Tom McClintock

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize Sherri Brennan for her devoted service as a Tuolumne County Supervisor. Supervisor Brennan was first elected to serve the 1st District of Tuolumne County in 2010 where she served a total of two terms as County Supervisor. From her long family history of agriculture to her passion for serving children and seniors, Sherri's eight years as a Supervisor have been marked by her dedication to all the people of Tuolumne County. In addition to her participation on various committees and commissions, Supervisor Brennan received the Excellence in Government Award from the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce in 2019 She also was named Woman of the Year in the 5th District in 2015 by Assembly Member Bigelow for her outstanding service and dedication to the people of California. In 2018, she was honored by the Center for a Non-Violent Community for International Women's Day. Supervisor Brennan has worked tirelessly on behalf of her district and the entirety of Tuolumne County. She has advocated locally and nationally for full funding of Payment in Lieu of Taxes, the Secure Rural Schools Program, Public Lands and Forest Health projects, including Rim Fire Recovery and the County's Master Stewardship Agreement with the Forest Service. Sherri's advocacy for and commitment to Tuolumne County has been an asset to every resident. In her years as a Supervisor, Sherri Brennan has been a leader and a visionary. She has served the residents of her district, and the entire County, with steadfast commitment and perseverance.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize Karl Rodefer for his devoted service as a Tuolumne County Supervisor. First, however, I want to acknowledge and thank Colonel Rodefer for his years of expert advice in nominating the very best young men and women in the 4th Congressional District to our service academies. Himself a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, his personal understanding of the critical requirements of military leadership has resulted in over 100 nominees succeeding at the academies and then as officers in our armed forces. Supervisor Rodefer's life is marked by public service. From his 23 years of service with the United States Air Force to his eight years as County Supervisor, Karl has served the public with dedication and selflessness. In addition to his service on a multitude of committees and commissions, Supervisor Rodefer has worked tirelessly to protect Tuolumne County's water resources, played an integral part in planning and future development of the Columbia Airport, was instrumental in acquiring grant funds to build the J.H. Dambacher Detention Center, spearheaded the County's Fire Safety and Community Resilience Initiative in 2019, and advocated for services for Veterans. Karl Rodefer has been a sterling example of all that ought to be meant by the designation ``public servant.'' I am proud today to congratulate Karl on his numerous accomplishments and to thank him for nearly a quarter century of commitment, dedication and service to the citizens of the United States and the residents of Tuolumne County.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, Governor Newsom made a groundbreaking discovery regarding COVID-19 last week. Apparently, it has learned to tell time. Thus, acting under the strictest of scientific standards, he has ordered Californians to run home before 10 p.m., lock their doors, and hide from this insidious virus until daybreak. Unfortunately, COVID doesn't seem to be following the curfew, so Newsom is now threatening yet another hard lockdown of virtually the entire State throughout the Christmas season. Don we now our plague apparel. There is just one nagging question the Governor hasn't bothered to answer. If these lockdowns are so successful, why do we need to keep having them? Now, we are told not to worry. We are cheerfully assured that the jobs that are being destroyed are nonessential. That is their term, nonessential. Well, I have news for these self-absorbed elitists. If a job is putting food on your table and a roof over your head that job is essential for you and the family that depends upon you. Last spring, I asked Anthony Fauci if he had taken into account the human cost of these lockdowns, the suicides, the drug and alcohol abuse, the domestic violence, the deferred health screenings and treatments, and the poverty related deaths that his policies were setting into motion. No, we really haven't considered that, he breezily replied. Don't know, don't care. But before Fauci and his followers took a wrecking ball to our Nation, poverty had dropped to its lowest rate since 1959. Unemployment was the lowest in 50 years. The income gap was narrowing. Wages showed their strongest growth in 40 years. How many millions of these jobs have now been wantonly destroyed by autocratic officials who seem oblivious to the damage that they are causing? Now, according to the CDC's best estimate, those under 50 have a 99.98 percent chance of recovering from COVID, if they get it at all; 99.98 percent. And 40 percent who get it don't even know they have it. Even for the most vulnerable group, over 70, the survival rate is 94.6 percent. Now, Sweden did not force its businesses to close. Sweden didn't shut down its schools and abandon its children to the streets. Sweden didn't even adopt a mask mandate. Sweden did what free societies do; they gave the best advice they could, and they trusted their citizens to use their own good judgment of what measures made sense to them. The result? Well, as of this morning, Sweden's mortality rate from COVID is 154 deaths per million below that of the United States. If we had Sweden's rate, that would mean over 50,000 fewer American deaths from COVID. Meanwhile, Sweden has sustained a fraction of the economic damage that our lockdown leftists have inflicted on innocent Americans. Globally, the