Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Wulfgang Lawson. Wulf is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 288, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Wulf has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Wulf has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Wulf has contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Wulfgang for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Aaron D. Nero, Jr. Aaron is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 288, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Aaron has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Aaron has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Aaron has contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Aaron for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Patrick Steinkamp. Patrick is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 288, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Patrick has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Patrick has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Patrick has contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Patrick for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Christopher Steinkamp. Christopher is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 288, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Christopher has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Christopher has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Christopher has contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Christopher for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Ethan Fields. Ethan is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 251, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Ethan has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Ethan has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Ethan has become a warrior in the tribe of Mic-O-Say. Ethan has also contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project where he painted parking curbs in the St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Ethan for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Jack Muirhead. Jack is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 214, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Jack has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Jack has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Jack has become a member of the tribe Mic-O-Say. Jack has also contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project. Jack built a flag retirement box, and organized, planned, and implemented a regular flag retirement ceremony for Troop 214.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Jack for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 8.

I want to say, too, the chairman's commitment to passing bipartisan WRDA bills every 2 years has been very impactful on better managing the bureaucracy of the Corps of Engineers.

I think we can all agree that the Corps needs regular examination of projects and policy to hold them accountable, and this is good government and a policy I would like to see the committee remain committed to in the future.

In my district, Mr. Chairman, this bill is extremely important to the agriculture economy and to everyone who relies on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

My district alone is bordered by 400 miles of Missouri and Mississippi River frontage. So we in northern Missouri are directly affected by the Corps' actions.

I am glad that the committee unanimously adopted my amendment to bring some common sense to the management of the endangered species-- specifically, the pallid sturgeon--that live along the Missouri River.

Past efforts to help the pallid sturgeon have led to multiple years of flooding and millions of dollars' worth of damage to my constituents. What is worse is the fact that the Corps has spent money year after year on population recovery, and it has not helped the pallid sturgeon one bit. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Before the Army Corps builds any new, unproven structures along the Missouri and spends millions of taxpayer dollars, they are now required to prove that it actually works. Furthermore, the Army Corps must prove that these structures, called IRCs, do not negatively impact the other management priorities on the Missouri River that the Corps is responsible for, most importantly, which is flood control and navigation.

Mr. Chairman, the Corps shouldn't be focused on constructing environmental habitats. They should be protecting people and businesses from flooding and helping facilitate navigation on the river. We have been down this road before with unproven methods to help fish over people.

In closing, this is a good bill. It is necessary to advance important flood control projects and ensure our inland waterways remain a reliable and efficient option for transporting goods up and down the rivers. I urge all my colleagues to vote for H.R. 8.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Jeremiah Russell. Jeremiah is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 333, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Jeremiah has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Jeremiah has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Jeremiah has become a member of the tribe Mic-O-Say. Jeremiah has also contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project. Jeremiah acquired, assembled and installed outdoor park benches at Parkville Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Jeremiah for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize the Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments for their milestone achievement of fifty years of service for the betterment of the local communities they serve.

The Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments, formerly called the Northwest Missouri Regional Planning Commission, is one of twenty regional planning commissions in Missouri, which grew out of the State and Regional Planning and Community Development Act of 1966, permitting the establishment of regional planning commissions to resolve common community problems on a regional basis. Since their founding in 1968, the Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments has been assisting their member counties and cities with engineering studies, grant applications, and coordinating regional efforts to the benefit of my constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask that you join me in celebrating these achievements and promoting the ongoing mission of the Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Arnold A. Piskin who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Mr. Piskin was stationed at Horsham St. Faith, England where he flew 36 missions over France and Germany as a pilot on the B-24J Liberator named `Howling Banshee.' At the age of 20 he was the youngest member of his crew and flew combat missions in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) as part of the 8th Air Force, 2nd Air Division, 96th Bomb Wing, 458th Bomb Group, and. 753rd Squadron. In addition, they flew one of the 10 original AZON aircraft straight from the United States. Mr. Askin and his crew flew their final 4 missions were in support of the Battle of the Bulge on December 24-28, 1944.

During his 8 months in the European theater he received the Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). In addition, he received the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with 5 Bronze Stars for Air Offensive Europe, Normandy, Northern France, Germany, Ardennes.

After the war, Mr. Piskin took advantage of the GI bill and earned a BS in Physical Education from New York University (NYU) and later a MS in Social Work from Columbia University. He spent his professional life in Jewish communal work. This included servicing community centers, community organizations, children's camps and fundraising. While at NYU, he met his wife Hannah Korenthal who he has been married to for 68 years. They were blessed with 4 children--Brenda, Jay, Craig, Scott-- and 7 grandchildren--Rachel, Adam, Jason, Tori, Todd, Cory, and Julie.

