Parties. All time shall be equally allocated between the parties and no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. 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 oregon, mr. Lumenauer, for five minutes. Mr. Blumenauer thank you, madam speaker. What if the headline in the morning paper was slightly different . What if we had a disease that had killed 59 people yesterday and sickened over 500 others . You think the nation would demand action . If we had an outbreak every day that had over 100,000 people a year, killed and injured, congress would be in a frenzy. Yesterday we found two minutes for a moment of silence and we moved on. Un violence is a Public Health hazard. Every bit hazard. Every bit as important as any other disease or outbreak. Ours is the only developed country in the world that cannot protect our families from death and injury, there guns on a massive scale. After years of frustration in school and another shooting in my district, i sat down with my constituents to go through what are the things that we can do that would make a difference . School shooting in my we understood that you cannot completely solve evil people. Theres not a statute thats foolproof. But our statutes are filled with efforts to try and make things better. Lets stop dealing with gun violence as a political issue and think about it as the Public Health epidemic that it is. Already claiming over 12,000 lives in the United States this year. Will this year. We attacked death safety, it didnt happen overnight that we mable our automobiles safer and less dangerous. But we stayed at it with Law Enforcement, engineering, research. And we have cut the rate of deaths over half. If were starting now to deal with massive addiction and condition a medical that condition that requires treatment, not just Law Enforcement with harsh punishment. My report outlined nine areas we could take action. We could take action. There are 26 bills in congress now that deal with these items, and we havent been able to deal with them meaningfully. No hearings, with them meaningf. No hearings, certainly nothing on the floor of the house. There are provisions to keep guns away from the most that prevents research. Thats a horrific mistake. We ought to be able to understand and find ways to help prevent it. We can control access to the products. Rous we can increase product safety for guns which are inherently dangerous. Products. We can empower health care ofessionals to deal with families to help prevent gun violence and understand what risks their families face, rather than outrageous provision that is speak to limit what Health Care Professionals can do to deal with their patients. We can effectively regulate the sale of firearms. There should be no hidden sales where we do not have background checks. This is within our capacity. We can enforce existing laws and we can mitigate the loss of life in shooting by helping to provide more resources for First Responders. This isnt pie in the sky. This will do nothing to take away the rights of americans who want to target shoot or hunt. But it what it will do is start the slow, steady process towards making our families and make sure that america is not the only developed country that cannot protect its families from gun violence. And make sure that merica is not the speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan, mr. Mitchell, for five minutes. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to do a little myth busting. Critics of the 21st century air act are selling a myth that the 21st century air act will be danging and adverse to general aviation. This couldnt be further from the truth. Im a regular aviation user, student pilot. My botherininlaw is a g. A. Pilot. I never would support legislation that would be bad for my Rural Community. Lets address a few of those myths. The Nonprofit Service provider for air Traffic Control will be prohibited from using private user fees in contrast to the myths being sold out there. The act also prohibits the a. T. C. Provider from restricting access to any airspace or airport. Further, any changes to access to airports or airspace would be subject to extensive government review and approval. Additionally, funding is provided additional funding to Community Airports to assist them and continue to grow and be vibrant in our communities. Critics would have you believe that general aviation will not have a seat at the table. Again, not true. The nonprofit board of directors doesnt intercede for Community Air airports. Lease pilots, airlines, and air cargo. The f. A. A. In had a hearing indicated it would take another 10 years and 30 billion to update our air Traffic Control system for the air kayic system we have now. When asked, they said they hoped they would have it accomplished in 10 years. Hope is not a plan. The Trump Administration supports the 21st century air act. Air Traffic Controllers support the 21st century air act. Airline pilots support t Airlines Support it. Air cargo supports t we can go through a long list. Yet we continue to deal with myths being spun that somehow this is adverse to aviation. We have an archaic air Traffic Control system that is hurting our nation. That is damaging our economy, and trying to move beyond fear and myths. Mr. Speaker, i urge colleagues to move beyond those myths and see the 21st century air act will benefit all users. Bring the bill to the floor. Lets have a vote and move our air Traffic Control system back. I yield back. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from illinois, mr. Gutierrez, is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Speaker, i just returned from puerto rico and to start my remarks id like to say a few words in of puerto e language rico, and then ill switch back. Ill provide a translation to the desk. [speaking a foreign language] o co, and then mr. Speaker, i flew to puerto see what was to happening on the ground with my own eyes. It was worse than i imagined and broke my heart. To see my beloved island so destroyed, scared for its future, and see what was happening on the ground feeling and isolated there. Were dead animals all over the place, and people were so desperate for food and water, and anyone sick or elderly was finding it hard to get medicine and medical care. Things rim proving day by day and the number of helicopters flying missions of mercy to the interior of the island sin creasing. Almost everyone has no electrical power. Almost everyone has little or no food. And trouble finding it. Almost everyone has no water, and some are seeking water from unreliable or possibly contaminated sources. At the same time, i also saw an amazing unity and toughness. My fellow irit Puerto Ricans have, an ability to make a way where there is no way. To improvise. Most importantly to Work Together. Any divisions of party or class Puerto Ricans have, an ability to make that are right on the surface on a typical day in puerto rico, this faction versus that faction, all of that was blown away. The only status issue that matters for Puerto Ricans right now is the status of the s. O. S. , save our souls. We need help and plenty of it now. Yesterday i spoke at a press conference in chicago with mayor rahm emanuel and leaders from chicago, including the fire commissioner. And the head of chicagos office of emergency and management control, a brigadier general, and national guard. The mayor announced 22 chicago firefighters on their own dime are going to puerto rico to help with the rescue and Recovery Efforts, including bringing equipment that may help communications to the remote part of the island. The mayor also announced in chicago we want to be for puerto rico what houston was for new orleans after hurricane katrina, a place of refuge where we will help you get settled. Get your kids into school, get you the medical care you need, and make you feel welcome. One thing i learned in puerto rico this weekend is that in chicago and in the rest of the u. S. , we need to start thinking about evacuation in addition to rebuilding and recovery. I have welcomed my own family into my home. And people i know across the country are welcoming relatives escaping puerto rico and the virgin islands. But we need to wrap up our commitment beyond the family to family and formal relationships and look systematically how we organize ourselves to meet the great need of our fellow citizens on the island in the caribbean. Rebuilding puerto rico, making her a strong, selfsufficient island nation of industrious, hardworking people again will take years. And require a longterm commitment from this congress and this country so that the wellbeing of our fellow men on the island can be met. So, mr. Speaker, lets roll up our slives and get to work. Sleeves and get to work. Once again, chicago is there to welcome you. So enroll your kids in school, to get you the medical attention, to make sure you have a safe place until the recovery and rebuilding has been accomplished. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Knight, for five minutes. Mr. Knight thank you, madam speaker. I am truly blessed to represent a district in Southern California that is the home of so many historic fetes. Today i had feats. Today id like to till about one that turns 50 years old today. On october 3, 1967, is a date ill never forget but probably a date ill never remember, either, since i was nine months old. B52 flew down the runway of Edwards Air Force base with a small white airplane tucked underneath her wing. A major who had thousands of hours in different platforms was the pilot of that airplane who had been on several different programs and had been a test pilot for many, many years and graduate of the United States air force test pilot school, was the pilot of that small white aircraft. The plan was simple on paper. It was to accelerate to 100,000 feet and achieve a mach of 6. 50. As the pilot said, Edwards Air Force base will always tell you, it is a profession that they go about. And they do this in a very well, professional manner. And rms for 100,000 feet 6. 50, the ending was 102,000 eet, 100 and 6. 72. A new air speed record. Now, the thing that was interesting about this was the air speed record had been set on november 18, 1966 by the same pilot and broken just 10 months later. And that issue, that flight has now stood for 50 years. If that pilot was here today, he would say thats a travesty, that that air speed record has stood for 50 years. In fact, i was standing with him on the 30th anniversary and he said just those same words. Why are we stuck where we were in the 60s . Havent we continued to push forward . Hope i am not standing on the 60th anniversary. Those of that era did some phenomenal things and they pushed the limits and they knew the sky was no limit, that it was just a boundary they needed to push forward. There were 12 pilots on the x15 program and i grew up with many of them or their kids. Theres general rushworth and neil armstrong, bill dana and joe engel, scott crossfield, mckay, thompson, peterson. Mike adams lost his life in the x15 program in november of 1967, the only one to lose his life in the x15 program. And the pilot of the october 3, 1967, flight was my father, pete knight. He flew the aircraft 16 times, setting the air speed record several times and breaking it and achieving 4,520 miles an hour on october 3, 1967, which still stands today. And i think the lesson is is that weve got to keep pushing and technology doesnt just its not out there for no one. Its out there for us to grab and for us to continue to achieve. Those records are made to be broken