United Nations warns that 130 million people will starve to death around the world because of the economic damage caused by these measures. Mr. Speaker, this has to stop. The good news is that more and more Americans are questioning the lunacy of these policies and the hypocrisy of those who impose them. Newsom's curfew order was met with spontaneous defiant demonstrations across the State. Elected sheriffs are increasingly refusing to enforce these autocratic orders. Pastors are reopening their churches. Businesses are reopening, even as their owners are taken away in handcuffs. All mass hysterias are driven by blind fear, fanned by politicians and charlatans who see opportunity in them. And we have, sadly, learned that such fear can cause a free people to abandon their legacy of freedom and independence, their prosperity, and their common sense, but only for a while. Every time in history that this has happened, there is always a moment when the fear fever breaks, and the hysteria suddenly burns itself out. The French Revolution, the Salem witch trials, the Communist hysteria of the 1950s all had a moment when the absurdity of it all became so apparent that it overcame the fear and the people turned on their tormentors. Now, I don't know if the recent wave of business and religious persecutions, the unlimited home detention orders, and the demonstrated hypocrisy of those who have ordered them signals that moment. But every shopkeeper who defies these petty tyrants, every parent who confronts their school officials, every person who refuses to submit to the dysfunctional dystopian world created by the lockdown left brings us one step closer to that turning point. It can't come soon enough.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning in defense of Governor Gavin Newsom, who recently defied his own idiotic COVID edicts as he partied at one of the few restaurants that has not yet been forced out of business. I defend him because he was doing what we once all did in a free society, make our own decisions over what risks we are willing to run and what precautions we are willing to take according to our own circumstances to protect our own health. Yes, COVID is a nasty bug, and a quarter of a million Americans have died while having it, but this isn't the bubonic plague. The CDC's best estimate is that if you are under 49, your chance for surviving COVID, if you get it, is 99.92 percent. Even if you are over 70, you have a 94.6 percent rate of recovery. Forty percent who get it, don't even know they have it. And yet we have allowed our officials to ruin our quality of life over it, destroying countless businesses, throwing tens of millions into unemployment, robbing our children of their educations, and shredding our most cherished rights as Americans. Governor Newsom's night of partying should be a wake-up call for every American. Every time we step outside our homes, the risks that we face multiply. A free society assumes that its citizens are competent to assess those risks, balance them against the avoidance costs, and to manage their decisions in a generally responsible way. It is called common sense, and it is a necessary prerequisite for self-government and liberty. The choices of an octogenarian with emphysema might be very different from those of a healthy Governor from California. Only a fool would claim the omniscience to make an informed judgment for every person in every circumstance in every community. Yet sadly, this crisis has revealed that fools abound in public office, and that a fool with power can quickly become a petty tyrant. Which brings us back to Governor Newsom. These government nannies love to tell us that they are just following the science. Well, what does this science actually tell us? It tells us that COVID poses virtually no risk to children but can be severe among the elderly. So what did these lockdown leftists do? They closed all the schools and ordered infected patients into nursing homes. The science tells us that outdoor transmissions of the virus are extremely rare, and that 80 percent of infections occur in people's homes. So what did these lockdown leftists do? They closed our beaches, parks, and campgrounds and ordered people to stay at home. The science tells us that obesity is a contributing factor to the severity of the disease. So what did these lockdown leftists do? They closed all the gyms and kept the liquor stores open. The lockdowns haven't saved lives. The States with the most stringent lockdowns generally have the highest mortality rates from COVID. Utah stayed open while next door, Colorado shut down. Utah currently has half the COVID mortality rate and three-fourths the unemployment rate as Colorado. But the lockdowns have cost countless lives from suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and deferred health screenings and treatments. Recently, Governor Newsom demanded that restaurant diners replace their masks after every bite, but also minimize the times they are taken off. I guess that means you take really big bites. Thanksgiving dinners are allowed in California, but only when they are held outside, guests are seated 6 feet apart, and they last no more than 2 hours. Now it is all right to use the bathroom, but only if it is frequently sanitized, otherwise presumably you will just have to use the bushes. And for God's sake, no singing. I have wondered how much longer the American people are going to tolerate this nonsense. So let us not criticize Governor Newsom. Perhaps he has just offered us all deliverance from his own folly. Nor should we criticize the California legislators who ignored travel and quarantine restrictions to junket in Hawaii. Nor should we ridicule Speaker Pelosi for choosing not to wear a mask in a hair salon that was forced to close for the rest of us. Good for them. They are demonstrating by their actions the freedom that every American citizen needs to reclaim from these very same people. The Governor should make his own decisions about running his own life. I only ask that he and his ilk would stop telling us how to run ours.