Darrell Issa

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize and celebrate the life and legacy of George Glen Prietto, Kumeyaay Native and Sycuan Tribal Elder from the 48th District of California. Mr. Prietto was born on January 26, 1931, at the Soboba Indian Hospital. He moved to the Sycuan Reservation and attended Dehesa School and Grossmont High School. Before he was 18, Mr. Prietto joined the U.S. Army as an infantryman and served with distinction during the Korean War. He was honorably discharged after 4 years of service. After his military service, Mr. Prietto became a proud farmworker in Yuma--picking lettuce in the sun and train-hopping to Lodi to pick grapes. After years of painstaking labor, he transitioned to driving big-rig trucks. Mr. Prietto eventually returned to the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation and cofounded the Sycuan Fire Department with Hank Murphy. He served as a dedicated firefighter on the reservation, including transporting patients for the Southern Indian Health Clinic, for which he was celebrated upon retirement. Mr. Prietto dedicated himself to preserving and teaching the Kumeyaay language. He taught hundreds of children, stressing the importance of family values and celebrating their culture. Mr. Prietto loved spending time with his life-long friends, including Kenny Meza, Leroy Elliott, Paul Cuero, Jr., Steve Banegas and Bobby Wallace. His family meant everything--especially his marriage to Terri and spending time with his nephews Raymond and Joe Sandoval. While we mourn the loss of a great leader, tribal elder, family man, and veteran, we can find solace in the fact that Mr. Prietto's legacy will continue to enrich the lives of generations to come.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I have but 5 minutes to ensure that this goes by voice, so I will do my best. Mr. Chairman, no one here doubts 100 percent of the time the responsible party from just above the ground to over 60,000 feet belongs to the FAA. Any decision about whether an aircraft can operate or cannot operate belongs exclusively to the FAA. For that reason, the FAA is an independent body that has a responsibility to take seriously the implementation of NOTAMs. These NOTAMs either caution pilots or prevent pilots from flying. Recently, there have been a number of requests where the FAA has acted not on behalf of its own judgment but on behalf of a request by another agency. These agencies include CBP, the Department of Justice, FBI, FTC, and many others. These come in regularly, and I have no objection. There are plenty of good reasons that an entity--we were just talking about a little while ago the Park Service might even have a request. Because the FAA has an obligation to make airspace available wherever possible and at the lowest level of regulation and the greatest freedom and safety for the pilots, and it does have the obligation--when, for safety and other reasons, there needs to be temporary or permanent prohibitions on flying--to implement them. My amendment simply puts a requirement that when the FAA does so that they do so based on the FAA making an independent and objective judgment when it receives NOTAM requests from other agencies. Mr. Chairman, I hope my 5 minutes has been well spent, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's comments, and he is absolutely right. There are a great many NOTAMs. I remind everyone that the requirement in this amendment that it requires the FAA to make an independent and objective judgment does not mean that it must do independent research as to the validity of the request as far as background. It can, in fact, take the word of an agency's statement of its reason, but it has to make an independent judgment as to the NOTAM. Now, I am both a pilot of more than 40 years, and I am also a former Army officer, and I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, at the company, the battalion, and the brigade level every unit in the military has a staff duty officer who for the entire evening until morning and over weekends makes judgment on behalf of the commanding officer at that level. Why do they have that? It is because a level of review should always be available. It doesn't have to be extensive, but it does have to be sufficient that if it came through the FAA it would independently be looked at by the duty officer before it was put up as a NOTAM. The same is asked. Nowhere in my amendment does it prohibit delegation all the way down to the lowest level. As a matter of fact, nowhere in this does it prohibit the use of AI and other tools to help them do it. So I think this is not burdensome, and it is easily compliable. It does say that the FAA makes the decision, not an agency that plugs into a system who may not have the mandate, responsibility, or even the expertise to do so. Periodic NOTAMs that have had to be pulled back when they have been submitted by other agencies are the reason for this amendment. We have actual examples where the FAA would not have done it had they made an independent decision. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chair, briefly, in response to my colleague from Tennessee, the majority of FAA NOTAMs do not originate from outside agencies. This is a fraction of a fraction of all NOTAMs, and it is only those that will be affected by this amendment. In closing, Mr. Chairman, this is not what some who oppose it would say. This is, in fact, a very minor one, but it comes with specific requirements that exist for a reason. Agencies have chosen and actually embarrass the FAA by asking for a closing of airspace only to find out in the light of day, in a matter of days that, in fact, it was a huge mistake--sometimes politically driven. It doesn't matter why. The FAA has the right and the responsibility, and all we ask for is when it comes from an outside agency that it, in fact, have a once-over before being codified. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk; No. 61, oddly enough.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers).

