Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend Bernell Jones, a seventh grade mathematics teacher at the White Station Middle School in Memphis for the last 16 years, who was recently nationally recognized as an inspiring educator.

Before he became a math teacher, Mr. Jones was a computer specialist in the Marines, which explains his effectiveness in keeping discipline in his classroom. ``Classroom management from a military perspective is fairly easy,'' Mr. Jones told The Commercial Appeal newspaper. ``You're just so used to telling people what to do. These are young kids, and at school they will do the right thing.''

Mr. Jones earned a master's degree in teaching at Christian Brothers University he began teaching at White Station Middle School. An innovator in the classroom, he said he seeks to make mathematics fun with ``pi'' days and a waffle festival. He has changed the minds of many students who didn't initially like math--one became a math teacher herself.

Mr. Jones is an inspiration to his students and to our whole community, and I congratulate him for this recognition.

Mr. Chair, I just want to add my support to this. We have added these prohibitions on three other bills that have come through here, State, and Foreign Operations; Commerce, Justice, and Science; and Financial Services and General Government.

It is in the Constitution. Moneys are not supposed to be spent there, and this is wrong. The country will go on with them staying at Hiltons or, as Mr. Lieu said, Ritz Carltons, or Holiday Inns, or even Red Roof Inns.

I just say that this is the right thing to do, and I add my name as a supporter.

Madam Speaker, I rise to congratulate and celebrate the accomplishments of the Vanderbilt Baseball Team and their College World Series Championship victory. Vanderbilt University won the College World Series on Wednesday, June 26, 2019 for the second time in school history. I also want to commend head coach Tim Corbin for leading the team to a record-setting 59 victories this season. They showed tremendous perseverance through the season, but most especially when they came back once again in Game 3 to beat Michigan 8-2 and clinch the Championship. The team's season was also saved by a remarkable pitching effort, led by Kumar Rocker, who pitched a no-hitter against Duke during the Super Regional. The Commodores represented Vanderbilt University and the state of Tennessee with distinction and did so while remembering their fallen teammate, Donny Everett. As the Vanderbilt fight song states: ``if vict'ry's won, when battle's done, Then Vandy's name will rise in fame; Dynamite; Dynamite.'' I'd like to once again congratulate the 2019 Vanderbilt Baseball team for their College World Series Championship and dynamite season.

Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased, and America should be very pleased, that Robert Mueller is responding to a subpoena that was issued through the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Nadler, and through HPSCI, Mr. Schiff.

On July 17 Robert Mueller will appear before our two committees for 2 hours of questioning by each committee and let us know more about the Mueller report.

The Mueller report is the most important book or document in this country. Everyone should look at it, read it, and learn about contacts that the Trump administration and campaign had with the Russian Government and how Russia influenced our elections and will try to do it again. That is what is in the Mueller report. Attempts to obstruct justice that did not exonerate our President and specifically that Mr. Mueller said that if he could say he didn't commit a crime, he would.

It is important that he testify, and it is important that people learn about the Mueller report and the danger that lurks not only beyond our House and Senate but within our government.

Mr. Chair, this should be bipartisan because this is protecting America and protecting our Constitution, which we have all sworn an oath to uphold.

This amendment will require the Trump administration to abide by the Emoluments Clause. The Emoluments Clause to the Constitution says that the President shouldn't be getting moneys from the Federal Government over and beyond his salary. Yet, money spent at the Trump Hotel, at the Trump Hotel in Ireland where they went to Doonbeg, and at the Trump Hotel in Scotland and other places where Trump makes his journeys, whether they are within the scope of his original overseas purpose of going to London and D-day but diverting to Doonbeg to play golf and to let people know about his golf course and his hotel there, charging the government for the golf carts that the Secret Service uses, and the rooms, drinks, and food at his hotel, et cetera.

The Washington Post reported nearly $1 million in revenue already spent by Federal Government agencies at Trump properties.

The Constitution does not permit it. It should be bipartisan.

The gentleman says that these are attacks and that the administration needs certain types of latitude. It needs resources.

Well, the Trump family doesn't. If this President did like every other President and divested himself of ownership of his properties, then we wouldn't have this problem, but he didn't do it. From day one, they have been making money, and they have also been advertising their product.

Every time they advertise Trump properties, they are using the government as a way to expand the President's wealth.

