[captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, 19, ngton, d. C. , november 2020. I hereby appoint the honorable to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 7, 2020, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties. With time equally allocated between parties and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and minority whip limited to five minutes. But in no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Minutes. K, for five mr. Speaker, i ise this morning in defense of governoror newsome who recently own idiotic covid at one of e partied the restaurants. I defend him because we were what we all once did in what risksciety, run were willing to run and what precautions were willing to take according to our own our ownances to protect health. Yes, covid is a nasty bug, and a quarter of a million americans died while having it, but blownic he bu bubonic plague. If c. D. C. Estimates says youre under 49 your chances of isviving covid if you get it 99. 92 . Even if youre over 70, you have 94. 6 rate of recovery. 40 who get it dont even know it. Have and yet, weve allowed our oficials to ruin our quality life over it, destroying countless businesses, throwing tens of millions into robbing our children of their educations, cherisheding our most rights as americans. Governor newsomes night of artying should be a wakeup call for every american. Every time we step outside our the risks that we face multiply. That its iety assumes citizens are competent to assess balance them against the avoidance costs, and to manage their decisions in a responsible way. Its called common sense. Necessary prerequisite for selfgovernment and liberty. Choice of a person with emphysema might be different a healthy governor of california. The a fool would claim make a decision for every individual in every circumstance. In Public Office and that a fool with power can tyrant. Become a petty which brings us back to governor newsome. Love tovernment nannies tell us theyre just following the science. Well, what does the science actually tell us . Us that covid poses virtually no risk to children the an be severe among elderly. So what do these lockdowns do . The schools and ordered infected patients into nursing homes. That ience tells us outdoor transmissions of the virus are extremely rare and infections occur in peoples homes. So what do these lockdown leftists do . Camps, se our beaches, campgrounds and ordered people to stay at home. The science tell us that obesity a contributing factor to the severity of the disease. So what do these lockdown leftists do . They close all the gyms and kept the Liquor Stores open. Saved ockdowns havent lives. The states with the most stringent lockdowns generally highest mortality rates from covid. Next tayed opened while door colorado shut down. Ratehas half the mortality and 3 4 the Unemployment Rate as colorado. But the lockdowns have cost countless lives from suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic and deferred Health Screenings and treatments. Recently, governor newsome demanded that restaurant diners eplace their masks after every bite but also minimize the times theyre taking them off. Guess you take really big bites. Dinners are dip allowed in california only if outside, guests are six eet apart and you can use the bathro bathroom. Have to use the bushes. For god sake. No singing. Wonder how much longer the American People will tolerate this nonsense. Criticize governor newsome. Erhaps he auld delivered us deliverance from his own folly. Nor should we criticize the legislators who hawaii. O a junket in nor Speaker Pelosi for choosing ot to wear a mask in a hair salon that was closed for the rest of us. Good for them. Heyre demonstrating by their actions. The freedom that every american citizen needs to reclaim from people. Ry same he govern or should make a de governor should make the decision how to run his own life. Hope he didnt run ours. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman arizona, mr. Ohalleran, for five minutes. Ohalleran our district is the largest than the state of illinois and one of the most country. The most of my constituents must pend hours to access any kind of care let alone specialist care. This year, the covid19 pandemic communities ural especially hard. In march, we passed the cares act. To address islation the coronavirus pandemic and struggling ef to health care facilities, workers, small businesses, and tribes. Within the package, we pushed to include 8 billion in funding specifically for our rural nations. We also secured over 1 billion to support the Indian Health services and Tribal Health systems. Act included 200 million for new rural Telehealth Services and 3. 1 billion in funding for Community Health centers. Enough. Not we need to pass a new covid19 package now. Second. O divert for a from what i had written here. Life. Lk about when i became a Police Officer a hile back, i did it because i wanted to save lives. Right now our doctors, our this country are help andt with limited with the need for more supplies. Businesses are struggling. And i would go to a door knock on that door when i was a homicide investigator and tell son loved ones that their r daughter had died, suddenly through violence, it was one of the harshest things i had to do life. I had to do it way too many times. Sit here almost four years and see a national and month eclared after month after month we have help the decision to American People again. Families are being broken up. Care about families. People are suffering because jobs. Lost their be of us,each and every one if