Chris Smith

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend, Dan Evans, for introducing this resolution condemning the antisemitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado in which the attacker threw a Molotov cocktail while shouting an anti-Israel slogan. This terror attack underlines the importance of ramping up the vetting of everyone who applies to enter the United States, and of vigorously, quickly, and responsibly removing from the U.S. people who violate the terms of their visas. I've chaired seventeen congressional hearings on antisemitism--my first one was in 1997--so I have seen the sickening rise of left-wing antisemitism in the United States and Europe. At a Congressional hearing I chaired in 2002, Dr. Shimon Samuels of the Wiesenthal Center in Paris testified and said, ``The Holocaust for 30 years after the war acted as a protective Teflon against blatant anti-Semitic expression (especially in Europe). That Teflon has eroded, and what was considered distasteful and politically incorrect is becoming simply an opinion. But,'' he warned ominously, ``cocktail chatter at fine English dinners can end as Molotov cocktails against synagogues.'' He was sadly right--we saw in the following years how antisemitism spread through the political elites of progressive Europe, and was followed by dramatic and terrifying increases in antisemitism throughout European societies--and then the increase in murderous attacks. Now we see something like what Dr. Samuels talked about is happening in our country--the antisemitism that has crept into progressive America opened the door to more aggressive forms of antisemitism at American universities. And the antisemitic riots at universities, excused or condoned by America's educational elite, has empowered a murderous breed antisemitic extremists that perpetrated the recent wave of attacks. Our response has to challenge this antisemitism at every stage--as elected officials, we have a responsibility to denounce antisemitism whenever it rears its ugly head, whenever it tries to marginalize or humiliate or exclude a Jewish person due to his or her faith. We have to fight it at the university level, at the administration is gearing, up to do, by preventing public universities from being turned into sanctuaries for antisemitic riots and threats. And we have to fight it at the law enforcement and immigration level, by providing community security and rigorously vetting people coming in to our country.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of H. Res. 481, authored by my good friend Mr. Van Drew. This resolution condemns the shocking and horrifying spike in antisemitic attacks on U.S. soil, including the recent murderous attacks in Boulder, Colorado, at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and the attack on Gov. Shapiro in Pennsylvania. It rightfully points out that these attacks are ideologically motivated--that is politically motivated. What a sad thing to have to say--in our country, a growing number of people are embracing a political ideology that leads them to murder Jews. All of the recent murder attacks have been carried out by some who identified closely with antisemitic hatred of Israel, organized around the rhetoric of Palestinian terrorism. And in each case the attackers chose not to attack Israel at all-- they decided to murder Americans who happen to be Jewish. In their twisted minds, any Jewish person substitutes for Israel as a target for their sick hate. Mr. Speaker, I believe the fight against this ideology, which has repeatedly in recent weeks proven to be an incitement to terroristic murder, needs to be a top priority in the U.S. Government. In the past two months I met with Harmeet Dhillon, the new Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, who will be walking point on this issue within the Department of Justice. I also met with Yehuda Kaploun, President Trump's nominee to the Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism--he will lead this fight internationally, within the State Department. These are both extraordinarily capable and energetic people--and determined. I have no doubt they will do excellent work--they understand, they can name, and will fight the poisonous ideology that is motivating murder in America today.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, one of my constituents, Ms. Rebekah Fischoff, graduates today from Rutgers University at Camden. As a student at Rutgers-Camden and before that at Brookdale Community College in my district, Ms. Fischoff has been an outstanding advocate for higher education reforms, particularly with regard to investment in student aid and greater professional development opportunities for students. I first met Ms. Fischoff when she came to my office to discuss legislation regarding higher education, and I was struck by her poise and professionalism, as well as her personal story. I'd like to congratulate Ms. Fischoff on an outstanding academic career and to wish her the best in all her future endeavors. It is my pleasure to include in the Record, her personal account of her work and advocacy, from her time as an undergraduate student: My name is Rebekah Fischoff, and I am currently a senior at Rutgers University graduating from Rutgers-Camden on May 21st, 2025, with a degree in Business Administration. I simultaneously work at Two River Wealth Management Group at Ameriprise Financial as a Client Service Manager three days a week, while studying to become a financial advisor. I was invited to and was inducted into the Rutgers-Camden Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society, (an honor by invitation afforded to the top 10% of business students). In addition, this spring as was the case last year, I was again selected to join the Rutgers Advocacy Corps, to lobby and advocate on Capitol Hill for increased investments in federal financial aid. I previously served as the Graduate Trustee on Brookdale Community College's Board of Trustees. My path that led me to Brookdale was fortuitous but was far from planned. My father's health downturn and subsequent long-term rehabilitation, coupled with his income loss, altered my original plans to attend either the College of William & Mary or the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, forcing me to change plans. I was fortunate to qualify for the New Jersey STARS Program, a program that allows academically qualified students to attend tuition-free for up to five semesters. It wasn't long until a fortuitous introduction led me to join the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK) and the Honors Program. Soon after I was appointed Vice President of Scholarship for PTK, we were challenged by Brookdale President Dr. David M. Stout to help develop a Peer Mentoring Program for incoming students. As a result of our efforts, I earned a Distinguished Chapter Officer designation at the regional and International PTK Conventions. Feeling the obligation to repay Brookdale for the successes it afforded me, I saw that opportunity presented if I were able to win the election for the Graduate Trustee position. With the good fortune of being supported by those who believed in me, I won the election and by taking Rutgers classes here at the Brookdale campus, I found a way to stay engaged in the school that I love and to repay in a small way, my gratitude. After I took office as a Graduate Trustee, I actively engaged with Brookdale's student body and advocated and championed various interests. This included promoting awareness of the transferability process and requirements, enhancing the expansion and marketing of our Honors Program, the ongoing growth and development of the peer mentoring program, improving financial literacy resources for all students, ensuring student satisfaction with the advising department, and emphasizing the importance of soft skills and interpersonal abilities. With the help of President Dr. David M. Stout, we revived the Graduate Trustee Advisory Council on campus. This initiative will play a pivotal role in enhancing student involvement and engagement in the college's decision- making processes. The purpose of this council is to bring together a diverse cohort--dedicated and committed--fostering multiple perspectives of the student body. By amplifying student voices, this initiative ensures their concerns are heard but also prepares future leaders, providing them with invaluable experiential learning opportunities. Serving on this council could serve as a catalyst for inspiring students to pursue the Graduate Trustee position themselves, ensuring a succession of well-prepared and confident representatives on the Board. This program will enhance the effectiveness of serving as Graduate Trustee by adequately hearing the voice of the student body while also affording members the opportunity to engage in the process. The Board of Trustees has been very supportive of this program, and it is set to become a permanent fixture of the college, ensuring the serving Graduate Trustee is better equipped to bring the voice of the students to the table. Among the various initiatives that I advocated for during my term, the importance of the transferability of credits process was especially important to me. Community colleges and four-year institutions need to be better aligned to ensure a streamlined process of the transferability of credits. Many students go to community college for affordability, proximity, or the desire to explore programs and interests, but students need transparency early on about whether these credits will transfer. Students may take courses at the community college but later find out that those courses won't transfer to the four-year institution, wasting students' time, money, energy--and if the students are on financial aid, they're also wasting federal funding. Students are essentially using the federal funding twice if they need to retake a course because the credits would not transfer. One bill that had been introduced last Congress, H.R. 2957, ``Utilize Accountability and Transparency Policies that Reflect Needs of Community Colleges could help this issue because this bill would hold the four-year institutions accountable for how many credits will transfer and how much won't. There are limited resources online regarding the transferability of credits, highlighting the significance of this bill being enacted. This lack of transparency affects many areas including student satisfaction, how long they'll stay in school, how much federal aid they'll use, the cost of college, and when they'll graduate. Students are hard-pressed for time and needing and using this federal funding twice is a waste. Similar legislation will encourage and influence these four-year institutions to accept more credits and transferability pathways because they will be held accountable.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, we must act now, and we must act decisively. The lives of so many lie in the balance.