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I wish my colleague had stayed for a little longer because I would like to change his mind as to why I am doing it, what I am doing, and what the purpose would be. My office has been in pretty constant contact with many of the families--more than 10 of them--of the 13 who lost their lives in the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Many of the individuals, the family members have asked specific questions that have never been answered, and they continue to want to have specific questions answered, particularly and including, obviously, individuals, what we knew about them, how they came to be released, a lot of the activities that went on. Now, some of it will have to be transmitted on a classified basis, but most of it can be given to the committees of jurisdiction openly. Those families, the families of the 13 and the families of all of the others who have lost their lives, deserve closure. I believe that although the special IG and lots of other organizations have done a lot of good work, much of it is not yet available to Congress, and as a result, not available to the families or to the American people. For that reason, I crafted this multipage amendment specifically and narrowly to ask for information that to a great extent has not yet been granted, which the Department of Defense has. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I wish that the gentleman would come with me. On Monday night, I will have more than two dozen of the family members for dinner after votes, and you are invited. My treat. The fact is, those unanswered questions are not because voluminous documents haven't been requested, and in some cases, many have been received. It is because when committees ask--and I have plenty of experience on oversight. When committees ask, they get told we will provide you such information as is appropriate to your request and we determine should be granted. That is short of when you pass a law. The weight of this amendment in this act will, in fact, have a weight of law for compliance. That is a weight of law which is higher than a committee requesting or even a committee subpoena. That is the reason that this is different. This will ensure that if someone says, look, we have already granted it all, they can either push a button and duplicate it, they can give us stacks from other reports or, in fact, they can look one more time for the information we have been asking for and be more complete, compliant with a law that will ultimately be signed by the President. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me tell a quick story. Some years ago, we subpoenaed information from the Department of Justice. The Attorney General himself, then Eric Holder, came before me both in committee and personally up to and including the moment in which he was held in contempt, met with us in the Speaker's office, and assured us that if we would just take the 279 pages that was fully meeting all of our requests and accept that as a complete record and be done with it, that he would give them to us. Otherwise, he would withhold them. We held him in contempt. We went to court, and many months later, Amy Berman Jackson, a Federal judge, said: Let me see the documents you are withholding, and all of them that you are claiming the executive privilege. All of them that, in fact, are responsive to his request. We received thousands of pages that never went to Amy Berman Jackson because they had no merit. Then we received more than 10,000 more pages that did go through a review process; 279, 2,000, 10,000. The fact is, it is not new for administrations to give you some documents and not look thoroughly until there is a compelling law. I do not want to go back through the process of going to a Federal judge or holding someone in contempt. This is a way to ensure that they either comply or honestly tell us they have already complied. I cannot take the word this lightly of any administration. I have been down that road before. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 382) condemning the rise of antisemitism and calling on elected officials to identify and educate others on the contributions of the Jewish American community, as amended.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 382, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, Jewish American Heritage Month, first proclaimed by George W. Bush in 2006 and by each successive President since, recognizes the great contribution that the Jewish community has given to this country since its founding. Recognizing this month is particularly important because of the rise of anti-Semitism over the last few years. Recently, Mr. Speaker, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony regarding anti-Semitism and the violence that has now erupted. In our hearing, Barry Borgen told the committee about attacks on his son in New York City. Joseph Borgen was targeted simply for wearing his yarmulke and was beaten by several individuals for nothing other than being recognized as an observant Jew. He was kicked, punched, hit, and, in fact, pepper sprayed by his attackers in a horrific attack simply because of his faith. At this time around the world, we see the rise of anti-Semitism. America for more than half a century, for almost a century, has become the beacon of freedom for the world. In that time, we have had to show the world that anti-Semitism has no place in America and should have no place in the rest of the world. