[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 118 (Friday, June 26, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H2582-H2591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             UNITE AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Dean). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Shimkus).


                     In Memory of Mary Ellen Witter

  Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the time and 
courtesy.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to speak about my West Point mom, who just 
recently passed away. Mary Ellen Witter of Bluffton, South Carolina, 
passed away peacefully Sunday, June 21, 2020, with her family around 
her.
  My West Point mom, who loved me even though I ate her food, broke her 
chairs, and disobeyed a rule now and then. She was the definition of 
grace.
  She was preceded in death by her husband, the love of her life, 
Colonel Lee Witter. They were married 61 years. She was the daughter of 
the late Allan and Alma Imse, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1937.
  Mary Ellen went to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, for her 
bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. She received her masters 
from C.W. Post Center, Long Island University, New York, in Library 
Science.
  She was a dedicated military wife. She represented America while 
being an embassy military wife in Indonesia. She was a longtime 
educator, both here and abroad.
  Mary Ellen was a pianist, singer, and a devout Christian, who was 
very active in her church and was part of the Stephen Ministries and 
prayer groups. For those who knew her, she was a soft-spoken woman who 
loved traveling, reading, gardening, camping, bird-watching, and going 
to the beach. But most of all, she loved her family and her friends.
  She was preceded in death by her son, Mathew. She is survived by her 
two daughters, Nanette Jordan of Norwalk, Connecticut, and Dorinda 
Selby of Beaufort, South Carolina. She is survived by her sister, 
Sharon Quade of Crandon, Wisconsin, and her brother, Robert Imse of 
Naples, Florida. She dearly loved her five grandchildren: Ashley Benusa 
of Hong Kong; Taylor Jordan of Boston, Massachusetts; Zachary Jordan of 
Waterbury, Connecticut; Senior Airman Mathew Selby of Davis Monthan Air 
Force Base, Tucson, Arizona; and Thomas Selby of Beaufort, South 
Carolina.
  Madam Speaker, I look forward to attending the burial service, which 
will take place at West Point Military Academy National Cemetery at a 
later date. There, she will be laid next to her husband, Colonel 
Witter, and her son, Mathew.
  First Thessalonians 4:14 states: ``For we believe that Jesus died and 
rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who 
have fallen asleep in him.'' May we find comfort in this promise.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words and 
express condolences for his loss of his dear friend.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko), 
my colleague and longtime friend.
  Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Biggs) for yielding me the time.
  Lawlessness has broken out across our Nation. It is absolutely 
outrageous, and it has to be stopped. Mobs are taking over parts of the 
city of Seattle. They took over a police precinct.
  Just last Saturday, people were shot, and one man was killed. 
Criminals are looting stores and businesses all over the Nation, 
including in Arizona in the upscale Scottsdale Fashion Square. 
Protestors are throwing bricks at police officers. They are throwing 
water bottles at police officers. And I have seen them shine 
flashlights right up close into the police officers' eyes and call them 
all kinds of names. Rioters are burning the flag, the American flag. 
And the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial have been defaced.
  Madam Speaker, a few days ago, St. Serra, the patron saint of peace, 
was torn down in San Francisco.
  Francis Scott Key's statue was torn down.
  The statue of Ulysses Grant, who was the general for the Union was 
torn down by thugs in San Francisco.

                              {time}  1730

  And then we saw the other night how they were trying so hard, these 
criminals, to tear down the statue in Lafayette Park. And they almost 
had it torn down, if it wasn't for the Trump administration sending in 
the National Guard to stop.
  And do you know what they wrote and spray-painted on that statue, 
that Federal statue? ``Killer scum.''
  Does any of this show tribute to George Floyd? No.
  Does any of this help? Absolutely not.
  Now, I was really surprised to see that one of our colleagues, 
Congresswoman Norton, who is a nonvoting Member but represents 
Washington, D.C., has introduced legislation to have a statue of 
Abraham Lincoln taken down, a statue that was funded by the freed 
slaves.
  What has our country come to? We need to return to a semblance of 
civility in our country. And so that is why I call on Democrat-run 
cities to clamp down on these criminals. No more autonomous zones. No 
more looting. No more destructing statues. Let's bring back law and 
order.
  That is why I stand with President Trump and his calls to arrest and 
prosecute criminals. Let's stop the lawlessness. Let's try to heal our 
country.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and I appreciate 
her comments.
  We do see an increase in the amount of lawlessness. We have moved 
from peaceful protests, which I support, I understand. That is what the 
guarantee of the First Amendment is for. We all get a right to assemble 
with whom we want to assemble with. We get a right to speak. We get a 
right to seek redress of grievances from the government. All of those 
are important rights that we support, we stand for.
  But we move into rioting, looting, mayhem. There has been murder. 
There has been assaults. There has been brutal violence.
  I have heard some of my colleagues in this body call those protests. 
It is not protesting. That is lawless rioting, and it needs to be 
curbed and checked.
  I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop).
  Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, the coronavirus pandemic 
reminded us that we are in this together. Despite serious and, as yet, 
unresolved ongoing questions about policy responses to that event, we 
have stayed home and sacrificed for our neighbors' health. We have seen 
the best of us.
  But in the past month, we are seeing the worst of us: violent mobs 
stoning business owners, Federal agents shot to death, looting 
occurring nationwide, and avowed Marxist activists openly defending and 
promoting it, six blocks of a major U.S. city ceded to anarchists.
  I don't recognize this America. People experience fear repeatedly of 
the

[[Page H2583]]

wanton destruction of their livelihoods, their cities on fire or being 
canceled by social media mobs; government buildings attacked; monuments 
and memorials spanning the breadth of our history, from Washington to 
Lincoln to Roosevelt, torn down or threatened by riotous mobs.
  And this is not impassioned, heat-of-the-moment destruction. It is a 
targeted, organized, and methodical purge of figures who represent 
ideas they wish to bury, ideas such as all people are endowed by our 
creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property, and 
that government by, for, and of the people shall not perish from the 
Earth.
  We have seen this deliberate tactic throughout history, in communist 
China's cultural revolution, in the theocratic purge of Afghanistan's 
Taliban, even in the terror campaigns of the Reconstruction and Jim 
Crow South.
  What distinguishes America is how this Nation responds to such 
lawless and purposeful attacks. We hold, it is declared, that 
government's very purpose is to secure the inalienable rights of all of 
us and that, when order falls apart, so, too, does our Nation.
  What we have seen in recent weeks begs the question: How is 
government serving its core purpose?
  Local and State officials have flouted that purpose, abandoned that 
responsibility. But in those circumstances, the Federal Government has 
the tools to secure the rights of the people.
  Attorney General Barr, chapter 13 of the United States Criminal Code, 
provides all the authority you may need. FBI Director Wray, the 
evidence of criminal conspiracies is in plain sight.
  The Department of Justice and the FBI must act without delay. This 
government must restore the America we know.
  Word is the Department of Justice is leading over 500 investigations, 
and that is good news. We are counting on them, and we know they are up 
to the task.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
for his comments, and I echo his sentiment that what needs to happen to 
restore order here is one must arrest malefactors who are committing 
crimes. We must then charge them and prosecute them and give them due 
process. But without a restoration of order, no one in this country has 
freedom.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
  Mr. WEBER of Texas. Madam Speaker, some history from our country.
  Yesterday was June 25. On June 25, 1788, the State of Virginia 
ratified the U.S. Constitution and thereby became the 10th State of the 
United States. Virginia willingly joined the Union. Virginia willingly 
left the Union and then willingly eventually rejoined the Union, a 
reminder from our past. Do we take down everything about Virginia? 
Certainly not.
  Madam Speaker, on June 25, 1868, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, 
Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were readmitted to the 
Union. Again, they had willingly joined the Union; they willingly left 
the Union; and, yes, they willingly rejoined that same Union. Reminders 
from the past. Do we do away with all reminders?
  On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the 
constitutionality of racial segregation for public facilities as long 
as they were separate but equal. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that 
the use of unofficial nondenominational prayer in public schools was 
unconstitutional. They got it wrong twice, just two examples. Do we do 
away with any mention of the Supreme Court?

