Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, as Members of Congress we know well, perhaps better than most how blessed our nation is to have in reserve such exceptional young men and women who will go on to become leaders in their local communities, states, and the nation in the areas of business, education, government, philanthropy, the arts and culture, and the military.

We know this because we see them and benefit from their contributions every day. Many of them work for us in our offices as junior staff members, congressional fellows, or interns and they do amazing work for and on behalf of the constituents we are privileged to represent.

Madam Speaker, I believe there is no higher calling than the call to serve a cause larger than ourselves. That is why I ran for public office. I was inspired to serve by President Kennedy who said, ``Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,'' and by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said:

Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. . . . You

only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

By this measure, there are several other great young men and women who served as volunteers this year in my offices. They may toil in obscurity but their contributions to the constituents we serve are deeply appreciated. That is why today I rise to pay tribute to 8 extraordinary young persons for their service to my constituents in the 18th Congressional District of Texas and to the American people. They are: Makaila Davenport, Hampton University; Jaida Hampton, University of Kentucky; Jacqueline Olvera, Texas A&M University; Syeda-Asma Mudassar, University of San Francisco; Ivy Smith, Oberlin College; Kali Morrison, Texas Tech University; Chloe Valcourt, The Madeira School; and Holly Crowley, The Madeira School.

Madam Speaker, the energy, intelligence, and idealism these wonderful young people brought to my office and those interning in the offices of my colleagues help keep our democracy vibrant. The insights, skills, and knowledge of the governmental process they gain

from their experiences will last a lifetime and prove invaluable to them as they go about making their mark in this world.

Because of persons like them the future of our country is bright, and its best days lie ahead. I wish them all well.

Madam Speaker, I am grateful that such thoughtful committed young men and women can be found working in my office, those of my colleagues, and in every community in America. Their good works will keep America great, good, and forever young.

Madam Speaker, as we enter the month of May, many of us will be gathering at the end of the month to honor and recognize those who have fallen.

In mid-month, we will celebrate the mothers of this Nation, many of whom are veterans and who have died in battle.

I rise today to speak about veteran suicide, and to view it as a national crisis. It is told that there are 20 veterans a day committing suicide.

So, as I stand here today, tragically, a man or woman who has worn the uniform, who is willing to sacrifice himself or herself for this Nation, for the freedom of our people, for democracy, is taking their life.

This is such a national crisis that I believe that this should be a major issue for all of us to ensure that we find the resources, including the resources for family members, early counseling, and a helping hand to ensure that those veterans who find themselves lonely or homeless and feel that there is no other way out but to commit suicide--many of them young--that we will find a way to legislate, but also to protect the men and women who stood for us.

Mr. Chair, I offer this amendment on behalf of myself, Congressman Moulton of Massachusetts and Congresswoman Hayes of Connecticut, and express my appreciation to them for their assistance and support.

The Jackson Lee/Moulton/Hayes Amendment improves the bill by adding a finding which emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and multilateralism in responding to the global challenges facing the international community.

The Paris Climate Accord was an example of the international leadership, commitment, and resolve that defeated fascism, created NATO, the European Union, the Marshall Plan, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and most importantly, preserved peace and freedom for the last 75 years.

Collective international action is also needed to combat growing international challenges such as terrorism, human trafficking, and black-market sales of illegal weapons, drugs, and tobacco.

No one country can solve these problems on its own, and this amendment emphasizes the importance of collective international action.

The landmark Paris Climate Accord was established to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

This also brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.

And in these efforts, we promote the importance of continued international cooperation that has sustained the global community through epidemics, famines, and natural disasters.

A collective of rational actors acting in a selfless manner to achieve a rational result such as this requires leadership and systemic reasoning.

Without this type of collective action and selfless resolve, we leave ourselves vulnerable to a Tragedy of Commons.

When countries act solely in their best interests without regard to combatting international threats, everyone suffers.

That is why a great person and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, so eloquently said: ``We are stronger together.''

The Jackson Lee/Moulton/Hayes Amendment reflects this important insight.

