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Jan. 9, 2025 11:45-15:38 - CSPAN

03:52:44

U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo Source

Participants

Main

al green

rep/d 31:49

david schweikert

rep/r 35:31

greta brawner

cspan 18:44

kevin kiley

rep/r 24:15

Appearances

marcy kaptur

rep/d 02:05

mike bost

rep/r 00:33

stacey plaskett

rep/d 01:15

tim burchett

rep/r 01:44

Clips

tylease alli

00:16

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Speaker	Time	Text
Blessed Are the Merciful 00:03:59
unidentified		And he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
		Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
		Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
		Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
		Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
		Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
		Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
		Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
		We're going to leave this for a moment, and you can continue watching the service on C-SPAN 2 as we take you live to the House for votes.
tylease alli ▲ ● ▼		House Resolution 22.
unidentified		resolved that the following named members be and are hereby elected to the following standing committees of the house of representatives consent that the resolution be considered as read and printed in the record without objection the resolution is without objection without objection the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table
mike bost ▲ ● ▼		pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 the unfinished business is the vote on the passage of h.r. 23 on which the yeas and nays are ordered The clerk will report the title of the bill.
tylease alli ▲ ● ▼		H.R. 23, a bill to impose sanctions with respect to the International Criminal Court, engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.
mike bost ▲ ● ▼		The question is on the passage of the bill.
		Members will record their votes by electronic device.
		This is a 15-minute vote.
unidentified		And here in the House, members voting on final passage of a bill requiring the president to sanction international criminal court officials for bringing charges against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for the way they conducted their war against Hamas.
		The House passed the bill during the last Congress, but it was never considered by the Senate.
		When the House approved its rules package for the 119th Congress, it included debate on 12 bills passed by the previous Congress.
		This is the second of those bills to get another vote on the House floor.
		Also, today, a final farewell to the 39th President Jimmy Carter.
		His state funeral is underway and his remains will be headed back home to Plains, Georgia.
		There will be a private service held there, and Jimmy Carter will be buried at his family's peanut farm next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalind Carter.
		This afternoon, we'll have live coverage of the casket arrival in Georgia and the procession to the Maranatha Baptist Church here on C-SPAN.
Miracle Of Diversity 00:08:40
unidentified		And we'll show the funeral today held at Washington National Cathedral again tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern.
		The House vote underway now might be a little bit longer than usual.
		Leaders are holding the vote open to give members time to return from the former President Carter's funeral.
		Here on the House floor during the vote, we are going to take you back to National Cathedral for the state funeral of Jimmy Carter.
		Diversity of color and creed and national origin and still become the great nation that we are in the United States of America.
		It was something of a miracle.
		And I don't mean this with any disrespect, but it's still hard for me to understand how you could get to be president from Plains, Georgia.
		I knew plains from my pastorate in Thomasville, Georgia, about 60, 70 miles south of there.
		And I was even nervous driving through planes.
		And Plains and Sumter County gave us one of the meanest experiences that we had in the civil rights movement.
		So much so that Martin Luther King said that the sheriff of Plains of Sumter County, he really thought was the meanest man in the world.
		And when I first met Jimmy Carter running for governor and said, the only thing I know about Plains and Sumter County is Fred Chapel.
		And he said, oh yes, he's one of my good friends.
		And that was the last thing I wanted to hear.
		And yet time and time again, I saw in him the ability to achieve greatness by the diversity of his personality and his upbringing.
		Dr. King used to say that greatness is characterized by antitheses strongly marked.
		You've got to have a tough mind and a tender heart.
		And that was Jimmy Carter.
		And he grew up in the tremendous diversity of the South and he embraced both sides.
		He was a minority in Sumter County.
		Just about 20, 25 percent of the population was white.
		But growing up as a minority, he became the friend of the majority.
		And when he went to the Naval Academy, he asked that his roommate be the first black midshipman to come to Annapolis.
		And he said, I know minorities.
		I've been a minority most of my life, and maybe I can help him in his adjustments.
		And he went out of his way To embrace those of us who had grown up in all kinds of conflict.
		But that was the sensitivity, the spirituality that made James Earl Carter a truly great president.
		James Earl Carter was truly a child of God.
		Not only a good farmer, but a nuclear physicist chosen by Admiral Rickova to assist him in developing a new nuclear navy.
		But at the same time, he was working on a nuclear navy.
		He was thinking of peace on earth and goodwill toward all men, and especially women and children.
		I've known President Carter for more than half of my life, and I never ceased to be surprised.
		I never ceased to be enlightened.
		I never ceased to be inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy that he shared with us every day of his life.
		It was President James Earl Carter that for me symbolized the greatness of the United States of America.
		And I am truly grateful for him because in spite of the harshness of the depression and the explosions of inflation, he never wavered from his commitment to God Almighty and his love of all of God's children.
		Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped to create a great United States of America.
		And for all of us and many who are not able to be here, I want to say thank you.
		You have been a blessing from God and your spirit will remain with us.
		And as Jason said, he may be gone, but he ain't gone far.
		Thank you, President Carter, and thank you, almighty God.
		It's easy if you try No help below us above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today
I Hope Someday 00:02:46
unidentified		Imagine there's no country It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for
		No religion to imagine all the people living life in peace You who you may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one
		I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possession I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger
		The brotherhood of men Imagine all the people sharing all the world you who you may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one
		I hope someday you'll join us
Lord's Blessing and Deliverance 00:09:30
unidentified		Father, it would be thy name.
		Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
		Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
		And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
		Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
		Amen.
		For our brother James, let us pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I am the resurrection and I am life.
		Lord, you console Martha and Mary in their distress.
		Draw near to us who mourn for James and dry the tears of those who weep.
		You weep at the grave of Lazarus, your friend.
		Comfort us in our sorrow.
		You raise the dead to life.
		Give to our brother eternal life.
		You promise paradise to the thief who repented.
		Bring our brother to joys of heaven.
		Our brother was washed in baptism and anointed with the Holy Spirit.
		Give him fellowship with all your saints.
		Lord, comfort us in our sorrows at the death of our brother.
		Let our faith be our constellation and eternal life our hope.
		Father of all, we pray to you for James and for all those whom we love but see no longer.
		Grant to them eternal rest.
		Let light perpetual shine upon them.
		May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
		Amen.
		To your
		servant, with your saints, where sorrow neither sighing, but life everlasting.
		You only are immortal, the Creator and Maker of humankind, and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we return.
		For so did you ordain when you created me, saying, You are dust, and to dust you shall return.
		All of us go down to the dust, yet even at the grave, we make our song, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
		Give rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.
		Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant James.
		Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.
		Receive him into the arms of your mercy and to the blessed rest of everlasting peace and into the glorious company of the saints in light.
		Amen.
		The Lord bless you and keep you.
		The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
		The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
		Let us go forth in the name of Christ.
		Thanks be to God.
		begin.
		And see our Jesus be risen from the floor.
Jimmy Carter's Final Farewell 00:20:04
unidentified		And who sings to thy face when come in Lord, who says to my mistress and come here, Sinners who song and ever
unidentified		would have strengthened.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		The final goodbye mentions 39th president, the commander-in-chief, Jimmy Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
		He died at the age of 100 on December 29th.
		Today, Washington honors him one last time at a service at the National Cathedral here in the nation's capital, with all five of the nation's living presidents attending.
		President Biden also delivering remarks.
		President Biden was serving in his first term in the Senate during the Carter administration.
		Outside of the cathedral, there will be another small ceremony, military that will continue with their honors to their commander-in-chief outside of the National Cathedral before a motorcade takes the late president and his family to Joint Base Andrews,
		where then, for the final time, he will lift off from Washington to make it home to To Plains, Georgia, where he will be buried at his home next to his beloved wife, Rosalind Carter.
		Plains Georgia is on his way home leaving Washington one last time Current and former presidents gathering at the nation's National Cathedral along with First Ladies and Vice Presidents, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, all paying their respects today here in the nation's capital for the 39th President of the United States.
Customary Presidential Eulogies 00:15:36
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		It's been six days of tributes for the 39th President Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from Georgia, who became President of the United States.
		Joining us is Lindsay Chervinski.
		She's the executive director of George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.
		Lindsay Chervinski, what stood out to you from this service at the National Cathedral today?
unidentified		I think there are a couple of things that really caught my eye.
		The first was that the eulogies demonstrated Carter's appeal to people from multiple sides of the aisle and also to people who the presidents don't always necessarily get along with.
		So he had two eulogies that were delivered by his former presidential opponent in a presidential election and his vice president.
		And as we have seen in the last couple of decades, the vice presidential relationship can be a challenging one.
		It's really tricky.
		And Carter and Mondale were actually instrumental in setting the tone for what it meant to have a productive relationship.
		So that was, I think, the first thing that stuck out to me.
		The second thing was the building itself was really filled with 20th century American history.
		It was filled with presidents and former presidents and first ladies and their families and people who've worked in policy.
		And so it was as a historian really fun to see that huge span of history in one building.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		How did it become customary, it seems, that you have these state funerals in the nation's capital and that there is this service at the National Cathedral.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Why the National Cathedral?
unidentified		Well in 1893 Congress basically decided there should be a spot for there to be a national mourning location, for there to be some sort of cathedral place, some spot where this type of service, some type of prayer or worship could be held.
		Construction of this building didn't actually start until 1907, but as early as Woodrow Wilson's passing in 1924, there started to be services on the grounds of this space.
		And not always the funerals.
		The funeral of Wilson was at his home, the funeral of FDR was in the White House, but there was a recognition that you wanted to have an opportunity for the country to mourn.
		And the National Cathedral is, I think, designed to embody that for all people.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And is that the point of a state funeral as well?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Is that the country as one mourns the passing of a former president?
unidentified		I believe so.
		I think it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
		In particular, I think there's a recognition that even if the president is no longer in office, they were the former head of state.
		And so it makes sense to have some sort of service for them in the nation's capital on behalf of the American people in recognition that even if they don't currently hold those powers, they did at one time.
		And that is a tremendous burden and service and sacrifice.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We spoke the other day when the former president, the late president, came to Washington for the final time.
		And you spoke about these state funerals.
		Who gets to decide?
		Who plans them?
		Remind our viewers.
unidentified		Absolutely.
		So every single element of these funerals of the commemorations that we've seen over the last six days, sometimes it's eight days.
		Reagan had eight days and actually Carter had planned for eight days, but because of where the New Year's Day holiday fell, they had to shorten it.
		They start that planning process almost the moment they go into the White House because what they learned with John F. Kennedy is you don't want to have a president die suddenly and have no plan.
		And so you start that plan in the White House and then once they leave, they update it, they evolve as they take on new passions and interests, and their family expands and grows and they pick every song, every person in attendance, every speaker, every single detail is decided by the president and their family.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		The presidential hearse is leaving the National Cathedral right now.
		It will be a 40-minute about estimated drive to Joint Base Andrews where then the casket carrying the late president will aboard Air Force One, but today its call sign is Special Air Mission 39.
		When the president's not aboard, the call sign is Special Air Mission 39 added today to mark our 39th president.
		We'll continue to watch as the motorcade takes the late president and his family to the Air Force base.
		Joining us is Lindsay Chervinski.
		She's the executive director at George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.
		We're talking about the customs here.
		What else is customary about the tributes that we have seen over the last few days?
unidentified		Well, a lot of the customs that we've seen have actually really evolved only since Ronald Reagan's funeral.
		He was the first president to have a televised funeral.
		This was the age of television when every single step could be covered and filmed.
		Prior to that, a lot of the services tended to be a little bit more modest, even if they did have a state funeral.
		It's very customary for them to have two funerals, one here, like we've seen in D.C., one at their final resting place.
		In terms of Carter, we've actually seen three ceremonies.
		We saw Georgia, D.C., and then back to Georgia again.
		Some other elements that I think usually play a role, the military is usually involved in some way.
		The military district of Washington, D.C. is in charge of overseeing the security and all of the logistics of the moving pieces.
		But if a president has a special connection to a particular branch, like we've seen with Carter and the Navy, they might choose to honor that through music or through a symbolic presence.
		If they have a particular business interest or if they have something in their past they want to highlight, peanuts have been discussed a lot in the last couple of days.
