Kevin Kiley

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of chairing the subcommittee that has jurisdiction over all of K-12 education, and I wanted to let folks know about a very important hearing that we are having next Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. eastern time on artificial intelligence and its uses in education. Now, some folks might hear the topic of that hearing and think about things like: Is AI making it easier for students to cheat, or is this going to absorb young people even further into digital worlds? Those are certainly concerns. However, the focus of our hearing is going to be on the upside. It will be on the tremendous potential, the boundless opportunities that AI--even as it exists right now, let alone what its capabilities are going to be in a matter of weeks, months, and years, the unbelievable opportunities to close achievement gaps and advance student achievement. I firmly believe, if it isn't already true now then it will be true in a very short time, that every child in America now has the ability to get a richer and more immersive education than any child did just a few years ago. I was part of an organization when I was a teacher that was aimed at closing achievement gaps in America. The different opportunities that are afforded to young students depending on the ZIP Code that they live in is an ongoing failure of our public education system. There are many policy changes that we need to make to address that, such as providing for greater choices for students and their families. However, the use of artificial intelligence is another incredibly powerful tool for closing these achievement gaps. That is because now, no matter where you were born, the ZIP Code that you live in, or the neighborhood school that is closest to you, Mr. Speaker, you, as a young person growing up in America, can access the entirety of human knowledge. It can be conveyed and given to you in a way that meets your own starting knowledge level, your own ability level, and your own strengths and weaknesses in the modality that fits you. We are seeing incredible things that are being done already at different schools across the country as well as with platforms like the Khan Academy where you can have a direct dialogue with a chatbot or, for example, a reanimated version of Albert Einstein that teaches you physics, or you can have a dialogue with a historical figure as you are learning history, or with a literary character as you are reading a classic novel. In addition, beyond giving the student this novel, immersive experience that is uniquely tailored to them, it also liberates teachers to focus on those sorts of things that only a caring human instructor can do. So we are still in the very early stages, and the capabilities of AI systems are growing by the day. I think this is going to be a very important moment for us to look at what is being done now and what we can do going forward to expand these incredible learning opportunities to every child in America. So you can tune into our hearing next Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. eastern time. Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley based in California's Third Congressional District. The Rotary Club of Grass Valley was established in 1925 by 25 local business and professional leaders who were inspired by the Rotary movement's ideals of service and ethical business practices. Club members represented a cross section of the community and included businessmen and professionals associated with and directly involved with the major regional economic activities of mining and timber harvesting. The outbreak of World War II had a profound impact on the activities of the Rotary Club as many of its members were called to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. Those who remained in Grass Valley continued to support the war effort through various initiatives, such as organizing blood drives, collecting scrap metal, and helping military families. The history of the Rotary Club of Grass Valley is a testament to the power of community spirit and collective action. Today, the Rotary Club hosts several community events meant to support the numerous programs and activities that provide the resources needed to promote the quality of life of Grass Valley residents, the surrounding region, and communities across the globe. For more than 10 decades now, the club has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to service, fellowship, and leadership. Their contributions are an indelible part of the Grass Valley community and have made a lasting impact on our region. Therefore, on behalf of California's Third Congressional District and the United States House of Representatives, I am pleased to recognize the Rotary Club of Grass Valley for their outstanding contributions throughout their 100-year history, and I commend them for their ongoing and tireless devotion to community service. Here is to another great 100 years. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KILEY

