Ted Deutch

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Jewish Adoption and Family Care Center's declaration of intent agreement with the State of Israel. JAFCO continues to provide support to children affected by disabilities at risk of abuse or neglect in the United States. JAFCO was established as a non-profit in 1992. The JAFCO Children's Village is among the rarest programs of its kind around the country. The partnership with the Israel Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, and Social Services, or MOLSA, will help both entities refer requests for foster care, consultation, support services and more. JAFCO and MOLSA have seen their efforts overlap over the past 25 years, making this partnership all the more important towards providing help for children in need. Both have done phenomenal work servicing special needs kids. This partnership can help mend any unmet necessities for children in the Jewish community. I ask that my colleagues join me in supporting this partnership and commending the invaluable work JAFCO and MOLSA have done over the years to bring help to children and families in need.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor Mikkie Belvedere for her years of public service in South Florida. Mikkie was born in Israel, lived in New York City, in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and has been a resident of South Florida since 1992. Commissioner Belvedere is a financial professional who has spent years putting her expertise to good use to better her local community. She was first elected to the Coconut Creek City Commission in 2009, where she has served in the roles of Mayor and Vice Mayor of Coconut Creek. Prior to her service as a city commissioner, Commissioner Belvedere spent years working to better Coconut Creek, serving on the city's Planing and Zoning Board, the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and as the chair of the Coconut Creek Environmental Advisory Board. Commissioner Belvedere served as an ambassador committee representative and charter member for the Coconut Creek Chamber of Commerce. In addition to her years of public service, Commissioner Belvedere has had a positive impact on communities in Coconut Creek and throughout South Florida. The founder of the Coconut Creek Multicultural center, Mikkie Belvedere also is a member of the Wynmoor Hurricane Emergency Network and a member of the Coconut Creek Community Emergency Response Team. She is a Trustee of the Sisterhood of Liberal Jewish Temple and the president of the Hebrew club of Wynmoor. She is a former member of the Sawgrass Association of insurance and Financial Advisors and a former participant of the Broward Mentoring Program. For the past decade and a half, Commissioner Belvedere has volunteered with the Broward County Prime Time Program, where she reads to children. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mikkie Belvedere and her service to the South Florida community and Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Speaker, pursuant to section 1(e) of House Resolution 73, 117th Congress, and clause 3(g)(4) of House Rule II, I hereby submit the following special policies and procedures adopted by the Committee on Ethics on March 9, 2021, for printing in the Congressional Record. Special Policies and Procedures Relating to Fine Notifications and Appeals (Adopted by the Committee on Ethics--March 9, 2021) 1. Upon receipt of a fine notification under House Rule II or H. Res. 73, the Committee will send a letter to the Sergeant at Arms, U.S. Capitol Police, and/or Chief Administrative Officer requesting that they preserve all records of any reviews, determinations, or decisions regarding the alleged violation(s) and any additional information, including video recordings of the alleged violation(s). Also, the Committee will send a letter to the Member notifying them of their right to appeal, the deadline by which to file an appeal, the Committee's special policies and procedures, and noting that an appeal to the Committee shall include a response to the findings issued by the Sergeant at Arms, and may include the basis for the appeal, a description of the occurrence precipitating the fine, any exculpatory information, any request to appear before the Committee, and any additional information that the appellant believes will assist the Committee in considering the appeal. In addition, for receipt of any fine notification under H. Res. 73, the Committee shall notify the Member of the Committee's obligation to publish the fine notification. 2. For a fine notification received under H. Res. 73, the Chair and Ranking Member will make the notification public within two business days of receipt. The Committee will provide the subject of the fine with notice of publication one business day prior to release. 3. The Chair and Ranking Member may make redactions to the public fine notification received under H. Res. 73 as they deem necessary to protect certain personally identifiable information or other sensitive details. 4. In appealing a fine to the Committee, the appellant may be represented by counsel at their own expense. 5. Upon receipt of an appeal of a fine, the Committee will send a letter confirming its receipt of the appeal and notifying the appellant that it will consider the appeal within 30 calendar days. Also, upon receipt of an appeal, the Committee will send a letter to the Sergeant at Arms, U.S. Capitol Police, and/or Chief Administrative Officer requesting that they provide the Committee with a copy of all records of any reviews, determinations, or decisions regarding the alleged violation(s) and any additional information, including video recordings of the alleged violation(s). 6. If the written appeal does not provide sufficient information to fully assess an appeal, the Chair and Ranking Member may jointly authorize staff to request additional information from the appellant. 