Sam Farr

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a good friend, Richard Smith.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman and congratulate her on probably being the Member of Congress who has been to Cuba more times than anyone else, has done more to lift the nuances of the embargo, and to, essentially, start the end of the cold war that we faced in Cuba. For Cubans today, I would like to say Feliz Cumpleanos. For the Americans, I would like to also say Happy Birthday. And I would like to include that as a Happy Birthday to my wife, Shary Farr, whose birthday is today, because her biggest wish has been that she could go to Cuba before she dies. And guess what? Now she can go. This is a great birthday present to her that she will be able to visit Cuba, after 55 years of failed foreign policy where our government prohibited American citizens from traveling to Cuba. So with this lift, I would also like to thank President Obama, and I would like to thank President Raul Castro. I think what you saw were two nation leaders getting together and doing what nation leaders should do: figure out how to get along rather than how to fight. What we have done in Congress has not progressed, not helped. I would like to have, Barbara, your comments on this, too, because we imposed legislatively in law these embargoes that say: Americans, you can't travel; Americans, you can't trade; Americans, you can't use your dollars; Americans, you can't use your credit cards; Banks, you can't do it; Farmers, you can't sell. We have created all these barriers, and the Presidents of each country don't--at least the President of our country doesn't have the ability to just use his administrative authorities as he has in being able to do some wonderful things. Fifty-five years of frozen policy has changed. You can't do it all and change everything in 12 months. We have been able to open up embassies for the first time. It was delightful to be in Washington, D.C., last night at this celebratory time of the year, holiday season, and have the Cuban Embassy invite all the Members of Congress, staff, and people over to their Embassy for a holiday party and bring one of the best Cuban music groups--exciting, beautiful music--to celebrate all this. We couldn't have done that a year ago. We couldn't have done it a year ago today. But today is the day that will go down in Cuban history as the day that they remember the U.S. beginning to break the cold war relationships. We have sent Secretary Kerry. And did you know that Secretary Kerry's visit to Cuba was the first Secretary of State visit to Cuba in over 70 years? We have begun bilateral discussions. We have created a bilateral steering commission, and Secretary Kerry was instrumental in getting both countries to sit down and discuss the differences in economic policy, in social policy, and in cultural issues. They have already done some work on joint environmental issues. Cuba is so close to American soil that the environmental policies in our country affect them and vice versa. It would be great to have them develop some really good ocean standards and marine standards as we are trying to do along the Florida coast. They have already done some work with law enforcement, of integrating information and trading, particularly on narcotics trafficking and things like that, and opened up mail service from the United States. They have lifted what they could on the travel ban. Americans are allowed to go. Today I am real excited to learn that both countries have agreed to begin commercial air service, scheduled air service. You have had to go on charter flights. I believe your city of Oakland, California, is one of those cities that is designated as a scheduled airline airport so people can fly directly from Oakland, California, to Havana to visit. We have opened up a claims process, and we need to do more particularly in Cuba on human rights processes. On global health, Cuba and the United States got together jointly to help the Haitians with the critical needs that Haiti has in their delivery of medicine and care to that really poor country so devastated by the earthquake. Mr. Speaker, what I am very excited about, frankly, is that Cuba has hosted probably one of the most important discussions going on in the world, and that is how to end the longest revolutionary war, the best financed revolutionary war in the history of the world, which is the FARC, supported by all the drugs in Colombia; and the Colombian Government and the FARC rebels have been sitting down in Cuba and working out a very complicated ``how do we end a war,'' ``how do we get you back into civil society,'' ``how do we stop the violence.'' With that, and with the recognition of Cuba, it is the first time that an entire hemisphere, the higher hemisphere in this world, has been in diplomatic relations and peaceful relations with no country fighting another country within the hemisphere. What a great model for the rest of the world, and what a great model to show those countries in conflict, internal conflict, that if FARC and Colombian Government can sit down and work out a peaceful resolution, then any country can do that. So I want to thank you and celebrate today. December 17 will be a day I will not only remember as my wife's birthday. We will remember it as the day that the Cubans and the Americans started breaking the cold war, the frozen foreign policy. Barbara Lee, you had a lot to do with it.

