Sam Graves

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 75, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 7) relating to a national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost).

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. Boebert).

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, in closing, last year President Biden acknowledged that the pandemic is over, as has been pointed out. There is no compelling need for the President to continue exercising the extraordinary authorities under the NEA. The Senate, on a bipartisan basis, agreed in November, and here in the people's House I think it is time that we do the same. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this joint resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie).

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.J. Res. 7.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in support of H.J. Res. 7, which terminates the March 13, 2020, national emergency declared for COVID-19 under the National Emergencies Act, or the NEA. The time has come to move past the COVID-19 pandemic. It is no longer a global emergency as it was nearly 3 years ago. It is that simple. President Biden said, in his own words, ``The pandemic is over.'' He said that last September, and our Senate colleagues, with a bipartisan vote, agreed by passing a resolution last Congress, on November 15, 2022. The NEA was intended to provide emergency authorities to the President to respond to extraordinary situations in which the President must act quickly. We are no longer in that spot. The national emergency was declared by President Trump at the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 3 years ago, in March 2020. At that time, it was a new virus. The American public and the world at large had little information, and we had to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19. Today, we are in a vastly different spot. We have treatments. We have better methods to track COVID. We have a better understanding of the virus itself, and the Federal Government has spent trillions combating the virus and protecting the economy from the fallout of the global shutdown. At this point, there is no longer a need for the declaration to utilize the extraordinary authorities provided under the NEA. It seems that the White House agrees with this, too, but just thinks we need to wait until May 11. That logic and math just doesn't seem right to me. Consider this: The declaration is scheduled to end on March 1 of this year, so the President is suggesting he does intend to, once again, extend the emergency. That is why Congress needs to act on this resolution. It is simple. Absent the President ceding these emergency powers, it is incumbent on Congress to rein in the executive branch to ensure these powers are not abused and that these authorities do not continue in perpetuity. America should be fully open. Our kids should be back in the classroom. Our families should be back at work. Here in the House, we are starting by removing this emergency declaration. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Crawford), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 259) to provide for an online repository for certain reporting requirements for recipients of Federal disaster assistance, and for other purposes.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 259.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 259, the Post-Disaster Assistance Online Accountability Act, introduced by our Republican colleague from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon), will increase transparency for post- disaster Federal assistance. H.R. 259 requires agencies that provide Federal disaster assistance to update a central website quarterly with information on their disaster assistance programs. This increased transparency is going to allow the American taxpayers to see where their hard-earned dollars are going and which areas are receiving the most Federal assistance for post-disaster recovery. The Post-Disaster Assistance Online Accountability Act passed the House last Congress overwhelmingly by a vote of 412 yeas to 2 nays. I hope we can repeat this very strong showing this Congress. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business, Washington, DC, January 19, 2023. Hon. Sam Graves, Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Graves: I write concerning H.R. 259, the Post Disaster-Assistance Online Accountability Act. The bill was referred primarily to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, with additional referrals to the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Small Business. Specifically, provisions of H.R. 259 fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on Small Business. I recognize and appreciate your desire to bring this legislation before the House of Representatives in an expeditious manner, and accordingly, the Committee on Small Business will forgo action on the bill. However, this is conditional on our mutual understanding that doing so will not prejudice the Committee on Small Business with respect to the appointment of conferees or to any future jurisdictional claim over the subject matter contained in the bill or similar legislation that falls within the Committee on Small Business's Rule X jurisdiction. Further, should a conference on the bill be necessary, I appreciate your agreement to support my request to have the Committee represented on the conference committee. Finally, I would ask that a copy of this letter and your response acknowledging our jurisdictional interest in the bill be included in the Congressional Record during consideration of H.R. 259 on the House floor. Sincerely, Roger Williams, Chairman, House Committee on Small Business.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez- Colon) for her leadership on this bill. H.R. 255 is commonsense legislation to establish a process that is going to identify ways to streamline and consolidate the collection of certain disaster information. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is the lead Federal agency on disasters, there are often many Federal agencies involved in the disaster response and recovery process. It is critically important that these agencies are all working efficiently to minimize overlaps in their assessments and utilize new technologies to streamline processes. Specifically, the legislation is going to establish a Federal working group led by FEMA to coordinate with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to identify ways to reduce duplication and streamline the Federal damage assessment process. This is just a good government bill that will help improve disaster recovery efforts which were previously passed by the House in the 116th and 117th Congresses. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 255) to amend the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 to develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information collection and preliminary damage assessments, and for other purposes.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon).

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 346, as amended, takes a very important step in ensuring that America's National Airspace System is going to remain intact, remain operational, and remain safe for the American people. Again, I thank Mr. Stauber and Mr. DeSaulnier for their work on this legislation. It is a good bill, and I urge all Members to support it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 346, as amended, the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023. Just 2 weeks ago, Americans woke to the largest ground stop of aircraft since 9/11 due to the outage of the Federal Aviation Administration's, FAA's, notice to air mission, more commonly called the NOTAM system. As a professional pilot, I use the NOTAM system on a regular basis and know firsthand just how important it is to ensure that it is reliable and functional. This incident highlights a huge vulnerability in our transportation system. As much as I wish we could say that this incident surprised us, this kind of issue was inevitable. Committee leaders have repeatedly raised the alarm about our woefully out-of-date NOTAM system. This same bill has been introduced and passed two Congresses in a row, and multiple laws coming out of the Transportation Committee have demanded that the Department of Transportation and the FAA step up and address the well-known issues with the NOTAM system. What occurred nearly 2 weeks ago is unacceptable, and the American people deserve much better. Hopefully, this incident was the wake-up call that the DOT and the FAA needed to shake off their ongoing failure to properly maintain our Nation's air traffic control system. H.R. 346, as amended, is going to help address this failure by identifying issues with the NOTAM system and proposing solutions to prevent an incident of this magnitude from ever occurring in the future. This bill creates a special task force to improve the utility, stability, resiliency, and cybersecurity of the FAA's NOTAM system. Composed of representatives from airlines, aviation safety experts, and other important aviation stakeholders, the task force is going to review existing NOTAM policies, regulations, and the system's overall integrity to determine best practices to increase the system's efficiency and decrease its susceptibility to outages, which cause other disruptions. Originally, this bill was focused on improving the NOTAM presentation so that pilots and dispatchers could focus on critical information that matters. In 2017, an Air Canada flight nearly landed on a crowded taxiway in San Francisco because the NOTAM informing them of a runway closure was buried on page 8 of 27. Mr. Speaker, we urgently need a better system and a more stable system. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber) and the gentleman from California (Mr. DeSaulnier) for their leadership and foresight on this particular piece of legislation. H.R. 346 is a good, bipartisan, and timely aviation safety bill. It shows that the people's House can rise to the urgent issues of the day. Mr. Speaker, I support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber), the sponsor of the bill.