Blake Moore

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, I want to share a brief message about what we have accomplished this last year. Mr. Speaker, House Republicans have turned a season of dread as tax season approaches into a season of historic relief. Tax season is officially underway, and this year, 91 percent of all taxpayers will experience an easier and more simplified filing process. We locked in the doubled standard deduction, and not only at the rate that Republicans established in 2017. We actually boosted it for this new approach. It is now considered permanent policy, meaning that families will pay no taxes on the first $31,500 of what they make. It will also save Americans an estimated 210 million hours per year in paperwork and $13 billion in compliance costs annually. We talk all the time about simplifying the tax code. Everybody talks about it, and we have done it. Since 2017, we decided to double the standard deduction. That immediately targets middle- and lower-income Americans who choose not to itemize. Itemizing is still an option you can do, Mr. Speaker, if you have multiple different types of elements that you can deduct from your taxes. You can still choose to do that, but the vast majority of Americans, working Americans and everyday Americans, use the doubled standard deduction. That is real tax relief. It goes unsaid a lot. It is such a standard piece. Nobody truly disagrees with it--``nobody'' meaning both parties. It is something that we have now established as the norm, and it will give immediate relief to the vast majority of American families. Because the historic tax cuts are retroactive to 2025, the average refund is projected to increase by $1,000, with a total of $91 billion in additional refunds being returned to the American people this spring. We also repealed the Democrats' $600 reporting requirements for payments through PayPal or Venmo and requirements for paperwork reporting of small payments to casual sellers and service providers. This, again, is an effort to simplify the tax code and make it work for American families so they will be able to have more of what they earned. I will get to more of that. Filing taxes is a pain point--we all know that--for most people because of both the amount and the process. We have simplified it to improve the experience for filers and increase accountability for lawmakers deciding where those funds are allocated. Working families were our top priority in these tax cuts. We wanted to help them achieve the American Dream, make life more affordable, and make filing taxes less of a burden. This year, Utah families will be able to keep more of their hard-earned money through the increased standard deduction and face less burdensome paperwork. It is very simple. Republicans have created a tax code that simply works for American families. This is something that doesn't work against them, as so oftentimes things from Washington, D.C., do. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a part of delivering this win for Utahns, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I will briefly add that I had the opportunity to serve on Chairman Smith's Ways and Means Committee, and I have seen the work that Mark Roman did, mostly behind the scenes, the stress that he is put under, and the outcomes that we have delivered. Oftentimes, we don't talk about this being a functional place. Sometimes when you go to Congress, Mr. Speaker, all you hear about is the gridlock, the nonsense, and all the rhetoric. Mark Roman accomplished some things for the American people that he will never get credit for. I am going to speak a little bit about it today, but I also wanted to add how much I appreciated getting a chance to work under Mark. I wish his amazing kids and family all the best. We hope that he really, truly won't go far. Historic Tax Relief for Families

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad to be joined by my colleagues this evening to talk about the historic tax relief we are providing for working families this tax season. I think it should be on the mind of every single American, and we are thrilled to be able to highlight some of the many things that we have accomplished in the preceding calendar year. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Missouri, (Mr. Smith) before I begin my remarks. Honoring Mark Roman

