| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Passing The Bill: 164 Votes Needed
00:03:39
|
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| Brett Merger can get on that call and take your questions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Why is it that you seem unwilling to extend any credit to Trump for this deal? | ||
| Couldn't he just have said, you know, hold off until I'm in office? | ||
| What I will say is that what we know to be true, what we know this process, how it has moved over the past eight months, this is a deal that happened under the framework that this president put forward and was endorsed by the world. | ||
| And this is also an administration that has had certainly the support, the Back of Israel, that helped denigrate Hamas, their military severely, weaken them. | ||
| And we created, because of also being doing that, we created the conditions for this deal. | ||
| That is what has happened over the last eight months. | ||
| And we have talked closely, worked closely, coordinated closely with the incoming administration. | ||
| And that is how we've been able to get to this point. | ||
| And the reason we were able to... | ||
|
unidentified
|
We take you back live now to the White House for members who are beginning a series of votes. | |
| Live coverage on C-SPAN. | ||
| ...questions previously postponed. | ||
| Votes will be taken in the following order. | ||
| Motions to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 164 and H.R. 144 and passage of H.R. 33. | ||
| The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Graves, to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 164, on which the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title. | ||
| H.R. 164, a bill to amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to authorize federal agencies to provide certain essential assistance for hazard mitigation for electric utilities and for other purposes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question is, will the House suspend the rules and pass the bill? | |
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
| The House here beginning the series of three votes. | ||
| Lawmakers voting on a measure to authorize electrical utilities receiving certain financial assistance to work reduce to reduce potential hazards. | ||
| The bill also allows for some funds to repair damage facilities. | ||
| It's a 15-minute vote. | ||
| While members vote here, we'll take you back quickly to the White House briefing. | ||
| Who need that aid and the assistance? | ||
| I'm going to move on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| No, no, I'm going to move on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How will you grade yourself on your goal of being the most transparent administration? | |
|
Experts Disagree on Justice System Charges
00:02:52
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| I've... | ||
| I've taken like three questions. | ||
| I'm going to move on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No answer? | |
| Oh, go ahead. | ||
| I've already taken three of your questions. | ||
| I'm going to make sure some of your colleagues get an opportunity as well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Could you respond to the report released by the special counsel who prosecuted Hunter Biden? | |
| Specifically, he talked about Biden's claims that his son was unfairly targeted and said the president's characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and on a more fundamental level, they are wrong. | ||
| He also said that politicians who attack the decisions of current prosecutors as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of a case undermine the public's confidence in our criminal justice system. | ||
| So, I mean, a couple things there. | ||
| Let's not forget why the president came to his conclusion, how he got to this point of pardoning his son. | ||
| And he talked about the circumstances of this prosecution and how out of norm they were. | ||
| And let's not forget there were legal experts that agreed with this president, who shared that conclusion of this president. | ||
| And one of those was one of those experts is a former prosecutor, as you all know, Attorney General Eric Holder. | ||
| And he was very clear. | ||
| I just want to quote him. | ||
| No U.S. attorney would have charged this case given the underlying facts. | ||
| Had his name been Joe Smith. | ||
| The resolution would have been fundamentally and more fairly a declination. | ||
| Pardon warranted. | ||
| And if you look at what happened here, you look at paying your taxes, the vast majority of people who don't pay their taxes on time are not charged with criminal penalties. | ||
| They're just not. | ||
| They pay their penalties and fees, and that's what Hunter Biden did. | ||
| And so the president wasn't alone in this, in making that, when he made that determination, he had legal experts who also agreed with how he was making this decision on pardoning his son, Hunter Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No concern that he undermines the public perception of the justice system. | |
| I just answered that question. | ||
| I don't have anything else for you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, good. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| I know that you said you don't have details on what the president will be doing on Sunday, but can you expound on why he chose to spend his last day in office in South Carolina? | ||
| We'll have more to share. | ||
| I don't want to get ahead of that. | ||
| We'll have more to share. | ||
| And why South Carolina? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Last thing. | |
| Has the President spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu or does he plan to do so in the coming days? | ||
| Well, as you know, he recently just spoke to the Prime Minister. | ||
|
U.S. Foreign Policy Reliability
00:03:50
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||
| And if we have more calls to read out, we certainly will do that. | ||
| I know I have to start wrapping up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Thank you so much, Karine. | ||
| On Monday, President Biden said he was more optimistic than ever about the future. | ||
| Isn't he afraid or concerned that part of his legacy could be or is about to be erased by the incoming president? | ||
| I mean, look, when I answered this question about, I think it was a polling question from Kayla, I also talked about, in my answering that question, how popular some of the things that the president has done. | ||
| Chips and Science Act, bipartisan infrastructure legislation, the PACT Act, and even the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. | ||
| And I talked about the insulin being the insulin at $35 a month for seniors. | ||
| Those are things, all of those things that I just laid out are popular with the American people. | ||
| And that is something that the incoming administration has to think about. | ||
| Republicans on the other side of Pennsylvania has to think about. | ||
| These are things that are incredibly popular. | ||
| Some of them, bipartisan infrastructure legislation, Chips and Science Act, the PACT Act, were done in a bipartisan way. | ||
| And so to undo those successes, some of the things, again, popular with the American people, you know, that's something that they have to seriously, seriously think about. | ||
| And, you know, what we have done in those historic pieces of legislation that obviously is now law will have lasting effects on people's lives, lasting effect. | ||
| So he's very confident about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
One about foreign policy, because President Biden said his presidency restored the U.S. credibility in the world. | |
| Jay Sack actually said that in her first briefing here, that he was going to do this. | ||
| But when we talk to foreign leaders or diplomats around, maybe say that the inconstancy of the U.S. foreign policy is make it harder to work together and really trust that the U.S. can be a reliable policy. | ||
| So what are the inconsistency of the U.S. foreign policy make it hard to work and trust that U.S. can be a reliable ally? | ||
| So what messages are. | ||
| And why are they saying that? | ||
| What's the inconsistency? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, one administration comment and do a lot of Cuba and Paris and all that, and then you put it back. | |
| And now again, it's about to be looking at the USA. | ||
| I'm not going to get into what the next administration is going to do, not going to do. | ||
| What I can talk about is what the president wanted to make sure and that he got done in his four years here, which is restore the reputation of the United States, which he was able to do. | ||
| Get things done on behalf of the American people and make sure that we really mended our relationships with our partners and allies. | ||
| And that's what you were able to do. | ||
| You don't expand NATO if it wasn't for this president and his relationships and his experience, right? | ||
| You don't support Ukraine the way that it was supported by more than 50 countries, the way that it was able to get what it needed to really be on the ground. | ||
| Remember, Kyiv was supposed to fall within days. | ||
| That didn't happen. | ||
| That didn't happen because of this president's leadership. | ||
| I'm not going to get into what the next president's going to do or not do. | ||
| And let's not forget today. | ||
| Today was a big day in the foreign policy space to get this hostage deal done. | ||
| Hostages are going to go home. | ||
|
Lebanon's New Chapter
00:11:42
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| We're going to be able to get humanitarian aid surged into Gaza. | ||
| And we're hopefully going to end this war. | ||
| And that is incredibly important. | ||
| All right, guys, I have to go. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Have you been in touch with Caroline yet? | ||
| I was just asked this question. | ||
| I have not been in touch with her, but I certainly wish her luck. | ||
| Thanks, everybody. | ||
| Come talk to me in the back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And back here in the House, the first of three votes, beginning with this measure seeking to authorize electrical utilities receiving certain financial assistance to work to reduce potential hazards. | ||
| The bill also allows for some funds to repair damaged facilities. | ||
| And a quick preview of some live C-SPAN coverage coming up later this evening. | ||
| President Biden will give his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office. | ||
| He's expected to reflect on his more than 50 years of public service and his hopes for the future of the country. | ||
| It's a tradition that dates back to George Washington. | ||
| This is also President Biden's first Oval Office speech since he announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race back in July. | ||
| And we'll have live coverage of that again starting at 8 p.m. Eastern right here on C-SPAN. | ||
| While members continue to vote, here are President Biden's remarks on the announced ceasefire and hostage release deal that was reached between Israel and Hamas earlier this afternoon. | ||
| Because at long last, I can announce a ceasefire. | ||
| A hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas. | ||
| More than 15 months of conflict that began with Hezbollah's brutal massacre on October the 7th. | ||
| More than 15 months of terror for the hostages, their families, the Israeli people, more than 15 months of suffering by the innocent people of Gaza. | ||
| Fighting in Gaza will stop, and soon the hostages will return home to their families. | ||
| The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the UN Security Council. | ||
| The deal is structured in three phases. | ||
| Phase one will last six weeks. | ||
| It includes a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded. | ||
| And I'm proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release in phase one as well. | ||
| And the Vice President and I cannot wait to welcome them home. | ||
| In exchange, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. | ||
| And during phase one, the Palestinians can also return to their neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza. | ||
| And the surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin. | ||
| And the innocent people can have greater access to these vital supplies. | ||
| You know, during the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get Phase II, which is a permanent end of the war. | ||
| Let me say it again, a permanent end of the war. | ||
| There are a number of details to negotiate to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2, but the plan says if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue as long as the negotiations continue. | ||
| I've spoken to the Emir of Kuwait and the President of Egypt, and we have pledged to make sure the negotiations will keep moving forward for as long as it takes. | ||
| Then, when Phase II begins, there will be an exchange for a release of the remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and all remaining Israeli forces will be withdrawn from Gaza, and the temporary ceasefire will become permanent. | ||
| And finally, phase three. | ||
| Any final remains of hostages who have been killed will be returned to their families. | ||
| And a major reconstruction plan for Gaza will begin. | ||
| This is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring. | ||
| Today, Hamas and Israel have agreed to that ceasefire agreement and the whole ending the war. | ||
| You know, those of you who have followed the negotiations can attest the road to this deal has not been easy. | ||
| I've worked in foreign policy for decades. | ||
| This is one of the toughest negotiations I've ever experienced. | ||
| And we reached this point because of the pressure that Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States. | ||
| Hamas's longtime leader, Sinwar, was killed. | ||
| Hamas's strongest supporter, Iran, launched attacks on Israel. | ||
| And those attacks failed after my administration organized a coalition of nations to stop them. | ||
| And after I ordered the U.S. ships and planes to come to Israel's defense, we also shaped Israel's strong and calibrated response, destroying Iran's air defenses, but avoiding an escatory cycle of an all-out war. | ||
| The United States also organized a coalition of 20 countries to stand up to attacks by the Houthis, including their missile attacks in Israel. | ||
| Then, Hezbollah, another of Hamas's strongest backers, was significantly weakened on the battlefield, and its leadership was destroyed. | ||
| With our support, Israel negotiated a ceasefire with them, and after that, Lebanon finally elected a new president who's not. | ||
| who's not beholding Hezbollah. | ||
| And he began a new chapter for the Lebanese people. | ||
| All told, these developments in the region, which the United States helped to shape, changed the equation. | ||
| And so now, the terror network that once protected and sustained Hamas is far weaker. | ||
| Iran is weaker. | ||
| Iran is weaker than it has been in decades. | ||
| Hezbollah is badly degraded. | ||
| And after more than 15 months of war, Hamas's senior leaders are dead. | ||
| Thousands of Hamas fighters are dead. | ||
| And the military formations have been destroyed. | ||
| With nowhere to turn, Hamas finally agreed to releasing hostages. | ||
| You know, there was no other way for this war to end than with a hostage deal. | ||
