Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman so much for having us here tonight. Based upon what he was just talking about, I am going to talk about my father first. I am a first-generation American.

My father was brought to the United States by his mother when he was 4 years old. His father was already here. He came from Italy. His father was already here working. He had joined the U.S. Army during World War I and got his citizenship because of that, and my father was naturalized as a citizen because of that. He was the first one in the neighborhood to go to college, and he then fought in World War II and got the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters as a navigator on a B-24.

He came back after the war, and he went to Harvard Law School on the GI Bill. Imagine that, an Italian immigrant going to Harvard Law School on the GI Bill in the 1940s.

He was discriminated against as an Italian American at the time--the gentleman was just talking about that--and he couldn't get a job at a big law firm. So he went back to our hometown of Glen Cove, Long Island. He teamed up with another Italian guy. He started a law practice. He ended up running for city court judge, and he became the youngest judge in the history of New York State, at 28 years old.

My father really lived a great American success story. He was a man who would proudly say ``what a country'' all the time.

My father died 2 weeks before my election in 2016. As I went through his papers, I saw his yearbook from St. Dominic High School, when he was 18 years old. They asked all the students: What's your goal in life? Most people would talk about I want to become a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer, or I want to do some sort of exotic travel. My father wrote: ``My goal is to be a real American.''

Now, I had seen that when I was a kid, and I thought: Boy, I can't believe how patriotic my father was as an 18-year-old.

But he died in 2016, in the middle of the Presidential campaign. A lot of the rhetoric that we are hearing now was really hot then as well. I realize that my father was 18 years old in 1939 and Mussolini had teamed up with Hitler, and Italian Americans here in the United States of America were viewed as fascists or mafioso, and that discrimination was rife.

But the good people of this country and people in this body and people like my father held on to the basic, fundamental concepts of what makes America work. What makes America great are these basic, fundamental ideas.

So, in dealing with the question of DACA and with immigration, we have to look at some basic, fundamental American concepts. Let's first remember that all immigrants, whether they are documented or undocumented, are human beings and are entitled to be treated with human respect and dignity.

The most fundamental concept in America is that all men and women are created equal--not all men and women with a green card are created equal, not all men and women who are citizens are created equal, not all men and women from a particular country are created equal. All human beings are equal and should be treated with human respect and dignity.

I am concerned that the rhetoric that we are facing right now, that the negativity that we are facing right now, that the uncertainty that we are facing right now, that the outright assaults that we are facing in some cases right now are causing so much anxiety in our country, and it is diminishing our status as a beacon of hope to the world.

That is the great thing about America. That is what makes America great is that we are a beacon of hope to the world. That beacon is being diminished by the rhetoric and by our failure to address this immigration crisis.

This is not a new phenomenon. This started in the 1980s when death squads and civil wars and abject poverty

forced people to flee from El Salvador over the border into the United States by the tens of thousands. Starting with President Reagan, through President Bush and President Clinton and on, we haven't enforced our borders for that entire time, and now 11 million people in this country are suffering with this uncertainty because we failed to enforce our borders.

I am all for securing our borders, but let's return to being a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, and let's stop the suffering and the anxiety as we push people underground and we treat them as nonhuman beings, entitled to human respect and human dignity.

I believe that this is the greatest country on Earth, and I believe that my dad knew that. He also knew that a central part of our being the greatest country on Earth is being that beacon of hope to so many people, that said to the tired and the poor yearning to breathe free: Come to our shores.

If we really want to make America great again, we have to reclaim that mantle of being that beacon of hope.

I agree with all the wise comments that have been made by my colleagues here today that the votes do exist in this House to resolve this issue if we could get a bill put on the floor. There are so many groups, so many Democrats, so many Republicans meeting throughout this town on a regular basis to try to find a compromise to solve this problem--Democrats and Republicans--but because there is nothing on the floor, we can't get the votes presented in a public way. If it was put on the floor, it would pass. We would have DACA. We would have the Dream Act. We would have solutions to border security.

