Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Charles ``Chuck'' Haeflinger of Chino Hills, who passed away on February 3 at the age of 77.

Chuck had a distinguished 32-year career in the Army, serving as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam war and retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He earned a Bronze Star and five Meritorious Service Medals.

Chuck's service to our Chino Hills community continued after his retirement. He helped fellow veterans transition back to civilian life, became a mentor emeritus for the Reaching New Heights Foundation, and was an active member of the Chino Hills 55 Plus Club Veterans Group, playing a key role in raising funds for the military service monument at the community center. He was also a valued member of my Veterans Advisory Group.

I thank Chuck for his contributions to our community and extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to thank Alex Cisneros for his decade of service to our Nation as a dedicated staff member in the House of Representatives, most recently as my legislative director over the last 4 years.

His diligent work ethic, sharp intellect, and the ability to build trusting relationships on both sides of the aisle have made him an invaluable part of my team.

His legislative team advised me each week in Congress and shepherded more than 40 bills through the House and got more than 15 bills signed into law.

These are real results that have made a difference in the lives of the American people.

So I thank Alex, and I hope that he knows how proud we all are of what he has accomplished.

We will miss Alex, but he will always be a part of our family.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Santiago Canyon College for 25 years of providing quality, affordable educational opportunities to students across southern California.

Santiago Canyon College in Orange, in my district, offers one of the largest community college adult education programs in California with over 60 career training certificates. From nurses and teachers to accountants and medical assistants, the top-notch apprenticeship programs at Santiago Canyon are helping students of all backgrounds learn the skills to get jobs and contribute to our communities.

I congratulate Santiago Canyon College President Jeannie Kim, faculty, staff, and students on this outstanding achievement. I can't wait to see what is ahead for the next 25 years.

Go Hawks.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Congresswoman Fedorchak for hosting this Special Order to raise awareness of the critical need the United States is facing to become energy independent.

Protecting our environment is not controversial. I represent a district in southern California. Unfortunately, Californians know too well the consequences of rushing to implement energy policies.

Mr. Speaker, as Governor Newsom pushed to ban gas-powered cars, he then said people couldn't charge electric cars as our community saw rolling blackouts. It doesn't need to be one or the other--environment or economy, natural gas or renewables.

We need an all-of-the-above energy strategy. Through American innovation, we create jobs, expand our energy supply, protect our environment, lower costs, and strengthen our national security.

Energy fuels everything from our cars to our homes, and we must ensure we have energy resources here at home that we can rely on. I will keep fighting to bring commonsense energy policies to Congress. Again, I thank Congresswoman Fedorchak for her leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Hill for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 975, the Credit Union Board Modernization Act. I also want to stand up and echo and reiterate the points that I already addressed because this legislation is so important.

This bill would amend the Federal Credit Union Act to revise the frequency of the board meetings a federally chartered credit union must hold. Under current law, credit union boards must meet once per month, but this bill, H.R. 975, would allow credit unions to lower that threshold of required meetings to six per year.

This bipartisan bill is needed to increase flexibility and unlock more resources for credit unions to better serve their members and our communities.

Additionally, H.R. 975 creates an incentive for credit unions to improve their management ratings by decreasing the number of board meetings for those that have the best management ratings. On the other hand, credit unions that are poorly managed or are new Federal credit unions will still be required to meet on a monthly basis.

I commend my colleagues, Representatives Huizenga and Vargas, for reintroducing this commonsense piece of legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 975 and eliminate burdensome regulations to let credit

unions do what they do best, which is to service their communities.

As you heard, this has been passed in the 117th and 118th Congresses. I think it is time to bring this home, and let's get this done this Congress.

Mr. Speaker, the communities I represent are just a 2-hour drive away from CBP's San Diego sector, and we have seen the impacts of the fentanyl crisis firsthand.

In 2024, the Orange County Sheriff's Department found 2.06 million pills laced with fentanyl. That is a 204 percent increase from 2023.

In Congress, I have been working hard on commonsense solutions to keep our communities safe. That is why I proudly voted for the HALT Fentanyl Act, which passed the House, to give our law enforcement the tools to crack down on drug traffickers and transnational criminal organizations funneling fentanyl onto our streets and into our schools.