| And I'm deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come, for the sake of the people of Israel and the families waiting in agony. | ||
| And for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza, who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war. | ||
| The Palestinian people have gone through hell. | ||
| Too many innocent people have died. | ||
| Too many communities have been destroyed. | ||
| In this deal, the people of Gaza can finally recover and rebuild. | ||
| They can look to a future without Hamas in power. | ||
| You know, the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. | ||
| Many peacemakers helped make this deal happen, including an extraordinary team of American diplomats who have worked non-stop for months to get this done. | ||
| Secretary Blinken led the effort. | ||
| Secretary Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Bill Burns, John Finer, Brett McGurk, Amos Hoxtein, and the Vice President worked relentlessly as we work to deliver this deal. | ||
| I'd also note this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration. | ||
| In these past few days, we've been speaking as one team. | ||
| This has been a time of real turmoil in the Middle East. | ||
| But as I prepare to leave office, our friends are strong, our enemies are weak, and there's a genuine opportunity for a new future. | ||
| In Lebanon, there's an opportunity for a future, free from the grip of Hezbollah. | ||
| In Syria, a future free from the tyranny of Assad. | ||
| And for the Palestinian people, a credible, credible pathway to a state of their own. | ||
| And for the region, a future of normalization, integration of Israel and all its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. | ||
| At the G20 in Delhi in September 23, I rallied key countries behind a vision of an economic corridor from India across the Middle East to Europe. | ||
| That vision can now become a reality. | ||
| There are risks as well, including ISIS and Iran, even in a badly weakened state. | ||
| But, but, we're handing off to the next team a real opportunity for a better future for the Middle East. | ||
| I hope they will take it. | ||
| Let me close with this. | ||
| My friend for years in the United States Senate, former Senator George Mitchell, who did so much to forge peace in Northern Ireland, once said about diplomacy. | ||
| He said, it is a 700 days of failure and one day success. | ||
| 700 days of failure and one day success. | ||
| Well, we've had many difficult days since Hamas began his terrible war. | ||
| We've encountered roadblocks and setbacks. | ||
| We've not given up. | ||
| And now, after more than 4400 days of struggle, the day of success has arrived. | ||
| God bless all the hostages and their families. | ||
| May God protect the troops of all those who work for peace. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, can you see the future of Gaza now, as you were saying? | |
| The implementation of this deal will be in the hands of the next administration. | ||
| And basically, they will shape the future of Gaza. | ||
| So how do you see this future? | ||
| And also, how much credit do you give to the 12 team for this deal? | ||
| Trump is already taking credit for it. | ||
| Well, you know, this is the exact framework of the deal I proposed back in May. | ||
| Exact. | ||
| And we got the world to endorse it. | ||
| Secondly, it's America's support for Israel that helped them badly weaken Amas and his backers and create the conditions for this deal. | ||
| And thirdly, I knew this deal would have to be implemented by the next team. | ||
| So I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we're all speaking with the same voice, because that's what American presidents do. | ||
|
Deal Party Updates
00:03:23
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|
unidentified
|
Mr. Brown, how many Americans will be in the how many Americans will be released when the hostages are being released? | |
| All the exact detail of how many people are being held, how many bodies will be returned and list, will all be forthcoming. | ||
| All of it, all of it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. President, what's your level of confidence that this deal will hold? | ||
| I'm confident. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Who is the three folks' credit for this, Mr. President? | |
| You or Trump? | ||
| Is that a joke? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And a quick reminder to watch President Biden's final speech to the nation. | |
| We'll have it for live for you this evening, beginning at 8 Eastern here on C-SPAN. | ||
| The House holding the first of three votes in this last series of roll call votes for the day. | ||
| This is a measure seeking to authorize electrical utilities receiving a certain financial assistance to work to reduce potential hazards. | ||
| While votes continue to tally here, here is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal and his party's legislative agenda. | ||
| Good afternoon, everyone. | ||
| First, let me begin by continuing to express our thoughts and prayers to the people of Southern California and Los Angeles County who are dealing with the horrific wildfires that have claimed lives, | ||
| damaged and destroyed property, and upended the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals in a significant life-altering manner. | ||
| The Congress must be committed to delivering disaster assistance to the people who have been in harm's way in California in an expeditious manner. | ||
| And House Democrats look forward to working on that issue, free of partisan gamesmanship and brinksmanship. | ||
| Let me also express my support for the ceasefire agreement that has been reached between the Israeli government and Hamas, | ||
|
Protecting Women and Girls in Sports
00:09:08
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| facilitated by significant efforts led by President Joe Biden to achieve the release of many hostages who have been held captive for far too long in harrowing and horrific conditions, | ||
| help facilitate the return of other hostages as soon as possible, and certainly make sure that humanitarian assistance is surged into Gaza so that innocent Palestinians who are in harm's way can receive the humanitarian support that they need moving forward. | ||
| It's also my hope, consistent with the framework that President Joe Biden first put in the public domain last year and that now has been realized, that this ceasefire agreement will lay the foundation for a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people moving forward. | ||
| Questions? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Leader, I am curious about to get your reaction on the H.R. 28 yesterday and the two Democrats who voted with Republicans for the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. | |
| And I'm just curious your reaction. | ||
| I know Congressman Gonzalez put out a statement about voting for his district's interest. | ||
| And if this might signal a broader support to come to work with Republicans on certain issues, certain social issues can come to the table. | ||
| The overwhelming opposition by House Democrats to the House Republican Child Predator Empowerment Act speaks for itself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Leader Jeffries, two quick things. | |
| Any reflections on President Biden's legacy ahead of his 8 p.m. address tonight to the nation? | ||
| And two, any response to Speaker Johnson talking about extending the debt limit for four years? | ||
| In your view, what should a debt limit deal, if any, look like? | ||
| I look forward to hearing from President Biden this evening. | ||
| And in advance of those remarks, I'm going to reserve comment on his legacy other than to say he will go down in history as one of the most consequential American presidents of all time. | ||
| With respect to the debt ceiling, it's our understanding on the Democratic side that Republicans, with respect to the Presidency, the House, and the Senate believe that they have an overwhelming and historic mandate. | ||
| If in fact that's the case, then the American people expect that House Republicans are going to be able to conduct the business of the American people with respect to funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. | ||
| One thing is clear, and this was made obvious to the incoming administration and our Republican colleagues at the end of December, is that House Democrats will not give extreme MAGA Republicans and the far right a blank check so they can execute their hit list on the American people. | ||
| The reconciliation plan that has been put forward by House Republicans that would be facilitated by a multi-trillion dollar increase in our nation's debt will significantly detonate Medicare as we know it, | ||
| Medicaid as we know it, the Affordable Care Act, and nutritional assistance for children, veterans, and families. | ||
| House Democrats have no interest. | ||
| Zero. | ||
|
unidentified
|
411. | |
| The nays are two. | ||
| two-thirds being in the affirmative. | ||
| On this vote, the yeas are 419, the nays are two. | ||
| Two-thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| And without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Graves, to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 144, on which the yays and the nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report on title. | ||
| H.R. 144, a bill to provide that the Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 does not apply to certain reports required to be submitted by the Tennessee Valley Authority and for other purposes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question is, will the House suspend the rules and pass the bill? | |
| Members will record their vote by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote and votes now on a measure to reinstate a requirement that the Tennessee Valley Authority disclose compensation for some employees above a certain pay grade. | ||
| Members here voting on approval of this measure. | ||
| And we'll take you back now to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that was announced today and his party's legislative agenda. | ||
| To now reach Palestinian civilians in harm's way in a more robust manner. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Lee, thank you. | |
| Good afternoon. | ||
| I'm going back to your statement yesterday about the transgender sports bill that was on the board. | ||
| You called it the Child Predator Empowerment Act, which says it will unleash horrific child predators on girls and young women. | ||
| Can you explain what your vision, what you think would happen with this bill? | ||
| My statement speaks for itself. | ||
| My comments on the bill last evening where I expounded upon why the irresponsible GOP bill risks unleashing child predators on the children of America in the sports context, which we know has been a problem in areas like gymnastics, football, or wrestling. | ||
| The vote by the House Democratic caucus in opposition to the House Republican Child Predator Empowerment Act also speaks for itself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. | |
| Obviously, since the election, a number of House Democrats have been having conversations about how do you all move on from here. | ||
| Obviously, you've been having your own listening sessions. | ||
| Kind of wanted to get an update on where House Democrats themselves see themselves moving forward, given that in just a couple days, Trump is going to be president. | ||
|
Ready to Work on Costs
00:03:09
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|
unidentified
|
Are you all thinking differently, more strategically, about how you're going to counter him this administration than the first one? | |
| House Democrats are ready, willing, and able to find bipartisan common ground with the incoming administration and my Republican colleagues, as we've repeatedly made clear on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, in order to make life better for the American people, particularly as it relates to driving down the high cost of living. | ||
| Throughout the balance of 2024, all we heard from House Republicans, the presidential candidate, and Senate Republicans and their candidates is that we've got to drive down the high cost of living. | ||
| Where is the plan? | ||
| Why all of a sudden have Republicans gone silent on bringing down housing costs, bringing down the cost of groceries, bringing down energy and utility costs, bringing down child care costs and bringing down insurance and health care costs? | ||
| Why have Republicans gone silent? | ||
| We are ready to work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to drive down the high cost of living. | ||
| America is too expensive. | ||
| It's been that way increasingly for decades. | ||
| We agree, and we're ready to work on it. | ||
| Where is the to-do list from Republicans as it relates to driving down the high cost of living? | ||
| Instead of a to-do list to make life better for working-class Americans, they have a hit list on working-class Americans. | ||
| And on that hit list includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nutritional assistance for children, veterans, and families, and veterans' benefits. | ||
| That's completely unacceptable. | ||
| And it's the exact opposite of what Republicans have indicated they were planning to do now that they have a big, beautiful, historic, overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you see yourself as the face of that resistance? | |
| What role do you see yourself playing in that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And two, should AOC go to waivers be on oversight? | |
| It's my, well, the waiver issue is being worked on member by member, case by case, with respect to interest that has been expressed across the caucus as it relates to a wide variety of committees, including oversight. | ||
| I was proud to support Representative Ocasio-Cortez for a seat on the Powerful Energy and Commerce Committee and believe that she will be a great member. | ||
|
House Votes on H.R. 33
00:04:11
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|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Leader Jeffreys. | |
| You're about to hear from several candidates running to be DNC chair. | ||
| I was wondering, I know you haven't weighed in on anyone that you'd be supportive of, but I was wondering what you want to see in the next leader, what that infrastructure will be like, especially as you prepare to take back the House potentially in 2026. | ||
| We look forward to the conversations that are going to take place later on today and think it'll be an important opportunity for aspiring candidates to lead the Democratic National Committee to talk with House Democrats about our vision for how we can better communicate to the American people our desire to address the high cost of living, | ||
| secure the border, and fix our broken immigration system in a comprehensive and bipartisan way, including making sure that we look out for dreamers in the United States of America. | ||
| The House Democratic Caucus members are not bashful. | ||
| We're looking forward to an active conversation and engagement, and I certainly will have more to say in the aftermath. | ||
|
unidentified
|
423, the nays are zero. | |
| Two-thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| And without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on passage of H.R. 33, on which the yays and the nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| H.R. 33, a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide special rules for the taxation of certain residents of Taiwan with income from sources within the United States. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question is on the passage of the bill. | |