We need to recognize that we are all in this together, and we need to rise up to the challenge to be the beacon of hope that we once were and still should be to the world.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Castro for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Mr. Speaker, I want bring up one thing I forgot to mention.

I was the young mayor of the city of Glen Cove in 1994, and we had day workers from Central and South America gathering on the street corners seeking work. The community was divided. This was 1994. Just think how long ago this is now, 23 years ago.

One group saying: Get those people out of here. And other people saying: These poor guys are trying to live the American Dream the same as your family did.

I ended up setting up the first day-worker gathering spot anywhere on the East Coast of the United States of America in 1994. It was one of the first things I did as mayor. We ended up bringing them indoors. If you didn't get hired for the day, you could learn a skill, you could learn to speak English, you could learn about the cultural norms of our community. We said: If you play by the rules, we are going to help you. If you break the rules, you are going to get in trouble.

The same guys that were on the street corners now have their own businesses, they own their own homes, and their children go to school with my children. That is the American Dream.

We have so much potential in this country if we could unleash it for people who want to work 6 days a week and go to church on Sunday, if only we could remove this anxiety and this threat that we are pushing people underground and forcing them into an underground economy and underground communities. If only we could lift this back up again, we could accomplish so much.

Think about it. You are a kid going to school, you are worried about taking tests. You are working every day, you are worried about your job. You are worried somebody is sick in your family. You are worried you don't have enough money to pay your bills. The normal concerns of life. Heap on top of that a national debate that is treating you as a pariah and creating such anxiety to rip families apart. Think about how challenging that must be for those individuals, those families that are facing that type of threat.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, the people live like paupers while the mullahs live like gods.

For weeks, tens of thousands of brave Iranians have courageously stood up in over 70 cities and chanted: ``The people live like paupers while the mullahs live like gods.''

They challenge their failed government. They have done so in the face of violent repression, imprisonment, torture, and even death.

Why?

They are fed up. They are fed up with poverty and unemployment; fed up with economic depravation and rampant corruption; fed up with an oppressive theocratic regime that mismanages their own country, mistreats its own people, and spends billions of dollars sowing the seeds of war and funding terrorists while its people suffer.

Ayatollahs recklessly pursued nuclear weapons instead of creating jobs and building infrastructure for their own people. The regime's apologists have long argued that these policies are popular and they give Iranians a national sense of pride, restoring their place as a regional power.

A regional power?

It is more like regional thugs.

In Iraq, Iranian-backed militias have executed and beat civilians, looted homes, and destroyed people's lives. In

Lebanon, Iranian-backed Hezbollah aims tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli citizens. Syria backs Bashar al-Assad's vicious regime. Iran sends weapons and money to militants in Yemen, Bahrain, and Gaza. It has become the biggest purveyor of mayhem in the Middle East, pouring billions of dollars into nefarious activities while their own people are impoverished.

Today, I rise with my colleagues to support the Iranian protesters and the bipartisan H. Res. 676. The United States and our allies should use the menu of sanctions available to us to target human rights violators and the Ayatollah's thugs who forcefully repress their fellow citizens.

We must ensure the protesters have access to social media, and we must let them know that we support them. Ayatollahs must know that the free world is watching.

The people live like paupers while the mullahs live like gods. The time has come for the people to rise up and change it.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present today, December 21, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yes'' on rollcall votes No. 706 and No. 707, and ``No'' on rollcall votes No. 704 and No. 705.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present today, December 21, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yes'' on rollcall votes No. 709 and No. 710, and ``No'' on rollcall vote No. 708.

Personal Explanation

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Garamendi for bringing this Special Order to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I am here to point out the unfairness of the Republican- led bill for tax reform, as they claim, that would be devastating to New York's middle class families.

I want the people at home to know that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have said:

``This proposal appears to be the first Federal income tax modification in American history that will raise income taxes on the working poor while simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy.''

Mr. Speaker, this bill is flawed and unfair on many levels. One thing I have learned since taking office back in January, here in this Congress, is how very different the regions of this country are. It is different from State to State and it is different from place to place. The amount of money that people make in different regions is different. Their cost of living is different, their property tax bills are different, and their State income taxes are as different as night and day.