So I would ask that we abide by our oaths, enforce the Emoluments Clause, and stop the Trump businesses from taking money from the Federal Government, which they are not supposed to do.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) academic team from White Station High School in Memphis for winning the JROTC Academic National Championship on Sunday. The team, one of 32 invited to compete for the national championship at Catholic University of America in Washington, consists of rising senior Catherine Hu and rising juniors Johnnie Walton, Michael Golden and Diran Tan. Their teacher-coach is Sergeant Major Karen Boldin.

The academic championship process began with a written test in October with questions from math, science, history and other academic areas. Previous levels of competition narrowed the field to 1,200 teams, then just 32 who began their rounds on Friday. Michael Golden had the final winning answer to a question about a monument in a British city and deserves a special shout-out.

JROTC is a great program that typically leads to academic success after high school and potentially to careers as officers in the military services. The White Station team returns to Memphis as National Champions and I look forward to meeting with the team and with students, faculty and staff at White Station in the weeks ahead. They have made us proud.

Mr. Chair, I am speaking in favor of the amendment we have that would prohibit the use of funds at businesses owned by President Trump. Mr. Raskin joins me in these amendments.

President Trump's refusal to divest himself of his many businesses raises serious questions about compliance with the domestic Emoluments Clause, which protects against Presidential corruption.

By prohibiting the use of Federal funds at businesses owned, in whole or in part, by President Trump, we will be sending a strong message to the American people that we will not allow this or any other President to use his high office for personal enrichment.

The fact is, when we stay at his hotels and his properties, he makes money. Nobody is supposed to make money from the Presidency, directly or indirectly, and they are supposed to report these possibilities to the Congress, so we have knowledge.

That has not been done. We need notice, we need knowledge, and we need prohibition.

I urge passage of this amendment to protect the American taxpayer.

Mr. Speaker, this is an opportunity for Congress to reassert itself as an equal branch of government. The fact that it is supposed to be three equal branches of government is not totally accurate.

When we came up with the Constitution, we decided that we didn't want to have an autocratic king rule us. That is why we had a revolution. When the men met to write our Constitution, they made Congress Article I. There was a reason they made Congress Article I, because the Congress represents the people. It is not a king, it is not an autocrat, and it is not a despot. It is the Representatives of the people who make the laws. We are supposed to really be the embodiment-- and we are the embodiment--of the American people.

This President has thumbed his nose at the Representatives of the people by not complying with lawful requests for documentation and lawful requests for testimony for Congress to do its constitutionally delegated purpose of oversight of the executive branch and laws that are necessary for the betterment of this Nation.

This is about time Congress did act. I am proud of Congress for bringing these bills, and I am shocked at the opposition for not wanting the people's House--their House, their legislative body--to stand up for future Congresses as well as this Congress for the rightful power that it deserves to do oversight and perform its functions with the best possible witnesses and testimony and materials that could aid it in its efforts.

I support the contempt citations. I condemn the parties that have thumbed their noses at us, subpoena under law, they are supposed to arrive with documentation and appear to testify. If they object, they can object there and then, not just disregard Congresses' subpoenas that are lawful.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 101st anniversary of the Republic Day of Azerbaijan, and to extend my best wishes to all Azerbaijanis. May 28th marks the founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, when the people of Azerbaijan first gained their independence from the Russian Empire in 1918. Although Azerbaijan's independence was ended by Soviet forces in 1920, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan was the world's first secular parliamentary democratic republic in a predominantly Muslim nation-- earning diplomatic recognition from the United States during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. We also recall that the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan granted universal suffrage to its citizens in 1918, making it the first Muslim country to give women the right to vote.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan restored its independence on October 18, 1991, when its Parliament adopted the Constitution Act on the Restoration of the State of Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has emerged as a key player for enhancing global energy security. Azerbaijan also provides roughly 40 percent of Israel's oil consumption and enjoys friendly ties with Israel beyond oil sales.

Jews have resided in Azerbaijan for 2,500 years without persecution and today, the Jewish community in Azerbaijan numbers over 12,000. Azerbaijan is also home to Christian communities and has been praised for its religious tolerance by the European Parliament.

Azerbaijan is a key global security partner for the United States. As an active member of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, Azerbaijan cooperates with the United States in countering terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and narcotics trafficking. Azerbaijani troops serve shoulder to shoulder with U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, as they previously did in Kosovo and Iraq. In support of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan has extended important over-flight clearances for U.S. and NATO flights as well as regularly providing landing and refueling operations at its airports for U.S. and NATO forces.

As co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, I stand with the Azerbaijani people as they continue to work towards independence and security as well as to embrace human rights and democratic values. I congratulate the people of Azerbaijan on the centennial of their Republic Day. May the partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan progress and continue to benefit both of our nations.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 30th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Starting on April 18, 1989 thousands of students marched through Tiananmen Square calling for a more democratic government and protesting China's Communist government. An estimated 1 million people joined the protests in Tiananmen Square and citizens in over 400 Chinese cities staged protests.

