Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, this morning I walked by an elementary school, and I saw parents dropping off their kids. I thought of parents around the country sending their kids back to school after months of virtual learning. They want their children to be safe.

But it has been 8 years after Sandy Hook and 3 years after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in my district, we should be ashamed that we have waited so long and wasted so much time when we could be saving lives.

We cannot have safe communities until we fix the crumbling foundation of our gun laws. That is the background check system. Universal background checks will help keep guns out of dangerous hands. They will save lives in our schools, they will save lives in our homes, and they will save lives on our streets.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with survivors, with gun owners, and with Americans of both Democratic and Republican Parties who support universal background checks by voting to pass H.R. 8.

Madam Speaker, today, I rise to honor Barton David Weisman for his years of service to our country and the South Florida community. Barton, known by most as Bart, was born in 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and moved to South Florida in 1976 where he currently resides with his wife Shirley. They have two children and five grandchildren who keep them busy in addition to their successful business and philanthropic activities.

In the midst of World War II, Bart enrolled in the ROTC program at Lehigh University and later joined the New York National Guard. Bart was deployed to Korea as part of a medical unit with Company K, 47th Infantry Regiment which saw extensive combat. Bart was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and received numerous awards for his military service, including the Army of Occupation Medal for service in Japan, the Korean Service Medal, the UN Service Ribbon, and the Combat Medical Badge.

Following his military career, Bart started a company providing long term health care services to children and seniors. The company grew from what was originally one nursing home in Bristol, Pennsylvania to operating facilities in New Jersey and Florida. Bart's company continues to be a family-run business with both his son and grandson working there.

Bart and Shirley have dedicated themselves to sharing their success with their community through various philanthropic activities. They focus much of their efforts with Jewish Family Services and their most recent endeavor is the Shirley and Barton Weisman Delray Community and Senior Center in Delray Beach, Florida which provides an array of vital services and resources to the area's seniors.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Bart Weisman, and his service to the South Florida community and Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor Linda Eidinger for her years of dedicated service to the South Florida community. After twenty years as a union officer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Linda moved to South Florida where she has lived a life of community service and activism. Linda is a proud mother and grandmother, and her roots in union work inspired her to continue to fight on behalf of working families everywhere.

As president and an active member of many civic organizations, Linda engaged her community and brought people together to advance noble causes. As a leader in the American Association of University Women and the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training, Linda was a strong believer in the power of education and worked to ensure that everyone has access to an education to enable them to succeed in life.

Linda was also president of the Fort Lauderdale Democrats By The Sea Club where she fought for working families and other causes while making simple meetings enjoyable and memorable. Linda was an excellent moderator and brought a wide range of thoughtful speakers to various events and meetings. Environmental stewardship is also an important cause to Linda, who participated in and organized events such as recycling drives, beach cleanups, and other activities to protect the local environment.

Linda has been a selfless, dedicated, and positive member of her family and her community, fighting for important causes like education, environmental protection, and so many others.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Linda Eidinger, and her service to Fort Lauderdale and Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 91, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 72) removing a certain Member from certain standing committees of the House of Representatives, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 72.

In 2019, the FBI warned that ``antigovernment, identity-based, and fringe political conspiracy theories very likely to motivate some domestic extremists to commit criminal, sometimes violent activity.''

In October last year, this House voted nearly unanimously to condemn QAnon conspiracy theories because they encourage the rejection of objective reality, deepen political polarization, and undermine trust in our democratic institutions; but also because they have inspired real-world violence, bomb threats, vandalism, kidnapping, terrorism, murder, and insurrection.

Congresswoman Greene of Georgia has a long history of amplifying dangerous conspiracy theories online and threatening violent, racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic conduct. H. Res. 72 will ensure that Mrs. Greene's conduct is not rewarded with seats on two important committees.

The Congresswoman has said that American citizens who practice Islam ``do not belong in our government,'' and ``they should stay in their country.''

Mr. Speaker, this is their country, and it is their government as much as any American's.

Mrs. Greene has trafficked in dangerous anti-Semitic lies about the Rothschild family, George Soros, Zionist supremacists, and secret Jewish plots.

Over millennia, because of baseless, ugly lies, millions of Jews have been hated, targeted, expelled from their countries, violently attacked, killed, and exterminated because words lead to action and death.

Mrs. Greene claimed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed

26 people, including 20 6- and 7-year-old kids, was staged. She claimed the Las Vegas shooting that killed 60 people and injured over 800 was an orchestrated attempt to weaken gun rights. And she claimed the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a false flag event and called the survivors crisis actors.

