June 8, 2017
than 1,000 of America’s most forwardthinking cities, States, universities, and businesses, including the cities of Albany, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs, Union and Skidmore Colleges, and SUNY Albany. So are millions of our fellow Americans and communities in every single congressional district across our great Nation. Together, we will embrace the climate economy, even if our President does not. President Trump’s decision is a scar on America’s image, but the American people will continue to demand leadership on reducing carbon pollution. Our children and our grandchildren are counting on us. Let’s not fail them.
ership and increases the likelihood of climate disasters. However, where our President has failed, State and local leaders are stepping up and leading. For example, last week, California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, brokered an agreement with China on reducing emissions. On the campaign trail, the President had a lot to say about China taking American jobs, but when he had the chance to pave the way to create American job growth, he failed. We must combat climate change and continue to deploy clean energy sources across the Nation that benefit our national security and create jobs.
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COMMUNITY BANKS AND DODDFRANK (Mrs. ROBY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, since the enactment of Dodd-Frank in 2010, a total of 357 financial institutions have been forced out of business. Four community banks in Alabama are on that list. That amounts to nearly $7.5 billion less in Alabama’s economy that could be lent to small businesses and farmers. In all, nearly 20 percent of Alabama’s community banks have either closed or been forced to merge under Dodd-Frank. Why is this happening? Because homegrown banks can’t keep up with the crazy compliance costs that DoddFrank mandates. Here is an example: One credit union in Alabama’s Wiregrass region, their compliance department size has tripled. They estimate that these new costs have limited their growth by as much as $60 million. That is not right. Hometown lenders in Alabama didn’t cause the financial crisis of 2009, but now they and their customers are paying the price. There is no question we need strong laws to govern our financial markets, but Dodd-Frank is not the answer. We now have a chance to fix this broken law, untangle this regulatory web, and unleash the capital investment that is so crucial to economic growth. I urge my colleagues to support the CHOICE Act.
NATIONAL HEMP HISTORY WEEK (Mr. COMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, this week is National Hemp History Week. Industrial hemp is a crop that can be used to produce more than 25,000 products, from textiles and fabrics to composites, auto parts, or even food. Hemp is such an industrial crop that, during World War II, the USDA produced a film encouraging farmers to grow hemp to support the war effort because textiles and fibers were in such short supply. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe all grew hemp. Today, however, industrial hemp is largely illegal for widespread production because the Controlled Substances Act does not make the distinction between hemp and marijuana. Both are varieties of the cannabis plant, but that is where the similarities end. Unlike marijuana, hemp is high in fiber that makes it so useful and only has miniscule amounts of PSC. In 2004, Congress began to recognize the differences when it passed the 2014 farm bill, which included language to allow industrial hemp pilot programs. Today, more than 30 States have enacted laws to legalize industrial hemp for research or commercial purposes. I was proud to lead the effort to create a hemp program in Kentucky that has been highly successful, with nearly 250 permitted growers and small businesses today. Now we need to take the next step in bringing hemp into the mainstream as a crop. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance legislation to make industrial hemp a legal crop for the farmers of Kentucky and across the United States of America.
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WITHDRAWING FROM THE PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD (Mr. MCNERNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. MCNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the safety and future of the American people is in jeopardy. Last week, the President made the irresponsible decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. Military and national security leaders have asserted the need to address climate change as an imminent global threat. Removal from the Paris accord abdicates America’s global lead-
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FREE SPEECH (Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, people who are the loudest in proclaiming their tolerance are often the most intolerant people of all. This has been proven in spades this year at the most liberal leftwing college campuses all over this country. Almost all colleges and universities now have programs or offices supposedly promoting diversity. However, this diversity apparently does not apply to conservatives. Probably the least diverse groups in this Nation today are the faculties of our universities. And while almost everyone in higher education will say they are for freedom of speech, conservative students know they can express their views only at the risk of lower grades. In addition, almost no leading conservatives are invited to be college commencements speakers. This year, we have even seen very hateful demonstrations and some violence at universities when conservative speakers have been invited to speak at these supposed bastions of free speech. Some of the young student haters conducting their far-left demonstrations would have fit right in during the book-burning, anti-free speech days in Nazi Germany.
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FOOD POLICY IS FOREIGN POLICY (Mr. EVANS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, for years, I have said: Food policy is foreign policy.
PROTECT AND EXPAND MONUMENT DESIGNATIONS (Mr. O’ROURKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
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Mr. O’ROURKE. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 111th anniversary of the Antiquities Act. Over more than a century, Presidents of both parties have preserved and opened to the public over 157 monuments, like the Grand Canyon by President Theodore Roosevelt, or Zion in Utah by President William Howard Taft, or the Pacific National Monument in Hawaii by President George W. Bush. It is also connected to our economy and jobs, with 7 million jobs in the United States connected to outdoor recreation in our national monuments. While this administration is reviewing certain monuments, we need to protect the ones that we already have, like Organ Mountains National Monument in New Mexico, or Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. We also need to think about expanding national monuments where we have heritage that we want to preserve, like Castner Range, that preserves 10,000 years of human history and civilization in El Paso, Texas, where the United States and Mexico meet. Mr. Speaker, let’s work together to strengthen the Antiquities Act and not diminish its protections.
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