Mr. KILEY. Mr. Chair, America's universities have long been the place where for better or for worse cultural trends tend to begin and then spread throughout the rest of the country. Unfortunately, in recent years, it has been for worse. An ethos of censorship took hold first in American universities before spreading to tech companies throughout our broader culture and into the government itself. Of course we saw most vividly on university campuses the absolutely appalling scenes of anti-Semitism that sadly also became part of our broader problem for the rest of the country over the last few years and even before that. America's adversaries, noticing this phenomenon, have decided that targeting our universities is a way to weaken the United States. Infiltrating our universities is a way to influence our broader institutions and to influence public opinion. You see, for example, a congressional investigation found that there were nearly $40 million in contracts with the CCP or CCP-linked organizations. This is just what we know about. Institutions have accepted billions in anonymous foreign funds without any transparency or accountability. There was even a recent study from the Institute for the Global Study of Anti-Semitism and Policy showing how this has infiltrated K-12 classrooms as well as funding from Qatar ended up at Brown University which developed anti- Israel curricula that then went to 8,000 K-12 schools throughout the entire country. The DETERRENT Act is a much-needed, commonsense piece of legislation that simply says if you are going to accept funding from foreign countries, you need to disclose that. After all, universities are massively funded in various forms by the Federal Government, so if taxpayer dollars are going to support institutions that are taking foreign money, we should know about that. The requirements put in place by this bill simply say that if you accept a gift of $50,000 or more, a foreign gift, then you need to report that, and it is anything of any value if it is from an adversarial nation. The bill also closes reporting gaps, including faculty-level disclosures and imposes real penalties for noncompliance, including loss of title IV funds. The good news, Mr. Chair, is that over the last year or so we have seen a reckoning begin in higher education in this country, and we are starting to see very positive changes. A number of university presidents have lost their jobs, and universities are increasingly committing themselves anew to protecting civil rights and promoting academic freedom. The DETERRENT Act will be an important part of that trend. I am proud to be a cosponsor.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I am quite astonished. I had every expectation I would be coming to the floor for what would be a bill with overwhelming bipartisan support. After all, COVID-era unemployment fraud was the largest fraud of taxpayer dollars in U.S. history. In California alone, it amounted to some $32 billion. By the way, California made it really easy. People would submit claims with the name ``Mickey Mouse,'' or something along those lines, and it was given no scrutiny as the State ignored the basic fraud detection procedures that were recommended by the Federal Government. Because of the scale of this fraud, there is a very small percentage of the cases that have been prosecuted, and thousands remain unresolved, so there is the need to extend the statute of limitations. The question with this bill is: Are we going to allow those cases to go forward, or are they all going to be dismissed? Are we going to hold the perpetrators accountable, or are we going to let them all go free? Are we going to try to recover these funds for taxpayers, or are we going to allow the international criminal syndicates to keep it? By the way, Mr. Speaker, what do you think they are going to do with the money? Give it to charity? No. They are going to use it for further criminal activity. This is a commonsense measure. I am sure 99.9 percent of Americans support it, and I sure hope 100 percent of our friends on the other side of the aisle don't oppose it when it comes for a vote.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, we just heard the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) speak passionately on a number of topics. It is his prerogative as an elected Member of Congress to speak from this floor on any topic he chooses. What is not his or any of our right is to stand up during the State of the Union and interrupt the President of the United States. Imagine if everyone did that. Imagine if everyone took whatever grievance they have in the moment and decided to use the State of the Union to air that grievance. Imagine if, during President Biden's speech, each and every one of the Republicans in the House had stood up and objected to the President's open-border policies or his runaway inflation policies. The State of the Union could not be delivered. The institution could not function. What is even more remarkable, though, than the conduct of this 1 Member is the fact that all but 10 of his colleagues on their side of the aisle chose not to censure this eminently censurable conduct. We held a vote today, and there were 10 Democrats who joined with the Republicans in voting for the censure. They are Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, James Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Tom Suozzi of New York. The other 200 Members who were present chose not to censure that conduct. I find that remarkable. Indeed, the antics on display during the joint session truly exemplified everything that is wrong with politics in this country today and exemplified everything that Americans are so tired of. There was, of course, the outburst from the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green). There were the pathetic little protests of a handful of people walking out in the middle of the speech. There were the sad, little cards with statements like ``Lies'' on them. Beyond all of that, there was a premeditated refusal from one side of the aisle, acting in unison, to stand and applaud for literally anything that the President said. What were some of the things that they uniformly, acting as a monolith, refused to applaud? They refused to stand and applaud for record-low illegal border crossings, for protecting women's sports, for stopping fraudulent payments, and for capturing a terrorist who killed 13 American servicemembers. They refused to stand and applaud for supporting law enforcement, for improving military recruitment, for protecting free speech, for having our workers actually show up to work, for hiring people based on merit, for opening new power plants, for living in peace, for the signing of the Abraham Accords, and for returning manufacturing to America. Not a single person stood. That is kind of the most incredible thing, that there was a willful decision to sacrifice any individuality to the orders being given by party leadership. It got particularly disturbing when the President recognized a number of heroic Americans who were present, and we had our colleagues refuse to stand and applaud for a volunteer firefighter who provided a home to 40 foster children; to the victim of a deepfake who has become an advocate for other victims; to the family of Laken Riley; to the family of Jocelyn Nungaray; to a heroic Border Patrol agent; to the widow of an officer who was killed in the line of duty; to a 13-year-old survivor of brain cancer, such an inspiring young man; to a young man admitted to West Point; to a history teacher who has finally been brought home after being a political prisoner in Russia, sentenced to 14 years; and to the family of Corey Comperatore. Each and every time the President recognized one of these individuals in the gallery, there was a premeditated refusal to stand and acknowledge them. We know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know how to do it. During President Biden's State of the Union Addresses, which, by the way, his last one was one of the most caustic, partisan speeches I have ever seen, where he repeatedly compared himself to his predecessor; that is, his political opponent at the time. Dozens of times, Democrats stood and applauded. By the way, on our side, for a lot of those times, we didn't stand and applaud because he was saying partisan things or things that we disagreed with. When he said things that we agreed with, I would stand. Others on my side would stand, as well. When he spoke to unifying ideas, ideas about what makes our country great, we would stand and applaud. When he highlighted people who were deserving of commendation, we would stand and applaud. Yet, the contrast could not have been starker in President Trump's speech and the reaction to it here in the Chamber on Tuesday. I think that is really unfortunate because Americans of all party affiliations--Republican, Democratic, Independent, Green Party, whatever the case may be--repeatedly say in overwhelming numbers that the political divisions in this country are a serious problem. I believe it is weakening us as a country, and I think we need to find opportunities to come together. We need to be looking for common ground. The fact that we had one side that came to Tuesday's speech intent on finding no common ground whatsoever is a very unfortunate thing. California's High-Speed Rail

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I formally requested that FBI Director Kash Patel open an investigation into California's High-Speed Rail. My letter to Director Patel reads as follows: ``While I know that many issues are competing for your time, one issue that deserves your attention is California's High-Speed Rail Project. ``Nearly 17 years ago, California and the United States were sold on the dream of high-speed rail in California. Originally projected to cost $33 billion and scheduled to be completed by 2020, that dream has become a nightmare. According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority's own estimates, the total project cost has now ballooned by over $100 billion above that original estimate. Moreover, California's auditor reports that the HSRA will miss its latest 2033 deadline . . . without having completed a single segment of the track. Indeed, The New York Times reported that, according to `projections widely used by engineers and project managers, the train could not be completed in this century.' ``This malfeasance leads to questions that transcend mere incompetence. How is it possible to have spent over $13 billion without a single station opening? Where have these funds gone? Who benefited? ``Because the project has consumed billions in Federal funding, the FBI has both the authority, and I would argue the responsibility, to pursue these questions and deliver answers to the American people. The public integrity division is uniquely qualified to root out any corruption, recover stolen funds, and restore confidence that our tax dollars are being stewarded carefully. ``On behalf of my constituents and the people of California, thank you for your consideration of this request.'' I am hopeful that through this investigation we will finally see some accountability and a measure of justice for California taxpayers. 187,000 People in California are Homeless

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, the California Legislative Analyst has just released a new report on the amount of homelessness spending in California. It reports that since 2019, the State has spent over $36 billion. This is truly astounding when you consider what has actually happened with homelessness in California during that time. During the Governorship of Gavin Newsom, we have seen a 24 percent increase in homelessness. The population is now over 187,000 people, and roughly half of all unsheltered homeless in the United States are in California. We have continued to spend more and more money, over $36 billion over this time period, and the homeless population has only continued to grow. What is worse, the legislative analyst has found that the Governor's office lost track of most of that money. This was in an audit that was released last year. In this new report, even since that audit, we are seeing the same problem with the new spending that has been authorized. Indeed, the LAO reports that, despite many requirements, as of this writing, no data have been provided to the legislature on how many people living in encampments have received permanent housing or any other type of housing. The legislature lacks other key outcomes data such as the number of encampments that have been resolved. We continue to see the same problems in California: spending billions of billions, homelessness getting worse, and zero accountability. The Governor even vetoed last year a bipartisan bill that would have allowed for greater transparency and accountability when it comes to homelessness spending. Mr. Speaker, this is absolutely unacceptable, and it has gotten to the point where I believe we need to find ways to bring new tools of Federal oversight and accountability to the out-of-control homelessness situation in California. We are looking at ways of doing just that. California Coastal Commission is Out of Control

