I want to thank gary for his to improve rts Economic Development and wish im nothing but the best in a elldeserved retirement. Mr. Speaker, i rise to bring attention to kentuckys avoidable economic failures during this very serious pandemic. Unfortunately covid19 has taken a harsh toll on the economies of all 50 states. However, harmful policies from democratrun states have only made the problem worse. At a time when we should be encouraging the safe reopening of our economy, kentuckys governor recently issued an order shutting down schools and indoor dining. Kentuckys restaurants were already suffering from the last round of shutdowns. And this shortsighted order will only cause more pain and suffering. To make matters worse, our governor is producing no data to justify the need to shut down businesses which have dramatically adjusted to the challenges presented by covid19. And in the end of inperson learning will only create more challenges for students and teachers. Furthermore, it flies in the face of c. D. C. Recommendations that the safest place for our children is in school. Unfortunately Small Business owners are not the only ones negatively affected by these lockdowns. Workers have been put out of a job through no fault of their own. And to make matters worse, kentuckys State Government has proven itself too incompetent to distribute unemployment payments in a timely manner. Right now kentucky has the second highest unemployment backlog in america, with just 27 of benefits going out three weeks after a claim is made. Thats unacceptable. Our surrounding states of indiana and tennessee are more than doubling that number, getting 60 of payments out after three weeks. If a politician singlehandedly puts people out of work, the least they can do is process their unemployment claims in a timely manner. Kentucky families are struggling from these lockdowns. And unfortunately finding little help from their State Government in frankfort. The livelihoods of working families and job creators has been cast aside by powerhungry politicians, and it is delaying our economic recovery. We must do better. We must safely reopen the economy and support our Small Businesses and workers. With a vaccine on the horizon, the best thing we can do for our economy is to safely reopen. Further shutdowns are doing nothing but digging a further hole for our economy to get out of. In kentucky, we can do better. Mr. Speaker, i rise to talk about the Ongoing Investigation within the House Oversight committee among oversight republicans. The minority, republicans, have requested several hearings unfortunately chairwoman maloney and the majority House Democrats are uninterested or unwilling to comply. So weve taken it upon ourselves to inquire and pretty much open up investigations with our staff, with our investigators, and taking data from our whistleblowers and different stakeholders with each investigation. We currently have caught a situation before the election in california where, with the cares act, there was a part called the help america vote act that allocated funds for different states to educate voters on how to vote. In other words, to educate voters on where their precincts are and how to fill out an absentee ballot. Things are that are perfectly legal and that the federal government should fund and the State Government should administer. But whats in the rules, something that a lot of times my friends on the other side of the aisle dont think apply to themselves, but in the rules of the help america vote act, it specifically says what those federal funds can and cannot be used for. One of the things that it specifically says the nal funds cannot be used for is the federal funds cannot be used for is get out the vote efforts. But in california, which was awarded 35 million in the cares act of help america vote act funds, their secretary of state took the 35 million, the normal process would be to advertise ds for a contract, but secretary padilla did what a lot of democrat secretaries of state, and unfortunately some republican secretaries of state, did, they said, oh, theres a pandemic we cant do in the normal way, we have to do it a special way. With awarded this contract no bid. There were plenty of vendors that were interested in bidding on that contract, but he awarded it to one. And in the help america vote act, it specifically says that vendors cant be partisan. Thats commonsense, right . This contract that he awarded, 35 million of our federal taxpayer funds, in a nobid process, the firm that received that contract was called s. K. D. Knickerbockers. I invite you right now to get at r your phone out and to get your phone out and put that in and look at their website it. Will pop up website. It will pop up and what youll see is a picture of joe biden and Kamala Harris shaking hands and it proudly says, on the very top of the website, we want to congratulate our clients, joe den and Kamala Harris, for changing america and for winning. So this firm, s. K. D. Knickerbocker, was clearly a partisan firm. This firm represented the biden campaign. Now, my question to anyone interested in this, and i think most taxpayers would be interested in this, obviously the House Democrats on the Oversight Committee are uninterested in this, but if the secretary of state awards a nobid contract to a joe biden partisan firm, to get out the vote, do you really think theyre going to target Republican Voters . Or do you think theyre going to arget democrat