Congressional RecordUN

UME PLURIBUS

United Statesof America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 114th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m.Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor.

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H4663

Vol. 162 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2016 No. 112

House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was

called to order by the Speaker pro tem-pore (Mr. WEBSTER of Florida).

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DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be-fore the House the following commu-nication from the Speaker:

WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2016.

I hereby appoint the Honorable DANIEL WEBSTER to act as Speaker pro tempore on this day.

PAUL D. RYAN, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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MORNING-HOUR DEBATE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu-ant to the order of the House of Janu-ary 5, 2016, the Chair will now recog-nize Members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning-hour debate.

The Chair will alternate recognition between the parties, with each party limited to 1 hour and each Member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to 5 minutes, but in no event shall de-bate continue beyond 11:50 a.m.

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RECOGNIZING THE NEED FOR A 21ST CENTURY CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION SYSTEM

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. THOMPSON) for 5 minutes.

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank my col-leagues on the House Education and the Workforce Committee for their support last week in passing a reau-thorization that I offered, the Carl D. Perkins Act, in the form of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act.

Now, I am proud to say that this bill passed unanimously out of committee, which is good news because a reauthor-ization is badly needed.

It is no secret that our country con-tinues to face significant economic challenges, and it is no surprise that many men and women are worried about their futures and their family’s future. Last week a Gallup poll found that 54 percent—just 54 percent—of Americans believed today’s young peo-ple will live a better life than their parents.

As a father, I can say there is noth-ing a parent wants more for their chil-dren than a life that is better than their own. When you hear that only half of all Americans expect their chil-dren to have a brighter future than they did, it becomes clear that we need to do better. And we can do better, not just for our own kids, but for the neighbor who can’t find a job, the friend from church who struggles to make ends meet, the family that has been trapped in poverty with no path-way out, or the high school student who struggles and has no hope or inspi-ration that he or she has what it takes to succeed.

With the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Cen-tury Act, we have an opportunity today to advance reforms that will help these and many other Americans, espe-cially young Americans, obtain the knowledge and skills that they need to break the cycle of poverty and to achieve a lifetime of success. This bill will modernize and improve current law to better reflect the challenges and realities facing students, workers, and employers.

The bill will empower State and local leaders by simplifying the application process for receiving Federal funds and providing them more flexibility to use those resources to respond to the changing education and economic needs. These reforms will help State

leaders focus on preparing students for the workforce—not duplicative or over-ly prescriptive Federal requirements— and enable them to determine the best way to do so.

To increase transparency and ac-countability, H.R. 5587 streamlines per-formance measures to ensure sec-ondary and post-secondary programs deliver results, helping students grad-uate, prepared to secure a good-paying job or further their education. The bill also includes measures to provide stu-dents, taxpayers, and State and local leaders the information that they need to hold CTE programs accountable for delivering those results.

Finally, H.R. 5587 will reduce the Federal role in career and technical education and limiting opportunities for the Federal Government to inter-vene in State and local decisions and preventing political favoritism.

This is a bipartisan bill, Mr. Speaker. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their help in creating it. I look forward to seeing it on the floor of the United States House of Representa-tives hopefully in the near future.

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IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT ANNIVERSARY

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 min-utes.

Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, this month we mark the first anniver-sary of an historic agreement between Iran and six major world powers, in-cluding some of our key western allies, plus Russia and China.

The agreement was designed to force Iran to back away from the nuclear threshold, acquiring nuclear weapons, which everyone agreed would be a dis-aster.

Instead of sober reflection on the suc-cess of the agreement, where we are and where we are going, we will, in-stead, be discussing legislation that is

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSEH4664 July 12, 2016 designed to have the United States break that agreement. In a very dan-gerous world, that agreement has made us a little bit safer. This would be a mistake of tragic proportions to under-mine it.

Last year, Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on this House floor, as part of his campaign to scuttle a potential agreement, warned that Iran was on the verge of acquiring nu-clear weapons as thousands of cen-trifuges were whirling to enrich ura-nium.

While today, 14,000 centrifuges have been removed from service and placed under international supervision. Iran has removed nuclear material from its once secret facility at Fordow. It has reduced its stockpile of enriched ura-nium from 12,000 kilograms, with a pu-rity as high as 5 percent, to only 300 kilograms, with a purity of no more than 3–2/3 percent. The core of the heavy water reactor at Arak has been filled with concrete. These are not ab-stract numbers and mere technical-ities. Iran has adhered to the agree-ment, making a nuclear breakout hard-er, and take longer.

Make no mistake, Iran has some un-savory hardline people in key positions of leadership, but not everyone. Presi-dent Hassan Rouhani has been a voice of and a force for moderation. The Iran people voted for him as a repudiation of the hardliners.

The Iranian people are still the most pro-American in the region, where even some of our allies have large anti- American populations. The majority of the Iranian people still like us, despite the fact that America cooperated with Britain to overthrow their popularly elected government in 1953 and install the Shah as dictator, despite the fact that the United States backed Saddam Hussein in the bloody Iraq-Iran war where we would later send American troops to overthrow him. At that time, he used poison gas—and we did nothing to stop him—against Iranians and against some of his own people.

The relationship with Iran is impor-tant to not just controlling nuclear threats. Iran is going to play a key role in this troubled area as the major Shia power. Our war against Iraq created huge problems, not just in Iraq, but Syria and Afghanistan. Iran will al-ways play an outsized role. The ques-tion is, can we work with them toward peace and reconciliation?

I, for one, will vote against efforts to undercut the agreement when, after a year, all the evidence that I have seen is that the agreement is working and that Iran is complying.

I am encouraged that there is a memorandum of understanding with American company Boeing and Iran to purchase 80 jet airplanes and lease an-other 29, supporting over 100,000 jobs in the United States over the next decade. Rather than unwinding this agreement, people should support and strengthen it.

Notably, our other partners in the agreement have already started to take

commercial advantage. I would rather have American jobs at Boeing than have Airbus sell even more planes to Iran or the French Bombardier manu-facturer. The rest of the world has moved on and America should not move backward.

In a troubled world, an opportunity to strengthen ties with a former enemy through trade, job creation, and bring-ing us a bit closer together should not be a major cause for concern. It should be a cause for celebration.

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REMEMBERING MIKE RHYNE The SPEAKER pro tempore. The

Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. MCHENRY) for 5 minutes.

Mr. MCHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mike Rhyne, a great man and a friend from Rutherford County, North Carolina.

Mike served as an aldermen for Ellenboro, the same town where his brother, Jim, serves as mayor.

Ellenboro is a small town, but they don’t actually view themselves that way. In fact, Mike and his late wife, Pat, were instrumental in starting the town’s yearly festival. When they de-cided to figure out a name on what to call it, they called it ‘‘Ellenboro’s Big Day.’’ That was sort of Mike’s person-ality coming through in just the nam-ing of that event. In fact, Mike gave me a T-shirt—and I still have it—‘‘The Big Day’’ T-shirt that he gave me a few years ago.

Mike also really deserves a lot of credit for restoring the old Ellenboro train depot and transforming it into the town’s history museum. In this his-tory museum, they pay tribute to the countless veterans that grew up, were raised, and came home to Ellenboro and to those that gave their lives in the service of our country. That really pays a special tribute to the commu-nity.

To Mike’s family, I extend my sym-pathies. Ellenboro and Rutherford County have lost a true public servant, and I have lost a good friend.

RETIREMENT OF CATAWBA COUNTY CHAMBER PRESIDENT DANNY HEARN

Mr. MCHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I also rise today to honor a great man and a great friend, one of my constituents from Catawba County.

Dave Hearn has served as president of the Catawba County Chamber of Com-merce and has done so for the last 12 years. He recently announced his re-tirement from 43 years of work with chambers of commerce throughout the southeast.

Danny is a graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne University. Shortly after graduation, he went to work at the local chamber of commerce as an intern, and that ca-reer would last him until actually just a few months from now.

He served local chambers, rising through the ranks from Norfolk, Vir-ginia; Rockingham, North Carolina; Statesville, North Carolina; and he will finish his career in Hickory.

Danny is well known for a couple of different things in the community. Danny is most well known for his com-mitment to small business. He has fought tirelessly on behalf of the small business community and the business community generally.