		We might see something like that.
		And then of course usually their family, their close friends, and people who were important to them when they were in the White House.
		So we usually do see some sort of advisor or official that understood them or can speak to who they really were and what mattered to them.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Let's go back to the National Cathedral and the service there.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Who is invited and do you have to be invited to be part of the service that we saw earlier?
unidentified		You do and this sounds like a strange thing to say, but those invitations are actually quite hot commodities.
		They are, it is one of those events in DC where if you are involved in that space, you often want to be, you want to be seen and you want to see the people who are there.
		So there is a lot of clamoring over who gets to go to what service.
		Some of that, of course, is that people just want to pay respects and they want to be a part of that memory.
		And so there's usually decision within the family about who to invite to which place, who to include.
		There are usually heads of state that are represented, different branches of government, former officials, family members, friends, but there are never enough seats for the number of people who want to attend.
		And so there sometimes ends up being difficult choices or even last-minute juggling if people have to pull out at the last minute.
		So it is, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes logistics happening over the last couple days.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And as we watch this motorcade, I want to read for our viewers what Politico had to say.
		Carter will accomplish what perhaps no other president could do at this moment, bringing together all five living current and former presidents, two Republicans and three Democrats.
		We saw that scene unfold before the service took place.
		Is it customary for a former president and first lady vice president to attend these services?
unidentified		It is.
		You know, we talk a lot about the president's club, and then we're often referring to them while they're alive and the activities that they partake in to support one another.
		Usually there's a visit to the White House.
		We see those photographs.
		There's talk about the advice that they can give to one another because so few people understand what it actually means to be in that position.
		But they also do all typically gather when one of their members passes away and we've seen that over the last several decades.
		That doesn't mean it's always a particularly friendly club.
		You know, I think any observer who watched the body language could see that some people were more excited to see others and who did and did not speak to whom.
		But I think the power of that club, the power of the precedent of showing up and the power of the institution and recognizing the institution, the fact that it can still force all of them into one room says an awful lot.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And USA Today reported that the president told them in an interview on Sunday, that's President Biden, that he promised Carter he'd deliver his eulogy in 2021.
		You heard the president during his remarks talk about that visit that he had made to Jimmy Carter and his wife back in 2021.
		Here's a quote, I bent down, he was in tough shape to kiss him goodbye, and he asked me to do his eulogy, he said, of that final conversation the two had, which marked Biden's 100th day in office at that time.
		Is that customary that the current president would deliver these remarks?
unidentified		It is often customary for a current president to deliver a eulogy, especially if they had a somewhat decent relationship.
		You know, George W. Bush delivered Reagan's eulogy.
		What was interesting about that particular state funeral is both he and his father delivered eulogies because Bush 41 was, of course, Reagan's vice president.
		And the difference between them was interesting because Bush 41 talked about their personal anecdotes, their personal relationship, some of the funnier stories about Reagan.
		And then the current president at that time, President George W. Bush, gave more of the biographical approach.
		And so it is customary as long as I think the relationship is somewhat pleasant.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk about the age that Jimmy Carter lived to.
		100 years old, the longest living president.
		What if, and as we watch the President's Club come together today, what if these others were to live or other presidents were to have lived to 100 years old?
unidentified		Yeah, you know, I think it's interesting because we've had an interesting tradition in American history where typically presidents don't have that long of post-presidential lives.
		Now, partly that was because modern medicine is a relatively new invention and death used to be much less predictable in the 19th century than it is today.
		But then we did see this period of time where we had younger presidents.
		And so I wish that I could remember which article I was reading this morning, but there was a great series of statistics about what would have happened if former presidents had as long of a post-presidential life as Carter did.
		Now, sometimes that's not possible because if they're older in office, but if we think about Lincoln, if Lincoln had had as long of a post-presidential life, then he would have died in 1909.
		And if Theodore Roosevelt had had as long as a post-presidential life, then he would have lived to see the advent of nuclear weapons.
		My particular favorite is if Kennedy had died, or excuse me, if Kennedy had had as long of a post-presidential life, he would have died in 2017.
		So it just kind of makes you think about all of the history that Carter has witnessed and the time that he was able to contribute to making the world a better place.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, President Biden said he led on civil rights.
		He was a hardworking farmer, a president who redefined the relationship with a vice president.
		Interesting coming from Joe Biden, who served as vice president and now is president.
unidentified		Yeah, you know, and at times it has seemed like Biden and Obama have been very close.
		They were very, they appeared to be very close when they were in office.
		There were all of those great bromance memes that went viral on the internet.
		As, you know, the history has come out, there have been stories about there being more tension than perhaps were always, you know, front and center met the eye.
		And then since then, I think there have been some rocky waters in that relationship.
		And certainly we've seen similar reporting with Kamala Harris and President Biden.
		You know, I think it's really hard to have a good relationship between those two offices.
		The vice presidency is really weird.
		It doesn't really have constitutional responsibilities.
		It entirely depends on the president.
		Their job is to be supportive, but clearly they're just kind of waiting around.
		So it doesn't exactly set up for easy friendships.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Interesting then, as you said, that the son of Vice President Mondale gave those remarks today and talked about the relationship that the two of them had.
unidentified		Yeah, and clearly a very warm relationship and a good relationship and one that meant a great deal to Carter.
unidentified		Otherwise, I don't think he would have singled Mondale out for that honor.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		President Biden also said that Jimmy Carter was a model of post-presidency.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What did you make of that?
unidentified		Well, he was.
		You know, in some ways, he was a model for a new type of post-president because prior to Carter, most former presidents went home.
		They were relatively quiet.
		They didn't really particularly participate in politics, but they also didn't have a whole lot of public presence.
		And Carter was young, and he wanted something to do with his time, and so he created the Carter Center.
		And now most presidents have centers that are not just affiliated with their libraries, but also have a philanthropic element to them.
		They usually have missions, whether it's democracy or medicine or health or human rights, but Carter did all of those things.
		And so he really, I think, carved a new path for what was possible for former presidents to consider with their time, influence, and power.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		His grandson, in his eulogy, marking the noting the Presidential Carter Center has 3,500 employees, only about 100 here in America and the rest across the world.
unidentified		It's really incredible.
		You know, and I think Carter was clearly very focused on global affairs.
		That was true during his presidency.
		And I think some of his biggest contributions are with foreign policy.
		But I attribute that a lot to his time in the Navy.
		He lived all over the place.
		He got to see a lot of new types of people.
		And I also attribute it to his Christian faith.
		I think there is an element of wanting to lift up those that are struggling the most.
		And he often found spaces like the Guinea Worm or River Blindness where he could make a real tangible impact on millions of lives.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Jimmy Carter, the late president, is on his way home to Plains, Georgia right now.
		The motorcade on your screen just is still inside Washington, actually under the Kennedy Center, excuse me, right now, making its way to the Beltway and then to Joint Base Andrews.
		From there, there will be another ceremony.
		The military will honor the Commander-in-Chief there with more Hail to the Chief, 21 guns salute, before the casket is put on Air Force One.
		Today, as we said, called Special Air Mission 39.
		The Carter family will also board there and they will go to Plains, Georgia.
		Back home, the late president will be buried at his home in Plains, Georgia, next to his wife, Rosalind Carter, who died over a year ago.
Presidents and Their Final Wishes 00:15:17
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Being buried at, this is his preference, being buried at his home.
		His wife buried there as well.
		Talk about their home in Plains, Georgia.
		Is it a public site?
unidentified		It is now, yes.
		It has been taken over by the National Park Service.
		This was the Carter's decision and the Carter's wish.
		It is not uncommon for presidents to do so once they are no longer living at a particular place in recognition that this was where they were formed, this is where their story began.
		Often they will have a presidential library or a museum that accompanies that site.
		So a good example of this is the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas.
		There's the childhood home of Eisenhower right next to the museum and the presidential library, and that is a National Park Service site as well.
		So it is not unusual for that to happen.
		What I think is amazing about Carter's decision to go home is he's not being buried at the presidential library.
		He's being buried at his home with Rosalynn, and that is a slightly more unusual choice.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		The home built in 1961, and you heard his grandson talk about it, a very modest home, ranch style, pictures all over the refrigerator.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What did you make of the description his grandson had of his grandpa?
unidentified		Well, it's not what we typically associate with presidential homes, to be sure.
		Not that all presidents have been wealthy, but usually once they leave office, they do write books, they give talks, they end up living in slightly different circumstances perhaps than when they came into office.
		And the commitment, to me, what it signifies is a commitment to the community and a commitment to the church community and the people and the neighbors that he grew up with and a recognition of how much his presence could continue to do for Georgia.
		He didn't have to go back there and he chose to.
		And so for me, it's a little bit less about the house and more about the roots and wanting to make sure that as long as he was able to, he gave back to that space.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		When he left office, he discovered that his family farm was in debt.
		I mean, he was, I believe, a million dollars in debt.
		They did have to make money.
unidentified		They did.
		Yes.
		And the way that he chose to do so was writing books.
		He didn't want to necessarily give a lot of expensive speeches because even though he certainly could have, because I think he worried that it would somehow shift either his preferences or it would make him seem biased towards a certain group.
		But if he wrote books and he was paid for his words, then he felt like that was a more honest living.
		So he wrote more books than any other former president.
		I think it's something like 32.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		32.
unidentified		Which as someone who's written books, wow, that makes me feel like a slacker.
		I'm nowhere near that number.
		It's really quite impressive.
		And it's on all different subjects.
		He took his hand to poetry.
		He wrote about foreign policy.
		He wrote about his life.
		And I think that's an incredible way to spend one's time.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And he was honored for his post-presidency work with the Nobel Peace Prize.
unidentified		He was.
		I mean, it's, you know, if you were to add all these things up, you almost feel like you would be making it up because how could anyone possibly fit all of these things into their life?
		But his work in foreign policy in particular and trying to continue diplomacy, especially in the Middle East, but also, you know, they did a lot of work with democracy and election monitoring.
		They would go and they would serve as election monitors that were not involved in any of the political process such that they could be honest brokers.
		That's a really incredible way to contribute to the spread of democratic ideals.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And then his dedication and commitment to public health.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		He was quoted as saying he wanted to make sure that he was alive long enough to see the end of the guinea worm, his grandson talking about the devastation of that disease in Africa, going from millions of cases to 14.
unidentified		It's unbelievable.
		What I think is remarkable about that particular choice is it's not necessarily a disease that a lot of people would know about in the United States.
		It's not necessarily the sexiest of cures to try and come up with, but he understood it as something that he could make a tangible difference.
		That he, if he put the weight of the Carter Center, the funds and the power and the research behind it, then they could actually really move the needle.
		And that's a remarkable thing to do.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		I also want to read from Politico magazine, and again, the motorcade on your screen today is the motorcade that is bringing the president, the late president, and his family to Joint Base Andrews.
		Another ceremony will follow there before then Special Air Mission 39 takes off for the final time from Washington and brings the president home to Plains, Georgia.
		There will be services there as well.
		Marks six days of tributes to the Commander-in-Chief.
		Politic magazine, Son of the South is what they write.
		A farmer, a Southern Baptist, and a native of South Georgia with the accent to match.
		Carter was unambiguously of the deep South.
		With his open hand to black voters, though, he was not a reminder of the bad old days.
		And in 1976, the images from Little Rock, Oxford, Tuscaloosa, Philadelphia, Selma, and Memphis were all fresh memories, closer than what 9-11 is to today.
		He was a beneficiary of exquisite timing as well.
		By running 11 years after the Voting Rights Act, he was able to win over millions of enfranchised Southern black people while still retaining the votes of Southern whites who remained loyal to their ancestral party, many of them having come of age when Franklin D. Roosevelt was as popular there as air conditioning.
unidentified		You know, I was listening to some commentary this morning and when I was looking at the political map, Jimmy Carter won the South in terms of the electoral map the exact same way that Donald Trump did this year or this past year, I should say.
		The only southern state he didn't win was Virginia.
		The only southern state that Trump didn't win was Virginia.
		And I think that demonstrates what you're talking about in terms of the shift of the electorate from both the civil rights era and then up through today.
		But Carter was absolutely shaped by his formative experiences in the South.
		He grew up in a deeply segregated town.
		His father was a segregationist.
		He also had, at the same time, a black nanny or a black housekeeper who was a central figure in his life.
