Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Hal Davis, an East Tennessean who has served the United States and the State of Tennessee for over 50 years.

Hal Davis was born on July 18, 1947 in Ashland, Kentucky. After graduating from South High School in Knoxville, Hal attended the University of Tennessee and took classes from multiple other universities while deployed as a United States Marine. While Hal was a U.S. Marine he was stationed in South Carolina, North Carolina, California, as well as overseas in Spain, South Vietnam, and the Dominican Republic.

Hal served in the United States Secret Service in Washington, D.C. where he was tasked with the protection of President Nixon, President Ford, multiple presidential candidates, and vice presidents and their families throughout the years. He was also employed as a special investigator with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and a Special investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In addition to his military and federal service, Hal was a Tennessee State Trooper in both Chattanooga and Knoxville's districts.

He has authored and published two books about travel and his years serving his country. I thank Hal for his service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a dear friend of mine, Ronald Davis, Sr., who passed away on October 17 at the age of 73.

Ron grew up in West Knoxville to a great, great family. He had six siblings who all learned a love of nature and the outdoors of east Tennessee from their father.

Ron became the first Black person to receive a bachelor of science degree in forestry from the University of Tennessee. He was very involved with his community and held several positions at the Tennessee Valley Authority. He also cofounded the Minorities in Natural Resources Conservation organization.

Ron is survived by his wife, Dr. Maxine Thompson Davis; his daughter, Renee, who is a dear friend of mine; his sons, Ron and Khary; and his brothers, Edward, Stanford, Stephen, and Teddy. Stephen and Teddy went to Bearden High School where my mama had them in class.

Ron had eight wonderful grandchildren.

Ron was a good man. He was really a great man, Mr. Speaker. He was always very kind to me, and he will be dearly missed. I miss seeing him all the time at Wright's Cafeteria with his wife. Those days will be gone forever.

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

Mr. Chair, this amendment is very simple. It deals with a man named Gary Gensler, who is the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has been implementing woke policies and abusing the rulemaking process.

One of the Security and Exchange Commission's primary responsibilities is to protect investors. However, rather than implementing rules to protect and grow investments, which he is supposed to do, Mr. Chair, Gensler is focusing on catering to the leftwing mob. He is forcing companies to prioritize Green New Deal- style climate initiatives and diversity quotas over the interests of investors.

Additionally, Mr. Chair, Chairman Gensler abuses the rulemaking process, for which he has been called on the carpet by both parties. He continues to put forward many highly controversial rules with little time for public comments. During the last Congress, Republicans and Democrats both expressed their concerns, as I mentioned, regarding Gensler's habit of proposing rules without allowing adequate time for public comment.

Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed nearly twice as many rules as the Trump administration had proposed in the same timeframe. This drastic increase under Gensler's leadership demonstrates where his real priorities lie, Mr. Chair. He is more committed to pushing political agendas on publicly traded companies, which he has no business doing, than performing his official duties as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chairman Gensler's insistence on corrupting the rulemaking process to further the Biden administration's radical agenda at the expense of investors contradicts his duties as Chairman of the SEC.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill that reduces Chairman Gensler's salary to $1.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Womack), my friend and mentor.

Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 45 seconds to the gentleman from Arkansas.

Mr. Chair, I thank my friend and mentor, the gentleman from Arkansas, for his friendship. When I first got here, he was probably one of the most influential people in my life on this floor, so I thank him for that, and I thank him for his support of this amendment.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life of former Knoxville City Council Member Larry Cox who passed away on October 18 at the age of 81.

Larry grew up in North Knoxville where he attended Fulton High School and went on to serve for five terms on the city council.

Larry cared deeply about his community, the young and the old alike. He led the Knoxville Falcons Youth Sports Organization and ended up having the Larry Cox Senior Center named after him for his contributions to our great community and to our senior citizens.

He was a dear friend to me and my predecessor, Representative Jimmy Duncan. While I was in the Tennessee State Legislature and when I was county mayor, Larry would always call on behalf of the constituents or folks that he no longer represented, and they just needed some help.