  Madam Speaker, in 1973, June 25, again, yesterday, John Dean, White 
House Counsel for President Richard Nixon, admitted that President 
Nixon was involved in the coverup. Do we do away with all mention of 
President Nixon?
  Madam Speaker, how about President Bill Clinton, who was accused of 
several sexual harassments and was found guilty of lying under oath 
and, as I recall, tampering with a witness or obstruction of justice? 
Are all mentions of President Clinton gone? No, not him, not Nixon. 
They were Presidents of this United States.
  Madam Speaker, in 1999, on June 25, Germany's Parliament approved a 
national Holocaust memorial to be built in Berlin, a painful but 
necessary reminder from the past.
  And we could go on. We could talk about professional entertainers--
and I use the word ``professional'' loosely--who have been accused. And 
the list is Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and on down. You go right 
down that list. Do we demand any and all of their works, their 
mentions, their movies, their shows be blotted out from memory?
  We could talk about professional athletes--and again, I use the word 
``professional'' loosely--who have been accused of sexual assault, 
beating their wives up, their girlfriends up, caught with drugs, 
performance-enhancing drugs, gambling, cheating. Do we blot them out 
from all memory and all mentions? No.
  Madam Speaker, even churches--the Catholic Church, the Baptist 
Church, the Methodists, other churches, other denominations--scandals, 
military sex scandals, Boy Scouts, congressional sex scandals, every 
occupation, every race, color, creed, and religion, none is perfect. 
Where does it end?
  Should we pull down and attempt to erase all mentions of countries 
like Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China? The list is endless.
  Madam Speaker, George Floyd had a criminal record, but he did not 
deserve execution at the hands of an errant police officer. And then 
again, those whose lives and/or their livelihoods are being destroyed 
by vandals, looters, and rioters don't deserve to have their families 
and their livelihoods and their lives ruined either.
  It is time for the violence to stop. Peaceful protests, yes; 
violence, no. The Governors and the President should send in troops 
when requested and needed. I stand with the President in that.
  These criminals and lawbreakers deserve to be dealt with in a manner 
consistent with their behavior and the law. They are pulling down 
statues that were paid for with tax dollars, erected with the consent 
of the governed, no matter what community or timeframe. These thugs 
simply think they can tear them down.
  Do we acknowledge there are those who have an improper mindset? Of 
course. Those are thugs tearing things down. Of course we do.
  Do we also acknowledge that Black lives matter? You bet we do. I 
cannot even begin to understand the fear of parents and their children 
who live in that fear that some day they may suffer that same fate.
  But let's have that conversation within the framework of a civilized 
people who earnestly desire what President Lincoln called ``a more 
perfect Union.''
  Violence, property destruction, vandalism, arson, looting, and, yes, 
killing others is hardly what I think we would want or call a more 
perfect Union, Madam Speaker.
  So how about a new reset? Looking backwards will only leave us hating 
everyone and everything. Statues and symbols of our great country 
should remind us how far we have come, but, more importantly, how far 
we have got to go still.
  We should be taking pride in how far we have come. Actually, let us 
hope in the promises of where we can go, while being saddened as to 
some of the things that have had to happen to get us to this point.
  Madam Speaker, how about a reset?

                              {time}  1745

  George Orwell once said:

       The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and 
     obliterate their own understanding of their history.

  Madam Speaker, as we reassess our shared experience, let us learn 
from the past in order to make a better, brighter future. America's 
history is imperfect. But projecting contemporary norms through 
violence while rejecting the experiences of our past does a disservice 
to the sacrifices of the great men and women like President Lincoln, 
who fought for equality for all.
  We must not erase our history. We must learn from it. This is one of 
the promises and the highest callings of America the beautiful.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments, 
particularly relating to history. I am reminded, as I was pondering 
that, that each of us has a history. Each of us has a personal history. 
None of us are perfect. Sometimes, we have flaws that seem almost 
insurmountable in our own lives. But if we deny our history,

[[Page H2584]]

then we deny who we are and who we can become.
  When I hear folks out there attacking our history and saying, let's 
bring down this statue or let's do this or let's do that, some of it is 
so acontextual. By that, I mean it is as if there was no history to 
learn from. And I think, how in the world can we be so narcissistic 
that we don't accept the flaws of our own past and build upon the 
promise of the future?
  We have problems, for sure, but it does not inure to lawlessness, 
rioting, murder, and mayhem. It should, instead, inure to the better 
angels within us.
  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from California 
(Mr. LaMalfa).
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Arizona 
(Mr. Biggs) for leading this tonight and for what he has been standing 
up for.
  I just have to say that I am really grieved by the strife we have in 
this country, especially trying to exit out of this Wuhan virus 
situation and the horrific things we saw happening in Minneapolis. That 
was the moment when we saw George Floyd being abused and ultimately 
killed by that.
  There was unity among 99.9 percent of the population of the people in 
this country saying that is wrong. We had a moment to learn from that, 
to build upon that.
  Indeed, it seemed to be a short moment. Peaceful protests immediately 
followed. We agree with those. And then that has been co-opted by these 
forces coming out of the ground that have been looking for an 
opportunity to divide us, divide our Nation, whether it is antifa or 
other groups that are forming and now seeking political power with 
this. It is now beyond racism. It is something completely different.
  The violence that we are seeing, the mayhem, the destruction, the 
vandalism has nothing to do with the good conversation we should have 
been having in that spirit of unity that I think most Americans felt in 
that window of time right after the George Floyd killing.
  How are we going to come out of this? How are we going to have a good 
conversation about how we can improve things with law enforcement but 
not impugn law enforcement for what they are doing? They are out there 
every day trying to find the balance between how to defend the public, 
how to defend their own life when they knock on a door or walk up to a 
car--they don't know what is going on inside there--and also being a 
good ambassador for somebody who they just need to talk to.
  How are we going to find this balance again amidst all of this 
mayhem, amidst all of this violence? Well, certainly, the signal needs 
to be sent that we are not going to tolerate the violence, the mayhem, 
the destruction, the vandalism. Severe penalties need to be coming down 
upon those who we already have on camera or other ways to identify in 
anything going forward.
  I just came from Lincoln Park about 10 blocks east of here, and they 
have to put fencing and have guards out there for the statue of Abraham 
Lincoln, who is shown there putting a hand up for a slave depicted in 
that statue, an emancipated slave. He is still wearing the chains. He 
is looking up at Mr. Lincoln, who is lifting him and going to take him 
to a better place.
  Yet, that is being misinterpreted in 2020 as something that is 
hateful. That same statue was paid for by emancipated slaves back then 
who were inspired by what Mr. Lincoln had done.
  They even have a fence around Mary McLeod Bethune right next-door 
because they are afraid that might get vandalized because there is 
indiscriminate vandalism happening to any statue, to any memorial, to 
any monument just because it is a mayhem out there.
  That doesn't even make sense. It is not even logical that you would 
tear down the ones, General Grant or whoever, who were actually in the 
fight to end slavery. We are not going to have a very good conversation 
about racism when frauds like this go on.
  Even something so simple or silly as a garage at a raceway here a 
while back where somebody said it was a noose in the garage, and the 
media ran with it immediately without taking at least 12 hours to check 
out and find out that it was a pull handle for shutting a garage door. 
In no way does it meet the specifications for a noose. Unfortunately, 
the driver doubled down on that and continued in interviews saying 
definitely a noose.
  That doesn't do anything to bring the harmony we should be having, 
especially when that driver was shown an incredible amount of harmony 
by his colleagues there when first that incident was reported.
  Where are we going with all of this? I grieve for our country, the 
one that had imperfect roots but always has strived to build upon 
itself to do better, to improve.
  Slavery came in with the country, but the Founders knew it wasn't 
right. There were compromises made to at least form this country to be 
something better than the monarchy that England had, compromises but 
still building until finally in the 1860s when Mr. Lincoln came and 
said enough. You had more than half the country that was already ready 
to do that.
  We don't get a lot of talk about that because you think the whole 
country was racist. Most of the country was not. It was eradicated. 
Then we had the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to grant rights to 
those who originally did not have them. The Civil Rights Act of the 
1960s continued on that path, the Voting Rights Act.