		And he, when he gave interviews about her, I think even into his 90s, he would tear up because of how special she was to him.
		And so, you know, he did have to, especially in his first or in his second gubernatorial campaign, he did kind of have to play footse a little bit with some of the segregationist ideas.
		He kind of towed the line with some of that.
		But then the minute he was elected, he said the time for segregation is over and he never looked back.
		He had the support of people like Martin Luther King Sr.
		And he brought those same ideas to Washington and appointed more people of color to the federal judiciary than I believe any president prior combined.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What also shaped him was his faith, and we heard about that today.
		And here we are on this January 9th, just days away from our next inauguration of the 47th president, Washington Post.
		For Jimmy Carter, faith was inseparable from politics and life.
		In his inaugural address in January 1977, President Carter, Jimmy Carter, spoke just four sentences before quoting from scripture.
unidentified		I will go out on a limb and I will say that I don't think we're going to see that in a week and a half.
		You know, Carter is probably the most religious former president we have had.
		It was certainly central to his presidency.
		It's not to say that all presidents have to be that way, but I think that he didn't always like politics.
		He saw it as a means to an end.
		And he was deeply driven by his faith to try and make the world a better place.
		And politics was a very useful way to do that.
		So sometimes his frustration with other politicians, his unwillingness to participate in sort of the DC culture reflected that distaste while ultimately still wanting the power to try and actually do something with it.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		One lighthearted moment from today's eulogies was when one of those speakers said that God should be ready for Jimmy Carter to let him know how heaven can be a more harmonious place.
unidentified		Yeah, there were some really good harmony.
		There were some really funny moments today.
		And I'm glad people brought that humor because I do think these are, of course, somber events, but they should be human events too.
		So I really appreciated that his grandson Jason talked about the time that he called him and thought he was taking a picture and didn't know how to use his telephone despite being a nuclear engineer.
		So that was probably also one of my favorite moments.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What about though the separation of church and state?
		You know, and faith is and religion is always brought into services that we see like this.
		Not just Jimmy Carter's, he was devout Christian, but we've seen it in other services for former presidents.
unidentified		Yeah, it's a really good question.
		So, I mean, the National Cathedral is, I believe, under the Episcopalian umbrella, if I'm remembering correctly, but this service is considered to be non-dominant.
		Of course, it's Christian, but it is non-denominational because it has representatives from a lot of different Christian traditions and backgrounds.
		And yet, you raise, I think, a valuable point, which is that we do have a very strict separation in our Constitution and in the First Amendment that the church and the state are not necessarily supposed to combine.
		Now, they can individually for someone's preferences, and I think in this case, it was a particularly religious service because Carter was so religious himself.
		But I think that you raise a good question that these are things we should be thinking about.
		What is the appropriate level of religion in commemoration?
		What is the appropriate level of religion in the presidency?
		I suspect every single person would have a different answer to that question, but I do think there are questions worth discussing.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		As we said, the motorcade is underway over to Joint Base Andrews, and from there, the late president will go home to Plains, Georgia, along with the Carter family, the four children that he and Rosalind had, and as well as the many, almost a couple dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of them attending today.
		The honor guard, the special honor guard you can see on your right at Joint Base Andrews, they're marching into place.
		There will be more tributes and honors given to the former commander-in-chief, Lindsay Chervinsky.
		Why do we do things like four flourishes and ruffles and hail to the chief and a 21-gun salute?
		What is the significance?
unidentified		Well, I think it's a dual significance.
		One, it's in honor of Jimmy Carter's personal military service.
		If anyone has attended a funeral for someone who has served in the military, typically there's a military element towards the end.
		There's a salute, there's a flag presented.
		That's pretty common.
		But also in recognition that he was commander-in-chief and he was commander of the military.
		He obviously was no longer in that position, but as a former commander, he receives the honors due to a commander at his passing.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		21 guns salute, the significance of that in particular.
unidentified		Wow, that stumps me.
unidentified		I should know that.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		That's all right.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		There's a lot of detail.
unidentified		There's a lot of detail.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And that is actually an interesting point because the military, as you were talking about, overseas, this, the joint task force for the capital region that oversees this entire funeral, how do they quickly get all of the resources that we have seen on our screens over the past six days, quickly put everybody in place?
		Do they practice?
		Or how is it that they pull this off?
unidentified		Yeah, they do.
		So there is a, you know, because this is so well planned, they have a really good sense of what is supposed to happen at any given moment, how it's supposed to happen, who is supposed to be involved, where those resources are supposed to come from.
		And then, of course, as a former president fails, if it seems like it is somewhat predictable, and thankfully Carter had such a long and glorious life that it was sort of predictable towards the end, they are usually given a heads up as things are starting to look like this moment might be nearing.
		But because it is well planned, there are always funds set aside.
		There are, the military district is ready to go.
		That doesn't mean there's not last-minute scrambling.
		There always is to pull in people, especially around the holidays.
		I'm sure a lot of people were on leave, and some of that leave was canceled.
		But there is a pretty good plan in place.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, the Motorcade has now just entered into Maryland, and we are just moments away from the presidential hearse making its way onto Joint Base Andrews.
		And the military honors will continue.
		We've been talking with Lindsay Chervinski.
		She's the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.
		When this is all over, Lindsay Chervinski, what are the lessons learned?
		What does history say about a week like this?
unidentified		I think there are a couple things we can take away from it.
		So the first is that legacies take a long time to unfold.
		If Carter had died a couple weeks after leaving us, we would be having very different conversations than we're having today.
		And that's partly because a lot of the policies he put in place hadn't yet unfolded.
		We didn't know how they were going to work or if they were going to work or if his diplomatic efforts would pan out.
		So, you know, history takes a long time to really understand exactly what people's roles in it are.
		The second, I think people will come away with an appreciation that much of what we celebrate Carter for is not political.
		It's above politics.
		His decency, his goodness, his humanitarian commitment, his service, those are not political things.
		And that is something worth remembering, that there are things that are not political.
		The last piece, and I would encourage everyone to think about, we have seen all of these ceremonies.
		And regardless of how you feel about the president, sometimes they look an awful lot like the ceremonies that we have seen across the pond for monarchs, for kings, and queens.
		And there is a question about whether or not we actually want to do that.
		What is the right way to celebrate a former president who is just a citizen like everyone else in a republic?
Presidential Hearse Arrives 00:27:48
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		There is a cost to this as well.
		We've seen it range greatly for former presidents.
		And who foots the bill for these state funerals?
unidentified		The American people do.
		So we pay for the servicemen and women to be there.
		We pay for the security.
		We pay for the flights.
		We pay for all of the services.
		There is also the cost of these are usually days, national days of mourning.
		So that was true for Reagan.
		That was true for Ford, that was true for H.W. Bush.
		It's true today.
		And that means that all federal employees are given the day off, and so their income is paid.
		So as you said, the costs can really range, but the estimates for Reagan's funeral, including that day of service, was $400 million.
		We've, of course, seen inflation since then, so my guess is the entire cost today would be higher.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Lindsay Chervinsky, Executive Director of George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, we thank you for your insight and teaching us about history today.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
unidentified		I really appreciate it.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We're going to continue to watch the motorcade here in Maryland, just outside the nation's capital.
		The presidential hearse carrying the late president along with his family to Joint Base Andrews.
		And we'll be able to watch this motorcade and what is happening just outside of Special Air Mission 39.
		That is Air Force One.
		You can see the cars are arriving carrying the family and other dignitaries.
		And there will be just a short military ceremony here at Joint Base Andrews.
		Let's watch.
		Jimmy Carter, the late president, 39th president of the United States, leaving Washington for the final time here in a week-long series of tributes to him.
		The Commander-in-Chief will take off in Air Force One.
		Today, it's known, though, as Special Air Mission 39, which marks him as the 39th President of the United States at Joint Base Andrews.
		There are 200 military members with their families there, according to the military overseeing the state funeral.
		What we will see here as the motorcade arrives, the hearse will open.
		The Joint Chiefs will move into their positions to honor their Commander-in-Chief.
		The family then will also get into place for more military honors.
		It'll include four ruffles and flourishes, which is the highest military honor.
		Hail to the Chief will be played.
		Interestingly, the former president initially wanted to ban Hail to the Chief being played when he entered a room when he became president.
		And today you will also hear another 21-gun salute, all military honors for the 39th president.
		Following that, the Air Force band will play, O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee.
		And then on the first note of the hymn, that is when the bodybearer team, a joint service team, will carry the late president's remains through the honor cord and to the aircraft loader.
		Once the aircraft is ready, Special Air Mission 39 begins to taxi for departure.
		And as it taxis, the Special Honor Guard remains in position to render one final salute as the aircraft departs Washington.
		And Jimmy Carter leaves the nation's capital for the final time.
		Jimmy Carter, the longest living president, he was known as the reluctant politician.
		He was Citizen Carter after he served in the White House for only four years and known as Mr. Jimmy in Plains, Georgia.
		He is on his way home along with his family, and he will be buried at his home that he shared with his wife for decades.
		They built it in 1961.
		According to Georgia 11 Alive News, the Carter Home and Garden is officially part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in Plains, Georgia, but is still fully a private residence and not accessible to all to the public.
		The private internment will happen later today at the Carter home around 5:20 p.m. Eastern Time, where President Carter will take his final resting place next to his beloved Rosalynn, who died November 19th, 2023 at the age of 96.
		Heard from his grandson, Jason Carter, that in his final days, late President Jimmy Carter said he wanted to go see his Rosalyn.
		The motorcade carrying the late President Jimmy Carter is now on the grounds of Joint Base Andrews, just outside of the nation's capital in Maryland.
		You can see the Special Honor Guard is in place along with their spouses, the Joint Chiefs, also there.
		200 military members on site to say goodbye from Washington to their former Commander-in-Chief, Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States.
		We will see military honors take place here once again.
		Throughout this six-week, six-day tribute, throughout this week-long tribute to the late President, you've seen military honors of ruffles and flourishes, hail to the chief, the 21 guns salute, and others.
		Let's listen and watch.
Special Air Mission 39 00:13:36
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Force One getting ready to taxi here from just outside of the nation's capital.
		The Carter family have climbed the steps to Air Force One and are aboard.
		Today, though, its call sign is not Air Force One, it's special air mission 39 to mark the life and legacy of the 39th President, Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100 on December 29th.
		Special Honor Guard departing from their positions.
		We expect that the Special Air Mission 39 will taxi soon.
		And what you will see then is the Special Honor Guard getting in place for one final salute as it departs Joint Base Andrews for the Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Moore, Georgia.
		And then from there, a motorcade will take the late president and his family to Plains, Georgia, where there will be a private internment at the Carter residence before the president then is laid to rest next to his wife, Rosalind Carter.
unidentified		Married for more than 70 years from Andrews
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Air Force Base for the departure of the late President Jimmy Carter aboard Air Force One today.
		Today's call sign is Special Air Mission 39.
		bottom of your screen is the special honor guard remaining in position to render one final salute as the aircraft departs here from Washington to go home to Georgia.
mike bost ▲ ● ▼		143 and 40 nays.
		One present, the bill is passed.
		Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
Honor Mrs. Payne 00:07:40
mike bost ▲ ● ▼		For what purpose the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition?
unidentified		Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet on Monday next, when it shall convene at noon for morning hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business.
mike bost ▲ ● ▼		Without objection.
unidentified		The chair
		will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches.
		For what purpose does the gentleman from Iowa seek to recognize?
		Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
		Thank you, Jay.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		I rise today to honor the memory of Sharon Payne, a mother, grandmother, and dedicated teacher.
		I was one of her lucky students to have learned from Mrs. Payne.
		In elementary, she instructed us all in our first rendition of America the Beautiful.
		She gave me my first piano lessons.
		She taught us all how to cheer on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
		And most importantly, she bonded a diverse group of young people together with the fundamentals for life, working together to make something beautiful.
		Ms. Payne will be greatly missed, and she is left behind by a great legacy, her husband Craig, Laura, and Brandt, and your amazing family.
		To all of your friends from Southeast Polk, all the students you taught, and all the lives you continue to inspire.
		We wish you the best, Mrs. Payne.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		For what purpose does the gentleman from the Virgin Islands seek recognition?
stacey plaskett ▲ ● ▼		I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks.
unidentified		Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute.
unidentified		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
stacey plaskett ▲ ● ▼		I rise today to congratulate the new governor of Puerto Rico, my Caribbean sister and former member of Congress, Jennifer Gonzalez-Colón.
		I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on her remarkable work while a member here in this body.
