Jimmy Gomez

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Gregory Rich, who after a 40-year career is retiring from the global healthcare company, Grifols. As a longstanding company executive, Greg has dedicated his professional life to serving patients through an unwavering commitment to excellence, integrity, and innovation. My congressional district in Los Angeles is home to one of Grifols' three plasma-therapeutics manufacturing facilities and U.S. corporate offices. This is where Greg has spent the majority of his career. Greg's tenure in Los Angeles was marked by major investments in Grifols' facilities, the local community and most importantly, the people of El Sereno and surrounding neighborhoods. A native of southern California, Greg graduated from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and data processing. Greg began his career as an auditor with Touche, Ross & Company, and later joined Alpha Therapeutic Corporation as director of corporate planning. Greg then relocated to Barcelona, Spain, to facilitate the company's joint venture with Laboratory Grifols, serving as the assistant director of finance. Greg was promoted to the position of Co-President of Laboratory Grifols, and remained in this position until returning to Alpha Therapeutic Corporation as vice president and general manager of international operations. He later became senior vice president and general manager for the parent company of Alpha Therapeutic Corporation. In 2001, Greg became president and chief executive officer of Grifols USA, and currently serves as President and CEO of Grifols Shared Services North America, Inc. Throughout his tenure with Grifols and its predecessor companies, Greg has exemplified a culture of service to his colleagues in the U.S, Spain, and around the world. His collegiality and dedication to the values and mission of the company will be missed. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Greg and his wife Deborah on a remarkable career. We wish them every success in the future.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Mr. Speaker, on December 11, 2019, I am not recorded on rollcall vote No. 671. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' Stated against:

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman from Michigan for having this Special Order on such an important issue. When you look at inequality in America, you have to start with housing, because inequality often is started by how much a person pays to house their family, to house their kids, to house their family members. In order to solve for inequality, we have to solve the housing crisis. And in order to solve the housing crisis, we have to acknowledge and rectify America's shameful history of discriminatory housing practices. Policies and practices like redlining, segregation, blockbusting, and steering that denied low-income people and communities of color access to homeownership and created the housing disparities that are still prevalent today. In America, homeownership is how we build wealth, and it determines your family's likelihood of success. In America, whether you rent or you own, where you live determines where your kids go to school. In America, it often determines how far you commute to work. In America, it often determines how far you are from a grocery store and healthy options for food for your family. It also determines what public services are available to you. But, unfortunately, many low-income individuals and people of color have been denied this opportunity. We still have an opportunity to make amends and rectify the inequalities that have persisted in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. The Tax Code is one of the most powerful tools we have. That is why I reintroduced the Rent Relief Act. This bill aims to reduce the rent burden by creating a new refundable tax credit for families that are paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent and utilities because no family should be forced to choose between paying rent and meeting their basic needs. This would put more money in the pockets of families at a time when wages have remained stagnant and housing costs have increased. This bill has the potential to transform lives, provide millions of the lowest income people with a breadth of opportunities, and provide opportunities to climb the economic ladder by redistributing the benefits of homeownership to the lowest income earners. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this important piece of legislation.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Mr. Speaker, we are just days away from another funding cliff for our community health centers. This is unacceptable. Our Nation's community health centers need stable, long-term funding to serve the most vulnerable patients in our communities effectively. Community health centers are a bright spot in our Nation's healthcare system. Last year, they served 29 million patients across the country, including 693,000 who visited 74 different sites in my district alone. Community health centers like Clinica Romero in Boyle Heights provide care to immigrants, low-income individuals, communities of color, and the homeless. For many Americans, community health centers are the first and only place they turn when they need to see a medical professional. Making sure that these Americans receive the care they need is good for our healthcare system, for our economy, and for working families in all of our communities. We have long had bipartisan support on community health centers, but our failure to provide long-term funding hurts their ability to budget and plan. It creates uncertainty and has an impact on the patients they serve, including hundreds of thousands of my constituents. With them in mind, I urge my colleagues to join me to support stable, long-term funding for our Nation's community health centers.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Mr. Chair, I inadvertently missed one vote today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 565. Amendment No. 2 Offered by Mr. Hill of Arkansas