He never called about anything for himself. He was always advocating for those around him and his community. He gave back to his community in every way he could, and he made such a positive impact on those around him.

Larry is survived by his beautiful wife, Brenda; his daughter, Brooke; his son, Shane; and his three grandchildren.

He will be deeply missed by his family and friends and missed by me, as well, Mr. Speaker. Our community loved him very much, and he will be very missed.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 10 o'clock and 39 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, November 8, 2023, at 9 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life of my dear friend John Lyell II, who passed away on October 21 at the age of 76.

The word lobbyist is an ugly word to some people, but as I have often said: You are either at the table or you are on the dadgum menu.

John was one of the best of these. He always represented his clients tenaciously, and he was always kind to me and never misled me on any issue.

John knew my dad at the University of Tennessee. My dad was the dean of student conduct, and John was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. When Daddy entered his fraternity house one night after a late night of parties, there was an empty bottle of Jack Daniel's on the banister, and John was at the top of the stairs. He yelled down at my dad, and said, Hey, mister, I don't know who you are, but we don't allow alcohol at this frat house.

Of course, Daddy was getting ready to shut the whole place down, and he laughed. He looked at John, and he said, You are either the dumbest or the smartest--and I will leave the adjective out because we are on the House floor.

John was just that kind of guy.

He was honorably discharged from the 134th Air Refueling Wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard at the rank of staff sergeant in 1973. I am proud to call him a friend.

John Lyell II is survived by his wife, Marilyn; his children, Chris and John III; his sister, Jane Ann; and three grandchildren.

Mr. Speaker, he won't be forgotten by the folks who had the privilege of knowing him, and I will truly miss him and his friendship.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Seaman Lois Hensley, an American hero who served faithfully in the Navy from 1942 to 1945.

Seaman Hensley was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio. After high school she couldn't find a job in town and decided to join the Navy at the insistence of her father who was a Navy veteran.

She was sent to Yonkers, New York to become a teletype operator where she sent and received logistical messages. After her initial training, she was then stationed in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

In 1945 she returned home and enrolled at Kent State University to study nursing where she was reacquainted with her former high school classmate James Hensley. They got married in 1946 and had three children together.

The couple moved around with James's job for many years before settling down in Friendsville, TN. After James passed away in 2003. Lois started doing volunteer work at Blount Memorial Hospital and Morning View Village Assisted living center. She started crocheting Prayer Shawls for friends and strangers. She made well over 600 shawls. She made it her life mission to wrap people in love with the shawls.

Our country's heroes are the men and women of our armed forces, like Seaman Lois Hensley, who continue to serve and sacrifice for our country and community. It's my honor to recognize Seaman Lois Hensley as the Tennessee Second District's November 2023 Veteran of the Month.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Milton Jones, an East Tennessean who served our country in the U.S. Navy and worked on the Manhattan Project.

Milton grew up with an interest in technology and how it works, which would serve him well throughout his career. After he graduated from Farragut High School in 1941, Jones earned a first class radio license from Madison College in Nashville. He then went on to train the Army Signal Corps until he was called back to Tennessee to help on the Manhattan Project.

After the end of World War II, Milton started at WIVK radio as a chief engineer and proceeded to help set up new stations throughout the South. He retired in 1993, but continued to work as a consultant for different radio stations and helped tune their towers.

Milton raised four children with his wife Anna Ruth Atkins, and turned 101 years old in March of 2023. He has served his country and his family well, and the East Tennessee community is thankful for the impact he has had on those who have been fortunate enough to know him.

Mr. Speaker, let's be honest. If Hamas puts down its guns, peace will happen. If Israel does that, they will be slaughtered.

In these brutal attacks by Hamas terrorists, they have killed over 1,400 Israelis and taken over 200 hostages, including American citizens. I thought it was very telling when I saw a Jewish father on the news celebrating the fact that his daughter had died in the initial attack because he was afraid that she had been abducted and all these horrible, horrible things these dirtbags would have done to her.

