Marcy Kaptur

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, budgets are about values. And President Trump's budget breaks his promises to the American people. His 2018 budget is a disgrace. The plan cuts people's access to basic necessities and retards decent standards of living. The American people want to create jobs, raise wages, invest in education, protect their pensions, and give people a chance at a better future. What does the Trump budget do for the heartland that voted for him? Great Lakes clean up? Zeroed out. Social Security Disability insurance? Slashed. Medicaid? Slashed. Public education? Slashed. We have seen this supply side economic shell game before. It ends with a massive tax cut for millionaires and billionaires, while leaving Americans living on the brink paycheck to paycheck, leaving them behind. Let's recap. The Trump budget hurts working families, it weakens Social Security and Medicaid, it hurts students seeking to better themselves, it hurts seniors trying to pay for their medicine and insurance and who depend on programs like Meals on Wheels. I would encourage every heartland family with an elderly parent, an indebted graduate, or a trusting toddler to look at this budget and match it against the promises they heard versus what is being delivered. What a shame for our country.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, let me raise several questions for President Donald Trump. The American people and Members of Congress would like to know the answers. I am deeply concerned the President is compromising the national security of our Nation. Why would a President share intelligence information with the highest ranking operatives of Russia close to President Vladimir Putin? Though the President's cavalier and, frankly, outrageous behavior conveniently sucked up the airwaves last week, Americans cannot be distracted from his simultaneous firing of FBI Director James Comey, an official who spent his life protecting and defending the Constitution of our country on liberty's behalf. Let me ask: Why were no U.S. journalists allowed into the President's historic meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russia's Ambassador to the United States for many years, Ambassador Kislyak, one of probably the highest ranking intelligence officers as well as Ambassador from Russia to the United States? To my knowledge, no U.S. President has ever received officials from Russia in the Oval Office and then brought only Russian journalists with digital recording equipment into that office. Let me repeat that. We don't know who they were, but they brought equipment, digital recording equipment. Think about that. Think about that. Meanwhile, the President excluded American press. Not a single journalist from this country was allowed in. He replaced them with Russian state media operatives. Today, CNN reports that, how conveniently, President Vladimir Putin has now said he will make available to America the transcript of that meeting. He is willing to share it. Well, isn't that nice? It is further alarming that his National Security Advisor, General McMaster, said that, despite the President being unaware of the source of the information, at that meeting he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to tell the Russians what he knew about very important intelligence we received from an ally. It is starting to pile up, Mr. President: more and more reckless and cavalier behavior every day with America's security stakes very high. I don't have to remind my colleagues, it is on the record. Russia has been buzzing into U.S. airspace over Alaska. Her submarines are along the East Coast. This isn't exactly a friend to us. If you want to make America great again, you do not compromise America's national security. Not only is the President struggling for a coherent foreign policy that keeps Americans safe and secure and doesn't make our allies quizzical, he fails to keep his attention on promises to working Americans here on home turf, particularly on trade and jobs. Let's take the promises he made to our steelworkers in Ohio, that they will not lose their jobs, that America will be great again, that the coalfields will just boom; right? Well, in Lorain, Ohio, thousands of steelworkers are losing their jobs, with hundreds more, as I stand here today, being pink-slipped and getting termination notices unless the President takes action by the end of the first week in June. This is not the only community in America facing this, but it is not getting any publicity because all this other stuff is all over the front pages. We know we need direct and immediate action to save America's steel industry that has been dumped on by Chinese, Russian, and South Korean steel for years now. We need to stop foreign-dumped steel. These workers' jobs are directly impacted by what is happening at our borders with all that stuff coming in here. I have invited the President and his Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, to Lorain, Ohio, to witness firsthand this unfolding tragedy. Well, no promises are firm yet, not getting any acceptances while our workers need to be thrown a life raft in the typhoon that they are enduring. Perhaps it is hard to make America great again if you are moving from one self-made crisis to another and losing attention on the homeland. Lorain County carried for Hillary Clinton, but only by 104 votes. It is a Democratic county. They were hoping jobs might actually begin to be increased in that area, not zeroed out. So let's recap: a roller coaster foreign policy confusing not just us, but our allies, and broken promises regarding jobs. How about healthcare? Well, let's take this--more confusion. We can be certain TrumpCare removes--removes--protections for our seniors and does not address the rising costs of medications. His bill will take away assistance that closed the Medicare prescription drug hole after seniors reach a level of $2,500, costing them over $1,000 more a year. Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve security, they deserve jobs, they deserve affordable education, and there is no better time to start than today.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Boyle and Congressman Veasey for their leadership and the new energy and the innovative ideas that they bring here from their constituency on behalf of our country. It is a privilege to join you tonight and talk about the infrastructure of our country, a major infrastructure bill, and it is certainly appropriate during this infrastructure week. The whole vital topic of investing in a national infrastructure plan and investing in those who will help to modernize America translates into good jobs, as Congressman Veasey has talked about, and progress for America that Congressman Boyle has talked about. When we think about infrastructure, some people only think about roads and bridges, and we certainly need attention to those across our country. So many places throughout our Nation are in desperate need of repair. Frankly, the street I live on, there is a big sinkhole at the end of the street. Mr. Speaker, 17 percent of the roads in Ohio, my home State, are in poor condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. They estimate that the average Ohio driver pays an extra $475 a year from driving on roads in need of repair. Look no further than me. I had to pay $500 for a whole front end because of hitting a big pothole driving at home at night. So we know how much it costs. Let me urge President Trump and the administration not to limit their thinking on an infrastructure bill. Infrastructure should be about our roads and bridges for sure, but it should go far beyond that for modernizing the Nation. As the ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Energy and Water Development, I take very seriously America's responsibility to modernize the country for this new century. Our energy grid desperately needs an update, and power outages across this country attest to that. Our waterways need help, too. And our drinking water infrastructure, just in Ohio it is estimated will cost $12.2 billion over the next 20 years. As hard as it is to fathom, and I am sure the President hasn't had a chance to read the fine print on this, but the President's budget office proposed to zero out the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative which is so vital to fresh drinking water in our vast region. The President has said he wants to help the people in Flint, Michigan. He