sam Farr, I rise today to shed tears for the loss of a friend who I had known for 61 years.

Rock was born in Seattle in 1941. I first met him when he moved to Carmel in 1952. We became friends in grammar school and went to Carmel High School together before he moved to Switzerland to finish his senior year. Rock attended Earlham College in Indiana before moving back to California for graduate school in San Francisco.

Rock began his public career in the early 1960s, while studying at San Francisco State College. He helped organize civil rights demonstrations to fight discrimination in San Francisco including the now famous sit-ins at the Sheraton Palace Hotel and at automobile dealerships on Van Ness Avenue in 1964. The sit-ins were successful in improving hiring practices and creating agreements of non- discrimination. They also caused Rock and others to spend 30 days in the San Bruno county jail for disturbing the peace.

At the same time, Rock found his calling in San Francisco's fledgling rock music scene. He became the manager of The Charlatans, one of the originators of what became known as the San Francisco Sound in the 1960s. He also helped support the fledgling rock scene as part of a collective known as the Family Dog.

Just before I left to join the Peace Corps, Rock called to tell me he was going to quit graduate school to manage a new band full time. ``You're crazy!'' I said. Rock told me they were amazing and definitely going places. ``Besides,'' he said, ``they have the coolest name: the Grateful Dead.'' Rock may have been crazy but he was right. The Dead was a local Bay Area act when he started managing them in 1965. The band became an American icon in the two decades he was with them. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead put it beautifully in a message he posted upon learning of Rock's death, ``Rock helped explain the Dead to the world.''

Rock chronicled his twenty years with the band in his book ``Living with the Dead.'' He became a voice for the narrative history of musicians and artists that changed the cultural landscape of California. In many ways he was part of the broad and varied movement that helped shape California's openness to innovation, creativity, and diversity. That movement can be traced at the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose library houses the complete archives of the Grateful Dead.

Rock played such a huge part in so many lives, but especially to his family and friends. I want to extend my condolences to his daughter, Sage Scully and stepdaughter, Acacia Scully; half sisters, Norah Scully and Kate Scully; step sisters, Julie Mayer Vognar and Amanda Mayer Stinchecum; and his brother, Dicken Scully, who travelled with us in Europe in 1958.

Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for the whole House in celebrating Rock Scully's amazing spirit and in offering our best wishes to his family and friends. To quote the band that Rock managed for two decades, ``A box of rain will ease the pain and love will you see you through.''

Thank you very much, my dear colleague from California and our distinguished Member of Congress, Barbara Lee. And I can't think of any other Member who has made more trips and taken more people and influenced this change of policy in the United States Congress than Barbara Lee.

I have had the pleasure of traveling to Cuba on six different mission trips and each one of them has been very interesting, one with my constituents in Santa Cruz, California, who have a sister city relationship with an area called Guama, and it looks much like the California coastline, and a very interesting area of trying to help rural people with a better connection by learning about their rural delivery of medicine, which far exceeds the way we treat rural people in this country, and learning from them how we might be doing a better job, at the same time improving the facilities they have, and things like that, just a cultural exchange.

I find that every time I am there, whether it is Havana or other parts of Cuba, that there is always kind of a curiosity of learning about another country, a very well-educated country, a sophisticated country, yet a very, very poor country.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Latin America, in Colombia. I lived in barrios without water and without lights. People in Cuba might have access to water and lights, but the living conditions that they live in are really restricted, and some of the conditions in Havana are the greatest poverty I have seen in the world.

So this will change when you get people that are well-educated and get an economy growing. I think that the action of President Obama is absolutely awesome. It is real diplomatic leadership. It is the ability to change the United States' isolated, backward, close-the-door policy to opening it up with all the other Presidents of this hemisphere.

As we prepare to go to Panama in the spring, President Obama now will be joining every President of this hemisphere, 36 different countries in the Western Hemisphere, all of whom have diplomatic relationships, travel relationships, normal relationships with Cuba, except the United States of America, and he is going to be applauded for his leadership in joining the hemispheric unity.