There are now 105 million full-time jobs in the United States of America. Fifty-nine million of those jobs pay less than $50,000 a year. Eighty-six million of those 105 million full-time jobs pay less than $75,000 per year. In my district, the average salary is actually higher than that, but so are their property taxes, so are their income taxes, and so is there cost of living.

While this bill could be a net positive for some Americans in many regions--in my region and in many other regions, and in my State and my district specifically--this bill is a huge net negative for middle class families.

One particularly devastating element of this proposal is the elimination of the State and local tax deduction that would be patently unfair to the over 250,000 hardworking families in my district that rely on that important deduction. New Yorkers claim the State tax deduction more than just about any other State. In my district, we have more people in the State than any other place that claim the State and local tax deduction. It is the top 10 of the Nation.

Let's look at the some of the specifics of what actually happens in my district:

People making between $50,000 and $75,000 in my hometown of Glen Cove will see a 39 percent tax increase. In my hometown of Glen Cove, a family that makes between $100,000 and $200,000 will pay, roughly, $2,100 more in taxes under this plan.

In Huntington, every single family making over $50,000 a year will see a tax increase. Every family in Huntington making between $50,000 and $75,000 a year will see--get this--a 135 percent increase on what they currently pay. Every family making between $100,000 and $200,000 a year will see a $3,000 tax increase.

In Whitestone, every individual tax filer making $50,000 or more will see a tax increase, regardless of their income.

Mr. Speaker, the evidence is crystal clear for people in my district and in many places throughout this country.

This tax reform plan, as it is called, is a punch in the gut to middle class taxpayers. These are hardworking people who deserve to be lifted up, not slapped down, by draconian tax increases that offset tax cuts going to the superrich.

How could anyone support a bill that targets our middle class in such a way is unfathomable. When I was elected to Congress, I came here ready and willing to work--and I still stand ready and willing to work--across party lines to get things done, even tax reform. I want to see tax reform in this country, but I can't compromise my values. I can't let down the families in my district who are going to be hurt by this plan.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to try to do what is right: protect the hardworking Americans--the hardworking New Yorkers--who play by the rules and ask for very little in return by voting against this ill-conceived legislation, and protect the State and local tax deduction for our middle class.

Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out that in the State of New York, there are many Republicans who have come out against this tax bill because of the fact that it will hurt so many middle class families.

Eliminating the State and local tax deduction is completely and patently unfair. This State and local tax deduction has been in place for over 100 years. Why should someone pay taxes on taxes they have already paid to their State and local governments?

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to point out, in the State of New York, we send $48 billion a year more to the Federal Government than we get back from the Federal Government. We are the largest net donor in America to the Federal Government.

We are contributing this money to subsidize many programs that our colleagues don't want to support, but we are also supporting their States. Many of the blue States in America, quite frankly, are huge net donors to the Federal Government, and many of the red States are huge net takers from the Federal Government. This is just another slap in the face to States like ours.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleague, Mr. Lipinski, for pulling this effort together this evening.

Mr. Speaker, climate change is real, and I applaud my colleagues on the Climate Solutions Caucus for working together in a bipartisan effort to try and find common ground and to seek to work together to pass legislation to address this very real threat.

I believe the greatest opportunity we have here is to include efforts to move our Nation toward a greener economy as part of a comprehensive infrastructure bill.

We must address climate change for three reasons: first, the Earth is part of the divine creation, and we have an obligation to preserve and protect our precious gift; second, moving toward a green economy that retrofits homes and buildings and installs solar and wind farms will create good jobs at good wages that simply cannot be exported; and, third, the main topic I wish to address this evening, is moving toward a green economy, reducing our dependency on foreign oil, and addressing climate change is essential to our national security.

Americans rarely talk about it and sometimes forget, but we supported Osama bin Laden against the Russians in Afghanistan. We supported Saddam Hussein in Iraq after we lost the Shah after the Iranian Revolution. We supported the Assads in Syria. And we still maintain a close relationship with the Saudis, despite their support for Wahhabism. Why? Because our national economic strategy and security has relied for decades on access to foreign oil.

