| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Voter Suppression Tactics
00:03:15
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unidentified
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Vigilante Incorporated. | |
| The gentleman named this Greg Palas. | ||
| He was on Tom Hartman's show, but I watched the video and the mass voter suppression is done now with computers. | ||
| They have knocked over 5 million people from voting. | ||
| People have been voting for 20 or so years. | ||
| Their address hasn't changed. | ||
| And when they went down to vote, their vote was challenged because of this new voter suppression thing that they used. | ||
| They called it right to vote. | ||
| And in 41 states, it was used. | ||
| And that's how Donald Trump won the election. | ||
| Okay, Washington State Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is Faith. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Yeah, good morning. | ||
| I just want to say a couple things about health and also about what our country really needs. | ||
| I will just go first and say it needs Jesus. | ||
| People should hear that. | ||
| So don't you think we just all need Jesus? | ||
| Anyway, I'm a veteran and my son is a veteran. | ||
| And I've seen some things happen on the VA. | ||
| We're going to leave this to keep our over 45-year commitment to covering Congress. | ||
| The U.S. House is coming in to begin work on a bill to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs that have the strongest controls and penalties. | ||
| Live coverage of the House, now on C-SPAN. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by Chaplain Kibbon. | ||
| Would you pray with me? | ||
| Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your deliverance. | ||
| For we find ourselves in times of turmoil and tension, disagreements, and dissension. | ||
| But if we can open our hearts to receive your life-changing mercy and experience your soul-penetrating grace, we will be redeemed from our own discord, restored to common purpose and mutual respect. | ||
|
One Minute, Many Words
00:15:24
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| Let us listen that we will hear what you speak. | ||
| When you pronounce health in our afflictions, may we receive it. | ||
| When you promise peace to your people, may we live it. | ||
| When we walk to the right or to the left, may our ears hear your word behind us saying, This is the way. | ||
| Walk in it. | ||
| The word of the Lord is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. | ||
| The voice of the Lord is over the waters. | ||
| The glory of God is heard in the thunder over many waters. | ||
| Lord, pierce our soul and our spirit, our joints and our marrow, and discern our thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. | ||
| Then may we, in this place, hear and heed your word. | ||
| It is on the foundation of this word we stand. | ||
| And in the strength of your name we pray. | ||
| Amen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceeding and announced to the House the approval thereof. | |
| Pursuant to clause one of Rule One, the journal stands approved. | ||
| The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by the gentleman from California, Mr. Whitesides. | ||
| I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | ||
| The chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Iowa seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for the hand of his consent to address the House in the one-minute revision and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today with a heavy heart to honor the life and the legacy of a dear friend, a true servant of our state, and an extraordinary public servant, Representative Martin Graver. | ||
| His unexpected passing leaves a void that cannot be filled. | ||
| For all who knew him, Martin was more than a colleague. | ||
| He was a friend, a mentor, and a dedicated leader. | ||
| A proud veteran with 32 years of service in the Iowa National Guard and a distinguished representative of House District 100, Martin was a man of integrity, always putting the people of Southeast Iowa first. | ||
| His commitment to faith, community, and service will never be forgotten. | ||
| To his beloved wife, Connie, their daughters, granddaughters, his entire family, and the Rodeo family, we extend our deepest condolences. | ||
| Martin's genuine care and unwavering dedication to those he served left an indelible mark on all of us. | ||
| May God bless his memory, and may we continue to honor his spirit of service as we move forward. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady yields back. | |
| For what purposes does the gentleman from Massachusetts seek recognition? | ||
| I ask the names to address the host for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, Growing Places, an imaginative nonprofit based in Lemonster, Massachusetts, is leading a new effort in our region to improve access to local fruits and vegetables. | ||
| They have established a local food processing center that takes raw produce, items like whole butternut squash, potatoes, apples, carrots, cauliflower, peels, chops, and packages it into easy-to-consume form. | ||
| When I visited, we peeled and cubed local squash for schools and hospitals that could be roasted or easily turned into soup. | ||
| This processing center helps farmers more easily take the nutritious food that they grow to market. | ||
| It helps institutions purchase more local food because they often don't have the equipment or resources to prepare the raw produce on site. | ||
| It improves access to local produce for families at school, at work, and at home through their produce delivery program. | ||
| Thank you to the incredible Ann Yeagle and the entire Growing Places team for their work to improve our local food system, make us all healthier, and to end hunger now. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, request 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. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise to recognize National School Counseling Week. | ||
| Since its establishment by the American School Counselor Association, National School Counseling Week has highlighted these professionals' essential role in shaping the future. | ||
| From helping students navigate academic challenges to providing critical support for their mental well-being, school counselors are instrumental in ensuring that every child has the tools they need to thrive. | ||
| We all know that a student's success isn't just measured in grades or test scores. | ||
| It's also reflected in their confidence, resilience, and ability to handle life's challenges. | ||
| Additionally, school counselors provide critical information to students on all options available to them for their careers, including successful pathways through career and technical education. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the school counselors who dedicate their lives to this mission. | ||
| They are a steady source of guidance for students who need it most. | ||
| Because of their dedication, we are building stronger schools, healthier communities, and a brighter future for the next generation. | ||
| Let's continue to invest in our students' well-being and ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California 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 want to take a minute to talk about the events of this week and to rise on behalf of law enforcement in this country. | ||
| I know that people across my district and across the country are deeply concerned about the personal data being exposed in an act of extreme government overreach. | ||
| We are doing everything we can to put a stop to it. | ||
| We're pursuing legislation that will stop it, and we will also work on legal avenues to prevent this and other unlawful executive actions taken by this administration. | ||
| I also want to take a moment to talk about the recent attacks against the FBI and brave law enforcement officials who defended our Capitol on January 6th from a violent insurrection. | ||
| In just the past two weeks, violent criminals were released from prison and have been making direct threats against public safety officers who helped put them away. | ||
| These law enforcement officers have now been asked to step away from their actual jobs to take surveys and loyalty tests to the current president. | ||
| That's not how we should treat our law enforcement or our FBI or anyone who has put their own safety at risk to protect all of us. | ||
| We must all step up at this moment, in this historic moment, to be on the record for law enforcement. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Seeking unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise their remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thanks, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The issue of fentanyl is just not getting any better in this country. | ||
| We hear more and more stories about yet another big cache of it being found, enough to kill millions of Americans. | ||
| And so thankfully, President Trump is doing what needs to be done to control our border and make sure that Mexico and Canada are stepping up to do their part. | ||
| What we have here available to us is the HALT Fentanyl Act, is critical legislation to help fentanyl-related substances permanently classified as Schedule I drugs. | ||
| So law enforcement has this extra tool to help stop this poison from flooding into our country. | ||
| Right now, fentanyl is a leading cause of deaths for Americans 18 to 45. | ||
| Say that again. | ||
| Leading cause of deaths for Americans 18 to 45 is this fentanyl coming across our border. | ||
| It's being disguised as prescription pills, and just one mistake, one touch, can be fatal. | ||
| This crisis has been fueled by years of the previous administration, Biden's open border policies. | ||
| They're made in Mexico with chemicals from China, and traffickers are bringing them across the border with little resistance, at least until now. | ||
| If Congress doesn't act, the Schedule I classification will expire, making it harder for law enforcement to crack down on traffickers and stop these deadly drugs. | ||
| The House needs to pass this bill immediately and get it done. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from Michigan 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 gentlelady is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of Veronica Lynn Horne of Frankenmuth, Michigan. | ||
| Throughout her life, Veronica fought ferociously to make Mid-Michigan a better place to work, start a business, and raise a family. | ||
| Veronica's leadership quite literally shaped communities like Saginaw County. | ||
| She served in two congressional offices, worked for some of the biggest job creators in our district, was the president and CEO of the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce, and worked with countless nonprofits across the region. | ||
| As I entered the state Senate, I was lucky to count Veronica and her husband, Ken, as allies in the fight for Saginaw County. | ||
| Veronica would work with anyone, regardless of political affiliation, to find common ground and attack a problem together. | ||
| May Veronica's memory serve as a shining example of commitment to faith, family, and community. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentlelady yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House in one minute, revise, and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Tunisia's inspiring Arab Spring Revolution in 2011 made the country a symbol of courageous democratic patriots. | ||
| Sadly, in 2021, Tunisia's dictator, Sa Yad, sabotaged the sexual democracy. | ||
| Tunisia has been concerned into a dictatorship enforced by rule of gun. | ||
| The Constitution and elected parliament are suspended. | ||
| In rigged elections last October, Dictator Sayyad fabricated over 90% of the votes, jailed opponents and parliamentary members, including the former prime minister and parliamentary speaker, who were illegally sentenced today, coordinating with War Criminal Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, and the terrorist regime in Tehran. | ||