campaigned there several times. But it is not an either/or. It is both/ and. You have to have funding in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to take care of the water issues confronting the Great Lakes where algal blooms get larger and larger every year due to phosphorus and nitrogen runoff. Our waterways, our drinking water, are vital components of our national infrastructure. Over 11 million people just on Lake Erie alone, the lake that I represent, need that fresh water. The systems are very old. Some estimate in the cities, cities are losing 30 percent or more of the water distribution underground because of aging pipelines. We truly need to look both above the ground and underneath it. Through many of the counties that I represent, there are old septic systems in place, and 40 percent or more of them are leaking. They contribute to some of the problems that we are having in our fresh water systems. These communities need a helping hand and extra financing to help put their wastewater systems into compliance. I have also proposed a bill for a 21st century civilian conservation corps for needed investments in our States and national parks and forests. Ohio and Michigan alone need to plant 20 million trees to replace those that have been damaged by invasive species. I wanted to also mention, I represent, and I know Congressman Boyle and Congressman Veasey, we represent urban communities, and many of those communities have housing that is 100 years old. Some a little more, some a little less. Imagine if infrastructure could include weatherization so we could place new roofs on millions of homes across this country. We could train people how to do this. We could help bring up the younger generation. Also windows and insulation. If we look at the condition of America's housing stock, particularly following the collapse of 2008, if we look at saving Americans money that they currently spend on wasting energy because they can't afford to put on a new roof, windows, or insulate their homes, we could help millions of Americans. As we help to improve America's infrastructure, I really believe housing has an important role to play in this regard, especially with energy conservation. Honestly, as I close my remarks tonight, and I thank Congressman Boyle and Congressman Veasey for their leadership, Mr. Speaker, it is not only rewarding to work with them, it is fun, too. Mr. Speaker, Americans have been waiting for us and the Federal Government to really give them a helping hand up. I know working together on a bipartisan basis, we can produce an infrastructure bill that the country has been waiting for, as Congressman Boyle says, for decades. I know that our mayors, our county commissioners, and our Governors across the country would work hand in hand with us, and I think Americans from coast to coast would applaud what we are able to do here in order to help our country rebuild itself in this new century.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today I reintroduce the Keep Our Pension Promises Act to reinstate the long standing federal law and principal that prohibited cuts to private pension benefits in plans for retirees. Pensions are one of the surest means to afford millions of middle class families' security in retirement. They have allowed millions of Americans to enjoy their golden years without fear that they have not saved enough. For decades, pensions guaranteed our senior citizens the peace of mind that a check would arrive every month for as long as they live: this is true retirement security. But in December 2014, Congress uprooted this security for millions of retirees. At the last minute, in a must pass funding bill, Congress included the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) eviscerating this protection. With little understanding of what the provisions meant, Congress changed a forty year old pension law that ensured retirees were given the highest level of pension-defense. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, allowed for pension benefits in multiemployer plans to be cut only when a plan runs out of money-- and even then, the retiree benefits should face cuts last. This held true because it was the right thing to do. Pensions are not handouts, they are deferred wages earned over a lifetime of hard work. An estimated 1.5 million participants, including retirees, are in multiemployer pension plans that are in danger of running out of money in the near future. The passage of MPRA allowed for the first time, benefits of current retirees to be cut in an attempt to address the fiscal distress confronting some of these multiemployer plans. This was wrong then, and remains a blemish on the Congressional record that little action has been taken to correct the undue burden it placed on retirees. That's why today I introduce the ``Keep Our Pension Promises Act'' with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. This Act corrects the injustices bestowed upon our most vulnerable retirees by restoring anti-cutback rules so retirees in financially troubled multiemployer pension plans are protected from having their earned benefits cut. It will allow plans to partition off ``orphaned'' participants into a separate plan, giving participating employers relief from shouldering the full financial burden and risk of underfunded ``orphaned'' participants--ensuring the ability for plans to become financially secure once more. This bill recognizes funding is the ultimate concern. It shores up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp and creates a legacy fund to ensure participants in partitioned plans will continue to receive the benefits they depend upon. The costs to create this fund are covered by closing tax loopholes the very wealthy use to avoid taxes on like-kind exchanges and supersized IRA accounts that hold millions, despite laws that limit accounts to much smaller tax deductible amounts. Further the bill ensures pension obligations are prioritized during bankruptcies, which will help the remaining employers in the plan by making it less likely they become responsible for underfunded orphan plans. Over the past few years the retirees facing these cuts mobilized. They organized dozens of committees to spread the message of how damaging the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act has and will be to their lives and financial security. The Keep Our Pension Promises Act recognizes shared sacrifice is the appropriate course of action to save the golden years of retirement for these retirees. I encourage my colleagues to support this measure and correct the misguided action of passage of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, TrumpCare is another false promise. Actually, it is musical chairs. Millions of Americans will be left out and priced out, especially the sick, the old, the pregnant, and the mentally ill. Health insurance means life or death. In this concoction, who is eligible? How much will it cost? Who will be left out? There is no budget score from the Congressional Budget Office. Republicans aren't guaranteeing affordable coverage. Everybody knows even a one-word change in your insurance policy can make a gigantic difference in your coverage. Why not give Americans a chance to calculate the bill's true cost and how it will impact them? As a result of the Affordable Care Act, 1 million Ohioans now have health insurance who didn't have it before. Here we are at the end of our long voting week with a major proposal that will rip away the health insurance benefits or make them unaffordable for millions of Americans. Musical chairs is not the way to run the people's House nor the life- and-death affairs of a great nation. TrumpCare sets up a cruel game of musical chairs. Shame, shame, shame.