Mr. FARR. Yes. You were so instrumental. Think about it. A year ago, Alan Gross was on a plane coming back after spending 5 years--longer-- in a Cuban prison. You and I had the chance to visit him there. As we knew, his state was frail, and if he hadn't gotten out, I really worried about him. I saw him the other day here on the Hill, and he looked just fantastic. His spirit is back, and what a great spokesman for America and for foreign policy that countries can resolve differences.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. I thank the ranking member of the committee, Mrs. Lowey. Mr. Speaker, I want to just remind people that this is a big bill. It is a bill that has got a lot in it. It has got a lot more good in it than it has bad in it. Big bills have both. What is really important is this is the most important vote we take all year, because this is the vote that runs all of government, keeps it all operational, all the things you have heard about. I want to thank the chairman, Mr. Rogers, because he promised our committee at the beginning of the year that he was going to get us back to regular order and get us a bill. I bet that we were going to end up with a CR, which is the worst thing we could do. It is the failure of Congress to carry out its business. I want to compliment Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Lowey for their incredible work in getting a clean, a relatively clean appropriations bill, and how important this is. The work that was done on all the minutiae in there by our staff on the Democratic side--Martha Foley in Ag Approps, and my staff: Rochelle Dornatt, Troy Phillips, Ana Sorrentino, the Republican staff, Tom O'Brien, Andrew Cooper, Pam Miller, Elizabeth King, Betsy Bina, and Chairman Aderholt's staff, Brian Rell and Jennifer Groover--thank you for all the detailed work, night after night, that you have put into this. But if you take medicine, this portion of the bill, 1/12 of the bill, the Ag portion and Commodity Futures Trading Commission and FDA, if you take medicine, this bill impacts you. If you invest in the market, this bill impacts you. If you care for animals that are treated humanely, this bill impacts you. If there are hungry people in this country and in other countries of the world, this bill really impacts you. And, quite frankly, if you want to eat safe, wholesome, and affordable food, this is bill is essential. So thank you all for doing this. But most of all, I want to thank, also, another subcommittee, the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Kay Granger and Nita Lowey just did an incredible job of, for the first time, fully funding Peace Corps, the highest level they have ever funded. We have 23,000 people applying for jobs, and Congress has only appropriated enough money to hire 3,500. This bill is going to go a long way in allowing all those Americans who want to do service for our country abroad to get a chance to do so. I want to thank you all. It is one of the better bills, and it is certainly a lot better than last year. I look forward to next year when it will be even better.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and accomplishments of a remarkable man and to mourn his passing. Jon Raggett was a brilliant engineer, an enthusiastic and accomplished builder of kayaks, and a tireless and generous philanthropist who founded a nonprofit whose mission was to build schools in developing countries. He was also a lifelong friend of mine, who died following a sudden illness on September 26, 2015, at the age of 71. Jon Dana Raggett was born July 9, 1944, and he grew up in Carmel, California, where his love for boats and the sea was born. Jon graduated from Princeton University with an engineering degree, received an MS from Stanford University, and returned to Princeton to complete his Ph.D. in civil engineering. Throughout his engineering career, he brought his keen analytical mind and his imaginative creativity to projects in structural engineering, earthquake research, and the aerodynamic effects of extreme wind on bridges. Through West Wind Laboratory, which he founded in 1988, he performed wind studies on major bridge, architectural, and industrial projects all over the world. Closer to home, Jon worked on the Golden Gate Bridge, including the creation of a suicide barrier and a retrofit to improve the performance of the bridge in high winds, and he also worked on the new span of the Bay Bridge. John also served as a member of the engineering faculty at Santa Clara University and the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1994, inspired by Theodore Roosevelt's admonition to ``do what you can with what you have,'' Jon founded Schools3, a nonprofit corporation which began as Jon's attempt to use his engineering skills to address problems of poverty in the developing world. Jon worked on a design for a three-room primary school with an office-storage building and a latrine which could be built with concrete blocks, a metal roof, and finished with plaster walls. This design could be built inexpensively all over the world, and through Schools3 Jon was able to fund and complete the construction of 71 schools in Africa, Honduras, and India. Jon donated his time and the time of his assistant Ann Keeble to Schools3, so every dollar contributed went directly towards the construction of a school, with no overhead, administrative, or marketing costs. In 2002, Schools3 received a commendation for this work from the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee in its report on Foreign Operations. Jon also used his structural design skills to create musical instruments out of plywood and furniture which was inventive and playful. But his primary passion was for building boats, and designed and built countless beautiful kayaks over the years, no sooner completing one project than he began thinking about how he would improve on the design for the next boat, and there was always a next boat. At Jon's service, his sisters-in-law quoted from Kenneth Grahame's beloved The Wind in the Willows: ``Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.'' No one believed this more deeply than Jon Raggett. Jon and his wife Tory, a talented artist whom he met when they were both 10 years old, raised two sons, Mark and George. When grandchildren Joe, Hugh, Mae, and Owen arrived, Jon took delight in introducing them to the joys of being on the water. Jon's love of his family, his deep commitment to doing what he could to make the world a better place, and his impressive accomplishments in civil engineering combined to create an extraordinary man. His untimely death is an enormous loss not only to his beloved family and many friends, but to the world which he worked so hard to improve. Mr. Speaker, I ask the entire House to join me in celebrating the life of this exemplary man and his remarkable accomplishments.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about violence. Republicans may try, but you cannot separate our debate today on women's health clinic violence from our country's gun violence problem. Since 1993, 11 individuals have lost their lives while seeking or providing health care at women's health care facilities, and 10 of the 11 were victims of gun violence. Since January of this year, the House has voted 10 times to restrict women's health services. That is one vote for every person who died from gun violence at a women's health care clinic; yet there have been zero votes on gun control. Stop this war on women's health and reproductive care, and start a sane regulatory process on guns.