Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, this week marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of people in the town of Khojaly, Azerbaijan. Khojaly, which is in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, was once home to 7,000 people. On February 26, 1992, in the largest killing of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians during the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Armenian armed forces massacred over 600 unarmed people--including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly people--and left less than 2,000 survivors. Hundreds more became disabled due to their injuries. More than 100 children lost a parent and 25 children lost both parents, and at least 8 families were entirely killed.

Although a cease-fire was negotiated in 1994, it is my hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan can come together and find peace. The conflict remains unresolved, and we saw an unfortunate escalation of conflict in 2020 in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Long-term peace, security, and regional cooperation are in the best interests of the entire region of the South Caucasus and the world.

Azerbaijan has been a strong partner of the United States and its allies. This cooperation has included: playing a leadership role in non-proliferation issues; providing troops to serve shoulder-to- shoulder with U.S. forces in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan; allowing transit of non-lethal equipment used by coalition forces through Azerbaijan to Afghanistan; construction of the Southern Gas Corridor from the Caspian Sea to Italy, thereby providing Europe with an alternative to Russian energy sources; and supplying 40 percent of Israel's oil. Azerbaijan also has a thriving Jewish community and has outstanding relations with Israel.

As Azerbaijanis throughout the world commemorate the massacre and continue to grieve the loss of loved ones, I hope they can find peace amidst this tragedy.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend the historic signing of the security cooperation agreement between Israel and Bahrain, which took place on February 3, 2022. This security agreement is the first of its kind between Israel and a Gulf nation.

Since Bahrain signed the 2020 Abraham Accords and took the important step of normalizing relations with Israel, the two countries have significantly deepened their bilateral relationship. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gautz travelled to Manama, Bahrain's capital, to sign this agreement and celebrates the agreement as ``a new high point'' in the countries' relationship.

The MoU agreement is designed to help advance intelligence cooperation, establish a framework for military exercises and strengthen ties between the countries' defense industries. As Israel and Bahrain continue to strengthen their cooperation, the signing of this memorandum of understanding (MoU) is a key step.

This historic agreement comes at a time of increased danger in the region as Iran continues to threaten the security of its neighbors. The MoU will help deepen regional security cooperation and resilience, which is critical to defending the interests of the United States, Israel, Bahrain, and many other countries in the region.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the anniversary of the ``Black January'' killings, one of the most tragic events in Azerbaijan's history.

Thirty-two years ago, on the night of January 20, 1990, approximately 26,000 Soviet troops stormed Azerbaijan's capital city of Baku in tanks and armored vehicles. The Soviet military bulldozed and opened fired on innocent Azerbaijanis and peaceful protestors, including women and children. The resulting casualties of these brutal acts were 147 people killed, around 800 injured, 841 arrested, and 5 missing. I offer my thoughts and prayers to the families of those who gave their lives for the independence of Azerbaijan.

Despite these merciless acts, the Azerbaijani people were not deterred. They continued to fight for their freedom and became independent in 1991. The United States was one of the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan's independence and fully established diplomatic relations on February 28, 1992. The relationship between our two countries endures to this day. The United States and Azerbaijan are strategic allies and share common interests in the region and globally.

As the co-chairman of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, I urge my colleagues to recognize the sacrifices of the Azerbaijani people in their steps toward a free-market economy and encourage a recommitment to the democratic values for which many Azerbaijanis sacrificed their lives.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Shelby County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Patrick Siano on his retirement after 34 years of service to our community. Lieutenant Siano's uncle Ralph used to tell him that if you really love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. Lieutenant Siano loved his work and said he's never had to work a day in his life. He also said that the decision to retire was a tough one since he'd gone into law enforcement to help people.

His desire to help people was the subject of a ``Strolling with Eldon Roark'' column in the Memphis Press-Scimitar in the 1970s, when the lieutenant was still a teenager and was singled out for helping a couple repair a blown radiator hose.

December 30 was his last day with the Shelby County Sheriff's Office in the Civil Division. Over his more than 30-year career, Lieutenant Siano was assigned to Courts, Metro DUI, Detectives (including homicide, child protective services and domestic violence), Reserve, Emergency Services, Uniform Patrol and Fugitive Divisions. He often interacted with new recruits as a field training officer and DUI instructor.

