Ted Lieu

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. For what reason, Madam Speaker?

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Cite the rule, Madam Speaker.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. There is no rule that says I can't play sounds.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Why are you trying to prevent the American people from listening to what it sounds like in a detention facility?

Mr. TED LIEU of California. These are babies and kids in a detention facility. Why do you not let the American people hear what they are saying?

Mr. TED LIEU of California. There is no rule in the House that says I cannot play sounds from a detention facility.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Read the rule. It does not say I cannot play sounds from a detention facility. Why are we hiding this from the American people?

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Why are we hiding it from the American people?

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Why are we hiding it from the American people?

Mr. TED LIEU of California. We have 2,300 babies and kids----

Mr. TED LIEU of California. We have 2,300 babies and kids in detention facilities who were ripped away from their parents. I think the American people need to hear this.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Madam Speaker, I think the American people need to hear this ProPublica tape of a detention facility of babies and children who were ripped away from their parents.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen brazenly told the American people that there was no policy of family separation. Then she reversed and said there was a policy, but she is not going to apologize for defending it. Then she reversed again and said it is actually not a policy, that only Congress can change the laws on it. Yesterday, the executive order by Donald Trump puts her statements very clearly in the spotlight as all lies. Her credibility has been shredded. She needs to resign. By the way, there are 2,300 babies and children still separated from their mothers and fathers. That is evil. That is sinful. We need to know where those children are and how we are going to reunite them. Mr. Speaker, 20 days ago, I led a letter to Secretary Nielsen, along with other Members of Congress, asking very basic questions: How do you make sure that some of those kids are not put with child molesters? How do you make sure we reunite those kids with their parents? She still has been unable to answer those questions. She needs to go. She needs to resign. She is a national embarrassment, and she is executing an evil policy.

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the prestigious career of Dr. Michael Langberg who retired from Cedars Sinai Hospital on May 1, 2018 after 37 years of service. Dr. Langberg, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Cedars Sinai Hospital, was also a permanent member of the California Department of Public Health's health care-associated infection advisory committee. He leaves behind a legacy of better quality care, improved health policy, and collaboration with hospitals around the country to ensure patient safety, particularly for those of limited means or with complex medical needs. Dr. Langberg has always been a strong advocate of quality care and making it available for poorer communities. He is a highly respected national leader on patient safety and health care quality, who led the work at the American Hospital Association to review new care policy, identify potential unintended consequences, and convey those issues to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). His work also laid the foundation for the provision in the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act that directed CMS to include an adjustment to the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program to recognize the impact of sociodemographic factors on readmission rates. In addition to Dr. Langberg's many successes, he has been an advocate for sharing both successes and failures in order to disseminate best practices and advance improvements in quality and safety, which has helped many hospitals across the nation learn how to keep patients safe and improve quality in care. Dr. Langberg has been an invited speaker at the Health Management Academy, the National Patient Safety Congress, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and has testified before the California State Senate on physician quality performance in order to help legislators craft better public policy that supports improvement in health and health care. For these reasons, I am delighted to recognize Dr. Michael Langberg and offer thanks for his selfless commitment to his community.

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Gallego for yielding. Mr. Speaker, what Congressman Gallego didn't say is, first of all, both of us are veterans, and we serve on Active Duty in the United States military because we believe in this country, we believe in America, we believe we are an exceptional nation. But Scott Pruitt has made a joke of Federal service. He is under 12 investigations. He has wasted taxpayers' money, he has used taxpayers' money to enrich himself, and he has used taxpayers' money to help his wife. Based on what Congressman Gallego said about this lotion thing, he had his personal security detail, paid for at taxpayer expense, drive around to Ritz-Carltons to try to find lotion. That is why I have a picture here of the Ritz-Carlton lotion. There is also this thing, by the way, known as the internet. You can just go on the internet and search for Ritz-Carlton lotion. The first link will take you to the Ritz-Carlton shops, and he could have just ordered it without using his taxpayer-funded staff to drive around to find this lotion. This is just an example of the joke he has made of Federal service. Mr. Gallego and I are going to break down for the American people today the top 10 scandals of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, number nine is the dinner reservation. It was publicly reported that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt asked the security detail to turn on lights and sirens so that they could drive him down the crowded traffic streets of Washington, D.C., and get him to dinner at Le Diplomate restaurant. That is an abuse of taxpayer funds, and that is not what sirens are for. They are for actual emergencies, not to make sure that a Trump Cabinet official can make his dinner reservation on time.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, number six is the lotion, which we have already talked about. But what we didn't talk about is, in using his security detail, you should know, this is a really expensive security detail 24/7. They have already spent $3.5 million on that security detail in 2017. This is, again, just a waste of taxpayer funds. No other Cabinet official has this kind of security, and it is something that we really should look at if we had a functioning GOP House oversight structure. Unfortunately, the majority here in the House has refused to look at EPA's Scott Pruitt scandals, and I don't even know how they can defend him at this point.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Number four, the $43,000 soundproof phone booth: So EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is so paranoid that he wasted $43,000 of your taxpayers' money to build a soundproof phone booth for him to make phone calls. So if the President doesn't want to fire EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for his corruption, I think the President should just fire him for being super weird, right? You have got Scott Pruitt using a security detail to get lotion at the Ritz-Carlton, to have his staff trying to find used Trump Hotel mattresses, and he has built this private phone booth. That is just creepy and strange.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Number two is the sweetheart condo deal with lobbyists. So Scott Pruitt got this deal with lobbyists that no ordinary American could have gotten. It was a $50-a-night deal on a condo in Washington, D.C., near the Capitol, and market rates were much higher than $50 a night. But in addition, he structured a lease so he only had to pay for the nights that he was there. So many nights that he wasn't there, the landlord just had to eat those costs. That is not a lease that any normal American could have gotten. The reason that Scott Pruitt got this is because he was dealing with these lobbyists, who also lobbied on issues before him. This is what most people would call corruption. And before we go to the last one, which is about the Chick-fil-A restaurant, I just want to say the fact that Chick-fil-A--I can't even say this without laughing. Maybe Ruben Gallego can talk about this with a straight face.