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Steve Hiatt, the recipient of the Hill Air Force Base 2025 Community Wingman Award. Hill Air Force Base is one of the most important contributors to northern Utah's economy and livelihood, employing over 23,000 military and civilian employees. Every year since 2007, they have given one individual the Community Wingman Award in recognition of their support for the base and its personnel. This gives the base an opportunity to recognize the impact that Utahns in the surrounding communities have on the success of the base. Few people have supported Hill Air Force Base more than Steve Hiatt. For nearly a decade, he served the city of Kaysville, Utah, as a city councilman and a mayor. This is an adjacent community to Hill Air Force Base. During this time, he ensured that the community fostered a strong relationship with the base. After serving in elected office, Steve remained highly integrated in the Hill community by serving as the vice president of the Utah Defense Alliance, as air combat command civic leader, and three terms as honorary commander. In each of these positions, Steve worked directly with servicemembers and leadership stationed at Hill to better understand and assist their mission. His work has ensured that Hill will continue to be a successful and important contributor to our national defense for years to come. I am proud to recognize Steve's strong example of service, and I congratulate him for this will-earned award. I thank him for his support of Hill Air Force Base and his many contributions to our State as a councilman, mayor, and community member. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the Commonwealth for his comments. It is common among Members of Congress, both the House and the Senate, to be strong on policy. Also, many Members are strong communicators. It is very rare, however, to get somebody who is so good at both. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is extremely lucky to have Andy Barr representing that amazing State. I thank him for his shared words. Yes, we know the horses. We get it. There are horses. It is a big thing down there. Mr. Speaker, again, I thank my colleagues for being here to share their perspectives as we look back on some of the significant wins that we have experienced over the course of the last year. I wanted to briefly share a little bit about stuff that doesn't get as much attention. As a proud father of four boys, we know that family is everything. Family is at the center of Utah values, and I have dedicated a lot of effort during my time in Congress to advance pro-family legislation. I worked on legislation to permanently increase the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000; indexing the CTC--child tax credit--to inflation; and provide an additional $500 for families through 2028. We worked to make the adoption tax credit partially refundable up to $5,000--indexed for inflation--beginning in 2025. One of the most unique things that we accomplished were the Invest America accounts, the Trump Accounts. These investment accounts demonstrate to American youth the power of capitalism and compounding interest. There is so much more, but that last piece is going to get a kickoff here next week. There will be $1,000 seeded to each child born to this country over the next 4 years. That child will be able to track their investment account. Usually a person doesn't even start investing until they are 30 years old. The best estimates are you graduate college. You have a little bit of student debt. You start a new job. You don't really start contributing to an IRA until you are 30, maybe even older. A 401(k) starts sometimes with your first job. We now have a whole new generation of kids who are starting to invest in their IRA at age zero. That is 30 extra years of potential compounding growth that will be an absolute game changer. Plus, this has garnered an enormous amount of attention from the philanthropic space where Michael and Susan Dell have announced a commitment of over $6 billion that will help children ages 1 through 10 in areas that aren't as economically advantaged. That will help those kids take advantage of this program and also create those accounts to watch those grow over time. It is a game changer and something we are really excited about. Mr. Speaker, we are voting on legislation this week to support families and pregnant women. We just passed the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, ensuring that young families have access to prenatal vitamins, formula, and diapers. It also ensures that TANF dollars can be used to support pregnancy resource centers. The Pregnant Students' Rights Act provides guidance and resources to pregnant students so that no student feels forced to choose between her education and her child. Last week, I also introduced the SAFE KIDS Act to prevent foreign adversarial nations from abusing the American surrogacy industry to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children and traffic infants abroad. Most of the developed world has already banned international commercial surrogacy due to the trafficking risks, and this bill is a strong step in the right direction to prevent bad-faith actors from taking advantage of U.S. surrogate mothers and the children they bear. I am proud to champion legislation that directly benefits Utahns and families across the country. We have strong families. We have strong communities, and these bills reflect our dedication to supporting them. Recognizing Steve Hiatt