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Officer Juan Jose Diaz, a valuable member of the East Los Angeles community and a lifelong resident of California's 34th Congressional District. He was taken from us far too early this July at the age of 24. He was full of potential and an inspiration to the people around him. His sense of duty extended beyond his uniform, being deeply engrained in him from a young age. Growing up in Cypress Park, he had a profound understanding of his community and the problems they faced. He wanted to be a police officer since he was in preschool, the kind that young men of color, like himself, could reach out to for help, someone they could trust. Officer Diaz put his life on the line to better his community and protect those who call it home. One night, as he was at a taco stand in Lincoln Heights with his girlfriend and her brothers, he saw a man tagging gang graffiti on a wall nearby. Officer Diaz took his duty to serve and protect seriously, so even though he was not on the clock at that particular moment, he confronted the man and told him to stop. Ultimately, this man who was doing the tagging left and returned and shot at Officer Diaz and his friends. Even in his last moments, this young hero, this officer, looked out for the people around him, helping his friends and others escape the gunfire. But Officer Diaz was shot and killed. You don't see that kind of commitment and courage every single day. I mourn the passing of Officer Juan Jose Diaz with his family, his community, and his colleagues on the force. His legacy will live on with those who were lucky enough to have known him and with all the people who he inspired by his bravery and dedication to the people of East Los Angeles.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the El Salvador Community Corridor (Corridor), the first designated Salvadoran community in the City of Los Angeles. This vibrant Corridor, located in the Pico Union area in the southern region of downtown Los Angeles, honors the rich history, heritage and contributions of the Salvadoran American community. Murals throughout the Corridor depict the cultural pride, struggles and dreams of Salvadoran Americans. Forty years of internal political turmoil forced individuals from the Republic of El Salvador to flee the country and seek peace and security in the United States. Today, it is estimated that nearly one million Salvadorans reside in Los Angeles, making Los Angeles home to the largest population of Salvadorans outside of El Salvador. You cannot tell the story of Los Angeles without telling the stories of the Salvadoran American community--and of the community leaders, public servants, artists, teachers, neighbors, family members and friends who enrich Los Angeles in countless ways. In 2012, the City of Los Angeles declared a section of Vermont Avenue as the El Salvador Community Corridor, a long over due recognition of the economic and cultural contributions of Salvadoran American individuals, families, and organizations. This designation--an important step for the community--created a special place for residents to celebrate their culture through businesses, retail, colorful art, food, clothing, and traditions. This year, we celebrate the naming of the Vermont Avenue exit on State Highway 10 in honor of the Corridor. Another important step in honoring the integral role of the Salvadoran American community in the economy, culture and identity of Los Angeles. I ask all Members to join me in commending the countless contributions of the Salvadoran American community to Los Angeles and recognizing integral economic and cultural role of the El Salvador Community Corridor.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, on July 19, surrounded by loved ones, the city of Los Angeles lost a giant. His name was Henry Lozano. Madam Speaker, I simply don't have enough time to recount all of Henry's achievements or the profound impact he had on our district and on the Golden State. His list of accomplishments is pretty impressive. He was a Korean war veteran, serving as a Marine corporal in the 1950s; a fierce workers' advocate as a labor leader for UAW Local 509; chief of staff to Congressman Ed Roybal; an adviser to Xavier Becerra, the current attorney general of California and the former Congressman for the district I now represent. Congressman Ed Roybal was the first Latino elected to Congress from California since the 1800s, a founder of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Oftentimes, I say I stand on the shoulders of giants, and people think I am referring just to the elected officials who came before me; but, more often than not, it is the people who surround those elected leaders, like Henry Lozano, the ones who are their advisers, their confidantes, the people who try to keep them true to their word and to their core and to their principles. Henry was that type of individual. He cared deeply about the Latino community and empowering them in a time where we oftentimes felt marginalized. He came up during the seventies and the eighties and the nineties. I did not work with Henry directly, but I got to know him. Back in 2004, at the Democratic National Convention, I was introduced to Henry by a mutual friend, and he said that Henry was a legend within the Latino community on the east side of Los Angeles. He said he was the one who helped, really, mentor countless elected officials and wannabe elected officials like myself. I befriended Henry, and Henry gave me quite a bit of advice. Most importantly, he wanted to make sure that I would remain truthful and remain committed to the community that I would one day represent. I got to visit him just before he passed in the hospital. He looked pretty good to me. We talked, and the first thing he asked me about is what did I think. I thought he was referring to the Presidential election, but, in the end, it was really about a local city council race. He said that politics is always local, and you should always think about the people first. Henry will be missed. He had a profound impact on a lot of folks, and I am one of them. So I hope that we will keep his memory alive. Honoring Barbara Torres

