Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the late Gerald ``Bud'' Chittom, a larger-than-life restaurateur, musician and promoter of Memphis' iconic blues throughfare--Beale Street--and my friend. Bud passed in 2018 after a career opening and managing dozens of Memphis area restaurants and night clubs. He was awarded a Beale Street Brass Note in 2011 with the inscription ``A Man You Don't Meet Everyday,'' putting him in the company of fellow Brass Note honorees, B.B. King, Isaac Hayes, Elvis Presley and Sain Phillips. Bud will be honored this week by the Downtown Memphis Commission with its Vision Award, which will be received by his daughter, Caitlin. It's well- deserved. Bud was instrumental in the renewal of Beale Street, creating the Blues City Cafe at Second Street, founding Jerry Lee Lewis' Cafe and Honky Tonk at 310 Beale, and driving business to other venues on Beale and his restored Earnestine and Hazel's on South Main Street, now world-renown as the Nation's best dive bar. He didn't rest until the area's revival as a mecca for tourism and music lovers was assured. A bass player himself, he often sat in with bands playing venues up and down the street. After I successfully passed the Tennessee Education Lottery as a Tennessee state senator, Bud and Blues City Cafe co-owner, Wilbur Hensley sold me the first lottery ticket in Tennessee in 2004. The Vision Award recognizes Bud's contribution to our community, and I commend the Downtown Memphis Commission for saluting him, and congratulate his family and friends for making him a part of our lives.

Madam Speaker, first, I would like to note what is profound hypocrisy going on in this Chamber.

Last week, we heard from the Republicans about the importance of an open process and the ability to offer amendments on all bills or resolutions, but there were no hearings on this resolution, no markups, and amendments are prohibited.

If they were allowed, we could have discussed, and Mr. Jordan could have made his statement that he believes the Justice Department says this would affect all types of facilities, but we didn't have that, so it is not here.

Every Democrat, and I hope every Republican, rejects and condemns political violence. We settle our disagreements at the ballot box and through the rule of law, not by violent actions.

Republicans say this resolution is about condemning violence and enforcement of laws, yet it only condemns those of their favorite organizations and facilities, the pro-life crowd.

They should be aghast that they don't include the murders of the 11 people killed at abortion care providers since 1993:

Dr. George Tiller, killed entering his church in Wichita, Kansas, shot in the back;

David Gunn, shot in the head at his clinic in Pensacola, Florida;

Just this past New Year's in Knoxville, a Planned Parenthood clinic was destroyed by arson.

Sadly, there are too many property crimes at Planned Parenthood and other facilities that help people with abortion needs to mention. None are mentioned. We should condemn all murders and serious violence.

This House did not hear from Republicans condemning the violence of January 6 when this Chamber was under attack, and we should do that in all cases.

They are trying to undermine and obstruct the Department of Justice, as well. This is just some of the other hypocrisy. They are having a committee to look into the attacks on America from the FBI, the Justice Department, and other security services. Those are law enforcement. That is defunding Federal law enforcement, and it is wrong. We should support all law enforcement and fund all of it and its activities.

If you want to know about the Republicans, you ask them about the bill on the IRS. If they wanted to help the middle class, they would have brought a resolution to direct the IRS to do more audits, or even all of its audits, on people earning over $1 million and save the middle class and get the money where it is. They did not.

We should listen to what they do, not what they say. I will vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, after 4\1/2\ days and 15 votes to find a Speaker, we started with our business by passing rules. The Republican rules and first day's activities were to help the rich and the powerful avoid taxes.

The government, like any entity, just like any business, has to have revenue. When people don't pay their fair share, they are cheating. They are committing crimes. They are defrauding their fellow citizens because their fellow citizens either have to pay more money to make up the differences or they don't get services that they otherwise would be provided through the government.