We have had a few weeks of discontent here in this body, but today, I think we all stand united with Israel as a body. Israel and the Jewish people have long been targets. Hamas must understand their time is over, and they are about to meet their fate and their maker.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Israel in their fight against these worthless thugs--Hamas, Hezbollah, and any other Iranian- backed terrorist group. Our enemies must know that we are committed to our allies and that our enemies will die.

Madam Speaker, before I get started, I would like to say

how sorry I was to hear about Senator Dianne Feinstein passing this morning. I didn't agree with her on anything, but she was very kind to me every time I saw her, and I miss that up here.

Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Staff Sergeant Earl Jacobs, who honorably served this great Nation for 34 years.

Staff Sergeant Jacobs was born and raised in Clinton, North Carolina. He moved to Washington, D.C., after high school and entered the Army in 1953. He worked as a combat medic during the Korean war, where he served briefly in Korea and then in Germany. He spent his time in the helicopter transportation unit, where he provided care for patients during transportation to the hospital. Staff Sergeant Jacobs received an honorable discharge in March of 1955.

He joined the Army National Guard in Washington, D.C., before moving to Loudon County, Tennessee, where he served in the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Lenoir City. He was a medical noncommissioned officer, where he was a radiological monitor and a flight medical aidman. Staff Sergeant Jacobs retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard in 1992, Madam Speaker.

Our country's heroes are the men and women of our Armed Forces like Earl Jacobs, the ones who chose to wear our country's uniform. We seem to always honor those who dribble a basketball or throw a football or catch a baseball, but these are our real heroes who served and sacrificed for our freedom. It is my honor to recognize Staff Sergeant Earl Jacobs as the Tennessee Second District's September 2023 Veteran of the Month.

Mr. Speaker, I want you folks to know that I won't be as eloquent as my friend, and I won't be as long either. You all will be able to get out of here if you are waiting for a break. If you need to get up and go, you go, you are not hurting my feelings one bit.

Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely disgusted with the way our government spends money and where it puts its priorities. We spent over $114 billion on Ukraine. Don't get me wrong, Putin is a thug and I wish the Lord would take him out. Russia's GDP is somewhere between that of France and Canada.

We have given Afghan refugees over $2,200 a month and we only sent the Maui residents one single $700 payment when they lost everything. Illegal aliens cost the Texas taxpayers somewhere around $850 million.

Folks, we are over $33 trillion in debt. Fitch, which is a rating agency, recently downgraded the United States' credit rating because of the general government deficit, which it anticipates will be 6.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2023, when it was only 3.7 percent in 2022. That is a huge jump for 1 year. Folks, that has almost doubled.

Another reason they gave was leadership, and that has been over the last 20 years. That cuts both ways. That is both parties. The United States spends approximately $300 billion each month. That is nearly $7 million each minute. It only takes our government 2 hours and 22 minutes to spend a billion dollars if you can imagine that.

We are all on the verge of a government shutdown, which none of my colleagues want--contrary to popular belief. Some of us conservative folks aren't sitting in a room hoping for this because we don't want our constituents to suffer undue pain because of our lack of work.

However, this out-of-control spending needs to change. Many of my Republican colleagues and I, we are going to fight for that change to happen today--not in 30 days or 3 months or right before Christmas because that has pretty much been the plan.

We pass a continuing resolution for 30 days, and then they say: We need another one for 30 days. Guess what? We are backed up to the Christmas holiday. Then they say: We need to pass an omnibus.

Basically, an omnibus is just a large continuing resolution. In my opinion, it is chock full of goodies for powerful Members of this body. It is also chock full of goodies for lobbyists and their specialist interests that we continue to grease.

Mr. Speaker, there are several solutions we can bring to the table. My colleague, Jodey Arrington from Texas, chairs the Budget Committee. I was on that committee and I asked to be taken off of it. If you know anything about our history in the last 30 years, we have not passed a dadgum budget, we haven't even attempted to because we don't want to.