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
| House now voting on the third and final roll call vote of the day. | ||
| This bill would provide tax relief for people who reside in Taiwan and pay taxes to both Taiwan and the United States. | ||
| And more now from the briefing with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| He talks about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that was announced today and his party's legislative agenda. | ||
| Overwhelming historic mandate that was achieved by the incoming president and I guess as represented by my colleagues in the House and the Senate. | ||
| It is interesting if you were going to look at anything as it relates to how we may deal with this current situation, notwithstanding the big, beautiful, historic, overwhelming mandate that was achieved by my Republican colleagues by their own representation. | ||
| When Donald Trump came into office in January of 2017, having lost the popular vote, there were 241 Republicans in the House of Representatives and 194 Democrats. | ||
| At this moment, the incoming president is going to be sworn in on January 20th, having won the national popular vote and performed better in places like New York and California than any other Republican president since the 1980s, | ||
| and he will have at most 220 Republicans in the House of Representatives and 215 Democrats, the narrowest margin of any majority since the Great Depression. | ||
|
Republicans' Inability to Lower Costs
00:02:17
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||
| To the extent that anyone is interested in figuring out how we, as House Democrats, should approach this incoming administration, I would suggest that one actually take a look at what House Republicans were able to do with an overwhelming majority or unable to do in 2017 and 2018, | ||
| and what do we think they're going to be able to do in this particular context in the 119th Congress with a one or two seat majority at best and a group of people on the other side of the aisle who can't stand each other. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But on your side, is there less of a resistance posture and more you've mentioned you will look for common ground where it's possible? | |
| Has that changed in any way? | ||
| My view is that we should always find common ground and I was proud to have the opportunity to work with the Trump administration during his first term on historic criminal justice reform resulting in the achievement of the First Step Act. | ||
| That's always been my posture that we should find common ground with our Republican colleagues to get things done whenever and wherever possible. | ||
| And that is certainly the case at this moment when we hope that Republicans will keep their word and present a plan to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America. | ||
| To date, it's been months now since the November election. | ||
| We haven't seen a single plan, a single idea, or a single piece of legislation put forward by Republicans to lower housing costs, lower child care costs, lower the cost of groceries, lower insurance costs, or lower utility costs. | ||
| You can't Present the American people with a single plan, a single idea, or a single piece of legislation? | ||
|
Passed Objection: Resolution Laid on Table
00:06:42
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||
| Instead, you develop a hit list on Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act and nutritional assistance? | ||
| Were you telling the truth to the American people or were they lying? | ||
| Last question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| I'll go back. | ||
| Next to last question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You did find quite a bit of common ground in the last Congress with Republicans on TikTok legislation that was signed into law. | |
| The Supreme Court looks like it is preparing to uphold that law later this week. | ||
| What do you tell the millions of TikTok users out there, many of whom I would assume are in your district, people who make their livelihoods off TikTok and are supported by TikTok? | ||
| What do you tell them as this ban from app stores is slated to take effect this weekend? | ||
| We have a few days to try to work this out, and let's see where we land over the next few days. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Leader, you when you calculate voted in 2022 for the Puerto Rico Status Act that included the territorial status as an alternative, now you have in Calcutta the defender of that status, Pablo Fernandez, the resident commissioner. | |
| Do you still support a bit like the Puerto Rico Status Act or a concept like that one? | ||
| I look forward to talking to Pablo about his ideas as it relates to resolving the territorial issues connected to the people of Puerto Rico, who are an incredibly important part of the fabric of America, including disproportionately serving in our nation's military. | ||
| It's an issue that certainly needs to be resolved. | ||
| Pablo was elected by the people of Puerto Rico. | ||
| He'll certainly have an important voice as we move forward. | ||
| I look forward to talking to him about his perspectives as we move forward with possible legislation in this Congress or sometime in the foreseeable future. | ||
| Thank you, everyone. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeas are 423. | |
| The nays are one. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| objection, a motion to reconsider, is laid on the table. | ||
| The purpose | ||
| is, the gentleman from Oklahoma seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I send to a desk, a privileged resolution, and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
| The clerk will report the resolution. | ||
| House Resolution 42. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Resolution be considered as read and printed in the record. | |
| Without objection, the resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider has been laid on the table. | ||
| Resolution asks for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will report. | |
| Clerk will report the resolution. | ||
| House Resolution 43, resolve that at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, January 20th, 2025, the House shall proceed to the west front of the Capitol for the purpose of attending the inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, and that upon the conclusion of the ceremonies, the House stands adjourned until noon on Tuesday, January 21st, 2025, for morning hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Democratic caucus, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
| The clerk will report the resolution. | ||
| House Resolution 44. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be considered as read. | |
| Without objection, the resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Purpose is the gentleman from Florida, seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I hereby remove my name as co-sponsor of H.R. 361. | ||
| The request is granted. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seat recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourned to meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow. | ||
| objection. | ||
|
Executive Order Issued
00:15:24
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|
unidentified
|
The chair lays before the house a message. | |
| To the Congress of the United States. | ||
| Section 202D of the National Emergencies Act 50 United States Code 1622D provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. | ||
| In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for Publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to the widespread humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the potential for a deepening economic collapse in Afghanistan declared in Executive Order 14064 of February 11, 2022, is to continue in effect beyond February 11, 2025. | ||
| The widespread humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, including the urgent needs of the people of Afghanistan for food, security, livelihood support, water, sanitation, health, hygiene, and shelter and settlement assistance, among other basic human needs, and the potential for a deepening economic collapse in Afghanistan, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. | ||
| In addition, the preservation of certain property of DA Afghanistan Bank, DAB, held in the United States by United States financial institutions, is of the utmost importance to addressing this national emergency and the welfare of the people of Afghanistan. | ||
| Various parties, including representatives of victims of terrorism, have asserted legal claims against certain property of DAB or indicated in public court filings and intent to make such claims. | ||
| This property is blocked under Executive Order 14064. | ||
| Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14064 with respect to the widespread humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the potential for a deepening economic collapse in Afghanistan. | ||
| Signed, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the White House, January 15th, 2025. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Referred to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services and ordered printed. | |
| It lays before the House a message. | ||
| To the Congress of the United States. | ||
| Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 United States Code 1701 et Sec, the National Emergencies Act, 50 United States Code 1601 et Sec, and Section 301 of Title III, United States Code, I hereby report that I have issued an executive order to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13894 of October 14, 2019, | ||
| blocking property and suspending entry of certain persons contributing to the situation in Syria. | ||
| The order makes minimal edits to the Executive Order 13894 in light of the fact that certain operations referenced in that order ceased five years ago. | ||
| In particular, under the amended order, the United States may still sanction any person determined to be responsible for or complicit in or to have directly or indirectly engaged in or attempted to engage in actions or policies that further threaten the peace, security, stability, or territorial integrity of Syria or the commission of serious human rights abuse. | ||
| I am enclosing a copy of the executive order I have issued. | ||
| Signed sincerely, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the White House, January 15th, 2025. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Refer to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and report it. | |
| printed. | ||
| Members, please take your conversations off the floor. | ||
| The chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman for Virginia seat recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman from Virginia is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I rise today as a representative of Virginia's 5th congressional district. | ||
| I am honored to serve nearly 800,000 Virginians. | ||
| Virginia, thousands of miles from the border. | ||
| The gentleman was suspended. | ||
| Members, please take your conversations off the floor. | ||
| Should I start over? | ||
| Start all over. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| I'm going to start over. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right, here we go. | ||
| I rise today as a representative of Virginia's 5th congressional district. | ||
| I'm honored to serve nearly 800,000 Virginians. | ||
| Virginia, thousands of miles from the border, is a border state. | ||
| Every county, city, and town is a border county city in town under the current administration. | ||
| Last week, I voted on my first bill, the Lake and Riley Act. | ||
| Illegal aliens are robbing, sexually assaulting, and murdering American citizens. | ||
| This bill detains illegal immigrants who commit additional crimes like theft until they get deported. | ||
| Lake and had a bright future, but her life was cut short when an illegal alien murdered her while she was jogging one morning. | ||
| She fought and did everything right. | ||
| The perpetrator kept getting released from jail because of weak America Last policies. | ||
| I was proud to vote in favor for this legislation introduced by my good friend, Congressman Mike Collins from Georgia, who is in power in law enforcement to do their job. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from Minnesota seek recognition? | ||
| Seek permission to address the House for one minute, rise, and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| No. | ||
| Okay, how do we make this go down? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Put your foot on the panel and hold the challenge. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the late former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader, Carrie Dietzig. | ||
| Senator Diesig was an incredible public servant who transformed the lives of so many. | ||
| During her historic tenure, Senator Diesek led the Minnesota legislature in passing significant investments in our state's public education system, transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, and green economy. | ||
| Her efforts resulted in Minnesota passing universal school meals, protecting bodily autonomy, ensuring paid leave, and medical leave for Minnesota workers. | ||
| It was an honor to serve alongside her when I was first elected to the Minnesota legislature and to continue her leadership and to continue to hold her leadership as an inspiration as I serve the communities of Minnesota's 5th district. | ||
| Her legacy of dedication to inclusive, productive lawmaking and her steadfast commitment to her constituents will be remembered for years to come. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady yields. | |
| For what purposes, the gentlemen from Tennessee seek recognition. | ||
| From California, excuse me. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I see the universal consent to address the House Lady one minute and advise them to semi remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to stress the importance of providing prompt relief to the victims of the ongoing disaster nightmare in Los Angeles. | ||
| The relief measure should include direct support for rebuilding and recovery, along with safeguards to assure that that support gets to victims as quickly and as efficaciously as possible. | ||
| Now, there will also need to be a thoroughgoing federal inquiry into the causes of this catastrophe, into the political failures that enabled this catastrophe. | ||
| And we will need to use every tool that we have to inject some common sense into how California manages its forests and its water supply. | ||
| But that should not stand in the way of getting immediate relief to the victims. | ||
| These folks have already paid an extraordinarily high price for the failures of their government, and they should not be punished again. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from New Mexico seek recognition? | ||
| I seek recognition that approaches direct Henry Marshall. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| It's not going around. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Okay. | ||
| We're ready now. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Gentlelady is recognized. | ||
| This image could be from the California wildfires, but it's not. | ||