By revoking all of those monies to the IRS to hire new employees, they are giving wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals, like Donald Trump, who had only one auditor looking at his return, which was not looked at within the time period it was supposed to be looked at under the law, the policy of the government at the time, they are giving those people an open door to continue to make their IRS payments--really not payments but their first offers. That is what they do. It is not filing your return. It is filing your first offer.

So if they get away with that, which I don't think they will in the Senate, they are depriving the middle class who they said they are trying to support, services and fairness, and the middle class will have to pay more money because it is the wealthy and the higher corporations that get away with fraudulent returns.

Then they are talking about banning or protesting, through H. Con. Res. 3, violence against pro-life centers, anti-abortion centers. I hope everybody in the House is against violence against those facilities. But there is nothing in there about violence against Planned Parenthood or abortion provider facilities. Both are equally as anti-American and wrong as the other, but there is nothing about that.

So we are seeing a very slanted agenda, and there is no opportunity to amend that resolution. Even though they talked about an amendment process to give everybody an opportunity, it is really kind of transparency-ish but not transparency and not open. It is not openness; it is open-ish.

You have got to look closely at what is going on here. There are a lot of things that look good on the front but really aren't fair and right to the majority of the people. Much of what is projected here is to try to maintain the status quo in the name of freedom. It is the freedom of people not to comply with Federal Government laws and regulations. It is the freedom to basically live independent of the law and independent of the Federal government and attempts to starve the Federal Government of the revenue it needs.

The bill yesterday would increase the debt by over $100 billion. That is not fiscal conservativeness. That is trying to starve the Federal Government.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate a great professor, historian and my friend, Charles W. Crawford, who was recently recognized by the University of Memphis for teaching 60 years in its History Department. Professor Crawford, whose Tennessee: Land, History and Government (1984) and its 1990 update, Dynamic Tennessee, served as high school textbooks for most students across our state for decades, also has the distinction of having taught Tennessee history to future Tennessee Congressman, Senator and Vice President Al Gore in the summer before Gore's senior year at Harvard. Professor Crawford's first of 20 published books was an illustrated history of his adopted city, Yesterday's Memphis (1976) and he wrote the history of the local National Bank of Commerce on its 120th anniversary. Professor Crawford was a favorite interview for many journalists and authors and he served as a consultant on many media projects, including the 1984 documentary film ``The Old Forest'' and commentary on the local public television station, WQED. A native of rural north-central Arkansas, where he still has a home, Professor Crawford, 91, received a bachelor's degree from then-Harding College (now University) in Searcy, Arkansas, a master's from the University of Arkansas, and a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, all in history. He started teaching as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss and began as an assistant professor at then- Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) in 1962. In 1967, the university's president, Cecil C. Humphreys, asked him to start its Oral History Project, and he has subsequently conducted or overseen more than 2000 interviews, including with military veterans, experts on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Mississippi River flood of 1937, and a lot of politicians, and served as president of the national Oral History Association. As a professor, he has directed students in completing 38 doctoral dissertations and 68 students in the completion of M.A. theses. Among those who have benefitted from his work are local groups such as the Memphis Arts Council, Leadership Memphis, the Shelby County Historical Commission, the West Tennessee Historical Society, the Tennessee Historical Society, and the Tennessee Humanities Council. At the national level, besides the Oral History Association, he has been involved with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Organization of American Historians. He has put in many hours as an editor or reader for university presses in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, and Georgia. He also served as a consultant to the American Red Cross when it undertook an oral history of its beginnings. I have known Professor Crawford since the beginning of my political career and have been the beneficiary of his wisdom and friendship. I congratulate him on his long, distinguished and continuing career as an historian and wish him all the best when and if he ever retires.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Bost for bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of our bill, H.R. 6863, to name the Memphis VA hospital in honor of a true World War II hero and a hero in American life, Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers, Jr.

I didn't know of Lieutenant Colonel Weathers until his passing, and I read about his passing in the Memphis newspaper, the Commercial Appeal, and I went and attended his funeral at St. Theresa Little Flower Church, where he was a member. I think he integrated the church. The church is a large church and it was packed.