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my dear colleague, Mrs. Lowey, the ranking member of the committee, for yielding, and thank Chairmen Frelinghuysen, Rogers, and Ranking Member Lowey again for the hard work they did to push this bill across the finish line. Yet today, I rise with frustration that it has taken us so long to finish doing our job. There is simply no good reason why, over 7 months into the 2017 fiscal year, we are only now taking a vote to fund this year's government operations. The American people deserve so much better. There are many things in this bill with which I disagree, but I am pleased to see that the bill before us represents a bipartisan compromise. It also includes a lot of positive aspects. For Ohio, the agreement brings welcome news to coal industry pensioneers. It also provides an important $600 million to fight the national opioid epidemic which has devastated our communities. It also provides $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, assuring our critical work to improve water quality in the Great Lakes continues. As ranking member of the Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, I am well aware we have more work to do. But this bill continues our commitment to nuclear nonproliferation and provides a modest increase for innovative science as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy for America's future and for our global leadership. Once again, I believe it is Democrats who are getting the job done for America and leading the charge of bipartisan negotiations and compromise to avoid a government shutdown. Our side of the aisle continues to focus on making progress, moving the ball forward inch by inch and making progress, advancing progress for our country a step at a time. A recent poll reported that this is what 77 percent of the American people want: compromising, working together, and moving forward. I hope that this agreement will be a beachhead in our efforts to fulfill their wishes. This bill demonstrates Congress can work together collegially for the 2018 fiscal year appropriations to follow to benefit our Nation's future. I thank, again, Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, Ranking Member Nita Lowey, and all of our dedicated staff on appropriations on both sides of the aisle for the hard, bipartisan work they put in putting this bill forward together for America's sake. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, I rise to commemorate the precious life of Joseph Stone of Tucson, Arizona. The 36-year-old American was serving his part of an official international peace team monitoring the border conflict between Ukrainian Government troops and Russian-backed separatists who invaded Ukraine. Mr. Stone was working with a German and a Czech peace monitor when an explosion--likely a mine--damaged their vehicle in Pryshyb, Ukraine. The two other monitors are hospitalized in stable condition. Stone is the first Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe monitor killed in that very important mission. Stone's career in foreign assistance missions brought him to Afghanistan and Liberia before Ukraine. Before entering the aid community, Stone worked at American Medical Response in southern Arizona for 9 years, starting out as an EMT and rising to the level of paramedic. He graduated from Pima Community College. He is survived by his mother, two brothers, a longtime companion, and 13-year-old daughter. Since its establishment in 2014, the OSCE has played a vital role in monitoring the Minsk agreements designed to bring peace to eastern Ukraine after Russia's brutal invasion of a sovereign neighbor. This fateful tragedy makes clear the absolute brutality of Vladimir Putin's threats to liberty and democracy in Ukraine. It also instructs us about the unrecognized selfless heroes among us who define the meaning and cost of liberty. May our recognition of his selfless sacrifice bring comfort to those bearing this great loss, and may he be remembered always in the protracted struggle for a free Ukraine.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, President Trump claims to have brought profound change in his first 100 days in office, but thus far, on jobs, our trade deficit continues to rise. Rather than fulfill his promise to directly renegotiate NAFTA, the President signed another ``dodge 'em'' executive order asking for a 6- month delay by reviewing all U.S. trade agreements. That could take forever. His NAFTA backtrack presents a serious problem for Americans who continue to lose their jobs to NAFTA's broken promises. None will be more impacted than Americans working in the automotive sector. Last year, our country's automotive trade gap with Mexico was deep in the red again. As a result, our country imported 800,000 more cars from Mexico than we exported. This is what it looked like back in 1993. This is what it looks like today. Is it any wonder that Americans are concerned about jobs? In agricultural trade among NAFTA partners, 2 million small-scale Mexican farmers were thrown off their farms and out of work. This fueled the immigration crisis and subwage workers across our continent as poverty continued--no different than 1993. America's workers don't need any more studies or delays. We need jobs and a renegotiated NAFTA now.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as the senior woman in the U.S. House, I wanted to say thank you to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the senior Republican woman in the House, and to say with poignance I received her decision recently to retire from our beloved House. Ileana has been the first Cuban American elected to Congress, the first Latina elected to Congress, and the first Republican woman from Florida to be elected to Congress. She ably chaired the Committee on Foreign Affairs during her tenure, and there were many sessions when new Speakers were sworn in when she and I tabulated the results of that very important election. I can remember when her children were born. I can always say she handled her service with great distinction, with great honor, with great humor, and she made friends on both sides of the aisle. I am glad that she is staying through the remainder of this session, but I must say that this House will lose a spark of brilliance and of wit when she chooses to leave us. I will also say that it has been a particular joy to serve with her because no matter what the issue, no matter what the time of year, no matter what the hour of day, she always approached her position with great professionalism. I regret her leaving, but I know her service has made a difference. For women across America, since she first arrived in 1989, our numbers have quintupled. We now have over 100 women who serve in this House with distinction, and she has helped blaze that path. Mr. Speaker, I reserve my opportunity to say more about her in the days ahead.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today is Arbor Day, and I rise to reintroduce my bill, the 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps Act. In drafting this bill, I was inspired by the CCC Act first established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 as part of his New Deal. This historic initiative generated more than 3 million jobs, especially for America's young people, and inspired a widespread appreciation of America's wealth of natural resources and our responsibility as stewards of these assets. Through current Federal programs like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and other conservation and restoration investments, Americans are once again connecting the dots between clean water, clean land, clean air, and thriving regional ecosystems and economies. With recent attacks on programs that help our Great Lakes, we should remember we don't have to choose between protecting our environment and natural treasures and creating jobs. We can do both at the same time. Just Ohio and Michigan, alone, need 20 million new trees planted to make up for the devastation that the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle have done to our forest populations. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and its goal of putting young people to work across our country that will prosper our Nation and steward its resources forward. I am confident the young people of America will welcome this challenge.