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his support and for yielding this time. Mr. Speaker, every year under Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party, tens of thousands of young women and men, average age 28, are murdered in cold blood to steal their internal organs for profit or to be transplanted into Communist Party cadres, leaders and members alike. These crimes against humanity are unimaginably cruel and painful. Between two and six internal organs per victim are extracted. It is murder masquerading as medicine. Ethnic groups targeted include Uyghurs, who suffer from Xi Jinping's ongoing genocide, and the Falun Gong, whose peaceful meditation and exercise practices and exceptional good health make their organs highly desirable. The Chinese Communist Party has declared the Falun Gong practitioners to be an evil cult fit for butchering. Mr. Speaker, over the years I have chaired several hearings on this barbaric abuse, and 2 years ago, on March 27, the House passed my bill, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, 413-2. Like many other House-passed bills, however, it died in the Senate. If approved today, I respectfully appeal to the Senate to pass it this time. Special thanks to Majority Leader Scalise, Chairman Mast, and Ranking Member Meeks for ensuring reconsideration in this new Congress, and special thanks to Bill Keating for cosponsoring. Mr. Speaker, I have chaired several hearings over the years on forced organ harvesting beginning over one-quarter of a century ago. In June of 1998, 27 years ago, I chaired my first hearing on forced organ harvesting in China. A Chinese security officer testified that he and other security agents were executing patients with the doctors right there and the ambulances right there ready to put them in the back to take their organs after the bullets were fired. At one hearing in September of 2015, Ethan Gutmann, a true expert and author of the book ``The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem,'' has testified more than half a dozen times in our hearings. Mr. Gutmann has pointed out that in 1994, the first live organ harvest of death-row prisoners was performed on the execution grounds of Xinjiang in northwest China. He points out that over the years it just kept building and growing, and then by the year 2005 the apparatus was in place in order to systematically slaughter all of these wonderful people in order to take their organs. Ethan Gutmann today says that the prisoners' organs in Xinjiang are being harvested at a rate that translates annually, every year, into 25,000 to 50,000 victims. That is 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghurs, along with Kazakhs and other central Asians. He also points out that if we use the lower number, we are talking about 175,000 murdered victims, all young people, for their organs in a very, very short period of time. The Falun Dafa Information Center, which does a lot of good work for the Falun Gong, points out too that it is very hard to get precise information. It is a dictatorship and a closed society. They said the number had even jumped to 20,000 victims by 2018. At another hearing about forced organ harvesting in China, we heard expert testimony from Sir Geoffrey Nice, who conducted the world's first global independent legal analysis of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China. Sir Geoffrey Nice said that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale. He said the Falun Gong and the Uyghurs in the PRC each qualify as a group for purposes of the crime of genocide. Robert Destro, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, testified as well at that hearing: ``The size and scope of the organ harvesting and organ trafficking `market' is staggering.'' Mr. Speaker, we also know that there are hospitals dedicated just to dealing with and helping to assist Chinese Communist Party leaders. One of them is the Army Hospital 301 in Beijing. Where do they get these victims? From the very groups of people who they hate so much: the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong, and some others. We have introduced again this year the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act to amend the Foreign Assistance Act to require the imposition of serious sanctions on any person the President determines funds, sponsors, or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking for purposes of the removal of organs. If enacted into law, it requires very comprehensive reporting on this, which has not happened and needs to happen. What does all this mean, really? It means civil penalties of up to $250,000 and criminal penalties, including a fine of up to $1 million and imprisonment for not more than 20 years or both. Mr. Speaker, we are serious about sanctioning this egregious human rights abuse. Sanctions also include blocking and prohibiting all transactions in property and interests in property and making such persons ineligible to come into this country if they are a foreigner and ineligible for a visa. State-sponsored forced organ harvesting is big business for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, and we will not and cannot rest until we stop it. Mr. Speaker, I thank the organizations to my left, a group of 9 organizations--there are now 10; another has joined--that support and called for passage of this bill. These are great human rights organizations, and I include in the Record a May 4, 2025, letter from them. May 4, 2025. Re Vote in favor of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025. Dear Representative: We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, ask you to vote in favor of HR 1503, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, sponsored in the House by Rep. Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Keating (D-MA). Forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking are interlinked crimes where organs are taken from victims through coercion or without informed consent and sold illegally. This means that patients undergoing organ transplants abroad are at-risk of receiving trafficked organs. In many countries, impoverished people are targeted and coerced to sell an organ from which the traffickers make a significant profit. The `donor' is left without medical care and with significant health risks. In China the situation is vastly different. For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically harvested the organs of prisoners of conscience, primarily Falun Gong practitioners, and there is mounting evidence of Muslim Uyghurs being targeted as well. Since 2015, China's organ transplantation system has claimed to only source organs from voluntary donors, but evidence demonstrates that this data has been falsified. A close examination shows that Chinese hospitals have performed at least several times more transplants than even the largest estimates of death row prisoners can account for. In addition, China still does not abide by global standards of transparency in regards to organ sources, donor numbers and organ transplant operations performed, and a previous 1984 law allowing for sourcing of organs from prisoners without their consent or consent of their families if bodies are unclaimed, has not been repealed. The China Tribunal, an independent, international people's tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, lead prosecutor of Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has concluded ``unanimously, and sure beyond reasonable doubt--that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims.'' The China Tribunal's judgment presents the first-ever independent legal analysis of all available evidence regarding forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China. Multiple lines of evidence reviewed by the China Tribunal over 12 months included undercover phone calls to Chinese surgeons and officials who admitted that Falun Gong practitioners' organs are available on demand. Other undercover calls atso provided evidence that former Chinese President Jiang Zemin issued the order to harvest organs from Falun Gong practitioners. Based on the overall collective body of evidence reviewed, the China Tribunal concluded that state sanctioned forced organ harvesting in China amounts to Crimes Against Humanity. There is also mounting evidence that the Uyghurs are now also a target for the CCP's forced organ harvesting campaign. For years, China has been engaged in a systematic campaign of persecution and oppression against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and other Muslim ethnic groups from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Up to 2 million of Xinjiang's Muslims are imprisoned in ``reeducation'' camps, subjected to forced labor, and recent reporting has shown that the Chinese Communist Party is also subjecting them to forced sterilization. The CCP's persecution of the Uyghurs has grown so severe that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has recently announced that ``there are reasonable grounds to believe that China is responsible for crimes against humanity.'' According to the report: ``Organ Procurement and Extrajudicial Execution in China: A Review of the Evidence,'' published by Matthew Robertson, China Studies Research Fellow with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, former Uyghur detainees ``now in exile have reported blood tests and physical examinations consistent with those necessary to establish organ health.'' The parallel between the forced organ examinations on Uyghurs, and those forced on Falun Gong practitioners, is deeply disturbing. China has conducted a ``Physicals for All'' program in Xinjiang. For numerous years, this program has collected DNA samples and other data from Uyghurs, facilitating Chinese surveillance and making it easier to identify targets for organ harvesting in Xinjiang. In June 2021, 12 United Nations Special Procedures mandate holders raised the issue of forced organ harvesting with the Chinese Government, in response to credible information that Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians are killed for their organs in China. In the correspondence, UN human rights experts called on China to ``promptly respond to the allegations of `organ harvesting' and to allow independent monitoring by international human rights mechanisms.'' To fight the global organ trafficking trade and to specifically address the CCP's practice of forced organ harvesting, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 expands the U.S. government's powers to combat organ harvesting, imposes harsher penalties for purchasing organs, prohibits the export of organ transplant surgery devices to entities responsible for human organ trafficking, imposes sanctions on individuals and government officials in countries who support human organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting, and introduces mandatory reporting on human organ trafficking in foreign countries and on U.S. institutions which train organ transplant surgeons. We urge you to vote in favor of HR 1503--the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025. Your support and passage of this legislation will ensure that the United States is combating and not complicit in the heinous practice of forced organ harvesting. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this legislation. Respectfully, Susie Hughes, Executive Director, International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China. Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President, Lantos Foundation. Kristina Olney, Executive Director, The Remembrance Society. Dr. Ellen Kennedy, Executive Director, World Without Genocide. Dr. Eric Patterson, President, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Bob Fu, Founding President, China Aid. Levi Browde, Executive Director, Falun Dafa Information Centre. Turghunjan Alawudun, President, World Uyghur Congress. Louisa Greve, Director of Global Advocacy, Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at noon on Monday next for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I joined Kristan Hawkins, Marjorie Dannenfelser from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and many distinguished pro-life leaders to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood--Child Abuse, Incorporated--an organization that has slaughtered over ten million babies in their clinics and kills more than a thousand defenseless unborn babies each and every day. For far too long, politicians and much of the media have ignored, trivialized, enabled, and whitewashed the business of Planned Parenthood--decapitating and dismembering helpless babies with sharp knives or poisoning babies with pills that literally starve them to death and often result in their bodies being flushed down a toilet. Child decapitation, dismemberment and starvation are not health care. It is violence--and at a minimum, taxpayers should not be forced to pay for this hideous form of child abuse. Federal taxpayers provide Planned Parenthood with nearly $600 million dollars every year. That must end. Reconciliation legislation offers an important opportunity to stop funding abortion purveyors like Planned Parenthood. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. Let's not forget that undercover videos have exposed in numbing candor several high-level Planned Parenthood leaders gleefully talking about procuring children's internal organs, all while altering gruesome dismemberment procedures to preserve intact livers, hearts, and lungs from freshly killed babies. In February, the New York Times published an in-depth article detailing horrible clinic conditions, including sewage that seeped into a recovery room for two days, and the shocking treatment women have received, leading to patient complaints and a malpractice suit. Our Nation should invest in real health care options for women and their families. Federally Qualified Health Centers, for example, provide comprehensive services, including prenatal care, STI testing and treatment. A 2022 report found ``14 community-based health clinics and pregnancy centers for every one Planned Parenthood facility in the United States, including more locations in rural and underserved communities.'' And with love and compassion, the pro-life movement will continue to tangibly assist women and girls--especially through the extraordinary work of pregnancy care centers. There are more than 2,700 pregnancy care centers throughout the United States--each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and quality care for both mothers and their precious children. According to a January 2025 poll, 83 percent of Americans support these centers, including 80 percent of the individuals who identify as `pro-choice.' Mr Speaker, I'd like to include in the Record one of the many outstanding statements from the press conference, offered by Toni McFadden: ``Good afternoon! My name is Toni McFadden, and I'm here to share my personal story--one that reveals exactly why Planned Parenthood must be fully defunded. I was a senior in high school when I walked through the doors of Planned Parenthood's death facility. They had given me a false hope that if I aborted my baby, my parents would never have to find out, my already unstable relationship would have a fighting chance, and my life would go back to normal. After receiving an ultrasound and asking the nurse multiple times if I could see the screen that was strategically faced against the wall, she reluctantly showed me but quickly stated that my 7-week-old baby and I quote, ``was nothing, just the size of a pea.'' It would have been too honest of her to tell me that my baby already had a beating heart or that, at the moment of conception, their DNA was unique to them and would never ever be created again. Instead of the truth I was given the poisonous chemical Abortion pills. The first set was taken with the abortionist and the second set was given to me to take in the comfort of my home. I was told it would only be like a heavy period. I had complications like many women who think this is a simple thing to do. My pills didn't work correctly and when I called the abortion facility they simply said: ``This is why we gave you 2 sets of the pills. Just take the second set and you will be fine.'' I wasn't fine. It would be the last I would hear from them. I was so uneducated and had the goal of no one finding out. I ended up experiencing severe hemorrhaging that began while I was in school about a month later. I remember when I got home, keeping this secret from my parents. I went to the bathroom to my bed for hours just bleeding. If I could go back, knowing what I know now-- I would give my baby life without hesitation. Planned Parenthood didn't care about me. They didn't care about my baby. And they don't care about women, especially minority women. They exploit women for their own financial gain. This is why they must be defunded. Abortion doesn't solve our problems--it adds to them. Abortion doesn't bring healing--it leaves deep wounds and lifelong regret. No woman should have to walk through what I walked through-- Believing lies, and left to suffer alone. Abortion only reaps one thing: death. So today, I stand not just for myself-- But for every woman who's been deceived. For every child who was never given a chance. We must stop funding the lies. We must stop funding the pain. We must stop funding death. From the first heartbeat to the final breath, every life holds value. Every soul deserves a chance. Life is a gift worth defending.''

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, nestled along the southern shore of the Toms River, in Ocean County, New Jersey, just near the mouth of the beautiful Barnegat Bay, is the Borough of Pine Beach. This picturesque Jersey town boasts of a warm and robust community where residents cherish American values, dependable, friendly neighbors and a storied history with a limitless future, full of promise. On March 25, 2025, Pine Beach will mark its 100th anniversary of its founding with celebrations, dedications, contests and great fanfare. Dubbed ``The Pearl of the Toms River,'' the Borough's beginnings are rooted in the work and vision of two retail merchants from Philadelphia, Robert M. Horter and George Kelly, who launched a small summer colony along the coast of New Jersey by acquiring land in 1908 under the name of the Pine Beach Improvement Company. To fulfill their dream of a home away from home--at no better place than the remarkable Jersey coastal area--they borrowed many street names from the Philadelphia area that soon saw construction workers raise sturdy attractive summer and retirement homes. By 1910, 109 deeds were recorded and 22 homes built, with groundbreakings for new homes continuing each year. As this small desirable community began to grow, local leaders looked towards establishing a stand-alone borough. On March 25, 1925, a majority of electors residing in the Pine Beach area voted to incorporate the borough of Pine Beach in the County of Ocean. Residents of the newly minted Borough of Pine Beach voted on April 21, 1925, for their first Mayor, Council, Assessor, and Collector. We are grateful to the members of the Pine Beach Preservation Society Historical Committee, who led the research and preservation work that has helped secure and share the history of the Borough's founding. President George Roksvaag and Vice President Justine Saxton, are credited with pouring through Borough and Berkeley Township archives, as well as documents of the Ocean County Historical Society and the New Jersey State Library. The Committee's efforts culminated in its strong recommendation that the current Mayor and Council celebrate and adopt the date of March 25, 1925, as the Borough's official Founders Day. And celebrate they will. The official kick-off begins on Monday, March 24, 2025, with Mayor Lawrence Cuneo, and the Borough's Council Members James Keesling, Lori McGee, Raymond Newman, Richard Polhemus, James Saxton, and Barry Wieck at a town hall ceremony where they will proclaim the official date of Pine Beach Founders Day. Day-long ceremonies will follow on Tuesday, March 25, led by the Pine Beach Preservation Society's Events Committee at Borough Hall. Additionally, delightful artwork depicting scenes of Pine Beach life composed by local artists will be on display at the nearby Pine Beach Elementary School, home to the Pine Beach ``Panthers'' and its 400 students. To cap off the day, Borough celebrations continue with a Pine Beach Founder's Day Reception at the Pine Beach Yacht Club. Older than the Borough itself, the Yacht Club has been a true ``anchor'' of the community since 1916, hosting social and civic activities like dinners, dances, skits, fairs, auctions, moonlight cruises, and teas. Its Junior Sailing Program helps train, shape and prepare New Jersey's next generation of sailors. The evening will include a presentation by Gretchen Coyle, a writer and member of the New Jersey Maritime Museum who has written about Pine Beach. A landmark in the midst of Pine Beach's history is the Pine Beach Volunteer Fire Company No. 1. The original members--including Howard Hutchinson, LeRoy Hutchinson and Charles Creamer, Jr.