James Walkinshaw

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 2025 recipients of the Best of Braddock Awards, an annual tradition in Virginia's 11th Congressional District that celebrates the residents, volunteers, public servants, students, and organizations who strengthen the Braddock District of Fairfax County through extraordinary service and civic leadership. I include in the Record the following names of the Best of Braddock Award recipients: Annandale Mission Center, 2025 Club or Organization Making a Difference in the Braddock District Award. The Mission Center serves as a lifeline for hundreds of families each week. Through its supplemental grocery distribution program, it supports more than 325 families weekly and distributes hundreds of thousands of pounds of food each year. In addition, it offers clothing and hygiene distributions, maintains Little Free Libraries, hosts community groups and partner organizations, and provides welcoming space for congregations and vital services. Leo ``Chip'' Bouche, 2025 Neighborhood Enhancement or Beautification Award. Chip has strengthened community connection through craftsmanship and initiative. He designed, built, and installed new Little Free Library and Little Puzzle Library structures while restoring an aging library that had served the neighborhood for years. His work has created inviting gathering points that promote literacy, creativity, and neighborly exchange. Margaret Thaxton, 2025 Most ``Can Do'' Public Employee Award. As Director of Development for the Fairfax County Park Foundation, Margaret has played a transformative role in advancing the mission of the Fairfax County Park Foundation. Through her leadership in fundraising, donor relations, and grant management, annual contributions have grown dramatically, reaching record levels in the past fiscal year. Her efforts have supported park improvements, community programs, and historic preservation projects that directly benefit residents across the Braddock District and Fairfax County. Anthony Nguyen, 2025 Young Person of the Year. Anthony exemplifies thoughtful and dependable student leadership at Annandale High School. He contributes through student government, school media, and athletics, while also applying his creative talents as a photographer and entrepreneur to document and celebrate school life. His commitment to service, collaboration, and amplifying student voices reflects maturity well beyond his years. Bob Mizer, Special Recognition for a Lifetime of Service to the Braddock District by dedicating decades to strengthening public safety and civic life in Fairfax County. As founder of one of the county's longest-running neighborhood watch programs, he built a volunteer network that has protected and connected hundreds of households. His continued service through civic leadership, faith-based volunteering, and support of the Burke Volunteer Fire Department reflects a lifetime commitment to community. Marcy Stennes, 2025 Braddock District Citizen of the Year. Marcy has mobilized extraordinary volunteer efforts to care for neighbors in need. She led Burke Presbyterian Church's Hypothermia Shelter during one of its most active seasons, recruiting hundreds of volunteers to provide meals, safety, and dignity to guests. Her leadership also extends to affordable housing advocacy, food security initiatives, and youth support programs, demonstrating a deep and abiding commitment to justice and service. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the 2025 Best of Braddock Award recipients for their exceptional contributions to the Braddock District and to Fairfax County. Their dedication, leadership, and compassion embody the very best of Virginia's 11th Congressional District and serve as an example to communities across our Nation.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes. I am opposed to the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act. As the chairman said, since its creation, the PRAC has clawed back millions of dollars in pandemic fraud, and it stands as an exemplar of what smart oversight can do with strong bipartisan support. It works. I support making it permanent, as do my Democratic colleagues on the Oversight Committee. That is why we supported the extension of the PRAC's authorization to 2034 last year. Thanks to that bipartisan work, the PRAC is in no danger of disappearing in the near future. The danger this bill presents, however, is far-reaching, and it is a continuation of President Trump's war on the inspector general community. Right now, today, the PRAC is housed in the Council of the Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency, or CIGIE, which was created by Congress to provide a way for the IG community to coordinate, share resources, set audit and investigative standards, learn from one another, and, most importantly, ensure accountability within the IG community itself. The danger this bill presents is a continued weakening of that IG community. It is clear that President Trump and his administration are afraid of CIGIE, because one of its functions, its core functions, is to investigate inspectors general who are accused of wrongdoing; a function that disrupts his administration's efforts over the last year and a half to illegally fire independent IGs and replace them with political allies who his administration hopes will cover up the waste, fraud, and abuse perpetrated by his own administration. To this end, he illegally withheld CIGIE's congressionally provided funding last fall. All of us, Democrats and Republicans, should be outraged by that because we appropriated that funding. It caused CIGIE to abruptly stop functioning. The websites housing thousands of audit reports went offline. Investigators and law enforcement officers across the IG community were left without access to