Doug LaMalfa

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we saw the Supreme Court reject yet another of President Obama's executive overreaches. The President's effort to unilaterally micromanage electrical power plants across the Nation, without any legal authority to do so, would drive up energy costs in virtually every community and nearly half a trillion dollars in additional costs. In just the last few months, Federal courts have rejected the President's amnesty plan, his EPA's waters of the U.S. power grab, and now his power plant regulation. The message of these decisions is clear: the President should abandon his efforts to end-run around Congress, which in nearly every case have been found to violate the law, and work with Congress, the people's House, to address the issues facing our Nation.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, it is budget season in Washington, D.C., and one of the things that should be in the budget is infrastructure. I am glad to hear that the President has included $8.5 million in funding to replace the badly degraded levees on the Sacramento River near Hamilton City, California. Flood danger has forced evacuation of Hamilton City six times since 1980. The existing levee project provides only 10-year flood event protection when the standard really should be 200-year flood event protection. Working with local residents who have contributed their own money and resources to the project, we secured over $12 million in Federal funding so far. Mr. Speaker, this year's additional funding will allow major progress on a project that will protect the homes and families of over 200 north State residents, finally giving Hamilton City some peace of mind.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, our charge in Congress is to be very careful and frugal and honest with the people's money that they send via their hard-earned tax dollars. Today we have an opportunity to make good on part of that with our commitment to making the government work better for the people it serves, control spending, and work at finally getting down the national debt. The VA medical facility construction process is broken and highly in need of major reform. For example, in Colorado, the VA spent at least triple, probably quadruple, even quintuple, what it was expected to spend on the construction of a replacement hospital due to mismanagement and lack of accountability. The GAO found in 2013 that the VA's four largest medical construction projects were experiencing significant delays and massive cost increases. In my district, the VA plans to build two replacement clinics, in Redding and in Chico, which the VA says will take 5 years. In order to streamline and improve the VA's medical facility construction process, the House will vote on H.R. 3106 today, which is sponsored by Chairman Jeff Miller of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The bill includes commonsense reforms that will require the VA to use industry standards for medical facility construction projects and increase congressional oversight. I am proud to support this bill and to continue to work to be accountable to the American people, especially our veterans, who need and deserve clear access, present access, and timely access to the health care they deserve.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, this week in Washington was one where many came together in order to express their faith and fellowship and, also, to pray. It culminated in the National Prayer Breakfast, where the President and our House Speaker both were there with many Congressional Members and leaders and international leaders, all there with the theme of ``Less of us, more of God'' expressed several times, spoken by our President as well. Also, he spoke of unity, as many did in that gathering, unity that I think is best expressed by this verse from the Bible, 2 Chronicles 7:14: ``If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.'' Indeed, less of us, more of God.

Mr. LaMALFA

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

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, as part of the Iran nuclear deal, the Iranian regime will receive up to $150 billion in sanctions relief. Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted that some of the sanctions relief will go to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which provides funding and training to terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. The Revolutionary Guard Corps is also responsible for supporting Shia militias that killed American troops and are currently fueling sectarian tensions in Iraq. Like most of my colleagues in Congress, I opposed the Iranian deal and continue to believe it will not guarantee a nuclear weapons-free Iran. But the simple fact that this deal has moved forward should not be an excuse for allowing sanctions relief to benefit terrorists. Yesterday the House passed a commonsense bill that prohibits President Obama from removing sanctions on foreign financial institutions that are doing business with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. I urge immediate adoption of this legislation. We also need to deal with the victims of Iran's terrorism--Americans who were subject to terrorism by Iranian actions. Out of the $150 billion, up to $40 billion of awarded money should be received by these people because of this action. The Obama administration has already made too many of these concessions. We can still prevent sanctions relief from ending up in the pockets of terrorists.