| Aid to Tunisia should be suspended and sanctions imposed until democracy is restored. | ||
| I urge support for the Tunisian Democracy Restoration Act. | ||
| In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues. | ||
| Open borders for dictators puts all Americans at risk of more 9-11 attacks as imminent as warned by the FBI. | ||
| Trump is reinstituting existing laws to protect American families with peace through strength fighting fentanyl. | ||
| Welcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to America. | ||
| We appreciate his success for Middle East peace and prosperity deterring a nuclear Iran. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands 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 gentlelady is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today as a former prosecutor and a Republican political appointee in the Bush administration's Justice Department. | ||
| I know the law, and all I see is the president in Elon Musk, unelected cabal, fragrantly breaking the law. | ||
| Last week, the Trump administration recklessly issued and then rescinded a memo freezing taxpayer funds lawfully appropriated by Congress to local agencies, nonprofits, and school districts. | ||
| This week, Musk agents demanded access to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, overriding laws and regulations and accessing the most sensitive personal information of every American. | ||
| Every promise to lower costs and putting the working and middle class first was a lie. | ||
| The reckless quest to sell out the American people and silence opposition jeopardizes our national security and undermines the very foundation of our country. | ||
| Project 2025 is the playbook. | ||
| Fear is the weapon, and greed is the point. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for 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, I thank you for this time and I rise today and extend my gratitude to the Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey and his dedicated men and women of the Sheriff's Department for their unwavering commitment to protecting our community. | ||
| Just last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Sheriff Ivey and actually go on that ride-along and see the challenges that they face each and every day. | ||
| That day, deputies actually arrested a man who was found to be in possession of enough fentanyl to kill 20,000 people. | ||
| This dangerous reality that our law enforcement officers confront every day is due to the failures of the prior administration to secure our border. | ||
| The deadly impact of fentanyl has devastated communities across America, and strong action must be taken to end this crisis. | ||
| To Sheriff Ivey and the brave men and women of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, I say thank you for this opportunity to see firsthand the challenges you face and I will continue to stand with law enforcement as we fight to keep our community safe. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and provide them to standards. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Kenneth Lee Parker, the former mayor of Momire, North Carolina. | ||
| Kenneth was a dedicated public servant and a true pillar of the Momire community. | ||
| For over 25 years, he selflessly served as mayor, dedicating his time as assistant fire chief and a volunteer EMT. | ||
| Kenneth's commitment to his community didn't stop there. | ||
| For 52 years, he was actively involved in the Ruritan Club, where him and his wife, Colleen, provided delicious meals. | ||
|
Kenneth's Legacy
00:01:43
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| And he gracefully embodied its motto, Fellowship, Goodwill, and Community Service. | ||
| We reflect on Kenneth's remarkable life and contributions, and I extend my prayers to his family and all those who were fortunate enough to have known him. | ||
| His legacy and kindness and service will forever resonate in our hearts. | ||
| May we all find inspiration in Kenneth's example and strive to make a difference as he did. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
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The clerk will report the resolution. | |
| House Resolution 107. | ||
| Resolve that the following name member be and is hereby elected to the following. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be considered as read and printed in the record. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. | |
|
Amending Scheduling Substances
00:15:23
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|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Democratic Caucus, I offer a privilege resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection. | |
| Oh, the clerk will report the resolution. | ||
| House Resolution 108. | ||
| Resolve that the following name member behind. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be considered as read. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will suspend. | |
| Without objection, the resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| The chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 4A, the House Resolution 5, 119th Congress and the order of the House of January 3rd, 2025, of the following members to the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| Mr. Krishna Morthy of Illinois, Ms. Caster of Florida, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Moulton of Massachusetts, Mr. Connor of California, Ms. Sherrill of New Jersey, Ms. Stevens of Michigan, Mr. Torres of New York, Ms. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Stanton of Arizona, Mr. Kuda of Hawaii. | ||
|
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 situation in relation to Burma declared in Executive Order 14014 of February 10th, 2021, is to continue in effect beyond February 10th, 2025. | ||
| The situation and in relation to Burma, and in particular the February 1st, 2021 coup, in which the military overthrew the democratically elected civilian government of Burma and unjustly arrested and detained government leaders, politicians, human rights defenders, journalists, and religious leaders, thereby rejecting the will of the people of Burma and undermining the country's democratic transition and rule of law, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. | ||
| Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency, declaring an executive order 14014 with respect to the situation in and relation to Burma. | ||
| Signed, Donald J. Trump, the White House, February 4th, 2025. | ||
|
unidentified
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Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered printed. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, by the direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 93 and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will report the resolution. | |
| House Calendar No. 2, House Resolution 93. | ||
| Resolve that upon adoption of this resolution, it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill, H.R. 27, to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances and for other purposes. | ||
| All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. | ||
| The amendment printed in Part A of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted. | ||
| The bill as amended shall be considered as read. | ||
| All points of order against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. | ||
| The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one, one hour of debate, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on energy and commerce or their respective designees. | ||
| Two, the further amendment printed in Part B of the report of the Committee on Rules, if offered by the member designated in the report, which shall be in order without intervention of any point of order, shall be considered as read, shall be separately debatable for the time specified in the report, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question. | ||
| And three, one motion to recommit. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the debate only. | ||
| Only I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts, pending. | ||
|
unidentified
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The gentleman will suspend. | |
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for one hour. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| For the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I further ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection. | |
| Last night, the Rules Committee met and reported out a rule for one measure, H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act, under a structured rule. | ||
| The rule provides for one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee of Energy and Commerce or their respective designees and provides one motion to recommit. | ||
| As most members know, unfortunately, we all know somebody who's been affected by the drug overdose epidemic plaguing our country. | ||
| According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2023 there were more than 107,000 overdose deaths that occurred in the United States. | ||
| These staggering numbers are due in large part to the increased presence of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs or fentanyl-related substances, which are approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. | ||
| The lethal dose of fentanyl is just 2 milligrams or about 4 grains of sand. | ||
| A loophole that cartels use and have tried to use to traffic illicit fentanyl into our country is by changing just one component of fentanyl's chemical structure in order to create a fentanyl analog or fentanyl-related substance. | ||
| The cartels did this in an attempt to evade our criminal laws. | ||
| Right now, fentanyl analogs are considered Schedule I substances, but only because of a series of temporary scheduling orders, which is now set to expire on March 31st, 2025. | ||
| Along with my colleague, Mr. Latter from Ohio, we decided to introduce H.R. 27, the HALT-Fentanyl Act. | ||
| The bill aims to curb overdose deaths by permanently scheduling fentanyl analogs or fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I substances. | ||
| This will strengthen law enforcement's ability to prosecute fentanyl traffickers and act as a deterrent. | ||
| The HALT-Fentanyl Act also promotes research by improving the registration process to eligible individuals so that they can conduct studies on Schedule I substances with appropriate safeguards. | ||
| In the Energy and Commerce Committee, we have heard testimony that there may be as many as 4,800 individual analogs or related substances, fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| Our experts at the NIH, the FDA, and others have studied roughly 30 to 40 of those 4,800 analogs or fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| By encouraging research of Schedule I substances like fentanyl analogs, we can better understand how these substances work and how we can prevent potentially harmful impacts in the future, or even find a better use or a better opportunity than the current fentanyl that we use. | ||
| Better fentanyl, because fentanyl has a proven medical use, it is considered a Schedule II narcotic, as the Speaker knows, having practiced medicine for many years. | ||
| But illicit derivatives of fentanyl, also called fentanyl analogs, currently have not demonstrated a medical value. | ||
| Let me be clear, this bill will have no impact whatsoever on physicians' ability to administer fentanyl in medical settings. | ||
| The HALT Act deals specifically with fentanyl analogs or fentanyl-related substances, not medicinal fentanyl. | ||
| The Biden administration even released a statement when this bill passed through the House last Congress stating that they supported permanent scheduling and streamlined research for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| We must address this bipartisan issue immediately and not allow this temporary extension to expire. | ||
| Once fentanyl analogs are permanently scheduled in Schedule I, Congress will continue to build off this work to continue to address the illicit fentanyl crisis. | ||
| According to a 2021 GAO report, there was a 90 percent decrease in these fentanyl analogs coming into our country the year they were first placed into Schedule I. | ||