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, we are quickly approaching President Trump's first 100 days in office, and the swamp he pledged to drain now has been stocked with Wall Street's finest. President Trump made a big jobs promise to working people across this country in his campaign. But hundreds of steel workers in places like Lorain, Ohio, are being terminated due to continuing Korean and Chinese imports being dumped into this marketplace. The President seems to have a raft of bankers from Goldman Sachs advising him on the global economy, but where is his trade team that is supposed to protect workers like I represent in the State of Ohio? This is the backdrop to the 2018 budget the President has chosen to send up to Congress. His 2018 budget rewards Wall Street--anybody surprised--and hurts Main Streets in places like Lorain and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Indiana and Wisconsin, the States that carried him into the Presidency. Vice President Joe Biden once said: ``Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.'' Well, President Trump's budget apparently doesn't value the people of the Great Lakes States because it zeros out the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and other programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency that are trying to help us clean up water, the source of all life. Look what he is doing to job training programs, to Meals on Wheels, to afterschool care, programs that the middle class cares about and are vital to life: slash, slash, slash. More bankers in there from Goldman Sachs and Wall Street. To make matters worse, the Trump administration has a total disregard for ethics, as they clearly violate the Emoluments Clause of our Constitution. President Trump and his children have still failed to fully divest their assets and put them in true blind trusts to prevent real and dangerous conflicts of interest. How about the number of patents that China has just granted to the Trump family, including Ivanka Trump? How about that? When the President has changed his position on China from what he said in the campaign and now it is a little bit different and the patents just got approved after sitting on the shelf for a decade, does that strike anyone as unusual? The Trump administration is not draining the swamp. This President is filling it with broken promises to the American people who are depending on him and his administration to make a difference for people who need attention across this country.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Clay for organizing this Special Order, and the people of Ohio in my district stand with him and with the young artist I will discuss in a moment. The United States of America and this Capitol stand as a symbol of American values and our freedoms. It just so happens I represent a district that contains 2 of the 10 finest museums in America, at Cleveland and Toledo. We know a little bit about artistic expression. Here in the Capitol, we have created a place to gather and celebrate our Nation's highest ideals, and first and foremost among these is the right of every citizen to freely express themselves as equal citizens. A recent act of censorship here at the Capitol placed this American right under threat, and it is important that all Americans think about this and know about it. I speak to say this action cannot be tolerated. I stand with my distinguished colleagues and with the American people to speak out against the removal of David Pulphus' award-winning painting from the United States Capitol. There was a famous French artist named Edgar Degas, who said: ``Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.'' Surely, surely, David Pulphus' painting does this. And I support Mr. Pulphus' continued efforts to appeal a preliminary decision by the District of Columbia Federal Circuit Court that rejected his First Amendment legal claims, and that case will move forward. In May 2016, his extraordinary acrylic painting that reveals deep meaning, which he named Untitled #1, was awarded the prestigious honor to represent Missouri's First Congressional District in the Congressional Arts Competition. I have entered, for three decades, works from my district in this competition; and just like the other 434 pieces selected to represent a congressional district in the annual competition, Untitled #1 was approved and accepted by the Architect of the Capitol for public display inside our Capitol. For over 26 weeks, Untitled #1 hung in the underground tunnel between the Capitol and the Cannon House Office Building. For over 180 days there was no controversy. And for more than half a year, citizens and Members of Congress, congressional staff, thousands and thousands of international and national visitors passed by and viewed it with no concern. But that changed abruptly when, in fact, a Member from the Republican side of the aisle, I think, likely violated the law and pulled it off the wall in the Capitol of the United States. It didn't belong to him, but he did that. And, I dare say, that gentleman missed the deeper meaning of what this young man has portrayed. There was an added twist of irony in that the censorship moment occurred 1 day after our national holiday honoring civil rights icon Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The censorship sent a woeful and chilling message to our Nation and one that says that our young people's voices and their thoughts are not respected. I say that is un-American. Their views and experiences and perspectives must be valued. When we look at what was done, his freedom of expression, even when expressed through a juried competition, is not protected in the top site of liberty's essence, the legislative branch inside the United States Capitol Building. So Members of Congress have to take a stand. We must demand that the creative contributions of Americans, young and old, in the arts are embraced, including inside this Capitol. We cannot tolerate actions that directly and unjustly stifle or threaten an artist's artistic point of view. That is what America is all about. David Pulphus' painting won the honor to represent Missouri's First Congressional District because it reflects an important, compelling message. His work reminds us of the value of the arts in a free society. The painting was inspired by the civil unrest that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, and it depicts the racial confrontation that ensued with police after that fatal shooting of the unarmed teen, Michael Brown, Jr. This is a complex work and it does not deserve anyone's rejection. It tells us about ourselves and our society so that we face it fully. And if you look at it, there are serious messages in here that say, ``Stop Killing,'' ``Racism Kills.'' It talks about ``History.'' And if you really look at it, you see that some of those involved in the killing, there is no right side. One of the perpetrators is portrayed as a wolf. It is very interesting to study the deeper meaning. This painting includes challenging images: a man being crucified, wearing a graduation cap, holding the scales of justice. This is a young man, he is not even 20 years old, thinking about this. There is a horned beast in a police uniform tangling with a devil with a pointed tail--looks like a wolf--and demonstration signs that read ``History'' and ``Stop Killing.'' Simply put, this commanding work of art from a teenager is a true testament to the power and immeasurable significance of our Nation's young artists who express us. The debate sparked by its removal from the Capitol is about something larger than the artwork itself. It is about defending our fundamental First Amendment freedom. This right to artistic expression is considered objectionable by a few and applauded by the vast majority of Americans who understand what free expression in this society is about. Neither the Architect of the Capitol nor a Member of Congress has the right to censor, self-censor citizens based on their political points of view, whether in the name of official decorum or because they find it offensive or because they fail to grasp its deep meaning. In America, if you do not like a painting you see in a display, you simply move on to the next one. You don't take it down. It doesn't belong to you. Nevertheless, as a painter myself and citizen who deeply reveres our constitutional rights, I am confident that in this case justice ultimately will prevail and Untitled #1 will soon resume its rightful place inside our Capitol because a young man with this depth of expression is proudly an American. If it doesn't come back, I fear for the slippery slope the Architect of the Capitol has begun, and it is not worthy of us as Americans. I want to thank Congressman Clay so very much for standing by this young American who is not even 18 years old yet, I don't think, and who managed to put this complex piece of art together. I am so proud of him; I am so proud of our country; and I just know that, working together, we are going to get it right for artistic expression here in the House of Representatives.