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, last night the President said that he is finally ready to work with us here in Congress. Today we will send him a measure blocking the EPA's waters of the United States power grab, a proposal rejected by both Houses of Congress, two Federal courts, the Government Accountability Office, and many States. The EPA's plan would grant jurisdiction over fully 95 percent of my home State of California, allowing an unaccountable Federal agency to insert itself into land use decisions once again across our State. Mr. Speaker, the President spoke glowingly of small business America last night. Between waters of the United States, his rejection of health options plans for Americans, and forcing minimum wage proposals upon small businesses and their employees, small businesses don't have a chance. They don't have a chance to survive and thrive in this country. If the President really wants to work with Congress in a constructive way, he can start today by rejecting the waters of the United States policy that is hurting small businesses, farms, and ranches, and actually help us build the water supply we need in California and the Western States.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Washington for yielding me the time. I guess if we want to advance policy around here, the rhetoric coming from across the aisle about it being a waste of time to legislate and put these ideas out in front of the American people and hold the President accountable for the runaway efforts by his administration and his agencies, then we are just not hearing an honest effort on the other side. We have half-baked regulations that will damage sectors of our economy in this 262 pages of revised rules that are coming down from the Department of the Interior. Since 1983, the stream buffer zone rule has been a rule that has struck a pretty good balance between protecting water resources and mining. Adding 262 new pages effectively bans all mining within 100 feet of anything that they might define as a stream, which is going to have very detrimental effects on energy and our ability to conduct business in this Nation. The new rule would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs, damage our Nation's ability to produce critical minerals, construction materials, and domestic energy, something that we have had an advantage on up until recently. While Interior claims to have spent 6 years studying this rule, it managed to completely ignore the views of the States impacted by the rule. I think we need to have more local input and support to H.R. 1644 and hold the administration accountable for what it does.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, this week we will send a measure to the President that rejects the EPA's waters of the United States power grab, a measure that the Senate has already joined us in supporting. The EPA's plan would grant it jurisdiction over fully 95 percent of my home State of California, allowing an unaccountable Federal agency to insert itself into land use decisions across the State. In my district, residents have experienced Federal actions so ludicrous that I can't make them up. In Tehama County, a farmer was fined for planting wheat in a manner that the government claimed damaged navigable waters. Never mind that the farm has been listed as a wheat allotment by the USDA for decades. In another instance, the government used the Clean Water Act to attack a family farm for shifting to more efficient irrigation systems, this during a drought in California. Imagine getting fined for saving water. In both instances, the government sanctioned farmers for activities that are clearly exempt under the Clean Water Act. In fact, language I sponsored to defund the regulation of exempt activities was signed into law in December; yet, the EPA persists in these illegal activities. When Congress can't trust Federal agencies to use the authority they already have and when we can't trust them to follow clear congressional direction, how can we possibly consider granting them more power and more responsibility?

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, this week the House will take up new sanctions on North Korea in response to their nuclear weapons test last week. This measure will prevent those facilitating their nuclear weapons program from entering the United States. It sanctions financial institutions and seizes assets in order to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The steps we are taking reflect the type of approach we should also be taking with Iran. Rogue states, like Iran and North Korea, cannot be trusted to respect international agreements and must be coerced into giving up their nuclear weapons ambitions. Only when Iran and North Korea feel the financial impact of our sanctions will they change course. Iran and North Korea are also nations that both threaten key allies and friends of the United States. The sanctions we are contemplating are an important reminder to the world that the United States will not look the other way when reckless and aggressive regimes pursue the most deadly weapons in the world.