Our meddling in local affairs to ensure the oil spigot flowed freely has sowed distrust across generations throughout the Middle East.

By moving towards a green economy and eliminating our dependence on foreign oil, we can clearly say to the Middle East: We never wanted your land, we never wanted your money, and now we don't need your oil. All we want is for people of the region to stop trying to kill each other. It will take some time, but moving towards an economy independent of foreign oil is the best way to get there.

In addition to eliminating our dependence on foreign oil, we must try to stall the rapid rise in extreme weather events, droughts, and desertification that is destabilizing huge swaths of the Middle East and Africa. The number of refugees in the world has grown from 35 million only 10 years ago to 65 million today. War and violence are exacerbated by the instability caused by climate change.

One of the most violent regions in the world today is Syria. The instability in Syria began with droughts that destroyed the livelihoods of the Syrian people that rely upon an economy which is 85 percent agrarian. When people lost their farms, they fled to the cities looking for work, but, of course, they could not find it. Then they looked to the Assad government, but, of course, were ignored. Fomented by the Arab Spring, they began to revolt. The result? The Syrian Government has killed almost a half million of its own people and millions more refugees. This story is being repeated throughout the region.

Although the people suffering are thousands of miles away from the United States, our national security is threatened by these failing states. The rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq is a prime example of the impact of failed states on Western security. Mass migrations by those seeking to alleviate suffering, millions seeking political and economic reforms place pressure on corrupt and incompetent governments that are unable to respond to the needs of a population seeking opportunity and hope.

Our enemies who wish to foment instability--Russia, Iran, North Korea, and violent terrorist factions--are aided by the effects of climate change and the instability it causes. We must do everything we can to stall the growth of this nefarious trend.

The good news is that there is a growing bipartisan consensus in the Climate Solutions Caucus and the armed services community that we must act. The Armed Services Committee in the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act acknowledged that ``climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States,'' and that ``the Department of Defense must ensure that it is prepared to conduct operations both today and in the future, and that it is prepared to address the effects of changing climate on threat assessments, resources, and readiness.''

Secretary of Defense Mattis has said, ``Climate change can be a driver of instability, and the Department of Defense must pay attention to the potential adverse impacts generated by this phenomenon.''

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford has said that climate change and rising sea levels pose serious long-term threats to the country. The number of natural disasters will increase in the coming years, along with ``the requirement for humanitarian assistance'' and the response required for the military for civilian disasters.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank again my colleagues for the work that they have done to try and bring the issue of climate change to the American people, and to try and find solutions to this very real problem that is not only affecting us here at home, but our national security throughout the world.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their bipartisan leadership and the model that they show all of us on this committee in the work that they do together, and for their mentorship as well.

I would also like to thank and applaud my colleague and friend, Mike Gallagher, for his leadership on this bill, and for working so closely to get this done. We are very grateful to him for his work here.

The Shields Act that I rise in support of right now will sanction Hezbollah members and their supporters for the use of human shields. It also seeks to punish the governments that enable such war crimes, including their primary supporter, Iran.

This summer, I visited Israel and I stood near Lebanon's southern border, not far from where Hezbollah threatens Israel's security. In the over 30 years since Hezbollah in 1983 killed hundreds of Americans when it bombed the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, they have become one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations, not only in Lebanon, but across the entire Middle East.

In 2006, it provoked a war with Israel by killing and kidnapping soldiers in cross-border raids, and then for nearly a month rained rockets down on Israel cities, killing dozens of civilians. Journalists and human rights groups found that it fired many of these rockets from populated areas, even from inside private homes and other civilian buildings.

That war ended more than a decade ago, but Hezbollah remains committed to Israel's destruction. It has spent millions to replenish its arsenal, which now includes up to 150,000 missiles scattered across southern Lebanon, much of it concealed in mosques, hospitals, schools, and homes where civilians are used as human shields.

Hezbollah has continued its provocative actions on the border between Lebanon and Israel. It has killed and wounded Israeli soldiers. It has threatened bombings of gas fields and chemical plants. It has tried to smuggle advanced weapons into Lebanon. It has built an expansive network of tunnels through civilian neighborhoods. The civilians caught in its destructive web of terror would have no safe haven if Hezbollah started a war.