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, this week, I officially introduced the Coastal Commission Accountability Act to strip the California Coastal Commission of its powers under Federal law. The Coastal Commission is simply out of control. It is one of the most out-of-control agencies in the whole country, and it has veered far from its purpose of protecting the coast. From blocking SpaceX launches to obstructing fire prevention projects, the commission has repeatedly threatened the safety of Californians and weakened our national defense, while needlessly undercutting innovation and economic progress. The need to rein the commission in has now become urgent as we face the challenge of rebuilding Los Angeles following the fires, and that will not be possible if the commission is allowed to continue operating as it has been. Just to give you a couple of examples of some of its abuses, one of them is specifically related to fire. In 2019, the L.A. Department of Water and Power began replacing nearly 100-year-old wooden power line poles that are cutting through Topanga State Park. The project, though, was halted because there was apparently an endangered plant, the Braunton's milkvetch plant that was in the area. Now, the goal of this project was to improve fire safety for the Pacific Palisades area by replacing the wooden poles with steel, widening fire access lanes in the area, and installing wind- and fire- resistant power lines. This was all after the area had been identified as having an elevated fire risk. What the Coastal Commission did, because of this Braunton's milkvetch plant, is they marched in, they halted the project, and they even demanded $2 million in fines. On top of that, the commission has blocked a desalination plant that had been proposed in Huntington Beach. It has stood in the way of housing, contributing to the housing crisis that we have in California, and it even tried to stop SpaceX from launching rockets out of Vandenberg. This one was particularly remarkable because SpaceX and the Air Force came and said we want to increase our launch cadence at Vandenberg. These launches are very important for a number of reasons when it comes to innovation, space exploration and national security. That is why the Air Force was involved. The Coastal Commission said, no, we are not going to allow that. What was the reason they cited? It had nothing to do with preserving the coast, which is their mission. It had nothing to do with maintaining the beauty of the California coast, one of the most beautiful places in the world, which is their mission. No. The commissioners explicitly said during their meeting that the reason they were going to stop these launches, which the Air Force said are in the national security interests of the United States, is because they didn't like some of the political posts put on X by Elon Musk on completely unrelated topics. This gives you a sense of what a rogue agency the Coastal Commission has become and the barriers that we will face to rebuilding Los Angeles if this is allowed to continue. I am looking forward to advancing the Coastal Commission Accountability Act through the House and getting it signed by the President, who I know agrees with me on this issue. I am hopeful that we can get bipartisan support throughout the process. Protecting Women and Girl's Sports in California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, today, I am calling on California Governor Gavin Newsom to immediately issue an executive order to protect women and girls sports in California and ask the legislature for legislation codifying in law that men shall never compete in women's sports in California again. Today, the Governor, on his newly established podcast called ``This is Gavin Newsom,'' came out with a statement that surprised many on this topic. He said that when it comes to men competing in women's sports, he said: ``I think it is an issue of fairness.'' It is an issue of fairness. ``It is deeply unfair.'' Those were the Governor's words. Now, this was surprising because his policies have been the 180- degree opposite. For example, he has signed legislation that has taken away the right of parents to be notified about decisions that their kids make at school with respect to how they identify, or on this issue of sports. In June 2022, not that long ago, the Governor attacked the State of Tennessee for not funding men competing in girls' sports. So at that point, he was not only in favor of it, he thought that a State refusing to actively promote it and fund it was deserving of censure. Okay. The Governor has changed his mind. I think that is great. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that polls show that some 90 percent of Americans support the basic predicate of sanity that men should compete in men's sports and women should compete in women's sports. Now, that message has apparently not been received by the United States Senate, which recently refused to pass the bill we passed in the House, the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act, but the Governor has made his statement. He claims this is his position. It would represent a change of heart, but it means nothing unless he acts on it if he continues to support policies that do the exact opposite. If the Governor is serious, I am calling on him today to take executive action to protect women's sports and to get the legislature to take action as well, so that we can end this absurdity and unfairness in California once and for all. Much-Needed Comprehensive Effort Under Way to Modernize Our Government

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, there is at this time a much- needed comprehensive effort under way to modernize our government, to root out fraud, to root out inefficiency, to implement reforms that will save the taxpayers' money, and lead to a higher quality of government service while rightsizing the Federal Government. This is an undertaking that is supported by a broad majority of Americans of all party affiliations. I have been very appreciative of the administration's efforts to keep us informed as well as to solicit feedback from Members of Congress as to how things are playing out in our districts, knowing that such a massive undertaking that is being done at a much-needed aggressive pace will inevitably, from time to time, produce some effects that need to be looked at more closely. One of the ways in which I have provided feedback to the administration is as it concerns the issue of fire protection in my district. Now, of course, we all saw the horror that unfolded in Los Angeles recently, but in recent years, these catastrophic events have become a recurring phenomenon. They have become, sadly, a fact of life for folks in California. Several of the most devastating fires in State history have occurred in my district. In the wake of these fires, there has been a massive undertaking to do whatever we can to try to prevent similar events from happening in the future. One of my very first priorities since I got to Congress is to bring unprecedented resources to our district for massive fire mitigation projects that will keep our communities safe. By the way, there is a lot of reform that we still need to do in terms of the regulations. There have been some minor improvements, but the Fix Our Forests Act, for example, is a bill that will go a long way. We do need the resources, which we have managed to secure at an unprecedented level, and I have simply tried to emphasize the importance of protecting these efforts, especially given the fact that in parts of my district that have rather extreme weather, there is a pretty short window of time right now to get some of these projects started and to get them completed. Just as a few examples, the Plumas County Fire Safe Council has a grant of nearly $7 million that is very important for fire mitigation efforts. The Nevada County Board of Supervisors has significant grants that have come in for vital wildfire mitigation projects, shaded fuel breaks, evacuation planning, and community wildfire protection planning. The Mono County Board of Supervisors has a public safety and law enforcement grant related to staffing of the forest protection officers and law enforcement officers, as well. American Rivers, there is a $16 million grant that is being funded by National Fish and Wildlife. There are matching funds as well with a number of regional partners. The purpose of the project is to restore high-severity burned areas near the South Fork of the American River and Cosumnes River to prevent erosion and flooding as well as to protect water quality and for drinking, irrigation, and hydropower. There is also the Eastern Sierra Climate and Communities Resilience Project. This is in Mammoth Lakes. There is $6.7 million for implementation funds as well as a number of other types of funds. This is a project that, again, is designed to do important fire mitigation work. There are potentially 1,609 acres with a reduction of 77 percent of total acres that is now potentially being faced. We have then as well some reports of folks with the Forest Service and positions that are in jeopardy. In the Camino Fire Safe Council, we have also gotten some reports of activity when it comes to their grants, as well. That is just to emphasize that this is an issue of the highest importance for folks in my district and that we need to absolutely--and I have been advocating this since I have been in elected office--have much more sensible policies when it comes to forest management, when it comes to the laws and regulations that we have that make it so difficult to do this needed work. We also need to do the work at a scale, and the resources to do it at a scale that is much higher than we have done in the past. I have been extremely critical of the Governor, for example, of not doing that, of exaggerating the amount of fire protection work done by almost 700 percent, according to Capital Public Radio. We have made good progress in terms of bringing Federal resources to get this work done, and I will continue to advocate for that here in every way that I can. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KILEY

