more. we have a moment that we could take a look at, since 1935 -- host: the u.s. house is gaveling and, i just want to thank you for being here this morning. guest: thank you. thank you. i hereby appoint the honorable speaker of the house of representatives.

us. we dedicate the work of our hands and our minds to your purpose. allow us all that we need for, in you, we have the plentitude of your abund ant grace. when we are uncertain that we have enough time, energy, or information to carry out our responsibilities to our country, our communities, or our families, remind us that you are able to bless us beyond our limited human vision and provide for us when we fall short. remind us also that more than just the work that we do or the daily lives that we lead you offer to us the wealth of spiritual prosperity available in you. may we draw from your spirit the resources we need to face the profound challenges and meet the profane contests that seek to undermine our integrity and rob us of hope.

in all things, o god, may we call upon you and the mercy you desire to lavish upon us. in this may we find life and have it more abundantly, in your generous name we pray. amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 11-a of house resolution 188, the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. lucas. mr. lucas: please join me in the pledge to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does gentlelady from california seek recog

recognition? without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to pay tribute to two officers, corporal michael perez, and officer joseph santana, killed in the line of duty on tuesday night. the two officers were fatally injured while investigating a domestic violence call. corporal perez started his career with the police department as a full-time officer july, 2000. prior to being appointed corporal, he worked on specialized assignments. he is survived by his wife, daughter and son. officer santana began his career with san bernardino county sheriff's department. he held the position as a police officer in the city of officer. he is survived by his wife,

daughter, and continue boys. our hearts are filled with deep sadness as we mourn the loss of these officers. the dedication will never be forgotten. our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the officers' families. friends and loved ones in the community. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recog recognition? mr. lamalfa: seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lamalfa: thank you, mr. speaker. ever since the russian invasion of ukraine world leaders have been warning of imminent food shortages, including our president. two of the largest producers of wheat are embroiled in war. ukrainians are fighting to protect their homes. they are not out planting crops. there are breaking -- breaking reports of russian soldiers stealing wheat. meanwhile, the russian navy has

blocked carriers from leaving odessa in an effort to blackmail the world in supporting putin's war. the u.n. is trying to broker a deal. russia said it wants western sanctions listed as part of the deal. 20 million tons of ukraine grain stuck in ukraine risk being stolen by russians. what are we doing in this country? we are not producing what we could in california. waters are being shifted away from farmers. so our own wheat crops in northern california are dying. the biden administration must roll back the regulations and make it hard for farmers in this country to do what they need to do to be part of this world solution for food. as famine will soon be upon us, especially in the 2023 crop year. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker.

on thursday, may 26, an explosion erupted in the tight knit community of potstown, pennsylvania. destroying two homes and tragically filling five people. a grandmother and four of her grandchildren. and also seriously injuring their parents. today i want to remember francine white, 67. her grandchildren, alana wood, 13. jeremiah white, 12. nehemiah white, 10. tristan white,le. it's hard to paint a -- tristan white, 8. it's hard to paint a picture of a home and people who lived there and dreamed in it reduced to rubble a family gone suddenly. now there is a deep hole in hail street and a huge hole that's left in the hearts of their neighbors. they made a vigil on their block and spent countless hours trying to make sense of the trajdy pottstown, i know you are a strong community.

know i will be with you and your neighbors as we figure out how this happen to be sure it never happens again. my prayers are with the family and the entire community, may their memories be a blessing. thank you, i yield the remainer -- remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri seek recognition? >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the biggest challenge facing missouri families right now is sky-high inflation. they know that president biden and washington democrats have only themselves to blame for driving inflation to the highest level in 40 years. last month alone inflation cost missouri families an extra $663. that's the same price as a brand new pickup truck. gas prices are the highest they have been. at over $5 a gallon.

the cost to fill up an f-150 is over $150. families are paying more to put food on their table, clothes on their backs, and gasoline in their car. milk is up 15%. bread up 14%. make baikon is up 18%. and just yesterday -- bacon up 18%. just yesterday the federal reserve raised interest rates for the third time since march. this is yet another price increase for families, farmers, and small businesses. the american people cannot afford to keep paying for president biden's mistakes. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. garcia: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to recognize the 10-year anniversary of the deferred action for childhood arrivals

program, more commonly known as daca. 10 years ago president obama and democrats reaffirmed america's tradition as the land of opportunity by creating daca. since that day, brave young immigrants known as dreamers have provided massive contributions on their path to the american dream. daca gave dreamers a chance to dream big. it allowed them to use their talents, giving them a chance to seek higher education, work, and most importantly protection from deportation. they were there for us in the frontlines working as health care workers, all kinds of workers to help us through the pandemic. we thank them. so while we celebrate daca as a significant temporary achievement for all america, it is by no means a substitute for fixing our broken immigration system. mr. speaker, i promise to continue our fight for comprehensive immigration reform

so that we can finally keep families together permanently. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recog recognition? for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from california is recognized for one minute. >> as chair of the congressional hispanic caucus, i rise today to call for immediate action to protect our nation's dreamers. yesterday we marked the 10th anniversary of the daca program with a relentless focus on our goal to provide a pathway to citizenship for our nation's dreamers. over the last five years we have seen persistent attacks on daca

and the need to act could not be more urgent. you see, daca has been a rocket booster for our economy. in my district alone, dreamers contribute nearly $300 million in g.d.p. mr. ruiz, they are doctors, lawyers, essential workers, engineers, business owners, and job creators. they make america stronger and they shouldn't have to live in fear of deportation. we need and i call on 10 republican senators to do what's right, support the house-passed bipartisan dream and promise act to pass it in the senate and bring humanity back to our immigration system and restore american values. and to all the dreamers who are watching, know that i celebrate you. i stand with you. and fight for you. you are home, home is here. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to have their remarks to the chair.

for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to recognize june as national posttraumatic stress disorder awareness month. during month of june, we raise awareness for those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorders. after a trauma or life threatening event it is common to have reactions such as upsetting memories, increased jumpiness, or trouble sleeping. if these reactions do not go away or get worse, you might suffer from ptsd. ptsd is especially prevalent for those who served in the military, affecting nearly 30% of vietnam veterans and up to 20% of veterans who served during the global war on terror. as a former rehabilitation specialist, i know firsthand the incredible strides individuals can make when they have access to appropriate rehabilitation. ptsd awareness month not only an

opportunity to raise awareness about ptsd, it is also an opportunity to raise awareness about treatment options. i applaud all the organizations that raise awareness about this important issue during june. there is help and support for those who have ptsd. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to commemorate the centennial of james joyce's eu -- james joyce's ulysses. the type honored epic was published in he its entirety on his 40th birthday, february 2, 192t born in dublin, educated at u.c.d., his words tran scndz countries across the world. it is studied and read worldwide and he's become an intrinsic part of world culture. with humor and parody, joyce has

kept literary thinkers with interpreting his words 100 years later. he chronicles the simple and mon dane encounters of leopold on one ordinary day in dublin, thursday, june 16, 1904. yet he does it with wit, exuberance, and high regard for the ordinary. i am one of those readers. june 16, today, is considered by joyce fans as blooms day. festivals are taking place in dublin and across the states and around the world. as such, let me wish all of you a happy blooms day. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott, seek recognition?

for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott, seek recognition? mr. scott: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 1170, i now call up h.r. 7606 and ask for its immediate consideration. . the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 7706 a bill to establish the office of special investigator for competition matters within the department ofagriculture. pursuant to house resolution 11770, in lieu of the amendment in nature of the substitute recommended by the committee on agriculture printed in the bill, the amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of text rules committee print 117-50

modified by the amendment printed in part e of the house report 117-366 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read. the bill as amended shall be debated for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on agriculture or their respective designee. the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. thompson, will each control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott. scott: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise in strong support -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized scott: i rise in strong support of h.r. 7706, the lower food and fuel costs act and i encourage

my colleagues to support this package that is comprised of multiple bills that our house agriculture committee has advanced in a strong bipartisan manner. mr. speaker, as we all know, the last two years have led to drastic fluctuations in prices. and whether you look at the ongoing impacts of the covid-19 pandemic or the global disruptions associated with putin's war in ukraine, american farmers, american ranchers and consumers are facing right now terrible increasing costs on the farm, at the grocery store and at the gas station. our lower food and fuel costs

act tackles these price increases head on by increasing competition, options at the pump and by providing needed support for america's agriculture sector at every stop of our food supply chain. mr. speaker, our package includes four main bills, one, ensuring robust competition in the meat and poultry sector. number two, lowering costs at the grocery store by lowering costs for our farmers and ranchers. three, by empowering our farmers to help provide fuel choices and lower prices at our gas

stations. and fourth, strengthening the food supply chain. going further into each of these pillars, first this package will establish an office of the special investigator for competition matters in the agriculture secretary's office. when we held a hearing, mr. speaker, it was a very powerful hearing. it was the largest viewing audience for a hearing in the history of our agriculture committee. and we heard overwhelming evidence that continuing the status quo when it comes to enforcement will not provide more desperately needed

competition and fairness within our meat and poultry industries. so we believe earnestly that the usda and their expertise in agriculture issues gives the usda a strong footing to investigate the competitiveness in our meat and poultry sectors and to enforce existing laws to ensure a fair playing field for our family farmers and ranchers and consumers. mr. speaker, we were informed at that hearing that right now we are losing 17,000 ranching farms

every year. this has to stop. our bill also includes a bipartisan provision that will support the creation and expansion of processing capacity for small and medium-sized producers to help alleviate this terrible threatening consolidation just to a handful of four meat-packing companies. and this is the core of this legislation. our second pillar addresses a key piece in the puzzle of rising prices. at the grocery store there have been increases for costs with

fertilizer prices for both specialty and rural crop producers skyrocketing and this bill will reduce their incut costs so planning decisions are not impacted. and mr. speaker, speaking of fertilizer costs, it is very important for the nation to know that right now, russia controls 66% of the fertilizer in the world being produced there. this needs to have a serious, serious attention. our second pillar of increase -- of this legislative package is the puzzle of rising prices.

our third pillar addresses fuel costs, which is something that impacts everyone whether you are paying more at the gas pump or seeing increasing prices in the grocery store from higher trucking and transportation costs. this package addresses these concerns in a way that empowers our farmers and provides more choice and lower prices for our consumers at the gas pump and at the grocery store. and mr. speaker, our biofuels adoption and investment helps reduce our reliance on foreign oil and the supply shocks facing our gasoline supply across the

country. bolstering our use of ethanol from e-10 to e-15 will not impact the environment. our environs -- our environmentalprotection agency confirms this nor will it slow down the rollout of electric vehicles. and this vital package of bills makes much needed improvements in our supply chain. so a series of shocks to our beef supply chain combined with a concentrated processing infrastructure resulted in high prices for meat at our grocery stores and lower prices for our

producers, farmers and ranchers. specifically one provision calls for the formation of an agricultural food system supply chain, resilience and crisis response task force to examine our food supply chain and report back to us here in congress on the strengths and the weaknesses that exist. i'm extremely proud of the work of our house agriculture members, both democrats and republicans, who have worked tirelessly to put this strong bipartisan bill together. we have gone for this bill extremely important bipartisan

participation. this is what our nation is hungry for, democrats and republicans, working together to bring down these high costs for our food and our fuel. this bill is a bill that the american people want and deserve. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from pennsylvania is now recognized. tom: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise today in opposition to h.r. 7706 because simply put, this bill does nothing to lower food and fuel costs. long before russia's invasion of ukraine, america's farm families and consumers were struggling with skyrocketing input costs

and historic levels of inflation, each of which continue to contribute to increased food prices and diminished inventories. despite these crises, democrats have neglected to take action to increase american production. this bill come pounds the situation further limiting america's farmers' ability to meet global food demand. doubling down on the idea that more spending and big government will feed the world. the white house has been quick to blame the private sector and alleged industry concentration for the current crisis. economists and former obama and biden administration officials have dismissed the strategy as misleading at best and otherwise blatantly political. it is not surprising we are debating a package where the anchor piece of legislation

perpetrates a tired narrative of plame, duplicative authorities and undermines the department ofjustice. it is not surprising the party of defund the police has become the party of more cops for cows. at every turn this administration has pointed the finger at the packing industry and blaming them single hand he hadly for rising food costs and did it during blog posts and press briefings without any acknowledgement of the culpability of their own reckless spending and heavy-handed regulatory agenda. democrat colleagues have played along executing hearings and political theatrics to support controversial bills. mr. speaker, no wonder many of us question the seriousness of the bill before us today. if it were a serious exercise my

democrat colleagues would not have paired legislative overreach with several other very thoughtful, very bipartisan bills. if this were a serious exercise they would not have added two you unvetted amendments that are more about point scoring and near-term serious solutions. if this were serious, they would have worked with republicans to form policy solutions with a chance of consideration in the senate. i know both parties understand the graphity of these issues and while we may have disagreement, i was confident to find common ground solutions if give yep the opportunity of the i am dumbfounded why democratic leadership would choose this moment when consumers are deciding between gas in their cars and food on their tables as an attempt to score political points especially on the heels

of nearly 9% increase in consumer prices. the worst this nation has seen since the carter sphraition. so republicans developed solutions. leader mccarthy and i and nearly 100 of our colleagues sent a letter to president biden outlining actions he could take immediately and strengthen the role that american agriculture plays in global food stability. . this bill would reverse many of the harmful regulatory burdens spearheaded by this administration. address escalating input costs and provide certainty to farmers, ranchers, abring bases -- agribusinesses and other entities across the food and agriculture supply chain. specifically, the bill provides relief from e.p.a.'s

unprecedented actions related to pesticides and other vital crop protection tools. offers clarity related to wotus regulations. rescinds the s.e.c.'s role on climate related disclosures. reinstates the 2020 nepa streamlining. and requires an economic analysis on the costs and benefits of gypsa rules. all actions which would provide immediate relief to our farm families and households across the globe. and all were rejected by the rules committee majority as amendments to the bill before us. the letter in this bill stand in stark contrast to what we have seen from the white house and democrats in congress. and their efforts to scapegoat private industry for skyrocketing gas prices and sustained supply chain failures. in short, the crisis we are facing cannot and will not be mitigated with unfunded man mandates, duplicative authorities, politicized agencies, and big government. all of which are laced into h.r.