I urge support of the Jackson Lee/Moulton/Hayes Amendment.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this amendment on behalf of myself, Congressman Moulton of Massachusetts and Congresswoman Hayes of Connecticut, and express my appreciation to them for their assistance and support.

The Jackson Lee/Moulton/Hayes Amendment improves the bill by adding a finding which emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and multilateralism in responding to the global challenges facing the international community.

The Paris Climate Accord was an example of the international leadership, commitment, and resolve that defeated fascism, created NATO, the European Union, the Marshall Plan, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and most importantly, preserved peace and freedom for the last 75 years.

Collective international action is also needed to combat growing international challenges such as terrorism, human trafficking, and black-market sales of illegal weapons, drugs, and tobacco.

No one country can solve these problems on its own, and this amendment emphasizes the importance of collective international action.

The landmark Paris Climate Accord was established to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

This also brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.

And in these efforts, we promote the importance of continued international cooperation that has sustained the global community through epidemics, famines, and natural disasters.

A collective of rational actors acting in a selfless manner to achieve a rational result such as this requires leadership and systemic reasoning.

Without this type of collective action and selfless resolve, we leave ourselves vulnerable to a Tragedy of Commons.

When countries act solely in their best interests without regard to combatting international threats, everyone suffers.

That is why a great person and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, so eloquently said: ``We are stronger together.''

The Jackson Lee/Moulton/Hayes Amendment reflects this important insight.

I urge support of the Jackson Lee/Moulton/Hayes Amendment.

Mr. Speaker, we have gone through some very difficult times, and I want to call the roll: Tree of Life, Robert Gregory Bowers; Mother Emanuel Church, Dylann Roof; Christchurch, Brenton Harrison Tarrant; just recently, in San Diego, John Earnest; and recently arrested, Mark Steven Domingo.

First of all, I want to thank the FBI and its investigation for stopping Mark Steven Domingo.

I challenge all of us, as colleagues, to begin the debate and discussion on hate, White nationalism, and Nazism, for it is not something that we can allow to seed and grow. We can't allow someone who wants to attack a White nationalist group that is meeting because of hatred, nor can we allow someone to gun people down in their synagogues or mosques or churches.

America is better than this, and we as Members of Congress need to begin to discuss race, discrimination, Nazism, White nationalism, sexism. We need to discuss it in a way that is even more than legislation.

So I call upon the Nation, I call upon this President to stand up and announce to America that enough is enough and that he stands for the unity of all of us.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman from Kansas for this outstanding complementary amendment to a very important issue.

I am, I believe, very much supportive, and I am supportive of the idea of the GAO producing a report examining the FCC's efforts to assess competition. That is an important record that we in the Congress need, and it complements the Save the Internet Act which represents true net neutrality protections that are designed for today and tomorrow without loopholes.

The Save the Internet Act includes enhanced transparency protections and enacts specific rules against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

Additionally, the Save the Internet Act empowers the FCC to stop internet service providers from undermining the net neutrality principles through new and harmful mechanisms, but we want to work with those providers.

My colleague just mentioned 5G. Nothing that we do here is going to inhibit, I believe, the opportunity for us to work together.

Ms. Davids' amendment is a vital and important contribution to the idea of competition, and the idea of serving your area, and making sure that we understand how the competition is increased in wireline and wireless broadband internet access to many markets.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I support her amendment, and I support the underlying bill, which is the Save the Internet Act, and I thank Mr. Doyle for his leadership over the years in this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of the creation of the Homeland Security Committee and the Department of Homeland Security. It was in the aftermath of the heinous acts of 9/11, of which I was a Member of the United States Congress, and the description and actions are seared in my memory.

We organized the Homeland Security Department to be the front lines of security, to recognize, and to determine what would be the best way to function.

I will be introducing legislation about the security of the Homeland Security Department. The precipitous firings and resignations are putting this Nation in jeopardy and putting the men and women on the front lines for the work that they are doing, it is undermining that very important work.

So today I rise as a cofounder and co-chair of the Afghanistan Caucus, to ask my colleagues to salute those who just lost their lives in battle in Afghanistan, soldiers from across the Nation. Their families are mourning, and we owe them a recognition that they wear the uniform and they are able or willing to sacrifice for us.