After months of protests, late in the afternoon of June 3 thousands of troops moved onto Tiananmen Square and fired into crowds throughout the night into June 4. The People's Republic of China has still not admitted to how many people were killed by the military but despite the Chinese government downplaying the number killed, it was likely in the thousands.

The Chinese government has tried to erase this tragedy from history in order to uphold its Communist regime's legitimacy.

The Chinese government continues to violate the human rights of its citizens including putting millions of members of its Uyghur minority into ``re-education'' camps and continuing suppression of democratic voices throughout China.

We must continue to commit ourselves to supporting the values for which the victims of Tiananmen Square Massacre gave their lives.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz who died last week at the age of 60. His 1998 Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War was hugely influential on me because, having grown up in the South, I could relate to much of what he wrote. His views on civil rights and even on zoning laws were insightful and illuminating. I recall once visiting my neighbor and friend the Civil War historian Shelby Foote and seeing Confederates in the Attic among his books. He told me Horwitz had recently visited and had dropped off a copy, and Foote said he wished he'd read it before the visit. Horwitz won his Pulitzer Prize as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal for his stories on low-wage workers at garbage recycling and poultry processing plants and worked for The New Yorker before writing Confederates in the Attic. Known for his deep reporting and participatory journalism, Horwitz also wrote Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (2002) in which he retraced the 18th century explorer's voyages in the Pacific; A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (2008), which looked at what America was like before its European discovery; Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War (2011) about the abolitionist's 1859 attack on the military arsenal at Harper's Ferry; and Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide that came out in May which followed the future landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead's reporting for The New York Times from the South prior to the Civil War. Horwitz's reputation as a hands- on reporter and writer will be long remembered. I wish to express my condolences to his wife, the novelist Geraldine Brooks; to his sons Nathaniel and Bizu; and to his many fans and friends.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes. The coauthor of this amendment is Mrs. Beatty from Ohio.

Madam Chair, this amendment will allow consumers to obtain free access to their credit scores. It directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to require that consumer reporting agencies disclose free credit scores to consumers who make that request.

Federal law currently allows consumers to obtain one credit report per year from each of the major credit bureaus that monitor consumer credit information. These free reports include all the current data on which a credit score would be based but don't include the credit score itself.

For consumers, this is kind of like trying to figure out how well their favorite baseball team is doing based on newly created analytics for the modern sports fan and not for us who know just home runs, ERA, and strikeouts. If not for the current win-loss record, would people be able to know how their team is doing.

Good credit scores mean better interest rates on mortgages, bank loans, and credit cards; smaller deposits for rent and utilities; and even lower insurance premiums.

As important as credit scores are, they are still a mystery to most Americans. While most understand the fundamentals, such as the importance of

paying bills on time, there is a lot of uncertainty about how the credit score is actually determined.

Many Americans don't know, for example, that maxing out your credit card can be about as bad as making a late payment. Many people also wrongly believe their credit scores reflect their income, age, marital status, education, or even ethnicity.

A large majority of Americans are unable to define a good credit score--700--and many don't know that small changes in behavior could have a large impact on the interest rates that they will pay on loans.

With that in mind, this amendment directs the CFPB to determine if agencies should also disclose other consumer information appropriate with respect to consumer financial education.

People with poor or mediocre credit scores pay for them with higher interest rates, bigger security deposits, and higher insurance premiums.

The one number that can make or break someone's financial future more than salary is their credit score. I believe consumers have a right to obtain their credit score for free from the same source that supplies it to other entities.

I would like to acknowledge my former staffer, Michael Fulton, now an executive with the Memphis International Airport, who worked on the original bill, the Fair Access to Credit Scores Act, which I introduced 9 years ago in the 111th Congress.

I look forward to working more on this important issue with Chairwoman Waters and my partner on this amendment, Congresswoman Beatty from Ohio.

I yield such time as she may consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

Madam Chairwoman, in the minute that I have, I can't read the bill to the gentleman, but what the gentleman talked about is not the bill. It might be something somewhere up in the stratosphere, but this has nothing to do with picking one company, or Venezuela, or some other communist country. This has to do with giving consumers the fair opportunity to see what their credit score is

That is America. That is fairness. That is justice.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chairwoman, this is a good bill. I appreciate the idea of thoughtful. It is thoughtful and it is good. And maybe it distinguishes the parties. One party is looking out for consumers to have an opportunity to get a chance to see their score and

have a fair chance in the American economic system, to participate, and the other doesn't care.