| It's from New Mexico's Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire, which ravaged northern New Mexico. | ||
| We are still recovering from the inferno with help from the federal government. | ||
| We might see a picture like this in Montana or Utah or anywhere there are droughts and extreme weather events. | ||
| When disaster hit New Mexico, my colleagues supported our state, including recently Speaker Johnson and my Republican friends. | ||
| I am grateful that we acted as one. | ||
| When hurricanes hit North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, we supported the recovery in those states without conditions because that's what we do. | ||
| Americans don't turn their backs on each other. | ||
| That should not change with California. | ||
| They need our help. | ||
| New Mexican firefighters are there helping. | ||
| Congress must help too without placing conditions on emergency disaster aid. | ||
| Let's act as one United States in face of this disaster. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Tennessee seek recognition? | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I want to congratulate and recognize the incredible return of my good friend, Mr. Mike Keith, as the next voice of the balls to the University of Tennessee's Ball Radio Network. | ||
| Born in Knoxville and raised in Franklin, Mike started his career as UTK Sports Director in 1986, where he provided dynamic play-by-plays and captivating sports analysis. | ||
| Months after his initial appointment, he was hired by the legendary John Ward. | ||
| Mike soon became the voice of the baseball volves from 1992 to 1998, where it's not in my notes, but I will note that I did throw out the first pitch one time, and they said it was incredibly accurate and incredibly fast. | ||
| Mike's career did not stop there, nor did his hard work. | ||
| In 1999, Mike took over the play-by-play duties for the Tennessee Titans, with his career as an NFL broadcaster spanning a quarter century. | ||
| Mike's accolades speak for themselves. | ||
| He is a member of five halls of fame, including the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the TASA Hall of Fame, the BGA Hall of Fame, Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame, and University of Tennessee's Baseball Hall of Fame, and being named Tennessee Sportscaster of the Year 12 times. | ||
| Mike has now returned to Rocky Top as a lead play-by-play announcer for UT's football and men's basketball games. | ||
| He is a pioneer of radio broadcasting and represents his alma mater well. | ||
| Mike, congratulations on your return and go big orange. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield the remainder of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Louisiana seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
objection. | |
| The gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in memory of Martin Tiger Besch, William Billy DeMayo, Elliot Wilkinson, Nico Perez, | ||
| Kareem Badawi, Brandon Taylor, Nicariah Dido, Matthew Tandario, Hubert Gotro, Edward Pettifer, Drew Dolphin, Terrence Kennedy, and Latasha Polk. | ||
| These precious lives were taken from us far too soon. | ||
| We honor them, not just as names, but as fathers, mothers, children, and friends who brought light to New Orleans and to this world. | ||
| Last week, I stood with President Biden at the Bourbon Street Memorial. | ||
| We reflected on the profound loss felt by our community and our nation. | ||
| In the quiet of St. Louis Cathedral, we lit candles and prayed for healing for the injured survivors, for the grieving families, and for a city shaken but not broken. | ||
| This was not just an attack on New Orleans. | ||
| It was an assault on our shared humanity, our spirit of joy, and our enduring strength. | ||
| Let me be clear: New Orleans will never let these lives be forgotten. | ||
| We will rise from this pain with unity, love, and resilience, as we always do. | ||
| May God continue to bless the victims, their families, the great city of New Orleans, the great state of Louisiana, and the great United States of America. | ||
|
First Responders Tribute
00:15:34
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| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| What purpose does the gentleman from Montana seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask 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. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the first responders of Montana's 2nd Congressional District who are sacrificing time and treasure to combat the ongoing wildfires in Southern California. | ||
| Firefighters from Columbus and Red Lodge are joining groups like the Billings Flying Service and other crews and individuals from across the state to help those in need. | ||
| I applaud the leadership of these groups, including Columbus Fire Rescue Chief Rich Cowger and Red Lodge Fire Rescue Chief Tom Koontz for setting an example of service before self. | ||
| During my time as a combat search and rescue enlisted aviator in the U.S. Air Force, we had a motto, these things we do that others may live. | ||
| These men and women exemplify that motto. | ||
| So I ask that you join me in praying for and honoring these brave Montanans who have traveled far and wide and put themselves in harm's way to protect the lives and property of their fellow Americans. | ||
| God bless and Godspeed to these heroes. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, some House Republicans are threatening to withhold disaster aid to California unless certain unknown conditions are met. | ||
| There's even talk about attaching disaster aid to an increase in the debt ceiling. | ||
| My friends, this could be your state. | ||
| Never in our nation's history has the federal government placed such politically driven conditions on disaster aid to its own citizens. | ||
| We can have good faith debates about water policy and infrastructure deficiencies, and we should. | ||
| But that's not what this is about. | ||
| This is a bad faith effort to use California as a punching bag. | ||
| This is about the promotion of half-truths, conspiracy theories, and outright lies. | ||
| Not to mention it's a way out for House Republicans. | ||
| They can't raise the debt ceiling on their own, so they want to tie that to disaster aid. | ||
| It's unconscionable. | ||
| To my Republican friends, it's unacceptable and downright shameful to use the suffering of Californians in need, or anyone in need, to solve your internal political disputes. | ||
| Please stop. | ||
| Stop playing games. | ||
| Let's get the disaster aid to the people who need it, and let's do it now. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a dear friend and dedicated public servant, Jerry McDaniel. | ||
| Jerry had a fierce determination to better her community, not just with her words, but with her actions as well. | ||
| She was a resident of North Myrtle Beach for nearly 22 years, where she was active in her community, including the Horry County Republican Women's Club. | ||
| She was a true pillar of the South Carolina conservative movement. | ||
| In 2016, Jerry worked for President Donald Trump, helping secure a historic victory. | ||
| In 2020, she served as an elector to our Electoral College, helping to assign our state's nine votes to President Donald Trump. | ||
| Jerry's personality was infectious. | ||
| She was an incredibly hard worker, and she had the unique ability to inspire others to work diligently for the conservative cause. | ||
| Through all that she accomplished, one thing remained constant, her passion for improving the lives of South Carolina and our great country. | ||
| Her conviction, her fearless leadership, and willingness to serve will no doubt leave a lasting legacy for all who knew her. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| I request unanimous consent to address the House and to extend and revise my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today I rise to recognize Christopher Brooks as Ohio's 13th Congressional District Champion of the Week. | ||
| Christopher is a senior AP art student at Canton McKinley High School. | ||
| This year, he was awarded a gold key, two silver keys, and an honorable mention in the regional scholastic art competition. | ||
| Christopher's beginnings in art started in kindergarten, where he used his creative skills to make unique constructions out of Lego blocks. | ||
| Fast forward to high school, he has taken his passion for art to the next level by creating beautiful color pencil works in oil paintings. | ||
| Christopher's work that earned him a gold key will now be considered for a national award. | ||
| Congratulations to Christopher on this fantastic accomplishment. | ||
| And good luck as you move on to represent our region on the national stage. | ||
| You are a shining example of why Ohio's 13th congressional district is known as the birthplace of champions. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seat recognition? | ||
| Ask the standard address House for one minute and revise Senator Mars. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, Governor Gavin Newsom's high-speed rail project has been a symbol of fiscal mismanagement, and now the Department of Government Efficiency here in D.C., known as DOE, is stepping in to examine the situation as well. | ||
| Originally projected to cost $33 billion back in 2008, the price tag has now ballooned closer to $130 billion. | ||
| Despite an initial completion date for 2020, now it's at best by about 2030, maybe even 2035. | ||
| Zero passengers have even ridden on the thing because it's not possible yet. | ||
| This boondoggle has already consumed $6.8 billion in federal funds of all U.S. taxpayers. | ||
| Now they're asking for $8 billion more, which is way short of $130 billion. | ||
| Doge's analysis paints a grim picture of a project spiraling out of control with no end in sight. | ||
| Governor Newsom keeps funneling California tax dollars into this never-ending pit, ignoring needs like critical water infrastructure, which would be helping all of our state, including Southern California, if we could raise Shasta Dam and gain 600,000 new acre-feet. | ||
| We would have the ability to not be short-funded on the brush removal that needs to be happening in Southern Cal as well as the forestry management all over California. | ||
| So we need to have, instead of empty-handed promises by Newsom, we need to have President Trump leading the way on good infrastructure. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| What purpose does the gentlewoman from California seat recognition? | ||
| Thanks, Minister. | ||
| To address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise as the chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation to urge that we focus our energy on standing with firefighters, businesses, and families impacted by the Los Angeles County fire, not politics. | ||
| I've been hearing unprecedented political attacks, lies, threats of conditioning, disaster aid, even while these fires rage. | ||
| The largest urban fire in the history of the United States. | ||
| Our rule has always been disaster help without conditions. | ||
| If you want to change our standing policy, remember your constituents could be the next ones to be abandoned. | ||
| As my California colleague, Congresswoman Young Kim, said this week, quote, fires don't discriminate, and she's right. | ||
| In December, when disaster aid went to victims in Republican-led states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, Democrats overwhelmingly voted for that aid. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we didn't discriminate then, and we must not discriminate now during California's time of need. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Utah seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to introduce myself as I undertake this awesome responsibility to serve the citizens of Utah's 3rd congressional district. | ||
| My name is Mike Kennedy, and I am both a physician and an attorney. | ||
| As a doctor, I'm a trained listener. | ||
| As a lawyer, I'm a trained advocate. | ||
| As a legislator, I intend to honor the promises I made to my constituents when I asked for their votes to take seriously the problems we confront, which include a porous border and a massive national debt. | ||
| I will be a foe to those who would work to turn the people over to the government and a friend to those who will turn the government over to the people. | ||
| Our common oath when we begin this service is to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. | ||
| It is a call to actively search for all that unites us in our common citizenship without fear or favor. | ||
| The vision of our founders that we be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, burns brightly in me and will be my daily touchstone as I do the work of the people. | ||
| Let us go forward with renewed energy to keep all that makes America the great country that we know it to be. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Address the House for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Revise and extend my Without Observation. | |
| The gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today filled with immense pride and gratitude for the incredible bravery and dedication of our 911 dispatchers, first responders, and firefighters across California. | ||
| These men and women, many of whom work around the clock, have been on the front lines fighting tirelessly to protect our homes and communities from the devastating impact of the ongoing fires. | ||
| I am also deeply proud of the way our communities have come together, from local volunteers to neighbors checking on one another and organizations offering aid. | ||
| California's spirit of unity and resilience shines brighter than ever. | ||
| And as we continue to navigate these difficult times, I urge my colleagues to not play politics and ensure we provide the disaster relief and aid to California that California deserves and needs now more than ever. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| I ask municipal consent to address the House for one minute and advise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a treasured Florida statesman, the Honorable Governor Kenneth Buddy McKay. | ||
| Today, his hometown and family will celebrate this compassionate fighter who served 26 years in the State House and Senate, Congress as Florida's lieutenant governor and briefly as governor. | ||
| A righteous fighter for what he believed in, he fought the Cross-Florida barge canal and defended a fellow University of Florida classmate from racist taunts. | ||
| When others of his generation saw an issue to exploit, Buddy remained steadfast to protect civil rights, reproductive freedoms, and our precious ecosystem. | ||
| Political foes used his decency against him, but Buddy McKay remained a man of principle. | ||
| He was a proud liberal who never abandoned causes that helped the less fortunate, even if it cost him votes. | ||
| I came of age watching Buddy McKay masterly maneuver against powerful adversaries and work tirelessly behind the scenes to help people. | ||
| Buddy McKay involved all the values of decency and honesty, and his public service legacy is a model we desperately need. | ||
| May his memory be for a blessing. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Florida seat recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Is this right? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today I rise to say thank you, President Biden and your team, for your relentless perseverance and leadership in securing a needed agreement between Israel and Hamas that includes the release of 33 hostages who have endured unimaginable suffering. | ||