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. It is part of the broader Learning Disabilities Month. This is the time we focus on learning disabilities, particularly in our students and our own children and many who suffer from learning disabilities. I am emphasizing Dyslexia Awareness Month because I have dyslexia. Growing up, it was very hard being a student that couldn't read well, couldn't spell, couldn't write. I was very ashamed of that. I was shy. I didn't know how to ask for help, but I had a lot of support in my home. My mother and father didn't really know how to treat it. We didn't even know how to diagnose it in the early ages. I became withdrawn and embarrassed to go to class, particularly to get up and to have to read in front of the class and to spell in front of the class. I still have trouble doing that. Thanks to loving parents and to supportive teachers, I am here. I share my story because we need to remove the stigma attached to learning disabilities. No student should have to sit in silence being ashamed, being afraid to ask for help. I had a high school biology teacher, Enid Larson, a person whom I actually wanted to grow up and be like and be a high school biology teacher, who taught me I could accomplish anything. I think I studied sciences because so much of science was memorization and not having to write a lot of papers and not having to read in front of the class. I pass that same message along because one in five children with learning disabilities or attention issues has to know that it is not because they have a low IQ. They don't. In fact, some of the brightest people in history have had these learning disabilities. It isn't because you are different. It means that you are unique. It means that, with the right help, support, and love, you can accomplish many things. You can cope with your disability. Many Members of Congress are dyslexic or have children who are dyslexic, and so many that we have actually formed a Congressional Dyslexic Caucus. I am urging you to ask your Member of Congress, if they have not been a member of that caucus, to join it. I ask for you to ask your school districts what help they are bringing to kids with disabilities and particularly for dyslexic students. I encourage the students to speak out. You may be shy about reading, but that shouldn't be affecting your speaking. You should speak out about what you feel and what you want. Dyslexia is a reading and spelling disorder, but you can develop coping skills. With that, you can overcome your shame and your shyness. After all, many of us in Congress have done that, and that is why I am speaking today and not reading.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Michael Guardino, head of Carmel High School's science department, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. One would be hard-pressed to find a teacher more devoted to the art of education than Mr. Guardino. A lifetime lover of knowledge, Mr. Guardino believes that every student deserves an uncompromised understanding of the fundamental sciences, creating a classroom atmosphere known both for its incredible rigor and rewards. Each morning, he arrives before the crack of dawn, preparing fascinating demos and labs to truly engage his students. Nobody can escape his notoriously difficult AP Chemistry course without a firm comprehension and appreciation for the chemical world, even if he has to blow stuff up--in the name of science--to get his students' attention. Every day, his students are challenged in new ways to approach unfamiliar problems and create solutions based on scientific processes. Whether it is titration, qualitative analysis, spectrophotometry, or chromatography, he finds a way to make each laboratory experiment challenging and captivating. Away from the classroom, Mr. Guardino demonstrates his passion for SCUBA by acting as a volunteer diver at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for over 30 years, teaching the ecology and chemistry of kelp forests from inside the aquarium's massive tanks. Granting his students an incredible opportunity, he arranged a tour of Ed Ricketts' lab, part of the inspiration for ``Cannery Row''. This allowed them to hear rich first-hand experiences of Steinbeck and ``Doc'' recounted by the 96- year-old Frank Wright. Mr. Guardino cares deeply for each of his students, giving his best efforts to teach and expecting their best efforts to learn. Giving untold hours of his personal time, Mr. Guardino personally helped Ethan Miller--a student bedridden for months due to a severe illness--learn the massive amounts of chemistry covered during his absence from school. Coming to school over the weekends and even on Thanksgiving, he ensured that Ethan understood the material. His tireless work paid off: Ethan completed AP Chemistry with an A both semesters and scored highly on the AP exam, earning college credit. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the House joins me in thanking Mr. Guardino for his dedication to his profession and to his students.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great American, Mr. Fred S. Jealous, on the occasion of his retirement after more than 30 years of dedicated public service. Fred is a beacon of compassion, justice, and community service. Over the many years that he and his wife, Ann Todd Jealous, have lived on the Monterey Peninsula, Fred has devoted countless hours of his professional and volunteer time to weaving, reinforcing, and repairing the social fabric of our community. Fred originally hailed from Connecticut. In 1963, he earned a B.A. in history from Clark University in Worcester, MA. He went on to earn a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, in 1963. He then answered the call for public service and entered the Peace Corps, teaching math and English in rural Turkey. Upon his return from Turkey, Fred renewed his studies, this time in the field of Psychology, at the U.S. International University in San Diego. In 1967, love for Ann Todd brought Fred to Baltimore, MD. However, as an interracial couple, they had to travel to Washington, D.C., to marry. In Baltimore, Fred became active in the civil rights movement agitating for the integration of public places. Fred and Ann moved to the Monterey Peninsula where he and Ann settled in Pacific Grove and raised their two children Ben and Lara. It was on the Central Coast that Fred hit his stride as a community builder and activist. He worked with the Veterans Administration to develop education programs for disabled veterans, served as executive director of the Salinas Volunteer Center, and founded the Monterey County Men's Alternatives to Violence. In 1987, Fred took this last effort a step further and founded the Breakthrough Men's Community as a non-profit organization to provide men with skills to free themselves from non-productive, painful, or abusive aspects of their lives. Staffed by volunteer graduates of the program, Breakthrough helps men work on communication and listening skills, self-esteem, parenting, alternatives to sexual obsession, reducing homophobia, and building healthy, inclusive communities. Fred has remained at the helm of Breakthrough since its founding and is now preparing to pass on that leadership. Fred has truly made our community a better place. He is truly an example and inspiration for those who have the great fortune to know him. That is perhaps most true for Fred's son Ben, who followed his father's--and mother's--example to become the President and CEO of the NAACP. I know I speak for the whole House in extending to Fred Jealous our deep appreciation for his life's work and offer our best wishes to him and his family on this next chapter in his remarkable life.