we had a Family Member that was about to die, that we would side o be there by their but also we would do everything life. Ld to save that and yet, here we sit as a body the senate sits as a body and the administration is here and month after month after we have failed to address our evere problems within country. Whatever governors do they do. Because part of the issue is that we havent provided responsibility and direction. Of it is we part ust havent gotten our job done. After four years i sit here and 1,800 t and know that fellow americans died yesterday nd 1,000 more the day before, 1,000 more the day before that. And the amount of cases are up and spiralling. Thank god the Health Care Industry has found some ways to help our families. Vaccine is not around the corner. Its months away from having any impact. Months away. And people will still die. Fellow americans. We cannot allow this to happen. Ere going to be going on thanksgiving break. Really . I just i couldnt comprehend hen we left for the summer and our fellow americans were dying. I really cant comprehend going for thanksgiving and not work as hard as i can before that our ke sure American Families do not have to suffer any more. I worked in the neighborhoods i worked in in officer, a Police People were suffering then without this going on. Theyre suffering even worse. Is something i signed up to as a Police Officer and to do that here as much as we can. Going in that e direction. I know you want to. To. Ow we want but we have to show it. Leadership negotiate. Makingg here is a way of sure they and our country know we care. We care enough to not just go away week after week after week not allow the people of america to know their leaders for them. Yield. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentlewoman rico, miss gonzalezcolon, for five minutes. Miss gonzalezcolon puerto rico made a clear choice, to be a footing and al equal responsibility with the 50 states. Alaska and ne in hawaii, borders were asked oters were asked a straightforward question should puerto rico be admitted as a state of the union . Yes. An absolute majority voted yes. Statehood gained more votes than candidate or particular on the island. Was most voted candidate island wide and statehood received 100,000 votes more. People of worpuerto rico has to enter status. Borders voters answered no to the question on continuing on the territorial status on the island. Those, the majority of the ballots have favored statehood. Mr. Speaker, the people of puerto rico has democratically their future should be, what is congress waiting for . Our duty to respect the will of the people of puerto rico. Is a direct mandate to move congresss and its responsibility to Congress Responsibility to act and to do it. Current condition cannot be justified by any means. Here are a lot of assumptions and false claims being made by both sides of the aisle on the ricos puerto statehood. Laims that are mistaken and only trying to invalidate the will of the people. He american citizens in alaska and hawaii were not met with proposals to try some other solution or meet some special precondition. So why should we . Congress needs to respond to achieve the goal of getting puerto rico a legal our american citizens stand on the same footing as those in the rest of nation. This is the right thing to do. Sustainable. Not for over 100 years, our young in and women have fought americas wars side by side with from all ow citizens states. On the orders of our commander we cannot vote for. For decades, my predecessors and i, lacking a vote in this house plead with nod to roportional delegation against both open discrimination in funding. Rograms and Puerto Ricans have been part of the Great American family for 120 years. Puerto ricans are part of what United States what it is today. Schools, law, business, sports, government, and in state, we in every contribute to the greatness of this nation and were proud of speaker. We embrace being americans, and e want to be looked at and treated as such by our own government system. Work to e to get to give the people of puerto rico he equality that has been long promised but denied. Yesterday, the discovery of the island. 400 years from spain and now the colony of the United States. Lets do it. Respect the will of the people of puerto rico to become a state and lets do it now. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair wreck flieses the gentleman from south carolina, mr. Cunningham, for five minutes. Mr. Sunning ham thank you. It is a great honor and sincere dwrattude gratitude that i rise today to recognize lane loveton. A mississippi native. Lane grew up in the south with his parents and his brother and sister. Not ready to part with the Southern Roots quite yet, he attended sam university, in alabama where he began his life in politics. He moved from the alabama district operations for house representative bobby bright to d. C. In 2009. Part of the best move ever because its in washington that lane met and married the love of his life, anna york lofton. They both have immense love for their two french bulldogs, dewy and shirley. And after nearly a decade of serving in government relations, lane interviewed to be my chief of staff. About two years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was at the end of a very long day of orientation and the last interview of the day. I remember saying to myself, after he left, that we must have saved the best for last. Either that or it was a long day and i was overly tired and easily impressed. I firmly believe it is the former. The fact is that there is no