In fact, one of the greatest accom-plishments at the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce under Danny’s leadership is the Edison project, a com-petitive contest that awards much- needed start-up capital to local entre-preneurs. He began this initiative in the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in western North Carolina history.

Danny knows that the backbone of our local economy and the backbone of our country is small business. He un-derstands that small business develop-ment is the key to our region’s eco-nomic development, growth, and recov-ery.

Danny’s work with small businesses has truly paid off. Recent statistics show that wages in Catawba County are growing at a faster rate than most counties in the country, and this is a great success under Danny’s leader-ship.

Danny is also extraordinarily well known for his love of golf. Danny’s sec-ond-to-last day on the job in Sep-tember will be hosting the chamber’s annual golf tournament. What a fitting way and a truly poetic way for Danny to end his chamber career. He will be doing two of the great things that he is passionate about: working with small businesses leaders and playing golf.

So to Danny: You will truly be missed in Catawba County. Your lead-ership will be truly missed. However, your impact will be felt for generations to come. We thank you for your leader-ship, and I thank you for your friend-ship.

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ADDRESSING SECURITY THREATS

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. ASHFORD) for 5 minutes.

Mr. ASHFORD. Mr. Speaker, we should not leave on the longest sum-mer break in more than three decades while our Nation faces serious security threats.

There is no greater responsibility for this body than to keep our commu-nities and our families safe. We face real threats from around the world, from the Zika virus, cyber threats, China, Russia, and North Korea. All of these demand attention, but we must act now to destroy ISIS.

The campaign of destruction waged by ISIS has created the worst crisis in the Middle East in a generation and is threatening American lives at home and abroad.

When I traveled to the Middle East 17 months ago, I came home and said that this must be our top priority. Congress must come together to develop a com-prehensive strategy that attacks ISIS on all fronts, online and on the ground,

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H4665 July 12, 2016 reducing and eliminating its territory and its ability to direct attacks around the globe. A commitment to this effort will allow our military to make long- term strategic decisions.

It is important for Republicans and Democrats alike to find a common vi-sion for this effort. I do not believe that we cannot have and should not have a do-nothing summer while Amer-icans are in jeopardy.

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REMEMBERING JACK RUBIN

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN) for 5 min-utes.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I come to the floor this morning to commemorate the life of a dear friend, Jack Rubin, who passed away last night at his home in south Florida.

Jack was a Holocaust survivor, the only member of his family to survive. He was liberated from Auschwitz in May of 1945, came to America, and served in our United States Army.

Over the course of his life, Jack dedi-cated his time to raising awareness about the horrors of the Holocaust and fighting for the needs of survivors. Jack was a regular on Capitol Hill, meeting with Members of Congress and testifying before Congress four times in 2007, 2008, and twice in 2014.

On September 18, 2014, Jack testified before a subcommittee hearing, which I chaired, about the struggles of recov-ering assets for Holocaust survivors, and the struggle continues. At this im-portant hearing, Jack laid out all of the difficulties, all of the challenges that Holocaust survivors are facing in America today, the continued struggle to find the justice that has evaded most of them for over 70 years, and the poverty, the lack of medical care, den-tal care, mental health care for many survivors.

That is why my colleague, TED DEUTCH, and I authored a resolution, which already passed the House, urging the German Government to fully fulfill its moral responsibility to Holocaust survivors and urgently provide the fi-nancial resources necessary to ensure that survivors live in dignity and com-fort in their remaining years.

I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass this measure immediately because this is about survivors getting all of their needs addressed and getting them addressed immediately.

I offer my sincere condolences to Jack Rubin’s widow, Shirley, and their three children—Michael, David, and Lynn—and many grandchildren.

In the 2014 hearing, Mr. Speaker, Jack stated: We are losing more and more survivors every day, and the ones remaining need our help now.

We will never forget you, Jack Rubin. We must honor Jack’s legacy, Mr. Speaker, by continuing to pursue justice for all Holocaust survivors.

ANNIVERSARIES OF THE IRAN DEAL AND THE AMIA ATTACK

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, this Thursday marks the 1-year anni-versary since the administration and the rest of the P5+1 nations signed the weak and dangerous Iran nuclear deal. One year later, and Iran continues its push for ballistic missiles, and we are seeing reports from Germany’s intel-ligence services that Iran’s prolifera-tion activities have not stopped, that the regime has increased its efforts to advance its chemical and biological warfare capabilities as well as its nu-clear weapons program.

This week, the House will bring to the floor various bills that would am-plify sanctions against Iran. We must ensure that Iran is held accountable for its terror activities and that individ-uals engaged in such activities are brought to justice.

Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the attack against the Argentinian Jewish Community Center called AMIA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, a designated for-eign terrorist organization, were be-hind this heinous and cowardly attack which killed over 80 people and injured hundreds more.

Unfortunately, thanks to this weak nuclear deal, some of Iran’s most noto-rious criminals will see sanctions against them lifted, including several individuals responsible for the AMIA bombings. One, General Vahidi, for ex-ample. He is a former Quds com-mander, a former Iranian defense min-ister, and he has been wanted by INTERPOL since 2007 for his direct role in the AMIA attack.

Guess what? His name was one of the ones included in this Iran deal for sanc-tions to be lifted.

Is that justice, Mr. Speaker? Last year, the special prosecutor on

the AMIA and my dear friend, Alberto Nisman, was killed in his home in Bue-nos Aires. I urge the Argentine au-thorities to do everything in their power to continue to properly and thoroughly investigate his death so that those responsible can be brought to justice.

The AMIA attack serves as just one reminder of the many threats from Iran and its nefarious proxies that en-danger our national security, the Mid-dle East, and our ally, the Democratic Jewish State of Israel.

As we mark the 1-year anniversary of this horrible nuclear deal and com-memorate the 22nd anniversary of the AMIA attack, we must redouble our ef-forts and commitments to hold Iran and all of its cohorts fully accountable.

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WE NEED TO STAND UP FOR THE LGBT COMMUNITY

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. ESTY) for 5 minutes.

Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, today marks 1 month since the horrific attack on Pulse nightclub that took 49 lives.

Many of us have come here to this floor raising our voices to demand that this House take action to prevent the loss of life from guns in this country.

But one critical, tragic aspect of this crime that sometimes has gotten lost is exactly who was targeted in the shooting. Pulse was a mainstay of Orlando’s LGBT community, and of the Latino community in particular. Now, more than ever, we need to unite against hatred, discrimination, and bigotry. We need to stand together in calling for justice, peace, and equality.

I am, frankly, appalled to see that today, today on the 1-month anniver-sary of the shootings at the Pulse nightclub, instead of standing with the LGBT community, instead of passing background checks, today the Com-mittee on Oversight and Government Reform will be advancing legislation to undermine the existing and insufficient protections that the law provides for LGBT Americans.

I am proud that my home State of Connecticut is one of several States to pass legislation protecting the LGBT community from discrimination, whether folks are at work, at school, at the doctor’s office or, yes, using a pub-lic bathroom. Our residents support these laws. We support these protec-tions. LGBT folks are our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our neighbors. They are our kids’ teachers, coaches, and their friends. They give back to our community. They volunteer at church. They serve in public office.

In Congress we should be focusing on legislation to prevent discrimination and prevent hatred. Our goal should be a country in which all Americans, in every State, can live their lives free from bigotry and harassment and free of the fear of being targeted with guns because of who people are. Quite sim-ply, I can’t imagine a worse way for Congress to respond to the massacre in Orlando than with legislation attack-ing LGBT Americans.

The American people overwhelm-ingly believe that discrimination tar-geting the LGBT community has no place in our society, and yet a bill to support that discrimination is getting a full hearing today. Meanwhile, legis-lation to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists that has broad, bipartisan support among the public cannot get so much as a vote in this House.

In the 31⁄2 years since the Sandy Hook massacre in my State, in my district in Connecticut, this House has failed to take any action, any action whatsoever to prevent the deaths of Americans by guns. In that time, 100,000 Americans have died from guns, 49 of them in the largest mass shooting in American his-tory 1 month ago, targeted because they are LGBT at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to get our pri-orities straight. It is time for us to do what the American people sent us here to do. Let us send a very clear message: We stand up against hatred and dis-crimination; we stand with our LGBT

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSEH4666 July 12, 2016 brothers and sisters; and we stand with the American people who are demand-ing that this House take action to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous peo-ple, to keep guns away from terrorists, to keep guns away from criminals, to keep guns away from domestic abusers, and to keep guns away from the dan-gerously mentally ill.