| This bill is a critical step in combating the opioid crisis in our country because China and Mexico are heavily involved in this business. | ||
| China is sending the precursors of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs to the cartels in Mexico who are then bringing it across our border. | ||
| By making these analogs permanently Schedule I, it removes the incentive for the cartels to traffic these analogs or fentanyl-related substance drugs into our country. | ||
| China even realized the risk of fentanyl analogs and permanently scheduled those analogs on their strictest schedule. | ||
| Other countries have followed suit and done the same. | ||
| Last Congress, this bill cleared through Energy and Commerce on a bipartisan basis and then passed on the House floor with 74 Democrats voting in favor. | ||
| The bill has the support of many law enforcement agencies and other entities calling for the need to pass the bill as it is. | ||
| We must act quickly to make the scheduling order permanent before it expires again at the end of March. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve the remainder of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Virginia reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, with respect to the legislation at hand, the so-called HALT Fentanyl act, all I can say is folks on the other side must be living on another freaking planet. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Republicans want to come down here and lecture people about fentanyl. | ||
| Let's talk about fentanyl. | ||
| President Donald J. Trump, during his very first week in office, pardoned a drug dealer who helped fentanyl pour into our country. | ||
| Let me repeat that nice and slowly so it sinks in. | ||
| As one of his first acts in office, Donald J. Trump pardoned a drug dealer who was sentenced to life in federal prison who let the fentanyl into America. | ||
| And I just have a simple question for my friends on the other side. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why isn't this guy still in jail? | ||
| Why would Donald Trump let out a drug dealer like this? | ||
| Guy sentenced to life in federal prison. | ||
| I wish I had an answer. | ||
| Maybe they can explain it to us. | ||
| They like to talk so much about pardons, but they're silent on this one. | ||
| We hear crickets from the other side. | ||
| It makes you wonder what is going on here. | ||
| Let me read the ICE press release from when this guy was arrested. | ||
| And are you ready for this? | ||
| ICE says that the guy Donald Trump pardoned helped, quote, thousands of drug dealers and other unlawful vendors distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services to more than 100,000 buyers and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars deriving from these unlawful transactions, end quote. | ||
| It goes on to explain how we distributed narcotics that were linked to overdose deaths across the country. | ||
| People died as a result of this criminality. | ||
| This is a guy who made the cartels rich, who made it easier for China to mail fentanyl into our country, who let the drugs pour into our communities, tearing families apart, getting people sick, exposing people to danger, causing numerous deaths. | ||
| And he was pardoned. | ||
| He was pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| And it takes a lot of nerve, Mr. Speaker, a lot of nerve to let out the fentanyl and then come down here with a straight face and tell people that we're all about stopping drugs into America. | ||
| And let's not get started about the funding freeze that Trump is trying to put into place. | ||
| Trump wants to block hundreds of billions of dollars in bipartisan funding for law enforcement, including blocking money going after fentanyl, state and local law enforcement assistance, the substance abuse and mental health services administration, the high-intensity drug trafficking areas program. | ||
| Republicans are in court right now fighting to gut it all. | ||
| And why are they doing this? | ||
| Why are they doing this? | ||
| The answer is very simple, actually. | ||
| They are stealing, stealing taxpayer dollars. | ||
| Republicans want to steal from you, the American people, to give Elon and Trump more tax breaks, more tax write-offs or their private jets, their mansions, islands, and yachts. | ||
| It's corruption. | ||
| Good old-fashioned, plain and simple corruption. | ||
| So then they'll come down here to the floor and pretend to care about fentanyl, while they pardon the drug dealers that profit off of people's pain and gut the programs that keep drugs off our street. | ||
| And you know what, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| Let's talk about those tariffs. | ||
| Yeah, the tariffs that Trump kept bragging about, that he promised he was going to slap on our allies, Canada and Mexico. | ||
| If he was successful, they would have sent domestic costs on food, gas, and household goods spiraling out of control. | ||
| Then when people started paying attention, when we stood up for the workers, when the public fought back, Trump folded. | ||
|
Defeat The Previous Question
00:15:57
|
||
| He lost. | ||
| He rescinded his funding freeze. | ||
| He walked back his tariffs, and he got nothing in exchange. | ||
| Trump wants to give us this impression that he has power and strength. | ||
| He really has none. | ||
| He backed down on his funding freeze. | ||
| He backed down on his tariffs. | ||
| The courts are rejecting his executive orders because guess what? | ||
| He's not king, and we're fighting back. | ||
| And I can promise you this, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We are going to fight back with every single ounce of strength we have to prevent this president and his billionaire sidekick from undermining the rule of law and stealing from the people we were elected to protect. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I understand there's all kinds of concerns on the other side of the aisle, but we're talking about the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| And I could stand here and talk about Burma. | ||
| We heard today that the President has extended the emergency situation with Burma in that undemocratic country where they overthrew the Democratic-related government and talk about how Burma, also known as Myanmar, is the largest cultivator of opium products and the producer of heroin globally, second only to Afghanistan. | ||
| That doesn't have anything to do with HALT Fentanyl. | ||
| The HALT Fentanyl Bill is a good bill. | ||
| And here to talk about it some more is my good friend from New York, Mr. Langworthy, who I now yield two and a half minutes' time to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized for two and a half minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding the time. | ||
| I rise in strong support today of the rule which provides consideration of the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| For four long years, the American people suffered from an administration that time and again refused to take seriously the flood of deadly fentanyl-related substances and analogs flooding into our communities. | ||
| Fentanyl-related overdose has remained the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49 for much of the last several years. | ||
| Millions of families have been torn apart, and our towns and our cities have suffered from the blight of crime and homelessnesses that has grown from this epidemic. | ||
| Not one corner of our country has been left untouched by the fentanyl crisis. | ||
| Urban, suburban, rural, rich, poor, old, young, lives have been torn apart. | ||
| Families have been torn apart. | ||
| The previous administration could have addressed this tragedy head-on by securing our borders and protecting our communities. | ||
| But time and again they refused. | ||
| And Democrats here in the House of Representatives supported that decision. | ||
| The HALT Fentanyl Act before us today permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances on Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, a crucial step that will ensure that law enforcement in our communities are empowered to address this deadly scourge head-on. | ||
| To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who spent years cheering at an administration that allowed the flood of these substances to pour in from our southern border unchecked, now is your time to support one important step in combating the epidemic that has taken too many lives and destroyed too many homes and communities. | ||
| I strongly support the legislation under this rule today, Mr. Speaker, and I'm proud to be a co-sponsor of the HALT Fentanol Act, and I yield back the remote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from New York yields back, gentlemen from Virginia Reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, no response from either gentleman about why it was okay for Trump to pardon the guy who let the fentanyl into this country, who made hundreds of millions of dollars off of fentanyl. | ||
| He's sentenced to life in prison, and he let him out. | ||
| And you're okay with that, yet you're coming down here saying you really care about fighting fentanyl in our country. | ||
| Not a peep from the other side justifying what Trump did. | ||
| One of his first acts as president was to pardon this guy who received life in prison for his crime. | ||
| Life in prison. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm going to urge we defeat the previous question. | ||
| And if we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 4531, the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the Support Act reauthorization would permanently place ex-lesign in Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act, but unlike the bill before us today, it doesn't stop at scheduling. | ||
| The bill reauthorizes resources for residential substance use disorder treatment for pregnant and postpartum women. | ||
| It provides resources for training and education related to fentanyl and other illicit substances for first responders, and it ensures that Medicaid beneficiaries have access to medication-assisted treatment. | ||
| But here is the best part. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this bill already passed last Congress with 386 votes. | ||
| 190 Republicans voted for it. | ||
| It was included in the end-of-year spending package. | ||
| But guess what happened? | ||
| Guess what happened? | ||
| Elon Musk tanked that deal for reasons that no one seems to be able to explain to me. | ||
| And this good bill was never signed into law. | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, passing this bill would mean, to quote the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, who helped lead this bill in the last Congress, that this bill can help save lives by preventing overdoses and providing access to immediate and long-term care recovery service. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment to the record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| And to discuss that proposal, I'm happy to yield three minutes to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Tonko. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized for three minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank Ranking Member McGovern for yielding. | ||
| If the previous question is defeated, Democrats plan to offer a vote, a vote on the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. | ||
| The Support Act, which House Republicans unceremoniously abandoned after billionaire-in-chief Elon Musk tanked the end-of-year bipartisan package, would have authorized a wide range of prevention, treatment, and recovery programs that included a two-year extension of scheduling for fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| This bipartisan approach, which focused not only on disrupting the drug supply, but also investing in the full spectrum of prevention, treatment, and recovery, passed the House overwhelmingly by a vote of 386 to 37, as was made mentioned by Representative McGovern in the 118th Congress. | ||
