hazylavender/hi huggingface dataset:
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Page H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mrs. KIM : I rise to thank and celebrate the 50th birthday and retirement of Ernesto Mendoza for his dedicated service to our community, to protect and to serve the people of Los Angeles. Ernesto served our great country in the United States Army overseas in Germany and then came home to serve in the Los Angeles Police Department, with a combined total of 30 years of service. He consistently operates with integrity and honesty and has established strong, trusted leadership, retiring as a detective III through various LAPD departments, including the 77th Division and, most recently, South Bureau. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ernesto for all that he has done for our community, and I thank him for his service to our country. I hope Ernesto enjoys his 50th birthday with his family, and I wish him a joyful retirement.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Page H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Ms. WILD: I am a mother myself. My children are now 27 and 30 years old, but I distinctly remember how challenging it was to have children in a two-parent working family. I was a lawyer before I came to Congress, and I distinctly remember the panic when I had to bring my very active toddler son to court with me because his preschool was suddenly closed. I really feel for people who have ongoing issues finding affordable, reliable childcare. More than 38,000 children in Pennsylvania are waitlisted; 1,600 classrooms have closed; and hundreds of childcare positions remain unfilled. In my district in the Lehigh Valley, more than 1,500 children are waitlisted, and Carbon County is classified as a childcare desert. The childcare crisis isn't just hard on parents. It is hard on childcare providers, too. Early childcare workers in my district make just $28,000 to $32,000 compared with their elementary school peers making $52,000. The Childcare for Working Families Act introduced yesterday on a bicameral basis would help open more care providers and lower costs for parties, capping costs at 7 percent of a family's income. Putting money back in parents' pockets, raising wages for hardworking care providers, and giving kids more quality early childhood education--that is working for people.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Page H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. PAYNE: I rise today to discuss the importance of treating immigrants in a humane way. In a hearing in the Homeland Security Committee recently, we discussed an incredibly offensive collector's coin called a challenge coin being sold online. It depicted a Border Patrol agent on horseback chasing a Black Haitian migrant with a whip. The coin celebrated the incident, and it was claimed to be circulating with Border Patrol agents. It disgusted almost everyone in the hearing, except for a prominent MAGA Republican who laughed about it. No one should find the abusive treatment of human beings funny. It is a national embarrassment. These migrants are trying to better their lives and the lives of their families. We need to have an effective immigration policy in this country, but we also need to make sure all migrants, regardless of status, are treated humanely and fairly.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Page H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mrs. STEEL: I rise today to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Black April. I am proud to represent Orange County's Little Saigon, which is home to the largest population of Vietnamese in the world outside of Vietnam itself. During Black April, we remember the fall of Saigon, those who served in Vietnam, and those who lost their lives fleeing communism. The fall of the Republic of Vietnam is one of the greatest tragedies in modern history. It reminds us that freedom is not free. It reminds us that we are blessed to live in the greatest country in the world. Today, I invite all of my colleagues to join me and stand with the Vietnamese community in Orange County and across the country during Black April.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. SMITH : I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today, we take a bipartisan step toward holding China accountable for its trade abuses. These trade abuses are well known to all of us in this Chamber. Most recently, this past December, President Biden's Department of Commerce found that China is circumventing tariffs on imports into the U.S. by shipping solar products through, not one country, not two countries, not even three countries, but in fact, four countries in Southeast Asia. These tariffs were put in place by President Obama since 2012 to provide a level playing field for American manufacturers who were facing unfair competition in the U.S. market from solar products that China was subsidizing and selling at unfairly low prices. By circumventing these tariffs by shipping its products through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, China has set up a solar panel export scheme that cheats American workers and consumers. So we know there is wrongdoing going on. We know China is cheating. That is precisely why Members from both parties were stunned and disappointed when the White House made the misguided decision to halt for 2 years additional tariffs on Chinese solar products being sent through these four countries. At a time when China has a dominant position in solar production, despite longstanding American innovation in this sector, should we really be telling the world that there will be less accountability for unfair trade practices? The answer is not just no. Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely no. But the President's proclamation to halt any new countervailing duties and tariffs does just that. What is worse, it establishes a lesser standard of accountability for China than the rest of the world. The legislation before us today, H.J. Res. 39, Congressional Review Act legislation on solar tariffs, will stop President Biden's proclamation that has given a free pass for 2 years to unfair solar imports from China that circumvent our trade laws. The United States must maintain crucial protections for American workers and our economy as a whole. We cannot surrender to China or any other country and put American workers at a disadvantage. This resolution has bipartisan support. I thank Representative Posey for leading this initiative, and Committee on Ways and Means members Dan Kildee of Michigan, Greg Murphy of North Carolina, Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and Claudia Tenney of New York. The fact that Democrats and Republicans on our committee are original cosponsors of this resolution shows just how bipartisan the issue is. We have to confront the Chinese Communist