We need a vote on no fly, no buy. We need a vote on comprehensive back-ground checks on every commercial sale of a gun. The time to act is now, Mr. Speaker, and action is not increas-ing voting to increase discrimination against our LGBT brothers and sisters and to make them more vulnerable to the gun violence that wracks this country. We need to act. The time is now.

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REMEMBERING DAVID ELAHI

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. ABRAHAM) for 5 min-utes.

Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, early on Sunday, July 3, while most of us were resting up for our Independence Day weekends, Sergeant David Elahi was conducting highway safety patrol measures in Sterlington, Louisiana, a city which I represent.

That morning, a drunk driver struck and killed David while he was con-ducting a traffic stop. The driver in-jured two other officers as well. David was only 28 years old. Communities in Ouachita Parish and the surrounding areas are still reeling from David’s death because, according to all ac-counts, he was just a great guy.

He was a family man who left behind a 2-year-old daughter and his fiancee, who is expecting a child in January. That shift was supposed to be David’s last full-time shift for the Sterlington Police Department. He was planning to retire to take care of home, go back to a business that he had started, wanted to improve it, but he didn’t get there.

I rise today because our Nation needs to know about David. They need to know that he was a model citizen pur-suing the American Dream. He was proud of his family. He was proud of his church. He was proud of his home, and he was proud of the service he pro-vided.

Last week was a dark week in our Nation. The deaths in my home State of Louisiana as well as those in Texas and Minnesota have once again thrust into the forefront a debate on the role our law enforcement officers play in policing our communities.

There have been calls to harm our police, and one man in Dallas did just that. For the first time in history, graphic scenes from our streets are being live-streamed on the Internet. People are reacting sometimes in vio-lent ways. All loss of life is tragic. More violence is not the answer. When tragedies occur, we must fully inves-tigate them and hold accountable any who acted wrongfully.

But even when bad things happen, we cannot let these events define who we are and react in ways that divide us. Most of us want the same things: to provide for our families, to better our communities, and to serve our God. The Bible tells us that patience is a virtue, and we must use that wisdom today as we seek answers to questions everyone in society is asking.

For me, personally, I believe the overwhelming majority of our police officers are just like David. They serve because they want to make a dif-ference, they want to make their com-munities a better place. They are there and they serve simply because they care.

I would encourage everyone listening to take a deep breath and reflect on the services of David Elahi. I want you to think about how he served his commu-nity. I want you to think about his fiancee, his daughter, and the child who will never know him from this point on. I want to remember that fam-ily members of all our law enforcement officers share intimately in the cause of public safety that they want to pro-vide.

I also want to think about those five officers in Dallas who lost their lives in the line of duty and how their fellow officers ran toward the gunfire while others ran away. That is what our offi-cers do. That is why they keep us safe. No institution is perfect. People like David do not deserve to be vilified be-cause they chose to serve and protect. People like those officers in Dallas didn’t deserve to be marked for death because they were simply police offi-cers. They did their duty, and they were killed because of it.

So thank a law enforcement officer today for what they do for you and for me. Thank their families for sharing in their sacrifice. Say a prayer for David, his family, and the Sterlington com-munity, and say a prayer for all of those who wear the badge.

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GIVE US A VOTE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. THOMPSON) for 5 min-utes.

Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, why is it that more than 80 percent of NRA members and over 80 percent of gun owners support back-ground checks? Well, I will tell you why. It is because they are responsible gun owners; and responsible gun own-ers understand that there is nothing wrong with making sure that a pro-spective gun buyer isn’t a terrorist, a criminal, a domestic abuser, or dan-gerously mentally ill.

The Supreme Court made that per-fectly clear in District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court ruled that, while Americans have the right to keep and bear arms, there are no constitutional problems with laws prohibiting felons

and the dangerously mentally ill from carrying guns.

As a responsible gun owner myself, I will never give up my guns, and I will never ask law-abiding individuals with-out a history of dangerous mental ill-ness to give up theirs. And, like other responsible gun owners, I understand that if gun violence continues unabated, then eventually we will see laws that place substantial and overly burdensome restrictions on our right to own guns.

To reduce gun violence, we don’t need to stop law-abiding citizens who use guns for hunting, sport shooting, and personal protection from obtaining those firearms. We need to stop terror-ists, criminals, domestic abusers, and those with a history of dangerous men-tal illness from getting guns.

Our first line of defense when it comes to making sure that guns don’t fall into dangerous hands is to conduct a background check. And we know that, when used, background checks work.

Every day, background checks stop more than 170 felons, some 50 domestic abusers, and nearly 20 fugitives from buying a gun. But sadly, a gaping loop-hole allows those same felons, dan-gerously mentally ill, and domestic abusers to bypass a background check in 34 States. All they have to do is go online or go to a gun show. That is wrong; that is dangerous; and that loophole needs to be closed.

That is why it is long past time for the Republican leadership to allow a vote on H.R. 1217, my bipartisan, pro- Second Amendment bill to require a background check for all commercial gun sales. The bill bolsters the Second Amendment rights of lawful gun own-ers by making sure that the bad guys can’t easily bypass background checks when trying to buy a gun.

Just as important for the safety and security of our country and our fellow Americans is H.R. 1076, bipartisan, pro- Second Amendment legislation to pro-hibit those who are on the FBI’s ter-rorist watch list from being able to le-gally buy a firearm. We should be able to agree that suspected terrorists shouldn’t be able to legally buy a gun or guns of their choosing.

As a responsible gun owner, I am fed up with those who are blindly opposed to background checks hiding behind bumper sticker slogans like: ‘‘Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.’’ Everyone knows that guns don’t kill people, which is exactly why respon-sible gun owners and the overwhelming majority of the American people un-derstand that it is important to run a background check to see if the person buying the gun is a danger to our com-munity.

This debate isn’t a choice between re-specting the Second Amendment or re-ducing gun violence. As a responsible gun owner, I am tired of it being framed that way. It is about this Con-gress doing both.

The Supreme Court’s Heller ruling provides people on both sides with an

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H4667 July 12, 2016 opportunity to work within the con-fines of the Second Amendment to pass legislation that will reduce gun vio-lence and keep our communities safe. Responsible gun owners across our country understand that. It is time for the Republican leadership in the House to understand it, too.

Mr. Speaker, give us a vote. f

HONORING THE LIFE OF NICHOLAS ‘‘CORKY’’ DEMARCO

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. MOONEY) for 5 min-utes.

Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on Friday afternoon, I was deeply saddened to hear about the pass-ing of one of West Virginia’s finest gen-tlemen, Nicholas ‘‘Corky’’ DeMarco.

A lifelong West Virginian, Corky was a leader in our State, in both private and public service. For those of you who did not have the privilege of know-ing him, let me tell you a little bit about him.

I got to know Corky through our dis-cussions about how West Virginia can benefit from our natural bounty. Under Governor Cecil Underwood, Corky served as the director of operations for the State and helped bring more jobs and industries to West Virginia.

Most recently, Corky served as the executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. Dur-ing his time with the association, he more than tripled their membership and made significant contributions to the oil and gas industry in West Vir-ginia.

His devotion to growing jobs in our State was strong, but his love for fam-ily came before anything else. For Corky, the most important thing in life was his family: his wife, Catherine; two grown sons, Matthew and Joey; and his stepson, Jason Milano.

I join all West Virginians in keeping Mr. DeMarco’s family in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Corky will be truly missed.

OPIOID ADDICTION Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr.

Speaker, overuse of prescription pain medication is one of the leading causes of opioid addiction. When a patient has more narcotic pain medication than they need after a medical event, this excess medication can fall into the wrong hands.

Narcotic pain medication in the wrong hands often leads to addiction. In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has found that 1 in 15 people who take nonmedical prescription pain re-lievers will try heroin.

Last year, the number of fatal overdoses from prescription painkillers increased by 16 percent—and 28 percent from heroin—in the United States. In West Virginia, the story is even worse. According to a recent study by the Trust for America’s Health, the Moun-tain State has the highest rate of over-dose deaths in the entire United States.

