[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7913]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of our Nation's 
teachers. Teachers change lives every day across our Nation and around 
the world, shaping our students and our communities.
  Each of us can remember a teacher who made an impression on our life 
as an educator, a coach, or a mentor, often beyond the walls of the 
classroom.
  Last week, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week 2017, I had the 
opportunity to travel the Eighth District to see firsthand the amazing 
work that teachers do across Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
  Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to read to preschool 
students at the Elbow Lane School in Warrington to discuss our national 
debt with eighth graders in Newtown Middle School, marked the Sanctuary 
Model accreditation of the Valley Day School in Morrisville, and held a 
student townhall with the AP government class students at Bensalem High 
School.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to recognize Teacher Appreciation Week, and I 
call on every American to carry out that appreciation for our teachers 
all year long.

                              {time}  1030


                    My Constituents Deserve Answers

  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because this week marks 
the 1-year anniversary since the EPA established the health advisory 
level of 70 parts per trillion to limit the lifetime exposure to 
perfluorinated compounds like PFOA and PFOS.
  To some, these acronyms and this anniversary may mean nothing, but to 
me and my constituents--more than 70,000 Pennsylvanians in Bucks and 
Montgomery Counties--it has been a year of confusion, concern, and 
anger sparked by the rightful fear that their health has been 
endangered by these PFCs.
  The use of firefighting foam at military bases in and around our 
district has contaminated dozens of public wells and over 140 private 
wells with these compounds, leaving many residents scared and 
municipalities and local governments looking for answers.
  Mr. Speaker, every American deserves access to clean, safe drinking 
water. Yet, for too many of my constituents, these elevated levels of 
PFCs have put them and their families at risk.
  While work has been done, there is still far more work to do; and I 
am pleased that the recent government funding measure included 
directions for the Secretary of Defense to continue addressing these 
pressing issues, specifically by requiring all military services to 
establish procedures for prompt and cost-effective remediation of PFC 
contamination, and also by delivering a report to Congress by the end 
of the summer assessing the number of military installations across the 
country impacted and the effect on drinking water in the surrounding 
communities, as well as departmentwide plans for community notification 
of contamination and procedures for timely remediation.
  However, our work cannot stop here. Not only should a health study be 
executed to know if PFOS and PFOA have compromised my constituents' 
long-term health, other issues must be addressed, including interacting 
with the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding service-connected 
condition care for military veterans potentially impacted and finding 
ways to offset trickle-down costs for those forced to connect to public 
water in impacted areas.
  After a year, my constituents deserve more answers, and we will give 
them to them. They demand action. I will fight for both.

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