Jared Huffman

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on Monday morning, the FBI's raid of Donald Trump's personal attorney triggered another Trump meltdown. He ranted that this move, approved by senior Justice Department officials and a Federal court, was an attack on our country and a witch hunt; and, once again, he mused publicly about firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Let's be clear. Firing the special counsel or any chain of firings to interfere with the special counsel's investigation would spark a constitutional crisis and unleash a public uproar like we have never seen. Senator Lindsey Graham summed it up by saying that it would be the beginning of the end of the Trump Presidency. The American people deserve answers. What are Trump and his Russia- connected cronies hiding? What are they so afraid of us finding out? The only way we are going to get these answers is by protecting Mueller's investigation and allowing him to do his job. Now, if President Trump crosses the red line and declares himself above the law, millions of Americans all over this country are ready to take to the streets to defend our democracy and the rule of law. So, Mr. Trump, whatever you are hiding, you won't get away with it, and we won't let you tear down American democracy in a desperate attempt to hide the truth.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of my friend, Herrmann Spetzler, who passed away on March 12, 2018, at the age of 70. As the longtime chief executive officer of the Open Door Community Health Centers in Northern California, Herrmann was a visionary leader in the field of rural primary health care who improved the lives of thousands of North Coast residents. Born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1948, Herrmann Spetzler immigrated to the United States in 1955. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Los Angeles in 1971, Herrmann entered the field of health care and worked to address mental health and alcoholism issues throughout California. He moved to Arcata in 1977 to become chief executive officer of the Humboldt Open Door Clinic, a single storefront clinic run by volunteers with a sense of optimism. Under Herrmann's leadership, that clinic grew into thirteen clinic locations in Humboldt and Del Norte counties and became the Open Door Community Health Centers (Open Door), the region's largest provider of primary medical, dental, and mental health care. Along with his wife, Cheyenne who serves as Open Door's chief of operations, Herrmann transformed Open Door into a Federally Qualified Health Center open to all who seek services, working to overcome financial, geographic and social barriers to care. His goal was for every Open Door clinic to provide a level of service and quality that would allow his grandmother to feel comfortable as a patient there. Through his decades of expanding access to care by building new clinics, incorporating existing practices in the community, recruiting providers, and fostering an efficient and comprehensive approach to care, Herrmann remained guided by his vision and mission to provide high quality health care to all. He was instrumental in starting a successful family nurse practitioner residency program and a new community physician residency program that will help train primary care doctors to work in rural settings. One of Herrmann's greatest strengths was his ability to understand the trends and impacts of health care policy on a national, state, and local level and translate that to others. Herrmann served as an advisor to me on policy issues as part of a health care advisory group, where he offered invaluable input. Herrmann surrounding himself with talented and capable people who he empowered to succeed and grow. As a result, Open Door will continue to fulfill its mission and his vision long into the future. Herrmann believed in social justice and treating all people fairly, including his staff, once taking out a second mortgage on his own home to make payroll during a particularly lean time. In addition to earning his Master of Arts degree in Administration in 1985 from Humboldt State University, Herrmann was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 2014. He was active in all things related to health care and served on numerous state-wide boards, including the California 1115 Medicaid Waiver Renewal Committee, Expanded Access to Primary Care Committee, and Statewide Primary Care Advisory Group, as well as regional boards such as the Clinic Network of Northern California, Humboldt County Community Breast Health Project, and Humboldt Child Care Council. He also cofounded the California Primary Care Association, North Coast Clinics Network, Clinic Mutual Insurance Company, Northern California Rural Round Table, and California State Rural Health Association, amongst others. Herrmann loved to travel with his wife and family, hike and backpack, watch his grandchildren play sports, and practice photography. He saw the beauty in everyday interactions and was often seen behind his camera photographing the people and places around him. He had a warmth and candor that imparted his authenticity and unique perspective on life. Herrmann is survived by his wife, Cheyenne; his children, Gary, Maria, and Gabe, and their families; including grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins. Herrmann and Cheyenne opened their hearts and home to so many, especially friends of their children and grandchildren, that their extended family was large, including many young children who loved their ``Opa'' and will miss him dearly. Herrmann Spetzler was a champion of health care whose decades of work resulted in improved access to primary care for thousands of residents of rural Northern California. Few leave a legacy as large as Herrmann's and are as beloved and widely respected. Mr. Speaker, it is fitting that we honor Herrmann today for his decades of commitment to the North Coast and express our deepest appreciation for his friendship and contributions. His presence will be sorely missed, and his legacy not soon forgotten.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, despite the Kremlin's lies, all facts lead to the conclusion that Vladimir Putin tried to murder Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, in broad daylight on British soil. Great Britain strongly condemned Russia, and because Britain is our closest ally, our Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, did what we would expect from him: he forcefully condemned the crime and vowed the U.S. would hold Russia accountable. But within hours, Tillerson was fired. Now, we know about the strains between President Trump and Tillerson: Trump has mocked him for favoring diplomacy with North Korea; they have disagreed over the Iran nuclear deal; and it didn't help when Tillerson reportedly called Trump a moron. But none of that cost Tillerson his job. It was only when he aggressively condemned Putin that he crossed the reddest of redlines for Donald Trump. Why is Trump so afraid of Putin that he would fire his own Secretary of State for talking tough on Russia? Why does he constantly fawn over Putin, even calling to congratulate him for winning a fake election this week? You would think the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence would be asking these questions, but, instead, they have shut down their Russia investigation. This stinks, Mr. Speaker. What are they trying to hide from the American people?