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I have sad news to report regarding someone else we lost on the east side of Los Angeles. She was a labor union leader, an activist, and a daughter of East Los Angeles. Her name was Barbara Torres. Barbara passed away at the young age of 39, but she left a life of meaning. She was always around, even though she didn't have a car. She gave so much to people who had so little, even though she didn't have much herself. She fought against the biggest opponents, even though she was small in stature. She would often be the first one into a fight because she always had one saying: ``If we fight, we win.'' That really sums up Barbara Torres. She was the champion of the little guy and the underdog, because she was the little guy and the underdog. She understood that the system can sometimes be against the people who need the most help, but she was always there and never gave up faith. She valued her community, but we also valued her in return. Yesterday, we put Barbara Torres to rest. At her funeral service was the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, myself, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson, State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, as well as Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer and the head of the California Democratic Party, Rusty Hicks. For somebody who did not have a title in the end, who was not of wealth or means but was just somebody who showed up every single day for every fight, she left an impact. She will definitely be missed because we know that she made California, Los Angeles, and this country a better place to live.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, the Census can be used to either marginalize or to empower communities. This President decided on the path of marginalization. They did that by coming up with an idea to silence the voices of immigrant communities throughout the country by adding a citizenship question that they deemed necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act. For 53 years, no Department of Justice had a problem enforcing the Voting Rights Act without Census block data on citizenship. All of a sudden, 2017 comes around, and you know what? We have a problem. This is the excuse that they had. This is the reason they had to add this question to the Census. It is just completely false, even to the extent that we saw that they said that the Department of Justice was the one that asked for it. Then, we find out later that they had to shop around to the Department of Homeland Security and other Departments in order to get somebody to try to ask the Census Bureau to add the question. Then, they went back to Jeff Sessions, who carried out their request. We are investigating because everything that they have said, the Department of Commerce and Wilbur Ross, has been a complete lie. If you don't believe me, the recent Supreme Court decision said, ``Unlike a typical case in which an agency may have both stated and unstated reasons for a decision . . . the sole stated reason seems to have been contrived.'' What does ``contrived'' mean? It means forced, artificial, manufactured, false. False, that is what it is. It is a contrived reason. The American people have a right to know the real reasons, not the contrived reasons, not the ones that were manufactured, not the ones that were made up. That is why we are asking for these documents. That is why, when Congress cannot perform its obligations for oversight and as a check on the executive branch, then we must hold these individuals in contempt. I ask my colleagues to do the same thing. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for inviting me to participate today. I actually serve on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and today we had a hearing about the conditions of the camps at the border, the conditions that the children are kept in. We have lost six kids at the border, and I want to just highlight their names, because we need to recognize that there is a human face to the tragedy that we see; it is not just numbers. We have Carlos Hernandez Vasquez; he was age 16. Wilmer Josue Ramirez Vasquez, age 2; Juan de Leon Gutierrez, age 16; Felipe Gomez Alonzo, age 8; and Jakelin Caal Maquin, age 7, and Mariee Juarez, age 1. Mariee's mother actually testified in front of the committee to tell her story of what she was trying to accomplish by coming to this country and about the fear that she had as she crossed and as she was detained. I want to remind people; a lot of people think that it is a crisis that is being created on its own. It is not. It is something that is a result of this administration's zero tolerance policy. I want to remind people that the zero tolerance policy started because this President, as he was running for office, said that he was going to be tough on this issue, and that he would be the only one that could solve it. So what we ended up seeing is that we saw the zero tolerance policy. And what is it? The zero tolerance policy states that anybody that crosses in between ports of entry will no longer be held civilly and administratively responsible; that they will be convicted criminally. Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General when this policy was started to be implemented said: Zero tolerance policy shall supersede any existing policies. And what this did is it caused people, when they are criminally convicted or being held for breach of criminal law, the parents are being separated from the kids.