| This breakthrough is a testament to unwavering U.S. diplomacy and steadfast support for Israel and is a profound moment of relief and joy for loved ones who never gave up hope. | ||
| With that said, Mr. Speaker, this mission is not over. | ||
| We must remain resolute, bringing every hostage home, delivering humanitarian relief where needed, ensuring Israel's security, and laying the foundation for a lasting peace in the Middle East. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| The gentlewoman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, during this week in Washington, I have heard certain cunning, power-hungry individuals invoke the name of Jesus to blasphemously whitewash their own awful transgressions against the Ten Commandments and their dehumanization of God's precious creatures. | ||
| I don't expect the core subject of my concern will hear nor even comprehend the biblical verse I wish to enter into the record, Matthew 25, 31 to 46. | ||
| Someday may these prevaricators face a reckoning in which the Lord of all lords will judge. | ||
| And I quote, Truly, I tell you, whatsoever you do for the least of my brethren, that you do unto me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So be it. | |
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentlewoman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| I request Madam's consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Less than four weeks ago, Congress passed the American Relief Act that provided disaster aid to states such as Florida, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. | ||
| Did Democrats demand conditions on this aid because it went to red states? | ||
| No, because we are all Americans. | ||
| We are all God's children. | ||
| Congress has never put conditions on disaster aid because when Mother Nature strikes, she doesn't ask for your party affiliation before she hurts you. | ||
| And the people that were hurt in the fires in Southern California were children and parents and grandchildren who lost their homes or lost their loved ones. | ||
|
Honoring Dr. Orange County Superintendent
00:15:49
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||
| So I am asking Republican members of Congress to please stop using the pain and suffering of disaster victims for your own political purposes. | ||
| It is not American. | ||
| It is not Christian. | ||
| It is not moral. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, address the body for one minute without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of my very good friend, Orange County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. El Mihadis, who passed away after a long battle with cancer. | ||
| Dr. Miharis was a champion for our students to prepare them for college and careers. | ||
| During 2022, over 90% of Orange County high school graduates graduated on time, beating the California average. | ||
| During Mr. Mihada's tenure, he also fought to make Orange County a better place to live for everyone. | ||
| He established the 1 Billion Acts of Kindness Initiative, allowing Orange County residents to honor acts of kindness. | ||
| And he never stopped fighting to make our communities better. | ||
| Dr. Mihars, my good friend, your legacy lives. | ||
| And we will never forget the passion for education that you showed us and your efforts to create future leaders for our great nation. | ||
| We will miss you, Elle. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose is the gentleman from California seat recognition? | ||
| Ask your manners to consent to address the House for one minute and to rise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about Americans who are hurting, that have been suffering over the last 10 days as a result of the fires that have occurred in Los Angeles, the South Coast basin. | ||
| What we're talking about is the moral imperative of what America has always done to help those American people when they're in need, whether it's hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes, fires, natural disasters of every kind you can imagine. | ||
| The wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles and the South Coast Basin have burned over 40,000 acres, 12,000 buildings destroyed, and 24 lives lost and counting, and there certainly will be more. | ||
| That's more than 30,000 football fields. | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| The pain, the suffering, the social and the economic losses from homes to businesses to churches and synagogues, people's way of life. | ||
| I'm appalled. | ||
| I'm appalled to hear that some of my Republican friends are openly discussing conditioning wildfire relief upon their partisan agendas. | ||
| That's wrong. | ||
| We should not forget that over $120 million in hurricane relief was provided to the state of Louisiana when they needed it over the last 20 years. | ||
| Humanity must always take precedence over partisanship. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose is the gentleman from California seat recognition? | ||
| Seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without question, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| My name is Dave Mennon. | ||
| I was just elected to represent the 47th Congressional District in Orange County, California, just south of the fires. | ||
| And while we are not affected by these, we are subject to the same fire risks on a year-by-year basis. | ||
| And what we're seeing right now is a biblical-level disaster in California. | ||
| The scope of this devastation is unprecedented. | ||
| And now, as has been mentioned before, is a time when we need to come together, understanding that with climate change, we are going to continue seeing biblical-level events going forward. | ||
| Now, when we've had past disasters, whether hurricanes in southeastern United States, Florida, the Gulf Coast, tornadoes, flooding, and yes, wildfires, we have stepped up. | ||
| The people of Southern California have stepped up to help those in need. | ||
| That is the American way. | ||
| That's the California way. | ||
| And what is being proposed right now in tying conditions to aid is un-American. | ||
| It is despicable. | ||
| It's pathetic. | ||
| We have never done this before. | ||
| And I urge my Republican colleagues to think about the precedent they will be setting if they set conditions, political conditions, to this aid. | ||
| Because the next time a disaster strikes, it could be your district, your area, and you do not want to set this precedent right now. | ||
| People are struggling. | ||
| Thousands of firefighters are exhausted. | ||
| We need your help. | ||
| I yield back the remainder of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Vermont seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as families in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas grapple with horrible devastation, loss of homes, community, loss of life and livelihoods. | ||
| I'm disgusted to hear that Republican leadership, Speaker Johnson, is planning to use this tragedy for political gain and withhold aid from California. | ||
| Americans are evacuating their homes, watching their communities burn, and the Speaker and Trump and some of my Republican colleagues in Congress want to punish Americans for not voting their way in November. | ||
| This is morally bankrupt. | ||
| Californians obviously need this help now. | ||
| I'm standing up here because I'm a Vermonter that just endured two horrible summers of devastating floods. | ||
| I know what it feels like to go house to house and talk to people who have lost everything. | ||
| And I remember talking to one man who had lost his home and his livelihood was out of his home. | ||
| And he said to me, I didn't vote for you. | ||
| And I said, it doesn't matter that you didn't vote for me. | ||
| I'm still showing up for you. | ||
| We need to show up for all Americans, regardless of political party. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to celebrate the 215th anniversary of Lebanon, Ohio. | ||
| Lebanon is the birthplace of the Western Star, Ohio's oldest weekly newspaper, the home of the historic Golden Lamb in Ohio's oldest hotel, which has hosted 12 United States presidents and literary giants like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. | ||
| And after walking on the moon and seeing the earth from space, Neil Armstrong could go anywhere. | ||
| He chose Lebanon as his home for 23 years. | ||
| It's that special. | ||
| Today, Lebanon continues to bring people together, including one of my favorite events, the Warren County Fair. | ||
| It's a place where neighbors gather to celebrate community and tradition. | ||
| We have an office there, and it is one of my favorite places, still remarkable, 215 years later. | ||
| Congratulations to all my friends in Lebanon. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Moore, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this special order. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| House Republicans are doubling down on our commitment to supporting and protecting the rights and safety of women and girls across the country. | ||
| We are doing this by championing bills that fight back against unfair competition in sports and dangerous immigration policies. | ||
| Yesterday we passed Congressman Stuby's Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which is now on its way to the Senate. | ||
| This legislation prevents biological males from competing in school athletic programs for women and girls by requiring that sex in athletic competition be determined by genetics at birth. | ||
| House Republicans are also supporting Congresswoman Mace's violation or violence against women by a Legal Aliens Act, which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make legal immigrants inadmissible and deportable from the United States if they are convicted or have admitted to committing sex offense or domestic violence. | ||
| I'm grateful for my colleagues for joining me this evening to discuss these important measures and our commitment to delivering for our daughters, sisters, nieces, and granddaughters. | ||
| I now yield so much time as you may consume to my colleague from the great state of Texas, Mr. Moran. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today before you to reaffirm the House Republicans' efforts to empower and protect American women and girls. | ||
| By passing legislation such as Congressman Greg Stuby's Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, Congressman Mike Collins' Lake and Riley Act, and Congresswoman Nancy Mace's Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, we address significant lapses in our justice, legal, and education systems, and we push back against a radical left agenda that leaves our society in moral tatters. | ||
| Individually, these bills tackle critical issues and collectively they create a safer, healthier, and more prosperous nation for our women and our girls. | ||
| And that's really important to me and should be to every American. | ||
| But as a father of two girls, specifically, I want my girls to have the opportunity to thrive in a society that gives equality to both men and women, that nurtures their growth, and protects their well-being. | ||
| I do not want to be part of a society that places them at greater risk and reduces their opportunities in this country. | ||
| Our daughters should not be forced to adhere to radical policies that undermine truth, safety, and reality. | ||
| Policies that have been pushed for the last four years by the Biden-Harris administration. | ||
| We, as a Republican Conference, will not sit idly by on this issue, nor have we, as evidenced by the bills that I referenced today. | ||
| So let me personally thank again Congressman Stuby, Congressman Collins, and Congresswoman Mace for their dedication to protecting my two daughters and every daughter and mother and sister across this nation. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you to the gentleman from Texas. | ||
| I appreciate your remarks. | ||
| And of course, welcome to the best committee in Congress. | ||
| Excited to have you on team. | ||
| Next, again, thank you to my colleagues for being willing to carve out time in their schedules to come down and share this message. | ||
| I yield so much time as she may consume to the much new and improved representative from the great state of North Dakota, Ms. Fidorchek. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent all North Dakotans in the United States House of Representatives. | ||
| This is my first speech on the House floor, and I want to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about our state and what I hope to accomplish during the 119th Congress. | ||
| North Dakotans are hardworking, independent, resourceful people who are dedicated to their faith, families, and communities. | ||
| From Abercrombie to Zapp and every place in between, North Dakotans show up every day, regardless of rain, snow, or sub-zero temperatures. | ||
| That's what I'll do here. | ||
| Our biggest industries in North Dakota are agriculture and energy, and we're very proud of those. | ||
| But we have so many other innovative things taking place: autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, defense technology, and more. | ||
| This is why I sought a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the best and most powerful committees on Capitol Hill. | ||
| From my seat there, I will help advance the interests of our state, particularly in energy. | ||
| Before I became a member of Congress, I served as a public service commissioner for 12 years. | ||
| I regulated five multi-state monopoly utilities, permitted $15 billion worth of new energy infrastructure, and advocated for market rules and policies to support reliable and affordable energy resources. | ||
| I saw firsthand the challenges to our energy policy and the direct and dire consequences it has. | ||
| North Dakotans and Americans too have also seen the impacts of these policies in the prices they pay at the grocery store, at the gas pump, and to power their homes. | ||
| American energy reliability, affordability, sustainability, and security is the weakest it has been in years. | ||
| Take yesterday's action by the Biden administration to lock up millions of acres of oil, gas, and coal leases in North Dakota through the Bureau of Land Management's resource management plan for the state. | ||
| This is absolutely the wrong direction. | ||
| As demand for energy reaches record highs, we should be unleashing American energy production, not shutting it down. | ||
| It's time to abandon the one-size energy strategy that stifles domestic energy production and jeopardizes hardworking Americans' jobs. | ||
| I'm eager to work with the Trump administration, Governor Bergham, and my colleagues in the House to invest in a true all-of-the-above energy strategy and regain American energy dominance. | ||
| Doing so will help reduce America's debt, lower prices for hardworking families, reduce global emissions, and bolster our national security. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I also rise today in support of H.R. 28, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. | ||
| This legislation seeks to make sure women and girls have the opportunity to compete on a fair playing field by requiring schools to comply with the Title IX recognition of a person's gender at birth. | ||
| Competing in girls' sports as a kid gave me strength, taught me resilience, and helped me form lifelong friendships. | ||
| My experience as a kid would have been completely different if I had been forced to compete against biological males. | ||
|