7606. i remain opposed to this bill and the process which got us here, but stand willing to work with my colleagues on commence, near-term solutions to provide immediate relief to farmers, ranchers, foresters, and american families. the consumers. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from washington, my good friend, congresswoman

shier. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from is recognized. miss shier: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, mr. chairman, for the opportunity to speak on this important bill, the lower food and fuel costs act. american families are struggling. they are continuing to see rising gas prices, even as oil and gas companies are making record profits. higher prices at the grocery store are making it harder to put food on the table and a lot of this is because farmers are struggling with increasing fuel prices. costs a and availability of transportation to both domestic and export markets continue to be a challenge for the wheat, cherry, apple, and pair grow -- paire growers -- pear growers in my district. this is a global problem but a problem we can ease right here at home. this bill provides the resources to do just that. it addresses the cost of fuel by allowing year-round sales of higher ethanol blends which are less expensive than higher

octane gas. it addresses high food prices by helping farmers and our sly chain. fertilizer costs are record high since most of our fertilizer is typically sourced from russia. this bill helps farmers spend less on inputs without lowering crop yields. we are paying skyrocketing prices for meat at the grocery store. farmers and ranchers, they don't see any of that additional profit because four companies control 80% of u.s. meat processing. that's unfair. this bill expands the availability and capacity of meat processing and create new jobs, provide new options for small and medium-sized ranching operations, and help lower the cost of meat at the grocery store. finally, addressing the cost of trucking and transportation will help farmers get their crops to market. the whole goal here is to make life a little easier for the people we represent. to help you fill up your tank and feed your family. as the only member on the house

agriculture committee from the northwest, i will continue to do all that i can to support farmers and lower costs for american families. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: i'm really honored to yield to the distinguished gentleman, the former chairman full house agriculture committee, who continues to this day be an incredible advocate for agriculture and a mentor of mine as i work may way into this leadership role, the gentleman from oklahoma, congressman lucas, pleased to recognize for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lucas: mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to h.r. 7606. because american farmers and ranchers deserve real assistance, real relief, real policy solutions. to understand my opposition, you must understand the part of the country that i represent and raised in. the third district of oklahoma was the epicenter of the

drought, the dust bowl, the economic depression of the 1930's. this was a time when horrible weather conditions collided with misguided federal ag and misguided federal monetary policy to create an environment that profoundly changed the region that my family has called home for over 120 years. i was raised on those stories and it was their experiences that shaped my view on what the role of the federal government should be. the federal government should be passing and enacting policies that help people and businesses, not hinder them. unfortunately, the biden administration, house democrats seem to not hold that same view. during the past five years american farmers and ranchers have weathered volatile world markets, devastating natural disasters, prolonged droughts, supply chain disruptions, ever increasing input costs, and soaring inflation. yet the only thing the biden administration and house democrats seem interested in doing is increasing regulatory

burdens, limiting access to fuel, and passing spending packages that fuel inflation. mr. speaker, if house democrats were truly interested in providing relief for american farmers and ranchers, they would join my republican colleagues and i in calling for the biden administration to reinstate the trump administration era waters of the united states rule and rescind the biden administration's wotus rule. if democrats were interested in reducing the cost of farm inputs like fertilizer and fuel, they would work with us to restore and expand domestic energy production. they would join us in calling for the biden administration to rescind the s.e.c.'s proposed rule on climate related disclosure. this rule is not only a ploy to divert capital away from traditional energy investments, it requires farmers, regardless of size, to track and report environmental data to public companies with which they work. finally, house democrats are touting this bill as a solution to the issue of consolidation in the meatpacking industry.

as we all know, d.o.j., yesterday the department of justice, is in the middle of an ongoing investigation into the meatpacking industry. an investigation that was launched under the trump administration. i feel strongly that if there is collusion, manipulation, or wrongdoing by packers the existing law should be enforced under the existing authorities of usda and d.o.j. those are civil and criminal penalties if violations are found. changing those authorities or laws in the middle of an ongoing investigation only helps to confuse and complicate the eventually d.o.j. findings. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to oppose this messaging bill and join with me in calling for real solutions for american farmers and ranchers. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman now recognized. the gentleman is now recognized. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i yield

two minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, congressman cicilline. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cicilline: mr. speaker, thank you. i thank the chairman for yielding. i rise today in support of the lower fuel and food costs act. across country workers are calling out sick because of covid, truck deliveries and other shipments are facing delays, people are panic buying leading to product shortages and soaring prices. while we know the covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly challenged our nation's supply chain, we know there are systemic imbalances in our economy. decreased competition driven by market concentration has allowed companies to drive up costs and profits at the expense of hardworking americans in one of our most vulnerable moments. in the beef processing market, four dominant companies control 85% of the market. the four largest poultry processing companies made up

half of the market in 2015 up 35% from 1986. large corporations have squeezed out independent businesses, eliminating competition. as a result hardworking americans throughout this country are paying more as food prices skyrocket particularly for meat. provisions included in the lower food and fuel costs act will help us tackle this issue and bring prices down. the meat and poultry act and butcher block act will help strengthen our enforcement tools to address market competition issues while also investing in additional meat processing capacity. the precise act will improve farming efficiency and help ensure farmers' resiliency to future disruptions and fertilizer supply. the year-round fuel choice act will help drive down price it's pump for americans and increase available fuel supply. these are just a few provisions in this comprehensive package that will help ease the economic burden on american families to

help create an economy that works for all of us. i urge my colleagues to come together to help hardworking americans by driving down these costs and i -- supporting this legislation. i thank the chairman again for yielding. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i think we should see an extension, a little bigger of that poster that we saw there, that concentration occurred because of exactly what we are seeing today of government and democrats leveling regulations. it was regulations that caused the concentration within the meatpacking industry. what happened when you put more regulation, small and immediate you yim -- medium-sized processors couldn't work, they couldn't cope with the compliance costs. they couldn't handle those increased regulations. today we are seeing another not just regulations but a whole new police officer being created

under the poison pill within this legislation, special investigator. i would argue that maybe we ought to blow that chart up more so we can see and project how much more concentration occurs when we force more small and medium-sized processors out of the business. it will result in increased concentration with this legislation. i'm pleased to recognize the gentleman from the kansas big one congressional district, great leader in agriculture, member of the agriculture committee, congressman mann from kansas. the speaker pro tempore: for how much time? mr. thompson: for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: for two minutes, jad investigate. mr. mann: i rise today to speak in opposition to this bill. i support our country's farmers, ranchers, anding a producers because they are the lifeblood of america. they keep food disur and free self-determining as a nation. i co-sponsor the year-round fuel choice act which would address limitations on vapor pressure and allow for producers to supply and consumers to purchase e-15 year-round. i supported this measure long

before my time in congress, and i'll continue to be a strong proponent of year-round e-15. a temporary waiver is not nuvment we must make this decision permanent and provide certainty to producerses. that bill is now part -- producers. that bill is now part of h.r. 7606. the butcher block act which would cod codify the secretary of agriculture. i support consumer choice. that little bill is he part of 7606. in the house ag committee i voted for four our bills now part of this bill. but today's vote is disappointing because house democrats ignored an effort made by mr. davis and others, one aim proud to co-sponsor, to include an amendment to separating these good pro-agriculture bills from a poison bill. included in h.r. 76 06 is a provision that could create a politically charged special investigator office of the u.s. department of agriculture to investigate and prosecute food producers in america.

the original h.r. 7606 and provision in today's so-called lower fuel and food costs act would create an office to prosecute the people who feed us. i work for the people of the disdisfirst district of kansas. we see the entire beef supply chain from cattle feeders and packers. under the packers and stockyard division at usda all those players, all of them, are already subject to strict inspection. under h.r. 7606, they would be subject to a type of plitly charged scrutiny we expect of no other related business. do you think a democrat controlled congress would stop there? no. h.r. 7606 would set the horrible precedent for political administrations to inspect and prosecute anything and anyone they disagree with. today it's packing if a sis tomorrow it's corn fields. wheat growers. mr. thompson: additional 30 seconds. mr. mann: today is packing facilities.

tomorrow it's cornfield and biofuel facilities or wheat growers and milling stations. i support farmers and ranchers and agriculture producers in this country. i'm disappointed this poison bill is included. thank you, ranking member. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. scott: yeah, mr. speaker, i want scott: i want to clear up something that the speaker just said. it's very important that the united states department ofagriculture is the source to deal with this investigation. it needs to be investigated for the will of the american people. and there is no agency better equipped, better qualified to find out what is going wrong. according to the usda, the language is clear on the special investigator being a career

employee. it only specifies that the position be appointed by the secretary and based on the qualifications of the individual. with that, mr. speaker, i now would like to yield two minutes to the the gentlewoman from minnesota, a member of thehouse agriculture committee, congresswoman. >> americans across the country are frustrated by the high prices they are experiencing at the pump, grocery store. working families in every district are crying out for relief. but they are tired of political games and partisan attacks. our constituents don't want congress in a food fight. they want compromise and they

want solutions. and my friends, today we have a bipartisan, commonsense solution at our fingertips. the lower food and fuel costs act will lift up our constituents by lowering prices at the grocery store aisle and at the pump and creating a situation where we are seen as acting together. my provision, the year-round fuel choice act will provide for the sale of home grown biofuels which is 40 cents less per gallon. why would we deny that low cost alternative to families who are desperate for savings. this will help lower prices at the grocery store from getting products from ship to shelves faster and shoring up our food

supply chains for future generations. why would we denny this to our constituents who are trying to put food on the table? the american people want action and calling for us to use every tool at our disposal to fight inflation and lower costs. we must respond to their call. i appreciate the sport of this package from my democratic colleagues and many of our republican colleagues. and i urge you to vote yes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. tom: thank you, mr. speaker, during the recent packer hearing, chairman scott mentioned that he used a chart compiled of what was cherry-picked data to use all four beef packing of c.e.o.'s of collusion.

and they explained the dynamics supporting the and the ebbs and flows and each of them denied the chairman's accusation. chairman accused the packers of lying under oath. according to the chairman, price-fixing scheme is the only plausible and i have serious doubts about this to carry out these new authorities. and i agree with the chairman who is a dear friend and we worked on 99% of everything we engage on, just not this particular poison pill today. usda is the right place to be the cop on the beat for this. in fact, they are. usda has a stock yards' division charged with enforcing the packers and stock yards act that has been in plays since the

1930's and based on the latest data they have filed and closed 1900 cases. it consists of a team of seasoned attorneys, market specialists and auditors and has the options to pursue administrative enforcement through usda's office of general counsel. so i agree the usda is the place for oversight with the packing industry and it's already in plays.

>> food security is national security. we keep those things in mind. everyone in this room is involved in agriculture and despite that we have a bill that makes it more difficult for our farmers and ranchers to carry out their primary mission to feed, clothe and shelter 98% of the population that's not engaged in agriculture. 2% of americans provide for the 100% of americans and the rest of the world. and this bill doesn't address the challenges they face every day. democrats would demonize the private sector instead of taking responsibility for inflation that are changing the lives. every day our world is more dploblized and our economies more interconnected and the need for food security grows. russia is weaponizing food in ukraine and china is buying america's agriculture supply

chain. ag security is national security and we can no longer afford to stand by while our adversaries exploit this under continued inflation inflicted by this administration. i urge a no vote on h.r. 7706. and for those of us who represent rural constituents this is the easiest no vote you will ever make. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized. scott: let me clarify something that the ranking member said, yes, i was able to bring in all four c.e.o.'s of our meatpacking companies and we were very grateful that they accepted our invitation. but our ranking member made a mistake. it wasn't all four that said in answer to my question, whether

or not they agreed or had any agreement on pricing in our meat industry. three said no, one said not to my knowledge. now, you must understand with what we are dealing with here and why just that reply from them requires an investigation. that's what we're here for. that's why we did the hearing, to bring those parties in. and we must act, mr. speaker, as i said before. we cannot continue to lose 17,000 ranchers and farmers and also so many of them, thousands

of them have not made a profit in five years. we got a problem. in a report that the g.a.o. noted that the usda's investigations were planned and conducted primarily by economists without the formal involvement of attorneys from usda's office of general counselor the o.gc and as a result, they focused on assessing potential violations was generally absent when investigations were initiated and conducted. and this is precisely why the special investigator bill is so

important because it alleviates an issue that has not had enough scrutiny and ensures that attorneys will be responsible for looking into possible violations. the g.a.o. also found that the usda's packers and stock yards act investigations had not modernized to keep up with today's complex competition-related concerns with consolidation at the heart of this issue, nor had it implemented previous recommendations. it also recommended that usda's

office of the general counsel work more closely together. and now, mr. speaker, i would like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, the distinguished chairman of the energy and commerce committee, congressman pallone. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker and thank you chairman scott for what you have been doing to put this excellent bill together. i wanted to say that today, once again, in my opinion, the house is taking action to fight high gas prices and protect consumers by empowering farmers to provide home grown fuel choices at the pump, a choice that would cost 40 cents less per gallon. big oil continues to exploit market instability caused by

russia's invasion of ukraine to rake in record profits. bill big oil companies made $41 billion in profit some of these were record highs and others were the highest in a decade and about big oil companies are interested in funneling to profits to their shareholders than addressing record high gas prices. so the house has to act to protect american families from this. and that's why we are here to preserve and expand the availability of cheaper and cleaner fuel option. the lower food and fuel act allows for the voluntary year-round containing 15% ethanol plending more biofuels into gasoline displaces the demand for petroleum to bring down gas prices. drivers are paying 40 cents less

per gallon to fill up the tanks with e-15 and provides significant savings during the summer driving season and let's ensure it is available at gas stations across the country. increasing the availability protects from volatile global oil markets and easees the grip by relying more on home-grown biofuels and less on fossil fuels. this insulates americans from fluctuations and enhance our national security and creates jobs. it is a win-win across the board and one of the most powerful tools. now e-15 is a cleaner fuel option that emits less carbon pollution and burns cleaner. today's this is a broader effort to bring down places by cutting climate pollution. i thank representatives craig

and axne on expanding access to e-15 and chairman scott for including these provisions in this package. let's help bring down gas prices at the pump, strengthen our nation's rural communities and break the grip of big oil bypassing this today. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from pennsylvania. tom: i recognize a member of the agriculture committee, congressman rouser for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized rouse rouse this reminds that our friends on the other side of the aisle so much it isn't so and how interesting that the title of this package is exact opposite of what this legislation is going to do. it will do knowing to bring down the cost of food and energy.

instead making excuses caused by the administration attacks on agriculture and energy. there are a few good pieces. but our friends on the other side of the aisle refuse to allow these bills to receive individual votes instead of using the good provisions as pawns in their political messaging. one of the harmful things in this one of these creates a duplicative office in the usda that will overwhelm add to the regulatory burden of our food processors across the country. that will increase costs. the investigator would be granted independent litigation authority, allowing for civil suits against packers at the whims of the secretary without even consulting with the d.o.j. it should be noted the d.o.j. already launched an investigation into the big four anti-competitive practices in

may of 2020 and has declined to provide congress with an update even two years into that investigation. the bottom line is increasing regulation will raise food prices. not make them more affordable. our farm families need inputs at a fair price. diesel prices to come down. they need to be able to produce the food to feed this country and the world. without the government making it harder and harder day in and day out. that's why this package must be defeated. rather than more regulation, we must unleash the full ability of american production. we must work for our farm families and do what's right and defeat this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from virginia,

congresswoman spanberger, who is also the chair of our conservation and forestry subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. spanberger: thank you, chairman scott. today i am proud to rise in support of my legislation, h.r. 7606, the lower food and fuel costs act. congress cannot shy away from addressing the urgent economic challenges that face our local communities and our entire country. that challenge continues to be inflation. we know how rising prices, consolidation across industries, and sly chain challenges are impacting america's families, businesses, and seniors. as lawmakers our job is to listen to the people we represent and respond with legislation that can help solve those problems. indeed, this package, the lower food and fuel costs act, is just that. it's a compilation of bills put together by lawmakers who are

responding to their constituents. and i have heard from the other side of the aisle that, in fact, it would have been nice if we came together in a bipartisan way so i would note that colleagues on the republican side of the aisle from iowa, arkansas, new york, nebraska, ohio, illinois, south dakota, nebraska, iowa, illinois, indya, illinois, iowa, tennessee, feels like i'm practicing state exalts with my fifth grader. colorado, nebraska, south dakota, illinois, nebraska, missouri, iowa, kansas, illinois, iowa, indiana, kentucky, minnesota, illinois, nebraska, south dakota, iowa, iowa, iowa, kansas, missouri, indiana, minnesota, iowa, nebraska, florida, wyoming, virginia, minnesota. each of these are individual members of congress from the republican side of the aisle who are leading on this issue.