		As co-chairs of the RUM Caucus, the FERCS caucus dedicated to promoting the rum industry, we successfully advocated for the rum coverover legislation, which increased the amount of tax revenue generated from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico and rum that was sold in the mainland.
		Additionally, I'm grateful for our bipartisan efforts to improve security in the Caribbean, ensuring that federal agencies are properly equipped to hold drug traffickers accountable, and of course, our work together to change the Stafford Act in 2018 after the devastating hurricanes of Irma and Maria in our districts, which has brought billions of dollars to rebuild both the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
		Although her presence will be missed in Congress, I look forward to seeing the incredible impact she will have in her new role as governor of Puerto Rico.
unidentified		I yield back.
		For what purpose does the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition?
		Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks.
		Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		I rise today in recognition of National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day to thank the great law enforcement heroes who put their life on the line every day for the people of Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District.
		We are blessed to have so many great police departments within our district, as well as 11 fantastic sheriffs that have worked tirelessly for us every single day.
		I would like to give a special shout out to each of our sheriffs.
		Brown County Sheriff Todd Delane, Outagame County Sheriff Sheriff Clint Crewold, O'Connell County Sheriff Todd Scarbin, Wapaca County Sheriff Tim Wills, Door County Sheriff Tammy Sternard, Kiwani County Sheriff Matt Joski, Shawnoe County Sheriff George Lesnar, Marinette County Sheriff Randy Miller, Calumet County Sheriff Brett Bow, Menominee County Sheriff Rebecca Smith, Winnebago County Sheriff John Matz.
		Thank you all for what you do for the people of Northeast Wisconsin on this National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and every day.
		Let's all remember to thank a law enforcement officer for keeping us safe.
		And with that, I yield back.
		For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition?
		Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute.
marcy kaptur ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Speaker, today our nation paid tribute to the life and works of President Jimmy James Earl Carter here in the nation's capital.
		The ceremony was beautiful, appropriate, uplifting, and hopeful.
		I had the privilege of serving him during his term in the White House, and I can attest to the man he was, faithful, honorable, patriotic, measured, disciplined, and pensive, with a most genial, broad smile that came from growing up in a real community of family and friends.
		He was selfless and true, an American patriot, a graduate of the Naval Academy in the top 10% of his class, and a dear friend of Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of our nuclear Navy, who selected him among the best of individuals in our nation.
President Carter's Legacy 00:11:33
marcy kaptur ▲ ● ▼		The President founded the Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Education because he wanted to help with America's future security.
		And I shall never forget the hope we all felt witnessing history when President Carter negotiated the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, with Menachem Bacon and Anne Marsad standing next to him on the lawn of the White House.
		And finally, his brilliant national security team led by Zbigniew Brzezinski that set in place the dominoes that would ultimately result in the collapse of the Soviet Union starting in Poland in 1989 and then 1991, the entire USSR, giving millions of people a chance to have liberty for the first time in 100 years or more.
		I want to yield back my time and say that I believe that President Carter will go down in history like President Truman, an honest man who, when he finished his service, went back home to a place called Plains, Georgia, where he and Rosalynn, his wife and family, lived out their years in a brick home that they built themselves when they were first married.
		He was not interested in money.
		He was not interested in power.
		He was interested in preserving this republic and strengthening it.
		His life is a lesson to all.
		I yield back.
unidentified		What's Tennessee?
unidentified		For what purpose does the gentleman from Tennessee seek recognition?
tim burchett ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
tim burchett ▲ ● ▼		I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks.
unidentified		Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
tim burchett ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Speaker, I will say that you're doing an excellent job.
		I've been here, this is my seventh year.
		I've not been asked to do that, probably for good reason.
		So thank you.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		I rise to honor the life of a very dear friend of mine, Lillian Bain.
		She passed away at the age of 81.
		She was the former Knox County Circuit General Sessions and Juvenile Court Clerk, an office she held for 18 years.
		She served with great integrity and pride and was truly a public servant as she was one of the people.
		Lillian was a great leader in the Republican Party in Knox County, so much so she earned the nickname, and well, and she really did earn this name, the Bean Machine.
		Lillian also had a bean soup recipe that she would can and give out to folks she cared about, and I was the recipient of that, and my family was many times.
		She served as president of Knoxville Women's Club and was given the honor of Woman of the Year three times with the Knoxville Women's Club for her volunteer spirit.
		If someone's name was in the paper, Lillian would clip it out and send it to that person, and I was fortunate enough to receive that many times and just to let them know that she had read about them.
		She always had little ways to show people that she cared and they felt it.
		Lillian was a proud Baptist and had no doubt, and I have no doubt that the Lord welcomed her with open arms, a smile on his face, and she will truly be missed.
		I think the first thing she heard was, Well done, thy good and faithful servant, when she closed her eyes for the first time.
		Her and her husband Richard have been dear friends of mine.
		As a matter of fact, at their daughter's wedding, it was the last time I ever saw my parents healthy.
		And that was a wonderful time.
		So, Mr. Speaker, I yield the remainder of my time.
unidentified		For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition?
		I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and edit my remarks.
		Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		I rise today to recognize the life of Sandra May King Hall.
		Sandra was born in Fresno, California.
		After graduating from San Joaquin Memorial High School, she pursued a career in real estate, investment, property management, and newspaper distribution.
		Sandra played a critical role in protecting local journalism with her husband Frank Hall.
		She operated a newspaper newspaper distributorship providing local news to Pleasant Hill, California residents from 1977 to 2009.
		Sandra also received numerous accoloids for her contributions to the community, including being selected as former Congressman George Miller's delegate at the 1986 White House Conference on Small Business.
		Outside of her work as a small business owner, Sandra loved music, travel, and giving back to her community and family.
		Sadly, Sandra passed away last year at the age of 77.
		She will be remembered for her entrepreneurial spirit, sense of humor, and remarkable, remarkable leadership.
		Please join me in recognizing Sandra Hall for her many contributions to her community.
		I will miss her and miss her friendship.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back.
		For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition?
		Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks.
		Without objection, that gentleman is recognized for one minute.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		California is on fire once again.
		Only now, instead of burning up the red counties and the forested areas to the north, it's devastating portions of Los Angeles.
		Everybody's seeing it on the news.
		Every year we know the Santa Ana winds are going to blow.
		Every year we know that there's going to be risk.
		So what is our government, what is our governor doing to help stop the risk?
		Virtually nothing other than showing up for press conferences and waving his arms around and having long practiced monologues about, oh, it's someone else's fault, this or that.
		So it's time for the governor to either bear down or get out of the way because California keeps suffering.
		My county's up north, car fire, campfire, Dixie fire, 1 million acres, and now it's hitting the constituents of Southern California hard.
		Why does this have to keep happening?
		Why is not anything being done to really mitigate the issue of forest management, of brush management, and lower the risk?
		Why is the water being cut off at the hydrants?
		Is it because he won't allow us to build the water storage we need for a growing population and for growing crops?
		We need to build sites reservoirs.
		We need to raise Shasta Dam.
		We need to not let all the water keep rushing out to the Pacific Ocean through the Delta to supposedly save a smelt that doesn't exist.
		We need to get cracking on this.
		Governor Newsom, either get at it or get out of the way.
		For what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition?
		Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute for rousing extension.
		Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
		Mr. Speaker, I'll rise.
		The atmosphere in the courtroom was full of emotion as senior resident Superior Court Judge Cy Grant took his seat on the bench to preside.
		In a historic moment for North Carolina, a father and daughter would share the honor of being sworn in as district court judges.
		The ceremony was inspiring, with Chief District Court Judge Teresa Freeman administering oath of office to Judge Rob Lewis, who then had the cherished privilege of swearing in his daughter, Takia Lewis Blaylock, with her husband Nick and children at her side.
		Judge Lewis gave his daughter a heartfelt hug as she donned her robe.
		The courtroom erupted in applause.
		Judge Blaylock's son, Preston, spoke with great admiration for his mother, while Judge Lewis broke down in tears, reminiscing how as a child she had envisioned them practicing together.
		There was a special recognition of a friend, Judge Brenda Branch.
		Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate these dynamic, this dynamic father-daughter duo for making history a YOPA.
		For what purpose does the gentleman from Tennessee seek recognition?
		From Texas seek recognition.
		Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		I rise today to recognize a true American success story, a company that I'm proud to say resides in the 6th congressional district of Texas, Caterpillar Incorporated.
		This week kicks off a celebration of 100 years of hard work, innovation, and industry leadership by this iconic company.
		In 1925, the Holt Manufacturing Company and the CL Best Tractor Company came together to form what is now known as Caterpillar.
		Since then, they've been at the forefront of building the machines that build the world.
		From their fast-track-type tractors pulling harvesters in California's fields to the cutting-edge autonomous equipment and engines they produce today, Caterpillar has shaped how we work, live, and connect.
		In Texas, where we pride ourselves on dreaming big and building even bigger, Caterpillar's role is front and center.
		Their equipment helps pave the roads, build the bridges, and support the energy project that power not just our state, but the entire country.
		They're not just part of the Texas story, they'll help and write it.
		A company that has helped build our entire nation could be located anywhere, but they're located in Texas.
		As Caterpillar celebrates 100 years, I want to extend my appreciation to their team for all they have accomplished to help our communities and our country thrive.
	Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
	I yield back.
	For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas seek recognition?
	My favorite.
	Your turn.
	Mr. Speaker, I ask Hams and Sin to address the House for one minute and revive and extend my remarks.
	Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute.
	Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
	I rise today to recognize Dr. Dimitri Kuznetsov for his 23 years of service to our country.
	While Dimitri's name might not be in the headlines, the impact of his life will be felt across our nation forever.
	As Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security, Dimitri has been at the helm of cutting-edge innovation, pushing the boundaries of technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and cybersecurity, tools that protect American lives and keep us ahead of our adversaries.
	At the Department of Energy, Dimitri was the chief scientist for the NNSA and also stood up the Office of Artificial Intelligence Technologies.
	As he retires, I truly wish him the greatest journey in the next chapter of his life.
	My friend, fair winds and following seas.
	With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back.
	Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Swikert, is recognized for 60 minutes as designee of the majority leader.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Speaker, pro tem.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		And for the gentleman from Pennsylvania, a bit of reference.
Walking Through Debt Markets 00:15:32
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		In the old days when we were put in the chair, particularly when we were in freshmen, it's because we had been annoying to the speaker.
		So if anyone remembers that.
		And to the clerk staff, I love you, I appreciate you.
		And I'm sorry, we're about to do a whole bunch of math and a lot of numbers really fast.
		But it's where we're at.
		So, Mr. Speaker, one of the things I'm going to try to do today is basically sell two ideas.
		One is, And I want to be honest and careful in this, because my goal is not to be sarcastic, not to be a jerk, but walk through the scale, just the scale of the borrowing, the debt problem of our demographics, what's really going on.
		So I'm going to actually walk through just a couple examples of solutions we get from our wonderful, brilliant constituents and sort of explain there are probably things we should do, but they're tiny rounding errors.
		People don't understand.
		I think annually we expect to borrow about $7 billion a day.
		I think so far this fiscal year we're borrowing about $10 billion a day.
		The second thing, it's incredibly important.
		And if there's a staffer out there, a freshman member of Congress, burn what we're going to talk about into your consciousness.
		The United States, what's the greatest, at least, economic threat I think we have for this government, for in many ways the country?
		Interest.
		We are what's called interest fragile.
		I'm going to show you some charts where tiny movements on U.S. sovereign debt become trillions and trillions of dollars.
		Our model basically says we're going to refinance almost $10 trillion this year and add another, what, two, two and a third trillion of virgin, our new borrowing.
		And so small bits of interest.
		So when you hear someone talk about things like the debt ceiling, you've got to understand you're weaving a needle while jogging because you've got to deal with it in a way where you, how do you communicate and do actual policy?
		It communicates to the world debt markets.
		The United States is taking its debt seriously and understands the scale of the problem.
		And then also, while extending that debt ceiling in a way that also doesn't blow you up.
		And I've had some of my brothers and sisters who go, just don't raise it.
		Okay, great.
		Do you think you're ever getting a mortgage again?
		Do you ever think you're getting a car loan again?
		Do you think, do you understand what would happen to the world economy going boom and interest rates exploding when all of a sudden the United States is no longer credit worthy?
		Because that's what it means.
		And remember, one of my predictions for this year is there's three big rating agencies, SNP, Fitch, and Moody's.
		Moody's is the only one that has not downgraded U.S. debt yet.
		I predict to you before this year is over, Moody's, so all three will have downgraded U.S. sovereign debt.
		My other prediction is before this spring is over, the United States will cross over to 5% interest.
		And if it holds there, I'm going to show you how devastating that math absolutely is.
		The clown show has to come to an end.
		People need to understand, if you're a member of Congress, you are the board of the biggest economy in the world.
		You've got to start learning your math.
		Because at the end of the day, the math will always win.
		So let's do some basic things.