This issue is above party politics. It is a plague that all Americans must come together to solve. That is why, in February, I introduced H.R. 4499, the Promoting Responsible Opioid Pre-scribing Act. This bipartisan bill strikes a harmful provision of ObamaCare that places unnecessary pressure on doctors and hospitals to prescribe narcotic pain medication.

This concern was brought to my at-tention while meeting with doctors and other healthcare professionals in Charleston, West Virginia, who are ac-tive in our State’s medical society. I thank them for bringing this to my at-tention. It is a perfect example of how government works well. You bring an issue to your Congressman’s attention, and he takes action to solve it.

This was their idea. I thank them for bringing it to our attention. I encour-age everyone to bring the ideas you have to help fight back against the opioid epidemic to your local Congress-man.

I am proud to say that, less than a week ago, the Department of Health and Human Services announced they are implementing the important policy changes contained in my bill. Almost word for word, the new rules are ex-actly what my bill says need to be done.

Since I first introduced the PROP Act in February, I have been calling on Congress to pass my bill. This bipar-tisan legislation has 27 Republican co-sponsors and 16 Democratic cosponsors. My bill puts doctors, not the Federal Government, in control of opioid-pre-scribing decisions. This change in pol-icy is an important fight against opioid abuse.

I want to thank the 43 cosponsors in the House and the 8 cosponsors in the Senate in our successful effort to pass this bill’s policies through regulation and help put an end to opioid abuse.

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LET’S PUT AN END TO GUN VIOLENCE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. TSONGAS) for 5 minutes.

Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, our Na-tion has been repeatedly confronted by senseless and tragic acts of gun vio-lence; and now our country grieves with yet more heartache following the shocking and horrific attack in Dallas last week, an attack that took place during a peaceful protest where citi-zens were exercising their basic rights as Americans, as Dallas police officers supported and protected this fun-damentally American right.

As President Obama said: ‘‘There is no possible justification for these kinds of attacks or any violence against law enforcement.’’

This event added to an already heart-breaking week, after the deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana. Today, I am thinking of their families, friends,

and loved ones, as I am of the 49 lost at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando just a month ago.

I believe that law-abiding citizens have a constitutional right to own fire-arms, whether for sport or personal protection; but I also know that re-sponsible personal freedom and public safety are not mutually exclusive.

Shootings have become unacceptably commonplace in our country, and Con-gress has a responsibility to do more to keep guns out of the hands of crimi-nals, domestic abusers, and the dan-gerously mentally ill. In fact, recent polls show that support for universal background checks hovers around 90 percent.

No other developed country in the world has the same rate of gun violence as the United States. According to United Nations data, the gun homicide rate in our country is more than 7 times that of Sweden, 6 times that of Canada, and, unbelievably, 21 times that of Australia.

As President Obama stated, following the shooting in Oregon: ‘‘We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.’’

I agree with Dallas Police Chief David Brown when he said that police departments cannot be expected to solve our Nation’s gun violence prob-lem by themselves. As policymakers, we must be doing more. We should all be inspired by Chief Brown’s commit-ment and willingness to work through personal heartbreak toward a more just and violence-free society.

Chief Brown’s urgency is echoed in letters I have received from young peo-ple in my district. Headlines in our communities and those that make na-tional news do not go unnoticed by our Nation’s youngest citizens, children who are growing up with heightened fear, some even afraid to go to school.

Abbey, age 13, from Gardner, Massa-chusetts, wrote to me: ‘‘Every single day at school, I am scared an armed in-truder will come in,’’ going on to say that ‘‘the amount of gun violence in our country is piling up, and we need to stop it.’’

Andrew, a high school freshman from Dracut, wrote: ‘‘I have been noticing there are more shootings lately, maybe because I am getting old and paying more attention to what is happening around me than I did before.’’ Imagine, at 14, he is feeling old as he watches our news.

Miriam, from Acton, wrote: ‘‘I am only 17 years old, so this current cli-mate of fear and violence is all I have ever known. However, I know that this amount and frequency of bloodshed is not and should not be normal.’’

As a mother, grandmother, and American citizen, it is unconscionable that our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world where they see mass shooting after mass shooting, met only by a moment of silence on this floor.

Mr. Speaker, in Congress, we have a moral responsibility to pursue change.

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSEH4668 July 12, 2016 We must address the senseless violence and injustice afflicting our Nation with ‘‘the fierce urgency of now,’’ to quote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our call to action is made more painful and more real with each pass-ing day.

Mr. Speaker, bring a vote to the floor on commonsense, universal background check legislation that will keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, crimi-nals, domestic abusers, and the dan-gerously mentally ill.

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GUN BILL

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. CURBELO) for 5 minutes.

Mr. CURBELO of Florida. Mr. Speak-er, I rise in support of the bipartisan legislation I have recently filed to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists.

H.R. 5576, the Terrorist Firearms Pre-vention Act of 2016, is similar to the bi-partisan agreement championed by Senator SUSAN COLLINS, and would deny the sale of firearms to individuals on the no fly and selectee lists, while ensuring due process is protected for law-abiding gun owners.

It was recently announced the House is unlikely to consider any legislation this week pertaining to terrorist access to firearms, and for this, I am truly disappointed.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to do some-thing, and this commonsense, bipar-tisan legislation is a step in the right direction. I will continue to work with Members on both sides of the aisle to strike a bipartisan compromise that will protect law-abiding citizens’ con-stitutional rights, while denying the sale of guns to terrorists.

RECOGNIZING NORBERTO ORELLANA Mr. CURBELO of Florida. Mr. Speak-

er, I rise to recognize Mr. Norberto Orellana, an incredible young man who, despite facing health challenges and long-term homelessness, recently graduated from the School for Ad-vanced Studies at the Miami-Dade Col-lege Homestead campus with a near perfect GPA, a full ride to college, and a dream to go to medical school.

Mr. Orellana has already confronted more hardships in his young life than many of us will encounter in our life-times, but he does so with a positive attitude that inspires all of us.

Mr. Orellana was born with cerebral palsy, a permanent movement disorder caused by abnormal development in the part of the brain that controls balance and posture.

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By the time he was 5, he had under-gone three major surgeries to correct a club foot, lengthen his muscles, and re-shape his bones.

He and his family also battled home-lessness, moving from shelter to shel-ter. However, he never allowed his cir-cumstances to dictate his attitude or detract from his belief in his own po-tential. He used his time spent in hos-

pitals to fuel his burning desire to be-come a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.

It is an honor for me to recognize Mr. Norberto Orellana on the occasion of his graduation. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for such a bright young mind.

COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY TO DESTROY ISIL

Mr. CURBELO of Florida. Mr. Speak-er, the attacks in Orlando, San Bernardino, and across Europe are a horrific reminder that the war on ter-ror continues, and that radical extre-mism from groups like ISIL remains a danger to all freedom-loving people. It is critical that a plan is in place to de-stroy this enemy before the United States and our allies face more sense-less violence from cowardly terrorists.

For these reasons, I have cosponsored Representative KINZINGER’s bill, H.R. 4869, the Comprehensive Strategy to Destroy ISIL Act of 2016. This legisla-tion directs the Secretaries of State and Defense to submit a joint report to Congress on the strategy to destroy ISIL and its affiliates.

It is imperative the U.S. and our al-lies defeat these radical terrorists on their home turf, and this legislation will require a plan from the adminis-tration to do just that. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this critical bill.

CONGRATULATING TWO FLORIDA KEYS COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT-TEAMS

Mr. CURBELO of Florida. Mr. Speak-er, I rise today to recognize two Flor-ida Keys Community College student- teams who won five medals, two of them gold, at the annual NASA Engi-neering Challenges at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This yearly competition is geared to-wards encouraging students to pursue STEM-related fields. The TechKeys and RocketTrees worked together to take home the gold in the high-altitude balloon experiment.

FKCC is one of only three colleges in Florida to receive a $134,000 grant from the Florida Space Grant Consortium to support the program for 2 years. This grant also provides scholarships to each participating student. Each of these students is also now eligible for an internship at NASA as long as they remain enrolled in a Florida college.