I would ask my colleagues to take a moment of silence for those who died in the recent IED incident in Afghanistan. I ask now for a moment of silence for those soldiers who have fallen in battle.

Madam Chair, as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and an original co-sponsor, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1644, the ``Save the Internet Act of 2019.''

The Save the Internet Act puts a cop on the beat to protect consumers, small businesses, and competition from abusive practices of internet service providers and codifies popular, bipartisan, and targeted net neutrality protections.

An overwhelming 86 percent of Americans opposed the FCC's roll back of the same protections that would be enacted by the Save the Internet Act, including 82 percent of Republicans.

The Save the Internet Act mirrors the similar bipartisan Congressional Review Act legislation that passed the Senate last Congress and had 182 bipartisan signers in the House.

The Save the Internet Act restores necessary, common-sense provisions for defending the internet put in place by the FCC during the Obama Administration and stops the current Trump-dominated FCC from applying more than 700 regulations under the Communications Act that are unnecessary to protecting an open internet such as rate setting.

The Save the Internet Act represents true net neutrality protections that are designed for today and tomorrow without loopholes.

The Save the Internet Act includes enhanced transparency protections, and enacts specific rules against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

The legislation empowers the FCC to investigate consumer and business complaints, and, when necessary, fine internet service providers for violations of the Communications Act.

Additionally, the Save the Internet Act empowers the FCC to stop internet service providers from undermining net neutrality principles through new and harmful mechanisms.

Because of the Save the Internet Act, no longer will internet service providers be able to exploit choke points online, such as interconnection points, which creates bottlenecks and stifle internet connectivity.

Another reason why all Members should support the Save the Internet Act is because it provides important new authorities that can be used to support broadband access and adoption for rural communities and struggling Americans.

The Save the Internet Act also restores authorities the FCC used starting in 2016 to fund broadband for low-income Americans, including veterans, seniors, students, and disabled Americans, under the Lifeline program that has subsidized phone service since the Reagan Administration, but only began fully supporting internet access recently.

Madam Chair, nothing in the Save the Internet Act would diminish internet service providers' investments in broadband.

It should be noted that internet service providers did not cut back on investing, deploying and increasing speeds in 2015 and 2016, when the kind of protections the bill restores were put in place by the FCC.

In fact, after the Trump FCC repealed those protections, investments by many of the largest providers went down despite their claims that just opposite would happen.

Finally, Madam Chair, it should be noted the legislation before us affirms several important principles and values, including the following:

1. A free and open internet is the single greatest technology of our time, and control should not be at the mercy of corporations.

2. A free and open internet stimulates internet service provider competition.

3. A free and open internet helps prevent unfair pricing practices.

4. A free and open internet promotes innovation.

5. A free and open internet promotes the spread of ideas.

6. A free and open internet drives entrepreneurship.

In short, Madam Chair, a free, open, and vibrant internet protects and strengthens our democracy.

I urge all Members to join me in voting to save the internet for all of our people by voting to pass H.R. 1644, the ``Save the Internet Act of 2019.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1331, ``The Local Water Protection Act'', which provides 200 million annually to support the nonpoint source management grants program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

I support this legislation because it is necessary to counteract the current crisis of water pollution in our country.

As an Energy and Environment Task Force Co-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, I understand the necessity of this bill and its funding to managing sources of water pollution.

It is unsustainable to think we can continue to allow runoff that carries pollutants, fertilizers, and sediment from fields; toxins from abandoned mines, and oils and heavy metals from roads, into lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water.

As pollutants in our waters increase, human exposure to toxins will follow in step, toxin exposure is directly linked to cancers and heart disease.

Before the pollutants reach people they reach our waterways, adversely affecting a whole ecosystem, putting 1 to 11 percent of marine species in to extinction every decade.

The strain on the marine life is not the only adverse effect to nature, global warming is also worsened when we turn a cheek to decreasing the pollution of our waterways.

Water pollution is not a topic to be taken lightly and we are reminded of our current privileges of clean water when we look at cities that have experienced the unimaginable, such as Flint, Michigan.