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life of Fritz Gerhard Hetzel, a devoted husband, father and grandfather; successful businessman and civic leader; and the Godfather of the Toledo-area German-American Festival. Fritz was born on July 4, 1931, and grew up in war-torn Germany. He lost his father and other members of his family during the conflict. These tragedies and the difficulty that his mother and his sister and he lived through taught him many things. One such lesson was one that he passed down to his children and grandchildren: ``Tough times don't last but tough people do.'' As his wife Ann says, ``That was his mantra with the kids, and even for himself. He went through a lot.'' After the war, Fritz learned to be a barber and cut hair at the U.S. 7th Army headquarters in Heidelberg. It was appropriate that Fritz was born on the Fourth of July because his time spent working on the base inspired him to move to the United States. He first immigrated to Canada where he worked as a barber and then earned enough to be granted a U.S. visa. In 1958, Fritz moved to Toledo, Ohio and began his new life by purchasing a barber business. He later went into sales at Ottawa Hills Memorial Park and was a co-owner of Fritz and Alfredo's, where the German and Mexican dishes on the menu were very popular. Fritz thrived in Toledo, meeting his loving wife Ann, whom he married on September 9, 1961. He and Ann had 2 daughters, Susan Molloy and Tina Zientarski, and were blessed with six grandchildren: Mitchell, Michael, Matthew, Katherine, Zachary and Grace. He dedicated himself to his family and to sharing his pride of his German heritage. He was an active member of the American Turners Club, Bavarian Sports Club and the Toledo Schwaben Verein. At one point there were seven separate German societies in Toledo, and Fritz, along with his friends, was instrumental in bringing the seven societies together to organize one major event, the annual German-American Festival which attracts over 35,000 people annually. The first German-American festival was held in 1966. Fritz was passionate about music as well, where he led one of the area's most popular German bands, The Tirolers. The band played German music at festival and functions in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania. In 1977, he received the Bundesverdienstkreuz, or, the Federal Cross of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany, an honor given to citizens of other countries who work to promote German cultural activities in the United States. Upon his retirement from the restaurant business in Toledo in 2005, Fritz and Ann moved to Delray Beach, Florida, where he immediately joined the Lantana German-American Club and led as the Director of the Club Choir. Fritz Gerhard Hetzel had never-ending energy and gave his all to his family, community, businesses, and cultural activities. We should all aspire to be a selfless leader as he was. Goodbye (Auf Wiedersehen), Fritz.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the remarks of Vice President Joe Biden at a remembrance ceremony held in Columbus, Ohio on December 17, 2016 at the Mershon Auditorium (The Ohio State University): When John Glenn was 10 years old, his father, his hero, a veteran of World War I, taught him how to play ``Taps'' on the bugle. They'd play together on Memorial Day in New Concord [Ohio], small flags and flowers next to gravesites-- gravestones of the fallen. And John would recall that time and feeling when he said, where ``Love of country was a given. Defense of its ideals was an obligation.'' And, ``The opportunity to join in its [quests] and explorations was a challenge not only to fulfill a sacred duty but to join a joyous adventure. With John, all the years I knew him and worked with him was always a joyous adventure. Annie, what a joyous adventure you and John had together, on display for your children and the whole world to see. You all know it. You can tell when a couple really, genuinely loves and enjoys one another. It was infectious. On behalf of President Obama and the First Lady, on behalf of the American people, Jill and I are here because we love you Annie, and we loved John. And together you taught us all how to love. That's not something you usually talk about when you talk about heroes, especially heroes like John Glenn, who lived a life that was rigorous but tinged with just a little bit of magic. Just a little bit of magic. We talk about daring spirit, poise under pressure, mental and physical toughness, but for all his heroism that history will remember in war, in space, in public life, you felt something deeper with John. Annie, on the way to get to Air Force 2, I got a call from John Kerry, who's somewhere over the Atlantic on the way to another mission in the Middle East to try to deal with Yemen. And he told me about his time he got to spend with you a couple days ago, and the family. He pointed out, he said, ``Joe, you know John's only the ninth person in history in the state of Ohio to ever lie in state. ``Governor, I didn't know that.'' Only the ninth in history. And he talked about how much it meant to him to be with you. And he gave, spontaneously, what I think is maybe the best description of John Glenn I've ever heard--and I new John for 40 years. He said, ``John came out of the heart of the country''--like you kids do--``and he stole America's heart.'' ``Came out of the heart of the country and he stole America's heart.'' And he did: He stole America's heart. I remember as a kid, freshman in college, John's historic flight. And Annie, you and John and Jill and I have been friends for 40 years. I know others have longer relationships but what a wonderful 40 years it has been. We served in the Senate together side-by-side for 25 years, and we traveled around the world together. John was one of the happiest people I ever knew. Think about it--one of the happiest people I ever knew. He had that infectious smile. Even when things looked like everything was crashing down, John would walk into my office or walk into a caucus with that big smile on his face and I wondered, ``Where in the hell has he been?'' ``Did he not just hear what I just heard?'' (You think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding.) But the world knew, [revered], and respected John, from Columbus to Cambodia, from Washington to Beijing. He loved being a senator. He loved his constituents and his colleagues. He loved his staff, many of whom are here today. And, boy, did they love him back. And you could feel his love for his country and for his state and for the Marine Corps. He was kind of partial to

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I would like to honor former Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, who deserves a special place in American History. When I first came to the House of Representatives, I was one of just 24 women serving in Congress. Although a small cohort, this was made possible by Ms. Rankin, who was the first woman elected to Congress, 100 years ago. Congresswoman Rankin was a part of the suffragist movement, even opening congressional debate on a Constitutional amendment to grant universal suffrage. She brought this same passion to her work in social welfare, advocating on behalf of women and children. Today we have seen our ranks swell to 104 members of Congress. Research has shown that when women participate in government, it is more collaborative and more functional. Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin was a trailblazer who shattered glass ceilings and proved to the American people that women's contributions are valuable and they are deserving of positions of power. For her tireless efforts, I worked to have a portrait commissioned in 2010, to fortify our institution's rich art history, paving a new way of democracy. I know she would be proud to see the progress we have made, and prouder still of the indomitable spirit of American women, who continue to make their voices heard.