In spite of the fact that he had moved to retire to Arizona, possibly in Tucson, maybe 15 or 20 years earlier, the people knew Lieutenant Colonel Weathers, they knew his work, they knew his good deeds in the community, and they knew his actions. I was honored to be at that funeral, and I thought this man is something else.

It has been well documented what he did with his life and with the Tuskegee Airmen and the Red Tails and the several airplanes he shot down.

There is a movie coming out now that is getting a lot of advertisement, and all Members of Congress have been invited to see this week, called ``Devotion,'' about an African-American pilot who was a star in the Korean war.

It was Lieutenant Colonel Weathers and the Tuskegee Airmen who were the predecessors of that gentleman's opportunity to defend his country and to show his skills. That is another reason why his name at the veterans hospital will be so important, to inspire people to go into a military career and pursue aviation, which Lieutenant Colonel Weathers encouraged people to do, particularly African-American young men.

I was also honored to attend his funeral. It was a funeral with a flyover, military caisson, and ``Taps,'' as befitting a gentleman who had served his country as he did.

His family is very strong in Memphis in support of their father's legacy. I met them in St. Theresa Little Flower Church at his funeral in 2011.

Lieutenant Colonel Weathers paved the way for many to become pilots, and his legacy endures in the countless lives that he touched.

I thank our Tennessee delegation who unanimously supported this legislation and this naming of the new Memphis VA Medical Center. It was also endorsed by The American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

I thank Chairman Takano, Ranking Member Bost, and the members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee for advancing the bill through committee and bringing it to the floor today. I thank Mr. Hoyer for his help with that, too.

We have done a good thing today to honor a true American hero. I think fondly of him. I had commissioned a plaque to be created and installed at the Memphis airport recognizing his service in the Federal Aviation Administration and integrating that facility. I am honored I will be a part of keeping his memory alive forever.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, the ranking member, and the entire committee for their work in passing this bill out of committee. I know it was somewhat contentious. It shouldn't have been, but it was.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 5441, the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act, acronym, the PAST Act, which I proudly introduced with several prime cosponsors who worked on it, including Brian Fitzpatrick, Jan Schakowsky, and Vern Buchanan. Mr. Buchanan, like Mr. Bilirakis, is a Member of the class of 2006, of which I am, as well.

The PAST Act will shut down the cruel practice of horse soring, which has been described here on the floor. It is a horrendous practice that horse trainers have used in the Tennessee Walking, Spotted Saddle, and Racking Horse shows.

The horses have a beautiful gait to start with. They have a natural gait, a smooth, natural gait. It is revered in Tennessee. It used to be Tennessee Walkers paraded at the University of Tennessee football games to great applause and great thrill of the fans.

However, some people, to make it even more imposing, took away their natural gait, which is enough of a miracle and enjoyment to watch, and put in these soring practices to get a high gait, extremely high gait, known as the Big Lick. The Big Lick is wrong. To achieve the Big Lick, horse trainers irritate or blister a horse's forelegs through the application of caustic chemicals such as mustard oil, cut the horse's hooves painfully short, or use mechanical devices to inflict pain, all of which is reprehensible. Anyone who cares about horses realizes they have lives and senses, and as well, they suffer pain just like every other animal does.

Far too often, those involved in showing the Tennessee Walking Horses have turned a blind eye to this abusive act of the trainers. They do little to try to police it, and the penalties are so minor it does nothing to prevent this barbaric act.

I have led this legislation for years. My chief of staff, Marilyn Dillihay, has been strongly supportive of this. As we all know, we work for our constituents and then for our chief of staff.

The PAST Act would codify key elements of the Horse Protection Act rule that the USDA finalized in January of 2017 by eliminating the failed system of industry self-policing and prohibited the use of devices that are integral to the soring practice and Big Lick. It would also strengthen penalties and increase consequences for individuals caught soring a horse.