Lieutenant Siano is the middle child of seven children of Jerry and Edna Aikens Siano. His late father was a native of Chicago who came to Memphis as an entrepreneur and founded Jerry Siano Foods. A native of Memphis, Lieutenant Siano attended St. Michael School, Christian Brothers High School and the then-Memphis State University before a driving work ethic led to his father's Honda of Millington dealership, where he sold motorcycles. But he always wanted to be a sheriff's deputy and began as a reserve officer in 1984, working 100 hours a month for almost four years before attending the academy and becoming a deputy in 1988.

Always known for his respect for the law and for his kindness, his service to Memphis and Shelby County will be valued and deeply missed. I am pleased that he can now spend a pleasant retirement with his wife of 12 years, Susan, his two children and six grandchildren, his fellow deputies, and his many friends. He truly made Memphis a better and safer place to live.

Madam Speaker, the President has done an excellent job on trying to address our economic problems, and one of the main reasons we have economic problems is because of the coronavirus.

The President has an excellent vaccination program that the Republicans, unfortunately, are fighting. As people have experienced the pandemic, they have been less willing to go out and engage in commerce and travel and had to reduce some of their business activities. This has hurt the supply chain and hurt our economy. So the President's vaccine plan is also an economic plan.

Republicans in the Senate led an effort to cancel all the vaccination programs that the President has to protect us, to keep us healthy, and to move our economy forward. That is unfortunate. We need to support these vaccination plans, and we need to support the President in these efforts.

Inflation has been a problem. The President has released some oil from the reserve to help deal with gas prices. Gas prices are going down, and they will go down naturally.

One of the great reasons why inflation has increased is because of used car prices. You have to think about when used car prices go up, Madam Speaker, somebody is selling that used car, and they are getting more money to put in their pocket. Things are getting better.

God bless New Mexico.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, my subcommittee works on issues concerning civil rights and civil liberties, and we have had hearings on the pardon power. The pardon power is something I have been interested in since the 1970s when a Democratic Governor of Tennessee abused the pardon power, and I stood up against him. I have stood up against this previous President, Trump, who abused the pardon power even more. He gave pardons to his family, to people who were administration officials, to people who worked on his campaign, and to people who lied to the Justice Department and to the FBI because they were protecting the President from the impeachment articles that were lodged against him and which would have shown his contravention of the Constitution.

I have listened to the debate here some. It is astonishing to me. There is nothing more important in this government and this Congress than protecting democracy, and democracy was threatened by Donald Trump. This bill, which Adam Schiff has sponsored with many cosponsors, protects democracy. It puts checks and balances on the President.

No person should have unfettered power, and the President tried to use the pardon power to take care of people who took care of him, to shut them up so they wouldn't testify against him: Roger Stone, Mike Flynn, you name it, Madam Speaker, down to Paul Manafort.

He pardoned people who lied, who grifted, who dealt with the Russians and who were part of the conspiracy to take over the election by communicating with Kilimnik and getting information out there in the social media to beat Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump, the most disgusting Presidency in the history of this country.

That is why this bill is so important, to protect our democracy and save us from abuses by a future President who doesn't have limitations on him.

Madam Speaker, I pledge allegiance to the flag and hope all of us do. I support this bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay my respects to Fred Hiatt, the longtime editorial page editor of the Washington Post whose authoritative and thoughtful voice on thousands of issues of public policy helped to strengthen our democracy. Mr. Hiatt, a 40-year veteran of the Post and a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, oversaw the opinion page and introduced the Post's audience to dozens of talented writers. An advocate of civil rights, democracy, human rights, and equality of opportunity, his thousands of unsigned editorials influenced public opinion and policy makers, including me. His forceful demand for justice when Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered will never be forgotten. He once said he believed there will always be a market for ``really good, serious, readable, thoughtful, unpurchased, non-yelling opinion,'' and provided it daily on the Post's pages. I express my condolences to his wife Margaret Shapiro, and his children Alexandra, Joseph and Nathaniel, and his many friends and colleagues. His was a purposeful and dynamic life, and he will be missed.

