Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the proceedings had during the recess be printed in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 524) to amend the Coastal Barrier Resources Act to create an exemption for certain shoreline borrow sites, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 524, as amended, the bill now under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 524, sponsored by my colleague Congressman Rouzer of North Carolina. This bill amends the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, or CBRA, to ensure coastal communities have access to the resources they need to renourish their beaches, protect public safety, and strengthen their local economies.

This bill would amend CBRA to ensure communities that have been using sites located within the CBRA's system as a source of sand to renourish beaches in response to an emergency between December 31, 2008, and December 31, 2023, will be allowed to continue doing so.

Without it, communities like Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, in Mr. Rouzer's district, which has been using the same site for the last 60 years to renourish its beach, would be left with few realistic and cost-effective options to carry out their necessary projects, which serve as a critical tool in protecting vulnerable communities.

As we heard from the mayor of Wrightsville Beach at the hearing on this bill, enacting H.R. 524 would enable both the Federal Government and local governments to achieve the primary goals of CBRA at a lower cost to taxpayers by avoiding the necessity to complete beach nourishment using sand from offshore sites.

For example, the most recent completed beach nourishment event took place in 2018 at a cost of $11.9 million. If Wrightsville Beach is forced to utilize an offshore borrow site, costs could exceed $25 million for the same project.

This is a commonsense bill that protects coastal communities while accomplishing the goals of CBRA.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Rouzer).

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

Mr. Speaker, America is blessed with pristine coastlines that are both vital ecosystems and vital economic engines. CBRA is an important safeguard that helps us as a Nation balance these two important factors. H.R. 524 furthers this ideal by ensuring that local communities who rely on beach renourishment projects to protect their citizens and their beaches can responsibly continue to do so.

I thank Congressman Rouzer, once again, for his leadership on this legislation. I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2560) to require the Secretary of Commerce to establish the Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance Grant Program, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 2560, as amended, the bill now under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, Representative Keating's bill would establish a Federal grant program for the recovery, care, and treatment of stranded sea turtles in the United States.

All six turtle species found in U.S. waters are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. According to the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, their partners cared for more than 2,000 sea turtles over the last 2 years. H.R. 2560 will build on the network of these organizations and further support sea turtles.

At our full committee markup of this bill last October, an amendment in the nature of a substitute was offered by Representative Luna of Florida to incorporate feedback from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to include rehabilitation as an intent of the legislation. In addition, to ensure its compliance with floor protocols, the ANS ensured the program would be funded through NOAA's general authorities.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Keating and my colleagues across the aisle for working with us to amend this bill to address the concerns of some of our Members, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no requests for time and am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Sea turtles are an iconic species that capture the hearts and minds of many. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, due to the hard work of organizations such as the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, the National Aquarium, and others, more than 2,000 sea turtles have been rescued and rehabilitated over the last 2 years.

H.R. 2560 will complement the great work of these organizations. I again thank Mr. Keating, Mrs. Luna, and my colleagues on the committee for their collaborative work on this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of the Laken Riley Act.

First, I want to express sincere condolences from everyone in the Seventh Congressional District to Laken Riley's family.

Then-candidate Biden promised in 2020 that we would have open borders, and we have seen the devastating consequences, and it is happening all over the country.

In January, a father of three daughters was killed by an illegal alien in my congressional district in northern Wisconsin. Once again, this illegal alien should have been deported by ICE agents when he was first convicted of drunk driving in 2023. Once again, the Biden administration chose not to deport him.

Sadly, Mr. Speaker, this is hardly a surprise. In fact, in 2020, Joe Biden himself declared, I don't count drunk driving, when asked what crimes should merit the removal of illegal aliens. He is not alone.

As we all know, just a few short weeks ago, 150 Democrats in this Chamber voted against legislation to deport criminal aliens convicted of drunk driving. Mr. Speaker, the sad truth is that both Laken Riley and Steven Nasholm's deaths were preventable.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the 12 young athletes from across the Seventh District of Wisconsin who brought home individual State wrestling championship titles for 2024.

Liam Neitzel, Owen Wasley, Colton Hush, Gage Losiewicz, Wyatt Ingham, Ian Smith, Koy Hopke, Wyatt Unser, Dawson Johnson, Matthew Roach, Ava Gardner, and Madison Burns left it all on the mat to bring home State championship titles.