| Passing this vital legislation would have helped continue our progress against the overdose epidemic, which finally saw overdose deaths start to decline during the Biden administration after skyrocketing during the first Trump administration. | ||
| It is indeed clear that Republicans just aren't serious about addressing this crisis. | ||
| They are using cheap sound bites and photo ops to exploit parents' pain and to distract Americans, while President Trump, Elon Musk, and their cronies rob us, blind, and dismantle the very programs that individuals rely upon to get treatment and life recovery for their situations. | ||
| With last week's Federal funding freeze, Trump and Musk immediately halted over some $8 billion in programs working to combat the opioid crisis, including $6.5 billion for SAMHSA that would support naloxone distribution in our communities, drug-free community programs to keep kids off drugs, and medication-assisted treatment programs. | ||
| It also authorized $1.5 billion for addiction research at the National Institutes of Health to help deliver the next generation of life-saving treatments. | ||
| Unfortunately, that's not all. | ||
| As we speak, Republicans are cooking up plans to steal over $2.5 trillion from Medicaid, jeopardizing health care for 72 million people and decimating the single biggest payer for substance use care, just so that they can give more tax breaks to Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies. | ||
| Cutting life-saving prevention and treatment services to the bone while trying to restart a failed 1980s war on drugs, America should just say no. | ||
| In closing, I urge my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to defeat the previous question so that we can vote on a real plan to tackle this epidemic that continues to ravage our communities. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields back. | |
| Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the President. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves, gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I keep thinking I'm here to talk about HALT fentanyl. | ||
| We keep talking about all kinds of other things. | ||
| Now, my colleagues have acknowledged that this Halt Fentanyl bill passed in the last Congress with a large majority. | ||
| Yet here we are using this as a vehicle to talk about everything else they think is going wrong in the world. | ||
| Well, Mr. Speaker, I've got a little bill here. | ||
| It does some good. | ||
| We ought to pass it. | ||
| If my colleagues want to talk about lots of other stuff, they're entitled to. | ||
| That's their right. | ||
| But I don't want the focus taken off of the Halt Fentanyl bill. | ||
| It's a good bill. | ||
| It helps law enforcement. | ||
| It helps slow down the flood across the southern border. | ||
| That's what we're here about today. | ||
| Now, I know they've got this motion for the, you know, if the motion for the previous question fails, they're going to introduce a different bill. | ||
| But my understanding is their bill completely eliminates, it doesn't have anything in their language about HALT fentanyl. | ||
| This is something a large majority of Congress wants to get done. | ||
| Let's get it done. | ||
| Let's stop all the rhetoric. | ||
| Let's stop trying to point fingers at us and everybody else for other things. | ||
| Let's just do our jobs. | ||
| I think that's what the American people want us to do. | ||
| In fact, I hear a lot of times from my constituents back home, they're tired of seeing these gigantic bills. | ||
| It sounds like what my colleagues on the other side want is some more gigantic bills that people vote, kind of like the former Speaker said, we've got to vote for it so we can find out what's in it. | ||
| I'd rather vote on bills I know what's in it. | ||
| That's why I read all the bills if I plan to vote for it. | ||
| I helped write this bill. | ||
| I'm the lead sponsor on this bill. | ||
| It's an easy bill to read. | ||
| It's pretty straightforward in what it does and what it's supposed to do and what we're trying to do, which is President Biden thought it was okay. | ||
| He issued a statement in favor of it last term. | ||
| This term, President Trump says he's in favor of it. | ||
| I mean, this is a bipartisan approach to solve a problem. | ||
| Does it solve all the world's problems? | ||
| Of course not. | ||
| But it solves a problem that our law enforcement has that helps the bad guys, the people making the precursors in China, the people in the cartels in Mexico, flood across our southern border with these harmful fentanyl substance, related substances and analogs. | ||
| It makes it easier for our law enforcement people to focus on illegal fentanyl. | ||
| Now, fentanyl is legal for medicinal purposes, and it will be even after this bill. | ||
| And then there's something else that they haven't mentioned, and I mentioned it briefly, but I want to talk about it a little bit further, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And that is the component in this bill that allows for research on the 4,800 other related substances or analogs that we believe are out there. | ||
| And it's a rough number. | ||
| Nobody knows until they get in and start experimenting. | ||
| But we heard that testimony in the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| Because there might be some benefit to some other analog. | ||
| There might be some benefit. | ||
| There might be. | ||
| But we don't want it out there on our streets until we know and are being used in medicinal reasons until we know for sure that it does something positive for society. | ||
| Right now, all the analogs that we've seen are either inert or just as bad as illegal use of fentanyl. | ||
| And so this bill needs to be passed. | ||
| I understand they don't want to talk about this. | ||
| They want to talk about everything else. | ||
| But that's not why we're here today. | ||
| And when I came to Congress, I pledged to read the bills. | ||
| I pledged to talk about what it is we're talking about today and not talk about everything else in the world that I think we might be able to fix someday or that we might ought to do someday. | ||
| There's a process for that. | ||
| As my friend Terry Kilgore used to tell me all the time, somebody'd come up with an idea and they'd want to put some kind of an amendment on or change the bill around. | ||
| We had a nice little simple bill. | ||
| Now, Mr. Kilgore was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. | ||
| He is still a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and he was my seatmate. | ||
| And he came up with a famous phrase when people wanted to rearrange the bill in a way that he didn't think was proper or put an amendment on it that would completely change the bill or defeat, in this case, a defeat of the motion for the previous question in order to defeat the Halt Fentanyl Bill and put forward some other bill. | ||
| He'd say, well, you might have some points to make, but I would say to the gentleman, get your own bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I reserve. | |
| Gentleman Reserves, gentlemen from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, you know what would help end the illegal fentanyl here would have been Donald Trump not pardoning a drug kingpin, essentially, who brought in illegal fentanyl into our country, who was sentenced to life in prison in a federal court. | ||
| You know what would have been a strong signal not to pardon somebody like that. | ||
| And I get it why my friends don't want to talk about that, because they don't want to get on the bad side of the president because then they might get a primary and then Elon might send all this kind of money into their primary opponent. | ||
| I get all of that. | ||
| But I mean, if we're serious here about talking about dealing with fentanyl, we should at least all be able to say what the president did was wrong. | ||
| And maybe the gentleman wasn't listening to the debate on the previous question, but the gentleman from New York should talk for three minutes about an alternative bill that would help deal with this problem. | ||
| And this was a bill that got 386 votes in this House in the last Congress, 386 votes. | ||
| And it was in the final package that we were all going to vote on. | ||
| By the way, that your leadership agreed with, and our leadership agreed with, and then in the Senate, the Republicans and Democrats agreed with. | ||
| And it was in that bill, but then Elon Musk, you know, sabotaged that bill. | ||
| So I get it. | ||
| You know, look, I've been here for a while, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And before I was a member, I worked here as a staffer for George McGovern, No Relation, and for Congressman Joe Moakley. | ||
| And let me tell you, Republicans today do not hold the same values as Republicans from back then. | ||
| Republicans used to be for backing the blue. | ||
|
Pardons and Law Order
00:08:05
|
||
| Trump pardoned people who beat police officers. | ||
| And right now, he is gutting the FBI. | ||
| what Republicans used to believe was the citadel of law and order. | ||
| Republicans used to stand for cutting the deficit. | ||
| Now they are spending night and day planning to jam through a tax cut for the ultra-rich without pay fors, which will blow up the deficit by trillions, trillions of dollars. | ||
| It's what they did in 2017 for their billionaire tax cuts. | ||
| Republicans spent decades claiming they were the champions of free trade. | ||
| Just this past week, Trump and the Republican Party started a trade war with our neighbors. | ||
| Not to mention they talked nonstop about inflation for the past two years, but seem to be fine with slapping this tariff tax on their constituents that's going to make prices across the board in this country go sky high. | ||
| Is there any principle today's version of the Republican Party won't abandon? | ||
| Is there anything Trump could do that they wouldn't support or they would even question? | ||
| It would be almost comical how much they are willing to bend down and kiss the ring if we weren't, if we didn't currently find ourselves in multiple constitutional crises at the hands of Trump and his cronies. | ||
| Again, again, I mean, the fact that we can't even get Republicans to say that it was wrong for the President of the United States to pardon this individual serving life in prison for bringing fentanyl into our communities, killing our constituents. | ||
| The fact that they can't even raise that question, a question whether it was the wrong thing to do, tells you everything you need to know. | ||
| I reserve my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the President. | |
| The gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| It is kind of interesting. | ||
| I keep thinking we're talking about the Halt Fentanyl Bill, and then I hear all this other stuff. | ||
| And earlier, one of my colleagues said that we were cooking up some kind of a plan to cut, I forget what the number was now, 2.5, 2.7 trillion out of Medicaid. | ||
| I haven't heard any such plan being cooked up. | ||
| I think that's just hyperbole, but that's my opinion. | ||
| The gentleman keeps asking about a pardon, about somebody that was pardoned. | ||
| Well, I don't know if he's noticed or not, but I'm not the President of the United States. | ||
| I don't have the power to pardon. | ||
| I don't get the information put on my desk about various individual pardons. | ||
| I didn't make any comments about pardons by the previous president when many people were pardoned or had sitting on death row, had sentences commuted. | ||
| That's not what we're here about today. | ||
| I mean, we can get down into that trap if we want to, but I'm just telling you, we're here today to talk about one bill, one simple, a rule for a simple bill that the majority of this House supports, I believe, overwhelming majority. | ||
| My colleagues have even admitted that 74, I don't know if they admitted exactly 74, but they admitted it was a big vote last year. | ||
| They admitted that it was a part of a package that they wanted to see pass the floor at the end of last year. | ||
| You know, I thought we were here to talk about this. | ||
