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27 public bills, H.R. 6703- 6729; and 1 resolution, H. Con. Res. 67, were introduced.
Pages H5898-99
Reports Filed
Reports were filed today as follows: H.R. 2571, to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to exclude from the definition of health insurance coverage certain medical stop-loss insurance obtained by certain plan sponsors of group health plans, and for other purposes, with an amendment (H. Rept. 119-408); H.R. 2528, to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to clarify the treatment of certain association health plans as employers, and for other purposes, with an amendment (H. Rept. 119- 409); and Committee on Natural Resources. Supplemental report on H.R. 4776, to amend the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to clarify ambiguous provisions and facilitate a more efficient, effective, and timely environmental review process (H. Rept. 119-395, Part 2).
Page H5898
Speaker
Read a letter from the Speaker wherein he appointed Representative Moore (NC) to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
Page H5843
Recess
The House recessed at 12:13 p.m. and reconvened at 2 p.m.
Pages H5844, H5855
Commission on Civil Rights: Appointment
The Chair announced the Speaker's reappointment, effective December 16, 2025, of the following individual on the part of the House to the Commission on Civil Rights for a term expiring December 15, 2031: Mr. Peter N. Kirsanow of Cleveland, Ohio.
Page H5888
Recess
The House recessed at 5:27 p.m. and reconvened at 6:30 p.m.
Page H5888
Suspensions
The House agreed to suspend the rules and pass the following measures: Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act: S. 284, to reauthorize the Congressional Award Act, by a \2/3\ yea-and-nay vote of 370 yeas to 22 nays, Roll No. 335;
Pages H5856-57, H5888
Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025
S. 222, to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to allow schools that participate in the school lunch program to serve whole milk;
Pages H5857-61
Federal Supervisor Education Act of 2025
H.R. 5810, amended, to provide for mandatory training for Federal Government supervisors and the assessment of management competencies;
Pages H5861-62
Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act
H.R. 5457, amended, to improve the visibility, accountability, and oversight of agency software asset management practices;
Pages H5862-64
Honoring the service and sacrifice of United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, who were tragically shot in Washington, D.C., in a targeted assault against United States service members on November 26, 2025: H. Res. 923, amended, honoring the service and sacrifice of United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, who were tragically shot in Washington, D.C., in a targeted assault against United States service members on November 26, 2025;
Pages H5864-67
Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act
S. 216, to amend the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act to improve the administration of the Marine Debris Foundation, to amend the Marine Debris Act to improve the administration of the Marine Debris Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
Pages H5867-69
Federal Maritime Commission Reauthorization Act of 2025
H.R. 4183, amended, to authorize appropriations for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal years 2026 through 2029;
Pages H5869-72
Agreed to amend the title so as to read
``To authorize appropriations for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal years 2026 through 2027, and for other purposes'';
Page H5872
Enhancing Science, Treatment, and Upkeep of America's Resilient and Important Estuarine Systems Act
H.R. 3962, amended, to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reauthorize the National Estuary Program;
Pages H5872-73
University of Utah Research Park Act
H.R. 2876, to confirm the use of certain non-Federal land in Salt Lake City, Utah, for public purposes;
Pages H5873-75
Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act
H.R. 972, to amend the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area Act to adjust the boundary of the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area;
Pages H5875-76
Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act of 2025
H.R. 1045, to amend the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004 to require the establishment of an additional Institute under that Act;
Pages H5876-78
Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act
S. 2878, to reauthorize funding to monitor, assess, and research the Great Lakes Basin;
Pages H5878-79
Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act of 2025
H.R. 2815, amended, to provide equitable treatment for the people of the Village Corporation established for the Native Village of Saxman, Alaska;
Pages H5879-80
Southcentral Foundation Land Transfer Act of 2025
H.R. 3620, to provide for the conveyance of certain property to the Southcentral Foundation located in Anchorage, Alaska; Amending the John D. Dingell, Jr.
Pages H5880-82
Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to reauthorize the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System
H.R. 3176, amended, to amend the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to reauthorize the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System;
Pages H5882-83
Requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to convey a parcel of property of the Forest Service to Perry County, Arkansas
H.R. 3187, amended, to require the Secretary of Agriculture to convey a parcel of property of the Forest Service to Perry County, Arkansas, by a \2/3\ yea-and-nay vote of 388 yeas with none voting ``nay'', Roll No. 336;
Pages H5883-84, H5888-89
Mineral Extraction for Renewable Industry and Critical Applications Act of 2025
H.R. 3872, amended, to amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands to make that Act applicable to hardrock minerals; and
Pages H5884-85
Reauthorizing the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act of 1994
H.R. 1098, amended, to reauthorize the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act of 1994.
Pages H5885-86
Former Members Day
Agreed by unanimous consent that the proceedings during the former Members program be printed in the Congressional Record and that all Members and former Members who spoke during the proceedings have the privilege of revising and extending their remarks.
Pages H5844-55, H5896
Senate Referrals
S. 240 was held at the desk. S. 390 was held at the desk. S. 546 was held at the desk. S. 610 was held at the desk. S. 620 was held at the desk. S. 621 was held at the desk. S. 622 was held at the desk. S. 640 was held at the desk. S. 642 was held at the desk. S. 719 was held at the desk. S. 723 was held at the desk. S. 766 was held at the desk. S. 1591 was held at the desk. S. 1744 was held at the desk.
Page H5876
Senate Message
Message received from the Senate appears on page H5876. Quorum Calls--Votes: Two yea-and-nay votes developed during the proceedings of today and appear on pages H5888 and H5889. Adjournment: The House met at 12 p.m. and adjourned at 8:13 p.m.
Every speech and line is the Congressional Record's own text, read from GovInfo. Speakers are matched to members by GPO's own metadata. Referandom places each turn on the Clerk's video by matching its words: 206 of 341 spoken turns were found. Turns without a time are still listed; they just can't seek.
Morning-Hour Debate
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 3, 2025, the Chair will now recognize Members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning-hour debate.
The Chair will alternate recognition between the parties, with time equally allocated between the parties and each Member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to 5 minutes, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 1:50 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for legislation that House Republicans are bringing to the floor this week to bring down healthcare costs for Americans.
Since the enactment of the unaffordable care act of 2010, Americans have been suffering with a broken healthcare system. Democrats created this system. It is a system that Americans simply cannot afford.
The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act would address these issues that will make healthcare affordable again by creating more options and more choices for American patients.
With this new legislation, House Republicans will lower costs for all Americans, preventing Democrats from taking over $100 billion of taxpayer money and giving it directly to the insurance companies.
Mr. Speaker, as this bill comes to the House floor for a vote, I am proud to join my Republican colleagues in a mission to reduce premiums again for all American families. I look forward to securing this win for the American patients and not for the big insurance companies.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend President Trump on his announcement of $12 billion in farmer bridge payments for American farmers.
The establishment of the Farmer Bridge Assistance program provides critical relief to crop farmers across the United States, including many in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District.
The FBA program will make one-time direct payments to American farmers in response to the Biden-era policies that distorted global markets and drove production costs to record highs.
As we enter the next crop year, I look forward to working with President Trump and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as we continue to support the American farmer by bringing down costs, securing new trade deals, and prioritizing American crop production.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and Franklin County Agricultural Land Preservation Board for their joint efforts over the years that have preserved 20,000 acres of farmland.
The recent preservation reflects a commitment to protecting vital agricultural lands. These efforts will prevent the development of the land for any purpose other than agriculture.
This initiative allows Franklin County to stay among Pennsylvania's top-producing counties for a variety of commodities such as milk, apples, peaches, and cattle. Franklin County has invested more than $40 million to preserve 164 farms.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of everyone in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District, I congratulate all of Franklin County's farmers.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Alexis Casner of McVeytown, Pennsylvania, who was recently awarded the prestigious American FFA degree by the National Future Farmers of America.
Every year, less than 1 percent of all FFA members are presented with this award, which is the highest level of FFA achievement. The selection of Alexis for this award is a reflection of her exceptional dedication and passionate engagement in agriculture.
A 2023 graduate of Mifflin County High School, Alexis is a junior at Penn State majoring in animal science with a minor in livestock production. Join me in congratulating Alexis on this notable achievement and for her commitment to Pennsylvania agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, it is undeniable that Letty Belin is somebody who will be remembered for her laugh, her kindness, and her compassion.
Even when dealing with the most serious of subjects concerning the fate of our Nation's waters, Tribal water rights, the protection of lands and ecosystems, and their legal and policy arguments, it was her laughter, her love, and her kindness that shined through.
The last time that I saw Letty was over a meandering cup of coffee, as they often were, on Stanford campus, where she was a twice-alum and where she contemplated the future of Western water as she often did.
Letty Belin was most certainly one of the greatest legal and policy minds of our generation, working to protect the waters of the West, but Letty was also a dear friend and mentor to me and so many others who worked on Western water issues.
She served as the lead counselor to two Deputy Cabinet Secretaries at the Department of the Interior; led the Environment Division at the New Mexico Attorney General's Office; spent decades practicing water, environmental, and Tribal law; and served on numerous boards.
Above all else, she was a devoted parent to three children, loving grandmother, and friend who shared her deep love of wildlands, open spaces, and traveling the world.
Mr. Speaker, it is with the greatest sadness that I rise this morning to honor the life of Letty Belin and her passing just a few weeks ago.
I became close friends with Letty during her time at the Department of the Interior, where she served as counsel to Deputy Secretaries David Hayes and Mike Connor and as the chair of the Indian Water Rights Working Group.
At the Department of the Interior, she championed the negotiation of water settlements to protect the water rights of 15 Tribal nations, which most certainly must be a historical record for what are often difficult, decades-long cases.
In fact, so exemplary was her work that President Obama himself honored her with a special award for her negotiations involving the water rights of the Navajo and Hopi Nations.
Letty certainly was no stranger to resolving difficult issues and, in fact, led on the legal and policy work that transformed water law in New Mexico during my lifetime to ensure that stream flows for our rivers and streams would remain.
In fact, for any New Mexican who sat along a river grateful to see its waters flow, especially during a time of drought, it was Letty who created the legal framework to sustain those waters.
This is perhaps one of her most enduring legacies, which she led after Attorney General Tom Udall, later Senator Udall, hired her to lead a brand-new Environment Division at the AG's Office in the 1990s. As Senator Udall shared with me just yesterday, Letty was uniquely superb at finding those commonsense solutions that people could support while still pushing for what needed to happen.
It was through this lens that she also helped to protect the Middle Rio Grande River through a legal challenge under the Endangered Species Act. Where some saw only a small, endangered minnow, Letty saw the opportunity to save a vital habitat that supports two-thirds of New Mexico's species.
In the process, her work helped save these species from extinction and brought a renewed urgency to protecting our beloved Rio Grande. It is that same commitment that she brought to her work in the Bay Delta in California.
In fact, decades later, after her years of work as an environmental attorney, as a State and Federal civil servant, she would bring that same creativity and can-do spirit to her work on behalf of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Mr. Speaker, it is with the greatest sadness that I honor Letty's legacy. The impact that she has had on this country is immeasurable. From her roots in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to her career defending the water resources and lands of the West, her lifetime of service continues to influence decisions and communities across the country today. Whether hiking through the hills, floating a river, or traveling the world, Letty leaves behind a legacy of friendship, wisdom, and extraordinary accomplishments.
I, like so many, am forever grateful for her mentorship and friendship and join those who are honoring her memory and mourning her loss.
It is with the deepest condolences and prayers, Mr. Speaker, that I send my love to her family, to her community, and to everyone who called her friend, mentor, sister, mom, and grandma.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a real hero in our midst and a dear friend of mine, Donna Autry.
Donna was a first grade teacher for over 30 years. Like most teachers, she was committed to doing one of the most important jobs in our Nation, but she has never sought the limelight. She simply did her job quietly and effectively.
Donna is also an artist who creates beautiful quilts and paintings that she gives to others. She is extremely generous with her time and talent. She also has a passion for dogs and volunteers with the Avery County Humane Society.
Mr. Speaker, we ought to recognize more people like Donna who live quiet lives and, at the same time, contribute so much to the world around them. We need more Donna Autrys in our world. They make a positive impact that deserves to be highlighted and praised.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Donna for being such a wonderful person.
The Chair is now honored to invite the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, to address all Members.
The SPEAKER. I just want to welcome everybody back, Members, former Members, to the House floor. Some of you come back frequently, and we are always happy to see you. I certainly thank the former FMC President and all of you who serve this great organization to continue the tradition. I appreciate what Chaplain Kibben prayed. That is exactly the spirit of this. We have consequential dates upon us, and your voices are so important. The platform that you have as former Members is important. You have great spheres of influence, and I am moved all the time by the recognition of kind of the weight of things that are upon the country right now. In so many ways we are in uncharted waters as a country, and we are coming up on the 250th anniversary of what we all know to be the greatest Nation in the history of the world. It is not even close. We are the most free, the most powerful, the most successful, and the most benevolent ever on Earth.
I think we do well to remember why that is. The concern I have, and probably the concern many of you have is that I am--
Mr. Speaker, our class did okay, didn't we?
The SPEAKER. Boy, I miss you around here. You should have stayed around. It has gotten kind of crazy.
It made it so interesting.
The SPEAKER. ``Interesting'' is a good word.
My concern is probably the same as many of yours. It is that I am afraid the generations behind us do not have any longer a full recognition of what it is that we are so blessed by.
When I bring groups to the floor--and I had one in here yesterday, a little group from back home in Louisiana--I pause while we are here in the Chamber to just make note of the historic things and the bullet holes and all the fun stuff, but also the things that are more important and symbolic.
I will often stop and say: One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the Chamber for the first time was In God We Trust above the Speaker's rostrum.
I said: Do any of you wonder why that was put there?
Congress did that back in the early 1960s. If you were here on a regular day, I told my group, if you turn over to page 21 of the visitor guide of the House, a booklet that we have, it says that Congress voted to put that there as a rebuke to the Soviet's philosophy at the height of the Cold War, and the Soviet philosophy was the opposite because, Marxism, communism, all the isms that come from that--socialism--begin with the premise that there is no God. That is a marked distinction from the founding of our country. That is what makes it so different.
I know you did so many tours on the House floor, but we often always point to the great lawgivers around the ceiling. One-half are turning this way and one-half that way. One face that looks down above us--and you have done the same thing--it is Moses looking down upon us. I have seen that as a recognition that we are supposed to remember that our duty and our responsibility here as Members and as citizens is to a higher power. It is not just to the civil authorities. It recognizes that Moses was the first lawgiver. He got the tablets on the mountain, and we are supposed to remember that what we do here is not inconsequential. It has, in effect, eternal significance, and the people elected to serve in this great body should always remember that and keep it in mind.
I do. I think these two things are symbols of that, but as we come up to the 250th anniversary of the country, I think that you and I have a great opportunity, because with every single group that you speak to, small or large, you can pivot now in the months ahead there won't be anything radical at all, go straight to the Declaration of Independence, which is the Nation's birth certificate. I have been doing this for a while now, and I go straight to the second paragraph. What is alarming to me is when I am speaking to university students or high school students, they don't have much recognition for the things that we had to memorize in school. They are not doing that anymore.
This is what G.K. Chesterton called the Creed of America. He was a great British statesman and philosopher. He said that America is the only Nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.''
I think I will just take the time to unpack that and point out important things. It is not just born equal. It says created equal. It says that our rights do not derive from government. They come from our creator Himself, and He is the one who gives us those rights. The Founders understood they are supposed to be exercised in accordance with the responsibility that goes along with that.
What does that mean for a citizen, and what does it mean about our individual values, our duty, and our responsibility, not just as elected officials, but all of us?
If we take young people through that and make them pause just for a second on the eve and then next year on the birthday of the greatest country in the history of the world, then I think we do well to remind them of our basic civic duty.
I am afraid that schools aren't doing that as much as they did when we were all coming up, and it is a real peril to the continuation of this grand experiment in self-governance and intellectual property. We all agree on that.
I know that you all have given large measures and large parts of your life to service to keeping the Republic. I am just going to be stating the obvious. It may be more challenging right now than it was since the time of the Civil War. There is so much more polarization, so much division. Social media attacks our political system, as we all know, and it makes it so difficult for people to get along. When Val and I were freshmen here, it seems like 50 years ago now, but in the 115th Congress, we came in January 2017, and we all signed this document called Honor and Civility. We had this idea, this crazy idea, that the person on the other side of the aisle is not our enemy; that it is our fellow American, a colleague. We might have different policy ideas, but that is our friend. We are in this together, and we should treat one another with dignity and respect. We restated the golden rule in laymen's terms and sort of secular terms, and we circulated that. Every single Member of the freshman class, 53 of us, Rs and Ds, everybody signed on.
We committed to do that, except for one guy from New York. I said: You are the last signature up to add on to this. He said: I didn't come here to get along with anybody. I said: Okay, sorry I bothered you.
I think he lasted 2 years here.
One and one-half years.
The SPEAKER. When we have recalcitrant Members these days, I try to remind them that unless the legislative body is a team sport, then you cannot come here to be an individual and build a brand. That is not what this is about. However, in the old days--the old days, you know, in previous Congresses, even right before we came in--before social media became such a force in the culture, the rank and file, you just got along. You didn't have much of a choice. You knew your role in the body, and then you earned the respect of your colleagues by working hard and by being productive.
Now it is sort of inverted. It is turned upside-down because now the way to get attention is to be a firebrand, as if that is the objective, to be famous.
The more bombastic you are online, feeding that beast, then the more attention you get and, in some cases, the more money you raise. There is a race to be more and more outrageous than the next person, which is terribly destructive to this process.
When we were freshmen, we would have events, bipartisan events. We had
How do we put the genie back in the bottle?
Chaplain Kibben and I commiserate all the time. We have to figure it out.
The Founders had great challenges. The Civil War era had great challenges as far as civil rights. We have had our own. There is a common thread through a lot of it, but we have to figure it out.
I don't want to give you a long speech. All that is to say I am very bullish on the future of America. I know we have the greatest government, imperfect as it is. That is why everybody wants to come here, and that is why America has the longest lasting Constitution on the Earth and the model for all the others. It is the aspiration of everybody else. They want to do more like we have done and be more like us.
We had the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia here a couple of weeks ago, MBS. He is a controversial figure, but he came, and that is an important relationship with the Middle East. We all have mixed feelings about it. I was visiting with him. He told us Saudi Arabia aspires to be more like the United States. He said to a group of us--we had Republican and Democrat leaders on both sides of the House--in a forum with him. He said that our actual cultures are about 85 percent the same in his view, but they are trying.
That is an extreme example, but every country around the world tries to emulate and follow us and our popular culture and a lot of what we have done. We have a heavy responsibility. After World War II Ronald Reagan used to say--I think he was quoting Pope Pious XII--and he said that the leadership of the free world was placed upon the shoulders of the United States after World War II. We did not ask for that, but we have a role to play, and we have to model the things that built the Nation and built this institution.
It is virtue, religious principle, and morality. It is this basic moral consensus that we regard one another as friends and neighbors and fellow countrymen, and if we get elected to Congress, we come here, and certainly we should be exhibiting that as a bare minimum. We are trying to get back to that in the midst of this crazy hyperpartisanship at the moment.
The reason I mention that to all of you is that you, as a former Member, from my perspective you have a unique platform to be able to speak into this crazy moment that we are in as a country because you have the respect and admiration of people for having served here. You have a long history of service to the country and unique opportunity because you can be filmed with people on the other side of the aisle and set that example as you do.
I don't think there has been a more important moment than probably right now for the Former Members of Congress group, as to what this can be and what you can do.
I am very grateful for all of that. I want to be a resource to you. Any time you are here, pop in and say hello. I will roll out my little red carpet for you, and you get all the accoutrements of the Speaker's balcony.
I was on a podcast a few weeks ago and was asked: What are the perks of being a Speaker?
I had to think for a moment. Honestly, I wasn't prepared for the question. The first thing that came to my mind was the balcony of the Speaker. The balcony is awesome. It is not the most fun job in the world right now, but it is a duty, as all these positions are.
I thank you for serving so well and admirably and being an example. Increasingly, I think we have to look for those examples of people in this room and on this floor. I am grateful.
Merry Christmas, welcome back, happy Hanukkah, and happy new year to everyone.
I thank the Speaker so much for giving your time out of your incredibly busy schedule. You are always really generous with your time for the former Members. Thank you so much.
The Chair now recognizes the Honorable Barbara Comstock of Virginia, who is president of the Former Members of Congress Association to address the Members.
Good morning. Thank you, Donna. It is always a great honor and distinct pleasure to return to this Chamber, especially when being able to do so with so many of our friends and former colleagues.
Let me begin by also thanking Speaker Johnson for inviting our association into the House Chamber for our annual report and for greeting us this morning. We appreciate very much his staff support and his support for our association, whether it be for our events like today or for the annual memorial service in Statuary Hall.
Like most of us, I appreciate my service in Congress and consider it one of the most impactful chapters of my professional life, and the memories this Chamber evokes are among the highlights of my work. I cherish the relationships I was able to forge with my fellow Members, and I am proud of the legislation I was part of, both as a Member and as a staffer before I ran for Congress. That makes FMC, the Former Members of Congress Association, so special, and it empowers those of us who had this experience to continue to give back.
We do so by involving both Senators and Representatives, and, more importantly, we do so by inviting Democrats and Republicans alike to work together to further FMC's mission of strengthening democracy at home and abroad.
FMC is 100 percent bipartisan. It was founded in 1970, received its congressional charter in 1983, and functions as a standalone 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization.
Though chartered by Congress, no taxpayer dollars are earmarked for our work. Everything we do is founded through foundation grants and contributions, and all of our former Members donate their time pro bono. We don't pay any fee or honorarium to former Members to participate in FMC's many programs.
In 2025, our membership donated about 7,000 volunteer hours to the FMC cause, whether by serving as a panelist for an issue-specific discussion open to the public, or by spending days visiting with students as part of one of the many Congress to Campus programs or by traveling overseas with other former Members for legislative strengthening and democracy building work.
Now, 2025 was the 55th year of FMC's operation as a nonprofit chartered by Congress to strengthen representative democracy, teach about the Article I branch, and inspire the next generation when it comes to the importance and dignity of public service. Throughout FMC's history, we have been able to grow this organization, grow it in size, grow its fundraising success, grow its staff, grow its programs, and grow the number of former Members involved who donate their time to us pro bono.
Without a doubt, we have been able to grow because we have been fortunate, since day one back in 1970, to have outstanding former Members step up and benefit FMC with their inspiring leadership.
Today we want to acknowledge that outstanding leadership. Starting in 1974, FMC has recognized exemplary public service before, during, and after Congress through our Distinguished Service Award. We have done so every year, commencing in 1974, with President Gerald Ford as our first honoree, and last year we gave it to Representative Stephanie Bice as our most recent honoree.
For this year, we have decided to look inward and thank those colleagues of ours who, over the years, have given us their sage counsel, insight, and their energy in their leadership by serving as FMC's president. Through their commitment as leaders of this organization, they have played an invaluable role in continuing our mission of bipartisanship, civic education, and engaging the next generation in our representative democracy.