I will keep doing all I can to secure our border and put an end to the fentanyl crisis that is taking the lives of too many Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate Lunar New Year, Seollal, which it is called in Korean, and Tet Festival, in Vietnamese, as we ring in the Year of the Snake.

Snakes are mysterious, smart, alert, determined, and calm. We enter this new year with the same calmness, wisdom, and alertness, standing steady and ready to take on any challenges or opportunities that come our way.

I wish success, good health, and blessings for you and your family in

this new year. In Congress, I will embody the calm determination of the snake as I build on my record of effectiveness and deliver results for our southern California communities.

Let me wish everybody a ``happy new year'' in Korean, ``saehae bok mani badeuseyo''; Mandarin, ``xinnian kuaile''; Cantonese, ``gong hei fat choy''; and Vietnamese, ``chuc mung nam moi.'' Happy new year.

Mr. Chair, I thank Chairman Westerman for yielding.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of H.R. 471, the Fix Our Forests Act.

At this very moment, multiple fires are burning throughout southern California. My heart goes out to the communities affected and to our first responders, especially as my constituents and I know the devastation of wildfires firsthand.

Just months ago as the chairman mentioned, the Airport fire started in my district and burned over 24,000 acres in Orange and Riverside Counties. Including the surrounding fires that burned at that time, we had over 100,000 acres that burned. That is why the chairman came out to our community and met with my Trabuco Canyon community leadership and saw firsthand the devastation and what we would do. We had our conversation regarding the Fix Our Forests Act. We talked about the innovative technologies that we need to respond to the threat of wildfires.

The Fix Our Forests Act includes the Wildfire Technology Demonstration, Evaluation, Modernization, and Optimization, or DEMO Act, which I introduced to create a public-private partnership to test and deploy emerging wildfire mitigation technologies.

I thank Chairman Westerman and Representative Peters for making it bipartisan and for including my legislation in this critical bill to protect our forests.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 471.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life and legacy of Mark Murphy, who recently passed away. Known as ``Mr. Orange,'' Mark was a lifelong resident of the city of Orange, born at St. Joseph Hospital, and graduating from Orange High School.

He served the city for decades on the City Planning Commission, the City Council, as mayor, and on the Board of Orange County Transportation Authority, all while working full time for over 33 years at Hewlett-Packard.

He was everywhere in Orange. He also was a talented musician, singing in the choir at First Presbyterian Church and playing guitar at concerts in the park.

Mr. Speaker, I send my deepest condolences to his wife, Vikki, and mother, Lois. I join our Orange community in honoring his memory and a life very well lived.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on stillbirth which is a maternal and infant health crisis that tragically accounts for the deaths of over 21,000 babies every year in our country. Studies indicate that at least 25 percent of U.S. stillbirths are preventable, and addressing these preventable cases could save at least 5,250 babies each year. Sadly, despite these alarming statistics, stillbirth is one of the most underfunded and underresearched public health issues today.

To address high stillbirth rates, we need to improve data collection, research, and awareness. I introduced the bipartisan Stillbirth Health Improvement and Education (SHINE) for Autumn Act, H.R. 5012, with Rep. Kathy Castor that would do just that. The SHINE Act creates the first comprehensive federal-state partnership to streamline data collection on stillbirth across the Nation.

I would like to include in the record a link to more than 1,500 testimonies from parents and families affected by stillbirth: https:// youngkim.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/H.R.-5012-SHINE-for-Autumn-Act- Testimonies-1.pdf. I hope for swift action from Congress to ensure healthier pregnancies and decrease stillbirth rates.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 8753, which directs the U.S. Postal Service to designate unique ZIP Codes for certain communities, including North Tustin in my district.

North Tustin is a longtime community and census designated place, but its status as an unincorporated area has caused confusion. Simply put, a unique ZIP Code is common sense, and it will help residents with postal delivery and taxation issues.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, November marks Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, COPD, Awareness Month.

COPD is a respiratory disease that is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and affects one in eight Americans over the age of 45.