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Thomas (Tom) Peters, Ph.D., for his twenty years of stellar leadership and exemplary public service as President and CEO of the Marin Community Foundation. A native of San Francisco, Dr. Peters finished his undergraduate degree at San Francisco State University, before going to the University of Minnesota, where he completed a Doctorate in Psychology and Health Science. He began his public health career in 1974 at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and would go on to achieve repeated success and advancement over the course of 24 years, finishing that chapter of his professional life as the Director of Marin County's Department of Health and Human Services. In 1998, Dr. Peters became the President and CEO of the Marin Community Foundation (MCF). Combining his clinical and philanthropic careers to head one of the largest community foundations in the country, Dr. Peters has become a leading national voice for community philanthropy, advocating for and facilitating the dedication of private resources for the public good. MCF has distributed more than $1.3 billion in grants to nonprofits working in critical community issues, ranging from education, healthcare, and the environment, to economic opportunity and access to the arts. Under his leadership, Marin Community Foundation became the first community foundation to approve a non-discrimination policy for its donor advised funds. He set the example for others to say NO to organizations, projects, and programs that discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, disability, ancestry, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law. A respected community leader and champion for equity, he frequently offers the community a moral compass for taking action on important matters, like breaking down barriers to academic achievement and raising the bar for underserved communities, working to protect public lands and the environment, securing affordable housing where supply has been historically elusive, and fighting for comprehensive immigration reform. Mr. Speaker, Dr. Peters has been a champion of champions on a wide array of critical issues, and has led the Marin Community Foundation to take actions that have produced positive impacts throughout the region. Therefore, please join me in expressing my deep appreciation and praise for his indomitable leadership on the occasion of his 20th anniversary as President and CEO of the Marin Community Foundation.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Colorado because I have all of the same questions and all of the same concerns, and so it is very appropriate that we are coming together to ask what are they afraid of, what are they hiding, because there are a lot of red flags. Last night, Mr. Perlmutter, I was at the Washington Press Club event, which is a fun event to celebrate the free press. The best joke of the night--and there is a lot of humorous material. The best joke of the night was when someone said, for a guy that claims he doesn't drink, President Trump sure loves a lot of White Russians. That brought the house down. Unfortunately, though, it is not really funny because, when you have got a President who won't impose the sanctions that we authorize him to impose, who won't direct his State Department to spend the funds to protect our election system that we authorize and appropriate, when you have all of these other problems, it is not clear that he is able to do his job without fear or favor, and that is a big problem for our democracy and for the interests of our country. If Congress were doing its job right now, we would be asking the hard questions to bring forward the transparency that the people need, to give this country the assurance that their government officials, including their President, can perform their job without fear or favor. But, unfortunately, this body is not doing a very good job of asking those hard questions, so that is, in part, why we are here trying to raise some of these issues. One of the very important questions that I think we have to ask involves the ties between the NRA, yes, the National Rifle Association, and this Trump Russia scandal. Specifically, we need to know whether Russia worked through the NRA to illegally move funds in support of the Trump campaign. Here is what we do know. We know that McClatchy and others have reported that the FBI is actually investigating whether Aleksandr Torshin, deputy governor of Russia's central bank and NRA's main liaison in Russia, used the NRA to funnel millions of dollars to support Donald Trump's candidacy in 2016. We know that in 2016 Donald Trump, Jr., had dinner with Torshin, who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin--also someone accused of money laundering--and they had that dinner at the NRA convention. We know that the NRA spent tens of millions of dollars on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Donald Trump. That is three times what the NRA spent to support Mitt Romney when he was the Republican nominee just 4 years prior. So we need to think about and ask this question: Where did all that money come from? We have asked the NRA. The NRA won't tell us. Now, we know that in testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, there are indications that Russians made a very concerted effort to work through the NRA, and that is why Senator Ron Wyden has asked the Treasury