Greg Landsman

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding time. Mr. Speaker, it is simple. The bill weakens States' rights and their ability to manage clean water. It essentially says: Look, we will send these pipelines through our communities and through our States. We don't want to hear anything from these communities. We don't want them to raise objections, even if it is around the quality of water and the quality of air. It is also true that it doesn't fundamentally address the larger issue, or a big issue, of the rising costs of energy and the impact that the global trade wars that this administration has pursued has had on the rising costs of utility bills. For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules had permitted, I would have offered an amendment to this bill, requiring the Department of Energy to tell the American people in a report how this administration's illegal tariffs, these trade wars, have raised prices on electricity and gas. The Joint Economic Committee estimates that families have already paid $1,200 more this year because of the tariffs. The tariffs and the trade wars have jacked up prices, and that includes energy prices. We need accountability. The American people deserve to know how much this is costing them so that they can push on us to end these trade wars and the high cost of living, including energy costs. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record the text of this amendment immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit. Mr. SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Ohio?

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call for a vote on the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that help 22 million Americans afford their healthcare. As you all know, they expire at the end of the year. If Congress does nothing, costs will skyrocket, and people will lose their healthcare. In my district alone, 32,000 people will see their costs skyrocket, and 14,000 people will lose their healthcare entirely. This means that people will be unable to afford their medicine, kids will miss critical treatment, and people with serious conditions will lose access to care overnight. There is still no commitment from the Speaker to extend these credits and no plan to prevent the healthcare crisis we know is coming. There is a bipartisan effort and bipartisan support to extend these credits, and I urge my colleagues to join these efforts in getting this done and getting it done now.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Marc Fisher, a constituent of mine who has spent more than 35 years leading our Jewish community in Cincinnati. For the past 13 years, Marc has served as CEO of the Mayerson JCC. He has worked incredibly hard for the community in which he grew up, and because of his leadership, the J has thrived. Membership grew. Early childhood and senior programs expanded, and partnerships flourished. During the pandemic, the J was a reliable source of strength and connection. That is what Marc brought to this work: a true effort to make sure everyone could find a place in our community. He will retire at the end of the year, but the impact he has had will last for a very long time. Mr. Speaker, I thank Marc for all he has done for the Mayerson JCC and for all of southwest Ohio.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the girls and women in my district who just lost access to their healthcare because of this budget bill. Just weeks after this bill passed, two Planned Parenthood clinics in southwest Ohio are closing. These are clinics thousands of girls and women rely on for things like cancer screenings and contraceptive care, their basic healthcare. It is a direct attack on women, and it is just the start. Millions and millions of Americans will lose their healthcare. In the end, more than 15 million people could be left without care, all to pay for tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations. All it takes is a Congress that it is willing to make the wealthiest in America pay their taxes like the rest of us and give those 15 million Americans their healthcare back. It is that simple.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Ohio (Mr. Latta) and Mr. Pallone. This is, I think, a really important bipartisan piece of legislation. It is a very simple and straightforward bill. It is simpler than the name itself. H.R. 1709, the Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act, is a mouthful, but the bill is really quite simple, as Mr. Latta and Mr. Pallone described. We have foreign adversaries like Russia and China that are attempting to get our data. There have been breaches, including our own personal data and personal devices, and so the goal of this bill is to require an interagency group to build out all the information we need to ensure that we understand where all of our vulnerabilities are and that we are dealing with those vulnerabilities--where are the gaps, how our foreign adversaries are accessing data, how could they be accessing our data, and how to further our ability to stop our enemies from attacking our individual devices. This is an important step toward understanding and improving our cybersecurity for the safety and protection of all Americans. It passed overwhelmingly in the Energy and Commerce Committee. This is a bipartisan bill. I thank the staff on both sides of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican and Democratic, for helping us put this together. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support it today.