Flint, Michigan has lived in a state of fear, having to drink from bottles of filtered water in order to completely avoid lead poisoning and contamination.

Citizens of Flint, Michigan had to abandon their homes and the residents had to be compensated for their property and their current and future health conditions that arise from the contamination by polluted water.

Water pollution poses a threat in every state, including my home state of Texas.

It was found just recently that in 938 instances, Texas companies released pollution that exceeded the levels permitted by federal clean water laws according to researchers who examined Texas Commission for Environmental Quality data.

Texas was found in 2018 to have the most widespread radiated drinking water contamination affecting more than 3,500 utilities serving 22 million people.

The contamination in Texas included detectable levels of radium-226 and radium-228 in a study conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

Currently, it is required by law for states to submit reports to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the current sources of water pollution within their state, as well as plans to manage those sources of pollution.

EPA provides grants for states to carry out their plans to manage water pollution.

Mr. Speaker, we must not wait to take action when the health of our marine life, the state of Global Warming, and the health of our people are being affected.

H.R. 1331 would allow instrumental programs to continue serving as a step in the right direction in protecting and healing our home.

Mr. Speaker, it is well known that the Department of Homeland Security, established after the heinous and unspeakable acts of 9/11, is one of America's most important departments.

It is tragic that during the tenure of this administration, it has been in the midst of confusion and dishevelment. The Department needs long and strong leadership. Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, many other departments that are crucial, those dealing with domestic terrorism, those dealing with transportation security, it needs someone that can make an independent decision that separating children from families is not the right thing to do; that the border crisis is a humanitarian crisis; that the fences that have been built are still being built through funding that has come from previous administrations.

I wish well the Acting Secretary that is now in the position, but I will tell you that I wish more well to the hardworking employees every day that work to keep this Nation safe.

Leave the Department alone, and let its leadership work its will on behalf of the security of the American people to do the right thing and to act accordingly to the decency of the rule of law.

Madam Speaker, today, April 4, 2019, marks the 51st anniversary of one of the darkest and most sorrowful days in American history, the assassination in Memphis, Tennessee of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

The mortal life of one of the towering figures of the 20th century may have been cut short on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel a half century ago, but the spirit that animated that life and inspired a nation lives on and reminds us that nothing is impossible when we are guided by the better angels of our nature.

In remembering the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we commemorate a man of action, who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day.

We honor the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and beatings, and even bombings.

We celebrate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway.

Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we ``will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness.''

``Life's most persistent and nagging question,'' he said, is ``what are you doing for others?''

And when Dr. King talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life:

``I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others,'' he said. ``I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life . . . to love and serve humanity.''

We should also remember that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was, above all, a person who was always willing to speak truth to power.

There is perhaps no better example of Dr. King's moral integrity and consistency than his criticism of the Vietnam War being waged by the Johnson Administration, an administration that was otherwise a friend and champion of civil and human rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929.

Martin's youth was spent in our country's Deep South, then run by Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.

For young African-Americans, it was an environment even more dangerous than the one they face today.

A young Martin managed to find a dream, one that he pieced together from his readings--in the Bible, and literature, and just about any other book he could get his hands on.

Not only did those books help him educate himself, but they also allowed him to work through the destructive and traumatic experiences of blatant discrimination, and the discriminatory abuse inflicted on himself, his family, and his people.

As a youngster, Dr. King learned to use his imagination and his dreams to see right

through those ``White Only'' signs--to see the reality that all men, and women, regardless of their place of origin, their gender, or their creed, are created equal.

Dr. King was a dreamer and through dreams he was able to lift his mind beyond the reality of his segregated society to a beloved place where it was possible that white and black, red and brown, and all others live, work, and prosper together in harmony.

But the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an idle daydreamer.

He shared his visions through speeches that motivated others to join in his nonviolent effort to lift themselves from poverty and isolation by creating a new America where equal justice and institutions were facts of life.

In the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote, ``We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are Created Equal.''