| I recognize that it's free-for-all on the floor, but I just hate to get into all those kinds of things and start talking about this or that and whether crossing the line or not, somehow casting aspersions that members over here don't have independent wills. | ||
| We certainly do. | ||
| And I think my colleagues Might recognize that from some of the things I said last night when I was being questioned. | ||
| Do I support the president? | ||
| Well, of course I do. | ||
| Do I agree with everything he does? | ||
| No. | ||
| As the old saying goes, I don't agree with my wife all the time. | ||
| She certainly doesn't agree with me most of the time. | ||
| But the bottom line is that I think the president is moving us in the right direction. | ||
| And one of those right directions would be to pass the Halt Fentanyl bill. | ||
| Another is closing down the border, shutting that border down. | ||
| I mean, you want to talk about drugs coming across our southern border and you want to point to an individual that you think was the primary responsible for some of that. | ||
| Well, how about the hundreds and thousands of people who were used by the cartels to bring illicit substances, whether it be at ports of entry or other places across our southern border? | ||
| The president's cracking down on that too. | ||
| But that's not what this bill is about. | ||
| This bill is about making sure that when our law enforcement officers arrest somebody and their preliminary examination indicates that what they have is significant or even a small amount, but generally significant amounts of a fentanyl-related substance, that when they go to court, they don't have somebody arguing in court that, wait a minute, this is not the fentanyl on Schedule II. | ||
| This is a fentanyl-related substance, but it's a left-handed molecule instead of a right-handed molecule, or a right-handed molecule instead of a left-handed molecule. | ||
| Those are kinds of arguments that I can tell you as a former defense attorney, I love those kinds of arguments. | ||
| But as a congressman, it's our job to shut those arguments down. | ||
| Halt fentanyl stops those arguments from being made in court, which are basically spurious attempts to help drug dealers. | ||
| Now, I know my colleagues are not trying to help drug dealers. | ||
| They're just here to try to make some other points today. | ||
| But let's talk about this bill and the good that this bill can do. | ||
| I mean, they brought up, you know, substituting this bill with the Support Act. | ||
| I'm a co-sponsor of the Support Act. | ||
| It's carried by Chairman of Energy and Commerce, Brett Guthrie. | ||
| That bill has a very good chance of passing this body. | ||
| So let's let that bill go through its process and let's let this bill, the Halt Fentanyl Act, finish out this process, get across to the Senate, get signed into law by the President, and start doing good work. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, you might be asking yourself, why do we have to do this at this moment? | ||
| And the answer is: we've had a temporary rolling series of temporary bills on this and making the fentanyl-related substances Schedule I, because we all recognize the danger that these present to the American public. | ||
| So let's make it permanent and give our scientists an opportunity to look at some of those other 4,800 analogs or fentanyl-related substances to see if there's anything there that might be beneficial to mankind, that might be a reversal of overdose, that might be a better, less addictive pain reliever. | ||
| Let's let them do that research. | ||
| You can't do that research without HALT fentanyl. | ||
| And you can't cripple the efforts of the defense attorneys for the cartels by constantly just doing temporary, because any day that it's not in effect is a day that lawyers will take advantage of. | ||
|
Rules Debate Agenda
00:15:51
|
||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
One from Virginia Reserves, the gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | |
| So, Mr. Speaker, I understand that the gentleman is new to the Rules Committee, and I think this may be his first time on the floor handling a rule, but I will remind him that this is the rules debate. | ||
| We're not having general debate on the underlying bill. | ||
| And during a rule, the rules debates are about the majority's agenda, what you're bringing to the floor and what you're not bringing to the floor. | ||
| You could have brought to the floor the bill that we want to bring to the floor that we talked about in the previous question debate that passed overwhelmingly in a bipartisan vote in the last Congress that my Republican friends allowed to get blown up at the last minute. | ||
| And basically, I'm going to take my time during the rule, the rules debate, to talk about the Republicans' unpopular, crummy agenda for the American people. | ||
| Raising prices on consumers, ignoring all the concerns that everyday people have. | ||
| And we're going to talk about as well the fact that when it comes to fentanyl, Donald Trump, one of his first acts, was to pardon, was to pardon a criminal who brought fentanyl into this country who was sentenced to life in federal prison. | ||
| And I get it. | ||
| The gentleman doesn't want to take an opinion, have an opinion on that, or voice an opinion on that. | ||
| But really, is it that hard? | ||
| I don't know what's so difficult to condemn there. | ||
| And look, you know, the agenda that we're talking about, I mean, I'm looking at the New York Times here, Trump proposing takeover of Gaza as U.S. territory. | ||
| I mean, do your constituents want to have their sons or daughters sent to Gaza to be in the middle of that violence? | ||
| This is the guy who also now wants to invade Greenland. | ||
| He wants to take over Panama. | ||
| He wants to annex Canada. | ||
| He wants to now occupy Gaza. | ||
| I mean, we have 42 million people in this country who are hungry. | ||
| Whatever happened to America first? | ||
| Whatever happened to helping people in this country? | ||
| Whatever happened to lowering prices? | ||
| And instead, we get this. | ||
| This is like a warmonger here. | ||
| I mean, come on. | ||
| And again, we had an agreement on a bipartisan bill that would address the underlying concerns that the gentleman raises here, and yet it was blown up at the last minute. | ||
| So again, the rule debate is about your agenda. | ||
| It is about the crappy agenda of this majority in the House of Representatives, who is not fighting for regular people, not fighting for the people that I represent, but instead are doing the bidding for the billionaires like Elon Musk and others. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico, the distinguished member of the Rules Committee, Ms. Ledger Fernandez. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. | |
| Mr. Speaker, we are in a moment of constitutional crisis. | ||
| These days will define what we stand for. | ||
| They will define who we stand with. | ||
| Yet in this time of crisis, Republicans are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. | ||
| Republicans are using the precious floor time we are given to put down watered-down fentanyl bills, like the one in this rule. | ||
| But let's remember that all of these bills require a federal agency to enforce it. | ||
| Let me remind my Republican colleagues that their president granted Elon Musk the authority to dismantle our federal agencies. | ||
| Musk and his doge, I like to call it dodgy because they seem to dodge any kind of authority and accountability. | ||
| They are intent on destroying our federal government and the essential services it provides. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'd like to remind my colleagues to remember their power, remember their constitutional duty. | ||
| Musk didn't take an oath to protect the Constitution. | ||
| We did. | ||
| Voters sent us here to protect their interests. | ||
| Congress alone has the power to fund our agency. | ||
| A billionaire who's not elected and has not probably even passed a security clearance cannot destroy our federal agencies. | ||
| We will not stand with it, and I hope you stand with us to protect our federal agencies, including the FBI, who would be the ones who would enforce and investigate and go after fentanyl trafficking. | ||
| My phones are ringing off the hook from constituents who are frightened and terrified and angry about what Musk is doing. | ||
| They don't want billionaire tech titans to dismantle federal agencies or gain access to their most private data. | ||
| We definitely can't address the fentanyl crisis like the bill in today's rule claims to do if Trump and Republicans get their way on a federal funding freeze, if they get their way on a hiring freeze. | ||
| Now remember, this intention that we've seen from this administration that we are not hearing them stand up against would actually destroy the FBI. | ||
| It would take away funds from addiction treatment, which would be essential to save lives. | ||
| It would take away funds from interdiction technology, which is what we need to stop fentanyl from flowing in and killing our neighbors and my friends and my constituents. | ||
| My constituents want us to fund effective border safety measures, not engage in the chaos and demonization we've seen from this administration. | ||
| I've also heard loud and clear from my communities in New Mexico about the chaos that Trump's orders created. | ||
| Trump is about chaos and Trump is about corruption. | ||
| Yesterday I wrote to the Treasury Department to demand answers about Musk's power grab and information heist. | ||
| They didn't let members of Congress in that building, which belongs to the American people. | ||
| They didn't let us in that building because they don't want Americans to know what they're doing. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask you and all my Republican colleagues, would you let Elon Musk and his interns rummage through your savings account, your tax return, your children's personal data? | ||
| I just don't understand the point of putting bills like this on the floor if we're not going to have the courage to stand up to Elon Musk and his ripoff of Congress's power. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote against the rule and I yield back. | ||
| The lady and members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| You know, darn. | ||
| I wish I'd known 40 minutes ago we could talk about anything we wanted to. | ||
| At this time, it was not really to talk about the rule present before us today or the underlying bill, but was to talk about whatever we wanted to, whatever it was on our agenda, their agenda, whatever. | ||
| I just have to say, Mr. Speaker, this is why the American people don't have confidence in Congress because they can't follow the bouncing ball. | ||
| We're here to talk about Hall fentanyl, and we're talking about everything, including the kitchen sink. | ||
| I mean, if I had only known 40 minutes ago, I'd have brought over all my CRAs that I'm interested in getting passed, all my bills that I think are fascinating and interesting that I can't seem to get out of committee, at least not in the past. | ||
| I mean, I could have talked about all kinds of things, but what we're supposed to be here, I understand that may not be the practice of the Rules Committee, and I am new, and the gentleman is absolutely right to remind me of that. | ||
| And I've got no problem with that. | ||
| I just didn't know that we could talk about whatever we wanted to when the subject of the day is: are we going to pass a rule that ultimately we hope will be put in place for the debate and passage of the Halt Fentanyl Act? | ||
| But I've heard all kinds of things. | ||
| And then I heard, amongst a number of things today that I thought were just kind of odd, I heard that my bill, the Halt-Fentanyl Act, had been watered down. | ||
| Well, that's news to me because the bill, with the exception of changing a couple of paragraph numbers, the lettering on the paragraphs, to make sure that we were alphabetically correct, the bill is exactly the way I introduced it. | ||
| Now, I don't think that's a watering down. | ||
