J. Hill

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from New York (Mr. Zeldin) for his leadership in this House on this important topic and for his voice that carries across all freedom-loving people about the relationship that we are trying to have with Iran; on the failures of the Iranian nuclear deal and why it is a bad deal for America and for our allies; why it has put the American people at risk and our security at risk, particularly for not only our country, but our allies, and, particularly, our ally Israel. This deal has major flaws that have been noted over the past couple of years, including the sunset provisions, which never should have been included, and zero monitoring of the Iranian military or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sites. It allowed continued research and development on advanced centrifuges for the Iranian nuclear program, and it didn't prohibit, Mr. Speaker, any ballistic missile technology. In fact, when Secretary Kerry was negotiating this deal, Iranian representatives traveled to Moscow, no doubt to attempt to acquire ballistic missile technology. My concerns are shared, Mr. Speaker, by a large bipartisan group in the House, and I recall the votes in the Senate to disapprove this deal. These procedural votes in the Senate demonstrated that the nuclear deal negotiated by Mr. Kerry and Mr. Obama was well short of the treaty approval level--that is, two-thirds of the Senate--which would have been necessary had the Obama administration actually attempted to submit the JCPOA as a treaty. Without decertification, this deal allowed Iran to head in the same direction as North Korea, and I support the President in his decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Speaker, I pledge to work with my colleagues in the House like Mr. Barr from Kentucky, who chairs our Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade on sanctions; my colleague Mr. Zeldin on the Financial Services Committee; as well as our colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee who will support policies that will target Iran's terror financing, its missile technology, its violations of human rights, and, certainly, the topic of the night, its nuclear program. It is well documented by the U.S. Department of State in multiple administrations that Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism. They have a history of arresting American citizens and citizens of other Western countries with no chance of a fair trial. We must not forget the people of Iran who are living under the oppression of this extremist Islamic regime that is a persistent violator of human rights and religious freedom. Recently, just in May, the regime arrested a 19-year-old Iranian girl for posting on Instagram a video of herself dancing in her own room. Dancing. I stand here tonight with the people of Iran and support their peaceful protests against the oppressive and corrupt mullahs in Tehran. The House took an important step earlier this year by passing a resolution in support of the Iranian people. Today, Iran's economy is on the brink of collapse. What happened to the $150 billion in freed financial assets that was unfrozen on day one in the Iranian deal? There was no quid pro quo on that. Those funds were freed, Mr. Speaker, on day one, whether Iran complied with the long-term aspects of the agreement or not. What happened to the $1.7 billion, pallets of currency that were delivered to the mullahs by the Obama administration in the middle of the night at the Geneva airport? Where is that money for the Iranian people? It is not hard to guess where it went or who has it, which is why we passed Congressman Bruce Poliquin's bill, the Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act, a commonsense measure that will let the people of Iran see what the regime is doing with those billions, and what has happened to them since Iran got the money back. I call on the Senate to pass this bill so that we can show the world how corrupt the regime is. Today, Mr. Speaker, the Iranian currency compared to the U.S. dollar is over 40,000 to 1. On the eve of the Islam Republic, it was 70 to 1. The Iranian people have borne the brunt of 35 years of corruption and terror, and I stand with them tonight, and I stand against the failures of the deal that we ar talking about. At this critical moment in Iran's history, I stand on the floor of the American people's House, and the Iranian people are in the streets, not chanting ``death to America,'' Mr. Speaker, but marching for the same endowed freedoms that we enjoy here every day: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Zeldin for hosting this Special Order and for giving Members the opportunity to participate and highlight the flaws of this failed nuclear deal, the importance of why decertification works, and the corruption and the brutality of the Iranian mullahs.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff), the author of this bill.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4294) to amend the Financial Stability Act of 2010 to provide a criminal penalty for unauthorized disclosures of certain individually identifiable information by officers or employees of a Federal department or agency, as amended.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an exchange of letters between the committees of jurisdiction. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC, June 22, 2018. Hon. Jeb Hensarling, Chairman, Committee on Financial Services, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Hensarling: I write with respect to H.R. 4294, the ``Prevention of Private Information Dissemination Act.'' As a result of your having consulted with us on provisions within H.R. 4294 that fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary, I forego any further consideration of this bill so that it may proceed expeditiously to the House floor for consideration. The Judiciary Committee takes this action with our mutual understanding that by foregoing consideration of H.R. 4294 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over subject matter contained in this or similar legislation and that our committee will be appropriately consulted and involved as this bill or similar legislation moves forward so that we may address any remaining issues in our jurisdiction. Our committee also reserves the right to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this or similar legislation and asks that you support any such request. I would appreciate a response to this letter confirming this understanding with respect to H.R. 4294 and would ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on this matter be included in the Congressional Record during floor consideration of the bill. Sincerely, Bob Goodlatte, Chairman.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, for the bipartisan work on this bill, I want to again thank Mr. Rothfus and my good friend Mr. Vargas. You can see that he has the heart of a Jesuit and the mind of a Harvard lawyer. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6069) to require the Comptroller General of the United States to carry out a study on how virtual currencies and online marketplaces are used to buy, sell, or facilitate the financing of goods or services associated with sex trafficking or drug trafficking, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from California, Juan Vargas, and my colleague from Pennsylvania, Keith Rothfus, for their work together to cosponsor H.R. 6069, the Fight Illicit Networks and Detect Trafficking Act. This is extremely important, and it is in keeping with the work that we have been doing in our subcommittee on terror finance, illicit financing, and also the work we have done on this House floor about stopping human trafficking that we see in this country and, also, the intensive work in the last 2 weeks on opioid legislation in trying to stop these kinds of drugs coming into our country. This legislation would require the Government Accounting Office, the GAO, to study and report to Congress on how online marketplaces, including those on the dark web, are used as platforms to facilitate the financing of goods associated with drug trafficking or sex trafficking. They would study payment methods, including virtual currencies and peer-to-peer payment services, that are also being used in drug and sex trafficking online; illicit funds that have been transmitted online and how virtual currencies are reintegrated into the U.S. financial system; and finally, Mr. Speaker, the study would have the participants of sex trafficking or drug trafficking trade online that benefit from the trade. Although virtual currencies can be used for legal purchases, they have become a common financial payment method for criminals. Online marketplaces, including the dark web, have become a prominent platform to buy, sell, and advertise for illicit goods and services associated with sex trafficking and drug trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization, in 2016, 4.8 million people in the world were victims of forced sexual exploitation, and in 2014, the global profit from commercial sexual exploitation was $99 billion. According to the U.S. Treasury's 2015 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment, an estimated $64 billion is generated from U.S. drug trafficking operations. Illegal fentanyl in the United States originates primarily from China and is readily available to purchase through online marketplaces. Certainly, all of my colleagues have heard extensively, over the last 2 weeks, the stunning horrors of how fentanyl has entered our marketplace, with one estimate that, just last year alone, enough came across our borders in this country to kill half the U.S. population. According to the DEA, in 2017, the National Drug Threat Assessment, transnational criminal organizations are increasingly using virtual currencies. This bill will allow Congress to fully understand the extent to which virtual currencies are being used to facilitate drug and sex trafficking. The bill will also study how virtual currencies can be used to detect and deter illicit activities and propose legislative solutions to fight these crimes. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5783) to provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that maintain a customer account at the request of a Federal or State law enforcement agency, as amended.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as a former community banker, I have dealt with the conflict of wanting to help law enforcement agencies when receiving what is called a keep open letter, while not being able to because of the need also to comply with the requirements of my regulatory responsibilities, the rules on setting out how banks have to open and close a suspected account by a regulator. Today, the overall purpose of this bill is to support law enforcement and reduce money laundering and terrorist financing through our banking system. That is why, along with my good friend from Illinois, Dr. Foster, I was pleased to introduce this commonsense bill. It enables partnerships without repercussions between law enforcement agencies and local community financial institutions by allowing law enforcement to monitor the cash flows associated with criminal investigations at a financial institution. Under the Bank Secrecy Act and the anti-money laundering regulations, banks face strict rules for managing accounts so that they cannot facilitate money laundering, terrorism financing, drug running, or other illegal activities. Sometimes banks receive notices from law enforcement agencies known as keep open letters. That requests a bank to keep open an account so that the law enforcement agency can track payments and better monitor criminals. Such requests might come from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, local police, or any other law enforcement agency. If banks help law enforcement comply with keep open letter requests, they in turn, unfortunately, risk being penalized by regulators for allowing an account to be open and continue to be open by someone who is suspected of a crime. This commonsense bill supports those efforts by law enforcement by allowing the financial institutions to comply with the keep open requests and maintain a suspicious account without being penalized by regulators. Financial institutions will no longer be liable for maintaining an account for law enforcement investigative purposes. Under this bill, no Federal department or agency may take an adverse supervisory action with respect to that financial institution for keeping open such an account. This is a commonsense bill and I urge all my colleagues to support it. It will give law enforcement the tools they need to prosecute bad actors and, I think, be better and more fair in its treatment for our financial institutions. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to just urge my colleagues to recognize this as a strong group of bipartisan work by Dr. Foster and it received solid support in the committee, that it balances the law enforcement obligations to investigate criminals, but also treats, in the regulatory system, our community financial institutions in a more fair manner. I hope all my colleagues will support it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 435) to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to clarify Federal law with respect to reporting certain positive consumer credit information to consumer reporting agencies, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 435, introduced by my good friend from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, The Credit Access and Inclusion Act of 2017, would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to authorize the Department of Housing to furnish consumer credit reports to include an individual's payment history from rental payments for a dwelling, including HUD-subsidized properties, and payment history for utility and telecommunications contracts. I want to thank my friend for this great piece of work on his part on making credit more accessible, making it easier to get the data that consumers need to build a credit record. It is not all just credit card payments, Mr. Speaker, or payments to banks. This kind of work that my friend from Minnesota has tackled improves consumers' ability to build that very, very important thing in our society, which is access to credit. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I again want to thank my friend from Minnesota. We have worked together on this bill during the year. I am pleased to see it back on the floor today. Mr. Speaker, I urge bipartisan support for helping all American consumers have a new and better way to help build their credit and get access to credit to preserve the American Dream. Mr. Speaker, we have no other speakers on this side, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today during National PTSD Awareness Month to call attention to this topic that is so important to the lives of our veterans and their families. Nowhere is the connection between PTSD and suicide felt more strongly than in the veteran community. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and on average, we lose 20 veterans per day to suicide. Far too many of our veterans are left with the difficulties of overcoming PTSD and addiction on their own. Our Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, led by Dr. Margie Scott, is one of nine systems nationwide that is currently involved in the Clay Hunt SAV Act pilot program in our Nation. This program gives our VA employees the necessary tools to reach out to high-risk veterans and offer guidance, while providing essential suicide prevention services. I have got three wounded warriors on my district staff, Mr. Speaker, and we are together dedicated to our veterans. I am grateful to our veteran service organizations and our work together to spread the word on how we need to help our veterans avoid the crisis that comes with the risk of suicide. To our vets, you are not alone. All vets believe in the buddy system, and the Veteran Crisis Line keeps that bond. Please call 1-800-273-8255 if you are having a crisis or you know a veteran in crisis.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5788, the STOP Act, sponsored by my good friend Mike Bishop. This important piece of legislation would secure our mail system from fentanyl and other dangerous synthetic opioids that are flooding into the United States from foreign countries, namely China and Mexico. The opioid crisis kills more than 100 Americans each day and caused more than 45,000 deaths last year alone. In 2016, more Americans died from a drug overdose than we lost in Vietnam. A third of those deaths are attributable to fentanyl. Over the last few years, I have witnessed my kids losing their peers to this crisis, and it is terrifying. Yesterday, I spoke to the mother of Nate Gordon, a young man from my district, who lost his life due to a fentanyl-laced overdose. Nate's mother and the rest of his family are heartbroken. We have a responsibility to stem the tide of this crisis and prevent more families from suffering the tragic loss of one who is loved to opioid addiction. A vital component of this effort is plugging the holes in our mail system and stopping illicit substances from entering the United States. So far this year, Customs and Border Patrol, working with the U.S. Postal Service, has seized more than 790 pounds of fentanyl. That is enough fentanyl to kill 179 million people. To put that in perspective, that is more than half our population. My friend Mr. Harris talked about the size of a grain of rice. How about 1 gram, Mr. Speaker, a Sweet'n Low packet, something that we use every day? It is enough to kill 500 people. The STOP Act is a great companion to the bill I recently introduced with my friend Tom Cotton that provides the U.S. Postal Service with more resources to screen international mail to stop these insane amounts of drugs coming into our country. I thank my friend from Michigan for his thoughtful work to implement this much-needed policy change. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.