Mr. Speaker, the 17 people who never came home from school in Parkland on February 14, 2018, were my constituents. Their families' pain is real, and it is felt every single day.

Yesterday, parents of children slain at Sandy Hook, Mark Barden, Daniel's dad; and Nicole Hockley, Dylan's mom, wrote a letter to Leader McCarthy to share how these conspiracy theories impact their families: ``These vicious lies deny the deaths of our murdered children and bring death threats and constant harassment to our doors and our surviving children.''

In 2019, Mrs. Greene created a White House petition to impeach Speaker Pelosi for treason, emphasizing that it is punishable by death, and she liked a Facebook comment stating that: ``A bullet to the head would be a quicker way to remove Speaker Nancy Pelosi.''

In a video statement from December 31, 2018, Mrs. Greene called on her followers to storm Washington, D.C., in what sounds today like a prescient forecast of last month's deadly insurrection: Flood the Capitol. Flood all the government buildings. Go inside. We can end it. We can do it peacefully. We can. I hope we don't have to do it the other way, but we should feel like we will if we have to.

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what happened.

Conspiracy theories and hate are malignant. They do not fade away. We must stand up to them and say, Enough.

Mrs. Greene has promised that she will never apologize.

Well, we are here today because Republican leadership has decided to embrace and elevate Mrs. Greene. They rewarded her with a seat on the committee of this House that has responsibility for teaching our children the truth and giving them a safe place to learn it.

Two years ago, the Republican leader spoke on this floor, very strongly saying, ``I will pledge to you this, from this side of the aisle, and I hope you understand this clearly, any hatred, we take action.''

Mr. McCarthy did take action, but it wasn't condemnation. It was elevation, appointing her to committee seats.

That is why it is necessary to put this resolution to a vote for every Member of this body because this House must take action. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and remove Representative Greene of Georgia from her positions on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on Budget.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H. Res. 72.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I also note Republican colleagues purport not to defend any of Representative Greene's hateful statements or reprehensible conduct, instead, rely on process. The appeals to process should be recognized for what they are, an effort to shield her from her accountability for her egregious language and actions.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), my friend and colleague from south Florida who has come to know the families from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, as well as I, and the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Malinowski).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to make clear that this is not an action by one party. This is a House resolution. Today, all of us will be voting.

And the Constitution couldn't be clearer. Article I, Section 5 vests the House with the authority, independent of the Ethics Committee, to discipline a Member. As a sanction for such behavior, the House may limit any right, power, privilege, or immunity of that Member. I am sure my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are aware of that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Williams).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Ms. Bush).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Hayes).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentlewoman from Connecticut.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), my friend and neighbor.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me just address some of what we have heard today.

First, we have heard the argument made by our colleagues that this is something that should go to the Ethics Committee, despite the fact that we have the authority to be here today to tackle something that our friends should have tackled.

But then they turn around and say that the Ethics Committee doesn't have jurisdiction for anything that has been said before a Member is elected, thereby creating a loop that will result in no accountability, zero accountability, for any of the horrific sayings, any of the horrific actions that have been promoted by Representative Greene on social media and in her words.

We also heard that what we are doing here risks deepening dangerous divisions. The dangerous divisions that exist in our country resulted in an attack on this Capitol, putting all of our lives at risk. We are trying to stop the divisions in our country by not giving a platform to the kinds of conspiracy theories that helped to inflame them.

We heard that this is cynical and hypocritical. Mr. Speaker, is there anything more cynical and hypocritical than to be told on the floor of this House that the minority leader was prepared to take Mrs. Greene off the committee, not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was a political decision he was willing to consider?

Finally, we heard that Representative Greene has apologized for this. She came to the floor today. She acknowledged that 9/11 happened; she acknowledged that school shootings are real; and she acknowledged that she learned some things about QAnon that she didn't know before.

There was no apology. There was nothing to address any of the pain and hurt that she has done to my constituents and gun violence survivors in every part of this country and the families who lost loved ones.

Mr. Speaker, we need to be here today. This hateful rhetoric is in the real world as well, outside the Halls of Congress, not just here. Memories of the lives we have lost to gun violence are being forsaken by those who baselessly claim those tragedies were false flag events. Online rants about anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and conspiracy theories have manifested in real and violent acts. It is not a debating society that we are participating in. This has real impact, in the real world.

Finally, I close with this, Mr. Speaker: We are worried about precedent?

So am I. So we should all be. And the precedent of rewarding a Member of the House by giving her a platform of a congressional committee to amplify dangerous conspiracy theories is one we should never set.

Leader McCarthy said so himself. I would remind my colleagues again, 2 years ago he said: Any hatred, any hatred we take action.