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, the nature of democracy is that in every election there is a winner and a loser. The success of democracy depends on the loser believing the vote was fair and accepting the result. You see, the vote is not the foundation of democracy, the integrity of the vote is its foundation. That is just as important for the winner as it is for the loser. The winners depend on the integrity of the vote for their legitimacy. The loser depends on it for their acceptance. That is precisely the issue in the aftermath of this election. The widespread allegations of illegal votes and illegal processes must be resolved before the election can confer legitimacy. Among those questions are the acceptance of ballots received after election day, votes cast by ineligible voters, backdated ballots, illegally duplicated ballots, voting systems that misallocated votes, and the counting of votes outside any meaningful observation. Now, there is either evidence to support these allegations or there is not. Fortunately, we are blessed with a well-established system of administrative and judicial review to answer these questions. Georgia, for example, is now undertaking an audit and hand count. The audit should resolve some concerns over illegal votes, and the hand count should resolve concerns over illegal processes. Meanwhile, judges across the country are hearing complaints and weighing the evidence to support similar concerns. So I rise today to ask that we all calm down, stop the hyperbolic rhetoric, and allow this process to unfold as it should. Our system is more than capable of working through these issues and providing answers that can satisfy both sides. We also need to ask ourselves why so many Americans currently believe the election was riddled with fraud. I think it is because so many safeguards built into our system have been removed. We call it ``election day'' for a reason. Until recently, we all waited until the campaigns were over and every candidate had their say. Then on a single day, election day, we personally went to the polling place in our community in what George Will calls ``the communion of democracy.'' We all took the time because we knew it was important. We brought our children to watch the process, and we taught them to respect it. The polling place was often at a neighbor's garage or the local elementary school. Each of us looked our neighbors on the precinct board in the eye as we identified ourselves and signed the roll. They then handed us our ballot. We immediately took that ballot into a curtained booth where no one could look over our shoulder or plead or threaten or cajole us to vote a certain way. We cast our vote in absolute privacy, according to our own conscience, and then handed the ballot back to our neighbor, who immediately placed it into a locked box in the presence of observers from all parties. It was very hard to commit fraud in such a system because every ballot had a clear and simple chain of custody. At 8 p.m., the total number of votes was known, and the count began under the watchful eye of observers, and we usually knew the results of most races by 10 o'clock that night, midnight if it was close. Now, consider how we have perverted that simple and secure process that we once prided ourselves upon. Today ballots are mailed out to voter rolls that contain untold numbers of people who have moved or died. There is no chain of custody from the time the ballot is mailed until the time it is returned. In many States, ballot harvesters can knock on doors and collect these surplus ballots. Even legitimate votes can be cast weeks before the debate is concluded and under the duress of family or friends or precinct workers. This corrupted process cannot continue. Even if it doesn't rob our elections of their actual legitimacy, it certainly robs them of their perceived legitimacy, destroying the trust that the loser of any election must have to accept and respect the will of the electorate. The old process assured the presumption of fairness. The new process offers none. Acceptance of an election cannot be obtained by browbeating. It can only be earned by a full and open review of the integrity of the election establishing for all Americans that their vote was fairly and accurately recorded and that the result speaks as the will of the Nation. And I eagerly await that day.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I will close as I began. Extremist groups on the right and the left that advocate violence as a method of achieving political goals threaten the very foundations of our democracy, and I fully support this resolution in its denunciation of one such group called QAnon. But the American people can see with their own eyes where the violence on our streets is coming from, and I deeply regret that the majority is not willing to call out by name such groups as antifa or to acknowledge that such evil forces even exist. We must speak out together against all such groups, and I am deeply troubled that, for some reason, we cannot. We need to know who is funding these groups. We can already see with our own eyes who is encouraging them. We can see with our own eyes whose mayors have deliberately withheld police protection from their citizens as these extremist-driven mobs run rampant in our communities. We can see with our own eyes those politicians calling for defunding police departments that are the only means of defense that our citizens have. We can see with our own eyes those prosecutors who have refused to hold accountable those who perpetrate violence in our communities and who instead prosecute citizens who are desperately trying to defend themselves. So, I am pleased to support this resolution, but it is no substitute for a clear and unambiguous stand against all political extremism and violence that this House, for some reason, refuses to take. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Riggleman), a cosponsor of this resolution.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution which condemns an extremist group known as QAnon. I have to admit that I had only recently heard of this group, but I didn't know any of the details of their beliefs or tactics until this resolution was brought to us. But from what I have read, they are a delusional group that began with an internet post in 2017, and they hold the bizarre belief that the Federal Government is infested with satanic pedophiles who are busy running a global child sex trafficking ring when they are not plotting against President Trump. Now, I am tempted to say you can't make this stuff up, but, obviously, somebody did make this up; and, given the reach of the internet, it is apparently being taken seriously by some extremists who are turning to violence. Lest it get out of hand, it is appropriate for the House to speak with one voice on behalf of all of our communities across this great Nation in condemning QAnon and its conspiracy theories. It should be clear to every man and woman of goodwill in this country that this group seeks only to further roil our society and divide our citizens along lines of race, religion, and politics. Even in this highly polarized political climate, I think we can all agree on this. Let me ask us all to do so without attempting to smear any party or candidate with the ravings from this, the lunatic fringe, of our society. That term, ``lunatic fringe,'' was popularized by Theodore Roosevelt. He wrote this in his autobiography: ``Then, among the wise and high- minded people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive earnestly for peace, there are the foolish fanatics always to be found in such a movement and always discrediting it, the men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.'' He continued: ``As I have already said, there is a lunatic fringe to every reform movement.'' We have seen that borne out in the turbulent period of history that we now occupy, and how we deal with it will determine whether we can calm the political waters and restore peace and tranquility to our cities and civil discourse to our conversations. In that regard, it is important to note that QAnon and the lunatic fringe on the right no more speak for the right than antifa and the lunatic fringe on the left speak for the left. Both are poisonous to our democratic institutions, and both are destructive of what Lincoln called the mystic chords of memory that should unite us as a free people. So allow me to voice my hope that we will see similar condemnations of the lunatic fringe that has been given free rein in recent months to rampage, loot, vandalize, and burn so many of our towns and cities across the country. QAnon and its allied groups are real, but antifa and its allied groups are also real. Both are direct threats to our democracy because both threaten to employ violence for political ends, and that is the very definition of terrorism. No free society can long endure if their acts of violence are excused, ignored, or tolerated. Lincoln said it best: There is no grievance that is fit object for redress by mob law. To that, I would add this observation: Without law enforcement, there is no law; and without law, there is no civilization. I would express the fervent hope that, before we adjourn, we will entertain condemnations of all groups on all sides that employ violence for political ends by name. Wednesday night, the Rules Committee rejected a motion on a party- line vote that would have brought to the floor a resolution condemning antifa and its allied groups concurrent with this resolution. That would demonstrate that this House speaks clearly and stands united against all such groups that have wrought such division and destruction in our communities. That is especially important when we survey the violence perpetrated by the lunatic fringe in Portland; Seattle; San Francisco; Oakland; Los Angeles; Chicago; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis; and even Kenosha, Wisconsin. It is especially important when the mayors of these cities have withheld police protection from their own citizens, leaving innocent and peaceful shopkeepers and residents to the mercy of mob law and when prosecutors have refused to hold accountable those who have perpetrated this violence upon the American people. There is precious little time before the election to take a stand clearly and unambiguously against all political violence and with one voice to stand with the rule of law and not with the rule of the mob. If we could speak together on this most important issue, maybe we could start to find our way back to other fundamental principles and institutions that have always united us as a people and made our Nation, in Lincoln's words, the last best hope of mankind on this Earth. So, please, my Democratic friends, do not squander this fleeting opportunity to turn back from the perilous road we are on and reclaim the precious legacy our forefathers left us. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, John Adams' famous observation bears repeating here today. He said: ``Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.'' We have heard a great deal from the other side about their passions, but we don't have all the facts. That is what the ongoing investigations will provide us. The facts that stubbornly present themselves on this matter here today are that the AP found no evidence of mass hysterectomies at this facility. The hospital that performs them for the facility reports that two have been performed on ICE detainees since 2017. The hospital tells us the allegations are demonstrably false--demonstrably--in other words, they can prove it. The attorney who made the allegations that have given rise to this debate today admitted to The Washington Post that they were not based on any evidence and that she included them ``whether or not true'' to prompt the investigation. All the wishes and inclinations on the other side to abolish ICE, repeal our immigration laws, throw our borders open, all the other things that have been proposed from time to time and all of the vitriolic passions we have heard from the other side today cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. More facts and evidence will be presented to us as the investigation unfolds, and that will tell us exactly what happened at this facility. I would strongly advise my friends to await the investigation to inform us and to guide us. My Democratic colleagues are fond of saying that we must always follow the data. Mr. Speaker, I now commend to them their own advice. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, my chief of staff is a former naval captain who commanded the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in the 1990s. I once asked him what was the most important thing he had learned during his distinguished naval career, and he said: The first reports are always wrong. That is why I would urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to take a step back and await the investigations that are now underway to determine exactly what happened at the Irwin County Detention Center, lest they appear in retrospect to have behaved, well, rather prematurely and foolishly. This resolution affirms allegations that women detained by ICE for the crime of illegally crossing the border underwent unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures, including full or partial hysterectomies and other procedures involving their reproductive organs performed without their knowledge or consent. Well, if that is true, it is appalling, and those responsible should be held fully accountable. The acting ICE Director, Tony Pham, said precisely that on September 18. He said: ``The recent allegations by the independent contracted employee raised some very serious concerns that deserve to be investigated quickly and thoroughly. ICE welcomes the efforts of both the Office of Inspector General as well as the Department of Homeland Security's parallel review. ``As a former prosecutor, individuals found to have violated our policies and procedures should be held accountable. If there is any truth to these allegations, it is my commitment to make the corrections necessary to ensure that we continue to prioritize the health, welfare, and safety of ICE detainees.'' Of course, this resolution makes no acknowledgment of Mr. Pham's statement or of the investigations that are now underway. The reality is, at this point, we do not have all the facts. We do know that the complaint by the group Project South, which instigated the allegations, did not contain testimony from a single woman who had a hysterectomy while detained at the Irwin County Detention Facility. We know that ICE has an annual third-party inspection of its detention facilities, including the medical care at those facilities. We know that ICE has performance-based national detention standards, which include high standards for women's medical care. We know that the 2019 third-party inspection conducted by the Nakamoto Group found that the Irwin County Detention Center met ICE's performance-based national detention standards. We know that on September 18 the Associated Press reported: ``The AP's review did not find evidence of mass hysterectomies as alleged in a widely shared complaint filed by a nurse at the detention center.'' That is the Associated Press. We know that on September 22, The Washington Post reported that since 2017, only two women in immigration custody were referred to the Irwin County Hospital for hysterectomies and that there are no other facilities in the region that perform that procedure. ICE reports there may have been three. But the attorney for the hospital calls the claims that we have just heard demonstrably false. His words, ``demonstrably false.'' We know that on September 15, The Washington Post reported that the lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the pro-illegal-immigration group ``acknowledged to The Washington Post that she did not speak to any women who had a forced sterilization, and said she included the allegations in the report with the intention of triggering an investigation into whether or not the claims were true.'' Whether or not the claims were true. Well, we are going to find out, and once we have all the facts, we can make rational decisions about what to do, but this resolution simply assumes the allegations are true and condemns the institution as if they were true. It then calls for indefinite postponement of the deportation of any illegal immigrant at this facility that has any medical procedure, which I assume would include routine medical screenings. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the House this very simple question: Wouldn't it be better to let the investigation take its course, have all the facts laid out before us, and then take appropriate actions? If the allegations are true, every bit of the indignation expressed in this resolution and by my Democratic colleagues would be justified, and a united, bipartisan Congress would demand and command redress and reform. But if the allegations are found not to be true, this House, that is already plumbing the depths of public ridicule and derision, will once again have diminished its credibility and its moral authority to speak out on this or any other issue. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, last week, President Trump came to California to be briefed on the horrific fires now raging in that State. Instead, he got a lecture from Governor Newsom and his staff on climate change. Well, if Gavin Newsom actually believes that if we all just ride our bikes to work and set our thermostats to 80 degrees that these wildfires will go away, then he is completely delusional. Excess timber comes out of the forest in only two ways: It is either carried out or it burns out. For most of the 20th century, we carried it out. It is called logging. Every year, the U.S. Forest Service foresters would mark off excess timber, and then we auctioned it off to lumber companies that paid us to remove it, funding both local communities and the forest service. We auctioned grazing contracts on our grasslands. The result was healthy forests, fewer fires, and a thriving economy. But beginning in the 1970s, we began imposing environmental laws that have made the management of our lands all but impossible. Draconian restrictions on logging, grazing, prescriptive burning, and herbicide use on public lands have made modern land management endlessly time consuming and, ultimately, cost prohibitive. A single tree thinning plan typically requires 4 years and more than 800 pages of analysis. The costs of this process exceed the value of timber, turning land maintenance from a revenue-generating activity to a revenue-consuming one. Since 1980, these laws have produced an 80 percent decline in timber harvested off of the Federal forests and a concomitant increase in acreage destroyed by fire. In California, the number of sawmills has declined from 149 to just 27. Now, these laws were passed with the promise they would improve the forests. Well, after more than four decades, I think we are entitled to ask: How are the forests doing? An untended forest is just like an untended garden. It will grow and grow until it chokes itself to death. In a morbidly overcrowded State, stressed trees fall victim to disease, pestilence, drought, and, ultimately, catastrophic wildfire. In many regions of the Sierra, timber density is now four times greater than the land can support. We have been trying for years to reform these laws, resume active forest management, and restore our forests to health; yet the environmental leftists have blocked us every year. Instead, politicians use the excuse of climate change. Really? These environmental laws generally apply only to public lands. Today, you can easily tell the boundaries between private and public lands solely on the condition of the forests. How clever of the climate only to decimate the public lands. The climate has changed much over the centuries, but the problem has not. When Juan Cabrillo dropped anchor in Santa Monica Bay in October of 1542, the height of the Santa Ana fire season, he named it the Bay of Smoke. Before western civilization, paleontologists tell us that we lost between 4 and 12 million acres a year to wildfire in California. Modern forests and land management brought that destruction down to just a quarter of a million acres during the 20th century. That annual destruction is now back up to 3 million acres a year. That is not a new normal; that is the old normal reasserting itself. That is not climate change; that is how nature deals with overgrown lands. And once destroyed, it can take centuries for our forests to regrow. We began active forest management to break that cycle. We decided we wanted every generation to enjoy our forests. So we introduced scientific forest management to do a little gardening and keep our forests healthy by suppressing brush and harvesting excess timber so it couldn't crowd itself to death. And it worked, until the environmental laws abandoned science for ideology. The planet has been warming and cooling for millennia. Warmer temperatures make it all the more important to match tree density to the ability of the land to support it. That means more logging, not less. California has taken draconian measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, at a terrible cost for the quality of life of Californians. We now suffer some of the highest costs for energy in the country; we have destroyed our manufacturing base; and we can't guarantee enough electricity to keep our refrigerators running. Yet a single catastrophic fire makes a mockery of all of these laws and the sacrifices they impose on our people. Governor Newsom says he has no patience for such views. Well, that is a tragedy for all Californians and for all of California's forests.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the following remarks by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Mrs. Rajavi addressed the three-day Free Iran Global Summit in July 2020 in Albania, home to thousands of members of the principal Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK). The online summit linked Iranians and 1,000 current and former government officials, bipartisan lawmakers and international dignitaries from 30,000 locations in 102 countries . Below are excerpts from Mrs. Rajavi's speech: This summit echoes the voice of the Iranian people's 40- year resistance against religious dictatorship and fascism and for freedom and democracy. This is the voice of the largest, the longest-standing, most sophisticated, and most serious organized resistance in Iran's history, with the roaring river of its martyrs' blood, and the moving chants of massacred Mujahedin members who continued to insist on their belief to the end, against the most murderous and cruel rulers. This summit echoes calls for the clerical regime's overthrow, which were heard during successive uprisings from December 2017 and January 2018 to November 2019 and January 2020. It is the people's calls for the regime's overthrow after the conclusion of ``reformer vs. principlist'' theatrics that was aimed at preserving this very regime. This summit is the voice of Resistance Units and rebellious cities across Iran who have put an end to a history of despair, incredulity, and inaptitude, replacing it with the pledge of ``we can and we must.'' Today's summit represents our enchained homeland in three of its most prominent features: A rebellious and revolutionary Iran; an Iran united in solidarity; and a free and