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for his remarks. I feel ready to go out for the second half now, so the Sun is rising. I wish there was a second half to play. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the Commonwealth of Kentucky (Mr. Barr).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the greatest State in the Union, Mr. Owens, for his remarks. I am biased, of course. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bean).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be joined by my colleagues in this Conference Special Order. To start us off, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my constituent Ashlyn Gwynn, who was recently involved in a near-death car accident. Ashlyn was recruited to play soccer at Cal State Fullerton. This past September, on her way to another sporting event, she and her teammate Lauren were struck by a truck. Both were transported to the hospital, but Lauren tragically passed away after 6 weeks of intensive care. Her family's words were: ``Lauren fell asleep in the Lord.'' Lauren's legacy of goodness and positivity will always be remembered. After Ashlyn stabilized, doctors let her family know that there was a strong possibility that she may never regain consciousness. If she ever were to, it was possible that she would never walk or talk again. Thankfully, Ashlyn has made significant signs of improvement. She was transferred to a step-down rehabilitation unit, and through the generosity of a close friend of her father, she has been transported back to Utah, where she continues to receive physical and speech therapy and close care from her parents. I don't know Ashlyn, but I know her parents, and Matt and Shelly Gwynn are the best people I have ever known. I am so fortunate to have gotten to know them in this role. He is a police chief back home as well as a State legislator, and they are giving her the best possible chance of success. I wish Ashlyn the best.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his comments. I appreciate his thoughts and for articulating much of that. Mr. Speaker, last year House Republicans passed the working families tax cuts. This was a reconciliation bill that included monumental progrowth and profamily legislation that lowers costs for American families. A lot has been said about this. I want to share just a few aspects of this as we are within 6 months in the rear view of when we accomplished this. Again, the largest tax increases on American history would have happened on January 1 of this year had we not completed that, and we got it done 6 months prior to that crisis. I don't know the last time I looked at Congress and found something done that far ahead of schedule. It is usually the last minute. That matters because that was a reality. That is what we knew was coming, and we worked hard to accomplish a lot of really key important progrowth elements: no tax on tips or overtime, an increased child tax credit, tax relief for seniors, an increased standard deduction targeted entirely at the middle- and lower-income Americans, investment in rural America. These are just a few of the reasons Americans will see significant increases in their upcoming tax returns. Mr. Speaker, that doesn't even include the provisions that strengthen small business and encourage investment in American industry. This year, House Republicans are keeping more hard-earned dollars in working families' pockets, not with the Washington bureaucracy. The tax filing season begins next week, and Americans can expect to see some of the biggest tax refunds in history. After 4 years of painful inflation, we are cleaning up the economic mess. Real wages and benefits fell 3.9 percent during the Biden-Harris administration, and through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, real wages are growing faster than prices. We saw 4.3 percent real GDP growth in the third quarter of 2025. That is substantial. The average since World War II is 3.1 percent. After 3.8 percent in Q2, we continued to exceed expectations there. Economic growth is an important economic indicator with a substantial impact on our annual deficits, and I am confident it will only continue to grow. Mr. Speaker, 2026 will be about bigger paychecks and lower costs on everything from healthcare to housing to household goods. We are moving forward with housing affordability legislation to lower costs and update financing options. We are streamlining and simplifying permitting processes to create more jobs, reduce costs, and increase wages. We are also lowering healthcare costs. In December, the House passed legislation to cut premiums, expand Choice accounts, provide more affordable rates to small businesses, and expand PBM transparency to lower costs of prescription drugs. Mr. Speaker, 2025 was a big year for my team and for House Republicans. We passed landmark legislation, and people are going to see the difference because of it. I am looking forward to 2026 and continuing to work hard for Utah's First District. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be joined by my colleagues for this Conference Special Order to talk about ways we have delivered for all Americans through our legislative action, committee work, and much more. Mr. Speaker, to start off, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Buddy Carter.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, to close, I again thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Rivas) for yielding a few more minutes to finish out these thoughts in Doug's memory. Mr. Speaker, I will wanted to give a quick closing message to his wife, Jill, and his four children: Kyle, Allison, Sophia, and Natalie. I get an hour every week to do these floor messages. I am lucky to get five Members to come. I try to fill up 20 minutes, 15 of which your dad would actually take. He would go on and on. I would try to get him to wrap up so I could go to dinner. He was always there for me. Tonight, we ran over time with the amount of people who wanted to come and take time out of their very busy schedules to come and share a brief message. They sat for an hour to spend 60 seconds to reflect on your dad and your husband. I hope you can take from that some sense of appreciation and connection that we all have with your dad and what an amazing man he is.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, sincere appreciation to the Congresswoman. I thank her very much. That is a great way to honor Doug.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Ralph Wadsworth, who passed away on December 25, 2025. In many ways, Ralph is a prime example of the American dream. Having grown up in Idaho, he became the first of his family to attend college. At the time, he lived in an abandoned Army barracks and took odd jobs to pay for lodging and food. When he married his high-school sweetheart, Peggy, they had just fifty dollars to their name. Their poverty did not restrict Ralph's ambition and drive. After graduating from college and working for several engineering firms, he ventured out on his own and founded the Ralph L. Wadsworth Structural Engineering company in 1962. This company grew to be successful throughout the country. They engineered and built many high-rise office buildings in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as many temples for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including most notably the temple here in Washington, D.C. Ralph prioritized his family, his faith, and his country. He held a deep love for the United States of America and raised his children to recognize the great blessing it is to live in this country. He always recognized the role that his faith and belief in God had in his personal and professional success. Perhaps most importantly, he, along with his wife Peggy, raised seven sons who continue his legacy of success and hard work. Ralph is survived by his 7 sons, 21 grandchildren, and 27 great- grandchildren. I extend my deepest condolences to his family and express my gratitude for the important contributions that Ralph offered to our state and our Nation.

Mr. MOORE of Utah

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am saddened and honored at the same time to be able to host, alongside my California colleagues, a special hour dedicated to the memory of Congressman Doug LaMalfa from California. As I looked at some of my notes here of the amazing things that he had accomplished and who he was, I realized that we are going to hear that over the next hour. The thing that my team and I were reflecting on earlier today, and all I wanted to share as we kick off this memorial to an amazing man, was that, as vice chair, I get to, every week, host an evening of floor time for my colleagues on a myriad of topics. Doug LaMalfa was here every single time. Every time we needed him to be here, he was here, but he was here whether we asked him or not. Most times, he was the only one. Yet tonight, when I asked my colleagues if they wanted to share a message on Doug, the reverse: It is a packed house. That is all I wanted to share, to think about the legacy that he has left and the importance that he has to so many of our colleagues. He was always here for me, and we are all here today for his family. They are hopefully able to take some comfort and solace in his memory as we share this. We have a lot of folks who want to share a message, and we are going to kick it right off. I am just going to go around the room and start calling on people as we move forward. We are going to first hear, of course, from the California delegation. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), a distinguished colleague and very close friend of Mr. LaMalfa.

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, this is going to be a special hour, thanks to the gentleman from California. Mr. Speaker, I yield time to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. (English translation of the statements made in Korean is as follows:) Young Oak Kim Sister Thank you! You did well! You did well! Gim Yeong-ok uiwon-nim Gamsahamnida Sugohasyeosseumnida Sugohasyeosseumnida Take that, Doug. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Obernolte).

Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Fong).