Mr. HILL

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today and recognize the accomplishments of Stacy McAdoo, a speech communications teacher at Little Rock Central High School. Stacy was recently named the Little Rock School District 2018 Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching communications, Ms. McAdoo coordinates the important college readiness program, designed to help all students develop the skills they need to be successful in college. As a result of her hard work, Stacy was also awarded the Marian G. Lacey Educator of the Year Award, a top award within the Little Rock School District. Stacy McAdoo's commitment to education is one all Americans and Arkansans can admire. I am proud to represent her and all of the teachers of central Arkansas who are making a difference in the lives of our young people.

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dr. Sam Shultz for his 40 years of service to Arkansas children at the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. As a former member of the Children's Hospital Board of Directors, it is a special pleasure for me to recognize Dr. Shultz for his recognition as a champion for Arkansas children. He mentored and taught many of our pediatricians who are currently practicing in Arkansas. Throughout his career, Dr. Shultz worked with the Arkansas State Department of Health and the Department of Pediatrics to hold clinics in rural areas of our State. These clinics were primarily for children with health complications whose families had trouble traveling to Little Rock. He also assisted in writing various Arkansas public health regulations, such as checking newborns for thyroid conditions and also increasing the number of nurses in our schools. After decades of service to our Nation's youth, Dr. Shultz retired earlier this year. My congratulations on an incredible career, and best wishes for his future pursuits. Recognizing the Service of Mr. Tom Foti

Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Mount Vernon- Enola High School cybersecurity team for their second place win in the Air Force Association's National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. I would also like to personally recognize Catherine Holland, who is the STEM teacher, and introduced the program to the school. The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was created in 2009 by the Air Force Association, to motivate students toward careers in cybersecurity. This is the first year the school has had a team in the competition. The team consisted of five students: Lincoln Collins, Ty Wilson, Chandler Honeycutt, Gavin Harper, and Maddock Davis. The group was 1 of 5,584 teams that registered for the competition. The group showed dedication to the competition by practicing in the afternoons and on Saturdays. I congratulate Mount Vernon-Enola High School's team and wish them much continued success in the years to come, both in school and in their future careers. Recognizing the Accomplishments of Stacy McAdoo