Mr. KILEY. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, the basic premise of this bill, which I am happy to cosponsor, is that we should not have secret laws in the United States. A major opportunity that we have right now is to modernize our government and to rein in the inexorable growth of the administrative state, restoring power to our elected representatives, States, local communities, and the American people themselves. When we think about the administrative state, we think about all the regulations that are churned out, one after another, and compiled in the ever-growing Federal Register. The reality is, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Layered on top of all of that are these so-called guidance documents. These are memos, Dear Colleague letters, bulletins, all manner of what is referred to as ``regulatory dark matter.'' With respect to the ranking member, this is not a melodramatic term. It is actually quite appropriate. In physics, ``dark matter'' refers to the mysterious substance that makes up about 85 percent of the mass of the universe, but no one really knows what it is. Similarly, all of these guidance documents make up a great deal of the regulatory activity in our country, yet the agencies themselves can't even manage to track them down. How is an individual or a small business supposed to find out what this particular interpretation of the law is and how it will affect them, let alone how Congress is supposed to figure out how the laws that we have passed are ultimately being enforced and administered? This is a commonsense measure that says that all of these guidance documents, which have real teeth when it comes to the enforcement of regulations, need to be compiled in one place that is searchable and accessible to every American citizen. It is a positive step for transparency and toward restoring government by the people.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I am calling on Congress today to protect Medicaid benefits for American citizens. There are a number of States that are using taxpayer dollars to provide Medicaid to those who are in our country illegally. These are public funds that could have been spent providing care for their own citizens. Worst of all is my own State of California, which became the first State in the Nation, the only State in the Nation, to provide free Medi-Cal to every single person in our State illegally. It was recently revealed that this is costing California taxpayers $9.5 billion this year alone. Right now, we are talking about costs over a 10-year time horizon, so let's consider what that cost will be here. The cost is surely going to grow in terms of the year-over-year cost given, A, the rising cost of healthcare; and, B, increased enrollment. When you are the only State that is offering this most generous benefit, it entices people to come to your State. Indeed, that is why it went up 46 percent this year. That is why, last year, the San Diego border sector had the most illegal border crossings of any border sector in the country for the first time since the 1990s. When that $9.5 billion cost is factored in this year and the rate at which it is going to grow year over year for the next decade, we are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars that is going to go toward providing Medicaid benefits to people who are in our country illegally. These are funds that could have gone toward improving access to care for the most vulnerable Californians. Mr. Speaker, I think this is absolutely unacceptable. For all of the Members who have been giving impassioned speeches about the importance of protecting Medicaid, joining our efforts to stop this and joining my bill, the No Medicaid for Illegal Immigrants Act, is an opportunity to do just that. In Recognition of Kathryn Mandichak on Her Retirement

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize retiring Mono County Board of Education member, Kathryn Mandichak, for her years of devoted service to the people of Mono County. Kathryn has been a leader in the local community for over four decades, serving trustee area 1 as a board member for 11 terms. Kathy was born in Huntington Park, California, later moving to Mono County with her husband and three children from Whittier. In 1982, Kathy began her service on the Mono County Board of Education to fulfill her mission of providing what she described as a ``good solid education'' to the students of her community. During her tenure as a board member, Kathy continuously advocated for the support and services of the Mono County Office of Education and Mono County Public Libraries. With the education board also serving as the county's library authority board, Kathy worked tirelessly to support various local libraries, including her beloved Coleville Library. In addition to her work on the Mono County Board of Education, Kathy also serves as a commissioner of the Antelope Valley Fire District. As commissioner, Kathy has personified the district's core values of professionalism, courtesy, and efficiency. She worked to provide fire- prevention services and safety education to the people of Mono County. Kathy is known by others for her quick wit, thoughtful guidance, and for her significant contributions to the Mono County Board of Education. Her leadership and continued devotion to service have been the hallmark of her career. It is because of people like Kathryn Mandichak that Mono County is such a great place to live, to learn, to work, and to recreate. Her dedicated efforts contributed to the overall academic success of students of the region, as well as the safety and security of the people of Mono County. Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, it is an honor and a privilege to acknowledge Kathryn Mandichak for her career in public service. I join the people of Mono County in wishing Kathy the very best in her retirement.