essential training. That fraud prevention work came to a halt. Taking the PRAC out of CIGIE and moving it to a third, new Treasury IG is another attempt to weaken the case for funding CIGIE and to further dismantle what remains of a community already very severely weakened by the Trump administration's efforts to purge independent IGs and replace them with political cronies. Renewed cuts to CIGIE's funding would result in a massive loss of capacity for the IG community and less waste, fraud, and abuse identified. Worse, the bill's expansion of the Do Not Pay system could threaten the privacy of millions of Americans, given this administration's really poor track record on information privacy. That is why I filed an amendment to the bill that would walk back the changes proposed and would instead simply make the successful functions of the PRAC permanent within CIGIE. It ain't broke. We don't need to fix it. But the majority would not allow that amendment to move forward. This is another example of congressional Republicans lining up to support the administration's unrelenting attack on the IG community that started with the illegal mass firings in his first month in office in 2025. Since then, many IG positions have been left vacant, and they have installed overtly partisan appointees in others. That governmentwide overhaul has created a culture of fear, where IGs are fearful to come forward when they identify waste, fraud, and abuse. Independent oversight has been blocked, and I fear that this bill would give the Trump administration another way to pull the rug out from inspectors general, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The gentleman from Kentucky said that I had done nothing about fraud for the last 4 years here. I know the gentleman from Kentucky knows that I have not been a Member of this House for 4 years because he reminds me often, but I did spend the last 5 years serving in local government for a county government that was repeatedly named the best managed county in the United States of America. One of the reasons for that is we had independent auditors, the analogue to IGs, and when they brought forward information that might have been inconvenient for us that there was perhaps waste, fraud, or abuse taking place within the government, we didn't fire them. We listened to that information and acted on it. The Trump administration could learn a little bit from that. I come to this floor often, and one can be forgiven, Madam Speaker, if you come to the conclusion that Joe Biden is President of the United States right now. That is because with my friends on the other side, every sentence is ``subject verb Joe Biden,'' ``subject verb Joe Biden,'' ``Joe Biden this,'' ``Joe Biden that.'' Joe Biden is on the beach in Delaware. Donald J. Trump is President of the United States, and he is responsible for the fraud, the corruption, and the abuse taking place in the administration: the $400 million jet gift of a foreign government; the digital schemes that were reported recently where the Trump family profited $500 million, while investors--I use that term loosely--in those schemes lost out, every one of our constituents; the no-bid contracts awarded to close political allies of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem; and the credible allegations that Corey Lewandowski had to be paid off before contracts could be awarded at DHS. There is corruption, fraud, and abuse, and we hear nothing from the majority about it in this Chamber or on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. With respect to the PRAC--and I believe that the gentleman from Texas is sincere in his view that this bill would be an improvement--I want to share, again, my concerns. We agree that the PRAC works. It is one thing that maybe we agree on today. Why does it work? Why has it worked better than other tools that we have? I will give you three reasons, Madam Speaker. One, PRAC has multiagency ownership because it is housed at CIGIE. It can bring together the judgment of IGs across the government, all the IGs. CIGIE is uniquely positioned to allow for all of those perspectives to be brought to bear on the PRAC's work. Second, it has institutional independence. It is independent of the White House and independent of any agency or department, which allows it to speak truth in a way that, right now, other IGs don't feel they can do. Third, it is separate from the payment system. It is separate from the payment system, so we can look from above and outside on what is taking place in the payment system to help prevent fraud. This bill would put the IG overseeing the payment infrastructure inside the very agency that runs that payment structure. I think that weakens it. I respect that the gentleman from Texas believes that strengthens it. I think the record is clear. If we agree that it works, then why do we want to risk disrupting it? Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, as I said, this bill would undercut independent inspectors general, which is one of the most powerful tools we have to combat waste, fraud, and abuse. I highlighted the three ways in which I fear it would break the PRAC program that is not broken. We agree, both sides, that the PRAC is working. Why we would want to disrupt it, I don't comprehend. I struggle to comprehend. I think this bill would be a mistake, and I fear that it would advance the Trump administration's efforts to further undermine and weaken our independent inspectors general, who are our key tools to combat waste, fraud, and abuse. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes. Madam Speaker, fighting and preventing fraud should be a bipartisan issue, and preventing the misuse of government funds should be a priority shared by Democrats and Republicans alike. When fraudsters successfully target government dollars, they steal from taxpayers, deprive our most vulnerable neighbors of lifesaving services, and undermine the public's trust in government. We know that it is difficult to fight fraud and certainly difficult, if not impossible, to claw back payments after they have been delivered to a fraudster. There is no doubt the Federal Government must do more to address this problem. That is why Oversight Committee Democrats have supported numerous antifraud measures, including the Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act, which seeks to add additional payment verification before checks are sent out the door. Oversight Committee Democrats and our Democratic colleagues across the House will continue to fight waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government. However, the bill before us is flawed and does not constitute a good-faith effort to detect and prevent fraud. H.R. 8464, the Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act, would give the Trump administration a blank check to cut off entitlements and grants to any entity or individual it disfavors with few guardrails. It would allow the Treasury Department to significantly delay funding if it decides there is sufficient reason that a payment carries an elevated risk of fraud. This very broad, loosely defined authority could easily be used to target funding to State and local governments, university research grants, transportation funding, Pell grants, NIH grants, and even FEMA assistance. Due to this administration's policies and this Congress' policies, Americans are struggling to put food on the table, gas in the tank, and to access the healthcare they need. For millions of families, Federal assistance, healthcare, food assistance, and Social Security is the only thing standing between them and financial ruin. This bill threatens to pull that lifeline away by burying legitimate payments in vague criteria, red tape, and bureaucratic delays. While we are all serious about stopping fraud, I hope, we can't turn a blind eye to the political interference and weaponization carried out by this administration. Just last month, it suspended $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California, which will harm nearly a million elderly and disabled residents. Last December, it threatened to withhold SNAP benefits from Colorado and Minnesota. In January, the Department of Health and Human Services froze $10 billion in funding for essential needs across five States led by Democratic Governors. Meanwhile, not one State led by Republicans has been targeted. The bill's stated intent is to stop improper payments, which we all agree is important. That is why House Democrats supported the Pre- Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act earlier this week, a bipartisan bill to ensure we check the Do Not Pay list and catch improper payments before they go out the door. However, the bill we are considering here includes none of those safeguards and will endanger millions of Americans who rely on critical programs for healthcare, food, and rent. The American people want programs that work, not unnecessary red tape, delayed payments, and more dysfunction. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Bell).

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. Madam Speaker, I want to address the gentleman from Kentucky who described my statement as gibberish. Perhaps to him the details of the programs and the legislation are gibberish, but it is not to me. I wonder if the gentleman knows how often the Do Not Pay list produces a false positive--in other words, how often the Do Not Pay list says someone shouldn't get paid when actually they are perfectly legitimate. Madam Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer).

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I am reclaiming my time. Madam Speaker, I will just give one agency, Social Security, an agency that has been under assault by this administration. It is estimated that 10,000 times a year, Social Security falsely declares somebody dead. Imagine that. You wake up one morning, and your own government says you are dead. It happens oftentimes because States send bad information to the Social Security Administration. Time after time after time, the IG has recommended that Social Security and this body make improvements in that process. They have requested additional funding, which this majority has denied, that would improve that process and prevent some of those false positives. This bill would make a terrible situation for someone falsely declared by their government to be dead even worse, because if the government says you are dead, you don't get your Social Security checks. This bill would make an already impossible process, where someone has to go call Social Security, get into an office, and try to get an appointment with an agency that has been decimated by DOGE--I know that my constituents tell me every day that they call Social Security offices and can't get anyone to answer the phone because folks have been fired and pushed out. This bill would further delay at least 10,000 Americans falsely declared dead each year from getting their Social Security checks. That is just one of the problems.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield myself an additional 1 minute. Madam Speaker, the IRS, 52 percent of the time when they say a return is fraudulent, they get it wrong. There are a lot of false positives on the Do Not Pay list. This bill does nothing to address that situation, to ensure the Do Not Pay list is actually getting the fraudsters, not the law-abiding Americans who deserve their Social Security checks. It would make it a lot harder for all of our constituents to get the money they deserve when the government makes a mistake. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. McGarvey).