		Now, first off, part of what I'm doing, the reason I'm doing this is I'm also trying to make the moral argument of doing the really hard thing in reconciliation.
		The really hard thing is also the best economics.
		If you give a darn about your retirement, my two and a half-year-old boy's economic future, the country.
		And forgive me, I'm still working through my lung issues.
		You got to do the hard thing.
		So, CBO and then my joint economic economists actually worked through some math and saying, what would happen?
		Because we have all these expiring provisions of TCJA, the 2017 tax reform.
		And if you extend them all, so the individuals, the pass-throughs, the small business, the sub-chapter S's, the partnerships, if you extend those tax provisions over 10 years, it's about 4.6 trillion of revenue that would have come in because of the increased taxes because the expired provisions.
		What is this body able to do to find policies to offset that spending?
		Well, it turns out CBO, and as I know this chart's a little hard to read, but the punchline on it is if you functionally extend the tax policy but you pay for it through the decade, you actually get more economic growth, that the economy actually grows.
		And people go, well, but you reached in and pulled money out to pay for the offsets.
		The idea is by doing that, you didn't deficit finance it, where you're paying interest, where you're making the debt markets more fragile, and you're also pulling 4.6 trillion additional capital out of the debt markets that could have gone into you buying a new car or the business buying new plant and equipment.
		This is hard because around here talking about we're going to modernize how we deliver health care, we're going to modernize public agencies, we're going to reduce spending by doing it better, faster, and cheaper.
		There's an army of lobbyists outside the hallway here who are paid to protect their current business models.
		How many folks do we meet from the agencies and the public employee unions that get all upset, particularly at me when I'm doing these presentations of here we could use technology, we can use AI, these other things to reduce the size of cost and make government much more responsive.
		And then they send nasty letters and those things into your district and complain about you.
		But we don't have a choice.
		So let's walk through.
		So the facts are on our side.
		Those folks that run around here and say we need to extend tax policy, we need to protect the border.
		We need to actually do all these things.
		But you can't create an additional fiscal rat hole and expect you're going to throw this back onto the world debt markets.
		My reason I want you to think about this, I'm going to show you a couple charts in a little while that where interest rates were on U.S. sovereigns way back when.
		Let's go back to like December.
unidentified		So a few weeks ago.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		Yesterday, the 20-year U.S. bond actually crossed over 5% for a while.
		If 5%, and understand, if anyone with gray hair, you understand 5% is actually lower than the historical average of the previous few decades.
		If we were just to go to 5%, you're going to see that's almost just shy of an additional $9 trillion in debt, double of everything we're talking about doing in reconciliation.
		So just doing this and communicating to the debt markets that we're serious about what's going on, because the uncomfortable truth, and I'm going to show it again, and it seems to hurt people's feelings, almost 100% of the debt for the next 10 years is interest And Medicare.
		We got older.
		Baby boomers are moving into their earned benefits.
		We didn't have enough children to backfill.
		Starting in 1990, fertility rates started to roll over.
		Healthcare got much more expensive.
		And we're almost terrified to basically say almost every dime of debt for today through the next 30 years is interest and demographics.
		And the political class, the press, the dopamine hits on cable television, this and that.
		Telling true math doesn't make you popular.
		But it does make you honest.
		So let's actually walk through a couple examples.
		And once again, I've got to be careful because these are not meant to be snarky.
		They're basically a thought experiment of what you hear members walk behind these microphones saying things that great, they're wonderful.
		Maybe we should do them.
		But they have tiny effects on the survival of this republic.
		So let's actually walk through, just explain what I'm talking about.
		Okay, let's walk through the impact of borrowing.
		We're using this fiscal year what we've been borrowing per day, per hour, per minute, per second.
		But we're going to walk through, and I'm using the clock face, and these are 12-hour clocks, so you've got to picture two clock faces trying to make some way where you make things with lots of zeros understandable.
		So let's actually, and this is one of my favorite ones.
		So back in December, we did sent out some things and we got members of our community to throw back ideas.
		And one of the favorite ones was: get rid of congressional salaries.
		Okay.
		In my heart of heart, I actually think we're overpaid for the quality of our work product, so maybe that's what we should do.
		But you get rid of every congressional salary, that's Senate here, just get rid of all of it.
		It's actually about over a fiscal year, it's about $1.9 billion.
		It's a lot of money.
		Okay, for an entire year's borrowing, for the entire year, it would cover 6.4 hours.
		Yay!
		We made a big impact.
		We covered 6.4 hours of an entire year's worth of borrowing.
		Okay, so that's sort of silly, but that's one of the key responses we got.
		I think actually may say more about what they think about me.
		All right, so let's actually do another one that came back to us from our constituent surveys.
		Emergency services for undocumented migrants.
		This is basically Obamacare subsidies, healthcare spending for those who are here undocumented.
		They're illegal.
		Now, most of this turns out we believe to be Obamacare subsidies.
		You will hear member after member after member, and people on television, the talking hosts, you'll hear it on conservative talk radio.
		If we just didn't spend money, okay?
		So we actually did this thing called research, where we actually looked up the actual facts in the map.
		And it's about $2.7 billion for the entire year.
		So we get rid of it, and we probably should, but it's nine hours of borrowing for an entire year.
		Yet, how many times will you hear people say this in front of microphones?
		Stopping health care subsidies for those who are here undocumented here illegally is nine hours of borrowing for an entire year.
		And there's our problem.
		We have people doing theater over honest math.
		So let's do another one.
		One of my particular favorites, let's get rid of Department of Education.
		And actually, I'm a big fan because if you believe in the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, why is this here at the federal government?
		Yes, but a big portion of their 4,500 employees is actually debt management, but that can be actually done by other agencies we have that actually have high-skill folks to manage receivables, those things.
		Bank.
		But if you got rid of all those 4,500 employees at the Department of Education, great.
		Turns out to be about $2.75 billion over an entire year you just covered functionally nine hours of borrowing.
		Now, how many people have you heard come behind these microphones or on Conservative Talk Radio or other things that are saying, we're going to get rid of the Department of Education?
unidentified		Great.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		And then the conversation moves on to something else because they act like they've covered the debt.
		There's this lack of understanding.
		We're borrowing about $70,000 a second.
		So let's go on to do another one we get up.
		Just get rid of the UN.
		Now, I've done this a couple times, and when I did it before, the total spend on the United Nations was $18.1 billion, but that was actually in the 2023 fiscal year.
		But that had a bunch of the new construction for the 2024 fiscal year, which has ended already.
		We spent $12.9 billion on the UN.
		Or maybe it's in this fiscal year that's what we have appropriated.
		Okay, $12.9 billion is a lot of money.
		Let's just get rid of it.
		We won't, and I'm not going to even give you the other chart that shows you how much all these foreign diplomats and stuff pay into taxes and their things they buy, the rent and those things in New York City.
		Who cares?
		Okay, but that 12.9 gets me 43 hours.
		So basically, a day and three quarters of borrowing.
		And my point is, I'm trying to walk through that we're going to probably have to do lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of these things.
		Start demanding from the people who are standing up in front of you saying, here's what I care about.
		We're going to take on the debt and deficits.
		Have them understand their math.
		So how about Ukraine aid?
		Okay, I think this is on for this fiscal year.
		So the appropriation lineup is $21.8 billion.
		Okay, that gets us three days of borrowing.
		And you hear these crazy numbers being thrown out.
Borrowing Crazy: Foreign Aid's Cost 00:15:35
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		Turns out, now this is both humanitarian and I think actually the other term I often solicit, but it's things that provide equipment.
		Often it's equipment we were depreciated out we're going to get rid of, we send on to them.
		So this is both both categories in that number of the 21.8.
unidentified		But it's three days.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		So let's actually even add a little bit.
		Let's go grander.
		Let's go much more bigly.
		Is that, I think, a pop culture term these days?
		Let's just get rid of all foreign aid.
		I cannot tell you how many times I run into folks back home and say, David, I'm so concerned about the debt and deficit.
		You know, we can balance everything if we just get rid of foreign aid.
		Okay.
		Interesting math.
		So we did the math.
		Here's the 57.25 that's going to foreign aid.
		It's a week of borrowing.
		Does anyone see the point I'm trying to make?
		You start to add up all these.
		And I think in all of those, we got ourselves to, what, a week and a half?
		We added up all the ideas that came into our office.
		And I think we got up to like three weeks of borrowing.
		There seems to be this lack of understanding.
		Every dime a member of Congress votes on is borrowed money.
		Every dime of defense is borrowed.
		Every dime in non-defense discretionary.
		And this year, I'm doing this off the top of my head, which is always dangerous.
		I think it's about $400-some billion dollars of what we call earned benefits, mandatory spending, is borrowed money.
		And trying to just demonstrate, so there's this term we do, on-budget receipts.
		Okay, you get your paycheck.
		You look at your paycheck.
		Here's what went to FICA.
		Well, that's your Social Security contribution, a little bit of your Medicare Part A contribution, maybe a little bit of unemployment disability.
unidentified		Okay.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		That's sort of considered off-budget tax contributions.
		That's coming from your FICA tax.
		The other part is your income tax, capital gains tax, all the other things.
		That's this blue here.
		To give you an idea, net interest this fiscal year, the interest we pay back to the people who have been kind enough to buy our bonds.
		And remember, China is not the number one owner of bonds.
		I think now it's Japan, and China's been actually rolling off its bonds for like three, four years.
		I think they're somewhere now in the $800, $900 billion range of the $36 trillion in debt we have.
		Remember, about $2,8,29 trillion of that is what we sell out to the market.
		The others we borrow internally.
		We borrow the Social Security Trust Fund.
		We borrow other monies internally, but we still have to pay interest.
		Which is, remember, we're one of the only countries in the world that engages in this scam of saying, well, it's only the publicly borrowed money.
		No, because you're not going to pay your interest back to Social Security?
		Of course you are.
		But the point of this chart is trying to say accounting accounts for 24% of all those tax receipts we take in that aren't Social Security, aren't part of those payroll tax.
		24% is just going to pay interest, and that's this year.
		And the crazy thing is these numbers were scored when we thought the mean interest on U.S. sovereign debt was going to be somewhere around the three and the three and a quarter.
unidentified		Have you seen what's happened the last three weeks?
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		Did I mention a moment ago that the 20-year bond yesterday went over 5%?
		This number is about to explode on us.
		It's called interest fragility.
		And yet, how many idiots like me have come behind the microphone and said, do you understand how dangerous it is if we make the debt markets nervous because we're incompetent?
		So let's do one more of these.
		Just to make the point, so this is the tax receipts, fiscal year 24.
		Okay, so it's a fixed number.
		That's the last fiscal year.
		The red here, that's the Social Security taxes, Medicare Part A, da, da, da, da.
		This was everything else.
		So even in that case, it's still basically 24% of all of, you know, it's still 24 here.
		I just did this chart so you could see.
		When you hear someone talk about total tax receipts, this is obligated to earn benefits.
		And oddly enough, this number isn't big enough to cover the earned benefits.
		That's why every month Social Security has to present its special T bills to Treasury, cash in.
		So remember, Social Security does not add to the debt.
		Cashing in their special T bills and the Treasury having to finance it and give the money back to Social Security does add to the debt.
		Just remember there's two steps in there.
unidentified		So back to the oldie but goodie.
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		You see everything in red?
		That's an autopilot.
		Your member of Congress doesn't even vote on it.
		What's in blue?
		Non-defense, defense?
		All borrowed.
		And a whole wedge of this over here.
		So understand the scale.
		And look, it's hard to see 12 zeros in your head.
		But that's just a trillion.
		We're probably going to borrow $2.3 trillion this year.
		And we have these debates and discussions.
		Oh, we're going to have to do reconciliation.
		Yes, of course we are.
		We still don't have 60 votes in the Senate.
		If we're going to move policy, of course we are.
		But understand the fiscal implications if we don't do it right.
		Does the debt markets and those demand a premium?
		Because you see what's going on around the world.
		What happened in Great Britain this summer?
		What they do to the guild?
		What happened in France a couple weeks ago?
		What's happening in Germany right now?
		What's happening in Canada?
		What happened in South Korea?
		All over the world, you see governments falling, and one of the primary reasons they're falling is they actually tried to engage in some fiscal constraint.
		Are we going to be elegant enough to do it in a way where we can explain to the American people if we do something smart today, we do not get crushed tomorrow.
		But small movements start to consume everything in this government.
		And so here's an example.
		And this is, so I told you the 20-year yesterday went over 5%.
		Futures market, if anyone's a real geek, if you take a look at futures market on the 10-year sovereign, some of the futures market between now and through spring actually expect a 5% interest rate.
		If that 5%, and remember, that's still, what, a point, point and a quarter lower than the historic average when you get rid of the previous decade, which was just sort of fake interest rates.
		If we were to go to 5% of U.S. debt, that's actually fairly normal.
		And that gets built in.
		Remember, we bring about $10 trillion to refinance, and the new version, so 5%.
		We go from a $13 trillion, almost $14 trillion debt expectation at current interest rates over the next 10 years to $22.7.
		It's almost $9 trillion additional from where interest rates were in December to where it looks like interest rates are going to be this spring.
		You just added $9 trillion in additional interest.
		That's called interest rate fragility.
		That is double.
		Just the interest rate exposure going back to even something that's below historic norm is double everything we're talking about doing in tax reform of extending the TCJA 2017 tax policy.
		It's double.
		This should be scaring the crap out of people around here.
		Why am I the only idiot running around with charts saying, are you paying attention to this?
		Are you watching what's happening in world debt markets right now?
		Does this make anyone nervous?
		Some of the articles are basically saying bond markets around the world are getting nervous loaning to sovereigns because they keep borrowing like crazy.
		Well, what's going on in China where they're borrowing like crazy?
		We're borrowing like crazy.
		There's only so much borrowable money in the world, and we're chewing it up.