Their impact on our organization and on democracy worldwide has been truly inspiring. Since 1970, 36 men and 3 women have served as FMC's president, always limited to one term, and always
I can't overstate how productive a system that is thanks to my wonderful partnership with our outstanding president-elect, Donna Edwards. I was also able to serve as president-elect with President L.F. Payne. Without the leadership of these terrific former Members who guided FMC through good times and also challenging ones, we also embraced the mission of this organization and who were 100 percent committed to bipartisanship and to highlighting everything that is so inspiring about the Article I branch.
FMC would not be the thriving and impactful organization it is today without that leadership. We, therefore, are thrilled to recognize FMC's former president with the 2025 Distinguished Service Award.
We have invited all of FMC's living past presidents to join us today so that we can thank them in person, and we are thrilled that a great many of them have made the trip back to Capitol Hill to be with us today.
We would like to present each of them with a commemorative gavel. And Pete, who has worked closely with each and every one of them during his long tenure with FMC will help me do that in just a moment.
The way we would like to structure this presentation is that I will acknowledge each of them individually and then also read into the Record the names of these former FMC presidents who could not join us today in person. After that, we will invite all of them to join me here at the dais.
If you wouldn't mind, I think it would be best if we hold all applause until they are here with me at the dais and then we can thank and applaud them as a group.
Let me start with Matt McHugh, a Democrat from New York. I am sorry, Matt was not able to be here. He served as FMC president from 1998 to 2000. Matt does send his regards, but, unfortunately, he could not join us today after all. Some of the many highlights of his presidency include FMC hosting a delegation of the members of the Chinese National People's Congress for a week of meetings here in D.C. and via a grant from the Ford Foundation sending three delegations of former Members on study missions to Cuba.
Now, Larry LaRocco, who is with us, is a Democrat from Idaho, possibly the last Democrat from Idaho who served as FMC president from 2002 to 2004. During his presidency, FMC was recognized by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society with its annual Freedom Award, and they also sent a current senior congressional staff delegation to Mexico for a peer-to-peer exchange with their colleagues in Mexico City.
Jim Slattery, a Democratic from Kansas--and actually we have a Democrat as Governor right now--served as FMC President from 2006 to 2008. During his presidency, FMC initiated a training program for former legislators to serve as election observers worldwide. This program was created in partnership with our sister organizations in Ottawa and Brussels. Also during Jim's presidency, FMC produced over one dozen webcasts for use across the country in high school civics classrooms. I thank Jim.
Dennis Hertel, a Democrat from Michigan, who also is not able to be here today, served as FMC President from 2010 to 2012. Thanks to Dennis' leadership, FMC launched several new programs, including our Diplomatic Advisory Council and the Congressional Study Group on Europe.
In addition, during his presidency, FMC published a book titled: ``Political Rules of the Road,'' sharing some of the unique and unparalleled insights inherent in our membership.
Dennis was succeeded by Congresswoman Connie Morella, a Republican from Maryland--also a unique thing--who served as FMC's president from 2012 to 2014. I also was privileged to serve in Congress with Connie as a staffer. Among her many achievements on behalf of FMC is a major expansion of our international legislative exchange programs to now also include senior congressional staff on a bipartisan basis in the work in overseas delegation of FMC's Congressional Study Groups.
During Connie's presidency, FMC also produced a number of instructional videos which then were incorporated into the national AP government high school curriculum. I also would like to take a personal privilege to say when I was a staffer, Connie was a hero for all the female staffers on the Hill.
Thank you, Connie, for being one of those heroes for the female staffers.
Cliff Stearns, a Republican from Florida, had hoped to be here today but at the last minute had to change his schedule. He served as FMC's president from 2016 to the 2018. It is due to Cliff's leadership that FMC initiated what has become one of our most important and moving annual events, the memorial service. This is where every year in Statuary Hall we recognize and commemorate the public service of current and former Members who passed away the previous year.
In addition, during Cliff's presidency, FMC expanded its program focused on congressional staff to now also include district directors across the country.
Cliff was succeeded by Martin Frost, a Democrat from Texas, who served as FMC's president from 2018 to 2020. Martin is with us today. It was during Martin's presidency that FMC launched the very successful congressional study group on Korea which quickly became one of our most active international legislative exchanges presenting current Members of Congress and their colleagues in the National Assembly of Korea and with an unparalleled opportunity to connect and deliberate together.
Also FMC published ``Congress At a Crossroads,'' a collection of over two dozen interviews with current Members of Congress to capture their thoughts on bipartisanship, regular order, and other aspects of their congressional lives.
L.F. Payne, a Democrat from the Commonwealth of Virginia, served as FMC's president from 2022 until 2024. I had the great pleasure to serve with L.F. as FMC's president-elect. In addition to bringing his business acumen to updating and strengthening our organization in financial processes, during L.F.'s presidency, FMC's Congress to Campus program connected with our largest number ever of students both here in the United States and abroad and more than doubled Congress to Campus visits to HBCUs and HSIs. L.F. also worked hard with FMC staff to lead the organization out of the turmoil of the COVID lockdown to emerge stronger than ever before both financially and when it comes to the number and quality of our many programs.
As I said earlier, not every one of FMC's living past presidents was able to come back to D.C. so let me read their names into the Record. FMC will send them their gavel as a small token of our appreciation.
They are Jim Symington of Missouri, Phil Ruppe of Michigan, Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut, and Charles Boustany of Louisiana. I hope they know how much of a positive impact they have had on this organization.
With that, I would be so pleased and honored to have FMC's former presidents join me here at the dais.
I thank you for the applause for these 2025 distinguished service recipients, and I thank you for all being here today.
I want to add my congratulations to FMC's past presidents and to thank them for their role in creating this incredibly important vibrant and impactful organization, which is a perfect transition to the next part of our agenda focused on FMC's work in 2025 and our vision for 2026.
With that, the Chair, again, recognizes FMC's current president, Barbara Comstock, to offer her remarks.
I will do things a little bit differently this year as we offer our annual report to Congress. I do want to give a quick report on our 2025 work in finances, but I also want to reserve some time to look ahead to 2026 given the important work we are about to enter as part of our Nation's semiquincentenial.
Let me start by focusing on FMC's finances. We just received the findings from our annual audit for fiscal year 2024, and I am very pleased to report that the independent auditor, again, gave us a clean bill of fiscal health. As
About two-thirds of our income derives from grants, donations, and membership dues from former Senators and Representatives.
The other main category on the plus side also comes from our own membership, and that is their in-kind donation of their time and expertise as they volunteer for our various programs.
As I already mentioned, but it bears repeating, former Members continue to come through for us and on a bipartisan basis almost 7,000 hours were donated by our membership pro bono. Finally, about 15 percent of our budget is based on the success of our sole fundraiser, the annual Statesmanship Awards Celebration, which in 2025 honored Senator Booker and Senator Young and Representatives Case and Kim, as well as Aflac as our corporate honoree.
On the spending side, we have a very healthy ratio with about two- thirds of our budget going toward programming and one-third taking care of overhead and salaries.
Programming in 2025 continued our wide variety of events, panels, overseas delegations, townhalls, and, of course, our outreach to students across the country.
Of the well over 100 programs we have implemented in 2025, almost one-half were focused on student audiences, mostly at college level, through Congress to Campus but also high school and middle school kids.
With these students, our bipartisan teams of former Members have an open and sometimes challenging discussion on issues of the day and also try to inspire them when it comes to public service, bipartisanship, and getting actively engaged in our representative democracy.
Almost all of these programs are now back to being in-person events, but we also learned through COVID that we can reach wider student audiences by hosting the occasional virtual discussions. Roughly the other one-half of our programs take place on Capitol Hill, at embassies around D.C., and occasionally in other parts of the United States, such as when we hosted our annual meeting in Atlanta and, quite often, overseas.
We do tons of work bringing current Members together across the political aisle for discussions with issue experts on topics that include AI, China, fiscal policy, or international trade relations. We do lots of work to create a network of peers through our bipartisan legislative exchanges that focus on parliaments in other countries. This is most often as part of our Congressional Study Groups, and the goal is to create, with elected officials across the globe, an impactful dialogue that is informative, does not engage in any advocacy, and is fully bipartisan.
FMC views this work as our mandate to support current Members of Congress and congressional staff in their work so that through us they can engage with their colleagues in Congress, their peers in legislative branches overseas, and issue experts from academia and the think tank world.
As I said, this is mostly accomplished through our Congressional Study Groups, and we are thrilled that in 2025, we added to our roster of international legislative exchanges for current Members and current senior staff when we launched the Congressional Study Group on India this summer.
These current member Congressional Study Groups, along with a number of former member delegations, resulted in over one dozen overseas study missions where we brought bipartisan groups of legislators together with elected officials in parliaments overseas.
This was just a brief summary of our work in 2025, and I hope you will take time to read the much more detailed report which I am submitting for the Record.
Thank you, Barbara, for this report of FMC's work in 2025. I hope you all will take the time, as Barbara said, to read the more in-depth narrative.
We are proud of all that has been accomplished this year. We, FMC staff and leadership, have spent a lot of time thinking about FMC's role celebrating America's milestone next year, America250-- specifically how FMC can engage audiences across the country and even overseas in a discourse about our representative democracy as part of the Nation's semiquincentennial celebration.
As part of our contribution to America250, we want to engage in a dialogue with many different audiences, and we want that dialogue to be credible, inspirational, genuine, and motivating. FMC's exceptional deliverable is an insider's view on the Article I branch and an unparalleled experience of living the notion of consent by the governed.
FMC's first articulation of how we view our contribution to America250 celebration is actually starting right now. We have asked a bipartisan group of former Members to deliver 1 minutes as part of our report to Congress and to share with the public what makes this institution so special and important.
We realize that Congress is not perfect. Nothing is. However, we also know, like no others, how challenging a public service each and every current Member performs, no matter the party. We are in awe of the tremendous power of the Article I branch, and we want to give encouragement and inspiration to the next generation as we are looking back on 250 years.
With that, I will recognize from this chair a bipartisan group of former Members who have asked to deliver short remarks about their experience serving in this august institution. I realize that other Members in the Chamber may want to speak as well, but in the interest of time, we will have to confine this part of our presentation to the Members I already have on my list.
I now recognize the Honorable Barbara Comstock of Virginia for 1 minute.
As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary, it is difficult to consider the principles that unite us when we do hear so much noise that divides us.
However, recent history does tell when Congress got its work done despite contentious times. I recall during the Presidential impeachment and a government shutdown during Bill Clinton's time when Republicans and Democrats got welfare reform and tax reform done and balanced the budget at the same time. After 9/11, despite a 50-50 2000 election and a 5-4 Supreme Court, Congress stood on the steps in front here after three planes hit our homeland and vowed never again would that happen, and we worked together at least long enough that we have never experienced a major terrorist attack again on our homeland ever since.
I know when I came to Congress in 2015, despite partisanship, I worked together with people on issues like sexual harassment, the opioid epidemic, gang violence, and STEM initiatives. Congress can and should be a body that can get things done working together, and we can't let the loud voices that divide us win out.
Those who get things done have written the story for 250 years, and that is the story that FMC can and will continue to tell. Working together, we are the ones who can tell that story.
I now recognize the Honorable Kathy Manning of North Carolina.
Madam Speaker, I rise to call out the growing danger of anti-Semitism across the country and around the world. Anti-Semitism is no longer restricted to the fringes of society. It has become mainstream. Hateful stereotypes, lies, and despicable caricatures of Jews have become commonplace among famous influencers, political activists on college campuses, spread on social media, and on podcasts. Anti-Semitism has become normalized. This is not a Democratic problem, and it is not a Republican problem. It is an American problem, an Australian problem, a European problem, and a global problem.
Yesterday, Jews were murdered at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia. Last month, synagogues were attacked in New York City and in Los Angeles. Last May, two young Jews were shot dead outside a museum in this very city.
This is what it means to globalize the intifada.
History teaches us what happens when anti-Semitism is ignored, excused, or politicized. Hatred, demonization, and dehumanization spreads to other groups, eats away at democracy, and the results can be catastrophic.
This House must speak out and take action on a bipartisan basis to stop the spread of this ancient virus. The responsibility to combat anti-Semitism cannot rest with the Jewish community. It is a national problem that must be addressed by every Member of this august body.
Madam Speaker, I had intended to give remarks on the importance of a bipartisan effort to combat partisan gerrymandering, which I believe undermines trust in Congress, but the events of the weekend required different remarks.
I would like to submit my original remarks for the Record.
Madam Chair, I rise to address an issue that should be of concern to Republicans and Democrats alike: partisan gerrymandering. In too many districts, the outcome of an election is decided before a single vote is cast.
The result?
Accountability to voters is replaced with party allegiance,
Candidates cater to the extremes, and
Compromise is viewed as surrender rather than the underpinnings of good governance.
With changing maps, District offices are shut down, constituent work is disrupted, people don't even know who their representative is.
It's no wonder voters have lost faith in Congress.
We are in a race to the bottom--new maps in Texas prompted new maps in California. Other states have joined this war of mutual destruction.
Here's to the Hoosiers, who have said no to this game.
I call on Republicans and Democrats to end this battle. Our future depends on working together to solve problems that impact our economy, our safety, and our sense of community.
Faith in Congress will only be restored when Americans believe that both parties care more about fighting for all Americans than winning rigged elections.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Indiana, Larry Bucshon.
It is an honor to be at this podium again. When I reflect on my time in Congress and what this House means, I realize that less than 13,000 people in the history of the country have had the opportunity that I have had and I have today. I haven't forgotten that.
I came from Kincaid, Illinois, a town of 1,400 people. My dad was a coal miner.
If you talk to Members of Congress, those stories are common to people from everywhere, people from all walks of life.
Since the first Congress in 1789, this House has been closest to the people. It is the people's House. As was mentioned, it was only by the consent of the governed that what happens here establishes its relevance.
Looking forward, I can't tell you how optimistic I am about the future of this country because of the people who are in this room and the people who currently are serving and the history of
We have the best form of government that has ever been designed. It will persevere to our 250th anniversary of the Declaration this next summer and for another 250 years or more.
The Chair recognizes the Honorable Dan Kildee of Michigan.
Madam Chair, thanks to the Former Members of Congress Association for bringing us together and for being an opportunity for those who us who served here together to continue to enjoy one another's friendship and company.
I am going to reference one of my classmates and my roommate here in Congress, Derek Kilmer, who is not with us this morning. He said many times, and I want to repeat it, he said that they told him when he came here that if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
He also went on to say something I agree with, that that was not his experience at all. Some of the closest friendships I have developed in my lifetime were born of the pressure-filled moments that we shared here together--people that I agreed with and people that I disagreed with.
I served here for 12 years, but I had the very good fortune of having a bird's-eye view of this place for a lot longer than that. My uncle, Dale Kildee, with whom most of you in this room served, those of you who served here, was here for 36 years. I watched him often from that gallery. I also watched him up close and learned from him that you can fight hard for the positions you believe in. You can be passionate about the things you care about and still treat people with whom you have differences with dignity and respect.
I hope when I came here that I did something to live up to the example that he set. It is an important example not just because it is a message that we send to the rest of the country, but it is also really important in order to get things done here. When I was here many years ago, early in my term my hometown of Flint faced its most difficult moment in its history, a water crisis, lead poisoning thousands and thousands of young kids in my hometown. I needed to get something done to help that community recover.
I was in the minority at that time. I served in the minority and in the majority here, and I have a preference. But it was people like Fred Upton, my very good friend from the other side of the aisle, who stood with me when I needed help from the other side of the aisle to get help for my own hometown. That made a difference.
It wasn't just Fred. It was many others. It was actually Speaker Ryan and then-Leader Pelosi who worked together to help me get that help done.
People ask if I miss this place. I do. I mostly miss the friendships and the relationships, but what I take away from it--it is an important obligation that I hope we all share--is to go out and talk to people about the times that we did succeed here; that our differences are not something that ought to define our time here. Our differences should be celebrated not denigrated.
The notion of this place is to get as many different points of view as we possibly can in the same room to sit at a table of goodwill and try to find a path forward.
As I now have left Congress, one of my roles is to teach at Central Michigan University. What I hope to do in that role is to explain to those students that despite what they see and hear on the news is that this place is still a place for people of different points of view and different perspectives to come together at a table of goodwill and try to chart a path forward for our country. It still works. We just need to make sure we explain that to people and demonstrate that to people. The Former Members of Congress is a great vehicle to do that.
The Chair recognizes the Honorable Fred Upton of Michigan.
I thank my friend, Dan Kildee, not only did we work well together here, we have actually worked together since we both left. Thank goodness for cell phones that we didn't have a lot of years ago.
It is nice to be back in this respected Chamber with so many of my friends. I retired in 2023 after serving southwest Michigan for 36 years. Yesterday, I gave the commencement speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and I reflected somewhat on my career in the body, reflecting the strong bipartisan actions that I undertook from my first day of office.
You see, I learned a lot from my years in the Reagan White House, working with a very popular President who, guess what, had an amazing run leading our country through some very difficult times, and he did it with bipartisan support. He won 49 States when he ran for reelection in 1984. Yes, he worked across the aisle, and for the most part with a Democratic Congress.
I took a page from his success, and with very few exceptions worked with the Republicans and Democrats on the many issues of the day with very few regrets.
Today, we have so many issues that need this body's attention. The laundry list is long, and time is short. However, the challenge that I gave to the students yesterday and to this body today is pretty simple as we pass the torch to the next generation: We need leaders for today and tomorrow. This is not the time to stand by. It is the time, in fact, to stand up.
Frederick Douglass said: ``I would unite with anyone to do right and with nobody to do wrong.''
We need these graduates that I spoke to yesterday, and we need this body to act responsibly on the issues of today and tomorrow. Let's get to work. My closing remarks yesterday, of course, were: Go Blue. Beat the Bucks.
The Chair recognizes the Honorable Val Demings of Florida.
Madam Speaker, I made a decision a long time ago to dedicate my life to public service. As the daughter of a maid and a janitor, I could have never imagined that I would be elected to serve in Congress. I am grateful for my parents' sacrifices and also grateful for Congress' commitment throughout history to pass laws that gave greater opportunities to all of America's sons and daughters.
I was honored during my three terms to join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass legislation that I know will make a difference for generations to come; legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which includes massive investment in our roads and in our bridges, broadband, and clean energy; legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act; legislation like the Safer Communities Act to address gun violence; and legislation that takes better care of our veterans like the PACT Act.
Since its inception, only about 12,500 people have served in Congress, what a privilege. When we put our heads and our hearts together, history proves that Congress can do some amazing things and make life better and safer for the American people.
The Chair recognizes the Honorable Larry LaRocco of Idaho.
Madam Speaker, it is a great honor to be back in the well of the House that I revere and where memories I cherish occurred. I am grateful for the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress for the recognition of the work I did for our great group of formers.
There is a common thread that links those of us who have served in this House and the Senate: public service.
The strictly bipartisan programs of the FMC are intended to reach broad audiences about our commitment to public service.
I found as a Member of Congress that I possessed two things that could not be diluted: my vote and my word. I was entrusted with a vote to represent the values of approximately 700,000 constituents. That vote belonged to the people of my district and was not intended to be controlled by the President, congressional leadership, or an interest group, and my word needed to be trusted by my colleagues.
Our Article I responsibilities obligated us to form alliances within and outside party affiliations. Bipartisanship is the glue that binds our unique form of democracy. We are not a parliamentary system that locks us in with strict party or personal loyalty. Our country is calling for a shattering of blatant partnership that holds us back from truly representing the needs of our great country.
While a Member of this body, I attempted to conduct myself by the words: ``Do right. Risk consequences.'' This guiding phrase served me well then and now.
The Chair recognizes the Honorable Tim Petri of Wisconsin on behalf of Cliff Stearns of Florida.
I am reading the remarks of our former colleague, Chris Stearns from Florida, who titled his speech: ``A Call for Civility and Collaboration.''
As Former Members of Congress and the Nation celebrate our 250th anniversary, he writes, we need to remind ourselves how important public service is and the constant need today for bipartisanship, friendship, civility, and collaboration in Congress.
During my 24 years in Congress, I can remember many times when I worked with Democrats for the benefit of my constituency and of our Nation. Along with way, I made many Democratic friends such as Tom McMillen, Bart Gordon, Eddie Towns, Anna Eshoo, and Tom Downey. When I left Congress, I was so pleased to join Former Members of Congress as a Member and later to serve as its President.
What a joy it was to show up at my first board meeting and see Democrats and Republicans working together no matter what their political ideology was for the overall success of Former Members of Congress.
I believe the American people deserve better than a government constantly at war with itself. Our first President in his Farewell Address feared political parties becoming ``tribal machines,'' to use his words. Civility and collaboration should be the cornerstone of service if you wish to serve in Congress today.
That is also the spirit of what we are doing here at Former Members of Congress.
The Chair recognizes the Honorable L.F. Payne of Virginia.
Madam Speaker, shortly after I was elected to represent Virginia's Fifth Congressional District, I learned of the Sandy River Reservoir. It was a local project which was much-needed to provide drinking water in my district. The county had spent millions of its taxpayer dollars building a dam and clearing a site only to be told by the Corps of Engineers that it could not be filled because it violated legislation on wetlands. The project sat unfilled for years and years as a monument to the failure of government to serve the people.
My Transportation Committee was working on transportation reauthorization, then known as ISTEA, and I worked on a bipartisan and collaborative basis with my colleagues and with the leadership of the committee, Norm Mineta and Bud Shuster at the time. We inserted language requiring the Corps to fill that reservoir. I worked along with Senator John Warner, a Republican from Virginia, who did the same thing in the Senate bill, and we passed the bill. President Bush 41 signed the bill, about which, incidentally, he said was one of the best things he did during his Presidency. Today, the Sandy River Reservoir is a beautiful 750-acre body of water providing drinking water to thousands of Virginians and is recognized as one of the best freshwater fisheries in the Eastern United States.
Bipartisanship, collaboration, and congressional action, the Congress working for the people as it should, and may it always be so.
Point of personal privilege, I am joined today by my wife, Susan; my daughter, Anna; and my grandson, Ben Fife, who is 6 years old and who is in the Capitol for the very first time. It is my my hope that Ben and his generation will visit this Capitol often and will provide the leadership that will be needed just as all of us have in our generation.
Thank you all for these really wonderful insights, anecdotes, and celebration of the Article I branch. You have given us the perfect setting as FMC commences the America250 programing.
I now recognize Barbara Comstock, again, for concluding remarks.
Madam Speaker, I would just like to mention to you as when the Speaker opened our program today, he really implored us to focus on the civility that FMC is known for. He mentioned that when he came here in 2018, he was so focused on that. That is something that FMC very much is focused on and does a lot of our work on because it is a little easier when we leave to work together.
Whether it is dealing with anti-Semitic violence, that was mentioned here today by our colleagues, or gun violence, which is all too present which we tragically saw this weekend--when you have college students not just tragically to hear of school shootings in our college where two students at Brown who had already dealt with gun violence when they were in high school are now facing it again in college--or threats of violence to public officials. We do studies on this at FMC where we are seeing the rising threats of violence against public officials that it is causing our Members to leave Congress.
When we field studies on this, we are seeing many public officials are now leaving government service because of these threats of violence, and they are becoming exponentially more frequent.