voters . That is illegal. We have sent letters to secretary padilla asking him what his intentions were and why he did not follow the law on this contract. He has not replied. I have made this public, i went on the Tucker Carlson show a few months ago and brought this to the nations attention. As a result of this, and our messaging and our inquiries, the media in california have been writing about this, the Sacramento Bee wrote just this past week that the california comptroller has refused to pay the 35 million bill to s. K. D. Knickerbocker because they know theres a problem with this nobid contract awarded to a partisan firm that was joe bidens main digital firm to microtarget certain voters in california. Now, what im asking for now is for the comptroller of california to just go ahead and do the right thing and send that 35 million back to the treasury. We dont want taxpayer dollars being spent on improper, llegal, unethical and partisan entities. And thats what happened in california. Now, another reason this isnt going to go away, im not an expert on california politics, but while i was waiting for my time to speak, mr. Speaker, i read several things that said, secretary of state padilla is the frontrunner to fill Kamala Harris seat for the u. S. Senate. I strongly encourage the secretary of state to answer House Republicans inquiries on this issue. Because if he doesnt answer it now, and he does in fact get confirmed to the u. S. Senate, hes probably going to have to answer it in front of the Senate Ethics committee. Now, one thing that i pledged to do when i became Ranking Member of the House Oversight committee, is we werent just going to identify problems. We were going to try to represent the taxpayers. And we werent just going to identify instances of waste, fraud and abuse. Like this 35 million contract, nobid contract in california. We were going to try to claw back that money, get the money back. It seems like forever in congress, members of congress do the right thing and they identify wrongful spending, but nothing ever happens. No ones ever held accountable. Certainly the taxpayers never get their money back. This is an instance were not going to let up. Were operating in a huge deficit. We have to be accountable for the taxpayers. Thats the job of this congress. The Oversight Committee is serious. Were in a new direction. The republicans on the Oversight Committee. Not only are we going to identify problems, but were going to try to solve problems. Because were going to get the backs of the american taxpayer. And i think ive clearly spelled out the problems with this contract. And i believe that the fact that the comp petroleumer in california comptroller in california isnt willing to write that check for the bill, that proves that there was a problem there. And if anything i said today is i welcome then secretary padilla to answer our inquiry, and if anything i said was not right, i will apologize to the secretary of state. For of state for that. But clearly sitting there, not responding, is not helping the situation. And again, its not going to go away. Now, another thing with this contract ive spelled out the problem that the state of california, that the secretary of state has, with this 35 million nobid contract. The next part of the problem with this particular investigation is our committee has sent numerous letters to a Government Agency that a lot of people probably never heard of called the Election Assistance Commission. The Election Assistance Commission is a Government Agency, bureaucracy, entity, whatever you want to call it, that is supposed to be the watchdog for federal funding for elections. They have an Inspector General. I have written, and on those letters, it was signed by my colleague on the Oversight Committee, jody hice of georgia, and the Ranking Member of the House Administration committee, rodney davis of illinois, we have joined jointly written letters to the Inspector General of the election assistance ommission asking the Inspector General to investigate this 35 million contract. We wrote these letters weeks in advance of the november election. D weve gotten back form letters, kind of like form letters that we send out to people that call our Office Every Day and ask for things that were probably not going to be able to do, we always reply with nice form letters, thats , the Ranking Member of the House Oversight committee and administration committee. If the Election Assistance Commission cant investigate this one thing in this election, and im not even going to get into a debate today about whether there are irregular larities or not irregularities or not. Thats not in what im discussing today. Im discussing a specific irregularity that involved taxpayer dollars. If the Election Assistance CommissionInspector General cannot investigate that and come up with an answer and say, ok, the secretary of state was right or, ok, you were right, and the money should be returned if they cant get us an answer on that, then the next step we are going to suggest, as oversight republicans, will be to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission. Because if you cant take an inquiry from congress and investigate it, especially when the media in california the media in california, not exactly a bastion of republican support, when theyre calling the secretary of state out on this contract, then i think weve got a problem with this Government Agency. Government is too big. Ive been