  Yet, all we hear around here is, Republicans are against all that, 
when you find out that, actually, Republicans were leading in greater 
numbers on all of those things all the way back at that time. Now, 
Democrats are trying to co-opt that and turn it into something else 
completely. Indeed, the first 20 Members of Congress who were Black 
were also Republican because they saw who was really trying to lead 
them toward freedom.
  What we have going on right now is not going to keep this great 
country in a place that is free. We have lost a lot of freedom already 
by the virus, first--something we have to handle--but also the freedom 
to actually assemble downtown in a large city or to go visit a statue 
or do anything.
  Our freedoms are being eroded. Our freedoms are being eroded by 
roving bands of people who--mayors in large cities, Democrat mayors, 
and some Democrat Governors that govern States aren't doing anything 
about it.
  What are we supposed to do? Stand and watch what is going on here? 
No, we are not going to watch this anymore. We are not going to put up 
with it. Severe penalties need to be had for these people inflicting 
this mayhem upon their own Nation, upon their own neighbors, upon 
neighborhoods. It needs to be harsh.
  Then, once we can get the violence stopped, maybe we can get back to 
the table and have a real conversation about how we are going to 
improve the situations with race.
  It grieves me that young Black males feel like they are going to be 
victimized by the term ``driving while Black.'' That is an awful 
feeling for them and for us, I think, to see that happen.
  Our great colleague over on the other side, Senator Tim Scott, when 
he brought forth a bill he has been working on very hard for a long 
time, looking for bipartisan efforts, his JUSTICE Act, and then someone 
tells him it is a token effort.
  What the heck does that mean? That really struck him deeply, that 
people would say that about that and not even give him the opportunity 
to have that bill developed further in the Senate. What a shameful 
moment that was.
  Yet, now we have legislation here that is trying to eviscerate the 
ability of cops to operate how they need to, to have a little bit of 
immunity because a cop doesn't know what he is walking into or what she 
is walking into. They need a little latitude, not the latitude we saw 
in Minneapolis, but one to simply operate.
  Doctors need latitude in order to work on patients and not be sued to 
death. Yet, we have this legislation that is going to be, basically, 
sue a cop. That is not going to help anything.
  What is that going to do for morale for keeping cops on the force, 
for recruiting new ones? Do we want this mayhem we keep seeing 
happening right here in D.C., Minneapolis, L.A., any other large city, 
and we don't have some kind of law enforcement there?
  Social workers do have their place in certain situations, and they 
can be

[[Page H2585]]

helpful. But we don't take money away. We don't defund the cops who are 
already shorthanded in rural areas like mine, sheriffs, police, in 
order to try and change the whole game.
  We have a lot of listening to do to each other on both sides. Not 
everybody with light-colored skin is a racist, and I think a lot of 
people around this country are really feeling, after the unity we had, 
after the George Floyd ugly incident in Minneapolis, this is a time to 
get together and listen to each other.
  If this is allowed to continue to happen, it is going to make it 
awful hard for people to listen to each other because they are feeling 
under fire themselves for something they never did, never stood for. 
Instead, they have always stood for the greatness of that flag right up 
there. In God we trust.
  I appreciate the time.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for 
his passionate and heartfelt words.
  It is my pleasure now to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Posey).
  Mr. POSEY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  ``We want America back.'' Those were just a few of the lyrics of a 
song written by a group named The Steeles in 1996. Some of the lyrics 
said:

     Something is wrong with America.
     This Nation is like a runaway train,
     Headed down the wrong track.

  And it concludes, in part, with:

     I love America. But I do not love what she has become.

  Circumstances seemed pretty despairing back then, but they pale in 
comparison to what we are seeing going on across our country today, 
perpetrated by Marxists, anarchists, and those malcontents who are 
funding them.
  Today, the miscreants are using George Floyd's death to neuter the 
ability of the police to enforce the law. So far, they have been 
successful in getting the police out of the way.
  Without law enforcement, their mobs are free to move in, smash 
businesses, injure people, and cause chaos. Those aren't peaceful 
protesters, and they are not peaceful protests.
  Their outcry for justice makes sympathetic, or perhaps even cowardly, 
corporations and stupid movie stars send money to them. Now they are 
tearing down the statues, intimidating the public and politicians into 
accepting their farfetched demands, and giving them even more power.
  Circumstances are advantageous for them right now because we are in 
the midst of a pandemic so they have a freer rein of the streets.
  Who could have ever imagined sanctuary cities where America's rule of 
law is ruefully ignored by government officials?

  Who would have ever imagined some elected officials would allow 
domestic terrorists or wannabe revolutionaries to commandeer a complete 
takeover and rule of both public and private property and have dominion 
over other unwilling citizens of the United States in so-called 
autonomous zones.
  Give me a break.
  Then, the lawbreakers have the audacity to demand our police be 
defunded or reimagined, whatever the heck that means. It sounds insane.
  It is really a campaign to drive our duly-elected President Donald 
Trump from office. Anyone who stands in their way they think should be 
destroyed.
  We can expect it to get worse and worse until November 3, when they 
hope to put an end to the prosperity created by the President. You have 
to suffer from the world's worst case of Potomac fever, or beltway 
brain drain, to think they are fooling anybody.
  Meanwhile, the leadership and majority in this Chamber have been 
silent. I have not heard a single word, syllable, or letter uttered by 
them in opposition to the miscreants. It is past time for them to 
condemn their activities, and it is time for law enforcement across 
this Nation in every State, in every county, in every city, in every 
little burgh, community, and the rural areas in-between to put an end 
to this lawlessness.
  If you don't start acting soon, there wouldn't be anything left to 
tear down. I would like to take a bunch of these wannabe 
revolutionaries to South or Central America for a few days to see how 
their game would end if they were successful in having it their way.

                              {time}  1800

  If you have ever traveled throughout those socialist countries there, 
it is a very eye-opening experience. The State Department, and even 
their own officials, warn you, don't wear any jewelry; don't carry much 
cash, because there is a good chance you are going to get robbed. And 
if you are approached by a robber, hand over everything, hold back 
nothing, because they would just as soon shoot you and kill you as not 
shoot you and kill you.
  There is a lot of lawlessness, and they don't fear justice. They 
don't fear the police. They are going to take, and you are going to 
give, or you are going to die. And you know what the State Department 
and the local officials tell you next? If you get robbed, don't call 
the police. It is not like in our country where, if there is a problem, 
you call the police. There, they tell you not to call the police 
because they are all corrupt and they will shake you down for anything 
the robbers missed.
  One common denominator of the countries that I visited, which was 
Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, and Trinidad, was a common denominator 
that every single house that I saw, large or small, urban or suburban, 
no matter how far out you went into the country, every single house 
that was more than a cardboard box had bars on every window and most of 
the doors. Why? Because that is what lawlessness brings.
  They truly go to bed every night in those socialist countries with 
the expectation that if they did not have bars, they wouldn't wake up 
in the morning; or if they did, every possession that they had that was 
worth anything would be gone.
  Very little police, high crime, high unemployment, bars on all the 
windows. Is that what we really want for our future?
  We have been blessed to live in the land of opportunity, the most 
free and prosperous nation in the history of the world. Many, many, 
many people have risked their lives and the lives of their wives, their 
grandparents, their parents, their children, family members to come 
here. This place is really that good that people would risk their life 
just to come here, a chance at coming here. We cannot stand back and 
let it be destroyed. We want America back.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his thoughts and 
taking time to share those with us.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).
  Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I thank my good colleague from Arizona (Mr. 
Biggs) for putting this on. I really do appreciate it because it is so 
timely.
  Growing pains, I think that is what we can say we are going through 
is growing pains again as a nation, a nation birthed over 200 years 
ago.
  And for anybody who watched yesterday's debate, Madam Speaker, on the 
House floor, I think it was interesting to see the amount of, I guess, 
race-baiting that was coming from the other side, from my colleagues, 
which I found very unreasonable that, for some reason, if you are a 
Black man, you have to tell your children how to act with the police.
  My mom and dad had that talk with me, probably for good reason, too, 
and they said: If you get pulled over, ``Yes, sir,'' ``No, sir,'' and 
then when you get home we want to know what happened and why you got 
pulled over. I had to have that talk with my children. So that is 
nothing new, and I think that we sometimes overplay that.
  Does it happen maybe more with minority communities? Yes, I think it 
does, but nobody is immune to that. When I came into Congress, I got 
stopped multiple times to see if I had the right credentials. That has 
happened to me.
  Since we have been up here, the divide in this country has gotten so 
much worse, and it has been since Donald Trump has gotten elected. And 
people will blame the President for doing this, but we can go back to 
other Presidents where we have seen this happen. We are Americans. We 
need to come together as a nation.
  I have had the great fortune of being in Congress. This is my last 
term. I will have served 8 years. I was the chairman of the Asia-
Pacific Subcommittee last year, last Congress; I am the ranking member 
this year. I have bean able to travel the world. I have been in the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[[Page H2586]]

