Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to speak in opposition to H.R. 806. I call it the ``Smog Is Back'' bill.

I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. As a boy, I was not allowed to play outside due to smog alerts, and you couldn't see the mountains just a few miles away. I have told my kids. They don't know what a smog alert is. You get to see the mountains 365 days a year.

That is because we got smart about cutting pollution. We passed commonsense regulations, and the impact was remarkable. Yet today, as I stand here, this Congress is trying to strip those protections and take us back to a dangerous time. It is not a joke, and this is shameful.

Just over a year ago, my first grandchild was born. It infuriates me that he could grow up with the same restrictions that I had after we have made so much progress. We should be making the world a better place for our children and grandchildren.

Mr. Chairman, when it comes to smog, it is not good to go back to the

future. It is just wrong. I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation for the sake of all children.

Mr. Speaker, I have the honor and the privilege of being a United States Congressman, and with that comes tremendous responsibility. We have a country of over 320 million people--men, women, and children. And right now, we may be days away or even a couple of weeks away from watching the United States Senate possibly change healthcare for America like we have never seen before.

I hope and pray that my colleagues in both Houses and the President of the United States try their best to make sure that we enhance healthcare access rather than divert more than 20 million people away from being able to see a doctor.

Just last week I was visited by some young folks and I was given this red band called ``Will Power'' for a little boy named Will, who has gone through many operations. If these bills see the light of day and the President's desk and gets into law, people like Will just might not be around very much longer.

Mr. Speaker, let's hope and pray that we do the right thing

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of H.R. 2430, the FDA Reauthorization Act.

I also would like to thank the chairman and ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee for working so hard to get this important bill on the floor here today.

This reauthorization bill provides the FDA with the resources to complete an important and difficult job: ensuring timely and efficient drug review processes while maintaining rigorous scientific and safety standards to maintain the safety, efficacy, and security of drugs, biological products, medical devices, and therapies that Americans have access to today and tomorrow.

I am lucky to have been born and raised in this great country where we have access to the latest innovation in the life sciences sector. I wish my parents had been raised right here in this great, wonderful country so they may still be here today, so that they could enjoy time with their grandchildren if I have been so blessed to do so myself.

The FDA is seen as the gold standard around the world, and this bill keeps us right there, right at the top.

I am encouraged to see my colleagues working together to ensure that the FDA is able to continue to fulfill this responsibility, and I look forward to continue working to have this reauthorization passed out of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to take the opportunity to thank my colleague for all of his diligence and incredible effort to make sure that we are here today with the successful passage of this important legislation.

The bill we are considering today, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2017, is a bill that puts Congress back in the driver's seat of evidence-based reform of our Nation's juvenile justice system. For far too long, Congress has failed to reauthorize the landmark Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act passed in 1974. The most important Federal juvenile justice statute has been expired for almost a decade.

I came to Congress to effect change at a national level and to serve the people of my district and all of the people across this great country. Congress has fallen behind the leadership and the progress of Democratic and Republican States alike and cities, as well, across the Nation who have had to take the lead without us. Passing this bill is a step in the right direction and will demonstrate to States and cities across this great country that Congress is listening and acting.

This bill addresses many of the issues that I have been working on in my career as a State legislator, as a city councilman, and now as a Federal elected public servant. For instance, it helps cities and local organizations fund community-based gang prevention and intervention programs.

When I was on the Los Angeles City Council, I made sure that organizations receiving taxpayer dollars from our city were actually achieving the results that they had promised. I am pleased that this bill includes a strong emphasis on research and science and making sure that evidence-based programs are prioritized. It ensures that we are supporting programs and organizations that work, which will save the taxpayers billions of dollars in the short run, hundreds of billions of dollars in the long run, and also make our communities much, much safer.

This bill supports programs that ensure youth have access to appropriate legal representation and programs to expand access. This bill supports programs designed to educate kids and their families about how they can go about sealing and expunging their juvenile records and to help them do that along the way.

This bill supports programs focused on girls in the juvenile justice system. Equally important, this bill makes sure that all ethnicity is recorded so we can get a better understanding of who is in our juvenile justice system and address any disparities if we find them.

This bill will put us on a path to ensuring kids are not detained for an offense that would not be a crime if committed as an adult, such as skipping school or running away from home. It is high time we reauthorize the JJDPA, and I hope my colleagues in the House and Senate can come together to advance this critical update to our juvenile justice laws.

