[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 97 (Tuesday, June 11, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H4425-H4426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CHAOS ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER AND CROWDSOURCING ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Porter). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Madam Speaker, just so staff knows, this will 
probably be a bit abbreviated because of all the chaos we have going on 
around us.
  There is something I wanted to start with. Typically, we come to the 
floor to spend time talking about what is happening in the country 
economically and demographically and what we must do to keep our 
promises. I sit on the Ways and Means Committee, and I do trade and tax 
policy.
  Before we put that up, I need to touch on something that is 
incredibly frustrating. Being from Arizona, obviously, we have a border 
issue. We talk about it; we do nothing.

[[Page H4426]]

  How many have seen the news in the last couple of days that we have 
gun battles going on just south of Douglas, Arizona? We may have 9 or 
10 people who have lost their lives. We had a teenager get hit by a 
stray bullet. We have had a couple of folks--apparently, one crawled to 
the border and is now in an Arizona hospital. A couple are in Arizona 
hospitals.

  Where is the press? Where is the discussion of what is going on? 
Apparently, we have a war going on in Agua Prieta, just south of 
Douglas, between these cartels that not only move drugs, but they also 
exploit human beings.
  These are the very cartels that are taking humans, smuggling them and 
trafficking them up to the border. They are using assault weapons and 
killing each other. Of course, we would care about that, wouldn't we? 
Except it doesn't get any news here because it doesn't fit the 
narrative.
  If you love and care for people, could we at least have an honest 
discussion of what the President has asked for, with some money for 
humanitarian aid to take care of those who have presented themselves at 
the border for refugee status? Understand the violence that is spilling 
over into my State of Arizona and what is going on.
  I guess I come to this microphone just frustrated that this story 
broke yesterday in Arizona. Where is the national outcry? Where is the 
national understanding of the chaos that is happening along our 
southern border and the lives that are being lost? Do we or do we not 
care about people?
  There were two things I wanted to do, and I know we are up against a 
very tight time, so I am just going to do one of them.
  We have this theory that basically says, if you look at U.S. 
demographics, in 8.5 years, it is two workers, one retiree. In 8.5 
years, 50 percent of the budget from this body, less interest, will be 
to those 65 and older.
  Demographics aren't Republican. They are not Democratic. They are 
math.
  We must do a number of things to keep the economic vitality of this 
society going if we are going to keep our promises. One of those things 
in our five points is the way we deal with regulations. We have this 
one area we talk about, whether it be tax policy, trade policy, or 
regulatory policy. Just in a couple of minutes here, I wanted to 
explain what smart regulation is.
  So often when hearing the rhetoric, we will have: Well, we need to 
deregulate. We need to reregulate.
  That is wrong. We all walk around with these supercomputers in our 
pockets. It turns out, technology is the rational place where 
regulation should go.
  Here is my thought experiment. Let's use our own neighborhoods. We 
are the businesses in those neighborhoods. We need to get air quality 
permits for manufacturing. Does filling out a bunch of paper and 
shoving it in file cabinets make air quality cleaner in our 
neighborhoods? Do file cabinets full of paperwork at the local, county, 
State, wherever our regulators are, does that make the air quality in 
our communities better? Of course not. It just creates a lot of 
documents so that we have someone to sue for the trial lawyers and 
those things.
  I want to propose the concept of crowdsourcing environmental 
information, particularly for air quality. It turns out, we are living 
in a time where there are now sensors we can attach to our phones that 
are highly accurate that will do PM10, hydrocarbons, and volatile 
organics. What would happen in our communities if we were willing to 
take this tradeoff?
  We are not going to make everyone fill out lots of paperwork. We are 
going to promote businesses, let them grow. But here is the trick: If 
they screw up, we catch them instantly.
  Also, the clowns painting cars behind everyone's houses in their 
backyards, we are going to catch them, too.
  This thought is very simple. We have a YouTube cartoon that is about 
1.5 minutes that walks through this concept of crowdsourcing 
environmental data. It shows that it is time to use this type of 
technology. Think of the economic growth tradeoff.
  We are not going to fill up file cabinets full of paperwork. Because 
we are going to be crowdsourcing environmental data, when there is a 
bad actor, or someone's scrubbers are out of compliance, or there are 
clowns painting cars in backyards, we will catch them instantly.
  Wouldn't that be a lot more powerful, where environmental regulators 
of communities, States, and counties are now a quick reaction force 
that goes to where the bad acts are happening instead of basically 
being paperwork domiciles?
  That is an example of smart regulation. It makes communities 
healthier. It makes air quality better. It still has businesses growing 
because they are not buried under consultants and mounds of paper. That 
is an example of smart regulation.
  How do we drag this institution into understanding the incredible 
opportunities that technology is bringing in crashing the price of 
healthcare and making the environment healthier? In the coming weeks, I 
am going to come back to dive into this much deeper, but let me salt 
the mine a little bit for a thought experiment.
  What would happen if we had technology that could protect houses of 
worship, schools, this body, and public buildings? It turns out that it 
exists today.
  I want to propose that this body put together an XPRIZE for nonlethal 
protection of our buildings and our houses of worship. We already know 
there are experiments out there with pods that go on the wall, so if 
someone comes in and is engaged in a bad act or discharges a firearm, 
instantly, just like the Taser darts, it lays them down. Yes, innocent 
people will get hit with them, but they don't die.
  It turns out that there are technology solutions that will make us 
safer.

                              {time}  1700

  How do we drag the conversations around this place to understand 
there are really great, exciting opportunities for all of us out there, 
whether it be in smart regulation, whether it be the end of killing 
using technology, whether it be the fact we are about to get 
dramatically healthier, and that the cures that are about to come on 
the market for diseases that have been with us for so long, we are in a 
time of amazing disruption?
  How do we future-proof our policies, and how do we get this body to 
stop thinking everything is either Democrat or Republican, but 
understand there are actual solutions, you just have to be forward-
thinking with technology?
  With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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