A special shout-out to Dawson Johnson of Cumberland High School and Koy Hopke of Amery High School on becoming four-time State champions-- being only 2 of 29 ever to do this in Wisconsin.

Again, I congratulate all of these athletes.

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

Mr. Chair, first of all, merry Christmas.

My bipartisan amendment prevents the USDA from issuing any rule that bans any of the milk covered in this bill, including chocolate milk. This would ensure that all types and flavors of milk are available to schoolchildren and not subject to bureaucratic rulemaking.

Some may ask why are we focusing on this issue. Unfortunately, it is because the USDA has set its sights on getting rid of chocolate milk in schools. It is now up to us to act.

This summer, it was reported that the Department of Agriculture is considering a ban on chocolate milk in elementary and middle schools. USDA issued a proposed rule that would set a new nutrition standard for school meals. These new standards could limit the availability of flavored milk, like chocolate and strawberry, in high schools while children in elementary and middle schools would have no access at all.

For those of you with young children or grandchildren, go and ask them what they think about USDA's new rule. I think I can speak for most folks when saying that when I was young, chocolate milk was usually the highlight of having lunch at school, but this new rule would mean that roughly 30 million students who participate in the USDA's school meal programs would no longer be able to have chocolate milk, or any flavored milk for that matter.

According to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, removing flavored milk from schools resulted in a 62 to 63 percent reduction in milk consumption by kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, including a 50 percent reduction in sixth through eighth grades.

Milk is full of rich nutrients that support bone growth and development, and millions of children enjoy drinking it. We should not allow rules that would limit our children's access to delicious and nutritious products like milk and its varieties covered in this great bill.

Mr. Chair, I say to the USDA, come and take it.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bipartisan amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, oh, those experts, those experts have done us so well in the United States of America. Why are we $33 trillion in debt? Why do we have childhood obesity that is off the charts at this

point?

Oh, those experts serve us so well, those experts that told us that butter is not good for us. Remember that a number of decades ago? Growing up on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin, I couldn't believe the experts were telling us that butter is not good for us. Well, all of a sudden, they are changing their tune on that.

They told us that we shouldn't possibly drink whole milk. They are beginning to turn on that also and saying maybe that is good for our children.

Yeah, the experts, they have done us so well.

The reason I bring this before the House of Representatives is I did listen to experts, those people who run the school lunch programs.

I will never forget a day about a decade ago when I stopped at a local gas station in northern Wisconsin, and a school lunch director came up to me--I didn't even know her--she said, at that time, Senator Tiffany, would you tell the Federal Government to get out of our school lunch program? We are throwing away so much food.

Remember Michelle Obama's school lunch dictates that she put in place? The school lunch director said, Don't do that to us. I had multiple school lunch directors across northern Wisconsin, in my district, asking the Federal Government to stay out of their school lunch programs: We know what we are doing, we are trained in what we are doing, and we see what happens in our schools.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate all the young athletes from Wisconsin's Seventh District that took home a State championship title this fall sports season.

These winners include: Nora Gremban from Northland Pines High School in Eagle River; Autumn Michalski of Chequamegon High School for girls' cross country; the Rhinelander Hodags girls' swim and dive team; the St. Croix Falls Saints girls' volleyball team; and the Edgar, Florence, Stratford, and Rice Lake football teams.

Congratulations to each and every one of these State champions.

Madam Speaker, let us all wish them the best of luck in their future seasons.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this legislation, which would prohibit the housing of illegal immigrants on Federal lands. I only wish it was not necessary.

Unfortunately, thanks to the open borders policies of the Biden administration, America's public lands are now in danger of being converted into public flophouses for foreign migrants. Here we are.

In an effort to house the exploding number of foreigners illegally flooding into our country, the Biden administration is already allowing the construction of an encampment at the Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn's Gateway National Recreation Area.

They even waived NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, to permit it. You do not see any of the environmental groups raising a ruckus like they normally do when productive companies in the United States of America want to do something with natural resources. Where is the Sierra Club? Where is the National Resources Defense Council? Where is the Center For Biological Diversity when NEPA is being flouted once again?

What is next? Illegal alien Bidenvilles on The National Mall here right in Washington, D.C.? Makeshift migrant towns on the rim of the Grand Canyon? Maybe they are going to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in my district to build encampments there on Lake Superior.