  Africa is a continent of 1.2 billion, yet today, in the 21st century, 
650 million people do not have electricity. I suppose they have a 
reason to protest. I suppose they have a reason to complain. But do 
they have the right to protest?
  Being on the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee we got to travel to a lot of 
the Asian countries. We all know what is going on in Hong Kong today. 
Hong Kong is a province of China. There was an agreement of one 
country, two systems, where Hong Kong was supposed to be a semi- or a 
self-ruling area with an independent judiciary committee. Yet, 23 years 
into that agreement, Xi Jinping, the leader of the Communist Party, 
said that is null and void, and they have put the heavy hand of the 
Communist Party in there.
  These young students are out there holding up that flag behind you, 
Madam Speaker, holding up that flag for liberty and freedom because 
they have tasted that. That is all they have ever known. Yet the 
Chinese Communist Party wants to take that away because it scares them. 
Free thought, independent thinking, freedom, they know the Communist 
Party cannot survive, so they are going in there to squash that.
  These students are holding those signs up. Our flag is up. They have 
been in my office here in the Washington Capitol. They have a reason to 
protest, but they do not have the right.
  You talk about Venezuela, somebody talked about it. Go down to Cuba 
and talk against the Castro regime. You don't have the right. Talk 
about religion in those countries. You do not have the right.
  But then I look at this country, and I am as guilty as anybody else 
in this country. We have the right to protest, the First Amendment, but 
sometimes I think--and this is where I feel like I am guilty, like a 
lot of us. I think we take it for granted what we have in this country.

  It was interesting because I was with the Ambassadors of both 
Malaysia and Indonesia, and they talked about the founding of their 
country. When they got their independence, when they broke away and 
they formed those countries, they told me that their founding fathers 
could have picked any system in the world. They could have taken Great 
Britain's system of government. They could have taken Germany's, 
Russia's, China's. But you know who they took? They took the principles 
of America because they had read our history, they had read those 
documents and what those documents meant.
  And I heard people over and over here today, since I have been in 
Congress, America is not a perfect country because people are in it, 
and people are not perfect, but the ideals laid out there were the best 
ideals that have ever been laid out. If not, why are other countries 
adopting them? Why do people in Cuba come across the ocean, a 90-mile 
stretch, on inner tubes, on rafts, on surfboards to get to this 
country? It is called freedom. It is called justice.
  But do you know what? We are not going to fix it if this side is 
accusing this side, and this side over here is accusing that side of 
pandering to our audience.
  So what that meant to me when I was with those Ambassadors from 
Indonesia and Malaysia, what it meant to me was: Do you know what? 
America is bigger than a Presidency. It is bigger than the Democratic 
Party. It is bigger than the Republican Party. It is those ideals that 
this country stands for that we all need to fight to hold on to.
  I want to read something that one of my constituents sent me. It 
says: ``The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply 
this, that the man who will get up will be helped up, and the man who 
will not get up will be allowed to stay down. . . . Personal 
independence is a virtue and it is the soul of which comes the 
sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large 
share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must 
be developed from within.''
  I had an African-American man, a conservative Republican who is 
afraid to tell people he is a conservative Republican because he gets 
labeled Uncle Tom. You have been put on the plantation.
  These are not my words. These are words coming from him.
  But that quote came from somebody I wish we could go back and meet, 
Mr. Frederick Douglass, a person born into slavery who picked himself 
up by the bootstraps, who educated himself. He stood beside President 
Lincoln when they dedicated the Emancipation statue.
  And I have got these people out here who loathe, despise, disdain 
this country, and it is being flamed by people--and I can't blame just 
people, the Democrats. There are people out there who just hate this 
country, but they are using that to tear this country apart instead of 
remembering the ideals that this country is built on. And those are 
American ideologies--not conservative, not liberal, not Republican or 
Democrat, American--and I think it is time that we all come together 
and realize we are Americans and we are on the same team.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his passionate 
comments about freedom.
  Madam Speaker, those of us who have had the good fortune of studying 
history, we know that it bumps and claws along. We do see progress 
sometimes, and we also see devolution sometimes.
  What we are seeing today, though, reminds me an awful lot of a 
revolution that took place in the early part of the 20th century. It 
was not a large revolution; it was a small revolution. It was the 
Bolshevik Revolution. It was funded by some of the bourgeoisie who did 
not like the form of government in then-Russia. It was not a massive 
revolution. It wasn't widespread, but it changed that entire nation's 
form of government.
  I am reminded that it was Trotsky who prevented the military from 
intervening against the lawless revolution. What I am seeing here today 
reminds me an awful lot of that. This is a small revolution that is 
violent in nature, is anti-American in nature.
  And so when my colleagues mention the police and what they need to 
do, what happens is there has been an emasculation of the police. They 
don't really want to get involved because, should they get involved, 
there is a legitimate concern that they will be sued, arrested, et 
cetera. So when you get rid of the blue line of defense against 
lawlessness, then you basically destroy the foundation of the 
protection of your freedoms.
  President Trump called certain groups antifa, domestic terrorists. In 
our debate in the Judiciary Committee, some of my colleagues said 
antifa is a fiction. So I said: Well, you know, is it a fiction?
  So I went to CNN, because I knew that if I went to FOX and referred 
to FOX, nobody was going to believe that that was not biased. So I went 
to CNN because I wanted to find out what they said, and you can go 
through and find extensive interviews where the conclusion is clear: 
antifa is a real organization. It is a group. And the group sometimes 
chooses to resort to violence.
  So what do you have? They are definitely domestic. They are 
committing terrorist activity in this country. Thus, they are domestic.
  And what would terrorism be? Terrorism is the use of force, 
intimidation, violence to change or alter behavior for a particular 
purpose.
  So you begin to see you have domestic terrorism going on.

                              {time}  1815

  18 U.S. Code, Section 2339A, I call on FBI Director Wray to begin 
using that statute, make the arrests necessary to restore order. And I 
call on Attorney General William Barr to use that same section to 
charge and prosecute these individuals who are attempting to intimidate 
Americans out of their freedom.
  A lot of these Federal monuments and statues that are coming down, 
these memorials that are being ripped to shreds, destroyed are on 
Federal property.
  And you know what? 18 U.S. Code 1369 is the statute that Director 
Wray should be having his Federal agency make arrests under. And then I 
call on Attorney General Barr to have his U.S. attorneys charge and 
prosecute under 18 U.S. Code 1369 for destruction of veterans' 
memorials. And we can go forward.
  But why do I even bring that up? It is because I believe sincerely 
that this country is built on the idea that each

[[Page H2587]]

of us should have agency, will, choice. It hasn't always worked out 
really well or perfectly. There are those who have had their choices 
and will taken away from them. That is inexcusable, of course.
  But if we are going to have will and choice and freedom, then we are 
part of this great social contract where I delegate my right to defend 
myself because I can't do it all the time. There are people who are 
stronger or more vicious or are more malevolent who want to compel me 
to do something or take something from me.
  We delegate police authority to police. It is not carte blanche. It 
is reasonable.
  We have got to restore respect for the law, for the police, for the 
courts, and for process.
  It is imperfect. I worked in that system for a lot of years on both 
sides, prosecuting and defending. It is not a perfect process.
  The reality is, though, it is as Winston Churchill said, Democracy is 
the worst form of government except for all those others.
  It is the best humankind has come up with.
  To destroy our history seems so antithetical to making progress, 
eradicating our history, erasing it.
  College professors are now saying we have got to go through and 
remove books from the library.
  Remove them from the library, because why? They have unpopular ideas 
in them. They may be unpopular ideas, but you know what is better than 
taking them out and burning them or removing them and trashing them ala 
Adolph Hitler and the Nazis? It is letting us read them, discuss them, 
and point out their flaws, and rehabilitate us, our hearts.
  Artwork being removed from museums, being removed from this House. 
Why? Because some were not 2020 politically correct. What they did was, 
to some, unconscionable and abominable. Let's have the discussion.
  Removing your history allows you to repeat the mistakes of your 
history. I simply don't understand it.
  We have now moved beyond a motivational or some kind of philosophical 
attempt to remove historical items. Now we are seeing indiscriminate 
action.
  Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a series of articles.