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Lofgren for yielding, the chair of our wonderful California delegation, the largest Democratic delegation in Congress. When I arrived in Congress in a special election in 1993, Don Edwards was the dean, the chair of the Democratic delegation, the same delegation that his former employee, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, now holds. He was the father figure for all of us from California, and I think of this entire Congress when you look at his remarkable record. It is ironic that Don Edwards grew up in a Republican family in the Stanford area in Santa Clara Valley, attended Stanford University, was captain of the golf team, did very well in golf, and so much so that the district that I represent every year hosts what was formerly known as the Bing Crosby Clambake, now the AT&T Pro-Am Golf Tournament. And Don Edwards told me that he carried his pro, he got a better score than his pro, and they won the tournament the first Clambake at Pebble Beach. He soon became president of the Young Republicans. He quickly thereafter left the Young Republicans and became a very, very liberal Democrat. I asked him once as he retired, as Congresswoman Lofgren said, to Carmel, California--he retired to a home right next to the home that I grew up in and my sister still lives in, so we had many, many nights with him and Edie discussing politics, and I once asked him: What made you become a Democrat? He said: Well, you know, Sam, after I got out of Stanford, I was in the FBI right after law school, and after I knew what the government could do to you through the FBI, I decided that I better be on the other side to protect the rights of individuals. He then became a Navy intelligence officer. One of the things that happened when he left the FBI--he was no fan of the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover--he asked Congress to audit the FBI. Well, the FBI had never been audited. All of the seizure of the equipment and goods and things that they had taken in the arrest were used to support them internally, and people thought that there might be some foul play there. Because he asked for that audit, he was on their blacklist. A former FBI agent knew a little bit too much about what was going on inside the FBI and with J. Edgar Hoover. As a Member of Congress--it is really interesting. He got elected when John F. Kennedy was President, and he left Congress when Bill Clinton was President, so all of those President's between Kennedy and Clinton, Don Edwards had served with. If anybody, he was probably the most dapper, best dressed, politest, nicest human being on this floor. He had great friends on the Republican side of the aisle, even though he was such a liberal Member of the Democratic Party. One of his friends was Hamilton Fish from New York. They worked together on many of these remarkable acts: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the rogue Voting Rights Act of 1965. He became chair of the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, and he managed the equal rights amendment on the House floor. He was a constitutional civil rights-human rights expert and passionate about his feelings of the law to protect people. When Don and Edie retired to Carmel, California, they brought with them a lot of their friends from Washington, and in his home State of California, we used to have wonderful dinner parties together. He was still a member of Cypress Point Golf Club, a very exclusive golf club. In fact, he was the longest surviving member of that club. Unfortunately, Edie predeceased him--his wonderful wife for many years, whom we all loved--and we were saddened about her development of lung cancer, and she died. Don wanted to have a memorial service for her at a local church and then the reception at the Cypress Point Country Club, one of the most conservative golf clubs in the United States. Don was very proud after the church service to have invited everybody, and he proudly stated that this was the largest collection of Democrats that had ever been at the Cypress Point Country Club. He had a great sense of humor, lots of friends. He was a remarkable human being who was able to work across the aisle, something we miss today. With that, he was able to accomplish some of the greatest laws of this country in the modern era. He was a good friend of Republicans and Democrats, but, most of all, he was the friend of the animals and of the people who could not speak for themselves. We will sorely miss this great man, who served this great institution for a long, long time. My wife sends all her best. She was at his bedside when he died, and she was part of his caretaking team. We will have services for him in Carmel this Sunday, and there will be services in the San Jose area and future services here in Washington. So I just stand tonight to give you my thoughts on my relationship with a great man, Don Edwards, who championed civil rights and died at the age of 100.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Bishop W. W. Hamilton on the occasion of the 35th pastoral anniversary of his leadership of the Greater Victory Temple Church of God in Christ in Seaside, California. Bishop Hamilton is a beacon of service to God and his community and an example of love and compassion for all to follow. Under his leadership, Greater Victory Temple has grown into one of the strongest community pillars of the Monterey Peninsula and all of northern California. Bishop Hamilton was born in San Antonio, Texas. He followed his father, the late Bishop E.E. Hamilton, on the path of religious service and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Simpson College in San Francisco. He then served as the founding pastor of the Hamilton Memorial Church of God In Christ in San Francisco, California. In 1987, W.W. Hamilton was consecrated as the Bishop and Prelate of the California Northwest Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ, the church his father had established. In 1980 Bishop Hamilton was appointed to serve as Pastor of the Victory Temple Church of God In Christ of Seaside, California. Under his Pastoral leadership a new church building was completed and on March 16, 1984, the Great Victory Church of God In Christ was dedicated debt free. In addition to the remodeling, Bishop Hamilton sought to provide housing and family resources to his community. Bishop Hamilton has also focused his leadership on community service. He served as the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Later, under his leadership, the Greater Victory Temple has become a force for community service on the Monterey Peninsula. It offers services for youth such as after school tutoring programs, a community computer lab, after school chess club, and hosts scout groups. It also offers a food pantry in partnership with the local food bank, divorce counseling, works with other community organizations to bring peace to the community, and has invested in community based senior housing. Throughout his 35 years of leadership, Greater Victory Temple has impacted the lives of countless people within the Seaside and surrounding Monterey Peninsula communities. All those who have had the pleasure to meet Bishop Hamilton know first hand his love and personal commitment to his congregation and surrounding community. Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak for the whole House in extending our deepest gratitude to Bishop Hamilton for his many years of dedication to the Greater Victory Temple family and the broader community of the Monterey County and Northern California. Our world is a better place because of his efforts.