Protecting Women's Sports
00:15:49
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| Let's let our kids be kids. | ||
| Let's let our daughters dream big, dream big, train hard, and compete on a level playing field. | ||
| House Resolution 28 is a common sense bill. | ||
| It strengthens protections for women, and I was proud to vote for it. | ||
| Men simply do not belong in women's sports, and House Republicans are leading the charge to ensure fairness for women and girls. | ||
| But our commitment to women and families doesn't just stop there. | ||
| Last week, we also passed the Lake and Riley Act, which will give immigration and customs enforcement the tools it needs to hold illegal immigrants who commit theft and other crimes accountable. | ||
| This is the Republican agenda in action. | ||
| We're protecting women, supporting families, and making our communities safer. | ||
| And this is just the beginning of our work. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you to the gentleman from North Dakota. | ||
| North Dakota like Utah, but not quite like Utah definitely hits above its weight and your, your presence is key on all these particular issues. | ||
| So thank you so much. | ||
| Thank you, mr. Speaker. | ||
| I will now yield so much time as she may consume to our conference secretary and gentlelady from the great state of Indiana. | ||
| Thank you, mr. Speaker, thank you, Congressman Moore. | ||
| Yesterday, Republicans stood united to pass the Protection Of Women And Girls In Sports Act, reaffirming a simple but critical truth, men are men and women are women. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| As the mother of two daughters who are athletes, I have seen firsthand the hard work and dedication it takes for girls to compete in sports. | ||
| Sadly, we've witnessed biological men entering women's competitions, robbing female athletes of fair opportunities and, in some cases, even causing injuries. | ||
| Under House Republican leadership, that ends now. | ||
| This legislation, which I'm proud to co-sponsor, sends a clear message, female athletes deserve fair competition, secure locker rooms and a safe and level playing field. | ||
| Thanks to House Republicans, the days of biological men competing in women's sports are over. | ||
| This legislation is about restoring common sense. | ||
| It's about standing up for objective truth. | ||
| The American people have called for this national mandate supporting women and girls in their sports and spaces and, thanks to Republican leadership. | ||
| We are delivering on that promise. | ||
| I'm proud to stand with congressman Stuby on the side of fairness safety, integrity and the protection of women's sports. | ||
| Thank you, mr speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you to the gentleman from Indiana. | ||
| I really appreciate the opportunity to serve with you and look forward to more opportunities in this 119th congress. | ||
| Thank you, I will now yield time to gentleman from California, a gentleman who's been through uh the, the devastation that we're also seeing as our hearts go out to those in California. | ||
| His district has been hit by this several times and i'll say this like hearing the hearing, the stories and the conversations of that he's had from his district. | ||
| It just puts it into perspective. | ||
| This is, this is tough stuff and and you've been down this road before and and have been a strong leader on on, communicating what we need to do to keep it from continuing to happen. | ||
| And with that I yield so much time as you may consume to the gentleman from California, mr Lamalfa. | ||
| Thank you, my colleague, mr Moore, appreciate that a lot. | ||
| Indeed, California has had a lot of problems inflicted upon it, partly by nature and partly self-inflicted, by governing and and as we reflect and bring, bring resources and aid to southern California here on these horrific events Happening with fire down there and Pacific Palisades and surrounding communities, it's very sobering, | ||
| but also points out the need for leadership and competency in preparing for it. | ||
| It's really basic stuff. | ||
| In my north part of the state, we've been through it many times with losses of communities. | ||
| We all remember the paradise fire, 85 people lost their lives and 90% of the town was consumed and others. | ||
| And so we have got to do better in the preparation ahead of time before fire season on how we treat the lands and have the apparatus ready instead of complications due to contracts, for example, with the Forest Service not being ready to have the equipment that would be there in the forests and on and on and on. | ||
| So I appreciate that and we're going to do the best we can to move as quickly as possible for the folks in Southern Cal and then ongoing build up the infrastructure and the work that needs to be done. | ||
| So as tonight's topic has been when we're talking about protecting our citizens, protecting our border. | ||
| California as well under the direction of Gavin Newsom has become a haven for illegal immigration with taxpayers footing the bill for an ever-expanding list of unbelievable benefits that are being given to illegal immigrants. | ||
| From health care to education, sex changes, homes, the whole works. | ||
| California is pouring resources into supporting those here illegally. | ||
| Our own citizens, as we mentioned, are struggling with many things in burning communities as well as the more day-to-day stuff. | ||
| Overcrowded schools, strained health care systems, and increasing public safety concerns with gang and crime and on and on. | ||
| And the sanctuary policies that we have statewide, not just cities like we see around the country, this is a statewide sanctuary policy that protects illegal immigration from ICE and others being able to pick them up when it's found that we have illegals in this country that could be processed federally and hopefully deported. | ||
| Cities across California are openly defying federal immigration laws, creating safe havens for those who have broken the law. | ||
| These sanctuary cities as well are not just a burden on our resources, they are a threat, as I said, to public safety. | ||
| We've seen this firsthand, most recently in this country with the tragic loss and death of Lake and Riley. | ||
| And you'll remember a few years ago in San Francisco on the wharf there, Kate Steinley killed by a bullet from a gun that an illegal immigrant had found or taken or stolen or whatever. | ||
| Those lives are gone and it's tragedy for their family. | ||
| What are we going to do to avenge them? | ||
| What are we going to do to make it right? | ||
| Because these two innocent women lost their lives due to these violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants who are protected by these sanctuary policies. | ||
| So tomorrow, hopefully, we will take up the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act introduced by my colleague Nancy Mace from South Carolina. | ||
| This crucial bill aims to close the loopholes that will allow violent offenders to slip through the cracks and continue to pose a threat to our country. | ||
| It's high time we prioritize the safety and security of our citizens, so the needs of our people, particularly women who would be and have been the victims of these violent crimes. | ||
| In my home state, California's approach is not sustainable. | ||
| We are overcrowded with crime, overrun, gangs, and broken services, as I mentioned. | ||
| Governor Newsom's policies are draining our resources and compromising public safety. | ||
| His priorities are illegal aliens and all sorts of benefits for them we keep seeing on and on and again and again as a state is running a deficit and spending things like on high-speed rail instead of helping for fire safety and having our water supply that we need for all those good reasons. | ||
| Instead of prioritizing the well-being of California's state is offering a free pass again and again and again to those coming into the country illegally and we become the state that is the magnet for all of it away from the other states. | ||
| So as we've said, it's a high time to put a stop to this. | ||
| Let's stand behind this legislation, the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act and ensure that we're doing everything possible to protect our cities and the people that will live within them, especially the women as like we think of Lake and Riley, Kate Steinley, and too many others who have already paid the ultimate price. | ||
| We need to focus entirely on the needs of folks like that and hopefully there will be some sense of closure or satisfaction for their families to see at least we've done the right thing ultimately. | ||
| And with President Trump coming in in just a few short days, I think we can finally get the momentum to do what we need to do with enforcing our border and allowing legal immigration, allowing people that we invite into the country. | ||
| We're still for immigration. | ||
| Just follow our rules, follow our laws, pass a few reasonable tests in order to become part of the American dream. | ||
| And we extend that. | ||
| That's what the country was based on for so many years and has completely gone awry in the last 50. | ||
| Why is it allowed to happen this way? | ||
| Why does the Biden administration, why do my colleagues on the other side believe that this is good policy? | ||
| We should and keep getting away with it politically. | ||
| Why is that seen as a good thing? | ||
| I think folks have really had their fill of it now because they're seeing it really showing up in their pocketbooks and their ability to afford a home, have a job, and not continue to get farther and farther behind as this country has always aspired to have the next generation be just a little bit better off than the previous one. | ||
| That's not happening now. | ||
| And these policies such as this, you can lay that right at the feet of our poorest border, as well as bad energy policies and other things causing inflation. | ||
| So with that, this is a very important thing we're working on this week so we can assure the women of this country that we are behind you. | ||
| We do have your back on this violence as well as previous legislation mentioned on women and girls in sports having a safe place to play and enjoy and excel without men somehow interfering on those fields in those locker rooms. | ||
| Common sense. | ||
| I can't even believe we're here at this point, but we're battling back here in this Congress with Republican leadership doing so. | ||
| So I appreciate, again, Mr. Moore leading us here tonight, and thank you for the time. | ||
| Thank you to the gentleman from California. | ||
| And again, we continue to pray that the best outcomes possible will continue, what will happen from California. | ||
| And for our concluding member here today, again, I thank my colleagues. | ||
| Brand new member from Montana. | ||
| We consider ourselves as a Utah and Montana, you know, the greatest portion of the country, would you say, out west. | ||
| And we've got a lot to prove that. | ||
| New member, but a very experienced and thoughtful, strong member that I look forward to working with. | ||
| Thank you for being here, and I yield you so much time. | ||
| I yield so much time as it may consume to the gentleman from Montana, Mr. Downey. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. Speaker, House Republicans have hit the ground running in the 119th Congress. | ||
| Last week, we considered bills to hold illegal aliens accountable who break our laws and defend U.S. national sovereignty against a rogue international judicial body. | ||
| This week is about protecting the women in all of our lives. | ||
| I am the father to two wonderful daughters and the husband of my wife, my amazing wife, Heather. | ||
| Now, never in a million years did I think that one day I would need to take the floor of the United States House of Representatives to defend their right to compete in athletic competition without unfair competition from biological males or to denounce acts of violence perpetrated against them as wrong and deserving of punishment. | ||
| But here I stand. | ||
| Just yesterday, we passed H.R. 28, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. | ||
| This bill ensures fair competition in women and girls' sports by rightfully defining gender based on reproductive biology and genetics and prohibits males identifying as women from competing in federally funded sporting competitions. | ||
| I was proud to add my support to this critical legislation and I look forward to voting for a second bill, the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act on the House floor tomorrow. | ||
| H.R. 30 will ensure that illegal aliens who have been convicted of or admit to committing sex offenses or domestic violence can be deported by closing a loophole in existing law. | ||
| Needless to say, the fact that we need to consider legislation of this kind is ludicrous. | ||
| Simple truths that we once took for granted are under assault from ideological corners of our nation that do not represent the vast majority of Americans and certainly not the vast majority of Montanans. | ||
| When America overwhelmingly elected Donald Trump to be our next president, they gave Republicans a clear mandate to reverse course on the progressive policies threatening the safety and well-being of our daughters, nieces, granddaughters, and sisters. | ||
| This week, Democrats have a chance to show us whose side they're on. | ||
| I know where I stand. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you to the gentleman from Montana. | ||
| I appreciate all that we've been able to interact thus far. | ||
| I'll close tonight, Speaker. | ||
| And just, again, thank my colleagues for being here tonight and for taking the time to speak on this important issue. | ||
| As I mentioned earlier, House Republicans are committed to advancing legislation that supports our women and girls and gives them a fair chance to excel in their athletic endeavors. | ||
| The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act ensures biological males are unable to compete in female-designated sports, giving women and girls the opportunity to compete on a fair playing field by requiring schools to comply with the Title IX recognition of a person's genetics at birth. | ||
| This bill withholds federal funding from schools that facilitate athletic programs where biological men compete against biological women. | ||
| To be clear, this is not about disrespecting anyone. | ||
| Everyone is worthy of dignity and respect. | ||
| However, protecting women and girls from feeling uncomfortable in their locker rooms, sustaining major sports injuries because of unfair competition, or simply losing out on well-deserved athletic accolades because they are genetically unable to beat a male is not purely political effort. | ||
| It is simply what is right. | ||
| This is a line that we must draw, and we know that Americans agree with this. | ||
|
The Confidence Advantage
00:02:14
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| Look, I've joked before that, you know, well, a couple things. | ||
| I got four boys. | ||
| I wasn't blessed with a girl. | ||
| We lament it every day. | ||
| I do love those boys, though, and I push them hard in sports. | ||
| But I reflect on this about my nieces, and they are dynamite athletes, and candidly could probably beat me in most of their design sports, tennis, soccer, across the board. | ||
| That's what motivates me on this. | ||
| The amount of confidence that you get from sports is key. | ||
| The ability to go and compete and play and enjoy this above anything else. | ||