I thank Chairman Pallone and Chairwoman Schakowsky for their support and work on this bill. I also particularly thank Priscilla Presley, Elvis' widow. Priscilla and Elvis had Tennessee Walkers at Graceland. They loved their Tennessee Walking Horses, which had a natural gait, and Priscilla has lobbied on this for many years and come to many activities, encouraging the passage of this act.

Priscilla Presley is a pretty amazing human being, and this is one of the areas where she has surpassed just being the spouse of the rock and roll legend, Elvis Presley, and being a star in her own right in many ways.

I thank the 263 bipartisan Members who cosponsored the bill and the hundreds of stakeholder groups and individuals who have lent their support, including the Humane Society, the American Horse Council, U.S. Equestrian Federation, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Equine Practitioners, the State veterinary organizations of all 50 States, National Sheriffs' Association, and the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

The plague of soring has marred the Tennessee Walking Horse and related breeds for more than six decades. I am proud to lead the fight to end it. We are going to end it.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Lawrence Higginbottom of Memphis Animal Services, who has been named Animal Control Officer of the Year by the National Animal Care and Control Association. Part of his job--a part he has a reputation for handling well--is reuniting animals with their owners, a priority with progressive animal shelters like Memphis Animal Services that operate on a ``community-centered'' model, The shelter recently received a $50,000 grant from an animal welfare group to hire a pet-reunification specialist. According to a story in The Daily Memphian, Mr. Higginbottom recently picked up a dog in Memphis that had been on the loose for five years. Because the dog had received an under-skin microchip, Mr. Higginbottom quickly found the owners by phone--650 miles away in Austin, Texas. The family arrived to pick up Cheerio the next day. Because most dogs are lost less than half a mile from their owners' homes, Mr. Higginbottom often finds himself knocking on nearby neighbors' doors with the lost pet on a leash. When the shelter held a dog-owner reunification competition among animal control officers this past summer, Mr. Higginbottom won it. As a proud and longtime member of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, it is inspiring to know that Memphis has such a caring and thoughtful animal control officer. I congratulate Mr. Higginbottom for this well-deserved national recognition.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the people of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the 31st anniversary of the Day of Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan on October 18th.

It has been 31 years since Azerbaijan restored the country's independence on October 18, 1991, with the Constitutional Act of State Independence of Azerbaijan--an event that ended more than seven decades of Soviet rule.

Azerbaijan is a key global security partner for the United States, cooperating on multiple fronts from fighting against terrorism and drug trafficking, to preventing nuclear proliferation, to working towards stabilization in the region. It is also worth noting that Azerbaijani troops were among the last partner militaries to leave Kabul airport, facilitating the evacuation until the very end. Azerbaijan has also been a key player in providing global energy security in the wake of Russian aggression against Ukraine and continues to be a major energy supplier for our mutual ally, Israel.

Furthermore, as the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is worth noting that Azerbaijan has provided significant humanitarian aid to Ukraine, an exception among former Soviet non-NATO countries that led Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to publicly thank the President of Azerbaijan for this courageous step.

As a co-chair of Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, I congratulate the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Day of Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I believe we will continue to work with them to advance our partnership which benefits both the U.S. and Azerbaijan. I look forward to further collaboration between our two nations.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay special tribute to longtime Commercial Appeal reporter, Michael Lollar, who passed away last week at the age of 74. In a 44-year career with the Memphis daily newspaper, Mike chronicled every kind of story but was best known for features, and for being the resident Elvis Presley expert. A charming writer with a dry wit, he came to Memphis right out of the University of Tennessee in 1970 and was a staff writer until he retired in 2014. In between, he covered cops, courts, elections, the ``Deep Throat'' obscenity trial, James Earl Ray's evolving legal positions on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, and all things Graceland. Mike was an old school reporter who knew his city, its characters and its institutions. He could get complete strangers to open up and tell their stories. He was also simply a nice guy. I extend my condolences to his former wife, Joan, to his daughters Kate and Rachel, to his grandchildren and to his many friends and admirers. He will be missed.

