Conveyance of Pleasant Valley Ranger District Administrative Site to Gila County, Arizona

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation. My Democratic colleagues and I agree that it is a good idea to authorize the conveyance of the Pleasant Valley Ranger District Administrative Site to Gila County in Arizona.

However, I do want to talk about the broader context for this bill because it was supposed to be considered today alongside a Democratic-led bill, the National Museum of Play Recognition Act. It is about as innocuous as it gets.

This is a bill that has a Republican co-lead. It would merely confer the title of ``national'' to this museum in Rochester, New York, which is a unique institution dedicated to the exploration of how play serves to promote learning, creativity, discovery, and cultural history.

The bill wouldn't provide Federal funding or any other benefits that my friends across the aisle could object to. I am talking about conferring an honorary title on a children's museum. It has areas for kids to play and imagine that they are in Sesame Street or the Berenstain Bears books.

Unfortunately, House Republicans have pulled the bill from today's agenda at the last minute because we are told that many Republicans think the museum is too woke and too DEI. That is right. That is the explanation we have been given for why the deal is off and the Democratic bill can't be considered today.

I don't know the names of who made this decision or what specific complaints are behind it, but I am guessing that some of my Republican colleagues don't like the fact that the museum currently has a small temporary exhibit called Black Doll Designers that lets visitors ``learn about the pivotal role that Black designers have played in diversifying toy aisles.''

In September, the museum also posted on Instagram about Hispanic Ballerina Barbie and how the My First Barbie line of dolls ``come in various ethnicities and styles, encouraging inclusivity and diversity. . . . ''

That doesn't strike me as controversial or offensive in any way, but is that why we can't have a vote on this bill here today? Some unidentified Republicans are triggered by that, by Hispanic Ballerina Barbie, or are our Republican friends just taking their orders from the far-right website Breitbart, which posted yesterday, attacking this museum for its content and for offering what it called diversity and inclusion internships. I guess those are dirty words these days.

That is how it works these days. Shortly after the Breitbart post went up, this bill disappeared from the agenda. It was pulled. That is how it works these days. Breitbart posts something. Congress reacts. Elon Musk tweets. Republicans in Congress walk away from a bipartisan budget deal.

Mr. Speaker, this is disgusting. Are my colleagues now puppets on a string, something that maybe should be an exhibit in the play museum that we are talking about here? It sure would seem so.

There is nothing more I can say. I believe this is disgusting.

Mr. Speaker, I will close by saying I support this legislation. As we have already heard, this is a property that is adjacent to the rural town of Young, Arizona, surrounded by the Gila National Forest and formerly a Forest Service office building and administrative site that is no longer used by the agency.

This conveyance will provide Gila County with the opportunity to do something productive and important with the property. It will establish a veterans retreat and community center. That is a worthy goal. It will support and uplift our deserving community of veterans in that location, and the partnership made possible by this bill would provide some new life to deteriorating buildings, barns, barracks, and existing wastewater systems.

This is a bill that passed the House last Congress. It is unfortunate that the Senate didn't take it up. Hopefully, this time around, they will, and we can help fulfill Gila County's goal in creating what they have described as ``the ultimate experience for veterans and their families.'' We support all of that.

If this bill does become law, I hope our Federal Government will be sufficiently staffed to carry it out. With furloughs, firings, and attempts at encouraging early retirement, including a whole bunch of lawless attempts that I wish my friends across the aisle were a little more concerned about, we are already seeing basic government functions at risk.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues across the aisle to tell their friends in the White House to look before they leap and to stop dismantling the offices that serve our constituents.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source