[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 150 (Monday, September 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4552-S4554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-49. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of California requesting the United States Congress 
     to enact, and the President of the United States to sign, 
     legislation that would repeal the Governmental Pension Offset 
     and the Windfall Elimination Provision from the Social 
     Security Act; to the Committee on Finance.

                     Senate Joint Resolution No. 1

       Whereas, Two federal Social Security Administration laws, 
     the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension 
     Offset, passed by Congress mote than 30 years ago, without 
     statistical analysis, diminish or eliminate the fully earned 
     Social Security benefits of large numbers of public service 
     employees in California; and
       Whereas, These provisions affect workers who have been 
     employed in a government position that is not coordinated 
     with the Social Security program, such as California public 
     school teachers who have not been able to receive Social 
     Security credits since 1965; and
       Whereas, Most peace officers, including the California 
     Highway Patrol, firefighters, and many other public servants 
     working for cities and special districts are not covered by 
     Social Security, making them subject to these provisions; and
       Whereas, In California, more than 375,000 retirees have had 
     their Social Security benefits diminished or completely 
     eliminated by these Laws; and
       Whereas, Effective government requires highly qualified and 
     motivated personnel, and California governmental agencies 
     need to compete to recruit and retain outstanding employees, 
     including hiring up to 19,700 teachers by the 2025-26 school 
     year; and
       Whereas, The recruitment and retention of qualified 
     individuals reentering the workforce is impeded by these two 
     provisions, which reduce or eliminate the Social Security 
     retirement benefits either earned by

[[Page S4553]]

     workers, themselves, or received through dependent status; 
     and
       Whereas, The Government Pension Offset severely cuts, and 
     usually eliminates, all spousal and survivor benefits that 
     were earned from what is deemed by the State of California to 
     be community property income; and
       Whereas, The Government Pension Offset requires that a 
     recipient of benefits report any yearly cost-of-living 
     increase in the recipient's public pension, so that the 
     recipient's Social Security benefits may be reduced by two-
     thirds of that amount; and
       Whereas, The Windfall Elimination Provision cuts earned 
     Social Security benefits from work that is separate from the 
     work for which the individual earned a pension from a 
     governmental entity; and
       Whereas, The Windfall Elimination Provision subverts the 
     purpose of Social Security retirement benefits by eliminating 
     the formula that reimburses low-income workers at a higher 
     rate than high-income workers, causing severe hardships for 
     those who have not had high-paying public service; and
       Whereas, New public sector workers were not notified they 
     would be subject to these unjust penalties until 2005, which 
     means that thousands of workers had no notification of them 
     until they applied for. Social Security benefits; now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of 
     California, jointly, That the Legislature requests that the 
     Congress of the United States enact legislation to repeal the 
     Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination 
     Provision from the Social Security Act, and further requests 
     that President Joseph Biden sign that legislation; and be it 
     further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies 
     of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of 
     the United States, to the Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to 
     each Senator and Representative from California in the 
     Congress of the United States, and to the author for 
     appropriate distribution.
                                  ____


       POM-50. A resolution adopted by the House of 
     Representatives of the State of Hawaii urging the United 
     States Congress to adopt national carbon fee and dividend 
     legislation; to the Committee on Finance.

                        House Resolution No. 125

       Whereas, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres 
     recently said, ``Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, 
     global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast 
     approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos 
     irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our 
     foot on the accelerator''; and
       Whereas, carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and its 
     concentration in the atmosphere has been increasing at 
     progressively rapid rate for more than sixty years, as shown 
     by measurements taken at observatories on Mauna Loa and Mauna 
     Kea, and now registers at more than four hundred twenty parts 
     per million; which is fifty percent higher than before the 
     Industrial Revolution; and
       Whereas, many climate change impacts are anticipated for 
     the Hawaiian Islands, including increases in ocean and air 
     temperatures, sea level rise, droughts, severe weather 
     patterns, ocean acidification, and more frequent and severe 
     wildfires; and
       Whereas, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 
     stated in the most recent report of its mitigation working 
     group that any pathway to limit warming to two degrees 
     Celsius would have to ``involve rapid and deep and in most 
     cases immediate greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all 
     sectors''; and
       Whereas, the United States needs powerful new policies to 
     meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals established 
     in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement; and
       Whereas, imposing a tax on the burning of fossil fuels and 
     returning the revenues to households to spend as they see 
     fit, a carbon-pricing policy commonly known as carbon fee and 
     dividend, is an effective and equitable way to substantially 
     reduce greenhouse as emissions; and
       Whereas, carbon fee and dividend is supported by more than 
     thirty-six hundred economists, including twenty-eight Nobel 
     Laureates and fifteen former chairs of the Council of 
     Economic Advisers, who signed a statement that begins, ``A 
     carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce 
     carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary'' 
     and the statement continues, ``to maximize the fairness and 
     political viability of a rising tax, all the revenue should 
     be returned directly to American citizens through equal lump-
     sum rebates''; and
       Whereas, a national carbon fee and dividend program can 
     include border adjustments, such as carbon-content-based 
     tariffs on products imported from countries without 
     comparable carbon pricing and refunds to our exporters of 
     carbon taxes paid, to maintain the competitiveness of United 
     States businesses in global markets; and
       Whereas, major trading partners of the United States like 
     Canada and the European Union have adopted meaningful carbon 
     taxes and are now considering carbon border adjustments to 
     level the playing field by ensuring that imports are subject 
     to the same carbon pricing as local goods; and
       Whereas, a national carbon fee and dividend program can be 
     implemented quickly and efficiently, and respond to the 
     urgency of the climate crises, because the federal government 
     already has in place mechanisms, such as the Internal Revenue 
     Service, needed to implement and enforce the tax, and already 
     collects taxes from fossil fuel producers and importers; and
       Whereas, a national carbon fee and dividend program would 
     make the United States a leader in mitigating climate change 
     and the advancing of clean energy technologies in the 21st 
     century, and would incentivize other countries to enact 
     similar carbon pricing policies, thereby reducing global 
     greenhouse gas emissions without the need for complex 
     international agreements; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-
     second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 
     2023, that the United States Congress is urged to pass 
     national carbon fee and dividend legislation; and be it 
     further
       Resolved, That certified copies of this Resolution be 
     transmitted to the President and Vice-President of the United 
     States, Speaker of the United States House of 
     Representatives, Majority Leader of the United States Senate, 
     and members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.
                                  ____