one else that i would rather have by my side over the last two whirlwind of years than lane lofton. Together we entered the 116th congress of the nations longest Government Shutdown and ended it with a Global Public health and economic crisis. But no matter the problems at hand, lane worked diligently every single day to support our office as we passed landmark legislation, fostered relationships across the aisle, and sometimes he just reminded me to fix my tie. A tried and true public servant, lane has always put the needs of others first, especially the 20person office that he managed. That test can test every single day, even when lane had a bad day, he never showed t he came to work every day with an ear to listen, a voice of reason, and a smile on his face. He sets an incredible example of selflessness in the work that he takes on and has been an invaluable mentor for our younger staffers. I look forward to watching the future successes that lane will find in his personal and his professional life. And i think his next challenge will be one of his biggest because lane and his wife will welcome their first son in february and i could not be more excited to watch their young family grow. Welcome to the nosleep club, lane, and welcome to finding a level of love and devotion that you did not know you were capable of. From the bottom of my heart thank you for your service to the low country and for becoming a lifelong friend. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from indiana, mr. Pence, for five minutes. Mr. Pence thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize the achievements of the Coronavirus Task force appointed by President Trump and led by my brother, Vice President mike pence. Vice president mike pence has led doctors, scientists, manufacturers, elected leaders, and others as they work hard to develop the therapeutics and deliver hope for the American People. Under the leadership of Vice President pence and medical experts, operation warp speed has been a historic success. We now have two vaccines from pfizer and moderna at 90 and 95 effectiveness. Companies like lily have developed an effective antibody. Our scientists are making history. To not recognize this achievement an insult to the tens of thousands of people who have been working day and night to battle this pandemic. Covid19 has gripped our nation and our world, but under the leadership of President Trump and Vice President pence and the hard work of those on the frontlines, we are on the path to recovery. God bless those that have dedicated so much of their time and energy to helping their fellowman. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to honor a fallen canine officer in my hometown of columbus, indiana. Bartholomew countys own canine officer diesel died in the line of duty this weekend while he was in pursuit of a dangerous criminal. Diesel helped our columbus officers find dangerous narcotics and search for suspects who had fled from the police. This is important work. Our community has come together to express condolences for this hero with flowers, notes, and even toys on the canine handleders car at the sheriffs office. Our Law Enforcement community is the thin blue line that protects our friends and loved ones from danger and we are forever grateful to the heroes who sacrifice everything to ensure our safety. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to express my appreciation to hoosiers of indianas sixth district. They have sent me to washington again to represent them in congress. Its an honor to be entrusted with this responsibility. In my first term my team and i focused on delivering quality constituent services and will work to continue to work hard for you in the next term. The sixth district of indianas my home and always will be. And its my honor to serve you in congress and bring hoosier values to this nations capital. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to congratulate roby dye casting u. S. A. Of shelbyville, indiana, on being named the General Motors supplier of the year. The award is chosen by a global teesm g. M. Purchasing, engineering, quality manufacturing, and logistics executives. Hoosier manufacturing play as major role in our local economy as well as a Global Economy and hoosiers rely on the Manufacturing Industry for goodpaying jobs in my district. Congratulations to roby dye casting u. S. A. , and keep up the good work. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to commemorate the 125th anniversary of nine star connect. In 1895, longhorn helms of mccordsville, indiana, established the very first telephone in the community and created the company we know today as nine star connect. With headquarters in the sixth district, nine star provides Rural Broadband to communities all over my hoosier state. It is my pleasure to recognize this greenfieldbased company on their contributions to our community. Thank you to the great team at nine star and congratulations on 125 years. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to congratulate baseville f. F. A. Skillathon team for winning the indiana state 4h title. All four members scored in the top 10 for individual competitors earning them the teams state title. A big accomplishment. Congratulations to anna, onika, blake, and shalie for their hard work and dedication to the Agriculture Community this. Group has made the sixth district proud. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio, mr. Joyce, for five minutes. Mr. Joyce mr. Speaker, i rise today with a heavy heart to honor the life and service of u. S. Army Staff Sergeant kyle mck