Madam Chairwoman, I ask that we pass the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, today is the 200th anniversary of the city of Memphis, Tennessee, the city of my birth, where I am a fourth- generation Memphian. I am proud of my city and honored to represent it in the United States Congress.

Memphis is a city that is well known for the National Civil Rights Museum that has turned like a phoenix the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King into a shrine for civil rights history and civil rights work in our country.

It is a home of music, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Sun Records, and Graceland. It is a city of great barbecue, real barbecue, pork. It is a city of basketball, both the Memphis Grizzlies and the Memphis Tigers. And it is a city of marvelous people.

It is a great city. Come celebrate with us the 200th birthday of Memphis, the great city that it is.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember an important mentor, advisor and my quasi-brother/father, Laurence M. Bloch, whom the world knew as ``Larry.'' Larry, a Memphis native and longtime real estate investor and contributor to humanitarian causes, passed away on February 23 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 87.

A font of sage advice, Larry was constantly there for me and for many others who loved him for the caring individual he was. After graduating from Christian Brothers High School in 1949, Larry went to the University of Michigan, and led a group of Wolverines fans traveling by train with the team to the 1951 Rose Bowl where Michigan beat the California Golden Bears 14 to 6. Larry graduated with a degree in economics in 1953 then served two years in the U.S. Army before returning to Memphis where he was involved in the millinery business before settling into the real estate investment business.

He remained an avid Michigan fan his whole life and used to tape every game. Known for his disheveled salt-and-pepper hair and socks- less and tie-less style, and for riding his bicycle like Albert Einstein, he also drove around town in a Lincoln Continental with coach doors. He celebrated healthy eating habits as a prophet of whole grains and fiber. An investor with a keen eye for good deals in Memphis' downtown, he had the good sense and good fortune to own the property kitty-corner from The Peabody on Union Avenue that was torn down to create AutoZone Park.

A patron of the arts, he also supported the Memphis Crisis Center, Meals on Wheels and the Church Health Center among his charitable causes. As a cat lover, another of his charitable causes was The House of Mews, where he was for a while the top cat. A charming story teller, he provided useful advice and helped many people solve their problems. Larry liked: long walks, telling stories, giving advice, peanuts, cashmere sweaters, everything else cashmere, trains, maize and blue signs, a studied careless appearance, salads and, more than anything, Cheryl and his grandsons. Larry didn't like: being photographed, zoos, recognition, Ohio State or work hours extending two hours either side of lunch.

I was fortunate to have had him as a good friend and will miss him greatly. Much of what I am and have been is because of Larry Bloch. I thank Larry. I want to extend my condolences to his daughter Cheryl, to his grandsons Nick and Alex, to his sister Joyce whom he loved, and her family, and to his multitude of adoring friends. Larry Bloch led an exemplary life.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember an important mentor, advisor and my quasi-brother/father, Laurence M. Bloch, whom the world knew as ``Larry.''

Larry, a Memphis native and longtime real estate investor and contributor to humanitarian causes, passed away on February 23 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 87. A font of sage advice, Larry was constantly there for me and for many others who loved him for the caring individual he was. After graduating from Christian Brothers High School in 1949, Larry went to the University of Michigan, serving as a cheerleader for the Wolverines and traveling by train with the team to the 1951 Rose Bowl in which Michigan beat the California Golden Bears 14 to 6.

Larry graduated with a degree in economics in 1953 then served two years in the U.S. Army before returning to Memphis and the real estate investment business. He remained an avid Michigan fan his whole life and used to tape every game. Known for his disheveled salt-and-pepper hair and socks-less and tie-less style, and for riding his bicycle like Albert Einstein, he also drove around town in a Lincoln Continental with coach doors. He celebrated healthy eating habits as a prophet of whole grains and fiber.

An investor with a keen eye for good deals in Memphis' downtown, he had the good sense to own the property kitty-corner from The Peabody on Union Avenue that was torn down to create AutoZone Park. A patron of the arts, he also supported the Memphis Crisis Center, Meals on Wheels and the Church Health Center among his charitable causes. As a cat lover, another of his charitable causes was The House of Mews, where he was for a while the top cat. A charming story teller, he provided useful advice and helped many people solve their problems.

I was fortunate to have had him as a good friend and will miss him greatly. I want to extend my condolences to his daughter Cheryl and to his grandsons Nick and Alex. Larry Bloch led an exemplary life.