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise on a lighter note, a very positive note because I represent a very beautiful and positive part of the United States: the central coast of California. This is a place where you hear the towns of Santa Cruz, Monterey, Pacific Grove, the beautiful fertile Salinas Valley, and the magnificent Big Sur coastline, which this poster here shows a photograph of. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the House of Representatives, 50 years ago, passed marvelous legislation called the Highway Beautification Act, and that act came about because the States were ruining the aesthetics of America. It was a bill that First Lady Lady Bird Johnson so much supported. In fact, it became known as Lady Bird's bill. So 50 years ago, this House of Representatives took a bold move to protect and improve our scenic highways. Why are those important? We sell scenery where I live. This is another picture of a scenic highway in the South, in the Southern States. When you drive through these, you don't see any billboards, you don't see the urban clutter, or, as my friend Ansel Adams said: ``You don't see the urban acne that is covering our roads.'' It is Big Business that we are fighting, because the billboard lobby in the United States is very powerful. It was powerful then, but the First Lady was more powerful. I have a personal story in that because my father, who was in the California State Senate, authored the first legislation to create the California Scenic Highway Program. In 1966, this time of the year, Lady Bird Johnson came all the way to California, not to campaign for a Governor or United States Senator, but to recognize the work that my father, State Senator Fred Farr, had done by dedicating Highway 1 in California, the Big Sur highway, as California's first State scenic highway and perhaps the first State scenic highway in the United States. It was a great day. What Congress did is they ensured that States would be able to have money to enforce this billboard ban. They would give them more money if they would incorporate in their State, county, and city laws billboard bans. Now, we have a $7 billion industry out there, the outdoor advertising industry, and it has been fighting highway beautification for over 50 years. They have been unsuccessful at repealing the Federal law, but they have made incredible progress in being able to find exemptions for it. They have prevented the 10 percent penalty that States would receive for not adopting highway beautification. They have encouraged localities to change zoning laws in rural areas, calling them commercial or industrial or anything to bypass the act. And they have been able to loosen the rules on repairing old signs, allowing them to remain forever rather than being torn down. We now have approximately 700,000 billboards in the United States, and yet this is a country that will be celebrating its 100th anniversary of our National Park System. We advertise around the world: ``Come to beautiful America. See the scenery of America.'' In many places in America, all you see is billboard scenery. So as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of this act--which is not well known in Congress, nor in the country, yet is a very significant act because of what it did to empower States and local communities to have the ability to prevent billboards from going up and giving them funds for taking them down and to make sure that people are sensitive to why this is important for our scenery--let's recommit to strengthening the program. As I said, we sell scenery. We sell watchable wildlife. The economy of the central coast depends on the beauty. As long as the beauty is there, people are going to come to the Carmels and Pacific Groves and Montereys, where California history began. People are spending more money on watchable wildlife. More people are watching wildlife in America than watch all of the sports combined. It is an unbelievable figure: of all the sports, all the football, all the baseball, all the hockey, basketball, you name it, more people look at wildlife. So let's protect what is really unique to America, something that God gave us and only we can destroy. These hundreds of thousands of signs are robbing America of its scenic view, of its iconic images that once defined the open road. I would like to quote Ogden Nash, who summed it up wonderfully in a poem, ``Song of the Open Road'': I think that I shall never see, A billboard as lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall, I will never see a tree at all. Let's help protect America's beauty. Let's ban billboards.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the life and times of one of our former colleagues, Rep. Jim Santini from Nevada. I actually never served with Jim, but I came to know him well and appreciate him for his work on travel and tourism issues, two issues for which we shared a great passion. Sadly, Jim Santini passed away on September 22 from esophageal cancer. Jim Santini was elected in 1974 and left the House in 1982. He served in the House at a time when Nevada only had one representative. In many respects he was the third Senator. He travelled to every corner of the state and was especially interested in protecting the interests of the rural communities; he didn't want even the smallest of towns in the desert to be forgotten. During his tenure in the House he honed in on one of the great economic engines of our country: travel and tourism. This industry often toils in disparate ways but Santini recognized its potential power if it ever came together over its common goals: to encourage new adventures around the country through travel and exploration and to serve customers by creating memorable, lasting experiences for them in the process of travel. Currently, travel and tourism accounts for $2.1 trillion in economic output in the U.S. and employs 15 million persons. Rather than letting this vast travel economy move along in all its separate parts he helped all the many facets of travel and tourism see their commonalities and unite around a common purpose. In doing so he elevated the industry's interests in Congress from its myriad components into a singularly focused agenda. Part of the way he did this was to organize the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus. After Santini left Congress the caucus disappeared. But given California's tremendous tourism industry and my involvement in promoting travel and tourism when I was in the California Assembly, one of the first things I did when I got elected to Congress was to re- establish the Caucus. I am proud to say that the Caucus today is quite vigorous with 116 Members. We have significant accomplishments under our belt including the enactment and reauthorization of the BRAND USA legislation which helps promote the United States to international travelers, and the JOLT Act which was introduced this year and proposes to reform and enhance the way visitor visas are processed so as to make travel to the U.S. easier from abroad. We have Jim Santini to thank for these accomplishments. It is his vision that is embodied in much of today's travel and tourism agenda. Jim Santini leaves behind his devoted wife, Ann Crane Santini, his children David, Lisa, Katherine, Lori, Mark and JD and their families, 13 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. Mr. Speaker, I feel certain the House joins me in offering condolences to the Santini family and in giving our former colleague posthumous thanks for all he did to serve the great state of Nevada and the nation.