in Washington Four years now. Here are a lot of buildings in this city with a lot of government employees, a lot of Government Programs, and in my opinion, we dont have the ability to to fund all these Government Programs and all these Government Agencies and these government employees. Nd if we can find Government Agencies that refuse to do their job, then we should eliminate agencies. Rnment so my remarks today are the contract bout in california with the secretary the contract of the help america vote act which was act which was a no bid contract to a partisan firm things like microtarget voters. Thats my first complaint. Million. My second complaint is the assistance commission. Nd the one request that weve made, ive been very nimpressed, disappointed, shocked to the point now im as a taxpayer and someone that wants to give back o the taxpayer, i think its time to look at this agency and say is this something that we forward. Ng mr. Speaker, im going to again, withremarks, reference to the Oversight Committee. A member of the committee for the past four years, ive heard of democrats complain election, imply irregularities in the election. Friend, Debbie Wasserman schultz complain, and probably rightfully so, about the emails being hacked at the national committee. Weve had discussions about that. When Elijah Cummings became chairman of the committee, the first witness he cohen to talk irregularities in the 2016 the ion that he saw from Trump Campaign and things like that. We had those committee hearings. E had a lot of those committee hearings. And here we are today several after the president ial lection, regardless of your opinion of the election, regardless of your opinion of regardless l winner, of your opinion whether there were major irregularities or of there were a lot americans that have a lot of questions about the election process. A lot of things in this election that were unique, just the the not absentee voting process, where were changed in the middle of the game, but also the voted by people that mail and voted absentee. Feel like the American People deserve one committee in this to step up and hold a hearing and hear both sides. If i were chairwoman maloney or or Gerry Connolly or mr. Clay or anybody on the who would have, you know, who hears this request, if believe there were any irregularities, i would want to have a hearing. Disappointed we are not doing our job in the oversight specific, but with the investigation that republicans without in california any help from the democrats we dont need their help. Dont need their help on this. Weve already proven this. The comptroller in california it. Ws we are now asking were now back. To send the money if youre not going to explain secretary pa deiia, adil want padilla, send the money back. Chairman, i thank you for the time, and i yield back the balance of my time. Tempore the o gentleman yields back. The gentleman from missouri, mr. Clay, is recognized for 60 designee of the majority leader. Mr. Clay thank you so much, mr. Speaker. Wanted to share with the ouse that im really reserving the time for mr. Butterfield of orth carolina, but i will begin. I want to thank my colleague, butterfield, for leading special order hour this evening. Know, our nation was founded and inciples of Liberty Justice for some but not for all. It took 89 years after of independence and a brutal civil war to most forms of slavery. To the u. S. Dment constitution was ratified on 6, 1865, ending slavery, but preserving involume some itude for involuntary servitude for some persons. Ted after a raging debate, former sla Southern States held enough influence to and were he practice able to include a loophole in continue mendment to to allow slavery as punishment crime. Years, the next 155 that punishment clause was used to overincarcerate fricanamericans and other minorities for profit and in complete violation of their dignity. Americans were immediately targeted and arrested by Law Enforcement for infractions, and the practice of forced prison labor still persists to this day. Joined by senator eff merkley of oregon, introduced legislation to amend constitution, to clarify hat neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be used as punishment for a crime. My pleased that many of colleagues, including cedric richmond, and he incoming assistant speaker, congresswoman katherine clark, and many of my colleagues in the broader tri caucus have taken a leadership role on issue and legislation. Confronting and rooting out the racism that is still rampant in many facets of life requires us to examine the painful truth in it. R to fix it is an indisputable historical fact that many local and state aw enforcement practices in this country grew out of the slavery. Racism and and as millions of americans are emanding criminal Justice Reform and a change in the training and culture of of this passage constitutional amendment would signal. Lear bigotry and profits will no longer be used to deny any their dignity. Ur criminal Justice System and laws cannot be fully respected this injustice that allows disproportionately brown of black and people to be imprisoned and enslaved. Congress next m month, i urge my colleagues to this legislation nd urge an Urgent National priority. America cannot heal and move have really ofl equality for all instead just for some. I thank you, mr. Speaker, and i the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the back. Man yields the chair will receiv