and we must continue to push. In aerospace and in every endeavor. Thats what america does and thats what we do for all of mankind. I think this record was a great achievement, and i can tell you one quick story. I knew of this record when i was a small kid because my father pulled that mach meter out of the x15 after he set the record and that mach meter set sat on our television every year of my life until his death bed. He said i went it to go to the smithsonian. Which is something we did. This was not something achieved by many teams, many mothership pilots. But its something thats now 50 years old and we need to continue to push. I thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from new york, mr. Espaillat, is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Espaillat thank you, madam speaker. Any comments that i will make in spanish i will provide a translation in english. Madam speaker, i witnessed this weekend when i traveled to the island of puerto rico where my colleague from chicago, illinois, luis gutierrez, the devastation and humanitarian crisis firsthand. As i traveled throughout the area i met dozens of emergency workers from various cities around our nation and their way to provide assistance to families in puerto rico. [speaking spanish] i met with puerto ricos governor and san juan mayor. It bewilleders me how someone could criticize the mayor of san juan, puerto rico, from a in bhouse in a well a golf course when she was chest deep in water contaminated with toxic fuels and human excrement bringing help to those that are needed in san juan, puerto rico. We discussed with them efforts currently under way on ways that the federal government and congress can improve our response to address immediate and longterm goals to help rebuild the island of puerto rico, and the u. S. Virgin islands, lets not forget them. Yesterday i released a 10point plan following my assessment, and i offered this as a solution to provide an immediate emergency relief package for the humanitarian crisis we are witnessing in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. It is my hope that we are we, members of congress, will Work Together to find solutions quickly as the lives of u. S. Citizens are at stake and the forts to rebuild have remain encumbered. I call on an immediate 20 billion relief package for puerto rico and the virgin islands. Congress needs to act on a humanitarian emergency relief package for puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands no later than this week. They cannot wait another week. It is estimated that puerto rico will need 85 billion for their Recovery Efforts. At minimum, Congress Needs to enact a 20 billion emergency relief package for puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. A hearing on the puerto rico and u. S. Virgin islands Recovery Efforts and a Congressional Task force for coordinated relief efforts must be put in place. The delayed response in puerto rico was egregious. I join my colleagues in calling for a hearing on puerto rico and u. S. Virgin islands Recovery Efforts and for a full assessment on how to mitigate delayed reactions in the future and a strenalic plan on a longterm re Strategic Plan on a longterm recovery effort for the entire caribbean region that unfortunately stands on the pathway of natural disasters, including hurricane season. As my colleagues have stated, the Hurricane Sandy task force resulted in a comprehensive plan developed by federal, state and local stakeholders which then helped aid the Recovery Efforts in new york city and elsewhere. A similar plan is needed for all of the areas affected during this hurricane season. We must also create permanent waiver of the jones act for diesel and fuel. 10day waiver is not enough and the jones act needs to be waived for at least a year so that response and rebuilding efforts are not encumbered and i ask for a permanent waiver for diesel and fuel. The u. S. S. Abraham lincoln aircraft carrier, i joined 145 members of this congress in urging the president to deploy the u. S. S. Abraham lincoln. Madam speaker, we need to repair telecommunications, authorize Army Engineers to repair hospitals and i have four other points that i will present to you. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from tennessee, mr. Duncan, is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Duncan thank you, madam speaker. Madam speaker, the new term of the u. S. Supreme court begins this week. I was a judge for 7 1 2 years before i came to congress, and so i have great interest in their proceedings. It seems to me our courts have become far too political over the last many years. Up until the mid 1930s or so, most federal courts seem to try to stay out of politics and paid great deference to actions by federal and state legislative bodies as being expressions of the will of the people. For many years now, though, some federal judges believe they should have been elected to congress or to the state legislatures. One of many examples involves the drawing of congressional legislative and local voting districts. The word gerrymandering came to use in 1812 but it has been in very recent years that federal courts have become heavily involved in drawing specific lines in so many states. If a court has a very liberal judge, he or she will seemingly go to Great Lengths to throw out any lines that seem to benefit conservatives. I was at the u. S. Supreme court recently introduced some lawyers from knoxville. That court was hearing some lines drawn by the virginia legislature. This is something the federal courts should leave out it. Also, opinions are much longer than the first 150 years or so as some judges seem to believe they know almost everything. Madam speaker, we need more judges at all levels who have a little more humility. Man