Madam Speaker, I was pleased to have co-sponsored the CORRUPT Act, H.R. 6846 (Corruption, Overthrowing Rule of Law, and Ruining Ukraine: Putin's Trifecta Act) in the House and to see its passage on the floor this week. This Act requires the President to report to Congress, within 30 days of this bill's enactment, a determination as to whether specified Russian persons identified in the bill meet the criteria to be subject to sanctions under laws that authorize sanctions relating to corruption or human rights violations. This legislation identifies nearly 200 names for immediate review by the Administration and, in my belief, can play a very important role in stopping Putin's cronies from operating under the radar and from advancing the Kremlin's evil agenda.

While this bill represents a critically important step forward, there are additional Russian entities (and names representing the leadership ranks within those entities) that, while not included in this legislation, warrant close attention by the Administration as well. I believe a particular focus on the Russian financial sector is warranted, and that government agencies in the sector play an integral role in financing Russia's war in Ukraine.

One specific government agency worthy of sanctions is the Russian DIA, or the Russian Depositary Insurance Agency, which I, along with Congressman John Curtis, brought to the Administration's attention earlier this year.

The DIA, established in 2004, is a Russian state-owned corporation, controlled by a board dominated by officials from the (now sanctioned) Central Bank of Russia. In its official capacity, the DIA operates the national deposit insurance system for Russian banks and acts as the sole authorized bankruptcy administrator of financial institutions deemed insolvent in Russia.

Hiding behind this innocuous role, however, the DIA leads Kremlin- directed efforts to nationalize the assets of Russian financial institutions, funneling the assets of privately owned businesses to now-sanctioned Russian state banks such as Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank. I have been made aware that many of the businesses that the DIA targets on behalf of the Central Bank of Russia are owned by individuals who have been blacklisted as political targets of the Russian state and lack sufficient political protection from these kinds of schemes.

The CEO of the DIA, Andrey Melnikov, was sanctioned by the United States in 2017 for his role as Minister of Economic Development of the Russian-occupied territory of Crimea, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Melnikov was re-sanctioned by the Treasury Department just last week, for his role at the DIA, as well. Other members of the DIA's legal team (such as Andrey Pavlov) have been sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for their key roles in attacking Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his supporters in Russia and abroad, often using abusive lawsuits and court proceedings around the world to pressure them into abandoning their support for democratic change and rule-of-law in Russia.

By taking actions to target the DIA directly, the U.S. government can play a key role in cutting off Russia's long arm of oppression abroad and limit Putin's ability to fund his war chest. Sanctioning the DIA will not only hamper its ability to expropriate assets from privately held Russian financial businesses, but also help defend brave Russian dissidents and opponents of Putin abroad from predatory attacks by law firms in the employ of the DIA.

Individuals in leadership positions in the DIA, who I believe that, along with Director Melnikov, should be reviewed for the future imposition of sanctions include:

Filatova, Maria Vladislavovna, First Deputy General Director of the

Mr. Speaker, this has been an interesting debate.

The cumulative debate from the Republican side has been Members who have been wanting to show their intimate knowledge of weapons. It is almost a fetishism with weapons, something that only Freud would properly understand and be able to explain to the American people.

They have talked about hands being dangerous and knives being dangerous,

but hands and knives and other weapons that they discussed don't kill people in volume and number like AR-15s do.