It is our responsibility to lead. I urge my colleagues to be leaders by voting for the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2017. Once again, it is long, long overdue.

Mr. Speaker, I am privileged and honored to be a Member of this House, and it is very frustrating for us to come here week after week and to not do the business of the people of the United States of America. One of those impediments is that we have a President of the United States who is trying to force and push this Congress, and many others in his administration, to do things that are not right for the people and this country.

I think it is important for us to understand that when and if you get an opportunity to read the legislation called TrumpCare, you will realize that really what it is about is Trump doesn't care about your healthcare. Please, just read it. I apologize for talking about the 24 million-plus Americans who will lose their healthcare if this bill were to become law. I apologize because I need to remind each individual that they will likely lose the ability to see a doctor if this bill becomes law. Please, please, help us. Please, focus on what is going on here in Washington and what is not going on here in Washington for everyone's sake.

Mr. Speaker, this is National Infrastructure Week; yet, at the same time, our current President promised that, as soon as he took office, he was going to put forth a trillion-dollar infrastructure package. Where is that package? We haven't seen it.

The economy is the number one thing we should all be focusing on. Everything else should fall into place after that. Yet this White House is too busy in turmoil to take care of the core business of this country.

It is actually White House crisis week again. That is a sad comment, but it is the truth. Once again we hear about a President who is not respecting the fact that we have allies around the world who are there sharing information that should not be shared with the Russians, and yet, at the same time, this President chooses to violate that responsibility.

The American people and economy are losing confidence in our President and our White House. They shouldn't be given these disturbing reports that come out almost every day. The actions are undermining our economy. It is undermining the confidence in our infrastructure, and it is undermining our confidence of the United States around the world.

Mr. Speaker, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Any person today can go online and look at the speech that Jimmy Kimmel made live on television. He talks about his newborn little boy. He talks about how, within a few minutes, they had to whisk him over to another hospital to give him an emergency operation on his heart. He was very emotional.

But he didn't just talk about him and his wife and his little daughter and his newborn son. He talked about how no person, no family, or no child should ever have to be denied that opportunity for that lifesaving operation, especially right here in the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, the Lord works in mysterious ways because this is the perfect time for every American to go online and look at the Jimmy Kimmel speech. It is not politics, ladies and gentlemen, it is love. It is respect not only for his little boy, but for this great country and how we can be greater. That is why we need to improve our healthcare system, not tear it down.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate all the great work that my colleague, Congressman Conyers, has done not only on this issue, for the many years you have served distinguishably in this Congress, but thank you so much for yielding some time.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 1695, the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017.

I represent the San Fernando Valley, which is in the Los Angeles area. For my constituents, for the families in my district, copyright protections are not an abstract philosophical issue, ladies and gentlemen. The families in my district depend on strong copyright protections in order to earn a living, to feed their family. They work in film and television studios and in music publishing. They are artists, set designers, producers, union drivers; they work on lots, and they work in every aspect supporting this incredible industry.

There are 127,000 film and television production jobs in Los Angeles County. According to a recent report, the core copyright industries-- film, television, music, video games, and publishing--make possible 5.5 million jobs and bring in $1.2 trillion of gross domestic product to the American economy.

Good copyright laws and regulations mean jobs and whether or not a family can put food on the table and a roof over their heads. We need to give the Copyright Office the respect and authority it deserves as the overseer of 5.5 million American jobs.

I have heard from my constituents for years about the need to empower the Copyright Office to keep up with

the industry and the technology changes. This is not a new debate, ladies and gentlemen.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill and to continue to stand up for American copyright jobs.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to be a Member of this House and to serve the public. This week I announced that it is National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Preventing youth violence can't happen overnight. It requires change across our society, from our courts to our classrooms.

This week I introduced a package of bills to correct these problems that we have imposed upon our children and our communities. I urge my colleagues to get serious about these issues. Our children are our future. We owe our children every opportunity. We owe our children a system that works with them and for them. It is not a system that is out to get them.

We do not owe our children a system that allows them to be in our streets and to not be safe. For example, to make sure that our children are safe, means that we have safer communities. Right now the United States of America has a criminal justice system that spends over $80 billion a year to incarcerate men, women, and children.

And who do these adults incarcerated become eventually?

Well, once they were children.

