Steve King

Mr. Chair, I am encouraged that my amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year passed the House of Representatives by voice vote on July 11, 2019. This important amendment requires the ``Annual Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China'' to include an assessment of (1) China's expansion of its surveillance state; (2) Any correlation of such expansion with its oppression of its citizens and its threat to United States national security interests around the world; and (3) An overview of the extent to which such surveillance corresponds to the overall respect, or lack thereof, for human rights.

This matter is one that I have long been attuned to and concerned about, ultimately leading me to draft and introduce the ``Protect American IPR Act'', which is H.R. 902 this session, and seeks to stop Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property through duties on Chinese merchandise. For this reason, I have been encouraged to see President Trump prioritizing the Chinese stealing of American intellectual property.

Mass and unabated government surveillance does not only offend individual liberties; in the hands of an authoritarian government, it poses the Orwellian threat of the government always watching, and ultimately using this ability, made possible to an unprecedented extent by modem technology, to spy on, steal from, intimidate and persecute not only those it views as ``political enemies'' and ``threats'', but anyone it deems as expedient.

This Orwellian threat is becoming a reality, perhaps nowhere more so than in China, where the government vigorously pursues a national video surveillance network. The affinity of the Chinese government to control its population in part by mass monitoring is not a new phenomenon, but advancing technology makes its prospects more frightening every day for those within and outside of the Mainland.

One internet privacy expert warns, ``What China is doing here is selectively breeding its population to select against the trait of critical, independent thinking''. Since China is a neighbor to many and more importantly an actor on the world stage, that erosion will not simply negatively impact the Chinese, it will spread--it arguably has already. A world with continually less critical, independent thought is a prospect to tremble at.

It is my strong belief that U.S. policy, including defense policy, should by no measure assist, intentionally or unintentionally, the growth of China's surveillance. Instead, it should discourage the expansion of the Chinese government into the rest of the world, while at the same time encouraging greater human rights for the Chinese people, including expectant mothers and Christians and other religious minorities.

I have heard from many individuals who warn against China's rapid expansion and influence into the rest of the world, including Africa and Central America, our nation's own backyard. Although the government-connected interests bring economic promise (and exploitation) to the developing world, they also bring the Chinese surveillance state with them. To counter this very real and growing threat, we need to first understand its scope, its impact for individuals in China as well as those around world, and the extent to which it threatens the U.S. national security interests.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being recognized to address you here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. I would first like to point out and to show here, to America, Jaci Hermstad.

Jaci Hermstad is from Spencer, Iowa. Her identical twin sister, in 2011, passed away from an aggressive form of ALS, which we often know of as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The DNA from her sister is part of a treatment for Jaci, who was diagnosed on Valentine's Day of this year with the same disease. And because of the work and the cooperation of the FDA, some wonderful scientists, and a lot of work done by my staff--and I want to stand here and thank Speaker Pelosi for her cooperation--we were able to convince the FDA to grant a waiver so Jaci could receive this treatment.

She is in Columbia University, now, receiving treatments. Her third treatment is this morning, just about as I speak, and it will be a triple dose. And if this works--and she is in my prayers every day--we have opened a path to one day put an end to that deadly and debilitating disease of ALS.

And by the way, she is a spunky gal with a sassy sense of humor, and if you knew her like I know her, you would love her.

This is Jaci. She is definitely in my prayers this day and every day.

Census Questions

Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about the topic that will be raised by the President this afternoon in the Rose Garden, as I understand, and it is the topic of whether the question of ``Are you a citizen of the United States of America?'' should and could be on the Census.

I have introduced a bill, H.R. 1320. This has been introduced last time and this year, and H.R. 1320 is a bill that has asked these questions. It says:

What is person number one's legal status?

Are you a citizen or a national of the United States?

Are you a lawfully admitted permanent resident?

Are you none of those things, or do you have an other lawful status?

And then it follows up and says: If you have other lawful status, what is that status? Are you here on a green card? Are you here on a student visa? Are you here on a work permit of some kind?

So, we need a full inventory of the population of the United States. That

was the purpose of the Census, not only for redistricting, but so that we could see how America is growing, in what ways America is growing.

And, by the way, we are establishing immigration policy here in the United States Congress by an enumerated power in our Constitution, I might add, and we are doing that with people on that side of the aisle saying: We don't want to know any more than how many homo sapiens we can count within the shores of the United States of America. But they want to know a lot of other minutia if it helps them politically.

So I brought this legislation forward, and we know that there was a case before the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court looked at that case.

I looked back at the short form Census in 2010 when Barack Obama was President. And here is what it asked. It wants to know: What is your name? What is your phone number?

I mean, how detailed do you have to get?

We are only asking are you a citizen or are you not a citizen is what the Commerce Department has decided to ask. I think there should be more details.

But the Obama Census short form said:

What is your name?

What is your phone number?

What is your birthday?

What sex are you?