Mr. KILEY

Mr. KILEY. Mr. Speaker, to my friend from Maryland, I would say that one of the nice things about this bill that we are considering is that it allows us--if there are any good Biden-era regulations out there, they can stay--to simply choose to disapprove of the bad ones, of which there are quite a few. Then to this idea that we can't disapprove of regulations as a batch because we need to have a debate over each and every one in this rarified Chamber, I would point out that there was no debate at all in this Chamber for any of those regulations when they were imposed by the agencies. We had no role whatsoever. This act allows us to reclaim our legislative authority and our role in the policymaking process going forward. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support the Midnight Rules Relief Act because President Joe Biden went on a regulation binge in his last few months in office. From August 1 of last year through the end of his Presidency, there were 1,524 new regulations issued. This bill today will allow us to press the reset button and to have a more considered process for policymaking when it comes to all of these different areas affected. There are three main reasons I think that this is a good idea. The first has to do with the nature of regulations themselves, the death by a million cuts that is being felt by every industry and every sector throughout our country. When it comes to energy projects to make our country energy independent, when it comes to transportation projects to make our roads safer and to alleviate traffic, when it comes to forest management projects, when it comes to just about anything you can think of, and when it comes to being a small business owner, the sheer weight of regulation after regulation is making it unduly difficult to build, grow, expand, empower people, hire, and move us toward the prosperity that this country is truly capable of. Secondly, there is a question of democratic legitimacy. When you have a President who has just been rejected by voters, or in this case at least he has chosen not to run again and his Vice President did not succeed in getting elected, to then issue over 1,500 regulations is a way of trying to lock in unpopular policies. What this bill does, again, is it only affects new regulations in the last year of one's Presidency. It prevents this sort of undemocratic hangover effect, where new regulations are hastily thrown together in order to block the change that people have voted for. Finally, I point out that there is an opportunity for Congress to reclaim its legislative authority. We have seen the administrative state and the bureaucracies that issued the sort of regulations we are talking about that have continued to grow and grow and affect American life in new ways and more intrusive ways every single year. We have had a few changes that have allowed us to reverse this decades-long trajectory. Of course, there is the election of President Trump and his commitment to rolling back regulations. There is also the decision from the Supreme Court revisiting the Chevron doctrine. This legislation adds to that mix. It gives us the ability to say that we are not going to continue to outsource all of our lawmaking authority to administrative agencies. Rather, when it comes to the core of making policy that will affect the lives of Americans, we ought to be very mindful of giving that away and allowing bureaucrats to do the job that the American people have entrusted to us. When we do that, we can reclaim the idea of self-government, that policy is made by those who truly represent the people. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Arizona for proposing this legislation. I look forward to seeing it pass, and I look forward from there on out to the newly empowered Congress being able to consider the merits of those regulations and decide on much better policies moving forward.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say a few words this evening about the rapid advancements that we are witnessing when it comes to the capability of artificial intelligence models. I don't refer just to some of the narrow applications that folks are familiar with, that they might take advantage of in their work, that they might fear eventually replacing them in work. These are sort of the narrow conceptions that exist in public discourse. The broader situation here involves the explicit goal of the leading labs to create what is known as artificial general intelligence, which is incredibly capable models that exceed human capability across essentially any domain. I actually find it stunning that some of the advancements that we have seen lately have gone essentially unnoticed, unreported on by the media. What we have seen just in the last few weeks, I think on several occasions, there should have been front-page stories about the dramatic advances that have been made, given the capacity these advances hold for transforming our lives, economy, society, and much else. What I wanted to do today is present just a few basic thoughts and pieces of information on the development and innovation that has been taking place. I am someone who has no technical expertise in this area at all. I just try to follow it closely because I believe the changes that will be upon us soon are so profound. To give you just kind of a flavor for the scale of change that I am talking about, here are a few quotes from leaders in the field: Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said: ``AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.'' Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind, echoed these sentiments. He said that AI should not be thought of as just another technology. He said that it is more epoch-defining than even the internet or mobile, more like electricity or fire. Sam Altman, who, of course, is the head of OpenAI, said: ``With these new abilities, we can have shared prosperity to a degree that seems unimaginable today. In the future, everyone's lives can be better than anyone's life is now. . . . Eventually, we can each have a personal AI team full of virtual experts in different areas working together to create almost anything we can imagine.'' Along those lines, Elon Musk, who, in addition to his other ventures, is the founder of xAI, said: ``AI will ultimately render money meaningless.'' Why is that? He believes the capabilities will essentially allow any person access to basically any good that they desire. Dario Amodei, who is the CEO at another lab, Anthropic, says that it is his guess that powerful AI could accelerate the rate of scientific discoveries by a factor of 10, giving us the next 50 to 100 years of biological progress in just the next 5 to 10 years. We are already seeing incredible applications such as AlphaFold from DeepMind, which Demis Hassabis recently won the Nobel Prize for, which has predicted the 3D structures of over 200 million proteins, essentially solving the protein folding problem. At the recent unveiling of the Stargate initiative, Mr. Altman was joined by Larry Ellison, who also spoke about the potential to cure cancer and essentially any other disease. This might all sound pretty vague and certainly very optimistic. Maybe it sounds like hype, so I want to present a couple of charts that really clearly make this point, not only about the ultimate potential of AI models but about the rapid acceleration that we are right now currently in the midst of. This chart is one metric of basically how smart a model is. It is called the GPQA diamond. If you look at the chart here, this axis is how well it does on the test, the model. This axis is when the model was released. The different models over the time are the ``Xs'' there. The chart doesn't actually go back that far. It just goes back to July of 2023. We are looking at basically 35 percent for one of the models then. You see that the line continues to go up steadily, a little bit at a time. Now, just in the last few weeks, you have seen this truly exponential growth rate. Those are both OpenAI models that are listed there; o1 pro and o3. I guess the o2 there was some trademark issues, so they jumped right from 1 to 3. That shows you that we are on a rapidly accelerating curve. Now, the second chart I think makes this point even more clearly. One of the problems with the benchmarks that are being used to judge the capability of models is they get saturated very quickly. The models are becoming so much smarter that they ace the exam, and so the exam isn't good for anything anymore. There was this effort to come up with what they called humanity's last exam, saying once they can solve this, then they have solved just about anything. This was unveiled, and the model's GPT-4o, which is actually the model that most people use--if you just go to ChatGPT, that is the one that it sort of defaults to--it didn't so well, 3.3 percent. However, we are now up to the latest model that OpenAI has released, 26.6 percent. I included this tweet from--I think this actually is a reporter who said: When I wrote about humanity's last exam, the leading AI model got an 8.3 percent score. Five models now surpassed that, and the best model is 26.6 percent. That was 10 days ago. In 10 days, we have gone from 8.3 percent to 26.6 percent on humanity's last exam. By the way, you will see that DeepSeek here at a respectable 9.4 percent. This is kind of the exception where you have seen a lot of media coverage of an advancement in AI. The coverage really focused on the geopolitical implications of having this breakthrough come from a Chinese company. Of course, that is a very, very serious and concerning topic. Kind of lost in the coverage was perhaps the more important point of what it means for all of us, for humanity collectively, when we see this sort of exponential growth in the capability of these AI models. What is essentially driving this very recent trend of exponential growth is the advent of unlocking a new scaling law around what is called test time compute. For a while, the way that these models were getting more capable was by scaling up the compute, the computation, that went into training them. You trained the model, and it became more and more powerful as you use more and more GPUs and compute to train them. Then, after a fine- tuning process, you end up releasing them, and folks use them. That sort of scaling law has leveled off some. What is now happening is the new scaling law that has been unlocked is when you, the user, actually enter a query into, you know, a Claude or Gemini or ChatGPT or whatever your model is, it will take time to think about the answer. Then, we are scaling up the compute that is involved in that thinking process. They are called thinking or reasoning models. Just in a few weeks, whatever it was, when OpenAI went from the o1 model to the o3 model, we saw this incredible increase in capability, and there is not really any sign that it is slowing down. The implication of that is that we might see even more rapid and even more astonishing advances very soon. It is pretty astonishing what these systems can accomplish even now. I mean, I am someone who doesn't know how to write a line of code, but you can go to the latest models, and I can basically design you a rudimentary computer game instantly by just telling the model what to code. For some of them, like Claude, it will actually produce some version of it right there for you. Others, you can just cut and paste it into some other application, but then it creates the application for you. On the last chart, it said we are now kind of above the level of a Ph.D. in their field, which is a pretty high bar to begin with. The acceleration ahead could be further stimulated by the fact that this applies to many fields, but also computer science. You could well see, and, in fact, you are already seeing it to some extent, and it is likely to pick up dramatically, the models themselves that are working on their own coding that are contributing to their own growth and capability. You are also, by the way, seeing models that are built around solving specific problems. I mentioned AlphaFold or models built around discovering new materials. You also have uses of AI that are guiding action in the physical world, such as self-driving cars. If you don't live in L.A. or San Francisco or Phoenix, you probably haven't ridden in a Waymo. It works incredibly well as a driverless vehicle. It surpassed the market share of Lyft, I believe, now in San Francisco. This has been made possible largely by AI or similarly Tesla's self-driving systems available in millions of cars being trained with a neural network. Also, none of this accounts for the potential of quantum computing where Google recently achieved an incredible breakthrough and the interaction of quantum and AI could lead to even more staggering results. This acceleration is happening very, very fast. My purpose in talking about it is not a call for regulation. Although, I do think some regulation is appropriate, but ultimately no regulation is going to stop this or really even dramatically slow down this progress. I mean, the example of DeepSeek and what China is working on makes that point very clearly. I do, however, think that we need to invest heavily in research around AI safety and alignment. I think what we really need to ask are just some fundamental questions about how we might prepare for the radical transformation that could be upon us very soon. We need more public awareness of what is going on and more voices involved because right now, the advance from OpenAI's latest models from o1 to o3 isn't really a topic of public discussion, it isn't a headline in any major newspaper. The discourse is really limited to those who work at these labs or work adjacent to them in Silicon Valley or some fairly small online communities who are talking about these things. They are increasingly becoming very relevant to the lives of all of us. I think we need to have more voices involved in shaping how we manage this technology; how we prepare for what is ahead; and how we can identify and preserve the values that really matter to us as a nation and as humanity in the face of this radical change. To that end, I am planning to continue to give regular updates from this floor on advances in artificial intelligence, advances toward AGI, artificial general intelligence, or ASI, and the implications that it might have. I do this, again, as someone who is not an expert in this area, that doesn't understand the technology at a deep level, but believes that its implications are so profound that we need to have everyone in our country involved in considering how we prepare for it. American Education Trajectory