Department--again, because the NRA won't answer these questions, but he has asked the Treasury Department for more information about suspicious Russian funding of the NRA. So just to recap a few of these things that we need to be asking about: We know how close President Trump is to the NRA. We know how close the Russian banker Alex Torshin is to the NRA. We know how close the NRA is becoming, closer and closer, to Russia. In fact, I have a piece here that explains how, in 2015, a series of top NRA officials--including one of their top donors, past presidents, a delegation that included Donald Trump's high-profile surrogate, Sheriff David Clarke--all went on a so-called fact-finding mission involving gun rights in Russia. Now, there aren't a lot of gun rights in Russia. Russia has very restrictive gun laws, and there is no serious effort in the country of Russia to change that. But, nevertheless, apparently this group felt they needed to go to Russia for this fact-finding trip to cozy up with some of these same folks that we are talking about. So that is one of the things we know and we need to ask questions about. We know that the NRA spent this huge cache of money on the 2016 campaign to support Donald Trump, and we know that we have more questions that need to be answered. So we need to follow this money, and we need to find out, again, as you have asked here on the floor: What are they hiding? What are they afraid of?

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, Congressman Perlmutter is asking all the right questions, and it seems to me, in the short time we have been on the floor here, in some ways, we are asking harder questions than what we are seeing from the committees that should be conducting oversight and investigations if Congress were functioning and taking this issue as seriously as it should. Those questions would include very disturbing reporting, just in the last few days in The New Yorker, that suggests that the Steele dossier may just be the tip of the iceberg; that, in fact, you have senior Russian officials who claim that they had something of a veto power over our choice for Secretary of State. We should be looking into that right now in a very intense way, and the American people should know that we take those matters very seriously. But so much of this simply flies by these days with the constantly moving media cycle, and I think more and more people are beginning to wonder if Congress is interested in even asking hard questions or if we just have to sit back and either wait for Special Counsel Mueller to catch these folks in crimes or wait for the media. Thank God for the free press, but the media is unearthing far more information than the oversight actions of this Congress, and that is disappointing.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of Richard Kunde, who passed away on February 15, 2018 at the age of 75, after a lifetime of public service to his community. Mr. Kunde was born on September 6, 1942 near his family's ranch in Glen Ellen, where they raised Hereford cattle and grew cabernet sauvignon grapes. Mr. Kunde attended the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) where he continued to study and work at improving grape vines by earning degrees in viticulture and horticulture. With enologists at UC Davis, Mr. Kunde worked on developing and cloning rootstock in order to produce superior grapes to be used throughout California and beyond. In 1982, Mr. Kunde purchased Sonoma Grapevines, where he continued to push Sonoma County to the top of the world in both vine growing and wine production. Always one to put the industry above his own personal gain, Mr. Kunde was one of the first nurserymen in his field to sell his cloned vines to other growers. Mr. Kunde's legacy extends from a personal mission to serve the industry and product that he loved so dearly. As leaders in the wine industry, he and his late wife, Saralee, were unparalleled supporters of Future Farmers of America, 4-H, the Sonoma County Fair, and the Harvest Fair. Whether it was placing the highest bid at an auction, against himself, or becoming the single largest donor to the education and events building at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Mr. Kunde's generosity was unmatched. He received many honors over his illustrious career, including induction into the Sonoma County Farm Bureau's Hall of Fame and the Award of Distinction from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis, both in 2008. Mr. Kunde is survived by his son, Matthew Kunde and his daughter Catherine ``Catie'' Kunde, his granddaughter, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. It is hard to speak about Mr. Kunde's personal or professional life without mentioning his constant companion in both, his late wife Saralee McClellend Kunde. Known as the shining star of their duo, Mrs. Kunde was intimately involved in all of Mr. Kunde's professional and philanthropic work. Mr. Speaker, the depth of Mr. Kunde's service to his community has left a positive legacy across Sonoma County and the entire grape growing industry, and he will be profoundly missed. It is therefore appropriate that we pay tribute to him today and honor his memory.