Robert Onder

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this bipartisan bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4523, which provides technical corrections to Federal transportation law related to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program. The meaning of the law remains unchanged. It simply improves the statute for legal clarity and accuracy. This is part of Congress' role in providing revisions to the code to account for new laws passed by Congress and additions or changes those laws make. It is a simple and straightforward measure that ensures the United States Code reflects the most up-to-date information. I encourage my colleagues to support this and other technical corrections bills on the floor today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ONDER. 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 H.R. 4523.

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4523) to make technical amendments to title 49, United States Code, as necessary to improve the Code.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, Members from both sides of the aisle will head to the field for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. It is a great tradition in Washington, reminding us that no matter how intensely we disagree, we believe in the basic American principle of fair play. I rise today to talk about a piece of legislation that completely upends the rules of fair play for Americans, the Faster Labor Contracts Act. To understand why this bill is so dangerous for our workforce, let's stick with the baseball analogy for a second. Imagine a tie game, the bottom of the ninth, a close play at the plate, and the call is challenged. In Major League Baseball, we know how the replay review works. It goes to a centralized room in New York filled with veteran umpires who have spent decades in the field. Both teams accept the final decision because they trust the expertise of the people making the call. Now, imagine if the MLB suddenly changed that rule. Imagine replay reviews were handed over to a rushed, three-person panel, with one reviewer picked by the home team and one picked by the away team. A third tie-breaking member is chosen at random from the stadium's front- office staff. They are then given a 2-minute clock to issue a final, unappealable ruling. None of us would accept it. The fans would protest, and the integrity of the game would be destroyed. Yet, remarkably, that is exactly the framework this legislation wants to force upon collective bargaining in the American workplace. The Faster Labor Contracts Act invites Federal bureaucrats directly into private negotiations and empowers them to dictate contracts between employers and employees. Under the text of this bill, once the union is certified, negotiations must begin within 10 days. The parties are then given a rigid window of just 90 days to reach a first contract. If they cannot reach a deal in that brief window, the bill forces them into mediation, but it only gives the process 30 days. If the mediation doesn't resolve every single issue in those few weeks, a government-imposed, binding arbitration automatically kicks in. Just like that hypothetical baseball panel, a three-person arbitration board takes over. The employer picks one, the union picks one, and a third so-called neutral arbitrator is selected. If the parties cannot agree on those selections within 14 days, the Federal mediation conciliation panel steps in and chooses all three arbitrators for them. This panel is given sweeping, unprecedented power to dictate wages, benefits, safety procedures, leave policies, and virtually every term of employment. Then comes the worst part of all. These three-person panel votes, and that contract becomes legally binding for a full 2 years. What about the rank-and-file workers, the men and women on the factory floor and on the construction sites? They are completely shut out of the process. Under this bill, the workers are denied the right to vote on the very contract that governs their work lives. There is no ratification vote, and there is no right of appeal. Think about that. The moral argument for labor unions is to give workers a collective voice, but this bill strips them of that voice and hands it over to a panel of outside lawyers and bureaucrats. Last spring at a Senate hearing, an International Association of Machinists shop steward testified on this point. He warned that removing the right of workers to ratify their own contract removes democracy from the workplace. He said: Giving the worker a say is the whole point of a union. If we value the voices of working people, we should not support a bill that silences them. Our government already furnishes help and protection through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which employers, employees, and unions can voluntarily utilize to resolve disputes. We do not need a heavy-handed law that prioritizes speed over fairness, centralization over consent, and government control over workplace democracy. Let's keep the Federal Government out of the dugout, and let's let American workers and businesses call the balls and strikes themselves.