                         [From Breitbart News]

       A greater percentage of U.S. registered voters believe 
     Confederate statues, which have been targeted by protesters 
     in recent weeks, should remain standing despite activists' 
     demands to remove them, a Morning Consult poll released this 
     week revealed.
       The survey, taken June 6-7, showed that a greater number of 
     Americans believe Confederate statues should remain standing, 
     44 percent, as opposed to the 32 percent who say they should 
     be removed. Twenty-three percent expressed no opinion on the 
     matter.
       The fundings reflect a slight shift in opinion over the 
     last three years. In August 2017, 52 percent of voters 
     indicated that the statues should be left alone, with just 
     over a quarter, 26 percent, indicating otherwise.
       However, Morning Consult reported that the purported 
     increase in support over the years is largely driven by 
     Democrats:
       The rise in support for removing the statues was driven by 
     Democrats, a majority of whom now take that position, and 
     independents, who still favor keeping those statues standing 
     by a 10-point margin. Eleven percent of GOP voters say the 
     statues should be removed, virtually unchanged since 2017.
       The vast majority of Republicans, 71 percent, believe the 
     Confederate statues should remain standing, whereas the 
     majority of Democrats, 53 percent, believe they should be 
     taken down. Forty percent of independents believe they should 
     remain standing, with 30 percent vying for their removal and 
     30 percent expressing no opinion.
       The survey was taken among ``roughly'' 1,900 voters, with a 
     margin of error of +/- two percent.
       The survey comes as protesters vandalize and, in some 
     cases, tear down Confederate statues and others they deem 
     offensive, including statues of Christopher Columbus.
       House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also embraced the 
     calls for change, requesting in a letter on Wednesday the 
     removal of Confederate statues occupying the U.S. Capitol, or 
     as she called them, ``monuments to men who advocated cruelty 
     and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end.''
       ``Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to 
     achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to 
     these ideals,'' she said in a letter to Committee Chair Roy 
     Blunt (R-MO) and Vice Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). ``Their 
     statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be 
     removed.''
       Interestingly, Pelosi has remained silent on her own 
     father's role in the dedication of a Confederate statue in 
     Baltimore's Wyman Park in 1948.
       As Breitbart News detailed:
       However, her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., oversaw the 
     dedication of such a statue in Baltimore's Wyman Park--the 
     Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument--as mayor of the 
     city in 1948. At the time, the Speaker's father said people 
     could look to Jackson's and Lee's lives as inspiration and 
     urged Americans to ``emulate Jackson's example and stand like 
     a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek 
     to destroy the liberty of the world.''
       World Wars I and II found the North and South fighting for 
     a common cause, and the generalship and military science 
     displayed by these two great men in the War between the 
     States lived on and were applied in the military plans of our 
     nation in Europe and the Pacific areas,'' D'Alesandro said at 
     the dedication ceremony, as detailed by the Baltimore Sun. He 
     continued:
       Today with our nation beset by subversive groups and 
     propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can 
     look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to 
     remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our 
     sacred institutions . . . remain steadfast in our 
     determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves, 
     but for other liberty-loving nations who are striving to 
     preserve their national unity as free nations.
       Pelosi's office did not return Breitbart News's request for 
     comment.
                                  ____


                     [From Fox News, Aug. 21, 2018]

         Which Confederate statues were removed? A running list

                        (By Christopher Carbone)

       More than 30 cities across the United States have removed 
     or relocated Confederate statues and monuments amid an 
     intense nationwide debate about race and history.
       After a ``Unite the Right'' rally in Virginia in August to 
     protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee 
     resulted in the death of a woman who was demonstrating 
     against white supremacy, other cities have decided to remove 
     Confederate statues.
       Many of the controversial monuments were dedicated in the 
     early twentieth century or during the height of the Civil 
     Rights Movement. Discussions are under way about the removal 
     of monuments in Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Pensacola, 
     Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, Richmond, Virginia, 
     Birmingham, Alabama, and Charlottesville, Virginia.
       Here is a running list of all the monuments and statues 
     that have been removed and the cities that have taken them 
     down:


                             Annapolis, Md.

       Under cover of darkness, city workers removed a statue in 
     August 2017 of former Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney that 
     had been on the State House's front lawn for 145 years. Taney 
     authored the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision, which 
     held that African-Americans could not be U.S. citizens. The 
     city's Republican mayor said through a spokesman that it was 
     removed ``as a matter of public safety.''


                             Austin, Texas

       The statues of four people with ties to the Confederacy--
     Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnson, John H. Reagan and 
     former Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg--were removed from 
     pedestals on the University of Texas campus on Aug. 17, 2017. 
     UT's president said in a written statement the deadly clashes 
     in Charlottesville made it clear ``Confederate monuments have 
     become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.'' 
     Separately, a 1,200-pound bronze statue of Confederate 
     President Jefferson Davis that was removed from UT's campus 
     in 2015 has now returned to the campus, at the Briscoe Center 
     for American History.
       The Austin school board voted to strip Confederate names 
     from five district schools, though they haven't been renamed 
     yet. The board had previously renamed Robert E. Lee 
     Elementary School in 2016.
       The Austin City Council approved renaming Robert E. Lee 
     Road and Jeff Davis Avenue.


                             Baltimore, Md.

       Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh told reporters she wanted to 
     move ``quickly and quietly'' to take down four Confederate 
     statues or monuments--statues of Lee and Thomas, J. 
     ``Stonewall'' Jackson and monuments for Confederate Soldiers 
     and Sailors and Confederate Women--from the city's public 
     spaces. Although the plan had been in the works since June 
     2017, the Baltimore City Council approved it only two days 
     after the deadly events in Charlottesville. On March 10, 
     2018, the space where the Confederate statues had stood was 
     rededicated to abolitionist and civil rights pioneer Harriet 
     Tubman.


                            Bradenton, Fla.

       Mantee County removed a Confederate soldiers memorial 
     obelisk on Aug. 24 after the city commission voted 4-3 to 
     take it down and place it in storage. The monument, which had 
     stood there for more than 90 years, was accidentally broken 
     into two pieces when city workers removed it. The removal 
     came after days of protests from residents and activists, 
     most of whom were in favor of taking it down, and it cost 
     $12,700 to remove.


                             Brooklyn, N.Y.

       Plaques honoring Lee were removed from an episcopal 
     church's property on Aug. 16,

[[Page H2588]]

     2017 and the governor called on the Army to remove the names 
     of Lee and another Confederate general from the streets 
     around a nearby fort. ``It was very easy for us to say, `OK, 
     we'll take the plaques down,' '' said Bishop Lawrence 
     Provenzano, of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, who 
     called them ``offensive to the community.'' New York City 
     Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a review of all the 
     city's public art to identify ``symbols of hate'' for 
     possible removal.


                             Dallas, Texas

       A bronze statue of Robert E. Lee, formally called the 
     Robert Edward Lee Sculpture, was removed in mid-September 
     2017 from Robert E. Lee Park, which was also named in honor 
     of the Confederate general. The Dallas City Council voted 13-
     1 to remove the statue, which has stood in Lee Park for 81 
     years.
       The park was dedicated to Lee by President Franklin Delano 
     Roosevelt in 1936 during a renaming ceremony of the park.


                          Daytona Beach, Fla.

       Three Confederate monuments were removed from a city park 
     Friday morning. A city spokesperson said the plaques were 
     going to be cleaned up and taken to a nearby museum. The 
     decision to remove them did not require public input, the 
     spokes-person told FOX35, because they were donated and not 
     purchased with taxpayer funds.


                           Chapel Hill, N.C.

       Protesters toppled the ``Silent Sam'' statue that has stood 
     on the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus 
     since 1913 on Aug. 20. More than 200 people had gathered and 
     were chanting ``hey, hey, ho, ho, this racist statue has got 
     to go.'' In a statement, UNC Chancellor Carol Folt called the 
     act ``unlawful and dangerous,'' adding that law enforcement 
     were investigating the incident. The statue had been a source 
     of controversy, with school officials claiming that state law 
     prevented them from removing it.


                              Durham, N.C.

