Continue beyond 1 50 p. M. Each member other than the majority and minority leaders and minority whip shall be limited to five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, mr. Butterfield, for five minutes. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to recognize the achievements of a great public servant, a mother, a wife, a friend to many, and the longest serving employee of the Washington County, North Carolina, school system, ms. Eleanor patterson barber. Some refer to her as mother barber. She was born in indianapolis, indiana, on november 13, 1933. A graduate of the historic christmas attics high school, she trained as a concert pianist and graduated in indianapolis. She met her husband, the reverend william jay barber i, a educator, activist with deep roots in eastern North Carolina. With a strong passion and conviction for justice and quality, the barber couple relocated to eastern North Carolina to play an essential role in the integration of the county schools. Though it had been 12 years since the brown decision, many southern schools remained fully separated by race. While the decision to move southward from a northern metropolitan city meant their only son at the time, william jay barber ii, would enter kindergarten at a segregated school, they believed this sacrifice would nonetheless serve the greater good for their family. Washington county and the state. Her little boy, william, some refer to him as billy, is now internationally known as Bishop William jay barber ii, who was the architect of the moral monday movement and now founder and leader of the repairs of the breach, or the poor Peoples National campaign. In 1966, mother barber began working as the Office Manager at the Washington CountyUnion Elementary school while her husband taught science at the school. In 1971, when mrs. Barber began her duties at plymouth high school, she made history as the first africanamerican Office Manager at a desegregated school in that county. Mrs. Barbers passion and conviction have led her to impact generations of students over her 53 years of service. She has served 11 principals and in some cases shes watched students and their parents and grandparents ma particularry late through ma particularry ate through the school and taught some students concert piano. He led choirrs and served as musician for the school for many, many years and she continues. In her more than half a Century Service to North Carolinas Public Schools i, today, applaud mrs. Barber for her years of dedicated and committed service to our nations most precious resources our children. Mrs. Eleanor barber is a history maker, barrier breaker and a remarkable example of the transformative power of a willing spirit and a dedicated public servant. On behalf of the United States house of representatives and the people of the first district, including the people of Washington County, and the town of roper, where she resides, i express appreciation to mrs. Eleanor patterson barber of 53 years of committed service to the Washington County, North Carolina, Public Schools. Thank you to mrs. Barber for your perseverance and your willingness to give and go the extra mile to pour into the youth all you had to offer. Mrs. Barber has without exception earned the right to be honored here today on the floor of the house of representatives. It is my hope that god will continue to bless and keep mrs. Barber and her family for years to come. I will say, mr. Speaker, in closing, that mrs. Barber has a wonderful family she gave birth to two biological children. They were both boys. The first was Bishop William jay barber ii. Bishop barber is married to rebecca and have five children. Five wonderful, delightful children. The other sibling deceased earlier this live. Rifton, georgia. Charles was survived by three children. Mr. Speaker, thank you so very much for allowing me time this morning to celebrate and to recognize a Great American who has served well over these many years. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from georgia, mr. Cisneros, for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Last week we passed the National Defense authorization act for fiscal year 2020. Working with my colleagues for over 20 hours on the House Armed Services committee to mark up this bill in the late hours of the night and early hours the next day was all worth it. Mr. Speaker, with this passage of this years ndaa, we have fulfilled our duties to ensure our militarys readiness, strengthen our National Security, and ease our Service Members be transition toively members transition to civilian life. More than half amendments were offered on a bipartisan basis. These provisions supported programs that are critical to Service Members living in the 39th congressional district. As major priority of mine a major priority of mine is ensuring Service Members have the support they need when they transition back to civilian life. I was proud to colead the bipartisan work for warriors provision with my colleagues, presentatives paul cook, elisea slotkin. It has a track record of providing job placement assistance to unemployed guard men, military spouses and veterans, not only help them provide for their families and successful heir transition to civilian life. And provide Mental Health programs and Womens Health care services. Im proud to have secured a number of provisions that take care of military families by expanding military housing and improving access to health care services. Specifically, i was proud to work with congresswoman hol has for women Service Members. This will ensure they are better equipped with the Health Care Resources they need as they leave military service. Also, i am hopeful the amendment my colleagues and i included to address Sexual Assault at all levels of our military will help our Service Members and veterans receive the respect and justice they deserve. The high rate of Sexual Assault in the military is unacceptable and needs to be addressed immediately. Even though d. O. D. Spends millions on Sexual Assault prevention programs, the number of assaulted has jumped dramatically since 2010. We owe it to our Service Members and veterans to determine why the current programs have been failing and we need to create a new effective approach to this problem. Because an exchange for their service our nation took on the responsibility to care for each Service Members health, both physical and mental. Thats why i prioritized provisions to address the suicide epidemic currently facing our Service Members and veterans. Were losing Service Members and veterans to addiction and suicide at alarming rates. It is unacceptable that this epidemic is only getting worse. I worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to secure language that will help prevent Service Members from reaching atrisk status and ensure theyre able to be identified and receive the care they deserve. Im proud to have supported an amendment with congresswoman Jackie Speier to protect our transgender Service Members. As a navy veteran, i was saddened by our governments willingness to discriminate against individuals who had the courage, spirit to serve our country in uniform. They should be allowed to do so and i stand firmly against the administrations ban on transgender Service Members. I will continue to fight against this hateful and bigoted policy until the president and his administration understand that transgender Service Members have the right to their dignity and they have the right to serve. Finally, i would be remiss if i didnt mention that the