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Walberg for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7726, the Stop Child Care Scams Act. This package will punish bad actors who steal taxpayer dollars from low-income families who need childcare resources the most. While fraud and theft may be a time-honored tradition in Somalia, defrauding American taxpayers has consequences. When Nick Shirley blew the lid on the pervasive childcare fraud in Minnesota's Somali community, the infamous Quality Learing Center was forced to shut down. The Somali mastermind of the Feeding Our Future scheme was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, and Governor Tim Walz was forced to drop his reelection bid. House Republicans are restoring integrity to the Child Care and Development Block Grant program which serves about 10 percent of all children in the childcare system. Any waste, fraud, and abuse is an attack on working families and must be rooted out. This legislation will greatly improve oversight of Federal childcare program expenditures and hold fraudsters accountable. I appreciate the chairman including legislation I introduced, the Child Care Integrity Monitoring Act, in this bill. My bill will restore public trust in the childcare system by codifying HHS' 3-year audit cycle of expenditures, which the Department has been required to do since 2007. My bill also gives HHS the power to designate States as high risk if they fail their audit, neglect to carry out a corrective action plan, or become noncompliant with their own State plan. House Republicans will never stop fighting waste, fraud, and abuse because we will not tolerate benefits being stolen from working families. By ensuring that Federal childcare dollars are spent wisely, the Stop Child Care Scams Act of 2026 will improve the quality of life for countless working moms and dads and their children. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support this legislation.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Immanuel Eagles boys' basketball team for becoming national champions. These young men traveled to Fort Wayne, Indiana, from St. Charles, Missouri, to win the 78th Lutheran Basketball Association of America's national championship. These incredible young athletes worked hard to show their peers at the national level to never underestimate Missouri grit. As they faced exceptional teams from across the Midwest, these young men demonstrated their hard work, discipline, integrity, and commitment to something greater than themselves. Every pass, every hustle, and every moment on the court reflected their dedication to glorifying God through their efforts. This victory is a testament to the coaches, teachers, and parents at Immanuel Lutheran School, who invest in these young men every day. To God be the glory.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require the Federal Government to maintain a balanced budget. Republicans have warned for years about the dangers of unchecked Federal spending, but because of the Biden administration's unprecedented spending spree and Democrats' ongoing unwillingness to return spending to pre-COVID levels, we are now at a defining crossroad. Within a few years, the debt held by the public will surpass every previous record in our Nation's history, even levels reached during World War II. Two years ago for the first time in our Nation's history, we began spending more on net interest on our debt than our entire defense budget. Interest has become the fastest-growing category of Federal spending and is now the second largest expense. When we spend more on servicing past debt than we spend on veterans, education, and transportation combined, it is clear our national priorities are dangerously off course. A constitutional amendment is necessary because previous attempts to curb spending are not working. Congress' budget resolution process is routinely ignored. Pay-as-you-go laws are routinely waived. The debt ceiling has been referred to as a ``bad joke,'' and the results are now catching up to us. Amending the Constitution is, indeed, a drastic measure and should only be employed in the most extreme circumstances, but at almost $40 trillion in national debt, that is exactly where we are today. It is time to end the irresponsible spending spree. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this balanced budget amendment.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Earnest Wesley Dempsey, Sr. He was a restaurateur, veteran, and a pillar of the St. Charles County community. Ernie spent years of his life serving in the Navy before becoming an active member of the VFW post 2866, where he advocated for his fellow veterans. In St. Charles, Ernie was locally famous for running Pio's Restaurant. He started there as a manager, and his hard work ethic paid off when he took over the business. Ernie was a dedicated leader in his community, serving as the charter member of the Optimist Club and as a board member of the Boys & Girls Club of St. Charles County. In 2019, he was honored with the Key to the City of St. Charles and was named Restaurateur of the Year. Ernie contributed to everything that makes Missouri great, and he will be dearly missed.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of H.R. 1945, America's National Churchill Museum National Historic Landmark Act. This legislation will formally recognize America's National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri, as a national historic landmark, a designation long overdue and deeply deserved. Nearly 80 years ago this week, in 1946, Westminster College hosted one of the most consequential speeches of the 20th century: Winston Churchill's ``Sinews of Peace,'' better known as the Iron Curtain speech. With President Harry Truman at his side, Churchill warned the world of the division descending over Europe. Many historians marked that moment as the beginning of the Cold War. It was also a call to defend democracy, restore alliances, and uphold freedom. To honor Churchill's words and legacy, Westminster College embarked on an extraordinary project. Rather than erecting a statue or plaque, the college acquired, transported, and reconstructed a Christopher Wren-designed church from London, a building more than 900 years old. St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, survived the great fire of London in 1666, was rebuilt by Wren, and was nearly destroyed again during the blitz of World War II. Its walls stood in ruin for two decades before being shipped stone by stone across the Atlantic and rebuilt in Fulton as a memorial to Churchill's leadership. This building is more than an architectural marvel. It is a symbol of resilience, partnership, and the enduring fight for freedom. Built by the British, bombed by the Germans, and rebuilt by the American Midwest, it stands as a powerful testament to our shared history and values. Over the decades, the site has continued to shape history. Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev, Prime Minister Thatcher, and other leaders have stood at Westminster College to address the world on peace, security, and democracy using the same lectern Churchill used in 1946. The museum also houses Churchill's own annotated draft of his Iron Curtain speech, rare artifacts, and a sculpture crafted from sections of the Berlin Wall. In 1972, the museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places and was formally renamed by Congress in 2009 as ``America's National Churchill Museum.'' H.R. 1945 will elevate that recognition to the level of national historic landmark. This is more than a title. It is a commitment to preserve the site, support education, and honor the unique role this institution plays in telling our Nation's history. At a time when we continue to grapple with challenges to freedom and democracy around the world, there is no better moment to reinforce the lessons of Churchill's call to vigilance and cooperation. I thank Chairman Westerman and the Natural Resources Committee for their support. Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill and ensure that America's National Churchill Museum receives the recognition it clearly merits as a national historic landmark.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, the ROTOR Act is an urgent piece of legislation that implements proven technology to help pilots see the real-time location of other aircraft. Had it been law, it would have prevented the needless loss of 67 lives in last January's DCA crash. In the past 15 years, there have been an average of at least one near miss per month at DCA. Since 2008, the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended 18 times that all aircraft install ADS-B equipment that allows pilots to see and be seen when flying in busy airspace. NTSB Chair Hormendy testified if the ROTOR Act had been the law last January, the jet and the helicopter would have had nearly a minute of advanced warning and the crash would have been prevented. The ROTOR Act's ADS-B requirement is neither expensive nor burdensome. General aviation can meet the requirement with a receiver like this one that costs about $400, roughly the cost of a routine oil change for most planes. American Airlines has installed ADS-B for about $50,000 per plane with only 1 to 2 days of downtime. ROTOR's ADS-B requirement applies only to our Nation's busiest airspace, not to pilots flying in rural America. The families of flight 5342 are here today to support the ROTOR Act so that what they needlessly suffered will never happen again. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the ROTOR Act.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith for yielding. Mr. Speaker, for decades under Chairman Smith's leadership, the House Pro-Life Caucus has worked as a strong coalition for life, and I am grateful to serve along with the gentleman as a caucus co-chairman. Today, we remember the 53rd anniversary of the erroneous and lawless Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. When the Court held that the 14th Amendment's reference to liberty protected a right to abortion, with the stroke of a pen, the Supreme Court empowered the abortion industry to kill millions of unborn children. A research paper published in the ``American Journal of Public Health'' two decades after Roe found that the Supreme Court's decision caused a 4.5 percent decline in births in States where abortion was not already legal. Vast numbers of babies were never born. Thankfully, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in one of the biggest victories for life in American history. Dobbs v. Jackson rightfully upheld that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, returning the authority to regulate abortion to the American people and to their elected Representatives. The Constitution makes no explicit reference to obtain an abortion. The Founding Fathers never intended the Constitution to give a license to kill. Unlike the post-Roe era, where births noticeably declined, Dobbs v. Jackson ushered in the current pro-life era. A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that from the Dobbs v. Jackson decision on June 24, 2022, through the end of 2023, 22,000 more babies were born in States that enacted pro-life laws. Even though Dobbs v. Jackson saved many lives, our work to defend the unborn is far from finished. For decades, Federal tax dollars have supported disturbing, outdated, and ghoulish research on tissues obtained from aborted babies. Biden's National Institutes of Health devoted roughly $53 million to human fetal tissue research in both 2023 and 2024. Despite spending millions of dollars on this barbaric research, it has failed to produce any meaningful medical breakthrough. Not a single therapy depends on aborted fetal tissue research. At the same time, proven and ethical alternatives exist. Lifesaving treatments, such as insulin for diabetes and Herceptin for cancer, were developed without fetal tissue research. Umbilical cord blood is used to successfully treat thousands of patients with blood disorders, and adult stem cell therapies have benefited over a million people worldwide, addressing cancers, blood diseases, and autoimmune diseases. There is no justification for continuing to fund research using aborted fetal tissue. That is why I introduced the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act, which blocks all Federal funding of research using human fetal tissue obtained from an induced abortion. Earlier this year, I met with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya to discuss this, and he agreed that it is high time to end aborted fetal tissue research