[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1857-1859]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               SECURITY AND GENEROSITY: ON BEING AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Comstock). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman 
from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Madam Speaker, if the gentleman from Texas (Mr.

[[Page 1858]]

O'Rourke) would mind lingering in the Chamber for just a moment, I want 
to make a couple of comments on what he said. Because he began his talk 
with a commemoration of some extraordinary Americans, World War II 
veterans. And as I was waiting my turn to speak, I couldn't help but 
reflect upon perhaps one of the most extraordinary opportunities that I 
have been given as a Member of the House of Representatives.
  A bipartisan delegation went to the 70th anniversary of the D-day 
invasion. President Obama, of course, spoke, and dignitaries from 
around the world, including the Queen of England, also made an 
appearance.
  When we got to the cemetery area at Omaha Beach, we were meeting 
veterans who had fought there or in the vicinity. One of the first 
gentlemen I met, he had only a thumb, and he was sitting in a 
wheelchair. And I just asked him, because it was such a celebratory 
atmosphere and everyone was so engaged by the heroism of these men and 
the opportunity to be back so many years later--I just asked him: Did 
that happen here?
  He said: Yeah, right over there on the beach.
  Well, his daughter was with him, and she told me a moment later: 
Actually, what happened was we think that he was shot on the hip and 
one of his grenades began to go off and he was throwing it away from 
himself.
  I looked at him and I said: How are you here?
  And he said: I don't know.
  Another man had been a part of the paratroopers who dropped in behind 
enemy lines the night before near the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and I 
will come to that town in a moment. And I asked him: What was your 
assignment?
  He said: Hill 60, or some number.
  And I said: Where is that?
  He said: Right over there. He said: Guard the bridge at La Fiere.
  I said: That is the bridge at La Fiere.
  An old Norman-style, arched stone bridge, maybe a car-length wide, 
obviously just one lane to get a horse and cart over.
  He said: Do not let the Germans cross that bridge, that was our 
assignment, and we held them.
  Another man looked at me and said: I haven't been here in 70 years. A 
much better reception this time.
  This great humor, this depth of character that these extraordinary 
men showed was so evident that day.