Madam Speaker, I was saddened when I read this morning about an incident concerning a teacher and a school board in East Tennessee. Matthew Hawn was fired for teaching about white privilege to his largely white classes of Contemporary Issues students in Sullivan Central High School in Kingsport, Tennessee. Mr. Hawn used both historical and contemporary examples, including the recent trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd. The General Assembly of Tennessee recently outlawed teachers from teaching critical race theory or ideas that any race is ``inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive'' and backed the law with financial penalties. This sort of legislating is a throwback to an earlier period of intolerance and fear of history and science. Our state's reputation was stained in the 1920s by the prosecution of Dayton, Tennessee, schoolteacher John Scopes for teaching evolution. I had hoped those days were long behind us. I guess not. Confronting painful periods in our country's history--such as slavery, segregation, the Trail of Tears, women denied voting rights--will make our students more tolerant, aware and worldly. I am deeply troubled by what has happened to Mr. Hawn and I hope decision makers will restore him to his place in the classroom where he can challenge young minds with new ideas.

Mr. Speaker, in 1954, I was stricken with polio. In 1955, not quite 6 years of age, I went to a baseball game in a segregated Memphis, Tennessee. I had crutches, a White Sox cap, and a White Sox T- shirt. A player gave me a baseball, a White player.

I went to my dad and told him about it, and we went down to thank him. He said: Don't thank me. Thank that player over there, No. 9.

He was the blackest player in the stadium in the first integrated game in Memphis, Minnie Minoso.

Minoso didn't feel comfortable giving a baseball to a White boy in Memphis in 1955 at the exhibition game. That lucky moment for me gave me a hero and an angel who stayed with me all my life.

Later in 1960, when he came to Memphis, we visited not at the Peabody where the White players were but at the Lorraine Hotel where the Black players stayed. He was a nine-time all-star baseball player in the segregated Lorraine Hotel.

We maintained our friendship over the years.

This is a picture of me giving him a certificate in Comiskey Park, where he played seven decades, the most decades of anybody playing professional ball.

In this picture, we were in Memphis at the Civil Rights Baseball Game.

One of the first things I did when I was a Congressman was to introduce a resolution to honor the Negro League

Baseball Hall of Fame in Kansas City. In it, I said that Minnie Minoso would have been in the Hall of Fame but for segregation and spending years in the Pacific Coast League and the Negro Leagues when he should have been in the major leagues. It was killed in the Senate by Jim Bunning, a Senator who was also a Hall of Famer.

On Sunday, Minnie Minoso was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I took Minnie to Cuba when I went there and handed out No. 9 pins, and I handed out baseball cards to Cuban fans when I was there for the baseball game that President Obama put together. The Cuban people loved him. He was their Jackie Robinson.

On January 24, he goes in the Hall of Fame with Jim Bunning. I thank the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I thank Minnie Minoso. He has been my hero.

Madam Speaker, I mourn the loss of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

As a lawyer, I have always had respect for the Court as the highest court in the land dispensing justice, but starting with Bush v. Gore, it became more political.

In Shelby v. Holder, it emasculated the Voting Rights Act, destroying section 5 and taking the basic fundamental principles of democracy away from so many people.

In Citizens United, it gave the rich and the powerful more and more money.

And then yesterday, it took away women's right to choose.

To hear some of the arguments from Justice Kavanaugh, to say abortion is not in the Constitution so we should leave it to the States, well, high-speed internet is not in the Constitution either, but the courts can hear cases on that. Nuclear power is not in the Constitution, but the Court will hear cases on that.

To hear Justice Barrett say women can just go a little longer and give birth to those children because there will be somebody there that wants to adopt that child, deciding for the mothers that they will have to bear that child might cost them their life. Childbearing is not without risk and takes them away from other things.

Unfortunately, the Court is very diminished.

Madam Speaker, today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case that threatens abortion access throughout the country, not just in Mississippi where the case originated.

I walked over to see the protesters, the demonstrators, the supporters, and the objectors. There is a lot of controversy, but the fact is, standing law in the United States, stare decisis, is that women have a right to choose.

It is a personal right, and it is enshrined in Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade was enunciated, passed, and approved by the Supreme Court when I was in law school. The right of a woman to

choose is part of my political DNA. I hope it never changes.

One of the Justices asked one of the attorneys addressing the Court: Why don't we just leave it to the States?

Well, one of the last times Mississippi and its confederate States, all of which have abortion laws that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade was outlawed--the issue was ``leave it to the States on slavery.'' That was wrong then, and it is wrong now. Women have the right to choose.

Mr. Speaker, President Biden is leading this country in the right direction. He is moving us forward, but the Republicans refuse to see it.