Mr. Speaker, I stand before the House today to pay tribute to Mr. Piskin and thank him for his tremendous service to our country. The freedom we all enjoy today was made possible by men like him.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 1st Lieutenant William S. Lyons, also known as `Tiger Lyons.' Mr. Lyons was part of the 355th Fighter Group. Mr. Lyons became a flight leader with 63 missions and completed his 300 combat hours in March 1945.

The 355th Fighter Group, which Mr. Lyons served in, had pioneered ground strafing techniques and it was the 355th Fighter Group who destroyed more enemy aircraft by ground strafing than any other Eighth Air Force Group. Based at Steeple Morden from July 1943 to July 1945, the Group flew Thunderbolts and Mustangs as escorts for bombers and in area patrols and fighter sweeps.

For his service he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 8 Oak Leaf Cluster, 5 European Theater Operation Battle Stars, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and 2 Presidential Unit Citations.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank Mr. Lyons for his service to the country and to express our gratitude for all that his team did during their war to protect the freedoms we all enjoy today.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 181.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Jonathan Lawson. Jon is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 376, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Jon has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Jon has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Jon has become a member of both the tribe Mic-O-Say and Order of the Arrow. Jon has also contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project. Jon built a fire pit at the Rush Creek Campus of Liberty United Methodist Church.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Jonathan for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Caleb Zorn. Caleb is a very special young man who has exemplified the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 261, and earning the most prestigious award of Eagle Scout.

Caleb has been very active with his troop, participating in many scout activities. Over the many years Caleb has been involved with scouting, he has not only earned numerous merit badges, but also the respect of his family, peers, and community. Most notably, Caleb has become a member of both the tribe Mic-O-Say and Order of the Arrow. Caleb has also contributed to his community through his Eagle Scout project. Caleb built four wooden benches for the local Down Syndrome Guild.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Caleb for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.

Mr. Chairman, I proudly rise today to support the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. There are a lot of important policies in this bill that I worked on, but the main thing I am glad to see included is that we accomplished this bill as a long-term bill, a 5-year authorization.

Passing long-term bills is something that the chairman has remained committed to during his leadership on the committee and is a policy I strongly support. Unfortunately, we don't see enough of that in Congress that much anymore.

One of the big highlights of the bill is the long-overdue reforms to the FAA certification process, and the committee has developed bipartisan reforms that are going to streamline the FAA certification.

Mr. Chairman, I had previously worked on the precursor reforms to this process with the passage of the bill, the Small Airplane Revitalization Act, back in 2013, and I look forward to seeing the benefits of these reforms be applied more broadly to the aviation manufacturing community as certification reform provisions contained in the FAA bill go into effect.

Additionally, there are a lot of policies that we worked on, that I worked on, in the underlying bill. And just to run through those quickly: expansion of the State block grant authority from 10 to 20 States; allowing greater testing of replacement fuels for AvGas; restoring the ``all makes and models'' certificate to experimental category

aircraft; extending aircraft registration from 3 to 10 years, which I might point out, it currently takes the FAA at least a month to process paperwork to register or re-register an aircraft.

We also asked the FAA to resolve disputes between approved airshows and major sporting events that require flight restrictions.

We also worked on an important policy to prevent the local and State governments from targeting certain industries for discriminatory taxes, like the rental car industry.

And finally, we correct a poorly written guidance document which hurts folks who are pursuing aircraft construction projects. FAA wanted to restrict aircraft construction projects from individuals' hangars unless it was in the final stages by claiming it was not the ``aeronautical use'' of a hangar, which makes absolutely no sense and, clearly, this decision was not made with the understanding of how these projects work. This needs to be corrected.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I have been a pilot, a professional pilot for virtually my entire life, and I have been interacting with people in the aviation community for more than two decades now. I understand the issues that face the industry.

When we talk about FAA reauthorization, I think about ensuring all those who rely on our aviation system can continue flying safely, securely, and freely. America has always been a leader and pioneer when it comes to aviation since the days of the Wright Brothers, and I want to ensure that continues. To do so, we have to continue to look for opportunities to incorporate technology into our infrastructure network.

I look forward to further advancing these goals in other areas of transportation as the committee works on an infrastructure bill later this year.

Mr. Chairman, I strongly support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for his work on putting together a long-term bill.

Mr. Chairman, one of the priorities which was included in the manager's amendment is a program to invest in our small airports.

As part of the increased investment in transportation programs that was provided in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus, we provided an additional $1 billion to the FAA in discretionary grants to small airports. Now airports across the country are going to have the opportunity to compete for additional dollars to carry out the larger projects.

We also have some very important accountability measures. As such, we are asking to review all the FAA's efforts to date on NextGen. This is pure and simple accountability to ensure our tax dollars are being spent to execute the important goals of NextGen.

Mr. Chairman, I ask all of my colleagues to support the manager's amendment, obviously, and the underlying bill. This is a good bill.