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the American flag on our Nation's Capitol is flying at half-mast to honor the life of American hero, Ohio Senator and Colonel John Herschel Glenn, being laid to rest today at Arlington National Cemetery. What a human being, what a patriot, what an American hero, and what a marine whose raw courage was evidenced time and time again. A devoted, faithful husband to his beautiful wife, Annie, and father and grandfather, his life and works keep giving to us and our world. John was a highly decorated war veteran, a Marine Corps colonel who completed 56 combat missions on the Pacific front alone during World War II, and then served in the Korean conflict. He was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and 18 clusters on his Air Medal. At the dawn of the space age, Senator Glenn became the first human being to orbit our planet Earth in 1962 on Friendship 7. Can you imagine his awe as he became the first human to observe planet Earth suspended aloft in the heavens with endless space beyond? In 1974, John Glenn was elected to the U.S. Senate, and undertook many tough missions in his life, but none could have been more piercing than when he was given the weighty task of informing the children of Senator Robert F. Kennedy of that Senator's fateful assassination. John Glenn's life embodies the words ``devotion,'' ``honor,'' ``patriotism,'' and ``bravery.'' He never stopped giving. At age 77, he chose to join the team of astronauts who were launched into space on the Discovery. Upon retirement from the U.S. Senate in 1999, after a quarter century of service, he dedicated his years to founding and raising funds for the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University. In recognition of his incredible and generous life, I will place in the Record the remarks of Vice President Joe Biden at a remembrance ceremony held in Columbus, Ohio, recently, as our State honored his life and legacy. May the angels lead John Glenn into paradise and give peace to his family. May eternal rest grant unto you, dearest Senator and Colonel Glenn. You gave all that you could possibly give, and America is forever grateful. May I ask my colleagues to stand with me for a moment of silence in remembrance of Senator John Glenn.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the nearly 50 million baby boomers about to retire. It is National Retirement Planning Week, and before I get to the importance of this effort, let me say, there are no more important foundational programs that sustain our seniors and retirees than Medicare and Social Security. These earned benefits are critical, as nearly half of all baby boomers saved nothing for their retirement. Thank you to Representative John Larson from Connecticut for introducing the Social Security 2100 Act, which protects and strengthens Social Security for decades to come. I have long been an advocate for protecting workers' pensions, and, sadly, more Americans than ever before are shouldering the burden of financing retirement alone. That is why we need a national conversation on retirement planning, and Congress should lead it. Far too many seniors find Social Security is simply not enough to live on. America must preserve Social Security, protect retirement accounts and pensions, and work with our constituents to make sure they have the resources they need to have a dignified retirement. Thank you to the National Retirement Planning Coalition, whose fantastic online resources are available to all Americans free of charge. Let's get to work for our retirees. In closing, let me also say hardiest congratulations to Congressman Steve Stivers from the great State of Ohio, who has been just promoted to brigadier general in the Ohio National Guard. Onward, Steve Stivers. We are very proud of you on a bipartisan basis.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to President Trump's ever-growing risk of personal and business entanglements. They call into question his ability to serve impartially in the interests of the American people. Both he and his administration remain closely linked to private companies and foreign entities whose interests are often in direct opposition to those of the United States. For example, we are well aware of the increasing boldness of the Chinese regime and its efforts to extend their economic and military influence. Despite portraying China publicly as a threat to economic growth of the United States, the President has selected Goldman Sachs' executive, Gary Cohn, to be his director of the National Economic Council. That is about one of seven individuals from Goldman Sachs who have been brought into this administration. Mr. Cohn has just sold his $16 million holding in a Chinese bank. This same state-owned Chinese bank also happens to be the largest tenant in Trump Tower in Manhattan. Isn't that a coincidence? Wilbur Ross, President Trump's choice for Commerce Secretary, presents similar conflicts of interest. As a man who will play a major role in shaping U.S. trade policy, Mr. Ross continues to hold a stake worth tens of millions of dollars in the international shipping company, Diamond S Shipping Group, a company that not only operates ships that fly the Chinese flag, but those ships also call on ports in countries, such as Iran and Sudan, that are under U.S. sanctions for being state sponsors of terrorism. We also know that The Trump Organization was recently awarded sole rights to the President's name for products sold in China. He had waited 10 years to get those rights. The case was settled just mere days after President Trump's phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, when the President reversed his prior stance on Chinese unification and gave a full-throated endorsement to what he termed ``One China'' policy. That was a reversal from what he had done just after the election. Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, President Trump's son-in- law, Jared Kushner, was recently negotiating a real estate deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars with a Chinese company closely tied to its government. And while it has been reported that the deal was called off, the fact that Mr. Kushner is continuing to negotiate private real estate deals while serving as a White House employee is deeply troubling. It was announced last week that Ivanka Trump will now be joining her husband in the White House as an adviser to the President with top secret security clearance. While she has stepped down from her former role at her fashion licensing company that uses the Trump name, her decision to transfer her brand's assets into a trust run by her own brother-in-law--and her arrangement to continue to receive fixed payments from the company--is a matter of serious concern given her role in the administration. The ever-growing list of valid concerns about the Trump administration's conflicting entanglements are taking place at the same time that the President is proposing $18 billion in reductions for the 2017 appropriations process--while he himself, his daughter, son-in- law, and his Cabinet members continue to benefit off the American taxpayer. While the President spends millions of tax dollars on securing his residences in New York and in Florida and flying to his so-called southern White House almost every weekend, he is slashing to zero the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative--an absolutely critical program that directly impacts my district and many others responsible for preserving the world's largest body of fresh water from serious and growing environmental threats. What is right about that? President Trump also wants to eliminate TIGER grants, a highly successful transportation program that provides funding for communities across America with backlogged infrastructure projects that create jobs and produce robust economic benefits. Everyone agrees on that. He has also called for a nearly $3 billion draconian reduction to foreign operations endangering our national security. We are the leader of the free world the last time I looked, and, meanwhile, he and his family spend millions of American taxpayer dollars on travel and security costs for themselves. With an investigation into President Trump's possible entanglements with Putin's Russia already underway, and members of the President's family and administration engaging in increasingly brazen conflicts of interest, this Congress should pass legislation to prevent these increasingly apparent conflicts of interest from endangering our Nation and the American people. It is only a matter of time before his conflicts of interest harm our country.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank Congressman Cicilline. He hit it right on the head. We ought to be exporting goods, not importing this many more than we export, and we ought to be creating jobs right here. I am sure he has seen companies from his community, from his State, literally picked up and then magically transported to some other environment, like Mexico, in one of the maquiladoras, and maybe windshield wipers or plastic parts or auto parts that used to be made in the United States then are made down there. I certainly have seen it.