Party's bad behavior. We have to hold it accountable. Mr. Speaker, I urge votes in favor of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. MURPHY : I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 39. We are here today because the Biden administration is hell-bent on making the United States energy dependent upon China. They are hell- bent on signing this Nation's death warrant. In pursuit of everything green, the Biden administration has given a free pass for Chinese solar imports to flow into this country by all means, using an emergency proclamation. The last time a President used an emergency proclamation was for lumber in 1946 when American World War II veterans were returning home and needed homes. Today, Mr. Biden, or whoever is running the White House, is using it to waive tariffs on Chinese solar panels coming through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam for 2 years. Helping war heroes is an emergency, but speeding up total dependence on our greatest adversary is another. It is an absolute abuse of executive power. It is helping our greatest adversary take control of this country. Why on God's green Earth are we handing this Nation's keys to the nation of China? Chinese producers and the CCP are taking advantage of this system to circumnavigate the tariffs. They are cheating. Don't just take my word. Take the President's own Department of Commerce who determined that this would happen, even before President Biden did his emergency proclamation. This is simply un-American and a crystal clear abuse of emergency power by this American President. We need to prioritize American manufacturing, not Chinese manufacturing. We need to produce the energy here in the United States, not handing this to China, our greatest adversary. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, H.J. Res. 39.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. DOGGETT: ``Here Comes the Sun.'' It is more than a great tune. It is about a great renewable future, but our Republican colleagues refuse to see through the dark smoke of fossil fuels and fossilized thinking. They just blindly follow Trump at every opportunity to try to reduce progress on addressing the very real climate crisis. President Biden is both enforcing our trade laws and maintaining our commitment for more solar power by giving American companies a reasonable time to adjust their supply chains away from China and without an unreasonable disruption of installing more solar panels all across this country.  {time}  0930  This temporary tariff pause ends in only about a year. That is just not soon enough for those who are determined to disrupt our move to a clean energy future. I must say, this is a truly anti-business move because it penalizes companies that have relied in good faith on the President's order. It also, as my colleague from Oregon has just shown, will kill a number of good-paying union jobs across this country. Despite ice mass in Greenland and Antarctica melting at an average of about 420 billion tons every year, already raising sea levels in the Gulf of Mexico, Republican opposition in fighting climate change remains frozen in the past. Trading fossil fuel and fossil power for the power of the Sun by getting as many solar panels as soon as possible is one way that more and more American families and American businesses can make their contribution to their own lower energy bills. It can help us respond to the climate crisis that is already engulfing America with wildfires and intensified weather, like tornadoes and floods and droughts in different places, and, of course, hotter and hotter and hotter temperatures. At this dawn of a new clean energy era, now is not the time to eclipse solar. In Texas, we are already number two in the country among the States for solar capacity, creating thousands of new jobs and providing clean energy and lower energy bills to thousands of families. Austinites know that solar power saves them on their energy bills and saves them when storms disrupt the grid. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will see the light and see the power of solar and join us in voting ``no'' on this misguided proposal.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. POSEY: I thank Chairman Smith for yielding. Today, we are considering a historic bipartisan resolution to support American solar manufacturers and workers and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for dodging our trade laws. H.J. Res. 39 will undo a Biden administration's rule that allowed Chinese solar manufacturers who use forced labor to dodge American trade laws and dump inferior product on the United States. They are doing this by slapping a new label on their products and exporting them to third-party countries like Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Department of Commerce, in a preliminary investigation, concluded that the Chinese solar companies are, in fact, sending their products through these four southeast Asian countries to avoid paying a higher tariff. If left in place, this rule will benefit the Chinese Communist Party. Make no mistake about that. They are not our friends; they are an enemy. This will be at the detriment of American companies and workers. Unfortunately, some believe we must tolerate China's bad decisions and remain dependent on adversarial nations to create renewable energy. That is a false choice, so says the AFL-CIO. The United States can and should focus its resources into developing our own solar products and boosting American competitiveness around the world, rather than supporting China's quest to dominate the market and control energy supply. This bipartisan resolution is a critical step to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for everything from their human rights abuses to their unfair trade practices, all the while protecting American solar manufacturers and workers. Why not be an exporter of great American products rather than an importer of cheap Chinese products? For those who say they are clean energy advocates, I would like to remind them that their Chinese solar panels are built without any environmental protection or controls whatsoever. American solar panels have environmental protection requirements. Most are aware, and I hope everyone in this Chamber is for sure aware, that through economic dominance, China hopes to achieve military superiority. We need to stop helping China do that. How good is this resolution? As if the facts are not clear enough already, keep this in mind: This is a policy that President Obama and President Trump both agreed on. I know that is hard to believe, but you heard that right. It is a policy that President Obama and President Trump both agreed on. Additionally, we shouldn't sacrifice the Uyghur people at the altar of convenience. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting America and H.J. Res. 39.