at the NIH. That is why I am happy to say today that the NIH announced that they will no longer support research with human fetal tissue. This is a huge victory, and I thank Dr. Bhattacharya for his work righting the ship at NIH. Now it is time for Congress to finish the job by passing the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act to make this change permanent. Finally, I want to applaud the thousands of pro-life champions who will be attending tomorrow's March for Life here in Washington, D.C. Your courage and advocacy are vital to advancing the cause of life. The fight for human dignity is a worthy cause. Never give up fighting for unborn children who cannot fight for themselves. Scripture tells us that God has a plan for every human life before it comes into existence on Earth. In Jeremiah 1:5, God tells the prophet Jeremiah: ``Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I dedicated you.'' We also read in the book of St. Luke that Elizabeth's baby leapt in the womb upon hearing Mary's greeting. That baby that leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb was none other than John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord and baptized him in the River Jordan. Please continue to keep your elected officials in your prayers as we strive to promote a culture of life.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, recent polls show that the top issue on the minds of Americans today is that of affordability. Whether food, education, childcare, energy, or healthcare, rising prices are resulting in more and more Americans feeling less secure about their economic well-being. Indeed, prices have been going up. Under President Biden, inflation hit 9 percent in June 2022. Cumulatively over the Biden Presidency, inflation is up 21.2 percent. Things have improved since President Trump and Republicans assumed office in January. Energy prices are down by 6.3 percent. Inflation is moderated, but with the exception of energy, we have not had deflation. Prices are higher than we would like them to be. Nowhere is the issue of affordability more acute than in healthcare. We must address America's healthcare affordability crisis. As a physician, I will tell you, though, the first step in solving any medical problem is getting the correct diagnosis. If you do not know what the problem is, you will not formulate the right treatment. You may make the patient worse. That is what has been going on. What is the problem, then? Our problem is that Big Government's anti- free market, anticompetitive, and anti-consumer policies have made our healthcare system more and more expensive by the year. This has been a problem for a long time, but it was made much worse after the passage of ObamaCare in 2010. How did ObamaCare, the unaffordable care act, make healthcare more expensive? Quite simply, by removing what market forces there were in our system and expanding the role of government. The unaffordable care act literally outlawed the private insurance market. Remember Barack Obama saying that if you like your plan, you can keep it. They lied. They outlawed your plan. What were the results? The ostensible rationale for the unaffordable care act was to get more people insured, but we know that, in many cases, workers lost their private insurance and have been, if you will, dumped by their employers onto Medicaid. The Foundation for Government Accountability has estimated that if non-Medicaid expansion States all expanded and added able-bodied, working-age adults to their Medicaid programs, an additional 3.6 million Americans would lose their private health insurance. Similarly, enhanced COVID-era ObamaCare credits--remember, that is what we are talking about today--crowded out employer-based insurance. According to the Paragon Institute and the Congressional Budget Office, extending the COVID credits would reduce employer-based coverage by roughly 4 million people. In addition to crowding out employer plans, The Wall Street Journal's Allysia Finley recently highlighted that the ACA and its subsidies even led many Democrat-run cities, including Chicago and Detroit, to offload public-sector retiree healthcare costs onto ObamaCare. These cities moved their retirees onto ACA exchanges, eliminating their unfunded healthcare liability. Finley correctly argues that COVID credits make this dumping of public-sector retirees' healthcare obligations onto the exchanges even more likely, as few governments have set aside, especially in blue States and cities, the money to pay their retirees' future healthcare costs. Through ObamaCare, you are paying for the financial irresponsibility of some of our biggest city governments, blue cities especially. The unaffordable care act has resulted in skyrocketing health insurance premiums. In 2014, the first year that subsidized ACA marketplaces were in effect, premiums increased 47 percent. That is right. They increased by 47 percent in 1 year. Over the next decade, premiums increased another 96 percent. The only reason that this is not more obvious to Americans today is that the healthcare consumer is not only paying the premiums, but the taxpayer is paying extensive subsidies, accounting for 90.3 percent of the increased premiums. Healthcare affordability is critical. Therefore, we need to look at the issue that has received a lot of attention these days, the expiration of the COVID-era enhanced ObamaCare credits. The expiration date was passed by congressional Democrats as part of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act without a single Republican vote. Mr. Speaker, as mentioned, this scheme known as ObamaCare exchanges resulted in skyrocketing insurance costs. At the same time, we need to address some false assertions about what the expiration of these enhanced super subsidies would mean. First, the vast majority of ObamaCare subsidies are not expiring at all. What is at issue are these temporary COVID-era subsidies. Even