[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E11]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PERSONAL EXPLANATION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BRAD SHERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 9, 2025

  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, due to the devastating wildfire affecting 
my district and Southern California I missed the vote on final passage 
for the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, H.R. 23. Had I been 
present I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 7.
  While I do believe we would have produced a much better bill had it 
gone through regular order and received a markup in the House Foreign 
Affairs Committee, recent events have made it vital to pass a strong 
legislative response to the ICC.
  The ICC's recent illegitimate, politically motivated, and legally 
spurious decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant (despite 
having no jurisdictional or factual basis to do so) led me to now 
support this legislation despite my procedural concerns. Had I been 
able to, I would have voted to pass this bill.
  However, by January 8th, thousands of homes, businesses and other 
structures had been destroyed and, devastatingly, several Los Angelinos 
were killed and many more injured as a result of devastating fires in 
and around the 32nd Congressional District. Given these developments, I 
felt it was necessary to return to my district that day which made me 
unavailable to vote YEA on H.R. 23 the following day when this measure 
came to a vote.

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