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, as I have said today, preventing fraud should be a priority for all of us, but this bill gives the Department of the Treasury far too much arbitrary authority to prevent critical Federal assistance from reaching Americans in need in a timely manner. I will be happy to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support legislation like the eight suspension bills we considered earlier this week to combat fraud, but this bill misses the mark. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize this week as Taiwanese American Heritage Week and to celebrate the many contributions Taiwanese Americans have made to our communities and our Nation. Taiwanese Americans have played an important role in shaping the cultural, economic, scientific, and civic life of the United States. Across generations, they have strengthened communities through public service, entrepreneurship, education, healthcare, technology, and the arts. In Northern Virginia and across the Washington metropolitan region, Taiwanese American families and organizations continue to enrich our communities through cultural engagement, business leadership, and civic involvement. Their contributions have helped foster stronger communities and deeper connections across our region. Taiwanese American Heritage Week also serves as an opportunity to recognize the rich history and traditions of Taiwanese culture and the importance of preserving and sharing that heritage with future generations. Cultural celebrations and community events throughout the week help promote understanding, strengthen community ties, and highlight the diversity that makes our Nation stronger. I would also like to recognize the many Taiwanese American community leaders, advocates, educators, and volunteers whose efforts continue to make a meaningful difference throughout Northern Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Taiwanese American Heritage Week and in celebrating the many contributions Taiwanese Americans continue to make to our communities and our Nation.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the bipartisan amendments en bloc, which includes my amendment to address air quality for our veterans and the Federal employees who care for them. The bipartisan package makes progress on important veteran healthcare priorities as well as funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund, but our work is far from finished. When it comes to ensuring that our Federal Government is leading by example and tackling one of the most enduring and largely unaddressed national priorities in the post-COVID world, we must upgrade our building standards to ensure we have the highest possible air quality. My amendment emphasizes the importance of ensuring the MILCON-VA facilities meet indoor air quality ventilation and HVAC performance standards and the need for strengthened oversight and GAO review of indoor air quality conditions in these buildings. Our civilians, doctors, patients, and nurses at VA facilities and our warfighters deserve the peace of mind and confidence that the air they are breathing is safe.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered to be the first sponsor of H.R. 3317, Honoring Civil Servants Killed in the Line of Duty Act, a bill originally introduced by Representative Connolly of Virginia, for the purpose of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and legacy of John W. Peterson, a dedicated conservation leader whose lifelong commitment to protecting our Nation's soil and water resources left a lasting impact on Virginia and communities across the country. John Peterson served with distinction as a professional with the United States Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service, now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He later continued his service as a locally elected director of the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District in Fairfax County, where he worked to advance conservation efforts and support responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Throughout his career, John played an important role in shaping conservation policy and strengthening partnerships among local, state, and federal conservation organizations. He served as Virginia's representative to the National Association of Conservation Districts Board of Directors and contributed to numerous national initiatives related to conservation policy, water resources, and farm legislation. John also helped support efforts that led to the enactment of the Small Watershed Rehabilitation Act of 2000, legislation that provided critical support for the rehabilitation of aging flood control dams maintained by conservation districts throughout the Nation. Beyond his policy and leadership work, John contributed to the professional advancement of the conservation field. He helped pioneer the certification program for Professionals in Erosion and Sediment Control and remained actively engaged with organizations committed to strengthening conservation practice and education. In recognition of his leadership and service, John received numerous honors, including the Wilkinson Award from the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts and induction into the National Association of Conservation Districts Southeast Region Conservation Hall of Fame. Mr. Speaker, John Peterson's dedication to conservation, public service, and the protection of our natural resources leaves a meaningful and lasting legacy for future generations. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring his life and recognizing the many contributions he made to conservation efforts in Virginia and across the United States.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my constituent, a man whose work has quietly shaped how this institution understands itself for more than three decades. Chuck Conlon is retiring after 31 years with CQ House Action Reports. As Members came and went and Congresses turned over, Chuck never missed a step. The bills kept coming, the deadlines kept arriving, and Chuck kept delivering every report factual, thorough, and on time. Members of Congress and their staff, from grizzled veterans who have seen it all to interns on their first week on the Hill, have relied on Chuck's reports to understand what is actually in the legislation before this body: what it does, what it costs, why it matters, and written clearly, completely, and without bias. Chuck would stay late to iron out the final edits and still find time to brief himself on what happened overnight so he was informed and ready to lead his team bright and early the next morning. The people of Virginia's 11th District are lucky to call Chuck a neighbor. I thank him for his service and wish him a well-earned retirement.