[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 37 (Monday, February 27, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                EAST PALESTINE TRAIN DERAILMENT DISASTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a 
crisis that President Biden refuses to acknowledge: the derailment of a 
train in East Palestine, Ohio, that has left a community traumatized 
and families afraid to drink the water that comes through their 
faucets.
  Instead of compassion, these families received nothing but a cold 
shoulder from President Biden. Instead of certainty, these families 
received a rushed process to test the water that they drink and the air 
that they breathe.
  What we need is a full accounting of events.
  As a doctor, I urge the EPA to continue to repeat their tests and to 
provide an accurate assessment of the risks posed to our communities' 
air and drinking water.
  An administration that fails to provide for the safety of its people 
is a failed administration. I stand here to urge President Biden to 
visit East Palestine and finally support those Americans who are 
hurting.
  We need transparency, we need accountability, and we need to address 
this head-on; not with shrugs and handwringing, that is what we have 
seen so far from President Biden.
  We need to see compassion, we need to see thoroughness, and we need 
to see diligence in addressing this problem.


                           Origin of COVID 19

  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, as a new and 
dangerous virus caused by the Chinese Communist Party began to spread, 
they shut down internal travel but allowed international flights to 
continue.
  The Chinese Communist Party was attempting to stop COVID-19 from 
spreading within its own borders while allowing it to come to the 
shores of America.
  This weekend, the Department of Energy finally confirmed what we have 
all along suspected: that this leak did not come from a wet market and 
that it escaped from a lab in central China.
  This virus and the related government policies led to vaccine 
mandates, lost jobs, supply chain problems, and the isolation of our 
Nation's young people.
  It is time today to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable. 
What we need now is to predict, prepare, and prevent another such 
disaster from occurring.
  The American people want and deserve answers, and they deserve 
accountability for the hardships that this virus, unleashed by the 
Chinese Communist Party, has caused. Now we need to ensure that a 
crisis like this can never occur again.

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