Steve Chabot

Mr. Speaker, it has been an honor to represent the people of greater Cincinnati in public office for more than 35 years now. I thought I would take a few minutes to sum up those years.

I first ran for office, Cincinnati City Council, when I was 26 years old. When this, my last term in Congress, expires next month in January, I will be turning 70. 26 to 70, that is long enough. It is somebody else's turn.

I had seriously considered retiring and not running this past election cycle, but it was a redistricting year. The congressional lines were being redrawn, and I was concerned that if I didn't run, our district was going to be written off and drawn in a way that only a Democrat could win it as had been done 10 years ago in Columbus and prior to that in Cleveland.

I didn't want to see that happen to the people of greater Cincinnati who depended on me and trusted me to represent them as a commonsense conservative for so many years.

Redistricting turned out to be a pretty rocky process. I ended up with a 9-point Biden district, making it the toughest Republican-held seat in the country outside the State of California.

Despite starting out in a 9-point hole, I hoped that with a lot of hard work and a little luck we could hold it anyway. I was wrong. That is water over the dam.

There is a Chinese proverb, ``May you live in interesting times.'' My 26 years in Congress have certainly been that. I was first elected in the 1994 Republican Revolution, Newt Gingrich, the contract with America. Republicans took over the House for the first time in 40 years, which was my proximate age at the time, and 73 freshmen Republicans were elected. I am the last one in the House out of 73, and I will be gone in a few weeks.

I have been asked a number of times: What are my proudest accomplishments during my time here in Congress? At the top of the list was leading the effort to pass the ban on partial birth abortion. I fought that battle for 8 years, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. They upheld the law, and it has been described as the most significant pro-life legislation since Roe v. Wade. It is estimated that it saves about 20,000 innocent unborn babies every year from a particularly brutal death. Some have said my strong pro-life positions were a factor in my defeat this election. If so, it was worth it.

Another accomplishment was having served as both chairman and ranking member of the House Small Business Committee. I was in the position to introduce, pass, and implement the PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program, during the recent pandemic. As a result, the First Congressional District received more money, almost $3 billion; got more small business loans, over 27,000 of them; and most importantly, saved more jobs, over 247,000, than any other congressional district in Ohio. A lot of people's lives, both in our community and across the country, were positively impacted.

Rather than list a whole bunch of other bills I have got passed over the years--I am limited to just 5 minutes here this morning--let me just tell you this: the University of Virginia, UVA, and Vanderbilt, have together done three studies of Congress over the last 10 years in order to determine who are the most effective Members of Congress.

I am proud to say that I was rated in the top 10 most effective Members each time. When you consider that there are 435 of us, I would say that is pretty good. Of course, I could have accomplished none of this without the hard work of my tremendous staff both here in Washington and back in Cincinnati, and without the support of my family.

My wife, Donna, and I will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary this coming June. We were blessed with a daughter, Erica, and a son, Randy, both adults now, and the two cutest

grandchildren anywhere ever, Reed and Keira. And I thank my son-in-law, Kevin, for creating and then overseeing my blog over the years.

Finally, let me conclude with this: Despite all the rancor and controversy and partisanship that routinely goes on in this place, it was truly an honor to serve here in the people's House. This extraordinary country, the United States of America, is still the greatest country that ever existed on the face of the Earth.

Goodbye.

Mr. Speaker, America's small business community is near and dear to my heart, and one of the closest partners that I have had in our congressional district has been the Warren County Small Business Development Center.

Having served on the House Committee on Small Business as both the chairman and ranking member, I am very familiar with their work and the local impact that they have had on so many small businesses throughout the greater Cincinnati area, particularly, obviously, in Warren County.

And since 2018, the Warren County SBDC has been recognized twice as the best performing SBDC in southwest Ohio. They were also selected as the SBA Columbus District winner of the Excellence and Innovation Award, and their executive director, Mike Stater, was chosen by 70 of his peers as the Ohio SBDC State Star.

I have relied on and enjoyed working with the Warren County SBDC for the last decade, for 10 years now, and I thank them for their terrific work on behalf of the many small businesses throughout our community.

Mr. Speaker, I claim time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I would note if there has to be a Democrat in that seat, there is no Democrat I would rather see than the gentleman from New York. He is a fine gentleman who I have worked with over the years and respect greatly.

As the ranking member of the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee and a co- chair of the U.S.-Philippines Friendship Caucus, I would submit that our alliance with the Philippines is one of our most important relationships across the globe. We have partnered with them for over 70 years now, and cooperation between our two nations is just as important today as it has ever been.

In the face of territorial aggression in the South China Sea by the People's Liberation Army, which of course is the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, our partnership with the Philippines serves as a geostrategic counterweight to China. As Chairman Xi seeks to control international maritime trade routes, including key waterways like the Luzon Strait, the Philippines remains a critical partner in checking his nefarious ambitions.

As with all our strongest alliances, our relationship with the Philippines extends beyond military affairs, for example, to cooperation in law enforcement. Our joint efforts with the Philippines in this regard are really critical to strengthening maritime security as well as tackling the evils of human trafficking and narcotics trafficking.

Of course, we have all been appalled by former President Duterte's brutal drug war, particularly its extrajudicial killings. Such brutality was the primary reason why Congress suspended International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement assistance to the Philippine National Police.

However, it would be self-defeating to simply cut off all cooperation with Philippine law enforcement, as this amendment seeks to do. The amendment would end maritime law enforcement activities that strengthen U.S. national security. It would block joint efforts to pursue drug traffickers and child traffickers, and it would stop human rights and rule of law assistance.

Fortunately, the June 30 inauguration of President Marcos is an opportunity to strengthen the U.S.-Philippines relationship to address not only threats to maritime security in the Indo-Pacific but also human rights and respect for rule of law.

This amendment would undermine the Biden administration and those of us in Congress who are working towards these efforts. It would curtail cooperative efforts between our security forces at a time when Chairman Xi seeks to dismantle our more than 70-year mutual security partnership with the Philippines. It doesn't make sense.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues for all the reasons that I just mentioned to oppose this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, just to conclude and actually reiterate some of my previous remarks, I have been the co-chair of the Philippines Friendship Caucus, the Republican co-chair, along with my colleague Bobby Scott from Virginia, for quite a few years now. We were both appalled by President Duterte's looking the other way and actually probably being involved to some degree directly in the command of a lot of the extrajudicial killings as well as the loss of life and brutality that took place for quite a few years.

We agreed with him on the war on drugs. Drugs kill far too many Filipinos and kill far too many Americans. But we do not agree on extrajudicial measures which take human life.

However, this is an opportunity now, because that government is in the past, and we have a new government. This is a new opportunity to build up this relationship once again between these two key allies, the United States and the Philippines. It is an important relationship, particularly when one considers that our principal challenge across the globe right now is countering the nefarious actions of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party.

So I would urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. Although well intentioned, I think ultimately it would do more harm than good.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose it, and I yield back the balance of my time.