--answered the first calls nearly 100 years ago and today's Company President, John Kubilewicz, Chief David McKay and all the dedicated Executive Officers Line Officers carry the same first responder attributes of courage, selflessness dedication to their community. Fire Company No. 1 is known for also hosting great community events and it too will celebrate its 100th anniversary on December 11, 2025. The heart of the community, Mr. Speaker, may be its historic chapel, a ``summer church'' built in 1910 by the Reverend August Pohlman, who is believed to have built the first summer home in Pine Beach in 1909. Then a pastor of the Temple Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, he became the first pastor of the chapel. Initially used by both Protestants and Catholics and even doubling as a schoolhouse for a time, it was put to year-round use in 1932 with a resident pastor. Today, Pine Beach Chapel continues its inspiring worship traditions with Sunday services, Bible studies and other faith activities. When recapping Pine Beach landmarks, we must also highlight the original home of the Admiral Farragut Academy, named after the Civil War naval hero who famously declared in battle ``Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!'' For six decades, between 1933 and 1994, the school operated as one of only two Naval Honor Schools in tha Nation. Future Navy aviator and astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. once attended the school. The history of the academy lives on today at its southern campus in St. Petersburg, Fla. It's been a remarkable, impressive 100 years for Pine Beach. Today, the Borough has more than 900 households and more than 2,100 people, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures. As the congressman for Pine Beach, it is my pleasure to congratulate the entire community and join you in celebrating this important milestone. You are truly blessed to call Pine Beach your hometown, an amazing place to visit, live, and raise a family.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today marks a sad and brutal anniversary: the violent crushing in 1959 by the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army of a patriotic movement that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Tibetans and the fleeing into exile of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. The world saw the true nature of the Communist regime and was horrified. In the ensuing decades since then, I am afraid there has been a dulling of the moral clarity we once possessed. Today, businesses, universities and politicians seek to partner with the People's Republic of China, lulled by the thought of lucre or enhanced prestige. The nature of the Chinese Communist regime has not changed, however, nor has its goals. In 1959 the evil intent toward the great people of Tibet was manifested for all to see. Today, however, the genocidal repression is more subtle. We see a slow-motion erasure of Tibetan culture, of children being taken from their parents and placed into colonial boarding schools where they are cut off from their language and culture. We see Tibetan women being forcibly sterilized, their children aborted. Genocide does not require gas chambers or killing fields; per the Genocide Convention of 1948, its attributes include the ``imposing [of] measures intended to prevent births within the group,'' and ``forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.'' This is what is happening. Today. So strongly do I feel about this, that when I was named chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China last Congress, the very first hearing I convened was on ``Preserving Tibet: Combating Cultural Erasure, Forced Assimilation and Transnational Repression.'' Yet the CCP continues to wage a campaign of repression targeting the right of Tibetans to educate their children. As noted, they are placed in colonial boarding schools, while across the Tibetan plateau the CCP shutters independent schools, many associated with monastic institutions. Young monks in particular are being forced to leave their religious training and enroll in state-run schools. Schools that have been shut down in the last year include one attached to Kirti Monastery in Sichuan, and the Ragya Gangjong Sherig Norbulmg school in Qinghai. These school closures cut off a vital way for Tibetans to transmit their religious, linguistic, and cultural heritage, and should be viewed as a key part of the larger Sinicization project in Tibet. There is an information blockade on Tibet, particularly the Tibet Autonomous Region. Thus, we could not obtain information about the January 2025 earthquake in Dingrim, and were left in the dark about how widespread damage was, how many people died or were injured, and what is the status of relief work. Indeed, just this past first week of March, Chinese officials indicated that the number of affected people was more than twice what was previously reported. Authorities have reportedly detained dozens of Tibetans for spreading ``false information'' about the earthquake. Meanwhile a Tibetan Buddhist monastery librarian was sentenced to 3 years in prison for ``inciting separatism'' because he was in contact with people outside Tibet and shared books that had been published abroad. PRC officials are continuing the recent change in official terminology regarding Tibet, now referring in English to anything related to the Tibet Autonomous Region as ``Xizang,'' the Mandarin word for Tibet. Organizations around the world that interact with the PRC government, for example museums, are pressured to accept this change. Atshog (Atsok) Monastery in Qinghai was demolished last summer, and by fall the site was submerged under a new dam's filling reservoir, destroying stupa and murals that couldn't be relocated, and forcing the resettlement of the monastery's resident monks. Of course, as geographic location is an important religious factor for Tibetan Buddhism, with local deities are often identified with geographic features like mountains or rivers, simply moving a monastery can never make up for what is lost. Thus, if we are going to preserve Tibet, we in Congress need to continue to hear their voice. We cannot only pay attention on anniversaries such as March 10, but rather we must resolve to raise the cause of Tibet on a day-to-day basis. The first step, however, is not forgetting. That is why we are here today. Let's continue to work together to preserve Tibet and one day, we hope, we will see a free and independent Tibet.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, this year's March for Life is an engraved invitation to each and every one of us to seriously recommit and rededicate ourselves to the defense of the weakest and most vulnerable. To recommit with love and compassion to tangibly assist women-- especially through the extraordinary work of pregnancy care centers--in order to protect their precious babies and their own lives from the violence and cruelty of abortion. Pregnancy care centers are under siege by Planned Parenthood--also known as Child Abuse Inc.--an organization that has killed more than 10 million babies in its clinics. This year we recommit to exposing abortion methods to a society that has chosen to be blind to the realities of brutally dismembering helpless babies with sharp knife-like curettes or poisoning babies with pills that literally starve them to death and often result in their bodies being flushed down a toilet. We are a people of indomitable hope--we absolutely refuse to entertain discouragement or defeat. We thank President Trump for defeating not one but two extremist pro- abortion candidates--Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris--and for his amazing defense of unborn children. Abortion-President Joe Biden is gone--but his morbid legacy of packing the judiciary with litmus tested abortion activists, using executive orders to kill more babies and integrating the nefarious abortion agenda into countless benign and necessary programs like veterans' health and global health must be immediately reversed. President Trump has done more to protect the innocent than any other president in history--and now, thank God, he's back. Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade--achieved by the three Supreme Court justices President Trump appointed--half the states have enacted laws to protect unborn children, saving over 200,000 children over two years. On Monday, President Trump issued a powerful executive order designed to defund the outrageously pro-abortion World Health Organization (WHO), and another--the expected reinstatement of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance to reverse Biden's hijacking of global health funding, which shamelessly promoted abortion on demand around the world including in President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Last week, the most recent revelation was that PEPFAR broke U.S. law to pay for abortions in Africa--a tip of the iceberg of the Biden- Harris anti-child activism at home and abroad. The 2025 Marist poll has found that 73 percent of Americans oppose using tax dollars for abortions in other countries. Other pro-life executive orders are expected soon. Special thanks to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the Republican leadership in the House and Senate for their ongoing courageous legislative initiatives, including legislation to save babies born alive during the grisly abortion process. The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act under consideration in both the House and Senate seeks to end or at least mitigate this egregious child abuse by requiring that a health care provider must ``exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age'' or be fined and/or face up to five years in prison. The bill makes clear that no mother of a child born alive can ever be prosecuted. It also empowers the woman upon whom the abortion is performed to obtain appropriate relief in a civil action. This is humane, pro-child, human rights legislation. Why is there opposition? Dr. Willard Cates, MD, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Abortion Surveillance Unit, explained years ago: ``(Live births) are little known because organized medicine, from fear of public clamor and legal action, treats them more as an embarrassment to be hushed up than a problem to be solved. It's like turning yourself in to the IRS for an audit . . . What is there to gain? The tendency is not to report because there are only negative incentives.'' Cates was quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer in ``Abortion: The Dreaded Complication.'' Bottom line: pro-lifers are a people of persevering faith in God willing to bear any burden and endure any attack. We know that the cruel injustice of abortion need not be forever and that each day, despite setbacks, many unborn children and their mothers have been and are being protected. We have hope. We have just begun.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding, and I thank Ann Wagner for her tremendous leadership and courage in authoring this important bill. Madam Speaker, in a Florida abortion clinic, Sycloria Williams delivered a perfectly healthy, live baby girl at 23 weeks. The clinic owner took the baby, who was gasping for air, cut her umbilical cord, threw her into a biohazard bag, and put the bag into the trash like so much garbage. Heartbroken, Ms. Williams later had a funeral for her baby girl she named Shanice. Madam Speaker, why are these live births so little known? We are talking about, in most cases, perfectly healthy babies who are killed but they survive. The Philadelphia Inquirer did a cover story years ago called ``The Dreaded Complication.'' In it, the abortionists were complaining that so many children were surviving late-term abortions and they didn't know what to do. The partial-birth abortion ban, where the baby's brains are sucked out--we did the ban, but the actual procedure--was, in part, in response to that. They wanted to ensure that the baby was dead. In that article, Dr. Willard Cates, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's abortion surveillance unit, said: Live births are little known because organized medicine, from fear of public clamor and legal action, treats them more as an embarrassment to be hushed up than a problem to be solved. It is like turning yourself in to the IRS for an audit. What is there to gain? The tendency is not to report because there are only negative incentives. Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, one of the few who got caught, was convicted of murder for killing so many children and women in his abortion clinic in Philadelphia. The grand jury described it this way: Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted babies: He delivered them. He killed them. He didn't call it that. He called it ensuring fetal demise. The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that snipping. These children are not junk. They cannot be treated as so much garbage. This legislation tries to say we need to protect them once they are born after the abortion. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act seeks to end or at least mitigate this egregious child abuse by requiring that a healthcare provider must--and this is from the bill--exercise the same degree of professional care, skill, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious healthcare practitioner would render to any other child born alive. Why can't we have that standard to try to save that child? The bill empowers the women upon whom the abortions are performed to obtain appropriate relief through civil action. We passed a bill like this when Steve Chabot was the prime sponsor years ago, but the enforcement has been almost nil if not none. This is humane, pro-child, pro-human rights legislation, and I hope my colleagues on the other side realize these children have great value and should not be treated like junk.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I wish to reiterate my strong support for normalizing our tax treatment of Taiwan and for legislation which passed this House last week on January 15, 2025, H.R. 33, the United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act, introduced by my good friend and colleague Jason Smith of Missouri. As this legislation notes, Taiwan's international status is ``unique,'' and for far too long this bastion of democracy, constitutionalism and freedom on the front line facing Communist China has been disadvantaged by its irregular juridical status. It makes no sense to penalize Taiwanese investors while privileging investors from Communist China, especially when Taiwanese companies such as TSMC and Global Wafers are investing money so we can securely manufacture microchips and silicon wafers in the United States. This is not simply a fairness issue, but also a national security issue. Agents from Communist China are buying farmland near strategically-sensitive locations, and coopting our universities into becoming research arms of the People's Liberation Army. Meanwhile, Taiwan is investing tens of billions of dollars to build semiconductor factories in America at our invitation so we can help insulate ourselves from mainland Chinese pressure. The U.S. should be disincentivizing investment from Communist China while encouraging investment from democratic Taiwan--not the other way around--and this legislation goes a long way to balancing the scales. I also note that our American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan strongly supports this legislation. This legislation will also strengthen bilateral investments between the United States and Taiwan. I thank Mr. Smith (of Missouri) and Speaker Johnson for making this legislation a priority so early this Congress. I call on the Senate to swiftly pass this important legislation.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I wish to underscore my strong support of H.R. 23, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, and highlight the immediate need to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its dangerous abuse of power and for the United States to repudiate these actions. The ICC's outrageous issuance of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister Gallant is a grotesquely bad decision by a court that is corrupted by blatant antisemitism. Israel's right to defend itself from this brutal invasion is absolute. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in the past that he would never allow a second holocaust--nor should we. Antisemitism is at the root of Hamas violence against Israel and every Jewish man woman, and child, and is explicitly expressed in Hamas' 1988 Charter which demands the absolute destruction of the state of Israel and proclaims: ``Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.'' In its 2017 charter, Hamas reiterates its goal of wiping Israel off the face of the earth: ``There is no alternative to a fully sovereign Palestinian State on the entire national Palestinian soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.'' Mr. Speaker, the ICC's actions support Hamas' explicitly antisemitic and genocidal campaign of terror against Israel, and Congress must respond in the most forceful way possible. The ICC is a rogue actor on the world stage, and the United States must have a more effective long-term approach for how to respond to it. Their latest action is a further manifestation of the same antisemitism that is rampant at the United Nations and related international organizations. Last Congress alone, I chaired four congressional hearings on how they are absolutely infiltrated by antisemitic personnel who on a daily basis go after Israel with such cruelty. Israel needs the ability to defend itself--and they need friends and partners who will stand beside them. It is long-past time the United States held international organizations accountable for their antisemitism and their corruption. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon the United States to use its full voice to support Israel and ensure international organizations and venues are not used to promote antisemitism and the persecution of the Jewish people, and encourage our allies to do the same. I thank Congressman Roy for introducing this legislation, underscoring this House's resolve to stand by an ally. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 23.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity today to highlight the deep, widespread and heartfelt appreciation shared by many across Ocean County, New Jersey for their extraordinary County Clerk, Scott Colabella, who will retire at the end of this month after a lifetime of outstanding public service to our New Jersey communities. Scott is a great American patriot. His story of commitment, dedication and outstanding work on behalf of New Jersey citizens--and his leadership in securing foolproof, reliable elections--belongs in our Nation's congressional record, the official written history of this country since the Continental Congress. I first met Scott in the early days of my campaigns and congressional service. In fact, Scott was among one of my first congressional interns in my freshman term in the 97th Congress in 1981. Serving in my Washington, D.C. office, Scott proved to be an outstanding worker, assisting me in the delivery of top-notch constituent service and legislative analysis. After working on Capitol Hill and graduating from Rider University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, Scott began a career of public service rewarded with promotions, achievements and advancement over the course of the next several decades. His first stop was an eight-year stretch serving in Governor Tom Kean's Constituent Service Office and the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles. Thereafter, for many years, Scott served as the Executive Director of the Ocean County Republican Organization and ultimately, he became the Deputy County Clerk, of Ocean County in January 2004. As Deputy Clerk, Scott proved his muscle and helped build a program based on a deep understanding of New Jersey election law and its equitable, just application. As such, the people of Ocean County recognized his talents and resoundingly elected him to serve as County Clerk in 2010. Since 2010, Scott was elected by wide margins three consecutive times--a public affirmation and reward for his steady and exemplary service as a State Constitutional Officer. When he took the helm as County Clerk, the office had a reputation as a well-run organization, but Scott still worked to find new ways to expand its reach and make it even better. Under his watch, the office processed millions of vote-by-mail applications and ballots and millions more sample ballots. Scott also directed the processing of countless trade names, passports, notary public oaths and veterans' cards. During his tenure, Scott successfully launched the Property Alert Service to empower the public to monitor any changes made to their property records. He modernized election software to enable the public to monitor election results in real time on the Clerk's website, and he upgraded the electronic e-records system to attain paperless recording of over 70 percent of all mortgages and land deeds and other documents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott met and stayed ahead of the extreme challenges facing county clerks across the state--and he helped lead the way. When voters in 2020 were required under state law to use only vote-by-mail ballots, for the first time ever, he met the task, secured the trust of the voters and achieved a successful election process. A longtime resident of the Borough of Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island, Ocean County, New Jersey, Scott is moving on to the next chapter of his life. He will be greatly missed by me and thousands of my fellow Ocean County residents, who have taken great confidence and comfort in knowing Scott Colabella was at the helm, securing free and fair elections in Ocean County. We thank Scott for his unparallelled public service. May God bless my friend, and bring him added success and great luck in the years ahead.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief and close and put the rest of it in the Record. Autism Speaks says that the Autism CARES Act is the single most important driver of autism research, training, and data collection programs at NIH, HRSA, and CDC. Mr. Speaker, we are joined here by Chris Banks, the CEO of Autism Society. They say it is a pivotable law for individuals with autism and their families to live fully, and it is crucial to understand the immense impact this law has on the daily lives of the autism community. The Association of University Centers on Disabilities is also very, very supportive, and Profound Autism Alliance has pushed hard for this bill and its enhanced focus on individuals with profound autism, which they define as people who require lifetime, 24/7 care. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and the President, we hope, will sign it. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 7213: Directs the NIH to include in the scope of research issues encountered by individuals and caregivers as they age, mental health concerns, issues related to aging, as well as co- occurring conditions and needs for supports and services, such as care necessary for physical safety and the prevention of self-injurious behavior. Increases the number of NIH Centers of Excellence to seven and ensures research reflects the entire population of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and is designed to address the full range of needs faced by individuals, including to ensure the physical safety and to promote the well being of all Americans with autism. Includes, for the first time, a professional bypass budget to provide the autism community with a comprehensive budget highlighting priority research areas and resources needed to advance quality of life improvements for all individuals with autism. Promotes the adoption of assistive communication technologies to improve communications outcomes for those with communication assistance needs. My bill also helps adults with autism who were and are today often misdiagnosed, underdiagnosed and overlooked. Language throughout the bill continues to emphasize that causes, diagnosis, detection, prevention and treatment of autism spectrum disorder must be throughout the lifespan of a person. To this end, Congress has included the study of gerontology--the study of aging, including the physical, mental, and social changes that occur as people age, as an NIH research priority. H.R. 7213 continues to emphasize the need for early detection and intervention--including the use of advanced technologies in early detection--to provide the highest quality of life possible for those with autism. The earlier a child can be identified as having ASD, the earlier they can access interventions and services. Researchers have developed technologies to identify signs of autism in children as young as eighteen months--this is an incredible development and there is more research being done now to determine if autism can be identified even earlier. However, the median age of diagnosis in the United States is not until after 4 years of age, and diagnosis often occurs even later among those without intellectual disabilities or delays in social communication. The delivery of services and interventions must keep up with a younger patient population, and services and interventions for autistic individuals must continue to improve across their lifespans. Examples of services and interventions research include approaches to address conditions that affect the quality of life for individuals on the autism spectrum, such as behavior that puts individuals with significant support needs or their caregivers at risk (e.g., self- injurious, elopement, aggression, etc.), or mental health concerns (anxiety, depression, suicidality). The Autism CARES Act emphasizes the need to improve the quality of life for individuals with the full range of needs across the lifespan. Continued research by NIH to study how to improve interventions and the delivery of services is crucial. H.R. 7213 calls for a report on youth aging out of school-aged services since the pandemic, and recommendations to improve mental health outcomes and address related disparities in mental health care for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, including prevention, care coordination, and community-based services.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding and for his leadership and that of my colleague on the other side of the aisle. Mr. Speaker, it all started in September 1997, 27 years ago, with Brick Township, New Jersey, parents Bobbie and Billy Gallagher and their indomitable commitment to help their two children, Austin and Alanna, and everyone else with autism. We met several times and continue to plan and strategize to this day. We invited the CDC to Brick, New Jersey, only to realize that Federal autism programs were woefully inadequate. Frankly, they were nonexistent. They spend $287,000 per year on autism. That is it, a straight line for 5 years. It was a nothing burger, and they did nothing really of substance. So I introduced the Autism Statistics, Surveillance, Research, and Epidemiology Act, the ASSURE Act, in 1998 and again in 1999. In the second one, we had 199, almost one-half of the House of Representatives, as cosponsors. That would have established three to five autism centers of excellence, authorized serious prevalence studies, and established an autism advisory committee, which we now call IACC. I am deeply grateful that the ASSURE Act was incorporated in large part by Chairman Mike Bilirakis as title I of the Children's Health Act of 2000. Mr. Speaker, in 2016, Bobbie Gallagher, now a board-certified behavior analyst, wrote an amazing book called ``A Brick Wall: How a Boy with No Words Spoke to the World.'' In it she points out, and it is just an amazing book, that all parents of children with autism face many, many hardships: frequent tears, agony, as well as physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion. Doctors had told the Gallaghers not to worry about telltale early warning signs of autism. One doctor was so uninformed that he said that their daughter, Alanna, just needed a good swift kick in the ass. She recounts, however, the big moments that she treasures deep within her heart, like when 11-year-old Austin called her ``Mommy'' for the first time. It was slow and deliberate, ``Mommy,'' and she said it was beautiful. When he asked for a cookie, they celebrated in the Gallagher household. It is a primer for everyone, and I would hope that others would read it. She said in the book that she realized why she is on this Earth: ``I am here to fight for children with autism,'' and fight she and her husband, Billy, have, like so many other brave and remarkable parents who deeply love their children. They are parents like Scott Badesch, who is on my staff. Scott was the president of Autism Society for 10 years. Deeply, he and his wife love their son, Evan. They love their whole family. He is 37, and they have benefited from his leadership. We have benefited here in the Congress from Scott's leadership. Also, Mr. Speaker, the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support Act, or simply the Autism CARES Act of 2024, is a comprehensive reauthorization and strengthening of America's whole-of-government autism spectrum disorder initiative. As the prime author of the Autism CARES Act of 2024 and previous iterations of the law in 2011, 2014, and again in 2019, let me send special thanks to cosponsor Henry Cuellar for his leadership and partnership, and to Brett Guthrie, who is the chairman of the Health Subcommittee and incoming full committee chairman, for faithfully shepherding this legislation through the committee. I thank my fellow New Jerseyan, Frank Pallone. Above all, I thank and show the deepest respect and gratitude to Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is a tenacious, effective, and brilliant advocate for the autism community. I thank Steve Scalise for making sure we are here today with the bill. I also thank Susan Collins and Ben Ray Lujan for their important work over on the Senate side. I thank committee staff, including Molly Brimmer, Kristin Fritsch, and Caitlin Wilson, among others, for their help, which was totally invaluable; and John McDonough, Mary Noonan, and, of course, Scott Badesch on my staff for their work on this bill. The bill, as we know, provides, as has already been mentioned by my colleagues, critical research goals focused on responsive and effective interventions for the estimated 6.8 million individuals with autism, 27 percent of whom--that is 1.8 million--are profoundly autistic. According to the CDC, 1 in 36 children in the U.S., including 1 in 35 in my home State of New Jersey, are on the autism spectrum. The bill authorizes more than $1.59 billion over 5 years for programs at the NIH, CDC, and HRSA, Health Resources and Services Administration. It directs the NIH to include the scope of research issues encountered by individuals and caregivers.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, there are hundreds of other children and U.S. families in the same or similar situations, as I have indicated. I strongly urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 915, which respectfully urges the Government of Ukraine to review and modify its decision to suspend adoption by foreign nationals for adoptive parents like the Gordons and their children. Mr. Speaker, this resolution makes specific recommendations, which I will put in the Record, including cases in which adoptive U.S. parents have already completed, as I mentioned, the requirements under the Ukrainian domestic law for the adoption of Ukrainian children and in which the adoptability of these children has already been confirmed and also which the adoptive U.S. parents have already had their dossiers vetted and approved by the Ukrainian Government. We ask them to please not delay any longer. Those kids want a loving home, and there is one awaiting them as we speak. Second, there are also cases in which Ukrainian children have already participated in hosting programs facilitated by the Government of Ukraine and placed with individuals within the U.S. before suspension of adoption by foreign nationals. Mr. Speaker, those kids have suffered much, certainly being in that kind of isolation. Orphanages are there, but it is so much better to be in a loving home. We have got a remedy sitting right at our fingertips. I am calling on the Ukrainian Government and President Zelenskyy, especially, to do so. Let me also say, the Ukrainian Government resumed domestic adoptions and did that in June of 2022. There is an apparatus, there is a capability and a capacity to do this job. I thank Matt and Deidre Gordon from New Jersey for bringing the needs of these Ukrainian children to my attention. For his extraordinary leadership and compassion, I thank former State Senator Ray Lesniak for first suggesting that the House pass this resolution. Special thanks to my good friend and colleague Donald Norcross, who helped us craft this resolution and has been there every step of the way as the lead Democrat cosponsor. I thank Donald so much for his leadership on this important issue. I also thank Mark Milosch, the Republican staff director of the Lantos Commission. Previous to that, when I chaired the Helsinki Commission, he was my chief of staff there, as well. He is very, very capable and really understands the European theater and the politics, and he helped us draft this, as well. I also