Mr. GOMEZ. Correct. And that is where we want to make sure people understand that this crisis, the separating of the children, was a direct result of this policy. It doesn't say, yeah, they will be separated. But it is that they would be--zero tolerance led to the separation. One triggered the other. People then also try to make the argument that this happened under the Obama administration, but the Obama administration didn't do that. They were dealing with unaccompanied minors that were flowing into the country, and they had to deal with that humanitarian crisis at that moment. So this administration has really taken a zero tolerance policy, which has had a ripple effect on capacity to handle influx, the metering issue, the Remain in Mexico issue, the separating of the kids and not keeping appropriate track of those children to make sure that they are actually returned to their parents. And this administration, time and time again, now says that they never had a child separation policy.

Mr. GOMEZ. And it wasn't only Secretary Nielsen. It was Kelly Anne Conway. It is a fabrication and a lie that has been repeated by the administration; and that is something that we want to call out, to make sure people understand that what is going on now is a direct result of the zero tolerance policy. Additionally, we want to make sure that people understand that a lot of the decisions were made based on, I believe, on politics. My own personal belief was this, they wanted to seem tough, so they implemented policies without really understanding how they implement it on the ground. I have taken tours not only of Otay Mesa, Adelanto, I went out to Victorville; I went to Tornillo, Texas, so I have been to the border quite a bit of times, a number of times. And when you start talking to the people who are responsible for implementing these policies, the men and women who are in Customs and Border Protection, some of them are trying to do a good job. They are saying that they are being put in an impossible situation by this administration by often determining policy at a whim. And the problem is, when you are making policy not on rational decisions but on politics, then you end up with this situation, which is a big mess on the border. I actually spent a night at the border with one of my colleagues.

Mr. GOMEZ. Yes, at Otay Mesa. We spent the night at the Mexican side of the border, literally on the line, and we were there just to observe migrants to present themselves for asylum. They were on U.S. soil. They presented themselves. They were told that it was full. Congresswoman Barragan and I asked to see the facility. They refused to show us.

Mr. GOMEZ. Yes, correct. Customs and Border Protection refused to let us in to see it. So the migrants sat down. We sat down with them. We got there around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and we didn't leave until the next day, around 7 a.m. So we spent the night. It was cold. We slept on the ground. The migrants couldn't leave the U.S. soil or the Mexican authorities would have grabbed them. So we actually got corralled, using bike racks, into kind of a cage to keep us in a certain area. Every so often, Customs and Border Patrol would wake us up to ask us who is here, how many kids, how old, but these were questions that we answered three or four times.

Mr. GOMEZ. Correct. And what we were trying to remind them is that, by international law, by U.S. law, these migrants had a right to present themselves for asylum and then ask so that they can be processed. They ended up getting in. It was the woman who was tear- gassed at the border in that famous----

Mr. GOMEZ. With her kids. She was one of the folks, and she asked for a credible fear asylum hearing, and she went through the process. That is why we have this process, so that we don't end up with just a backlog at the border that is more dangerous for the kids and the migrants, and it is unnecessary under what we believe under our rule of law.

Mr. GOMEZ. And if I can interject.

Mr. GOMEZ. I mentioned this article in the Oversight hearing. It is actually a ProPublica article, entitled: ``Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke about Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes.''

Mr. GOMEZ. I think you make some excellent points. One point I want to kind of talk about, this culture that is permeating Customs and Border Protection, I think that it is also based because of the leadership of this administration. The attitude of zero tolerance, as in, like: Nope, it doesn't matter what conditions you are leaving, it doesn't matter if you are fleeing violence, it doesn't matter if you are a victim of domestic abuse, you can no longer use that as a rationale for seeking asylum. That zero tolerance mentality is what is also helping drive this rotting of the culture within Customs and Border Protection. Changing the leadership makes a difference, but as long as there is a change in the civilian leadership. Oversight is crucial. A lot of people ask: What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans? What is the difference between you guys being in charge versus Republicans being in charge? One of the things that I noticed when I was on Oversight in the minority from my first year, year and a half in Congress is that we couldn't call in Customs and Border Protection and ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to have a public hearing on these issues. The only hearing we had regarding the zero-tolerance policy was behind closed doors, no cameras present. I don't even believe staff was allowed in the room. So we had to sit there and ask, and we asked enough questions to get more information about how the zero-tolerance policy worked, how it was the nitty-gritty. But if people don't hear it, the public doesn't hear their testimony, then it lacks the credibility because some people think we are making it up. So we need not only the right kind of leadership to reform the culture, we also need to make sure that there is direct oversight by Congress, and that is our job. I voted against the emergency supplemental because I didn't feel that there were enough constraints on the money that was going to be sent to the agencies, that they were going to actually use it to improve the humanitarian crisis that was going on on the ground at the border region. So we need to continue pushing that oversight, and that is what I plan on doing. I know that, under your leadership, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is doing so. At the same time, I want to highlight another issue. People act like ICE has been around forever. We have to remind people that our system was restructured after 9/11 to make sure that we do have appropriate security at the border, at the ports of entry, through the airports, right, that we had major flaws. So reorganizing and changing and holding a bureaucracy accountable, that is the job of Congress. That is the job of everybody who gets elected. So the idea of what should be done, I think that first we need to make sure that we are more specific on our money, make sure there is better leadership and, at the same time, never run away from our values that this country is based on immigrants and built by immigrants.