When you think about the opportunities of this hemisphere, we can get along in this hemisphere in three languages: Spanish, English, and Portuguese, a little bit of French. We are not at war with anybody. This is a magnificent hemisphere to unify, and to be isolated from that unification by having this archaic policy towards Cuba is just wrong.

So, Mr. President, you are a hero, and I look forward to you being welcomed as a hero at the hemispheric summit this spring.

I would also like to say, I am ranking member on the Agriculture Subcommittee of Appropriations, and this is an opportunity for 11 million people living in Cuba and hungry, and really hungry. Cuba has to import almost everything. They have trade importations from the United States, so buying agriculture products isn't new. What is going to be new is the ability to trade in normal functions, in using the financial instruments that all trade negotiants have.

It is very difficult to export to Cuba because of the requirements that we make in the United States. We are not allowed, as Americans, to use credit cards or to get credit. All the other countries can. So what happens is these other countries are taking away market share where we could be in there with our products.

I am very proud, in agriculture, to see the leadership of our States, our agricultural States, the Governors--bipartisan. This is not Democratic. This is a bipartisan, sort of the American outreach, and we have formed a coalition of agricultural groups to work on, really, opening up the trade.

I am very proud to say that the International Dairy--I am going to read off this list. The International Dairy Foods Association, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, National Association of

Wheat Growers, National Barley Growers, National Chicken Council, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, National Milk Producers Federation, National Turkey Federation, North American Meat Institute, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the U.S. Wheat Associates, the USA Rice Federation, et cetera, et cetera, are all interested in helping promote our relationship with Cuba.

So congratulations, President Obama. You are a true leader in this hemisphere.

Thank you, Barbara Lee, for setting aside this time for us to discuss it.

I want to personally thank Barbara Lee for inviting Alan Gross to be here yesterday when we were sworn in. I was fortunate to be able to meet with Alan Gross when he was incarcerated in Cuba. I brought him salami from the Eastern Market here and he just loved that. So last night he gave me a bracelet that he made when he was incarcerated. It is so nice to see him back in the United States in the Halls of the United States Congress.

America is changing, and this is a big step.

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Chief Probation Officer Manuel ``Manny'' Real on the occasion of his retirement from the County of Monterey. On December 12,

2014 Chief Real will relinquish his position and retire after 39 years of exemplary public service.

Manny has served as the Chief Probation Officer of Monterey County since February 12, 2004 and has overseen a staff of approximately 300 along with an all administrative budget, operational aspects of the Probation Department's Divisions of Administration, Adult Juvenile Hall and Youth Center and Alternative Programs. At the time of his appointment, Chief Real was already a 30-year veteran of the Monterey County Probation Department having worked in various capacities in both the adult and juvenile divisions. He worked in investigations and field supervision. At various times ``Manny'' served as a juvenile traffic hearing officer, a child custody investigator and a court officer. His tenure as Chief began in the middle of a series financial crises. Chief Real worked tirelessly to with the CAO's budget office to mitigate any negative side effects, preserve the progress made, and ultimately restore balance between available resources, community needs and effective interventions.

Chief Real has worked hard in strengthening relations and collaborations County Social Services, Behavioral Health, education, law enforcement, criminal justice, behavioral health and community organizations. Chief Real was integral in securing the use of the old Natividad Hospital to establish the Silver Star Gang Prevention and Intervention Program a one-stop gang prevention and intervention program. The program is unique as it combines probation supervision, educational, vocational and job training, counseling services and truancy abatement, along with mentoring and community outreach strategies to help decrease gang activity. It was a pleasure having worked with Chief Real at the federal level to bring in $1.5 million dollars to assist with anti juvenile violence and the programs at the Silver Star Resource Center continues to serve many families in Monterey County.

Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for the whole House in extending our most sincere gratitude for Chief Real's service. I want to wish Chief Real the best as he embarks on a new chapter in his life and know he will enjoy spending more time with his wife, children and grandchildren.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Rogers, the chair of the committee, for bringing a bill to the floor. I wish it was the full bill and not most of the bill.