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of my constituents and the thousands of folks that have called our office begging Congress not to cut their healthcare or their food assistance all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. One of the calls came from a single mother who just moved to Cincinnati to escape domestic violence. She is raising a daughter with disabilities and relies on Medicaid and food assistance. She relies on both to survive. There is a 62-year-old woman on a fixed income. Food assistance is the only way she has enough food. These stories matter because Trump and congressional Republicans are pushing this bill that cuts $300 billion from food assistance and over $1 trillion from healthcare. Mr. Speaker, 16 million Americans will lose their healthcare. Why? To pay for tax cuts for the superwealthy and big corporate investors. It is a terrible bill. It is deeply unpopular. It will cost people their lives. Kill the bill. Save Americans.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share a story of a constituent and friend, Shane. Shane has a rare and painful disorder that makes the skin incredibly fragile and there is no cure. Thanks to breakthrough gene therapy, one Shane helped to test, he and others finally have hope, but that hope is diminishing. At Trump's urging, congressional Republicans are proposing a nearly $1 trillion cut in healthcare and have already slashed rare disease funding by over a billion dollars. They are blocking a policy that would allow Medicaid to cover out-of-State care essential for families with children or loved ones with this rare condition, especially since so few hospitals specialize in rare diseases. Shane lives in Cincinnati, so he has Cincinnati Children's Hospital, but with these cuts, services at Children's will be undermined. Shane told me recently: I want to use whatever time I have left to help others with this and other rare diseases. I just wanted to come to the floor today to thank Shane. We are fighting for him and we are fighting with him and every family facing these terrible decisions with these healthcare cuts.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the Securing Semiconductor Supply Chains Act, as has been said, is a very straightforward, commonsense bill. It will help strengthen our domestic semiconductor industry and grow U.S. manufacturing. Semiconductors are the foundation of modern technology and core to our national security. They power everything from our cell phones, laptops, cars, medical devices, and critical infrastructure. They are key to the way in which we live our lives, and they are, in fact, very important in terms of national security. The more we can build these semiconductors here the better. That means we don't rely on other countries. What this bill does is it directs the Department of Commerce to work with State economic development agencies to better understand how to attract not just American investment but foreign investment into America's semiconductor industry. It will help identify the gaps, barriers, and opportunities to bring these new investments and then inform Congress so that we can boost investments from our allies and partners. There is way too much uncertainty in our economy right now. This bill is smart, bipartisan, and a good way to protect and grow our supply chains. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a remarkable human being, a dear friend, Francie Pepper. Francie, at her core, was a mom and a grandmother but also an advocate, a philanthropist, and a champion for women and children. Francie led enormous change for survivors of domestic violence. It is just one of many examples of the impact she had, but a critical one. She never stopped fighting for what she knew was right. Her home in Cincinnati was a place for community and community change. She built coalitions and inspired generations of public servants, including me. Francie wasn't just a leader. She was a force. I am who I am in part because of her. That is true for so many of us. We are the beneficiaries of her grit and her toughness and her love.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because this administration, the folks who are in charge of this country, after promising lower prices and a better economy, are actively jacking up prices and tanking the economy. Last year in Ohio, we imported $86 billion in goods. Now, nearly every country in the entire world is dealing with these tariffs because of a trade war that no one but one man wanted. The price of all of this will fall on us. It is a tax on nearly everything we buy, everything we sell. Americans have watched their hard-earned savings vanish as the markets have tanked every day since the announcement. Trump has now unilaterally placed the highest sales tax on Americans in the history of this country. The impact? Higher prices across the board. The average family is expected to pay an extra $4,000 this year alone. They cannot afford that. Trump says: ``I couldn't care less.'' Mr. Speaker, we need to end this chaos.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life of Gwen Robinson, a dear friend of mine, an incredible leader, and an incredible human being. She was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Cincinnati, and she welcomed me in the way she did with almost everyone, immediately kind and immediately generous. There is a real argument to be made that much of what I have accomplished, what so many of us accomplished in southwest Ohio wouldn't have happened without her. She fought so hard for the children in the Bond Hill Head Start program that she helped lead, making sure each one of them had the highest quality preschool. It was part of what convinced me that every child in Cincinnati deserved 2 years of quality preschool, and when we said we wanted to do that, she was there every step of the way. She poured everything into helping us get the Preschool Promise passed. She did the same with the public transit levy a few years later. There aren't enough words to capture her impact. Gwen was a giant and will be missed by all of us.