mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, on the week of the congressional baseball game, one which i will wear the uniform of the st. louis cardinals, i rise today and honor the life and career of major league player albert fred cheney who passed away on wednesday, june 6, at 95 years old. he was born in my congressional district in germantown, illinois, on february 2, 1923. red grew up as one of seven children. his dad was a coal miner. he lived in his early days without running water or electricity. he married mary o'riley in 1947 and celebrated 52 years of marriage before she passe away in 1999. together they had four children, 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. as 16 years old while working on a fence under the cilian conservation rps, h suffered an injuryh left eye. that injury made it hard for him to read a breaking ball from the right side so he learned to be a switch hitter. red tried out for the cardinals in 1942 and at his induction ceremony at the baseball hall of fame he said he and his frie

mr. shimkus: again, mr. chairman, i thank my colleagues from nevada for allowing us to have this debate once. two weeks ago we had this debate on the floor of the house, had a pretty food vote, bipartisan vote, 340 of our colleagues supported continuing to move orward, 72 disagreed with that decision. and again this -- part of this debate allows me to lay out think true facts. the facts are that this body and this nation decided 30-plus years ago to address a national problem with a national solution. and so we have been moving forward as a nation for 30 years. .0 years, $15 billion the most studied piece of ground on the planet. fortunately it's in the state of nevada. nevada can claim that they have he safest location for a geological repository, the nuclear regulatory commission in exhaustive research, i was wrong, it wasn't 1,000 pages, it's 1,928 pages, this is one of five volumes. and yes, the previous amendment was to say let's don't adjudicate the difference my colleagues from nevada keep saying it's

mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. this could be on -- it's good to be on the floor with my good friend and colleague, ranking member congressman pallone. i know his heart is solid and i know he believes that we are challenging some privacy concerns andake th in this spirit -- in the spirit intended. as a republican, i was an early supporter of one of our former colleague's mental health parity act and the whole intent of that, for many of us, was to say, mental health illness is an illness and should be accepted as an illness. but what we have done under the ederal code is to separate it. and so i think the intent of what we're trying to do is not separate it. and make it part of the health records. we've heard the debate on both sides. but that's the basic premise from which i come. we've heard the testimony of people who the information was regular d with the versus the mental health and then prescriptions occurring and catastrophic events. the intent of this legislation is to help patients and to help providers bet

mr. shimkus, for as time as he may require. mr. shimkus: thank you. i'm glad you have obviously the l.n.g. terminal and the lithuanian flag there, independence. i also brought it down. i don't have to be as complete in my comments because i've heard the comments of easing s be independent of imported russian natural gas. lithuania is on the baltic sea. i am the chair of the baltic caucus. lithuanian, estonia, latvia. watching and encouraging them and their actually leadership of eastern europe. they set out in 2014 to become independent of russian gas. and so they went through the process of getting the l.n.g. terminal. i love the name. it's called the independence. so they can be independent and free. they have a history of being extorted by the russians in the crude oil department. ere's a refinery there which a u.s. company bought. and then the russians turned off the oil. so that's the extortions and the concerns. now what they have is the ability to compete in the open market. they had their first l.n.g. gas come from the united states earlier in

mr. shimkus. i'm just going to put on a cowboy hat. >> can i have your time? >> welcome to texas, mr. chairman. i want to be serious. as you all know, i have some deep concerns about going forward with the rfs as it stands today. it was designed for a very different american energy environment. we were an importer of oil and gas. now we are an exporter. i think today it stands as a very flawed mandate. one problem i have with the rfs is the severe cost displaces on smaller funders, like cvs, which is headquartered in my district, sugar land, texas. for those reasons, i worry about the potential cost of upgrades to newer high octane fuels. first question, mr. thompson. could you please talk about what sorts of projects you have to move to a higher octane fuel, and what that might cost? would that be doable for small refiners like our guys in sugar land, texas? >> well, a couple of things. we are very proud of cvs as well, chs, and all of our small merchant refiners, and they are supportive of me being here today and talking about higher octane, for sure. so initially moving to a higher

mr. shimkus: i rise today to express my support for and emphasize the importance of blood donation and independent blood centers in america. blood transfusions help save millions of lives each year. however, blood cannot be manufactured, so our entire national supply depends on the selfless generosity of blood donors. and because donated blood is perishable, it has a limited shelf life. it must be continually reflenplenished. last year when a shooter attacked a baseball team and hit my friend and roommate majority whip steve scalise, the donors who visited their local blood centers in the days prior to the shooting made a crucial difference in saving their life. they ensure patients suffering due to natural disasters, accidents, diseases, or acts of violence always will have access to life-saving blood. this week in honor of world blood donor day, i want to ncourage those who choose to donate blood each year. i ask my colleagues to visit their local blood centers to learn more about the continuous need of blood donation and support their life-saving work. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the b

mr. shimkus: i'd like to claim time -- >> i'd like to claim time in opposition, please. thank you, mr. chair. i understand that mr. meadows offers this amendment to try to attack the special counsel, special counsel mueller and his team, to imply that there's some sort of impropriety going on here with the russian investigation. of course these improprieties aren't with the special counsel, mr. chair. the problems are with russia. mr. ryan: and the people in our country, our political system and our current administration who repeatedly communicated and met with russia -- russian operatives during the presidential campaign. trying to muddy the waters by going after the integrity of the investigators is a classic tactic used by the people who feel threatened by an investigation because they know they've been caught. the bottom line is the way this amendment is drafted, it doesn't do anything. it says, no funds in the bill can be used to, quote-unquote, enforce a repeal of the provision of law that happened a decade ago. not enforcing a repeal is not the same as reinstating the provision

carley shimkus with fox news headlines 24/7, siriusxm 115 is here with vulgar tirade, another one. >> first started with first lady melania's office saying mrsp hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle will come together to achieve successful immigration reform. she believes we need to be a country that follows the law but also a cou that governs with heart. well, comedian kathy griffin respond today that tweeting, beep you melanie, you know your husband can end this immediately, you piece of bleep. she is in the hot seat among trump supporters once again. tweeter user saying, thanks for trump seal the deal in 2020. diane say this is woman has no class and robert tweets, kathy griffin is hate filled and pathetic. that's part of of the reason the left can't be taken seriously. if she did read the statement from the first lady, she would agree with that. heather: moments like that i miss a world without twitter. carley: keep thoughts to yourself. heather: kim kardashian on a new prison case she taking off. carley: appear to have interest in new case, she tweeted at the california governor jerry brow