| A watering down is when you take a bill that's 20 or 30 pages long, you make it into a two-page bill, and you have it do half of what it was supposed to. | ||
| What this bill was supposed to do, Mr. Speaker, is exactly what this bill does. | ||
| It takes and makes a permanent Schedule I classification for all of the 4,800, roughly fentanyl-related substances or analogs. | ||
| It provides for research on those fentanyl-related substances or analogs at our research institutions, certain safeguards, but to make sure that we can continue to do research so that maybe we can find a better path forward, something that may help with our drug addiction issues, something that may be a better, less addictive pain reliever. | ||
| We want that research done. | ||
| But until we have the evidence that one of those 4,800 analogs or fentanyl-related substances actually does good, we need to make them Schedule I. | ||
| They need to be on there so that the cartels can't use this as some trick in the courtroom to get out of trouble, to get a proverbial get out of jail free card. | ||
| And my colleagues want to talk about everything else coming down the road, including an individual, and I haven't reviewed his file, an individual who they claim was involved in the drug trade and who was pardoned. | ||
| But I haven't heard him talk about Laron Graham of Buffalo, convicted of selling, having a drug, heading a drug conspiracy and selling fentanyl, crack, cocaine, and heroin, who was pardoned by the previous president, Mr. Biden. | ||
| I haven't heard him talk about Valentino Schein, convicted of narcotic sales along with sex trafficking and distribution of crack cocaine, who was pardoned by the previous president. | ||
| Now, I personally don't think any of that is relevant to today's discussion. | ||
| And I recognize that that's apparently the practice of the Rules Committee. | ||
| I find it surprising. | ||
| I think it's a sloppy practice. | ||
| But if that's the practice, then next time I'll be sure to bring my wish list with me and we can talk about everything except the bill we're supposed to be talking about. | ||
| But it does make you wonder and make you think that everybody at home watching this, both of them, are confused because we're not talking about the bill that we're supposed to be talking about. | ||
| I hope Congress someday gets around to talking about the bill that it's supposed to talk about, whether it's my bill or somebody else's bill. | ||
| And today, I'm going to try to make my remarks as much as I can about passage of the rule for the Halt Fentanyl Act. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| Virginia Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Yeah, Mr. Speaker, does the gentleman really think that people dislike Congress because we're debating issues, because we're debating what's on their mind? | ||
| No, I mean, I think people dislike Congress because politicians say one thing and do another. | ||
| On the floor today talking about the need to combat fentanyl and then are silent when the President of the United States pardons a criminal sentenced to life in prison for flooding our streets with fentanyl. | ||
| That's what people get frustrated with. | ||
| You know, they're frustrated that we had a deal on a bill at the end of last Congress that everybody signed off on. | ||
| It was fine. | ||
| At the last minute, Elon Musk comes in and blows it up, and now we can't bring the bill up again. | ||
| That's what people are frustrated with. | ||
| I mean, my Republican friends like to talk about America first. | ||
| Again, look at the front page of the New York Times today. | ||
| Trump proposing takeover of Gaza as U.S. territory. | ||
| I've got to tell you, people voted for lower egg prices, you know, not for a Middle East mar-a-lago. | ||
| You know, people did not vote to send their sons and daughters into the tunnels of Gaza so that Jared Kushner and Donald Trump can build Trump Tower Gaza. | ||
| That's not what they voted for. | ||
| I mean, people want to talk about issues. | ||
| They want us to deal with issues that are going to impact their everyday life, lower the cost of living. | ||
| And in the first weeks, we have seen nothing, nothing from this president or the Republican majority here to deal with that. | ||
| So don't tell me that people don't like Congress because we debate issues. | ||
| I'm sorry, we're debating your agenda, even though it's unpopular. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record an article from the Associated Press entitled, Elon Musk's Doge Commission Gains Access to Sensitive Treasury Payment Systems. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record an article from the New Republic entitled, 25-year-old Elon Musk Crony Has Total Control Over Treasury Payments. | ||
| Also without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record an article from Wired entitled, Federal Workers Sued to Disconnect Doge Server. | ||
| Also without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record an opinion article from the Washington Post entitled, Elon Musk Has Your Social Security Number. | ||
| It's as scary as it sounds. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, it's being reported that Elon Musk has sent his creepy minions to illegally install a private server that is stealing people's information. | ||
| They are using it to skirt laws about sensitive and possibly even classified information, giving them access to people's social security numbers, home addresses, and more. | ||
| What is happening is a crime, plain and simple. | ||
| It's a crime. | ||
| The Privacy Act of 1974, the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. | ||
| Elon says it's a crime to expose who he has put in charge of the federal government. | ||
| No, Elon, no, it is a crime to hide that from the American people. | ||
|
Convictions and Pardons
00:06:16
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||
| And I, for one, am not going to stand by while he gets his grubby little billionaire hands all over our parents' and grandparents' social security checks. | ||
| And he better believe that he's going to be held accountable for all of this. | ||
| The truth is coming out. | ||
| He is stealing from the American people, and we are not going to let him do it. | ||
| I reserve my time. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves, the gentleman for Virginia, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and so I will offer the opportunity for whatever comments the gentleman from Massachusetts has remaining. | ||
| Gentleman Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| How much time do I have remaining, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| You have six minutes, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Okay, I'm not prepared to close yet, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The gentleman brought up some pardons, and a few minutes ago, I talked about how Trump pardoned a drug trafficker who let fentanyl pour into our country. | ||
| But let's not forget he also pardoned over 1,000 people who beat cops and try to kill them on January 6th. | ||
| And the last time I was on the floor, I went through some of the worst offenders he pardoned. | ||
| Since then, we've learned even more about these convicted felons, these violent criminals, who are now roaming free in our communities thanks to Donald Trump and the Republicans. | ||
| Matthew Huddle, a man with 12 prior criminal convictions, including a shocking case where he pled guilty to brutally hitting his three-year-old son, leaving bruises all over the child's backside and neck. | ||
| And after he was pardoned by Trump, Huddle went back to Indiana, where he was killed during a violent confrontation with law enforcement, a child abuser with a history of violence who put law enforcement in danger again after he was pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| Theodore Middendorf, accused of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old child. | ||
| Middendorf pled guilty to this horrific crime in 2024 and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. | ||
| But that wasn't all. | ||
| He also pled guilty to destroying government property using a flagpole as a weapon during the Capitol riot. | ||
| And for that, he was pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| Peter Schwartz, a man with 30-year criminal, with 30 prior criminal convictions, including assaulting his wife, biting her, and repeatedly punching her. | ||
| The same man attacked police officers on January 6 with pepper spray, a repeat offender pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| Andrew Tock, who was arrested in 2016 for soliciting a minor online for sex, but his criminal history didn't stop there. | ||
| He assaulted police officers with bear spray and a metal whip on January 6th, another repeat offender pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| Casey Hopkins, who has a criminal history so disturbing it's hard to stomach. | ||
| In 2002, he was convicted of forcible rape, where he choked his victim to the point of impairing her vision. | ||
| This is the same man who has prior convictions for assaulting law enforcement and possessing controlled substances. | ||
| He was here on January 6 and he was pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| David Daniel, who is facing charges for producing and possessing child pornography, disturbingly involving two young girls in his own family. | ||
| Police officers found evidence of child sexual abuse while they searched his home in connection with his arrest for assaulting police officers on January 6th. | ||
| He may have his sexual charges thrown out thanks to the fact that he was pardoned by Donald Trump. | ||
| Because of Donald Trump and the Republicans, we have child sex predators, domestic abusers, and violent criminals unleashed back onto our streets. | ||
| I have to ask, how many American parents are sleeping easier tonight knowing these criminals are out there walking free thanks to Donald Trump? | ||
| This is stomach turning. | ||
| And it doesn't even stop there. | ||
| We also have January 6th perpetrators who have been rearrested, yes, rearrested on new charges, even after being pardoned. | ||
| Daniel Ball, a convicted felon, because of his involvement in the Capitol insurrection. | ||
| He was pardoned by Donald Trump on January 20th, only to be rearrested two days later on gun charges. | ||
| And now Trump is going after the law enforcement officers who helped put these criminals away. | ||
| America, your president is purging the police of anyone not loyal to him. | ||
| Think about that. | ||
| Let that sink in, because these are the actions of a fascist. | ||
| More than half a dozen senior FBI executives have been ordered to retire or be fired by Monday. | ||
| The acting director of the FBI said that the list of names of those involved in the capital riot investigations could number in the thousands. | ||
| How many police officers will Trump fire? | ||
| How does any of this make any of us more safe? | ||
| My colleagues need to wake up. | ||
| I mean, purging the police of anyone who goes after criminals. | ||
| We know how this ends. | ||
| We know what the message this sends is. | ||
| Trump is telling America that violence is fine as long as his people do it. | ||
| Republicans are releasing violent child predators, domestic abusers, and sexual offenders back into our communities and at the same time investigating and firing the real law enforcement officers, the heroes who are actually upholding the rule of law. | ||
| And guess what? | ||
| I won't be complicit. | ||
| They are about to run into a massive wall of resistance, and that wall is us. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the chair, also to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| I reserve, prepared to close. | ||
| Gentleman from Virginia reserves and is prepared to close. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have so much more I want to say, but look, this all really boils down to one question. | ||
| Whose side are you on, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| Whose side are you on? | ||
| Are you on the side of the American people or the billionaires who are stealing from them? | ||
|
Yea or Nays?