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of an extraordinary individual, Mr. Kenny Bierschenk. Kenny has dedicated 30 years to enriching our community through music as a conductor and director of the Westside Community Band. Kenny has brought a joy to countless individuals across our community. Kenny has led the group to national recognition as a top ten community band in the 2024 American Prize competition. Under his leadership, the band performed nearly 250 free concerts, uplifting audiences at senior centers, festivals, and community events. He is not only a great conductor, but a great person. He and his band have done so much community work on behalf of our children. Kenny represents the best of our community, and we thank him for his leadership and his lasting impact.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, the Social Security Fairness Act, which we passed a few months ago, is now in effect, and 3.2 million Americans will see a big increase in their monthly Social Security checks. We are talking about retired public schoolteachers, retired police officers, retired firefighters, and retired letter carriers. They paid into Social Security for years but weren't getting their full benefits. They were missing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month. The bill was introduced in every Congress for the last 25 years. It had the most bipartisan support of any bill in the last Congress. We had to force a vote on the bill with a discharge petition, and within 2 days, we got 218 signatures. We fought very hard to get this done, and now, our public retirees will finally start to see the benefits they were owed each month. We could not have done this without the advocacy of thousands of public servants and retirees. I hope it can help restore some faith in our government that this institution does still get things done.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of one of my constituents, Debbie. Up until 1 week ago, Debbie worked at the Cincinnati VA, responsible for finding and hiring doctors with the skills needed to treat very sick veterans. Debbie loved her job, she was good at her job, and she went to work every day to serve her community and to help our veterans. A week ago, Debbie received an email telling her she no longer had a job. She wasn't fired because veterans were suddenly cured or because her work was no longer needed. Donald Trump and his unelected tech billionaire, Elon Musk, fired Debbie and slashed services at VA facilities nationwide making it harder for millions of veterans to get the services they need. It is simply wrong. Our veterans deserve better. Debbie and her family deserve better, and we need Republican Members of Congress who control this body to stand up for our veterans and our public servants and stop this madness.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also talk about Elon Musk and to ask the Speaker and my colleagues to follow the money. Elon owns six companies, two of which are Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX alone has received something like $20 billion in Federal contracts. That is Federal taxpayer dollars. Tesla, when it was struggling to get off of the ground, got a half-a-billion-dollar loan from the Department of Energy. This is in addition to the billions that they have received in tax credits and other supplements from the Federal Government. He is not just the world's richest man, but Elon Musk is trying to become the first trillionaire in the history of the world. Mr. Speaker, during the 2024 election, Musk gave over $200 million to Trump and Republicans. That is a lot of money. Trump wins, and Elon, just weeks--not months--after the election, generates several hundred billion dollars in new wealth, making his way to that trillion-dollar number. He generated all of that new wealth because the markets knew that, with Trump, he was going to have access to even more of our money. They knew he was going to get billions more in contracts, billions more in Federal subsidies, and he is well on his way. To expedite these efforts, Trump empowers Musk, moments after he is inaugurated--Musk, an unelected tech billionaire. He empowers him to take access of our personal data, all of it. He gives him access to the Federal payment system. He gives him power to purge as many Federal workers as he possibly can, all in the name of waste, fraud, and abuse, which, in the end turns out to be somewhat accurate. By the way, what happened with the data breach and the fact that he now has access to all of our data is arguably the greatest data breach in the history of the United States of America. Mr. Musk has defunded Federal programs, purged public servants, and stripped resources away from government oversight, all while getting richer and richer at the expense of the rest of us. Today, the State Department said they plan to spend $400 million of our tax dollars to purchase Tesla Cybertrucks. Why in the world would the Federal Government buy one Tesla Cybertruck, let alone $400 million of Tesla Cybertrucks: waste, fraud, and abuse. Every day, Elon Musk makes $8 million from government contracts. That number just went up. In comparison, seniors on Social Security get $65 a day. The question that so many are asking is: How do you fight back against this waste, fraud, and abuse? There is a playbook, Mr. Speaker. It is the Constitution of the United States. Article I does not lay out the powers of the Presidency or the Supreme Court, the Judiciary, Article I lays out the powers of the Congress of the United States. This Congress is responsible for appropriating funds and oversight of the Federal Government and holding the President accountable. The Founders envisioned this moment. They didn't know that it would come with a billionaire tech donor, but they envisioned this moment. With Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, they have to step up and deal with this waste, fraud, and abuse.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, for personal reasons, I was unable to make votes today. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 36 and YEA on Roll Call No. 37.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support our Federal workers. These are public servants who live and work all over the country. The vast majority of our Federal workers do not live in the Washington, D.C., area. It is a big misconception. People think, well, these are Federal workers. They are just here in D.C. They are in our districts. Each one of us has probably tens of thousands of Federal employees in our congressional districts, meaning that we serve them. It just so happens that they serve us. Trump and Elon Musk have been setting these fires all over the Federal Government. They have launched this reckless trade war with China. They tried to stop Federal funding from going into our communities. These are our tax dollars. Trump gave an unelected tech billionaire access to our Social Security data, to all of our data, to our Federal payment system, and empowered him to purge as many public servants from our Federal agencies as he possibly could. One of those public servants is a constituent of mine in southwest Ohio. She lost her job. For 20 years, she worked at USAID leading the agency's famine early detection efforts. Her work ensured food reached children, families, and communities in crisis. She saved lives. It is not just about food. Hunger fuels instability. When people are desperate, terrorism thrives. When the U.S. pulls back, it creates a vacuum for China to step in. This administration's actions are just cruel, and they are making our country and our world less safe. Why are they purging our Federal workforce? They have got to find $4 trillion--$4 trillion that won't go to you or me or our communities. They are planning to use these dollars to pay for tax giveaways for the uberwealthy, for the Elon Musks of the world. They are stealing from our workers, our country, and our allies all so the uberwealthy can get wealthier. It has to be stopped. This Congress can stop it, but the majority has to step up.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Himes for doing this Special Order and including us. I appreciate his leadership. Mr. Speaker, I was legitimately shocked. I am certain that this is the first time ever the President of the United States, certainly in my lifetime, released hundreds of violent criminals from jails and sent them into our communities. These are people who have now said that they are determined to buy weapons to pursue more violence. These are convicted criminals. They conspired to overthrow their own government. They stormed this Capitol. They destroyed property, sacred property. They attacked police officers. On day one, a day that was supposed to be about fixing the economy, lowering prices, actual border security, and real immigration reform, the focus was on releasing these violent criminals. Mr. Speaker, it is a betrayal to the American people, to law enforcement, and it has made us all less safe.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 215th anniversary of Lebanon, Ohio. Lebanon is the birthplace of The Western Star, Ohio's oldest weekly newspaper, the home of the historic Golden Lamb Inn, Ohio's oldest hotel, which has hosted 12 United States Presidents and literary giants like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. After walking on the Moon and seeing the Earth from space, Neil Armstrong could go anywhere, and he chose Lebanon as his home for 23 years. It is that special. Today, Lebanon continues to bring people together, including one of my favorite events, the Warren County Fair. It is a place where neighbors gather to celebrate community and tradition. We have an office there, and it is one of my favorite places. It is still remarkable 215 years later. Congratulations to all my friends in Lebanon.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I hate bullies. This bill is about bullying children. Children struggle with identity, gender, and otherwise. As a parent of two and a former teacher, I need all adults, including politicians and lawmakers, to help my wife and I protect our children, to support them, to give them a sense of purpose and belonging. This bill does the opposite. You are just picking on children. Our government is not supposed to be this intrusive. Your government has become incredibly intrusive. You are in our doctors' offices banning reproductive freedom. You are in our classrooms banning books and telling teachers what they can and cannot say. Now you are in my daughter's locker room requiring physical exams of children. It is so profoundly disgusting and inappropriate and un-American. We have an economy to fix, a border crisis to address, a budget to balance. My request to my colleagues is to focus. Stop bullying children.

Mr. LANDSMAN

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the bill, not because I don't want to see a whole host of reforms as it relates to helping our small businesses but because it does not exclude the big corporations from exploiting this bill to seize more and more of our power and wealth. I think people are very frustrated with just how much wealth and power has been consolidated among a sliver of Americans and a few big corporations. For that reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered this motion as an amendment to focus the same kind of thinking on our veterans. As part of the VA Committee and working with our veterans and our VA back home, I have become increasingly frustrated with the layers of bureaucracy that slow down care for our veterans or prevent care for our veterans. My amendment would provide an exemption to this bill for rules that are determined to have substantial beneficial effects on veterans and veteran programs. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of this amendment into the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.