in fact, two of the bills in this package are lead by our republican colleagues. i am proud that i have joined with congressman dusty johnson in support of the bipartisan butcher block act. i'm proud to be his co-lead as he leads that important piece of legislation. it's a commonsense step towards allowing american processors the ability to expand their operations, launch a new business, or just make sure -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. scott: i yield the distinguished woman an additional minute. ms. spanberger: this is the first step towards lowering meat prices, in addition to increasing capacity, we need to go after anti-competitive practices in the meat industry. that's why i'm proud this package also includes the bipartisan meat and poultry special investigator act. the bill would establish a special investigator at usda to investigate violations of our existing antitrust laws that

have been on the books for more than 100 years. i thank congresswoman miller-meeks for co-leading this effort. this bill has broad bipartisan support and bicameral support. i thank senators john tester, senator grassley, republican. senator thune, republican. senator rounds, republican in the senate for joining with us in pushing this bill forward. it has support from the u.s. cattleman's association and this bill is responsive to the needs of the people i represent because the virginia cattleman's association supports this bill. as does the national farmers union. americans want lower meat prices, both now and in the future. they want lower gas prices. to make biofuels more accessible to more americans, we have the opportunity to do that. i urge my colleagues to support this package. mr. chairman, i yield back. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i now honored to yield to the

gentleman from nebraska, congressman smith, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: you are recognized. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker, ranking member. i rise today in opposition to this bill. to suggest this bill is a collaborative effort is simply inaccurate. there could be a number of other ways to describe that as well. it's unfortunate that we are at a place were we -- where we could have had an opportunity to advance good legislation. i'm a supporter. he e-15 bill. i have done a lot of work on this. not just because gas prices are high right now but because i think e-15 and allowing consumers more choices at the pump would actually engage consumers as it relates to energy policy and energy products. i do have serious concerns as others have mentioned about provisions that the democrats insisted be included in this bill like the new very duplicative investigative authority at usda. even more concerning to me is that democrats continued

strategy of seeking to blame others on the situation on energy and virtually everything, they seek to blame others rather than acknowledging that president biden's economic policies have created this mess. biden stimulus dollars have driven inflation. biden's stimulus dollars paid americans not to return to work. therefore worsening our supply chain crisis. and the president's executive orders canceling new lease options and shutting down the keystone pipeline have certainly contributed to increased gas prices. real inflation relief legislation would actually rain -- rein in spending, get americans back to work, provide broad regulatory relief, and increase domestic energy production. this bill is certainly not it. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. now it is my distinct pleasure, mr. speaker, to yield one moment

to the gentlewoman from california, our distinguished speaker of the house of representatives, miss nancy pelosi -- ms. nancy pelosi. the speaker: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding and his leadership in bringing this important legislation to the floor. i commend him and the members of the committee, as we just heard from congresswoman spanberger, for her very important work recognizing the needs of america's working families with our kitchen table issues. recognizing the needs in rural america for us to have legislation that strengthens rural america's hand in the decision that is we make as we go forward. mr. speaker, as we gather here, the war continues in ukraine. it is an unprovoked outrageous act of aggression on the part of putin and russia invading the territorial borders of ukraine.

at the same time doing that has driven up prices here at home. driven up prices at the pump. it is a putin price at the pump. that's the main reason in the short period of time following the invasion of ukraine the price at the pump went up it's highest amount in a very long time. russia is also a source of fertilizer, big source of fertilizer to our country. of course diminishing the supply coming in raises the cost of fertilizer, contributes to the cost for our farmers and then contributes to the price of food at the grocery store. and important kitchen table issue. putin's price at the pump is exacerbating the skyrocket costs weighing heavily on our families. again, since russia began the saber rising against ukraine, gas prices in many places went up $2 per gallon. meanwhile, the world bank reports that global food prices

in march and april spiked 16% over the two months prior. while putin works to fuel inflation, today the democratic house and hopefully in a bipartisan way, takes a strong step to bring down crucial kitchen table costs of the pump and grocery store and across the board. our level of food and fuel costs act, that's what it's called, lower food and fuel costs act, does precisely what the name suggests. in three major areas. first, the bill brings down the cost for farmers in the field. as we know, oil, gasoline, is an important factor of production for farmers in order for them to produce. the war in ukraine has restricted the supply of fertilizer, as i mentioned. and sent the cost through the roof. by taking action to lower the cost on the farm, we lower the cost on the shelf in the grocery

store. and on the kitchen table. second, this bill bolsters competition in the meatpacking industry. i thank your committee, mr. chairman scott, for your leadership. cracking down on the market power of big come gloom rats -- conglomerates. increasing competition will ensure ranchers get their fair deal for their livestock while families get a good price for meat and poultry. third, this bill will help make cheaper, cleaner, home-grown biofuels more widely available. this sirm drivers who choose to fill up with unleaded 88 could save an average of 40 cents a gallon. by making this fuel more widely available, it will unleash the power of america's farmers to help break the grip of foreign auto contracts on -- autocrats on energy markets. lower gas price the while keeping our dollars here at home. and reduce pollution because

biofuels are cleaner than petroleum. today's action to lower food and fuel costs is the latest manifestation of house democrats' unyielding commitment to fight inflation. last month our majority voted to hold big oil accountable for price gouging and war profiteering, which has kept energy pr price excessively hig. this week we passed legislation to crack down on exorbitant ocean shipping costs -- shipping fees. leveling the playing field for american businesses and lowering costs for american consumers. proudly today president biden will sign this legislation into law. it is called the ocean shipping reform act of 2022. as we speak the congress is hard at work on a bold, bipartisan, bicameral competitiveness package to make more goods in america, strengthening our supply chains, diversify our

stem work force, and reinvigorate research and development. we look forward to sending this strong cost-cutting legislation to the president's desk. here's the thing, inflation springs from higher costs. higher costs spring from shorter supply. shorter supply is there because of covid, preventing certain products from coming into our country. shorter supply of factors of production coming into our country, that's why the competes act is so important because it will make us more independent, more self-sufficient on the products we need. for example, chips. the chips are very important part of that bill. chips in a car to make a car takes 1,000 chips. electric car, 2,000 chips. but we can't do that manufacturing unless we have chips. if other countries are saving chips for themselves at home or

the high fees of transporting make it just unaffordable to people, we need to make these chips at home. that's what the compete act enables us to do. lowering costs for our families. when we ran in 2018, just to bring back promises made, we said we were going to lower costs by lowering the cost of prescription drugs and that's what we are in the midst of doing now. we are going to lower costs in every way for america's working families. that's what this legislation does here. we are going to have bigger paychecks. and we have had since president biden took office working with the private sector and the nonprofit sector and the public sector eight million jobs have been created. unemployment has been cut in half. wages have gone up. that also contributes to

inflation which must be addressed. and this legislation is part of doing that. so this legislation is a strong step in that direction. i salute the relentless leadership of the agriculture chair, david scott, and the energy and commerce chair, frank pallone, who has an important part of this, as well as representative spanberger, craig, axne, and harder, and the dedicated staff of both committees. together they assembled the pack average popular bipartisan legislation with a laser focus on fighting inflation. . mr. thompson: a vote against this bill is to keep groceries and fuel high. i urge a strong bipartisan yes vote and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is now recognized. mr. thompson: i now recognized a

a leader in agriculture in the state of tennessee, congressman rose. mr. rosendale: mr. speaker -- >> this does not mean this bill will achieve that goal. the only thing it achieves is a campaign talking points for democrats responding to high prices at the grocery store caused by their spending. this bill will never become law we should pass the reducing farm input costs and barriers to production act introduced by ranking member thompson which includes solutions for our farmers and ranchers support. his bill would reverse the e.p.a.'s reckless actions related to crop production

tools, reverse the biden administration disastrous changes to the waters of the united states rule and withdraw the rule on climate-related disclosures and action that has received bipartisan support. democrats -- thank you. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: i yield one minute to the the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. jackson lee: mr. speaker, soldiers are dying in ukraine and the american people are feeling it in their pocket even as they rise up to support democracy. the american people know there's a problem, but as we stand on the floor today, the good news is that democrats care.

and that is why we rise today to offer the lower food and fuel cost act because the american people see it. they see it at the gas station on their way home or to work or grocery store when carts are half empty. and inflation, they know about it. but you know what? they are looking for a fighting team like the democrats to make something happen. not a whiney complaining get nothing done. in my community the interest rate 8.5% of the cost of goods in houston texas. i'm not going to home and telling them we aren't here working. i ask the importance of lowering the cost at the grocery store and helping farmers. let us fight to pass this bill. we care. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: i am pleased to recognize congressman jackson for one minute. mr. jackson: i rise to bring attention to a situation the radical left's war on agriculture. the house will vote on h.r. 7706 that will skyrocket input costs all of which are hammering american consumers. this is the latest attempt to scape got rather than addressing the needs of farmers and ranchers. we know my colleagues across the aisle as oil and gas companies as the enemy and see farmers and ranchers as the enemy, too. this is something i am fighting for every day. i represent the number one ag district in texas and they are

experiencing out of control costs. i can assure you the legislation we are voting will make it worst. a spending and regulatory agenda further limits ag's industry is not the answer. and -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. scott: i yield one minute to the gentleman from california, a member of theous agriculture committee, congressman josh harder. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hardy: i plain tired for months now. my community has been paying $6 for gallon of gas and prices are out of control. i talked to a neighbor and she will choose between picking her kids up from school.

they don't have the luxury of sitting around. we have the chance to help bypassing this bill. this includes my bill which includes funding for nutrition programs. prices are going back to thunderstormal. helping farmers lower costs and cutting prices at the gas pump is common sense. we need to listen to what our communities need. they are asking for the government to do its job and bring these prices back to earth. let's pass this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. thompson: i recognize a great member of the agriculture committee, the gentleman from georgia, congressman allen for one minute.

alali stand here -- mr. allen: washington is trying to run this economy and that's the reason i ran for office because things were so bad and it was impossible to grow your business. and i'm reminded of what we actually did when we had the house and the congress and the white house, we passed the constitutional review act and through that act, we got no help from the other side and then we passed some tax reform to give people more money to invest in their business. for the first time in my life we became energy independent. first time we became an energy power. and more people looking for jobs and what happened now? joe biden was the vice president when i was elected and now he is the president. all the executive orders he signed stopped everything we did to put this country on the right track. i am tired of this.

i demand immediately that we stop this war on american energy that is driving input costs and stop overregulating our ag producers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. scott: yes, mr. speaker. now it gives me great pleasure to yield one minute to my friend, the gentleman from maryland, the distinguished majority leader, steny hoyer. mr. hoyer: thank you, mr. chairman. you have done a wonderful job as the chairman of the ag committee and you are working together to bring people together. one of the things i most admire about chairman scott is he wants to have a bipartisan result coming out of this committee and i think in this bill, he has.

mr. speaker, every day americans across the country must contend with the rising cost, prices caused by inflation. whenever they pull up to the gas pump they face putin's criminal invasion of ukraine, which has made gas prices skyrocket not because of the sanctions or russia's production, but because of the lack of confidence in the future that this war has caused. whenever our people go to the grocery store and suffer the consequences that the havoc that the covid-19th pandemic has inflicted on global supply chains. unfortunately, we cannot erase the past cries sees. we can take the meaningful steps today to lower prices for

consumers and to stimulate americans' economy in the weeks and months to come. that's why house democrats are focusing all week on easing inflation and bringing costs down. i know that's what my republican colleagues want to do as while. there are no perfect alternatives. this is a positive step towards decreasing the cost to our people of things that they must buy, fuel and food. to support that mission, i am proud to bring the lower fuel and food bill to the bill today. america's farmers and ranchers have long fed our nation and indeed much of the world. despite their essential work, they have often struggled to turn a reliable profit in recent years because of rising expenses

associated particularly with fertilizer, which costs have gone up very substantially as a result of the crisis that we confront. by making fertilizer more affordable and improving farmers access for loans to agricultural technology, this legislation will help lower these production costs that burden smaller farmers and contribute to higher consumer food prices. additionally, this will lower gas prices by increasing biofuel adoption and investment and by giving consumers greater fuel choices at the pump. lack of competition in the meat and poultry processing industry has also jeopardized many of our family farmers and the people they feed. competition is the essence of a free market. competition is the essence of establishing prices that are reasonable and fair, both to

producers and to consumers. fortunately, mr. speaker, this legislation will help level that playing field for small and independent producers trying to break into the industry, which will both boost our meat processing capacity and stoke healthy competition and innovation, which both sides of the aisle believe is the way we have created this extraordinary economy we know as the american economy, competition, free markets. this bill establishes a dedicated office within the department ofagriculture to strengthen enforcement of anticipate trust authorities to consult on trade practices ensuring a fair, more competitive industry that works better for consumers. we know that just a few producers have a monopoly and that's one of the problem with oil prices. we have opec nations who have

constricted supply when demand was up and what happens in a free market, prices rise. so this is about free markets and about competition and about fair pricing for consumers. these reforms will enable our farmers to produce food more efficiently driving down costs for americans at the grocery store. not only will this legislation help us respond to the ramifications like the pandemic and war in ukraine but also make our agricultural sector and economy more resilient to future shocks. this legislation is a crucial step toward reducing inflation and i thank representative spanberger, represent thistles craig and axne and my friends on the republican side who have worked on this and my friends on the democratic side who have worked on this. this is an important piece of

legislation for the people. all of them, all of our members listen closely to the concerns of their constituents and took an approach to come up with legislation that addresses some of the most pressing needs of the american people. i want to thank the ranking member of this committee for his thoughtfulness in approaching this issue. today every member of this house has the opportunity to do something to ease inflation. every member has an opportunity to vote to ease inflation today. we are eager to take that action which is why we are bringing this to the floor and voting to pass it. i hope all of our members will join us so we can show our constituents that congress is working together on their behalf, not on our political behalves, but working together to pass this legislation. i urge my colleagues, vote yes.

and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia's time last expired. the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. thompson: i recognize another great member of thehouse agriculture committee, the gentlelady from florida, congresswoman cammack, for three minutes. mrs. cammack: i rise today in opposition to this bill. the higher fuel and increased fuel costs act. i cannot believe at a time when americans, we all are paying more for everything from gas, groceries, energy, and beyond my colleagues on the left want more regulation, more government intervention. they want to blame putin and the war in ukraine. but they don't want to accept responsibility for the very policies that are helping drive these increased costs. in the -- if the last year has

taught us anything, it is that big government, with the one size fits all akroach, spend into -- approach, spend into oblivion does not work. it turns out shockingly taking cues from the easter bunny doesn't work. look at the facts. fuel, 106% up. eggs, 32% increase. fresh and frozen chicken, up 19.3%. milk, up 15%. bacon, up 15.6%. baby food is up almost 13%. by the way, we can't find it. let's talk about that. right now our farmers, i know this for a fact because i come from a rural producing district. they have had their backs up against a wall. skyrocketing prices for inputs like fertilizer and fuel and feed. many of our producers are reaching a breaking point. this administration, however, seems hellbent on pushing them over the edge. the regulatory regime at the e.p.a., and i use that word deliberately, threatens the livelihood of our producers and

long-term food security of our nation. everyone in this room can agree that food security is national security. and it's dangerous policies what the left is doing in taking out our producers. it seems like they are focused on green new deal policies and our districts will never be the same if we continue down this path. any sort of tax or additional regulation is increasing the cost to produce fuel and produce our food. this is a time when americans keep in mind, are making decisions between gas or groceries. we are seriously up here talking about increasing costs for fuel and food? give me a break. we need to slam the brakes on any policy that empowers more government bureaucrats and impoverishes the people. we need to ensure that the e.p.a. does not threaten the future of our producers with such ridiculous out-of-touch policies. i know many of my colleagues, particularly in leadership, have not filled up a gas tank in

probably 40 years, but i have. two days ago, over $5 a gallon of gas. that is what americans are facing. we need to stop empowering these bureaucrats. i ask unanimous consent to insert into the text the amendment in the record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit. if we adopt my motion to recommit, we will instruct the committee on agriculture to add my amendment that would prohibit the e.p.a. from regulating or taxing emission from livestock. i ask all my colleagues to support the motion to recommit. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlemthegentlelady's time has. without objection. the request is granted. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, can i request how much time is left on our side of the aisle? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has five minutes remaining. mr. thompson: i will reserve. the speaker pro tempore: you have the only time. mr. thompson: i won't reserve. i'll use it.

thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate that. i just want to replow some of the fields and comments that have been offered here today. one of my friends on the agriculture committee on the other side, ms. spanberger, claims of industry support. she referenced two specific organizations, but she certainly not widespread support among farmers and ranchers. the fact i'll offer this up, organizations that are constituted by farmers and ranchers including the national cattleman's beef association, which is a large cattleman association throughout this country, made up of men and women in the cattle industry. the national pork producers. these are all organizations that oppose this piece of legislation. national pork producers council, made up of farmers who raise

hogs and so many different states in the united states of america. huge industry in terms of agriculture. that organization opposes this bill. the national chicken council, poultry, which is huge, certainly in the state of virginia, state of pennsylvania, state of georgia that oppose this piece of legislation that's on the floor today. the national turkey federation. same thing. the american meat institute. all in opposition to this bill that we are voting on today. and the american farm bureau federation, not opposed publicly, the bill, but raised a litany of concerns and unanswered questions. this bill comes with an additional price tag of $700 million not offset. many other provisions, quite

frankly, there are zero dollars for this duplicative, poison part of this bill, the special investigator for cattle and pork. that leaves me concerned that the existing enforcement resources that have already made referenced to with usd and department of justice will be drained. we are probably going to see also effective investigation as a result of this. we are going to see increased consolidation because it's a new layer, if you are a packer of any size, not just the four big ones, medium and small size, you have a new cop for cows on the beat, you are going to have to have compliance staff to be able to prepare. quite frankly the department of justice, division of packers and stockyards division is already

doing an incredible job. active investigations are going on. i agree with earlier speakers, i think it was mr. lucas from oklahoma, if there is evidence of price fixing, and collusion, we have a regulatory mechanism, we have a litigation mechanism and people should be held accountable to that. so i am -- those are some really good parts of this bill. i'm also disappointed. we know that the only way we really get legislation through the other side of the capitol on the senate is where we shoko eagles, where we stick -- show cohesion, stick together. we have consensus on all other aspects of this bill. we requested this bill be divided and special investigator portions come out of the bill. i think we could be scoring victories for the mesh people -- american people and farmers. quite frankly i think to be in line with president biden, because president biden's approach to everything is all

the problems that have been created with his ill-fated policies that it's somebody else's fault. this is blaming the private sector who work hard to provide us with the food that we need. this is blaming them, quite frankly it's a failure to take responsibility for the -- what has happened on day one starting with president biden. we love to work with president biden to make sure we could address inflation, but adding this $700 million today, i have never seen in my lifetime, or my experience, of how you can spend more money and spend your way out of inflation. it just doesn't work that way. the economics do not work that way. inflation is the issue. again, i have never seen inflation reduce by spending more money. i would respectfully encourage, we could go back to the drawing board and take each of these bills that are really good bills, bipartisan, take those up individually and give congress

and opportunity to speak on behalf of the american people and affirm these are good bills. and be able to stand on our -- let the special investigation stand on it it's own. i urge a no vote and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: all time for debate has expired. each further amendment printed in part f of house report 117-366 shall be considered only in the order printed in the report. may be offered only by a member designated in the report. shall be considered as read. shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. may be withdrawn by the proponent at any time before the question is cut thereon. shall not be subject to an amendment. and shall not be subject to demand for division of the question. it is now in order to consider

amendment number 1 printed in part f of house report 117-366. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i have an amendment at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will designate the am. the clerk: amendment number 1, printed in part f of house report number 117-366, offered by mr. khanna of california. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 1170, the gentleman from california, mr. khanna, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. khanna: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. khanna: mr. speaker, my amendment would authorize a program at the department of agriculture to reduce our reliance on foreign sources of fertilizer. it's to make sure that america

will be more self-sufficient. that our farmers will be more self-sufficient with our fertilizers and not dependent on russia or foreign countries. everyone knows that retail fertilizer costs are at an all-time high. putin's invasion of ukraine are driving severe food shortages and severe fertilizer shortages. this has driven up food prices and hurt american farmers and consumers across the country. in my district, food prices are up, fertilizer prices are up. the cost of fag fag eurl chemicals has -- agricultural chemicals has more than doubled stint the start of the pandemic. one of the reasons is russia is a major exporter of nitrogen. we need to be less dependent on countries like russia and develop them here in the united

states. that is why congress must act on a bipartisan basis. this amendment is common sense. it would authorize $100 million of grants, loans, research, and development and other assistance for the department of agriculture to support our farmers in developing fertilizer made in the united states. it will support sustainable and innovative domestic production of fertilizers because our fertilizers are far more sustainable. far more innovative than the fertilizers we get from other parts of the world. it will invest in practice that is reduce the use of fertilizers. one of the best things we can do for food prices in our environment is to reduce the need for fertilizers by having those fertilizers be more innovative. the amendment also bolsters competition in the fertilizer market. most important, it makes us less dependen -- dependent on the

russians and global supply chain disruptions. it will create jobs for domestic producers of fertilizers. the department of agriculture is already supporting american made fertilizers through the commodity credit corporation. my amendment will expand the department's authority so they can prioritize solutions that will most quickly address these shortages. i urge adoption of this amendment. i want to thank chairman scott for working with me on this amendment. i'd also like to thank the agriculture committee, staff, of lauren, prescott, josh, and luke for their work and kevin on my team. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to the

amendment. the speaker pro tempore: recognized for five minutes. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i express my appreciation to the gentleman for bringing forth a concept that could provide relief, but not for many years. this is an amendment to a bill that talks about immediate reduction in food prices. but this is kind of a long-term investment. i appreciate that concept. but it's not what this bill sayt contribute to the immediate relief for american consumers or reducing input costs for our farmers in the immediate or near term. working together is how the house committee and agriculture solves problems. the committee has been working together with the department to better understand this amendment, its purpose and implications. my colleagues, the department and i have agreed that this is not a near-term solution to the high price and limited availability of fertilizer. as the gentleman knows this

amendment was pulled from the consideration by my democratic colleagues in the recent committee markup. unfortunately, we have not learned much since then which furthers my opposition to it. growing the size of government by codifying the biden administration's half-baked initiatives and authorizing $100 million and specifying further use of the commodity credit corporation and funded research programs is no way to tackle inflation, rising inflation or address skyrocketing fertilizer costs. it leaves us in a rather when ir farmers. the commodity credit corporation is what we use when farmers fall on difficult times. and they are there, these input costs. we see in most commodities we see a record price they are getting. but the faght is that agriculture is a business. farming is a business and

ranching is a business. it's not what you get paid you have to consider what you are paying in input costs and these types of policies we are talking about today, that inflation, there will be commodities soon that will be upside down and more expensive to produce. the commodities are already at that point and draining the c.c.c. of any year, 2022 is not only wrong, it's dangerous. we aren't going to have resources to help farmers to keep them farming. and so even more perplexing is the idea we would want to solid file concepts that usda has not developed into programming or policy. as the public comment period was steppedded yet again. we would have been better served by considering republican amendments which would reversed

the regulatory assaults stifling innovation and exacerbating supply chains. i ask my colleagues to join me in opposing this amendment and i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. khanna: i respect the ranking member and we have worked together on a number of initiatives. i would screws say that this amendment by giving the credit corporation resources is helping make things in we should have a bipartisan consensus that we will be making more things in this country and less dependant on russia and foreign sources. i urge a yes vote and i hope we continue to work with the other side to find common ground over this congress so we can get bipartisan support for an effort

to build more fertilizer in the united states. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. thompson: the gentleman offered an amendment. as a good friend, we do work together. and crypt to currency is a commodity and he has been a great partner as we work together on those solutions. the whole concept of bipartisan work is alive and well but not reflected in this poison pill that is reflected in this. and with this amendment as i said before, we need to be looking long-term but this legislation we are dealing with today is supposed to have immediate reduction in inflation. where we need to do an investment and long-term and other methods to produce

fertilizer, this doesn't fit with helping prices. and we need usda on board and we need to have their input and their ability to do this through their programming. so this is something i look forward to continuing to work with you on. with that, i continue to voice my opposition to this amendment, mr. speaker. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time pursuant to house resolution 1170, pt previous question is ordered on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california. the question is on the amendment. those in favor, say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it and the amendment is agreed to. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.

it is now in order to consider amendment number 2 printed in part f of the house report 17-366. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from virginia seek recognition? ms. spanberger: mr. speaker, i have an amendment at the desk made in order by the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 2 printed in part f of house report 117-366 offered by ms. spanberger of virginia. pursuant to house resolution 1170, the gentlewoman from virginia, ms. spanberger, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from virginia. ms. spanberger: i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise in support of my

amendment to include in the american food apply chain act, the lower food and fuel cost act and i thank congressman gonzales for his partnership on this legislation. supply chain interruptions are impacting leaving shelves empty and driving up prices. for crops and livestock producers, the current disruptions are a threat to their livelihood and ability to deliver high quality products at an affordable price. americans are suffering from rising food prices at dollar stores and restaurants, rising inflation makes trips to the gossry store as the price like meat eggs and vegetables rise. and americans have shared the experience of going to the grocery store. we all have picking up our favorite food items that we

purchased and said well, this is more expensive. my husband and i were talking about this issue over the weekend as we changed our own shopping list because of it. few products are more essential than the food we eat. farmers, small and medium-sized producers have been left out and it's getting more difficult to get products from the farm to the margt to finally the table. and while these companies have the budget to invest, research experts, small and medium-sized producers are paying higher prices. and when farmers pay more to produce food all americans pay more. we must empower usda to do more. we must be prepared. to address these concerns, i was proud to lead the american food supply chain resilience act.

this would supply the resource centers through cooperative agreements with the agricultural marketing service at us dmp arch. they would offer locally tailored coordination, technical assistance and grants to small and medium sprucers. this would expand the great work of the agriculture innovation program to include research and support on supply chains by establishing resource centers, this bill would provide additional support trying to deliver goods. these centers would help local producers get through lean years, and address challenges related to transportation costs, labor and higher energy prices. us dwrch a has taken steps of local regional supply chains and our bipartisan legislation would support and build on these centers as well as make sure they are a wise investment with

a clear mission and fair reporting requirements. i urge my colleagues to support our bipartisan bill and i thank congressman gonzales for his partnership. and i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. thompson: i rise in opposition to the amendment. i express my appreciation to the gentlewoman from virginia for bringing forth an idea and i do wish the same courtesy had been extended to my republican colleagues who were denied to bring their amendments forward for dwit. working together is how the committee on agriculture solves problems and the committee has been working with the department to better understand this amendment, it's purpose and its implications and as the gentlelady knows this amendment was pulled from consideration by my democrat colleagues in a

recent committee markup and we have not learned much since then which furthers my opposition to it being considered prematurely. i cannot support this amendment as written, an amendment that falls short of its advertising goals and doesn't offer immediate relief to farmers, ranchers or consumers because that's the myth that my democratic friends are trying to sell the overall bill today. inflationary costs are going to occur as a result of a specific part of the package. growing the size of government by codifying the biden administration's half baked initiatives there is no way to attack inflation or rising food and fuel costs. and want concepts that usda has not developed into programming

or policy. we would have been better served by considering republican amendments all of which would have provided immediate relief by reversing and supplying supply chains. oppose this amendment and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. spanberger: my colleague that this bill -- will not provide immediate relief. this bill is not intended to provide for immediate relief. we face disruptions in our supply chains and when we do, our farmers and packers, and producers like those in our district. this amendment to the larger bill is an issue of planning for the future recognizing disruptions that may come and

being able to proactively plan for such challenges. it is unfortunate that the gentleman feels they were left out of the process but hartened that the scope of the concern relates to the process and not the underlying amendment. this amendment is about long-term planning and about ensuring that our smaller and medium-sized producers and businesses have the assistance, support, coordination that they will need to weather challenges in supply chain disruptions that may occur 10, 20, 30 years into the future. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized mr. thompson: well, mr. speaker, i just want to reiterate in my comments, i said it was premature. and i do believe it is. i think this is a concept that she's pursuing that is worthy of

development and full development assuming we can have an appropriate consideration of the text of this particular amendment. i think it is out of place with this particular bill, because the context, the pretext that my democratic friends are presenting here is a false promise that whatever will pass and this would be somehow find a pathway through the senate and be implemented that it would immediately lower food and fuel costs and that is just not the case. so this is more of a long-term vision and i appreciate that because i think we should be looking long-term when it comes to the needs of input costs for our farmers, because quite frankly when we have inflation and burdensome regulations, when we have administration that's really out of control from a

regulatory perspective, sidelining their scientists at the e.p.a., which part of those are funded under a pup heist private partnership to make sure farmers can have access to tools, significant tools that have been sidelined by this administration when scientists have found them to be safe in application in the past. i look forward to working with the gentlelady in the future on this concept, but i continue to remain in opposition. this is not quite ready for prime time, not ready for consideration. we need to be working more -- we need more time working in a bipartisan way and hearing from the administration and usda. and with that, i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves.

the gentlewoman from virginia. ms. spanberger: i'm prepared to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mr. spanberger: there is no disagreement that across america's regions and comos its, our nation's farmers and ranchers have gotten the short end of the stick. particularly when it comes to rising input costs as a result of rising bottle next and inflation and lowering food and fuel cost act. this amendment takes crucial commonsense steps towards addressing these challenges both now and into the future. planning for future where we can be proactive, continually so and assure small and targeted investments from usda today can have impacts on small and medium sized producers to get food to the market. these should also lead to lower food prices for americans at the grocery store, convenience stores, and restaurants.

i urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan amendment. i do look forward to working with my colleague across the aisle to receive additional very specific feedback on how we can make some of these provisions stronger, better with that input into the if you teur. today i urge -- into the future. today i urge my colleagues to vote on the amendment and the underlying bill. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the yeam yields. gentlewoman yields. mr. thompson: i continue to offer opposition to this amendment and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 1170, the previous question is ordered on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from virginia, ms. spanberger. the question is on the amendment. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to.

without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the previous question is ordered on the bill as amended. the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: a bill to establish the office of the special investigator where competition matters within the department of agriculture. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? mrs. cammack: mr. speaker, i have a motion to recommit at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: mrs. cammack of florida moves to recommit the bill, h.r. 7606, to the committee on agriculture. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 2-b of rule 19, the previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit. the question is on the motion. so many as are in favor say aye.

