Tom Rice

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Constitution Week and the Theodosia Burr Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It is a privilege and duty of the American people to commemorate the two hundred thirty-third anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. As citizens of this great nation, we must reaffirm the ideals the Framers of the Constitution had in 1787. Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the Unites States of America designating September 17 through 23 as Constitution Week. It is fitting and proper to officially recognize this magnificent document and the anniversary of its creation. Madam Speaker, I join the Theodosia Burr Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American people in recognizing September 17 through September 23, 2022 as Constitution Week and honor the Framers for their contributions.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose the previous question so we can amend the rule and immediately consider H.R. 7809, the Communities Deserve Cops Act, which allows for the use of COPS grants to provide officers with signing and retention bonuses up to $5,000. Predictably, Madam Speaker, we have seen shocking increases in violent crime following the calls from my friends across the aisle to defund the police. This week is National Police Week, a time when we should be honoring those who put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe. Sadly, we are not taking the opportunity to vote on legislation to bolster law enforcement and decrease violent crime. Despite House leadership having numerous bipartisan bills to vote on, only two bills have been added to the suspension calendar. The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking up five bills tomorrow. Representative Rutherford's legislation provides much-needed assistance for agencies to hire and retain officers. The COPS grant program is vital to law enforcement agencies of all sizes, but while it has continued to receive funds, it has not been authorized since 2009. I have also introduced a bill with Representative Spanberger that would reauthorize the COPS grant program and help low-income, rural agencies compete for these grants. It has 53 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle. More of my Democratic colleagues have cosponsored it than Republicans. If Speaker Pelosi would allow a vote on the floor, it would pass. There are many more bipartisan law enforcement bills that deserve to see the light of day. I hope that, moving forward, we can work together to support the many bipartisan law enforcement bills that deliver targeted solutions to the Nation. I ask my colleagues to oppose the previous question so that we can provide the needed support for law enforcement agencies.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege and honor today to congratulate the University of South Carolina women's basketball team on winning the NCAA National Championship. It is a great day to be a Gamecock. After a heartbreaking loss in the Final Four last year, South Carolina found redemption Sunday night, earning the program's second national championship title with a 64-49 victory over second seed UConn. The Gamecock women's basketball team had an incredible season with a 35-2 record, averaging 70 points a game. While every member of the team played their hearts out, Aliyah Boston, the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, won the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award. She is the first South Carolina player to earn that honor since A'ja Wilson in 2017. Coach Dawn Staley had an incredible season. Hard work breeds success, and this team is a prime example of that. The national title is a win for South Carolina and every fan who helped cheer them to victory. Congratulations, Gamecocks, on being the national champions once again.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 5343, the FEMA Caseworker Accountability Act. South Carolina's Seventh District is still recuperating from disaster after disaster. We experienced four flooding events in 8 years. Over the years, I have learned some tough lessons. We have continuously heard and seen how case management staff turnover rates at FEMA have extended the process for our communities to receive the assistance they need after a disaster. Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 years for FEMA to get people back in their homes, and it is far too long because, unfortunately, the people who are disproportionately affected by these disasters are people of low income and minorities. They lose everything that they had, what little they had, and they can't wait for 5 years for the government to respond. I have heard complaints from disaster victims to local officials about the lack of coordination due to the high turnover rates at FEMA. This disorganization causes significant delays in processing claims and reimbursement of essential funds. This bill will increase the transparency at FEMA following a disaster by requiring a report on their employees' turnover rate. It also requires a report to include the average length of employment for staff who are assigned to work on disaster recoveries. FEMA must be held accountable to our communities and our taxpayers who rely on them following a disaster. I thank Representative Mace and Resident Commissioner Gonzalez-Colon for their support on this legislation. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, passing this bill will place significant tariffs on most of Russia's exports to the United States, further defunding Putin's war machine. The bill also gives proclamation authority to the USTR to further raise tariffs on Russia's goods so that American purchasers will stop funding Putin's war crimes.