Jamie Raskin

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I am about to yield to my friend from New York (Ms. Meng), but I am inspired by the remarks of the gentleman from Wisconsin, especially about the word ``Republic'' which, of course, comes from res publica, the public thing. He happened upon a subject that is of a lot of interest to me because I wrote a paper about it when I was in sixth grade. The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a radical Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy--I am not sure if the gentleman is aware of that--on the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the new world. Reverend Bellamy, who was an abolitionist in Vermont, was concerned about the continuing salute of the Confederate battle flag in the southern States. He wanted to write a flag salute that would be unifying for the union, and he wrote: I pledge allegiance to my flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, with liberty and justice for all. You notice what is not in there. He did not have ``under God.'' That was added in 1954 by Congress several weeks after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In any event, I am not quite sure what the relevance is of the gentleman's invocation of the Republic or of Ben Franklin and the famous vignette about him saying: If you can keep it. Ben Franklin was, of course, a big supporter of immigration to the country, although he did display an anti-German bias in some of his writings. I will tell you a little story about Ben Franklin that might be of relevance to what the gentleman is talking about because I just did a tour in Philadelphia with the Ben Franklin people up there, and we learned this wonderful story. He made a loan to a friend of his for $100, and then he recorded in his diary that this gentleman he made the loan to for $100, Josiah, was always disappearing behind a tree or a building whenever Ben came along. He finally caught up with him, and he said: Josiah, I loaned you a hundred bucks, and I am wondering, am I going to be able to get my principal back or at least the interest? Josiah said: Well, Ben, look. The $100 is well invested somewhere else, so you don't have to worry about that. Franklin said: Well, what about the interest? Josiah said: Well, I forgot to tell you that it is against my religion to pay interest, so I can't pay you the interest. Franklin said: You mean to tell me it is against your principle to pay me the interest, and it is against your interest to pay me the principal? Josiah said: That's right. Franklin said: Well, I can see I am not going to get either. Well, here our principles and our interests converge very much. The principles are set forth in the Constitution, which is we count everybody, and everybody is part of the Census, and everybody is part of the reapportionment process. It has been like that since 1790. We don't need to start finger painting on the Constitution with this silly election year proposal. It is also in our interest because, as my colleagues have said, this is a land that is built on immigration. Except for the Native Americans who are already here and the people who were brought over as slaves, all of us are the descendants of immigrants to this country. Tom Paine, when he got to America in 1774, 2 years before the Revolution, he said: This land, if it lives up to its principles, will become an asylum to humanity--not an insane asylum, mind you--an asylum to humanity, a place of refuge for people seeking freedom from religious, political, and economic oppression. That is who we are. Every day I have in my office people from the hotel industry, people from the construction industry, and people from the restaurant industry saying: We have huge labor shortages. We need people in America. I am for a whole lot more lawful immigration to America, less unlawful immigration to America like the deal that was worked out in the Senate that was rejected by the Republicans, and a lot less demagoguery about who we are as a country because the Census and reapportionment provisions in the 14th Amendment tell it all. This is a country that is for everybody seeking opportunity and hope, willing to follow the law and follow our Constitution.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, I don't want to be in the position of lecturing my colleagues about something that they often like to say, but the Constitution is the Constitution, and nobody yet has laid a glove on the Constitution or explained how the Supreme Court erred in the unanimous Evenwel decision. None of them has been able to explain away the very plain language of the 14th Amendment, that it is all the persons of the States who are counted, not the citizens, and that has been the basis for both the Census and the reapportionment since the country began. So the rest of it just strikes me like election year political rhetoric. To the extent that we want to deal with immigration, we had a great bargain that came out of the Senate, which everybody in this body and that body seemed to be behind, until they heard from Donald Trump that no, he didn't want to see any legislative progress, he wanted to be able to demagogue the immigration issue out on the campaign trail, although he has been severely undermined by all of the exposure that went into that decision. Again, I haven't heard anyone either explain why their legislation is constitutional, nor have I heard anybody explain what is wrong with the immigration package that we have for hundreds of new Border Patrol officers, hundreds of new Border Patrol and asylum judges and a crackdown of drugs at the border. 