mr. denham, mr. costa, to recognize somebody you can tell clearly impacted not just the lives of the three of us but the lives of many people on the central coast of california and central valley of california and across this nation. today we obviously commemorate, we celebrate rick antol and what he's done for the salinas valley agriculture industry and what he and his family at t&a did to claim that area as the salad bowl of the world. let me tell you he did it through innovation and he did it through ingenuity. in dealing with the specialty crops and the technology and the practices that are needed in order to grow those types of crops. i mean, he was on the forefront of innovation when it came to precision farming. from growing hydrouponic lettuce to a robovator, they used less water, less pesticide and that led to less harm. they continued to grow a vast amount of vegetables. in wasn't his innovation that set rick apart, it was his ingenuity and foresight that allowed him to implement standards,

mr. denham: mr. defazio has said this is very broad. sint. ery, very suck the regulation in 40 c.f.r. 495. this is very fight compared to 1994 when the democrats had control of the house, senate and the presidency and mr. defazio supported it dealing with these issues. now we are dealing with meal and rest breaks only. i would like to yield to mr. cuellar on this very bipartisan measure. mr. cuellar: again, overall, i want to thank sharme shuster for bringing the f.a.a. bill in. it is a narrow fix on this and only dealing with the interstate itself. and again, this is a bill we want to provide some sort of uniformity and that's all we are asking, uniformity across state lines and asking for that type of uniformity. and again, the industries, those drivers cross state lines multiple times per day. i would ask that you support the denham-costa amendment. the chair: the gentleman from oregon is recognized. mr. defazio: i yield the gentleman -- the chair: for how long? mr. defazio: 30 seconds. mr. mceachin: this amendment preempts important state

mr. denham: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to offer the bipartisan denham-costa amendment number 142 which eliminates duplication of environmental reviews. the map-21 highway bill created the nepa assignment program in 2012 which allows states to assume responsibility for environmental review, consultation and compliance of nepa for federal aid highway projects and other perhaps projects. the program removes an entire layer of federal bureaucracy from the nepa process, allowing states and counties to operate more efficiently. nepa's assignment has been a success, saving time and cost of infrastructure projects ray cross six states -- california, texas, florida, ohio, utah, and alaska. two more states, arizona and nebraska, are in the process of applying, and all 50 states are eligible to participate. the transportation and infrastructure committee built on the success of the nepa assignment program in the 2015 fast act by establishing the nepa reciprocity program. the nepa reciprocity program allows states with environme

mr. denham: thank you for yielding. mr. speaker, our tax code was ineffective and outdated. for too long americans' history of entrepreneurs and aspiring job creators has been in jeopardy. united states now ranks 12th worldwide in business openings. for the first time in 35 years american business closures outnumbered business openings. the first time in 35 years. that means jobs were vanishing faster than they were being created. for decades our country's families have been burdened by countless hours of paperwork, just putting taxes together, confusing tax rules that you needed an accountant or a lawyer to look at, and unsustainable rates that cut into everyday, hardworking paychecks. the code also did little to encourage u.s. companies to invest right here. instead it only was successful in creating new loopholes, exemptions, disincentives that pushd more profits and jobs overseas. the tax code just wasn't working. that's why i was proud to have supported and co-authored h.r. 1. the tax cuts and jobs act, which tackled each of these separate issues, in ways that the suppo

mr. denham: thank you, mr. chairman. the disaster recovery reform builds on important management emergency reforms that the transportation and infrastructure committee produced in the recovery improvement act. representing a neighboring district to the california wildfires last year, i've seen firsthand how these reforms streamline disaster assistance to survivors. california was able to utilize those reforms like alternative procedures for debris removal, updated individual assistance, declaration factors, changes to the hazard mitigation grant program, and many others. but there's still work to be done and congress recognized that by passing legislation that i authored in the smart rebuilding act, to provide federal cost-share incentives to states. these measures encourage mitigation by establishing a national public information predisaster mitigation fund and allow implementation of design codes as an eligible cost for fema's public assistance program. i want to clarify that the nationally recognizable design codes in

mr. denham. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. denham: i thank for you yielding. protecting americans' personally identifiable information has been hotly debated in the halls of congress this month. last week we debated appropriate limitations on private companies' access, use and distribution of private data. this week in the house, we are moving a package of bills to improve the federal government's use of americans' data to ensure that the government is doing everything to keep its citizens safe. private companies should not be selling personal information without consent. but the federal government should not be selling the personal information of its citizens and armed services members. ensureduced h.r. 4403 to that federal agencies are taking the necessary extra step of removing social security numbers, passport numbers and i.d. numbers from shipping information. currently, the customs and border protection agency is not taking this step. in absence of this action, when americans move internationally, their information may be

i thank chairman shuster, chairman denham, mr. gottheimer and mr. capuano. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. capuano: this bill requires the f.r.a. to train people when they report incidents of safety that they report them in a uniform manner so when someone looks to see what type of accidents there are they can compare apples to apples instead of apples to oranges. this bill is bipartisan. with that i am finished. i have a colleague who is the author of this bill, mr. gottheimer of new jersey, to whom i'd like to yield the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. gottheimer: thank you, sir. thank you, mr. speaker. i also want to thank chairman shuster and ranking member defazio for their leadership on the committee. working with me in a bipartisan basis on the f.r.a. safety data improvement act. and i want to thank mr. mitchell. in a political environment that's often polarized, democrats and republicans can find common ground on