		And the point of this one was, if we were to pretend, ignore the law, and just extend our spending policies we have today in functionally nine budget years.
		9.2% of the entire economy is just interest.
		We expect almost 7% of this year to be borrowing.
		But the concept of just your let me rephrase it because I just screwed that up.
		9.2% of the entire economy will be debt, not interest, debt.
		A couple of our economists basically say we're going to borrow about 7% of the entire economy this year.
		If we don't start to stabilize that and roll it down, you hit this interest spiral into the ground.
		Because I'm going to show you a couple charts here, should scare the crap out of you of how much of the taxes we take in from hardworking people, from things, is just paying interest.
		So let's make that a little more understandable.
		Mr. Speaker, some of us with gray hair sort of remember, Mr. Green laughs at me.
		There's this thing called the 70s, 80s, 90s, even 2000s before the Great Recession, and mean interest rates on U.S. debt was about six.
		Okay, so just an example, what it means when you're carrying $36 trillion in debt.
		And understand, we're adding another trillion in debt about every 125 days.
		Let's say that again.
	Every 125 days, we're basically tacking on another trillion dollars of borrowing.
	But if we went back to historic average of six, it'd be 11% of GDP in a decade.
	What if we went up to nine, which we had back in the 70s and 80s?
	You're at 18%.
	We're playing really dangerous games here.
	We've almost made the decision to make the world debt markets the ones in charge of America.
	Every second, we're borrowing about $70,000.
	Do you not think the retired couple, the foreign government, the big business, the rich person who are buying U.S. savings bonds, are you pretending they don't actually sort of care about what we do here and that we're going to make sure they get their money back?
	Or is it just all magic money?
	But understand what that 6%, and this is sort of the punchline of what I'm trying to communicate here.
	By 2034, that's nine budget years from now, debt servicing at 6%, so back even below the historic average, rates would consume 45% of all tax receipts.
	Let's do that again.
	Imagine a world where 45% of all tax receipts that come into the government just are paying interest.
	Take this seriously.
	Look, I have a nine-year-old and my wife who's exactly my age.
	We also adopted another little boy, same birth mom.
	He's two and a half, cutest kid you've ever met.
	Little girl is brilliant and very loud.
	The math basically says my kids, your kids, will be part of the first generation in America to actually be poor.
	And to give you an idea of how that math works, when little Matthew, who's two and a half right now, basically is 23, 24, if you wanted to maintain baseline services in America as they are today, U.S. tax rates, every U.S. tax rate, tariffs, corporate, individual, everything has to double.
	100% increase.
	And it's not pretend.
	It's called math.
	There's these little things you punch them, you can put batteries in them.
	Hell, you probably have one on your phone.
	It's math.
	But we're terrified to tell our voters the truth because people raise their eyebrows and get upset when you say, look, we got old as a society.
	We didn't have as many children.
	We made lots of promises and we never set aside enough money for them.
	But we can disrupt the cost if we're willing to adopt modernization.
	You can cut stunning amounts of money from delivery of health care, not by cutting services, but by adopting technology.
	Except, once again, the lobbyists are in the hallway to stop you from doing that because it would make them change their bureaucracies and their business models.
	But a number like this should make us all pucker that if we just went back to normal interest rates in nine years, 45% of all of our tax receipts go into just interest.
	That's called interest fragility.
	It's the single thing that scares me the most in the society: we're no longer in charge.
83% To Interest 00:09:21
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		We've basically made the decision the debt markets are.
		So let's actually get a little more dystopian.
		And part of this is to make an impact.
		What if we went to 9% interest?
		It's happened.
		What would happen?
		Anyone's...
		Can you read this number?
		83% of all tax receipts would go just to interest.
		And here's the reality of today.
		For every dollar we take in in tax receipts, we spend $1.39.
		Yet, what we call discretionary, military has been substantially flat.
		All other non-defense discretionary is basically flat.
		Almost all the growth is two things, been healthcare and interest.
		Well, we can't do anything about interest.
		You know, the deal is the deal is the deal when we sell a bond.
		And healthcare, well, there's an army of lobbyists, once again, outside these walls who will beat the absolute living blank out of us when we ask them to modernize, actually use technology.
		Even our brothers and sisters here are often defending not last decades, but the decade before that's business models within healthcare.
		We don't have a choice.
		Open up your brains, hire a computer brain, hire some kid who's a data analyst, scientist, and start walking through the facts of what's going on, and then we have to do hard things.
		We're going to have to do a revolution on...
		Have you seen the numbers coming out of Medicare Advantage?
		Have anyone taken a look at those Wall Street Journal articles from the last year?
		The billions and billions and billions that they're documenting are functionally fraud and abuse.
		Are we going to be honest about it?
		And there's ways elegantly to fix it without beating the crap out of everyone.
		We just need to recognize our own problems.
		But once again, for every dollar the United States takes in in tax receipts, we spend $1.39.
		And right now I need to go back to an oldie but a goodie.
		And I've done entire floor presentations repeatedly on this.
		You take all the tax hike proposals of our brothers and sisters on the left and score them for their economic effects.
		It produced about a point and a half of GDP of new tax receipts.
		You take for our side all the cuts we've talked about, almost all of them being in non-defense discretionary.
		It's about one point of GDP.
		Add those two together, that's what, two and a half.
		Congratulations.
		So everything the talking heads here do behind these microphones is 2.5%.
		We're borrowing 7% this year of the entire economy.
		And here's your crisis.
		The solutions sound really good in a television commercial, maybe an interview on cable television, and they're crap math.
		They don't get you anywhere close with what's necessary.
		Because it turns out the actual scale of the math, it's so far beyond just raise people's taxes, just slash and burn this.
		You need a revolution on how we deliver on our commitments.
		And why is that harder?
		I just, I still can't get my head around here why that's harder.
		And once again, the single chart that makes people most angry.
		And it's already a year out of date.
		The numbers right now are much worse.
		CBO predicts that deficits of $115 trillion over 2024 to 2054.
		Social Security, Medicare, $124 trillion deficit.
		The rest of the budget has a $9 trillion surplus.
unidentified		See this?
david schweikert ▲ ● ▼		The spending and the interest covers.
		Spending and interest cover.
		Remember, Social Security has about nine more years and the trust fund's empty.
		Are we going to fix it?
		Are we allowed to talk about it?
		But if you talk about it, the Democrats are going to run nasty ads about you.
		So somehow they're comfortable with the immorality of in nine years we're going to double senior poverty in America.
		Because that's what's happening.
		But you're not allowed to talk about it because they'll attack you.
		They spent, what, a couple million beating the crap out of me on because I care about saving Social Security.
		I care about not doubling senior poverty.
		Somehow lying about it is the political tactic of this place.
		They care so much more about power than saving our brothers and sisters.
		You already have a crisis right now of baby boomers.
		Inflation pushing them out of their housing.
		We see it, I think it was last year I saw the statistic on baby boomers doubling of homelessness because they're being priced out of their homes because of inflation.
		That's the morality of this place because we do crap economics because we make public policy by our feelings instead of math.
		But the reality of it, if you look at the CBO projection, now this is a year and a half ago, so inflation has trimmed off a bit from their numbers.
		Interest rates substantially higher.
		These numbers are going to pop when they redo them because of the higher interest rates.
		I was trying to do it, it's dangerous when I try to do these things off the top of my head, but I was coming in about $133, $136 trillion of borrowing over the 30 years because of the higher interest rates and could be substantially higher if we were actually truly at five or six.
		The point is debate after debate after debate after debate.
		We stand here and we argue about the non-defense discretionary, which is like 13% of the spending.
		And even in this projection, it actually grows slower than tax receipts.
		So we're going to head towards doing reconciliation.
		We're going to try to do policy.
		We have a new president coming in that has a vision of growth for the country.
		Are we, as the board of directors, as the founding fathers designed it, going to step up and do our job and actually save the future?
		Are we going to avoid the hardest thing we do, and that's telling the truth to our voters, and maybe even telling the truth to each other?
		There's still hope.
		But one of our economists actually has this chart.
		He's been working and saying, you may only have three or four more years if interest rates keep moving up where it's almost too late.
		You can't work yourself out of the higher interest rate cycle because the additional debt, the interest rate, the additional debt, the interest rate.
		And I think it was a year ago, we actually had a couple months, three, four months, where we had to borrow money to cover our borrowing.
		Mr. Speaker, there's hope.
		There's a way to make the math work.
		There's a way to do it in a moral fashion.
		It's just when you have a complex problem, turns out the solutions are complex.
		Is the modern Congress capable of doing complexity?
		With that, I yield back.
unidentified		The gentleman yields back.
unidentified		Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
		Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.
		And I rise today in the name of government of the people, by the people, for the people.
		Not government of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, for the oligarchs, or for the plutocrats.
		And I surely do not rise in the name of government by the mob, for the mob.
		No.
		I rise in the name of government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Proud To Be Here 00:08:20
al green ▲ ● ▼		And today as I rise, I'm going to give two reasons, two important reasons, why Vice President Harris presided over a Republican certification process earlier this week.
		Stated differently, I'm going to give two important reasons why Democrats did not get the most electoral votes.
		But first, allow me to commend Vice President Harris for leading the United States of America, our country, back to the moral high ground.
		I was proud to be here.
		In fact, I was seated on this very row at the very end.
		Proud to be here when the doors opened and the words were spoken.
		The Vice President of the United States and the Senate.
		And there she stood.
		She came forward.
		As she came forward, she was quite statuesque, comely, courtly.
		She looked almost majestic as she walked in.
		And as she moved down toward the front of the room, I in my mind recited a part of the 23rd Psalm.
		Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
		I'm not saying that she was walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
		What I am saying is, I knew that if she could walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, surely she could walk through the halls of Congress and fear no evil.
		And as she moved forward, I was taken to a point in my life when a song meant something to me.
		The song was, You'll never walk alone.
		She walked forward, never to walk alone.
		When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high.
		Don't be afraid of the dark.
		And then, near the last stanza, the words are, walk on, walk on through the winds of life, I'm paraphrasing.
		Walk on through the storms of life, and you'll never walk alone.
		She proceeded up to the dais.
		And as she stood there, announcing the number of electoral votes from the various states, I could see her standing there alone.
		And I'm reminded as she did so of another song.
		This song has to do with standing, standing alone.
		And the words are, just stand.
		After you've done all that you can, just stand.
		And I was reminded of all that she did.
		She worked hard.
		She worked long hours.
		She put everything into it.
		And after you've done all that you can, then just stand.
		Sometimes it's better to stand alone, which is what she did, than not stand at all.
		Better to stand alone than not stand at all.
		So I'm so proud of what she did because in doing this, She helped us to reclaim the moral high ground that we lost four years ago on January 6th.
		To reclaim that moral high ground because as she was presiding over this certification process, it was more than Vice President Harris presiding or Vice President Pence when he presided.
		It was the candidate who ran for president and did not win, certifying that the opposing candidate won.
		That was the moral high ground.
		That is something that the United States of America has had.
		And she was reclaiming it for the world to let the world know that in the United States of America, we know how to win, but more importantly, we know how to lose.
		She claimed the moral high ground for this country.
		And in so doing, she was more than an example.
		She was an exemplar.
		She was a supreme, superb standard for the kind of behavior that ought to be exhibited on occasions such as the one she was presiding over.
		She made it clear to those who will look back in time upon this time that there are people among us who have dignity and respect for the process.
		She made it clear that while she did not win, she respected the process and announced the winner.
		I think that Vice President Harris can forever know that she has brought this country to another place.
		Other countries around the world, many of them, envy what we were able to do this year, this week, juxtaposed to what did not occur four years ago, when a mob disrupted the process at the behest of the President of the United States of America.
		Who can deny that?
		Who can deny that they came here at the urging of the President of the United States of America and that their behavior was nothing near exemplary.
		Their behavior was shameful.
		They marched with symbols of Nazism with a gallows.
		They marched saying ugly things, vile comments.
		They stormed the capital of the United States of America.
		And in so doing, their behavior was disdainful and shameful as they marched through the halls.
		Some even went so far as to defecate in the Capitol in places where you would not expect such things to occur.
		Yes, there was a difference between this year and what happened four years ago.
		And that's because we had a vice president who was a candidate for president, who understood the necessity to have a peaceful transfer of power.
		So, Madam Vice President, though you stood alone, you stood alone at a time when it was appropriate and necessary.
Why Minimum Wage Legislation Failed 00:15:32
al green ▲ ● ▼		There are times when it is better, I've said it many times and I'll say it one more, it's better to stand alone than not stand at all.
		So you did.
		And you shall be remembered in history as bringing us back to the moral high ground.
		Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to give the two reasons why she didn't preside over her own certification.
		Why Democrats didn't get the most electoral votes?
		Two reasons.
		They have to do with legislation that was not passed.
		I'm going to walk through the legislation and then I will give the reasons why the legislation didn't pass.
		The two reasons.
		The legislation.
		I've noted six pieces of legislation.
		The PRO Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, I've shortened the title.
		George Ford Justice and Policing, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and legislation to raise the minimum wage as well as to pass the Equality Act.
		Those six.
		Now let's take a look at these six with a bit more information.
		Legislation that would have made a difference for America and Americans, starting with the PRO Act.
		The PRO Act would have benefited all Americans.
		Labor unions were obviously desirous of having it passed, but it would have benefited all Americans.
		It would have benefited American laborers, the working class.
		It would have been the legislation that we need to help close the wage gap.
		This wage gap is something that has to be dealt with because from 1967 to today's date, that wage gap has increased exponentially.