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, on February 8, President Biden said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, America would impose crippling sanctions. On February 24, President Putin kept to his word and invaded Ukraine. President Biden has since then slow-walked the sanctions that he promised, those crippling sanctions that he promised. Today, 3 weeks after the invasion, as we have watched on the news as Ukrainians have bravely fought, outmanned and outgunned, and yet they hold on tenaciously to their property at horrific costs. Their cities are being destroyed. Innocent civilians are being shot. Women and children are being attacked on the streets. And yet, the United States has been slow to move. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this long-overdue bill to suspend permanent normal trade relations with the Russian Federation and Belarus. I am a cosponsor of this legislation and would like to thank Chairman Neal and Ranking Member Brady for their hard work on this issue. Last week, the House took the much-needed step of blocking oil and gas imports from Russia. When we debated that bill last week, I said we should have gone much further and should not have taken that watered- down approach. The United States must stop projecting weakness to Putin and his allies. President Biden must live up to his word. Today, we are finally taking a decisive step to punish Russia for their criminal aggression in Ukraine by ending their special treatment as a most-favored nation. Can you imagine that we have continued to recognize them as a most- favored nation for three weeks, in light of the horrific war crimes that they are committing every day? This is an action that only Congress can take, and we held off last week at the request of the administration.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Brady, Mr. Neal, and Mr. Doggett for their leadership on this bill to sanction Russian energy exports, which I support, but I must express my frustration that this bill does not go far enough. On February 7, President Biden stated that if Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States would impose crippling sanctions. Yet, here we are, 2 weeks after Biden finally found the courage to call it an invasion, and the sanctions are still being rolled out piecemeal. Only last week, the administration was telling us that sanctioning Russian oil and gas imports was not on the table. In the face of inaction, Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together to impose the crippling sanctions the President had promised but not followed through on. The bipartisan bill would have banned Russian oil imports and enabled the imposition of tariffs on all remaining Russian imports to America. But the White House intervened, and my Democrat friends withdrew their support. Instead, this bill bans only oil. The remaining half of Russian trade remains. American purchases will keep funding Russia's cruel invasion, and Russia will keep its most-favored-nation status in the World Trade Organization. In this bill, we ask our allies to penalize Russian imports, but we refuse to do so ourselves. Now, that is not leadership. I cannot understand why America would maintain trade relations with a nation that only last night bombed a children's hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine. Mr. President, how many more innocent Ukrainians need to die before you do what you promised? Stop projecting weakness, and just do what you say. China is watching. The world is watching.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. For that reason, we wish that our Democratic colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee had worked with us to update the bill from the version that passed 14 months ago to ensure that it establishes the most effective mechanism for blocking imports from Xinjiang, while providing much-needed clarity to facilitate trade by good actors. Just as importantly, we know that China has anticipated this ban by expanding this practice beyond Xinjiang. We need to work closely with our colleagues in the Senate to ensure that the version of the bill that becomes law can better assist importers to identify and proactively eradicate goods produced with forced labor from their supply chains, whether they arise in Xinjiang or in other locations. This bill is just the beginning, but it sends a strong signal to China that it cannot launder its policies of persecution and repression in a global market.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, China is a global thief. We all know it. They steal American intellectual property. They steal American jobs using currency manipulation, illegal subsidies, and product dumping to kill American competition. And worst of all, they produce products with slave labor. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1155, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. H.R. 1155's central provision establishes a rebuttable presumption that all goods made in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are produced with forced labor. Since 2017, China has arbitrarily detained and persecuted over 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in extrajudicial, mass re- education camps in Xinjiang. We know that China is seeking to profit from the oppression by subsidizing companies to build factories near these mass internment sites. H.R. 1155 leverages the power of our enormous market to send China a message that it cannot use its policies of repression to subsidize its exports. We must work with our allies to ensure that all global markets are closed to the products of Chinese theft and repression. A core and essential provision of this bill is a rebuttable presumption that leads to an import prohibition. In 2016, the Ways and Means Committee led the way on a bipartisan basis in eliminating the consumptive demand loophole from the outright ban on products made with forced labor in Section 307 of the 1930 Tariff Act. A few years later, we have worked with our USMCA partners to extend the U.S. ban on products produced with forced labor throughout North America. We are now leading the world in combating forced labor in Xinjiang.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Mr. Italy A. Greene's 100th birthday.