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. BLUMENAUER: I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson), who played an instrumental role in crafting many of these energy provisions. I love the partnership with him.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. THOMPSON : I thank the gentleman for his leadership and yielding me the extra time to speak. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I share my colleagues' goal of ensuring that our trade laws are fairly enforced. I certainly share our collective goal promoting domestic manufacturing and jobs. Let's be honest. The idea that our President wants to ship jobs to China and make us dependent on China for our energy, this may sound good, this political hyperbole may sound good, but it is flatout nonsense. If this legislation were to become law, it would cost, not create, American jobs. In the long run, it would make it harder, not easier, for our country to become energy independent. This bill would make it impossible to deploy solar energy quickly enough here in our country, here in the United States of America. It would undercut the climate change investments in the Inflation Reduction Act; the biggest investment in fighting climate change and creating green jobs in our history. This is an investment that we need. We have already heard from numerous speakers on the impact that we have felt from climate change: fires, floods, drought, and an increase in agricultural pests. This is at a point where we need to deploy everything we can to make sure we address the issue of climate change. We all want solar products manufactured right here at home. That will happen. But in the short run, our domestic industry can't increase production fast enough to meet our demand or meet our climate goals. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. SMITH : this article notes that three Democratic Senators, including the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden, Senator Manchin from West Virginia, and Senator Brown from Ohio, have publicly supported rescinding President Biden's action to pause tariffs on Chinese solar panels, even before the CRA has even passed the House. Mr. Speaker, I understand that at least one more Democratic Senator has also expressed support. I thank my Democratic colleagues in the House and in the Senate for joining me in standing up for American workers by supporting consistent enforcement of our trade laws against China's unfair trade practices. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. LATTA: I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 39, a bipartisan joint resolution of which I am proud to be an original cosponsor. We are a Nation of laws. It is not up to the President to determine which laws to enforce and which laws to ignore if they don't conform to that President's particular agenda. If we allow Communist China to blatantly violate our trade laws with impunity, as the Commerce Department has concluded is occurring, how can we expect other nations to follow those laws and conduct business with us in a fair manner? Those who oppose this joint resolution will say the imposition of these tariffs will handicap renewable projects across this country that rely on a continuous supply of solar panels and materials. I understand this concern, and I am not opposed to the deployment of more renewable energy projects. However, I am opposed to the United States maintaining a supply chain reliant on Communist China and their forced slave labor. We should instead be working to build up our own solar manufacturing industry and send signals to the industry that the time to shorten supply chains is long past due. Unfortunately, these domestic companies operate at a disadvantage when Communist China gets to break the rules and undermine the markets with their cheap prices. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand up for American workers and for American energy independence. Vote ``yes'' on H.J. Res. 39.
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. DAVIS : I thank the gentleman from Oregon for his leadership and for yielding. Mr. Speaker, solar energy is one form of electricity generation that is growing in the United States. Yet, we do not have the economy of scale in manufacturing solar systems to meet supply and demand for industry and consumers. Solar energy accounts for 3.9 percent of total electricity generation in 2021 compared to 0.7 percent in 2014. Currently, domestic solar production is sold out for the next 2 to 3 years. In order to continue to address China's unfair trading practices and allow America's solar industry to grow, President Biden's Presidential Proclamation 10414 declared an emergency with respect to U.S. electricity generation capacity by implementing a final rule that permits the importation of select sales on modules without the payment of antidumping and countervailing duty temporary for 24 months. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. SMITH : the statement highlights the close connection between the CCP solar industry and the ongoing human rights abuses and forced labor being perpetrated against the Uyghurs. This is bipartisan consensus that these practices are unacceptable and must be stopped. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).
[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Ms. TENNEY: I rise in support of H.J. Res. 39, critical legislation to undue to Biden administration's job-crushing solar policies. Last year, an American solar manufacturer petitioned the Commerce Department to investigate whether China was circumventing tariffs on solar products by sneaking them through countries in southeast Asia. Before that investigation even finished, President Biden issued a proclamation to allow the imports of unfairly traded solar products from China. Later, just as we expected, it was discovered by the Commerce Department that China was indeed violating U.S. trade laws. President Biden's irresponsible proclamation is a slap in the face to American manufacturers. It allows Chinese solar companies to flood our market with their products tariff-free, hurting American jobs. It is the Green New Deal agenda at work. President Biden's proclamation also sends the message to trade cheats everywhere that U.S. trade laws don't matter. This invites even more cheating. This is only the tip of the spear of the dangerous Green New Deal agenda. A recent report from the Coalition for a Prosperous America revealed that the Chinese manufacturers could earn nearly $125 billion, and that is with a b, in U.S. renewable energy tax credits as a result of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. This would be a specific boon to Chinese solar manufacturers on top of the massive giveaway given to China by President Biden's proclamation. We must stand with American manufacturers and jobs, not the Chinese Communist Party, and pass this crucial legislation.  {time}  0945