We can correct the system. We are the most incarcerated place on the planet in every sense of the word. We can change this. We must change this for the sake of our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the work of the DIY Girls InvenTeam, a group of 12 incredible young women from the San Fernando Valley. These young scientists invented a tent with solar panels to aid refugees and the homeless. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to meet these 12 young women at their high school, my alma mater, San Fernando High.

As an engineer myself, I recognize how impressive their work is. Not only did these women create something amazing, but it was rooted in a desire to help other people. The DIY Girls InvenTeam has received one of just fifteen $10,000 grants awarded by MIT. It is also noteworthy that these young scientists were able to come together through the help of DIY Girls, a grassroots program that empowers young women to become scientists.

As their Representative, I am proud to highlight their work. I know we will continue to see great accomplishments from these bright, young women as they master science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to own up to their bad bill. It is clear this is not what the American people deserve or what the American people are asking for.

This legislation guts Medicaid. It steals from Medicare. It crushes our seniors and our working families. And

just when you thought it couldn't get worse, they went after veterans and their children.

What's more, this bill means insurance companies won't cover new mothers, newborn babies, and prescription drugs. The Republicans are making health care for Americans worse and worse and worse.

The Republicans have secretly wheeled and dealed in back rooms at the expense of millions of Americans in our great country, while giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to own up to this bill and oppose it for the sake of the American people.

God bless us.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here with this simple explanation about what TrumpCare really means for Americans: You pay more for less care.

Twenty-four million Americans will lose the access to health care by losing their insurance. It is an age tax on older Americans; and it guts Medicaid that not only goes to seniors now, it goes to young people as well, young families.

But it is also a huge tax cut for millionaires.

If you look at TrumpCare, you realize the great supposed negotiator actually has a great reputation of being the great bankrupter.

What this TrumpCare will do: It will affect tens of millions of Americans, and it will put them into misery, take away the dignity of health care and put them in a place that no one should ever have to be: lacking the dignity of being able to see a doctor. This is going to send us back to the Dark Ages.

You probably think I am exaggerating, but when you look at these facts, you realize that is just the truth. These are the facts.

Beware of what you are being sold. This is not going to help America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today gravely concerned for the lives put at risk by the Republicans' repeal scheme. Trump has flip- flopped on his promises to the American people.

I recently heard from a person named Nancy who lives in my district. Nancy said: I am not asking for a handout. I have been a gainfully employed taxpayer for close to 40 years.

Nancy was able to pursue her dream of opening her own small business because she could finally afford her own health care.

This bill breaks Trump's promise to Nancy and to millions of Americans. It does not lower deductibles or drug prices, and it doesn't provide better coverage. Instead, they are purposefully taking away the health insurance from 24 million Americans by cutting $170 billion from Medicare and $880 billion from Medicaid.

Why are they doing this?

Simply to give a $600 billion tax cut to millionaires. Let me be very clear. This bill hurts kids, women, families, working people, the disabled, and seniors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak against this rule and H.J. Res. 69, which we will be debating tomorrow.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service updated its regulations for national wildlife refuges in Alaska to prohibit the cruelest killing methods of wolves, grizzly bears, and other native mammals in Alaska.

The rule FWS put forward makes sense. It even makes clear that it does not apply to subsistence hunting or restrict the taking of wildlife for public safety purposes or in defense of property. Yet, here we are, just 6 months later, and Republicans are pushing through this resolution to overturn the rule and make egregious and cruel hunting methods common practice in Alaska.

They are inhumane methods, such as denning of wolves and their pups, using airplanes to scout and shoot grizzly bears, and trapping grizzly bears with steel-jawed traps. These cruel methods should never be allowed anywhere. This resolution is irresponsible and inhumane.

As with other Congressional Review Act resolutions, H.J. Res. 69 will have a chilling effect. This and future administrations would be prohibited from ever issuing a similar rule, making inhumane and reprehensible hunting methods the law of the land.

This resolution handcuffs our Federal wildlife managers from protecting our refuges, our national resources, and our wildlife. We must ensure that our children and grandchildren will someday enjoy the majestic national beauty of the native mammals in Alaska and across our great Nation.

I urge my colleagues to reject this rule and also vote ``no'' on H.J. Res. 69.

Mr. Speaker, as a proud American, I ask to bring up H.R. 724, which would rescind President Trump's refugee ban on women like the Yazidi refugee from Iraq whose life is in danger because of her husband's work with Americans and who was refused boarding on a flight to the U.S. out of Erbil.