As the President is fond of saying, this is no joke, folks.

For decades, we have worked together across party lines to protect our iconic national parks, pristine wildlife refuges, and resource-rich national forests and rangelands. We have done so to conserve these areas for the wise use and future enjoyment of the American people.

We can do that again by passing this bill and ensuring that the public lands we all cherish are not transformed into squatting grounds for a never-ending stampede of migrants.

I will close with this. On January 20, 2021, the first day that President Biden was in office, he closed down energy independence in America by shutting down the Keystone pipeline, and he opened up the pipeline down to Panama to be able to bring millions of illegal immigrants into America.

It is amazing to me to watch my colleagues on the other side of the aisle as they twist themselves into pretzels as we advance bill after bill, including the Floyd Bennett bill here, and they are in complete denial. ``Hey, America, everything is just fine.'' It is not.

Mr. Chair, I support this bill, and I urge a ``yes'' vote.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment would prevent the enforcement of several arbitrary, self-imposed State Department restrictions that limit communication and cooperation between U.S. officials and their counterparts in Taiwan.

This amendment is similar to one that was adopted earlier in the Department of Defense appropriations bill. As I discussed then, these restrictions are not required by any provision of law and have been put in place at the behest of Communist China.

They make it difficult for senior U.S. officials to travel to Taiwan and to interact with their Taiwanese counterparts. In essence, these guidelines are designed to prevent and limit high-level, bilateral cooperation.

Not only does this make little sense, it is in direct conflict with existing laws that call for expanding such cooperation, such as the Taiwan Travel Act.

Mr. Chair, a State Department memorandum should never trump the laws we pass in this body or outsource American foreign policy to the CCP.

My amendment will make sure that neither of those things happen by scrapping these restrictive guidelines. I ask for a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, why do we allow the State Department through a bureaucratic memo to impose these unnecessary and counterproductive limits on communication and cooperation with Taiwan?

We don't have rules like this in place for the totalitarian rulers of Cuba or Russia, both of whom operate embassies just a few miles away from where we are standing right now.

We don't have rules like this for our interaction with Iran. John Kerry has

met on several occasions with high-ranking Iranian officials, and the White House just paid a $6 billion hostage ransom to the ayatollah.

We don't have rules like this for U.S. interaction with Communist China. Biden administration officials continue to sit down at the table with the same CCP officials who our own Secretary of State has accused of committing genocide.

Yet, we continue to enforce these degrading conditions on Taiwan, a longtime friend and fellow democracy.

Mr. Chair, as the old Sesame Street song goes, ``One of these things is not like the other.''

It is time to stop treating our friends like enemies and our enemies like friends.

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

Mr. Chair, here is part of the memo that I read last night from the State Department:

You should not refer to Taiwan as a country or to the

authorities of Taiwan as a government, instead, refer to

Taiwan authorities or Taiwan counterparts.

That is the kind of thing that is happening in our State Department and it projects weakness to countries across the world, in particular, our adversaries, when we need a foreign policy that is strong, we are not receiving it now. That is why this amendment should be passed.

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

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment would prohibit the Department of Defense from creating, procuring, or displaying any map which depicts Taiwan as part of the territory of the People's Republic of China.

This should not be a problem since all of us know that Taiwan is not, nor has it ever been, part of Communist China. Any claims to the contrary are simply false.

Since the 1970s, America's so-called One China policy has acknowledged Beijing's bogus claims over Taiwan. This is an antiquated and dishonest policy, and it is one that we should abandon.

While my amendment will not end that misguided policy, it will at least require that the maps that we use reflect a simple reality: China is China; Taiwan is Taiwan.

Mr. Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on my honest maps amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I am stunned. This is the type of appeasement that gets the world in trouble. We have a long history of this, and our country is very familiar with it, going back to probably the most classic example that is taught in our history books from the 1930s, where there isn't this clear demarcation, where you do not have definitive language, like President Reagan when he said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.''

There are times when you have to be very clear with your adversaries about where you stand. This is one of them in regard to Taiwan because Communist China would like to take over that island nation, an island nation that they never controlled. It was never under their control.

We can appease, and we will continue to see dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sorties being flown over Taiwan as aggression comes from that appeasement.