democratic Iran of tomorrow. We have come together to underline three monumental and historic commitments that we have pledged to accomplish. Our first commitment is that we, the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance, will overthrow the clerical regime and will reclaim Iran. Our second commitment is that we, the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance, will build a free and democratic Iran. And our third commitment is to remain faithful to our people's sovereignty and their vote; to not seek power at any cost, but to establish freedom and justice at any cost; to never return to the dictatorships of the Shah and the mullahs. As the majority of elected lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe have pointed out, we want to establish a democratic, secular and non-nuclear Iran. From all indications, the ruling theocracy is at the point of being overthrown. The uprisings that spanned from December 2017 and January 2018 to November 2019 and January 2020 were not about reforming the regime. Rather, these uprisings sought to overthrow the clerics. [The young] generation delivered the thunderous chants of ``Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the [supreme] Leader.'' ``We don't want the Shah or the Leader, we don't want a choice between bad and worse.'' This generation chants ``Our enemy is right here. They lie when they say it is America.'' The Iranian Resistance relied on precise and well- documented reports to register the figure of 1,500 martyrs during the November 2019 uprising. The actual figure is much higher. These uprisings checkmated the Iranian regime's political apologists, advocates, lobbyists, and paid operatives, by completely discrediting their deception and lies. The regime's puppets kept saying that it would be inconceivable for the people of Iran to turn to uprisings and revolution to overthrow the mullahs. They kept saying that change in Iran will not happen except from within the regime itself. And time and again, they repeated the mullahs' false claim about the PMOI/MEK's lack of popular support. This explains why the mullahs and their mob of interrogators and functionaries have unleashed against the Resistance and the PMOI/MEK. They see themselves about to be overthrown and are in agony over the fact that these uprisings and rebellious youth have adopted the roadmap and the strategy of the PMOI/MEK. The volcanic uprising in November washed away all unfounded claims. It was proven that it is possible to inspire and organize protests. It was proven that despite all the repression and crimes, our people have a spectacular desire and readiness to continue their uprising. And it was proven that a force capable of overthrowing the regime has emerged and is lurking in the hearts of Iranian cities. It is this rebellious force which, despite unrelenting arrests, empowers resistance units to constantly regroup, reproduce, and multiply themselves. Over the past two years, the emergence of rebellious cities and the operations of resistance units against repression, aimed at breaking the suppressive atmosphere, fueling the engine of the uprisings, and mobilizing the people, have made the regime feel the clearly and vividly. If they [the mullahs] continue to pursue their current path and course of action, namely belligerence, missile launches, terrorism, intimidation and closing ranks, they will inevitably crash head first. If they make the slightest retreat, namely, if they change their behavior and abandon their suppression, terrorism and belligerence, then they would undermine the very existence of rule of the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). For this reason, Khamenei calls for the creation of ``a young and Hezbollahi government'' and sees a monolithic Parliament and a murderous Judiciary as the only way out of the vortex of crises and the only way to preserve the regime. The international community's decision to activate the snapback mechanism would be the coup de grace shot to the regime's windfall achievements under the JCPOA and the policy of appeasement. To date, the accelerating outbreak of the coronavirus has taken the lives of at least 72,000 people in Iran. In March, Khamenei admitted that he sought to create an opportunity and a blessing out of the coronavirus crisis. The abnormal surging trend of the number of corona virus victims in Iran is a product of the criminal policies of Khamenei and Rouhani. The strategy of launching mass casualties as a barrier against the threat of an uprising and eventual overthrow is exactly designed to pacify and demoralize the Iranian society, rendering it hopeless and paralyzed. During the breathtaking coronavirus crisis, the mullahs continued to launch expensive satellites into space. Concurrently, they pursued their belligerent and terrorist activities in Iraq and Syria and escalated their ominous nuclear activities to a new level. The ruling mullahs must answer why the value of the country's official currency has plunged so much? Why is there no ability to create jobs? Why is Iran one of the four countries in the world with the highest inflation rates? And you must say where did Khamenei amass 100 billion dollars in his executive headquarters? The 15 institutions and foundations under Khamenei's control have a total of one trillion dollars' worth of assets. We pledged to overthrow the regime, take back Iran and restore all the violated and plundered rights of the people of Iran. Our people must enjoy the right to be healthy, have shelter, to employment, to organize and have syndicates, autonomy for ethnic minorities, equal participation in running society's affairs, gender equality and popular sovereignty. They must be free of religious slavery and sexual exploitation. They must enjoy freedom of expression, opinion, and choice. They must be pulled out of poverty and be free from fear; this means ending torture, executions, and social and economic