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce that I am sponsoring the High Quality Charter Schools Act, which has the potential to give millions more students in this country access to an excellent education. Now, as the chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education that spans K-12, as well as pre-K, I am extremely concerned about the continual decline of American education as illustrated dramatically in the recent National Assessment for Education Progress scores, showing that our test scores continue to decline in math and in reading. This is incredibly concerning when it comes to the life prospects for these young people, as well as the future of our country. I think one of the powerful ways that we can change this trajectory is by highlighting the schools that are out there that are doing a really good job because there are a lot of great schools out there. In my district, we have a number of phenomenal schools. This is true for traditional public schools, for charter schools, as well as for private schools. You don't, in a sense, have to reinvent the wheel when you think about good education policy because we have schools and school systems out there that are doing the job very well right now. This is especially true when it comes to the charter sector. Charters have generally shown, as a sector, to lead to additional days of student learning in any given year, but you can then home in on the truly excellent charter schools. They are getting unbelievable results in a lot of cases. This bill is providing a 50 percent tax credit for donations to nonprofit charter school organizations that have a track record of excellence. It will make it easier for them to replicate themselves, to expand, to open new schools based upon their already-proven successful model, and thereby invite in more kids. A lot of these really successful charters have hundreds or thousands of kids on their wait-lists. If we can create more seats, then that is going to be that many more kids getting access to a great education. By the way, that will also have good effects on the neighboring school districts that will then be able to adapt themselves and try to offer a higher quality education product themselves. The virtue of the charter school model, which I think ought to be incorporated more into the traditional public school system, as well, is that, number one, you have flexibility for the folks that run the schools. They are not told by State or Federal Departments of Education exactly how they have to run their schools. They don't have a million regulations to comply with. They are able to pursue their own educational vision. The tradeoff is that in turn for that flexibility in terms of how the schools run, there is accountability for outcomes. There is accountability for actually doing a good job educating kids. That accountability also comes from the fact that they don't get students assigned to them just by default based who is in the neighborhood. They actually have to attract families to come and sign up to go to school there. The third part of the equation is that families do have that choice: Providing choices to families as to where they send their child to school. You have flexibility on the front end, accountability on the back end, and choices for families. That is the formula that has proven to be so successful. This legislation will be very powerful in expanding the impact of that formula. There is perhaps no more high-impact use of education dollars than expanding successful charter schools because they are already doing the job very well. By the way, they are most effective when it comes to closing achievement gaps and to helping students in underserved communities. I am very excited about this legislation, look forward to building support for it throughout this year, and ultimately getting it signed into law. Recognizing Edward G. Heidig

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize a valued member of my team who will be retiring at the end of this month: Edward G. Heidig. Before joining my office, Ed had a vibrant career in public service. Early on in that career, he worked for former Senator Pete Wilson in his D.C. office as a legislative assistant. Ed then went on to serve in a variety of roles within State and Federal departments, including as the Director of the Department of Conservation for the State of California; Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency; Director of the California Office of Administrative Law; General Counsel for the Diocese of Sacramento; Chief Deputy Director for the California Department of Managed Healthcare; and the Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Shortly after I was elected and came into office, Ed came out of retirement to become my senior field representative for Placer County. During his tenure as a senior field representative, Ed played an absolutely vital role toward establishing my congressional district office, and he quickly became integrated and much beloved in the Placer County community. His role included responsibilities in facilitating community relationships with government entities, providing congressional recognition and awards, hosting events, participating in community gatherings, scheduling meetings, mentoring interns, and recording the oral histories of veterans through the Veterans History Project, just to name a few. He has become very popular in Placer County. He did a fantastic job for us. He is known by our team for his quick wit, tenacity, care, and compassion, not to mention his unique vocabulary, and, of course, his signature catch phrase: ``Thank you for your consideration.'' Mr. Speaker, Ed is held in high esteem by his colleagues and those who have the great pleasure of knowing him. We were very fortunate to have had his high level of expertise in my district office, which he used to provide outstanding constituent services during my first term in Congress. Ed's sense of humor, congeniality, team spirit, hard work, and determination will be missed by me and by all of our team. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to thank and recognize Edward Heidig for his service to the people of Placer County and California's Third Congressional District. I wish him the very best in his retirement. Recognizing the Temple Or Rishon