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

Mr. Chair, I will take the point in good faith from the gentlewoman on the other side. If you have a good instructor, they can clearly explain how China views the world. If you have a good instructor in the Department of Defense, perhaps in the military college, they can explain very clearly how China views the world. This does not preclude that in any way, but when we make a trip like I did recently with the Natural Resources Committee, and we have a map that is put before us that shows Taiwan as part of Communist China, that is just simply not the truth. That is what we were getting at.

I think this legislation is going to have strong bipartisan support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment would prevent the enforcement of several arbitrary State Department restrictions that limit communication and cooperation between U.S. officials and their counterparts in Taiwan.

These restrictions, which are imposed at the behest of Communist China, are not only counterproductive, but they actually conflict with existing U.S. law. They prevent high-ranking officials from traveling to Taiwan, which makes it more difficult for us to coordinate with military planners in Taipei.

They police language, warning American officials not to refer to Taiwan as a country or its elected leaders as a government. They even impose degrading restrictions that serve no reasonable purpose, such as a ban on displaying Taiwan's flag and the playing of Taiwan's national anthem at functions held on U.S. Government property. In essence, they are designed to prevent and limit high-level interaction between U.S. and Taiwanese officials.

Despite the fact that it has been official U.S. policy since 2018 to encourage and facilitate them, Mr. Chair, these rules do not help the United States and do not help Taiwan. The only country they help is Communist China.

These Taiwan rules, like so many elements of our failed One China policy, simply perpetuate Beijing's lies and reward their bad behavior. America does not need a permission slip from Communist China to talk to our friends and allies, and that policy should end today.

Mr. Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, America has always done best in regard to foreign policy when we are strong and resolute. This is anything but strong and resolute.

Let me read to you from an unclassified document from the State Department: You should not refer to Taiwan as a country or to the authorities on Taiwan as a government. Instead, refer to Taiwan authorities or Taiwan counterparts. Please avoid the public display or use of any ROC symbols of sovereignty. Taiwan authorities should not wear their uniforms on U.S. Government premises unless necessary for safety reasons.

In other words, in effect, you are almost saying to them we need you to grovel. You are second-class citizens when you are interacting with the United States of America.

We should never treat a friend like that, in particular a friend like Taiwan where you see the Communist Chinese Government is working day after day and have been successful in some places, like the Solomon Islands in Central America, where they have undermined support for Taiwan.

We should be standing resolutely with Taiwan and send a very clear message. When we send a clear message to Communist China, it is important for them to hear that, but our partners, our allies around the world, also see that clear message and are more likely to be resolute, also.

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

Mr. Chair, if there is a point of order that is being raised here, my amendment does not change any existing law or require any new duty or determination on the part of any employee of the Department of Homeland Security. It simply prohibits the expenditure of funds in contravention of a longstanding existing law, which the Department ought to comply with already.

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

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, my amendment would prevent State and local governments who refuse to cooperate with Federal immigration authorities from being able to obtain Federal funds under this Act.

These so-called sanctuary city policies are nothing new. They are also illegal. In fact, they have been illegal since Bill Clinton signed a law making them illegal in the 1990s.

As we have seen in recent months, these misguided policies serve as a magnet for illegal aliens--overwhelming schools, hospitals, and other local services.

New York Mayor Eric Adams recently conceded that the tidal wave of illegal immigrants flooding into his sanctuary city will cost Big Apple residents a staggering $12 billion. He went on to say the influx will destroy his city.

But there is more to this issue than dollars and cents. Because these policies prevent local law enforcement from reporting illegal aliens to ICE, police are often forced to release foreign criminals from custody who, of course, go on to target new victims. That doesn't just put sanctuary cities at risk, it puts every other neighboring community at risk, too.

Madam Chair, why are Americans being forced to finance the dangerous and illegal policies of sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago?

Why are we being asked to pick up the tab for the problems these jurisdictions are bringing upon themselves?

It is time to stop rewarding bad behavior.

If you make an affirmative decision to violate Federal law, then you should be prepared to forego Federal funds.

Madam Chair, I ask for a ``yes'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I would just conclude by saying, let's take New York City as an example. In the Natural Resources Committee today we had a hearing in regards to a national park in New York that is now being used as an encampment for illegal aliens. What is next?

Is it Yosemite next? Is it Yellowstone next? Is it the national seashore that is in my district, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Where next will they do this?