| with all of the extra pressures that kids are placed through nowadays with social media pressure and everything, the concepts of teamwork that you learn, achieving something, getting better at something, and having ability to say, I have a shot to win that competition, cannot be beaten out of these into my nieces. | ||
| They have to be able to say, with a level playing field, I can go win this. | ||
| Not because it's important to win or this or that or when the track meet. | ||
| It's because they need to know that the effort they put in can achieve something. | ||
| And that is going to translate into a career, into anything that they get involved with where they have to accomplish something. | ||
| It's not just about sports. | ||
| It's a psychological element that we need to make sure exists. | ||
| Sports is such a key, important aspect for growth in people. | ||
| And that's what we're trying to do here. | ||
| Let's not make this a political endeavor. | ||
| At least you won't ever get that from me in my office and the way we communicate about this. | ||
| House Republicans, additionally, this week are standing up for women's safety by bringing to the floor Congresswoman Mace's Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act to uphold U.S. border laws and make illegal immigrants who have been convicted of or admitted to sex offenses or domestic violence inadmissible and deportable. | ||
|
Tax Cuts and Family Credits
00:15:21
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||
| This bill is about closing critical gaps in our immigration laws to protect Americans from harmful crimes. | ||
| Last year, over 20,000 illegal immigrants were not detained for sexual assault. | ||
| And as of July, over 650,000 with criminal histories were on the ice, non-detained docket. | ||
| This must change. | ||
| This bill takes action to get these violent offenders off of our streets and make our communities safe again. | ||
| I'm grateful for the work that my Republican colleagues have done to push these bills forward. | ||
| We're wasting no time to get some of the sensible legislation that we were able to get passed in the Galaxy Congress but went nowhere in the Senate. | ||
| We want to give the Senate an opportunity to vote on this. | ||
| I sincerely believe there will be Democrats that see the sensible approach with this. | ||
| And we're already seeing it with the bill that we passed last week, the Lake and Riley Act. | ||
| So again, I thank Congressman Stuby and Congresswoman Mace for their leadership in these critical issues. | ||
| Speaker, thank you so much to my colleagues again. | ||
| I appreciate your willingness to spend some time down here today and I yield back the remainder of my time to the chair. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd of 2025, the chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Roy, for 30 minutes. | ||
| I thank the Speaker. | ||
| I thank my friend from Utah for his remarks and all the good stuff that we've been starting this Congress off with as Republicans and his remarks about athletics. | ||
| I was a walk-on in college and I hope we might be able to work together, all of us, on figuring out how to deal with this, I think, a bit of a mess that the NIL is creating with respect to college athletics. | ||
| I watch significant fallout of what it means for, you know, good programs, coaches like Tony Bennett at the University of Virginia and others that have been raising red flags about what's happening with respect to NIL. | ||
| So amen. | ||
| Amen, brother. | ||
| And we can also figure out how to cut spending. | ||
| But I am here not to talk about the NIL. | ||
| I'll save that for another day. | ||
| Notwithstanding the national championship coming up around the corner, which the University of Texas should be playing in, but unfortunately they're not. | ||
| Republicans were given the opportunity to have control of the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and the White House. | ||
| Come Monday, President Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, and it can't come a moment too soon. | ||
| Everybody watching what is happening to our country, what this current administration is doing to our border, to our national security, to our spending, to the state of our culture, to the rule of law on the streets, the use of lawfare, the abuse of power can't come fast enough for most Americans. | ||
| And the question before us right now as Republicans is whether or not we're going to deliver. | ||
| Last time I checked, the American people did not send us to Washington. | ||
| They did not give us the majority in the United States House of Representatives, the people's House, to rack up more deficits. | ||
| But with all due respect to my Republican colleagues, we currently are on track to do just that. | ||
| We are projected to have a $2 trillion deficit next year. | ||
| As we speak, interest rates going up, our debt getting refinanced at higher interest rates, we have more debt that we're going to have to finance at higher rates, and that means interest is going up. | ||
| We have a job to do right now to cut spending, cut deficits, and save our country for our children. | ||
| I would wager that if I looked at the campaign materials or the speeches of every single Republican member of the House of Representatives and the Senate, they all ran on cutting spending and balancing budgets. | ||
| So the question is going to be before this body: will they do it? | ||
| I need to clear the record because my name has been invoked and that of a number of my friends for standing for things that are not true. | ||
| My name has been invoked by people in this room, by colleagues, about what I believe and don't believe. | ||
| Let me set the record straight right here, right now. | ||
| Yes, I believe that we should make permanent the Trump tax cuts from 2017. | ||
| I think that would be good for our economy. | ||
| I think that would be good for the American people. | ||
| I think that would help create more economic growth. | ||
| And I think that economic growth will yield revenue to the Treasury. | ||
| I believe in what people call dynamic scoring. | ||
| Some people in this town say that I do not. | ||
| Because what I do not believe in is making up numbers. | ||
| What I do not believe in is magic fairy dust that says the budget will magically balance if you cut taxes and never cut spending. | ||
| Because that's simply not true. | ||
| If I come to the floor and this chamber is full and I ask any one of my colleagues to stand up and look the camera in the eye and tell their people back home on C-SPAN or on the news that, for example, child tax credits pay for themselves or changing certain rates pay for themselves, not one of them will stand up. | ||
| Yet I promise you that we're going to be facing votes on this floor this year to extend the tax cuts that include, for example, child tax credits and other tax policies that in no way, shape, or form, economically speaking, pay for themselves. | ||
| And we're going to be told to do that on faith that that revenue and the growth in the economy or the growth of the economy will magically produce revenue and cause deficits to go down. | ||
| But nothing in our history would tell you that that's true. | ||
| How do you think we got to $36 trillion in debt? | ||
| It was by refusing to do basic math. | ||
| We're being told, all right, we're not going to touch any kind of reforms in health care and Medicare to drive down the price of health care so that we can save Medicare from its clear insolvency, Social Security from its clear insolvency. | ||
| It's going to go bankrupt in, what, eight years? | ||
| So we're not going to talk about those things. | ||
| What we're going to talk about, we're told, extend the tax cuts and then sit around and try to figure out how to cut other mandatory spending, but without regard to whether or not that will be deficit reducing. | ||
| And I think it's really important for the American people to understand this. | ||
| There are games being played in Washington right now to put pressure on people to box them in, to box members of this body in. | ||
| Right now, conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus often maligned on the pages of publications as being, quote, the right-wing guys. | ||
| Because oddly enough, we believe in freedom, balanced budgets, securing the border. | ||
| Yeah, we're the crazy ones. | ||
| And so the House Freedom Caucus has proposed, put forward a plan to raise the debt ceiling over $4 trillion over two years, fund border at $86 billion, the request by the incoming administration and borders are Tom Homan, fund defense modernization at $200 billion plus up, a separate fund through reconciliation so we can modernize our defense, | ||
| do what we need to do to beat China. | ||
| And what we're asking for for that is to reverse some of Biden's policies, all things that the president campaigned on. | ||
| Reverse the EV mandate. | ||
| That's $117 billion. | ||
| Medicaid work requirements and snap work requirements, $120 billion. | ||
| Undo the student loan bailouts, which are an unfair shift of money from the working population to those who took on student loans. | ||
| That's $100 to $270 billion of savings. | ||
| So again, I want to be very clear, because here's what you're going to hear in the coming weeks. | ||
| The House Freedom Caucus refuses to do a debt ceiling. | ||
| So reasonable Republicans are going to have to go cut a deal with Democrats to increase the debt ceiling, increase appropriations over our current spending levels, including defense and non-defense, and oh, by the way, give a crud ton of money to California. | ||
| That's coming. | ||
| That's coming. | ||
| And they will try to blame the Freedom Caucus and conservatives like me who dare say, hold on a second, maybe we shouldn't do that. | ||
| Maybe we should come up with another path forward to actually honor our commitments to cut spending and reduce the size and scope of government while we cut taxes, secure the border, and do the things we're supposed to do. | ||
| So again, we have put forward a plan. | ||
| We've shared it with our colleagues. | ||
| We shared it with the incoming administration. | ||
| We're making it public that will increase the debt ceiling so that Chuck Schumer can't play games with the bond market, fund border, fund defense, cut some of the disastrous Biden policies to pay for those things the American people prioritize. | ||
| And in so doing, free up defense to be modernized and built so that when we come to March, we don't have to do what happens every year where defense hawks sell their soul to the devil to raise defense spending, all driven by K-Street lobbyists and the defense contractors in this town who define our defense policy so that Democrats can get increases in non-defense spending, which is an increase in programs. | ||
| And our discretionary budget keeps going up and up and up and up. | ||
| And you keep funding the very bureaucrats that the Doge folks say they want to cut. | ||
| So I've got this wild idea, these crazy conservatives in the Freedom Caucus, that maybe, just maybe, we should change the game. | ||
| Maybe, just maybe, we should take that money, go build our defense through reconciliation, level the playing field, pass either a continuing resolution or spending at the caps that we put in place this last year, hold spending frozen for the rest of this year, go through the appropriations process, let Doge do its work, cut spending to pre-COVID levels, save about a trillion dollars over a decade, | ||
| do our job to actually deliver on the promises we made, give wins to the President of the United States, give wins to Republicans, unite the party, unite the country, demonstrate that we can do our job. | ||
| But you know why we can't? | ||
| You know why we can't do that right now? | ||
| Because the forces in this town who want nothing but tax cuts and no spending cuts are telling you you can't do it. | ||
| That's what's happening. | ||
| The lobbyists, the people in this town, members of Congress are saying we can't cut because there's some program, there's something in Medicaid, there's some reason, there's some excuse. | ||
| But gosh, we're definitely going to go ahead and reinstate all the tax policies because they read in some book a long time ago that they all pay for themselves, irrespective, by the way, of the laugh or curve or any common sense economics. | ||
| When I will say to you right now, if any of my Republican colleagues want to come down to the floor and tell me that each one of those tax provisions pay for themselves, I want to see it. | ||
| Show me that the child tax credits pay for themselves. | ||
| Now, I'm not saying the child tax credits may not be decent policy. | ||
| I'll tell you right now, I would love to vote on a bill right now to just eliminate the tax code and zero it out. | ||
| Maybe we'll do that before this year is over. | ||
| Maybe everybody will have to put their money where their mouth is. | ||
| Do you believe in taxation or not? | ||
| Because if you think you could just freely print money and fund all the things, you're too afraid to go back to your district and say that there's a limit on what you can spend, while out of the other side of your mouth, you talk about tax cuts. | ||
| Let's vote on a bill to zero out the tax code. | ||
| Because if you're going to constantly live with $2 trillion deficits, which is where we are right now, why not $6 trillion? | ||
| Why does it matter? | ||
| Genuine question. | ||
| Anybody in the complex, feel free to come down here and explain to me why my family, your family, my constituents' families should pay taxes into a system that is designed by this body to bleed $2 trillion plus dollars a year. | ||
| They keep talking about tax policy that's good for economic growth. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Yeah, I agree. | ||
| I support it. | ||
| I started this speech by saying I support it. | ||
| But I don't support it blindly. | ||
| I don't support it without recognizing our responsibility and our need to cut spending. | ||
| There ain't no free lunch. | ||
| You can't make up math. | ||
| You can't just go blame it on the CBO or blame it on scores. | ||
| Show the American people the math. | ||
|
Balanced Budget Promise
00:16:02
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| And don't go run and hide behind a vote on a balanced budget amendment. | ||
| Because I promise you, that's what my colleagues will say. | ||
| They'll say, oh man, we need a balanced budget amendment. | ||
| Do you think they would follow it? | ||
| Genuine question. | ||
| Pass a balanced budget amendment. | ||
| By the way, when all the people out there on Twitter say Chip Roy's railing against balanced budget amendment. | ||
| No, I'm not. | ||
| I'm for a balanced budget amendment. | ||
| Sign me up. | ||
| I've co-sponsored it. | ||
| I'll vote for it. | ||
| In the odd event we pass it, when it has whatever line it's going to have in it and an exception for national security, do you not believe that everything will be a national emergency? | ||
| Do you believe that the insatiable appetite of your members of Congress to spend money on programs will end because you insert an amendment in the Constitution that says we must balance the budget? | ||
| Because I can promise you every time we hit a debt ceiling, what happens? | ||
| We're going to raise the debt ceiling. | ||
| The American people sent us here to actually change things. | ||
| The American people didn't send us here to keep racking up debt. | ||
| We're $36.3 trillion in debt. | ||
| It is piling up around our ears. | ||