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, Mr. Castro makes a good point regarding the guardrails, the funding. One of the things that I would like to point out is if this administration, this President, as he claimed, was the only one who could solve this problem, then why hasn't it been solved? It is a bigger mess and a bigger disaster than we have ever seen, and that is resulting in these conditions on the border where people are mistreated. This culture that is becoming rotten to the core is starting to just fester. We have seen an uncounted number of children who have died. According to Newsweek, there were no migrant children who died while in CBP custody during the final 6 years of the Obama administration. Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen previously admitted that it had been more than a decade since a child had died in CBP detention until December of last year when the 8-year-old Guatemalan national passed away on Christmas Eve. Since then, at least four other children have died while detained. We are seeing this crisis get worse and worse, and my fear is that we haven't hit the bottom yet. Until Congress steps in and puts those guardrails in place, until we flex our constitutional muscle, we are going to see things deteriorating further.

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I want to stress a few points. Mr. Castro mentioned that this administration hasn't invested in aid to the Northern Triangle countries. One of the things that we need to recognize is that the zero-tolerance policy isn't working. It might feel good for hardliners to say: ``It is zero tolerance. We are not going to take it anymore. We are going to push back,'' but it is not solving the problem. For example, the statistics show that net migration from Mexico to the United States is zero. In some instances, it has declined, where more Mexican nationals are returning to Mexico than ever before. Why is that? Mexico still has issues regarding security, but its economy has built up more and more. I have family members who are in Mexico, and they have no desire to move to the United States because they believe that their opportunity there is just as good as it is here. So imagine if we want to be serious about tackling the issue of undocumented immigration to the United States, especially from Latin American countries. The way you do it is first by, of course, creating a comprehensive immigration reform here in this country but, at the same time, investing the resources and the policies that build up the economies of Latin America, thereby creating a situation where people feel that, instead of risking their lives to get here, they would rather stay at home. That is one thing that this administration doesn't understand, but we also need to highlight for the American people. The zero-tolerance policy, the tough on undocumented immigration hasn't worked.

Mr. GOMEZ. And they know about the conditions on the border, they know about the risk that they are taking, but they are leaving some desperate situations. So the way you make it so that they don't want to leave is that you make things better for them at home. Some folks will say, well, that is not our responsibility; that is the responsibility of their home countries. But if you want to be a political realist about how we solve it, you have to have international aid, almost a Marshall Plan, for Latin America in order to build up their countries, their economies, their infrastructure, their training, and then make sure that we have a system here that has enough legal immigration in order for people to not try to come into this country illegally.

Mr. GOMEZ. And we know, because of that, you have a situation where people are getting sick in these facilities, and then putting the kids and the people whose immune systems are compromised into more vulnerable positions. We definitely have a lot of work to do, but in order to do that, we need to make sure that the American people know what is going on, to tell the story and to not let people forget about the kids who have passed away: Wilmer, Carlos, Juan, Jakelin, Felipe, and Mariee. Because if we forget, we turn away, only more kids will perish and more people will die at the border It is our moral obligation. It doesn't matter if they are not U.S. citizens. It is our moral obligation to ensure that doesn't happen.

Mr. GOMEZ

Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, during Roll Call Vote number 355 on H.R. 2740, I mistakenly recorded my vote as No when I should have voted Aye.