7. If an appellant asserts there are factual errors with the findings and any supporting documentation, the Chair and Ranking Member will request a response from the Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police. The Chair and Ranking Member may also jointly seek additional information from other sources. 8. The Chair or Ranking Member, consistent with Committee Rule 5(b), may place consideration of an appeal on the agenda at any time. If no meeting of the Committee is scheduled to occur within 30 days of receipt of an appeal, the Chair will make reasonable efforts to convene a meeting during that time period. 9. Members of the Committee will be provided any information needed for consideration of the appeal not later than three days prior to any meeting in which the appeal will be considered, whenever possible. 10. The Committee may agree to an appeal if it determines the fine is (a) arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not consistent with law or with principles of fairness; (b) not made consistent with required procedures; or (c) unsupported by substantial evidence. 11. The Chair and Ranking Member will notify the Speaker, the Sergeant at Arms, Chief Administrative Officer, and the public of the determination regarding a fine appeal (or that no appeal has been filed) two business days after such determination (or the expiration of the appeal period), and will also publish the written appeal if the appellant so chooses. The Committee will provide the subject of the fine with notice of publication one business day prior to release.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, this morning I walked by an elementary school, and I saw parents dropping off their kids. I thought of parents around the country sending their kids back to school after months of virtual learning. They want their children to be safe. But it has been 8 years after Sandy Hook and 3 years after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in my district, we should be ashamed that we have waited so long and wasted so much time when we could be saving lives. We cannot have safe communities until we fix the crumbling foundation of our gun laws. That is the background check system. Universal background checks will help keep guns out of dangerous hands. They will save lives in our schools, they will save lives in our homes, and they will save lives on our streets. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with survivors, with gun owners, and with Americans of both Democratic and Republican Parties who support universal background checks by voting to pass H.R. 8.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to honor Barton David Weisman for his years of service to our country and the South Florida community. Barton, known by most as Bart, was born in 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and moved to South Florida in 1976 where he currently resides with his wife Shirley. They have two children and five grandchildren who keep them busy in addition to their successful business and philanthropic activities. In the midst of World War II, Bart enrolled in the ROTC program at Lehigh University and later joined the New York National Guard. Bart was deployed to Korea as part of a medical unit with Company K, 47th Infantry Regiment which saw extensive combat. Bart was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and received numerous awards for his military service, including the Army of Occupation Medal for service in Japan, the Korean Service Medal, the UN Service Ribbon, and the Combat Medical Badge. Following his military career, Bart started a company providing long term health care services to children and seniors. The company grew from what was originally one nursing home in Bristol, Pennsylvania to operating facilities in New Jersey and Florida. Bart's company continues to be a family-run business with both his son and grandson working there. Bart and Shirley have dedicated themselves to sharing their success with their community through various philanthropic activities. They focus much of their efforts with Jewish Family Services and their most recent endeavor is the Shirley and Barton Weisman Delray Community and Senior Center in Delray Beach, Florida which provides an array of vital services and resources to the area's seniors. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Bart Weisman, and his service to the South Florida community and Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor Linda Eidinger for her years of dedicated service to the South Florida community. After twenty years as a union officer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Linda moved to South Florida where she has lived a life of community service and activism. Linda is a proud mother and grandmother, and her roots in union work inspired her to continue to fight on behalf of working families everywhere. As president and an active member of many civic organizations, Linda engaged her community and brought people together to advance noble causes. As a leader in the American Association of University Women and the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training, Linda was a strong believer in the power of education and worked to ensure that everyone has access to an education to enable them to succeed in life. Linda was also president of the Fort Lauderdale Democrats By The Sea Club where she fought for working families and other causes while making simple meetings enjoyable and memorable. Linda was an excellent moderator and brought a wide range of thoughtful speakers to various events and meetings. Environmental stewardship is also an important cause to Linda, who participated in and organized events such as recycling drives, beach cleanups, and other activities to protect the local environment. Linda has been a selfless, dedicated, and positive member of her family and her community, fighting for important causes like education, environmental protection, and so many others. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Linda Eidinger, and her service to Fort Lauderdale and Florida's 22nd Congressional District.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I also note Republican colleagues purport not to defend any of Representative Greene's hateful statements or reprehensible conduct, instead, rely on process. The appeals to process should be recognized for what they are, an effort to shield her from her accountability for her egregious language and actions. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), my friend and colleague from south Florida who has come to know the families from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, as well as I, and the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make clear that this is not an action by one party. This is a House resolution. Today, all of us will be voting. And the Constitution couldn't be clearer. Article I, Section 5 vests the House with the authority, independent of the Ethics Committee, to discipline a Member. As a sanction for such behavior, the House may limit any right, power, privilege, or immunity of that Member. I am sure my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are aware of that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Williams).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H. Res. 72.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 91, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 72) removing a certain Member from certain standing committees of the House of Representatives, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 72. In 2019, the FBI warned that ``antigovernment, identity-based, and fringe political conspiracy theories very likely to motivate some domestic extremists to commit criminal, sometimes violent activity.'' In October last year, this House voted nearly unanimously to condemn QAnon conspiracy theories because they encourage the rejection of objective reality, deepen political polarization, and undermine trust in our democratic institutions; but also because they have inspired real-world violence, bomb threats, vandalism, kidnapping, terrorism, murder, and insurrection. Congresswoman Greene of Georgia has a long history of amplifying dangerous conspiracy theories online and threatening violent, racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic conduct. H. Res. 72 will ensure that Mrs. Greene's conduct is not rewarded with seats on two important committees. The Congresswoman has said that American citizens who practice Islam ``do not belong in our government,'' and ``they should stay in their country.'' Mr. Speaker, this is their country, and it is their government as much as any American's. Mrs. Greene has trafficked in dangerous anti-Semitic lies about the Rothschild family, George Soros, Zionist supremacists, and secret Jewish plots. Over millennia, because of baseless, ugly lies, millions of Jews have been hated, targeted, expelled from their countries, violently attacked, killed, and exterminated because words lead to action and death. Mrs. Greene claimed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 26 people, including 20 6- and 7-year-old kids, was staged. She claimed the Las Vegas shooting that killed 60 people and injured over 800 was an orchestrated attempt to weaken gun rights. And she claimed the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a false flag event and called the survivors crisis actors. Mr. Speaker, the 17 people who never came home from school in Parkland on February 14, 2018, were my constituents. Their families' pain is real, and it is felt every single day. Yesterday, parents of children slain at Sandy Hook, Mark Barden, Daniel's dad; and Nicole Hockley, Dylan's mom, wrote a letter to Leader McCarthy to share how these conspiracy theories impact their families: ``These vicious lies deny the deaths of our murdered children and bring death threats and constant harassment to our doors and our surviving children.'' In 2019, Mrs. Greene created a White House petition to impeach Speaker Pelosi for treason, emphasizing that it is punishable by death, and she liked a Facebook comment stating that: ``A bullet to the head would be a quicker way to remove Speaker Nancy Pelosi.'' In a video statement from December 31, 2018, Mrs. Greene called on her followers to storm Washington, D.C., in what sounds today like a prescient forecast of last month's deadly insurrection: Flood the Capitol. Flood all the government buildings. Go inside. We can end it. We can do it peacefully. We can. I hope we don't have to do it the other way, but we should feel like we will if we have to. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what happened. Conspiracy theories and hate are malignant. They do not fade away. We must stand up to them and say, Enough. Mrs. Greene has promised that she will never apologize. Well, we are here today because Republican leadership has decided to embrace and elevate Mrs. Greene. They rewarded her with a seat on the committee of this House that has responsibility for teaching our children the truth and giving them a safe place to learn it. Two years ago, the Republican leader spoke on this floor, very strongly saying, ``I will pledge to you this, from this side of the aisle, and I hope you understand this clearly, any hatred, we take action.'' Mr. McCarthy did take action, but it wasn't condemnation. It was elevation, appointing her to committee seats. That is why it is necessary to put this resolution to a vote for every Member of this body because this House must take action. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and remove Representative Greene of Georgia from her positions on the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on Budget. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), my friend and neighbor.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Malinowski).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Ms. Bush).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Hayes).