       A nearly-century old statue of a Confederate soldier was 
     toppled not long after Charlottesville by protesters 
     associated with the Workers World party. North Carolina 
     Central University student Takiyah Thompson, along with three 
     others, were arrested and charged with felonies in the days 
     following. As the bronze statue lay crumpled on the ground, 
     protesters could be seen kicking it on social media. A 
     Worthington assistant city manager said the community seeks 
     to be one that ``promotes tolerance, respect and inclusion.''
       A statue of Lee was removed from the entrance to Duke 
     University Chapel on Aug. 19, 2017 and is set to be preserved 
     in some way to study the university's ``complex past.''
       ``I took this course of action to protect Duke Chapel, to 
     ensure the vital safety of students and community members who 
     worship there, and above all to express the deep and abiding 
     values of our university,'' university President Vincent 
     Price wrote in statement to the school.


                             Franklin, Ohio

       A monument to Lee was removed in August 2017 by Franklin 
     workers. Gainesville, Fla.
       A chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy paid 
     for the removal of a monument to Confederate soldiers known 
     locally as ``Old Joe'' that stood in front a building in 
     downtown Gainesville for 113 years. It was moved to a private 
     cemetery outside the city in August 2017.


                             Helena, Mont.

       The state's capital city on Aug. 18, 2017 removed a 
     memorial to Confederate soldiers that had been in a public 
     park since 1916. The granite fountain, which was dismantled, 
     had been donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
     City Parks and Recreation Director Amy Teegarden told the 
     Spokesman-Review that the fountain initially will be stored 
     in a city warehouse--but it could be reassembled at a future 
     date.


                            Kansas City, Mo.

       A Confederate monument was boxed up in summer 2017 and is 
     slated to be removed. The Missouri division of the United 
     Daughters of the Confederacy had asked Kansas City Parks and 
     Recreation to find a new home for it.


                             Lexington, Ky.

       Two 130-year-old Confederate statues were removed from 
     downtown Lexington on October 18 after the state's attorney 
     general issued an opinion giving the city permission to take 
     them down and move them to a private cemetery. Lexington used 
     private funds to take the statues, of Confederate General 
     John Hunt Morgan and John Breckinridge, a former U.S. Vice 
     President and the last Confederate Secretary of War. Private 
     funds will cover the cost of their upkeep in the cemetery.


                          Los Angeles, Calif.

       A large stone monument commemorating Confederate veterans 
     was taken down Aug. 16 from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery 
     after hundreds of people demanded its removal. The 6-foot 
     granite marker was loaded into a pickup truck and taken to a 
     storage facility. A petition calling for it to be taken down 
     had garnered 1,3000 signatures.


                            Louisville, Ky.

       A statue of a Confederate soldier was removed from the 
     University of Louisville campus after a legal battle between 
     the city residents, the mayor and the Sons of Confederate 
     Veterans. It was relocated to Brandenburg, Kentucky, which 
     hosts Civil War Reenactments.


                             Madison, Wis.

       A plaque honoring Confederate soldiers were removed Aug. 17 
     from a cemetery not long after residents and city leaders 
     began calling for it to be taken down. ``The Civil War was an 
     act of insurrection and treason and a defense of the 
     deplorable practice of slavery,'' said Mayor Paul Soglin in a 
     statement. ``The monuments in question were connected to that 
     action and we do not need them on city property.''


                             Memphis, Tenn.

       Crews removed two Confederate statues from Memphis parks on 
     Dec. 20 after the city sold them to a private entity. The 
     City Council voted unanimously earlier in the day to sell 
     both Health Sciences and fourth Bluff Parks where the 
     Confederate statues, of Confederate General Nathan Bedford 
     Forrest and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, were 
     located.


                            Nashville, Tenn.

       The Legendary Ryman Auditorium, where stars like Dolly 
     Parton, Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn made their Grand Ole 
     Opry debuts, quietly moved a sign on Sept 21 hanging the 
     venue's upper level that read ``1897 Confederate Gallery.'' 
     Honoring an 1897 reunion of Confederate veterans at the 
     Ryman, the sign had been shrouded over the years but has now 
     been permanently removed from the main auditorium and added 
     to a museum exhibit that explains the history of the 125-
     year-old music hall.


                            New Orleans, La.

       New Orleans city workers removed four monuments in April 
     dedicated to the Confederacy and opponents of Reconstruction. 
     The city council had declared the monuments a public 
     nuisance. The monuments removed were of Confederate General 
     P.G.T. Beauregard, Davis and Lee. Also removed was the 
     Liberty Place Monument, which commemorated a Reconstruction 
     Era white supremacist attack on the city's integrated police 
     force. The mayor plans to replace with new fountains and an 
     American flag.


                             New York, N.Y.

       Busts of Lee and Jackson were removed overnight on Aug. 17 
     from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community 
     College. Prior to its removal, Bro x Borough president Ruben 
     Siaz Jr. had said ``there is nothing great about two men who 
     committed treason against the United States to fight to keep 
     the institution of slavery in tact.''


                             Orlando, Fla.

       A Confederate statue known as ``Johnny Reb'' was moved in 
     June 2017 by officials from Lake Eola Park to Greenwood 
     Cemetery in response to public outcry about it being symbolic 
     of hate and white supremacy. A spokesperson for Orlando's 
     mayor told Fox News that city officials are working with 
     historians on a new inscription to put the monument ``in 
     proper historical perspective.''


                             Richmond, Va.

       The Richmond school board voted 6-1 on June 18, 2018 to 
     rename J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama 
     Elementary School. The process began several months prior and 
     involved input from students, teachers, administrators and 
     local stakeholders. Virginia is home to the largest number of 
     Confederate monuments and symbols in the country.


                             Rockville, Md.

       A 13-ton bronze Confederate statue that had stood for 
     decades next to Rockville's Red Brick Courthouse was 
     relocated in July next to a privately run Potomac River ferry 
     named for a Confederate general. The relocation cost about 
     $100,000, according to the Washington Post.


                           San Diego, Calif.

       A plaque honoring Davis was quietly removed Aug. 16, 2017 
     from a downtown park. ``This morning I ordered the immediate 
     removal of a plaque honoring the Confederacy at Horton Plaza 
     Park,'' Mayor Kevin
       Faulconer told the Los Angeles Times. ``San Diegans stand 
     together against Confederate symbols of division.''


                           San Antonio, Texas

       A Confederate statue was removed from Travis Park overnight 
     Sept. 1, 2017 after the City Council voted 10-1 in favor of 
     taking it down the previous day. There were no protesters 
     during or after the removal, according to local media 
     reports. ``This is, without context, a monument that 
     glorifies the causes of the Confederacy, and that's not 
     something that a modern city needs to have in a public 
     square,'' said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg following the 
     council vote.


                           San Antonio, Texas

       A Jefferson Davis highway marker was removed in 2016.


                             St. Louis, Mo.

       The Missouri Civil War Museum oversaw the removal in late 
     June 2017 of a 32-foot granite and bronze monument from 
     Forest Park, where it had stood for 103 years. It shouldered 
     the costs of removal and will hold the monument in storage 
     until a new home can be found for it. The agreement 
     stipulates the monument can be re-displayed at a Civil War 
     museum, battlefield or cemetery. In Boone County, a rock with 
     a plaque honoring Confederate soldiers that had been removed 
     from the University of Missouri campus was relocated a second 
     time after the Charleston AEM church massacre to a historic 
     site commemorating a nearby Civil War battle.

[[Page H2589]]

  



                          St. Petersburg, Fla.

       St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman ordered city workers to 
     remove a bronze Confederate marker at noon on Aug. 15, 2017 
     after determining that it was on city property. It's being 
     held in storage until a new home can be found for it. ``The 
     plaque recognizing a highway named after Stonewall Jackson 
     has been removed and we will attempt to locate its owner,'' 
     Kriseman said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times.


                            Washington, D.C.

       The stewards of the National Mall announced this week that 
     the exhibit alongside the Thomas Jefferson Memorial will be 
     updated to showcase his status as both one of the country's 
     founders and a slaveholder. ``We can reflect the momentous 
     contributions of someone like Thomas Jefferson, but also 
     consider carefully the complexity of who he was,'' an 
     official with the Trust told the Washington Examiner. ``And 
     that's not reflected right now in the exhibits.''
       New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill in Sept. 2017 
     to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol Building.
       The National Cathedral voted that same month to take down 
     two stained-glass windows of Confederate generals. The 
     removal could take a few days and workers seen putting up 
     scaffolding around the windows to start the process-
       Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, signed a bill to 
     replace a statue of a Confederate general at the U.S. Capitol 
     with one of Mary McLeod Bethune, a black woman who founded a 
     school that became BethuneCookman University in Daytona 
     Beach, Florida. She'll become the first black female to be 
     honored in Statuary Hall.