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, while the Federal Government's focus to my constituents in the West appears to be reprosecuting ranchers for a small rangeland fire or to disarming Americans from protecting themselves, Federal agents focused on homeland security yesterday and bagged two Iraqi refugees in Sacramento and Houston with ties to recent travel to Syria to aid or seek to fight alongside Islamic State. Mr. Speaker, as we will hear from the President here on this floor in the State of the Union next week, I hope his focus will be on a migrant or refugee program that secures our borders, not a gun agenda that makes Americans more defenseless. With San Bernardino, California, being so fresh in our minds and that terrorism activity there, let's heed the words of Texas Governor Abbott and other States that are clamoring for a more effective vetting process before we bring more migrants into this country.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, after 5 years, the promises of ObamaCare that it would save families $2500 or so per year, let you keep your doctor, and let you keep your insurance plan have all been proven false. In my district, rates will be seen again going up an additional 30 percent likely this year. People can no longer see their family doctor. Many people have been forced from their health insurance plans on to more expensive plans with less coverage and a higher deductible. Thanks to a budget procedure known as reconciliation, we have avoided a Senate filibuster and placed a bill rolling back ObamaCare on the President's desk. This is a promise kept for restoring healthcare freedom for Americans. If the President vetoes this measure, congressional Democrats have a choice to make. Will they side with Americans who need real reforms to the healthcare system and override this veto or with a President concerned solely with his legacy and a status quo that is destroying access to care and driving up costs? I wonder.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in sadness to commemorate the life of Mr. Lawrence Agee, a man I call a friend. He was a long-time resident of McArthur, California, in eastern Shasta County. Born in 1937, he operated an institution in the area for 55 years, known as the Highway Garage, which was the smallest, I think, Chevrolet dealership, maybe, in the West, and it was the only one for about an 80-mile radius for a lot of years until the reorganization of General Motors happened and they took the franchise away. On that lot, he might have in his inventory seven, eight, nine new cars--pickups, mostly, for the farmers and ranchers in the area. It was really an institution to the people of the area. When that dealership was pulled, they continued on, he and his family, in providing service and towing and all of the things that you would need in that area. I got to know Lawrence when I was a new candidate in 2002, striking out from where I lived--about 2\1/2\ hours away--to go out and meet people in the vast northern California district I have represented over the years. I stopped in one day on Highway 299, in eastern Redding, right in McArthur there, and said hi to this tall, lanky fellow here, who just felt like the heart of America right there. I struck up a conversation and had a great old time. For many, many years, he did operate a Chevrolet dealership, but I drove up in my Ford. So that started a little banter going back and forth, especially if you are a partisan NASCAR fan or an automobile brand fan, which kind of tends to go with that there. One of the lines I remember him teasing me about was, ``Well, you know, it is a nice car there, but here we sell the best and service the rest.'' I guess he probably figured he was going to have to service my car a lot if I were in the neighborhood. Yet, the teasing and the banter was just one of the great parts of our friendship and relationship. Soon after that, every time I would have a chance, I would go through there, whether it was going up to the Inter-Mountain Fair for a day or two right there in town. He was a big part of that institution as well and would hang out with the people there. There is a parade at that fair each year. After I got to know him and Eleanor and his family a little bit, he even let me use his convertible to drive in the parade there. It was a neat, old Chevy SSR. I think that was his subtle way to get me into a Chevrolet at least once a year. The funny thing is that he didn't drive it that much; so, people around there would only see it once a year. And they got to thinking it was my car or something; so, it was a funny deal. That just shows his generosity and his trust. I know he was well loved in the whole community because, during fair time, he was a big, big supporter and sponsor of the fair. But I don't know if he got to go to it very often because he was always helping people with lock-outs and dead batteries or was making a tow run nearby or whatever. He was just helping keep that town together. For many of us who are in and around Shasta County there, I know he will be greatly missed. His wife, Eleanor, is a gem as well. My heart goes out to her and to the whole family there because there is really a lot happening around Highway Garage in McArthur. Again, at fair time, you would see a lot of destruction derby cars lined up at that place. His son, David, was always working on those, as were other family members. I think that is the place if you need a destruction derby