This need for more civility is something that we are seeing a lot more discussion of. Just last week you had a very good discussion between Governor Cox of Utah and Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, both of whom have been dealing with this in their own State. Governor Shapiro was a victim of this in Pennsylvania, and Governor Cox, of course, is dealing with this in Utah. We need to have more of these discussions. I think as we are dealing with our 250th anniversary, this is very much a discussion that we need to have because the civility is what keeps our democracy, if we are going to keep it, which is something that is very important to us.
We all want our grandchildren to feel safe.
I know 3 years ago on this Christmas I had gone to visit Australia, and I was on Bondi Beach with my grandchildren. I have to say I felt that is a much safer place in Australia. They hadn't dealt with violence like this in over 30 years. Their immediate response in Australia was: We are going to take action, not just thoughts and prayers. They are going to take action.
We have to take action in this body when we have situations like this.
We as FMC can help those kinds of actions, and we hope we will.
Let me conclude by thanking two incredibly important groups of people without whom none of the things you just heard about would be possible. They are our outstanding professionals working at FMC, the folks on staff as well as some of our interns who are here with us today. Please seek them out and let them know how great a job they are all doing.
I made a point of including all of their names in the written report that we have submitted for the Congressional Record earlier this morning.
My thanks also to our exceptional board of directors. I want to especially highlight the officers who make up our executive committee and are so invaluable to me as FMC's president.
They are Donna Edwards of Maryland, Dennis Ross of Florida, Loretta Sanchez of California, and L.F. Payne of Virginia.
I also have submitted all the board members' names for the Record.
Let me share two 2026 dates that I hope all Members will add to their calendars. On January 30 and 31, FMC is hosting a regional meeting in Miami. We hope that you can join us, especially Members from my class who were first sworn into Congress in this very Chamber 10 years ago.
April 21 is the date of our 29th annual Statesmanship Award Celebration which will be hosted at the Library of Congress. We are excited to recognize the public service and bipartisan work of Senators Bozeman and Warnock and Representatives Huizenga and Meeks as well as Deutsche Telekom as our corporate honoree.
For those and any other events FMC is working on, please seek out an FMC team member if you would like to participate. I hope all of you, whether former Members or current Members not returning for the 120th Congress, will join us immediately after this program concludes for an informal coffee reception in H-120. For our retiring Members, this will be a great opportunity to connect with former Members, all of whom have gone through the professional and personal transition off the Hill that you are about to embark upon.
I will quote a former Member who called me up about 6 months after he had retired. He was very mad at me for not telling me how much fun it was after he had retired and why I hadn't encourage him earlier.
Please come and meet with us.
We will also be joined by the Capitol Historical Society, a great partner of ours and an organization that you all should be actively engaged with also. Over the years many of you have had a chance to meet and work with the Historical Society's president, Jane Campbell. Jane is also retiring. While she can't be with us this morning, I do thank her for her outstanding work and for her great partnership with FMC.
We are excited to welcome her replacement this morning, Roswell Encina, who spent many years with the Library of Congress and has been appointed president of the Society. We are excited to work with him in the years to come.
With that, I thank you all for joining us this morning, and I yield back my time to the Chair.
Thank you so much, Barbara, for this report. Most importantly, thank you for your thoughtful and exemplary leadership of the FMC.
The Chair again wishes to thank the Former Members of the House for their presence here today.
On behalf of FMC, I thank all the congressional staff who have helped make today's presentation every year possible. You have been a terrific resource, and we really appreciate all you have done.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Nittany Leathernecks' contribution to Christmas throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Nittany Leathernecks Detachment of the Marine Corps League is a community service organization composed of active, retired, and former Marines. Since 1947, the mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program has been to collect new, unwrapped toys through October, November, and December each year and distribute them as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community.
The Nittany Leathernecks Detachment coordinates Toys for Tots for Centre County. The detachment works with the Centre County Adult Services Office, which coordinates with the Centre County food pantries to identify needy children and to distribute toys.
The Nittany Leathernecks campaign annually provides a Christmas gift experience to more than 9,000 children.
Mr. Speaker, I thank these selfless Marines for their service to our country and their dedication to uplifting our communities.
Mr. Speaker, today I express my outrage about the affordability crisis in American healthcare.
Republican leaders have failed to extend the expiring tax credits that help people afford their insurance. Consumers affected will face an average increase in their premium costs of 114 percent next year.
Rather than making healthcare more affordable and effective, Republican leaders and President Trump passed their big, ugly bill that kicks 10 million Americans off of Medicaid. It increases healthcare costs for 5 million small business owners and self-employed workers. It fails to extend critical tax credits. This is all to give billions of dollars of tax credits to the wealthiest Americans.
Time is running out, as we all know. I urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing and work with Democrats to make healthcare more affordable and more effective for Americans.
Mr. Speaker, Americans join President Donald Trump in expressing heartfelt recognition of the three great patriots killed and those wounded by ISIS in Syria.
Iowa National Guard Sergeants William Nathaniel Howard and Edgar Brown Torres-Tovar, as well as a civilian interpreter, were remembered by Mouaz Moustafa of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, who condemned the ISIS, Iranian, and Russia collaboration.
President Trump is being proven a visionary to give Syria a chance with U.S.-Syria full military cooperation and pledged serious retaliation, while praising Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa for his efforts to defeat ISIS.
Ambassador Tom Barrack, the Trump envoy for Syria, correctly cites: ``Defeating ISIS on Syrian soil . . . with local forces is actively shielding America from far greater threats.''
In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues. Trump is reinstituting peace through strength, revealing war criminal Putin lies, insulting and mocking Trump, as Putin attacks utility infrastructures to freeze Ukrainians as Stalin starved Ukrainians.
We extend our sympathies for Brown University college Republican vice president, Ella Cook, of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama; and Uzbek American, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, of Virginia.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 284) to reauthorize the Congressional Award Act.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) each will control 20 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 284.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Michigan?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 284, the Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act.
The Congressional Award Act encourages young people between the ages of 14 and 23 to challenge themselves in ways that not only benefit themselves but also the communities they live in. The award is not given based on past achievement but, rather, an individual is honored for setting goals, creating an action plan, and meeting those goals.
Earning an award means young Americans completed self-designed programs focused on four key goals. They are volunteer service, personal growth, exploration, and physical fitness.
Upon completion, participants are awarded a Congressional Award certificate or medal in one of three levels: gold, silver, or bronze. These are important recognitions of the hard work and dedication of America's young leaders. The Congressional Award has empowered over 500,000 participants nationwide and is the highest honor Congress bestows on American youth.
By reauthorizing this program, we honor the countless hours of hard work and dedication of so many past and present participants.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 284, the Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act.
Since its inception in 1979, the award program has honored young people for their remarkable achievements through volunteering in their communities, personal development, physical fitness, and exploration.
The Congressional Award is a unique initiative, completely voluntary and noncompetitive, allowing young individuals who are ages 13 to 24 to set and achieve personal goals at their own pace.
It encourages them to engage with their communities and strive for excellence in all areas of life. By providing this recognition, we give young people the motivation and push they need to realize their potential, reminding them that they are the future of this country.
This bill reauthorizes the program through 2029. The award operates solely on private donations overseen by a bipartisan Congressional Award Board, which underscores the collective commitment to fostering the potential of our Nation's youth.
At a time when our youth face unprecedented challenges, it is essential that we continue to uplift and recognize their efforts. By supporting the bill, we can take a small step to reaffirm our commitment to supporting the youth, nurturing their potential, and celebrating their achievements.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hudson), a man who has consistently been committed to encouraging young people to achieve, beginning with his own son, as well.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 284, which is identical to the bill I introduced in the House, H.R. 860, and I urge the House to pass this important bill.
This bill simply reauthorizes the Congressional Award program, Congress' official youth recognition program and the highest honor that Congress can award our Nation's youth.
This program has helped generations of young people set goals, serve others, and push themselves to achieve more. Specifically, young Americans have to set and complete rigorous personal goals focused on volunteer service, personal development, exploration, and physical fitness.
One of my constituents, Caroline Harris, from Greensboro, North Carolina, has spent more than 3 years working toward her goal, earning a Gold Medal at the age of 17. She is one of the youngest to earn the Gold Medal.
Caroline is a very impressive young woman. She spent 400 hours volunteering to help our military families, volunteering with youth in her community, and volunteering with her peers. Caroline completed a physical fitness challenge. She even learned a new language while planning a trip abroad.
In 2025, Caroline joins a long list of impressive young Americans from North Carolina's Ninth District to earn this award. Among them, Amaria Youmans of Fayetteville and Connor Ambrose from Raeford were Bronze Medalists in 2022, and Fred Vinson from Pinehurst was a Bronze Certificate earner in 2024. It is a great honor to represent these hardworking young people.
This bill will ensure the Congressional Award program continues to challenge young Americans like Caroline, Amaria, Connor, and Fred to set goals and dedicate themselves to their community and to their own success and self-improvement.
There are over 48,000 Americans enrolled in this program throughout the country in every single congressional district. These young people give back to their communities and make investments in themselves. It is very important that we reauthorize this successful program so that we can continue to inspire and reward our young Americans and encourage each of them to reach their full potential.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote in support of S. 284.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share my strong support for S. 284, the Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to co-lead it with my colleague, Representative Hudson, whom you just heard from, and also Congressmen Mike Levin and John Rutherford.
This bill will reauthorize the Congressional Award program, which has been responsible for printing and distributing awards to young Americans across this country since 1979. This important program expired nearly 18 months ago, and it is in desperate need of reauthorization.
The Congressional Award is the highest award for youth legislated and presented by the United States Congress
Over 8.1 million hours of service have been contributed to communities across the country as part of the Congressional Award program. There are currently over 50,000 youth enrolled, and they reside in every congressional district across this country. This award encourages young Americans to do and to be their best, but the program has lapsed. My office is receiving notes from people who are not receiving their hard-earned awards.
Believe it or not, there are people who are proud that these are congressional awards, and they are proud that we are encouraging them.
Take this note that I received from a constituent: ``I earned both the Silver and the Gold Medal for the Congressional Award last year. However, due to backlogs or shortages, I still haven't received the actual awards. I would like to get them from you if that is the case.''
This young student, like thousands across the country, put in time and effort, working toward their award, but, unfortunately, they have been unable to receive it because the program has expired. Congress needs to reauthorize it.
That is why this reauthorization is so important. It will ensure that the young people who achieved their own challenging goals and who helped their communities with their volunteer hours are recognized and honored for their work.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my cosponsors again for their support and Chairman Tim Walberg and Ranking Member Bobby Scott for their assistance and support of this important bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill reauthorizes the Congressional Award program that has been an acknowledgment of achievements by individuals since 1979, recognizing their accomplishments and service within their communities.
This is more than just an award. It is about empowering our youth to engage in their communities and realize their full potential.
As young people are being tested in today's climate and atmosphere, it is crucial that we uplift them and celebrate their accomplishments.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, as I close, I thank my colleagues, including my ranking member, Bobby Scott, for this work in a bipartisan way. We have worked to reauthorize the Congressional Award Act, including Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina and Senator Lummis of Wyoming.
For decades, the Congressional Award Act has inspired young people to engage with their communities and improve the lives of their neighbors and themselves. On the Education and Workforce Committee, we are constantly working to promote more pathways for success for students and young adults so that they can thrive. The Congressional Award program is yet another step to encourage young people to set goals, develop a plan, and be the best that they can be.
Mr. Speaker, I once again urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, S. 284.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 222) to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to allow schools that participate in the school lunch program to serve whole milk, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 222.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bill near and dear to my heart, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025.
My legislation will allow for unflavored and flavored whole, reduced- fat, or 2 percent milk to be offered in school cafeterias, giving our
Milk is an essential building block for a well-rounded and balanced diet, offering 13 essential nutrients and numerous health benefits.
Unfortunately, out-of-touch and outdated Federal regulations have imposed restrictions on the types of milk students have access to in school meals. While the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act's intention to reduce child obesity was good, its impacts to attack whole milk have been misguided and devastating over the 15 years since its passage, resulting in the loss of an entire generation of milk drinkers.
It has always been a myth that whole milk causes weight gain. The beverage is 97 percent fat-free, and it is the least processed type of milk. Common sense tells us that whole milk is not the culprit of childhood obesity. Instead, milk is the number one source of protein for kids ages 2 to 11. Milk is also the top source of calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin D for children ages 2 to 18.
Medical research has proven that whole milk has several benefits, such as strong bone density, a healthier immune system, reduced cardiovascular risk, lowered blood pressure, reduced hunger cravings, reduced type 2 diabetes risk, and increased sleep quality.
Additionally, children are not consuming the amount of dairy recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and are not getting these important benefits and nutrients. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reported that over two-thirds of school-age children fail to meet the recommended levels of dairy. Rather than drinking milk they didn't like, students are throwing it away and losing out on the 21 essential minerals and 13 vitamins necessary for healthy development.
School nutrition programs provide critical access to the nutrients growing children need, including those provided by milk. In fact, school meals provide 77 percent of the total daily milk consumption for low-income children ages 5 to 18.
In addition, it is also important to remember that this legislation does not require any student to drink or any school to serve whole milk. Rather, this legislation simply gives schools the flexibility to serve a broader variety of milk in the school lunchroom.
Dairy farmers in Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District and across our country work hard every day to produce nutritious milk for our families and communities.
I am proud to lead this legislation that would allow schools to serve flavored and unflavored whole and reduced-fat milk in school cafeterias. Today, we will restore students' access to a wide variety of milk options, ensuring students have the necessary nutrients to learn and grow.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, today, we are considering S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025.
School meals play a critical role in reducing child hunger and providing children with the healthy food they need in this country. Milk offered as part of these meals can deliver essential nutrients that are central to a child's development. That is why it is important that students be provided with the most nutritional options.
Child nutrition standards for school meals, including milk options, are guided by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, DGAs, which are periodically updated based on recommendations from child nutrition experts and public input.
The latest DGAs, supported by the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and over a dozen other public health advocate organizations, agree that fat-free and low-fat milk are the healthiest options for children.
The DGAs must follow the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's evidence-based recommendations to maintain current limits on saturated fat, sugars, and sodium. Simply put, nutrition standards must be guided by scientists, not politicians and industry lobbyists. If there is a controversy, that should be debated at meetings of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, not with a group of politicians.
S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025, disregards evidence-based recommendations by removing the statutory requirement that milk options served must align with the DGAs and exempts the saturated fat found in milk from the total regulatory limits on saturated fat in school meals. This would allow schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to serve dietary options, such as whole milk, that do not align with the current science-based recommendations, which protect children's health.
For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, the bill should be defeated.
I do recognize, however, that there are some improvements to existing law in the bill, including better options for students seeking a non- dairy alternative. Schools will now have an easier process to serve nutritionally equivalent, nondairy beverages, such as soy milk, and provide that they may be served in the regular lunch line. Increasing access to plant-based meals and beverages in the lunchroom is a goal everyone should be able to support. However, this is not enough of an improvement, considering the bill's other shortcomings.
Whole milk contains far more saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories than fat-free and low-fat milk. Experts agree that saturated fat from whole milk increases the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in this country.
In fact, the majority of Americans consume too much saturated fat. More than 80 percent of the U.S. population exceeds the recommended limit. This bill needlessly inserts politics into what should be a science-based process, to the detriment of our children's health.
The Trump administration has demonstrated time and time again its disregard for public health and evidence-based interventions, and these revisions to the DGAs in this bill will have the same disregard for following the evidence. However, hopefully, future administrations will recommit to science and the decades of nutritional guidance that ensure children will receive the healthiest meals possible.
Mr. Speaker, I am also disappointed by the majority's decision to depart from precedent by moving a limited child nutrition bill outside of a comprehensive child nutrition reauthorization.
More to the point, this is the only piece of legislation that our committee has considered this year that amends laws governing child nutrition programs.
We have considered no bills that improve access to free school meals; no bills to improve the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, the WIC program; no bills to improve options for summer food programs; no bills to improve the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and no bills to address the need for healthy meals after the school day is over.
The majority did, however, choose to advance that big, ugly bill which contains Medicaid and SNAP cuts, which will result in a drastic reduction in the number of students eligible for free school meals.
Mr. Speaker, for these reasons, I oppose the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025.
For nearly 80 years, the National School Lunch Program has provided low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. We know that healthy diets can improve student success both in and out of the classroom. Whole milk is a nutrient-rich food, and its higher fat content allows children to stay fuller longer.
Unfortunately, misconceptions about certain types of fat or calories have prevented schools from offering whole milk as an option to our children. The bill gives us a chance to ensure that children have access to nutritional milk options they want to drink.
Some children struggle to consume enough of the right calories to support healthy growth and stay energized throughout the entire school day. For some, school meals may be the only meals they receive that day.
This notion that whole milk consumption is linked to childhood obesity is deeply flawed. In fact, studies suggest that higher cow's milk-fat intake is associated with a lower risk of childhood obesity. While it is important to limit fatty, sugary, and highly processed foods, whole milk does not fit into this category. In fact, many schoolchildren are at risk of dairy underconsumption, not overconsumption.
Whole milk provides critical nutrition for growing minds. We need to follow the science and pass the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, as amended by the Senate, which allows for plant-based milk alternatives to be more easily and readily available for children with lactose intolerance.
This is especially important because the rates of some degree of lactose intolerance in minority communities are startlingly high, more than most people would realize, with approximately 65 percent of Latino students, 75 percent of Black students, 90 percent of Asian students unable to digest dairy milk without detrimental effects.
This portion does, in fact, follow the science. These statistics are real, and they are played out every single day in the classroom.
Not long ago, I had a young lady from Louisiana, a precious little baby girl, who had a horrible accident because the teacher would not allow her to go to the restroom again after complaining of a tummy ache. Unfortunately, this did not end well for this student. She is a beautiful child. She has rebounded wonderfully, and she will be happy to know that going forward she will have an alternative. She doesn't have to contend with her belly aching after consuming something her body simply couldn't digest. Because the school offered no alternative, it was this or nothing. As you know, in many cases, our young people will get nothing if they don't enjoy some nutritional values at school.
Many children may not make the connection between consumption of milk and their feelings of discomfort and even illness. Lactose intolerance causes a range of health effects including stomach pain, severe bloating, gas, diarrhea, and even exacerbated asthma symptoms. These symptoms can hinder a child's ability to concentrate in the classroom, to perform in the classroom, to be attentive in the classroom, and to learn in the classroom.
We should do everything in our power to make sure our children have the best opportunity to concentrate, to learn, to do well, and to be healthy in the classroom.
Currently, children who suffer adverse reactions from traditional milk must produce a doctor's note to receive an alternative beverage, which places an unfair burden squarely on minority children, children of working parents, children whose parents simply don't have the time or the ability, because of the healthcare system crisis, to even see a doctor, let alone get a note from a doctor.
This bill fixes that issue. It contains a provision from bipartisan legislation I filed in each of the last three Congresses to remove the doctor's note requirement for receiving milk alternatives. This bill folds in those measures from my previously filed bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan reform that will allow our children to receive the nutrition they need to feel healthy and have successful lives in and out of school.
While I understand that this bill may not capture every need that is out there--I concede to our ranking member, who I respect greatly, that we have much work to do. However, this bill goes a long way to fix an issue that can simply not wait any longer to be addressed. I urge support for this measure.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Kiley), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
Mr. Speaker, it is frankly crazy that for 20 million kids who rely on free and reduced lunch, they are banned from drinking whole milk as a matter of Federal law. Whatever basis in science or public health might have ever backed this up has long since been debunked. I am glad that we are finally correcting this error today.
Why should kids have access to whole milk at school? Well, at least three reasons. Number one is nutrition. The latest science shows that whole milk actually is probably better for you nutritionally than other kinds of milk because it is less processed. As for saturated fats, science shows that the body processes dairy fats differently than other kinds of fats.
The second reason is satiation. Whole milk is simply more filling. For a program that is designed to make sure kids don't go hungry, that might be a relevant consideration. Moreover, when kids are not full from their lunch, then they might be more inclined to grab things that are a lot less healthy.
The third is taste. A lot of kids simply hate the taste of skim milk. I don't blame them. I hate it, too. I love the taste of whole milk.
What is particularly crazy is that while schools can't serve whole milk, they are allowed to serve sugary strawberry and chocolate milks, which are a lot worse for kids.
This may not seem like the paramount issue facing the Republic at this moment, but I will say that it touches upon two important issues. The first is health in this country. One of the biggest drivers of healthcare costs and of poor public health outcomes is obesity that begins in childhood that has continued to rise, the rates have, since this ban on whole milk went into effect and now constitutes over 20 percent.
The second issue is trust in government. Our public health establishment has given a lot of very bad advice in the past; for example, downplaying the risk of sugar. Even more than that, when kids are seeing the government do stupid and arbitrary things like tell them they can't have whole milk, I am not sure how we are supposed to foster the trust in government on which democracy depends.
This is a good bill. I hope we pass it overwhelmingly today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Finstad), the Chair of the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding.
I rise today in support of S. 222, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which I was proud to help introduce alongside Chairman Thompson.
As a fourth generation farmer raising the fifth generation, I know firsthand the importance of ensuring families have access to healthy and nutritious milk products. As a father of seven, my wife and I have purchased our fair share of milk on trips to the grocery store.
This legislation has been in the making for a long time, and it is past due that we send it to the President's desk and make this the law of the land.
Moving forward, every child across southern Minnesota and the rest of the Nation will have access to whole and 2 percent milk products when they go through the school lunch line. Moreover, this legislation will support our dairy farmers and the rural communities they call home. Farming is one of the most honorable and noble professions this country has to offer, and southern Minnesota is the home to some of the best dairy farmers and manufacturers in the world.
This legislation is a win-win for school-age children and dairy farmers across this country. I am proud that we now, once again, can say loudly: ``Milk: It does a body good.''
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this important legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in full support of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025.
For over 10 years, children in schools across our country have been deprived of the many benefits of whole milk, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has reported that nearly 90 percent of Americans do not meet their daily dairy intake recommendations.
This overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation brings common sense back to how we help the next generation stay healthy, putting vitamin D and calcium-rich whole milk in front of millions of children nationwide.
However, Mr. Speaker, children are not the only ones who stand to benefit from this legislation.
American dairy farmers produce and process some of the highest quality products in the world. With school milk accounting for more than 8 percent of fluid milk demand, this legislation allows our dairy farmers to have their products go right back into the communities from where they were produced.
I thank my colleagues in both Chambers on both sides of the aisle for helping put this nutritious, high quality whole milk back into our schools and also for bringing back common sense into how we keep Americans healthy.
Today, I rise in support of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. Milk has long been a cornerstone of children's diets in this country. It provides high-quality protein, calcium, vitamin D, and other essential nutrients that growing bodies and young minds need to thrive. For many kids, milk is the most reliable source of vital nutrients they receive.
This legislation is about common sense and choice. Whole and reduced- fat milk are safe and nutritious options that many children prefer and are more likely to drink. When kids enjoy milk, they are more likely to drink it and get the nutrition it offers instead of pouring it down the drain.
The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act supports healthier kids and gives schools the flexibility to meet students where they are, allowing them to nurture healthy habits that will last a lifetime. It also supports our dairy farmers by allowing them more ways to meaningfully participate in healthy school lunch programs.
Let's help our children grow strong and healthy.
I thank the chairman for his leadership on this legislation, and I urge all my colleague to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025.
Whole milk needs to be offered in schools as part of a healthy childhood diet. This Congress, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act to bring whole milk back into schools.