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Madam Speaker, from the mighty redwoods to the headlands and beaches of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in my bay area, backyard to the ancient sequoias of Yosemite, to the scorching deserts of Death Valley, we know our national parks are worth protecting. Parks not only protect nature and wildlife but our history, too. And they are economic engines supporting thousands of jobs. But Donald Trump's dirty budget and infrastructure scam would bulldoze right through this American success story. Trump is proposing a 7 percent cut to the National Park Service, meaning even less maintenance and visitor services, and a 17 percent cut to the Department of the Interior overall, while giving Secretary Ryan Zinke free rein to continue his drilling spree on our public lands. These cuts, combined with Trump's ongoing effort to hike entry fees for working families, threaten access to these places that drive millions of visitors to our communities and small businesses each year, while generating hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity. Underfunding our national parks puts visitor access at risk. We should reject this budget and work together.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, outside this building, more and more Republicans bemoan the effect of Trumpism on their party. We should take a moment to define this new phenomenon. Trumpism is when the whims of our authoritarian President ``trump'' the values Republicans once stood for. It is when evangelicals say character doesn't matter. It is when ``rule of law'' constitutionalists shield Trump by attacking the institutions that guarantee the rule of law. It is when First Amendment champions join Trump in attacking our free press. It is when Russia hawks bow and scrape before a President who chooses to believe his pal Vladimir over our own intelligence agencies. Trumpism is when this House, which is supposed to conduct serious oversight, acts like Trump's lapdog, ignoring or abetting corruption and obstruction of justice. Because Trumpism threatens democracy, many Republicans are leaving their party or, like George Bush's speechwriter, Michael Gerson, are calling on voters to deliver a message this fall. Without that political jolt, Gerson writes, ``elected Republicans will just keep clinging to the USS Trump as it sinks further into the swamp.'' Now that we have defined Trumpism, let's work together to save this country from it.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Linda Ruffing, who is retiring from her position as the City Manager of Fort Bragg on February 14, 2018. Born in Pennsylvania, Linda Ruffing came to California to attend college at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received a Master's Degree from the University of California, Berkeley, before moving to Fort Bragg in 1992 to work for Mendocino County as a coastal planner. Linda began her career at the City of Fort Bragg in 1999 as the director of community development and became City Manager in 2006. In addition to her exceptional character, judgment, ethics and values, Linda has provided critical leadership on many initiatives for the city, including the acquisition of 95 acres of parkland and a site for the Noyo Science Center on the former mill site, which includes over 2 miles of coastal trail. Under her leadership, a ban was instituted on foam containers and plastic bags in the city. She also led Fort Bragg to become the first city to allow food waste in yard waste recycling, and in becoming the first Bee City in California. As the city manager, Linda has worked with 12 different councilmembers and three different mayors, and gracefully navigated a spectrum of politics, challenges, and crises. She has been responsible for implementing 78 ordinances and managing $33 million in capital improvement projects. Linda leaves the city with a stable and successful management team and a staff dedicated to improving the quality of life for the residents of Fort Bragg. In her spare time, Linda serves the public as a Rotarian, an active mentor for the Interact Afterschool Program, and she volunteers for many teen leadership events. She is also the mother of two children, Eli and Jasper Henderson. Linda Ruffing has been a dedicated and effective public servant for 26 years, and I hope you will join me in recognizing her many accomplishments and sending her best wishes on her retirement.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, President Trump's mantra is ``no collusion.'' He says this constantly because he wants people to think collusion--a hard thing to prove--is the only question in the Russia investigation. It is not. Even putting aside the mounting evidence that Trump did collude with Russia, there is an equally serious question about obstruction of justice, and, for that, the evidence is overwhelming. The greatest hits of Trump obstruction include: Requesting an improper loyalty pledge from FBI Director Comey; Telling Director Comey to drop the Flynn investigation; Asking the DNI and the CIA Directors to lean on Comey to drop the Flynn investigation; Firing Comey when he continued the investigation; Admitting on national TV that the firing was because of the Russia investigation; Admitting, essentially, the same thing to top Russian officials in a White House meeting; Drafting a deliberately misleading statement for his son about the infamous Trump Tower meeting; Attempting to fire Special Counsel Mueller; And, most recently, this ham-handed choreography with Chairman Nunes to undermine all of the pending investigations--an attempt to set up the argument that we should drop the Russia investigations