Plus, they ignore the NEPA process, something that the other side talks constantly about--we must follow the NEPA process. They are gutting it.

It shows what the goals of the Biden administration are. It is the- ends-that-justify-the-means mentality. They will do anything to continue the invasion of our country.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chair, my bipartisan amendment ensures that none of the funds made available by this bill will go toward funding a rule that will ban flavored milk, like chocolate milk, in schools.

This would ensure that all types and flavors of milk are available to schoolchildren.

This summer it was reported that the USDA is considering banning chocolate milk from elementary and middle schools.

USDA issued a proposed rule in February that would set new nutrition standards for school meals. If implemented, the new standards proposed could limit the amount of flavored milk, like chocolate and strawberry, in high schools while children in elementary and middle schools would be restricted to a variety of unflavored milk. This rule would affect roughly 30 million students who participate in the school meal programs.

According to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, removing flavored milk from schools resulted in a 62 to 63 percent reduction in milk consumption by kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as a 50 percent reduction in sixth through eighth grades.

Milk is full of rich nutrients that support bone growth and development, and millions of children enjoy drinking it.

We should not be funding rules that would limit our children's access to delicious and nutritious products like milk.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bipartisan amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden), my friend and neighbor in the Third Congressional District.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

Mr. Chair, in many ways, this may be the least of the amendments that you will hear tonight, but it is actually, I would say, the most of the amendments.

Here is the reason why: When you have a Federal Government that believes that they need to regulate the milk that is served in our kids' schools across America, you have a Federal Government that is out of control.

We have become a borderless country. When our Federal Government has become perhaps the largest human trafficking operation in the history of the world, when you have a Federal Government that will not take us back to energy independence, where gasoline is now back up to $4 a gallon where I live in northern Wisconsin, where you have a Federal Government that has fueled inflation like we haven't seen for 40 years, what in the world are they doing? What in the world are they doing trying to regulate what milk is served in our kids' schools?

That is why we are here tonight and trying to pass these amendments. They get America back to a place of fiscal responsibility but also sanity from what we have seen over the last couple of years with this profligate spending that is going on.

Finally, I will say that I come from America's Dairyland, and you are damn right that I am going to fight for milk in our kids' schools.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for his support throughout the process in regard to this bill.

There is very little that I can add to what the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee has laid out in his opening remarks in regard to the need for the ACRES Act. One of the few things I can add is a picture.

The picture to my right here shows the need for this bill. When the amount of acres that are being treated are not counted accurately, we end up with a situation where those acres that should be treated don't get treated. This is the Grizzly Flats fire a couple years ago that wiped out that community. The Forest Service knew that it was time that these treatments needed to be put in place, and they weren't, and a community was destroyed out in the great State of California.

This bill will bring transparency to the misleading and inaccurate way hazardous fuels treatments are reported. Decades of mismanagement of our Federal lands have left our forests overstocked and created tinderbox conditions.

We have long known the reported pace and scale of forest management has been insufficient to truly address our forest health crisis. There is a better way to manage our public lands, and that starts with holding our Federal land management agencies accountable by requiring accurate reporting on the effectiveness of their work in fuel reduction.

According to troubling reports, the situation is even worse than we have been led to believe, as agencies have

been overstating their treatments by over 20 percent.

Accurate reporting is necessary to broadly track the progress made on our larger wildfire mitigation targets, as well as individual projects.

The ACRES Act is a simple solution to hold our Federal agencies accountable to see the actual work they are doing to reduce the enormous risk of wildfire.

American taxpayers deserve to know they are getting what they paid for. This bill is one of the steps needed to help ensure that happens.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Alicia Monson of Amery, Wisconsin, on breaking the American record in the 5,000 meters this past weekend. She ran 5,000 meters in 14 minutes and 19.45 seconds, beating the previous record by 4.47 seconds.

This is not the only record she has set this year. In February, she broke the North American indoor record in the 3,000 meters, and in March she set a new North American 10,000 meters record.

Alicia has been representing Wisconsin's Seventh District since she was in high school running cross country and track. She went on to become one of the top runners for the University of Wisconsin--Madison before becoming an Olympian in 2021.

Mr. Speaker, I can't wait to see what record she breaks next. Keep making Wisconsin proud, Alicia.