00:06:57
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| Are you on the side of law enforcement or the guy who pardoned the drug dealer who let in all the fentanyl? | ||
| Are you on the side of workers or the robber barons who want to fleece people out of their paycheck and rob them of their hard-earned benefits? | ||
| Are you on the side of the American taxpayers or Elon Musk, you know, a Nepo baby who sucks up government subsidies and uses tax money to enrich himself while spreading hate and lies on his broken website? | ||
| Democrats know what side we are on. | ||
| We are on the side of the people and we are going to continue to show up and we're going to continue to fight back. | ||
| I urge everybody to vote no on this rule. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized to close. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I just have to say that I am appalled. | ||
| I understand they get the right to say whatever they want to during this time of the debate on the rule on the Halt Fentanyl Act. | ||
| I understand that. | ||
| But to say that you've got to choose what side you're on and then bring up Elon Musk and then say vote no, this bill has nothing to do with Elon Musk. | ||
| This bill is about fentanyl-related substances and fentanyl analogs. | ||
| It perplexes me, other than it's an attempt to confuse everybody what this bill is about, as to why, if they want to make all those statements, they can. | ||
| But I would think they'd be in favor of getting this bill done. | ||
| Because if you're going to choose to say whose side are you on with this bill, you're making a choice. | ||
| You're making a choice to say, we have an opportunity today, right here and now, to pass a rule and then tomorrow to pass a bill that will make a step forward in stopping the cartels, in stopping the Chinese precursors, in stopping the folks who are doing the bad things in our country and in other countries from bringing their substances into this country and trying to use a gimmick, a chemical technique, saying well, it's not really fentanyl, | ||
| it's a fentanyl analog, and get around our laws. | ||
| That's what this bill is about, and every member ought to be in favor of that. | ||
| And why you wouldn't be in favor of at least bringing that bill to the floor and having a vote on it is beyond me. | ||
| Because if we're choosing sides, I'm going to choose to take a step forward. | ||
| I'm going to take a step forward to try to stop this scourge of fentanyl poisoning, fentanyl analog poisoning, fentanyl related substances coming into our country. | ||
| That's the side I'm going to choose. | ||
| I understand they want to talk about all kinds of other things, because I think it's a pretty good darn bill and I think we should pass it. | ||
| Now let me get to my script. | ||
| I would like to reiterate the importance of the bill to permanently schedule fentanyl analogs as Schedule I, while still allowing for research into these substances. | ||
| This is one small step in fighting the opioid crisis our country faces and if we allow this temporary extension to expire as it will, if we take no action, if we choose the wrong side tomorrow and today, the temporary extension to expire in March, it will bring back the incentives for traffickers to bring these fentanyl analogs, fentanyl related substances. | ||
| Bring back those incentives for bringing them into our country now. | ||
| I truly don't believe my colleagues on the other side want that. | ||
| I understand you get fired up on the floor sometimes and you say things that maybe later in retrospect you think maybe I shouldn't have gone that far. | ||
| But if we're going to choose sides, I urge everybody to pass the rule and choose the sides of stopping the fentanyl scourge in our country, the fentanyl analog scourge in our country, and urge the passage of this rule and for final passage of the underlying bill. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and move the previous question on the resolution. | ||
| Gentleman from Virginia yields the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. | ||
| Those in favor of saying those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed no, independent of the chair, the ayes have it, mr. Speaker, mr speaker, for what purpose does the gentleman from Massachusetts The yeas and nays are requested. | ||
| Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 8 of Rule 20, further proceedings on the question will be postponed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or votes objected to under clause 6 of rule 20. | ||
| The house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Arkansas seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 836. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| H.R. 836, a bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service and the Secretary of the Interior, to conduct an evaluation with respect to the use of the container aerial firefighting system, CAFS, and for other purposes. | ||
| Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Westerman, and the gentleman from California, Mr. Huffman, each will control 20 minutes. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 836, the bill now under consideration. | ||
|
Emergency Wildfire Tech Act
00:03:09
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| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| Gentlemen's recognition. | ||
| I rise in strong support of Congressman Valadeo's bill, the Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act of 2025. | ||
| This timely legislation offers us a chance to equip land managers with another tool in their arsenal to combat the catastrophic wildfire crisis by testing a new and innovative method for wildfire suppression. | ||
| Last month, wildfires in Southern California took the lives of at least 29 people and changed thousands of lives forever. | ||
| These fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures and racked up untold fire suppression costs and economic damages. | ||
| This tragedy is a wake-up call for millions of Americans and demonstrates just how important it is to proactively address the wildfire crisis. | ||
| Unfortunately, decades of inadequate forest management have created an unprecedented forest health crisis. | ||
| Across our country, 1 billion acres are now at risk of wildland fire, and in the absence of dramatic change, the future outlook remains bleak. | ||
| When it comes to fighting these out-of-control infernos, it is critical that we utilize all available technologies that could improve the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of fire suppression. | ||
| Wildland firefighters on the front lines of these disasters must have all the tools and methods available to fight fires and protect lives and property. | ||
| Aircraft and helicopters provide life-saving support to ground crews, often by delivering water or fire retardant. | ||
| In order to drop water or fire retardant from a plane or helicopter, the aircraft must be designed or retrofitted for such purpose, which limits the number of aircraft available. | ||
| Representative Valadeo has worked with various stakeholders who have developed and improved container aerial firefighting systems that drops water or fire retardant from aircraft via disposable containers. | ||
| This technology could decrease response time to wildfires by increasing the number of aircraft available, which could in turn save lives and critical infrastructure. | ||
| This technology is not new and is used successfully in other parts of the world. | ||
| However, U.S. wildland firefighting agencies have not recently studied the system. | ||
| H.R. 836 would require the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to evaluate the use of container aerial firefighting systems in response to wildfires. | ||
| The evaluation will focus on effectiveness, cost, ease of delivery, and safety. | ||
| Directing our wildfire firefighting agencies to study new and then emerging technologies is a win for the wildland firefighting crews and a win for those who live in vulnerable fire-prone areas. | ||
| I want to applaud Congressman Valadeo for his leadership on this important topic. | ||
|
Abruptly Pulled Bill
00:11:49
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| His legislation passed the House unanimously last year and has also passed the House twice with bipartisan support as part of the Fix Our Forest Act. | ||
| I support the bill and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas Reserves. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from California. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| So I rise in support of this legislation from Congressman Valadeo from California. | ||
| I will also in a few minutes have a lot to say about one of the bills that was abruptly and outrageously pulled from our agenda today. | ||
| But right now, I'm happy to support my friend's bill. | ||
| I want to point out that the text of this bill passed the House as part of Chair Westerman's H.R. 471 less than two weeks ago. | ||
| And I recognize that this is the beginning of a new Congress. | ||
| Things are pretty chaotic, and our friends across the aisle want to appear busy amidst all the unconstitutional chaos and illegal action that is flooding our inboxes and our newspapers. | ||
| And we are constantly on the defensive because our democracy is under attack by someone who doesn't want to be a president. | ||
| He wants to be a king, has no regard for Article 1 of the Constitution. | ||
| We have silence from our friends across the aisle about all of that. | ||
| But I guess we have time today to move a bill that we've already passed and that nobody opposes. | ||
| So congratulations for this particular head scratcher. | ||
| It is a real missed opportunity since we could be using this time to talk about critical issues like the federal wildland firefighting pay benefits that are set to expire a few weeks from now. | ||
| I think there's bipartisan support to extend those, but I can't get my friends across the aisle to talk about that, let alone come together and move some legislation to get it done. | ||
| But of course, fixing firefighter pay wasn't in the recent Republican package. | ||
| It's not on the agenda today either. | ||
| I hope we get to it at some point, but we're not doing it today, and that's a shame. | ||
| We should also be talking about disaster relief for California, but that's not on the agenda today either. | ||
| Since we are considering this bill for a second time, Groundhog Day, on this bill, instead of all the other priorities, I will say the Committee Democrats continue to support this bill. | ||
| There's no opposition to this bill. | ||
| We're going to pass it again and again, maybe if we run out of other things to do in this Congress. | ||
| The legislation would require relevant federal agencies to complete an updated evaluation of the container aerial firefighting system to support wildland fire mitigation and suppression efforts across the country. | ||
| The system involves using a box or a container for aerial drops of water or fire retardant. | ||
| Its proponents claim that its utilization of this technology could improve delivery time and make it easier for aircrafts to fight fires. | ||
| So that's fine. | ||
| That's a good thing. | ||
| However, back in 2011, the Forest Service conducted a study and determined that this particular system did not meet existing standards and posed safety risks for our communities and forests. | ||
| And since that initial report, there have been technological advancements. | ||
| This bill aims to take another look at a potentially useful tool while ensuring the Forest Service retains its authority to decide if the tool is ready to use or not. | ||
| This is an important safeguard for wildland firefighters and the communities who are impacted by the wildfire crisis. | ||
| As we saw in the recent Southern California fires, the climate crisis is clearly increasing the severity and duration of wildfire season. | ||
| Evaluating new technology can help keep communities safe, and this needs to be a priority. | ||
| So this bill is one of many examples of the potential for truly bipartisan collaboration on the issue of wildfire. | ||
| I hope we can keep this work going. | ||
| I hope we can extend it to actually a permanent fix for the firefighter pay problem that we need to address. | ||
| And with that, I urge my colleagues to vote yes and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen from California and all members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. | ||
| The gentleman in reserves, gentlemen from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my friends across the aisle for their overwhelming support of Representative Valedo's bill. | ||
| We should have that kind of support for a bill that's addressing a huge issue in our country with wildland fire and the dangers that it imposes. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, I believe you and Mr. Valadeo both served on the or serve on the Appropriations Committee where Republicans brought an interior appropriations bill to the floor with firefighter pay funding in that bill and it was voted down by our friends across the aisle. | ||
| So we do need to take care of our firefighters and when we get bills on the floor that increase pay for firefighters I would hope we could get more bipartisan support on that. | ||
| With that I want to yield three minutes to the gentleman from California, the lead sponsor of the bill, Mr. Valadeo. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for three minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well I thank the Speaker and I thank the Chairman for my time today. | |
| I urge my colleagues to support the Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act, which would dramatically increase the number of airlift assets available for wildfire emergencies. | ||
| Containerized aerial firefighting systems, or CAFs, are airdrop-capable disposable containers for water or fire retardant, which can be dropped from much higher altitudes and with less visibility than current aerial firefighting operations. | ||
| Current operations depend on single-mission aircraft, but CAFs can be used by any standard cargo plane. | ||
| The use of CAFs provides for more coverage for firefighters on the ground and allows teams to quickly respond to prevent smaller fires from raging out of control. | ||