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentlewoman from Connecticut.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader of the House of Representatives.

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, let me just address some of what we have heard today. First, we have heard the argument made by our colleagues that this is something that should go to the Ethics Committee, despite the fact that we have the authority to be here today to tackle something that our friends should have tackled. But then they turn around and say that the Ethics Committee doesn't have jurisdiction for anything that has been said before a Member is elected, thereby creating a loop that will result in no accountability, zero accountability, for any of the horrific sayings, any of the horrific actions that have been promoted by Representative Greene on social media and in her words. We also heard that what we are doing here risks deepening dangerous divisions. The dangerous divisions that exist in our country resulted in an attack on this Capitol, putting all of our lives at risk. We are trying to stop the divisions in our country by not giving a platform to the kinds of conspiracy theories that helped to inflame them. We heard that this is cynical and hypocritical. Mr. Speaker, is there anything more cynical and hypocritical than to be told on the floor of this House that the minority leader was prepared to take Mrs. Greene off the committee, not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was a political decision he was willing to consider? Finally, we heard that Representative Greene has apologized for this. She came to the floor today. She acknowledged that 9/11 happened; she acknowledged that school shootings are real; and she acknowledged that she learned some things about QAnon that she didn't know before. There was no apology. There was nothing to address any of the pain and hurt that she has done to my constituents and gun violence survivors in every part of this country and the families who lost loved ones. Mr. Speaker, we need to be here today. This hateful rhetoric is in the real world as well, outside the Halls of Congress, not just here. Memories of the lives we have lost to gun violence are being forsaken by those who baselessly claim those tragedies were false flag events. Online rants about anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and conspiracy theories have manifested in real and violent acts. It is not a debating society that we are participating in. This has real impact, in the real world. Finally, I close with this, Mr. Speaker: We are worried about precedent? So am I. So we should all be. And the precedent of rewarding a Member of the House by giving her a platform of a congressional committee to amplify dangerous conspiracy theories is one we should never set. Leader McCarthy said so himself. I would remind my colleagues again, 2 years ago he said: Any hatred, any hatred we take action. Unfortunately, the only action taken by Republican leadership has been to appoint Representative Greene to two powerful committees. This resolution condemns the practice of promoting extreme ideologies, conspiracy theories, and antigovernment rhetoric. The resolution proclaims that there is no place for such conduct in this Congress or in society. When Mrs. Greene came to the floor today and compared the media to QAnon, it is a reminder of just how important this action is that we are about to take. This is why we must adopt H. Res. 72. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DEUTCH

Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic is raging; 1 million cases in a single week; more than 100,000 cases each day since November 4. Yet, as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I am so grateful for the nonprofit community organizations that are helping to get us through this: neighbors helping neighbors, serving meals, caring for seniors, and those with disabilities, housing, and job assistance, and more. They are essential cords of our safety net, but that safety net is fraying. Calls to Broward County's 211 helpline quadrupled when the pandemic hit, and have seen a surge ever since. With Federal assistance expiring, the calls get more desperate, and now the helpers are calling for help. Congress must answer that call. There is nothing more important in this body right now than getting help out to our communities. The House, the Senate, the White House must get that help through the COVID-19 wave that is crashing across our country as we begin this holiday season. The American people are desperate--desperate, Mr. Speaker. We can wait no longer.