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to associate myself with the ranking member's statements. I have served, as long as I have served, with the gentleman from New York. Mr. Nadler has been a leader on this, and this is a bipartisan issue, one that each year we are honored to come before this Congress and renew our statement of solidarity with this community that has, in fact, as the gentleman said, grown in numbers, mostly because they have been persecuted around the world. This year is no exception. As we speak, the President of Ukraine is being called a Nazi in order to diminish who he is and his faith. It is only in this kind of a world where you can use terms like that as a Russian head of state in order to try to diminish somebody duly elected. As I said in my opening statement--and I will say it again and again every chance I get--if America does not lead in crushing anti-Semitism and denouncing it, the rest of the world will take it as it is okay to do. We cannot ever again allow what we saw in World War II. We cannot ever again turn a blind eye to the growth of anti-Semitism here or around the world. I stand with my colleague from New York in saying that is more essential this year than ever before. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, much will be said on this floor today about anti- Semitism, and it should be, but let us not fail to expand the deliberation on why we have a Jewish American Heritage Month. We don't just have it to combat anti-Semitism. We have it as an awareness of the great contribution that the Jewish community has given to this country from before its birth through today in education and culture, and of that culture, how much the American people do not know about the richness of the family traditions and the like that the Jewish community brings to us. It is often said, maybe just in passing, that we are a Judeo- Christian society, but many people miss that that small minority represents a great part of who we are as a nation. As we observe this month, we need to observe this month recognizing the amazing contribution that, as Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, we, in fact, are talking about 2 percent of the population who does far more than you would begin to believe 2 percent can do, Mr. Speaker. I want to make sure that we all understand that the importance of this month is the importance of the contribution of this community to our society for over 200 years. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, this should be the kind of resolution that would be a given, but it is never a given until you say it and say it and say it again. We say--and we must say--``never again'' about the Holocaust, but we also must say that anti-Semitism has no place in this great country of freedom. Mr. Speaker, you cannot have freedom of religion unless you have freedom of all religions, and freedom of religion isn't simply that I can practice my religion and denounce the other or that I can have slurs about the other. Religious freedom is the acceptance that we have a God or the right to not have a God, and in so doing, we must accept the other person's limited changes. There is so little difference between the beliefs of the Jewish community and the beliefs of all of America that those differences should unite us in their smallness rather than divide us. America, like every country in the world, needs to get to know its neighbor. This is the month in which we get to know our neighbor. Mr. Speaker, if you are fortunate enough to have a Jewish neighbor or a Jewish friend or someone who can help you understand the richness of their culture and their religion, then you are very fortunate. If you are not, then you need to seek one out. That is why we are doing this here today, because it doesn't happen without being said and said again. We say, one last time, never again to anti-Semitism in America. Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, when I received my current district in redistricting, I was pleased that it was a border district, all along the Mexican border from the Tijuana area all the way through the rest of the county. It isn't a border area today. There is no border. If there is no border with Mexico, then there is no border with America. Every day, people pass through. Some are found. Some are not found. Some are stopped for a period of time, but few are turned away. They are not turned away because we simply have a policy of letting everyone in. I also represent a major agricultural district with ranching and farming, and guess what? With all those millions of people who this administration has deliberately allowed to come in without having been invited, without prescreening, without an application, we still have a shortage because of the policies of simply catch and release with parole. I will tell you what else my district is dealing with. We are dealing with enough fentanyl seized last year--117,000 pounds. If divided equally, it would kill every person in America in one dose. Just last week, the California Highway Patrol seized $21 million worth of fentanyl well into the United States on its way to L.A. That would be enough fentanyl to kill every San Diegan. That is what we are dealing with because we have no border. My Democrat friends, Mr. Speaker, will tell you about how it is not good, that it is not good enough, that we need to have comprehensive reform. Like you, Mr. Speaker, I have pushed for comprehensive reform, but comprehensive reform is not simply to normalize what is going on. Comprehensive reform has to be a balance of enforcement and fair immigration rules.