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Madam Speaker, there has been a lot of talk here about a bill that is only two pages long. You have heard a lot of talk about and a lot of misstatements of fact about Planned Parenthood. But guess what; this bill is really about giving the States the ability to hurt women, and it never even mentions Planned Parenthood. It never mentions any of the procedures that you have heard about here on the floor. It merely gives the States the ability to wipe out clinics that serve women. So it isn't about abortion procedures. It isn't about Planned Parenthood. It is about taking away access to health care. This bill gives the authority to States to cut off all of those services if they specialize in health care for women. When is this war on women going to stop? Your party ought to be ashamed of its reputation in this country now that it is really taking on women on all issues. So on behalf of my wife, my daughter, and my granddaughter, who will need access to women's services--hopefully not abortion, but if necessary, maybe--I would hope that this war on women would stop and that all of us would vote against it. Oppose this legislation.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of myself and my California colleagues, Rep. Anna Eshoo, Rep. Janice Hahn, Rep. Jared Huffman, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Mike Thompson and Rep. Juan Vargas, to welcome His Holiness Pope Francis to Washington and to celebrate his actions yesterday in canonizing Father Junipero Serra. Yesterday we were all witness to a sacred ceremony validating the holiness of Father Serra as a leader of the Catholic faith in early California. But Father Serra is also a major historical figure in California's settlement and expansion. As important as his contribution to the faith is, his effort to unify and connect north and south California laid the groundwork for the state it came to be. As most people know, Father Serra is responsible for establishing the first 9 of what would eventually be 21 missions up and down the coast of California all the way from San Diego in the south to north of San Francisco. In today's world, those 21 missions are tantamount to social media. They represented a network of community and connectedness that brought order to a wilderness and established common links between myriad towns and villages. Those missions were so important to the framework of community, commerce and government that eventually coalesced into a state, that every school child in California must construct a mission diorama in the 4th grade as part of his/her history lesson. The majority of those missions still stand today and are still vibrant centers of faith and community. They also serve as strong tourist attractions and bring to life the story of California's early settlers to millions of visitors every year. So pivotal was Father Serra to the rise and prosperity of California that the state elected to have his statue exhibited here in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. Father Serra's presence is especially felt strongly in Carmel, California where he established his headquarters and actively administered the expansion of the Catholic faith in California. From here he also helped manage relations between local peoples and Spanish government officials in Mexico as well as with the local military officers who commanded the nearby presidio in Monterey. Father Serra is buried at the mission in Carmel and neighbors of the mission, city residents and all who visit the mission venerate his beneficence to the people and the state. During Pope Francis' visit to Washington this week my California colleagues and I were happy to welcome a good number of Californians to the city to celebrate the Pope's visit and Father Serra's canonization. In particular I was proud to have nearly 100 constituents from the Carmel area come to town to honor our ``home-town saint.'' Among the distinguished visitors was Bishop Richard Garcia, Bishop of the Diocese of Monterey and his predecessor, Bishop Sylvester Ryan. I was pleased that they could be with us as for this momentous occasion. Mr. Speaker, I believe the House was moved this week by the Pope's visit and his actions regarding Father Serra. I am sure the House joins me in thanking the Pope for his leadership, his holy presence and his blessing of Father Junipero Serra.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. I don't think anybody on your side has read the bill. It doesn't do anything that you have talked about. It doesn't stop abortions. It doesn't stop any of those other issues that are already illegal. It does one thing: It shuts down Planned Parenthood clinics. I represent the largest affiliate of Planned Parenthood in the United States. And guess what. Twenty-two percent of the patients are men. So you are going to deny access not only to women, but to men. You say: ``Oh, we will shift the money somewhere else.'' There is nowhere else. These are the only clinics around in many of the communities. So what you are doing is taking this angry white man's caucus on the Republican side that have been for years trying to use this as a political issue, using a bill that says you are going to do all these things. It only does one thing: it penalizes Planned Parenthood. Penalizing Planned Parenthood penalizes us all. It is about access to health care, particularly, access to health care for women. Stop beating up on women. Stop trying to make this a political issue. The reason we haven't been able to legislate against abortion is because you can't find a law that can enforce it. This is really a moral issue and a medical issue that ought to be discussed with women and their doctors. Congress Members ought to stay out of this. We haven't been successful in solving these problems. This only hurts people, particularly in rural areas, because the majority of Planned Parenthood clinics are in rural areas. Stop being so mean. Solve problems, not create them.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and memory of Durell Decker Agha, a wonderful woman and dear friend who died yesterday at the all too young age of 73. Durell was a lifelong resident of the Monterey Peninsula and active in local community and business activities. Born Jan. 31, 1942, Durell grew up, as I did, in Carmel, attending Sunset School and Carmel High School. I remember Durell's family, the Deckers, fondly. They were always involved in lots of community and neighborhood activities. They liked hosting class parties for Durell and her friends at their home in the country. Durell's father and mother owned a grocery store so food was always plentiful to snack on at their house. Durell's brother Paget was a popular community activist. One of the kindest acts by Durell's Dad was his offer to drive us both up to Salem, Oregon to begin our freshman year in college at Willamette University. The home town kids at Willamette--Durell, myself and another Peninsula kid, Hillary Teague--always checked in with each other. We were each other's family away from home. After her first year at Willamette, Durell came back to the Monterey area for a short time, before heading off to Europe to travel and attend the University of Bordeaux in France. After a year and a half abroad, she returned to California and finished college at UCLA, earning a bachelor's degree in history, with a concentration in Middle East studies. Following graduation, she worked at Fourtane Jewelers in Carmel, where she was introduced to Nader Agha, shortly after he immigrated to the Monterey area from Syria. The two married in 1965. While their marriage lasted 17 years, they maintained a lifelong partnership that included running various businesses and managing properties together. Durell was very proud of her children and loved them dearly. She shared great love and rapport with her grandchildren, sharing books of antiquity with Kaden and gardening with Jasmine. Her family will always remember her very giving and supportive ways, as she always put others before herself. Durell enjoyed reading, antiquing with friends and family, and jewelry. She had a deep love for the Carmel area and its history, which showed in her book and photography collections. She is survived by many family members, including three children, Mahir Agha of Carmel Valley, Sumaya Agha of Carmel, and Laith Agha of Carmel; two grandchildren; sister-in-law Holly Decker; niece Kyle Holton; and close family members Nader Agha, Nadia Agha and Fadia Alhawach. Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak for the whole House in sharing our deepest condolences to Durell's family and friends. She was a bright light in so many lives, including my own. We will all miss her terribly.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to this debate all day, and I really have to be, I guess, angered by the amount of misstatement of fact here and about this House being so negative about this country and about our President. You can't get away with criticizing Presidents or leaders of other countries being negative about us when you are standing around being negative about our own country and our own President. This agreement is about trust, and it isn't about trust with Iran. It is about trust with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nobody has spoken about what that Agency does, other than the chairman, about how important it is. It has been around since 1957. We helped create it. It has 2,400 employees. We probably trained most of them. They know about inspections. They are an international organization. They don't belong to anybody. No country owns them. You can't go and trash all day that they have a secret agreement with Iran when they have a secret agreement with the United States and with Russia and with China and with all the other signatories. That is their business. They go in and verify. We don't allow them to go into our top classified areas without some agreement of how you are going to handle that classified information. They are not going to release that information to other countries. They wouldn't have any credibility. When you are asking that the President release that information, he doesn't have it. He doesn't own it. It is the IAEA and Iran. What if Iran was saying, We don't want to enter into this agreement because we don't know what the IAEA has entered into with the United States? Stop trashing the process. Trust this organization. We have been proud of it for 58 years. It is the top cop on nuclear inspections, all the 1,100 facilities around the world, nuclear power plants, military bases with nuclear equipment, weapons. They are the inspectors. They are the ones that trust and verify. Give them a chance. Everybody in the world thinks this is the toughest agreement ever negotiated. Why would we not be celebrating it? This is diplomatic history. We have done great things here, and you want to trash it, and you want to trash the administration. That is not America. Give peace a chance. Vote ``no'' on this awful bill.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and career of Tom Greer, an outstanding public servant on the occasion of his retirement as general manager of the Monterey Regional Airport. His exceptional career has spanned nearly five decades and included both military and civil service. After graduating from Auburn University in Alabama in 1965 with a degree in aviation management, Tom joined the Marines and was sent to Officers Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia. Upon receipt of his wings as a Naval Flight Officer in March 1967, he was assigned to various Fighter/Attack squadrons flying F-4B Phantom in over 320 combat missions in Vietnam. Following his release from active duty in March 1970, Tom was selected as Airport Director for Golden Triangle Regional Airport near Columbus, Missouri. Under his exceptional leadership, this new airport was constructed from the ground up, opening successfully in the fall of 1972. Tom then took his aviation management skills to Salt Lake City, where he served as Director of Operations for the Salt Lake City Airport Authority. His guidance allowed the airport to remain operational while undergoing major expansion programs to accommodate a new hub for Western Airlines, now Delta. He then served in various capacities for Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport authority from 1984 until 1999. During his tenure, passenger traffic increased from two million to over five million, and a new terminal building was constructed for the 70 year old facility. We have been blessed to have Tom serving as General Manager for the Monterey Peninsula Airport District since December of 2003. Some of his numerous accomplishments include the Terminal re-model, the TSA screening moved to a central location, a contract for Fire Services with the City of Monterey, and, currently, the Runway Safety Area Project and Airport Master Plan Project. Throughout his extraordinary career, Tom has received numerous awards for his contributions to the profession. He was the recipient of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) Leadership Award in 2000, served as AAAE chairman in 2003, received the Distinguished Service Award in 2005, and the Chair's Award for 2008. He was named Airport Manager of the Year in 1988 and received the Chapter's Award of Distinction in 2003. Mr. Speaker, the Central Coast is exceptionally grateful to Tom for his service to the community, the aviation industry, and the country. I wish nothing but the best for Tom in his retirement, and I know he looks forward to spending more time with his wonderful family, including his five children and thirteen grandchildren.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my opposition to HR 3009. First and foremost, my heartfelt sympathies go out to the Steinle family for the loss of their daughter, Kate. There is no question that her death is tragic and unjust. However, this bill neither avenges her death nor effectively prevents similar tragedies from happening in the future. Absent comprehensive immigration reform, we are forcing local police to act as federal immigration officials. That is wrong, wrong, wrong. I represent one of the largest agriculture districts in CA that is dependent on migrant workers who toil the fields to feed our nation. We also have a significant gang violence problem in ``the Salad Bowl of the World'', yet, I am not aware that any of our local law enforcement officials think this bill is a good idea. In some of the harshest neighborhoods, our local law enforcement officials have established satellite facilities and programs for the kids in the neighborhood that provide alternatives to joining gangs. This type of 21st Century Policing encourages community partnerships, problem-solving and organizational transformation. Mr. Speaker, we have already seen the willingness of the Republicans to shut down the government over immigration issues by failing to fund the Department of Homeland Security for 4 months. While compromising the safety of our communities and the effectiveness of our local police might be good for Donald Trump, it is bad for America. I urge a no vote.