The people in power in both parties--if we pass a budget, there would be a lot more accountability and you all would know what was going into it. You would probably get disgusted and send a few of us home.

My friend, Jodey Arrington, chairs that committee now, and he has a plan that would balance our budget in the next 10 years.

Mr. Speaker, if we just went back to pre-COVID spending levels, we could balance this budget.

Now, I dare say there is probably very few Americans that could tell me something that has been added to their plate since COVID from the Federal Government that they could not do without. Yet, we continue on this spending spree.

As I have stated many times with these continuing resolutions, they tell us to pass a continuing resolution so we don't have to pass another continuing resolution. Well, that line of thinking is like telling a crackhead that I am going to give you more crack to get you off of crack. The truth is we are just addicted to money, and now we are addicted to our great grandchildren's money.

We need to make some serious cuts to our bloated government in areas where we don't need it. We have way too many bureaucrats. Yesterday, I brought several amendments to the floor, literally, due to the Holman rule which allows us to line-out certain individual people's pay. They were caught doing something illegal in the past administration and they were fired, yet this administration seemed like they should bring them back. They brought the people back that helped them get back. That is your Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, my daddy fought in the Second World War in the Marine Corps

in the 1st Marine Division all the way across the Pacific. My mamma's brothers all went to the war. My dad's brother went to the war. My mamma actually flew an airplane during the war because her eldest brother, Roy, had gotten killed.

I tell you all that to tell you this: our Pentagon is a bloated disaster. I prefer to call them the war pimps because that is exactly what they are. Every year we pass a bigger and more bloated budget for the Pentagon. This year, I believe it was $30 billion more than the year prior to the last budget--I believe that is correct--more than even President Joe Biden had asked us to put in.

Yet, when folks like myself question it, people question our patriotism.

Mr. Speaker, I am not offended by much up here, but that is the cherry on top. We should stop focusing so much on passing a bill that will be totally fine in the Senate. As we said during the debt ceiling debate, we should put our stake down. Now we don't want to put our stake down. We want to send a bill over there, at one time, that would just cut the rate of growth, which is Washington speak for not cutting anything.

We are not Senate Democrats; we can't pass a budget that looks like theirs. The art of compromise should be in there.

When I was in the State legislature in Tennessee, I was the House sponsor of a bill to raise the speed limit. I asked for 85, knowing that I would get 70. Oddly enough, my Senate colleague was Steve Cohen, who is now my colleague here in the United States Congress. We compromised, but we knew what we needed.

Mr. Speaker, truth be known, I brought Peyton Manning to the floor of the House the week before. I probably could have gotten 100 miles an hour and maybe even gotten Communism, I am not sure, or I might have been anointed as king at that point because Peyton was, and still is, that popular. That was a different time.

We have got to make some serious changes now or we are going to lose our dadgum country.

I always remember my daddy, who was a World War II veteran. We were at our house in West Knoxville, 8220 Bennington Drive--I no longer live there. We were in the dining room, I remember, one of the few times it was cleaned out. We always cleaned it out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but most of the time it was for storage.

We were in there, and we had this little color TV that was over there. We were watching the election results that were coming in that night, and they were not going very well.

I remember my daddy said the blessing. It was just me and him, and we had a Mr. Gatti's pizza, or, as I like to say, we were having a traditional Italian meal. Don't send me any letters, I realize that is not very traditional.

Anyway, daddy said the prayer, he said the blessing. Really all he said was: Lord, please do not let us lose our country.

I guess that is what drives me now because, dadgummit, I am afraid we are going to lose our country. Continuing down this road of reckless spending is going to be the quickest way to get us there. We need to stop spending the American people's hard-earned money like we are a kid in a candy store.

One of the areas where we could be doing some cuts, in my opinion, I think we should close down our Department of Education. Now, I have a degree in education. My mama was a schoolteacher for her whole life. My sister has a degree in education. My daddy was a dean at the University of Tennessee.

I didn't mean defund education, but if we would just send that money to the States and stop Washington, D.C., from taking its cut off the top, I think we could go a long ways.