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 the Comment Integrity and Management Act. Technological advances have expanded access to Federal agencies' online rulemaking dockets and have made it easier for the public to comment on proposed rules. That is a very good thing from the standpoint of transparency, accountability, and deliberation. At the same time, in some recent high-profile rulemakings, agencies have received an extraordinarily high volume of completely duplicative comments, which has created some challenges for agencies in processing them and managing their online rulemaking dockets. I am sure Members are familiar with receiving a standardized message hundreds or even thousands of times from constituents or people across the country. This bill is designed to help agencies manage such mass comments and computer-generated comments submitted in response to proposed rules. It is not intended in any way to discourage mass comments, which are indeed a vital part of the regulatory process. The bill would simply allow agencies to post a representative sample of mass comments. If they choose to do that, they would also be required to post the number--hold that thought, if you would, Mr. Speaker. I was describing the next bill. Forgive me. We got our papers confused here. Keep that in mind. I like that one, too. The Information Quality Assurance Act is bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Porter and McClain. I commend them for their work on it. It would require the Director of OMB to update guidance issued under the Information Quality Act. That guidance is more than 20 years old, and much work has been done by Congress and the executive branch on these issues in the interim. The Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, the DATA Act, and the OPEN Government Act are just a few new laws requiring updated guidance. Updated guidance would enable agencies to better ensure the quality of information and evidence used in promulgating regulations. The new guidance would ensure that the best reasonably available scientific, demographic, economic, financial, and statistical information is relied on during the regulatory process. The bill also continues the practices of the Information Quality Act that allow for public input on the information submitted and mechanisms for OMB to report any complaints to Congress. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority for working closely with us and the administration in crafting this bill. The result is strong, and I fully support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing. Despite the fact that I didn't know we were on this bill originally, we are in very strong and unanimous support on our side of the aisle for this, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time, and I am prepared to close. Mr. Speaker, we had such a nice bipartisan spirit going. I almost want to bite my tongue, but I do have to respond to the last speaker who took a gratuitous shot at President Biden and the Biden administration, which has moved very quickly to get behind this legislation and to address this gap in the law. We do need to always establish the chain of command, and we need to know, as the gentleman from Wisconsin was saying, where is the Commander in Chief? Where is the leader? That was the question everybody was asking on January 6 when this institution, this body, came under brutal, merciless attack by a mob incited by the former President. Nearly 150 of our police officers were wounded, brutalized, and hospitalized in that attack, and everybody was asking this very question the gentleman from Wisconsin was asking, which is: Where is the Commander in Chief? Where is the leader? Where is the National Guard? I am sorry to have to make that refutation of the last interjection by the gentleman from Wisconsin. Again, I thank Mr. LaTurner for the bipartisan spirit with which he brings this legislation forward, and I strongly support it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Davis).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. LaTurner for his excellent introduction. I rise also in support of H.R. 6927, which would amend the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 to require any agency head who is a member of the National Security Council to notify the executive office of the President, GAO, and congressional leadership within 24 hours in the event of medical incapacity. This bill was brought forth after the hospitalization several months ago of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to treat complications from cancer surgery. Secretary Austin has taken responsibility for the lack of notification to the President during his hospitalization and has assured the American people that ``there were no gaps in authorities and no risks to the Department's command and control'' during his absence. A congressional hearing on the topic in February confirmed as much, and a classified review found no ``ill intent'' by the Secretary's staff. I commend the Biden administration for the swift action it took to conduct a thorough review of current protocols and to ensure that the Office of the President receives all proper notifications. This bill aligns with the Biden administration's efforts in the field. Consistent with the spirit of transparency embodied in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which requires congressional leadership to be notified if the President is unable to discharge the duties of his or her office, I agree that Congress should be notified if an agency head who is a member of the NSC is similarly incapacitated. I support this legislation, I congratulate Secretary Austin on his recovery, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his eloquent remarks, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of the Comment Integrity and Management Act again, as I was saying. I was very eager to support my friend Mr. Higgins' legislation here. The basic issue is that it has gotten easier for people to post comments online in a rulemaking. That is a really good thing because it means that the process of implementing regulations is more accessible, more transparent, more open, and more participatory, but a number of the agencies have found, I think, what Members of Congress have found. Sometimes you get the same paragraph 100 times, 1,000 times, or 3,000 times. This bill would simply allow agencies to post a representative sample of mass comments like this. If they choose to do that, they still are required to post the number of such comments received so that the volume of public sentiment is still fairly and effectively registered. The bill would also require agencies, within 1 year, to establish policies for handling computer-generated comments, which is a growing concern to manage with the recent remarkable advances in artificial intelligence. I am eager to hear from