I point out they didn't ask your gender. They ask sex because that is actually definitive.

And what is your ethnicity? What is your race?

Do you have an unmarried partner?

And if you have children, they ask this question:

Are they biological or adopted sons or daughters?

So they want to know, are they boys or girls and were they born into the family or were they adopted into the family. By what means are they part of your dependents?

But you can't ask a question: Are you a citizen of the United States?

All of these questions and many more, and we can't ask the question: Are you a citizen of the United States?

The Supreme Court found that the executive branch was granted the authority by the United States Congress--and that is the Commerce Secretary himself--to form the questions on the Census. This is a constitutional authority that was specifically granted to the executive branch of government by the United States Congress. But the Court says: You have the authority to ask the question, but we think you have the wrong reason to ask the question. So now we are remanded back to the lower court to come up with a better reason.

Here is my reason: We want to know how many citizens are in America. That is all you need to ask. It is simple as it can be.

And they are well within the law; they are well within the Constitution. It is just that the Obama-appointed judges don't seem to be reading the Constitution and the law, and they seem to have political motives.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate being recognized to address you here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

I rise today to honor Jaci Hermstad. She has given me so much inspiration.

I want to start, though, with the early, sad part of this story. This is a sad story with a happy part in the middle of it right now, Mr. Speaker.

Jaci's identical twin sister, Alex, was diagnosed with a very severe and aggressive form of ALS. That took place in 2005. Then, by 2010 and 2011, my staff and, especially, Sandy Hanlon in our Sioux City office, were working with the Hermstads to do those things we could do, in a limited fashion, admittedly.

On St. Valentine's Day of 2011, sadly, Jaci's identical twin sister, Alex, passed away at age 17. Now, that is 8 years ago. About 2015 or so, Jaci and her mother, Lori, came to my office to talk with me about ALS, this dreaded Lou Gehrig's disease, that always ends up fatal. It always ends up in a sad, tragic ending. They had experienced that with Jaci's identical twin sister.

Even more sadly, there was news that symptoms showed up in Jaci late last fall, around the holiday time. By Christmas she couldn't get up the stairs any longer, and again, on St. Valentine's Day of this year, Jaci was diagnosed with the aggressive form of ALS that her identical twin sister had passed away from.

Now, they had donated some of her sister's tissue to science, and two significant companies, Columbia University, and Dr. Neil Shneider began doing DNA work on that preparing a treatment for Jaci. This treatment wasn't available for Jaci soon enough in her view, her family's view, or in my view. The FDA had to work through their regulations. As we worked through that, it looked like Jaci couldn't get this potentially miraculous treatment before perhaps September or October. At the rate of the digression of her condition, it didn't look like she was going to be with us long enough to receive the treatment.

Some of us went to work to step up and help Jaci. I got involved on April 13 of this year when my wonderful district staff person, Andrea Easter, who had been working with the family all along, brought me up and we did a fundraiser there at the Spencer AG Center on April 13, a Saturday.

It was a cold and chilly day when we arrived there. There were pickups parked on either side of the road to the Spencer AG Center. It looked like we were going to a farm sale there were so many vehicles there.

They had only expected maybe 100 people, and the Clay County Cattlemen were there to flip maybe 100 burgers and put out a basket for people to put a check in. They thought they could raise $3,000 to $5,000 just as a token, as a way to help.

The story about that day is, it turned out that there were over 1,000 people who came. And they raised in the end, the last report I got, was over $200,000.

I sat with Jaci that day and talked about her dreams to build a riding arena and train horses for therapy for others and to be able to help people.

She is a cowgirl, Mr. Speaker. I committed that I will come up and grade that arena on the house, and I will be on the machine to do it. I look forward to that day.

But we had more work to do. So that story that day got us all energized. We kept her in our prayers every day. By May 2 we had a meeting with Dr. Woodcock and the FDA.

We moved along even further. By May 20 I introduced a private bill. I tried to convince my Senators to do the same. They thought there would be an objection to a UC in the Senate.

I brought this to Speaker Pelosi. She was terrific to work with. We had several meetings all together, with Steny Hoyer and with her staff. Before that bill could come to the floor for a unanimous consent request, the FDA opened the door and Jaci went wheels up January 5 to go to Columbia.

She received her first treatment on June 11, and today, starting 5 minutes from now, Mr. Speaker, she will receive her second treatment. There has been no noticeable digression in her condition. I am hopeful and prayerful that it will improve. We have a chance here at a miracle.

So many people worked so well together to get this done, including the press people around the Spencer, Iowa, area. I want to especially mention Stella ``With the Good Heart'' Daskalakis. I always call her Stella ``With the Good Heart.'' She has done so much, along with KICD Radio, KTIV, KUOO, and KSFY in Sioux Falls.

Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful for everyone who has formed a link in this chain of miracles. We are on our way to an extraordinary miracle. We will keep Jaci in our prayers this day as she receives her second treatment for ALS.