and, instead, investigate the investigators. That is just the ``Greatest Hits of Obstruction,'' volume I. There is a lot more to come, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for organizing this Special Order hour conversation. You asked the right question: What are they hiding and what are they afraid of? It is a bit of a rhetorical question, because when you think about that chart you have displayed there, when you think about the indictments and the plea deals and all of the other information that we are beginning to glean, it is pretty obvious what they are afraid of and what they are hiding. This investigation is getting pretty darn close to the personal and political and financial ties between this Presidency and those around him and Russia, and it is a lot of information that they don't want the world to know about. That is why we are seeing all of these distractions, all of these elaborate and increasingly desperate attempts to change the subject and create diversions. Frankly, today, I am very worried that--not so much that this is coming from our President, because we have seen him throughout his career engage in character assassination, burning down the house tactics, and all manner of ruthlessness, but I am disturbed that many of our colleagues in this body have taken up those same tactics and that same cause. That is dangerous. One of the great things about this country, I believe, is that it is about the rule of law. Our Founders actively debated this question about whether we would be a country of laws and institutions or a country of men. Would we have some people above the law or would we all be subject to the law? They answered it loud and clear. We were going to be a country of law and institutions. At every critical test in our history, we have reaffirmed that essential great aspect of what it is to be the United States of America. That is what Watergate was all about, as we are beginning to remember. Yet, today, it seems that that proposition is being retested all over again. To my dismay, some of our colleagues are hoping for a different answer as we retest that proposition this time. That is very troubling. I am not in the habit of quoting FOX News very often, and certainly not their news hosts, but one of their hosts, Shepard Smith, said something that really struck a cord in the last few days. Here is what he said about the so-called Nunes memo: ``A memo can be a weapon of partisan mass distraction.'' That is exactly what this is: a desperate attempt to protect President Trump from investigation and accountability. I think we need to recap a few facts that brought us to this point. Back in November 2016, when the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was appointed to President-elect Trump's transition team, he, like our President, started sowing doubts about whether Russia had interfered with the 2016 election, incorrectly claiming that there was some kind of disagreement between our intelligence agencies on the subject. In fact, there was no disagreement. All of the American intelligence community agreed that, as they had looked into this, they determined that Russian operatives had worked to undermine the integrity of our election. That conclusion has been reinforced and reaffirmed by everything we have learned since then. The chairman told Politico shortly before President Trump's inauguration that the House should not investigate contacts between Russia and the Trump camp, even though his Senate intelligence counterparts had already committed to following the facts wherever they may lead. So he had already made up his mind. The chairman described the Trump-Russia connections as a dead trail. He said there is nothing there. And, of course, we know President Trump has said he has nothing to do with Russia, totally contradicted by everything we have learned since. All of this, of course, is going to come as a surprise if there is nothing there to the President's campaign chair, who is under indictment; to members of his family, who have been hauled before the special prosecutor to answer to secret meetings and other dealings that they have had with Russia; and to others in this administration who had repeated contacts with Russia. And, of course, no one can forget the intelligence chairman's trip to the White House last year, where he staged an impromptu news conference, claiming that he had briefed the White House about a source who could explain how Trump campaign officials were caught up in foreign intelligence intercepts. His unnamed sources that he rushed to brief the White House about, well, it turned out they were White House officials. This was a completely choreographed stunt. They had planted the misleading information with the chairman in the first place, obviously desperate to give some cover to the President who had tweeted out about wiretapping, conspiracies, and on it goes. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Ed Perlmutter, is asking all of the right questions. This investigation is beginning to answer those questions in very, very important ways. We need to make sure that it runs its course. It is important to finding out the truth. The American people deserve to know the truth. It is also important to reaffirming that incredibly important aspect of what makes this country great, and that is that we are a nation of laws and institutions. We have to reaffirm that, unfortunately, over and over again from time to time.

