Jamie Raskin

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a constituent who devoted his extraordinary life to the fight for worker justice. From the restaurant workers of Washington, D.C. to the staffers who keep Capitol Hill running, all of Daniel Katz's clients found in him a champion for dignity, fair wages and working conditions. On July 25, 2024, Danny's loved ones lost a treasured husband, father, and friend and the world lost a principled, persistent and brilliant public servant. Danny was driven by his conviction that worker justice is the foundation of a just society. He believed in the fundamental principle that a dignified workplace for even the lowest paid workers raises the standards all for all workers. After working for a private practice specializing in employment law, Danny founded the District of Columbia Employment Justice Center, becoming its first director. It also didn't matter which court heard one of his client's cases; over the course of his career, Danny represented clients before every one of the federal, state and local courts in Maryland and D.C. For Danny, his duties to his clients extended beyond the courtroom. He advocated for legislation at the D.C. City Council on worker pay issues and testified before the U.S. Congress on the rampant menace of wage theft. He lent his considerable talents pro bono to clients seeking assistance from the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, the Woman's Law Center of Maryland and the Sexual Assault Legal Institute. He was dedicated to sharing his wealth of knowledge with his fellow attorneys, frequently teaching continuing education courses for lawyers on litigating claims under wage-and-hour laws and how his colleagues could most effectively represent immigrants and low-wage workers. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Danny maintained his focus on the most vulnerable workers in our communities. After establishing accessible legal clinics for workers across the DMV, he ensured that the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs could keep these clinics open virtually and continue providing services. The clinic didn't miss a single week as Danny and a team of like-minded lawyers served workers seeking legal aid when they needed it most. Danny used his membership in the National Employment Lawyers Association to build both solidarity and expertise among members of the labor bar. By the time he reached the House of Representatives as Senior Counsel at the Office of Employee Advocacy (OEA), Danny had 25 years of experience advocating for workers. He had earned numerous accolades, including the Maryland Employment Lawyers Association ``Excellence in Advocacy'' award and the ``Visionary Award'' in 2018 for his work with the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Just as he had done in every job prior to the House OEA, Danny acted as a dedicated mentor to his colleagues and aspiring attorneys and a fierce advocate for his clients. His loss is profound and sharply felt in our community. I join the people of Maryland's beautiful Eighth District in honoring the life of Danny Katz, a titan in the fight for workers' rights, and in sending my condolences to his wife Lael, his son and his daughter Lucia. May Danny's memory be a blessing.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 5867. Colonel Kittinger was born and raised in Florida. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1949 as an aviation cadet and received commission as a command pilot. From 1959 to 1960, Colonel Kittinger was a member of Project Excelsior, an effort of Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories that pioneered research on safety and survival in high-altitude emergencies. On August 16, 1960, he set the record for the longest free fall from a gondola, 4 minutes and 36 seconds, before deploying his parachute. Colonel Kittinger went on three tours in Vietnam for the U.S. Air Force. When his plane was shot down, he faced adversity and stayed resilient as a prisoner of war in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Among many awards, Colonel Kittinger received two Purple Hearts and a Prisoner of War Medal. After retiring from the Air Force, Colonel Kittinger became the first person to complete a solo balloon trip across the Atlantic. His efforts helped advance developments in spacesuit technology and safety procedures in high-altitude environments. On December 9, 2022, at the age of 94, Colonel Kittinger passed away. I urge my colleagues to honor the life and valiant service of the colonel by naming a post office in Casselberry, Florida, after him. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3640. Lieutenant Jefferson was born in 1921 in Detroit, Michigan. After graduating from Chadsey High School and earning his bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology from Clark College, he was accepted into the Aviation Cadet Training Program in the U.S. Army Corps. He completed combat training in Michigan and pilot training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield. Jefferson served the cause of democracy and freedom faithfully in World War II in our struggle against fascism and totalitarianism in Europe. As a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, he was shot down and captured by Nazi troops. He suffered great hardship as a prisoner of war in Nazi- occupied Poland until he was finally freed by General George Patton's Third Army, which was busy liberating people from fascists all over Europe. When he returned home from war, Jefferson took a job as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. He later earned his teaching certificate and a master's degree in education at Wayne State. He taught elementary school science in Detroit, was appointed an assistant principal, and in 1979 retired with 31 years of service in public education, as well as all of his years fighting for America and for freedom. I urge my colleagues to honor the life and service of Lieutenant Colonel Jefferson by naming this post office in Mount Clemens, Michigan, after him. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6633. Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss was born and raised in Corryton, Tennessee. As a high school student, Knauss joined the Junior ROTC cadet program to prepare for his eventual enlistment in the military. Immediately upon graduation, he joined the U.S. Army. Following his basic training, he was given a designation as a paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne in North Carolina. Staff Sergeant Knauss continued his life of service and devotion in two different Afghanistan deployments, the first as part of a psychological operations battalion, the second in August 2021 to support noncombatant evacuation operations, nearly 20 years after the United States' first mission began in Afghanistan. Tragically, 13 American servicemembers lost their lives in the final stages of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Staff Sergeant Knauss was one of those Americans lost in a conflict in which more than 7,000 Americans were lost over the course of the entire war. He made the ultimate sacrifice on August 26, 2021, and all Americans are indebted to him and his family. H.R. 6633 will honor the life of Staff Sergeant Knauss by naming a post office in Seminole, Florida, after him. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the Reuse Excess Property Act, which would dramatically increase transparency across the Federal Government by strengthening Federal reporting requirements about excess personal property. I commend Senators Peters and Lankford for introducing it and Chairwoman McClain and Ranking Member Katie Porter for introducing the House counterpart. The Federal Government has amassed billions of dollars in personal property, including furniture, things like chairs and desks, vehicles, office supplies, and medical equipment. Billions of dollars means a lot of tables and chairs and computers. Federal agencies are required to survey and index their inventories of personal property annually and identify items they no longer need. This accounting enables agencies to have a better understanding of excess items that could be considered for use in other Federal agencies or institutions, which is obviously the prudent thing to do. The GAO identified $3.9 billion in excess personal property between FY 2016 and FY 2020 and found an additional $28.9 billion in excess personal property items that were reported but not obtained by other agencies. These excess items could be transferred to other Federal agencies and departments, distributed to a State or local government, or even sold to the public. It shouldn't just be sitting there. The Reuse Excess Property Act would increase Federal reporting requirements to Congress and the public and provide greater transparency of acquisition, monitoring, reuse, and disposal of personal property across the whole Federal Government. It directs the GSA and Federal agencies to report annually to Congress data that it collects related to excess personal property and would also make this data publicly available to all of us. This greater transparency around Federal use of personal property may help agencies make far more efficient use of these items. We support this financially prudent and commonsense bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, we urge all of our colleagues to support this legislation and for all Federal agencies to cooperate and aggressively participate in this program. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to echo the gentleman from Kansas in expressing support for S. 3639 for the naming of the post office after Robert Hayden. My colleague stated well his career. He did publish nine different collections of poetry, including the very well-reviewed ``Heart-Shape in the Dust,'' ``Figures of Time,'' and ``A Ballad of Remembrance.'' His writings leaned on his own study of American history, exploring the complexities of the Black American experience and situating it within the broader context of the development of the American story. In 1976, Hayden made history when he became the first African American to be appointed as a consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. He passed away in 1980 in Ann Arbor. I urge all my colleagues to honor the life of Robert Hayden and his career in literature by naming a post office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, after this distinguished writer. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3851. Sojourner Truth's life and legacy have profoundly shaped our country. Born in 1797 in Ulster County, New York, with the name Isabella Baumfree, she spent her childhood enslaved. In 1826, she courageously and historically escaped the shackles of slavery when her enslaver, John Dumont, refused to honor the State of New York's law declaring the freedom of all enslaved human beings. In 1843, she adopted the name Sojourner Truth as a testament to her faith and her pilgrimage of freedom and hope. She then committed to speaking around America about the truth of conditions for enslaved people and the rights of African Americans. Sojourner Truth worked with key figures in the abolitionist movement. After meeting with the esteemed Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1850, she, herself, became a passionate advocate for women's rights. In 1851, Sojourner Truth delivered her landmark ``Ain't I a Woman?'' speech