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Again, Congressman Gallego and I served on Active Duty in the military. We are veterans. We believe in this country. That is why we are up here. Some of the things we said today may have sounded funny, because we are trying to point out the absurdity of why EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is still in office. Scott Pruitt has wasted taxpayer funds, he has abused taxpayer funds for his personal profit, he has abused his relationship with lobbyists to personally profit, he has also abused his relationships to help his family profit. Scott Pruitt, at the end of the day, is not just an embarrassment to us, he is an embarrassment to the Republicans in this House, to the Democrats in this House, to the Trump Cabinet, and to the United States of America. Scott Pruitt has to go.

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. Since the beginning of this Congress, we have had more infrastructure weeks than I can count, but we have yet to take up a comprehensive infrastructure bill. America desperately needs that. The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that for the next 10 years, we need $4.6 trillion of infrastructure funding just to keep pace. Over $2 trillion of that is not funded. So, for example, 53 percent of our public schools need funding to make repairs. More than 18 million Americans drink from water systems that fail to meet Federal lead tests. Forty percent of rural America and those on tribal lands lack broadband access. The President has designated week after week as Infrastructure Week, but this House majority has yet to consider a serious infrastructure proposal. When it comes to infrastructure, the President and this GOP majority has been all talk, no action. America deserves better. We have to fix our roads and highways, water infrastructure, schools, transit systems, and VA facilities. We have to have key principles for this infrastructure. First, we have to create millions of new jobs through investments in 21st century projects. We also need to emphasize public investment over corporate giveaways and the selling of public goods. We need to embrace 21st century clean energy jobs, including expanding solar and wind power, promoting energy efficiency, and modernizing the energy grid. We also need to ensure that investments are not paid for at the expense of Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. We need to not weaken or repeal existing environmental laws. H. Con. Res. 63, which embodies all of these principles, is supported by more than one-third of the House, with 157 cosponsors. We need to bring this proposal up rather than considering partisan appropriations bill that cut funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency and repeal protections that keep our waterways clean without offering a meaningful opportunity for debate.

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I am here with Congressman Ruben Gallego. I would like to talk about national security and how the President of the United States may be inadvertently giving away classified information. The President, through public reporting, shows that he is unwilling to swap out his cell phones. There is a big problem with this. Last term, I was involved with this flaw called the SS7 flaw. It is something that allows foreign powers and criminal syndicates affiliated with foreign powers to listen in on your cell phone just knowing your cell phone number, and there is no real good way to stop it. Our concern is that if the President finds it too inconvenient to deal with this issue of his cell phones, then his conversations could be listened in on by other foreign nations or by criminal syndicates. We also find this somewhat ironic and hypocritical when the Republican- controlled Congress, last term, went to great lengths to talk about the potential damage of having a private email server for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This is a very similar concept. These are cell phones from which foreign powers can get the actual conversations of the President of the United States. We just want the White House, the Secret Service, and other agencies to talk to the President and say: Look, you just have to deal with operational security. You are their most highly-valued target in terms of intelligence information that foreign powers want; and, please, for our national security, swap out your cell phones. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gallego).

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Gallego for his comments. Both of us served Active Duty in the United States military-- Congressman Gallego served in combat--and we both know that one of the most important things to our military is operational security and protecting our communications and making sure that they are secure. Donald Trump is the Commander in Chief of our military. If there is anyone that needs to have their communications secure, it has got to be our Commander in Chief. Unfortunately, the President and the Republicans here that enable him are allowing him to have unsecured communications. That is really going to be harmful to our national security. This is not some sort of theoretical flaw that exists. The Federal Communications Commission has issued a report saying that this flaw where foreign powers can listen in on our cell phone communications is real, it exists. People have used it not just to listen in, but also to do nefarious things. A bank earlier this year lost millions of dollars because of this flaw. So, again, we urge the President and the Republicans here to change the President's behavior, to do oversight on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I am going to conclude this segment. I thank you for listening. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TED LIEU of California

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Madam Speaker, Paul Ryan promised regular order when he took over the speakership. He has broken that promise repeatedly. We have voted on bills here on the floor that violated the standard committee process. The majority has employed a technique called marshal law that allows them to bring up bills with little to no notice, and now we know we have the most closed Congress in U.S. history. The majority has blocked all amendments on most bills. That is a disgraceful way to run the people's House. Twenty-three amendments of mine have been blocked--simple amendments. One of them basically says, hey, the Federal Government should invest more in cybersecurity. We can't even get a debate on that. Really? Another amendment I have deals with anticorruption, and whether you have a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, you don't want corruption. You don't want members of the executive branch making money off the taxpayer's dime. So one of these amendments basically says we are not going to reimburse the President or other members when they go and spend money on Mar-a-Lago or other Trump properties and have the Federal Government pay money there because that flows to the President or his immediate family. Can't even get a vote on that. Why? Because the Republican leadership knows it would pass. We need to open up this Congress and have a debate. We came here to debate ideas, not to block them.