                              {time}  2045

  To continue the story a little bit more, Captain Luther Sextan 
Fortenberry, my grandfather, left his family in August of 1944. He was 
a medical doctor and was initially at a hospital in England. The 
records are a little bit unclear; but, in November of '44, he was 
killed, and he left his 8-year-old son--my father--behind. He was 
initially buried at Sainte-Mere-Eglise, at the cemetery there. He was 
reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery.
  One of the guides that we had during that trip was a former British 
military officer, and he had a complete command of the details of the 
battle. In fact, I was so impressed by him that I invited him to come 
to Nebraska to speak to my veterans, and he accepted. So, later that 
summer, we hosted him in Nebraska. One of my little towns is called 
Columbus, Nebraska. Columbus is actually the place where Andrew Jackson 
Higgins was born--the Higgins boat inventor, which was the troop 
carrier that landed there on Omaha and Utah Beaches that day. President 
Eisenhower said of Andrew Jackson Higgins that he won the war for us.
  He is very much associated with Louisiana because that is where he 
spent his adulthood, in shipbuilding, and he would not let go of the 
idea that we needed this innovative type of troop carrier. He is from 
Columbus, Nebraska. In the front of Columbus, Nebraska--which is a 
small, agricultural town, a wonderful community of 25,000 people--they 
have built an extraordinary World War II memorial that is a replica of 
the Higgins boat, with beautiful bronze sculptures of the troops in 
their charging off that boat.
  When my friend, the former British military officer who now does--
again--tours and commentary on the battle, saw this, he looked at me 
and said: Jeff, this belongs on Utah Beach because there is nothing 
like that there anymore.
  I will make a long story short.
  Some of the members of the community who had worked on that project 
heard this. They said: Well, we can build another one.
  I was trying to tamp down expectations because I knew how difficult 
that would be; but the day before the 71st anniversary, that new World 
War II memorial was put in the breach where our troops first came 
through, where General Roosevelt led our troops through on Utah Beach. 
Right in the breach, a memorial that was constructed by the good people 
of Columbus, Nebraska, now sits as a permanent display--a replica--of 
the Higgins boat, right next to the World War II museum right there on 
Utah Beach. I understand it is extraordinarily popular as one is able 
to enter onto the boat and experience the life-like reality of what it 
must have been like to be in that moment. The French even moved one of 
their own monuments, by the way. This is the cooperation we had with 
the French Government. They moved their own monument to General Le 
Clerc--their general who had followed the pathway or fought, as well, 
into Germany.
  I apologize for holding the gentleman up, but he talked about a 
number of things. Obviously, we are going to have big, important 
debates about a number of the sensitive points he talked about; but 
where there is no debate is in the character of the men and women who 
served in World War II. I thank the gentleman so much.
  Madam Speaker, I want to give this commentary tonight, as well, on 
some of the dynamics of the moment. Before I begin, I would like to 
share with you that, outside of my office, there hangs a framed copy of 
a piece of legislation. In fact, it was one of the earliest pieces of 
legislation that I worked on here, and I am quite proud of it. The bill 
increased the number of Iraqi translators who could come to the United 
States. These persons served alongside our troops and put themselves 
and their families at great personal risk in service to our country. 
Among those who benefited from this expanded policy were members of the 
Yazidi faith tradition--a peaceful, ancient faith--that, very sadly, 
ISIS has targeted as a part of its extermination campaign against 
Christians and other religious minorities, including innocent Muslim 
communities.
  Madam Speaker, as we all know, America has long opened her arms to 
persons who flee persecution, who wish to rebuild their lives and 
become good citizens here. My hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, is a 
diverse, welcoming community with a number of first-generation 
Americans, and we are the better for it. However, when there is chaos 
and disorder at our border or if there is uncertainty in immigration 
policy and procedures, this problem undermines the ability of our 
country to be generous; or, worse, it affects our safety. There are two 
principles being held in the balance here: keeping America safe and 
keeping America generous.
  President Trump's executive order to protect the Nation from foreign 
terrorist entry into the United States has suspended all new refugee 
admissions into the U.S. for 120 days. In addition, it blocks all 
travelers for 90 days from seven countries of concern--Iraq, Iran, 
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen--which was a list, by the way, 
created by the Obama administration in 2015. Refugees from Syria are 
banned indefinitely, and travelers from these countries with a green 
card will be allowed since they are permanent United States residents.
  Madam Speaker, from my perspective, I believe it is reasonable to 
pause and review our refugee policy from dangerous parts of the world; 
but, clearly, the implementation of the policy has caused some 
confusion, difficulty, and concern, some of which has been clarified.
  As an example, there is a Yazidi man named Nawaf, who was one of 
those military translators--again, putting himself at great risk to 
serve alongside our troops. Nawaf visited my office last Monday. It was 
in the evening. He requested help for his wife, Laila. Two of

[[Page 1859]]