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 60th anniversary of the Vienna Community Center, a historic and enduring gathering place that has served the Town of Vienna and Northern Virginia for generations. Since opening its doors in 1966, the Vienna Community Center has served as a shared space for residents of all ages to gather, learn, and stay active. Its creation was the result of a sustained community effort that began decades earlier, when local leaders and organizations came together to raise funds and support the vision of a shared space for the growing town. Since its founding, the center has played a central role in the daily life of Vienna residents. As the home of the Town of Vienna Parks and Recreation Department, it has provided space for educational programs, recreational activities, and community events that bring people together and strengthen local connections. Over the years, the Vienna Community Center has evolved to meet the needs of a growing community. Through renovations and expansions, including a major modernization project that enhanced its facilities and services, the center has remained both a historic landmark and a modern resource for residents. Today, the Vienna Community Center continues to serve as a gathering place where neighbors connect, families participate in programs, and community traditions are built and sustained. Its enduring presence reflects the values of collaboration, civic engagement, and community pride that define the Town of Vienna. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the Vienna Community Center on its 60th anniversary and in recognizing its lasting contributions to the Town of Vienna and the Northern Virginia region.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the so-called Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act. This is yet another example of the majority wasting our time here, dictating local decisions in D.C., instead of doing our jobs focusing on the real issues affecting the American people. As we speak, President Trump has us engaged in an unconstitutional, reckless war with Iran. Gas prices are at $4 a gallon. TSA lines are approaching 4 hours. Republicans have stripped healthcare from millions of Americans while giving big tax cuts to billionaires. Masked Federal agents have killed Americans on our streets. So what legislation do Republicans bring to the floor today? Legislation to bring down the high costs that American families are struggling with? No. Legislation to address the healthcare crisis and the fact that in our own Commonwealth of Virginia, nine rural hospitals are at risk of closing? No. This is a bill to further the President's seeming desire to make himself the king of the District of Columbia. In this Congress, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has spent a lot of time meddling in local D.C. matters and none holding the Trump administration accountable for corruption, its coverup of the Epstein files, and for the failure to deliver the lower costs that the President promised. If President Trump wants to run the District of Columbia, he should resign from the Presidency and run for Mayor. I think there is an opening. If congressional Republicans want to micromanage the District of Columbia, they should resign from Congress and run for the D.C. Council. Let's talk specifically about the bill in front of us on which it is important to note the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has not held a single hearing. The bill creates a Federal commission to oversee the District of Columbia, with mass deportation as its first priority. The commission is required to develop policies to ``direct the maximum enforcement of Federal immigration law within the District of Columbia, including policies to encourage the redirection of available Federal, State, or local law enforcement resources to apprehend and deport illegal aliens.'' It is to redirect law enforcement. Redirect law enforcement from the worst of the worst and, presumably, toward detaining more hardworking folks and children on top of the thousands of children that this administration has detained. At the same time, the commission is required to support efforts to speed up and lower the costs of concealed carry permits in D.C., increasing the risk of gun violence. My friend, the gentleman from Virginia, talked about crime in the District of Columbia. It is true that violent crime across this country spiked during President Trump's first term, but the good news is that it is way down in D.C. today. In fact, violent crime is at a 40-year low. Now, one crime is one crime too many, but it is at a 40-year low in the District of Columbia today. In fact, dozens of cities in red States, represented by my friends on the other side of the aisle, have higher violent crime rates than the District of Columbia. The bill also requires the Secretary of the Interior to ``develop a program to beautify the District of Columbia.'' As a former member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I know a little bit about efforts to improve quality of life within local communities in partnership with those communities, and that is not what this bill does. The so-called beautification project is not intended to improve the lives of the 700,000 people who call D.C. home. It is an instruction to the Secretary of the Interior and the commission to transform D.C. into Mar-a-Lago on the Potomac for President Trump's benefit. If my friends on the other side were serious about making D.C. safer and more beautiful, they wouldn't have blocked the District from spending its own tax revenue last year. They blocked the use of $1 billion in local D.C. funds, funds that could have gone towards locally-directed efforts that would have made D.C. safer and more beautiful for its residents. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this legislation and instead support efforts that respect local officials here in D.C. and across the country who work to make our communities safer and more beautiful. D.C. residents are among the only Americans who have all the responsibilities of citizenship in this country but don't enjoy all the benefits. If Republicans want to legislate on D.C. matters, let's pass D.C. statehood and give them all the benefits of citizenship. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I hear my friends on the other side often talking about the constitutional authority that this Congress has to legislate with respect to the District of Columbia, and I would make two points. One, I think the question isn't can we. The question is should we. Should we substitute our judgment based on the anecdotes we might have heard for the judgment of the District of Columbia's elected representatives who are connected to their communities each and every day and if they aren't responsive to those communities can be unelected by those communities. I would submit that they are in a better position than us to determine the policies for the District of Columbia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), an elected Representative of the District of Columbia.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. With respect to the concealed carry permit and streamlining the process, one of the aspects of the District's process that does take a little bit of time is the requirement for range training. I suspect that what the gentleman means when he says he wants to streamline the process for concealed carry permits in D.C. is he wants folks to have a concealed carry permit without completing range training. I know some people have that philosophy. I don't think that would make the District of Columbia safer. With respect to the crime data manipulation, as the gentleman noted, last year the Republicans on the Oversight Committee investigated alleged crime data manipulation in D.C. By the way, it is the same crime data that today they and President Trump celebrate as he claims to have eliminated violent crime in the District of Columbia. The investigation backfired on my Republican friends almost as soon as it began, thanks in large part to the testimony of every one of the eight current and former D.C. police commanders who sat down for transcribed interviews. That investigation proved, I think, not what they hoped it would prove. The evidence was that President Trump was not telling the truth and is not telling the truth about crime in D.C. to justify his federalization of the D.C. police and deployment of troops on D.C. streets. It undermined Republican attacks on home rule by showing that D.C. was successfully reducing crime before the Federal intervention. Every single one of those commanders testified that D.C. was experiencing a sustained decrease in crime over 2 years, well before President Trump's administration. Commander after commander testified that the data recording this trend wasn't manipulated. In fact, it was the very data they were using every day to help successfully drive down crime. With respect to the argument that President Trump has made D.C. safer, in 2024, the year before President Trump began his second term, violent crime in D.C. was down 35 percent, a 30-year low. In 2025, it was down 29 percent, which is smaller than 35 percent, so the reduction in crime slowed down after President Trump's intervention. As I noted before, homicides in D.C. and across the country did spike during President Trump's first term, but they have been falling for years, and the reduction in homicides in D.C. began before President Trump's second term. We heard some anecdotes that the gentleman has heard from his staff and others. According to a poll conducted by The Washington Post, 80 percent of D.C. residents opposed President Trump's federalization of the D.C. police department and the deployment of the National Guard and Federal law enforcement in D.C. They disagree with the majority's view that President Trump and Federal troops have made D.C. safer. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan).

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, $4 a gallon gas, 4-hour waits at TSA lines, millions of Americans losing their healthcare, rural hospitals set to close, and tariffs driving up costs for hardworking American families. Those are the challenges that our constituents across the country are facing. Those are the challenges that we here as Members of Congress are supposed to address, yet we are meddling in the District of Columbia's affairs. Let's do our job in this Congress and work together to bring down costs for the American people. Let the Mayor of the District of Columbia and the District council do their jobs. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. WALKINSHAW

Mr. WALKINSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate the South Lakes High School Freshmen Girls and Boys Basketball teams for their remarkable achievements during the 2025-2026 basketball season. The South Lakes Freshmen Girls Basketball team completed an outstanding season with a record of 14-2, setting a new milestone as the winningest freshmen girls team in South Lakes High School history. Their success reflects the passion, teamwork, and determination displayed by these student-athletes throughout the season. The South Lakes Freshmen Boys Basketball team also delivered an extraordinary season, finishing with an impressive record of 15-0-1. The team's undefeated season will stand as a benchmark for future South Lakes teams. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the leadership, mentorship, and dedication of the coaches and volunteers who support these teams. I commend the entire coaching staff, parents, and the many individuals who give their time and energy to help these young athletes develop their skills, build character, and learn the value of teamwork. The success of these teams is a source of great pride for South Lakes High School and the broader Fairfax community. Their achievements serve as an inspiration to fellow students and demonstrate the value of hard work and perseverance. I am honored to represent a district that is home to such exceptional student-athletes. I commend them for the dedication they have displayed to their school and teams. Their accomplishments both on and off the court continue to make our district proud. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the South Lakes High School Freshmen Boys and Girls Basketball teams on their exceptional 2025-2026 seasons and in wishing these talented student-athletes continued success in the years ahead, both on and off the basketball court.