		Currently, the median income for a CEO is about $16 million, $16.3 to be a little bit more specific.
		The median income, and this is annually, income for a minimum wage worker at $7.25 an hour is a lot less than that CEO making $16 million.
		In fact, the CEO making $16 million would make 1,000 times more than the minimum wage worker at $7.25 an hour, which would be something more than about $15,000 annually.
		Who can survive on $7.25 an hour in the United States of America?
		You have to have at least two jobs and maybe three.
		Family would have to have at least two persons working.
		The minimum wage has to be raised.
		If we pass the PRO Act, labor would be in a position to defend the desire, the need to raise the minimum wage and could have pushed more for a higher wage.
		We have to raise it to a living wage.
		And if we should raise it to a living wage, then we can start to close this wealth gap.
		That won't do it in and of itself, raising it to a living wage.
		There is much more that has to be done, but that's a pretty good start.
		It would also help us to protect the right to organize.
		That right to organize is the means by which labor can move forward en masse to negotiate and to do that which is necessary to cause the industries in this country to raise the minimum wage.
		We have more states in this country with a minimum wage above $7.25 an hour than not.
		In fact, the states are ahead of the Congress.
		The Congress needs to catch up with the states and move on beyond that.
		$7.25 an hour is what is known as a slave wage in many quarters.
		So we need to pass the PRO Act.
		We did not.
		I'll explain why.
		Two reasons in a moment.
		The John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
		Had we passed it, it would have enfranchised more voters, caused greater participation in the process.
		This act would have helped us by reinstating a version of the Voting Rights Act.
		In fact, it was in Shelby County versus Holder that the Voting Rights Act was weakened greatly when Section 4 of it was declared unconstitutional and the pre-clearance portion of it in Section 5 could no longer be exercised.
		This Voting Rights Act would have helped to reinstate a version of the pre-clearance process.
		This Voting Rights Act would have helped to allow people to vote without fear of having the hours set such that it didn't help persons who might work late hours.
		Persons, there are some people who work late hours, they work into the morning hours.
		And in Houston at one point, we had an opportunity to vote 24-7, 24 hours in a given day.
		I went out to see the people come in to vote.
		Well, we can no longer do that, but had this version of the Voting Rights Act passed, we would have made it easier for people to vote, harder for people to cheat, and brought more people into the process.
		Greater participation did not pass.
		George Floyd justice in policing did not pass.
		This would have assisted, wouldn't have cured, but would have assisted in arresting bad police behavior.
		You have seen the videos.
		I don't have to try to convince people anymore that there are bad police officers.
		Not all police officers are bad.
		Some are.
		This doesn't mean that you should paint all officers with the same brush.
		It simply means that the bad ones have to be weeded out.
		This piece of legislation, the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, would have helped us to weed them out.
		Would have also dealt with these no-knock laws that have cost lives.
	Dealt with chokeholds that have taken lives.
	George Floyd Justice and Policing would have made a difference.
	And I can tell you, there are many of my constituents who were eager to see George Floyd Justice and Policing pass and were very disappointed when it did not.
	Many of my constituents were disappointed when John Lewis Voting Rights Act didn't pass.
	American minorities, a good many were disappointed.
	These pieces of legislation could have made a difference in voter participation.
	Let's move on to three more.
	Comprehensive immigration reform.
	This was a key piece of legislation that would have addressed the border issues, addressed labor issues, H-1B issues, all of these various means by which persons can come into the country for various purposes associated with work.
	Family reunification issues.
	This country has a history of keeping families together.
	We have strayed away from that history.
	This piece of legislation, comprehensive immigration reform, would have addressed that issue.
	And it would also have addressed discontentment.
	What is discontentment?
	I hear it quite regularly when I'm out and about.
	I go into places where people are buying food.
	I hear people talking.
	Many of them are not talking to me.
	Many of them do talk to me and explain what I'm about to tell you.
	There are people in this country who just don't believe that it is fair, that it is right for persons who are coming into the country to receive what they perceive as benefits that they are not receiving.
	They talk about this, this discontentment.
	They are not pleased with the way the system is functioning.
	Comprehensive immigration reform could have given us the opportunity to address this issue.
	Did not pass.
	And of course, raising the minimum wage.
	I've spoken about this, closing the wage gap.
	And when you raise the minimum wage, you do something that we talk about here quite often, and that is the rising tide theory.
	A rising tide will raise all boats, we say.
	Raising the minimum wage would create that rising tide that would raise the wages above the minimum wage.
	The minimum wage has an impact not only on those who are receiving it, but also others who are workers.
	It has an impact on the working class.
	Raising the minimum wage would have made a difference.
	I assure you, there are people who would have been grateful that the minimum wage was raised and it would have inspired them to come to the polls to vote.
	The Equality Act.
	This act would have protected the LGBTQ community.
	It would protect their civil rights and their human rights.
	Yes, the Supreme Court made a ruling about discriminating against persons because of their sexuality, but that's not enough.
	We have many more means by which they can be protected if we pass the Equality Act.
	So, having gone through these pieces of legislation, these six, now there are more.
	The Paycheck Fairness Act that would help women to achieve equal pay for equal work.
	Women now make less than 90 cents for every dollar a man makes, generally speaking, in the country.
	All women, about 90% less.
	And over some number of years, I saw a figure of a trillion dollars having been lost because women are making so much less.
	I believe that it was from the year 1967 to, I think it was last year.
	A trillion dollars.
	Assuming that my numbers are a little bit off.
	Maybe I didn't get the years exactly right.
	A trillion dollars is still a trillion dollars.
	Lost.
	That's money lost for health care, money lost for schools, children going to school, buying food, buying clothing, providing shelter, and also money lost for a pension, something to retire with.
	Lost because women are making less than men in the richest country in the world.
	Still do.
	Pennies on the dollar.
	That's what women are making compared to what men make.
	So the query is: why did we not pass all of these pieces of legislation?
	And the answer is because we had two senators, two senators, not the entire Democratic Party, not all of the Democratic leadership.
	Two senators who would not do what Republicans did when they wanted to get a certain Supreme Court nominee confirmed.
	Republicans, when they wanted to confirm a certain Supreme Court nominee, challenged the process of coming to closure and, in so doing, moved to a point where you could appoint that nominee to the Supreme Court with 51 votes as opposed to 60.
	They did that.
	And it was along party lines.
	All of the Republicans voted to change the rules.
	Well, we had two senators when, to his credit, Senator Schumer brought the Voting Rights Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Act that I've called your attention, to the floor of the Senate.
	And to simplify it, made a request that it be passed with 51 votes as opposed to having to hit the 60-vote threshold and then come back and pass it with 51 votes.
Proud Break to Pass Legislation 00:08:22
al green ▲ ● ▼		He made the request.
		It would have passed, but two senators, these are the two reasons.
		Two senators, two Democratic senators.
		Now why would you focus on Democratic senators when the Republicans voted against it?
		Because if you make your deposits in the Democratic Party, you expect your interest to come from the Democratic Party.
		You may get some from someplace else, but you expect the Democratic Party to perform.
		If you put your money into a Democratic corporation, you expect Democratic dividends.
		So the Democrats, two of them, chose not to allow John Lewis Voting Rights Act to pass the Senate, which is an indication that none of the other legislation could have passed with 51 votes.
		And here's what would have happened had it passed.
		50 Democrats would have voted to allow it to pass with 51 votes.
		That's not a majority.
		The vice president would be the tiebreaker.
		The vice president would have said to the world, we passed John Lewis Voting Rights Act and I was proud to break the tie.
		We passed George Floyd Justice and Policing.
		I was proud to break the tie.
		We passed the PRO Act.
		I was proud to break the tie.
		We passed the Equality Act.
		I was proud to break the tie.
		All of these various pieces of legislation could have been passed, but for two reasons, two senators did not do what more than 50 Republicans did to claim another seat on the Supreme Court.
		My friends, we, the prognostication from me, I'm speaking for myself and no one else.
		We would have seen Kamala Harris come through that door, still comely, still courtly, still stately, still statuesque.
		We would have seen her walk down.
		We would have seen her go up to the podium at the dais.
		And we would have seen her, if this legislation had passed, certify the election of Kamala Harris for president as president to be more appropriate if the legislation had passed.
		Two reasons.
		Two Democratic senators who refused to do what more than 50 Republicans did when they saw the opportunity.
		I'll close with this.
		Do not assume that those Republicans will now do what They have done in the past and oppose moving to 51 votes as they did when there was a Democratic issue on the table.
		I prognosticate here and now that they will move to use 51 votes if their agenda is stalled and they will think nothing of it.
		They will do it with alacrity.
		They will pass their agenda.
		I guarantee you if they run into a roadblock, they will.
		If that becomes the issue, they are going to do it.
		And when they do it, I'm going to come back to this podium and I'm going to say, I told you so, because we have suffered long enough from our history of using the filibuster to prevent progress, especially among the minorities in this country.
		And I'm not giving them a license to do anything.
		They're going to do what they would do.
		I'm just telling you the truth.
		They're going to do it.
		And they do it regardless as of what anybody on this side of the aisle says.
		We have nothing to do with what they do.
		But I can tell you this, we have suffered because two senators would not pass legislation, vote to pass legislation that could have made a difference in the lives of the American people as well as, as well as in the lives of specific people who have suffered great injustices.
		Great injustices, grave injustices, lives lost.
		I believe that George Floyd justice and policing would save lives.
		Voters would receive a better path to getting their votes into the process.
		More of them would participate.
		I'm not saying the election was rigged, that's none of that.
		What I am saying is that we had legislation that people would have appreciated and we could have marketed that legislation by simply saying, here's what we accomplished that benefits you at a different level.
		Yes, we passed the infrastructure bill.
		Great bill.
		Yes, we passed the CHIPS Act.
		Glad we did it.
		But friends, these are the kinds of kitchen table issues.
		This is the kitchen table legislation that people were talking about.
		And the lack of seeing this legislation passed dampened the enthusiasm of key aspects of the Democratic base.
		And I want you to know there are some people who now want to back off of this legislation.
		They want to try to become Republican light.
		That's what I call it.
		We've got to be ourselves.
		This is what has been important to our base.
		We've got to stay with what was important to our base.
		There is nothing wrong with any one of these issues.
		Nothing has changed.
		We still need them.
	America needs them.
	America wants them.
	We just have to pass this legislation.
	I'm always grateful to have this opportunity to speak.
	It means something to me because I don't hate the country.
	I love the country.
	That's why I want to improve it with this legislation.
	It means something to me.
	I am proud to say that I stand here in this place to speak on behalf of people who cannot speak for themselves.
	And I pray that one day, one day, we will be able to say that we were there to vote, take maybe hard votes, and pass legislation that makes a difference.
	I guarantee you, my colleagues on the other side, they run into a roadblock, they will.
Assemblymember Pachetti's Legacy 00:02:33
al green ▲ ● ▼		Our time will come again.
		We will have to take advantage of the time.
		And I yield back the balance of my time.
unidentified		gentleman yields his time.
unidentified		Under the speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley, for 30 minutes.
kevin kiley ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Speaker, I wish to commemorate the life of Anthony Pischetti of Granite Bay, who passed away unexpectedly in early December.
		Anthony Pachetti lived a life of service.
		He was an elected member of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, serving seven years from 1987 to 1994.
		Later, he served two terms in the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2002.
		During his time in public service, Assemblymember Pachetti was well regarded for the level of communication that he brought to the office and was considered fair and easy to approach.
		He took pride in listening and keeping in touch with his constituents, holding monthly breakfasts for the public in each community of his district.
		Assemblymember Pachetti was also an advocate for his district and secured various victories, such as for public safety and recreation during his tenure.
		Assemblymember Pachetti followed his internal compass.
		He decided not to run for re-election in 2002 and after four years of training he was ordained deacon with the Sacramento Catholic Diocese.
		He went on and served at St. Mel Parish, St. Ignatius Oyola Parish, and later at Presentation Paris in Sacramento.
		Anthony loved people and people loved him.
		He put a tremendous amount of work and effort towards his community to improve their quality of life.
Rick Barty's Legacy 00:03:37
kevin kiley ▲ ● ▼		He also enjoyed his family life with his wife Kathy and their son and daughter Anthony and Serena.
		The world was a richer place with Anthony Pacchetti, and we will sincerely miss him.
		Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize the retiring Roseville Fire Department Chief, Rick Barty, for his years of service in the Roseville area.
		Rick Bardy's devoted career of service to the Roseville community and his country has spanned over four decades, including the last nine years as chief of the Roseville Police Department.
		Chief Barte had a long, his long-standing commitment to public safety goes back to the age of 18 when he first joined the fire service.
		He's built a strong educational foundation, earning his Bachelor of Applied Science degree studying public safety and emergency management at Grand Canyon University.
		Before embarking on his service to the city of Roseville, Chief Bharti had a decorated career in several capacities, including his over three decades of service for the Phoenix Fire Department.
		Over the course of his tenure, Chief Bharti conducted the duties of engineer, captain, battalion chief, shift commander, and many others managing the Homeland Defense Bureau and Deputy Chief.
		Chief Barte's dedication to public safety also went beyond his department and region.
		Throughout his time in the fire service, he also served on FEMA's urban search and rescue team.
		Chief Bharti was on site at some of the most destructive disasters our country has seen, providing much-needed response and relief.
		He sifted through the rubble at ground zero after 9-11, responded to the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, aided along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, and responded to many other catastrophes during his service to the task force.
		He's demonstrated selflessness in his deployments, locating and extricating disaster victims.
		Chief Bharti's experience and scope of duties over his accomplished career, in conjunction with his devotion to service, enabled him to be an exemplary leader as Chief of the Roseville Fire Department.