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, with so many real problems facing Americans created by the Biden administration--open borders, soaring gas prices, sky-high grocery bills, and our embarrassment in Afghanistan--my friends across the aisle assemble us here today to debate a cartoon. Political cartoons routinely depict violence. It is not new. Cartoons have depicted violence since there were cartoons. If you don't believe me, google ``political cartoons 2021.'' You will see a depiction of Joe Biden killing a Republican with a steamroller and a Republican elephant trampling voters, among many others. Now, I will ask all of you out there to watch the Gosar cartoon that is occupying the floor of the United States Congress for over an hour today. Is it inappropriate? Yes. Childish? Of course. Stupid? Without question. But is it a threat? Absolutely not. Now, I know some Members may need to seek therapy because they saw this cartoon. But is it a threat? Absolutely not.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor former South Carolina State Senator Hugh Leatherman. Senator Leatherman represented Florence, and I was proud to join him in many opportunities to serve our constituents in the Pee Dee. Senator Leatherman passed away recently at age 90, while still holding office. He worked on behalf of South Carolinians nearly half his life, right up until his passing. And I have been told he even took next year's budget briefing from his hospital bed, exemplifying his true dedication to our State. Senator Leatherman didn't hesitate to work across the aisle to get things done for the Seventh District and all South Carolinians. I have always known him to pursue smart, reasonable solutions and work hard to fix problems. Senator Leatherman was the epitome of a public servant. He will be dearly missed in the halls of the South Carolina State House, and we will remember him as an accomplished and honorable man. Rest in peace, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Loris Civitan Club for being awarded the 2019-2021 Highest Percentage Increase Award by Civitan International. Founded in 1938, the Loris Civitan Club is one of 1,300 Civitan Clubs with over 40,000 members worldwide. It is the oldest civic organization in the city of Loris, South Carolina and has provided invaluable services for the people there since its inception. The club supports the Loris community by working with the local school system, supporting organizations that serve children with disabilities, providing programs at local football games, and setting out American flags on federal holidays. Additionally, the Loris Civitan Club has played a large part in sponsoring the annual South Carolina Special Olympic Games. I believe it is important for the country to continue growing civic organizations like the Loris Civitan Club. They work hard every day to ensure that those with mental disabilities and the less fortunate in the Loris community have the assistance they need to live a fulfilling life. The members associated with this club are shining examples of true American patriots and amazing role models for the Loris community and the state of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I join the people of Loris in congratulating the Loris Civitan Club on their momentous achievement. We thank them for the selfless actions they have taken to improve the Loris community.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Constitution Week and the Theodosia Burr Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It is a privilege and duty of the American people to commemorate the two hundred thirty-fourth anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. As citizens of this great nation, we must reaffirm the ideals the Framers of the Constitution had in 1787. Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the Unites States of America designating September 17 through 23 as Constitution Week. It is fitting and proper to officially recognize this magnificent document and the anniversary of its creation. Madam Speaker, I join the Theodosia Burr Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American people in recognizing September 17 through September 23, 2021 as Constitution Week and honor the Framers for their contributions.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, due to a committee hearing with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, I was unable to make rollcall Vote 171 on the Motion to Recommit offered by Mr. McCaul of Texas. I would like the record to note that I would have supported the Motion to Recommit and have a long history of supporting our ally, Israel. members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress Cardenas (Gomez) Cicilline (Pingree) Cleaver (Davids (KS)) DeSaulnier (Thompson (CA)) Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA)) Gimenez (Waltz) Gonzalez, Vicente (Gomez) Granger (Arrington) Grijalva (Garcia (IL)) Himes (Courtney) Hoyer (Brown) Johnson (TX) (Jeffries) Kahele (Mrvan) Kim (NJ) (Pallone) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Langevin (Courtney) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lieu (Raskin) Lowenthal (Beyer) Meng (Clark (MA)) Mullin (Lucas) Nadler (Jeffries) Napolitano (Correa) Nehls (Fallon) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Levin (CA)) Roybal-Allard (Escobar) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Underwood) Sewell (DelBene) Sherrill (Pallone) Sires (Pallone) Speier (Scanlon) Strickland (Kilmer) Swalwell (Gallego) Trahan (Lynch) Wagner (Walorski) Wexton (Connolly) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, more than once today, there has been reference to the recovery bills at the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration coming out of a very bad financial crisis. Of course, this COVID pandemic has led to a financial crisis in this country. But the difference in the response here is stark between the two. Coming out of the Bush administration and into the Obama administration, we expanded government, raised taxes, expanded regulations, and adopted recovery bills that weren't focused on economic growth. The result of that was, through 8 years of the Obama- Biden administration, we had stagnant growth. The