Ted Poe

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, during the week of July Fourth celebrations of our Nation's independence, I was diagnosed with leukemia. After entering the best cancer center in the world, MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, my hometown, in just 8 weeks, incredible progress has been made. Thanks to the good Lord, the doctors, and staff at MD Anderson, I am able to be back in Washington, D.C., and on the House floor. I will be here as much as my treatment will allow. Importantly, I want to thank the Members and people from all over the country for their outpouring of encouragement and prayers. It has been remarkably overwhelming and humbling to me. The caring concern of Members, their staffs, and my staff have shown proves, once again, that there are a lot of good people who work for the United States House of Representatives. This September during Leukemia Awareness Month, I intend to keep fighting this cancer with all that I have while fighting for Texans in this House. I intend to be independent and free from this cancer. Christopher Reeve once said: ``Once you choose hope, anything's possible.'' Mr. Speaker, I choose hope. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the chairman of the committee and the ranking member for their support on this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I was in Georgia in 2008 when the Russians invaded that sovereign country and took one-fifth of their nation away from them. I saw the Russian tanks on the hill, and, unfortunately, many years later, those Russian tanks are still on the hills of Georgia. Russia is a cancer in the area. It is trying to infiltrate countries in the region, trying to spread its propaganda and conquering ideas to the former Soviet Republics. Russian troops maintain a stranglehold on the occupied territories of Georgia. Russians have forced ethnic Georgians to leave and have forbidden everyone who still lives there from speaking the Georgian language or from traveling to Georgia. The illegal Russian occupation of Georgia is not a simple matter of territory--it is an attack on ideas; it is an assault on the very freedoms and liberties that are God given. Georgia is a small and young democracy despite the rough neighborhood that it lives in--surrounded by corrupt dictators, including Russia. In fact, over the past 25 years, Georgia has become the freest nation in the region. It has championed good governance, economic reform, and democracy while combating corruption and ensuring press freedom. This is no small achievement. I have met with the first Georgian Government and the second Georgian Government and have met with many of their officials. Mostly, I have met with the people of Georgia, and they are freedom-loving individuals. Georgia sets up a strong contrast to the authoritarian Putin up north. Putin does not like having a beacon of freedom shining brightly from the south with his imperial aggression kingdom looking down on them. This is exactly why Putin decided to invade Georgia 8 years ago. Georgia represents the democratic potential in the region. Putin would like nothing more than to cause unrest and turmoil in Georgia, like he has done in other nations, including in Ukraine. Georgia is a strong ally of the United States. Georgia has more troops in Afghanistan who are fighting alongside our troops than any non-NATO ally, and it has made hard reforms in order to join NATO and the European Union. This resolution expresses our solidarity with Georgia. I am proud to be a co-chair, along with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), of the Georgia Caucus. This resolution condemns Russia's illegal occupation of Georgian territory, and it sends a clear message to Putin that the United States will never recognize his control over any part of Georgia. Our friends in Georgia and the region must know that the United States will not waver in its longstanding support for its allies in the face of the Napoleon of Siberia. We must be clear about our commitment to our friends. Instead of retreating from the world stage, the United States must deepen its relationships with our allies. Georgia is a valuable ally threatened by the cold Russian winds of authoritarianism. John F. Kennedy, our President 50 years ago, said that we would support any friend who believes in freedom. It is time we step up and support the nation of Georgia. I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution and send a signal to our enemies and our friends all over the world that the United States means it when it says it will support its allies. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the date was September 1, 1939. It was a date that would change the world forever. Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland by air, land, and sea, igniting the Second World War and throwing the world into turmoil. Hitler used what is known as the ``blitzkrieg strategy'' to occupy Poland. He attacked the country by air to destroy its infrastructure; meanwhile, he directed a massive land and sea invasion to take the nation. Poland's troops and military were unequipped to effectively fight the Germans, so consequently Poland quickly fell under the control of Germany and the Soviet Union. Hitler had hoped that Britain and France would tolerate the invasion like they had when Hitler invaded Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. However, the invasion of Poland was one invasion too many, and it significantly altered the course of history, launching the allied and axis powers into a full scale world war. Germany initially intended to invade Poland on August 26, not September 1. Hitler had signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union on August 23 to ensure that the USSR would not come to Poland's aid, and within the treaty, Hitler and Stalin agreed to divide Poland between them once conquered. However, Hitler made a last minute decision to postpone the attack because, on August 25, Britain signed the Polish-British Common Defense Pact, guaranteeing Poland military support if invaded. Hitler utilized false propaganda throughout the next few days in an attempt to justify Germany's impending invasion of Poland and to prevent Britain from coming to its aid. Hitler secretly attacked small installations inside Germany and framed it on Poland, attempting to pose as the victim instead of the aggressor. The propaganda failed, though, and both Britain and France entered the conflict when Germany overtook Poland. The breakout of WWII, however, cannot be attributed to any single event, but rather an accumulation of issues that climaxed in a destructive standoff between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria) and the Allies (The United States, Great Britain, France and--later--the Soviet Union). The world had been anticipating war for a long time preceding Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland. The global balance was unstable after World War I (initially and ironically considered ``the War to End All Wars'') and international tensions remained high. Germany especially was dealing with significant instability and neglect as a consequence of the First World War, and this national crisis led to the election of Adolf Hitler. Hitler's invasion on this day 77 years ago provoked Britain and France to declare war against the malicious power on September 3, 1939, leading to a long and bloody international conflict. For nearly two years, America attempted to remain out of the military conflict, calling itself a neutral power. However, on several occasions before entering the war, American military vessels (including USS Reuben James and USS Kearny) and British civilian vessel SS Athenia were attacked by German submarines, resulting in American military and civilian casualties. The breaking point for the United States eventually occurred during the morning hours of December 7, 1941. It was a date that would live in infamy, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced. Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes soared over Pearl Harbor, the American naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, destroying a significant portion of our nation's Pacific Fleet and taking thousands of American lives with it. This unforgivable attack against the United States provoked Roosevelt and Congress to declare war on Japan on December 8, 1941. Subsequently, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and America joined the Allied Powers' fight against the Axis. In the end, we notably contributed to the extinguishment of Nazi Germany and the defeat of its allies. World War II transformed the globe as the deadliest war in history. Over the course of the war, more than 72 million people lost their lives, leaving nations and families from all around the globe in deep despair. Out of the 690 million people who fought in WWII, 16.1 million were Americans; of those 16.1 million courageous soldiers, nearly 292,000 sacrificed their most precious possessions--their lives--for the greater good of our nation and our world. The United States was left in grieving. Wives cried for their fallen husbands, sisters for their brothers, and mothers for their sons. These heroes honorably gave everything to fight one of the vilest brands of evil the world has ever seen. Thanks to our brave military and committed allies who fought in World War II, the world is a better place.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this time next month will be the first game of the season for the ``Life Changers Foundation'' (LCF) Oilers of the North Harris County, Texas Pee Wee Football League. The LCF Oilers' head coach, Darrell Eldridge promotes discipline and commitment from his team. He continually works with his team to encourage good sportsmanship and fair play, instilling in these young boys and girls the value of athletics and achievement. The LCF Oilers dedication to advocating for individual excellence in sports, fine arts and other community-initiated programs helps challenge the community's future generations to learn the value of productivity and teamwork. A mother of a pee wee Oiler from my district in Texas wrote to me and said, ``it seems our children aren't a priority until they are a problem.''. I strongly support community involvement in positive youth programs like the LCF. Oilers contribute to these kids' lives more than a few trophies. The goal of the LCF Oilers is to physically and mentally promote the betterment of these kids through physical competition--and it does exactly that. The coaches, referees, and parents who offer these pee wee Oilers such an excellent opportunity in their young lives are to be commended for their dedication and support of the youth of our community.