if these enhanced COVID super subsidies were to expire, the Federal Government and the taxpayers will still cover 78 percent of the premiums, compared to roughly 88 percent right now. That is a relatively small change, nowhere near doubling. In fact, if the COVID subsidies are allowed to expire, only 4.3 percent of the projected premium increase would be attributable to that change. Again, that is less than 5 percent of the increase. Here is the key point the other side does not want to talk about. ObamaCare premiums are going up regardless, even if the COVID credits are extended. ObamaCare premiums are expected to rise about 18 percent in 2026, driven by higher medical costs, labor shortages, economic uncertainty, inflation, and other conditions. These increases are structural. They have nothing to do with the expiring subsidies. What Democrats are doing is conflating premiums with out-of-pocket costs. Premiums are not doubling, and out-of-pocket costs are rising only because the expiration of these enhanced subsidies is exposing a deeper truth that the unaffordable care act is, for many families, anything but affordable. According to CMS, the projected average premium after tax credits for the lowest-cost plan, should the COVID subsidies expire, is $50 per month. That is about $20 less than they were in 2020. In the year 2026, most enrollees on HealthCare.gov will have access to plans priced at or below $50 per month. To put that into perspective, compared to the years prior to the COVID pandemic, marketplace enrollees this year will have access on average to lower- plan premiums and more choices. This debate isn't just about premiums. It is also about expanded eligibility and widespread abuse. The COVID expansion dramatically broadened eligibility far beyond the middle-class and lower middle- class families and significantly increased the subsidies. Under this system, households earning $500,000 a year or more can qualify for subsidies. In 2024, nearly 42 percent of the enrollees, on the other hand, paid nothing at all. These subsidies don't go to individuals. They go directly to insurance companies. That is why many Americans see these enhanced COVID subsidies for what they really are: Welfare checks to large healthcare corporations. Worse still, the system incentivizes fraud. People are encouraged to misreport their income in order to qualify for larger subsidies and zero-dollar plans. As a result, insurance companies collect an estimated $35 billion in taxpayer subsidies for phantom enrollees. An estimated 6.4 million individuals were improperly enrolled in ObamaCare in 2025, often fraudulently taken off their private insurance plans to do so, costing taxpayers $27 billion. Among households claiming incomes between 100 and 150 percent of the Federal poverty level, roughly 62 percent were not actually eligible. It gets worse. In 2024, insurance companies received at least $35 billion in subsidies for about 12 million marketplace enrollees who made not a single medical claim--not a single checkup, not a single prescription. About 40 percent of the people fully subsidized under the COVID credits never used their coverage at all, often because they didn't know that they were enrolled or they didn't even exist. One Social Security number, according to the Government Accountability Office, was used to purchase health insurance 125 times. That is massive fraud. When fraud estimates from the exchange subsidies alone range into the tens of billions of dollars, it is not unreasonable--no, it is responsible--to ask people to contribute something. Even a small copay insurance payment per month, $10 or $20 per month, promotes personal responsibility, discourages fraud, and helps ensure that the system serves the people who really need it, not those gaming it and not the corporations cashing the check. That is what this debate is about. It is about facts, accountability, sustainability, and making coverage more affordable for all Americans. It is not the fear-mongering of my Democrat colleagues.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, which includes legislation which I introduced earlier this year, the Self-Insurance Protection Act. This bill ensures that employers who choose to self-insure retain access to a critical financial tool: stop-loss insurance. Many employers choose to self-insure so they can tailor coverage to the specific needs of their workforce. This flexibility lowers healthcare costs and increases take-home pay for employees. However, self-insurance carries a greater financial risk, which is why employers rely on stop-loss insurance to protect against catastrophic claims. In recent years, some States have tried to regulate self-insurance out of existence. States like New York have barred small employers from purchasing stop-loss insurance. For years, Democrats, in their pursuit of single-payer healthcare, have tried to regulate it as traditional health insurance. The Self-Insurance Protection Act makes it clear that stop-loss insurance is a financial safeguard, not health insurance. The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act will expand access to other options that increase competition and lower costs, like association health plans. The first Trump administration expanded access to associated health plans and lowered costs by 26 percent. Through AHPs, employers can pool together to set up their own insurance plan and negotiate better healthcare coverage. This approach could eventually allow Costco or Sam's Club to offer their own revolutionary low-cost health insurance. As a physician, I have seen firsthand that increasing competition and choice lowers costs, and the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act will deliver lower costs for the 78 percent of Americans who receive insurance through their employer. In addition, it will lower ObamaCare premiums by 11 percent. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this bill and urge its passage.