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I spoke on this a year or two ago, and not much has happened except more time has passed since this land was taken from this Tribe. I represent 21 Tribes in my congressional district. I believe that when I come to the floor, people look and say, well, you are always representing Tribal issues. I represent the issues that became an issue when Ulysses S. Grant recognized what he had done wrong to Tribes. We began the process over 100 years ago of turning around that challenge. As the ranking member mentioned, in 1934, we passed significant legislation. Much has happened since that time. One of the things that has happened is, here on the House floor, we talk about CBO scoring. I want to touch on that today, which I didn't do a year ago. CBO says this has a cost. Yes, when we move land into trust, when we move it into Federal ownership, it loses property tax so there is a small cost. This is not a cost objected to by my county or any of the surrounding cities. The Native American Tribes in my district have more than compensated the community from the revenues they earn, and they have been good stewards. This land failed to even qualify as a landfill over decades. This is land that, to many, would be considered not usable. It has water challenges that the Tribe will be spending time and money making sure that they prevent the runoff, that they preserve. They have antiquity on this site. They will be investing in that. Yes, a few Members, mostly in my own party, last year failed to vote for this because they said: Well, it is an unfunded mandate. It costs a little money. Yes, it costs money to transfer things into Federal hands because we lose a little bit of revenue, but over 100 years ago--far over that; actually, during the Spanish time--this land was taken from a people, and there was no compensation. As we put it back, I would ask each of the Members who considered not voting for it a year ago to reconsider, to consider that every piece of every objection, other than that small one, has been taken care of. The Tribe will be a better steward of the land than it is now. The land will be better preserved and will be used in a way that-- certainly, if you can't qualify as a landfill, it is not exactly the land everybody is looking for. The reality is the Pala Band has taken what they have earned over the years in agriculture and from their gaming concession and are putting it back into their ancestral land. I have another Tribe that we are working on that is trying to simply get their graveyard back into trust. We will have the same challenge. They will say: But the graveyard might have an economic cost when it goes into Federal land. Madam Speaker, I expect this bill to pass--it passed in the last Congress--but I would hope that all my colleagues would look very carefully and say not all transfers are the same. None of them are the same as naming a post office, although naming a post office after a fallen hero is not without its own merit. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman and ranking member. I hope that my thoughts, in addition to the kind words said by both sides, will convince us to be united this year. This is an important piece of legislation for a people who have done everything we have asked them to do and more.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the life and public service exemplified by former Congressman James Thomas Kolbe. With deep sadness, we mourn the loss of Congressman Jim Kolbe, who passed away on December 3, 2022 after a dedicated career of service to the Congress, his community, and his beloved Arizona. A teenage Senate Page, Kolbe graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1965 and received a master's degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1967. He entered the Navy that year and served in combat duty on gunboats in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal for Valor. After working as a Special Assistant to the Governor of Illinois, in 1976 he was elected to the first of his 3 terms as a member of the Arizona State Senate. 1984 saw his first election to the House of Representatives and Arizona's Fifth Congressional District. He represented his constituents with true distinction, a creative and conscientious legislator who consistently reached across the aisle and worked closely with colleagues across the political spectrum. A fierce champion of free trade and free markets, Pima County and Southern Arizona could always count on Jim Kolbe. I extend sincere condolences to his spouse, Hector Alfonso, his family, and loved ones. I am grateful to have served with a public servant and public leader like Jim Kolbe. He will be missed.