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the year was 1906 when a young, fifteen year old was staying in Texas with his family. He was a forced to watch as both of his brothers were murdered by bandits, and his parents barely escaped with their lives. It was then and there that this young man decided to use his life to fight crime. And that man is Manuel T. Gonzaullas, the ``Lone Wolf.'' Within the next fourteen years, he trained in law enforcement and joined the Texas Rangers. One look at him and you wouldn't think of him as an intimidating man. He only stood about five foot, nine inches. ``He was soft-spoken man,'' one of his friends said of him. He was known as quite the dresser, always impeccably groomed and styled, loved fancy cars and guns and always carried his pocket Testament. But don't let his appearance fool you. He viewed all lawbreakers, criminals and felons with an instinctual hatred, granting those who dared to cause trouble no mercy. The legend states that Gonzaullas worked alone. He recalls ``I went into a lot of fights by myself, and I came out by myself, too.'' The dastardly Mexican bandits began to call him ``El Lobo Solo'' or the ``Lone Wolf.'' The name stuck. In another famous lore occurring in 1930, Gonzaullas rushed into the town of Sherman, Texas when a field hand brutally raped his employer's wife. When a mass riot broke out and the courthouse was set on fire, Gonzaullas took his position in front of the county jail. Texas Ranger historian Robert Utley writes ``With a pistol holstered on each hip, a Thompson submachine gun conspicuous by his hide, and a sawed off shot- gun in hand, he confronted the crowds advancing on the jail.'' His aggressive style and larger than life attitude protected the people of Texas from the lawbreakers of society. Not to be left out, Texas legend holds that, at the time, the oil- boom town of Kilgore was ``the most lawless town in Texas.'' But when Gonzaullas rode into town on his black stallion, everyone knew he meant business. There were several gangs and bandits running about the town and its new booming oil economy, but within the first few weeks Gonzaullas had already shot three men and was on the road to cleaning up the town. ``He'd give you a warning,'' one Kilgore resident said. ``And if you didn't heed it, he'd shoot you.'' It was said that at one point he had arrested three hundred men suspected of various crimes. He paraded them down town, and had them all handcuffed. He then told them they could all go free . . . if they left town within the next four hours. They were all gone within ten minutes. These, and many of his other bold brave deeds earned him the reputation in the Texas country side of riding into town on his black stallion Tony. Then he would singlehanded rid the town of outlaws, bandits and troublemakers. Although he was usually outnumbered by the bad guys, he fearlessly fought hard to keep the Texas land safe for law abiding citizens. In a time when the oil boom was bringing all types of people to the Texas frontier, Texas Ranger Manuel Gonzaullas--The Lone Wolf--was making sure they followed the Law, or face unpleasant consequences. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about what occurred at Stanford University a couple of weeks ago and a follow-up to some of the events that occurred after that. The victim in that case gave a powerful victim impact statement. It was 7,200 words long. Last week, 18 Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, led by Jackie Speier from California, read the statement into the Congressional Record: Jackie Speier from California, Katherine Clark from Massachusetts, David Cicilline from Rhode Island, Niki Tsongas from Massachusetts, Maxine Waters from California, Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey, Judy Chu from California, Anna Eshoo from California, Mark Takano from California, Debbie Dingell from Michigan, Marcy Kaptur from Ohio, Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, Ted Poe from Texas, Eric Swalwell from California, Loretta Sanchez from California, Susan Davis from California, Paul Gosar from Arizona, and Ann McLane Kuster from New Hampshire. It took almost an hour to read her compelling statement about what happened to her when the rapist, Brock Turner, committed this crime against her. After the crime was committed, there was a trial. The case was not, as we say in the system, plea bargained. There was no plea agreement. It was an actual trial. After the trial, the judge assessed punishment for three felony crimes that he committed--that being Brock Turner. The judge assessed punishment as a misdemeanor of 6 months in jail, which means that Brock Turner will spend probably 90 days in jail, a half of a semester, for the crime that he committed against the victim. As a former prosecutor for 8 years trying these type of cases and a judge in Houston for 22 years hearing only criminal felony cases, I have seen historically how devastating the crime of sexual assault is. We, as a community, need to understand how victims are impacted by this crime. Obviously, the judge in the Stanford case didn't get it. You can read what he said. It is obvious that he was more concerned about the feelings of the criminal and his future than he was about the victim. He was almost dismissive of her statement that she read into the record. There is a movement that is being started by a Stanford law professor, Michele Landis Dauber, whom I got to meet last week--very impressive, Mr. Speaker. She gets it. She understands about sexual assault, this crime especially at Stanford, and the impact on the victim. She is using a recall system that is in California that a public official can be recalled if there are enough signatures on a petition to get the recall on the ballot. She is feisty, and she is going to get it done. I admire the State of California for having recall of public officials. This is a perfect example of why other States ought to have recall of public officials, especially judges who don't get it right. In my opinion, the judge should be removed from office. After I spoke on the House floor, and then 19 Members spoke a couple of days later on the House floor about this crime, I have received hundreds--hundreds--of contacts from sexual assault victims throughout the country, primarily by email. Some of these sexual assault survivors have never told anybody, according to them, what happened to them years ago or of recent years. Many of them just didn't get the justice that they deserved. They didn't tell for a lot of reasons, mainly because they were ashamed. Rape survivors--God bless them--think sometimes the crime is their fault. And it is not, Mr. Speaker. It is never the fault of the victim. When a sexual assault occurs, it is the fault of the criminal every time--not most of the time, every time. Judges need to understand that. The justice system needs to work for victims of crime just like it works for the accused citizen. The same Constitution that protects defendants protects victims of crime as well. We have come a long way since the days I was prosecuting. Once again, California has led the national movement for victims' rights. My friend Jim Costa from California and I head up the Victims' Rights Caucus. He was the sponsor of the Three Strikes sentencing law that passed in California. California has a history of looking out for victims. I commend California for that. I know that may shock you, Mr. Speaker, but I commend them for getting it right when it comes to victims. In this particular case, it all went wrong. The victim articulated it quite well in her statement. I hope every Member of Congress reads the Congressional Record because the statement of that woman is in the Congressional Record. Just read it. And, more importantly, if you are a dad, read it to your sons as well. I will come back to that in a minute. I have four kids--three girls and a boy. I have 11 grandkids; 7 of them are girls. I sure don't want my kids and my grandkids to continue to grow up in a society that doesn't really take care of crime victims and is dismissive to them. Of the many survivors that wrote me, several bravely offered to share their stories with me. I am here to read some of those stories. Not all of them, just a few. Some have asked me not to give their names. Some are anonymous. Some said it is okay for me to say what their name is. I am not going to tell their whole name. I am just not going to do that. I think they deserve that privacy. I hope, by sharing these words, the world will see what outstanding resilience these few sexual assault victims have had over the years. Jennifer writes: It was January 2004. I was 24 years of age. I am a divorced mother of three elementary school children studying to become a preschool teacher. The man I loved came home drunk after wrecking my car. My children were upstairs asleep. He beat me, beat my head against the cement floor, and then he raped me as I tried to stay quiet, so quiet, so still, so he would leave and no one upstairs would wake up. He did finally leave. My mother said that since I loved him, it wasn't rape. Because I got involved with a man who would do that, it was my fault, and I couldn't very well make him lose his job because of my poor judgment. I was young. I didn't know. To this day, I blame myself for letting it happen, even though now I know that none of it was my fault. Because of that night, I have post-traumatic stress disorder. My body remembers, even if my mind doesn't know all of the details. After reading the speech you made, I told my new husband about what happened to me. This was the first time I have ever told him. We have been together for 10 years. Mr. Speaker, in all due respect to Jennifer's mother, Jennifer's mother was wrong. It was not Jennifer's fault that she fell in love with a worthless guy. And the sexual assault was certainly not her fault. It was his fault. He should have been held accountable for what he did. Jennifer still suffers to this day for what that individual did. The rape--and we use the word ``rape,'' and we use ``sexual assault.'' ``Sexual assault'' is a relatively new term. It used to be called ``rape'' because that is a specific type of sexual assault. Sexual assault is broader. But rape is never the fault of the victim, and neither is sexual assault. The defendant always has an excuse to blame the victim: ``Well, she came on to me,'' or, ``It was what she was wearing,'' or, ``She was drunk,'' or, ``She was under the influence of narcotics''; ``She didn't resist''; ``She didn't scream''; ``She didn't tell me no''; ``She didn't run for help.'' The defendants in these cases always blame the victim. But rape is not the fault of a victim. ``No'' means no. If people out there in America want to join in on this conversation, they can use the #survivorsspeak, and just keep discussing this issue because I think we should discuss this issue. Here we have a victim, ``I said no.'' Saying ``no'' means no. It doesn't mean maybe. It doesn't mean yes. ``No'' always means no. So if folks want to join in on that, I would encourage them-- #survivorsspeak. That is Jennifer's story. This story was written by a family member because of the age of the victim. She is anonymous, of course: Twenty-six years ago, a 6-year-old was raped in Mercedes, Texas. The rapist got his fix as he pleased. The pervert? Well, he is still on the loose. He is a pedophile, a rapist, and a scumbag, yet he still walks the streets. His victim is now 30 years of age. She still has post-traumatic stress disorder. She still cries, is depressed, and relives her tragedy each day. Thank Congress for what they are trying to do for this crime. This is a case where we know who the perpetrator was, and for some reason we don't know, he got away with it--maybe because of the age of the victim; maybe she didn't want to testify. We don't know. He got away with it, and the victim still suffers now, 24 years later; but what happened to her when she was 6 years of age? Christina writes this: As a victim of rape 25 years ago, I am disappointed to see that we really haven't made progress as a Nation or a people in changing the attitude toward rape victims. It is time to recognize the lifetime impact that rape has on a victim. It affects every part of your being. It is time to stop the