car. Go see them, and they might be able to give you the best technology on that as well. In his service, he was nationally recognized as one of the best serving dealers in that dealership they had, up until 2009, when he moved on to service only and was no longer selling cars. You could see it on the awards in the shop building. This big wooden building there just takes you right back to Americana from 80 years ago. I think the dealership was established in 1924. His family took over in 1949. With the passing of his father in 1959, Lawrence took over as the youngest dealer, again, in the West of a Chevrolet dealership. He was a volunteer with the McArthur Fire Department. He was a longtime leader of the Cloverleaf 4-H for over two decades. He was a member of the Fort Crook Masonic Lodge, citizen of the year at least twice, blue ribbon winner, and a longtime supporter of the Inter- Mountain Fair in many capacities. Of course, he leaves behind a legacy of what small-town America really is about. The impact he had on his community was felt not only there, but far, far away. For those people that were helped by him in the middle of the night--there maybe would be a rock in the road or something like that and if somebody would run over that, he would go out and bail them out. Indeed, one of the times when I was up for the fair and leaving town, there he was, coming up the grade in his big, yellow tow truck. That is Lawrence right there. A rewarding part of this job is getting to know people like him, and you hate it when you have to lose people like that, that are pillars in the community. Doggone it, he leaves a great legacy, and I am proud to have known him. God bless his family.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Smith, thank you for yielding, and also thank you for your amazing leadership on year after year putting this in front of the people and highlighting--or lowlighting--just what this has been. It is probably very mind-boggling for many Americans to contemplate that this has been going on for 43 years, since the Supreme Court ruling, out of whole cloth, Roe v. Wade. And it must be very mind- boggling when we remind Americans that at this time over 57 million abortions have been performed since that. We know that over 7 million have been performed by Planned Parenthood--7 million--making them the largest abortion provider in the country. Yet you will hear Planned Parenthood argue that it is a tiny part of what they provide as far as what they might deem to be women's health services. If it is such a minor part of what they do, then maybe they ought not be demanding and asking for government funding. Indeed, that was taken care of this week in the measure that was sent to the President's desk. We will see what the President decides to do with that. With Planned Parenthood providing 323,000 abortions just in 2014 and receiving $550 million in taxpayer funding, we see that this is a wrong that is mind-boggling to most Americans as well. With the sending of that bill to the President, it is going to make a strong statement that this House and this Senate can take action on something that many people, when they pay attention, find to be quite abhorrent. Instead, there are alternatives out there that this legislation has provided that will allow women's health to be funded and taken care of at many other centers. Even Planned Parenthood can participate if they choose at some point to not be an abortion provider. The key here is that women's health will be served and that with the information and with the decisions they made being fully informed on that, we can see many less abortions happen in this country as well as the moral fiber and integrity of this country held up by not doing such an abhorrent thing in so many cases. So I commend Mr. Smith and all those fellow warriors out there who will be marching for life not only coming up soon this year, but they are out there every year battling for the cause to turn America back around into a place that is a little more moral and actually does care about women, their health, and their mental well-being when this decision has been put upon them. So, to my colleague, thank you once again for allowing me here tonight with this because it is very important that we remember just how heinous this is and how people need to be informed about that, pause, and take time to see what this really means for America and our own well-being. Thank you.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, time and again this President has noted that we can't change the law without action from Congress. Despite his claimed familiarity with the separation of powers, this week we see the President again trying to go around Congress to enact already-known antigun policies that have already been considered and rejected in the Senate. The President's plan ignores what any honest observer already knows: limiting the rights of law-abiding Americans doesn't deter criminals and terrorists from breaking our laws. Forcing Americans to jump through more hoops and spend more money to exercise their Second Amendment rights will, at best, have zero effect on public safety and, at worst, embolden those who already disregard our laws. Finally, let's look at what the President's proposal boils down to. More Americans would have to pay more to the Federal Government in fees to exercise their constitutional rights. Enforcement of current laws could have a much better effect on that, yet we see very few red flags that are put up by people trying to legally purchase guns that are already felons. More investigations would be held and more people prosecuted if those laws were enforced, yet our attorneys general at the State level and Federal level don't follow up on those red flags. We have plenty of laws on the books that are not enforced. We don't need more. We certainly don't need executive orders that the President is illegally putting across behind closed doors, which has been emblematic of what the entire Obama administration has been doing for the last several years to our constitutional rights.