at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio. She declared that women and Black Americans deserved equal rights and dignity, and her speech was met with roars of applause and tears from activists who were united in calling for a woman's right to vote and for equal rights for all Americans. She was one of the first Black women to win a court case against a White person, successfully freeing her son from slavery and bringing him back to New York in 1828. In 1857, Sojourner moved to Harmonia, Michigan, and later to Battle Creek as a member of President Ulysses S. Grant's reelection campaign. She died in Battle Creek at 86 years old. She was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame as a pioneer of social justice and became the first Black woman to be honored with a bust in the U.S. Capitol's Emancipation Hall. I strongly urge my colleagues to honor the memory of Sojourner Truth by naming a post office in Battle Creek, Michigan, after this great American. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the CBO Data Access Act is a commonsense, good government bill. I commend Senator Gary Peters and Senator Susan Collins for introducing it on the Senate side, as well as Congressman LaTurner, the gentleman from Kansas, and Chairman Grothman and Ranking Member Mfume for sponsoring the House companion. The bill would accelerate the speed and improve the accuracy with which the CBO analyzes the budgetary consequences of proposed legislation by providing CBO with an exemption to the Privacy Act. H.R. 7032, which has passed both the House and Senate, requires CBO to treat any information it receives with the same level of confidentiality as the agency from which it is received. That is a wise safeguard that will work well in tandem with this bill. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, today I am rising to thank and congratulate Dr. Hugh Auchincloss who is retiring this month as the longtime principal deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, at NIH, and its former acting director. Among other extraordinary accomplishments, Dr. Auchincloss' leadership at NIAID put U.S. scientists and researchers in a position to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, the fastest vaccine program in world history, a stunning and successful response to this staggering centennial emergency. For decades, Dr. Auchincloss has served his patients and our Nation with a ferocious work ethic, unshakable integrity, and disarming humility and humor. It is no exaggeration but rather a plain statement of fact to say that all of humanity has benefited from Dr. Auchincloss' devotion to the public's health, and I am very proud to be his Congressman. I am wishing him, his wife, Dr. Mary McCain, and his children, Kalah, Hugh, and my always inspiring colleague, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, the very best during this next chapter of his career and his life.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of the International Day of Democracy, which was Sunday, September 15. This day is an opportunity to promote the principles of democracy and freedom against an alarming resurgence of authoritarianism and fanaticism across the globe. The enemies of freedom seek to destabilize and destroy the constitutional democracies. It is estimated that in 2024 alone, two billion people across 64 countries will have exercised their right to self-determination at the ballot box. But already, we have also witnessed sham elections, most notably in Bangladesh, Belarus, Venezuela and Russia, where the incumbent regimes suppressed political opposition and manipulated the electoral process. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of democracy and the foundation of a free society. Yet, far too many dictators, budding autocrats and monarchists of the world have undermined the will of the people, using coups d'etat and electoral autocracy to stifle democratic voices. According to Freedom House, a leading American organization devoted to the support and defense of democracy around the world, in 2023, political rights and civil liberties were diminished in 52 countries, while just 21 countries made improvements. In June, I met Dr. Amir Khasru Chowdhury, a leader in the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Dr. Chowdhury was arrested on dubious charges three months before Bangladesh's January 2024 elections. He languished in prison for six months until the Bangladeshi government, then controlled by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, conveniently released him two months after ballots had been cast. Dr. Chowdhury was not alone in his politically motivated imprisonment; his was one of nearly 8,000 arrests of BNP leaders and political dissidents. But despite the government's sinister ploy to subvert the electoral process, Dr. Chowdhury and the other jailed Bangladeshi dissidents were vindicated, and their cause ultimately prevailed. After a historic youth-led movement to end Prime Minister Hasina's despotic reign, the Bangladeshi people have earned the right to redirect their future. It's now time for the international community to support the fundamental principles of democratic governance in Bangladesh. Meantime in Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to erode the city's political independence. In July, a Hong Kong court taken over by the CCP denied a request to resume the trial of pro- democracy activist Jimmy Lai. The case prosecuting Mr. Lai for what is essentially a ``thought crime'' lays bare the CCP's authoritarian takeover of the once-free Hong Kong. I was proud to adopt Jimmy Lai as a prisoner of conscience through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project and will continue