Congratulations to the students and their professor, Dawn Ellis, on this prestigious accomplishment. I am proud that they are bringing awareness to the importance of science, tech-nology, engineering, and math.

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OUR NATION IS TIRED OF GUN VIOLENCE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) for 5 min-utes.

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, our Nation is grieving. We are tired. We are tired of the violence that too often unsettles our communities.

What a week we had last week. We were horrified by the deaths of Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripa, and Brent Thomp-son—five officers murdered by a sniper in Dallas while they were on duty.

We saw very troubling videos of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling being shot.

Today we also mark the 1-month an-niversary of the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a hateful act on the LGBT community that took the lives of 49 people. This shooting shook the country, as have the many mass shootings that have preceded it.

As we still process these deaths, daily violence continues in commu-nities around the country. Over the weekend, the total number of shootings in Chicago, where I come from, this year exceeded 2,100. Over 300 people in Chicago have now died from gun vio-lence in 2016.

I have received hundreds and hun-dreds of letters from constituents of all ages concerned about the effect of gun violence in our communities and in their communities.

Yesterday I received a letter from a young constituent, an 8-year-old named Kaline. She wrote: ‘‘I read the Sun-Times every day like my dad. I read and still think about the story of Tyshawn Lee. It’s just hitting my mind all the time because it’s not fair. It makes me cry.’’

Tyshawn Lee was a 9-year-old boy in Chicago deliberately assassinated, shot multiple times in the head.

Kaline continues: ‘‘I hope people can make better decisions about what to do with guns. I hope people stop fighting about whether we should do gun con-trol because I worry more people and kids like Tyshawn will be killed.’’

We can’t accept violence as normal. This is not the country Kaline should have to grow up in. And how do you ex-plain to an 8-year old that in America, with 91 people dying from gun violence every single day, we have taken no meaningful action?

We take action all the time to pro-tect our kids from threats to their safety. We have regulations in place on teddy bears and pacifiers, to protect children’s health and safety, but noth-ing for guns.

Guns are specifically exempted from regulation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency charged with protecting consumers from unreasonable risk or injury or death. Gun manufacturers are pro-tected from liability for damage caused by their weapons. The Centers for Dis-ease Control is actually prohibited, in law, from studying the public health risk of guns.

Robert, a 91-year-old and a veteran of World War II from my district wrote: ‘‘You know better than I do the vast array of efforts to protect the Amer-ican people from the recklessness and avarice in the marketplace, yet Con-gress has failed the people in the mat-ter of gun control . . . Today the

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H4669 July 12, 2016 American public is crying for laws,’’ he says.

Robert is right. I can think of no other product or industry that has so few measures in place to protect our safety, and we need to rethink our ap-proach to guns. We can’t put the inter-ests of gun manufacturers and the gun lobby ahead of the safety of our com-munities. Those of us in Congress have the power to do something, and it is long past time for us to act.

We can start with measures that have broad support among the Amer-ican people. Ninety percent of Ameri-cans support comprehensive back-ground checks. Background checks would help reduce the flood of weapons that come into Chicago from gun shows and online sales.

Would it stop every shooting? Of course it wouldn’t. But would it save some lives? Absolutely.

My heart goes out to the families in Dallas and Orlando and Chicago and so many other places that have had the lives of their loved ones stolen away by gun violence, and we need to grieve. But after that moment of silence, we must direct our sadness and our anger into action.

The problem of violence in commu-nities may seem insurmountable, and no single policy will stop every death. But we should start by passing com-monsense gun legislation supported by the vast majority of the American peo-ple.

We need a vote on legislation to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Repub-licans and Democrats and gun owners and NRA members agree that back-ground checks for every gun purchase and closing the gun show loopholes and all the other loopholes will help.

So give us a vote, Mr. Speaker. My constituents are crying for action. Let’s act, not ignore their cries any longer. Give us a vote.

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NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR COM-BATING TERRORIST, UNDER-GROUND, AND OTHER ILLICIT FI-NANCING

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. COSTELLO) for 5 min-utes.

Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in sup-port of H.R. 5594, the National Strategy for Combating Terrorist, Underground, and Other Illicit Financing Act. I wish to commend my colleague from Penn-sylvania, Congressman MIKE FITZPATRICK, for his leadership on this bill.

This bill would direct the President to work with the Secretaries of the Treasury, State, Defense, and Home-land Security Departments, as well as Federal banking agencies and the Di-rector of National Intelligence to cre-ate a comprehensive national strategy to push back against terror financing.

This national strategy would call for an ability to adapt to technology de-

velopments used by terrorists and to use technology to fight terror financ-ing; it would encourage working with private financial institutions; and it would emphasize coordination efforts between international, State, and local officials.

This is a very good bill, and I am proud to support it.

SIMPLIFYING THE APPLICATION FOR STUDENT AID

Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in sup-port of H.R. 5528, the Simplifying the Application for Student Aid Act.

This bill would make it easier for students to fill out the free application for Federal student aid, also known as the FAFSA form, in a number of ways. It would allow students to apply for fi-nancial aid earlier by using tax data from the 2 years prior before the FAFSA is dated. Under this legislation, some of the critical information FAFSA requires would be automati-cally entered, removing barriers that could hinder students in need from ap-plying for aid.

We should do everything we can to assist students who want to attend col-lege. And, Mr. Speaker, this legislation will help many students get more of a head start on responsible financial planning for their future.

SOLAR FUELS INNOVATION

Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in sup-port of H.R. 5638, the Solar Fuels Inno-vation Act.

This legislation would enable the Federal Government to contribute to advancing energy technology at early stages through the Solar Fuels Basic Research Initiative at the Department of Energy.

The initiative would focus on the areas of science that are necessary to develop solar fuels, such as chemistry and materials science. It is important, indeed, and it is critical that we accel-erate the research and deployment of next generation clean energy tech-nologies.

In authorizing this research, which would be made available to companies, the Federal Government would help cutting-edge companies take the crit-ical next steps in energy innovation. If we are thoughtful in how we advance American energy innovation, we can create jobs, preserve our resources, and improve the health of our commu-nities.

RECOGNIZING JOSEPH PARIS

Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize Joseph Paris, a teacher at the Stetson Middle School in the West Chester Area School District, who received the Bob Thompson Excellence in Energy Award from the National Energy Education Development Project.

Mr. Paris has been bringing tech-nology into the classroom, while spur-ring interest and encouraging students to succeed. Great job, Mr. Paris.

RECOGNIZING THE HOME OF THE SPARROW AS NONPROFIT OF THE YEAR

Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize the Home of the Sparrow as Nonprofit of the Year, as recognized by The Main Line Chamber of Commerce.

The Home of the Sparrow provides housing, education, and access to com-munity resources to low-income women in Chester County. And the Home of the Sparrow has helped bring positive change to so many, and con-tinues as a stellar, caring example of making a difference in Chester County.

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GUN VIOLENCE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. PERLMUTTER) for 5 min-utes.

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, it has been 4 days since the mass shoot-ing in Dallas. It has been a month since the mass shooting in Orlando. It has been 7 months since the mass shooting in San Bernardino, and at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. It has been a year since the mass shooting in Charleston. It has been 2 years since the mass shooting in Ump-qua Community College in Oregon. It has been 31⁄2 years since the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. It has been 4 years since the mass shoot-ing at the theater in Aurora, Colorado. It has been 51⁄2 years since the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, where our colleague, Gabby Giffords, was shot.

Mr. Speaker, please talk to Speaker RYAN. Not once, after any of those shootings, in all of these 51⁄2 years, have we had one hearing or one vote on gun violence, not one.

Now, we have had 60 votes on repeal-ing the Affordable Care Act, none of which went anywhere. The Republican majority has spent millions of dollars going after Benghazi or emails to no avail; but not one vote, not one hear-ing, nothing on gun violence.

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Now, Mr. Speaker, you know I would much rather be here talking about the Broncos winning the 50th Super Bowl. I would much rather be talking about the unbelievable accuracy of NASA getting the Juno satellite to Jupiter after 5 years of space travel within 1 second of the planned time. I would much rather be talking about Jenny Simpson, who is a University of Colo-rado graduate who is going to Rio, and wish her much success and that the wind be at her back. Those would be a lot more fun. Those would be some things I would love to do. But we have got to grapple with this issue. It is not going away, and we are not going away.

