E352 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks April 7, 2020 Madam Speaker, we have the capacity to THANK YOU TO WASHINGTON Association of City Transportation Officials address the ongoing threats to our security STATE’S FIRST RESPONDERS (NACTO), Environmental Law and Policy Cen- even as we address this unprecedented public ter (ELPC), Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. health crisis amidst an economic downturn. HON. The Improving Access to Services Act will reconnect our communities, enabling people to The bicameral group of legislators who serve OF WASHINGTON take shorter, more convenient trips, reducing on the U.S. Helsinki Commission do so in a IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES congestion and emissions, and improving ac- bipartisan way, and when we participate in the Tuesday, April 7, 2020 cess to services for all. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, we do so with Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Madam Speak- I urge this body to swiftly pass this legisla- our European friends and allies in this effort. er, I rise to recognize the valuable service of tion. I concluded from my discussions last week grocery workers. f Nearly three million grocery workers punch that more difficult times may lie ahead, but by ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ABOUT the clock in communities across the United working together, we will persevere. THE CARES ACT States. In Northwest Washington, these Madam Speaker, please join me today rec- women and men put themselves at risk to ognizing the importance of these discussions make sure their neighbors are fed. HON. with our European allies and friends. Since the COVID–19 outbreak began, I OF ARIZONA have heard from families of grocery employ- IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES f ees who worry every time their loved ones go Tuesday, April 7, 2020 to work. Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, The vote we TRIBUTE TO SERGEANT MAJOR Congress must support grocery workers the RALPH SARGENT took on March 27, 2020, may be the most same way they support their communities. monumental vote during our tenure in Con- This means providing paid family and medical gress. The amount of money we committed HON. SETH MOULTON leave, guaranteeing workers’ rights are pro- our nation to is, in itself, epic. The causes of tected and listening when they tell employers this legislation—the coronavirus and govern- OF and Congress what they need to stay safe on ment reaction to the threat, which has placed the job. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES our economy into a recession—are equally I would like to thank and recognize grocery momentous. Tuesday, April 7, 2020 workers for their commitment to keeping The President has wisely acted to limit the Washington healthy and fed during this un- spread of the outbreak, and he and Senate Mr. MOULTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to precedented crisis. I encourage my colleagues Majority Leader MCCONNELL tried to negotiate commemorate the service of an American pa- to support these essential workers in any fu- in good faith with House Democrats. Unfortu- triot and decorated Marine, Sergeant Major ture relief package. nately, Speaker PELOSI and Minority Leader Ralph Sargent. Sargent took part in some of f SCHUMER chose instead to derail the process. the most intense fighting of the Vietnam War, INTRODUCTION OF THE IMPROV- As a result, we have a bill before us that is including the Battle of Khe Sanh, when the ING ACCESS TO SERVICES ACT loaded down with more negative provisions hilltop outpost of 6,000 Marines was sur- than positive ones. rounded by 34,000 North Vietnamese troops. HON. JESU´ S G. ‘‘CHUY’’ GARCI´A I have spent the past few days imagining Despite heavy artillery bombardment and the what could have been, had the Democrats de- OF ILLINOIS cided to act as honest brokers. constant threat of being overrun, the Marines, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Could we have provided the liquidity and of course, held their ground. Later while on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 necessary interim relief for the families and patrol, his company got into an extended fire- ´ businesses of Main Street USA for less than fight that would claim the lives of 35 Marines, Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I $2 trillion? but it would have been far worse if not for Ser- rise to introduce the Improving Access to Most certainly. And we should have found geant Major Sargent’s actions that earned him Services Act along with my colleagues Con- ways to help them because these businesses the Bronze Star with a ‘‘Combat V’’ for ex- gresswoman and Con- needed our support, because state and local gressman . traordinary heroism, in addition to his Navy governments have shuttered them and placed Our transportation system is failing Ameri- Commendation Medal. many Americans in economic peril. cans who are stuck in congestion, traveling on Could we have acted more swiftly? But one of the greatest stories of his service roads and transit systems in disrepair, and Without a doubt. was when he saved the life of another Marine forced to travel further and further to reach es- Could we have taken the time to repair the decades after Vietnam. That Marine is his sential services. unemployment compensation portion of the bill grandson, whom I was privileged to serve with The Improving Access to Services Act that Senators SCOTT, SASSE, and GRAHAM in . The salty Marine sergeant major rec- would require that ‘safe and convenient ac- noted will incentivize people not to work, be- ognized what was wrong with his grandson cess to services’ is an added condition for cause the compensation for unemployment when this great Marine returned from the war States’ minimum standards for public roads— will be superior to their wages? for both new construction and roadway im- and, like so many of us, had trouble finding Might we have produced a bill that didn’t provement projects. These services include meaning in life back home. So one day the spend millions of dollars for non-essential, health care facilities, child care, education and non-emergency-related funding to institutions sergeant major asked his grandson to drive workforce training, affordable housing, food such as the Kennedy Center, NPR, Smithso- him to the VA for an appointment, but when sources, banking and financial institutions, and nian, Institute of Museum and Library Serv- they arrived, he told his grandson that the ap- other retail shopping establishments. ices, and the National Endowments for the pointment was actually for him. His grandson, States and metropolitan planning organiza- Arts and Humanities? my friend, followed the sergeant major’s or- tions will assess how the transportation sys- Could we have done this without strength- ders and started going regularly to the VA. I’m tem connects people to services by auto, tran- ening the hands of unions in the private sec- not sure he would be alive today if he hadn’t. sit, bike, and pedestrian investments, and en- tor? And months later, after Sergeant Major Sar- sures new investments do not degrade transit, These are all painful hypotheticals to think gent saw what a difference the VA had made bike, and pedestrian access. about as we look at the enormous sums of un- in his grandson’s life, he decided, for the first The Improving Access to Services Act will necessary spending in this bill. time, to go himself. also adjust the definition of access to incor- To offer merely a few examples, we gave porate a measurement of travel times, travel $88 million to the Peace Corps, which fired Madam Speaker, Sergeant Major Sargent stress for active travel (bike and pedestrian), over seven thousand volunteers in March. We lived a life of service. Many Marines made it and cost for low-income travelers. spent millions more for refugee assistance, through Vietnam thanks to their sergeant I am glad that the Improving Access to election security, and the Department of Edu- major, and one of my great Marine friends is Services Act is endorsed by Transportation for cation. Some of these efforts may be worth alive today because of his grandfather. What America (T4A), Sierra Club, National Re- funding, but they certainly have no place in an an American hero. sources Defense Council (NRDC), National economic relief package.

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