But I also want the world to note that, even though there are some poison pills in this issue, this is a very progressive appropriations bill, and it shows that when you do reach compromise--and I hope that the party that will be in the majority next year will understand that we wanted to do a full process. We want it to be vetted. We don't want poison pills. But in the end, get the bad language out, which you did, and you can have a bill that has bipartisan support. We don't want things to get worse in this country, we want it to get better, and a CR would be the worst thing that could happen.

But we also, as a body that believes in exposure and the public's right to know, we should never allow these poison pills to be in this bill. Hold your nose and make this a better world.

Thank you very much for yielding and being chair of the California Democratic delegation, the largest single delegation in the United States Congress, with its champions of note, George Miller and Henry Waxman.

This is a historical room and this is a historical moment, and that is why it is being recorded and being covered by C-SPAN. This room is historic in that the leaders of the world come to speak here to joint sessions of Congress. We are every day surrounded by the reliefs on the walls here of 23 of the greatest lawgivers in the history of the world, and we are reminded that one person can make a difference.

Tonight, we honor two people, each who have made one hell of a difference. I don't think that I have ever met--and my contacts with these two gentlemen goes way back with George Miller when he was 9 years old. He was the pudgy little kid and I was the tall skinny kid. Now I am the pudgy little kid and he is the tall skinny kid.

But he had a dedication for the out-of-doors. We went camping, fishing, and skiing. Our fathers, who were both State senators, introduced us to politics at the State level, and both of us ended up as staff members in the California State legislature, where, in 1968, Henry Waxman was elected. And George on the Senate side and myself on the analyst side, but mostly on the assembly side, I worked a lot with Henry Waxman because I was doing constitutional revision work, and one of the few things that Henry was interested in was constitutional revision. This is really about the history of the state of the Constitution, and he carried these really complicated constitutional amendments to clean up the Constitution. I just remembered the dedication. The style was always one of intellect, very legal, lawyer- like, quiet, but everybody respected him, and we got a lot done.

George, George is like his dad. He is the fiery one. In fact, this podium right here I saw broken by George hitting it. This is a new podium, ladies and gentlemen, thanks to George Miller. Now it is adjustable and all kinds of things it didn't used to be in the old days.

Look, behind us is the American flag. There are 50 stars on it. Everybody knows those represent the 50 States. In my opinion, they are going to remind us of the 50 pieces of major legislation that each one of these Members carry. Now, a lot of these people that come through here are famous, and we have had Senator Kennedy and so on being in this House, and we think of the legislation they have created. Look, these gentlemen have done more for this Nation in major legislation than any people in either the Senate or the House.

In fact, little known, but George Miller would have been the Speaker of the House when Nancy Pelosi wanted him to run, and he said: ``Nancy, this is your job, we are going to make history with you.''

These two gentlemen are some of the greatest people that have ever served in the United States Congress, and I hope the record will remember all of their incredible accomplishments because we are a better country and a better world for their service. We are going to greatly miss them.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

This is always a difficult issue. It is a California issue, and I want to point out that the California delegation is not evenly split on this. It is unevenly split. The reason is the gentleman just talked about what he called ``facts.'' His points of what he was making are not true.

As the ranking member indicated, the chair, she indicated that this is public water, public water that is transported in the State by publicly financed canals, both by the Federal Government and by the State government. This is water that is supposed to balance for all California. It is all publicly owned and distributed, mostly to the private sector in the San Joaquin Valley.

Now, we have a drought. Everybody knows it. It is a disaster. The President declared it that. What we ought to be doing in Congress is paying for that disaster, like we pay for every other disaster. This bill doesn't do it. I was a coauthor of the original bill, but I am not cosponsoring this one, and I am not supporting this one because what this does is not deal with the problem of getting money to California to build the infrastructure that we need for off-stream storage and things like that.

What it does is disrupt a balanced system that has flexibility. We have been through the worst drought, and there have been flexible releases given this year. We solved it administratively. But to put it in law I think is very harmful. It is going to cause more lawsuits, more dissension, and we are back to, as Senator Boxer indicated, square one and not being able to find resolution.

Now, you argue that, well, we are the leading ag State. I am the leading ag county: $4.8 billion worth of agriculture. We don't get a drop of this water. We find our own water in our own county. Frankly, we are reducing the amount of use in agriculture tremendously by drip irrigation and other forms of agricultural use.