We asked for two commonsense pieces of legislation. They certainly aren’t going to handle all the ills of so-ciety, but one is no fly, no buy; mean-ing, if you are on the terrorist watch list, you don’t get a gun. The second is so common sense, which is background

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSEH4670 July 12, 2016 checks on anybody who wants to pur-chase a weapon.

Those two simple pieces of legisla-tion we have asked to be brought to this floor. In fact, a couple weeks ago, we were so upset that we actually did a filibuster and broke some rules of this House to try to make our voices heard to have a vote. The Republican major-ity has refused to let us have that vote.

Let us have a hearing. These are bi-partisan pieces of legislation sponsored by Mr. KING. Mr. CURBELO, just a sec-ond ago, asked that something be brought up, but it is not going to be brought up.

It is time. It is time that we have a vote. It is time that we have a hearing. It is time that we do something about gun violence.

Today I just brought the picture of Garrett Swasey, the police officer who was killed in the mass shooting at the Planned Parenthood facility in Colo-rado Springs, and a picture to remem-ber, Alex Teves, who was killed in the Aurora movie theater protecting his girlfriend from being shot by a mad-man who thought he was The Joker.

It is time, Mr. Speaker. It is time, Mr. Speaker, that we address these things. We can’t avoid it any longer. These subjects are not going away. We are not going away. These people can-not have died in vain.

Whether it is the 5 police officers shot last week, the 49 people killed at the nightclub, the hundreds who have been killed by guns over the course of the last few years, it is time for a hear-ing, and it is time for a vote.

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RECESS

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu-ant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the Chair declares the House in recess until noon today.

Accordingly (at 11 o’clock and 2 min-utes a.m.), the House stood in recess.

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AFTER RECESS

The recess having expired, the House was called to order by the Speaker at noon.

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PRAYER

The Chaplain, the Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, offered the following prayer:

Merciful God, we give You thanks for giving us another day.

Bless the Members of this people’s House with wisdom and the courage to address the pressing difficulties of our time. You know each one personally, through and through, and how they re-late with one another. You know them, as Your people know them, as the 114th Congress.

Help them to know You. Impel them by Your spirit to act justly and walk humbly with You.

Inspire all of our citizens, as well, to look first to their blessings and then

charitably to the work of this people’s House. Each Member chooses to serve another day. May each serve with honor, and merit the appreciation of those whom they serve.

May all that is done this day be for Your greater honor and glory.

Amen.

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THE JOURNAL

The SPEAKER. The Chair has exam-ined the Journal of the last day’s pro-ceedings and announces to the House his approval thereof.

Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Jour-nal stands approved.

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PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

The SPEAKER. Will the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. FORBES) come for-ward and lead the House in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. FORBES led the Pledge of Alle-giance as follows:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Repub-lic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

The SPEAKER. The Chair will enter-tain up to 15 requests for 1-minute speeches on each side of the aisle.

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RESTORING THE CONSTITUTION

(Mrs. WALORSKI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. WALORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to take a stand against bureauc-racy run amok. Every day I hear from hardworking Hoosiers, small-business owners, and family farmers buried under red tape. They feel like their government is actively working against them. From ObamaCare, to the EPA, to many other agencies, the Obama administration has been churn-ing out complex and costly regulations. This has to stop.

We can’t have small business, farm-ers, and other engines of our economy held back by the threat of a regulator knocking on their door. That is why we have a plan to restore the Constitu-tion. House Republicans recently re-leased our plan for A Better Way to make our government more account-able and transparent and give power back to the people.

Today we are also taking an impor-tant step toward reining in regulators and rebuilding the checks and balances our Founding Fathers intended with the Separation of Powers Restoration Act. Mr. Speaker, with this bill, and our A Better Way agenda, the House is standing up for the people against out- of-control bureaucracy.

REBUILDING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

(Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, the poor condition of America’s infrastructure costs our economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Freight bottle-necks, aviation congestion, inadequate ports, and deteriorating roads will cost 2.5 million American jobs over the next 10 years unless we address it.

Meanwhile, interest rates are at a historic low. The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond is 1.4 percent. Indexed for inflation, the interest rate is nega-tive.

Observing this, Nobel Prize econo-mist Paul Krugman wrote: ‘‘They say that money talks; well, cheap money is speaking very clearly right now, and it’s telling us to invest in our future,’’ to nation-build in America.

Increasing spending by $250 billion a year, the amount needed to bring our infrastructure to a state of good repair, would create 3 million jobs and would improve America’s competitiveness in the long term.

We should use today’s record low rates to finance this inevitable spend-ing. Refusing to do so makes no eco-nomic sense. I encourage this Congress to reconsider before this opportunity is lost.

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TRAGEDY AT THE BERRIEN COUNTY COURTHOUSE

(Mr. UPTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, southwest Michigan has had some tough times lately, and now we are faced with the news that broke yesterday that two bailiffs at Berrien County Courthouse in my hometown of St. Joseph, Michi-gan, were slain by an inmate who had overpowered his guard.

So I rise today to offer support and love for the victims’ friends, family and certainly our entire community. We should continue to keep those af-fected in our hearts and in our minds. I also want to thank the countless folks on the front lines who clearly prevented the tragedy from even being worse.

The swift actions of those on the ground need to be commended, particu-larly the Berrien County Sheriff’s De-partment led by Sheriff Paul Bailey. I was with him just this past Saturday, and what he had to endure the last 24 hours is unthinkable.

I also want to thank the immediate action and outpouring of support from our local officials: St. Joseph Mayor Mike Garey; Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad; and State-elected officials, including our Governor Rick Snyder and State legislators John Proos and Al Pscholka. It is times like these when we need to unite as one. This heartbreaking tragedy happened

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H4671 July 12, 2016 in the blink of an eye, but we will never forget.

We will remember and honor Joe Zangaro, who I knew personally, who was the head of courthouse security, a retired Michigan State Police officer. We will remember and honor Ronald Kienzle, a U.S. Army veteran, retired Benton Township police officer.

I ask my colleagues and those who hear this message across the country to pray for the families of the two vic-tims, the speedy recovery of another deputy, James Atterberry, Jr., and a civilian caught in the middle, Kenya Ellis. We will get through this to-gether.

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GUN VIOLENCE (Ms. MATSUI asked and was given

permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her re-marks.)

Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, it has been a challenging and heartbreaking time for our country. Today, we mark the 1-month anniversary of the hor-rible mass shooting in Orlando.

As we process the pain from the gun violence that continues to shake our Nation, we must come together and find solutions. We all share a desire to feel safe. We all want our children to grow up free from fear. The violence that has gripped our communities has taken many forms, and stems from many causes.

There is no question that we have work to do, and that solutions will not be simple. But we can and should be taking action in Congress to make our citizens safer. We can’t solve every problem overnight, but we can take steps now to do some commonsense things Americans agree on, like ex-panding background checks and pass-ing the bipartisan no fly, no buy bill.

Mr. Speaker, let us work together to find a path forward in our shared com-mitment to peace in our Nation.

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MEDICAL DEVICE GUARDIANS (Mr. FITZPATRICK asked and was

given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Medical Device Guardians Act. The Guardians Act up-dates current laws regarding the re-porting of unsafe medical devices by requiring that physicians and their of-fices be added to the list of entities that must report unsafe medical de-vices to the device manufacturer and to the FDA.

The tragic stories of women harmed by one particular device known as a laparoscopic power morcellator high-light the need for the Guardians Act. Despite cancer being spread for years by the blades of this device, no one ever reported this deadly safety defect to the FDA. That is until Amy Reed, a mother of six and a doctor underwent morcellation and had cancer spread throughout her body.

It should not have fallen on patients to get the FDA’s attention. This bill simply codifies an existing mandate of the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics, which recog-nizes that physicians are in the best position to identify and report unsafe devices. Today, reporting unsafe de-vices to the FDA is as easy as downloading an app on a smartphone.

This is a reasonable fix that will save lives. I urge my colleagues to support it.