       POM-51. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana urging and requesting the President 
     of the United States to reconsider the signed agreement that 
     facilitates growth of certain aquaculture exports from 
     Ecuador to the United States; to the Committee on Finance.

                   House Concurrent Resolution No. 29

       Whereas, on August 18, 2022, the United States Food and 
     Drug Administration (FDA) signed a confidentiality commitment 
     with Ecuador's vice minister of Aquaculture and Fisheries 
     (VAP) within the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, 
     Investments and Fisheries of the Republic of Ecuador; and
       Whereas, the purpose of the confidentiality commitment or 
     agreement is to allow for the exchange of confidential 
     information, including inspection of records, draft 
     rulemaking and guidance, and other nonpublic documents; and
       Whereas, the agreement with Ecuador is designed to ensure 
     the safety of shrimp imported to the United States and offers 
     guarantees for aquaculture exports to the United States; and
       Whereas, according to an article from the seafood 
     industry's trade publication Seafood Source, in the first six 
     months of 2022, Ecuador exported at least one billion one 
     hundred million pounds of shrimp abroad at that time, with 
     the United States being its second-biggest market; and
       Whereas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
     Administration, in 2020, the United States imported 
     approximately one billion six hundred million pounds of 
     shrimp, an increase of up to seven and one half percent from 
     2019; and
       Whereas, in 2022, Ecuador was the second leading source of 
     shrimp exports to the United States, after India, exporting 
     four hundred forty-one million pounds of shrimp to the United 
     States, according to Seafood Source; and
       Whereas, according to the 2021-2022 annual report from the 
     Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, shrimp are 
     the state's most valuable fishery; and
       Whereas, the average real dockside value of Louisiana 
     shrimp fell from one dollar and ninety-three cents per pound 
     in 2000 to one dollar and three cents per pound in 2018; and
       Whereas, this unfair competition allows foreign competitors 
     to flood the United States market, devastating local 
     industries. Therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby 
     urge and request the president of the United States to 
     reconsider an agreement signed with Ecuador that facilitates 
     growth of certain aquaculture exports from Ecuador to the 
     United States; and be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the White House and to the presiding officers of the Senate 
     and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the 
     United States and to each member of the Louisiana 
     congressional delegation.
                                  ____

       POM-52. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana urging the United States Congress 
     to take such actions as are necessary to pass legislation 
     allowing taxpayers to establish tax-advantaged catastrophe 
     savings accounts for disaster-related expenses; to the 
     Committee on Finance.

                   House Concurrent Resolution No. 55

       Whereas, three U.S. states--Alabama, Mississippi, and South 
     Carolina--currently provide within their respective tax codes 
     for catastrophe savings accounts; and
       Whereas, these accounts are regular savings or money market 
     accounts that taxpayers designate with their financial 
     institutions as catastrophe savings accounts and to which 
     limited amounts of tax-deductible contributions may be made; 
     and
       Whereas, the laws of the three states that provide for such 
     accounts all stipulate that a taxpayer may establish only one 
     catastrophe savings account and shall specify that the 
     purpose of the account is to cover the amount of insurance 
     deductibles and other uninsured portions of risks of loss 
     from floods, hurricanes, or other catastrophic windstorm 
     events; and
       Whereas, funds may be withdrawn from these accounts tax-
     free if used to pay disaster-related expenses defined in law 
     as

[[Page S4554]]