So I think that the danger here is in the last minute of this Congress we are taking a bill that is extremely controversial and trying to pass it in the last minutes when we really need to resolve this thing so it is a balance for all of California, not just a few.

I think this is very harmful for our State, and I hope that those who are not from California will oppose the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of myself and my dear friend and colleague Representative Lois Capps to honor the career of a remarkable public servant whose work and character should serve as a model for us all. Mr. Steve Price is retiring from CalTrans after nearly 35 years in various engineering positions. In that time Steve carved out a reputation for integrity and unfailing honesty. If it could be done, Steve would make it happen. If an idea was impractical, Steve let you know. Simply put, Steve made government--at least the portion that he controlled--work for the people of California.

We had the great pleasure to getting to know Steve in his capacity as the maintenance supervisor for CalTrans District 5, which encompasses both of our congressional districts. California's Highway 1 connects our districts from Moro Bay and Hearst Castle in the south up through Carmel and Monterey in the north. Along the way the road passes through Big Sur and offers one of the most spectacular views of land and sea anywhere in the world. But as Steve likes to remind us all, that land has been falling into the sea for eons and the highway's construction 80 years ago did nothing to slow that. So every time a slide, wildfire, or washed out bridge closes the highway, we find ourselves sitting at the table with Steve and the local community working out solutions to keep the coast highway open. And it has been in those community settings that Steve's particular brand of diplomacy made its greatest impact. Where some work to sooth community anxieties with gentle words and reassuring platitudes, Steve offers unvarnished honesty. Steve's presence in the room always helped bring the conversation back to the practical.

But above all, Steve was a tremendously skilled and innovative engineer. He has been a strong advocate for worker safety and sought out opportunities to include maintenance staff in the project design process. Steve has received a Tranny Award in 1995 for leading the Caltrans effort on the Hearst Scenic Conservation purchase; acted as the Interim State Traffic engineer; participated in Transportation Research Board study on Design of In-Vehicle Driving Behavior and Crash Risk Study; received the Karl Moskowitz award for Outstanding Engineering in Transportation in 2014; and served as the State Pavement Engineer in 2014, just to name a few accomplishments. He has also applied his engineering skills to aid in Haiti's recovery from the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Mr. Speaker, we know we speak for the whole House in offering this body's gratitude for a job well done. Steve's leadership will be missed by us, his colleagues, and numerous communities up and down the Central Coast. We wish Steve and his family every success in retirement and can rest assured that his voice will continue to be heard.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the career of Ms. Pamela von Ness on the occasion of her retirement from thirty eight years of federal civilian service with the Department of Defense. I have had the great pleasure of working with Pam during her tenure as the Deputy Garrison Commander of the Presidio of Monterey. The Presidio garrison plays host to several thousand students and faculty of the Defense Language Institute as well as several other Army missions. Pam effectively served as the city manager of these dynamic communities. And it is in that capacity that I and my staff came to understand and rely on Pam's deep professionalism and problem solving skills. I would like to share with the House an excerpt from the Department of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Award given to Pam in recognition of her service:

``During the period of August 2003 to November 2013, Ms. von Ness distinguished herself while serving as the Deputy Garrison Commander, United States Army Garrison, Presidio of Monterey California. Throughout Ms. von Ness' outstanding 38 years of Civil Service, she has had a long-standing record of exceptionally distinguished performance. The culmination of her remarkably outstanding career has resulted in innumerable contributions to the local Presidio of Monterey community and significant contributions to the Department of the Army. Her dedicated efforts resulted in numerous groundbreaking accomplishments, which set examples for cost savings and effectiveness, while delivering first class support to tenant organizations at the Presidio of Monterey and the fifteen functions and sub-installations the Presidio supports on the California Central Coast. Her extensive knowledge, expertise, and experience, coupled with her dedication to mission accomplishment, have directly provided immeasurable benefit to the Installation Management Command and the United States Army.''

Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for the whole House in thanking Pam for her years of skilled, intelligent, and dedicated service to our nation's defense. We wish Pam success and happiness in the next chapter of her life.