| As my friend David Schweikert from Arizona points out every time he comes to the floor of the House, the interest is piling up. | ||
| It is going up. | ||
| We're refinancing, financing our debt. | ||
| We're paying a trillion dollars a year in interest, and that's about to be 1.2, about maybe 1.4. | ||
| It's going to be $2 trillion pretty soon. | ||
| And my colleagues are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, squawking about what they need to do on tax policy. | ||
| Again, a policy I support, but without recognizing the mathematical need to have spending cuts at least or more than what you think will happen with respect to revenue when you change the tax policy. | ||
| The American people expect us to be adults. | ||
| You cannot have your cake and eat it too. | ||
| You cannot just go straight to the dessert of going home to your constituents and saying, I cut your taxes. | ||
| Aren't you proud? | ||
| You can't just get on your donor calls and say, man, I really made sure that your corporate rates are great and we're making sure your capital gains rates are great and then not do the other side of the work. | ||
| You got to eat your vegetables. | ||
| You got to actually do the job. | ||
| As I said, I will vote to zero out taxes. | ||
| We didn't have an income tax for the first half of this country's existence. | ||
| I think that's great. | ||
| But you know what else? | ||
| We didn't take on every single issue in the federal government because the Constitution didn't contemplate it. | ||
| Now we take on all the issues and we don't pay for them. | ||
| We sprinkle magic fairy dust around here, borrow money, print money, mortgage our kids' future, and pretend to be adults. | ||
| I do not, for the life of me, believe that we could actually change this all in a year. | ||
| It's the last argument I want to blunt. | ||
| And then I'm going to recognize my good friend from Pennsylvania. | ||
| I said there are people out there who are saying that I don't believe in dynamic impact of tax policy. | ||
| False. | ||
| I very much believe in the dynamic impact of tax policy. | ||
| Leave money in the hands of the American people. | ||
| We produce revenue. | ||
| We produce growth. | ||
| And that means some additional revenue will come into the treasury because of that economic growth. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| But not all of it. | ||
| Other people will say, well, gosh, you guys, you want, you know, dollar for dollar, you want to, you know, make sure that there are going to be all these cuts are going to add up to the debt ceiling. | ||
| No, I just want some common damn sense. | ||
| Just show me some actual cuts up front. | ||
| Again, I want to reiterate that House Freedom Caucus, conservatives, have put forward a plan, shared it, that will accomplish the objectives that the very media and our colleagues will say they don't want to do that. | ||
| They can't do that. | ||
| Well, we've done it. | ||
| We've put it forward. | ||
| Now I want to call on my colleagues. | ||
| What's your plan? | ||
| Because we have a plan. | ||
| And that plan is to deliver right out of the gate. | ||
| The president gets sworn in on Monday. | ||
| Let's secure the border. | ||
| Let's fund it. | ||
| You want to have a strong national defense that's not woke? | ||
| Fund it. | ||
| Do it now. | ||
| And take it off the ledger on March when we're going to be told that we must eat more spending in government and California money and a $10 trillion debt ceiling increase. | ||
| Let's do it right now. | ||
| Let's do the hard work. | ||
| Let's extend the debt ceiling two years, fund the border, fund defense, get the cuts, and the EV mandates, put in Medicaid work requirements, all things the American people want us to do, and the student loan bailouts, save money, end bad programs, | ||
| advance good programs, secure our country, help the president, give him wins, give the American people wins, give us a chance to actually freeze spending in March and in September to stop the growth of the bureaucracy. | ||
| Let's give Elon and Bivek and Doge the ability to do what they want to do, which is cut the bureaucracy, which they can't do if we keep funding it. | ||
| We can do that. | ||
| But if my colleagues are going to insist on putting us in a box and telling the world, because Chip says, you know what? | ||
| I think we should put everything on the table, all taxes, until we make sure we're getting enough cuts with respect to the tax policy. | ||
| And then they go out and they have the audacity to go out and say, Chip won't vote for a bill unless there's a corporate tax increase. | ||
| That's a lie. | ||
| Anybody who says that is a liar because that's not what I'm saying. | ||
| Anybody who says I don't believe in dynamic scoring is lying. | ||
| That's the truth. | ||
| What I want to do is make sure we save our country. | ||
| What I don't want to do is play games. | ||
| And unfortunately, all too often, too many of my colleagues want to play games. | ||
| With that, I'd like to recognize my good friend from Pennsylvania, my friend Scott Perry. | ||
| Well, I thank the gentleman from Texas. | ||
| I'm happy to join him. | ||
| And I'm happy to join him in what I think he's saying, which is what I'm saying: I'm saying yes. | ||
| Yes, to fulfilling the president's agenda, the president's mandate to secure the border. | ||
| Yes, to the president's mandate and agenda to strengthen our military. | ||
| Yes, to the president's agenda and mandate to reduce the cost of living, to reduce the inflationary pressures that printing and creating out of whole cloth, out of nothing, money floating around in the economy, making every single good and service and purchase more expensive. | ||
| Yes, to fixing all that. | ||
| Yes, as one of the people that, like Chip, are often maligned and people characterize us, well, you're part of the no caucus. | ||
| We're here saying yes. | ||
| Yes, we want to fix it. | ||
| We don't want to increase the debt limit, but we understand we've got to pay the nation's bills. | ||
| So all we're saying is, well, as long as there's a plan to stop increasing the ever-increasing debt, we can be on board. | ||
| And we have a plan. | ||
| We've offered a plan. | ||
| And we can be on board with that to not let Chuck Schumer decide what the cost of increasing the debt ceiling is going to be and not force the American people to keep on paying for things that this government shouldn't be buying, can't afford, and the taxpayers can't afford. | ||
| We want to do this. | ||
| We're here to say yes. | ||
| We're here to save our country, but we're not signing up for fake, fake savings and spending. | ||
| Well, if you raise the debt ceiling, we'll make sure we grow our way out of it by projecting 3.5 or 4% growth for the next 10 years. | ||
| Let's quit fooling ourselves. | ||
| That's not going to happen. | ||
| Yeah, we absolutely want to say yes to making sure that the American people continue to enjoy the tax cuts that we gave them, that we got, that we secured, that we fought for during the first Trump administration. | ||
| We want to continue that. | ||
| We want to secure that. | ||
| We wish we could have done that then. | ||
| But since that time, the Biden administration has increased spending $6 trillion. | ||
| $6 trillion. | ||
| Somehow, something's got to give. | ||
| You look at the recent bond market sales. | ||
| Interest rates are going up. | ||
| My good friend from Texas already mentioned the fact that every time it goes up 100 basis points, it increases the cost of the debt that we have to pay for. | ||
| We pay for it here by creating money that doesn't exist digitally. | ||
| We can't even print it fast enough. | ||
| And we get nothing for it. | ||
| All we're paying is interest on the debt. | ||
| We don't get any new government programs. | ||
| We don't get any new and better military programs. | ||
| We don't get anything for it. | ||
| It's just debt and interest payments that we're paying for for things that we've bought in the past. | ||
| All we're saying is: look, if you've got a better plan than we do, God bless it. | ||
| Let's see it. | ||
| And let's see the real cuts. | ||
| We want to, like I said, I'm with Chip. | ||
| We want to pay for the border. | ||
| We want to pay for our military. | ||
| We want to use things like EV mandates to pay for that stuff, student loan giveaways that aren't constitutional, that the Biden administration is just offering. | ||
| We're saying, look, let's repurpose that money for things that we do need to pay for, like the border and like the military. | ||
| Let's have some reasonable cuts. | ||
| Let's increase the debt ceiling as necessary, but only as necessary. | ||
| We're not even asking for dollar for dollar on the debt ceiling. | ||
| I don't know how reasonable, like, you know, if you got something better, like I'm standing here. | ||
| Let's see it. | ||
| But the clock is ticking. | ||
| The president is inaugurated in a couple of days here, and we're supposed to be after this. | ||
| And here we stand. | ||
| As far as I know, with all due respect to everybody in the chamber, the only plan I've seen is the one we've offered. | ||
| So we stand ready to save our country in any way that we can. | ||
| But the clock's ticking, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| I yielded the gentleman from Texas. | ||
| Well, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania, and he's right. | ||
| The clock is ticking. | ||
| We can't let another legislative day go and another legislative day go in which we don't deliver. | ||
| The American people expect us to deliver, and we can, and we will. | ||
| We will deliver tax policy that is pro-growth, that extends what we did in 2017. | ||
| We will deliver spending cuts if we get in the room and work, but it's going to take time. | ||
| It's going to take time. | ||
| It's going to take time to undo the damage of the Biden administration for us to go everything that we need to go through to identify the cuts that we can all work through. | ||
| But we will do it if we have the willpower to do it and if we will do math and understand that we need deficits to go down. | ||
| But what we're saying is let's deliver right now. | ||
| Do not risk the border security by pushing it off months into the future. | ||
| Well, right now, while we're talking about it, there are criminal aliens convicted of murder in their country, some more than one time, walking around our country, and they're going to stay here until we can deport them. | ||
| And we're not offering the money to the administration, the incoming administration, to do that work. | ||
| Which we could do right now. | ||
| If the House would act right now, pass the budget, pass the instructions, do exactly what we just laid out, do the debt ceiling increase, do the funding for the border, give it to Tom Homan tomorrow. | ||
| We could get that out in a matter of a week or two out of this chamber, get it over to the Senate, and by February, they would have money for defense, money for the border, a defense, a debt ceiling that is gone, and we would have undo some of the worst Biden policies and paid for all of it. | ||
| That's precisely what the American people sent us here to do. | ||
| Instead, this chamber currently is locked in a cycle of talking about what we might do. | ||
| We have got to move, move for the American people. | ||
| That is why we put forward an approach that we believe will work. | ||
| But it's really important, really important for the American people to understand that what is happening in this town, it's games being played by people who want to try to leverage those of us who want to cut spending. | ||
| That's the bottom line. | ||
| There are some of my colleagues, and I'm speaking for myself right here, some of my colleagues who want to attach the border funding to the bills that we're moving forward without, they don't believe that we will get to the spending cuts that will make those of us who believe we need deficits to go down happy, and they want to try to force us to eat increased deficits in order to achieve the border security funding. | ||
| I don't think we should play games with the border security. | ||
| I don't think we should play games with defense. | ||
| I don't think we should play games with getting the debt ceiling cleared off without giving more power to Chuck Schumer and Democrats to mess with us in March. | ||
| We can win across the board if we adopt this plan. | ||
| And I would strongly recommend that we move forward with this plan so that we can deliver for the president and deliver for the American people. | ||
| Yeah, I agree with the gentleman from Texas. | ||
| We don't have much time to do this. | ||
| And while we talk and talk about, we've also been given a mandate for transformational change. | ||
| To my good friends from Texas, transformational change doesn't include doing the same thing we always do around here, which is cram a bunch of garbage into one big bill, put one thing on it that somebody has to have, we have to have it, which is border security, and say, suck down all that garbage for the one thing that you need and force the American people to do it too. | ||
| We don't have to accept bad choices for the one thing that we need. | ||
| We can have all good choices. | ||
| And I would remind people that what happened right before Christmas was precisely that, trying to cram down a bunch of stuff in a big bill. | ||
| And it met with resounding failure. | ||
| Let's not do that. | ||
| Let's make the 119th Congress be about success and delivering on the president's agenda, on the Republican agenda, the agenda we ran on, but most importantly, delivering for our kids and grandkids. | ||
| A world in which they can actually live free from worrying about China, free from worrying about debt, free from worrying about open borders and criminals on the streets and deliver. | ||
| And with that, I yield back and thank my friend from Pennsylvania. | ||
|
Increase Transparency of Employee Incomes
00:00:58
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|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| Does the gentleman have a motion? | ||
| I move that we adjourn. | ||
| The question is on the motion to adjourn. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed said no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The motion is adopted. | ||
| Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until 9 a.m. tomorrow. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Today, the House considered a measure to provide tax relief for residents of Taiwan who also pay U.S. taxes and a bill intended to increase transparency of the incomes of certain employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public power provider. | |
| And later this week, we expect debate on legislation calling for the deportation of undocumented immigrants who are convicted of certain sex offenses and other violent crimes. | ||
|
President Biden's Farewell Address
00:00:37
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unidentified
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You can watch live coverage of the House when members return here on C-SPAN. | |
| Tonight, President Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office. | ||
| He's expected to reflect on his more than 50 years of public service and his hopes for the future of the country in a tradition that dates back to George Washington. | ||
| This will be President Biden's first Oval Office speech since he announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race last July. | ||
| Watch President Biden's farewell address live at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||