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize the receipt of a new Holocaust Torah at the Temple Or Rishon, a Jewish synagogue located in Orangevale, California. I was honored to attend the rededication of the Torah for its original purpose to this temple community on February 2, along with the Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, Marco Sermoneta. This scroll is approximately 155 years old, having survived the Holocaust during World War II, and it came to the temple from the Memorial Scrolls Trust. The trust is a charitable organization that was established to preserve and care for the over 1,500 Torah scrolls rescued from Czechoslovakia, where they had been looted by the Nazis. These scrolls were discovered in the early 1960s in a warehouse in Prague. Having raised the funds to restore this particular Torah scroll, Temple Or Rishon is among the few institutions in the world entrusted with one of the Holocaust Torahs. This Torah represents the incredible traditions and resilience of the Jewish community in Orangevale, Sacramento, and around the world. It certainly speaks to the Temple Or Rishon that it has been entrusted for this very important role and the incredibly important role it plays for so many folks in our community and our entire region. This ceremony is especially important in light of January 27 being Holocaust Remembrance Day. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the receiving of this Holocaust Torah at Temple Or Rishon. Recognizing Wendy Thomas

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize Supervisor Wendy Thomas for her years of service. Supervisor Thomas has served the people of El Dorado County for nearly 40 years, with an overall career in public service spanning over a decade. Even prior to her career in public service, Supervisor Thomas had longstanding ties with her community. She was born and raised in Placerville, and she established a strong educational foundation at Principia College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in both business administration and fine art. Wendy then further fostered her business acumen by owning and operating The Printing Press in Placerville for about 23 years, strongly contributing to the local economy. In addition to her business endeavors, Wendy showcased her artistic gifts for years. She achieved recognition in multiple exhibitions for her watercolor artistry, authored a book, and had her work featured in several other watercolor publications. Wendy's family has called the region home for many generations, finding success as placer miners in 1850 and, shortly thereafter, becoming businessowners in Placerville. In fact, public service is in her family's history. Her great-great-grandfather was a recorder-clerk of El Dorado County and later served as county sheriff and tax collector in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. So, he was the recorder-clerk, the sheriff, and the tax collector, which is pretty good. In 2010, Wendy Thomas began her own career in public service after being elected to the Placerville City Council. During her 8 years on the city council, with two terms as mayor, she remained steadfast in her commitment to the community. She created and implemented the Neighborhood Chat Program, which streamlined constituent outreach. Wendy was also instrumental in securing roughly $40 million to fix Placerville's failing roads and pipes. In 2014, she was named Woman of the Year for District 5 of the California State Assembly. After being elected to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors in 2020, Wendy brought with her years of experience in governance and knowledge gained from earning her master's degree in political science from Southern New Hampshire University. She embodied a passionate, resourceful, and respectful style of leadership, driven by her deep and abiding love for her community. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize County Supervisor Wendy Thomas for her extraordinary career and her commitment to public service. I join the community in wishing her the very best in her next chapter. Celebrating Roseville Host Lions Club's Anniversary

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Roseville Host Lions Club, a truly remarkable organization located in my district that is dedicated to meeting the needs of the Roseville community and people around the world. In 1925, a group of civic-minded individuals formed what was to be among Roseville's first community service clubs. Throughout its history, the men and women of this organization have sought to exemplify what it means to be true community servants. With major rail hubs and the Lincoln Highway propelling Roseville to serve as a critical logistical hub during World War II, club members and their families housed GIs traveling through the city on their way to the Pacific theater. The level of care and comfort provided by the club helped to bolster the morale of the young men and women sent to ensure the safety of our great Nation. In recent years, the Roseville Host Lions Club has dedicated themselves to supporting local youth and seeing them thrive. In the past, I have had the opportunity to join them for their Student Speaker Contest, an exceptional program in which students are challenged to improve upon their research and speaking abilities while being provided with various scholarships. Building upon their initial foundations, the Roseville Lions also worked to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. Through their support of various initiatives like the Folsom Prison Project for the Visually Impaired and the Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Roseville Host Lions Club continues to fulfill its obligation of being knights for the blind, given to them by Helen Keller 100 years ago. In times of great hardship and crisis, the Roseville Host Lions Club has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to community service. From providing critical services and aid to victims of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami to sending medical equipment to Mexico and sponsoring exchange students both locally and internationally, the Roseville Host Lions Club has left an indelible mark on the world and our community most profoundly. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the Roseville Host Lions Club for their 100 years of community service and commend them for their significant contributions in Placer County and across the globe. Recognizing Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize outgoing Placer County Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper for his years of devoted service to Placer County. Chief Hopper has been an integral part of Placer County's probation system for nearly three decades and has served as chief probation officer for the last 14 years. Chief Hopper earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice at Sacramento State University and his master's degree in public administration from Golden Gate University. Chief Hopper first served his country as a military police officer for the Army National Guard and as a probation guard in Shasta and El Dorado Counties. In 1997, he began in Placer County as a deputy probation officer. After serving as a senior deputy probation officer, he was promoted to probation manager in 2005, assistant chief in 2010, and, finally, as chief probation officer in 2011. Chief Hopper's steadfast dedication to public service and to making a positive impact on those under his probation supervision has been a hallmark of his leadership. His efforts to promote innovation in the department led Chief Hopper and his team to spearhead many projects implemented throughout the county and even the State. Some of Chief Hopper's wide diversity of accomplishments include creating the department's Professional Standards Division, initiating the Placer Re-Entry Program, creating the nationally recognized Probation Outreach Vehicle program, and establishing the county's low- barrier homeless shelter. Through these efforts and many more, the probation system in Placer has excelled. It is because of the efforts of Chief Marshall Hopper and those like him that the residents of Placer County are afforded a strong sense of safety, security, and prosperity within our communities. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, it is an honor and a privilege to acknowledge Placer County Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper for his exceptional career in law enforcement. I am proud to join Marshall's wife, Stefanie; his children, Tyler and Emily; Placer County; and California's Third Congressional District in wishing him the very best in his next chapter.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Chair, today, we will pass this vital legislation to fix our forests, and we will do so with bipartisan support. This bill has a number of very important provisions. It simplifies and expedites environmental reviews. It ends frivolous legislation and endless agency consultation. It strengthens the Good Neighbor Authority. It creates a new categorical exclusion to increase vegetation management for utility rights-of-way. It prioritizes hazardous fuel reduction in high-risk firesheds. It protects communities in wildland urban interfaces, and it incorporates technology in a smart way. I am particularly grateful for those in the California congressional delegation on both sides of the aisle who have spoken in support of this legislation. The contrast could not be clearer to what is going on in Sacramento at the State capital right now where just in the last hour, the runaway supermajority rejected legislation by Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher to add $1 billion to the fire prevention budget, the very budget that the current Governor has slashed time and time again. He was even caught by NPR exaggerating the amount of fire mitigation work done by a staggering 690 percent. Today, we will pass this very much-needed legislation at the Federal level, and it will make a big difference. It will reduce the risk of wildfire, but until California's political leadership gets its act together, our citizens will remain at risk.