There is not one bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., in the Department of Education who ever taught a little kid how to read at Sarah Moore Greene Elementary School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I daresay there never will be. However, they are going to be taking their cut off the top, just like the mob does, and that needs to stop.

We need to allow the States the responsibility that they deserve, to be responsible stewards of our money, and send it to them and let them decide. What works in Washington, D.C., sure as heck doesn't work in Claiborne County in east Tennessee.

We have got to stop spending the American people's hard-earned money like we are a kid in a candy store with a credit card with no limit because that limit is coming due.

We do not need a continuing resolution. We don't need to play any more games. We just need clean bills with real cuts to get our country back on track.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your time, and I appreciate the folks in the audience's indulgence. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chair, my amendment would do one thing: It will reduce the salary of the special assistant to the director of programming at Voice of America to $1.

This amendment follows an internal investigation which concluded the special assistant to the director of programming at Voice of America had misused Federal taxpayer dollars and lied on her resume. She was fired under the previous administration and then rehired at the beginning of this administration.

Mr. Chair, I submit to you that people who misuse taxpayer dollars have no business being paid by taxpayers, and they should be fired.

We need to get rid of corruption in our government. My amendment would do just that. I am requesting to reduce her salary to $1.

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

Mr. Chair, I submit to you that the duty of folks that work for the American taxpayer is not to lie and not to take taxpayer money illegally.

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

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

Mr. Chair, I rise to speak on this amendment, which will reduce the salary of the chief management officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media to $1.

The chief management officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media is responsible for rehiring Setareh Sieg, who knowingly misused Federal tax dollars and lied on her resume.

Whistleblowers have come forth to shed light on the rampant misuse of taxpayer dollars, and the chief management officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media is responsible for rehiring the individual that did so.

There should be no place for this conduct in public service, Mr. Chair. I am requesting the salary of the chief management officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media be reduced to $1.

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

Mr. Chair, we cannot continue to keep rewarding bad behavior. This isn't some soccer game where nobody keeps score and everybody gets a trophy. This is the American government. We are responsible to the taxpayers for this money.

I submit to you, Mr. Chair, that this type of activity, if we turn the other cheek, it will continue to run rampant in our society and in our government, and we have got to start somewhere, Mr. Chair.

We are $33 trillion in debt, and paying people that are doing things that are illegal should not be the makeup of this government.

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

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

Mr. Chairman, this amendment would reduce the salary of the deputy chief executive officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media to $1.

The deputy chief executive officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media is also responsible for rehiring Setareh Sieg, who knowingly misused taxpayer dollars and lied on her resume.

Whistleblowers come forward to shed light on the rampant misuse of taxpayer dollars, and the deputy chief executive officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media is responsible for rehiring the individual that did so.

There should be no place for this conduct in public service, and I am requesting the salary of the deputy chief executive officer at U.S. Global Media to be reduced to $1.

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

Mr. Chair, if misusing public Federal tax dollars is part of our policy, I suggest to you that we need to get a new policy.

This is what is wrong with this country. It is wrong when we tell our children, well, it is okay for these folks up here to steal because they are in the Federal Government. That is why nobody trusts us up here.

We can cover this up with flowing words, but the reality is it is wrong to knowingly misuse Federal tax dollars.

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

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

Mr. Chairman, this amendment does one thing, it would prohibit funding for the Art in Embassies program. At a time when the government is nearing a shutdown, we don't need the State Department spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on paintings and sculptures.

During the shutdown at the end of 2018, the State Department spent $84,000 on a Bob Dylan sculpture.

Mr. Chair, I submit to you, I did not know Bob Dylan was a sculptor, his real name is Bobby Zimmerman. He did have a song out when he became a Christian for a while that was called ``Gotta Serve Somebody.'' We need to be serving the taxpayers up here, and obviously we are not.

We are $33 trillion in debt. The State Department can continue its work without expensive art throughout our embassies. The government needs to cut its budget, and there is no better place to start than on unnecessary and high-priced art galleries for the State Department.