those opposed, no. the noes have it. the motion is not agreed to. mrs. cammack: i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman has requested the yeas and nays. pursuant to section 3-s of house resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 9 of rule 20, the chair will reduce to five minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on the question of passage. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. kehele and mrs. bustos, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recog recognition? mr. takano: mr. speaker, as the member designated by chairwoman maxine waters and representative chewy garcia, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. lamalfa of california, pursuant to h.res. 8, i inform the house that mr. lamalfa will

vote yes on the republican motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. pallone: mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. dina titus, mr. sires, mr. payne,

mrs. bonnie watson coleman, and mr. peter welch, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. mo brooks and mr. gohmert and mr. carter, i inform the house they will vote aye on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. kelly, ms. davids, mr. lamb, mr. boyle, mr. krishnamoorthi, and ms. porter and in great recognition of the gentleman from indiana's service to our country, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. price and mr. hank johnson, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recog recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by c cardenas and mr. swalwell, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? mr. carter: mr. speaker, as the member designated by representative mace of south carolina, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that representative mace will vote yea on the notion recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. jeffries: as the member designated by representative scott peters and chairwoman eddie bernice johnson, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? mr. fleischmann: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. guest of mississippi, mr. palazzo of mississippi, mr. loudermilk of georgia and mr. long of missouri, i inform the house that mr. guest, mr. palazzo, mr. loudermilk and mr. long will all vote yea on the motion to recommit. thank you.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. rice of south carolina, i inform the house that mr. rice will vote yea on the motion to recommit. as the member designated by mr. gonzalez of ohio, i inform the house that mr. mr. gonzalezl vote yea on the notion recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. tenney of new york and pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that ms. tenney will vote yes on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? mr. chair, as the member designated by mr. bergman of michigan, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that mr. bergman will vote yes on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. pa losserky of indiana -- mrs. walorski of indiana, i inform the house that she will vote yea on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida -- the gentlewoman from florida sikhs? ms. wasserman schultz: as the member designated by ms. pingree of maine and mr. crist and lawson, i inform the house that these members will vote nay on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from seek recognition? >> thank you, mr. speaker. as the member designated by mr. amodei of nevada, i inform the house that mr. amodei will vote yea on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by representatives stanton and gomez, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mrs. trahan of massachusetts and mrs. lawrence of michigan, i inform the house that these members will vote no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? mr. garcia: mr. speaker, as the ms. van duyne: mr.speaker, as tr designated by mr. van taylor of the great state of texas, he will vote yea on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new hampshire seek recognition? misses kuster: mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. brownley, i inform the house that she will vote no on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? mr. beyer: mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. bonamici, mr. doggett, mr. lieu,

danny davis of illinois, ms. moore, ms. newman, mr. mceachin, mr. suozzi, mr. evans i inform the house that these mine members will vote no on the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition. >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. katko, i inform the house that mr. katko of new york will vote yea on the motion to recommit. the speaker

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, representative rochester votes no on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mrs. wagner of missouri, i inform the house that mrs. wagner will vote aye on the motion to recommit.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 206. the nays are 218. the motion is not adopted. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> to request unanimous consent to end proxy voting -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is not recognized. the question is on passage of the bill. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. >> mr. speaker, on that i request the yeas and nays.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 3 of house resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? mr. carter: mr. speaker, as the member designated by representative mace of south carolina, pursuant to h.res. 8, i inform the house that representative mace will vote no on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? mr. beyer: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. lieu, mr. danny davis of illinois, ms. moore of wisconsin, mr. mceachin, mr. suozzi of new york, mr. evans, mr. doggett of texas, ms. bonamici of oregon i inform the house that these nine members will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. lamalfa of california, pursuant to h.res. 8, i inform the house that

mr. lamalfa will vote no on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recog recognition? mr. takano: mr. speaker, as the member designated by chairwoman maxine waters and representative chuy garcia, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? mr. fleischmann: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. palazzo of mississippi, mr. guest of mississippi, mr. loudermilk of georgia, and mr. long of missouri i inform the house that mr. mr. lazio, mr. guest, mr. loudermilk, and mr. long will vote nay on h.r. 7606. thank you. . the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, representative blunt rochester of delaware votes yes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> thank you, mr. speaker.

as the member designated by mr. amodei, i inform the house that mr. amodei will vote nay on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by representatives stanton and gomez, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mrs. walorski of indiana, i inform the house that mrs. walorski will vote nay on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. pallone: mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. dina titus, mr. sires, mr. donald payne and mrs. bonnie watson coleman, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. bergman of michigan, pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house

that mr. bergman will vote no on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from -- >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. price and mr. hank johnson, i inform the house that these members will vote yea on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mrs. wagner of missouri, i inform the house that mrs. wagner will vote no on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new hampshire seek recognition? ms. kuster: madam speaker, as the member designated by ms. brownley, i inform the house that she will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. katko of new york, i inform the house that mr. katko will vote nay on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. wasserman schultz: mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. p pingree of maine and mr. crist and lawson

of florida, i inform the house that these members will vote yes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. moore, he will vote no. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. correa: mr. speaker, as the member designated by congress member cardenas, swalwell, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? ms. van duyne: as the member designated by mr. van taylor of the fantastic state of texas, i inform the house that mr. taylor will vote nay on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. rice of south carolina, i inform the house that mr. rice will vote nay on h.r. 7606.

as the member designated by mr. gonzalez of ohio, i inform the house that mr. gonzalez will vote nay on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? mr. neguse: mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. porter, mr. krishnamoorthi, mr. boyle, mr. lamb, ms. davids and ms. kelly, i inform the house that these six members will vote aye on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? ms. stevens: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mrs. trahan of the commonwealth of massachusetts and mrs. lawrence of the great state of michigan, i inform the house that these members will vote yes on h.r. 7606.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman

from new york seek recognition? mr. jeffries: as the member designated by representative scott peters and chairwoman eddie bernice johnson, i inform the house that these members will vote yea on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. tenney of new york and pursuant to house resolution 8, i inform the house that ms. tenney will vote no on h.r. 7606.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? mr. mrvan: as the member designated by mr. kahele and mrs. bustos, i inform the house that these members will vote yea on h.r. 7606.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. correa: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. jim kosta, i inform the house that mr. krrchtion osta will vote yes on -- mr. costa, i inform the house that mr. costa will vote yes on h.r. 7606. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. pallone: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. peter welch, i inform the house that mr. welch will vote no on h.r. 7606.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 2 --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 221, the nays are 204. the bill is passed. without objection, a motion to the speaker pro tempore: without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i hereby remove

myself as co-sponsor from h.r. 5828. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's request is accepted. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i hereby remove myself as a co-sponsor from h.r. 1735. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's request is accepted.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from illinois, mrs co-sponsor of h.r. 2374, the palestinian education act. the speaker pro tempore: without objection.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition? mr. scalise: i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order to inquire of the majority leader the schedule for next week. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. scalise: and i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. scalise: i yield to the

gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer. mr. hoyer: before i start on the colloquy and go through the schedule, i was talking to the whip, the republican whip, my friend, mr. scalise and we were talking about a friend of ours. john bresnahan. he's a reporter. he's covered capitol hill since 1994, i believe is the note i had. and he is an excellent reporter. he reports the facts, reports the truth, and as i know mr. scalise agrees, reporters who do that not only serve us, more importantly and their major purpose is to serve the american people because we know a free press, telling the facts and truth to the american people, give them the opportunity to make solid decisions for our democracy. so i want to wish john bresnahan a happy 60th birthday.

and hope that he has many, many more. i've had 23 more than that and so i appreciate the fact that he is still going strong and i now yield to my friend the distinguished republican whip, mr. scalise. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for the confessional of how many 60th birthdays you've shared. here's to many, many more for you. but also for bresh. a fair and free press is vital to democracy. it's the first amendment to our constitution. freedom of speech and freedom of the press. and while they might not report our press releasess verbatim all the time as we might like them to, they serve a vital purpose and bresh is one of those we see in the hall, like the press that is around here making sure that the country knows what's happening here in the greatest democracy in the history of the world. as a 60th birthday gift to him,

i will promise not to sing happy birthday to him. so with that, wish him a happy birthday and yield back to the gentleman from maryland. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman. i want to tell mr. bresnahan, he made that same promise to me which is why i did this. if he was going to sing it, i was reluctant to do this. i join with the whip in wishing john bresnahan, a friend, a very careful and honest reporter, the very best 60th birthday and many more to come. madam speaker, on tuesday, the house will meet at 12:00 p.m. for morning hour and 2:00 p.m. for legislate i have business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. on wednesday and thursday the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour and 12:00 a.m. for legislative business. on friday the house will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. on monday we will be celebrating juneteenth. as a federal holiday. for the second time in mirn amen

history. juneteenth is the day on which the last slaves who were in texas learned of their new status as free americans. en extraordinary day in the history of our country, eliminating one of the great blights on the history of america. but showing as de tocqueville pointed out that we try to heal our wounds and try heal our wrongs and we're still working on that. but last year, the congress took the historic step of enacting legislation to recognize juneteenth as a federal holiday. at long last. i look forward to celebrating as we pay tribute to freedom. to all men and women being created equal. in the image of god.

and celebrate the history of the african-american perseverance and triumph over injustice and adversity. and i say triumph, there has been a triumph. but there are battles yet to be won. juneteenth not only looks back but it looks forward to winning those battles. the house will -- i see mr. green on the floor who has a resolution on the recognition of the blight of slavery and i thank him for that resolution and look forward to having that considered. on monday we will be celebrating that holiday but we will be celebrating it as we do martin luther king jr.'s birthday, as we ought to be celebrating washington and lincoln's birthday, committing ourselves to the realization of the principles for which they stood. the house will also consider

bills under suspension of the rules. the complete list of those suspension bills will be announced at the close of business tomorrow. next week, madam speaker, the house will consider h.r. 7666 which is titled restoring hope for mental health and well being act, a bipartisan package of bills by chairman pallone and ranking member mcmorris rodgers. the legislation expands access to treatment for opioid use disorders, promotes behavioral health integration, and re-authorizes critical programs to support mental health and substance use disorder prevention treatment and recovery include gnarring children. madam speaker, the house will also consider legislation under suspension from chairman bobby scott and members of the education and labor committee to address the mental health addiction and suicide on college campuses. which is far, far too prevalent.

our young people have faced stresses by the pandemic, stresses within our nation that the divisions on which prey on their minds and so this is very important piece of legislation. i hope it will be -- i believe it's going to be bipartisan. the house, madam speaker, will also take up h.r. 6411, the veterans affairs committee chairman mark takano's strong veterans act, also, again, bipartisan legislation to combat veteran suicide and address mental health and help our nation meet its commitment to those who risk their lives and safety for our country. additionally, madam speaker, the house will consider h.r. 5585, representative eshoo's air pa h -- arpa-h act which will establish the advanced research project agency for health, an independent agency tasked with accelerating biomedical innovation and making

transformative breakthroughs in the fight against the most challenging diseases confronting our people. this agency will oversee the next steps in the cancer moonshot program and help meet the president's goal of cutting the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years and hopefully sooner. madam speaker, as we celebrate pride month, the house will consider h.r. 4176, the lgbtq data inclusion act. i also anticipate that the house will vote on a compromise bipartisan sergeant first class heath robinson honoring our pact act after the senate takes action on the version agreed upon in may. as the whip knows, that act was a bipartisan act that dealt with those who were exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances of which they did not know while they were serving on bases both here and around the world.

this bill, we believe the senate will take action on, on a version agreed upon in may which preserves much of the house-passed legislation to care for veterans exposed to burn pits under the toxic -- and other toxic chemicals during their service. the complete list of suspension bills will be announced by close of business tomorrow. additional legislative items are possible. and i yield to the -- back to my friend the republican whip. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman for that update and as we celebrate juneteenth next week, also right here in this house chamber, over 150 years ago, where the 13th amendment to the constitution was debated and passed. so history is made here on a regular basis and then we celebrate the free toms that result and continue as our founders talked about to aspire

toward a more perfect nation. so we will do that next week. i do want to thank the gentleman because last week during this colloquy, i know i asked you if we could bring the supreme court protection bill, the bill to make sure that supreme court justices and their families get proper protection as we're wa watching, saw, a man arrested for trying to murder a supreme court justice, leader mccarthy, i know, urged that as well. 10* appreciate that we got to bring that i appreciate that we got to bring that bill up and pass it and bring it to president biden's desk where we can get that in place. i would hope that the attorney general, merrick garrland, whoo -- garland, would start enforcing to give protection properly as federal laws dictate, but is not being enforced at the homes of those justices. but again, appreciate that we

got a very bipartisan, overwhelming bipartisan vote on that bill this week. if the gentleman had anything to add before we talk about the schedule for next week, i yield. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman. i would simply observe as i observed the other day that we all want to make sure that our supreme court justices have safe. let me say, madam speaker, there's a very important reason for that. we want to keep all our people safe. but nine justices of our supreme court represent that we are a nation of laws. they are one of the three branches of our government. and just as i was extraordinarily and remain extraordinarily concerned about the attack on this institution, the congress of the united states, as we were preparing to elect a president of the united states, an take on the supreme court -- an attack on the

supreme court and the lives of the supreme court are an attack on our democracy. a separate branch of government that is charged with continuing to make us a nation of laws. so, frankly, the supreme court justices under existing law were protected, there were security people there. luckily there were security people there. but the gentleman is absolutely right. we want to make sure, where we agree or disagree with the individuals, whether we agree or disagree with the opinions or the judgments the congress makes, we are a nation of laws and the way to resolve our differences is not through violence. but through the democratic process. and i thank the gentleman for his observation and i yield back. mr. scalise: i share those comments by the gentleman from maryland. as we look towards next week, we've had this conversation a number of times. one of the items i don't see on the agenda is an item to address the high gas prices.

we've now crossed an average of more than $5 a gallon. it's major burden for families, especially lower income families who are being forced more and more to make those tough decisions of, can they even afford to drive to work? can they even afford to drive to see their doctor or to drive to the grocery store where they're paying maybe 20% more for some of the food items? and we have had a bill for over a month now, h.r. 6858, that would address these problems and allow us to actually have more control over our own energy production in america, to be able to drill in america for energy, to lower the cost of gasoline by confronting so many of the problems that this biden administration has imposed that are making it hard for us to produce more energy in america to the point where you now have president biden announcing that he's going to go to saudi arabia to beg them to produce more oil. and as we try to confront this challenge, and, again, h.r. 6858

would allow us to do that, if you look at president biden's proposed trip to saudi arabia, the president likes talking a lot about carbon footprints, carbon emissions, global warming. why would the president get on air force one and fly 5,700 miles to saudi arabia to beg them to do something that we can do right here in america? in fact, he could go less than 1,000 miles to louisiana in my district where they could produce hundreds of thousands more barrels a day in america, which by the way, because america has the best standards in the world, would emit less carbon than the oil produced in saudi arabia. and while the president will be flying over to saudi arabia, he won't know the answer he's going to get. they're an opec nation. they typically support limited supply of oil because they want a higher price. so you don't know what the answer's going to be.