Mr. KILEY of California

Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, this week, I announced legislation to rein in the California Coastal Commission, to strip the California Coastal Commission of the powers that it has been granted by Federal law. The undeniable reality is that the commission is completely out of control and has veered far from its purpose of protecting the coast. Mike Stoker, the former Southwest administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said this: ``The California Coastal Commission was created in 1972. For over 50 years, it has been one of if not the most overzealous, overreaching, and self-important regulatory agency I have ever dealt with at the local, State, or Federal level.'' This legislation has become all the more necessary in light of the tragedy that continues to unfold in Los Angeles. The task of rebuilding those communities, the imperative of recovery, is going to be difficult enough as it is, but it will be impossible as long as the California Coastal Commission continues to exercise its powers in such irresponsible ways. My bill, specifically, will amend the Coastal Zone Management Act to remove the commission's authority to block national security-related activities, critical infrastructure projects, and activities with high economic impact, including post-disaster recovery and rebuilding. We all got a very clear window into the manifest irrationality of this agency just a couple of months ago when there was a proposal by SpaceX, together with the Air Force, to increase the launch cadence out of Vandenberg Space Force Base to allow for more launches that are launching satellites for important national security purposes and launching other payloads, such as Starlink satellites. I will note, by the way, that Starlink is right now, as we speak, being used by first responders in the L.A. area who have lost connectivity and would otherwise not be able to have the necessary communications for emergency response. This was all known, by the way, at the time that this sort of use case for Starlink was part of its potential. I wrote a letter, at the time, supporting the request for more launches, and we specifically cited the use in fighting wildfires as one reason why this is important. Nevertheless, at the time, just a couple of months ago, with this very clear bipartisan proposal supported by the military to allow SpaceX to do more launches, the California Coastal Commission rejected it and tried to stop SpaceX from increasing its launches, increasing its capacity to support our national security, to improve connectivity. The reason that they gave was this--this is not just me sort of speculating about their reasons--this is literally what the commissioners said in a public meeting. They said that they do not like Elon Musk's political posts on X on completely unrelated topics, and so to punish him, they were going to reject the proposal that wasn't just from SpaceX but from the U.S. military itself in order to do more launches. That told us everything about what the California Coastal Commission is all about. That was very recent, but this agency has a long history of decisions that defy all rationality, defy all measures of public interest, and that don't actually serve the purpose of protecting the environment and protecting the coast. Indeed, when you look at the specific most problematic causes of the catastrophe in L.A., forest management and the water supply, the California Coastal Commission has been a major hindrance in both areas. In 2019, for example, there was an ongoing project by the L.A. Department of Water and Power, where, through Topanga State Park, they were replacing these aging wooden power line poles that were almost 100 years old. They were in an area that had been identified as having an elevated fire risk. As a very important project, these wooden poles, 100 years old in a high-risk area, they were replacing them with steel and with more fire-resistant materials. As the New York Post explained, the goal of the project was to improve fire safety for the Pacific Palisades area by replacing those wooden poles with steel. Also, they were installing wind- and fire- resistant power lines. Again, this is all in a high fire-risk area. The California Coastal Commission caught wind of this, and they learned that there was a particular rare plant, a few of the Brauton's milkvetch, in the area, so they rushed in and said to stop. They brought the project to an immediate halt. It didn't get done, and then, in the process, they, in fact, collected $2 million in fines. This is the sort of action that the California Coastal Commission has taken. Consider just a decision from just 2 years ago, when the commission blocked a desalination plant in Huntington Beach that would have increased L.A.'s water supply. The commission denied a permit for Poseidon Water's proposed $1.4 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach. Of course, we have all seen how the lack of a sufficient water supply is one of the things that allowed the fires in L.A. to grow unchecked. We had an empty reservoir, for example. Here, just 2 years ago, you had the California Coastal Commission rejecting a major augmentation in the region's supply. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned the issue related to SpaceX also undermined our national security, in addition to our ability to innovate and the ability to launch Starlink satellites. The CCC, the California Coastal Commission, has also on several occasions rejected proposals from the U.S. Navy. For example, it rejected the U.S. Navy's proposal to increase sonar and underwater explosives training off of southern California. In another instance, it filed a lawsuit against the Navy for proceeding with 14 major training exercises off of southern California, again harming U.S. national security. Then, finally, there is the issue of housing because it is going to be a major undertaking in order to rebuild these beautiful communities. The California Coastal Commission is most assuredly going to stand in the way of that process. It has a long history of denying project after project. California has a massive housing shortage. Yet, even when we have projects that have gotten all the necessary approvals, which have met all the very stringent requirements set out by the State, the California Coastal Commission will come in and spike the project. They have done this so much that a group called Circulate San Diego issued a report recently highlighting how the California Coastal Commission has consistently taken actions that worsen California's housing crisis. They highlighted examples of how even these very, what some would call, left-leaning set of requirements for housing that the legislature has set, even projects that have met all of those things, they said: The California Coastal Commission ``has resisted, opposed, and delayed the construction of deed-restricted affordable homes that use programs like Density Bonus Law.'' They noted this is true even when all of the zoning approvals have been obtained. The report documents examples where the California Coastal Commission opposes projects that the legislature encourages as part of California's efforts to combat climate change. Crosswalks, bicycle lanes, and infill development near projects, the report states, are all goals of recent statewide legislation, yet the California Coastal Commission opposes or delays many of these projects. Mr. Speaker, the process of rebuilding and recovery in L.A. is going to be a long and difficult one. There are some things that we know we need to do right off the bat. Perhaps the easiest thing, the most obvious thing is to assure that the California Coastal Commission does not stand in the way. That is why I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both Houses of Congress to move on this legislation as quickly as possible. This will be an important first step towards rebuilding Los Angeles and towards restoring some common sense in California. Congratulating Blue Origin on Successful Orbit of New Glenn Rocket