     ``qualified catastrophe expenses''; if funds are withdrawn 
     from these accounts for purposes other than paying qualified 
     catastrophe expenses, then the amounts withdrawn are taxed as 
     income; and
       Whereas, the function of catastrophe savings accounts with 
     respect to disaster-related expenses is similar to that of 
     health savings accounts, long established in the Internal 
     Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 223), for health-related expenses; 
     and
       Whereas, with the frequency and destructive force of 
     weather-related disasters increasing nationwide, the need for 
     some form of catastrophe or emergency savings account program 
     for all Americans has become more pronounced; and
       Whereas, legislation providing exclusively for the type of 
     savings account discussed in this Resolution was introduced 
     in the One Hundred Fifteenth United States Congress (H.R. 
     2818) and legislation including a catastrophe savings account 
     component has been introduced in the current congress (One 
     Hundred Eighteenth United States Congress, H.R. 312); 
     Therefore, be it,
       Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby 
     memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions 
     as are necessary to pass legislation allowing taxpayers to 
     establish tax-advantaged catastrophe savings accounts for 
     disaster-related expenses; and be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives of the Congress of the United States of 
     America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional 
     delegation.
                                  ____

       POM-53. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana urging the United States Congress 
     to take such actions as are necessary to ban the import of 
     shrimp and crawfish from outside the United States; to the 
     Committee on Finance.

                  House Concurrent Resolution No. 113

       To memorialize the United States Congress to take such 
     actions as are necessary to ban the import of shrimp and 
     crawfish from outside the United States.
       Whereas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
     Administration, in 2019 the United States imported six 
     billion pounds of edible seafood products, including one and 
     one half billion pounds of shrimp, an increase of nearly six 
     and one half million pounds more than the shrimp imported in 
     2018; and
       Whereas, the 2019 shrimp imports alone, valued at six 
     billion dollars, accounted for twenty-seven percent of the 
     total value of imported seafood that year, which reached 
     twenty-two billion dollars; and
       Whereas, it is estimated that over half of the imported 
     seafood consumed in the United States is from aquaculture, or 
     seafood farming, rather than wild-caught; and
       Whereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration 
     (FDA) is responsible for the safety of all fish and fishery 
     products entering the United States and sold in Louisiana; 
     and
       Whereas, in 2011 the FDA was only inspecting two percent of 
     the seafood imported into the United States, the last year 
     for which data regarding the percentage of imports inspected 
     is available; and
       Whereas, because imported seafood is not held to the same 
     standards as domestic seafood, domestic fishing industries 
     are put at a distinct and significant disadvantage 
     commercially; and
       Whereas, because labor costs are much lower overseas, 
     peeled crawfish meat is much cheaper when imported, resulting 
     in many entities purchasing from other countries instead of 
     supporting the local market; and
       Whereas, seafood imported from overseas is not always safe 
     to consume; and
       Whereas, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife 
     and Fisheries, the average value of Louisiana shrimp fell 
     from three dollars and eighty cents per pound in 1980 to one 
     dollar fifty cents per pound in 2017; and
       Whereas, unfair competition allows foreign competitors to 
     flood the United States market with seafood harvested under 
     intensive farming practices, while devastating local 
     industries and coastal communities built around them; and
       Whereas, domestically produced shrimp and crawfish offer 
     the best option for the health and safety of United States 
     consumers. Therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby 
     memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions 
     as are necessary to ban the import of shrimp and crawfish 
     from outside the United States. Be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives of the Congress of the United States of 
     America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional 
     delegation.
                                  ____

       POM-54. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana urging the United States Congress 
     to take such actions as are necessary to impose a quota or 
     tariff on imported shrimp, crab meat, and crawfish and enact 
     a buy plan for domestic shrimp, crab meat, and crawfish 
     directly from domestic commercial fishermen; to the Committee 
     on Finance.

                  House Concurrent Resolution No. 109

       Whereas, the domestic fishing industry has faced severe 
     hardships such as Hurricane Ida and other natural disasters, 
     repeated openings of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, unfair trade 
     practices, illegal chemicals, rising inflation, gas prices, 
     and supply chain issues; and
       Whereas, in October of 2022, United States Congressman 
     Garret Graves announced that the United States Department of 
     Agriculture (USDA) purchased up to twenty five million 
     dollars of Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic wild caught 
     shrimp; and
       Whereas, Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act 
     authorizes USDA to purchase domestic shrimp; and
       Whereas, purchases such as this will help provide relief to 
     Louisiana's shrimp industry; and
       Whereas, Louisiana's seafood industry is the largest 
     supplier in the country and the main economic driver in 
     coastal areas; and
       Whereas, more relief is necessary for the Louisiana seafood 
     industry to compete with foreign importers; and
       Whereas, strategies to ensure that domestic commercial 
     fishermen are able to sell their products are necessary for 
     the continued success of the Louisiana seafood industry; and
       Whereas, plans to buy shrimp directly from domestic 
     commercial shrimp fishermen are of vital importance to ensure 
     the success of coastal communities that rely heavily on this 
     industry; Therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby 
     memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions 
     as are necessary to impose a quota or tariff on imported 
     shrimp, crab meat, and crawfish and enact a buy plan for 
     domestic shrimp, crab meat, and crawfish directly from 
     domestic commercial fishermen; and be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives of the Congress of the United States of 
     America and to each member of the Louisiana congressional 
     delegation.

                          ____________________