thank Trent Bunker. This resolution deserves the full support of this body, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, when Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Matt and Deidre Gordon of New Jersey were in the final stage of adopting Bogdan and Galena, an orphaned brother and sister from Ukraine. The Gordons had been vetted and approved as adoptive parents by both the United States and Ukrainian Governments. They had a strong bond and relationship, they had a deep love, and they have a deep love for those two children and had spent precious time with them at their home in New Jersey, including regular contact and two long home stays totaling 5 months. In March of 2022, however, during the first weeks of the Russian invasion, the Gordons had an appointment in Kyiv to be officially matched with the kids. It was at that point, however, that the Ukrainian Government temporarily suspended intercountry adoptions. Arguably, the Government of Ukraine had reasons to suspend some adoptions, because of the fog of war and the difficulty in doing the requisite due diligence to safely and effectively process new adoption requests, but the Gordon case wasn't new. Matt and Deidre and many other Americans, hundreds of Americans, were nearing the end of the process when it all grounded to a halt leaving, in this case, these two children, and hundreds of other children, stranded. Because of their deep love for their children, the Gordons have continued to visit Bogdan and Galena, who are in an institutional setting in Poland. Let me just say, I did contact and wrote letters to President Zelenskyy, and this one goes back to July, asking for a remedy and to resolve this. We didn't even get an answer. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to President Zelenskyy. Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, July 28, 2023. His Excellency Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, Via: Oksana Markarova, Ambassador, Washington, DC. Your Excellency: I write to urge you to review and modify your government's decision to suspend intercountry adoptions from Ukraine, particularly in cases in which the adoptive Ukrainian children have already participated in American homestays approved and facilitated by Ukrainian officials before the suspension of the adoption process on March 13, 2022. Throughout my tenure in the U.S. Congress, I have focused much of my work on promoting human rights, freedom and democracy around the world, including supporting democratic reform in Ukraine since 1991. Similarly, I have led numerous efforts to secure the rights and dignity of children across the world who, due to their age and vulnerabilities, are often tragically neglected and abused. As the author of landmark legislation on issues pertaining to children--including the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act and the International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation, as well as proposals that increased federal tax incentives to help overcome the upfront costs of adoption--I am acutely aware of the complexity of issues facing children internationally and the need for government oversight of intercountry adoption to fully ensure the ``best interest of the child'' throughout the process. Notwithstanding your government's reasons for initially suspending intercountry adoptions in 2022, I now urge that Ukraine's Ministry of Social Policy (MSP) revise that decision with a view to resuming intercountry adoptions in cases where our mutual concerns to protect and benefit children can be substantially addressed. Principal examples of this include cases in which, first, the American adoptive parents have already had their dossiers vetted and approved by the Ukrainian government, and, second, the Ukrainian children have been determined to be adoptable by the Ukrainian government, and, third, the Ukrainian children have already participated in homestays with the American families--such cases are few and were at or very near the end stage of the process on February 24, 2022. In such situations, Ukrainian children have come to know and feel themselves as part of American families. I urge your government to seek solutions in these cases that recognize the deep bonds that have grown between the children and parents and, consistent with Ukrainian law and regulations, permit adoptions to be finalized. One family that finds itself in this situation is that of Matt and Deidre Gordon of New Jersey, and a boy and a girl-- natural siblings--of Ukraine. After the Ukrainian government approved the Gordons' adoption dossiers in December 2021, their previously scheduled final appointment with MSP officials was cancelled in the wake of the invasion. The children, whom the Gordon parents have already come to know, now endure the agony of war while awaiting the day when they can reunite. Any immediate assistance you could provide in this urgent matter will be greatly appreciated. Having worked with the family, please know I stand ready to provide additional information or assist in any way you deem appropriate. Intercountry adoption is a profoundly beneficial way to help children in need of parents and families that are eager and able to open their hearts and homes to benefit children. I sincerely thank you for your strength and courage in defending your country in the face of Russia's brutal onslaught and urge you to help unite American families and Ukrainian children in new family environments that will enhance the love and lives of both parents and children. Sincerely, Christopher H. Smith, Member of Congress.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank Michael McCaul, our chairman, for very quickly bringing this important resolution to the floor along with the great support of Gregory Meeks, the ranking member. I especially thank Kathy Manning for authoring this extraordinarily timely resolution condemning the despicable rise of anti-Semitism around the world and calling on our international organizations and countries to embrace the global guidelines for countering anti- Semitism. Kathy has done a wonderful job. It has been a privilege to serve with her as co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti- Semitism. This resolution says it all. I thank her for doing it and doing it so well. I want to make a few points. One, the spiritual cancer of anti- Semitism is metastasizing, not only in our country, but in many countries as well, at a rate that is both shocking and sickening. The evidence of it is everywhere, including in our college campuses and university campuses--and just not Harvard and NYU. In my own State at Rutgers University, I was there when people were camping out, and I was accosted verbally by some people. The hatred was just pouring out of their lips and their eyes. The hatred for Jews is unconscionable. Of course, one of the most recent horrors, as was pointed out, was the Amsterdam pogrom earlier this month, the horrific mob assault on Israeli soccer fans. It was repulsive on at least two levels. First, the brutal evil of the attackers themselves, but also the so-called respectable opinion- makers who just said: Oh, they shifted the blame. This is all about anti-immigrant sentiment or prejudice and even Israel. Natan Sharansky is one of the greatest human rights individuals who has ever lived. I had him testify at two hearings. I tried to visit him and actually was in Perm Camp 35 in the 1980s where the Soviet Union had housed him. Frank Wolf and I went there. When he got out, he came and testified, and he said: You know, if you don't chronicle the hatred--and that is included in these global guidelines--you can't combat it. It must be defined very clearly, especially by law enforcement, so it is not just brushed off as hooliganism or other kinds of things. You need to define it, and to do so with specificity. He also talked about the three Ds that we are seeing manifesting vis- a-vis Israel every day of the week, and that is demonization, double standard, delegitimization, those three Ds. He talked about that and said that is a cover for anti-Semitism. Disagree with Knesset all you want or with Netanyahu, but once you lower yourselves into those--we see it at the U.N. every day. I chaired four hearings this Congress alone, more than three dozen over the years, combating anti-Semitism about how the U.N. is rife-- including the U.N. Human Rights Council--with anti-Semitism. It is just unbelievable how bad it is. UNRWA is filled, overflowing with Hamas sympathizers and Hamas activists who teach children each day of the week to hate Jews and to kill. Just read the Hamas charter. It says: If you see a Jew behind a rock, kill him or her. That is what is being funded by the U.S. Government and funded--not right this minute--but it has been funded in the recent past. We should never do it again. Let me also say that the guidelines--and I encourage every Member to read them--are very simple. They parallel the OSCE Conference that was held in 2002 and then the Berlin Conference in 2004. The idea of the conference came out of a hearing I chaired in 2002. I recommended it, and the OSCE took it up. The Bush administration took it up, and that conference had the Berlin Declaration in 2004. Rabbi Baker from the AJC did a masterful job--and a few others, but especially him--in wordsmithing a tremendous action plan. Of course, these global guidelines certainly parallel that--and as mentioned, certainly Ambassador Lipstadt. Just for the record, I authored that legislation. We got it passed here in a bipartisan way, and it took months, years for the U.S. Senate to take it up. They finally did and the Ambassador at Large of the Special Envoy, Ambassador Lipstadt, is doing a magnificent job. Silence is not an option. We know it. In the fight against anti- Semitism we need government at all levels to denounce, chronicle, and prosecute where these thoughts matriculate into evil deeds. We know that if you just stand by idly, you are enabling. You need to call it out. This is a very fine resolution, and I thank Ms. Manning for authoring it. It calls out this anti-Semitism and says stop it.