line of questioning that the victim is subjected to--the line of questions that insinuate: Well, what did you do to cause this? I have been at the courthouse. I see how criminal defense lawyers ask a question in cases like this. Usually, the defense is: the individual. It is the fault of the victim. It is not the fault of the rapist. That is one of the defenses--to go after the victims. Attack them. She continues: My assailant was a friend of a friend. It still causes me to be overly guarded with relationships. I still question my judgment. On every new date, the first thought is: Where is my escape route? Then it progresses to: What are the signs that I am ignoring that I should be aware of that would harm me? I am aware that this is an abnormal thought process, but more than 25 years later, it is what I need to do to feel safe again--a lifetime of grief. Aja writes this: My name is Aja. I was raped. I have not received any sort of justice for the act committed against me. I have stayed silent about this for nearly 5 years, and, today, that ends. Today, I am no longer a victim of crime, but I am a survivor. I am not alone. I am not my past. I am not meant to stay silent. I actually matter. Good for Aja. Hillary writes this: I am writing you so my voice and so many others may be heard. I was 19 when I was drugged and raped. To this day, I will never know how many individuals raped me. I may have no memory of the act, but it doesn't change the outcome. I was unconscious and never was given a chance to say no. I will always remember the pain, seeing the bruises that covered the inside of my thighs. My underwear was ripped from my body and tied together and put back on. I never want to see those clothes again. I reported my rape, but never received justice, like so many other rape victims. I went through humiliating questions from the police. I felt so much pain and humiliation again at the hospital, through the pregnancy tests, the STD test, and the HIV test. Pictures were taken of my bruises on my body, and I felt so much shame. When the rape kit was done, I cried. It was painful. I felt ruined. I was given a lifelong sentence while he and others walk free. I live with the feeling of shame. I could not smile. I live, even to this day, with nightmares. I blame myself because--maybe, if I had not taken that drink. He took my voice for years--a piece of me he did not deserve. I went through lots of therapy for depression, but I will live in fear no more. My body was taken without asking, but I have a voice now, and it will not be silenced. I tell my story so others won't feel alone. We didn't ask for this. We need to make sure that no more victims are made to feel like they did something wrong. I did nothing wrong. I didn't violate him, but I carry the scars of what he did. I stand with every victim out there. I cried while writing this letter. It is the first time I have given my voice to be heard. Thank you again for giving us a voice to fight with. She is thanking all Members of Congress who have spoken out against this type of crime. This is another anonymous individual. I have three more, including this one. Mr. Poe, I can only hope that your words will be heeded and that the wrong will be made right, just a tiny bit, by this victim. From personal experience, the nightmares never stop. Not even after my rapist was killed in prison did the nightmares stop. I still see his face in the dark. I can hear his voice appraising my body like I was a cow at an auction. I have carried this burden since I was 7 years old, and it can't ever be fixed, but we can stop it from being the fate of others by making the punishment so severe, the crime is not an option. She probably wouldn't have agreed with the 6-month sentence that the Stanford judge gave the defendant who will only do 90 days. Another anonymous letter: In college, a man broke into my apartment and brutally raped, beat, and pistol-whipped me. It is hard to read this, Mr. Speaker. He sodomized me with his gun. I have horrible flashbacks and can barely live a day when I don't have anxiety or panic attacks and the wish just to die and end it all from the emotional, physical, and psychological damage that he did to me. You give some of us hope, and I want to sincerely thank you and other Members of Congress for standing up for us rape victims. I am honored for you to share my story to help others, but I want to remain anonymous because I still fear my attacker even though I don't know his name. My rapist knows my name. He stalked me prior to the rape. Thank you for taking the time to write me back. The last case, Lauren's, was a case I actually tried. I tried the person who assaulted her and her sister. It was in 1997. Lauren was the age of 11, and her stepsister was 9 years of age. They were repeatedly molested, not by a stranger or by a friend, but by someone closer-- their grandfather. He molested them several times. This happened 20 years ago next year, and Lauren still can't talk much about it. She reached out to my office to tell us that sexual assault stays with you for life. In her case, the individual was convicted. He received a 10- year sentence in one case and a 5-year sentence in the other, and they were stacked on top of each other, which means he had to do 15 years in the penitentiary of the State of Texas. We have done some good things over the years. We have done some good things in Congress. The Justice for All Act strengthens the rights of victims of crime in the criminal justice process, increasing their access to restitution and the reauthorization of victims' notification grants. It takes steps to reduce the rape kit backlog. It expands the use of sexual assault nurse examiners in underserved communities. I have been around so long that, when I started prosecuting cases, we didn't have a rape kit. We didn't know what that was. We certainly didn't have DNA. But we have rape kits now because some wonderful doctors have figured this out, some of them at the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. It is a forensic kit that is taken of the sexual assault victim. These items are analyzed and tracked through DNA to find out who the rapist was; but right now, in our country, we have rape kits that are sitting on the shelves in police departments throughout the country that are gathering dust. People just can't get around to solving these crimes. They make all kinds of excuses: We don't have the money; we just need more help. The bottom line is that we are denying justice to sexual assault victims for the failure to analyze these rape kits. We need to analyze the rape kits, but it cuts both ways, Mr. Speaker. Some of these rape kits, after they are analyzed, exonerate people in the penitentiary. Get it done. Solve this problem of the backlog of rape kits. There is no excuse for the Justice Department, for the FBI, for any local law enforcement agency not to analyze those sexual assault kits right away. You see, when the crime is committed, Mr. Speaker, the system works in such a way that we don't let the victims forget about what happened to them because they may have to testify, and they can't get on with their lives, so to speak, until the rape kit is analyzed, and the idea that one has to wait a year or 2 years before we know who committed this crime is abuse of the system. The system is abusing the victim again. Like I said, it may exonerate an offender who is in the penitentiary. So no more excuses. It needs to be a priority of police departments. Analyze the sexual assault kits, analyze that DNA, because it really is good evidence in the courtroom to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent; but you can't get to that point and the victims can't get to trial until the sexual assault kit is analyzed. They have to continue to remember this. They can't forget it, not that they would forget it, but they can't get on with their lives. The same thing is true about postponing these cases. So many judges take a sexual assault case and: Ah, we will postpone this case. We are going to try some slip-and-fall case instead. Courts in the United States, by the legislative authority of the legislatures, should make a priority of sexual assault cases, especially of minor children, and put them in the line first to get their day in court. Some States do it--some don't--but that is one easy fix that we could do. Of course, this law, the Justice for All Act, protects VAWA funding streams that are critical to crime prevention, and I mentioned about DNA testing. I mentioned Jim Costa--a great American. This issue is a bipartisan issue. We have 80 in our Victims' Rights Caucus--40 Republicans and 40 Democrats. Every year, we have this fight with the appropriators. We are in the appropriations season. There was a great law that was passed by Congress--sponsored, I believe, by Ronald Reagan or whoever--that said this: When a criminal is convicted in Federal court, the judge may impose a fee, and that fee goes into what is called the Victims of Crime Act fund. VOCA is what it is called. God bless those Federal judges. They are nailing these criminals, because more and more money every year is going into the Victims of Crime Act fund. That fund is to be used for victims of crime, including for services, restoration, counseling--all of those good things that we now do for victims that we didn't used to do; but here is the problem: More money than ever before is coming into the Victims of Crime Act fund. Right now, my understanding is there is $9 billion in the fund. Now, this isn't taxpayer money. This is money that criminals have paid toward the rent on the courthouse. They have paid for the crimes they have committed, plus their sentences, and it is a fund that is supposed to go to crime victims. It is a great idea. The problem is Congress-- us. This has been going on for years. It doesn't appropriate all of the money every year that came in the previous year. Only about 30 percent of it is appropriated to crime victims' organizations, and many of these organizations are barely keeping their lights on. I am no appropriator. I am not a CPA. I am a lawyer. The appropriators say: Well, we can't spend that money because we need it as an offset for other spending in other programs. It is not for other programs. It is not taxpayer money. What Jim Costa and I have been trying to do since we came in here in 2005 is to say: What goes in this year comes out next year. Spend it all. We don't need to have a rainy day fund because the money keeps going up every year because Federal judges are making defendants pay into this fund. Once again, it belongs to victims of crime, but it is administered by the Justice Department. It is no reflection on this administration. It has been going on for years. The Justice Department just hangs onto it because the appropriators don't spend it all and appropriate all of the money, as I said, because they want to use it as an offset. The country and some judges, like the one at Stanford, have to get their mindset right today in 2016. Sexual assault is a crime we don't talk much about. It is just kind of distasteful, so we don't talk about it. We talk about other things. Yet, these sexual assault victims live quiet lives of despair. And I have known a lot over the years. Some of them keep in contact with me. They just call to check in. And they don't ever get over it, Mr. Speaker. We would hope that they would. We would hope they get their lives together. You know they become survivors, but, emotionally, many of them just don't get over it for a