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. We are being taken back to the lessons of Watergate tonight. The system worked in the 1970s. The checks and balances that our Founders put in place took effect. The public stepped up. The media stepped up. People of conscience in important positions within the government stood their ground and did the right thing. But I think it would be foolish for us not to take the threats of this moment in our history very, very seriously because there are some things at play this time around that weren't there in the 1970s. You did not have rightwing media organs out there actively trying to undermine public trust in our government. You did not have a complicit United States Congress that, instead of doing oversight, seems to be spending more of its effort running cover for the administration, trying to hide the facts, trying to block investigations, playing tribal politics at its worst, instead of fulfilling our institutional role in a critical constitutional test like this. I think it is a very, very serious moment in our history, and I am glad that the gentleman is convening discussions like this on the floor. We have to make sure that, in this investigation, the professional law enforcement personnel who do this for a living are allowed to do their job so that we can all learn the truth, whatever that may be. The question is: What are they afraid of? What are they hiding? This investigation is going to answer those questions, and we will all accept those answers, whatever they may be, but we have got to let the system work. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership tonight.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with my colleague, Congressman Mike Thompson, in recognition of the Santa Rosa Junior College's centennial anniversary. Serving more than 1.7 million students since opening its doors, this public institution has grown from seven women's vision for a local junior college into a nationally and internationally recognized leader in removing barriers to higher education. Founded in 1918, the Santa Rosa Junior College was conceived of by members of the Federated Home and School Association of Santa Rosa, an organization of prominent women from across the City of Santa Rosa who came together around the idea of bringing higher education to their community. Starting with an inaugural class of 19 students, the college had eight faculty members and was located in the basement of Santa Rosa's primary high school. Within the first seven years of operation, Santa Rosa Junior College went through great adversity: briefly closing due to a severe city-wide influenza outbreak, losing its basement location due to a fire, and operating nomadically out of several temporary spaces for four years. But out of this early turmoil came remarkable growth and resilience. By 1927, the college attained the stability it needed to succeed and grow. Operating out of a permanent campus on over 40 acres of land, the college was able to begin extending its roots throughout the community, becoming the inaugural member of the newly created Santa Rosa Junior College District. Today, Santa Rosa Junior College has grown significantly in scholastic capability and quality. Now spanning a combined total of more than 500 acres, the college district operates two campuses, a public safety training center, and a nationally ranked farm laboratory, among other facilities. The college now employs over 3,000 faculty and staff to instruct the more than 28,000 students who enroll each semester. With these sizable gains in students, facilities, and staff, the district has also expanded to serving 15 major high school campuses and 1,600 square miles, making it one of the largest college districts in the nation. Santa Rosa Junior College, one hundred years old, offers exceptional academic, career technical, athletic and performing arts programs that have consistently garnered state, national and worldwide attention. Mr. Speaker, after a century of steady scholastic achievement and operational stability, the continuing success of Santa Rosa Junior College has led to immeasurable social and economic improvements for not only the North Bay community but the nation. It is therefore appropriate that we stand together in recognition of this momentous occasion.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Gary Mizono, a doctor who has played an important role in shaping the health and well-being of his community for nearly 30 years. Gary Mizono's life has been intrinsically tied to Northern California. The second generation of his family to be born in San Francisco, Dr. Mizono completed both his medical residencies there, after finishing his medical degree at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Upon completing his medical training, Dr. Mizono decided to stay in San Francisco and built a successful private practice with other respected doctors. After seven years, Dr. Mizono joined San Rafael's Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in 1992, where he has been ever since. Gary Mizono provided much needed leadership, expertise, and energy to Kaiser's Northern California operations. The medical center, located in Mann County, California, had only been established 16 years prior to his hiring. In that time, the community's growing need for primary and specialty medical care led Kaiser to establish satellite facilities throughout the County of Mann and the neighboring County of Sonoma. These facilities ultimately expanded Kaiser's overall patient network in the region to the over 100,000 members that have access to medical services today. Gary Mizono began his career at the medical center as a Head and Neck Surgeon. After only three years he was promoted to the position of Chief of Head and Neck Surgery, and five years after that he earned the added role of Assistant Physician-in-Chief. By 2007, Dr. Mizono took on a much larger administrative role as the Physician-in-Chief for the medical center, and a much larger leadership role as a Long-Term Director on the Permanente Medical Group Board of Directors. These positions greatly expanded both his direct impact on Mann County as a doctor, and his indirect impact on the broader Northern California medical community. In these roles, Dr. Mizono oversaw the coordination of innovative medical practices through the collaboration of over 9,000 Physicians and Nurse Practitioners, serving a combined population of over 3.8 million members. Mr. Speaker, Gary Mizono has not only directly served his community as a doctor, but he has also helped shape the health and well-being of the broader Northern California Community through his administrative and leadership roles. I, therefore, urge my colleagues to join me in honoring Gary Mizono on the occasion of his retirement