Unfortunately, the only action taken by Republican leadership has been to appoint Representative Greene to two powerful committees.

This resolution condemns the practice of promoting extreme ideologies, conspiracy theories, and antigovernment rhetoric. The resolution proclaims that there is no place for such conduct in this Congress or in society. When Mrs. Greene came to the floor today and compared the media to QAnon, it is a reminder of just how important this action is that we are about to take. This is why we must adopt H. Res. 72.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Engel for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of the victims of the 1994 terror attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.

On July 18, 1994, terrorists detonated a car bomb in the AMIA building, a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, an important part, a central part of that community. It killed 85 innocent people and injured hundreds more.

This attack, which took place just 2 years after the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, shook the Argentine Jewish community, the largest in Latin America.

In the 25 years since the attack, the investigations into the AMIA bombing have been marked by long delays and by judicial misconduct, failing thus far to bring justice for the victims, their families, and their community.

Considerable evidence has linked this heinous attack to the terrorist group Hezbollah and its sponsor, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Now, despite warrants issued by the Argentinian justice system for Iranian and Lebanese nationals thought to be involved in the attacks, and their addition on Interpol's most wanted lists, Iranian and Hezbollah operatives have yet to face accountability for their actions.

We encourage all responsible nations to not allow the perpetrators of this attack to continue to escape justice.

After the previous President of Argentina worked to prevent Iran from being held accountable, Prosecutor Alberto Nisman heroically proceeded investigating this bombing, shedding light on the alarming and growing partnership between leaders in Iran and Argentina. Just 1 day before he was scheduled to present his latest findings, Alberto Nisman was found dead in his home with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

We are grateful that President Macri's government has continued to push for Iranian accountability.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the Ambassador of Argentina, who is in the gallery with us today.

Twenty-five years later, Iranian-backed Hezbollah continues to carry out terror operations. Twenty-five years later, anti-Semitism continues to threaten the lives of Jewish communities throughout Latin America, around the world, and even here in the United States.

With this vote, Congress honors the victims of this horrific attack; recalls the brave work by Alberto Nisman, who lost his life pursuing justice; and calls for full accountability for those responsible. It has been far too long.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the ranking member, Congressman Joe Wilson, ranking member of the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism Subcommittee, and Congressmen Albio Sires and Francis Rooney, the chair and ranking member of the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, and Trade Subcommittee, for joining me in introducing this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with us against this despicable act of terror. As we recall the victims today, we stand against terror and hatred and anti-Semitism, and we stand for justice.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this entire

amendment, in particular, the Jayapal-Deutch amendment to bolster the Federal Election Commission's enforcement of prohibitions against foreign interference in American elections.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said: ``Frankly, the United States is under attack,'' and, ``The intelligence community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming U.S. elections . . . in 2020.''

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that our adversaries are ``adapting'' and ``upping their game'' as we head into the 2020 elections.

The people charged with protecting our national security are ringing alarm bells. That is why it is so troubling to hear President Trump say that he would listen to a foreign power's election assistance and maybe--maybe--call the FBI.

Well, FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub responded to the President's comments with alarm, when she said: ``I would not have thought that I needed to say this. . . . Let me make something 100 percent clear: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.''

It is true, she shouldn't have to say that, and Representative Jayapal and I shouldn't have to file this amendment. It should be clear to every American that our elections are for Americans to have a say in their government and should be defended against foreign interference. But, apparently, the President needs some clarity.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and support elections free from foreign interference.

Mr. Chair, had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea'' on rollcall No. 313.

Madam Speaker, I am honored to rise today in recognition of my friends Patty and Ian Carlis, who have been selected as the honorees of Congregation Keneseth Israel's annual Gala.

Patty and Ian Carlis have been active and engaged members of their community, helping to leave a lasting impact for the people of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and beyond. Moved by the historic atrocities of the Holocaust and the need for greater awareness, Patty used the performing arts to educate her community's young people. Through shows like ``The Library'' and other works, Patty played an instrumental role in inspiring the annual Youth and Prejudice Conference, paving the way for a more sophisticated and meaningful understanding of the Holocaust for middle and high-school students.

Ian Carlis served as a dentist at Bethlehem Smiles, going on to become the President of the dental staff of Lehigh Valley Hospital,

where he was a clinical educator for the Hospital and a member of the Continuing Dental Education Committee. Ian has graciously served both the profession and the community which he values so greatly.

To take their service even further, the Carlises went on to create the Ian and Patty Carlis Fund, a donor-advised fund which provides an array of grants to various organizations in greater Lehigh Valley.