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, this week a father and son reported to serve again an additional up to 4 years in Federal prison. Their crime? Setting preventative fires on their own property that accidentally spread to Federal lands. The Hammonds, family farmers from Oregon, had already served time in Federal prison: Dwight 3 months, Steven a year. However, that wasn't good enough for U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, who used taxpayer dollars to appeal the Hammonds' original sentence and urged the Ninth Circuit to impose harsher penalties, over the judge's objection, who had recommended in his vision much less harsh penalties for the crime in question. Mr. Speaker, the question isn't whether or not the Hammonds started these fires. They admit they did. The question is whether the U.S. attorney and his administration are prosecuting real criminals or pursuing a political agenda. Mr. Speaker, when a 74-year-old man and a 45-year-old father of three are forced to return to prison when they have already served time and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for a nonviolent, unintentional crime, the answer couldn't be more clear whether this is political or not.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Merry Christmas to the East Nicolaus Spartans from the Biggs Wolverines. Congratulations this year. Mr. Speaker, the tax credit package we have passed will not only lower taxes for families across the Nation, it will spur more investment and growth by small businesses and farms, like in my northern California district. For too long, Americans have had to wait until the last few days of each year to find out under which laws they will be taxed and at what rates. If the Senate will join us, this package will end that vicious cycle, and Americans can finally make financial decisions with greater stability to plan for the future. We have supported education through tax credits for students and teachers, and we have increased protections to rein in the IRS. Particularly important components for the First District are provisions that allow farmers, ranchers, as well as mining operations, timber operators, and construction contractors to make informed decisions about how they can buy new equipment for the coming years and how it will be taxed. Families and businesses have been asking and begging for us to have the stability and predictability in what their tax rates are going to be. I am very happy that we were able to get this done, and I urge the Senate to also get that done so we can have predictability in tax rates and go about our business.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.NOTICE If the 114th Congress, 1st Session, adjourns sine die on or before December 24, 2015, a final issue of the Congressional Record for the 114th Congress, 1st Session, will be published on Thursday, December 31, 2015, to permit Members to insert statements. All material for insertion must be signed by the Member and delivered to the respective offices of the Official Reporters of Debates (Room HT-59 or S-123 of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through Wednesday, December 30. The final issue will be dated Thursday, December 31, 2015, and will be delivered on Monday, January 4, 2016. None of the material printed in the final issue of the Congressional Record may contain subject matter, or relate to any event, that occurred after the sine die date. Senators' statements should also be formatted according to the instructions at http://webster.senate.gov/secretary/Departments/ Reporters_Debates/resources/cong_record.pdf, and submitted electronically, either on a disk to accompany the signed statement, or by e-mail to the Official Reporters of Debates at ``Record@Sec.Senate.gov''. Members of the House of Representatives' statements may also be submitted electronically by e-mail, to accompany the signed statement, and formatted according to the instructions for the Extensions of Remarks template at https://housenet.house.gov/legislative/research-and-reference/ transcripts-and-records/electronic-congressional-record-inserts. The Official Reporters will transmit to GPO the template formatted electronic file only after receipt of, and authentication with, the hard copy, and signed manuscript. Deliver statements to the Official Reporters in Room HT-59. Members of Congress desiring to purchase reprints of material submitted for inclusion in the Congressional Record may do so by contacting the Office of Congressional Publishing Services, at the Government Publishing Office, on 512-0224, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. By order of the Joint Committee on Printing. GREGG HARPER, Chairman.