Ms. KAPTUR. If we look at this chart, just for those who are listening to us this evening, if you go back to the mid-1970s, as Congressman Cicilline pointed out, you will see the United States was pretty buoyant. We were actually exporting more than we were importing. But then when China Most Favored Nation passed in 1979, 1994 NAFTA passed, and all of a sudden what was happening is the reverse flow started. We started importing more than we were exporting, and every time you get a billion dollars of red ink, you lose 5,000 more jobs in this country. Well, my gosh, as NAFTA actually took full bore and then China permanent normal trade relations took effect here, CAFTA, which was the Central American Free Trade Agreement, here was the Colombian Free Trade Agreement, here was the Korean Free Trade Agreement, every single agreement that happened, we ended up getting more imports into our country than exports out, and promises were not kept. Our focus tonight is mainly on NAFTA, but if we look at Korea, they were supposed to be taking 50,000 cars from us. We were supposed to have more balanced trade. Well, guess what, they didn't keep up their end of the bargain. Other markets around the world, such as Japan, remain closed to this day to cars from other places in the world. You say: Congresswoman, that can't be possible. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have visited there many times. When I first began my career, Japan had about--oh, 3 percent of the cars on their streets were from anyplace else in the world. Today maybe it is 4 percent, maybe it is 3.5 percent, but there are all kinds of nontariff barriers where they keep cars out. Yet you look at our country, they have put manufacturing plants here, they send product over here. It simply isn't a two-way street, and Japan is the second largest market in the world for automobiles. So the trade isn't fair. The American people know this. They are trying to fix this. It really requires the President's leadership to do it. Congressman Cicilline talked about steel trade--I just want to put on the Record--with China, and we see what a big player she is in the market and doesn't play fair. I just want to put some numbers on the Record. China's expansion of steel since 2000 has grown to over 2,300 million metric tons. That is a big number to imagine. But only 1,500 million metric tons are needed to actually serve the global marketplace. So what you have got is over 800 million metric tons of steel just floating around the world in warehouses and stored up in provinces in China, and they are dumping the steel. Why does that matter? Because in places like I represent, Lorain, Ohio, U.S. Steel just pink-slipped hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of more workers. Republic Steel, which sits next door to U.S. Steel, has shuttered their plant because of imported steel. The President could do something about that. He could have done something about that the second day he was in office. Nothing has been done. All these workers, some of whom have worked in these plants for 28 years, in modernized plants where hundreds of millions of dollars of investment have been made to upgrade the capacity of these plants, rather than save that capacity for our country for the years ahead and to try to deal with this Chinese dumping, they are allowing more workers and more companies to go belly up in this country. It is wrong. It is wrong. This needs to be fixed. This is big time for jobs and economic growth in our country. I want to thank Congressman Brendan F. Boyle, who understands this problem full well. As a younger Member of Congress and one who really speaks on behalf of working men and women in Pennsylvania and coast to coast, I thank him so much for taking time and joining us tonight. I yield to the gentleman.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Boyle. He has raised so many important issues tonight on jobs and trade and how we fix this problem for the people of our country and, frankly, the world. One of the issues is which banks are actually financing this outsourcing. I can tell you, they are not banks in the communities that I represent. They are not big enough to put all that money, to actually take these big companies and move them out of the United States and plunk them down in a Third World environment. It is largely Wall Street banks that do that. So they fly over the heads of people that live in communities across this country. The gentleman talked about Nabisco moving. I had an experience. I went out to Newton, Iowa, a few years ago when Maytag was closing. I felt so bad as an American that a gold star label company that had manufactured reliable, high-quality products in our country was closing. I learned what was happening. What I didn't realize was that the production that closed in Newton, Iowa, large parts of it were moved south of the border. I was traveling down to Monterrey, Mexico. I was going down there, actually, to find out what had happened to someone who was murdered, who had been a student in our community and was murdered in Monterrey, Mexico. We went by this big complex that said Maytag, Amana, all of these American companies that had been outsourced to Monterrey. I said: Stop the cab. I am taking a picture. This is exactly what I am talking about. I said: Let me ask a question to some of the people that were walking by and living in the area. I said: Can the people who work in that Maytag plant in Monterrey, can they afford to buy the washers they make? Guess what? No. In fact, where they lived, there was no running water. There was no decent water to drink. I thought: This is what we stand for as a country? What is wrong with this picture? For our country, in districts like mine, the results of all this lopsided trade are that citizens in northern Ohio, on average, are earning $7,000 less than they did when this century began, because of this. The playing field is simply not level. Several years ago, I was visited by a group of United Automobile Workers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They told me--and I just love these wonderful, generous human beings. They had all been pink-slipped. They had just lost their jobs. They came to see me to tell me their stories on trade and what it had done to them. They said: Marcy, we are training those who are going to replace us in Mexico. But we went down to Mexico, and we felt so sorry to see where the people lived and the conditions under which they were working that we are collecting medical items, and we are doing humanitarian shipments to that town. I thought: Oh, my goodness, what a generous group of Americans who are facing such horror in their own lives and yet they were doing that for people who live on this continent--and were, by the way, going to be earning, like, one-twentieth of what the workers in Milwaukee earned. So it was all about cheap labor. I really felt bad for the cheapening of the Maytag product. I am probably going to get in trouble for saying that, but it is the truth. I certainly learned a lesson by traveling to Newton, Iowa. Now, another story, this is on plastic seals. I happened to visit a plant in the Tijuana area, and I walked through the plant in Mexico. This company had been moved from Ohio and its equipment shipped down to Mexico. I walked through this plant. It was about 100 degrees that particular day. I turned the corner. There were no fans taking out the exhaust. It was bloody hot, and it had to be 110 degrees. These men were working. They had T-shirts on. It was very hot that summer. They were pulling down these large levers because they were melting plastic and rubber. I witnessed this. I thought: Boy, that really looks dangerous with that thing that they are pulling down because it was moving like this. I thought: Boy, they have got to really pay attention every time they move that steam press down so they don't catch their arm in there. I took pictures, and I sent them back to Ohio. I got a letter from one of my constituents. This constituent said: Congresswoman, did you really take a look at the picture you took? I thought: Well, yeah, I was looking at the workers. He said: No. No. Look at the machine, the machine, up in the right- hand corner, the button with the tape over it. I said: Oh, yeah. He said: I used to do that job. Do you know what that button is? I said: No. He said: That is the safety button. In other words, when the equipment was shipped and the machine started, life wasn't worth as much in Mexico, so these workers were working with much greater risk of injury to themselves because the equipment had been tinkered with in a way that told me a lot about health and safety standards and how they are really not enforced in places like Mexico. I finally want to end with a story that relates to trade. It doesn't just have to do with goods. It has to do with human beings, with people, and why renegotiating trade deals is so important for what our Constitution says we stand for: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is a country that believes in liberty and justice for all. It has to do with the undocumented workers in our country who are coming from south of our border. We hear all kinds of rhetoric about that, but the truth is that I face the reality of what happened in the agricultural sector with NAFTA. What happened is we wanted two-way trade with Mexico, but what the trade agreement did is it caused great problems in Mexico in that over 2 million small farmers in Mexico were displaced by the NAFTA agreement because our country was 18 times more efficient in corn agriculture than the Mexican people. These workers and owners of these little ejidos, these little, tiny farms that were subsistence farms, they were just completely obliterated--2 million or more people. Well, guess what? When you lose your livelihood and the trade agreement doesn't provide for readjustment, what