you're going to fly 5,700 miles over, another 5,700 miles back to the united states. there are no solar panels on air force one, so that's going to be a lot of jet fuel. a lot of carbon emissions to do something that he could pick up the phone and call louisiana, we'd love this see him down there, but he could call them and i can tell you the answer would be yes. they would say, yes, we will produce more energy here in america, but they're not allowed to right now because of limitations put in place by the biden administration. so while we push to get this bill brought forward, h.r. 6858, it really begs the question first, what is the carbon footprint of president biden's trip to saudi arabia? but why even do this trip? why go to saudi arabia and ask them to produce oil when we have it right here and it's president biden's policies that are stopping that oil from being produced. and by the way, at a much lower carbon footprint than anything that saudi, russia, venezuela or any of those countries would

produce if it was their countries meeting the demand of our nation and so many others. i yield to the gentleman to see if we can get the bill scheduled for next week. mr. hoyer: first of all, i thank the gentleman for yielding. we continue to talk about this as if this were the president's fault. first of all, in a much wider range, this is the result of the pandemic. why is it a result of the pandemic? not solely the pandemic, but let me take the pandemic first. everybody stayed home. this body body, in businesses -- in this body, in businesses across america. what did that mean that they stayed home? they stopped buying gas. what did the oil company does? they shut down some of their production. very substantial reduction in production. but then as the prices went up, they were making as much money or much more money.

so in making much more money, they didn't increase production, as the gentleman says will be an answer to the question, in a country that does in fact have regulations, does have rules. and because of those regulations and rules, the production of our energy is in fact, as the gentleman asserts, more efficient and more environmentally considerate. the oil companies, acting from what they thought was good business practice, demand was down, but prices were going up, they were making profits, they bought back stock, which of course increased the value of the stock that remained. they increased dividends, which of course encouraged people to invest in them. and made people happy about their investments. but they didn't increase

production. and they didn't have to increase production. they were making good profits and making from their standpoint good business decisions. as i indicated in the last colloquy that we dealt with this problem, there were millions of leases put on the market by this administration. some, as i recall, 80 million acres. and there was approximately 2% of the leases bid on and then the court said this was not a legal process, but it is interesting how small was the interest in additional production at that time. irrespective of what happened

subsequently. the gentleman mentions a bill, as he has done in the past, h.r. 6858, the american energy independence from russia act. but before i say that, let me say, i hope the president is going to saudi arabia to talk privately, not publicly try to embarrass or harang, and certainly not beg. the united states of america doesn't need to beg any nation in the world. and this president is not begging anybody. this president should say, however, madam speaker, saudis, stop controlling the supply unreasonably and driving the prices up of your product. yeah, they're making more money. and they have a cartel and at that cartel has -- and that cartel has made sure that the supply drove up and then lack of

supply drove up the international market price. and then russia went to war. now, russia going to war has affected to some degree the supply of oil, but, very frankly, buying russian oil supports their war, their criminal war effort. their vicious, murderous war effort. and we ought to all be against that. so we agreed that we would not take any oil and we urged our european allies not to rely on it either. now, what did that create? it created a lack of confidence in the stability of the market. what happens when you have lack of confidence in the stability of the market? prices go up. because it's a bet on what's going to happen with the price of that product in the future. that the market really reflects. now, the reason i say it that way is because this is not --

these are not biden prices. even if tomorrow we said, ok, go ahead, nothing would happen tomorrow. nothing would happen next week. nothing would happen next month. it would take a substantial period of time because the oil companies, based upon the lack of demand, shut down, nor did they pursue further production. let me say something about the price of oil. because the price of oil now does not reflect the increase -- the national price, or as part of the market response to what is called the west texas intermediary which i'm sure the gentleman from louisiana, an oil

producing state, knows much more about than i do. but let me say this. in 2008 that benchmark for crude oil peaked at $147.02. in july of 2008. adjusted for inflation, that's $199.57 today. in that time, 2008, the average u.s. gasoline peaked at $4.14 per gallon, adjusted for inflation that would be $5.62 today. so in other words, in 2008, otherwise known as the last year of the bush administration, gasoline prices were higher than they are today, notwithstanding the fact that the world price

was $31 less. excuse me, yesterday, june 15, the west texas intermediary oil, the benchmark for crude oil prices, was $116 a barrel. $31 less, without accounting for inflation, which would make it greater, than it was in 2008. that wasn't george bush's fault. it was the international market's fault. and also this cartel that controls a large part of the supply of the oil in our country. now, my point, i said i would deal with h.r. 6858, h.r. 6858, one of its tenants is to approve the keystone pipeline. the problem with that is, for whatever reasons, and i

understand my friend will have a response, madam speaker, as to, well, because you disapproved it, meaning the obama administration. they want to open the keystone pipeline. the problem is, the company that had the keystone pipeline has abandoned it. and even if it were approved, they'd have to get back in business and we'd be well over a year, well over a year. now, i happen to have agreed that we should have approved that pipeline. i said so publicly. i said so to the press. that didn't happen. but it would not solve the problem, and particularly when you look at the figures that i just gave, with respect to the world market price, we are paying a lot more now than we did in 2008 when it was higher. so, i would say to my friend, he also had a provision that

expedites l.n.g. export facility processes. one of the problems is we had 20% of the l.n.g. export capacity that is now shut down. it was shut down because the regulations that the gentleman speaks of correctly were not followed and the l.n.g. plant had an explosion. and it shut down. because it violated regulations that because it violated

we have acted, and pee passed some time ago that said you cannot have gas prices that are set at unreasonable levels which we know as gouging. it's like you have a flood in your city, 80% of the grocery stores are wiped out and the grocery stores that remain triple their prices.

that is called gouging. we passed that bill. we also passed a bill today which unfortunately most republicans voted against. most, i say, not all which will again seek to bring the price at the pump down. how? by utilizing american products to supplement and expand the supply of gas and we believe will bring the price of a gallon down some 40 cents. with the -- what the experts say. if we continue to use a mix of fuel. let me say in closing, on these remarks, which i know have been relatively lengthy, we're in this together. republicans and democrats. we're -- fox news criticized me for saying we're at war. we signed $1 billion for a war we're not.

in because we believe in freedom. we believe in international law. we believe that we have a dictator, a dangerous dictator, who is committing war crimes through his men and women in eastern ukraine in particular. and did it in western ukraine as they came into kyiv. we're in this together. one nation. one america. on behalf of freedom. part of that we're paying the price at the pump because of that. and the pandemic shut down production of gasoline because people didn't go to work, didn't get into cars, didn't need to commute. so i would simply say to my friend, we're on the same team.

our president is leading our effort. to defeat this despot. to stop this war. to assure the from free dom not only to have the ukrainian people but of all people. and assure that we respect international law. i looked at your bill, i'll be glad to talk about other ways, including maybe some of the things that are in your bill, i will tell you the first couple that i looked at, the keystone pipeline is not going to be reopened. you and i may lament that as a policy because i was publicly, during the oba in a administration, for the approval of that pipeline. so i'm prepared to work with the gentleman to see what we can do. but we've done today's bill, it may not be perfect, it may not

work. but it is certainly worth a try. try to bring these awful prices at the pump down. because i know both of our constituents, whether they live in maese or in maryland, are struggling because they've got to use their cars. they've got to use the gasoline. they don't have an alternative. and they don't have an alternative to buying food. both of those are tough. we need to act together to try to see if we can solve that problem in the context of an extraordinary pan democrat, historic pandemic, that shut the world down. we're just trying to get back. trying to get supply chains going. which is why the president is going to saudi arabia. not to beg but to assert the economic fact of the ramifications of the cartels stifling supply. and i yield back to my friend.

mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman. if there is common ground we can find on the components of h.r. 6858, i would be happy to help facilitate that negotiation because there are a number of very specific ire tells in that bill that address the shortfalls, the deficient sthirks inabilities to produce energy in america, keystone pipeline might be one of the more well known, pert bide on his first day in office canceled the keystone pipeline. of course it's not moving forward because he canceled it. it would provide a vital supply of oil from our friends in canada that we wouldn't need from other people. but there are other pipeline issues no new pipelines have been approved in the country. you've got to have the ability to move energy around the country if we're going to be able to produce our own. so if a conscious decision was made in the white house because they don't want pipelines because that impedes the ability

to produce energy in america, mean we was to import more from other country, saudi arabia, russia, any of these i would not want us to have to get it from. it's going to come in some form. maybe in a tanker. it'll have to be put on rail or an 18 wheeler if it can't be put in a pipeline. let's get more pipelines produced. there are multiple, at least four l.n.g. export facilities sitting on the desk over at the department of energy, ready to go. these are multibillion dollar privately funded projects that can't move forward because they won't move yes or no on those requests that have been pending for over a year. obviously you look at leases, not being able to develop your lease, you can have a title to lease if you're a farmer and you own land you can talk about all the thousands of land. but if you need pear mitt from the federal government to plant food and the federal government won't give you the permit to plant the -- plant the food you

can't -- the land is worthless. you own leases on the federal or state lands but the federal government said you can't get permits to go an exercise that lease, the lease is worthless. i'll go back and there's been a lot of talk by the white house about who to blame. i have never heard president biden pointing the finger at hymn or looking in the many mirror and going is there something i can do? we've got a list for him he can do, but he won't. he said things like this multiple times since being president, quote, joe biden, quote, no more drilling on federal lands. quote, no more drilling including offshore. quote, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. that was joe biden. and then joe biden continued to carry out policies that followed through on those promises to kill drilling in america and each step of way the price kept going up. prior to putin's invasion, i know the president loves trying to blame putin, well in advance

of putin's invasion, the price of oil was going up and in fact the president was, whatever terminology you want to lose, pleading work begging, asking putin to produce more oil prior to the invasion of ukraine. that was who joe biden was asking back then as he was carrying out his promise, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill period. he only applied that by the way to america. he was asking other countries to drill. he was just saying you can't do it here. putin said no, by the way. and in the meantime, pew tip was making $700 million a day selling his oil to america and europe during that period where president biden was car rig out all the steps to stop drilling in america and then you fast forward, price keeps going up, president biden, again, doesn't look in the mirror. the gentleman mentioned they blame the pandemic. that didn't fly pause people started getting out again, joining again.

energy companies asked to start producing again, filed application after application, got denied and denied and denied. so the president blamed the oil and gas companies. had hearings. brought in the oil and gas companies. you know what they said? under oath? they want to drill more and can't because of president biden's policies. it's president biden's policies stopping them from drilling. so again if the oil and gas companies or putin were the reason that there was an inability and president biden as he's done multiple times blamed them if they were the reason that they were -- had the shortfall, he'd continue to be blaming them. but he knew the public wasn't buying it because it wasn't them. so he just blames more people. so then he goes to price gouging. and as the gentleman pointed out there was a bill here on the house floor a few weeks ago to try to shift the blame over to price gouging and the answer was to allow you to sue your local gas station if you didn't like the price of gas. none of us like the price of gas. suing your gas station will only

make the price higher. that had no impact because that wasn't the reason. but that was the answer and the attempt to try to blame somebody else and then we move forward and it's all of these other issues. refineries this week, the white house started blaming. refineries. so while the white house keeps throwing spaghetti at the wall, trying to figure out if somebody else will take the blame, he's going to go to saudi and ask them to help us low they are price, saudis ability to produce is irrelevant to the price if we produce in america. because we have the ability to drive down that price because we are not an opec nation. we're not a monopoly. we're a free market. economy. when the free market is allowed to operate. president biden through his promises, quote, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, he in essence took the free market ability for america to produce energy off the table, which mean he is gave that leverage to monopolies. to cartels.

and they're taking advantage of it because president biden gave them that. instead of asking them to produce more, when they're fine with a high price of oil, whether it's brent, west texas, doesn't matter what it is, he's taking it off in america so they can limit the supply. let's not limit the supply. again if it's about saving the planet, if it's about carbon emissions, why not produce more here? there's no country in the world that produces oil that does it cleaner, better than us. so if you take america off the table, as president biden has done, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore. that was joe biden. he took it off the table here. that means you're going to need oil from countries that emit more carbon to produce the same oil. so you get higher carbon emissions. and again that doesn't even count the carbon emissions that will occur when president biden gets on air force one and flies over 5,700 miles to go have this conversation.

that he doesn't need to have because he can have that conversation right here in america at a place like port fushon where the answer would be yes and it would be cleaner and it would bring billions more dollars into america's treasury. it would lower the price of gasoline. create more jobs in america. every answer says yes except president biden keeps saying no. we want to address it through this legislation which would counter some of those many things that president biden has done, to turn off the spigots in america. and so if we can work on ways to confront this, i would be more than happy to have that negotiation and we could go through offline how to do that. that's why i continue to bring this bill up. i would yield. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for all that information. continues to befuddle me why our

republican friends would much prefer to blame president biden and so avoid placing blame on mr. trump's friend mr. putin. i don't understand that, madam speaker. it's not an -- it's not a nation indevicable. madam speaker, i used a statistic so weeks ago that i've heard not at all disputed. the biden administration has approved more drilling permits on public lands in 2021, in one year, than the trump administration did each year during its first three years in office.

not compared to the combined three years. just compared to each individual year. number one. number two. domestic oil production is greater today than it was under trump. not a not a whole big difference. but nevertheless, it speaks to the fact that the representation that somehow biden has shut down the industry, therefore he's to blame, we don't want to talk about the pandemic that shut down oil production. in trump's last year in trump's

last year -- year, in trump's last year, the u.s. reduced their capacity by more than 800,000 barrels. so under the trump administration, production was decreased. maybe they'll look at the records and see whether or not that representation is accurate. and if it's not, i stand to be corrected. but those are the figures i have. and i notice that my friend did not respond to my representation that prices were higher under george bush in 2008 than they are today. not because of inflation, the numbers are different -- now because of inflation, the numbers are different. and compared to the world price, prices are higher. so i will say to my friend, we had at least -- leased 80 million acres. 2 1/2 million taken.

the court held, as the gentleman pointed out before, that the court said, no, that wasn't legal. so it was never affected. but we have those 800,000 that are not back online. don't blame them, though. don't blame putin. don't blame the pandemic. politically let's blame biden. and i'm not sure why bush had the higher price. maybe it was that he was shutting down the oil business, the president from texas. maybe. but it's more today -- but there's more today being produced. not by enough. still those 800,000 shut down, barrels, that's per day, by the way. not just 800,000. per day.

so we can argue back and forth on this. we're passing legislation, our republican friends for the most part voted against it, it won't work, it won't -- i don't know whether they're right or wrong but it's worth trying. it's worth trying. because our consumers are hurting. people at the grocery store, i go to the grocery store every weekend, madam chair. i live alone. i don't buy a lot of groceries because they'll go bad. so i go every weekend. and i see the shelves that are empty. i see the price of bacon has gone up now over $10. i see the price of the eggs i get, the price of the half and half i buy, or the orange juice i buy. it's gone up. i'm in the fortunate position where i can pay it without it binding me someplace else. but i know that a whole lot of people that i see shopping got that list out and they're worried about that cost.