The CIA did a study and said that even shots to extremities all made fatal impacts on people. The AR-15 is an outgrowth of a military weapon that was designed for military use. The AR-15 is a weapon that destroys people's bodies and kills them quickly. It should not be allowed in a civilized, safe society, particularly for children and for people in the general public.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a television reporter and anchor Mearl Purvis, revered throughout the Memphis area. After more than 30 years on television and 18 years on the Fox 13 news desk, Mearl Purvis will anchor her final newscasts on July 29. I first met Mearl as a state senator, and I found her thoughtful and tenacious reporting useful to the public's understanding of important issues. Mearl graduated from Jackson State University and worked as a reporter and anchor in Charlotte, North Carolina; New Haven, Connecticut; Jackson, Mississippi, and Nashville before moving to Memphis in 1992. On her first day at WMC, she was thoughtfully covering a proposed state income tax and major improvements to Memphis International Airport. In 2004, Mearl moved across town to the Fox 13 anchor desk, where she has been involved in major local news. As a reporter and speaker, she has shared a stage with world leaders including Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, and U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Mearl has won eight Regional Emmy Awards, the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, the equally prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and J.C. Penney Missouri Award. A standout supporter in private life for her community, Mearl is an active volunteer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis, a supporter of Porter Leath and Bridges USA. She is also a Board of Visitors member of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. As a mother, Mearl also has invested quality time in Memphis elementary schools reading to children, a cause about which she is passionate. I commend my friend Mearl for her service to our community and wish her all the best in retirement.

Madam Speaker, the Republicans are so upset. The reality is it

is their Supreme Court and Justice Alito who opened Pandora's box. When we opened up the box and looked in, we saw there were nesting eggs. There were all kinds of issues there that were going to come to the fore.

Clarence Thomas put a spotlight on it. It involved gay marriage and contraception. It was going to go further than Roe v. Wade. When they said they were originalists, we didn't realize what they meant by ``originalist'' was everything origin came from them. They didn't care about precedent.

Alito said Roe v. Wade was important precedent. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said it was precedent that Roe v. Wade was settled. You can't trust the Supreme Court. They are radicals. They want to overturn privacy rights for all people in this country.

Freedom is at stake. This bill needs to pass, and the only reason this bill is properly before this Congress is because of that Supreme Court that has gone off the radical right.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to my friend Priscilla Presley who will be honored Friday night in Memphis with a musical extravaganza at Theatre Memphis.

It's an honor to take a moment to discuss the work I have done with Priscilla, particularly in the area of the humane treatment of Tennessee Walking Horses. Like me, she has long advocated the end of the practice of ``soring'' horses to give them the exaggerated walking gait known as ``the Big Lick.''

My Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act made it through the markup in the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce last month, and is now pending before the full committee.

In my press release on that development, I noted that Priscilla has been a consistent and dedicated advocate of this reform and that she and Elvis both loved walking horses. Priscilla has made tremendous contributions to Memphis, not the least of which was opening Graceland to the public 40 years ago, now one of the five most visited homes in the country.

A former Memphian, and a frequent visitor for events related to music, Priscilla deserves to be considered an honorary citizen of Tennessee's 9th Congressional District. Priscilla's friend Dabney Coors, who had the splendid idea is co-chairing Friday night's event, is doing a beautiful thing in honoring this kind and generous woman, and I look forward to a wonderful evening.

Mr. Speaker, I am in support of this bill, and I think everybody should be in support of it.

It simply says that each State will recognize the other States' marriages and not deny a person the right to marry based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. It urges the Federal Government to do the same thing.

As far as what the Supreme Court said, that we should listen to this and listen to that, the Senate listened to Gorsuch and Kavanaugh when they said that Roe v. Wade is precedent. Do you want to listen to them?

Alito, when he was confirmed, said that Roe v. Wade is important precedent. Do you want to listen to him?

Listen to Thomas, who told you that we need to look at these cases, and we need to reconsider them. That is gay marriage. He didn't mention interracial, but it is on the same theory. Of course, he is involved in an interracial marriage. He wouldn't be married to justice Ginni but for the Loving decision. He mentioned the other case of Lawrence.

We need to be concerned. This bill is an American bill. Everybody should be for it. The only reason to be against it is because you really don't want to go on record of being in favor of those rights that have been extended to Americans and that are potentially in jeopardy.