his brothers live where I live--in Lincoln, Nebraska. Although I didn't 
recognize him at first, I remembered that a president of a university 
in Iraq, whom I know, once told me about a Yazidi student who had 
become class valedictorian of that university; so I began to piece this 
story together.
  Nawaf arrived in America just last year. Following 18 months of 
vetting, his wife was awarded a special visa about a week and a half 
ago; but as Nawaf was explaining to me both with great composure and, 
frankly, a certain sensitivity to our security concerns, he told me 
that his wife, Laila, was barred from entry.
  Madam Speaker, immigration and refugee policy always involves a 
difficult choice. A country has to consider first its absorption 
capacity, the possibilities of assimilation, as well as the necessity 
of those coming to accept the values of the host country's. I think a 
review of this policy or of these principles--a review of what has 
happened in Europe--actually sheds some light.
  For example, Germany recklessly threw open its borders recently, and 
a wave of persons--many young, single men--entered the country, 
sparking an uptick in crime and violence and, possibly, the conditions 
for more terrorist attacks. Confusion continues as to who is where, and 
the German Government's rapidly considered and naive refugee policy has 
unwittingly created an anti-immigration backlash and political turmoil.
  Madam Speaker, the immigration and refugee movement should always be 
a means of last resort. Everyone can't come to the West. Rather, it is 
the responsibility of governments around the world to create the 
conditions in which people can live securely. If that breaks down, as a 
first order response, robust humanitarian assistance and repositioning 
persons in nearby safe zones creates the possibility of a right of 
return and avoids the trauma of uprooting persons from their homes and 
their cultures.
  Madam Speaker, with all of the complex considerations surrounding 
immigration, though, it is important to remember that we are not 
dealing with statistics, that we are not dealing with some remote 
geopolitical policy, but that we are dealing with the lives of real 
persons. So, happily, last Friday morning, after my office successfully 
worked on the case, Laila arrived, and with open arms and flowers, 
Nawaf, her husband, welcomed her to America.
  Madam Speaker, given now that the executive order has been put on a 
temporary halt as the administration goes through the appeals process, 
I also think it is appropriate to pause and speak about the broader 
issues at stake here--what it means to be a nation and what it means to 
have a binding narrative as a people.
  Madam Speaker, I am quite sure our soldiers know this feeling all too 
well--I have experienced it. Perhaps you have experienced it, too--when 
you are in a far-off place, with no one familiar around you, and then 
you, all of a sudden, have that feeling of connection because you see 
it--you see an American flag. At that moment, the flag is more than a 
piece of cloth with stars and stripes. It is an enduring symbol that 
expresses a deep, unspoken narrative about who we are as a people and 
about the ideals that unite us as a nation.
  If you ask most people what America means, I would suggest that they 
would probably use one word: freedom. Yet I am afraid, Madam Speaker, 
that this word ``freedom'' is so overused that we have forgotten its 
essential meaning. Most properly understood, freedom is the ability to 
do what one ought--to take responsibility for oneself, one's family, 
one's community, and, by extension, one's nation. Freedom is not a 
detachment from responsibility to do whatever you want. That is a self-
destructive idea that erodes freedom, resulting not only in the loss of 
oneself, but in the degradation of the entire community.
  Of course, we often reflect on what it means to be an American when 
discussing immigration. America has long offered the hope of freedom 
for immigrants who are yearning to work for a better future for 
themselves, for their families. To those tempest-tossed, to those 
tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, America has 
lifted its lamp beside the golden door. Implicit in this worldwide 
welcome was a basic compact that those who came here, however arduous 
their journey, must undertake the responsibility of citizenship. Of 
course, many people gleefully do.
  In fact, America's very survival as a beacon-handed land requires 
those who immigrate to assimilate and adopt the values proposition that 
makes our country unique in the history of the world. Those values 
include respect for others, the acceptance of law and order as a 
prerequisite for the orderly functioning of society, and the desire to 
participate constructively as a citizen. Those who refuse to assimilate 
or reject these time-honored values take advantage of the sacrifices 
and hard-fought gains of generations of Americans who have built and 
often died for what we cherish and what we so eagerly share with people 
from around the world. That is fundamentally unfair and is an abuse of 
the idea of freedom itself.
  Madam Speaker, individual freedom is achieved most fully in the 
context of community. When the government or interest groups see 
freedom merely as a functional meeting of material needs alone, it 
undermines the social dimensions of freedom, which are rooted in 
authentic human relationships.

                              {time}  2100

  Conversely, the proper amount of government, a government well-
ordered, provides protection and creates the guardrails for individuals 
to flourish together, generating meaning for persons and community. The 
right political approach in America can restore that golden mean.
  Madam Speaker, there is a story I would like to tell. There is a man, 
and he is talking to his young son. He said: Son, you see that 
beautiful, lovely home there on the hill? One day, if it is your 
heart's desire, if you are willing to work hard and be patient, and if 
you do what is right, then maybe you could earn that home one day.
  Another man in another country took a very different approach talking 
to his young son. He said: See that big mansion on the hill there? If 
you work hard enough, if you stay focused, and if you position yourself 
right, one day you can get that guy.
  You see, Madam Speaker, our country is not based on the principle of 
envy. It is based on respect and responsibility. To make America 
flourish again, politically, economically, and culturally, a 
restoration of this ideal is necessary to create the conditions for a 
true and lasting freedom.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________