i don't know whether this bill we just passed is going to solve that. certainly not overnight. i don't know whether a month from now it will help somewhat, five cents, 10 cents, on a pound of bacon or a dozen eggs. don't know that. but it was worth a try and we passed this bill. and we got some republican support. including, i think, the ranking member of the committee that reported the bill out. we're not technically at war, but we are spending a lot of money on behalf of freedom. and we ought to be together. and we ought not to be harping about our president who is doing everything he can think of to try to get a handle on this. both on inflation, on the cost to consumers, and on the supply of a product that we all need. so i would simply make a request

that let's work together to try to get this problem solved. and saudi arabia is not the answer. but it's part of the answer. the cartel is part of the answer. the russians are part of the answer. maybe none of them are the entire answer. but when you understand that this administration has given more leases on public land than the prior administration did in the three years, in its first three years, it's hard to say that this administration is the reason for this other than politically it's a very salient argument. but that's all it is. i yield back. mr. scalise: the 800,000 leases,

i know we've talked about this before. you could have 800,000 leases, but when you need permits to actually utilize the lease, vow a lease to go and develop -- so you have a lease to go and develop oil, but you need drill, you need to do seismic, you need pipelines, infrastructure, to move it. and if you don't get those permits to actually utilize the leases, the leases are worthless. that's what h.r. 6858 addresses. and we've been raising that issue for a long time. the lease is no good if you can't then use the lease. mr. hoyer: would the gentleman yield? mr. scalise: yeah. mr. hoyer: what i said was that in trump's last year, refineries in the u.s. reduced their capacity by more than 800,000 barrels. that didn't have anything to do about leases. that had to do with an economic decision which probably made sense because what happened is the economy was contracting, 2.8 million net jobs were lost

during the four years of trump. 8.7 million have been gained. as they've been gaining, people are getting back in their cars, they're getting back and driving. they're spending on the economy. but what happened? the pandemic had shut down supply lines. and the oil companies rationally when demand went down, they reduced capacity. they don't need a new lease to go back up to the 800,000. they were doing it under the present awlgtization that he -- authorization that they had. that was my point. it continues to be my point. the companies have made a decision and they're not moving ahead rapidly to try to get more production. one of the reasons is, i get it, they're making a lot of money. some oil companies have 300% greater profits now than they had some years ago. 300%. so why do we need to do more product? we're making great money, we're having -- chevron says it had the most successful year in 2021

than it ever had. i may be wrong on what company that was. was it chevron? but one of the ownership companies reported. that -- oil companies reported that. i'm not criticizing them. what i'm saying is a multifaceted challenge that confronts us, and we ought to address it in a way that it deserves and that's a bipartisan way that will have affect. i'm going to work with the gentleman. as i said, i was for keystone. i was not for shutting keystone down. i was for approving it to go ahead. i thought it made sense. our friends in canada have an extraordinary supply. as the gentleman observes, though, interestingly, because i think many of your colleagues oppose those rules and regulations, it is cleaner, it is better for the environment to produce it here. why? because we adopted regulations, either the administration adopted or we passed them in legislation, and very frankly, i think that many of those were opposed by, i don't know whether you, but many in your party.

so it is better to do it here. so i don't want to dispute that. but it is also necessary to have production, particularly among the cartel countries. and russia has no interest -- or russia has an interest in additional production. why? because that's how they're funding this war. but we ought to spend time on criticizing putin and his war and the crimes that are being committed in his name in ukraine, and our determination to make sure ukraine -- the ukrainian people who have displayed extraordinary courage, and zelenskyy, who has displayed extraordinary leadership, make sure they know that we're focused on them and we're focused against putin. not our own president. any more than i did when, you know, george bush was president. very frankly, i supported, as the gentleman probably knows, on the trade bills, i thought it was good to do business, a lot of our people didn't support him

on that. i supported him on that. so i would just -- i think we need to be not so critical of our president. we have one president at a time. we had a pandemic. it wasn't on his watch we had a pandemic. it was on his watch that we got handle on the pandemic. and on his watch he's been giving more access to public lands than his predecessor did. and we can debate the nuances of differences. but we ought to focus on why we had this crisis. and the gentleman knows, these prices in many ways reflect the confidence, the stability or the lack of confidence and the lack of stability in the market. and the war directly relates to that issue. i yield back. mr. scalise: obviously we'll continue to debate this. hopefully we debate it over

h.r. 6858, where we can actually be talking about how we worked together to solve the problem. and of course as the gentleman knows, congress did come together, republicans and democrats, to give our friends in ukraine the tools to go and push putin out of much of ukraine and hopefully all of ukraine. we will continue to stand with the incredibly strong, resilient people of ukraine. standing up to vladimir putin. and we will hopefully have this debate further as we're talking about the legislation that we would like to bring. unless the gentleman has anything else -- mr. hoyer: i yield back. mr. scalise: i would yield back, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches.

for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? ms. lee: thank you, madam speaker. i ask to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. lee: thank you. madam speaker, i rise to acknowledge juneteenth, which on sunday will be celebrated for a second year as a federal holiday. on june 19, 1865, news of the end of slavery finally reached galveston, texas. more than two years after the signing of the emancipation prok playings -- proclamation. now, my great grandmother and many of my ancestors were born during slavery in galveston, tick. my grandfather was born in 1867 in galveston, texas. so this day has always symbolized a time for me personally, as well as for many

african-americans, a time for reflection, as well as a recommitment to justice. each year juneteenth compels us to confront the darkest moments in our nation's history. a chapter that was born in the middle passage, continued through slavery and manifests it self today through systemic racism. we must acknowledge the legacy of slavery and systemic racism that continues today in education and health care and in broken criminal justice system. i could go on and on. it is also at the heart of the crises facing our nation today, including economic injustice and hate-fueled violence. as we recognize this important day in history, it's also crucial that we pass congresswoman sheila jackson lee's h.r. 40 legislation, to develop a commission on reparations and recommit to an agenda for black america that realizes true equity and justice. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek

recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. grothman: i'd like to -- i'd like to comment on the recent developments regarding those brave border patrol officers who used their reins to prevent people sneaking into the country illegally, prevent them from getting stomped under their horse's hoosks. i've -- hooves. i've been to the border patrol many times. uniformy border patrol people felt they behaved appropriately. but sadly president biden has decided to pick them out for punishment. it reminds me when he calls the police in this country racists. both completely unfounded. he only does it i think to divide our country, create divisions here. i would like to demand that president biden apologize to the

brave border patrol, those great guys who or gals who on that day prevented the haitians trying to slip into this country from getting stomped underfoot. i would also like to apologize to the police of this country who are not racist and are doing a great job to try to hold down our murder rate. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one ■minue and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. rising prices at the pump and the supermarket are costing families more each month. higher prices are falling hardest on low income families who spend a larger share of their budget on food and gas. since the beginning of the year, gas prices have increased by nearly $2. no doubt this is in part due to putin's war in ukraine. but it is also driven by oil and

gas companies raising prices on consumers. last month, the house passed the gas price gouging prevention act to institute the first federal law against profiteering by oil and gas companies. ms. brown: today the house considered legislation and passed to make cheaper and cleaner ethanol blends more available. these commonsense measures would get gas prices under control and put money back in fam lice pockets. so with that, madam speaker, i yield back. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from west virginia seek recognition? >> seek to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> today i rise to share the story of an american patriot from charlestown, virginia -- west virginia, which is where i live. corporate frank buckles lived to be 110 years hoasmed died in 2011 and was america's last known world war i veteran.

buckles had enlisted in the army by giving his age as 18 rather than his actual age of 16. he drove an army ambulance in france in 1918 and came to symbolize a generation of embattled young americans as the last of the world war i dough boys. he spent three years as a prisoner of war in world war ii while serving in the pacific as a contractor. he lived on a west virginia cattle farm where he drove a tractor until 102 years old. i'm honored to introduce legislation to name the postal service in charlestown, west virginia, as the sergeant frank buckles post office. he is most deserving of this honor in the town he called home for 50 years. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without

objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. veasey: i rise to commemorate mike smith, he was known as the unofficial mayor of magnolia street in fort worth. throughout his 55-year tenure, make baked over half a million pies which put his restaurant, the paris coffee shop, on the map. his pies were listed in "usa today," bon appetit" magazine and known all around the world. but what really made mike so special was the warmth and love that he showed everyone that walked into his coffee shop. didn't matter if you were from river crest or riverside. it didn't matter if you were from white hall street in eastwood in fort worth or from west silver hills. mike made everyone feel welcome any time you came into the paris coffee shop.

his firm handshake, his hugs, his conversations were just absolutely unforgettable. he will be deeply missed and just in addition to everything that he has done for the food community, the restaurant community, and fort worth, we send prayers out to his entire network of friends and family. madam speaker, i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise to recognize the russell county high school baseball team. the kentucky state high school runners up. their head coach david has led the lakers baseball team since 2002. he's the all-time wingest baseball coach at russell county

and he was recently inducted into the kentucky high school baseball coaches hall of fame. russell county began their journey to the state tournament by winning the 16th district baseball tournament which includes my homeschool of monroe county. they've won the 16th district nine of the last 10 years. they won the region, the fourth region in bowling green, and went on to louisville to state. made it all the way to the state finals, to the state championship game. mr. comer: the russell county laker baseball team had nine seniors on that team that have played together most of their lives. they finished the season 31-7. the most schools in russell county school history that state championship game was in louisville, kentucky, against st. x, one of the largest high schools in the state in. louisville. it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from russell county to louisville. 95% of the crowd was from the small county of russell county this community is proud of this baseball team and their great accomplishment and i want to

commend them for a tremendous baseball season. madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas seek recognition? the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. jackson lee: madam speaker, this morning i introduced the 2022 observance of juneteenth independence day resolution. thank you to my co-sponsors and thank you to those who recognize this important federal holiday. h.res. 1182 is to celebrate juneteenth. but i was pleads to be the first member of congress after years of introducing resolutions to introduce the actual language of the federal holiday signed by president biden on june 17th, 2021. what is juneteenth? it is a recognition of one of america's original sins, the slaves that were held over 200 years and the brutality they

experienced, but the freedom they experience odd on june 19, 1865678 we can come together as a nation to celebrate freedom in many, many ways. i'm delighted that over the weekend in houston and galveston we'll be lifting up our voifs celebration. we know there are next steps. as i've been introducing the resolution on juneteenth i commend my colleagues to move forward on h.r. 40, the commission to study slavery and develop reparation proposals. what is reparations? it is healing, it is restoration, it is repair we look forward to responding to the other issues that should be fixed. happy juneteenth, let's sell celebrate together, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. our current national debt is not only huge, it's astronomical.

as of today the national debt exceeds over $30 trillion. to put that in perspective, that amount in $100 bills laid side-by-side would circumstance they will earth over 1,167 times. if stacked it would reach the international space station 80 times. the debt crisis is truly out of this world and yet my colleagues across the aisle would rather spend even more money on unnecessary programs when -- with unrealistic goals. effects of the debt are already being felt in the form of record high inflation and gas prices. but perhaps the greatest tragedy is that it will be our children and our children's children who will ultimately foot the bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 021, the gentleman from texas, mr. green, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.

mr. green: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, and still i rise. and i rise today with an expression of gratitude and great appreciation. i'd like to thank the many persons who voted for h.r. 2543. the financial services racial equity inclusion and economic justice act. i rise to thank persons for this because i was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to manage the bill on the floor. the honorable maxine watters is the sponsor of this piece of legislation. it is a compilation of some 13 bills. that were used and packaged so that we could bring about some racial justice in this country. racial justice that is long overdue, i might add. the honorable maxine waters, but

for her, i can say without reservation, hesitation or equivocation, this bill would not have come to fruition. she has been a champion for those who have been left out, left behind, locked out. those that i label as being among the least, the last and the lost. the least, those who don't inherit a legacy of wealth but rather a legacy of poverty. the least, those persons who are still finding themselves living in the streets of life. the last, those who are the last hired, first fired. the lost. those who are lost in the richest country in the world. but lost perhaps in chemical consumption.

drugs if you will. lost because of mental issues. but they're lost in the richest country in the world. she has been a champion for them and i will always be grateful to her for working with me to help me to acquire a position on the financial services committee. i think that probably but for her, i might not have the position that i have. so i know that she's not doing well today, but she'll be back, and i want her to know today that i'm appreciative for the many opportunities that i have acquired by virtue of her being there at the right time when these opportunities were available. i'd also like to thank the members who have those bills, the 13 bills, member beatty,

joyce beatty, mr. audiocassette enclose -- mr. often enclose, mr. -- mr. auchincrloss, ms. garcia of texas, mr. torres, and ms. waters had a bill as well. i had two bills associated with this package as well. this package, the financial inflyings and racial justice act. why is it needed? why sit needed on this day some few days away from juneteenth? and i celebrate juneteenth, by the way. i commend my colleague, jackson lee, for her work on juneteenth. i knew the father of juneteenth, al edwards. al edwards was a state representative in texas. and he was a person who was tenacious. about juneteenth. and it was his legislation that

passed the texas house and senate and was signed by the governor of the state of texas making juneteenth a holiday at a time when, quite frankly, people thought it was impossible to get it done. al edwards, the father of juneteenth, always remember him, a dear friend. we celebrated juneteenth together on many occasions. we traversed the state together. he was one of my supporters. and i know his family. his brother was a banker. redick edwards, my banker, as a matter of fact. so i have a relationship with this family. and i want the world to know that i'm appreciative of what he did to lay the foundation for juneteenth as a holiday at the national level. i also would like to express my appreciation for what juneteenth is all about.

general gordon granger came into galveston, texas, in 1865, the emancipation proclamation had been signed, the war had ended, but in texas, the slaves were not accorded their freedom. some people say that the word hadn't reached texas. i differ. the word reached texas. but the slave holders saw those slaves as personal property and they saw no reason to give up their personal property simply because mr. lincoln signed that emancipation proclamation or simply because the war was over. that was their personal property. and it is sailed that someone was sent, an envoy, if you will,

to make it known to people in texas that slaves were free. this is prior to general granger arriving in 1865. well, they said that that person didn't quite get the message across. and one can well understand why. given the behavior of texas. a a state that seceded from the union and also seceded from mexico because of slavery. so they pretty recalcitrant, and that's being kind, about the desire to maintain slavery. but president lincoln sent general gordon grai granger. to say that he sent general gordon granger is, quite frankly, an incomplete statement. he sent general gordon granger and 2,000 troops, and 2,000

troops. and general gordon granger, being the wise mantha he was -- man that he was, brought those troops with him, but they also had some friends with them. they had mr. winchester, smith ands weon -- and wesson. they were well equipped to present this message to the slave holders. and when it was presented, with 2,000 troops, well armed, it was received. and it was the next year that the first juneteenth celebration took place. that was in 1866. first celebration. and this is what al edwards shared with me about juneteenth, the actual moniker, the name for the holiday. it was his position that it

became known as juneteenth because there was some question about the date that general gordon granger arrived. within the minds of the slaves. whether it was on the 18th or the 19th, some question. so rather than continue a debate about the actual date, it's -- it simply became juneteenth and folks can fill in the blank as they choose. 1866, big celebration of juneteenth. a celebration of freedom. again, i commend the father, al edwards, and i commend my colleague, jackson lee, for her stellar work here in congress, to work juneteenth through to the point that it is now a federal holiday. commend both of them. i commend the many people who voted for it. today i thank the people who

voted for that holiday, but i also want to thank the people who voted for h.r. 2543. i greatly appreciate the fact that you voted for the financial services racial equity, inclusion and economic justice act, because that act is needed and there has to be some question as to why it's needed more than 150 years after the end of slavery. why would we need a financial services racial equity, inclusion and economic justice act? these many years later? well, rather than give you my opinion about it, i'm going to read to you from a report presented by the brookings

institute. brookings is well known and well respected. let's just see what brookings says. and this was published on february 27 of twebt. not a -- 2020. not a lot has changed since february 27, 2020. let's examine what they at the brookings institute have shared with us, with reference to black folk in this country. it is styled, the article, examining the black-white wealth gap. examining the black-white wealth gap. hear now the words of the brookings institute. a close examination of wealth in the u.s. finds evidence of staggering racial disparities.