As a Lehigh Valley native myself, I congratulate them on this well- deserved honor and thank them for their continued leadership in their community. May they go from strength to strength.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that my amendment be modified in the form I have placed at the desk.

Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, the amendment is a technical amendment to address a drafting error so that it is conforming and so there will be no problems going forward.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I thank my Florida colleague, Representative Castor, for her leadership in protecting access to high-quality healthcare in our State and across the country and for her authorship of the ENROLL Act to help more Americans shop for and sign up for health plans on healthcare.gov.

My amendment requires navigators to provide information in plain language about the 10 essential health benefits that are a part of every healthcare.gov plan: outpatient hospital care; emergency care; hospitalization; pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care; mental health and substance use disorder services; prescription medicines; rehabilitative services; labs; preventive care; and pediatric care, including dental and vision services.

It also requires navigators to help consumers understand their protections under the Mental Health Parity Act. According to a survey commissioned by the American Psychological Association, only 4 percent of Americans were familiar with the mental health parity law as of 2014, and just 7 percent were aware of mental health parity more broadly. Those numbers didn't change from the time of passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 through the first years of enrollment in 2014.

Mental health parity means insurance companies can't discriminate against Americans battling addiction in the opioid crisis. Parity means insurance companies can't make it harder to get care for deadly eating disorders than it is to get care for deadly cancer. Parity means we treat mental healthcare like healthcare because that is exactly what it is.

The Affordable Care Act's protections have saved lives and the financial security of millions of Americans, including one family who told me the story of their battle to treat their 19-year-old daughter's eating disorder. Here is what they said:

Our daughter was a sophomore in college when she was

diagnosed with an eating disorder. She had to take several

leaves of absence from her studies to seek treatment. This

would not have been financially possible without the benefits

of the ACA. Had she left school for treatment before the

passage of the ACA, she would have been dropped from our

family insurance. But because of the ACA, she could continue

under our coverage.

It was this ongoing treatment that has allowed our daughter

to regain her health enough to graduate from college and

maintain full-time employment.

While it is clear that parity has made improvements, we still have so much more to do.

This week, I heard from another family in my district about their daughter's struggle to get coverage and treatment. In the cycle of denials and arbitrarily reduced levels of care, her family was able to use the parity law to fight for their daughter's life in the courts.

But that is not enough. Parity protections have opened doors to better mental health and addiction treatment for so many Americans. As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month, it is important to acknowledge how far we have to go.

My amendment will help more Americans understand the benefits and protections available to them and help them get the care they need.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, this is an important amendment so that every American understands that mental health is health and that we need to care as much about the health of our bodies from our shoulders up as we do from our shoulders down. That is what people need to be made aware of so they have the ability to fight for that access to mental healthcare.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, do you remember when you graduated from high school?

Do you remember how big the world felt?

Do you remember your dreams, what you wanted to learn, whom you wanted to meet, and how you wanted to change the world?

You had those dreams, right?

Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell had those dreams, too. But for them, they will only be dreams because 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo led a charge to disarm the gunman who stormed into his classroom just days before graduating from the STEM School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Together with Brendan Bialy and Joshua Jones, Kendrick saved the hopes and dreams of his classmates, even as he gave up his own.

Just 1 week earlier, 21-year-old Riley Howell was killed as he, too, charged a gunman inside his classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Riley yelled to his classmates, ``Go, go, go,'' as he body-slammed his killer to end the shooting that killed one student and wounded four more.

Kendrick and Riley are heroes for giving up their dreams.

But we shouldn't be demanding such profound sacrifices from American students. Instead, we must demand basic decency from this Congress. This House has passed historic gun safety legislation.

Madam Speaker, how many more of these heroes will we need? How many more lives lost before the Senate finally acts to help save lives?

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and congratulate ten exemplary men and women from Broward County who will be inducted to the Broward Senior Hall of Fame this week.

Each year, the Aging & Disability Resource Center of Broward County honors elder excellence in the volunteer sector of Broward County. These outstanding citizens are individuals from all walks of life who have contributed greatly to the vibrancy and well-being of South Florida. They are engaged in distinguished volunteer service that benefit our communities and make Broward County the outstanding place that it is to live, raise a family, and retire.

The ten distinguished electees are Barbara ``Bobbi'' Arnold of Hollywood, Beauregard Cummings of Ft. Lauderdale, Gail Gannotta of Pompano Beach, Ruby Hutson of Lauderdale Lakes, Jean Merget of Ft. Lauderdale, Art Schmall of Margate, Florie Scott of Lauderdale Lakes, Carl Shechter of Pembroke Pines, Harold Smith of Davie, and Aline Zucker of Cooper City.