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Ed Schulze of Novato, California, for his exceptional commitment to public service and civic engagement. For nearly 45 years, Mr. Schulze has dedicated himself to effecting positive change in his community, serving in numerous leadership positions and volunteering countless hours. Novato commemorates their city's founding with a celebration that, among other things, honors one resident as the city's Citizen of the Year. This honoree is nominated by members of the community, and is selected by a citizen committee who look for individuals that have made significant contributions to the City of Novato. Ed Schulze has been selected this year, on the 58th anniversary of the city's founding, in recognition of nearly a half-century of civic engagement on behalf of his community. Ed Schulze moved to Novato with his wife Marilyn in 1973. First getting involved with his homeowner's association, Mr. Schulze would end up working on a wide array of local issues surrounding public safety, the environment, education, and the integrity of the city's leadership pipeline. Never seeking public office himself, Mr. Schulze would instead serve on numerous boards and commissions including the county's Parole Board, Major Crimes Task Force Oversite Committee, Operational Area Disaster and Citizen Corps Council, and the Marin County Grand Jury. Through these roles, Mr. Schulze was able to improve the public's relationship with local government agencies and fight for issues such as pesticide reduction in western Marin County. Ed Schulze's impact on the City of Novato can be measured not only through the issues he has worked on, or meetings he has attended, but also through the people whose lives he has touched over the years. As a dedicated family man and consummate public advocate, he has inspired generations of community leaders since moving to Novato nearly a half- century ago. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring Ed Schulze for his many years of selfless volunteerism and leadership across the City of Novato and the County of Marin.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for S. 117, the Alex Diekmann Peak Designation Act. Although I didn't work with Alex Diekmann personally, I am very familiar with the work that the Trust for Public Land has done across the West, and I have been told of all of Alex's individual achievements in protecting important wildlife corridors, fly-fishing streams, and ecosystems across Montana and the Northern Rockies. He spent the better part of two decades making the American West better, protecting landscapes within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and securing places for our children's children to enjoy. This legislation is a fitting memorial to Alex Diekmann's life and legacy, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, January 11, 2018, I was unavoidably detained for rollcall vote 14. Had I been present for rollcall vote 14, I would have voted ``YEA''.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, character assassination is Donald Trump's favorite trick when people make him look bad. This month, Trump and his allies have been desperately smearing the authors of the infamous dossier, which exposes disturbing facts about Trump's Russia connections. By attacking Chris Steele and Fusion GPS, they are trying to divert attention from the damning content of the dossier and also to impugn the FBI for launching its investigation. Here is the problem: the dossier didn't start the FBI investigation. It was a Trump policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, boasting to an Australian diplomat that Russia had stolen emails to interfere in our election. That was 2 months before those stolen emails were put online, and that smacks of collusion. Thankfully, our Australian allies shared this information with the FBI and the investigation began. The dossier came along and corroborated what the FBI had already heard. There is another problem with this smear campaign: It wasn't just the FBI that took the dossier seriously. Senator John McCain deemed it credible enough to turn it over to the FBI. This is a serious document, corroborated by a host of other evidence, and the truth is coming out, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, June 9, 2016, was the date of the infamous Trump Tower meeting with at least five Russians with Kremlin ties. That date is about the only constant in a tangled web of lies we have heard from Team Trump. When Donald Trump, Jr., was first asked about this meeting, he said it was just about adoption, not a campaign issue. But he changed his tune when the New York Times revealed emails showing it was all about the campaign; in fact, an offer to get damning information on Hillary Clinton as ``part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump. . . .'' Now, Donald Trump, Jr.'s, response to this illegal offer says it all: ``. . . if it is what you say, I love it. . . . '' We may never know how much collusion was set in motion at this meeting, but we do know two things: First, Team Trump has repeatedly misled us, concealing it from security clearance forms, issuing a false statement dictated by President Trump himself. Second, the Russians did go on to produce a massive cache of stolen emails and helped the Trump campaign in other ways. These are damning facts, Mr. Speaker, and there are many more to come. We need to find out what else they lied about and what else they are hiding.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump claims he has ``nothing to do with Russia,'' but we have seen damning revelations: secret meetings, business and financial entanglements, and elaborate attempts to conceal information. In any other era, these would be bombshells, but our nonstop media cycle, fueled by Trump's constant infusions of drama, make it hard to connect the dots. It is not that we lack evidence of Trump-Russia ties, it is that there is so much, it makes your head spin. So today, I am beginning a ``moment of truth'' series of speeches to point out facts that show an administration that is compromised and that not only colluded with Russia, but has obstructed justice to keep us from knowing the truth. One of many smoking guns is from 2015, when Trump's associate, Felix Sater, was seeking financing from a Russian bank facing American sanctions to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. This email from Sater to Trump's personal attorney speaks for itself: ``I'll get Putin on this program, and we'll get Donald elected.'' There is a lot more to come.