ndaa reaffirms our Constitutional Authority over the use of military force. With this provision, congress reasserts our Congressional Authority and its duty to our country and our Service Members. It makes clear that the president to the president that there is no current authorization to use military force against iran. We understand how iran destabilizes the region and its our responsibility in congress to ensure the u. S. Does not enter into a conflict without a strategy. In closing, while i have said much on what the house accomplished with this bill id like to end with this. Thank you to our Service Members, civilian military personnel and all the National Security professionals that support our armed services. In my district and the country around the world. Its an honor to represent you in congress to ensure the promise made here to ensure the promises made here are kept for our Service Members and our veterans. Thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore thank you. The chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. Courtney, for five minutes. Mr. Courtney thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last friday the house of representatives passed the National Defense authorization act, a measure which sets policy for the folks who wear the uniform of this country for 2020. The u. S. Congress has actually passed a Defense Authorization act every year for the last 57 years. This year, if we all continue to work together, we can make it 58 years running. Again, this is a measure which sets everything from military pay, 3. 1 pay raise for our military, the largest pay increase in the last 10 years. It also sets the ground rules for military acquisition, whether its recapitalizing our navy or buying the new f35 planes for the air force. Again, its a large sprawling bill which covers, again, all aspects of u. S. Defense policy for the upcoming year. Included in this measure was an amendment which i offered that on friday evening the iraq and afghan veterans of america issued a strong statement of support in the wake of passage of the bill. What my amendment did is it offset a policy decision that was made in july of 2018 by the Trump Administration which cut off the ability of longserving members of the military to transfer their g. I. Bill educational benefits to a spouse or dependent. Again, the iada, which Time Magazine described as the most Important Organization representing a new generation of veterans, again, what my amendment did, it eliminated what they described as a shortsighted policy change announced by the department of defense in july, 2015, which would have limited transferability to Service Members with less than 16 years of active duty service and excluded Service Members who served for the near entirety of the war on terror. In 2008 we changed the g. I. Bill, recognizing, again, we have an allvolunteer force and that the g. I. Bill, which goes back to Franklin Roosevelt signing it 75 years ago, had deteriorated over time. We restored the value of the educational benefit, and we created for the first time the ability of a Service Member to transfer on an onetime basis only the educational benefit to a spouse or child. Again, what this did was it took the burden of those who, again, were serving particularly long periods of time in our military at great economic sacrifice the ability to take care of one family members educational benefits for higher education. Again, my amendment, which was part of the bill that passed last friday night, would restore the full intent of the congress in 2008 and reverse the Trump Administrations decision to cut off that transferability, which was issued last july. Again, we still got work to do. We have to conference the bill with the senate, and we obviously got to get it to the president for signature. Again, weve done it for 57 straight years, and we should make it 58 this year by passing the 2020 ndaa bill. Mr. Speaker, there are also things happening at the u. S. Department of education regarding higher education, which are of great concern. On thursday, the American Federation of teachers filed a lawsuit in the District Court of washington, d. C. , basically asking the court to rule that the departments foot dragging in terms of discharging Student Loan Debt through the Public ServiceLoan Forgiveness Program has got to come to an end. In 2007 we passed the College Class reduction act which set up a mechanism for those who serve in critical Public Service occupations, such as teaching, nurses, doctors, police, prosecutors, social workers, veterinarians and people who work in nonprofit organizations, if they make their student loan payments consistently over a 10year period, under the College Cost Reduction act, they could apply for discharge on the balance of their student loan. Recognizing these are people who are going into occupations for which the payment of Student Loan Debt can be too onerous. So 2007 was the year this program was supposed to kick into effect. As the Government Accountability office determined, since that period our figures from 2019 7,555 borrowers have submitted applications to have their loans discharged. Only 864 have been approved and only 516 borrowers, less than 1 , had their loans forgiven. Again, the loan servicers working for the Department Education as determined by g. A. O. Are giving bad information, are not crediting the loan payments, the monthly loan payments that teachers and nurses and others have been faithfully making, relying on this program they built their employment history around the opportunity, knowing that Student Loan Debt could be discharged and, again, what were seeing are shocking figures from the department of education that have not followed through and implemented this law. Not a great surprise to those of us on the education committee, because the Trump Administration, for the last three years, has submitted budgets that would eliminate the Public ServiceLoan Forgiveness Program. We got to change this administrations policies towards higher education. We did it on friday, and we got to do it with public loan forgiveness to reward the good guys. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until 2 00 p. M. Today. Tomorrow the house will debate a contempt resolution against attorney general william barr and commerce secretary wilbert ross for failing to provide information on the Citizenship Question on the 2020 census. Raising the federal minimum wage to 15 an hour. Before the house can debate the contempt resolution against attorney general barr and commerce secretary ross, the rules committee has to decide you can structure watch that Committee Meeting on cspan3. The hearings with special Counsel Robert Mueller originally scheduled for wednesday have been pushed back a week. The Judiciary Committee hearing for president trumps possible obstruction of justice has been extended to three hours. After that hearingle mueller goes before the house committee. Cspan3 will have live coverage of both hearings wednesday, july 24. Also on online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. For 40 years cspan has ban previding america unfilthered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public 308cy events from washington, d. C. , and around the up your o you can make own mind. Created by cable in 1979. Cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of overnment. Pete beauty judge the mayor of south bend indiana campaigned in dover, hard money new hampshire. He spoke about democracy, criminal justies reform. And party unity. i ¿ [applause]