At that time and for centuries to come, African-Americans were historically, culturally, and legally excluded from inclusion in that declaration.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's ``I Have a Dream'' Speech, delivered 54 years ago, on August 28, 1963, was a clarion call to each citizen of this great nation that we still hear today.

His request was simply and eloquently conveyed--he asked America to allow of its citizens to live out the words written in its Declaration of Independence and to have a place in this nation's Bill of Rights.

The 1960s were a time of great crisis and conflict.

It was the decade of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Malcolm X, Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy, and the man we honor here today.

The dream expressed and shared by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped win major victories in the battle for civil rights.

It started when Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with Rosa Parks and others, which lasted for 381 days, and ended when the United States Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation on all public transportation.

But the dream did not die there.

It continued with a peaceful march for suffrage that started in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, a day that was immediately known and will always be remembered as ``Bloody Sunday,'' when a peaceful march for voting rights ended in bloodshed and violence at the hands of law enforcement officers as the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

When the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was stolen from us, he was a very young 39 years old.

People remember that Dr. King died in Memphis, but few can remember why he was there.

On that fateful day in 1968 Dr. King came to Memphis to support a strike by the city's sanitation workers.

The garbage men there had recently formed a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to demand better wages and working conditions.

But the city refused to recognize their union, and when the 1,300 employees walked off their jobs the police broke up the rally with mace and Billy clubs.

It was then that union leaders invited Dr. King to Memphis.

Despite the danger he might face entering such a volatile situation, it was an invitation he could not refuse.

Not because he longed for danger, but because the labor movement was intertwined with the civil rights movement for which he had given up so many years of his life.

The death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will never overshadow his life.

That is his legacy as a dreamer and a man of action.

It is a legacy of hope, tempered with peace.

It is a legacy not quite yet fulfilled.

I hope that Dr. King's vision of equality under the law is never lost to us, because without that vision--without that dream--we can never continue to improve the human condition.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that a life well lived, and all of the noblest virtues--courage, wisdom, grace, love-- were rooted in service to others.

And he memorably expressed this idea in his last sermon, the one given at Mason Temple in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the evening before he was felled by an assassin:

But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the

question: ``If I do not stop to help this man, what will

happen to him?''

That's the question before you tonight. Not, ``If I stop to

help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not,

``If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen

to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every

day and every week as a pastor?'' The question is not, ``If I

stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?'' The

question is, ``If I do not stop to help the sanitation

workers, what will happen to them?'' That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us

stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in

these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America

what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a

better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for

allowing me to be here with you.

So in these difficult days of challenge, let us remember and take inspiration from the remarkable, extraordinary, and consequential life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and move forward together, with greater readiness and determination, to make America a place where all of her people enjoy the blessings of justice, equality, and human dignity.

Let us, the living, continue that struggle today and forever, in the incandescent spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1433 the ``DHS MORALE Act'', which would help improve morale among the 240,00 employees of the Department by creating and cataloguing leadership development opportunities, identifying and addressing factors that impact employee engagement, and recognizing employee contributions through the many plans it offers such as the employee effort recognition award plan which recognizes employees for their efforts over the year and through the DHS Rotation Program to create opportunities for employees.

As a senior member of the Committee and a former chair and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee and Transportation Security Subcommittee, I understand how important this bill will be in enhancing employee engagement.

H.R. 1433 addresses and is responsible to the needs of DHS employees by developing frameworks to create leadership opportunities and by assessing the needs of the employees in supervisory as well as non- supervisory roles.

The DHS Rotation Program is one of the many programs that this bill has helped steer employees towards by having the Chief Human Capital Officer maintain a catalogue of development opportunities.

The bill also establishes an Employee Engagement Steering Committee-- through which factors are identified that affect employee morale comprised of representatives and individuals throughout the department and labor organizations representing the DHS employees and involvement and solutions sought to counter-act those problems.

This process enhances employee morale as it requires a Department wide Engagement Action Plan to be implemented which comes through the input from the Steering committee.

The bill directs that employees be recognized for their efforts over the year by establishing an Employee Award Program which help with the goals of the department.

This bill greatly helps DHS move in a positive direction when it comes to addressing its longstanding problems of the morale concerns of employees.