Hezbollah has also expanded its nefarious activities regionally, most notably playing a major role in the Syrian civil war, deploying thousands of its own men to prop up Bashar al-Assad's vicious regime. Hezbollah members are fighting alongside a Syrian army that has killed almost half a million of its own people and driven millions more into exile.

In the process, it has trained for its next war with Israel. The Israeli intelligence official have said that the group has learned frightening skills in urban warfare from its years on the ground in Syria. It did all of this, of course, at the behest of its Iran patrons who continue threatening to rain warheads down into Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

From Iraq to Gaza, from Yemen to Bahrain, Iran's proxies have been at the center of the chaos consuming the Middle East. But Hezbollah remains Iran's oldest and deadliest proxy, and its actions in Syria deserve particular attention.

In town after town, Hezbollah's militants prevented civilians from fleeing the Assad regime artillery. Activists have accused the group of carrying out mass killings and torturing refugees and other civilians. Hezbollah is one of the main reasons Assad's murderous regime continues to stay in power in 2017. Hezbollah is not only a threat to the people beyond Lebanon's border, it is a threat to the Lebanese people. The U.N. has implicated Hezbollah in the assassination of a Lebanese Prime Minister. Its use of civilians as human shields endangers the Lebanese people every moment of every day.

I applaud the leadership and the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee for continuing to find ways to crack down on Hezbollah and Iran.

Today there are four suspension bills on the calendar: H.R. 1698, the Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act, which prevents Iran from undertaking any activity related to advancing their ballistic missiles program; H.R. 3329, Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2017, which restricts Hezbollah's ability to raise money and recruit for their nefarious activities; H. Res. 359, which urges our European allies to drop their false distinction between Hezbollah's political

wing and its military wing, and designate them in their entirety as a terrorist organization; and, finally, my and Mr. Gallagher's legislation, H.R. 3342, the Shields Act.

We must pass these four bills to continue to reduce the influence of a group and its primary backer, Iran, that have menaced their neighbors and their own people for far too long. By passing H.R. 3342, the bipartisan Shields Act, we will send a strong message that the United States of America will not stand for the use of innocent civilians as pawns in the destructive chess game of Iran's and Hezbollah's effort to destabilize the region and the West.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleague, Congressman Gallagher, for his leadership. I am proud to join him in this effort. I ask my colleagues for their support.

Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking Congresswoman Sinema and Congressman Murphy and all of my Democratic and Republican colleagues for trying to bring attention to this very important issue.

I also want to thank Secretary Shulkin, who has announced his Get to Zero initiative to try and address this problem of 20 veterans every day committing suicide in our country.

Just today, as on many days, I saw a veteran who had lost both of his legs. It is common here in Washington, D.C., but it is common throughout every city and every town throughout our country that we see more and more veterans who have injuries. After 16 years at war, there are more and more veterans in our country who have been disabled.

With 20 veterans committing suicide every day, we know, however, that there are many injuries that we cannot see, injuries that veterans carry around by themselves at home, alone, in the dark of night, with nothing but their pain.

As Congressman Murphy pointed out, 70 percent of the veterans of the 20 per day that commit suicide in our Nation--70 percent, 14 of the 20--do not have access to veterans benefits at the current time and do not utilize those services.

In fact, in our Nation today, there are 21 million veterans, approximately, and of those 21 million veterans, only 7 million have access to veterans benefits.

I have introduced a bipartisan bill, H.R. 2736, to suggest that what we need to do in our Nation is provide mental health benefits to every single veteran in our country, regardless of whether they were Active Duty, whether they were in the National Guard or in the Reserves, whether they were honorably discharged or less than honorably discharged. It is estimated that, since 2009, there have been 22,000 veterans with mental illnesses that have received other than honorable discharges. Arguably, most of those discharges were because of the same mental illness that they now carry around with them today.

