Bill Foster

I guess I'd like to start by apologizing on behalf of the U.S. Congress

Community relocation is very important in Alaska right now.

It seems like you stand up and say something that's not true, it seems to only increase your chances of reelection.

And affordability is just a huge issue, both in rental properties and in mortgages, so anything that we can do to be helpful in that space, we will certainly take those steps.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Director Thompson, in May of this year, this committee passed my bill, H.R. 7022, the Strengthening Cybersecurity for the Financial Sector Act of 2022.

I am a fan of the free market in almost all circumstances, and I am a little bit distressed by everything that is put into place to interfere with the free market.

When I first took office in March of 2008, one of my first official acts was to attend memorial services for the 17 students killed and injured in the mass shootings at Northern Illinois University. In the 14 years since, I have attempted…

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'd also like to thank Chairwoman Stevens, Ranking Member Feenstra, Chairwoman Sherrill, Ranking Member Bice, and our witnesses for joining us here today.

Since the beginning of the pandemic I have pushed for greater flexibility and speed in the way that we research and authorize treatments, as free as possible from political interference.

Last year, Senator Lujan and I introduced the Restore and Modernization Our National Labs Act, which authorizes $30.5 billion in funding for the National Laboratories to address this critical shovel-ready backlog of overdue infrastructure…

We've also been very encouraged recently to hear President Biden lament the fact that the R&D intensity, the fraction of GDP (gross domestic product) that we devote to R&D has dropped precipitously from its historic levels.

But if they had been required to, OK, fine, you applied, get out your cell phone, prove you are who you say you are, and use that single identifier.

Standardization of the data would be incredibly helpful for the purpose of our work in identifying where fraud has occurred.

I'd like to also point out that there is an Act that I am sponsoring called the Improving Digital Identity Act of 2021.

I believe that we have a good tool to prevent identity fraud there in the form of the REAL ID-compliant ID card.

I've been struck in all of your testimony how central identity fraud and particularly online identify fraud is to the money that the taxpayers lost on this.

There has been some discussion here about what problem this might be solving.

Last year, I introduced the Pandemic Leave Extension Act, which would extend FFCRA's paid leave requirement until the end of the public health emergency.

One of the biggest factors pulling women out of the work force during the pandemic was needing to care for ill or loved ones or children learning from home.

I think that the way that we protect our way of life is by being less like China and more like America, because this is exactly what China is in the process of implementing.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing that I have heard is the idea that to access your own money, you need to get some identity, some globalist-conforming identity stamp, and then everything that you want to do is tracked and monitored.

I share my Republican colleague's enthusiasm for the role of small business, and I hope that we can both applaud, on a bipartisan basis, the record number of startups that are happening under President Biden's economic recovery.

We do not expect people to keep their life savings in ECASH.

Thank you, Representative Foster, and thank you, Chairman Lynch.

Is this viewed as similar to cash in that if you lose your device, you are out of luck?