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OUR FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

(Mr. THOMPSON of California asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, more than 80 percent of NRA members and over 80 percent of gun owners support background checks. It is because they are responsible gun owners. Responsible gun owners under-stand that there is nothing wrong with making sure that a prospective gun buyer isn’t a terrorist, a criminal, a do-mestic abuser, or dangerously mentally ill.

Our first line of defense when it comes to making sure that guns don’t fall into dangerous hands is to conduct a background check. But sadly, a gap-ing loophole allows those same felons, domestic abusers, and fugitives to by-pass a background check in 34 States by going online or to a gun show.

That is why it is long past time for the Republican leadership to allow a vote on H.R. 1217, bipartisan, pro-Sec-ond Amendment legislation to require background checks for all commercial gun sales. This debate isn’t a choice be-tween respecting the Second Amend-ment or reducing gun violence.

As a responsible gun owner, I am tired of it being framed that way. It is about this Congress doing both. Mr. Speaker, give us a vote.

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CUBAN AIRPORT SECURITY

(Mr. HUDSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his re-marks.)

Mr. HUDSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5728, the bipartisan Cuban Airport Security Act of 2016.

Over the past several months, the Obama administration and the Cuban Government have stonewalled over-sight of airport security arrangements. This lack of transparency is troubling and begs the question: What are they hiding?

As far as we know, Cuban airports don’t have proper screening for explo-sive detection; they can’t check for fake IDs and fake passports; they don’t allow TSA on the ground to evaluate security; and they don’t have air mar-shals on planes. The administration plans to start flights into Charlotte from Cuba in a few months, but they

are not doing enough to guarantee there won’t be a security threat on one of those planes.

After all, Cuba has been a safe haven for terrorists and was just recently re-moved from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. It is a brutal regime that re-cently hosted the North Korean equiva-lent of our CIA Director. We should not allow the proposed 110 flights a day of commercial air flights—indeed, we shouldn’t allow a single flight until we are absolutely sure they have the prop-er security at airports to protect the American people.

This legislation puts the brakes on the President’s dangerous plans. I en-courage my colleagues to support it.

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IT IS TIME TO TAKE ACTION

(Mr. DEUTCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his re-marks.)

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, today marks 1 month since the worst mass shooting in our Nation’s history. This week, we learned that the House ma-jority will not bring a bill to the floor until after the 7-week recess that starts this week.

The majority claims that it needs to show calm, that it needs to show lead-ership. Well, the majority has already failed to show leadership. That is why we are not calm.

It has been 30 days since Pulse, 223 days since San Bernardino, 226 days since Colorado Springs, 285 days since Roseburg, 362 days since Chattanooga, 390 days since Charleston, 781 days since Isla Vista, 832 days since Fort Hood, 1,030 days since Navy Yard, 1,131 days since Santa Monica, 1,306 days since Newtown, 1,383 days since Min-neapolis, 1,437 days since Oak Creek, 1,453 days since Aurora, 1,562 days since Oakland, 1,735 days since Seal Beach, and 2,012 days since Tucson.

This is not leadership. This is cold. This is heartless. This is cowardice. It is time to take action to make our communities safer.

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60TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR NATIONAL MOTTO

(Mr. FORBES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, on July 30 we celebrate the 60th anniversary of our national motto, In God We Trust, which is displayed directly above your chair.

Throughout our history as a nation, we have often struggled to find the right words in time of crisis or great challenge.

In the War of 1812, we found those words in our national anthem when Francis Scott Key wrote: ‘‘And this be our motto: In God is our trust.’’

In 1864, Congress found them when it authorized the Secretary of the Treas-ury to add the inscription ‘‘In God We Trust’’ on coins.

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSEH4672 July 12, 2016 In 1955, Congress found those words

when it extended the ‘‘In God We Trust’’ to be included on our currency, and in 1956, Congress found them when it adopted ‘‘In God We Trust’’ as the of-ficial motto of the United States.

Today, as we see a divided Nation, a nation polarized in almost every area, today as we witness a nation facing cri-sis and challenge in a magnitude we have not seen in many years, as we search for the right words, let us hope we find them once again in the simple but powerful phrase, ‘‘In God We Trust.’’

So today, we celebrate the anniver-sary of this motto and pray for God’s continued blessing on our land.

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GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

(Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her re-marks.)

Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, there have been 231 mass shootings in 193 days so far in 2016. That is more than one per day. We are all directly affected by this gun violence epidemic in this country. In my own State and community, we have in fact seen a dramatic increase in this violence.

We cannot passively accept that the epidemic of gun violence kills as many people as car accidents every year. And while the mass shootings in this coun-try have in fact become commonplace, I cannot continue to bear witness to the totality of human suffering that this is causing: the mothers and fa-thers who have lost children, the chil-dren who have lost parents, thousands who have lost loved ones, and all those who will in fact endure a lifetime of pain and suffering.

That is why, Mr. Speaker, I joined all my Democratic colleagues in an un-precedented sit-in to urge Republican leadership to allow us to vote on legis-lation to close glaring problems in our Nation’s background check system, in-cluding a loophole that has allowed 2,000 individuals on the FBI’s terrorist watch list to successfully purchase a firearm since 2004.

Americans have a constitutional right to live without fear of gun vio-lence in our communities.

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TREATMENT BEFORE TRAGEDY

(Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, over the past several years, I have met with thousands of families of those suffering with severe mental ill-ness. These conversations led to my in-troduction of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

Last Wednesday, the House of Rep-resentatives passed this legislation

with a near unanimous vote of 422–2. This historic vote closed a tragic chap-ter in our Nation’s treatment of seri-ous mental illness and welcomed a new dawn of help and hope. We have over-whelmingly chosen to deliver treat-ment before tragedy.

I now hope our colleagues in the Sen-ate take up the next chapter and pass H.R. 2646. The current chaotic patch-work of antiquated Federal programs and laws make it impossible for those with serious mental illness to get meaningful care. My bill eliminates wasteful and effective programs and di-rects money where it is needed most. It is endorsed by over 50 professional or-ganizations and over 60 newspapers.

We cannot let these families down. Lives are depending on it. We must continue to work this bill all the way to the President’s desk for signature.

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ORLANDO SHOOTING 1-MONTH ANNIVERSARY

(Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York asked and was given permis-sion to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, 1 month ago, 49 in-nocent individuals were mowed down and killed and 53 more were injured. Yet today, the Chamber’s business is still not focused on making our open spaces safer and passing safe gun meas-ures to help protect our people.

It has been 1 month after the worst killing in United States history since 9/ 11, and we still have not taken up com-monsense gun safety measures to pro-tect our citizens. Instead, it is business as usual: another bill to impede a wom-an’s right to choose, another appro-priations bill that will undermine the Clean Water Act.

As Members of Congress, we have to respond and answer to the American people that we represent—and they are asking for action. Enough is enough. The human rights and civil rights issue of our time is to protect our churches, our movie theaters, and our open spaces from mass murders by guns.

Let’s have a vote, Mr. Speaker. Let’s take back our streets and make the Nation safer.

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CUBAN AIRPORT SECURITY

(Mr. KATKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my concerns about the Obama administration’s plans to re-store regular air service to Cuba.

Just 2 weeks ago, I was scheduled to go on a congressional delegation to Cuba to examine the security measures at Cuba’s 10 international airports to ensure the safety and security of Amer-icans flying to Cuba. This trip was ne-cessitated by stonewalling tactics used by administration officials when asked about security at Cuba’s airports dur-ing a recent Transportation Security Subcommittee hearing.

However, the Cuban Government de-nied my visa as well as visas of every single member of the delegation. Be-cause of that, I have serious concerns, as do my colleagues, about the capa-bilities of Cuba’s airport screening equipment and procedures, how Cuban airport workers are vetted, whether or not Federal air marshals will even be allowed to fly missions on American planes to and from Cuba, and many other questions.

As the chairman of the Transpor-tation Security Subcommittee, I be-lieve it is my duty to do everything in my power to secure the security of the traveling American public, and I take that seriously. That is why I have in-troduced H.R. 5728, legislation to stop the administration from moving for-ward with flights to Cuba until these security concerns are adequately ad-dressed. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this important piece of legislation.

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GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

(Mr. GRAYSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I rep-resent Orlando, the site of the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States: 49 dead in a matter of just minutes. So far, there has been no action by this body to address any grievances.