The Build Back Better bill will help middle class families, produce more jobs, reduce taxes, and make costs less on prescription drugs, on home healthcare for seniors, on childcare for working mothers, and give them an opportunity to participate in America's economy.

President Biden led us on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Bipartisan? Yeah, not much. There were 17 Republicans in the Senate, maybe 16, only 13 in the House. There is nothing partisan about getting goods to market, about speeding up the supply chain, which happens when you get good roads and the opportunity for trucks to travel on them, trains to proceed, and airplanes to deliver their cargo.

President Biden is leading us in the right direction. We just have to hope that the Senate and the Republicans here will help us in this last month as we try to raise the debt ceiling to pay for Trump's tax scam and to pass a budget.

Madam Speaker, contrary to the remarks from my friend from South Carolina, leading economists in this country say that the Build Back Better bill will help on inflation. It will ease inflationary measures. It is important that we pass the Build Back Better bill if we are going to deal with inflation.

Build Back Better, the Reuters Agency says Biden's spending plan will not add to inflationary pressure.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said, ``The bills do not add to inflation pressures, as the policies help to lift long-term economic growth via stronger productivity and labor force growth, and thus take the edge off of inflation.''

Madam Speaker, 17 Nobel Prize winners in economics have already stated they believe the Build Back Better bill will ease longer term inflationary pressures.

So it is not an inflation problem. In fact, by passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we make it easier for people to get to work and for goods to get to market. Improving our ports, our airports with cargo, our highways, and our rail, all of those things, make it easier for us to work against inflation and to get goods to market and improve the economy.

So we should pass Build Back Better, and hurray Biden.

Madam Speaker, today we remember and honor Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian tax lawyer who in 2008 uncovered a massive fraud scheme of hundreds of millions of dollars perpetrated by law enforcement officers. In any normal situation, Mr. Magnitsky would have been praised for his efforts. But this was Putin's Russia, and he was arrested by the very people whose nefarious dealings he exposed. The conditions Mr. Magnitsky faced in prison for almost a year were inhumane, and on November 16, 2009, already weakened and seriously ill, he did not survive the beatings he received from prison guards.

Twelve years later, Putin still controls Russia. Throughout the country, hundreds of prisoners of conscience languish behind bars because of their political opinions, their activism, and even their religious beliefs.

Thanks to Sergei Magnitsky's determination to stand up for what is right in the face of overwhelming state power, the laws that bear his name ensure they will not be forgotten. His story is the story of many others--not only in Russia, but worldwide. Exposing human rights abuses and corruption carries many risks in many countries. Yet there are many brave people who continue to reveal the truth.

The Magnitsky Act has become a living memorial to Sergei Magnitsky's bravery. We in Congress originally passed this legislation to sanction those involved in the death of Mr. Magnitsky. Since then, we have expanded it to cover the world's worst human rights abusers. What began here has spread internationally as the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada have all adopted their own Magnitsky sanctions. Many others, such as Japan, Australia, and Taiwan, are considering their own legislation.

Magnitsky sanctions have completely changed the nature of the fight for human rights and against corruption. They not only protect our own system against abuse but also provide a measure of justice to those denied it abroad. We will keep encouraging our democratic allies to adopt similar sanctions so that one day there will be no safe haven left for kleptocrats and their blood money.

Finding justice for Sergei Magnitskyin Putin's Russia seems more impossible with each passing year. However, we have not forgotten his tragic story and we will never stop calling for accountability for those who imprisoned him and ultimately killed him; those who enabled corruption and abetted murder. We are determined to not let his memory fade. Instead, he will serve as an indelible reminder of all those who suffer under corrupt regimes.

Madam Speaker, today is a major day. Not as major as the day we had about 10 days ago when the House passed, with bipartisan support, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but we are going to have a bill signing in the White House in just a few minutes by President Biden.

This is a big deal. We passed a bill that President Trump couldn't pass with a Republican Congress and without a Republican Congress. President Biden and this Congress passed it. It is going to mean road repairs, bridge repairs, airport additions, bridge observations and repairs. Ports in our country will be improved. Broadband will be extended. The electric grid will be improved; people will get access. This is what used to be bipartisan--people working together to get the infrastructure of our country that moves goods to ports, goods to people, makes our country tick, helps business, puts jobs together.

This is an important bill. The Democratic Congress with 13 Republicans passed it. It is a great day to celebrate. America is on the move again.