lot of reasons; because they are ashamed, their mom told them it was their fault, whatever. We need to make it real clear that Congress is on the side of sexual assault victims. Make no mistake about it, we are on their side because really we are their only voice. We are it. If we don't speak for them and help legislation forward to protect them, it doesn't get done. So we have a lot to do. One thing that I would like to mention, the father and the mother of the rapist gave a statement to the judge, and I read those statements. I would like to talk about the father. He basically blamed the victim for the conduct of his son. He is wrong. And the problem is he actually believes it is her fault. He didn't just say that to try to protect his son. He believes it is her fault. That is what is really bad. Most of us who are males in this House, we have sons. I do have one. I have grandsons. We have an obligation to raise our sons in accordance with basic human rights and explain to them when they are very young that there are some things you just can't do. You are going to be punished for it, but also it is wrong. Sexual assault is one of those. It is wrong. You cannot do that. We need to explain that, because we have a generation of young males-- every generation of young males has to be reeducated. We have that obligation in our families to educate our sons that because you think you are somebody, you are not going to get off if you do that crime, whether you are an athlete, whether you come from pedigree, whether you are rich, famous, whatever. We need to explain to our sons that it is morally wrong to sexually assault a person under any circumstances because ``no'' always means no. It is not the fault of the victim. So I would encourage dads to do this. This doesn't cost any money. It doesn't cost any legislation, but it is a moral obligation we have as fathers. I think if fathers did a better job--I have said this a long time--if fathers did a better job, we would have fewer young males at the courthouse; because most of the people who showed up at the courthouse when I was a judge, they were young males. Most of them were under 25 years of age and they were males. And it is not because the women get away with it. It is because young males commit most of the crime. We have that obligation, and I encourage fathers to do that. I want to talk about two more cases that I was involved in. I tried this case as a prosecutor, and this was a senior citizen. Sadie was her first name. And in the trial, the victim had to state what happened to her. She would never say ``rape.'' She certainly never said ``sexual assault'' because we didn't use that term, but she kept testifying from the witness stand. What happened to you? And she said: It is a fate worse than death. Well, can you be a little more detailed? No. It is a fate worse than death. And we went through this for a little bit, and she kept saying that: It is a fate worse than death. She eventually said enough of the right words to meet the legal qualification for rape. And I asked her at the trial: Why do you keep saying it is a fate worse than death? I don't know if you have ever heard that before or not. And she said: It is real simple. When you die, you die once. When this crime is committed against you, you die every day. It is a fate worse than death. That is the way sexual assault victims view this crime, and that is the way the law ought to view this crime. To many, it is a fate worse than death. And she had it perfectly because it is a fate worse than death. The last case I will talk about is one that I prosecuted as well. This individual, the victim in this case--I won't use her name because her family still lives in Houston--she was leaving one of our major universities and driving home to a town north of Houston, and all the lights turned on on the dashboard. She is having car trouble, and she pulled into a service station. She thought it was open. It was not. She came in contact with who she thought was the service station attendant. He was not the service station attendant. I am not going to mention his name; he doesn't deserve it. He kidnapped her. He had a gun. He took her from this area, put her into some woods, sexually assaulted her, beat her up, and she survived because she was a remarkable lady. In fact, my understanding now after the trial, the defendant was mad that she did survive. Anyway, he is tried. He is convicted by a jury of 12 right-thinking Houstonians who convicted the defendant. In Texas we have, in some cases, jury sentencing. And the jury sentenced this individual, this rapist, to 99 years in the Texas penitentiary. That was the maximum. He deserved every minute of it. Now, we would hope everything would be okay and that life would go on. Bad guy, outlaw, goes to prison; sexual assault victim gets justice in court. But it doesn't work that way because that is not life. The first thing that happened was she started abusing alcohol and then other narcotics. Her husband left her. And a year--maybe 2 years-- after the crime, I get a call from her mother, and she tells me that her daughter has taken her own life and she left a note that says: I'm tired of running from the criminal in my nightmares. See, she got the death penalty for what somebody did to her. In the cases that I mentioned tonight and the many, many others that we have all received since last week, there are a lot of victim survivors. And we really are judged by the way we treat innocent folks in our community; not the rich, not the famous, not the athletes, but by the way we treat the innocent, the kids, the people who have no voice in our justice system, except Congress. So we speak for them, and we need to speak for them as well. So I would remind the people that are out listening to this to use the #survivorsspeak and weigh in on this conversation if they want. Mr. Speaker, this subject, as I mentioned at the outset, is one that we sometimes don't want to talk about, but we can't ignore it ever, not anymore, not today, not in this town, or any town in America. That is why the Stanford judge needs to go, and that is why I commend the folks in California for having a recall petition. Judges need to get their head on straight to know they have to get it right every time when it comes to justice. The scales of justice are a balancing act. Justice for defendants, but also justice for victims and survivors of crime, because rape is never the fault of the victim. And when a rapist commits a crime against usually a woman or a child, that rapist is stealing the very soul of that victim because that is what happens sometimes. Let us not forget that. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Medal of Honor is the highest military honor that can be bestowed on an American. Harry Truman once commented that he would prefer to have the blue band of the Medal of Honor around his neck than be President. To receive the medal is not to win a contest, for the forum in which this medal is given is the contest to preserve liberty. It is a contest that no individual competitor could win; rather it is struggled for by the diligence, bravery, and sacrifice of millions of Americans. Nor is it a contest that is ever finished. It is an eternal struggle. Every generation of Americans has given of her sons and daughters to contribute to it. That is why Medal of Honor recipients are never said to have ``won'' the honor, but they have received it from a grateful nation, out of recognition of their distinguished contribution to our shared and continued fight for freedom. Next week, Farmersville, TX, a small town in Hunt County, will celebrate the life of one of its sons, who came home the most decorated soldier of WWII. Audie Murphy's story of service starts early. When he was only 17 years old he had his sister assist him in falsifying his birth certificate so that he could meet the minimum age requirement for enlisting in the military. Like millions of Americans in the mid 40's, Murphy was eager to answer the call of his country. Before long Murphy earned the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was given command of Company B. In France during the early winter of 1945, Murphy's company was attacked by 6 German tanks and waves of infantry. Murphy ordered his men back into the cover of the woods, while he remained forward to give firing directions to artillery by telephone. Murphy then climbed into a burning tank and, despite the risk that the tank could explode at any moment, he began to use its .50 caliber machine gun to ward off the enemy. Murphy was alone and exposed to enemy fire on three sides. Against all odds, he succeeded in single- handedly holding the enemy back for an hour. The citation that comes with Murphy's Medal of Honor, awarded for his actions that day, tells us that despite a gunshot wound to the leg he fought until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way back to his company, refusing medical attention, and organized a counter attack that would prove successful and force the Germans to withdraw. The contest for freedom is not a sprint. It is a relay that spans generations, and the champions of each generation should be honored for their service and sacrifice. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of those who fight for our freedom, and we honor individuals like 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy for their distinguished contribution. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, every summer youth without access to books lose academic skills, while those who are reading continue to make progress in developing their proficiency. Studies show that summer learning loss is a significant cause of the achievement gap between lower and higher-income youth. Students from low-income households learn at the same rate as their peers while school is in session, but while middle and upper-income students show slight gains in their reading performance after the summer months, lower income students experience a two-month loss in reading achievement. It is what teachers refer to as the ``summer slide'' or ``summer setback.'' This loss is cumulative: while teachers spend 4-6 weeks re- teaching material to the students who have fallen behind over the summer, other students are progressing with their skills. The result? By the end of the sixth grade, children who lose reading skills during the summer are on average 2 years behind their peers. Even more startling is the conclusion of University of Nevada research, which has shown that students without access to books are less likely to complete their basic education. The simple fact is that there are fewer opportunities for daily summer reading when both parents are away at work. Without access to books, our kids fall behind. My daughter teaches English at Baylor University. She has dedicated her life to edifying the young people of this country by instilling in them a love for reading, and for the intellectual tradition it gives them access to. This love needs to start early, and the inheritance of that tradition should be accessible to all Americans. That is why I am proud of the efforts of KHOU and Star Furniture, who are rolling out a new community effort to increase the literacy rate in Houston. They are soliciting donations for the non-profit group ``Books Between Kids,'' which provides at-risk children with books that they can keep in their home. We need more programs like this in our country. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I have an desk amendment at the desk.