As a doctor, I recognize that as a source of nutrition, whole milk provides 13 key nutrients that are vital to bone development, brain development, and muscle development, all important to a growing child.
Obama-era policies that have banned whole milk in schools have caused students to turn to highly caffeinated sugary drinks rather than healthy whole milk and other dairy products that are crucial to a child's development.
Under current law, schools are only permitted to offer fat-free or low-fat milk. The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 will allow schools to offer students a variety of healthy choices that include whole milk.
We must give our kids healthy options in schools, and by allowing whole milk to be offered as a part of school lunches, this legislation will support kids' development while encouraging young students to make healthy choices.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to be a cosponsor of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
I remember when I was a child I think the average high school student weighed, whatever, 20 or 30 pounds less than they do today, and we had nothing but whole milk. Whole milk was distributed for lunch to all the children. We were taught from first or second grade and onward that calcium, vitamin A, potassium, magnesium, zinc, and all the nutrients that are necessary are in whole milk. I think this is one of the reasons God gave us a body in which whole milk clearly tastes better than 2 percent milk and way better than skim milk.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to strike a blow for freedom and to bring the healthiness of our children back to what it was 50 years ago and pass the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, as earlier noted, S. 222 does make some improvements to the whole milk debate with its inclusion of better options for students seeking nondairy alternatives. The gentleman from Louisiana spoke to those provisions, and that is something that is supported by our Nation's nutritionists, pediatricians, and scientists.
However, I remain disappointed that the bill overall makes school meals less healthy. This bill goes against the dairy industry's stated commitment to ensure that students have access to the healthiest dairy options consistent with the DGAs. The DGAs make clear that fat-free and low-fat milk are the healthiest options for children 2 years and older. Whole milk contains far more saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories than fat-free and low-fat milk.
In a nation where the obesity rate among children is over 16 percent and the children are already facing obesity-related challenges such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, we should not ignore the stance of dieticians, nutritionists, pediatricians, and the overall science.
Mr. Speaker, I am committed to ensuring that students have access to the healthiest dairy options in accordance with science-backed guidelines, but S. 222 contradicts that commitment by interfering with the independent process that aligns child nutrition standards with the latest science.
Furthermore, let me just point out that after months of Republican- led political brinksmanship, we are still considering a bill that does nothing meaningful to address childhood obesity, nutrition, or hunger.
The bottom line is that Members of Congress should not inject politics into child nutrition standards at the expense of nutritious school meals that our children need.
For those reasons, I urge my colleagues to oppose S. 222, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I have proudly led this charge to restore whole milk in school milk programs for the last decade.
I am grateful to those who played a role in this effort, including the House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg and former Chairwoman Virginia Foxx; my co-lead, Congresswoman Kim Schrier, who is a pediatrician; my Senate companion co-leads, Senators Roger Marshall, Peter Welch, Dave McCormick, and John Fetterman; my staff in my personal office and on the House Agriculture Committee, who have worked tirelessly to advance this bill every step of the way, especially my legislative director, Faith Tuttle.
I also thank the National Milk Producers Federation, and in particular Paul Bleiberg; the International Dairy Foods Association; the Farm Bureau; the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau; and the most dedicated grassroots movement in America, 97 Milk, including the leadership of Bernie Morrissey and Sherry Bunting, Nelson Troutman, Krista Byler, Christine Ebersole, Dr. Edward Silverman, and a host of parents and dairy farmers. I thank each and every one of these individuals who
I encourage all of my colleagues to support this legislation and drink whole milk.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, S. 222.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5810) to provide for mandatory training for Federal Government supervisors and the assessment of management competencies, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Timmons) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Subramanyam) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the American public relies on Federal supervisors to lead a workforce that provides high-quality customer service and faithful execution of the law.
These expectations and standards require a level of professionalism that can be improved by strengthening relevant education offerings available to Federal supervisors. My bill would do just that, by bolstering existing requirements in Federal law governing Federal workforce training.
Various reports and memos from agencies such as the GAO, Office of Personnel Management, and the Merit Systems Protection Board indicate a need to improve relevant educational opportunities for Federal supervisors.
The Federal Supervisor Education Act, a bipartisan bill dating back to the 114th Congress, articulates and executes best practices in relation to Federal supervisory training, including how to effectively manage employees with unacceptable performance.
These are basic, nonpartisan concepts that are generally available to private-sector business supervisors and, if implemented, would advance the interests of good government and strengthen the Federal workforce on behalf of the American taxpayer.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5810, the Federal Supervisor Education Act of 2025. The bill was reported favorably by the Oversight Committee unanimously on December 2 with bipartisan support.
The bill would require Federal agencies to create and implement training and development programs for agency supervisors. These programs will help improve their management skills, communicate with their colleagues, and mentor fellow employees. It will also help them when it comes to knowing what is prohibited when it comes to personnel practices, employee rights, and how those rights must be protected.
A lot of these Federal agency supervisors actually live in my district. Those supervisors should know that they won't have to do this annually. This is once every 3 years. This will be beneficial to our agencies and to the supervisors as well.
I thank the majority for incorporating feedback from the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Walkinshaw) and committee Democrats prior to the bill reaching the floor. Due to this, committee Democrats unanimously supported this legislation in markup.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I also thank the House Oversight Committee for unanimously supporting my legislation in a recent markup. Given the bill's advancement of good-government principles, I urge my colleagues to vote for this long overdue legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Timmons) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5810, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5457) to improve the visibility, accountability, and oversight of agency software asset management practices, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Timmons) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Subramanyam) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on this measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from South Carolina?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, Federal agencies spend billions of dollars a year on software licenses without a full understanding of what they are purchasing and how it compares to what they are already paying for. The result is wasteful spending on duplicative or unnecessary software licenses.
H.R. 5457 requires Federal agencies to take an inventory of their software licenses to better understand how it is used, who uses it, and how many licenses go unused. The bill will also provide Congress with better insights into how our Federal agencies purchase and use software.
The text we are considering today is identical to the text we passed out of the House by voice vote last Congress. This bill improves government software purchasing without unduly limiting the procurement options of Federal agencies.
It requires each agency to better manage its software and develop a plan for addressing any costly, unnecessary licenses. This will reduce wasteful spending and improve government efficiency.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Brown for bringing this important legislation back to this Congress. I also thank Mr. Fallon and Ms. Mace for their early and continued support of this bill.
I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this is a great bill, and I support it. I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Brown), the sponsor of this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5457, the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act.
The SAMOSA Act is a straightforward, good-government bill that has strong bipartisan support from members of the Oversight Committee. I reintroduced this legislation earlier this year with Congresswoman Mace, the chair of the Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation; Congressman Pat Fallon; and Congresswoman April McClain Delaney as co- leads. I thank them for their support.
I will also take a moment to recognize the late Congressman Connolly, who worked tirelessly on this legislation and who had introduced the SAMOSA Act prior to his passing.
This is legislation that will improve the acquisition process for Federal agencies, help the government better manage software needs, and ultimately save taxpayer dollars.
Agencies across the Federal Government spend around $33 billion in taxpayer money on software every year, but right now, many agencies don't actually have a list of what they own, what they are fully using, or whether they are buying the same thing twice.
That doesn't make any sense, and this bill solves the problem.
This bill streamlines how agencies track, manage, and report their software assets by requiring complete assessments on the software paid for, used, or deployed at each agency.
It also requires agencies to submit these assessments to the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration, and Congress so that Congress and these agencies can oversee spending and contracting software practices.
By requiring agencies to do these assessments and review software assets, this bill can improve planning for software management, automate processes, train staff, and improve our cybersecurity.
Here is a key point: Industry experts estimate the bill could save up to $750 million each year in taxpayer funding. This is real government efficiency, and it is from legislation that has gone through committee with support and input from both sides of the aisle.
As the legislative year comes to a close, let's pass the SAMOSA Act and lower costs for taxpayers.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation that will reduce wasteful spending and improve government efficiency.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Timmons) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5457, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Honoring the Service and Sacrifice of United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, Who Were Tragically Shot in Washington, D.C., in A...
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 923) a resolution honoring the service and sacrifice of United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, who were tragically shot in Washington, D.C., in a targeted assault against United States servicemembers on November 26, 2025, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman) and the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Tokuda) each will control 20 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Virginia?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe were tragically shot just before the Thanksgiving holiday here in Washington, D.C.
As members of the West Virginia National Guard on duty in the Nation's Capital, Specialist Beckstrom and Staff Sergeant Wolfe were targeted and violently assaulted with a barrage of gunfire for doing nothing less than performing their duty as a soldier and an airman. Both of them sustained severe gunshot wounds during the attack.
Sadly, Specialist Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries and passed away, surrounded by loved ones, on Thanksgiving Day, while Staff Sergeant Wolfe remains in recovery. We wish him speedy success in that effort to be back on his feet.
These two young guardsmen represent the best of what our Nation has to offer, making this horrific attack a truly devastating loss not just for those who knew them, served with them, and loved them, but it is, indeed, a tragic event for our entire Nation.
Specialist Beckstrom was 20 years old at the time of her passing. An excellent student and dedicated guardsman, she graduated with honors from Webster County High School in West Virginia. Weeks later, on June 6, she joined the West Virginia National Guard. Sarah embodied selfless service.
In Sarah's civilian job, she worked as a community engagement specialist at a certified community behavioral health clinic that provides mental health and substance abuse disorder treatment to those in need. She recently volunteered to extend her deployment here in Washington, D.C.
Sarah was admired by all who knew her. She served admirably and with distinction, and I would argue she is admired even by those who didn't know her for her selfless sacrifice on behalf of her colleagues in West Virginia, but also on behalf of grateful citizens across our Nation.
We honor her dedication, honor her service, and express our deepest condolences to her loved ones.
Sarah will indeed be missed, but her legacy will live on. Her selfless sacrifice will live on in the hearts and minds of her fellow citizens in West Virginia, but also those of us across the Nation.
Staff Sergeant Wolfe enlisted in the West Virginia National Guard before he even finished high school. At 24 years old, he voluntarily requested to continue his mission here in Washington, D.C., through the holidays.
A dedicated airman, Andrew is also an asset to his community, his State, and our Nation. As a lineman with Frontier Communications, Andrew brought connectivity and communications to many communities across West Virginia, in many areas that needed it the most.
Andrew was dedicated to making sure that people had that connectivity and had that connection to the internet that they needed just for the basic elements of life, but also for educational opportunities.
Like Sarah, Andrew proved himself to be a selfless warrior, serving with distinction and earning the admiration of all who knew him.
We join with his friends and family in praying for his full recovery, and we hope his journey to healing is swift and painless.
I would be remiss if I did not thank the first responders, law enforcement, and National Guardsmen and -women who acted quickly to subdue the threat and provide first aid. They acted with courage and bravery while under fire to protect the people of Washington, D.C.
Mr. Speaker, this is what makes our Nation great, folks who are willing to serve our Nation, like Sarah and Andrew, who are willing to don the cloth of this Nation, willing to provide that selfless sacrifice, willing to put their lives on the line each and every day for what we all believe in, that great Constitution of our United States of America.
Today, we honor and recognize their selfless service and understand what it takes in those dangerous situations to truly guard this beacon of freedom and liberty here in our great United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to join my colleagues in honoring the life and service of Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and in lifting up Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe as he continues his recovery after the shooting that wounded them both while deployed to Washington, D.C.
Mr. Speaker, Specialist Beckstrom was only 20 years old when she died on November 27, 2025, from her injuries. She was a daughter, a student, an athlete, a caregiver, and a soldier.
In her civilian life, as we heard, she worked at a behavioral health clinic in Summersville, West Virginia, helping others heal. She initially joined the Army to help pay for college. She soon found a deeper calling in service, proudly serving as a military police officer.
At Webster County High School, she excelled both in the classroom and on the softball field, studied health science, and participated in the JROTC, learning early the values of citizenship, duty, and service in a democracy.
She dreamed of a future in law enforcement, possibly with the FBI, a dream rooted in her desire to protect others and to be a part of something greater than herself. Her life was far too short, but her example will endure.
Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, just 24 years old, also exemplifies that same quiet dedication to country. A lineman in his civilian life and a force management airman in the West Virginia Air National Guard, he serves in a role that rarely makes headlines but is essential to the readiness and effectiveness of our Armed Forces. His work ensures that our people, resources, and missions are aligned so the military can function when it matters most.
A graduate of high school in Inwood, West Virginia, Staff Sergeant Wolfe joined the Guard in 2019, stepping forward to serve, while building a life at home. I am encouraged by reports of his progress and that he is now breathing on his own and standing without assistance. I join all who are rooting for his full and speedy recovery.
Specialist Beckstrom and Staff Sergeant Wolfe represent the very best of our Nation. They are young Americans, driven by service, compassion, and a sense of duty. Their willingness to step forward and to serve their communities and their country reflects the highest ideals of military and public service.
Mr. Speaker, there is no place in a civil and democratic society for this kind of violence. I am deeply grateful to all who wear the uniform and to the families and the loved ones who stand behind them, often bearing the quiet burden and heavy sacrifices on their own.
I thank Representatives Miller and Moore for bringing forward H. Res. 923, and I am extremely proud to support its passage.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 923, which honors the service and the sacrifice of two of our West Virginia National Guard members: United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe.
These two courageous National Guardsmen were tragically shot in Washington, D.C., in a targeted assault against United States servicemembers on November 26 of this year.
Specialist Beckstrom was just 20 years old. She succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day. Sarah was a recent graduate of Webster High School. Her friends remember her as a true peacekeeper. She dreamed of becoming an FBI agent and held a deep and unwavering love for her country.
Her loss is deeply felt across West Virginia and by a grateful Nation that she served with honor. I urge my colleagues to join me in praying for her friends and her family as they continue to grieve from this tragic loss.
Staff Sergeant Wolfe is 24 years old and from Martinsburg, West Virginia. He graduated from Musselman High School and enlisted in the National Guard while he was still a student in high school. He was assigned to the Force Support Squadron, the 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia National Guard.
Just yesterday, Staff Sergeant Wolfe was discharged from the hospital and is now recovering at an inpatient rehabilitation facility. By the grace of God and through his steadfast grit, he has made steady improvements since last month's attack. He was recently able to sit in a chair and enjoy time with friends and family visiting him.
His mother credits his miraculous improvement to the healing hand of God. I urge my colleagues to continue to pray for Staff Sergeant Wolfe's recovery, for the medical teams assisting him, and for his friends and family as they support him through this journey of healing.
Our servicemembers represent the very best in the United States. I am honored to join my fellow West Virginia Representative, Congressman Riley Moore, in introducing this resolution, recognizing these two incredible individuals and memorializing their selfless service to our country.
Mr. Speaker, I also rise in strong support of this resolution. I can't believe I am standing here and talking about this. I really can't. The tragic nature of this is unfathomable.
Myself and my colleague, Carol Miller, were at Sarah Beckstrom's funeral just recently in Grafton, West Virginia, in my district. I can't imagine being her parents, watching her parents and her sister all receive that folded flag. It is just heartbreaking. I am a father of a son and two daughters. Watching her father just grieve in that manner is just unimaginable. It really puts me at a loss for words.
Something that stuck with me about that entire service, that funeral, for Sarah is they talked about her graduation cap. When she graduated high school, she wrote on her cap from Philippians 4:13: ``I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'' That is what she chose to write on her graduation cap: ``I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.''
Just hearing that at that funeral strengthened me. I think it strengthened a lot of us there. I think it is the reason we have seen the miraculous recovery of Andy.
Andy Wolfe, as we heard, graduated from Musselman High School. That is 20 minutes down the road from me. His father is a deputy sheriff in the county next to mine.
In West Virginia, we live in small communities. We all know each other. We are all hurting over this tremendously.
This young lady lost her life when that shouldn't have ever happened. Some Islamic radical terrorist took her life on the streets of Washington, D.C. It is just so tragic.
Out of the tragedy, I think there is some triumph in that the power of prayer has been proven in the recovery of Andy Wolfe. I know myself, my wife, and my family have been praying nonstop for his recovery, Mr. Speaker. It has worked. It has truly worked. His mom, Melody, has been begging everyone to continue to pray.
Mr. Speaker, I urge everybody on both sides of this aisle, on both sides of this building, and all across this country to continue to pray for Andy and his family.
I would point out that in the State of West Virginia, we have some of the highest service in the country as it relates to per capita service in the military. We are proud. West Virginians are proud to wear that uniform and serve their country.
God bless the Beckstrom family. God bless the Wolfe family. God bless this great Nation. May Sarah rest in peace.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time. I thank Representative Miller and Representative Wittman for presenting this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of Representative Miller's resolution honoring the service and sacrifice of United States Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe.
Mr. Speaker, on November 26, in an act of terror, Sarah Beckstrom was tragically taken from us. She served her country with honor and with dedication. Her loss is felt deeply by her family, by her friends, fellow servicemembers, and all who had the privilege of knowing her.
This resolution recognizes her service to our great Nation, and it extends our heartfelt condolences to those who mourn her passing.
We also honor Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, who courageously answered our Nation's call to serve and was critically injured in the same heinous attack. As he continues his recovery, we are praying for his healing and strength for his family and the medical professionals who are caring for him. His courage, resilience, and his commitment to duty reflect the very best of our Armed Forces.
Mr. Speaker, today we honor Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe, and we recognize their service, their strength, and their sense of duty to our country.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, as we have heard from Mr. Carter, from Mrs. Miller, and from Mr. Moore, Sarah and Andrew, known at home as Andy, are really two individuals who we should all model
They are the examples of what makes this Nation great--individuals willing to put their lives on the line for something bigger than themselves, for that foundation of what we all believe in, in this Nation: what our Constitution guarantees, those freedoms and liberties that make the United States the greatest Nation the world has ever known.
Mr. Speaker, we are blessed to live in a nation that has individuals like Sarah and Andy who are willing to put their lives on the line for those principles. Our Nation was a nation founded on an idea--an idea that all are created equal and that we have those inalienable rights given to us by our creator, and folks are willing to sacrifice everything in order to preserve those basic liberties and freedoms. This is just incredible.
When we gather together today to remember the selfless sacrifices of Sarah and Andy, it should make us all come together in the sense of what makes this Nation great. It should make us all never forget how thankful we are for those who serve our Nation in uniform, and not just those who serve in the military but those who came to Sarah and Andy's call when they were injured, those first responders and those law enforcement individuals. We are blessed to have a nation of people willing to give of themselves for the greater purpose. That is, again, what makes this Nation great.
As we know, Sarah and Andy were two of those great group of people who I referred to. Unfortunately, in some sense, there are not as many people who are interested in serving today, although we have recently seen a resurgence in that, which is great--people willing to do something that is greater than just themselves. We see before us that selfless sacrifice which reminds us again of what makes this Nation great, and we must never forget those sacrifices.
For the sacrifice of Sarah and Andy, who were viciously gunned down just blocks away from the White House, we will never forget their service to our Nation.
Mr. Speaker, instead of remembering them as victims of a hate crime, we must remember, again, their selfless service and sacrifice, their bravery, and their courage. That should make us all admire them as individuals and admire those who are willing to make that ultimate sacrifice.
We grieve with Sarah's friends and family. We pray that their grief begins to subside and that they can remember Sarah for the incredible legacy that she has left behind and for all the good that she has done here on Earth.
We stand with Andy and his friends and family in support of his recovery. It is great to hear from Mr. Moore that he is back home and back on that steady path to recovery. This is all great news.
We thank both of them for their selfless sacrifice to our Nation. We thank the citizens of West Virginia for what they do in providing that National Guard presence. We also thank our Nation that puts together these great men and women to serve a greater cause.
Mr. Speaker, again, I wish our Nation the best in the years to come. I wish all of those who selflessly serve our Nation nothing but God's continued blessings.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 923, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 216) to amend the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act to improve the administration of the Marine Debris Foundation, to amend the Marine Debris Act to improve the administration of the Marine Debris Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Figures) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Dakota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from South Dakota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act continues important work that began last Congress, in the 118th Congress, to protect and preserve the quality of our oceans from marine debris.
This bill will enhance the capabilities of NOAA to address the adverse impacts of marine debris on the U.S. economy and navigational safety, but it will not impose any new mandates on industry or local government.
This bill also clarifies the proper functioning of the Marine Debris Foundation and requires it to establish its principal office here in Washington, D.C., or in a shoreline coastal community.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I too rise in support of S. 216, the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act.
Mr. Speaker, before I express support for that, I will associate myself with the comments of my colleagues for the previous resolution, condemning the violence against members of the National Guard from West Virginia and condemning that horrific act that took the life of Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and has left Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe gravely injured.
Mr. Speaker, as it relates to the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act, this bill will improve the administration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program and the Marine Debris Foundation so that it can respond more effectively to the growing threats facing our coastal regions, of which I represent one in Mobile, Alabama.
Each year, more than 11 million tons of plastic debris enters the oceans, endangering the livelihood of communities, small businesses, fishermen, and our food chain that rely on healthy waterways. Along Alabama's coastal communities, we understand how critically important reliable waterways are.
This legislation takes practical steps to support the Federal programs responsible for removing debris and protecting the safety and resilience of our coastal communities.
The bill improves NOAA's Marine Debris Program by giving the agency clear authority to use new and existing tools to address pollution more effectively and allowing NOAA to work faster and in closer partnership with State and local governments, as well as Tribal nations, nonprofits, and regional organizations.
The bill requires the Marine Debris Foundation to develop and implement best practices for engaging with Tribal Governments to ensure that they are included in the programs and funding designed to protect the water resources.
Finally, this legislation extends vital funding for marine debris removal efforts through 2029. It keeps programs running, supports long- term planning, and gives communities confidence that Federal partners are committed to protecting our waters and natural resources.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support my colleagues who have worked on this important bipartisan legislation both here in the House, as well as the Senate. I look forward to seeing it passed into law, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Figures for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, as the co-chair of the bipartisan Oceans Caucus, I rise enthusiastically today in support of S. 216, the Senate companion to my bipartisan legislation, the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act.
Marine debris does not stay in one place. A plastic bottle tossed inland can end up hundreds of miles away, wrapped around a propeller, tangled in fishing gear, or broken down into microplastics that end up in the food we eat. Across the country, communities see the damage every day.
In the Pacific Northwest, crews use Marine Debris Program grants to remove abandoned and derelict vessels--rusting tankers that leak fuel, collapse into waterways, and scatter debris with every storm. These removals protect ports, safeguard workers, and prevent thousands of pounds of plastic and fiberglass from entering the ocean.
In Alaska and the Gulf Coast, the program targets ghost fishing gear, including abandoned nets and traps. One abandoned net can trap fish, seabirds, and marine mammals for decades. Through this program, local partners recover that gear, return usable materials to fishers and anglers, and stop the cycle of loss.
In the Great Lakes, communities use these funds to intercept plastic before it reaches open water, cleaning up shorelines, restoring habitats, and keeping microplastics out of the drinking water systems that serve millions of people.
This program doesn't stop at cleanup. It fuels economies and strengthens resilience. Since its creation in 2006, the Marine Debris Program has removed more than 36,000 metric tons of debris. According to NOAA, last year, the program's removal projects drove more than $474 million in tourism and $248 million in recreational value in just the four States in which it operates.
The Marine Debris Program supports research and innovation that address microplastics and microfibers, the invisible pollution shed from tires, textiles, and everyday products. These particles show up in ocean sediments, seafood, and even human bloodstreams. This program helps the scientists track them, understand them, and stop them at the source.
The Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act reauthorizes the Marine Debris Program so communities can keep doing this important work. It also makes targeted, responsible administrative fixes to the Marine Debris Foundation, so the public-private partnerships deliver results faster and more effectively.
The Senate passed this bipartisan bill unanimously earlier this year, and today, Congress can send it to the President's desk.
We often think of plastic pollution as an overwhelming problem, and we haven't made the strides necessary to solve it. The Marine Debris Program and the Marine Debris Foundation are proven tools that make a difference.
When Congress invests in practical solutions to save our seas by empowering local leaders, scientists, fishers, and cleanup crews, it makes measurable progress. This bill protects ecosystems, jobs, and public health.
Mr. Speaker, clean water and a healthy ocean support every community in this country, coastal and inland. I thank my colleagues, Representatives Radewagen and Moylan, for co-leading this legislation, and Senators Sullivan and Whitehouse for leading it in the Senate. I urge my colleagues to support the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, passing this bill is an important step that we can take right now to help address the health and resilience of coastal communities like those that I represent. I support S. 216, the Save Our Seas 2.0 Amendments Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, Ms. Bonamici said it right. This legislation will enable NOAA to continue addressing the adverse impacts of marine debris on our country's maritime economy and will ensure safe navigation on America's waterways. Importantly, this legislation will promote clean water and the protection of our natural resources without imposing new mandates on industry or local governments.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, S. 216.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4183) to authorize appropriations for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal years 2026 through 2029, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Figures) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Dakota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material into the Record on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from South Dakota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Communist Party does not play fair. That is why this bill, the Federal Maritime Commission Reauthorization Act of 2025, is so important.
I suspect we all know that ocean-linked supply chains are critical to the economic competitiveness of the United States. Think about all the important materials we import into this country, and then think about all the important materials we export. Even just for relatively small South Dakota, Mr. Speaker, we export $7 billion of manufactured goods and agricultural goods to the rest of the world every single year. That is almost $8,000 a year for every single South Dakotan. Clearly, this maritime trade is important.
Because the Chinese Communist Party doesn't play fair, we need a focused and effective cop on the beat. We need someone who will be focused on the anticompetitive behavior from the Chinese Communist Party and others.
The five largest ocean carriers and their coalitions, Mr. Speaker, control 80 or 85 percent of the ocean carrier business. We want to make sure that anticompetitive behavior does not take place. This legislation has at least a couple of major thrusts that are going to make that so.
First, it authorizes the fiscal years 2026 and 2027 appropriations for the FMC at the levels that are necessary to maintain the integrity of the marketplace through monitoring, enforcement, and proper adjudication.
Secondly, it also provides the new authorities and direction that the FMC needs to be a vigilant protector for our American shippers so they can be a more informed regulator and a more effective guardian against the abuses by the Chinese Communist Party and their partners.
Of course, Mr. Speaker, this all makes sense. It is very commonsensical. It is all very policy focused. That is why I am happy to report that it was a strongly bipartisan piece of legislation throughout its journey through the committee. This is exactly what our country should be doing at this time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of H.R. 4183, the Federal Maritime Commission Reauthorization Act of 2025, as amended. This bill updates and strengthens the authorities of the Federal Maritime Commission, or FMC, an agency that plays a critical role in ensuring an efficient, competitive, and economical maritime shipping system. As my colleague from South Dakota indicated, it ensures that we have the resources necessary to level the playing field.
The past several years have shown how essential it is to safeguard our shipping. Disruptions in global shipping, port congestion, and fluctuating freight rates have created serious challenges for American businesses and consumers alike.
This legislation authorizes funding for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, ensuring that the agency has the consistent resources it needs over the next several years to continue its core oversight and enforcement work.
The bill strengthens the FMC's ability to address anticompetitive behavior, which is vitally necessary throughout the shipping industry. It will also authorize the FMC to investigate complaints against shipping exchanges concerning market manipulation and other anticompetitive practices.
The bill creates a National Port Advisory Committee and a National
I support this legislation, and I thank my colleague from South Dakota, Congressman Johnson, as well as the Democratic cosponsors of this bill.
Mr. Speaker, this is an important piece of legislation that will strengthen our Federal Maritime Commission and ensure that we have a competitive, effective, and efficient maritime transportation system.
I support H.R. 4183, as introduced by my colleague from South Dakota, as amended, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, whether they realize it or not, every single American benefits from having a competitive maritime marketplace. For that to be the case, you have to have a cop on the beat that understands the job, is focused on anticompetitive behavior, and is driven to make sure that the free market works in the maritime space.
Mr. Speaker, this bill pushes forward all of those goals. I urge support of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4183, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to authorize appropriations for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal years 2026 through 2027, and for other purposes.''.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3962) to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reauthorize the National Estuary Program, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Figures) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Dakota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert other extraneous material in the Record on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from South Dakota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3962, as amended, reauthorizes EPA's National Estuary Program until 2031. The NEP was created by Congress in 1987 as a nonregulatory program to deliver cost-shared grant money to local communities to improve water quality in coastal areas.
The NEP is a clear success story demonstrating that when Washington empowers local experts to lead in the areas they know best, the outcomes are stronger.
For every Federal dollar invested, the NEP's estuaries leverage an additional $17 from other sources. This approach has improved water quality in estuaries nationwide without imposing new regulations.
This program was last reauthorized by President Trump. I commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, particularly the diligent and hardworking Mr. Figures, as lead sponsor, for their work on this bill, and I urge support.
H.R. 3962, as amended, also adds the Mississippi Sound to the list for priority consideration of selection by the EPA for inclusion in the NEP.
This bill, as amended, was reported favorably out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by a vote of 57 yeas to 2 nays on September 17, 2025.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3962, as amended, the Enhancing Science, Treatment, and Upkeep of America's Resilient and Important Estuarine Systems Act, more simply known as the ESTUARIES Act.
I am proud to be the lead on this bipartisan bill. I thank the co- chairs of the Estuary Caucus, Ranking Member Rick Larsen, as well as Representatives Bonamici, Haridopolos, and Mast, all of whom are original cosponsors of this bill.
The National Estuary Program, or NEP, is an important resource for supporting locally led efforts to restore and protect the health of our coastal estuaries nationwide. This bill reauthorizes the NEP for 5 years and adds the Mississippi Sound to the list of estuaries for priority consideration.
Reauthorization ensures continued Federal support for this critical program, which has protected vital habitats, improved water quality, and fostered regional resilience since its creation in 1987.
Protecting and restoring Mobile Bay, which is in the heart of my district, is essential to Alabama's environment, flood protection, and seafaring economy as well. Mobile Bay is now home to the deepest port in the Gulf, so protecting its surrounding estuaries is critical not just to our local economy but to our regional and national economy as well.
I will take a moment to recognize Roberta Swann, who has led the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program since 2009 and is calling it a career at the end of this year. Ranking Member Larsen and I had the privilege of meeting with her in Mobile this past August, and her dedication to building partnerships and advancing science-based solutions is a big reason the program has been so successful in Mobile.
It could not be more fitting that, in the same year in which she celebrates 16 years of leadership and her retirement, that her Congressman has the honor of leading this reauthorization and advancing it through the House of Representatives here today.
This year, the Association of National Estuary Programs' fall meeting was held in Mobile, which is my hometown, a powerful reminder of Mobile Bay's national significance and how this program brings people together to share solutions across the country.
This program funds partnerships between the EPA, States, local governments, and community stakeholders. It is very successful in leveraging not just Federal dollars, but on average the local NEPs raise an additional $17 for every $1 in Federal funding, as my colleague Representative Johnson also noted.
These non-Federal dollars come through in kind, local, State, and private sources, which are utilized by the local program leaders in accordance with their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans. The NEP allows the locals to lead and address the water quality issues because they know best.
Projects carried out using NEP funds cover a wide range of possibilities but always keep the locals in the driver's seat. They may include protecting shoreline habitats, increasing the ecological integrity of estuaries, or building coastal resilience. Projects may also aim to improve water quality or encourage community access to coastal ecosystems.
In other instances, funds may support estuaries in a broader scope, such as supporting adjacent land acquisitions or upgrading nearby wastewater or stormwater infrastructure.
Regardless, these decisions are made locally and based on the specific NEP program and its unique location and specific needs.
Currently, there are 28 active NEP initiatives nationwide. This includes all corners of the country, from the Puget Sound in Washington to Santa Monica Bay in California, my home in Mobile, Alabama, all the way up to Casco Bay in Maine.
I will always champion efforts like the National Estuary Program, which protect and restore our critical natural resources while utilizing local knowledge and ensuring the efficient use of Federal funds.
This is a program that is working. It is popular, and it deserves our support. I urge passage of the ESTUARIES Act, as amended, and ask all my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Figures for yielding.
I rise today in support of H.R. 3962, the Enhancing, Science, Treatment, and Upkeep of America's Resilient and Important Estuarine Systems Act, or ESTUARIES Act.
Estuaries rank among the most productive ecosystems in the country, where freshwater meets saltwater, and entire communities benefit from that key meeting point.
Families depend on estuaries for clean water. Fishers depend on them for healthy stocks. Small businesses depend on them for tourism, recreation, and the natural beauty that draws people to our coasts. When estuaries thrive, local communities thrive. The National Estuary Program makes that possible.
For more than three decades, NEP partnerships have restored wetlands, improved water quality, reduced toxic pollutants, strengthened fish habitat, and built natural buffers that protect homes and businesses from flooding and storm surge.
These partnerships unite scientists, local governments, Tribal nations, fishers and anglers, farmers, and community leaders around a shared plan, and those plans deliver results.
In Tillamook Bay in Oregon, in the district I am honored to represent, the NEP helped restore hundreds of acres of tidal wetland which improved salmon runs, protected dairy farms from flooding, and created new recreational corridors.
On the Gulf Coast, NEP projects rebuilt marshes that shield front- line communities from hurricanes. In New England, estuary programs helped revive the shellfish beds that sustain entire working waterfronts.
This bill continues the NEP's successful legacy. The ESTUARIES Act reauthorizes competitive grants from 2031 so every estuary of national significance can implement science-driven conservation, respond to emerging threats, and support long-term economic resilience.
This bill upholds a simple principle: When we give local experts the tools they need, they protect the ecosystems that protect us.
This legislation reflects a strong bipartisan, bicameral commitment to support these critical ecosystems and recognize their significance.
I thank Representative Figures for leading this effort. I thank, as well, Representative Johnson for his support. Also, I thank my fellow co-chairs of the Bipartisan Estuary Caucus for their partnership: Representatives Haridopolos, Mast, and Ranking Member Larsen. Together we can continue decades of success in estuary restoration and resilience.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support the ESTUARIES Act.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, to date, the National Estuary Program has restored more than 2\1/2\ million acres of coastal habitat nationwide. The 28 programs, soon to be 29 with the addition of the Mississippi Sound, and partnerships will work hard to address challenges we are all familiar with, like harmful algal blooms, coastal erosion, and runoff pollution.
Keeping our estuaries healthy means keeping our coastal communities strong. Estuaries protect these communities from flooding, store clean water, support commercial fish habitats, and provide recreational opportunities. Let's keep working together to restore and protect these essential ecosystems. Reauthorizing the national estuary program will allow us to do just that.
Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 3962, as amended, the ESTUARIES Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I think, Mr. Speaker, the American people can be forgiven if they are watching cable news and assume the only thing we do around here is fight, but I think the last three bills on the floor are a good example that, indeed, is not the case.
Now, let's be honest. None of these bills have been silver bullets slaying the biggest policy challenges facing our Nation, but they are real attempts at governing. The Save Our Seas Act, FMC reauthorization, and this, the ESTUARIES Act, are attempts by serious legislators, people like Mr. Mast, Mr. Haridopolos, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Larsen, and Mr. Figures, to address real problems facing our country.
Indeed, this bill is a bipartisan attempt to reauthorize the longstanding, nonregulatory EPA grant program that does empower locals to solve these problems far more powerfully than if we just had the experts in D.C. do it.
This is a good bill. It is a continuation of a theme on the floor today of serious legislators doing serious work.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3962, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2876) to confirm the use of certain non-Federal land in Salt Lake City, Utah, for public purposes, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 2876, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2876, the University of Utah Research Park Act, led by Representative Blake Moore of Utah.
H.R. 2876 resolves legal uncertainty surrounding the University of Utah's ownership of 593 acres of land in the heart of Salt Lake City. This uncertainty comprises the university's flagship research park, a key educational and economic development center.
Since its conveyance under the Research and Public Purposes Act in 1968, this parcel has grown into a nationally recognized hub for innovation, home to 81 university departments and more than 50 pharmaceutical, medical research, and biotechnology companies. Today, Research Park employs over 14,000 Utahns and provides invaluable educational opportunities for students preparing to lead in the fields of science and medicine.
Despite this long record of success, a recent BLM review raised questions about whether the park's use of the land aligns with the terms of the original patent.
H.R. 2876 clears up this ambiguity by affirming the park's current use is valid and consistent with the public purpose envisioned at the time of the conveyance.
This is a simple, bipartisan bill that cuts red tape and ensures the University of Utah can continue building on nearly six decades of scientific discovery, economic growth, and global impact. I commend Representative Moore for leading this effort in the House and the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Lee, for championing this bill in the Senate.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2876, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the University of Utah's Research Park Act.
The University of Utah's Research Park is comprised of 593 acres that were originally issued as a land patent in 1968 through the Bureau of Land Management. The area was later conveyed under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act for academic expansion of the university. Today, Research Park supports a multitude of uses, including technology, education, and medical facilities.
Although the parcel was conveyed to the university, a reversionary clause remains in place to ensure continued public use. While reversionary clauses are standard practice, in this case it has created challenges for the university in pursuing new opportunities that fall outside the traditional sense of public purposes under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, even though the site was previously approved for university expansion.
H.R. 2876 would clarify and affirm that Research Park is consistent with the original application, so that the university can continue to grow Research Park.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, to my colleague and friend from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber), it is worth actually noting that the area focus of this bill, the location, is a stone's throw from the very cauldron that the Miracle on Ice team lit during the 2002 Winter Olympics. I congratulate the gentleman for getting that bill signed into law, the Congressional Gold Medal Act for those amazing patriots.
I actually watched that movie with my kids over the weekend and saw the patriotism start to brew, really an amazing feat. I thank my friend for that.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the University of Utah Research Park Act, which passed unanimously out of the Natural Resources Committee in September.
This legislation addresses legal uncertainties surrounding the University of Utah's use of land initially conveyed to the school by the Bureau of Land Management back in 1968. At that time, the university requested land on the Fort Douglas Military Reservation for academic and research use, a request approved and granted by the BLM. Since then, the university has built a nationally recognized research park housing over 50 companies and employing nearly 14,000 Utahns.
Research Park has been instrumental in establishing Utah as a leader in innovation. Last year, I was proud to welcome my colleagues to the Ways and Means Committee to Research Park for a field hearing to show them first-hand how Utah continues to lead the way in biotech innovation.
Unfortunately, after decades of cooperative engagement between the University of Utah and the Federal Government, there have been questions as to whether the longstanding activities at Research Park are consistent with the original land patent under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act. The University of Utah Research Park Act addresses these concerns and makes it clear that the school is operating within the parameters of the law.
With the assurance that the university can continue to operate the park, they will have increased ability to invest institutional resources and improve the park without the worry of additional red tape and regulatory restrictions or, worse, the area reverting back to Federal control.
My bill will provide the university with needed stability and confirm the original intent and approval of the land transfer, allowing the university to plan strategically to meet the needs of its students, the community, and industry.
I thank Chairman Westerman and my colleagues of the Utah House and Senate delegation for joining me in this effort to ensure that the University of Utah's Research Park can continue to serve as a premier research incubator.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2876. Go Utes.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2876 resolves an unnecessary cloud over this property by confirming the valid use of the University of Utah's prized Research Park, which has served the public for decades.
This commonsense bill will allow the park to keep driving innovation, supporting thousands of good jobs, and giving students hands-on opportunities to learn and grow.
I thank once again Representative Moore, Senator Lee, and the entire Utah congressional delegation for their work on this important effort. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2876.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 972) to amend the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area Act to adjust the boundary of the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 972, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 972, the Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act, introduced by Representative Titus.
Southern Nevada is one of the fastest growing regions in the country, and with growth comes increased demand for critical resources like drinking water.
Right now, nearly 40 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's water is carried through a single pipeline that was built in the 1990s. That is a huge vulnerability. If that line goes down, whether for repairs or due to an outage, the entire region could face a water supply crisis.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has done its homework. After years of study and work with local stakeholders, it has proposed the Horizon Lateral pipeline to ensure a resilient and reliable water supply for families and businesses across the Las Vegas Valley. The preferred southern route of this pipeline passes under the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. Compared to other alternatives, this alignment minimizes impacts on neighborhoods and is estimated to save taxpayers nearly $200 million.
H.R. 972 authorizes the preferred route for this pipeline through the national conservation area. This bill also expands the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area by more than 9,000 acres. The Bureau of Land Management already manages these lands, so the expansion would not add to the Federal estate.
The bill also allows materials excavated from the tunneling to be reused for infrastructure and public improvements.
This legislation is about balance. It provides the infrastructure southern Nevada needs to keep pace with growth and ensure reliable water deliveries without compromising conservation. That is the kind of practical, forward-looking management we need more of.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 972, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 972, the Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act, introduced by the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus). This bill would expand the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area and authorize the Horizon Lateral water pipeline.
The Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area contains over 48,000 acres of the Mojave Desert, including petroglyphs, wilderness areas, and a variety of key wildlife species. The national conservation area forms the mountainous southern edge of Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada.
Representative Titus' bill balances conservation with the needs of the growing Las Vegas community. Under
After years of study and engagement with local stakeholders, the water authority determined this would be the safest, most effective, and least disruptive route for a key source of water in the Las Vegas Valley.
This legislation will create new opportunities for outdoor recreation and protect unique desert habitats, all while increasing water reliability for over a million southern Nevadans.
Having access to clean water is vital for communities to thrive. Those of us here in Congress know all too well how challenging it can be to ensure that happens in the face of changing populations and a changing climate.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their kind words of support. I, too, am rising today in support of this bill, H.R. 972, that I brought before you. It is the Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act.
As we barrel toward record low water projections at Lake Mead and the increasing risk of prolonged drought due to climate change, there is no time to waste in securing water reliability for southern Nevadans.
My bill would allow a portion of the Southern Nevada Water Authority's Horizon Lateral water pipeline project to tunnel beneath Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. This pipeline will increase water reliability for over a million southern Nevadans. It will fortify the region's water infrastructure against potential outages, and it will minimize disruptions and impacts to the surrounding communities.
The proposed underground route beneath the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area is estimated to save southern Nevadans at least $200 million, while minimizing disturbances to both residents and the local environment.
This route for the Horizon Lateral water pipeline also ensures the water delivery system's redundancy in emergency situations, and it offers flexibility to accommodate the needs of a growing community.
Finally, this legislation expands the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area by 9,290 acres to enhance the preservation of the desert landscapes and habitat unique to southern Nevada.
I call that a win-win-win. It is no wonder that my legislation received bipartisan support in the House Natural Resources Committee, and I thank my colleagues for that. It is also supported by businesses, conservationists, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your attention to this, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' today on this critical legislation for southern Nevada's water future.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 972 will ensure that the people of southern Nevada have a more reliable water supply with fewer risks of disruption. This legislation shows we can meet the needs of growing communities while being good stewards of America's public lands.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 972.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1045) to amend the Southwest Forest Health and Wildfire Prevention Act of 2004 to require the establishment of an additional Institute under that Act.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1045, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1045, the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act of 2025, offered by Representative Kennedy of Utah.
Across the West, and particularly in Utah, wildfire risk is increasing. In 2024, more than 90,000 acres burned in the State. Along the Wasatch Front, the number of fire weather days has grown by 15 since 1973, meaning fires now have a longer window to ignite and spread. This is exacerbated by the accumulation of hazardous fuels, caused by a century of fire suppression and a lack of active management.
In 2004, Congress created the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes, or SWERI, in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico to advance wildfire research and promote science-based forest management. These institutes have been invaluable partners to Federal and State land managers, producing peer-reviewed research, improving forest health, and helping reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires across the West.
Despite facing the same wildfire threats as its Four Corners neighbors, Utah is the only State in the region without a SWERI center. Representative Kennedy's legislation corrects this oversight by authorizing an additional institute in Utah, allowing the State to expand research, strengthen watershed restoration, and develop innovative fuel-reduction strategies.
We know that forest management is the single most crucial factor in determining wildfire severity. This bill builds on a proven model and will bolster Utah's ability to confront wildfire risks head-on.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Representative Kennedy and the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Lee, for their leadership on this issue. Their legislation has broad support in the State of Utah, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of Representative Kennedy's bill, the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act of 2025.
This bill would expand wildfire research capacity by including Utah in the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes network, also known as SWERI. The SWERI program has proven to be a valuable model for scientific collaboration and forest health innovation, assisting in wildfire restoration and preparedness across the Southwest.
This legislation proposes Utah State University as the host university, which would partner with local, State, and Federal agencies to enhance forest and rangeland management and implement strategies for long-term ecological restoration. Adding a fourth institute in Utah has the potential to increase and accelerate the reach and impact of SWERI.
While I support adding another SWERI to the existing network, I must also note that I remain very concerned about the administration's proposed deep cuts to our land management agencies, which partner with SWERI and fund their key research efforts. The administration's attacks on these agencies threaten the very existence of current SWERI and the viability of the new Utah site.
We need sustained investment for research to protect our communities and landscapes, and the administration's proposed level of investment would certainly not be sufficient to support the existing program, let alone the expansion proposed by this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this legislation, but I also call upon my colleagues to join us in standing up to this administration's reckless cuts.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 1045, the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act of 2025.
Utah is in a wildfire crisis. Our unique environment makes wildfires a constant danger. It is common to drive down I-15, a major thoroughfare in Utah, in the warm months and see fire on the side of our beautiful mountains.
In 2004, Congress created three regional centers in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico dedicated to strengthening forest health and reducing wildfire risk. These centers, now collectively known as the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes, or SWERI, serve as hubs for research, data sharing, and on-the-ground collaboration. They bring together the expertise of our universities with the experience of State, local, and Federal land managers.
Since 2004, Utah has had over 23,000 wildfires and over 3 million acres burned. These aren't mere statistics but represent impacted livelihoods, damaged watersheds, strained emergency responders, and long-term burdens on our economy, infrastructure, and public safety.
These fires have scarred our lands and endangered our growing population. For us in Utah, the next major wildfire is not a question of if but when and how devastating it will be.
That is why the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act is essential. By passing this bill, Congress has the opportunity to strengthen how we understand, prevent, and respond to wildfire in the Mountain West.
As the only Four Corners State to not have a SWERI facility, it is only right for Utah to have a dedicated hub focused on the wildfire challenges facing Utah and the surrounding States.
It will allow our universities, firefighters, land managers, and Federal partners to work together. It will help us understand fire behavior in high-elevation deserts. It will support innovations in fuel management, post-fire watershed recovery, and community resilience. More importantly, the Utah wildfire institute will ensure that we are not simply reacting to each crisis as it comes but planning ahead.