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, our Republican colleagues who control the House, the Senate, and the White House are on the verge of another government shutdown. They have brought us to the brink, and now they are asking for more time to get their work done. Why do they need more time? We have seen this coming. We have already granted one extension. But instead of working with Democrats to avoid a shutdown, they have been rushing through a tax scam. They have been obsessed with this reverse Robin Hood scheme to take money from the middle class and give it to corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent. Meanwhile, we need to keep the VA open for business. We need to restore the Children's Health Insurance Program and community health centers. We need to provide safety for DACA recipients who are living in fear. We need to provide wildfire victims in California and the victims of the disastrous hurricanes who are waiting for emergency disaster funding the support they need to rebuild their lives. Each of these priorities has bipartisan support. But instead of working together on these bipartisan solutions, a unified Republican government has been focused solely on further rigging the system to benefit special interests and billionaires. No more extensions. Let's work to keep the government open and to address the real priorities of the American people.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of David Weinsoff for his 12 years of dedicated service as a member and Mayor of the Fairfax Town Council. After graduating from University of New York at Binghamton with a bachelor's degree in History, Mr. Weinsoff pursued a Juris Doctor at the University of Bridgeport School of Law (now Quinnipiac College School of Law). Mr. Weinsoff has since built a distinguished legal career prosecuting citizen suits under the federal Clean Water Act, the California Coastal Act, and local government laws representing the government and nonprofit agencies. In the mid-nineties Mr. Weinsoff relocated from San Francisco to Fairfax, California, with his wife and young child. In addition to building his private practice, Mr. Weinsoff deepened his commitment to public service and the environment through volunteer roles on the Town of Fairfax Planning Commission, Marin Municipal Water District's Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee, and as a founding member of the Fairfax Open Space Committee, among others. And, after retiring from seven years on the Marin Conversation League Board, he continued to support the organization as its legal counsel. Mr. Weinsoff was elected to Fairfax Town Council in 2005. Over the course of his 12-year tenure, he would serve two terms as mayor and vice mayor, as well as on a wide array of community boards and organizations, including the Marin County Flood Zone 9 Advisory Board, the Ross Valley Fire Department Board, and the Measure ``A'' Committee. Known for his active leadership, the strength of his convictions and his commitment to public service, David's enduring contributions to Fairfax and to Marin County will be felt for years to come. Mr. Speaker, David Weinsoff's service has left many lasting and positive impacts on his community, and I am certain he will continue his public service in a variety of ways in the days ahead. It is therefore fitting and appropriate that we honor him on the occasion of his final town council meeting, and extend to him our appreciation for his past--and future--civic engagement.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Byrd Lochtie of Humboldt County, who is honored by the Northern California Association of Nonprofits with the 2017 Nonprofit Leader Achievement Award, a recognition she richly deserves. Byrd Lochtie has served as a nonprofit consultant, trainer, coach and mentor in Humboldt County since 1984. Shortly after earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Cornell University in 1960, Byrd became involved with the Sierra Cascade Girl Scout Council where she served as a volunteer, volunteer leader, and trainer of leaders. She continues to volunteer with the Girl Scout Council to this day. These decades of nonprofit volunteerism provided Byrd with valuable experience in youth leadership, team building, and developing effective educational and training programs. She has also furthered her nonprofit education through various training and courses over the years, and she earned a lifetime credential from California Community Colleges. As an independent nonprofit consultant, Byrd Lochtie specializes in helping community leaders understand and be more effective in their roles, including working together to develop strategies to advance their missions. She has been a key partner and trainer for the Northern California Association of Nonprofits fostering learning, mentoring, relationship building, and excellence in leadership through monthly board leadership roundtables and introduction to board service workshops for many years. Byrd remains highly engaged with a variety of local organizations, including the League of Women Voters of Humboldt County, Children's Authors Festival, the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission, United Way, Girl Scouts, Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees, the Eureka and Arcata Community Recycling Centers, and more. Mr. Speaker, Byrd Lochtie's commitment to bettering her community through civic engagement and empowering leadership in others is commendable and worthy of recognition. I urge my colleagues to join me in extending our congratulations to her.

Mr. HUFFMAN

Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, the Republican tax scam picks clear winners and losers, yet our colleagues are rushing it through Congress faster than President Trump can retweet British racists. Let's be clear: the winners in this tax scam are the country's wealthiest, including Donald Trump, his family, and his billionaire cronies in his Cabinet. Meanwhile, students, middle class families, homeowners, and seniors across this country are the losers. They are left holding the bag. Californians get an especially raw deal because my Republican colleagues want to impose an unfair double tax on the State and local taxes that we pay. There is more bad news for Californians. Homeowners will be hit by a new cap on mortgage interest deductions, students will have to start paying taxes on student loan interest, graduate students will lose tax- free tuition waivers, and biotech companies who focus on ultra rare diseases will see their tax credit disappear. The Republican tax bill is unbelievably bad and historically unpopular, for good reason, but it is not too late for my Republican colleagues to stop it.