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3616, the Reliable Power Act. Mr. Speaker, if the Democrats cared one whit about affordability, they would join me in that support. In Missouri's Third Congressional District, families, farmers, and manufacturers rely on affordable, dependable electricity. Our district is powered by a diverse mix of nuclear, hydropower, natural gas, and coal. That diversity is a strength, which is why Missouri consistently enjoys lower energy prices than the rest of the Nation. However, reliability is threatened when Washington policies force premature plant closures and prioritize ideology over affordability. The Reliable Power Act restores common sense. It ensures that grid reliability is not sacrificed and that critical baseload generation is protected when reliability is at risk. This bill protects consumers from price hikes, safeguards American manufacturing, and keeps power flowing in communities like mine. Mr. Speaker, reliable power is not a luxury. It is essential. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3616.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Raj Clement on the opening of his new state-of-the-art Ford dealership in Wentzville, Missouri. Raj began selling cars online to help pay for college and went on, through vision and hard work, to build his business into a thriving enterprise with seven locations that now contribute significantly to our region's economy. This new, 71,000-square-foot Ford 2.0 facility will bring 150 jobs to Wentzville, supporting families, strengthening local businesses, and boosting economic growth. Projects like these are exactly what we hope to see: local entrepreneurs investing in Missouri, expanding opportunity, and helping our region thrive. Raj's dedication and hard work reflect the very best of the American spirit. I extend my sincere congratulations to Raj Clement and the entire Clement Auto Group for their commitment to our community and for the positive impact this investment will have for the people of Missouri's Third Congressional District.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Lieutenant Sarah McCarthy, who recently passed in the line of duty while serving the St. Charles County Ambulance District. As a former physician, I know firsthand the dedication and compassion required of those who answer the call in our emergency medical services, and Sarah lived that calling for 23 years. Her final act of generosity as an organ donor reminds us, once again, of her deep commitment to saving lives, even in her final moments. Throughout her service, she cared for thousands of patients, contributed proudly to the St. Charles County Honor Guard, and played an important role in the STARS program supporting children with special medical needs. Her colleagues remember her as someone who never hesitated to step forward for those in need. Lieutenant McCarthy embodied the very best of her profession, and she will be deeply missed.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I introduced today the House companion to Senator Ted Cruz' ROTOR Act, legislation that I believe, as a pilot, is essential to strengthening safety and communication in America's airspace. Earlier this year, the devastating collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter claimed 67 innocent lives. Among those on board was Asra Hussain, a neighbor of mine from the St. Louis region. Asra was a newlywed and a brilliant young professional whose life was ended far too soon. That disaster exposed troubling gaps in how Federal aircraft operate in complex airspace. The families who lost loved ones deserve answers, and the American people deserve swift action to rebuild trust in the safety of our skies. The ROTOR Act closes loopholes that allow military aircraft to disable location sharing during routine flights and requires aircraft in high-traffic airspace to use modern tracking and location-sharing technologies. This reform is backed by ATCs, pilots and, most importantly, the families forever changed. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the ROTOR Act's timely safety reforms.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, Charlie Kirk died yesterday at age 31, his neck ripped open by an assassin's bullet. He is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two young children, who will never see their dad at a T-ball game, a high school graduation, or a wedding. Make no mistake about it: Charlie Kirk was assassinated. He was an incredibly effective force in American politics. He was beloved for his Socratic style of going to college campuses and gently and charitably asking questions and engaging in respectful dialogue with those whom he disagreed. Most of all, he was a very convincing advocate for the love of God, family, and country, the hatred of which is a sacred creed of the left. They could not have it. They killed him. In April of this year, Charlie prophetically said on social media: ``Assassination culture is spreading on the left. Forty-eight percent of liberals say it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk. Fifty-five percent said the same thing about Donald Trump.'' ``The left is being whipped into a violent frenzy. Any setback, whether losing an election or losing a court case, justifies a maximally violent response. ``This is the natural outgrowth of leftwing protest culture tolerating violence and mayhem for years on end. The cowardice of local prosecutors and school officials have turned the left into a ticking time bomb.'' That was Charlie Kirk in April. Yesterday, a social media post of mine hit a nerve when I called Charlie a martyr. Without question, he was. The Athenians put Socrates to death for the simple crime of asking questions about culture and society and the meaning of life itself. Socrates was, in that sense, a martyr to the truth, and so was Charlie Kirk, but Charlie was also a martyr for Jesus Christ. A priest friend of mine sent me this short passage from St. Bede, referring to John the Baptist: ``There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: I am the truth? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.'' Charlie also died as he was answering a question about the transgender cult that has gripped so much of our society and destroyed the life and health of so many of our young people. They couldn't stand for that, so they killed Charlie, martyr for the truth and to Christ. What for us? Well, everything has changed. If we didn't know it already, there is no longer any middle ground. Some on the American left are, undoubtedly, well-meaning people, but their ideology is pure evil. They hate the good, the truth, and the beautiful and embrace the evil, the false, and the ugly. They literally will kill those with whom they disagree, just as their predecessor leftists Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, and Fidel Castro did. We must know that. We must stand firm, and we must win this twilight struggle. They killed Charlie, but as Tertullian wrote in the second century when the church was very much persecuted: ``The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.'' May God raise up thousands of Charlie Kirks to take his place. To my fellow warriors in this fight: Hold your families tight. Be safe. Pray even for those who persecute you. Yes, most of all, pray. Charlie Kirk, martyr for the truth, pray for us.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today in support of my bill, H.R. 3424, the Shared Property Agency Collaboration and Engagement Act, or SPACE Act. I am grateful to Congressman Chris Pappas for co-leading this bipartisan effort to bring greater efficiency and accountability to Federal Government real estate decisions. Mr. Speaker, the GSA currently manages more than 8,300 owned and leased assets, totaling over 363 million square feet. Yet, many of these facilities are underused, duplicative, or poorly maintained. Agencies often operate in silos. One agency leases new office space while another has empty square footage in the same city. There is no coordinated system to ensure that agencies share space or consolidate operations when possible. That lack of communication leads to waste of taxpayer dollars. That is why the SPACE Act directs the Administrator of the GSA to identify barriers to Federal agencies sharing space in federally owned or leased buildings and to develop solutions to overcome those barriers. This includes examining logistical, legal, regulatory, or cultural hurdles that prevent our agencies from entering into shared- use agreements, even when that would save money and improve efficiency. Once the Administrator completes this review, the GSA will report its findings and recommendations to the relevant committees of jurisdiction in both the House and the Senate. This is a fiscally responsible, good government reform. It doesn't grow government; it makes existing government work smarter. We shouldn't be asking taxpayers to fund more buildings when the Federal Government already has plenty of space that is being mismanaged or ignored. The SPACE Act promotes better use of what we already own by reducing waste and protecting taxpayer dollars. This is not a new idea. The GAO, the Public Buildings Reform Board, and numerous oversight bodies have repeatedly recommended this kind of interagency coordination in order to reduce costs and improve property management. The SPACE Act puts those recommendations into action and establishes a clear process to identifying opportunities and delivering results. Again, I thank Congressman Pappas for working with me on this legislation. This is the kind of commonsense, bipartisan approach that shows that we can work together to fix real problems without adding bureaucracy or spending more money. The SPACE Act is about accountability and stewardship. It says to Federal agencies: Before you ask for more, use what you already have and work with your neighbors to do it. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 3424 and to help us to move this important reform forward today.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith for his leadership. I am so excited to join him today as the newest co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. Madam Speaker, today we celebrate the biggest victory for life in American history, the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson. This court case held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and returned the authority to regulate abortion to the American people and to their elected Representatives. Roe v. Wade wrongly held that the 14th Amendment's reference to liberty protects the right to abortion. Planned Parenthood v. Casey subsequently upheld that argument, but Dobbs v. Jackson rightly rejected this specious argument. The Constitution makes no explicit reference to a right to an abortion. Why is this so? Some would claim that that is because it wasn't a relevant issue back in the 18th century when the Constitution was written, but this is not true. Abortion has been discussed historically since ancient times. It has been documented as far back as 1075 BC in ancient Assyria. The Hippocratic oath condemned abortion in the fifth century BC. The Founding Fathers were well aware of the reality of abortion when they drafted this Constitution. They did it guided by the principles of natural law which, according to Thomas Aquinas, is understood by the light of reason. The precepts of natural law are written in our hearts. We are naturally horrified by evil acts, murder being chief among them. Since human law is based upon natural law, we can rightly deduce that intentional killing of the innocent has no place in a civilized society. As our Founding Fathers were drafting the Constitution, they never intended for the Constitution to be interpreted in such a manner as to directly contradict the natural law upon which our