For instance, we have no action on PETER KING’s bill, the no fly, no buy terrorist gun bill. We have no action on PETER KING’s second bill, H.R. 1217. We have no action on DAVID CICILLINE’s bill to reinstate the assault weapons ban, H.R. 4269; no action on SHEILA JACKSON LEE’s bill, H.R. 4316; no action on the second bill that she introduced, H.R. 5470; no action on MIKE THOMP-SON’s recently introduced bill, H.R. 5504; no action on my own bill to rein-state the assault weapons ban; no ac-tion even to show our respect for the dead by passing H. Res. 789, stalled in this body for a month.

I don’t think we should be doing any-thing unless we are going to do some-thing about making the American peo-ple safe again. Therefore, I move to ad-journ in respect of Stanley Almodovar, one of the victims, and the remainder.

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MOTION TO ADJOURN

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

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. WESTMORELAND). The question is on the motion to adjourn offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. GRAY-SON).

The question was taken; and the Speaker announced that the noes ap-peared to have it.

Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered. The vote was taken by electronic de-

vice, and there were—yeas 0, nays 377,

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H4673 July 12, 2016 answered ‘‘present’’ 1, not voting 55, as follows:

[Roll No. 404]

NAYS—377

Abraham Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allen Amash Amodei Ashford Babin Barr Bass Beatty Becerra Benishek Bera Beyer Bilirakis Bishop (MI) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Blum Blumenauer Bonamici Bost Boustany Boyle, Brendan

F. Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brat Bridenstine Brooks (IN) Brown (FL) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Buck Bucshon Burgess Butterfield Calvert Capps Capuano Cárdenas Carney Carson (IN) Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cartwright Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chabot Chaffetz Chu, Judy Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Coffman Cohen Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comstock Conaway Connolly Conyers Cook Cooper Costello (PA) Courtney Crawford Crenshaw Crowley Cuellar Culberson Curbelo (FL) Davidson Davis (CA) Davis, Rodney DeFazio Delaney DeLauro DelBene Denham Dent DeSantis DeSaulnier DesJarlais Deutch Diaz-Balart

Dingell Doggett Dold Donovan Duckworth Duffy Duncan (SC) Edwards Ellison Ellmers (NC) Emmer (MN) Engel Eshoo Farenthold Farr Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fleming Flores Fortenberry Foster Frankel (FL) Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi Garrett Gibbs Gibson Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy Graham Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green, Gene Griffith Grothman Guinta Guthrie Gutiérrez Hahn Hanna Hardy Harper Harris Hartzler Heck (WA) Hensarling Herrera Beutler Higgins Hill Himes Holding Honda Hoyer Hudson Huelskamp Huffman Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hunter Hurd (TX) Hurt (VA) Israel Issa Jeffries Jenkins (KS) Jenkins (WV) Johnson (OH) Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan Joyce Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy Kildee Kilmer Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger (IL) Kline

Knight Kuster Labrador LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Lance Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta Lawrence Lee Levin Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski LoBiondo Loebsack Lofgren Long Love Lowenthal Lowey Lucas Lujan Grisham

(NM) Luján, Ben Ray

(NM) Lummis Lynch MacArthur Maloney,

Carolyn Maloney, Sean Massie Matsui McCarthy McCaul McClintock McCollum McDermott McGovern McHenry McKinley McMorris

Rodgers McNerney McSally Meadows Meehan Meeks Meng Messer Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Moore Moulton Mullin Mulvaney Murphy (FL) Murphy (PA) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neugebauer Newhouse Noem Nugent Nunes O’Rourke Olson Palazzo Pallone Palmer Pascrell Paulsen Payne Pearce Perry Peters Pingree Pittenger Pitts Pocan Poliquin Polis Pompeo Posey Price (NC)

Price, Tom Quigley Rangel Ratcliffe Reed Reichert Renacci Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Richmond Rigell Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rohrabacher Rokita Rooney (FL) Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Ross Rothfus Rouzer Roybal-Allard Royce Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Russell Ryan (OH) Salmon Sanford Sarbanes Scalise Schakowsky

Schrader Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Sewell (AL) Sherman Shimkus Shuster Simpson Sinema Slaughter Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Speier Stefanik Stewart Swalwell (CA) Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tipton Tonko Torres Trott Tsongas Turner

Upton Valadao Vargas Vela Velázquez Visclosky Wagner Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Walters, Mimi Walz Wasserman

Schultz Waters, Maxine Watson Coleman Welch Wenstrup Westerman Westmoreland Whitfield Williams Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Yarmuth Yoder Yoho Young (IA) Young (IN) Zeldin

ANSWERED ‘‘PRESENT’’—1

Grayson

NOT VOTING—55

Barletta Barton Bishop (GA) Brooks (AL) Bustos Byrne Clawson (FL) Costa Cramer Cummings Davis, Danny DeGette Doyle, Michael

F. Duncan (TN) Esty Fincher Forbes Foxx

Green, Al Grijalva Hastings Heck (NV) Hice, Jody B. Hinojosa Jackson Lee Johnson (GA) Johnson, E. B. Jolly Kirkpatrick Loudermilk Luetkemeyer Marchant Marino Nolan Norcross Pelosi Perlmutter

Peterson Poe (TX) Ribble Sánchez, Linda

T. Sanchez, Loretta Schiff Sires Stivers Stutzman Takai Tiberi Titus Van Hollen Veasey Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Young (AK) Zinke

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Mr. HARPER, Ms. JENKINS of Kan-sas, Messrs. NEUGEBAUER, YOHO, WOODALL, Ms. GRANGER, Messrs. BISHOP of Utah and DIAZ-BALART changed their vote from ‘‘yea’’ to ‘‘nay.’’

So the motion to adjourn was re-jected.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

Stated against: Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoid-

ably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted: On rollcall No. 404, ‘‘nay.’’

Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, On Tuesday, July 12, I unfortunately missed a rollcall vote on a motion to adjourn. Had I been present, I would have voted ‘‘no’’ on Rep. GRAYSON’s motion to adjourn (Rollcall No. 404).

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be-fore the House the following commu-nication from the Clerk of the House of Representatives:

OFFICE OF THE CLERK, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, DC, July 12, 2016. Hon. PAUL D. RYAN, The Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

DEAR MR. SPEAKER: Pursuant to the per-mission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representa-tives, the Clerk received the following mes-sage from the Secretary of the Senate on July 12, 2016 at 11:11 a.m.:

That the Senate agreed to S. Con. Res. 44. With best wishes, I am

Sincerely, KAREN L. HAAS.

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JUSTICE GINSBURG SHOWED BAD JUDGMENT

(Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in a front page New York Times article, it was reported that Supreme Court Jus-tice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made deroga-tory statements about Donald Trump. Justice Ginsburg was being interviewed by the newspaper so she knew that her remarks would be made public. They were particularly personal and demean-ing.

The Code of Conduct for judges states: ‘‘A judge should not publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for pub-lic office.’’

It was totally inexcusable and unpro-fessional for Justice Ginsburg to insult a Presidential candidate. It hurt the credibility of the Supreme Court and showed bad judgment. It will be dif-ficult for the American people to be-lieve Justice Ginsburg can be impartial in any rulings that involve political issues.

Her verbal attack on Donald Trump only contributes to the public’s feeling that the justice system may be rigged.

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REMEMBERING AND HONORING THE DEATH OF OFFICER LORNE AHRENS OF BURLESON, TEXAS

(Mr. WILLIAMS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, the city of Dallas experienced tremendous tragedy last week. It was the deadliest day for law enforcement since Sep-tember 11, 2011.

Burleson resident, Lorne Ahrens, was one of the five officers who so coura-geously made the ultimate sacrifice. I am honored to have been able to say he hailed from Texas’ 25th Congressional District. At 6 feet, 5 inches, and 300 pounds, Officer Ahrens has been de-scribed as ‘‘a big guy with an even big-ger heart.’’

His colleagues said he always had a smile on his face. He was a loving and devoted husband and father. Officer Ahrens often volunteered at his chil-dren’s schools. He was known to be a jokester, a friend, and a true cop. The day before his death, it was reported

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSEH4674 July 12, 2016 that Officer Ahrens bought dinner for a homeless man and his dog. This is who he was. This is who we lost.

A semi-pro football player, Officer Lorne Ahrens began as a dispatcher at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s De