Think of a veteran who is in crisis, a veteran who is contemplating suicide, a veteran who, as Congressman Murphy described, is at the end of their rope and feels that there is no help and the only way to escape their pain is to commit suicide. Think of that veteran who reaches out for help at the VA.

Could you imagine going through the bureaucracy to figure out whether or not you were even eligible for services if you weren't currently enrolled? You are seeking help, you are in the middle of a crisis, and you have got to fill out a form. You have got to determine whether or not you meet the criteria.

I am an attorney and a certified public accountant and a Member of the United States Congress. I read the requirements, and I couldn't figure them out. We need to make it much easier for anyone who has ever worn a uniform in any capacity whatsoever: in battles that we won, in battles that we lost, whether they were in combat or whether they worked on a truck, whether they were Active Duty, whether they were Reserve, whether they were in the National Guard. Every veteran should have access to mental health services during a crisis. We have to make it much simpler.

We heard a story tonight from Congressman Johnson, who talked about a veteran who was trying to get an appointment to get mental health services in the midst of a crisis, and the time was put off and put off and put off, and he finally got the appointment. And the Congressman was informed when he called the VA: Oh, we have good news; the appointment has been scheduled. The Congressman advised the VA that the veteran had already committed suicide.

So we have got a couple obligations, I believe. Number one is for those veterans who are currently utilizing VA services. We have to, as has been suggested by some of my colleagues, make sure we have the resources in place so that those veterans receive the services that they need on a timely basis, especially when they are in crisis, to make it as easy as possible for them to navigate the bureaucracy and get the help that they need.

Additionally, we need to make sure that those veterans who are not currently enrolled for veterans services and veterans benefits are made eligible for mental health services, certainly in crisis conditions, so that when someone reaches out to them, they are embraced with the loving arms of their country, as manifest in the VA, and they are brought in and cared for and helped to navigate through that crisis in their life.

There will be talk about how much it is going to cost. There will be a challenge as to whether or not we can afford to take care of these men and women who have served our country and are now facing this crisis in their life.

But I would guarantee you that any American in this country would say that we have to expend any cost for every veteran because there is no higher obligation in this Nation than taking care of the men and women who have worn our uniform, no greater obligation in this country. We can never forget the vet.

I want to thank Congresswoman Sinema for inviting me here tonight to talk about my bipartisan bill, H.R. 2736, and for helping to bring attention

to this very serious crisis in our country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the passage of the Dream Act, and I request my Democratic and Republican colleagues to stand together to try and address this very important issue in our country.

The issue of undocumented immigrants has been plaguing this country for almost 30 years now, going back to the 1980s, when people flowed over in the thousands from El Salvador during the death squads and the civil wars during that time.

As the mayor of the city of Glen Cove back in the 1990s, we dealt with this issue in my city, on one side people saying, ``Get those people out of here,'' on the other side people saying, ``They are just trying to live the American Dream like your father did.'' My father emigrated from Italy. I am a first-generation American. ``They are just trying to live the American Dream like your family did, trying to work hard and live a better life here in this country.''

When dealing with these difficult questions, we have to rely on the fundamental principles of this country, namely, that all men and women are created equal--not all men and women with a green card or all men and women with a passport, but all men and women are created equal and are entitled to be treated with human respect and dignity.

When looking at the DREAMers, we are talking about people who came to this country under 17 years of age, who have lived a productive life, who have either graduated from high school or received a GED and have now either gone to college or are serving in the military or have been working for the past 3 years and have no criminal background.

Let's try and make this country fairer. Let's try and make ourselves the model for the rest of the world to follow and lift up these people who are productive members of our community.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present due to the funeral of my mother. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea'' on rollcall vote No. 441.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present due to the funeral of my mother. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall votes No. 442 and No. 443, and ``yes'' on rollcall vote No. 444.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be present due to the funeral of my mother. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes No. 439 and No. 440.

personal explanation

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

Mr. Chair, I rise today to speak in support of a bipartisan amendment that I am offering with Congressman Peter King and Congressman Paul Cook.