Mr. Higgins because I view his legislation as one that supports the administrative rulemaking process, which is so much under attack these days. There are people who say that we shouldn't have rules and regulations. Of course, the way our system works is that, in Congress, we pass laws like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, but we don't get into all the fine details. That is left to the executive branch to do a rulemaking. That, too, is an open process where people can register their concerns and send comments in. We want to make sure that that process continues to operate effectively and is not overwhelmed and overburdened by AI and computer- duplicated comments. So I thank Mr. Higgins, and I thank Chairman Comer and his staff for working with our side to address some of the concerns we had with the original language. I understand the administration and some outside groups have also registered some concerns about the legislation that have been addressed. We have worked with them and our majority counterparts to incorporate their feedback into this revised version of the bill. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the bill at this time, and 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 strong support of this legislation introduced by Mr. Connolly. Between 2021 and 2023, truck drivers contracted by the Postal Service were involved in at least 68 different traffic accidents, and 79 people were killed in them. On February 27, 2024, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that the Postal Service failed to record all mail transport accidents in a central database, including accidents involving truck driver contractors. As a result, the Postal Service failed to have a complete understanding of traffic accidents and the comprehensive safety performance of its mail transport drivers. With this new information from the inspector general, it is clear that the level of fatalities across this period could even have been higher. The Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act, the excellent bill brought forward by Mr. Connolly, would resolve these serious oversight deficiencies by increasing transparency, comprehension, and understanding of the full scale of mail transport accidents and ultimately improve safety for postal transport drivers and for the public. The bill would require all Postal Service mail transport drivers, including 4,600 postal trucking contractors, to adhere to a range of reporting, tracking, and accountability measures. Mr. Speaker, I thank Subcommittee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly from Virginia for his great leadership in strengthening Postal Service mail transport safety, and I am pleased to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for the purposes of a colloquy. Mr. Connolly, is it the case that rules that would clearly apply to USPS trucks carrying postal mail have not been applied to the contractors?

Mr. RASKIN. In other words, the postal truck drivers who are working for the Postal Service have to have all the proper licensure and all the proper certification and training. Presumably the brakes are checked on their trucks, but because of the contracting out, they somehow have been able to escape all the rules we have with respect to road safety?

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, this is excellent bipartisan legislation with Congress acting just as it should to address a serious public policy problem, and let's hope that we pass this quickly, the President signs it quickly, and we don't lose any more Americans or Postal Service workers on the road. Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Well, again, I commend the gentleman for bringing this to public attention. That is an extraordinary number of people to lose their lives on the road to private contractors, who seem to have completely escaped the grasp of the rules that have been adopted under the Postal Service. Additionally, we know that the Postal Service traditionally has taken far more serious interest in public safety and public welfare.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, Mr. Mfume, for yielding me time. I am grateful to him for his extraordinary leadership through this catastrophe and for leading us through this Special Order hour this afternoon. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about the devastating collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in our beloved home State of Maryland. In times of catastrophe across the country, from earthquakes in California to hurricanes in Florida to flooding in Louisiana to wildfires in the West to terrorism in New York or Washington, D.C., we come together as a country to help our communities recover and rebuild, and we cannot allow any of the political divisions in America today to interfere with this process of coming together to help a community struck by catastrophe in this way. Disasters befall all of our States and all of our districts, and they are not partisan in character. We have to stick together to support all of our communities, and that is what we are going to do in Maryland, and we are going to do as a Nation to rebuild the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge. I thank Governor Moore's administration, the Coast Guard, Secretary Buttigieg, the Army Corps of Engineers, first responders, the Maryland Transportation Authority, and everyone who is working overtime to address this disaster. The Unified Command convened by the Coast Guard has been hard at work in removing the bridge debris from the river and restoring access to the port, salvage and recovery operations are ongoing in a very difficult and complicated process. The Dali vessel, weighing 213 million pounds, is the same size as the Eiffel Tower with pieces of bridge weighing as much as 4,000 tons laying on top of it. The water is frigid and murky, complicating the ongoing and heroic rescue efforts that began immediately. I thank President Biden and his administration for their exemplary leadership in the face of this catastrophe and its characteristic commitment to help the local community rebuild. The President has directed his administration to move heaven and Earth to rebuild the bridge and to recover the port as rapidly as possible, and within hours of receiving Maryland's request, the DOT and FHA swiftly approved $60 million in initial aid. Mr. Speaker, I also acknowledge the devastating loss of the six construction crew workers who were killed in this nightmare when they were working what seemed like a routine nighttime shift fixing potholes. Our thoughts continue to go out to their families and all of their loved ones. We have a long road ahead of us to rebuild the bridge in Maryland, and our bipartisan Congressional delegation stands ready to do everything which needs to be done to restore full access to the port and rebuild the bridge. Mr. Speaker, I again thank Mr. Mfume for his extraordinary leadership and thank all of our colleagues who have expressed their support and their sympathy for the people of Maryland dealing with this crisis. Thank you for standing with us.