Mr. FARR. The problem is that this community policing, the problem is this bill just busts all that, all the trust that has been built. As Congresswoman Lofgren said, the San Francisco deal was a big screwup between law enforcement. But don't penalize all these other cities that are doing a lot of wonderful things to do community policing and lead to confidence in law enforcement, not disconfidence. You are going to create more problems than you ever imagined, like people not wanting to report crimes, not wanting to talk to cops, and you are just using the heavy hand of government to bust good community relations. I just think this is the wrong way to do it. Let's let this thing air out and address the problems that Congresswoman Lofgren talked about and not adopt this bill.

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I represent many small communities in California that have a lot of gang violence. It is mostly Hispanic young men against Hispanic young men. They are not undocumented. They are actually second-generation gangs, a lot of killings. In fact, it is labeled the murder capital of the world, or in the United States. What the community has been trying to do is work out what we call community policing, where you really trust the cops. What happens is they asked them to be a sanctuary city, because what the local cops didn't like about the INS and la migra coming in is that they would just come in and do raids and they would round up innocent people, and there was just lots of confusion. Our office would get involved trying to trace people down, where are they, and all these things. What the sanctuary city says is, look, let's not just turn over the name to everybody we stop on an infraction to the Federal cop. Let them come down and do what they call jail checks. Well, they don't want to do jail checks. That is not fun and fancy.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this amendment. The author is an organic grower. She knows how people care about what is in their food. I represent one of the most successful agricultural counties in the United States--Monterey County. I challenge anybody to find a county in this country that makes $4.5 billion a year by growing over 100 different crops in one county. Food is just like politics--it is all local. What the underlying bill does is strike local control--local control where people care about the methodology of growing. My area is the area that blossomed into creating the California Organic Standards Act, which I authored in the California State Legislature, which became the model for the Federal Organic Standards Act. This preempts some of the regulations in there. That is not a good thing to do. Although the Federal Government may have the authority on interstate commerce, I don't think that people want the Federal Government to preempt the ability for them to know their farmers, to know their food, and to have it be labeled as they so choose in a local area. Labeling is really important, but what you do is change the definition of labels here to one size fits all. That is not the way this country works. That is not the way farming works. And it is certainly not the way that consumers want it to be. It is too early for the Federal Government, for Congress, to jump in and try to mix up this field. Allow local politics to exist. Allow people to choose to know what is in their food by allowing it to be labeled locally. Let's support American agriculture so that we can sell it abroad. This bill does everything but gain confidence. The amendment is to be supported.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of William Lawson Little III, an important community leader whose integrity, compassion, and business acumen enriched the lives of his family, friends and the entire Monterey Peninsula. Lawson passed away on June 29, 2015. As his family and friends gather to honor and remember his wonderful life, I ask all my colleagues to join me in saluting one of the Monterey Peninsula's most well-respected figures. Lawson was born in 1957 to William Lawson Little Jr. and Dorothy Hurd. He grew up along the golf links of Pebble Beach, and followed in the footsteps of his father, a Hall of Fame Golfer, as a true lover of the game of golf. He attended Carmel High School, Monterey Peninsula College, and San Jose State University. After college he played in professional golf tournaments around the world and spent a time as a tennis pro in Palm Desert. In 2009, Lawson was inducted into the California Golf Writers Hall of Fame and in 2010 he was inducted into the Monterey Peninsula College Hall of Fame. In 1974, Lawson left professional sports and began a remarkable career at Quail Lodge Golf and Country Club, where he made a lasting mark beyond the golf course and in our community. He was a key leader in the development of Quail Meadows and would rise to become Vice President and President of Quail Lodge. While at Quail Lodge, Lawson brought a number of notable events to the Monterey Peninsula, including The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, The Quail Rally, and the Eagle Cup. All of these events brought joy to thousands of people and raised much needed funding for a variety of local charities. Mindful of the importance of serving one's community, Lawson made time to serve a number of local civic organizations, including the Jim Tunney Youth Foundation Board, G16 Coalition, Coalition for Monterey Peninsula Business, Monterey County Sheriffs Advisory Board, Carmel River Watershed Conservancy, Monterey County Emergency Assistance Team, as well as many others. In 1977, Lawson married the love of his life, Rose and they would raise their two children, Chris and Sarah Rose in Carmel Valley. Despite his professional success and civic engagement, more than anything, Lawson will be remembered for being a role model, mentor, friend, and family man. He was a man who always put others above himself. He offered countless people counsel in their time of need and steady guidance to those that needed it. He was a man of undeniable strength and quiet wisdom. He was incredibly fun, lived in the moment, and loved playing games. He cherished classic cars, the San Francisco Giants, and making lasting memories with his family. Put simply, Lawson improved the lives of all of those around him. Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for the whole House in honoring Lawson's lifetime of achievement and in extending our heartfelt condolences to his friends, and family members, including his wife Rose, son Chris, daughter Sarah Rose and sisters Linda, Sandy, and Sonya. I ask all my colleagues to pause and join me in paying respect to an extraordinary man, William Lawson Little III.