I strongly support this bill and urge all my colleagues to join me in voting for its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1593, Class Act of 2019, which addresses the increasing risks of security in schools.

As a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, I ensure you that this bill will improve the safety plans and policies within our schools as well as the communication between the homeland security and the Homeland Security Committee.

This Class Act will ensure a council within the Department of Homeland Security that coordinates with school security departments of their policies, plans, and activities in regards to security, and require the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit a report to Congress on the council's effort.

Between January and May 2018, school shootings averaged one per week.

Schools need to be buildings of safety where children can gain an education in peace.

During Homeland Security Committee markups of H.R. 1593, the ``Coordinating and Leveraging Activities for School Security Act.''

I want to thank and recognize Chairman Payne for his tireless work to improve the Department of Homeland Security's capability and capacity to provide services to our youngest citizens.

His dedication to meeting the homeland security needs of children is greatly appreciated.

The amendment I offer to H.R. 1593, the ``Coordinating and Leveraging Activities for School Security Act,'' directs that any engagement with stakeholders should be reflected in the final report provided by this bill.

There are many factors that contribute to school security that we should acknowledge in the bill's report.

I am particularly interested in the work of school architects who design schools and, for decades, have worked successfully to address difficult safety challenges in school design.

As a direct result of school architects, schools are engineered to be resilient against fires, and high winds caused by tornadoes.

School architects are taking on the challenge of addressing the threat of active shooters in schools by developing designs that create visual blind spots in classrooms and hall-ways as well as engineering features that would delay an active shooter long enough to allow first responders to arrive.

It is my hope that stakeholders will also include students and teachers who can provide different perspectives on what constitutes school safety.

For these reasons, I urge all my colleagues to join me in voting for

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1589 the ``CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019'' which amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish chemical sharing function of the Office of Intelligence and require dissemination of information to responsible entities relating to the homeland security.

As a Senior member of the Homeland Security committee, I understand how important this bill is in order to establish safety with chemical use. This bill requires examination of terrorist capabilities with these chemicals as well as threats from global diseases.

Terrorist supporters often promote the use of dangerous chemicals online and this bill would help to counter-act that issue.

H.R. 1589 supports the analysis of all chemicals used to ensure safety as well as supporting the analysis of claims of terrorist actors which enhances prevention and protection capabilities.

H.R. 1589 would allow more specific security measures to be implemented to cater to any threats to the State or any other entities.

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis will be coordinating with other required agencies in order to provide information to the department to ensure optimum safety.

H.R. 1589 will be extremely important in order to share information that is paramount throughout the department.

I urge all my colleagues to join me in voting to pass H.R. 1589.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from Texas. We may have some agreements because, frankly, I think there is not one person on this floor, in this House and in the Senate, who does not believe that there has been enormous violence in Yemen.

I have been to Yemen. I want to go back. I know that it is, if not the poorest, one of the poorest nations in the world. The children are suffering. There is a humanitarian crisis.

If the United States should be engaged in any aspect of this, let our presence loom large in a humanitarian way.

I think it is important to remind my colleagues of the vicious bombing of an innocent school bus where 40 children died and any number of other incidences where children were involved and died.

Now, these children are suffering from malnutrition and are dying from lack of access to healthcare, as well as no food. We can be a major force, the United States, in providing that humanitarian aid.

But this is a resolution already passed by the other body, the Senate, that indicates that, if we are to be engaged in a war, there must be a debate under the Constitution about taking Americans into war. Because the Americans who offer their sons and daughters clearly are sacrificing. And those who put on the uniform--and we thank them-- are willing to sacrifice their lives.

This is a conflict between the Saudis and Houthis. It is a violence that is going to go on and on. And if we are to prop them up--the Saudis--they will never stop. They will never seek reconciliation. They will never stop killing the babies because of an ``accident,'' they declared: It was a mistake. We don't know how it happened.

We cannot allow Yemeni children, or any children, to be in the line of fire.

So, this resolution indicates that the Congress must make a determinative, if you will, assessment and engagement through the War Powers Act and its powers to declare war under the Constitution.