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, as our nation confronts political chaos, the civilizational emergency of climate change, and existential threats to our democracy, I have found myself unable to sleep. This is an experience that it turns out I share with millions of Americans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that more than one third of all adults in the United States sleep fewer than the clinically recommended seven hours per night. As we mark Sleep Awareness Week, recognized this year by the National Sleep Foundation between March 10-16, we must elevate the importance of sleep health to our mental and physical health and confront the sleep disparities that closely correspond to racial and socioeconomic inequalities. Sleep quality, it turns out, has been causally linked to mental health. Researchers from Keele University and the University of Sheffield found that greater improvements in sleep quality led to greater improvements in mental health. Though we have progressed by leaps and bounds in our society's discourse on mental health, we have yet to sufficiently emphasize the links between getting enough sleep and feeling mentally well. The call to ``get more sleep'' is a tall order for many Americans, especially in light of the social disparities that already affect sleep health for so many. African Americans are 65 percent more likely and Hispanic Americans are 59 percent more likely to report poor sleep quality than white Americans, even though all groups report a similar ease in falling asleep. Americans who earn enough to make ends meet are much more likely to report a good night's sleep than people who are struggling to get by and living paycheck to paycheck. Closing these divides and achieving sleep equity must be one of our national public health priorities. Our nationwide quest to get a good night's sleep is inextricable from our work for a more democratic society, where we want everyone to be fully functional and participatory. We need well-rested citizens who can participate and govern themselves, their families, and their communities. Our struggle to create the conditions for a peaceful night's sleep is as much a societal imperative as an individual question. During this National Sleep Awareness Week, we must commit to the fundamental importance of a good night's rest for all Americans.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the Government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, a courageous pro-democracy activist, brilliant economist, and beloved husband and father, who has been unjustly detained for over seven months. On July 23, 2023, Dr. Ibadoghlu and his wife, Irada Bayramova, were forced out of their car near Baku, Azerbaijan, seized by masked individuals, detained, and beaten. Dr. Ibadoghlu had returned to Azerbaijan earlier in July from a visiting fellowship at the London School of Economics to care for his ailing mother. Though Ms. Bayramova was released hours later, Dr. Ibadoghlu was not released. Ms. Bayramova and her family have been denied communication with her husband and she continues to expenence Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from this harrowing ordeal. The ``charges'' that President Ilham Aliyev's government has used to justify Dr. Ibadoghlu's detention and imprisonment without trial--that he organized the production of counterfeit money to support a political group and, as an avowed secularist, disseminates material that supports religious extremism-- are so dubious and baseless that they would qualify as satire in another context. Dr. Ibadoghlu's true ``crime'' against the Aliyev regime is his devotion to the causes of democracy, freedom and anti-corruption in Azerbaijan. He is detained today because he bravely chose to return to Azerbaijan to care for his mother despite fleeing the country in 2017 to teach abroad after his civic activism prompted threats of retaliation. As an internationally acclaimed economist, he has also served as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Rutgers University. He was a 2015 Fulbright Scholar, a 2015 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, a 2018 Prague Civil Society Center Fellow, and a recipient of the 2018 Civil Society Scholar Award by the Open Society Fund. During Dr. Ibadoghlu's seven-month detention, he has been subjected to crowded and inhumane conditions common to Azerbaijan's jails and denied sustained access to critical medication. Dr. Ibadoghlu's family is increasingly concerned that he has been denied the medication and medical treatment that he desperately needs to treat his chronic health conditions. He has additionally been repeatedly denied access to his legal counsel and has not received a fair trial while in custody. I join my fellow Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Baku, U.S. academic institutions and organizations, the European Parliament, and others in the international community to express my deep concerns about Dr. Ibadoghlu's health and demand his immediate release. I commend Emin Bayramli, one of Dr. Ibadoghlu's sons who lives in my district, and his entire family for their steadfastness in seeking their father's freedom from his unjust imprisonment. I also commend my colleague Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey for adopting Dr. Ibadoghlu through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project. Dr. Ibadoghlu is one of far too many Azerbaijanis that the Aliyev regime has unjustly detained to suppress freedom and civil rights. The Government of Azerbaijan's poor record of respecting human rights, civil rights and civil liberties is a moral stain that affects free people everywhere. Whether they live in Washington, D.C. or Baku, Hong Kong or Beijing, Moscow or Kyiv, everyone should have the right to determine their own destiny. Dr. Ibadoghlu's unjust imprisonment must end immediately.