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

Mr. Chair, I submit to you what is disingenuous is the fact that most of this art is never viewed by the public or the people coming in. It is put in the embassy back offices. It is not out front. It doesn't show anything about this country other than we are hiding this stuff in the back for the well-placed embassy employees, and the rank-and-file ones never even see it.

I submit to you this is obviously another boondoggle. We need to start somewhere. This is a good start, Mr. Chair. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Chair, this amendment does one thing: It prohibits funding for the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

This envoy has provided no discernible value to the American people. I remind you, he is nonelected. I don't believe he was even confirmed by the Senate, but Secretary Kerry uses his position in this special envoy to fly around the world in private and heavy-polluting jets so he can attend the coronation of King Charles III on the taxpayers' dime.

Somebody please remind me how this is helping the American people or even addressing his climate concerns. I submit to you it is making them worse, according to their statistics and facts.

He recently stated the American people would need to contribute trillions of dollars to fix the climate. Trillions

of dollars. Mr. Chair, this is nonsense. This special envoy should not exist. I am asking to prohibit any funds for it.

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

Mr. Chair, I submit to you that having a multimillionaire fly around in a private jet does very little for the image of global climate issues. I also submit to you that he has no scientific background. He has not been elected nor has he even been ordained by our U.S. Senate. I submit to you that this is not a good issue, and tying the hands of this country while the folks in India, China, and some of these other countries continue to pollute, to me, is counterproductive.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), my friend.

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

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

Mr. Chair, the key to this amendment is just four words: ``or across State lines.''

One of my cosponsors, Mr. Donalds--I guess it is like football practice this morning--is absent.

This amendment prohibits Federal funds from being used to transport illegal immigrants over the age of 18 across State lines except for the purpose of removing the individuals from the country.

As it currently stands, the bill prohibits funds from being used to transport illegal immigrants into the interior of this country but fails to recognize there are already folks here illegally.

This amendment will cut wasteful and unnecessary spending of taxpayer dollars. It will get the Biden administration out of the human trafficking business. It will focus Homeland Security operations on removing the people who enter our country illegally.

Mr. Chair, our border States have been overwhelmed by the Biden administration's pro-illegal immigration agenda since he first came to office. This amendment would help our border agents do what they are supposed to do, and that is protect our border and deport illegal immigrants.

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

Mr. Chair, we are leaving out a key element of this. I, too, trust our Border Patrol agents. They are underpaid and overworked. I do not trust this White House. This has four words added to it: ``or across State lines.'' That is what is currently happening. It needs to stop, Mr. Chair. That is the bottom line.

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

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, in 1993, the United States Air Force deployed Task Force Ranger to Somalia to restore order to the capital city of Mogadishu after it was taken over by a rebel warlord. The Battle of Mogadishu was the event which inspired the movie ``Black Hawk Down.''

The Somali people wanted democracy, but this general and his militia took over the nation to impose radical Islamic Sharia law. They hijacked food supplies and cut off water to anyone who did not support their reign of terror.

After several successful operations, Task Force Ranger set out on a mission to arrest two of the general's top lieutenants in a building by the Olympic Hotel in a militia stronghold neighborhood.

The plan was to surround the building the lieutenants were meeting in, lower themselves on ropes from helicopters and surround them, then take the prisoners to the vehicles that would be waiting outside.

Unfortunately, the mission took a catastrophic turn, Mr. Speaker, when two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers were attacked, and the battle that followed lasted 18 hours. Eighteen of our brave men were killed and dozens were injured, and the Somalis lost over 1,000 men.

This October, Knoxville is holding a 30th anniversary event to commemorate this mission, where surviving members of Task Force Ranger can be reunited and they can remember their fallen brothers.

As a Christian, Mr. Speaker, I owe everything in my life, except for my salvation, to the men and women who wore our country's uniform. Members of Task Force Ranger are no different, and I look forward to seeing them in Knoxville this year and welcome the heroes and give them some true Tennessee hospitality.