This bill reflects what Utahns already know, that collaboration, science-based planning, and proactive management are the most effective tools we have to protect our land and our people. It is a vote for safer communities, healthier forests and rangelands, and responsible stewardship of the places that we call home.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Utah Wildfire Research Institute Act as this investment will protect Utah for generations to come.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation is straightforward. It builds on the proven success of the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico by finally extending this important program to Utah.
Establishing a SWERI in Utah will expand wildlife research, strengthen collaboration with land managers, and provide new tools to improve forest health and reduce catastrophic wildfires. I urge my colleagues to support Representative Kennedy's bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1045.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 2878) to reauthorize funding to monitor, assess, and research the Great Lakes Basin, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 2878, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2878, the Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act.
The Great Lakes Fishery Research Program is administered by the U.S. Geological Survey, which works in concert with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to conduct research and collect data to support the binational fisheries within the Great Lakes Basin.
This bill would continue the many tools that help manage and protect these fisheries, which are integral to the region's economic and ecological health. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, S. 2878 will reauthorize the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Fishery Research Program to continue essential research that informs fishery management decisions across the Great Lakes Basin.
Effective fishery management starts and ends with accurate data, which is why the information provided by this program is the foundation for the decisions taken by State and Tribal fishery managers.
The Great Lakes region supports nearly a $5 billion sport and commercial fishing industry that relies on sound scientific research to protect and manage its aquatic ecosystems.
This program supports research to identify and combat invasive species like the sea lamprey and the Asian carp, conduct surveys for sport fish management, and monitor impacts of harmful algal blooms on fisheries. The Great Lakes Science Center also brings in more than 300,000 visitors annually and supports thousands of jobs.
Healthy fish populations benefit both the environment and the businesses that depend on them. The bill would provide $15 million annually through fiscal year 2030 to continue research that protects native species, monitors invasive species, and assesses the impacts of habitat degradation and climate change on the Great Lakes.
I commend Representative Quigley, Senator Peters, and the bipartisan Great Lakes delegation for their work on this important legislation. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley), the sponsor of this bill in the House.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for considering this bill, the Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act.
This bill would reauthorize critical Great Lakes research programs at $15 million per year for 5 years. I thank my colleague, Representative Huizenga, for his partnership on this bill in the House.
Protecting and restoring our Great Lakes has long been a bipartisan priority. I am proud of our work together on this topic. Lake Michigan is the pride and joy of Chicago, but the native ecosystems are at risk.
My colleagues might have noticed the poster behind me. This is a sea lamprey. They are not native to the Great Lakes, but they have found their way in. When left unchecked, they wreak havoc on our ecosystems. If this graphic doesn't convince my colleagues that we don't want these suckers in the Great Lakes, I am not sure what will.
Kind of like a giant leech, their suction-cup mouth clamps onto native fish species to feed on them. One sea lamprey can kill up to 40 pounds of Great Lakes fish over a 12- to 18-month feeding period, and that is just one of the threats we are currently up against.
Alongside the sea lamprey, there are over 60 invasive species in the Great Lakes. Those include zebra mussels, rusty crayfish, and round goby. They compete for the same resources and prey on native species. Many don't have natural predators in the Great Lakes. Without intervention, these invasive species will be ``eely'' bad for our native fish and plant populations.
Mr. Speaker, 61 native fish species are currently threatened or endangered. In the 1950s, the United States and Canada established the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to shore up our shared fisheries. Decades of overfishing, invasive species, and human impact on lakes threatened the native fish species and led to 20 species going extinct.
For all those in the region who depend on fisheries for food, livelihood, and sport, it is critical we continue to monitor the Great Lakes and our native fish species. The total value of commercial, recreational, and Tribal fishing in the Great Lakes is at least $5 billion. The industry supports an estimated 75,000 jobs across the region.
Research into the Great Lakes fishery provides us with the data and information necessary to manage fish populations, conduct habitat maintenance, roll out educational programs, and more.
For the last 5 years, this program has provided funds for the U.S. Geological Survey and, more specifically, the Great Lakes Science Center to conduct scientific research and invest in new technology.
With the help of this funding, the Great Lakes Science Center has field operations in five of the eight Great Lakes States, where it owns and operates a fleet of large research vessels to monitor the lakes and the fishery. This information is used to ensure that these crucial ecosystems stay healthy and productive.
Other researchers across the region rely on data collected over decades to analyze trends in the Great Lakes and help keep them healthy. Reauthorizing this program now will allow the Great Lakes Science Center to continue its research and provide datasets that are stable and reliable into the future.
The Senate has already passed this reauthorization. I encourage my colleagues to help get this bill over the finish line.
Lastly, I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and in the Senate, including Senator Peters who introduced the version of the bill we will vote on today, and Senator Husted representing the great State of Ohio.
Mr. Speaker, I thank them for their consideration, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 2878.
The Great Lakes aren't just a part of Michigan and the heartland's landscape. They are part of our economy, our identity, and our heritage. They are more than 20 percent of the world's freshwater and must be protected.
They provide drinking water to millions. They are home to a thriving ecosystem for a wide breadth of species. They support countless jobs. Our Great Lakes' fishing economy alone is worth more than $5 billion.
Unfortunately, there are many threats jeopardizing the future of the Great Lakes and the region's way of life, including, as my colleagues just heard described, the highly invasive sea lamprey, one of the most disgusting things I have ever witnessed in my life.
The USGS Great Lakes Science Center is located in my district. It meets the Nation's need for scientific information used to restore, enhance, manage, and protect the freshwater fisheries and habitats of the Great Lakes. The GLSC helps to protect the freshwater fisheries and habitats that are invaluable economic and ecological assets for the entire Great Lakes region.
We know the devastating effects that invasive species, pollution, and extreme weather have had on the Great Lakes, and the research conducted at this lab is essential to mitigating these threats and addressing these issues.
The work of the GLSC and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission has reduced the invasive sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes by more than 90 percent. Thanks to this program, populations of native fish, including lake trout, whitefish, and walleye, have started to recover and, with them, the economy of the region.
In November 2024, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission announced that lake trout, a popular fish nearly exterminated by sea lampreys and overfishing in the mid-1900s, has fully rebounded in Lake Superior. We must continue to support the GLSC's work with the Fishery Commission because the fight against invasive species is an ongoing battle.
The Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act would reauthorize funding for the Great Lakes Science Center for another 5 years, helping to ensure that they are able to continue conducting the critical research that ensures future generations can enjoy the same beauty, biodiversity, and economic opportunities for our Great Lakes for many years.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, this bill supports effective fishery management, which starts with accurate data. I thank Representatives Quigley and Huizenga for their work on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, S. 2878.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2815) to provide equitable treatment for the people of the Village Corporation established for the Native Village of Saxman, Alaska, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2815, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2815, the Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act of 2025, introduced by Representative Begich of Alaska, would finalize the Cape Fox Corporation's remaining Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA, land entitlement. In addition, this legislation will resolve land management issues tied to the Mahoney Lake power project.
ANCSA was enacted by Congress to settle the aboriginal land claims of Alaska Natives. Under ANCSA, Alaska Native Corporations were established to receive land under the settlement and disburse money to Alaska Natives. The Cape Fox Corporation, or CFC, has yet to receive their full conveyance, with 180 acres remaining.
The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for conveying the remaining acres to CFC and has proposed specific acreage to complete the entitlement. However, CFC has rejected the BLM's proposal, as the proposed lands were outside of their core township, noncontiguous with their existing land holdings, and of limited economic value.
CFC has identified 180 acres of land between their existing parcels, which would connect the land and complete the settlement. The acres in this legislation would also enable the development of Mahoney Lake power projects. CFC holds a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license and an easement for a power line and road corridor nearby. They also own the land adjacent to the substation.
Power demand for the area exceeds available supply. In fact, in 2024, all available power was online, and it still was not enough. This legislation takes steps to increase the availability of affordable power for the area.
This legislation would not only finalize CFC's remaining ANCSA land conveyance, but it also resolves land management issues related to the power project.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Mr. Begich for his work on behalf of his constituency. I urge support for this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA, was enacted to recognize and settle the land claims of Alaska Natives. As part of this act, the Cape Fox Village Corporation received a land entitlement but was unable to select usable land due to a technicality that restricted Cape Fox from selecting lands within six miles of Ketchikan. This left Cape Fox with mostly remote, mountainous lands with no productive or economic value. As a result, ANCSA settlement for Cape Fox remains unresolved.
H.R. 2815 would waive the technical requirement and allow the Secretary of the Interior to convey approximately 180 acres of surface estate within the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska to the Cape Fox Corporation, along with subsurface interests to the Sealaska Corporation. This legislation would resolve the longstanding land claim issue for Cape Fox.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, Alaska's future is tied to land. It is how we build infrastructure, develop our resources, and create opportunities for our communities, but for far too long, Alaska Native Corporations have faced unnecessary delays and constraints in securing the lands they were promised under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
After more than 50 years, Cape Fox Corporation, representing the village of Saxman, is among the last southeast villages still waiting for a full land entitlement.
H.R. 2815 fixes that. The bill authorizes a simple strategic land exchange, about 180 acres, to finally connect two Cape Fox parcels and honor a promise made decades ago.
This bill also paves the way for a renewable energy corridor and year-round access to vital subsistence and tourism areas. It enables local development, supports energy independence, and strengthens southeast Alaska's economy, all while respecting Tribal sovereignty and the original intent of ANCSA.
There is strong local support for this bill from utilities, businesses, and local governments. It is a commonsense, consensus- driven solution. Let's finish what Congress started and deliver resolution to the people of Saxman.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2815 and help move the people of Saxman forward.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2815 finalizes CFC's outstanding ANCSA land conveyance while working to alleviate future land concerns with the Mahoney Lake power project. This legislation has the support of various Alaska organizations, government representatives, and impacted groups.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Begich for his hard work on this bill. I urge passage of H.R. 2815, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2815, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3620) to provide for the conveyance of certain property to the Southcentral Foundation located in Anchorage, Alaska, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3620, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3620, the Southcentral Foundation Land Transfer Act of 2025, sponsored by my colleague, Representative Begich of Alaska. This would transfer approximately 3.4 acres of Federal land in Anchorage, Alaska, to the Southcentral Foundation.
Southcentral Foundation is a tribally-operated health organization serving Alaska Native people under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. This parcel, currently owned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has housed Southcentral Foundation's behavioral health programs since 1994, for over 30 years.
However, the foundation does not currently hold title to the property. As a result, it cannot secure financing to improve or replace the aging facility, meaning that it cannot take full advantage of opportunities to expand mental health services for the Alaska Native population that it serves.
H.R. 3620 corrects this by conveying the land to Southcentral Foundation so it may move forward with plans to construct a modern behavioral health facility. The foundation has already coordinated with the municipality of Anchorage to rezone the land in anticipation of this project. Once the bill is signed into law, construction can and will begin immediately.
This is a commonsense measure that supports Tribal self- determination. It empowers a proven provider to serve its community with up-to-date infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Begich for introducing this bill and for his hard work and leadership on Alaska Native health issues. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3620, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, under this bill, the Southcentral Foundation Land Transfer Act of 2025, title to the land where the Southcentral Foundation operates the Quyana Clubhouse and Intensive Case Management program would be transferred from the Indian Health Service to the foundation. This transfer would give the foundation the ability to invest in a new facility to house both of these vital programs.
The Quyana Clubhouse offers an integrated behavioral and primary care service day-treatment program, while the Intensive Case Management program provides community-based, nonclinical support.
By obtaining title to the land, the Southcentral Foundation will be able to construct a new facility to house both programs. This will allow for better care transitions and reduced transportation costs, and it makes it easier for thousands of Alaska Native people to access services.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3620, the Southcentral Foundation Land Transfer Act of 2025. This is a bill that reflects both common sense and compassion, and I am proud to sponsor it.
Southcentral Foundation is a nationally respected Alaska Native health provider, serving over 70,000 people with an integrated, culturally grounded model of care that works. Some of the buildings that they are using for behavioral health services, buildings like the Quyana Clubhouse, are aging, inadequate, and, in some cases, were never meant to facilitate medical services. One facility was literally a former morgue.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation enables something critically important, the ability to deliver modern mental health care in a space designed for healing and recovery.
In Alaska, we face real challenges. People dealing with serious mental illness are being served in locations that
H.R. 3620 clears the way for Southcentral Foundation to build that future. This bill transfers land already in use and allows Southcentral Foundation to make long-term investments in modern infrastructure. The bill supports Tribal self-determination, strengthens care delivery, and empowers a trusted partner to do even more for our communities.
This is a narrowly tailored, fiscally responsible bill with broad support. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in advancing this measure and helping more Alaskans get the care that they deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3620 is a simple fix that will have a meaningful impact. By granting Southcentral Foundation title to the land it has used for decades, we are removing bureaucratic barriers and enabling the construction of a modern behavioral health facility.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3620 and help us take a small but significant step forward in improving behavioral health outcomes for our Tribal communities.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3620.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
national volcano early warning and monitoring system reauthorization
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3176) to amend the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to reauthorize the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3176, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3176, which will amend the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to reauthorize the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System, NVEWS.
First, I thank my colleague from Alaska, Representative Begich, for his efforts on this bill.
With over 130 volcanoes and volcanic fields, Alaska has more volcanoes than any other State, and more than 50 of those have been active in the last 300 years.
Volcanic hazards are difficult to estimate on a year-to-year basis, but when they occur, the results can be catastrophic. For example, the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 caused more than $1 billion in damage. Adjusting for inflation, that figure would now exceed $4 billion.
Damage estimates for volcanic eruptions can swing wildly, depending on many factors, but are almost always severe, underscoring the need for early warning and monitoring.
Obviously, protecting human life is our paramount concern in monitoring volcanic activity, but it is not just people on the ground who are at risk. Aircraft that are flying within 1,000 miles of a volcanic eruption can experience damage if they are not made aware of the smoke. Volcanic eruptions can be detrimental, and even fatal, to passengers and crew.
The lives of families near erupting volcanoes are priceless, far surpassing the value of any damaged infrastructure. To protect those lives, we must be able to monitor volcanic activity effectively and broadcast early warnings of eruptions.
This is why Congress should reauthorize this critical program so that communities near volcanoes are provided ample time to react to an eruption and so that air traffic is warned of potential dangers.
The NVEWS Advisory Committee is integral to this program. It provides the Secretary of the Interior with information on current program activities and relevant research that may improve the program going forward.
The committee cannot meet while the program is unauthorized, however, so reauthorization is essential to get the committee working again.
While we cannot stop volcanic eruptions, we can take prudent steps to minimize damage and loss of life. That is precisely what this program is intended to do.
I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this bill to reauthorize the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System.
This program is essential to the public safety mission of the United States Geological Survey. Working in coordination with the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, NOAA, and FEMA, the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System helps us better forecast volcanic activity and prepare for emergencies. This forecasting helps save lives, protects property, and safeguards our infrastructure.
This program reflects that the Federal Government works best in coordination with the community, and it supports outside science and expertise. It works in partnership with local government and emergency managers, provides grants to universities and research institutions, and ensures that data is shared openly with the public. That means communities have the information they need when it counts the most.
The early warning system was first authorized through the bipartisan Dingell Act with a clear mission: to monitor, warn, and protect.
Since then, scientists have been able to expand our volcano monitoring program to ensure that every dangerous volcano in the United States is tracked at appropriate levels, allowing experts to issue timely and accurate warnings to protect communities from avoidable harm.
I am grateful for the bipartisan work my colleagues put into this bill to ensure that the program gets the funding it deserves. I am happy to support the continuity of this program, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3176, the bill to reauthorize the National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System.
This is a program of national importance. Volcano monitoring strengthens safety and emergency preparedness across the country, from the Cascades to Hawaii to the Rockies, but there is no question that Alaska has the most at stake.
Our State is home to over 130 active volcanos, by far the largest concentration in the United States. These aren't isolated or dormant. Mount Spurr, just 80 miles from Anchorage, reached a yellow alert level due to elevated seismic activity earlier this year, and it is still listed as a very high threat by the most recent edition of the USGS National Volcanic Threat Assessment. If it erupts, as it did in 1992 and 1953, ashfall could shut down air traffic, damage critical infrastructure, and put lives at risk.
H.R. 3176 is a straightforward, 5-year reauthorization that keeps the program funded and operational. It maintains existing funding levels but provides the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners with the continuity that they need to monitor high-threat volcanos and coordinate real-time alerts with emergency responders.
Early warning is essential. It gives pilots time to reroute, gives communities time to prepare, and saves lives, especially in rural, high-risk States like Alaska where response logistics are already challenging.
This is a bipartisan, science-based system that works. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3176 and ensure that every community living in the shadow of volcanic risk has the tools to stay safe.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would again commend my colleague from Alaska (Mr. Begich) for working to pass meaningful legislation that can save lives.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3176, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3176, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3187) to require the Secretary of Agriculture to convey a parcel of property of the Forest Service to Perry County, Arkansas, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3187, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3187, led by my friend and colleague from Arkansas, Representative Hill.
This legislation directs the Secretary of Agriculture to convey a vacant Forest Service building and less than 1 acre of surrounding land in Perryville, Arkansas, to Perry County.
This property has sat vacant for years, and the Forest Service has no plans for its use. In the meantime, the building has been damaged by weather and continues to decline structurally. Every year, it stays vacant, resulting in higher repair costs and increased liability for the Federal Government and taxpayers. Instead of watching this asset deteriorate, we have the chance to put it to productive use for the local community.
For more than a decade, Perry County sought to acquire this site to meet pressing needs in education, conservation, and youth development. The county intends to renovate and repurpose the building to provide a permanent home for the University of Arkansas Extension Program, the Perry County Conservation District, and 4-H youth programs. Having a dedicated facility will allow these organizations to expand their services and better support the people of Perry County.
This bill is also fiscally responsible. It will eliminate the Federal cost of maintaining an idle, deteriorating building. By transferring the site, we stop wasting resources and empower local leaders to transform a declining Federal property into a hub for education, conservation, and youth programs.
H.R. 3187 is a commonsense solution. It cuts costs, eliminates waste, and supports youth engagement in conservation. I commend Representative Hill for his championing this thoughtful legislation which will support community development in a rural county with limited resources.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3187, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3187, a bill to convey a small but meaningful parcel of Forest Service property to Perry County, Arkansas.
This legislation will direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey a little less than 1 acre of land located in Perryville, Arkansas, including any structures on the property, to Perry County, should the county request a transfer within 180 days of enactment.
While modest in size, this land holds important local value. It currently houses a building previously used by the U.S. Forest Service which Perry County hopes to repurpose for local administrative use, public services, or other community-focused purposes.
The conveyance would be subject to existing rights and environmental safeguards and would be made without cost to the county, other than administrative and survey-related expenses, which Perry County would cover.
This is a commonsense, community-driven bill that reflects how Federal land policy can and should be responsive to local needs. It will ensure that unused Federal property can be repurposed for the public good while preserving transparency, accountability, and proper oversight.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 3187. First, I thank my good friend and fellow Arkansan Chairman Westerman for advancing my bill from the committee to the House floor.
I thank all the members of the Natural Resources Committee for their bipartisan and unanimous support.
As noted, my bill seeks to transfer ownership of a vacant Federal building owned by the U.S. Forest Service at 1069 Fourche Avenue in Perryville, Arkansas, to Perry County.
This property is no longer in use by the Forest Service, and there are no plans for its utilization by them. That has been the case, Mr. Speaker, for well over a decade.
Perry County is a very small, rural community with a population of around 10,000. About 16 percent of the residents there live below the poverty line. About 77 percent of the county is forested, and 72 percent of that land is privately owned.
The U.S. Forest Service is the largest public landowner in the county, managing 119,000 acres as a part of the Ouachita National Forest.
For several years, Perry County has mightily sought to acquire this property. However, due to limited resources and that high poverty rate, this small county has been unable to easily navigate the complex Federal rules and to find a way to purchase the property outright.
My legislation would enable the Federal Government to convey the property at no cost to the county with all the benefits that Mr. Stauber outlined.
The building will require many significant repairs, but the county does have that repair budget appropriated. Once restored, the facility will support many local programs. Specifically, the University of Arkansas extension program, the Perry County Conservation District, and, importantly, it will serve as a meeting place for our 4-H youth development program. These organizations are currently struggling with limited options for meeting space in Perryville. This cures that problem.
My bill provides Perry County with a much-needed facility to expand youth development, agricultural education, and community health initiatives.
I thank Perry County Judge Larry Blackmon, Perryville Mayor John Roland, the Perry County Extension Office, the Perry County Chamber of Commerce, and the Perry County Farm Bureau, all for working with us collectively both on the Natural Resources Committee staff and my staff to bring this forward and make it a reality.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join the committee and me in supporting a unanimous vote for H.R. 3187.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 3187 is about turning a Federal liability into a community asset. Right now, taxpayers are stuck with the cost of a vacant building that continues to deteriorate. With this bill, we can remove that burden, transfer the property to Perry County, Arkansas, and allow local leaders to put it to work serving their community.
This legislation will provide a permanent home for programs that strengthen conservation, support farmers and landowners, and create new opportunities for young people through 4-H extension services.
It is a practical, cost-effective solution that delivers real value. I, once again, thank Representative Hill for his hard work on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the bill today, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3187, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3872) to amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands to make that Act applicable to hardrock minerals, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3872, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3872, which would amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands, clarifying that all lands acquired by the Federal Government are eligible to be considered for hardrock mineral leasing.
I thank my colleague Representative Fallon for his work on the bipartisan piece of legislation.
Acquired lands comprise 10 percent of the Nation's Federal lands, or 64 million acres. The Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands governs mineral leasing for a wide range of resources on these lands. However, the existing statute leaves out hardrock minerals. As a result, acquired Federal lands holding key critical minerals have effectively been locked up. This includes vast deposits in the Smackover Formation, which spans across the southeastern United States and hosts some of America's best lithium reserves.
Specifically, in northeast Texas, the Bureau of Land Management is currently unable to even consider hardrock mineral leasing for a lithium-rich portion of the Smackover Formation because it is located on land acquired by the Federal Government more than 80 years ago under a statute that does not explicitly allow hardrock mineral leasing.
H.R. 3872 would address this issue by providing a much-needed technical fix to the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands, giving the Secretary of the Interior the authority to tap into our vast mineral wealth across all types of acquired lands.
As we seek to reshore our mineral supply chains, we must ensure that no stone gets left unturned. By allowing greater access to tens of millions of acres of acquired lands, this legislation would help to break our reliance on adversarial nations like China.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Fallon, for his work on this commonsense bill. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3872, a bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands, clarifying that all lands acquired by the Federal Government are eligible for potential hardrock mineral leasing.
Most mining on Federal lands operates under a claims system, where U.S. citizens or U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies can claim certain open areas of public land for their mineral rights. On most acquired lands, which are lands obtained through means other than the original public lands laws, like through a purchase or exchange, hardrock mineral rights are leased, similar to procedures for oil, gas, and coal. However, if the statute used to acquire that land doesn't explicitly authorize hardrock mineral leasing, then mineral leasing can't take place.
This is the case with the Department of Defense lands in Texas, specifically the Red River Army Depot, which was acquired under various statutes that did not specifically authorize hardrock leasing.
A lithium exploration company applied for a permit to explore at the Army Depot, but the Bureau of Land Management did not have the power the authorize exploration.