Again, congratulations to these outstanding individuals. I wish them the best of luck with their induction and continued service to Broward County. It is with great pleasure that I honor them, and I look forward to hearing of their continued service activities.

Madam Speaker, I am honored to rise today in recognition of the lives and service of two outstanding individuals: my constituents, Roy Trachtenberg and Walter ``Skip'' Campbell.

Skip Campbell was known as a monumental warrior for justice who made a significant mark on the world. Skip served his community in the Florida Senate from 1996 to 2006, before his election as Mayor of Coral Springs in 2014. His leadership was paramount in ensuring the success and wellbeing of our community.

A South Florida native, Roy Trachtenberg served as an administrator in the New York School system, where he devoted 35 years to helping students succeed. He moved back to Florida where he served as the Dean of Education for a community college trade school, where he developed a curriculum to upgrade the skills of workers displaced due to the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Through their public service, each honoree has touched countless lives and made a lasting impact on our South Florida community. In recognition of this service, the Coral Spring/Parkland Democratic Club have honored their memories by designating their annual service and leadership awards as the Roy Trachtenberg Service Award and the Skip Campbell Leadership Award.

Skip and Roy are truly deserving of this honor. I am glad to see their legacies of service preserved and used as a paradigm for those who follow them.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of the twenty-two outstanding teachers in South Florida who have been awarded the Teacher of the Year award from the Rotary Club of Boca Raton Sunrise.

For the past 33 years, the Rotary Club of Boca Raton Sunrise has offered this annual distinction to one teacher at each of the twenty- two schools in the greater Boca Raton area. Each awardee is selected by the school's principal. These teachers have dedicated their time to inspiring, empowering, and bettering the next generation of youth in our community. Their passion in this effort is truly worthy of our recognition.

These twenty-two exemplary teachers have made a profound impact on their students through their caring, commitment, and professionalism. They are a cohort defined by integrity, excellence, and the highest marks in all they do. The City of Boca Raton is fortunate to have such outstanding faculty.

Congratulations to Jennifer O'Sullivan, James Wade, Theo Wiles, Mary Donnelly, Sarah Call, Scott Johnson, Mary Cavaioi, Laurel Cash, Mary Giddings, Sunshine Grunstein, Kimberly Attias, Scott Fontaine, Susan Kinderman, Richard Andreacchio, Bogdan Paraschivoiu, Kathleen Kaminsky, Kevin McEnroe, Joann Tatham, Anna Lombado, Catrina D'Annunzio, Jennifer Napuli, and Melissa Romero on being nominated for this year's teacher of the year award.

I am pleased to honor them, and I thank them for their continued service.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my constituent, Barbara Markley, and congratulate her on receiving the League of Women Voters of Broward County's 2019 Excellence in Leadership Award. Barbara is well-deserving of this recognition for her efforts to reduce firearm deaths throughout Broward County, Florida.

Barbara Markley is a practicing attorney and gun safety advocate. She is the Co-Chair of the Gun Safety Committee for the League of Women Voters of Broward. Her innovative Lock it Up! Gun Safety Program, created in partnership with the Miami VA, has distributed 23,000 educational brochures and 11,200 gun locks in Broward in just 6 months with the help of 180 community partners. Her goal is to educate everyone about the dangers of unlocked guns and to save lives.

With our unacceptably high rates of gun thefts and teen and veteran suicides, there is no doubt that Barbara's efforts have already achieved that goal. While it has already seen great success in Broward, Lock It Up! has tremendous potential to save countless more lives as it grows across Florida and beyond.

I am pleased to honor Barbara, and I thank her for her service to our community.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the National Federation of Public and Private Employees (FOPE) as it celebrates 25 years of fighting for American workers.

The National Federation of Public and Private Employees represents over 15,000 public sector employees in Florida who work for our colleges and universities, our counties and municipalities, and our school board and law enforcement agencies. Additionally, FOPE represents numerous private sector employees across the United States in the fields of aerospace, automotive, forestry, and parking and transportation.

The right to collective bargaining is vital for strong labor and safety standards. Since passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, employees have had the right to organize and determine whether they wish to have unions to represent them. As a result of this organizing, union members earn 28% more in yearly wages, are more likely to have employer provided health insurance, and enjoy more secure pension benefits than their counterparts.

Madam Speaker, the benefits of FOPE' s efforts reach far beyond its membership, improving the working conditions and compensation of workers across the board. For this, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating and thanking FOPE and its current President, Dan Reynolds, on their 25 years of service to workers in my district and across the country.