to passionately advocate for his release. Jimmy Lai is not the only prisoner of conscience detained by an autocratic regime. In July, I wrote a letter to President Biden and Secretary Blinken urging the administration to demand the release of those wrongfully imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for exercising their basic human rights. Thousands of courageous activists, journalists, religious clerics, and human rights defenders have been silenced for simply speaking out about their dreams for democracy--such as their desire to move freely, speak openly and wear whatever they choose. In response to their impassioned advocacy, the repressive Saudi Arabian regime has unjustly imprisoned critical voices, issued violent threats, and imposed severe travel bans. This draconian reign of terror must end immediately. The governments of Bahrain, Turkey, Belarus and numerous other nations are also holding prisoners of conscience hostage to suppress the voices of their fellow citizens. Our foreign policy must not overlook these human rights violations, be it governments' subversion of electoral processes, obstruction of justice, or the crushing of dissent. I invite my colleagues to use their various platforms to support prisoners of conscience everywhere to tell their stories in the pursuit of justice. Joining the Defending Freedoms Project is one excellent avenue to do so. In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that democracy and voting rights could shrink and shrivel away or grow and expand. Today, our world is embroiled in a period of democratic backsliding. In reverence to the International Day of Democracy, I'm asking each of my colleagues to join me in boldly advocating for democracy and freedom across the world.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for organizing this Special Order hour on the most important problem of our time, which is democracy. Will we have democracy, or will we lapse into some other form of government, like autocracy or theocracy or plutocracy? I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership and for leading us in that beautiful and moving moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attack on our country on 9/11. A true Republican President, the founder of the Republican Party, spoke of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That has been the beautiful, tantalizing vision of America, but we can't say that is how America began. We began as a slave republic of White, male property owners over the age of 21 years old. It has been through successive waves of popular, political, social struggle and constitutional amendment that we have opened America up and come much closer to forming a more perfect union and reaching the ideal that President Lincoln proclaimed from the battlefield of Gettysburg in 1863. Still today, Members will come to the floor, Mr. Speaker, and say: We are not a democracy. We are a republic. My colleagues think that they have struck some kind of knockout blow against the overwhelming sentiment of the American people, including President Reagan, who gave a great speech in Europe about American democracy and never once used the word ``republic,'' but constantly invoked democracy. Yet, there are Members who say: We are not a democracy. We are a republic. Well, what is a republic? A republic is just a representative democracy because 300 million people can't fit in the U.S. House of Representatives or in a school board meeting. We use republican institutions in order to have the democratic will expressed. If the Constitution is read the way I read the Constitution, the whole trajectory of American historical and constitutional development has been toward greater democracy. Look at the amendments we have had since the original Bill of Rights. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment gave us equal protection and due process. The 15th Amendment said no race discrimination in voting. The 17th Amendment shifted the mode of election of U.S. Senators from the legislatures to the people. The 19th Amendment doubled the franchise in America by giving women the right to vote and establishing their political equality in the country. The 23rd Amendment gave people in Washington, D.C., at least the right to vote for President of the United States, although not voting representation. The 24th Amendment abolished poll taxes and the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18. The whole movement of our history has been toward incorporating, encompassing, and including people who had been formerly disenfranchised, marginalized, and excluded from equal political participation. It has been a seesaw struggle throughout our history. There have always been people who have wanted to revoke other people's voting rights, undermine other people's voting rights, disenfranchise them, strip away their ability to register to vote. Tocqueville said in ``Democracy in America'' that he observed that democracy and voting rights in our country are either shrinking and shriveling away or they're growing and expanding. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Progressive Caucus for this session because we have got to get democracy back on the growth track in America. We have got to get away from all of the voter suppression and interference tactics that we have seen grow up, at least since 2013 when the Supreme Court rendered its dreadful decision in Shelby County v. Holder, essentially decapitating the Voting Rights Act, knocking out the preclearance requirement for covered jurisdictions, saying that no longer did they have to submit voting changes to the Department of Justice or to our Federal district court before they could implement those voting changes. We have since seen more than 100 voter laws passed all over the country, around half of them in the original covered jurisdictions under the Voting Rights Act. We have seen new obstacles to voter registration. We have seen massive closure of precinct voting places, mergers of different precinct voting places. I just got back from Texas where a group of students came to see me from the University of Texas to say this is going on there right now where the Governor has closed down a polling place and then relocated one in Austin on the campus of the University of Texas away from a well-traveled thoroughfare, a big, bright building to putting it in the basement somewhere else on campus. These kinds of tactics are used all over the country in order to suppress the vote. We need to be moving forward in terms of voting rights, and I am very eager to hear what my colleagues have to say about that. Mr. Speaker, I will point just a couple of things out. We are in 2024. This is the 21st century. It is time for us to be electing the President of the United States the way we elect Governors, Representatives, Senators, mayors, and everybody else. Whoever gets the most votes win. We have had five popular vote losers become President, twice in this century in 2000 and 2016, under the creaky, antiquated, and obsolete mechanisms of the electoral college, which is subject to fraud and manipulation. As we saw in this very Chamber, the electoral college can get you killed in the 21st century because it offers more opportunities for strategic bad faith actors like former President Donald Trump to try to revisit a result and reopen results in an election. We need to be moving forward to a national popular vote for election. We spend tens of millions of dollars a year all over the world teaching people about democracy and the one thing they never come back to us with when they are writing a new Constitution is the idea that, oh, you know that electoral college thing you have? We think we will import that to our country. We never hear that, right? We should be able to learn from our own experience and from the experience of democracies around the world. Another important ingredient to democracy is statehood. That is how communities that have been formerly disenfranchised and subordinated have been able to lift themselves up. We are in the Nation's Capital, which is the only Nation's Capital on planet Earth which is not represented in their own national legislature. Mr. Speaker, 713,000 taxpaying, draftable U.S. citizens are completely disenfranchised in the House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. They don't have representation. If you told the people of Paris they could not be represented in L'Assemblee nationale because they breathed the same air that other people's representatives breathed, you would have another French Revolution on your hands. When we passed it in the 117th Congress, the D.C. statehood legislation, and I was one of the floor leaders for that, I had the honor of telling the people of Washington, D.C., this: Thank you for having a bona fide real political grievance and not coming down here and beating the daylights out of our police officers the way that the MAGA mob did when Donald Trump falsely convinced them that they had won the Presidential election, which Trump had lost by more than 7 million votes, 306-232 in the electoral college. They didn't come down and storm the Chamber and try to overthrow the Constitution. They did it the right way. They had a Statehood Constitutional Convention. They are asking for admission. We should admit the people of Washington, D.C., as an equal State into the Union using our powers under Article IV of the Constitution. It is the same thing with 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico. They should be given the opportunity to become a State, as well. We have got to keep the trajectory of democracy moving forward so we don't lapse into some other form of government. This has been a tough time with challenges to the basic constitutional structure when you have Presidential candidates saying, just set the Constitution aside. We saw a violent insurrection supporting a political coup in this very Chamber. That is the alternative to moving forward with everything that we are going to be talking about tonight in terms of improving representation through ranked choice voting, in terms of campaign finance reform so we don't have money drowning out the voice of the people, filibuster reform, ethics reform at the Supreme Court, all of those things are essential and we need the momentum of a prodemocracy movement to keep us from becoming like Vladimir Putin's country or Viktor Orban's country, the close buddies of Donald Trump that he invoked in the Presidential debate last night that he conscripted as character witnesses for him in this election. We have got a very clear choice for America moving forward. I thank the Progressive Caucus for offering so much leadership. We know that it is tough, and it is a struggle. Frederick Douglas from my State said that if there is no struggle, there is no progress. The struggle may be moral, it may be physical, it may be more unphysical, but there must be struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. John Dewey said that there are no ills to democracy that cannot be solved without more democracy. Democracy is the corrective to the impediments to democracies. What we are suffering from today is the obstacles and the impediments to democracy, but we have got the means, and we have got the will in the country to move forward. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Ramirez for giving me this opportunity.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7385. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan) for any remarks she may have.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6162. Mr. Tidwell was a lifelong resident of Dothan, Alabama. For 86 years, he was committed to a life of public service. He joined the Navy during World War II and was a radio operator. Following the war, he returned to his hometown and took a job at the oil mill. Mr. Tidwell performed an essential role as a letter carrier for the Postal Service until he retired in 1985. In 2009, he moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. He passed away in 2012 at 89 years old. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to honor the life of Bruce Tidwell and his wonderful career in the Postal Service by naming the post office in Dothan, Alabama, after him, and I am pleased to offer my support for this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the American flag should be made in the USA. The All- American Flag Act is a bipartisan bill that I invite all Members to support. It would require all Federal agencies to purchase American flags that are manufactured right here in the USA, using materials grown and produced in the United States. Under current law, this requirement applies only to the DOD and VA. This bill would extend it to all Federal agencies. I commend the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Sorensen), our distinguished colleague and the author of the House bill, for his diligent and important work on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Sorensen).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Sorensen), and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the legislation would require additional reporting on certain Federal projects that are over budget by $1 billion or 5 years behind schedule. Federal agencies would be required to include this information in their annual performance and accountability reports made to Congress and the President. Congress, of course, has a duty to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being well and efficiently spent in the ways that we appropriate them. Additional oversight of projects that are vastly over budget or behind schedule makes good sense, and I support this bill. I appreciate the fact that this version of the bill takes into consideration some technical comments that were provided to us by OMB. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 7887, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 7887, the ACCESS Act, which is intended to address degree inflation, the growing trend of college graduates filling jobs that don't require college degrees. This can lead to reduced earnings for college degree holders, reduced employment opportunities for nondegree holders, and an overall drag on the economy in a time of very low unemployment, like ours, and of labor shortages. Committee Democrats are supportive of efforts to eliminate minimum education and experience requirements for jobs that don't actually require such associated skills for successful performance, expanding opportunity for the more than 62 percent of the population, age 25 and older, who do not hold a bachelor's degree. The ACCESS Act would prohibit Federal agencies from specifying minimum educational requirements for contractor personnel in solicitations, unless the solicitation also includes a written justification explaining why such requirements are actually necessary. I had been concerned that this might create a blanket requirement that could be unnecessarily burdensome for Federal agencies in the instances in which minimum education or experience requirements are commonly and reasonably understood to be necessary, but changes made to the bill after our committee markup have alleviated those concerns. There are certainly some jobs for which some minimum education or experience appears to be totally unnecessary. For example, approximately 39 percent of postings for construction managers require a college degree, as do 52 percent of web developer postings and 34 percent of distribution manager postings. This suggests that these roles are frequently performed in the economy totally successfully without a college degree and that the requirement is more about the subjective preference or traditions of the employer than the actual demands of the job. It makes sense for agency contracting officers to have to provide a written justification for choosing to require that contractors hire only college degree holders for such jobs, as this bill would require. However, there are also an array of jobs for which some minimum education or experience requirements are indeed necessary. For example, in 2022, the Federal Government spent almost $30 billion on medical services contracts and another $29 billion on engineering and technical support services contracts. We do not want our contracting officers to have to provide a written explanation every single time they put out a solicitation that requires healthcare and engineering professionals to have advanced higher education degrees, and the bill has been appropriately and gratefully refined to eliminate this unnecessary burden. I understand that the North America's Building Trades Unions have expressed concerns about just this point, but in cases where highly trained and educated Federal contractors are required to perform technical, scientific, and professional services, nothing in the bill would prevent the hiring of such individuals. I am happy to continue supporting this legislation as an important step to expand opportunity to more Americans and to welcome more talent in service to our country. I thank Chairwoman Mace and Chairman Comer for working with us to improve the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.