                           Worthington, Ohio

       Worthington removed a historic marker Aug. 18 outside the 
     former home of a Confederate general.

               [From the Huffington Post, Aug. 23, 2017]

 Polls Find Little Support for Confederate Statue Removal--But How You 
                              Ask Matters

                        (By Ariel Edwards-Levy)

       Americans are generally unsupportive of attempts to remove 
     memorials honoring Confederate leaders, new polling shows--
     although the way the question is framed may make a 
     significant difference.
       In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, a third of Americans favor 
     removing statues and memorials of Confederate leaders, with 
     49 percent opposed. Just 29 percent of Americans favor 
     changing the names of streets, schools and buildings 
     commemorating Confederate leaders, while half are opposed.
       Those surveyed are effectively split on whether the 
     Confederate flag is more a symbol of Southern pride (36 
     percent) or racism (35 percent), with the rest unsure or 
     saying it represents neither. But even if Americans don't 
     overwhelmingly recognize the flag as a symbol of racism, 
     there's also little widespread enthusiasm for its use. Just 
     34 percent of Americans say they approve of displaying the 
     Confederate flag in public, while 47 percent disapprove.
       Opinions on the Confederate memorials are divided along 
     racial lines, but to an even greater degree along political 
     ones. Black Americans are 18 percentage points likelier than 
     white Americans to favor removing statues of Confederate 
     leaders--but the gap between Democrats and Republicans on the 
     question is 46 points. And the difference between Hillary 
     Clinton voters and those who supported President Donald Trump 
     in last year's election is a full 58 points.
       Within the Democratic Party, white and black people are 
     about equally likely to favor removing the statues: 64 
     percent and 63 percent, respectively, say they'd like to see 
     them taken down. There are differences, however, by ideology 
     among the party's members--77 percent of self-described 
     liberal Democrats, but just 40 percent of self-described 
     moderates or conservatives--want to see the statues removed.
       Most other surveys released in the past few weeks find at 
     best modest support for removing Confederate memorials, 
     although two distinctively-worded questions stand out in 
     these results.
       The strongest support for keeping memorials in place came 
     in the poll conducted by Marist for NPR and PBS NewsHour, 
     which gave respondents a choice between letting statues 
     ``remain as a historical symbol'' and removing them ``because 
     they are offensive to some people.'' (Arguably, the question 
     might have been better balanced had the first option been 
     written as ``because some people view them as a historical 
     symbol.'')
       The only poll to find majority support for removing some 
     monuments, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy 
     Polling, adopted a framework far more sympathetic to the 
     monuments' opponents, asking about their ``relocation'' 
     rather than their ``removal.''
       PPP found voters split--39 percent to 34 percent--on 
     whether they ``support or oppose monuments honoring the 
     Confederacy.'' But those voters were largely willing to 
     relocate Confederate monuments if the issue was instead 
     presented as an attempt to move them ``to museums or other 
     historic sites where they can be viewed in proper historical 
     context.'' Unlike other questions, PPP also asked 
     specifically about memorials on government property, rather 
     than a broader question about public spaces.
       Opinions surrounding Confederate symbols have also proved 
     to be fairly mutable in response to current events. After a 
     white supremacist killed nine members of a black church in 
     Charleston, South Carolina, two years ago, support for the 
     Confederate flag dropped quickly and significantly.
       That doesn't appear to have happened yet following the 
     violence earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, 
     sparked by a white nationalist rally opposing efforts to 
     remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. But if the 
     issue remains a flashpoint in the days to come, its 
     prominence could possibly polarize views even further than 
     they already are. (Charlottesville on Wednesday draped black 
     shrouds over the Lee statue and one for Confederate Gen. 
     Thomas ``Stonewall'' Jackson.)
       Since Trump took office, Democrats have repeatedly rallied 
     around opinions that serve as anti-Trump shibboleths, 
     expressing sharply increased alarm about global warming, 
     mistrust of Russia and support for immigration. While 
     Democrats are already generally in favor of taking down the 
     Confederate statues, their level of support for doing so 
     ranges between 45 percent and 72 percent in recent surveys--
     far lower than the party's almost unanimous dislike for the 
     president.
                                  ____


                  [From the Federalist, June 12, 2020]

Abolitionist Monuments Defaced by Anti-Racism' Rioters Is What Teaching 
                       Fake History Gets America

                           (By Joy Pullmann)

       The imagery couldn't be more direct. Across the nation, 
     rioting and unrest that has killed black Americans and 
     destroyed black neighborhoods has included the defacement of 
     historic monuments, including those to abolitionists.
       The last wave of monument destruction, in 2017, largely 
     focused on Confederates and slave holders, erasing all the 
     accomplishments of figures such as George Washington and 
     Thomas Jefferson with a scarlet S, for slave-holder. This 
     time, the ignorance has descended even further.
       The rioters are now tearing down and defacing memorials 
     wantonly, apparently assuming that if someone is being 
     celebrated that person is ``probably a racist,'' as the image 
     below says.
       This prejudiced ignorance appears to be widespread, and 
     unchecked by local authorities. Several of the defaced 
     monuments are of abolitionists, including the Great 
     Emancipator Abraham Lincoln, as Tristan Justice reported 
     Thursday. For example:
       ``[I]n Boston, demonstrators also vandalized a monument to 
     the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the second all-black 
     volunteer regiment of the Union Army,'' Justice writes.'' . . 
     . Add to the growing list of civil rights freedom fighters 
     defaced by social justice protestors a Minnesota memorial to 
     three black men who were lynched in 1920 following false rape 
     accusations from a white woman.''
       These mob actions are not the result of accidental 
     ignorance, but of cultivated prejudice. One month ago, I 
     collected just a few pieces of evidence pointing in this 
     direction:

       A 2019 poll found . . . that ``more than 80 percent of 
     Americans ages 39 and younger could not say what rights the 
     First Amendment protects, and three-quarters or more couldn't 
     name any authors of The Federalist Papers.'' Another 2019 
     poll found ``just 57 percent of millennials believe the 
     Declaration of Independence `better guarantees freedom and 
     equality' than the Communist Manifesto.'' A 2016 Federalist 
     article notes, ``40 percent of recent grads were unaware that 
     Congress has the right to declare war and 10 percent think 
     Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court.''

       In February, I presented more such evidence:

       Today, 4 in 10 Americans who are younger than 39 disagree 
     that the United States ``has a history we should be proud 
     of,'' according to a 2019 poll by FLAG/YouGov. The poll also 
     found that half of all Americans agree the United States is a 
     sexist and racist country, including two-thirds of 
     millennials. Millennials showed the lowest level of agreement 
     with the statement, ``I'm proud to be an American.'' Thirty-
     eight percent of ``younger Americans do not agree that 
     `America has a history that we should be proud of,' '' 
     according to the poll. 2019's annual poll from the Victims of 
     Communism Memorial Foundation found that 37 percent of 
     millennials think the United States is ``among the most 
     unequal societies in the world.''

       The anti-American group of recent graduates is not a fringe 
     element. It is a substantial and ominously growing group of 
     voting-age adults.
       The recent riots have given us many more indications that 
     America's education institutions do not merely keep kids 
     ignorant, but actively teach them to hate their country. Just 
     refer to any of the emails and website banners you've been 
     subjected to from every company you've ever purchased from 
     online, detailing about how they're all ``fighting racism'' 
     by frantically donating to people and organizations that make 
     a living off heightened racial tensions.
       These messages reveal that the nation's leadership class 
     has all been re-educated extremely successfully to believe a 
     pack of things that just aren't true about American history 
     and ideals. They are well-catechized in what is billed as 
     antiracist attitudes and activities that are rooted in false 
     information and more likely to instead increase racial 
     tensions.
       Hardly a one of them, or any other American, can tell you 
     much about George Washington besides he was a slave owner. 
     Hardly