| These systems are used by other countries, but the United States has not utilized them. | ||
| We have the technology that we can deploy to stop or minimize the devastation these fires cause and we should be using it. | ||
| I want to thank Chairman Westerman and his staff at the Natural Resources Committee for their work on this important bill to combat and contain wildfires in a quicker and more efficient way. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman Yields, the gentleman from Arkansas Reserves. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. | ||
| I'm prepared to close and continue to reserve. | ||
| The gentleman's prepared to close. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I certainly didn't think I was engaging in personalities by talking about a president that wants to be a king. | ||
| I thought I was just acknowledging the reality of what's happening in this country. | ||
| But I was also referring to these 19-year-olds in hoodies that have been given read-write access to our most sensitive personal data who are inside the Treasury Department's payment system right now rummaging through our private information doing who knows what. | ||
| We can't even get answers because our friends across the aisle don't want to talk about it. | ||
| They want to rerun all these bills that we've already passed and that are frankly not opposed. | ||
| And this is a waste of our time here on the floor. | ||
| But I do urge my colleagues to vote yes again on this bill, and I yield the balance of my time. | ||
| And again, I would remind members to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. | ||
| With that, the gentleman from California reserves or yields, excuse me. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, again, H.R. 836 is a good common sense piece of legislation that has passed the House three times on a bipartisan basis. | ||
| I commend Representative Valadeo for his proven leadership on bipartisan solutions that meaningfully improve forest health and reduce wildfires. | ||
| If we could get the Senate to act on some of these bills, we wouldn't have to pass them so many times. | ||
| But I appreciate Representative Valadio being so persistent and continuing to work on his good legislation. | ||
| I encourage adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen yields. | ||
| The question is: will the House suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 836? | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, 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. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Arkansas seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 837. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| H.R. 837, a bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture to convey the Pleasant Valley Ranger District Administrative Site to Gila County, Arizona. | ||
| Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Westerman, and the gentleman from California, Mr. Huffman, each will control 20 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 837, the bill now under consideration. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 837, which is led by my friend from Arizona, Representative Crane. | ||
| This is a good bill that would transfer land from the Forest Service to create a retreat facility in Gila County, Arizona, for veterans and their families. | ||
| Over 5,000 veterans call Gila County home, and there are over 500,000 veterans in all of Arizona. | ||
| Creating this facility will help the brave men and women who have served our country find healing, reconnect with nature, and ease the transition back to civilian life. | ||
| Nearly 60% of the land in Gila County is federally owned, which creates significant limitations on available land for commendable efforts like the Veterans Retreat Center. | ||
| The proposed location of this new center is a forest service site that is scheduled to be torn down. | ||
| This 232-acre site includes 17 buildings, two residences, two barracks, a historic ranger house and barn, and helipads. | ||
| Gila County plans to remodel and renovate many of the buildings to provide an excellent experience for veterans and their families. | ||
| Repurposing the site is a win-win as it will be a great resource for Arizona's veterans while freeing the Forest Service from maintaining property it no longer needs. | ||
| I commend Representative Crane for his leadership in this effort on behalf of his constituents. | ||
| And as a veteran himself, I know he understands how important this center will be for his community. | ||
| His diligent work with Gila County and the Forest Service has led to this important effort, which will make a meaningful difference in the lives of Arizona's veterans. | ||
| I support the bill and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| From Arkansas Reserves, a gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I do rise in support of this legislation. | ||
| My Democratic colleagues and I agree that it is a good idea to authorize the conveyance of the Pleasant Valley Ranger District administrative site to Gila County in Arizona. | ||
|
Why Republicans Walked Away
00:03:06
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| But I do want to talk about the broader context for this bill, because it was supposed to be considered today alongside a Democratic-led bill, the National Museum of Play Recognition Act. | ||
| It's about as innocuous as it gets. | ||
| This is a bill that has a Republican co-lead. | ||
| It would merely confer the title of national to this museum in Rochester, New York, which is a unique institution dedicated to the exploration of how play serves to promote learning, creativity, discovery, and cultural history. | ||
| The bill wouldn't provide federal funding or any other benefits that my friends across the aisle could object to. | ||
| I'm talking about conferring an honorary title on a children's museum. | ||
| It has areas for kids to play and imagine that they're in Sesame Street or the Berenstein Bears books. | ||
| Unfortunately, House Republicans have pulled the bill from today's agenda at the last minute because we are told that many Republicans think the museum is too woke and too DEI. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| That's the explanation we've been given for why the deal's off and the Democratic bill can't be considered today. | ||
| Now, I don't know the names of who made this decision or what specific complaints are behind it, but I am guessing that some of my Republican colleagues don't like the museum, don't like the fact that the museum currently has a small temporary exhibit called Black Doll Designers that lets visitors, and I quote, learn about the pivotal role that black designers have played in diversifying toy aisles, end quote. | ||
| In September, the museum also posted on Instagram about Hispanic ballerina Barbie and how the My First Barbie line of dolls, and I quote, come in various ethnicities and styles, encouraging inclusivity and diversity, end quote. | ||
| Now, that doesn't strike me as controversial or offensive in any way, but is that why we can't have a vote on this bill here today? | ||
| Some unidentified Republicans are triggered by that, by Hispanic ballerina Barbie? | ||
| Or are our Republicans' friends just taking their orders from the far-right website Breitbart, which posted yesterday attacking this museum for its content and for offering what it called diversity and inclusion internships. | ||
| I guess those are dirty words these days. | ||
| And that's how it works these days. | ||
| Shortly after the Breitbart Post went up, this bill disappeared from the agenda. | ||
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Gentleman from Arizona Applauds Veteran Legislation
00:05:21
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| It was pulled. | ||
| That's how it works these days. | ||
| Breitbart posts something. | ||
| Congress reacts. | ||
| Elon Musk tweets, Republicans in Congress walk away from a bipartisan budget deal. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this is disgusting. | ||
| Are my colleagues now puppets on a string, something that maybe should be an exhibit in the play museum that we're talking about here? | ||
| It sure would seem so. | ||
| There's nothing more I can say. | ||
| I believe this is disgusting. | ||
| I will save my comments about the remaining bill on today's agenda for later, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen from California Reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield three minutes to the gentleman from Arizona, the lead sponsor of this bill about a veterans retreat center, Mr. Crane. | ||
| Gentleman from Arizona is recognized for three minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Today I rise in support of my bill, which passed the House last Congress and was the first piece of legislation I introduced in my first term. | ||
| It is a testament to veterans in Arizona. | ||
| Specifically, my bill would enable Gila County, Arizona to operate a veterans center on 232 acres in young Arizona. | ||
| As a former Navy SEAL, I know the importance of providing this resource cannot be understated. | ||
| This legislation will serve our state and its heroes well. | ||
| The Veterans Center would protect and maintain the rich history of the property while providing family housing, meeting and activity spaces, resource rooms, veteran ceremonial grounds, and outdoor recreation. | ||
| It will be the first of its kind in northern Arizona, providing resources and support to primarily rural veterans and their families. | ||
| Furthermore, this legislation is an exemplary model of efficient land management. | ||
| Out west, the federal government retains vast amounts of land, limiting states' ability to maintain, conserve, recreate, and responsibly produce on lands within their own state. | ||
| Anytime Congress can vote on legislation that returns power to the states is a good thing. | ||
| In this case, veterans of northern Arizona will get a space to heal and reconnect with their families after putting their lives on the line for the peace and freedom of all Americans. | ||
| I'd like to take a moment to say thank you to my friend, Mr. Gosar, who helped lay the foundation for this effort, as well as Senator Kelly, who is leading this bill in the Senate. | ||
| It is my hope that we can get this bill across the finish line. | ||
| And with that, I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman from Arizona yields. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for Tom. | ||
| I'm prepared to close and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized to close. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I will just close by saying that we do support this legislation. | ||
| As we've already heard, this is a property that's adjacent to the rural town of Young, Arizona, surrounded by the Gila National Forest and formerly a Forest Service office building and administrative site that is no longer used by the agency. | ||
| So this conveyance will provide Gila County with the opportunity to do something productive and important with the property, establish a Veterans Retreat and Community Center. | ||
| That is a worthy goal. | ||
| It will support and uplift our deserving community of veterans in that location. | ||
| And the partnership made possible by this bill will provide some new life to deteriorating buildings, barns, barracks, and existing wastewater systems. | ||
| This is a bill that passed the House last Congress. | ||
| It's unfortunate that the Senate didn't take it up, but hopefully this time around they will. | ||
| And we can help fulfill Gila County's goal of creating what they've described as the ultimate experience for veterans and their families. | ||
| ⁇ End quote. | ||
| We support all of that. | ||
| If this bill does become law, I do hope our federal government will be sufficiently staffed to carry it up. | ||
| With furloughs, firings, and attempts at encouraging early retirement, including a whole bunch of lawless attempts that I wish my friends across the aisle were a little more concerned about, we're already seeing basic government functions at risk. | ||
| I urge my colleagues across the aisle to tell their friends in the White House to look before they leap and to stop dismantling the offices that serve our constituents. | ||
| And with that, I yield the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman from California yields. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas is recognized to close. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I again applaud Representative Crane for his leadership in this effort. | ||
| Representative Crane honorably and bravely served our nation, and now he's providing exemplary service to his constituents by championing this legislation. | ||
| I urge the adoption of the bill and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| The question is, will the House suspend the rules and pass H.R. 837? | ||
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House Votes on Fentanyl Classification
00:01:50
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| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, 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 12A of Rule 1, the Chair declares the House in recess, subject to the call of the Chair. | ||
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unidentified
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The U.S. House will return at 4:15 p.m. Eastern today to vote on whether to officially begin work on a bill to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs that have the strongest controls and penalties. | |
| Also, this week, a measure to block bans of oil and natural gas fracking. | ||
| And House Speaker Mike Johnson will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Capitol Hill tomorrow. | ||
| As always, live coverage of the House on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| We're funded by these television companies and more, including Buckeye Broadband. | ||
| Buckeye Broadband supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. | ||
| This afternoon, President Trump will sign an executive order meant to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from taking part in women's or girls' sporting events. | ||
| We'll bring that to you live on C-SPAN at about 3 p.m. Eastern. | ||