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I wish to underscore my strong support of H. Res. 837 introduced by Mr. Moylan, our colleague from Guam, on Reaffirming Ties Between the United States and the Philippines. It is both timely and critical, as we see the People's Liberation Army Navy and the Chinese Coast Guard intrude on Philippines territorial waters and engage in increasingly belligerent and lawless behavior. My one quibble with the Resolution is the continued use of the term ``South China Sea'' to refer to that term for the sea west of the Philippines. Why not ``West Philippines Sea,'' an important semantic change that rejects the PRC's claims on Philippines territory and reinforces the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea arbitral panel ruling that the PRC's maritime territorial claims have no basis? Indeed, even the term in Chinese makes no explicit reference to China. It is simply ``South Sea.'' We have seen repeated aggression by PLA naval and coast guard vessels in the West Philippines Sea. We routinely see Filipino fishing boats harassed and surrounded by a flotilla of navy and coast guard vessels. There was also an incident this past summer where a Chinese coast guard vessel engaged in a piratical ramming attack against Filipino vessels. Eight Filipino sailors were injured, including one who lost his thumb. The PLA Navy is playing a dangerous escalation game. A war was once fought over a sailor's severed ear--1739's War of Jenkins' Ear. Will a war now be fought over a severed thumb? Not if we are resolute. There is a quotation attributed to Lenin: ``You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.'' This describes the strategy of the PLA Navy. Probing with bayonets. Unfortunately, up until now, they have only encountered mush. Steely resolution is what is needed to deter war. It is my hope that the incoming Trump Administration show resolve which sadly has been lacking, including conducting naval exercises in conjunction with our Philippines treaty ally in the West Philippines Sea, and sending ships to escort the Filipino navy in resupplying Filipino sailors and Marines who are staffing an outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal--something that was bravely done just this past week by our stalwart ally. I thank Representative Moylan for his resolution, underscoring this House's resolve to stand by an ally.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, it is difficult to imagine a Congress without my good friend and longtime colleague Kay Granger--an effective and accomplished lawmaker who has diligently represented the people of Texas since 1997, when she was elected as the first Republican congresswoman from the Lone Star State. An incredibly strong, well-informed and tenacious leader, Kay has worked tirelessly over the years to make our government more transparent and accountable while helping those in need. Having worked closely with her over the years, I know her deep personal commitment and unwavering resolve to protect unborn children and their mothers from the violence of abortion. During her remarkable 25 years of service on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, she has fought relentlessly to preserve critical protections for the weakest and most vulnerable, including the Hyde Amendment--which has saved more than 2.5 million lives. She has also strongly supported the Smith Amendment, which I first authored in 1984, to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding abortions for federal employees and their dependents, and her work on foreign aid has helped protect so many unborn babies and women in need around the globe. As the first Republican Chairwoman on the House Appropriations Committee, Kay also led our efforts in the House on many other important matters. She worked hard to cut wasteful spending, promote fiscal responsibility, and ensure hard-earned American taxpayer dollars are spent more efficiently and effectively. At every turn, Kay has been steadfast in her support of our courageous service members, veterans, and their families and absolutely dedicated to boosting our national security, especially while she served as Chairwoman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. She has worked tirelessly to hold public officials to account, including those at the U.S. State Department in the aftermath of the horrific attack on our diplomatic compound in Benghazi that tragically left four Americans dead. Kay's unyielding commitment to improve the lives of her constituents and Americans across the country has truly made a difference. We will always cherish our time with her in Congress and the incredible lasting impact she has had on all of us who have known and worked with her.

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize October as National Spina Bifida Month, and to raise awareness and pay tribute to the more than 166,000 Americans living with Spina Bifida--the most common permanently disabling birth defect compatible with life. It is imperative we highlight the critical challenges to improved quality of life we must address to ensure each and every American can achieve their full potential. The federal government has an obligation to advance research into devastating diseases and disabilities to help find cures and therapies and to identify preventative strategies. Equally important is federal support for programs and initiatives that help patients and their families as they struggle to live with these conditions, such as Spina Bifida. Literally translated as ``split spine.'' Spina Bifida is a condition that occurs when a baby's neural tube fails to develop or close properly. Typically occurring within the first 28 days of pregnancy while the neural tube is forming, Spina Bifida often develops before a woman even knows she is pregnant. Sponsored by the Spina Bifida Association (SBA), National Spina Bifida Awareness Month is a time to highlight the needs of the community and recognize the importance of the work done year-round to advance research, programs, and policies aimed at meeting those needs. As co-chair of the Congressional Spina Bifida Caucus, I've had the honor to work alongside SBA to advance Spina Bifida awareness, research, and public health efforts in Congress. Founded in 1973, SBA is the Nation's only organization solely dedicated to advocating for and assisting those living with and affected by this debilitating birth defect. Through its nearly 60 chapters in more than 125 communities, SBA brings expectant parents together with those who have a child with Spina Bifida. This interaction helps to answer questions and concerns, but most importantly it lends much needed support, solidarity, inspiration, and hope. Mr. Speaker, Spina Bifida is a birth defect that can happen to anyone. Every day, an average of eight babies are affected by Spina Bifida and approximately 3,000 pregnancies are affected by this birth defect each year. We do not know the exact cause of this condition, but research has found that if a woman takes 400 mcg of folic acid every day before she becomes pregnant, she reduces her risk of having a baby with Spina Bifida or another neural tube defect by as much as 70 percent. No two cases of Spina Bifida are ever the same and so this birth defect is commonly referred to as the ``snowflake condition.'' Children born with Spina Bifida typically undergo dozens of surgeries before they reach the age of 18. And during their lifetime, someone with Spina Bifida will face at least $1 million in medical expenses, including multiple surgeries, and most can expect to spend much of their lives in a wheelchair or walking with braces. Despite these challenges--and thanks to advances in research and medicine, along with policies supportive of children with disabilities--nearly two-thirds of Americans currently living with Spina Bifida have made it to adulthood. And while these strides are certainly worth celebrating, people with Spina Bifida--particularly adults--continue to face a crisis of care that could be largely prevented with the right resources and policies. For instance, while we have a coordinated system of care designed to treat children with Spina Bifida in the U.S., there is no equivalent for adults. The result is that adults face a ``care cliff'' and enter a very fractured medical system where they are unable to find physicians willing or even knowledgeable enough to provide treatment, as Spina Bifida is still largely taught in medical schools as a pediatric condition and education has failed to keep pace with the rapid rise in the adult Spina Bifida population. Thousands of adults are left with few options other than to seek care in the emergency room or continue to see their pediatric care team until insurance will no longer cover their care because of their age. And to make matters worse, many of these adults rely on Medicaid as their insurance provider, so even if they have the means to travel to an adult specialist, if they are located in another state--as is often the case--their coverage is denied. Across the country, there are more than 100 pediatric clinics devoted to caring for children with Spina Bifida. There are only 20 whose focus is on adults. Constituents in my district are fortunate to be in proximity to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, home to the Spina Bifida Program, which offers comprehensive and expert care from diagnosis through adulthood. We offer great thanks to the medical professionals and researchers who endeavor to improve the quality of life for individuals living with Spina Bifida and their families. At the federal level, we can and should make dramatic improvements in the ability of adults with Spina Bifida to access quality care by increasing the funding of the CDC's National Spina Bifida Program--the only federal program tasked with improving the care and outcomes for people living with Spina Bifida. In 2008, the Federal Spina Bifida Program created a National Spina Bifida Patient Registry to collect the scientific data needed to evaluate existing medical services for Spina Bifida patients, and to provide clinicians, researchers, patients, and families a window into what care models are effective and what treatments are not making a measurable difference. Building on this in 2014, the Spina Bifida Program funded the development of a Spina Bifida Collaborative Care Network to identify and to disseminate best practices for the care of people with Spina Bifida at all ages. However, with only $7.5 million in annual funding--and this amount has been stagnant--there are only 11,000 patients in the national registry, limiting the ability of medical professionals to glean knowledge that would advance research in areas critical to improving quality of life. Even modest increases to this funding would make an enormous difference. Additionally, we should urge NIH to work collaboratively across their many divisions to better understand Spina Bifida. As Spina Bifida can affect every organ and every system in the human body, a collaborative effort undertaken by NIH could result in research that would lead to better care for both this generation and future generations of Spina Bifida patients. We are so fortunate today that our country is benefiting from the talent and contributions of the first generation of adults living with Spina Bifida. Today, I honor and celebrate all of them, along with their care partners, and also remember those we have lost to this condition. And I urge my colleagues to not only increase funding for the National Spina Bifida Program, but to work together so that these Americans receive the care and treatment all of us want for our families and loved ones. I invite my colleagues to join me in this mission and join me in the Spina Bifida Caucus to broaden our efforts and advance the goal of a better future for people living with Spina Bifida.