at $171,000, the net worth of a typical white family, is nearly 10 times greater than that of a black family, which is $17,150. and this was in 2016. 2016. white family worth $171,000. this is the net worth. black families' net worth, $17,150. over 150 years since the end of the civil war, more than 400 years since the first africans were brought here as slaves in 1619. 400 years have passed. we still have this wage gap. it goes on to read, gaps in

wealth between black and white households revealed the affects of accumulated inequality and discrimination, as well as differences in power and opportunity that can be traced back to the nation's inception. traced back to the nation's inception. this is the brookings institute. traced back to the nation's inception. the black-white wage gap reflects a society that has not and does not afford equality of opportunity to all its citizens. equality of opportunity. the opportunity, these are my words, to succeed on your merits or fail on your demerits.

the opportunity for you to pull yourself up by your boot straps. this society, according to brookings, does not afford equal equality of opportunity to all its citizens. it goes on to indicate, efforts by black americans to build wealth can be traced back throughout american history. but these efforts have been impeded in a host of ways, beginning with 246 years of chattel slavery. followed by congressional mismanagement of the friedman savings bank. this bank was established after

the slaves were freed to provide them the ability to accumulate wealth. they were freed but they were just freed to the elements. they didn't have property that they owned. they were freed to have persons abuse them. they were in a hostile environment. they were among people who had held them as property. people who had no desire to see their property taken from them. so they were free, but they were free to the wind, the rains, the elements. free to starve. free to survive if they could. but that level of freedom was supposed to be curtailed with the freedman's savings bank.

well, the bank started with the best of intentions. according to the history i've read, was an idea of frederick douglass. was supposed to give the freed slaves an opportunity to acquire wealth, save money, to understands the process of saving money, by the way. for people who had never had money, imagine this, never had money, what do you do with it if you acquire some? many of them were working for the union army and they were getting paid. so what do you do with this thing called money? well, this bank was a place where they were supposed to be able to save. unfortunately there was mismanagement. congress did not put in the proper safeguards so that it could continue to exist in perpetuity. and it left some 61,144 dpe

toeser toes -- depositors with losses of nearly 3dz million -- $3 million in 1874. then there were persons who sought to move ahead, notwithstanding circumstances. and there was this area in tulsa, oklahoma. tulsa's greenwood district. here is what is said by brookings with reference to greenwood. it reads, the violent massacre decimating tulsa's greenwood district in 1921, a population of 10,000 that thrived, as the epicenter of african-american business and culture commonly referred to as black wall st

street. black wall street was decimated. this was an opportunity for people to pull themselves up by their boot straps. to find a means by which they could have commerce among themselves. they were of no threat to the broader community. but they had black wall street taken away from them, literally destroyed. and thereafter we had the discriminatory policies throughout the 20th century, including jim crow era's black codes. laws that applied specifically to black people. if you weren't working, you could be incarcerated. if you were black. and then you had, this is not contained here, but the convict

leasing that took place. which was another form of slavery. a person would be arrested for some minor offense, and then placed in the hands of a landowner to work, leased as it were from the state, and some of these persons would work for the rest of their lives for some minor offense. they became slaves by another name. leased convicts. so we had black codes, limiting opportunitying in many southern states -- opportunities in many southern states. along came the g.i. bill, we're fast forwarding now. and this is a part of the article that i'm reading. the g.i. bill. the g.i. bill benefited and still benefits a good many people who are right here in this congress benefited from the g.i. bill. few black people did. very few black people benefited

from the g.i. bill. the statistical information is overwhelming in terms of the number that did not. small numbers. of the thousands that initially benefited from it, numbers less than 10 were black. thousands with 10 maybe or less that were black. there are some people who give a specific number on it, less than 10, but let's just leave it with the fact that there were less than 10 that benefited from it, with thousands. and here's why they didn't benefit. they didn't benefit because if you wanted to get a mortgage to buy a property, which is what the g.i. bill would afford you, the banks wouldn't lend money in blank neighborhoods -- black neighborhoods. if you were black and you walked into the bank, that in and of itself was a denial of the loan.

your presence, your skin complexion, that was the denial of your loan because blacks were not lent to. someone would say, but, al, how did they know they were living in a black snaibd in because you couldn't -- neighborhood? because you couldn't live in a white neighborhood. you couldn't live among people who could get loans. there were restricted covenants. the law said you couldn't live there. denied the opportunity to acquire land, which was another means of amassing wealth. by the way, this was not the first time people of color were denied the opportunity to acquire land. at the early years in this country, if you could fence in

land and you could protect it, you could squat, as it were, it became yours. all you had to do was fence it in and protect it. black people were not afforded that opportunity. so here we ars away from juneteenth, which i celebrate and appreciate, but i want you to understand why there was a need for h.r. 2543, the financial services racial, equity, inflyings and economic justice act. there was a need for it. there is a need for it. and it passed this congress. so we find ourselves now with the g.i. bill and other circumstances that did not inure to the benefit of black people.

according to this article, another circumstance was redlining. redlining. where literally a red line was drawn around certain arias -- areas and those who were in the business of selling and buying real estate, think rarely wanted to buy that land, so it became a place where people of color lived and the people of color could not get loans to upgrade their property. they could not get the loans needed to improve their lives. because the banks were not lending. so this wealth that many people have, the wealth that they have, is something that they acquired in ways that were associated with the government, that locked black people out.

this, according to the article now, this history matters for contemporary inequality. in part because its legacy is passed down generation to generation. repeat, this history matters for comp terch -- contemporary inequality, meaning the inequality we see today, in part because its legacy is passed down generation to generation through unequal monetary inheritance. inheritances. which make up a great deal of current wealth. meaning, a good many of the people who have the current wealth, they acquired this wealth by being born. the speaker pro tempore: will

the gentleman suspend. the chair lays before the house an enrolled bill. the clerk: senate 4160, an act to amend title 40ing united states code to grant the supreme court of the united states security related authorities equivalent to the legislative and executive branches. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for the remainder of the time. mr. green: thank you. as i was saying, a good many people make their first million dollars by being born. just, come into the world. come into the world in the right family. and these inheritances are passed down from generation to

generation. through unequal monetary inheritances which make up a good deal of the current wealth. interesting fact. in 2020, americans are projected to inherit about $765 billion in gifts. in 2020, americans are projected to inherit about $765 billion in gifts and bequests. i assure you, only a marginal amount of this will be inherited by black people. excluding wealth transfers to spouses and transfers that support minor children, inheritances account for roughly 4% of annual household income.

black people have little to pass on, therefore there is very little that is inherited. and as a result there is no transfer of wealth from one generation to the next to speak of. it's really a sad state of affairs when you really think about it. but we have been so conditioned to accept our circumstance in life that this sad state of affairs is just normal to us. it just, we've embraced it almost. it's just the way things are. things don't have to be this way. that's why h.r. 2543 is needed.

let me remind you one more time that black people in this country have wealth that is about one tenth of what white people have. one tenth. of what they have. that, my friends, is something that is unacceptable. and it's not because black people won't work hard. it's not because they don't have good work ethics. no. it's because a system that we exist within has been so structured that not only did we fail to acquire wealth, couldn't acquire it early on in the history of the country, but that's this system still

prevents black people from acquiring wealth. i come to the floor and talk about these issues quite regularly. and there are some people who have asked me, why am i so passionate about these issues? why do i persist when i could easily just go on with my life. and i've had people to tell me, you're doing all right. you're doing well. you have all of the trappings of a middle class person. why would you do this? because i have -- i haven't always been where i am now. and because i have a memory. i know what it's like to live in poverty. i know what it's like to be discriminated against. i'm a son of the segregated

south. those rights that the constitution recognized as belonging to me, my friends and neighbors took them away. they denied them. i know what it's like to drink from a colored water fountain. i no what it's like to go to a back door to get your food. and i know what it's like for the law to say that you have to go to bay that back door to get your food. i know what it's like to stand in a separate line in the store, the supermarket, and wait until all of the persons who are white are served before you can be served. i know what it's like. to be born in a racist society. believe me, i was born into the south. i'm 74 years old. i know what racism smells like.

i know what it tastes like. i know what it sounds like. and i know what it hurts like so my passion emanates from the suffering and the understanding of what it's like to live in a hostile environment. and my friends, black people are still living in a hostile environment. we don't like to acknowledge it. we want to believe otherwise. but it's a hostile environment. it's a hostile environment. when you go in to get a loan, and you are qualified, and you cannot get the same loan that a person of a different hue can acquire who is equally as qualified as you. you're equally as qualified as that person. that's hostile to you and turn -- in terms of your economic status.

h.r. 2543 seeks to remedy that. h.r. 2543 makes it a crime to discriminate against a person in lending. i must tell you, the honorable maxine waters has more courage than we can measure. there is no way to measure the amount of courage this woman has. to bring this kind of legislation to the floor. and i have to acknowledge the other leadership in the house, it's pretty courageous of them too, to let this kind of bill come to the floor for a vote. i congratulate and thank every person that voted for it. because it ought to be a crime to defraud a person out of a loan. for edification purposes, if you

defraud the bank, you can face a fine of up to $1 million. up to $1 million fine. and you can be imprisoned. there is no such fine if the bank denies you a loan, defrauds you of your loan that you're entitled to. that changed with the passage of h.r. 2543. this is historic. you're not going to read about it in the newspapers. but you're going to hear about it from me right here on this floor. the house. i didn't come here to hide the good news. we want to let the world know about the good news. challenge will be of course to get it through the senate.

i believe this president will sign it. getting it through the senate will be a challenge. but back to where we were. so we find ourselves acclimating to the hostile environment we have. we find ourselves accepting our circumstance. and there are others who would say that you're free. you can just make your way as others have made their way. pull yourself up by your boot straps. well let's see where we are with boot straps. boot straps would first require that you have boots. black folk don't have the boots. the boots are at the banks. people in this country who have little, acquire some things with

their hard work and then they are in a position to borrow money. if we are not given a fair opportunity to borrow money, which would give us the boots, and then we can have straps added to the boots, you're not going to be able to pull yourself up by boot straps when you don't have boots. it just doesn't happen. and that is a circumstance we find ourselves in. there are many people who will say that by doing what i'm doing, i'm just making excuses. well, tell that to the people at the brookings institute. convince them. they compiled the statistical information, the empirical evidence i shared with you. this is not al green speaking in the sense of al green compiled the information that you heard. no. this is the brookings institute. i'm just the messenger.

they compiled the message. so we find ourselves in this hostile environment as it relates to the economy. it's a hostile environment in many other ways as well. hostile environment just in terms of our living. still discriminated against when it comes to housing. still discriminated against. and it took the death of dr. king to get the fair housing act through congress. it's amazing how many of the seminal pieces of legislation that impact the lives of people of color are signed in ink but they were written with the blood of people who make great sacrifices. dr. king's life. john lewis and the edmund pettus bridge. but for john lewis and the

edmund pettus bridge, additional civil rights laws would not have been -- been signed into law. it took blood on the bridge to bring about the civil rights act. of 1965. so, my dear friends, we're in a hostile environment. people don't like to talk about the hostile environment. but when people say jews were not re-- will not replace us, when they say jews will not replace us, my friends, many of those people work in restaurants. one can but only imagine what happens to the food of a jewish person when you have a person working in the restaurant who says, jews will not replace us. and given that this theory, this

fake theory, this myth, there's some other words that can be used that my mother taught me not to use, but these privilegecations associated with this myth, friends, these -- the myth is that jews are going to use black people to replace white people. which is ridiculous. but that means that there's some people who are very hostile to black people since they think black people are going take over, and minorities and immigrants. so, just imagine what it can be like to go into a restaurant and you have persons who don't find favor with treating us fairly. we have to be careful where we eat. we do. if you understand the environment you're living in.

hostile environment. can you imagine some of these persons, jews will not replace us, persons who are up in idaho dressed in this regalia, this military regalia. can you imagine one of them being a physician? you've got to go into this office, you need help, maybe you're going into the emergency room. it's a hostile environment. if you can't appreciate it, if you don't understand the consequences that could emanate from people who scream jews will not replace us, people who burn crosses, people who say that they are a part of a superior race, you don't think it's a hostile environment? ask the ghost of the people who

went into the top's food store. ask the ghosts if it's a hostile environment. went there to kill black people. you don't think it's a hostile environment? ask the spirit of the people who were in the wal-mart store in texas. it's a hostile environment. hostile if you understand and appreciate what's going on around you. i don't say it's hostile to the extent that we can't overcome it. i don't say it's hostile to the extent that we should simply surrender and throw up our hands. that's why we have h.r. 2543. and there are other aspects of it. requiring transparency. we need to know who's

integrating their business. sometimes when people have to announce their circumstance, they change that condition. h.r. 2543 will provide a lot of transparency. this is needed. when you're in a hostile environment. so i would say to you, my dear friends, that, as brookings puts it, just how large and persistent are these racial wealth gaps? and brookings has made it very clear that at least $17,150 for a black family in terms of wealth, is about 1/10 of the 1dz 171,000 -- $171,000 net worth of

a white family. my hope is that we will remember yesterday as a moment in time that will hopefully accelerate the time that we will need to bring about a closing of this wealth gap. i think that what happened yesterday is a great step in that direction. it's not the last step, it's really not the first. there are other things that have been done. but it is a step in that direction. we need to close the wealth gapment and i pledge to do -- gap. and i pledge all i can do to close it. but i want to let you know that in doing all of these things and

saying what i'm saying to you, explaining it in terms that people, many people will find uncomfortable, i still say that i love my country. i still say i love my country. i still say i salute the flag. i'm not some person who hates america. i'm the guy who wants america to become america for all americans. i want quality of opportunity. i want america to live up to its promise. so as i celebrate juneteenth, i assure you, i will do the things that are customarily done in terms of the foods and the drinks and the -- just having a

great time celebrating freedom. but it does not mean that i'm going to forget the need for more work to be done. i have great respect for and appreciation for mr. hoyer. i can't tell you how much i appreciate and respect him. he has said things here on this floor that i appreciate with reference to discrimination. others have said things too that i greatry plesh. it's just -- greatly appreciate. it's just that i've sort of built a relationship with him and i appreciate his indicating that slavery remembrance day is

something that is on his agenda. i'm going to celebrate juneteenth but that doesn't mean that i won't commemorate august and slavery remembrance day. that's a day -- a time of commemoration. so i'm going to enjoy juneteenth. but remembering that there's still great work to be done. i remember as a child my grandfather reminding me that i would have to be willing to make sacrifices that others would not have to make if i wanted to succeed in life in this country.

sacrifices that others wouldn't have to make. i assumed that we all make we all make the same sacrifices, but my grandfather taught me differently. it's not the case. so while i celebrate, i still have some appreciation for the sacrifices that have been made and have to be made. i understand that we need the maxine waters of the world who work hard to make sure that while she has the gavel, that change, the change that she can bring about will take place. and i appreciate the sheila jackson lees of the world who have worked hard to make juneteenth a holiday. it's a holiday and it's a time to celebrate.

but i also think that we need another holiday to commemorate. because in texas there's a desire to not allow slavery to be taught, the history of african-americans as it relates to slavery, to be taught in the schools. can't teach it. if texas has its way. well, i celebrate and commemorate. i thank god for the opportunity to serve in this house. and thank those persons who voted for the bill that we brought to the floor, h.r. 2543. i appreciate you, each of you. and i will be sending you a written thank you. but i didn't want too much time to pass without saying it to the world. i appreciate it. and thank you for the time, madam speaker. and i now yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 11-b of house resolution 188, the house stands adjourned until 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. ng dressed. we had an intellectual discussion about, i don't know if it's easements theory per se, the vp's role. he was asking me my view, analysis, other practical implications of it. when we finished he said,