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Utah for yielding. I appreciate it. It is just on a small bit of housekeeping business. I will be removing my name as cosponsor on H. Res. 902. My name was added to this as a cosponsor without my knowledge, without my consent. I knew nothing about it, and that was at 6:18:38 yesterday and 1 second before another Member was also falsely added as a cosponsor to this legislation. So I am going to work with the Clerk's office and the majority and the minority leader to just figure out how this is happening. Apparently, it has happened to some other people. I hope this can be removed immediately and that we can prevent this from happening to anyone else. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for yielding.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate 63 years of the United States Peace Corps' work in promoting world peace and friendship among nations. President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps as the United States' first global volunteer initiative on March 1, 1961. Since then, the Peace Corps has sent more than 241,000 Volunteers to serve communities in 143 countries. These committed Americans have formed enduring bonds of friendship across cultures and championed the best of our country's values abroad. The founding Director of the Peace Corps, Sargent R. Shriver, observed that ``Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.'' Peace Corps Volunteers have performed immensely valuable and meaningful work to advance the vision of person-to-person peace-building by living and working in communities abroad. Over the past 63 years, Volunteers have learned the languages of their host countries to advance development work in public health, education, agriculture, youth organizing and community economics. Today, the Peace Corps' mission is in the capable hands of my constituent, Director Carol Spahn, who is herself a former Volunteer. This week, I am honored to celebrate her work as my Eighth District Local Hero to showcase the importance of her leadership of one of our country's most important diplomatic and service programs. I am proud of the generations of compassionate and courageous Volunteers who have committed themselves to two or more years of service in a land previously unknown to them. Among their ranks are many of my constituents from Maryland's beautiful Eighth Congressional District. This year, my district has sent more Peace Corps Volunteers to serve abroad than any other congressional district in the country. It is my surpassing honor to represent the many individuals who are choosing to live, serve and learn in over 20 countries as Volunteers. When they return to the United States, Peace Corps Volunteers bring their new vision home. After immersing themselves in the culture of their host communities, Volunteers continue to enrich our communities with the friendships they built during their time abroad. They bring not only their memories but new skills in languages, cross-cultural understanding and subject matter expertise. Many Volunteers continue to serve our country through other forms of public service. As we honor the 63rd anniversary of the Peace Corps, I am grateful to the Volunteers and to the dedicated civil servants, led by Director Spahn, who make their work possible.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 56. personal explanation

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, we are here because the madcap wild goose chase to impeach Joe Biden has produced no wild geese. Even FOX News is lampooning the fact that their own expert witnesses repeatedly say that President Biden did nothing wrong and that there are no grounds for impeachment. More than a dozen GOP Members in Biden majority districts don't want to go anywhere near that fantasy production. So, the Trump-Putin-MAGA faction, headed up by the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene), has been given this worthless trinket of a consolation prize--the opportunity to bring this slapstick impeachment drive against a Cabinet member of unimpeachable integrity who has obviously committed no treason, no bribery, no high crimes, no misdemeanors, nothing indictable or even ``in-dict-able,'' if you prefer. What makes this farce a tragedy is that Secretary Mayorkas and the U.S. Senate have been working for months to achieve precisely the immigration and border compromise the GOP has been demanding. Miraculously, they got to a bipartisan immigration agreement for billions of dollars for more Border Patrol officers, immigration judges, and fentanyl detection machines--a far tougher border. It was good enough for Senator Mitch McConnell and dozens of GOP Senators, and it was good enough for The Wall Street Journal, but the House MAGAs would not take ``yes'' for an answer. Why? Because Donald Trump doesn't want a border solution. He wants a border problem. Nothing else to run on. Vladimir Putin certainly doesn't want $60 billion going to the heroic people of Ukraine defying his filthy imperialist invasion. All over the world, democracy and freedom are under siege today and all our colleagues can think to do is to sell out our democratic allies and sell out the cause of human rights, and then impeach a Cabinet Secretary working diligently to solve the immigration problem that they claim to care about.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. I would just say that Lance Corporal Espinoza, Lance Corporal Rodriguez, and Sergeant Arizola admirably served our country, and we thank them and their families for their extraordinary service. Madam Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 2754, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

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