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate, a majority of the States, and two Federal courts have rejected the administration's waters of the United States proposal by the EPA to reinterpret the Clean Water Act in order to seize authority over virtually every waterway, dry streambed, ditch, and puddle in the Nation. One Federal court found the proposal so excessive and so outside the President's authority that it issued a nationwide stay. This week, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office confirmed what we already knew: the administration not only violated Federal law when preparing this proposal, but also engaged in an illegal propaganda campaign to misinform the public, soliciting skewed comments in favor of their proposal using social media, even so far as using general comments on Twitter in order to skew their view. Mr. Speaker, when is enough going to be enough? When the administration spends Americans' own tax dollars to solicit and persuade them to give up their rights, should that not be a wake-up call, that it has crossed a very bright ethical line? It is time that the administration admit that the waters of the United States rule is an illegal power grab, an overreach, and withdraw it immediately.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce my nominees for appointment to our Nation's service academies. With the recommendations of my Veterans Council, we have nominated a group of young men and women that are committed to representing the First District and our great Nation. For the U.S. Naval Academy, we have Trent Foster; we have Kody Rulofson and David Shattuck. For the U.S. Military Academy, we have Nicholas Katz, Bradley Salyer, and Wyatt Wyckoff. For the U.S. Air Force Academy, we have Christiana Jackman. For our Merchant Marine Academy, we have Anna Lewis and Garret Reader. For the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy, we have Mason Royse. And for the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Military Academy, we have Rory Sprague. Congratulations to them all. We thank the Veterans Council for helping with the interview process and vetting these young people. We thank the parents for raising them to be the go-getters that they are and for the dedication required to get to this point. And we thank the nominees themselves for the hard work that it takes and the service that they are willing to do and put out and their sacrifice for us. God bless them all.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, 224 years ago today the States ratified the first 10 amendments to our Constitution. These most basic rights remain the bedrock of our society; yet, even today we have seen them come under attack: Freedom of speech has been attacked by some who prefer not to hear dissenting opinions, forgetting that it applies to all. The right to bear arms is under constant threat from those who would prefer that only criminals are armed and that law-abiding Americans are defenseless. Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure has come under attack from our own government, which believes we must sacrifice liberty for security. Freedom of religion, the very right our Founders sought when they fled their homes overseas, is threatened by those who would coerce Americans to violate their faith in their day-to-day lives. In every instance, the House of Representatives has fought to preserve these rights, but this serves to remind us that the struggle for freedom is never over, that we must always remain vigilant, and that freedom is but one generation from extinction. But today we mark this anniversary in celebration of the vision the Founders had. God bless them, and God bless America for having done so.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, well, they are at it again. Earlier this year we saw the administration work to deny veterans because they may be on an arbitrary list for having sought financial help services, be threatened as incompetent to exercise gun ownership rights. Now, with the left seeking any excuse to deny Second Amendment rights to Americans, there is much effort underway to use a no-fly list or even a selectee list to not only deny travel and flight rights to falsely listed American citizens with little or no due process to remove one's name from that list, but to extend denial of gun ownership rights as well. The no-fly list can and should be a good tool for protecting against terror strikes, but needs criteria revision for a due process for those that have been wrongly listed to have an open chance to face their accusation. As it is now, First, Fourth, and Fifth, let alone now the Second, Amendment constitutional protections are in danger of being denied for those citizens that are falsely listed because their name sounds like the name of someone actually who bears being watched or, in the hands of an aggressive gun control administration, the use of IRS-type tactics against people the powers that be don't like. Such lists are dangerous to basic liberty. Let's first fix the process for how the no-fly list tool is used and revised before adding more restrictions, ones that would not have even captured the San Bernardino shooters, to this list being added, the Democrat gun control Christmas or holiday period list.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, this week it was revealed that Iran tested medium-range ballistic missiles. By doing so, Iran has now violated the nuclear deal that was agreed to over objection of a majority of this House in July, which calls on Iran to end its ballistic missile program for 8 years. Iran is also now in violation of two United Nations Security Council resolutions. Like many of my colleagues in the House, I opposed the Iran nuclear deal because of the likelihood that Iran would cheat and the Obama administration would refuse to hold them accountable and reimpose sanctions. So far, there has been no response from the Obama administration on snapping back the sanctions into place. Because of that, Iran will continue to enjoy more and more of the plus $100 billion in unfrozen assets that they have not been accessible to. If Iran is allowed to break the agreement without consequences, it will only encourage more bad behavior and unrest in the Middle East.

Mr. LaMALFA

Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 689, had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''