Republic was founded. Nevertheless, Row v. Wade did exactly that. Thank goodness, we now have a Supreme Court that understands the Founders' intent to the natural moral law. One of the most important tasks we now have in a post-Roe world is the continuing fight for life at the Federal level. Dobbs v. Jackson did not simply kick back the issue of abortion to the States. The wording in the Court's opinion was very clear. The authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected Representatives. Members of Congress and Senators are elected Representatives. Congress has the authority and the responsibility to legislate on this issue in certain areas. There are many policies within our purview. For instance, Federal taxpayer dollars still flow to Planned Parenthood uninterrupted. According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, between 2019 and 2024, Planned Parenthood was issued $66 million of direct funding through Title X. From 2019 to 2021, Planned Parenthood received $1.5 billion--yes, that is billion with a b--from Medicaid/CHIP and $3.3 million from Medicare. There is no reason we cannot turn off Planned Parenthood's government cash flow. The big, beautiful bill in its current form protects taxpayers from being forced to fund Planned Parenthood. This provision must be preserved in the final bill, otherwise it will be very difficult for pro-life Members to support the final package. Another example is the use of Federal dollars on the grotesque experiments used on baby body parts funded by the taxpayer. The National Institutes of Health spent $53 million on human fetal tissue research in 2023 and expects to spend $55 million in 2025. This is a human rights abuse, and it has not even produced valuable research. After nearly 100 years, no therapies have been discovered or developed that require aborted fetal tissue. Meanwhile, ethical alternatives for research and treatment are available and effective. Nonfetal cells were used to develop insulin for diabetes and Herceptin for breast cancer. Umbilical cord blood has treated thousands of people with blood disorders, and adult stem cells have saved over 1 million people worldwide. There is no reason to continue funding aborted fetal tissue research. That is why I introduced the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act of 2025, which blocks all Federal funding for research involving human fetal tissue from an induced abortion. Language to accomplish this policy priority was included in the fiscal year 2025 Labor, Health, and Human Services appropriations bill. I look forward to seeing it approved and included in the 2026 bill. Yet another issue is the rise of dangerous chemical abortions. Chemical abortions comprise over half of all abortions performed in the United States. New research shows that this regimen is very dangerous to American women. More than 1 in 10 women who use chemical abortion pills experience serious adverse events. The rate of serious adverse events is about 22 times higher than the rate stated by the FDA. It is a blatant lie that taking mifepristone is safer than Tylenol, as Planned Parenthood likes to say. Congress must act to protect women by reinstating the FDA's original requirement that mifepristone, the abortion pill, be dispensed in person under medical supervision and not by tele-abortions. Prescribing these pills to pregnant women without an in-person evaluation for an ectopic pregnancy or other conditions should be considered medical malpractice, which indeed it is. I look forward to working with my colleagues to address these issues. Today, we celebrate a milestone standing for life. A new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that since Dobbs v. Jackson, 22,180 more babies have been born in States that enacted pro-life protection laws. Praise God. What a beautiful gift. As we celebrate the third anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson, let us take comfort in knowing we advanced the cause of human dignity in the United States. Let us continue to fight for life and never give up hope. The cause of human life is a righteous one because all life is precious in the eyes of God.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4 to codify President Trump's DOGE tax cuts. Americans have been awash in unsustainable debt and waste, and Americans have known it long before DOGE began its work. What many didn't realize is just how bad the problem is: $14 million in cash vouchers for illegals at the southern border, $3.3 million for being LGBTQ in the Caribbean, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, and $1.5 million to promote LGBTQ employment in Serbia, not to mention the hundreds of millions wasted on the politically biased government media known as NPR. Enough is enough. We must rein in Washington's reckless spending and hold bureaucrats accountable. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me and put Americans and fiscal sanity first in what I hope will be the first of many rescission bills.

Mr. ONDER

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 364) calling upon local communities to support organizations that provide resources and aid Gold Shield Families in their time of need.

Mr. ONDER. 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 into the Record on H. Res. 364.

Mr. ONDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 364 calls on local communities to support organizations that provide resources and aid to Gold Shield families in their time of need. This is a commonsense resolution that recognizes the families of fallen servants of public safety as revered Gold Shield families. These Gold Shield families deserve support from their communities in their time of need. This resolution honors the ultimate sacrifice that their loved ones made in the line of duty. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser) for his leadership on this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.