An estimated 30 million Americans are affected by COPD, but only 17 million Americans are diagnosed. We unfortunately see COPD impact neighbors in southern California with more than half of Californians who suffer from COPD living in our area.

Today, on COPD Awareness Day, and throughout this month, we recommit to raising awareness and finding ways to mitigate the impacts of this disease. I will do my part.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Moylan for yielding and for his leadership as well as my good friend Representative Manning for moving this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 3012, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act.

This bill updates the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 that was enacted to provide humanitarian aid to North Korean refugees, allow for information access for the North Korean people, and appoint a U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues.

H.R. 3012 reauthorizes, streamlines, and strengthens oversight of these programs through 2028 and calls for Korean-American families to be reunited with their immediate relatives in North Korea.

We need someone at the State Department dedicated entirely to North Korean human rights issues, especially as Kim Jong Un's brutality against his own people grows. Why?

Because North Korean women and children face the most inhumane treatment in the world, child labor is institutionalized in North Korea, and women are forced into sex trafficking organized by government officials and human traffickers; because an estimated 100,000 North Koreans are subject to forced labor in factories with inhumane conditions in the People's Republic of China; and because torture, forced disappearances, imprisonment, forced sterilization, and religious persecution are tools regularly used to consolidate the North Korean regime's power.

From January 2017 to December 2022, the special envoy position was vacant; that is nearly 6 years. If the position is ever vacant again for more than 180 days, my bill requires the State Department to report on ongoing efforts to fill the position.

The authorization for the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 lapsed in 2022. We must get this legislation signed into law this Congress. We cannot ignore the threat posed by North Korea, and holding the North Korean regime accountable without supporting human rights is a nonstarter.

Failing to reauthorize this landmark human rights initiative sends a signal to Kim Jong Un that the United States will allow human rights abuses in North Korea and around the world to fall on deaf ears.

I thank Representative Ami Bera for co-leading this bill with me, and I thank our chairman of the full committee and his staff for their leadership and commitment to human rights and freedoms for the North Korean people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3012.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Westerman for yielding and for his leadership in moving this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 7409, Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act, or the HEATS Act.

Geothermal energy is a clean, renewable source of energy that can generate electricity, heat homes and buildings, and power industrial processes. More geothermal energy production will lower our environmental footprint and benefit the climate.

Despite having a similar extraction process to that of oil and gas, geothermal energy is constrained by Federal permitting restrictions. Currently geothermal operators on nonFederal land that produce any Federal resources are subject to all Federal laws and permitting processes, even if minimal amounts of Federal minerals are present.

My State of California is a major producer of geothermal energy and has ample energy resources below the earth ready to be tapped into. The current Federal permitting process and State regulations have hurt progress in harnessing this clean energy source.

The HEATS Act would waive Federal drilling permit requirements for geothermal wells that are on State and private lands. This means geothermal operators would not need a Federal drilling permit for wells that are on State and private lands on which the subsurface geothermal estate is less than 50 percent Federal.

Operators must still go through a rigorous permitting process at the State level. They will, however, no longer be burdened by the Federal process, allowing us to harness this untapped energy source faster.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 7409 is a commonsense measure that will lower costs for Americans, reduce emissions, protect our national security, and expand our energy portfolio. The Natural Resources Committee passed the HEATS Act by a bipartisan vote, and I look forward to this bill passing out of the House in a timely bipartisan manner.

I thank my colleague Representative Duarte for co-leading the HEATS Act with me and, also, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Westerman for his commitment to accelerating geothermal production and promoting energy independence.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 7409.

Madam Speaker, October 5 marks the 100th anniversary of Goodwill Industries of Orange County.

Goodwill OC was founded in 1924 by Reverend John Winterbourne, first in his home and later moving to a rented house on Logan Street in Santa Ana.

Over the past century, Goodwill OC has established a legacy of not just finding value in secondhand goods but also providing meaningful employment opportunities.

Goodwill OC has fostered a vibrant workforce and a caring, connected community by helping individuals find and retain employment and offering training and career coaching.

Madam Speaker, I congratulate them on this amazing milestone and wish them many more years to come.