		Over the last nine years, Chief Bharti has been steadfast in his leadership in overseeing 130 firefighters in the department.
		During his tenure as fire chief, Rick also performed the duties of incident support team leader of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force.
		Chief Bharti's expertise in specialized training and disaster relief has truly brought invaluable knowledge and experience to the region.
		Chief Bharti's lifetime dedication to service and public safety will leave a long-standing legacy as his selfless leadership will benefit the Roseville area for many, many years to come.
		The unwavering commitment to the public and leadership by example of people like Chief Rick Barty ensures the Roseville area will remain a wonderful and safe place to live.
		Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, it is a great honor and privilege to recognize Roseville Fire Chief Rick Barty for his career in public service.
Prop 36's Impact on San Francisco 00:09:40
kevin kiley ▲ ● ▼		And I joined the Roosevelt community in wishing him the very best in retirement.
		Mr. Speaker, near the beginning of last year, I rose on the floor of this house to say a few words about my home state of California and how it was on, potentially, a path back to sanity.
		How that opportunity lay ahead of us.
		And the reason for that optimism was that there were two potential policy changes then being considered that could set our state on an entirely new course when it comes to the key issues of public safety and homelessness.
		California voters were about to consider Proposition 36, an initiative to make crime illegal again in California by largely reversing the disastrous proposition known as Prop 47.
		And then there was a case before the United States Supreme Court, which I wrote an amicus brief for, called the Grants Pass case, that would potentially liberate our communities from a Ninth Circuit decision that made it virtually impossible for them to clear out homeless encampments.
		So these two opportunities together presented a path back to law and order and sanity and livability in California, especially in our major cities.
		And of course, we were victorious on both counts.
		With respect to Prop 36, despite the governor, the supermajority, doing everything they possibly could to stop it from passing, California voters gave it a smashing victory, almost 70% of the vote, passing it in each and every one of California's 58 counties.
		And the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Grants Pass case, overturned the Ninth Circuit's existing Boise decision and said that our communities once again have the ability to regulate encampments and to stop homeless from camping in our parks, on our sidewalks, around schools, and in our public spaces.
		And I'm very pleased at this point to be able to say that the prediction as to the potentially transformative nature of these changes that I made back then is turning out to be true.
		So I wanted to cite just a few examples today of how the passage of Prop 36 and the decision in Grants Pass are already serving to turn California around.
		Here's just a few recent headlines from KRON in San Francisco.
		Fremont police credit Prop 36 for nine shoplifting arrests.
		CBS San Francisco, Petaluma theft suspects arrested, one with prior convictions, subject to Prop 36 charges.
		KTLA TV in Los Angeles, man charged with drug possession, now facing consequences of recently passed Prop 36.
		From the San Francisco Examiner, shoplifter at Brawley Walmart faces jail because Prop 36 passed.
		KTLA TV in Los Angeles, Southern California woman facing enhanced charges with Prop 36 now in effect.
		Victorville Daily Press, San Bernardino County theft suspects face potential increased penalties under Prop 36.
		KXTV Sacramento, Folsom Police arrests 30 people in retail sting, including two with possible Prop 36.
		KRON San Francisco, San Francisco DA files charges in City's first Prop 36 case.
		KXTV Sacramento, crackdown on retail theft continues after passage of Prop 36.
		KCRA Sacramento, Yuba City police say man caught stealing packages will face felony charges citing Prop 36.
		The list goes on and on.
		One Sting operation resulted in 110 arrests of people who will now finally face consequences because crime is once again illegal in California.
		And keep in mind, the law has only been in effect now for a few weeks.
		There was even an example where there was dash cam footage of a suspect who had been arrested and then was surprised to learn that stealing was once again a felony in California and expressed dismay about these new laws.
		So let this serve as a public service announcement to potential thieves in California that crime is illegal once again in our state and there will be consequences for criminal activity.
		On top of that, in the wake of the Grant's past decision on homelessness, we have seen a number of communities actually start to clean up encampments and to reclaim their public spaces.
		For example, in Stockton, homeless under an overhass were given 72 hours notice of a clearing and were notified that they would be arrested if they refused to leave.
		In San Francisco, multiple clearings are now occurring every day.
		Much of the debris being removed, by the way, is either drugs or human waste.
		In San Jose, around 100 people were removed from the airport.
		In Santa Ana, homeless were cleared from private railroads and five were arrested.
		Turns out the arrestees had prior convictions for drugs and murder.
		In LA, 50 to 60 people were removed from a beach and healthcare workers arrived with police to assist with any medical issues the homeless were having.
		So the benefits of this are twofold.
		Number one, it is restoring a sense of order to our public spaces so that people feel safe going there again, so they don't serve to spawn further criminal activity.
		And number two, it's giving us an opportunity to get homeless individuals into shelters, get a roof over their head, and get them the help that they need.
		So with these two developments, with crime now being illegal again in California, and with our communities reclaiming our public spaces, I am more optimistic about our state's future than I've been in a very long time.
		And I can tell that the people of California are truly ready to move our state in a new direction.
		Mr. Speaker, as we speak, the California legislature has gaveled in to a special emergency session of its legislature.
		And you might say, well, of course they have.
		LA is burning to the ground right now.
		But it turns out that's not actually what this special session is about.
		No, no.
		The legislature has gaveled into a special session called by Gavin Newsom to provide millions of dollars in funding for filing lawsuits against the incoming Trump administration.
		That is what their priority is at this very moment.
		Mr. Speaker, there could not be a starker illustration of the abject political failure that has gotten our state to this point and that has served to bring about the horrifying scenes that the whole country is seeing on their television sets right now and that folks in Los Angeles are suffering through.
		So I want to go over a few of the failures that have gotten us to this point, but I do want to say first that my prayers are with the people in LA, the victims of this horrifying, apocalyptic set of fires, with the over 100,000 people under evacuation orders, with the at least five,
		sadly probably more people who have lost their lives and their families, and with our firefighters and first responders who are working around the clock, doing everything they possibly can to get this blaze under control.
Catastrophic Failures in Water Management 00:10:44
kevin kiley ▲ ● ▼		And I'm truly grateful for all of the communities in California and across the entire country who have come together to try to help the LA area in this hour of dire need.
		Thank you.
		It is appreciated beyond measure.
		But after we do manage to get the fire under control, there are going to be a lot of questions that need answering.
		Indeed, we can already identify, even though we don't know the specific cause of each fire, the failures that we know have contributed to these conflagrations, these catastrophic events that have hit our community time and time again.
		Our politicians have obsessed over things like banning lawnmowers, banning leaf blowers, all the while neglecting our forests and leaving our communities vulnerable.
		In fact, when it comes to the forests, it is worse than neglect.
		The state and frankly the federal government have put up unnecessary hurdles to doing proper forest management, declaring vegetation, to doing prescribed burns,
		which has turned many of our forests and areas adjoining residential areas in many cases as tinderboxes and caused fires that have in many cases become truly catastrophic community destroying events.
		And we've seen it happen sadly time and time again.
		The perversity of it all is that these restrictions on being able to manage our forests, which have decimated the timber industry, by the way, are imposed in the name of the environment.
		But nothing could be worse for the environment than a catastrophic wildfire.
		Indeed, when you look at all of the emissions that are saved by every single emissions reduction program that California has, all of that gets wiped out many times over when you have a catastrophic wildfire.
		So there simply could not be a more backwards policy.
		And in fact, last year in the fall, a decision was made to halt prescribed burns.
		Now we don't yet know if that would have made a difference here, but we do know that the lack of doing prescribed burns in a systematic way, in an efficient way, in a timely way, has contributed to this problem.
		To make matters worse, Governor Newsom, when he came into office, started claiming that he was doing forest management, but he wasn't telling the truth.
		An investigation by Capitol Public Radio, the local NPR affiliate, found that Newsom had exaggerated the amount of forest management work that had been done, the number of acres treated, he'd exaggerated that number by a staggering 690%.
		So our political leaders in California have allowed millions of acres to become overgrown and have left our and thereby left our communities in a vulnerable condition.
		Not only that, their mismanagement of our water supply has, among other things, diminished our capacity to respond to wildfires.
		First of all, it has been decades since California has built significant new water storage, not since the state water project.
		And secondly, even the water that we do have when it comes down, much of it gets diverted intentionally into the ocean, again, supposedly for environmental reasons.
		I can tell you that in 2023, when we had record storms in California, I visited the site of the Folsom Dam, and you had water cascading out of the dam, 10,000 cubic feet per second, almost all of it going eventually into the ocean.
		And at that time, by the way, we had a flood emergency declared, of course, and yet somehow we were also still under a drought emergency.
		Californians were told you're not allowed to water your lawn.
		The legislature was passing draconian restrictions on indoor water use to 25-30 gallons a day.
		Businesses were banned from having lawns in front of their property.
		In some parts of the state, you had to have a low-flow device for your shower head.
		And then they would punish you if you used too much water when you took a shower, if you didn't take a five-minute shower.
		And all the while, we're sending staggering amounts of water into the ocean.
		And we're failing to build the storage that would actually catch the water and preserve it for when we need it.
		As yet another example, relevant to the situation in LA, the California Coastal Commission actually rejected the building of a desalination plant just a couple of years ago.
		So California over the course of many years has in a political way chosen to allow its forests to become overgrown and to impose artificial scarcity on its water supply.
		At the same time, our state and many of our municipalities such as Los Angeles have had completely backwards priorities and have demonstrated a total failure of just basic competence when it comes to government performance and the provision of services.
		And that was highlighted very clearly in this case.
		When you had the Los Angeles Fire Department telling the city, do not deprive us of our funding.
		And yet the city decided to do it anyway.
		The fire department said that the reduction in funding would severely limit the department's capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies.
		Now, as the city council, the mayor, were deciding not to fully fund the fire department, they had plenty of time for things like passing a resolution reaffirming Los Angeles as a sanctuary city.
		It was already a sanctuary city.
		It's already a sanctuary state.
		But they decided that was their priority, not to prepare for the risk of wildfire, not to fully fund the fire department, but to pass another resolution making itself a sanctuary city yet again.
		And we'll be learning more, I expect, about how it possibly could be that we have fire hydrants that are not working, that water isn't coming out of them, and how we didn't have the necessary personnel on hand despite the high wind conditions.
		It all shows to underline, on the one hand, the misguided priorities, and on the other, the lack of basic competence.
		Additionally, Los Angeles and California, more generally, have continued to lead the nation in homelessness.
		California has roughly half the unsheltered homeless in the United States, and there's a whole host of reasons that this is not a good thing.
		But one of them is that encampments tend to lead to a lot of fires.
		In fact, in just one year, in 2023 alone, there were almost 14,000 fires related to homelessness.
		So, again, we don't yet know exactly what caused the set of fires that are still ongoing, but we do know that this city has been as bad as any in terms of letting homelessness proliferate, allowing encampments to grow unchecked, and thereby creating more dangerous conditions for its residents because of the risk of fire.
		And finally, Mr. Speaker, I'll point out that California has an insurance crisis that has been growing and growing and growing year after year after year, and our state's political leaders have simply allowed it to happen.
		They've done not nearly enough to mitigate the risk of fire that is the underlying cause of the increased rates.
		They've done essentially nothing until recently to stabilize the situation, to stabilize the markets.
		And as a result, you have insurers that have now pulled out of the state entirely, millions of people who are losing coverage.
		In my district, you have whole communities where everyone has lost coverage.
		And they're kicked to the California fair plan, forced to pay three times as much, four times as much, five times as much as they were paying before.
		And the fair plan is now on the verge of collapse, accounting for the absolutely catastrophic losses that we're seeing in Los Angeles.
		So, Mr. Speaker, what is happening and is still ongoing, sadly, in Los Angeles is a truly unimaginable tragedy in terms of the images that we're seeing, in terms of the dislocation that it's causing.
		But I expect that we will learn that at least to an extent, it was an avoidable one.
		And this should serve as a major wake-up call that our state needs to start doing things differently.
		That we need to get back to basics.
		We need to get back to basics in California.
		Build our roads, manage our forests, store our water, maintain our grid, fund our police and our fire departments, do the things government is supposed to do, do them well, and do nothing else.
Motion to Adjourn 00:00:55
kevin kiley ▲ ● ▼		If we can get back to basics as a state, then we can stop catastrophes like this from happening in the future.
		And perhaps someday in the not too distant future, we can start leading the nation in the right ways again.
		I yield back.
unidentified		The gentleman yields back.
		Does the gentleman?
		Does the gentleman have a motion?
		Yes.
		The question.
kevin kiley ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Speaker, I move to adjourn.
unidentified		The question is on the motion to adjourn.
		Those in favor say aye.
		Those opposed, no.
		The ayes have it.
		The motion is adopted.
		Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until noon on Monday next for morning hour debate.

Chapters

00:00:00 Blessed Are the Merciful
00:03:44 Miracle Of Diversity
00:12:30 I Hope Someday
00:15:02 Lord's Blessing and Deliverance
00:24:33 Jimmy Carter's Final Farewell
00:44:38 Customary Presidential Eulogies
01:00:00 Presidents and Their Final Wishes
01:15:02 Presidential Hearse Arrives
01:42:35 Special Air Mission 39
01:55:57 Honor Mrs. Payne
02:03:22 President Carter's Legacy
02:14:41 Walking Through Debt Markets
02:29:59 Borrowing Crazy: Foreign Aid's Cost
02:45:19 83% To Interest
02:54:26 Proud To Be Here
03:02:32 Why Minimum Wage Legislation Failed
03:17:49 Proud Break to Pass Legislation
03:25:57 Assemblymember Pachetti's Legacy
03:28:15 Rick Barty's Legacy
03:31:38 Prop 36's Impact on San Francisco
03:41:19 Catastrophic Failures in Water Management
03:51:48 Motion to Adjourn