The company already has industrial leases on adjacent private lands, and this bill would not grant any specific permits but would give BLM the authority to issue permits and leases if appropriate.
This is a good bill. It is a technical fix that will help us potentially develop lithium resources which are essential for the clean energy transition.
I will add that this bill authorizes hardrock leasing, which is a far better and more responsible practice than the claims staking system we have across the rest of our Federal lands.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, if critical minerals like lithium are essential to our military and to our national security, if that is the case, then why are we still relying on our number one global adversary to supply them?
China is mining about 18 percent of all the lithium in the world. With the United States, that percentage is less than 1. As far as refining, China is about 67 percent, some estimates up to 80 percent, where the United States is at 2 percent.
For years now, the United States has been overly reliant on the communists in Beijing. It is in America's best national security interest to maintain deterrence against the CCP, not only in the Indo- Pacific, but especially here at home in our supply chains and critical industries. This is why I first introduced H.R. 3872, the MERICA Act, which would allow for the expanded extraction of critical minerals on Federal lands.
In fact, we already have some of these critical minerals in abundance. A portion of the district I am privileged to represent falls within what is known as the Smackover Formation, a geological formation that encompasses areas from east Texas all the way to the Florida panhandle.
Thanks to a recent U.S. Geological Survey-led study, we know there are an estimated 5 to 19 million tons of lithium reserves in the Smackover Formation, and it is ready for extraction.
Lithium is essential for military and defense applications. It includes batteries and power systems used in unmanned aerial systems, such as the ones planning to be assembled under the Army's SkyFoundry Initiative, which is also absolutely critical for our Nation's future defense.
Under current law, these valuable lithium deposits are locked up on Federal lands, preventing their usage. The MERICA Act would amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands by adding hardrock minerals as part of the listed deposits subject to leasing so that all federally acquired lands can be considered for hardrock mineral leasing.
The MERICA Act would also give the Secretary of the Interior the authority to follow through on President Trump's executive order by ramping up mineral extraction and production on our own Federal lands.
We can't continue to play into the hands of Beijing by granting them de facto control of the global lithium supply chain--it makes absolutely no sense--whether through domestic mines or ones they have gained through other means, such as the Belt and Road Initiative.
The demand for lithium will only continue to increase as the days go by. We must bolster our national capabilities and work to address the ever-growing burden on our Nation's power grid. By passing the MERICA Act, we would take the commonsense step to utilize Federal lands to their full and utmost potential.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues very much for their consideration. For the sake of America's security, I urge all of my colleagues in this august Chamber to support H.R. 3872.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this is a great bill that would provide a much-needed technical fix to the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands. I again thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Fallon) for his work on this bipartisan piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3872, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1098) to reauthorize the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act of 1994, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1098, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1098 to reauthorize the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act of 1994, sponsored by Representative Scholten from Michigan.
Participants in the Junior Duck Stamp program take part in a waterfowl-themed art competition, and the winning artwork is transformed into collectible stamps. The proceeds from these stamps support efforts to connect the next generation of Americans to the outdoors.
The legislation before us would reauthorize the program through fiscal year 2031. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1098 would reauthorize the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program, a small but mighty initiative that has inspired young conservationists for over three decades.
As the Fish and Wildlife Service puts it, this dynamic art and science curriculum reaches students from kindergarten through high school, teaching them about wetland and waterfowl conservation through hands-on learning and artistic expression. It is education at its finest, combining creativity with conservation, art with action.
What makes this program truly special is how it is funded. One hundred percent--every single penny--of revenue from Junior Duck Stamp sales goes directly back into supporting environmental education activities for students and recognizing students for their conservation efforts.
This isn't government waste or bureaucratic overhead. This is a program that pays for itself while delivering real results. At a time when we are seeing declining connections between young people and nature, when screen time often outweighs green time, programs like this are more important than ever. It is exactly the kind of targeted, effective investment we should be making.
I commend Representatives Scholten and Yakym for their bipartisan leadership on this issue. The Junior Duck Stamp program represents the best of what government can do: inspiring young people, supporting education, and protecting our natural heritage, all while operating efficiently and transparently.
Our children deserve the chance to connect with nature, to understand their role as stewards of the environment, and to express that connection through art and learning. This program gives them that chance.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1098. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and ranking member for hearing my bill today. It is such a critical piece of legislation.
Those of us from Great Lakes States know how important it is to connect our young people back to the water that surrounds them, to nature, and to get off their phones and into the great outdoors.
I rise today in support of this incredible piece of bipartisan legislation that I cosponsored with another great midwesterner, Rudy Yakym, the Reauthorization of Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act.
This program is an art- and science-based curriculum that educates children on the importance of wetlands and waterfowl conservation. The Junior Duck Stamp curriculum is a program during which students can develop an understanding of waterfowl anatomy and habitats, culminating in the Junior Duck Stamp art competition, where participants may draw or paint a picture of an eligible North American waterfowl species.
The winning image of this contest then goes on to be featured on the Junior Duck Stamp itself, with proceeds of the stamp being redirected to educational activities for the students participating in the program.
As was mentioned, this program has been in existence for 30 years, and the benefits have been proven. This bill will provide an extension of the Junior Duck Stamp program through 2031, empowering our children to learn more about conservation and their world around them. If we do not act today, we could lose all the good that comes from this program.
I am fortunate to come from an outdoorsy household, where we are a camping, hiking, hunting, and fishing family. These experiences have been critical to my own sons, James and Wesley, in their upbringing. The extension of this program will ensure that other households have consistent access to exploring our environment, as well.
We must encourage our children to connect with the environment to understand how to preserve the natural world that makes Michigan and the entire United States such a wonderful place to live. That is what the Junior Duck Stamp program is all about, and I am thrilled to lead this legislation to ensure future generations of children can learn about conservation while tapping into their artistic skills.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, this bill reauthorizes an important program that invests in the next generation and encourages them to continue our country's great outdoor and sporting legacy. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1098, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2400) to take certain Federal land in the State of California into trust for the benefit of the Pit River Tribe, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Hernandez) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2400, the bill now under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Minnesota?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2400, the Pit River Land Transfer Act of 2025, introduced by Representative LaMalfa, would place approximately 584 acres of U.S. Forest Service land, commonly known as the Four Corners, into trust for the Pit River Tribe.
After decades of conflict and loss, the Pit River Tribe was federally recognized in 1976. The Pit River Tribe consists of 11 different California Tribal bands and resides on a 100-square-mile reservation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Tribe aimed to regain control of the Four Corners property near Burney, California.
Over the years, the Tribe repeatedly tried to regain the Four Corners land from Federal ownership but has been unsuccessful. Although the land is now owned by the U.S. Forest Service, it is ancestral to the Pit River Tribe.
The Tribe wishes to reacquire its ancestral lands and eventually build an interpretive center there. Gaming on these lands, pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, would be prohibited.
I applaud Mr. LaMalfa for working hard with the Tribe to develop H.R. 2400.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the Pit River Land Transfer Act will transfer approximately 583 acres of land into trust for the benefit of the Pit River Tribe in northern California.
This land, known as the Four Corners property, is currently managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and it is a site of great historic and cultural significance within the Tribe's ancestral territory.
In 1970, members of the Tribe peacefully occupied Four Corners to advocate for the return of their ancestral homeland. This occupation was met with violence by authorities and remains a historic event in the Tribe's fight to restore their homelands and sovereignty.
H.R. 2400 will return the Four Corners property to the Tribe, allowing them to steward the land and develop an interpretive center to share their history and culture. In addition, this land will provide the Tribe with opportunities for economic development, education, and environmental stewardship.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota and the gentleman from Puerto Rico for all of us being able to pull together on this piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2400 is something that has been long overdue. The Pit River Tribe has been very patient and oftentimes not treated very well in the process of establishing that they would like to, once again, own this land.
The 580 acres known as the Four Corners are actually along 299 in eastern Shasta County. It is between the towns of Burney and Fall River Mills in northeast California and, of course, will become part of their reservation.
This legislation promotes local stewardship, economic development, and Tribal sovereignty by placing this modest piece of land back into trust for the Tribe. It is something they really pursued for a lot of years.
What we have tried to encourage here is local stewardship. Our Tribes can provide a very valuable part in either helping or supplanting the Forest Service on the lands that they are not managing as rapidly or as well as I would like to see. We are looking forward to greater stewardship and the opportunities for the Tribe.
It is really a physical and spiritual landmark for the Tribe, central to their identity and ability to thrive and grow on their own ancestral lands. Their ties to the land go back many, many centuries. It holds deep spiritual and historical value to them.
It was a focal point of activism, as mentioned, during the seventies, where Tribal members, asserting their rights, faced unjust arrest and bureaucratic hurdles, with a lot of perseverance to get here today.
The Pit River Tribe has pursued every legal and administrative avenue to acquire this land, facing endless bureaucratic delays.
This bill would put an end to that and empower the Tribe to lead on land stewardship, cultural preservation, and future development efforts, which would be an opportunity for everybody who travels the area.
Owning the Four Corners will allow the Tribe to build, as mentioned, an interpretive center so it can educate the public on the history of the Tribe and other Tribes in the area, as well as better land stewardship.
The conservation that will come with the process will honor their ancestral past, present, and future. It strengthens their regional stewardship and, again, will improve land management for all of us to enjoy and make a little more fire safe. It will also help to support their self-determination.
Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone in this Congress to vote for H.R. 2400.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2400 would place approximately 584 acres of U.S. Forest Service land, referred to as the Four Corners, into trust for the Pit River Tribe. The Tribe has attempted to pursue this ask through administrative process, but it is time for Congress to assist legislatively.
Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2400, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
Reappointment of Individual to Commission on Civil Rights
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair announces the Speaker's reappointment, effective December 16, 2025, pursuant to section 2 of the Civil Rights Commission Amendments Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 1975), and the order of the House of January 3, 2025, of the following individual on the part of the House to the Commission on Civil Rights for a term expiring December 15, 2031:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 284) to reauthorize the Congressional Award Act, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 370, nays 22, not voting 41, as follows:
Messrs. BEAN of Florida, GOSAR, ONDER, and Mrs. MILLER of Illinois changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Conveyance of Specified Forest Service Property to Perry County, Arkansas
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3187) to require the Secretary of Agriculture to convey a parcel of property of the Forest Service to Perry County, Arkansas, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 388, nays 0, not voting 45, as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. There are 2 minutes remaining.
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Mr. Speaker, due to illness, I was unable to vote today. Had I been able to vote, I would have voted: YEA on S. 284--Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act (Sen. Lummis-- Education and Workforce); and YEA on H.R. 3187--Conveyance of specified Forest Service property to Perry County, Arkansas (Rep. Hill--Natural Resources).
Mr. Speaker, I was unable to vote today due to an important personal matter. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 335 and YEA on Roll Call No. 336.
Mr. Speaker, due to a flight delay, I was unable to vote in the House today. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 335 and YEA on Roll Call No. 336.
Mr. Speaker, I was absent from the chamber today. Had I recorded my vote, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call No. 335, on the motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 284, and Yea on Roll Call No. 336, on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3187.
Mr. Speaker, today, alongside my partner in the Rhode Island House delegation, Seth Magaziner, I rise to honor two students, Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, whose lives were tragically ended in the horrific mass shooting at Brown University this weekend. Nine other students were injured in the shooting. Eight remain in the hospital.
Today, we hold in the light the victims, their families, Brown University, and the broader Rhode Island communities.
I thank Mayor Brett Smiley of Providence, Governor Dan McKee, and local leaders for their leadership in their ongoing response to this senseless tragedy.
We are grateful to the first responders for their prompt action on the scene and medical professionals for caring for the wounded.
As law enforcement continues their work, we thank them for their efforts and wish them strength in their pursuit to bring to justice whoever committed this horrific act.
For the extended Brown University, Providence and Rhode Island communities, and everyone impacted around the country, we continue to stand together and to heal and work together toward the safety we all deserve.
I ask all of my colleagues to join me in a moment of silence.
Mr. Speaker, in 2027, beginning in April and ending in October, the Salt Lake Temple, which is to my left, will be open for public tours.
All are welcome, with 3 million to 5 million visitors expected during this historic event that will be important to Utahns and especially to those who will again worship and serve there. I invite all of my colleagues in the House and their friends to visit Salt Lake City and tour the temple with me.
Though it was not the first, it has become the most recognizable temple of
Many visitors associate the temple with Utah's capital city. The temple is built of native granite and took 40 years to complete, with the goal to construct it so it would last throughout time.
Mr. Speaker, the Jewish Business Network, JBM, will be recognizing a group of outstanding business leaders at their breakfast in Tarrytown tomorrow, Tuesday, December 16.
The individuals saluted have made a positive impact on the business community in the region of Westchester County and surrounding counties.
Those to be honored include:
The Gabelli Leadership Awards will be given to Paul Adler, chief strategy officer of Rand Commercial; Adam Hammerman, vice president and CEO of New York Medical College; and Brad Schwartz, a partner at Zarin & Steinmetz law firm.
The Friedland Young Leadership Awards will be given to Samuel Adler of Rand Commercial and Lee Lefkowitz, partner for Zarin & Steinmetz.
Mr. Speaker, I salute these talented and committed professionals.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate my incredible Marine Corps fellow, Captain Simona Elvin, for her tremendous work this past year in my office.
Simona has been instrumental in helping prepare for legislation, meetings, and defense events. Her expertise has been crucial in crafting legislation that directly benefits our servicemembers in Oklahoma's Fifth Congressional District. Her hard work in my office and service to our Nation are applaudable.
Mr. Speaker, I will miss Simona, not only for what she has brought to us legislatively but also for who she is as a person. From day one, it was obvious that she would fit well with Team Bice. Her attitude, spirit, and wit will be truly missed, especially at Monday morning coffee.
This past weekend was the 126th Army-Navy game. As a member of the Board of Visitors at West Point, this is not easy to say, but for Simona, I will: Congrats. Go Navy.
Mr. Speaker, I say thank you so very much to Ohio's corn and soy farmers for their excellent agricultural summit in which I participated about a week ago in Defiance, Ohio. We discussed the importance of biofuels as a reliable source of income for northwest Ohio farmers, in fact, 44 percent of their income and rising.
This is a great victory for our country over the last three decades. Let me thank our region's farmers, processors, and growers for bringing together leaders from the biofuels industry, ag commodity groups, Ohio Farm Bureau, and refineries to hear directly about the increase in demand and production for biofuels as a new initiative every day to increase income for farmers as they lose export markets due to tariffs. Biofuels now comprise over 44 percent of their bottom line.
In the early days, I worked with Senators on both sides of the aisle and led the effort here in the House to make sure people had access to E85 ethanol at the fuel pumps. It has been a great gift of my career to have served long enough to see that we have been successful.
We also flew the first fighter jet F-16 out of our base 20 years ago using biofuels, and it worked. We are very proud of this industry as it grows. My hat is off to Ohio farmers and Midwest farmers who are making this reality in our lifetime. What America makes and grows makes and grows America.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate the outstanding USA Men's Deaf Basketball team that recently earned the gold medal while competing at the 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo.
The team bested every other competing country, culminating in an electrifying 69-59 victory over Ukraine in the finals.
I give special recognition to one of my constituents, Patrick Danen of De Pere, who was a key member of this team and brought the gold medal home to Wisconsin's Eighth District.
Patrick, who attended my alma mater, St. Norbert College, had to learn to adapt to basketball after becoming deaf as a result of contracting meningitis at 6 months old. Despite this, he never let this stop him from excelling as a standout player in high school, college, and now the international level.
Patrick Danen and the rest of his teammates showed incredible skill, determination, and fortitude, and their victory was well deserved.
I also recognize the USA Women's Deaf Basketball team, who earned the silver medal in Tokyo, further demonstrating the strength of American athletes on the world stage.
While these games may not have gotten the attention from the media they rightfully deserve, it is my honor to stand here today on the House floor to recognize their achievement and ensure that they know just how proud they have made our country.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me once again in congratulating the USA Men's Deaf Basketball team for their outstanding gold medal victory at the Deaflympics, and I look forward to their future success.
Mr. Speaker, in light of the President's offensive and cruel post about the tragic murders of director Rob Reiner and his wife, producer and actress, Michele Reiner, I think it is important to speak out.
Mr. Speaker, may this be the last time America elects a President devoid of sympathy and compassion.
May this be the last time that we choose someone so heartless and cruel, who denies the basic dignity of honoring someone's life when they have been murdered.
May this be the last time we choose someone who divides us instead of unites us.
May this be the last time we elevate and celebrate a man unwilling to offer condolence or consolation or comfort.
May this be the last time we choose a leader wrapped up in spite and vindictiveness.
May this be the last time that we lose ourselves in our collective cruelty.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Fred Gretsch, who celebrates 60 years leading Gretsch Drums and shaping one of the most respected names in percussion.
Mr. Gretsch joined the family business in 1965 and devoted his career to preserving his heritage while pushing forward thoughtful innovation. His leadership helped define the distinct Gretsch sound that musicians across generations continue to recognize.
Rather than chase trends, he prioritized tone and careful craftsmanship. That commitment helped the company remain a standard for artists who value instruments built with care and character.
Gretsch Drums has reached stages large and small and remains a trusted choice for professionals and young musicians beginning their journey.
This milestone reflects decades of determination and stewardship for Mr. Gretsch and those who have worked beside him.
Today, we recognize Fred Gretsch for his influence on American music and for protecting the legacy that continues to inspire.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Clara Lee Phillips, a cherished member of the Albany community and a woman whose dedication and service strengthen the very heart of New York's 20th Congressional District.
Born in Langsdale, Mississippi, Clara made Albany her home in 1964 and devoted 36 years of faithful service to Albany Medical Center.
Even after retirement, she continued giving back, volunteering, cooking, and supporting the youth of the South End with unwavering dedication.
Miss Clara, as she was affectionately known, was the founder of Mississippi Day in Albany, a celebration now in its 13th year. What began as her way of sharing a piece of home grew into a cherished community tradition, uniting neighbors through food, music, culture, and, yes, storytelling.
On behalf of the 20th Congressional District, I extend our deepest condolences to Miss Clara's family, her church community, and the countless friends and neighbors whose lives she touched. Her legacy of service, unity, and love will endure in Albany for years to come.
We honor her today with gratitude and commit to carrying forward that great spirit that she brought to our district every single day.
Mr. Speaker, affordability is a buzzword these days. Let's drill down, so to speak, on energy costs.
My home State of California is the producer of a great amount of our awesome ag products, our fruits, vegetables, tree, and nut crops.
What we are about to see in California is two different refineries are slated to close: Phillips 66 in the south and Valero up north. Those two refineries are approximately 20 percent of the fuel supply for the State. Also, California's refinery capacity affects Nevada and Arizona as they are right next door, and part of the shipment of our oil products goes there.
We are on schedule to see these closed down because they can't afford to do business in my home State anymore. The rest of the country, under the awesome energy policy we have had for about the last 11 months, have seen prices come down. I have seen in Colorado two different times the $1.85 range. California is still about $4.50, and it is going to continue to go up when there is less capacity and when the pipeline shuts down.
Mr. Speaker, Congress has the opportunity to save Christmas.
As millions across the country face the uncertainty and anxiety about their health coverage, without congressional action, the enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act will soon expire, leading to higher costs and risking healthcare coverage for some altogether.
It will force families off health plans and add to the burden on our rural health centers with unpaid care that they are already experiencing at the time that Members of Congress prepare to go home for Christmas to their families with the certainty of their own coverage. It is just not right.
There are bipartisan proposals to address this crisis, and I thank my colleagues who have been working around the clock to find a solution and who have not lost sight of why our constituents have sent us here: to work for them, to work for solutions.
One of the greatest gifts Congress can give to families back home is accountability and coverage.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Virginia?
Mr. Speaker, we have 4 legislative days left in 2025, 17 days total.
This is our last chance to prevent 22 million people from seeing their insurance premiums double or even triple and for some to see their health insurance premium spike beyond their ability to pay when the enhanced premium tax credits expire on December 31.
An estimated 5 million people will find that they can no longer afford those premiums and will lose their coverage altogether.
For the past month, the Congressional Black Caucus has told stories on this floor of our constituents who will be impacted by this body's failure to act. These include restaurant owners, beauticians, barbers, landscapers, florists, mediators, chiropractors, funeral directors, farmers, small business owners and their employees, gig workers, the self-employed, and more.
We have told stories of people worried about how they are going to pay that unexpected bill if they get sick or injured or if they lose their health insurance. We have 4 days to prevent that from happening.
Last week the Senate failed to act. The administration doesn't even seem to have a concept of a plan, so it is up to the House. Leader Jeffries has the discharge petition open right now to extend the credits, and we need just four Republicans to sign on.
Last week Punchbowl News reported that Speaker Johnson is planning a long process to fix healthcare, saying he anticipates working on healthcare through the second quarter of next year. However, open enrollment ends on January 15, 1 month from today, and those new premiums will take effect on January 1, in 17 days.
Mr. Speaker, do you know who can't wait for the Speaker's process?
It is my constituent Lester Johnson, co-owner, with his wife, of Mama J's Restaurant. They and their daughter rely on the Affordable Care Act paying about $700 a month for their premiums in 2025. However, without the enhanced premium tax credits, their bill is going to go up to more than $1,400 a month, and many of his roughly 40 employees are going to see their premiums spike, as well.
It is a lot of money for people, Lester said, and not knowing what the price is going to be because of a stalemate in Congress adds uncertainty. Everybody is feeling the anxiety.
Lester is not sure what he is going to do. I have told stories of constituents in Virginia who found a plan they could afford but with higher deductibles. They are worried. They say they are just going to wrap themselves in bubble wrap and hold their breath.
Bubble wrap doesn't help you, Mr. Speaker, if you are in a car accident. Bubble wrap doesn't help you, Mr. Speaker, when you get sick. Bubble wrap doesn't help you, Mr. Speaker, if
Rather than addressing this premium cliff, House Republicans have put forth a reckless plan that will put millions more Americans' healthcare coverage at risk. This new bill does nothing to lower costs for millions of Americans who are now facing skyrocketing healthcare premiums.
The bill is full of recycled failed ideas from previous efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. It fails to extend vital enhanced premium tax credits, forcing more than 22 million Americans to pay, on average, twice as much to buy the same health coverage they have today.
As I said, an estimated 4 to 5 million could become entirely uninsured, and everybody else will pay higher healthcare costs.
This proposal increases premiums for millions of Americans by funding cost-sharing reductions, causing hundreds of thousands of people to become uninsured. It expands so-called association health plans that put comprehensive and affordable care for small businesses and workers at risk. This has been the centerpiece of Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act for decades.
It doesn't work.
The plan also creates a backdoor ban on abortion and reproductive healthcare.
Republicans have shown they have no agenda to address healthcare affordability and access. As Americans stare down notices that their healthcare costs will increase by tens of thousands of dollars in just 2 weeks, Republicans are cramming through legislation that kicks them while they are down.
Americans will suffer without the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, and yet Republicans still haven't put forward a clean plan that will provide relief. Instead, they are putting on political theater with an unserious vote on an amendment that will undermine the ACA that their leadership intends to see fail.