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I my consume. Mr. Chairman, the underlying bill gives $900 million of American money to Pakistan. That is $200 million more than last year. My amendment cuts the money given to Pakistan to the same amount as last year, $700 million. Of course, if I had my way, I would cut all the money to Pakistan. Here is the reason, Mr. Chairman: the Pakistanis hid Osama bin Laden, and we had to go into Pakistan and take him out. They hid him, and the world knows about it. After they hid Osama bin Laden, amazingly, the CIA section chief in Pakistan is poisoned. He comes back to the United States. He believes, and the CIA believes, that it was the Pakistani ISI that poisoned him. I agree with them. People say that we need to help Pakistan fight the war in Afghanistan, but Pakistan is on the wrong side of the war, Mr. Chairman. In an editorial by The New York Times entitled ``Time to Put the Squeeze on Pakistan,'' the paper calls Pakistan a dangerous and duplicitous partner, and said that Pakistan was fueling the war in Afghanistan. Now, I don't agree with The New York Times on a lot of things, but I agree here. We can't trust the Pakistanis, yet every year, we give them more money. In February 2012, a NATO report confirmed that ISI was supporting the Taliban and other terrorist groups with resources, sanctuary, and training. On May 21 of this year, the United States killed the leader of the Taliban in a drone strike. And guess where he was hiding out? In Pakistan. Once again, the Pakistanis cannot be trusted. We are supposed to be fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. The military in Pakistan, in my opinion, is taking the money we give them and helping to support the Taliban in Afghanistan. They want to have it both ways. U.S. officials later revealed that the Taliban leader that we took out was plotting new attacks on American targets in Afghanistan. We have given Pakistan $33 billion of aid since 9/11, and each year we say that Pakistan is at the crossroads and needs to decide whether it is going to fight terrorists or fight on our side. Let me tell you, we are being played by the Pakistanis. They are taking money from whomever they can get it. They support the Taliban, and they claim they support us. Let's just make them get a little less money every year. Cut it down from $900 million--which is in this year's budget--to what it was last year, $700 million. Mr. Chairman, we don't need to pay Pakistan to betray us. They are going to do it for free. That is what this amendment does. It cuts money, $200 million. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for his comments. Pakistan is playing everybody. They take our money, it goes through ISI, and it ends up in the hands of the Taliban and Afghanistan that is killing Americans. And, yes, they file reimbursements about us giving them money. They file reimbursements about the money that is being used. They file it with the Pentagon, and the Pentagon says that 50 percent of the reimbursement requests that they make are fraudulent. They lie and they cheat to get that American money. So Pakistan is playing everybody. Nuclear weapons? Yes, they have got them. Now we hear reports that they may be working with the North Koreans and supplying them nuclear capability. I don't know if that is true or not. The Pakistanis cannot be trusted. They are getting money from whomever they can. They do what is in the best interests of the current government. The military may not even be working with the government. We don't need to pay them any more money. Give them the same amount that they got last year and save the American taxpayers $200 million. Once again, we don't need to pay Pakistan to betray us, Mr. Chairman; they will do it for free. And that is just the way it is. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, our government spies on Americans. Section 702 was designed to go after the bad guys overseas, but it is being used to collect communications of Americans in America without a search warrant under the Fourth Amendment. The amendment that the gentleman from Kentucky has introduced does something very basic. It says the Fourth Amendment will apply to a 702(a). If you have got a search warrant, go see a judge like I used to be; and if you have probable cause, then let a judge sign it. If you don't have probable cause, then you don't get a warrant. That is all it does. It says the Constitution must apply to Americans, and fear tactics--I am sorry--on the other side don't change the facts. Get a warrant if you have probable cause. That is all the gentleman from Kentucky's amendment does.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. ``Lastly you said, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin a life. A life, one life, yours, you forgot about mine. Let me rephrase for you, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect. You have dragged me through this hell with you, dipped me back into that night again and again. You knocked down both our towers, I collapsed at the same time you did. If you think I was spared, came out unscathed, that today I ride off into sunset, while you suffer the greatest blow, you are mistaken. ``My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition. I became closed off, angry, self deprecating, tired, irritable, empty. The isolation at times was unbearable. You cannot give me back the life I had before that night either. While you worry about your shattered reputation, I refrigerated spoons every night so when I woke up, and my eyes were puffy from crying, I would hold the spoons to my eyes to lessen the swelling so that I could see. I showed up an hour late to work every morning, excused myself to cry in the stairwells, I can tell you all the best places in that building to cry where no one can hear you. ``The pain became so bad that I had to explain the private details to my boss to let her know why I was leaving. I needed time because continuing day to day was not possible. I used my savings to go as far away as I could possibly be. I did not return to work full time as I knew I'd have to take weeks off in the future for the hearing and trial, that were constantly being rescheduled. My life was put on hold for over a year, my structure had collapsed. ``I can't sleep alone at night without having a light on, like a five year old, because I have nightmares of being touched where I cannot wake up, I did this thing where I waited until the sun came up and I felt safe enough to go to sleep. For three months, I went to bed at six o'clock in the morning. ``Nobody wins. We all have been devastated, we all have been trying to find some meaning in all of this suffering. Your damage was concrete; stripped of titles, degrees, enrollment. My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.'' ``See one thing we have in common is that we were both unable to get up in the morning. I am no stranger to suffering. You made me a victim. In newspapers my name was `unconscious, intoxicated woman', ten syllables and, nothing more than that. ``For a while, I believed that that was all I was. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am. That I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster, while you are the All-American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty, with so much at stake. I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt, my life was put on hold for over a year, waiting to figure out if I was worth something . . . I used to pride myself on my independence, now I am afraid to go on walks in the evening, to attend social events with drinking among friends where I should be comfortable being. I have become a little barnacle always needing to be at someone's side, to have my boyfriend standing next to me, sleeping beside me, protecting me. It is embarrassing how feeble I feel, how timidly I move through life, always guarded, ready to defend myself, ready to be angry. ``You have no idea how hard I have worked to rebuild parts of me that are still weak. It took me eight months to even talk about what happened. I could no longer connect with friends, with everyone around me. I would scream at my boyfriend, my own family whenever they brought this up. You never let me forget what happened to me.''

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, born the son of an Irish blacksmith in Houston, Paul Neal Adair, commonly known as ``Red'' started his long service as a fire fighter in World War II with the 139th Bomb Disposal Squadron. While enlisted, he was sent across Japan to find undetonated bombs and safely disarm them. However, it wasn't until after his service in the Army that he became renowned for his bravery and skill as a fire fighter. He began working under Myron Kinley, a pioneer and innovator in oil- well firefighting. Adair worked diligently to learn the many new inventions and techniques Kinley had created, and by 1959 he was ready to strike out on his own. He founded the Red Adair Co., a private company solely devoted to fighting large scale oil fires, and over the course of his career he put out more than two thousand of these fires, both on land and on offshore platforms. In November of 1961, a particularly large fire, nicknamed the ``Devil's Cigarette Lighter,'' broke out in the middle of the Algerian Sahara. Mr. Speaker, the flame was over four hundred and fifty feet high. Despite best efforts, the fire burned continuously, with no end in sight. That was, until Adair and his crew were called to the scene. Driving a modified bulldozer right up to the well where the fire was burning, Adair was able to get a large nitroglycerin charge into the well, allowing the explosion to displace enough oxygen that the monster of a fire was finally extinguished. His feats in the Sahara gained him and his crew a reputation worldwide. They additionally helped with a large gas leak off the coast of Australia, and contributed to capping the biggest oil well blowout to have ever been recorded in the North Sea. Even in 1991 at the age of seventy-five, Adair took part in the extinguishing of countless oil well fires that were set by Iraqi troops in Kuwait during the Gulf War. Soon after he retired, he sold his world famous company. His top employees went on to form their own company, the International Well Control. His great courage and success in his field led to a John Wayne movie called ``Hellfighters'' to be made, which was loosely based on his encounters in the Sahara. In 2004, at the age of eighty-nine, Paul Adair passed away, but both his men and many others will remember him as a pioneer in firefighting who not only saved many cities from millions of dollars in damages from these large scale oil fires, but also thousands of lives. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, a Texas father wrote me this week: ``I heard your statements . . . about removing the so-called judge in the Stanford swimmer's rape case. I do hope you pursue this all the way to his elimination. ``As the father of a daughter that was raped a number of years ago while she was jogging at night near a college campus in Texas, I would even consider the death penalty for the perpetrator. Why? Because that is what happened to my daughter. The feeling of violation and uncleanness caused her to take her own life in later years. The judge does not know the meaning of rape and the effects it has on a female.'' Mr. Speaker, the father is correct. Rape victims live lives of quiet hopelessness and despair. That is why the weak-kneed judges like the one in California need to be removed. Sunday is Father's Day, and I will be with my 4 kids and 11 grandkids. The father I referenced here will not be with his daughter. We must deliver justice for rape victims, daughters, and families because, Mr. Speaker, justice is what we do in America. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5053, Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act is a common sense bill meant to help curb the rampant abuses of the IRS, an agency that has proven itself to be completely out of control in recent years. In April, Federal Judge David Sentelle said that the IRS can't be trusted, and that there is strong evidence that the agency violated the constitutional rights of conservative groups when it delayed their nonprofit status applications and asked inappropriate questions about their political beliefs. Currently, the IRS requires non-profits to submit a schedule B form, listing the names and addresses of their donors. According to the law, the IRS is forbidden from using this form for any purpose. If they are forbidden from using this form for any purpose then, why are they even allowed to ask for this information? This doesn't make any sense. This is another ``mistake'' waiting to happen. The mere presence of this form will make it easier for unscrupulous employees to target individuals for increased scrutiny based on their political beliefs or what non-profit they choose to give money to. I have seen this kind of political targeting first hand with my constituent Catherine Engelbrecht in Houston Texas. She was targeted because she dared to attempt to start a voting integrity group called True the Vote. This kind of political targeting needs to stop. It's un-American and Unconstitutional. We need to reign in the IRS, and H.R. 5053 is a step in the right direction. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, when the word pirate comes to mind, many envision treasure seeking ruffians with eye patches. Unbeknownst to most of us, pirates still exist: lurking the coast of East Africa, specifically Somalia and Kenya, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Guinea, The Malacca Strait, and the Indian subcontinent. Pirates today, however, can do more damage than forcing a poor fellow to walk the plank. Regions plagued by poverty and extreme terrorism have raised a whole new breed of manipulative, violent, maritime hijackers who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Modern piracy is not simply a matter of economic loss or threatened safety, but a risk to the entire globe due to the close-knit ties pirates have with terrorists. All eyes of the international community were suddenly turned to the coast of Somalia when pirates hijacked a Russian supertanker full of oil and army tanks. What did the American government do? Nothing. Nothing that is, until the unimaginable happened. A U.S. cargo ship was openly attacked by pirates, and the captain was held as ransom for several days. Since then, efforts have been taken to defend ships from maritime crime, such as legalization of weapons on board for commercial shipping vessels. Is this passive defense enough? When analyzing the cost of insurance, freight, rerouting, and ransoms, the price we pay to watch these pirates roam the high seas ranges to as high as $16 billion a year. Yet there are far greater non-monetary costs awaiting us in the future. If a ship is attacked at just the right place, it could result in the closure and seizure of invaluable international waterways. Though many pirates have different motives than terrorists, terrorist tactics are frequently used in hijackings. Both terrorists and pirates traumatize civilians and prey off of fear. As of now there is no international community specifically designated to prevent piracy like there is for terrorism, simply because the legal jurisdiction of piracy is in question. What we all should agree on, however, is that maritime piracy is a devastating form of terrorism. The topic of most apprehension is the proven fact that modern pirates fund terrorist groups. Whether taken by force or friendship from the pirates, Al-Qaeda now possesses around 15 cargo vessels. Confiscation of vessels hasn't been the only recent breach in maritime security. Thanks to unobstructed leadership of Somali pirates, we've experienced an increase in maritime trafficking of narcotics, people and illicit goods, and arms proliferation. The evidence shows that maritime terrorism has recently gained the attention of most terrorist groups. Large and heavily loaded commercial vessels, offshore gas rigs, and maritime hub ports are easy shots for maritime terrorists, who seek mass destruction of human life, infrastructure, and nature. Though piracy off the Somalia coast has recently decreased, it has caught flame and prospered in other regions of Africa, such as the waters of Guinea and Nigeria. Squashing these pirates once and for all is easier said than done. They do not proudly announce their presence on the sea, but rather use silence and stealth to steal an average of $5,000 to $15,000 per ship. Some of these raids are exceedingly violent, while others are bloodless. In both terrorism and maritime piracy, there must be extensive planning, and those involved must be willing to sacrifice their lives. Our friends in England recently recognized a dire loophole in worldwide attempts to combat terrorism. Since 2010, the international community has poured billions into the hands of pirates as ransom for the release of vessels and crew. These pirates are not necessarily terrorists themselves, yet many have direct connections to major terror groups. We can be sure that piracy has summoned nearby terrorist groups with the scent of money and the bribe of civilian fear. Maritime piracy is now used as the ever-prosperous bank for terrorists. Great Britain understands this and is in the midst of editing a bill which prohibits all forms of ransom payments to terrorists. Somali pirates appear to give the ransoms from their pirated material to al-Qaeda. There is no doubt that piracy could not only fund, but also be used as a form of terrorism or for political purposes, especially because of the unusual amount of security breaches easily accessible on ports and at sea compared to land. Take for example al-Qaeda's attack on United States. It only took two men in a tiny boat to kill seventeen U.S. citizens and injure 39 more, just by placing a shape charge against the hull of the USS Cole while it was refueling at a Yemeni port. We must ensure the future does not hold a pirate-terrorist group merger. This event would spin to a halt all anti-terrorism efforts. Al Shabaab and al-Qaeda are difficult and resilient as it is, but imagine these groups with access to strategic waterways, billions of dollars, high grade ships in their grasp, and American captives at their disposal. Debate on the floor of the House has found, Piracy is ``Booming without any credible deterrence, without the type of deterrence you saw at one point in time from the British navy or from the U.S. fleet. As we speak, there are 27 vessels and 449 hostages being held by Somali pirates'' Yet nothing substantial is done. Though many ships are now well-armed, piracy continues without hiccup. It's time the United States takes some action and put these outlaws in the high seas out of business and send them to Davy Jones' locker. An estimated $160 million was paid as ransoms to pirates in one year alone. Using a private navy is almost as drastic of a cost. So, the question is: what should we do? One of the most considered solutions is that of modern privateering. Privateers as defined by international law are ``vessels belonging to private owners, and sailing under commission of war empowering the person to whom it is granted to carry on all forms of hostility which are permissible at sea by the usages of war.'' Privateers will be given the opportunity to disable dangerous non-state enemies, and in the process, create revenue. This is not a hard decision. It's a win-win. The U.S. military has used a form of privateering in the past certain types of air combat and warfare. In fact, in the 1930's, the U.S. Navy bought blimps from--and hired--a private company, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, to build a fleet of airships and blimps. These blimps were previously used for advertising, yet the Navy used these simple civilian mechanisms to help defend the country. In the past, the problem of piracy was largely wiped out due to privateers. The privateers, though used as a sort of political pawn, were extremely successful and motivated. In a system of capitalism, it's important to consider all parties, and the relationship in which each benefits another. If privateering and letters of marque were used by the United States government today, the government would gain a significant amount of hegemony, credibility, and sea power. The privateering ship owners would receive rewards or payments in return for the seized pirate ships, as well as a higher safety and low insurance prices. Maritime piracy is indeed a threat that, if not soon stopped, will lead to increased terrorism and economic disaster. In my Congressional office, we employ interns to help with writing and tasks around the office. One of our interns, Rachel Jones, researched this issue regarding piracy on the open seas. Her help this summer was valuable and I thank her for all of her work and assistance. I wish Rachel luck in her future endeavors and with the rest of her time at my alma mater--Abilene Christian University. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of Judge Edmund V. Ludwig of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a retired U.S. District Court judge and prominent figure in the legal, cultural, and historic life of Bucks County who died on May 17, 2016, three days short of his 88th birthday. In June 1985, on the recommendation of U.S. Senators, John Heinz III and Arlen Specter, President Ronald Reagan nominated Ludwig to fill the seat vacated by Judge Raymond Broderick. The Senate confirmed the appointment, and Judge Ludwig took the bench on Oct. 17, 1985. He became a senior judge on May 20, 1997, and gradually reduced his workload until retiring a couple of years ago. In 1996, Judge Ludwig ordered Major League Baseball umpires to work through the World Series after they threatened to boycott games in the wake of the Roberto Alomar spitting incident. Angry over a third-strike call, Alomar, the Baltimore Orioles star second baseman, spit at umpire John Hirschbeck. Alomar claimed that the umpire had uttered a racial slur. Hirschbeck was furious at Alomar's comments, and other umpires were outraged by the incident. However, Judge Ludwig stayed above the fray. ``These umpires are the best, and without them, the harm to baseball will be irreparable,'' he ruled. ``The game of baseball occupies a special place in this country and it belongs to the millions of fans.'' Jeremy Heep, the judge's law clerk in the mid-1990s and now a partner at the Pepper Hamilton firm, said his former boss epitomized a true public servant. ``He was a wonderful judge in his own right, but in addition to that, he used the inherent prestige that came with the robe to influence society in a good way. It was a wonderful thing to watch,'' Heep said. ``He would quietly go behind the scenes, pick up the phone, and call people. He would further very good causes--promoting juvenile justice, improving mental health services in Pennsylvania, and getting the bar to improve indigent representation.'' An educator as well as a jurist, Judge Ludwig held faculty positions at Hahnemann University, Temple Law School, Villanova Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many honors was the Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Distinguished Jurist Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association in 2005. Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of Henry and Ruth Viener Ludwig. He graduated from Germantown Friends School in 1945 and earned degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. A Korean War veteran, he was honorably discharged with the rank of captain from the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, after which he took up private practice in Doylestown. In 1968, Judge Ludwig was elected to Bucks County Court and served until 1985. In 1995, he founded the Doylestown Historical Society, of which he served as chair until 2011. Tina Mazaheri, the society's founding secretary, who served with him on its board of directors, said the judge wanted to ensure that future generations would have the means to enjoy the town and its history. Judge Ludwig helped establish social service programs, and served on the boards of groups focused on youth and juvenile justice, mental health, alternatives to incarceration, support for women, and rights for the disabled. In 1971, he cofounded TODAY Inc., a residential drug treatment program, and served on its board until 1985. Part of his effectiveness lay in his tenacious pursuit of any project he tackled. Ultimately, though, Judge Ludwig ``was always about making sure that people who needed help got help, and about recognizing those who gave the help, but not himself,'' Mazaheri said. An avid reader, Judge Ludwig enjoyed Shakespeare, poetry, and historical fiction. He delighted in telling jokes and exploring the art of the pun. He played and watched tennis, and loved to eat out at local restaurants with family and friends. He was married to Elizabeth Serkin for 18 years before they divorced. They had four children. He also was divorced from Sara Webster. Besides his former wives and daughter, he is survived by sons Edmund V. Jr., Toby, and David, and five grandchildren. A grandson preceded him in death. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, June 12th marks an important date in United States policy. Twenty-nine years to the day, President Ronald Reagan traveled to Berlin to speak out against communism and call on the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tear down the Berlin Wall. This would become known as his famous ``tear down this wall'' speech. The Berlin Wall grew in the aftermath of the Second World War. In 1945, the Allies split a defeated Germany into four allied occupation zones. The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union and the Western part of Germany went to the United States, Great Britain, and later France. Even though Berlin sat entirely in the Soviet territory, it too was divided into Eastern and Western occupation zones with the Soviets taking the East and the other allies taking the West part of the city. As Berlin was split apart, so too was the relationship between the democratic United States and communist Soviet Union. These stark differences in political ideologies led to extreme tension in that area, and around the world. So much so that the Soviet Union would often play the role of mischief maker in Germany. In 1948 the USSR began a blockade on West Berlin in the hopes of driving out the Western influences. However, due to the ingenious Berlin Airlift, the blockade was called off the following year. Following a decade of relative calm, the Soviet Union was once again up to no good. They were embarrassed by the steady flow of refugees from the Communist East into the Capitalist West part of Germany. In the first 11 days of August in 1961, 16,000 East Germans fled to West Germany. On August 12th alone, 2,400 people defected. It was then that Soviet Premier Kruschchev closed the border between East and West Berlin for good. In 1961 the Berlin Wall officially came into existence. It stood 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide until the fall of communism. During that time, the only way to cross the border was through one of three checkpoints: Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. But travelers were rarely allowed to cross the border. The mischief of the USSR divided a city and separated friends, families, and loved ones. If you tried to cross the border you could be shot. At least 171 people died trying to escape to freedom. The Berlin Wall not only literally divided a city for 30 years, but stood as a brutal reminder of how cruel communism could be. It wasn't until communism began to thaw, with the help of President Reagan change was made. On June 12, 1987, President Reagan traveled to Berlin to view the wall. That afternoon, at the foot of the Brandenburg Gate, he made a speech that would reverberate across the world and through time. He spoke directly to Gorbachev and said, in part, ``Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe . . . Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar . . . in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor . . . There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'' The borders between East and West Germany were finally reopened in November 1989 and the official demolition of the Berlin Wall began on June 13, 1990, exactly 3 years and 1 day following President Reagan's speech. The June 12, 1987 speech given by President Reagan will be remembered forever as a win for freedom. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it happened right under the entire community's nose: 8-year-old Jen--that is correct, 8 years old--was raped and tortured almost on a daily basis. Jen was not kidnapped by a stranger or abused by a relative. She was sold for sex by a neighbor at the neighbor's house. It was not just Jen who was sold for sex. It was also her younger sister, a male cousin, and a whole group of kids from her hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania. She and her fellow victims were coerced into participating and keeping it a secret through an elaborate con of gifts and threats. No one ever went looking for Jen because she was not ever missing. From 3 to 6 p.m., she was forced to have sex with strangers. The trafficking finally ended when she was about 10 years of age because the neighbor just disappeared. Mr. Speaker, sex slavery happens. As parents and grandparents, we need to know where our kids are because monsters that hurt victims must be prosecuted, both the sellers and the buyers, even if they are neighbors. The message is clear: Our children are not for sale. Leave them alone. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, heroes and servants of our country come in all shapes and sizes. Sept. 11, 2001 is one of those days that will live in infamy. The shameful attack of that morning, as President Bush noted in his address, was meant to frighten our nation. But we did not descend into chaos and retreat. September 12 was a day that saw our country united and resolved. A helping hand was extended by individuals and organizations from all across this nation. We all came together, and in doing so we won the first battle of the war on terror. The men responsible for that attack wanted to shake the foundations of America, but in the wake of the disaster we demonstrated the power of our country, e pluribus unum, in full glory. An example of that glory manifested can be found in Texas Task Force One, which came over 1600 miles to lend a hand in the search for survivors. One invaluable member of that force was Bretagne (pronounced Britney), a rescue dog of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department in Cypress, Texas. She helped members of the rescue team search the rubble of the World Trade Center. It is important that we show tribute to all, even the four-legged soldiers. Sixteen year old Bretagne, a golden retriever from Cypress, Texas, was the last living search and rescue dog who worked at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She recently passed away at age 16. She was a beloved member of the team, and we are grateful for her service to this country. She first became a rescue dog in 2000, at the Cy-Fair Fire Department. Bretagne not only aided the heroes of 9/11, but also located and rescued hundreds of citizens after natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. When in Houston, Bretagne visited elementary schools, as a symbol to the children that courage doesn't just have one face. To the despair of the Cypress community that so loved and adored her, brave little Bretagne's health declined. Her years of loyal service and devotion to the American people began to take a toll, and the veterinarians were given no choice but to put her down. She was given the hero's salute by the fire department just the other day, as she made her last walk into the office. I too salute you, Bretagne, and all other surviving heroes of 9/11. Our nation deeply thanks all of you. And that is just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, two Stanford students were biking one night when they noticed a half naked woman lying motionless behind a dumpster with a male student on top of her. When they confronted the attacker, the man took off in the darkness of the night. The Good Samaritans were able to catch the coward and knock him to the ground. The woman, just 22 years of age at the time, was being raped, and the rapist was caught in the act. When the victim regained consciousness, she was on a gurney, covered with pine needles, and was bleeding. Her assailant was Brock Turner, a scholarship swimmer at Stanford. Brock was found guilty of sexual assault on three counts. His sentence? A mere 6 months in prison and 3 years probation. Because the judge said ``a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.'' Well, isn't that the point? Mr. Speaker, the punishment for rape should be longer than a semester in college. The defendant's dad called it a ``steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action.'' Clearly, Brock is a chip off the old block and daddy will never be named father of the year. For many victims, Mr. Speaker, rape is a fate worse than death. Here is why. Because rape victims say that after being raped, they die emotionally many times; and with homicide, one dies only once. After the sentencing, the brave victim read, Mr. Speaker, a 7,200- word statement to her attacker, the rapist. She said in part: ``I tried to push it out of my mind, but it was so heavy I didn't talk, I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I didn't interact with anyone. I became isolated from the ones I loved the most. After I learned about the graphic details of my own sexual assault, the news article listed his swimming times, saying `by the way, he's really good at swimming.' ``I was the wounded antelope of the herd, completely alone and vulnerable, physically unable to fend for myself, and he chose me. During the investigation, I was pummeled with narrowed, pointed questions that dissected my personal life, love life, past life, family life, inane questions, accumulating trivial details to try and find an excuse for this guy who had me half naked before even bothering to ask for my name. ``My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice. ``While you worry about your shattered reputation, I can't sleep alone at night without having a light on, like a 5-year-old, because I have nightmares of being touched where I cannot wake up. I did this thing where I waited until the sun came up and I felt safe enough to sleep.'' Mr. Speaker, I was a prosecutor and a criminal court judge in Texas for over 30 years. I met a lot of rape victims and learned how these attacks sometimes devastate their lives. This judge got it wrong. There is an archaic philosophy in some courts ``that sin ain't sin as long as good folk do it.'' In this case, the court and the defendant's father wanted a pass for the rapist because he was a big-shot swimmer. The judge should be removed. The rapist should do more time for the dastardly deed that he did that night. This arrogant defendant has appealed the sentence. I hope the appeals court does grant the appeal and make it right and overturn the pathetic sentence and give him the punishment he deserves. As a country, Mr. Speaker, we must change our mentality and make sure that people recognize sexual assault and rape for the horrible crimes that they are. As a grandfather of 11, I want to know that my granddaughters are growing up in a society that has zero tolerance for this criminal conduct. No means no. A woman who is unconscious does not even have the ability to consent or fight back. Victims, like this remarkable woman, must know that society and the justice system are on their side. Too often the focus is on defending, protecting, and excusing sex offenders like Brock Turner. The entitlement mentality, being a good college athlete, and self- righteousness do not trump justice. In 6 months, when Brock Turner is out of prison, he will return to his life, but the life of the victim may never be the same. The criminal has given her a life sentence of mental pain, anguish, and turmoil. Mr. Speaker, when rape occurs, the criminal is trying to steal the very soul of the victim. Justice demands the judge be removed. The defendant should receive more time in prison. We, the people, the community, must support and assist the victim in all possible ways because, Mr. Speaker, rape is never the fault of the victim. And that is just the way it is. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the statement of the victim in this case. This Is a Partial Excerpt of a 7,200 Word Statement From the Stanford Rape Victim ``Your Honor, if it is all right, for the majority of this statement I would like to address the defendant directly. You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today. On January 17th, 2015, it was a quiet Saturday night at home. My dad made some dinner and I sat at the table with my younger sister who was visiting for the weekend. I was working full time and it was approaching my bed time. I planned to stay at home by myself, watch some TV and read, while she went to a party with her friends. Then, I decided it was my only night with her, I had nothing better to do, so why not, there's a dumb party ten minutes from my house, I would go, dance like a fool, and embarrass my younger sister. On the way there, I joked that undergrad guys would have braces. My sister teased me for wearing a beige cardigan to a frat party like a librarian. I called myself `big mama', because I knew I'd be the oldest one there. I made silly faces, let my guard down, and drank liquor too fast not factoring in that my tolerance had significantly lowered since college. The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow. I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus. I was very calm and wondering where my sister was. A deputy explained I had been assaulted. I still remained calm, assured he was speaking to the wrong person. I knew no one at this party. When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing. I still remember the feeling of my hands touching my skin and grabbing nothing. I looked down and there was nothing. The thin piece of fabric, the only thing between my vagina and anything else, was missing and everything inside me was silenced. I still don't have words for that feeling. In order to keep breathing, I thought maybe the policemen used scissors to cut them off for evidence. . . . On that morning, all that I was told was that I had been found behind a dumpster, potentially penetrated by a stranger, and that I should get retested for HIV because results don't always show up immediately. But for now, I should go home and get back to my normal life. Imagine stepping back into the world with only that information. They gave me huge hugs and I walked out of the hospital into the parking lot wearing the new sweatshirt and sweatpants they provided me, as they had only allowed me to keep my necklace and shoes. . . . My sister picked me up, face wet from tears and contorted in anguish. Instinctively and immediately, I wanted to take away her pain. I smiled at her, I told her to look at me, I'm right here, I'm okay, everything's okay, I'm right here. My hair is washed and clean, they gave me the strangest shampoo, calm down, and look at me. Look at these funny new sweatpants and sweatshirt, I look like a P.E. teacher, let's go home, let's eat something. She did not know that beneath my sweatsuit, I had scratches and bandages on my skin, my vagina was sore and had become a strange, dark color from all the prodding, my underwear was missing, and I felt too empty to continue to speak. That I was also afraid, that I was also devastated. That day we drove home and for hours in silence my younger sister held me. My boyfriend did not know what happened, but called that day and said, `I was really worried about you last night, you scared me, did you make it home okay?' I was horrified. That's when I learned I had called him that night in my blackout, left an incomprehensible voicemail, that we had also spoken on the phone, but I was slurring so heavily he was scared for me, that he repeatedly told me to go find [my sister]. Again, he asked me, `What happened last night? Did you make it home okay?' I said yes, and hung up to cry. You said, Being drunk I just couldn't make the best decisions and neither could she. Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked. Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal. Everyone in this room has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much, or knows someone close to them who has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much. Regretting drinking is not the same as regretting sexual assault. We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. That's the difference. You said, If I wanted to get to know her, I should have asked for her number, rather than asking her to go back to my room. I'm not mad because you didn't ask for my number. Even if you did know me, I would not want to be in this situation. My own boyfriend knows me, but if he asked to finger me behind a dumpster, I would slap him. No girl wants to be in this situation. Nobody. I don't care if you know their phone number or not. My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition. I became closed off, angry, self deprecating, tired, irritable, empty. The isolation at times was unbearable. You cannot give me back the life I had before that night either. While you worry about your shattered reputation, I refrigerated spoons every night so when I woke up, and my eyes were puffy from crying, I would hold the spoons to my eyes to lessen the swelling so that I could see. I showed up an hour late to work every morning, excused myself to cry in the stairwells, I can tell you all the best places in that building to cry where no one can hear you. The pain became so bad that I had to explain the private details to my boss to let her know why I was leaving. I needed time because continuing day to day was not possible. I used my savings to go as far away as I could possibly be. I did not return to work full time as I knew I'd have to take weeks off in the future for the hearing and trial, that were constantly being rescheduled. My life was put on hold for over a year, my structure had collapsed. I can't sleep alone at night without having a light on, like a five year old, because I have nightmares of being touched where I cannot wake up, I did this thing where I waited until the sun came up and I felt safe enough to sleep. For three months, I went to bed at six o'clock in the morning. You cannot give me back my sleepless nights. The way I have broken down sobbing uncontrollably if I'm watching a movie and a woman is harmed, to say it lightly, this experience has expanded my empathy for other victims. I have lost weight from stress, when people would comment I told them I've been running a lot lately. There are times I did not want to be touched. I have to relearn that I am not fragile, I am capable, I am wholesome, not just livid and weak. He is a lifetime sex registrant. That doesn't expire. Just like what he did to me doesn't expire, doesn't just go away after a set number of years. It stays with me, it's part of my identity, it has forever changed the way I carry myself, the way I live the rest of my life. To conclude, I want to say thank you. To everyone from the intern who made me oatmeal when I woke up at the hospital that morning, to the deputy who waited beside me, to the nurses who calmed me, to the detective who listened to me and never judged me, to my advocates who stood unwaveringly beside me, to my therapist who taught me to find courage in vulnerability, to my boss for being kind and understanding, to my incredible parents who teach me how to turn pain into strength, to my grandma who snuck chocolate into the courtroom throughout this to give to me, my friends who remind me how to be happy, to my boyfriend who is patient and loving, to my unconquerable sister who is the other half of my heart, to Alaleh, my idol, who fought tirelessly and never doubted me. Thank you to everyone involved in the trial for their time and attention. Thank you to girls across the nation that wrote cards to my DA to give to me, so many strangers who cared for me. Most importantly, thank you to the two men who saved me, who I have yet to meet. I sleep with two bicycles that I drew taped above my bed to remind myself there are heroes in this story. That we are looking out for one another. To have known all of these people, to have felt their protection and love, is something I will never forget. And finally, to girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought every day for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you. As the author Anne Lamott once wrote, `Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.' Although I can't save every boat, I hope that by speaking today, you absorbed a small amount of light, a small knowing that you can't be silenced, a small satisfaction that justice was served, a small assurance that we are getting somewhere, and a big, big knowing that you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you. To girls everywhere, I am with you. Thank you.'

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, almost 3 years have passed since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of surveillance that was occurring on U.S. citizens. Edward Snowden is no patriot. However, the alarming information about the NSA's abuse of power he revealed cannot be ignored. Until Snowden, most Americans were unaware that their own government was trampling on their Fourth Amendment rights. Most people did not know their every move could be tracked by Big Brother. They trusted that this agency acted purely in the interest of national security to keep us safe. Post 9/11 and with two ongoing wars, many believed that government surveillance--including warrantless searches and seizures-- was limited to foreign nationals, not American citizens. That would be consistent with federal law and the Constitution. But unfortunately, this is not always the case. In recent years, we have learned that the agency has misused and expanded the intent of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). NSA uses Section 702 as a means to gather not only data but content and to allow law enforcement to later search this data for information about American citizens without a warrant. Because it gathers and searches content of individual communications, I believe Section 702 is more intrusive than even Section 215 which has garnered significant attention. FISA permits the collection of such data of a suspected agent of a foreign power, but the federal government is also storing and later searching the content of emails, text messages and phone calls of American citizens --all without a warrant. In the course of this collection, the data of American citizens, many of which have done nothing wrong or illegal, gets collected. That kind of reverse targeting of American citizens is not what Congress intended, is inconsistent with the Constitution, and it must stop. It's time for Congress to reign in this blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment and stop the warrantless searches of Americans. This issue-- protecting the Fourth Amendment--has unified liberals and conservatives. My colleague Congressman Lofgren and I may not agree on every issue before Congress, but we agree on this 100 percent. Earlier this year, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and I introduced H.R. 2233, the End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans Act. The bill would prohibit warrantless searches of government databases for information that pertains to U.S. citizens. It would also forbid government agencies from mandating or requesting ``back doors'' into commercial products that can be used for surveillance. The legislation mirrors an amendment we offered to the USA Freedom Act when it came up last year. Failure to address this gaping loophole in FISA leaves the constitutional rights of millions of Americans vulnerable and unprotected. This bill also ensures that the federal government does not force companies to enable its spying activities. The NSA has and will continue to violate the constitutional protections guaranteed to every American unless Congress intervenes. Until we fix this and make the law clear, citizens can never be sure that their private conversations are safe from the eyes of the government. Last year, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed similar legislation as an amendment to DOD Appropriations and I unanimously passed one provision of this bill as an amendment to the DOJ appropriations bill. Yet, we have still not seen any action on the standalone bill. Why wouldn't Congress move on an issue that has so much bipartisan support? We need to push this standalone legislation and also push that 702 be significantly reformed when FISA is reauthorized to ensure that information regarding American citizens can NEVER be searched by law enforcement unless it was collected through a search authorized by a warrant. Technology may change but the Constitution does not. It is our duty to make this right and ensure that the Fourth Amendment rights of the people we represent will no longer be trampled on by the NSA. The Fourth amendment right against unlawful search and seizure must be protected in both the physical and digital worlds at all times. Thank you for coming today and I look forward to working together to work towards this goal. And that is just the way it is.