do you think desperate people do? They run anywhere to eat, and north of the border looks pretty attractive. As I heard all of these speeches during the campaign about what we are going to do on trade and how we are going to fix everything, I have never heard any of the major candidates talk about: How are you going to fix the problem for the people in Mexico who lost their livelihoods, their ability to produce for themselves? The undocumented worker problem has a big, big root in Mexico. It was an uncaring set of governments that negotiated these agreements that caused that hemorrhage that creates an endless flow of people who are desperate, who will do anything to survive. You wouldn't want this to happen to your family. I am all for yellow corn from the United States. I eat corn. I just served it the other night to our family. But when a trade agreement wipes out the livelihoods of millions of people, it upsets an entire continent. So now the solution is not to figure out a way to have readjustment in agriculture in Mexico as part of a renegotiated NAFTA agreement; the answer is supposed to be a wall. Do you know what? Walls don't feed people. Proper trade agreements feed people when they are done the right way and you don't obliterate people's lives. That is what really matters. When I see what the White House is producing, I haven't seen anything yet that really gets us to balanced trade accounts in a way that people matter and the communities in which they live matter. And it isn't always a default to what Wall Street wants and cheap labor and substandard working conditions and substandard living conditions. We have to do better than that. We have to aspire to a system where people are invited into a trade union in which we have rising standards of living, where we have balanced trade accounts again, and where people's incomes and living standards rise. If we don't get there, we are going to have even greater social problems on this continent. Today, I met with El Salvadoran workers, talking about the conditions in that country, what has happened there with the maquiladoras and the situations that people face in their daily lives. This race to the bottom is not working. It is not working in our country. It is not working in the Latin American countries or in Canada. We simply have to aspire to the highest values that founded this country. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), someone who knows all about those values. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro is a true leader of our trade efforts to reform this really terrible trade regimen that isn't helping anyone but the wealthiest investors who have invested in the movement of these companies abroad. Connecticut we think of as an eastern State close to New York, but Connecticut has been battered in so many corners by trade. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro is an indefatigable Member of the House. I don't know how the people of Connecticut found her, but keep sending her here because she really does her job with distinction. I thank her so much for joining us this evening.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman DeLauro for her stellar leadership on the trade task force and the work that it has done. The hours and hours of effort on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the great assemblage that she gathered and the persistence with which she approached that, seeking to defeat that trade model, which has now been done, and to go back to the drawing board and to fix what is wrong with these, Representative DeLauro has been extraordinary. I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) in the beginning of our Special Order this evening. Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the Anniversary of His Death

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Congressman Rush is always calling the Nation to its higher principles. I thank him so very much for sharing our Special Order this evening. Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island is here on the floor. I also want to thank Congressman John Garamendi for sharing his hour with us. The focus tonight really is on jobs and trade, an issue on the mind of millions and millions of Americans. We have been joined by Congressman Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well. I will place this up for the Nation to see. It is a chart showing just U.S. trade relations with Mexico and Canada and what has happened since the deal was negotiated back in the early 1990s. It was also prepared before that, during the 1980s, when the United States actually had some trade surpluses on this continent with both Canada and Mexico. This shows, in 1994, when NAFTA was actually enacted. You could see the United States begin to kind of fall into deficit. Then we had just a precipitous trade deficit, including the collapse of the peso after the NAFTA trade agreement was signed. This is serious business for our country because this red ink represents lost jobs, lost productive power, and communities in disrepair across this country, where production units were just picked up and put either north or south of the border. Tonight, we want to focus on President Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, which he announced during the campaign and afterwards. Here were his words: Everything is going to be based on bringing our jobs back, the good jobs, the real jobs. They have to come back. Well, after all we have lost, we certainly do need job creation in this country. We are now into the third month of Mr. Trump's Presidency and closing in on his first 100 days in office, a period when most Presidents are able to pass something through this Congress that really matters to the American people. I remember when we were able to save Social Security back during the 1980s and when a Congress was elected in response to Ronald Reagan's excesses, and it was in the first quarter of the year that that was done. So we are waiting. It is 100 days now, and nothing significant has been done on the jobs and trade front. Candidate Donald Trump's campaign for President in my region of America was actually founded on the principle of fixing jobs and trade. People listened. But if we look at this first 100 days, we see that he has really taken a back seat to his billionaire donors and their interests and a staff that seems to be more and more peopled with individuals who spent a whole lot of time at Goldman Sachs, which is a company that has been notorious in helping to outsource jobs. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Trump touted his trade policies, assuring voters he would renegotiate NAFTA. Well, we have been waiting. During a debate, he said: ``NAFTA is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country.'' I would say that that agreement is the foundational agreement, the precepts on which all subsequent trade deals have been negotiated that have placed America in a red ink position: many more imports coming into this country, many more of our jobs being outsourced elsewhere than our exports going out. So I ask: Are the strong planks for a new NAFTA part of what the Trump administration is proposing? Well, no. A leaked draft notice last week revealed a tepid agenda on trade that is little more than a rehash of what the President said in his campaign rhetoric. It is not a real plan. The one action item identified in the Trump trade agenda is the announcement of a study to find out why the United States is losing in global trade. It actually doesn't focus completely on NAFTA itself, and we need healing in this hemisphere before we start looking around the world. The reality is we know why the deficit is so bad. Bad trade deals have led to a loss of nearly 4 million American jobs and a deficit just last month of $43.6 billion. President Trump promised a trade deal that would get Americans back to work and reduce our deficit. Instead, our deficit with NAFTA and Mexico and Canada is 31 percent higher. It got worse than a year ago. So I hope the President understands the real urgency of stopping U.S. job outsourcing, especially in the manufacturing sector. He should do more than pay lipservice. He should really take a look at how thin his administration proposals have been on renegotiating this agreement. He should establish real goals and timetables for U.S. trade to drive policy that will fix these job- killing trade agreements and deliver real benefits for the American people. Now, we have Members who have been very active on this trade issue since being sworn in here in Congress. Mr. Speaker, I yield now to Congressman David Cicilline, former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, and a very strong leader for working men and women across this country.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it is Equal Pay Day, and I am privileged to rise in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act today. This legislation would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by ensuring that women can hold employers accountable for what they earn and challenge discrimination. Representative Rosa DeLauro has introduced this bill for two decades, which is two decades too long. Women in Ohio make 75 cents for every dollar a man makes, which is unacceptable. It is time we close the decades-old loophole that prevents the United States from closing this gender pay gap once and for all. The Paycheck Fairness Act would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963, by holding employers accountable for discriminatory practices. The bill would end the practice of pay secrecy, ease workers' ability to individually or jointly challenge pay discrimination, and strengthen the available remedies for wronged employees. President Trump said on equal pay: ``If they do the same job, they should get the same pay.'' Boy, do I agree. So let's make it happen.