[[Page H2590]]

     one of them can identify Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano 
     Roosevelt as bona fide, deep-dyed racists. Not one of them 
     know one of the first acts of Congress--the Congress that 
     existed before today's Congress, the one that pre-dates the 
     Constitution--was to pass a massive document outlawing 
     slavery in territory newly acquired from Great Britain during 
     postwar negotiations.
       But they all have heard of Audre Lorde, whose great 
     contribution to society is basically being black and gay. 
     They are all up on movies directed by black women like Ava 
     DuVernay and books by pathos-filled but fact-challenged black 
     writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates. They all know Michael Brown 
     put his hands up and said ``Don't shoot'' even though he 
     didn't. They're passing around discredited fake history like 
     The New York Times's 1619 Project as if it were accurate, and 
     using it to justify supporting totalitarian thought policing 
     because a black guy says this will solve racism.
       These people's heads aren't empty. Their hate isn't blind. 
     It's very well-formed. And it's been deliberately aimed at 
     the very country that has paid for and overseen their 
     indoctrination into political violence.
       I've now spent about a decade tracking information like 
     this, and have researched and written about it in more detail 
     than most, and therefore can assure you there is much more to 
     find. Entire books have and could be written to detail more. 
     Each generation of American children has learned less real 
     history than the generation before it. Each generation of 
     American children has instead been subject to greater levels 
     of indoctrination in place of genuine education. The alarms 
     have been sounded for decades, even a century, and nothing 
     effective has been done.
       So now we have riots and unfettered monument smashing. This 
     is no accident. It is a logical consequence of convincing 
     ourselves, against all evidence, that America's public 
     education institutions are largely sound outside a few 
     crazies who never happen to be in one's own school district, 
     and even if they were, one's own children would of course be 
     impervious. Not like their stupid dupes of classmates, who in 
     just a few short years will go on to vote and tear down 
     monuments to American abolitionists in the name of anti-
     racism.
       This is what happens when conservatives spend 120 years 
     complaining about the left controlling academia while the 
     politicians conservatives vote for and cheerily profile in 
     our publications keep increasing funding for these 
     intellectual enemies of our country. Seventy years later, God 
     and man are still objects of scorn at Yale, and so is our 
     nation, but still we keep sending them our kids and money, 
     hiring their graduates to teach our children and rule us, and 
     funding their students.
       The postwar convention of Minnesota niceness in politics 
     has been a disaster. That's because cowardice ultimately is 
     not nice. It leaves the innocent and the vulnerable 
     defenseless. And, as with Stockholm Syndrome, some of the 
     preyed upon ultimately turn predator themselves after 
     identifying too strongly with their captors.
       How many more statues and American minds have to get 
     smashed before people who genuinely love their country gain 
     the courage to start fighting effectively for her restoration 
     before it's too late? Here's part of what that would look 
     like: Civil authorities first stopping vandalism and pursuing 
     the vandals to mete out their just, legally determined 
     penalties; second, politicians who claim to love America 
     fighting for her by refusing to send public funds to 
     institutions that fail to prove their graduates honor the 
     country that pays for their education. At this point, that's 
     just about all of them.
       It's time for a new, non-racist boycott, divest, sanction 
     movement--for taxpayer-funded education. Liberate public 
     funds from these institutions with a century-long record of 
     failure. Return it to families. At least half of them will be 
     delighted to choose pro-America schools. That's a lot more 
     than pick proAmerica schools now. It would give this country 
     a chance to strive toward its ideals once more rather than 
     burn them in chaos.
                                  ____


                  [From the Federalist, Aug. 17, 2017]

  Here's a List of All the Monuments Liberals Want To Tear Down So Far

                            (By Bre Payton)

       In the wake of the violence that took place in 
     Charlottesville over last weekend, numerous activists and 
     politicians have called for the destruction of more 
     historical monuments, although a significant majority of 
     Americans (62 percent) think the monuments should stay put. 
     Only 27 percent of Americans think these statues should be 
     removed for fear of offending some people. As usual, public 
     opinion's not stopping liberals from pursuing an unpopular 
     agenda.
       Though by no means comprehensive, here's a list of the 
     monuments that are facing calls for removal or have already 
     been torn down.


               1. The Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC

       In a PBS interview, Al Sharpton called for the Jefferson 
     Memorial in Washington DC to be abandoned because the third 
     president of the United States and author of the Declaration 
     of Independence was a slave owner.


                       2. Statues In The Capitol

       Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) 
     have both called for statues commemorating Confederates to be 
     removed from the U.S. Capitol.


                           3. Mount Rushmore

       Vice News's Wilbert L. Cooper called for Mount Rushmore to 
     be destroyed because the U.S. presidents whose visages are 
     carved into the mountainside are problematic by today's 
     standards.


                       4. Monuments In Baltimore

       Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh had Civil War monuments 
     removed from the city in the cover of night, without any 
     public hearings or any public discussion process. Pugh told 
     The New York Times that she used her emergency powers as 
     mayor to take down statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall 
     Jackson from a public park--surprising even some members of 
     the city council.
       Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan also called for a statue 
     memorializing Roger B. Taney, a Supreme Court justice who 
     penned the infamous Dred Scott decision. which determined 
     that anyone descended from a slave could not be an American 
     citizen, be removed from the pedestal where it had been 
     erected since 1887.


                           5. Stone Mountain

       Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams called for 
     a frieze depicting Confederate soldiers to be removed from 
     Stone Mountain in Georgia.


                 6. Albert Pike Statue In Washington DC

       In Washington DC, a group of protestors gathered on Sunday 
     to call for the statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, 
     to be torn down.


          7. Chicago Parks Named After Washington And Jackson

       A Chicago pastor has asked the mayor to remove the names of 
     two former presidents--George Washington and Andrew Jackson--
     from city parks because both men owned slaves.


       8. Confederate Soldiers Monument In Durham, North Carolina

       The Confederate Soldiers Monument was torn down by 
     protesters from its spot in front of the old Durham County 
     Courthouse on Monday. Four have been arrested in connection 
     to this instance of vandalism. The Workers World Party 
     released a statement claiming that it should be their right 
     to tear the monuments down.


          9. Monuments Throughout The State of North Carolina

       North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has called for additional 
     monuments to be torn down and is asking the state legislature 
     to repeal a 2015 law that prevents the destruction of Civil 
     War monuments.


             10. Monuments Throughout The State of Virginia

       In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Virginia Gov. 
     Terry McAuliffe is asking state legislators and city 
     officials to tear down monuments throughout the Old Dominion.


              11. `Old Joe' Statue In Gainesville, Florida

       In Gainesville, Florida, a statue of a Confederate soldier 
     was removed Monday from outside a county administrative 
     building.


                   12. Statues In Lexington, Kentucky

       The City Council of Lexington, Kentucky voted unanimously 
     on Tuesday to remove Confederate statues from the lawn in 
     front of an old county courthouse. In response, a white 
     nationalist group is reportedly planning a protest.


                  13. Statues In Louisville, Kentucky

       On Monday, protesters gathered in favor of removing a 
     statue of Civil War officer John B. Castleman from 
     Louisville, Kentucky.


 14. Statues In Nashville Tennessee, Including One On Private Property

       In Nashville, Tennessee, protestors gathered to call for 
     the removal of a monument depicting Nathan Bedford Forrest, a 
     lieutenant in the Confederate army, from the state capitol on 
     Monday. People have also called for a memorial of Forrest, 
     which sits on private property, to be hidden from view of the 
     nearby highway.


        15. Two Statues Vandalized In Wilmington, North Carolina

       ``A white flag was hung on the gun of the statue and its 
     head and feet were spray painted,'' WECT reports. ``Officers 
     were called back to the scene and found a rope tied to the 
     statue's neck. Upon examination, officers said they believe 
     it was likely tied to a vehicle in an attempt to pull the 
     statue over.'' Another statue was marked with graffiti.


                  16. A Cemetery Marker In Los Angeles

       A statue that stood in the Confederate section of Hollywood 
     Forever Cemetery for more than 90 years was toppled on 
     Wednesday, Los Angeles Times reports. A plaque commemorating 
     Jefferson Davis was also removed from a park this week.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I will say that as we go forward, if we 
continue to denigrate all police officers because of a few police 
officers, if we denigrate all of our society because of a few in our 
society, we will see this Nation, the ideals of individual freedom, 
erased from this Earth.
  I used to do work at multilateral institutions and at the United 
Nations, and I will tell you this: This country, to me, is special and 
unique; imperfect, but the idea, the ideals, the people who have gone 
before us, how can we erase what they have done? Some made magnificent 
sacrifices that we might enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today, and yet 
they were wrong on other issues in their lives.

[[Page H2591]]

  How can we erase our history? We must face our history squarely and 
openly and build upon that history to the great promise of the ideals 
of this Nation if we are going to persist as a Nation.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________