insecurity. We have pledged to restore all these freedoms and rights. We make this pledge before the Iranian people and history. This is our pledge to 120,000 martyrs who fell for freedom. Today, in Iran, one of the greatest battles and one of the greatest tests of our time rages on between freedom and religious fascism, between democracy and religious fundamentalism. We urge all governments and international bodies to stand with the people of Iran in this historic showdown against the greatest threat to world peace and security. The Iranian regime's leaders planned to launch a major terrorist attack against the Free Iran Grand Gathering in Paris, in 2018. The terrorists in possession of the bomb were arrested by the Belgian Police. The regime's diplomat, who delivered the bomb, has been in jail for more than two years. For the first time, a serving diplomat faces trial in Europe for direct involvement in terrorism. This is a great disgrace for the regime, and it shows that the regime spares no effort to commit any crime and pay any price to destroy its alternative. The trial of the four detained terrorists as the perpetrators of this terrorist act is a necessary step. But the real decision makers were Khamenei, Rouhani, Zarif, and Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi. As I have reiterated time and again, we have not come to gain something for ourselves; we have come to sacrifice and pay the requisite price. We are determined to restore freedom and people's sovereignty in Iran, and this will happen. Long live freedom. God bless the people of Iran.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I represent the Sierra Nevada of California. Yosemite Valley, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, and Lake Tahoe are all within my district. The Yosemite Land Grant Act signed by President Lincoln in 1864 was the first time the Federal Government set aside land for ``public use, resort, and recreation . . . for all time.'' Today, the Federal estate has grown to 640 million acres. That is 28 percent of the land area of our Nation. While the Federal Government owns just seven-tenths of 1 percent of New York State and 1.8 percent of Texas, it owns 46 percent of my home State of California and 93 percent of Alpine County in my district. Now, we in the Sierra revere our public lands, and we are proud to share them with the world. But the Federal Government now holds far more land than it can take care of. The Federal lands now face a $20 billion backlog of deferred maintenance, which makes tourism less desirable. Now, this is all land that is off the local tax rolls, denying our local governments vital revenues. Federal restrictions on productive use of these lands has devastated local economies and, worst of all, the Federal Government has utterly neglected the management of our forests to the point that they have become morbidly overgrown and now present a constant threat of catastrophic fire. Now, shouldn't we take care of the land we already hold before we acquire still more land? And when we have already taken two-thirds of Alaska and Utah and four-fifths of Nevada, shouldn't we pause and ask for some balance around the country? Now, this measure does provide enough money over the next 5 years to address about half of our current deferred maintenance needs, and that is very good. But then that funding disappears, and we are left with locked-in, billion-dollar-a-year mandatory spending in perpetuity for new land acquisitions placed outside of Congress' control, while removing the requirement that future acquisitions be focused where the Federal Government owns very little land. It means that unelected bureaucrats will have a billion-dollar-a-year slush fund to take private property off the tax rolls with no accountability to our local communities, no provisions for long-term maintenance, and no reforms to protect our people from the scourge of wildfire produced by the continuing neglect of our Federal forests.

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, the Confederacy was a fundamental attack on our Constitution and the founding principles of our Nation, and it should never be romanticized or lauded. I have got no problems with removing, lawfully, any monument that specifically honors this rebellion, but that is not what this bill does. Rather, it begins by removing the bust of Roger Taney from the Old Supreme Court Chamber. Now, it is true he wrote the absolutely worst decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court, the Dred Scott decision, but let's not forget he also presided over and joined in one of its better decisions, the Amistad slave case. If we remove memorials to every person in this building who ever made a bad decision--and his was the worst--well, this will be a very barren place, indeed. It is only by the bad things in our history that we can truly measure all of the good things in our history. Now, this bill also removes the statues of Confederate sympathizers sent to the Capitol by the States. Well, that is not our decision. That is a decision that has always belonged to the individual States, and several of them are already making these decisions. We should let them. The only other one is John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, who is honored not for his service to the Confederacy but, rather, for his service as Vice President of the United States. And, granted, we have had some absolutely terrible Vice Presidents through our history, and I am sure we will in the future, but if we are going to start down that road, we are going to be swapping out statues like trading cards at the whim of the moment. Our Nation's history should be made of sterner stuff. Perhaps we would all be better advised to practice a little temporal humility and heed the wisdom of Omar Khayyam: ``The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.''

Mr. McCLINTOCK

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.