Amendment No. 10 under the rule is to division A of the Defense Appropriations bill. The purpose of the amendment is to match the $34 million in funding for the Navy's Environmental Restoration Account, authorized unanimously in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, but was not included in the appropriations process.

In my district, for almost four decades, the people of Bethpage and the surrounding areas have been dealing with an environmental crisis. Groundwater pollution, stemming from the Navy and defense contractor activity, has resulted in an underground plume of contaminated water that is moving south through Long Island's sole source of drinking water, towards Congressman King's district.

While costly remediation efforts ensure the water is safe to consume, it doesn't change the fact that residents deserve to have this cleaned up before it spreads any further.

The contamination, known as the Navy-Grumman Plume, is one of thousands of sites at hundreds of locations that have experienced environmental degradation because of defense-related activities. Congressman Peter King, Congressman Paul Cook, and I have submitted this bipartisan amendment that will increase funding for the Navy's Environmental Restoration Account, which helps fund cleanup and remediation efforts for these sites.

This is not a partisan issue. The funding levels sought by this amendment received bipartisan support in the NDAA. Chairman Thornberry's mark and my amendment together, which was joined by Congressman Cook and Congresswoman Hanabusa, increased the authorized amount by $42 million.

The amount sought here, $34 million, will match the appropriated amount with the authorized funding levels. Our colleagues on both sides of the aisle supported that effort because this funding will help clean up sites from Maine to Hawaii, from Florida to Washington State, and were provided for with the appropriate pay-for.

I ask for my colleagues' support for this bipartisan amendment so we can help fund efforts across the country to help clean up environmental contamination in our districts. People in my district and regions across the country deserve to have these sites fully cleaned. It is commonsense, bipartisan, and the right thing to do. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this amendment.

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

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to point out to the gentlewoman, respectfully, that it will cost billions of dollars to clean up these sites in the United States of America. The increase that we are seeking here, in a bipartisan fashion, is $34 million to simply match the amount of money that was authorized in the NDAA.

In addition, this percentage increase that we are seeking is commensurate with the overall percentage increase in the overall NDAA budget this year from last year. So we are just simply seeking the same commensurate amount increase in this portion of the budget that there is in another portion.

We are looking to have the pay-for to come from the operations and maintenance defense-wide account, of which there is over $33 billion. We are looking for $34 million just to try to advance some of these cleanups.

I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to close by saying that I do appreciate the hard work that has been done by so many on both sides of the aisle in this particular area. We all appreciate how important the cleanup of these environmental sites are. The people in my district have been suffering with this for 40 years, and we are trying to bring attention to the issue and trying to get the resources focused on this.

We have met with people from the Navy, from the Army Corps of Engineers, from the EPA, from the DEC, and from local State officials in the State of New York that are interested. Congressman Peter King and Congressman Paul Cook both understand how important it is that we try and send the signal that we are trying to have a commensurate increase in this account with the overall increase in the budget.

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

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my name be removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 620.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of a bipartisan amendment I have offered along with my colleagues from Texas, Chairman Thornberry of the Armed Services Committee and Mr. Conaway, a fellow CPA.

It is essential the Democrats and Republicans work together to control government costs to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and that we specifically focus these efforts on the Department of Defense.

Chairman Thornberry has promoted a reform agenda of which I am very supportive. During the Armed Services Committee markup of the bill, I proposed changes to the chairman's reform package. My amendment sought to make the use of private sector auditors more efficient and effective by eliminating bureaucratic mandates and an unnecessarily bureaucratic committee.

The chairman supported my goals, and I suggested that I work with my fellow CPA, Mr. Conaway. In a bipartisan spirit, we agreed to this amendment, which will, one, help eliminate the incurred cost audit backlog; two, help reallocate resources to prioritize higher risk audits with potential savings for government; three, help ensure private sector auditing capacity exists; and, most importantly, four, root out waste, fraud, and abuse in Defense contracting.

I never thought I would come to Washington to work on Department of Defense audits, but Chairman Thornberry's willingness to engage my expertise and the bipartisan manner of the amendment will hopefully result in significant reforms and aid in my ongoing efforts to help save taxpayers' dollars by making government more effective and efficient.