middle class was shrinking; middle-class incomes were shrinking. It took a Republican President, a Republican Congress, enacting bills that lowered taxes, lowered regulation, and lowered government reliance that led to massive economic growth and opportunity for all demographics in our country. Hispanics, African Americans, women, and others have seen growth and opportunity not seen in decades, if ever. I hope, with this plan, that we are not going to go back to the days of the Obama-Biden years of stagnant growth and dashed opportunity for our children and our grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, we are holding up a check for $1,400 to the American public and saying: Vote for this, but don't pay attention because we are really borrowing $5,500 in your name, your wife's name, your husband's name, and each of your kids' names. For each of your kids, we are borrowing $5,500 in their name that they are going to have to pay back. They are getting $1,400 of it, but the other $4,100 is going here. It is not right, and it is not fair. And it will lead to lower growth and less opportunity for those kids that we are saddling with that debt right now. Mr. Speaker, this is not the right plan to address our Nation's challenges in defeating the COVID-19 virus. It is not the right time either. There is still a trillion dollars in unused funds from previous packages that were bipartisan, that were targeted, that were not merely misnamed liberal grab bags. The Congressional Budget Office's overview of the economic outlook projects that, by the middle of the year, the economy will have returned to a prepandemic level of real GDP. Why? That is because the policies put in place under the Trump administration and a Republican Congress are still in place--lower taxes and lower regulation. That is why, as opposed to the Obama-Biden recovery, which in 8 years still had not recovered, the economy is quickly coming back to prepandemic levels right now. Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have found every reason to rush through costly, unnecessary progressive priorities that my constituents didn't ask for. The American Rescue Plan is costing each American more than their mortgage payment, a downpayment on their car, or a semester of their children's college, and their children will have to pay it back. I don't want to leave a huge bill for my kids, and I know most Americans don't either. Mr. Speaker, I hope that this bill expanding government, expanding entitlements, paying people to stay home, making them more reliant on the government does not lead to another decade of stagnation, of lost opportunity. Vote ``no'' on this dangerous bill. Vote ``no'' against a selfish attempt to strap our next generation with debt. Vote ``no'' to progressive payoffs that we the people did not order. We must do better. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I remind the people back home that the scale of this plan that the gentlewoman is talking about is $5,500 borrowed for every man, woman, and child in this country, and your children will pay that money back. They will pay it back in higher taxes. They will pay it back in lost opportunity. They will pay it back in weaker economic growth. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would remind my friend that what we are doing here is waving a $1,400 check in front of our constituency and saying, ``Look at this,'' but we are like the Wizard of Oz, ``Don't look at what is going on behind the curtain,'' because what we are doing with this $1.9 trillion bill is borrowing $5,500 for every man, woman, and child in this country. We are giving them $1,400 so it is palatable to them. We are giving them a little sugar. We are not reminding them about the $4,100 other dollars that we are borrowing in their name, of which $1,067 goes to bail out blue States like New York and California. Mr. Speaker, $177 of their money, of that $4,100, goes to bail out union pension plans; $750, folks back home, of your $4,100 that we are borrowing in your name and your wife's name and your kids' names is going to extend unemployment benefits to pay people more to sit home than they can make at work; $34 goes to museums and Native American language preservation; $393 goes to K-12 and $120 to colleges and universities, of your money, each of your money, and there is no requirement that they reopen; $58 goes for public health organizations, including Planned Parenthood. Mr. Speaker, this bill, again, is simply a guise. COVID relief, no. As Mr. Clyburn said: Let's use this disaster to mold things to our vision. And they are doing exactly that. This is a massive expansion of the entitlement programs. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would point out to my friend from Alabama that because of the change in the allocation formula in this bill, relief for States--from the prior COVID relief bills--now this formula will focus on the unemployed; therefore, places that have shut their economies down and hurt their citizens economically will get more money than places who haven't. As a result, Alabama is the fourth or fifth largest loser in this bill in State and local government recovery money. Alabama will lose about $890 million, almost $1 billion, and that works out to approximately $178 lost for every man, woman, and child living in Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would remind my friend, the majority leader, that the reason that this bill is not bipartisan is there has been no effort to make it bipartisan. There have been zero committee meetings on this. Ms. Pelosi uses COVID as an excuse to keep us away from Washington so that she can write these liberal grab bag bills on her own. There were no hearings on this in the Ways and Means Committee or I don't think any other committee. I am sure we could have found a bipartisan response to this, but instead they chose, because they have the majority now, to ram through their list of liberal priorities in a massive expansion of the entitlement system under the guise of COVID relief. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).