UDD Announcement

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, when I visit U.S. troops defending liberty,
I ask them: What else can we do? They say: Just get us better drones
faster.
  Thus, today, I rise in celebration of the announcement of $18.4
million in F-Drone manufacturing to be anchored in Ohio; both Central
Ohio, which has already received Anduril's investment, and now in
Northwestern Ohio, $18.4 million to begin to manufacture F-Drones on
our soil.
  An all-hands-on-deck local, State, and Federal approach won the day
for Northwestern Ohio. Our sustained engagement now has attracted one
of the leading manufacturers of unmanned systems: Ukrainian defense
drones, the U.S. arm of Ukraine's F-Drones, to stand up assembly in
Northwestern Ohio.
  It will complement an equally significant investment by Anduril in
Central Ohio. Already, our State of Ohio is well recognized as the home
of aviation, of space exploration, and defense industrial base
manufacturing. We are the home of the best fighter wing in the United
States of America, F-16s, and they are a guard unit. We are so proud of
them.
  This UDD drone firm will operate on the cutting edge of drone
technology and defense innovation. Its systems have been battle-tested
on the frontlines of liberty, defending the free people of Ukraine from
Dictator Vladimir Putin's merciless and unprovoked invasion.
  UDD is now one of the leaders in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance
Program, ensuring that American troops can defend themselves with the
best technology available.
  I have been honored to work with the innovative UDD team to spotlight
the benefits of investing in Northwestern Ohio.
  Working closely alongside the Regional Growth Partnership and
JobsOhio, and with Governor Mike DeWine, together we achieved a
strategic partnership with the potential to grow into a substantial and
sustained presence across our Great Lakes region.
  We have it all: land, air, sea. Our region has a talented workforce,
proven manufacturing infrastructure, research and testing, phenomenal
assets with our space agencies, as well as a community that honors and
celebrates the shared benefits of working with our freedom-loving
allies abroad.
  We are confident in our potential to be a global leader in U.S. drone
manufacturing, and Northwestern Ohio's manufacturing genius has formed
the backbone of the arsenal of democracy. We understand steel. We
understand forging. We understand propulsion. We understand tooling. We
make things. We form things. We helped defeat fascism in World War II,
Soviet communism in the last century, and remain committed to liberty
and to sustaining our NATO alliance against all enemies. Building our
Nation's defense also builds our middle class, and we keep them free.
  Our region stands ready to stay vigilant at creating a future to
ensure jobs and industry leadership for Northwest Ohio's manufacturing
workforce and making sure that China and other countries like Iran do
not have the most sophisticated technology that is known to the world.
  The urgent national security imperative of dominating the drone space
and the economic benefits for our communities are why I am honored to
lead on these issues here on Capitol Hill. These include introducing
today, my bipartisan Strategic Unmanned Systems Partnership Act to
ensure America continues working with our Ukrainian allies on these
vital issues.
  Together, we will submit Northwestern Ohio as a critical drone
manufacturing capital of America, and with Anduril's investment in
Central Ohio, together we will meet our U.S. military's new needs at
home and abroad.

                              {time}  1950

  Mr. Speaker, in helping to close today, as we return home for Fourth
of July commemorations, I rise especially to commemorate and celebrate
our Nation's 250th anniversary.
  We are still strong. We are still free. We have lots of work to do,
but it was this week in 1776 that our Founders, our Framers, our
forefathers and foremothers, in Philadelphia, came together to make the
courageous declaration that we chose liberty over tyranny.
  How that must have felt at that time.
  A year before, Delegate Patrick Henry of Virginia, just a little
south of where I am standing, proclaimed: ``Give me liberty or give me
death.'' A year later, he became Virginia's popularly elected first
Governor.
  Imagine the courage and the vision.
  Our Founders were farmers, printers, and merchants--hardworking,
ordinary people who did the extraordinary and envisioned the
extraordinary. They gave rise to the idea that freedom is a right, not
a privilege granted by a king.
  For 250 years, that Declaration of Independence and choice of liberty
has carried our Nation through wars and expansive economic recessions,
through innovation and growth, and through division and unity.
  It was stronger than the weakest among us.
  It is important that we don't just look back with pride. We must look
to the future with purpose to what the next 50 years, 100 years, and
even 250 years of the American experiment might require of us.
  First of all, it should require duty--duty to country--duty to
country before self, because liberty is not free. It requires citizens
who rise to duty for our Republic.
  In this era, each citizen must make a vital decision to ensure our
Nation and people can flourish not just today but for the decades to
come. That requires some wisdom, and we could do a little better at
that.
  Let Americans be proud of our progress when celebrating the next
milestone anniversary.
  Mr. Speaker, may God bless America and give us all the courage to
fight for a good and prosperous and free people, a productive future
for all the generations of Americans to come, and gratitude, gratitude,
gratitude for where this 250 years has moved America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                      PEOPLE OF TEXAS STEPPING UP

  (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Roy of
Texas was recognized for 30 minutes.)
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the bipartisan nature of remarks
tonight in remembrance of the importance of this week and Independence
Day and our great Nation's history and this particular one, celebrating
the 250th.
  I am going to first, though, focus a little bit on my home State of
Texas. It was 1 year ago this week that we were in the throes of
negotiating what was called at the time the big, beautiful bill, an
important piece of legislation that I am very honored to have been a
part of working through. It was difficult in working through all the
complexities of the tax policy, dealing with the complexities of the
reforms to Medicaid, to welfare programs, saving $1.7 trillion, pulling
back some of the subsidies and unreliable power that was so critically
important.
  But all of that was going on--and my son, Charlie, who is here with
me now, we were here. We were in the throes of the debates. We were at
the White House on the 2nd, debating it. We were here on the 3rd, late
night. We vote on this thing.
  And then I was supposed to be in Kerrville, Texas, which is where I
go every summer for the Fourth of July. There was a big concert down on
the river, and I was supposed to be there, where my family has gone
for, now, at least a decade.
  I talked to the President about being here for the bill signing
because of all the work we had gone through, and I ultimately told the
President that I would stay here for the bill signing.
  So I stick around, visited with some friends on the night of the 3rd,
and I am watching the weather forecast. I wake up on the morning of the
Fourth of July. My son and I were getting ready to go see some friends,
and I see the news reports.
  All of a sudden, it starts to sink in what had happened in Kerrville.
We have had a number of moments here on the floor of the House, one in
particular almost a year ago, in which we remembered those lives who
were lost and what occurred there in Kerrville.
  But now, 1 year since this coming Saturday on the Fourth of July, I
do