This eleventh hour, half-baked plan isn't even feasible to implement. Earlier this year, Democrats urged Republicans to extend the tax credits fearing for those Americans whose costs were about to skyrocket. Instead, Republicans spent their time cutting $1 trillion from the healthcare system while Americans began receiving their notices that their healthcare premiums would skyrocket and Republicans stood idly by.
Now we are just 2 weeks away from the expiration of these tax credits, and this half-baked plan isn't going to cut it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Carter).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership in these Special Order hours.
Mr. Speaker, as we talk about the human costs of expiring healthcare tax credits, these human costs are not just on Democrats. These human costs are on Americans across the board, Republicans and Democrats alike. They are the small business owners who are the backbone, as we often say, of our economy. Yet when given an opportunity to demonstrate to our small business owners that they really matter and that their employees really matter, we play politics.
Today, I want to share the story of Mike Friedman. I met Mike in October, about 1 week before open enrollment began. He was working on a Federal contract at the USDA National Finance Center in New Orleans but lost his job in April because of Federal workforce cuts enacted by Trump, Musk, and DOGE.
His family signed up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act because his husband was also laid off in the spring. Mike had cancer 5 years ago and continues to have outstanding health concerns.
If MAGA Republicans don't join Democrats in extending the ACA tax credit, Mike doesn't know how he or his family will afford healthcare. He told me: I am not unusual in this case. So many others are in the exact same position. He said: I am in the cusp between being retired and not being eligible for Medicare yet. He just turned 61, and the ACA is the only option for his family.
The cost of healthcare is out of control. Republicans have turned the situation into a crisis with the largest Medicaid cut in the history, outrageous threats to Medicare, and relentless targeting of the Affordable Care Act.
This big, pretty some may say, most would say ugly law will hurt Americans of every party, of every background, of every ZIP Code. For 43 days, the Congressional Black Caucus stood firm to protect America's healthcare and lower healthcare costs for people like Mike and so many others that will remain nameless and faceless because they don't always have a voice or a platform from which to plead their case. That is why we are here, for those who may not have a voice, may not have a platform, may not have a lobby, may not have a group to fight for them. We are fighting for them every single day regardless of their name, background, even party because when we are elected to Congress, we are not elected to only represent those who are in our party, but to represent the American people.
This healthcare crisis is an affront to the American people, and I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to do the right thing. Do the right thing. Step up, stand out, fight against injustice and inequality wherever you find it. Demonstrate that to our small business people, our people living with disabilities, our veterans, our working people who go to work every single day who make just a little bit too much money to access Medicaid, but not enough money to pay for their healthcare.
Republicans' failure to extend the ACA tax credits will hurt Louisianians and Americans across this country. It allows premiums to skyrocket for tens of millions of Americans by an average of 114 percent and takes away coverage from around 4 million people.
That is unacceptable by every front. Any way you slice it, it is unacceptable. We are the richest country in the world. This Nation has more than anyone else in the entire world. No one should go to bed hungry. No one should be without a home. No one should fear being sick because they can't access healthcare, not in America.
This is not a partisan issue, my friends. There are a lot of things that we can be partisan about. This isn't one. We only have a few days left to get this right. Let's not let the American people be the sacrificial lamb over some undisputed political battle among parties. Let's not let a person in the White House who seems to care about everything but the American people dictate or drive our actions. We are bigger, we are better. I know you personally. Find the courage to do the right thing. Stand up for the nearly 4 million people who will find themselves without healthcare.
The Congressional Black Caucus is here, and we are not giving up this fight. We will not give up the fight to address the healthcare crisis in our country. We will not give up the fight to fight for those businesspeople who every day create tax dollars and sales taxes for our local governments, that hire people from the community, that provide the resources that keep our economy going. Let's demonstrate to them that they matter. Let's do the right thing. Let's extend the ACA tax credits and show America that we can get our business done and that everything we do is not subject to a red or a blue.
Mr. Speaker, I wasn't here when the Affordable Care Act was passed. I was in the State legislature in Virginia. It was after I had become a mother. It was while I was part of the sandwich generation, trying to raise two children and deal with elderly parents nearing the end of their lives. It was while I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we were going to close the insurance gap so that no one would face a couple of scenarios that I was lucky enough to have health insurance to cover, but a lot of people don't.
The first was when my son was almost 3 years old, and in the blink of an eye he grabbed my curling iron and burned his hand. We were in a rural community in Virginia whose hospital didn't have a burn unit. It was very small. They couldn't even figure out what degree the burn was. This was on a Saturday.
They said: You can either go home--and on Wednesday there is a burn clinic where they can look at his hand for free--or we can see if the VCU Health center can admit him today. I said: Well, he is going to get admitted today because I knew I had health insurance, and whatever that bill was going to be, I didn't have to worry about it.
If I didn't have health insurance, I would have been forced to wait until Wednesday to go to the clinic, and his hand probably would have been infected.
After a 3-hour ambulance ride, a week in the burn unit, and all the medication, the bill was $15,000. In the blink of an eye, my son's injury cost $15,000. However, I was lucky because I had health insurance, so I only had to pay $1,000. I was lucky I had the ability to pay that.
At the time, we were trying to figure out should Virginia expand Medicaid to help people who can't afford health insurance get it. We were able to expand it on a bipartisan basis because in our rural areas, they understood Medicaid expansion was critical to keeping their hospitals open. Over 300,000 Virginians got health insurance because of that.
Now, those 300,000 Virginians face the prospect of losing their health insurance because of actions Congress took in July with the largest Medicaid cut in American history. In our rural areas, six hospitals in Virginia are at risk of closing because of those Medicaid cuts, one in my district that is a healthcare safety net. The closest hospital if they close is over an hour away.
We also created our own State-based healthcare exchange, and 573,000 Virginians signed up. Many of them now face the prospect they won't be able to afford their premiums when their tax credits expire in 17 days.
This is all in the context of folks seeing their housing costs increase, whether it is rent or mortgage, their energy bills increase, childcare increase. A lot of folks are facing the prospect that they cannot pay their rent and their health insurance, so they are playing the lottery, figuratively: The lottery that they won't get sick or the lottery they won't get injured. When they do, whether they are insured or not, they are showing up at the hospital, and the rest of us will pay the cost.
Mr. Speaker, as we enter the holiday season, as a preacher's kid, I have been thinking a lot about Matthew 25:31-40, where Jesus said: ``Come, you who are blessed by my Father.'' He said when He enters into his kingdom, all the nations will come, and He will say: `` `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
``Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' '' When did we do this? And He said: ``Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for Me.''
Mr. Speaker, I came to Congress looking to do for the least of these as well as every American, but Congress' priorities this year have not been that.
Congress bent over backward, congressional Republicans specifically, bent over backward to provide permanent tax breaks for people who make over $500,000 a year, but if you make $64,000 a year, or a family of four that makes $129,000 a year, you are just expected to absorb health insurance premiums that double or triple.
If you make $21,597 a year, or a family of four who makes $44,000 to $45,000 a year, you are supposed to absorb your healthcare costs if you lose access to Medicaid. That is upside down, and what we are saying is to the least of these, you are on your own. They deserve better.
We have 4 days to try to prevent millions of Americans from losing access to health insurance. Are we going to do it? Time will tell. I still have hope, but we will see.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of the Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Connecticut?
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, a teacher, and a parent to lead this Special Order hour on the systemic dismantling of the Department of Education.
From the beginning, the Trump administration and Secretary Linda McMahon have been ruthless in attacking the Department that is dedicated to ensuring equal access to quality education, promoting student achievement, preparing students for global competitiveness, administering Federal funds, enforcing civil rights, collecting data, conducting research, and supporting educational programs from early childhood to higher education.
On March 11, the Department of Education initiated a reduction in force affecting nearly 50 percent of its workforce. Only 2,200 employees of the 4,000 employees that used to work at the Department remain to protect the civil rights of students, to support students from low-income backgrounds, to develop and prepare educators, and to provide resources for English language learners.
President Trump also signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Education to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education. This action by the President is illegal.
The Department of Education was created by an act of Congress, and only Congress has the authority to close that agency or any other Federal agency it creates. Yet, the executive order was one of many attacks by the President to collapse Federal agencies and end necessary services to the American people.
Last month, the Department of Education announced six new interagency agreements to shift the day-to-day functions to four other agencies. This, I have to say, is one of the most devastating actions yet.
This agreement sends the American Indian and Tribal colleges to the Department of the Interior. It sends TRIO programs to the Department of Labor. It sends the Child Care Access Means Parents in School program to the Department of Health and Human Services and International Education and Foreign Language Studies to the Department of State. These Departments do not have the expertise or appropriate staff to administer these programs, and our students will eventually suffer.
Since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has been committed to ensuring high-quality education for the 49 million children who attend public schools across the country.
The Department of Education also collects and publishes data on student enrollment, school staffing, and crime in schools, and distributes Federal funds to support programs for 7.5 million students with special needs. We haven't heard any examples or any information on how these programs will run when being administered across several different agencies.
When my Republican colleagues say they want to dismantle the Department, what they are really saying is they want to eliminate the sole Federal agency that protects the civil rights of students, the sole Federal agency that supports students from low-income backgrounds and develops and prepares educators. For postsecondary students, the Department administers Pell grants and $1.6 million in Federal student aid programs to support those trying to afford college.
This Department has long been a target of Republican lawmakers who make the false claims about the role of the Department of Education. I know with fidelity that the Department of
Abolishing the Department of Education would place the burden for continuing vital services on States and local communities that would either be forced to cut programs or raise their local taxes.
Every student deserves access to a free and appropriate public education. As a teacher serving in Congress, this issue is deeply personal to me. I introduced the Department of Education Protection Act to shield the Department of Education from efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency without the consent of Congress. Specifically, my legislation would prohibit the use of appropriated funds to decentralize, reduce staffing levels, or alter the responsibilities, structure, authority, or functionality of the Department of Education.
If this administration wants to make a proposal that the Department of Education should be abolished, they must come before Congress and lay out a plan for how that looks, how it will work, and how it will impact students and families.
I will continue to advocate for the Department of Education to work to find commonsense solutions to address education issues, not just tear it down with no plan to support students.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan).
Mr. Speaker, education is personal to my family. In the 1880s, my great-grandfather founded a school in a rural community because the State of Alabama did not think it important to educate Black children. As he explained in his autobiography, he wanted to teach the children, whose parents and grandparents had been enslaved on the plantations nearby, to be of better service to themselves, to their employers, and to the community in which they lived.
In the 1930s, my father and his sisters attended that school because the State of Tennessee didn't provide a good education to Black children. Like his father and grandfather, my dad became an educator himself, ultimately teaching the next generation of educators at Virginia State University, which I now represent in Congress.
In the 1950s, my mother moved away from her hometown because the State of Mississippi did not provide a good education to Black children. The only school that did was run by the Catholic church but only to the eighth grade. The third youngest of 14 children, she wanted more than the domestic and laborer jobs available to her grandparents, her parents, her brothers, and her sisters.
She moved to go to high school, ultimately becoming an educator herself. She ran the federally funded TRIO Programs at Virginia State, which are run by the Department of Education, to ensure that children like her had the support they needed to go to and graduate college.
Mr. Speaker, my parents saw firsthand how important a good education was to individual opportunity and a thriving and healthy economy, community, and democracy. They dedicated their lives to ensuring not only that their children but every child had a good education.
Not every child is so lucky because the legacy of over 300 years of slavery and Jim Crow, massive resistance, and chronic underfunding has created too many obstacles to the ability of States and local governments to give every child an opportunity for a good education.
For the past 20 years, first as a State legislator and now in Congress, I have worked to ensure every child in Virginia gets a good education. As a mother of two children in public schools, even with bipartisan and Herculean effort, I see every day that there are still gaps across the country. The Department of Education was created to fill those gaps.
The Department of Education protects students' civil rights, particularly those with disabilities. It provides support to attract, train, and retain the best and brightest teachers, school administrators, support personnel, counselors, and mental health professionals.
The Department of Education measures and tracks academic progress across the country and helps those school divisions that lag behind address areas of concern. It manages student loan and grant programs that ensure children without financial means to go college can do so without incurring more debt than they can ever pay off.
Without the Department of Education, State and local officials in Virginia and across the country are worried that they do not have the funding or the staff to handle the workload, especially in the area of special education, especially in our rural areas.
The block grant funding that the Trump administration keeps promising comes with little accountability, making it unclear whether those Federal funds will ever reach the students that need them the most.
Education lays the foundation for a strong future, as well as a thriving, healthy community; a thriving, healthy economy; and a thriving, healthy democracy. We owe it to our grandparents, our children, and our grandchildren to protect that progress for future generations.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut for her relentless attention on this issue.
First, when we talk about protecting the Department of Education, I think we have to first--when we talk about dismantling the Department of Education, we keep saying we are going to return education to the States. Education never left the States. It has always been with the States.
What the Department of Education has done has been civil rights. The Department of Education has nothing to do with curriculum, teacher qualifications, or the courses needed to graduate from high school. All of those are local and State.
The Department of Education's Federal interests is civil rights beginning in 1954 when the Supreme Court decreed that we could not maintain so-called separate but equal schools.
In Brown v. Board of Education, the court said: ``It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity . . . is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.''
The court then concluded that segregation of students by race denies the students of a minority race of an equal educational opportunity because separate facilities are inherently unequal.
That is what the Supreme Court did in 1954. They didn't tell the State what they would teach. They just said students can't be segregated.
In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act addressed inequality in education. Title I addressed it by putting money into low-income areas. We fund education with the real estate tax, guaranteeing that low-income areas won't be at a disadvantage, so title I comes in with money for low-income areas.
Other provisions in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act talk about students with disabilities and making sure students with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education. It also supports those for whom English is a second language. It eliminates racial achievement gaps. That is what the Federal role in education is, not what the courses are.
With higher education, Title IX talks about equality of the activities of men and women. We don't tell colleges what to teach, but we just make sure we have Pell grants and student loans so that people can go.
When we dismantle the Department of Education, we are not returning anything to the States. We are just eliminating civil rights. It is no surprise that the first victim in the dismantling of the Department has been the Office of Civil Rights. The Office of Civil Rights enforces civil rights.
The big, ugly bill that they passed earlier this year cuts back on student loans and Pell grants so fewer students can attend. Other actions have been limiting equal opportunity in education.
That is why the dismantling of the Department of Education is so reprehensible. It is not because we are so-called returning anything to the States. It is because we are dismantling civil rights.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut for all of her work and for her relentless attention on this issue and making sure people understand what is going on.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), the ranking member of the full committee, for that history lesson. It is really important to understand what all of this means.
He is right that I have been relentless on this issue. Not only was I a high schoolteacher but I have benefited from a high-quality public education. I understand what it means for a child in a low-income community who has one shot at getting a good education. If we don't protect that for every child in every community, it is to the detriment of our Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).
Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and Representative, the gentlewoman from Connecticut, Representative Hayes, for yielding time. I also thank her for putting together this Special Order hour.
The two of us came to Congress from the classroom. We came from the classroom to the Halls of Congress. The two of us were also locked out of the Department of Education earlier this year when we were demanding answers on when President Trump would illegally try to close the Department.
Since then, we have seen Secretary McMahon fire staff from the building who investigate and protect the civil rights of students. We have seen her slash funding for minority-serving institutions. We have seen her move parts of our education infrastructure to unrelated agencies, creating more hoops for administrators and staff to jump through to get the funding they need.
Last week, the Department of Education announced they are moving to end the SAVE program which some 7 million student loan borrowers rely on to have affordable repayment plans on their student loans.
Grocery prices are up. Utilities are up. Healthcare is about to jump for millions of people, and now some student loan borrowers will have to find money to pay their student loans. The math simply won't work for millions of Americans and for these students who need to pay off their loans.
Secretary McMahon has usurped Congress' role by firing staff, holding up grants that Congress has approved, and running a multimillion-dollar experiment by shuttering the Department and making six different Federal agencies do the work of one.
Democrats have worked to conduct oversight for our Nation's students, but Republicans couldn't care less if title I schools get the funding they need; if students have their civil rights violated; or if the promise of a free, quality education is for all students.
Their agenda is one that seeks to privatize and voucherize the public school system and to make getting degrees and credentials as hard as possible for those who are not well-off or well-connected.
Students, no matter how complex their needs, how much money they come from, how much wealth they come from, or the ZIP Code they grew up in, are entitled to a free, quality education.
Mr. Speaker, if we want to save public education, a free and quality education for all children, we can't have half of this body ready to give up their power and conduct no oversight while permanent changes are being made at the Department of Education.
Secretary McMahon has only appeared before the Education and the Workforce Committee once this year and has since taken the most extreme actions and attacks on public education this country has ever seen.
Republicans must join me and my colleagues in conducting oversight for the students in this country. We are living in a time when more and more Americans don't feel like the American Dream is in reach. I am pleading--pleading--with Republicans to join me--to join us--in giving hope to Americans that the promise of a quality education is still alive for every child.
We cannot delay or wait until harm is brought to any school district or teacher or student. This must end. The mission of the Department must continue. As far as I am concerned and as far as the Democratic Caucus is concerned, the mission of this Department will continue.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California and comment that the gentleman is exactly right. If this administration or Secretary McMahon have a different vision for the Department of Education, then they need to come before Congress and lay that out. We need to have hearings. That needs to be done in the light of day for the public to truly understand how this will impact their children.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for organizing this Special Order hour but also for her leadership. We are so fortunate to have Representative Hayes on the Committee on Education and Workforce, National Teacher of the Year, and I will say what an honor it is to serve with the gentlewoman.
Mr. Speaker, I ran for Congress because I care so much about public education. Although I haven't been a teacher, I spent a lot of time in public schools myself, as a parent volunteer, serving on committees, and advocating for education over the years.
Little did I ever dream that I would come to Congress and have to fight for the actual existence of the Department of Education. We are watching--and I condemn in the strongest terms--this illegal and unconstitutional dismantling of the Department of Education. What message does it say to our country and around the world that we won't have a Department of Education? We are going to fight this because we know that the Department of Education was created by an act of Congress, and only Congress can eliminate it.
We look at what is happening with all of these programs--the programs that help low-income students, students with disabilities, and higher ed.
I got through community college and college and law school because I had Federal support. Programs like TRIO and GEAR UP that help underserved students, these are all under attack. It feels like we are just watching the unfolding of the Project 2025 playbook. Now we are seeing the Secretary try to outsource all of these things to other agencies.
Mr. Speaker, I tell you: Poll after poll shows that the majority of parents across the country support the Department of Education, and that is especially true with parents of students with disabilities. They know how important that is. I tell you: Over my years and decades as an education advocate, I have never had anyone say to me: We need less money for IDEA.
It is always: Please fully fund IDEA.
People know that public education is an investment. They know that our students are our future. Yet we are seeing a Congress here where our colleagues, Representative Hayes, found $170 billion with a b--$170 billion to give to the Department of Homeland Security to carry out an inhumane mass deportation agenda.
Imagine if we had $170 billion to carry out a mass education agenda. That would be wonderful for our country and for our economy. I tell you: Right now, we are seeing this war on public education, but we are not going to back down.
I think about the education laws. I know Ranking Member Scott talked about the civil rights obligations of the Department of Education, and we know that a lot of the education laws that came about were signed by President Johnson in the civil rights era to expand opportunities and to close opportunity gaps.
Right now, there are approximately 25,000 pending civil rights complaints at the Office for Civil Rights, which has been gutted.
Mr. Speaker, 7 of the 12 regional offices were closed, and 90 percent of the Office for Civil Rights employees have been issued termination notices. Now the Department has tried to call some of them back because they can't handle the backlog. That is government inefficiency, not government efficiency.
Look at the interagency agreements, where they are
I am here with you today, Representative Hayes, to say: We need the Department of Education. The Republican majority cannot abolish that. The Trump administration cannot abolish the Department of Education without congressional aid.
I wanted to ask Representative Hayes: We have had some conversations, you and I, where we hear people say: Well, we have to close down the Department of Education because students aren't doing as well now ever since the Department of Education existed.
If you will engage in a brief colloquy with me, and let's talk about why that is an erroneous assumption.
I will. Well, for many school districts, as the student population gets larger and they are dealing with all of the issues that kids come to school with, we have to make sure that kids are on green and ready to learn. However, the Department of Education provides for some of those wraparound services, some of those summer programs and meal programs that kids have at school. These are all of the things that help kids to learn.
We have to make sure that we fill the gap from decades of disinvestment. We can't just never have schools adequately resourced and expect different results, never have teachers properly prepared and expect different results. We need to, as a nation, make educating our children a priority, which has not happened.
In many districts, they are always struggling just to catch up. In title I low-income districts, they are always--they are always at a disadvantage. So the answer is not to disinvest. We need to figure out what is working and amplify those programs. If there are places where we can become more efficient, then we address those things.
That is why we have Federal education research, which they are also trying to cut. I tell you: If we could fully fund IDEA, if we could fully fund title I for low-income schools, fund title II for professional development, fund title III for English language learners, and fund title IV-A for well-rounded education that includes the arts and music, school security, and technology, imagine.
Well, I just think about my district, and while my State of Connecticut got approximately $170 billion from the Federal Government for special education services for students, there is no way a State can backfill those gaps without support from the Federal Government.
When communities start to look at the programs that they will have to cut because they lack funding and understand what those supports mean, I think we will see an uproar from parents, from educators, from elected officials, and from leaders around the country because our children are the ones who will suffer.
I think what is most egregious is that this is all happening, to your point, against the background of increasing defense budgets, against the background of cutting healthcare and nutrition assistance programs for families.
While all the programs that are meant to support the most vulnerable people are stripped and cut, tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals, and even more than the Department of Defense asks for, is allocated. At some point, we have to prioritize the education of our children.
Absolutely. Kids can't learn if they are hungry, if they are homeless, or if they are sick. Those programs really matter.
I thank Representative Hayes for leading this. We must protect the Department of Education. It is the future of our children.
More than 90 percent of the students in this country attend public schools. It is a good investment, and that is true from early childhood to the K-12 system and higher education, as well.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Hayes. I am with her in the fight.
In a statement from my colleague from Connecticut, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, she talks about her support for the Department of Education and really reminds us that this administration has empowered Russ Vought, the author of the anti-education, anti-American, pro- billionaire Project 2025, this manifesto that lays out literally firing thousands of Federal employees and decimating the Department of Education.
Congresswoman DeLauro talks about her family, growing up in New Haven, her parents who immigrated here, working in a garment factory, and education really being the catalyst for a better life. That story has not changed in all of these years.
There are so many families and so many students that I taught, and so many kids that just need accommodations, with parents who are left wondering what will happen next. If this is the path that we are to take, I implore my Republican colleagues to not usurp our Article I authorities, to demand that we have some transparency and clarity for what this looks like, to demand that the Secretary of Education come before the Congress and assure parents about what the future of public education looks like and make sure they know that their children will not be left behind.
This is something that, again, is near and dear to me, not just because of the profession that I chose in my adult life, but because education saved my life. Without public schools, an education, community college, and teachers who cared about me, my life would have taken a very different direction. I know that there are so many kids who are in that situation right now.
I will continue my work to protect the Department of Education and to protect public education for our children, to make sure that they at least have a shot at an education to change the trajectory of their future and their families.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the proceedings during the former Members program be printed in the Congressional Record and that all Members and former Members who spoke during the proceedings have the privilege of revising and extending their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania?
Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.
The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 13 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.