Frankly, I believe that this is a must-pass resolution. It must be signed immediately, and can be signed, by the President of the United States, and we can begin to, in an effective manner, withdraw troops and provide humanitarian aid to save the lives of children.

Madam Speaker, I support the resolution, and I thank the Senate for sending it to us. We should vote on it and pass it now.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S.J. Res. 7, which directs the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.

The passage of S.J. Res. 7 would mark the first time in the 45 years since the enactment of the War Powers Act that the House of Representatives successfully invoked the statute's removal mechanism to compel the Executive Branch to remove American troops from harm's way.

I support this resolution because, Congress has the sole power to declare war under Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution.

Madam Speaker, Congress has not declared war with respect to, or provided a specific statutory authorization for, the conflict between military forces led by Saudi Arabia, including forces from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal, and Sudan (the Saudi-led coalition), against the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, in the Republic of Yemen.

Since March 2015, members of the United States Armed Forces have been introduced into hostilities between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, including providing to the Saudi-led coalition aerial targeting assistance, intelligence sharing, and mid-flight aerial refueling.

The United States has established a Joint Combined Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia, in which members of the United States Armed Forces assist in aerial targeting and help to coordinate military and intelligence activities.

Madam Speaker, the conflict between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis constitutes, within the meaning of Section 4(a) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1543(a)), either hostilities or a situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances into which United States Armed Forces have been introduced.

Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)) states that, ``at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs.''

Most importantly, no specific statutory authorization for the use of United States Armed

Forces with respect to the conflict between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis in Yemen has been enacted.

Also, no provision of law explicitly authorizes the provision of targeting assistance or of midair refueling services to warplanes of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates that are engaged in such conflict.

For this reason, the resolution directs that the President remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen, except United States Armed Forces engaged in operations directed at al-Qaeda or associated forces, by not later than the date that is 30 days after the date of the enactment.

The resolution makes clear that the term ``hostilities'' includes in- flight refueling, non-United States aircraft conducting missions as part of the ongoing civil war in Yemen.

Madam Speaker, Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world right now. The Yemen crisis began in the Arab Spring of 2011, when an uprising forced the country's long-time authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has launched an estimated 18,000 air strikes on Yemen, attacking hospitals, schools, water treatment plants, funerals, markets and even farms.

The Saudis also imposed a blockade on food, fuel and medicine from freely entering the country in what can only be described as a deliberate effort to starve the civilian population into submission.

More than 14 million Yemenis are steps away from starvation and at least 85,000 children under the age of five have perished from war- related hunger and disease.

The United States has supported the Saudi led air campaign with mid- air refueling support, intelligence and targeting assistance, and other support.

Yemen is experiencing the world's worst famine in 100 years, with 12 million to 13 million innocent civilians at risk of dying from the lack of food within months.

Madam Speaker, too many lives hang in the balance to allow American involvement in Yemen war to continue.

I ask all members to join me in supporting S.J. Res. 37.

Madam Speaker, today, we finished one stop of a journey, and that is the journey to pass the Violence Against Women Act.

I have had the privilege to see and shepherd this bill throughout my congressional tenure, having stood alongside senior Members many years ago in the first reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. This bill was started today in 2016. We began to work and reach across the aisle to do what is right for the victims of so many horrific crimes.

We wanted children to be protected, immigrant women to be protected. We wanted to make sure that Native American women were protected.

We wanted law enforcement and prosecutors to have the tools. We wanted to stop the backlog in rape kits that had not been processed.

We did that today with a collective group of Republican and Democratic Members on a bill that should be nonpartisan.

We worked hard, and I was gratified that we wound up giving a bill to the Senate and that they must ask the question: Are they not going to support a bill that was bipartisan?

Madam Speaker, I thank Monalisa Dugue, Milagros Cisneros, Joe Graupensperger, Amy Rutkin, and Chairman Nadler. I thank Karen Bass and all those women who worked together, including the outstanding work that was done on the MTR with Debbie Dingell.

Madam Speaker, we are thanking them because we are moving forward to protect women in this country, including against sex trafficking, which was in the bill.