| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Blessed Are Those Who Fear
00:02:51
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||
| They really don't have any faith in our judicial system. | ||
| They do seem to be a little afraid of him. | ||
| And I don't think we're going to get any fair treatment for that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I would like to know. | |
| I see people who are stuck in this will get paid. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are you a federal employee, Anthony? | |
| No, I'm retired after 35 years. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So I have a lot of friends who are still working who are going to be stuck with us, including my two neighbors. | ||
| And what did they decide? | ||
|
unidentified
|
One of them has not made a decision, and the other one is really considering selling their home because they, like me, they had quite a bit of time in and take the early retirement. | |
| All right, Anthony. | ||
| Well, we're going to take you over to the House, set to gavel in any minute now. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The chair lays before the House a communication from the Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| The Speaker's Rooms, Washington, D.C., February 13th, 2025. | ||
| I hereby appoint the Honorable Mike Bost to act as Speaker Pro Tempore on this day. | ||
| Signed, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by Chaplain Kibben. | ||
| Would you pray with me? | ||
| Blessed are those who fear you, O Lord, and walk in your ways. | ||
| We pray your blessings on this day, but it is too often not you we fear, but the multitude of challenges that confront us. | ||
| Whether our anxiety is for things political or personal, changes environmental or emotional, upheaval, suppositional or spiritual, we too often find that the uncertainty of our days has eclipsed our ability to acknowledge or appreciate your power and authority over every aspect of our lives. | ||
| Teach us then to walk in your ways, to affirm your majesty over every aspect of our lives. | ||
| Would that we allow within our own spirits your holiness to transform the hostility, your kindness, every cruelty, your love, every malevolence. | ||
| Blessed are those who fear the Lord. | ||
| May this day and all the days of our lives receive your blessing that the work of our hands may prosper. | ||
| In your merciful name we pray. | ||
| Amen. | ||
| The chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the House the approval thereof. | ||
| Pursuant to clause one of Rule 1, the journal stands approved. | ||
| The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by the gentleman from California, Mr. Kahana. | ||
|
Rick's Pledge
00:12:49
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|
unidentified
|
I pledge allegiance to the flag to 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 five-minute request, five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Colorado seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask Amana's consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a great Coloradan and true American patriot, Rick Dunlap. | |
| Rick's story is one of resilience, courage, and service. | ||
| Born into poverty in Tennessee, he answered the call of duty at just 18, serving two tours in Vietnam as a door gunner with the 101st Airborne Division. | ||
| His heroism earned him the Bronze Star for Valor and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, recognition of his extraordinary bravery in combat. | ||
| But Rick's service didn't stop when he left the battlefield. | ||
| He dedicated nearly three decades to law enforcement in Montrose County, rising to sheriff and leading with integrity, earning the trust of his community. | ||
| Even in retirement, he continued giving back, volunteering, mentoring, and most recently, serving as county commissioner. | ||
| Rick was a man who never stopped serving. | ||
| He never stopped caring, and he never stopped fighting for the people around him. | ||
| Colorado's 3rd District lost a leader, a friend, and a hero. | ||
| To his beloved wife, Karen, and to his sons, Greg, Chad, and Josh, and all who knew him loved him, Rick's impact will not be forgotten. | ||
| May he rest in peace. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I will yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose do the gentleman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman from Illinois is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Mr. Speaker, President Trump's first Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, once said, if we don't fully fund the State Department and diplomacy abroad, I need to buy more ammunition. | ||
| Apparently, Elon Musk, a newly minted oligarch with $20 billion in government contracts and subsidies, never heard this warning. | ||
| Musk's decision to shutter USAID, supported by the current administration, will make us less safe. | ||
| USAID tracks and prevents global diseases such as Ebola and malaria from reaching the U.S. | ||
| Well, no more. | ||
| USAID programs lift people out of poverty and promote access to justice, which alleviate the root causes of terrorism. | ||
| No more. | ||
| USAID counters Chinese and Russian influence by fighting against misinformation and offering funds to build. | ||
| No more. | ||
| For one penny out of every dollar we pay in taxes, I cannot think of a better investment to advance American security. | ||
| Not long ago, Secretary of State Rubio said, quote, foreign aid is not charity. | ||
| It is critical to our national security. | ||
| He should take his own advice. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose gentlemen from Indiana seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman from Indiana is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I applaud President Trump's decisive economic actions that have leveled the playing field between Hoosier businesses and the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| The CCP has taken advantage of hardworking Hoosiers by engaging in currency manipulation, undermining our manufacturing sector, and buying American farmland in an attempt to control our agricultural future. | ||
| For too long, the CCP has used the exchange rate of their currency as a dagger to be hidden under the cloak of what they describe as fair trade practices. | ||
| They bought great American companies like Smithfield and masqueraded as a family neighborhood face, as a friendly neighborhood face, while silently gutting the already hemorrhaging mom-and-pop pork operations that are important to America's future and food supply. | ||
| And to top it off, they tried to deal a lethal blow to the third largest industry in my state by attempting to purchase multiple Indiana steel mills. | ||
| Enough is enough. | ||
| Trump has sent a clear message that America is finished with allowing the CCP to evade U.S. tariffs. | ||
| Hoosiers don't want the CCP to control our farmland or our markets. | ||
| It's time to change the unacceptable status quo that has taken hold of the USA. | ||
| First, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose did the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend. | |
| The gentleman from North Carolina, without objection, is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my unwavering support for the hardworking farmers of eastern North Carolina who are facing enormous challenges. | ||
| Inflation continues to cast a shadow over our agriculture community. | ||
| We didn't put costs such as seeds, fertilizer, and equipment. | ||
| In our state, many farmers have experienced crop losses resulting from drought conditions and hurricane Helene. | ||
| It's hard to catch a break as labor costs continue rising, make it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain operations and livelihoods. | ||
| We cannot overlook the well-known effects that tariffs have on our agriculture communities. | ||
| They hurt farmers' bottom lines and market limit market access. | ||
| Congress must pass a farm bill that meets the needs of farmers, consumers, and rural communities. | ||
| We must respond not just with our words, but with these. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose the gentlewoman from Texas seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I writes to ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute advice and stand by remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentlewoman from Texas is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, let's be clear why we have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| It's not some fancy agency. | ||
| They just simply defend hardworking people. | ||
| They are the consumers' watchdog. | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| $21 billion back in people's pockets who were cheated by big banks and corporations. | ||
| $360 million recovered for veterans who were the victims of fraud. | ||
| And starting this year, Americans will save $11 billion a year without bank overdraft fees. | ||
| And now, Republicans are letting the President and Elon Musk burn it down. | ||
| And for what? | ||
| For the banks? | ||
| For large corporations? | ||
| For their billionaire buddies? | ||
| You don't get to pander to working people while doing the bank's dirty work. | ||
| We must protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| We must protect the Consumers' Watchdog. | ||
| We must put people's pocketbooks over billionaires and their buddies. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentlewoman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose, gentlewoman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise to congratulate Santiago Canyon College for 25 years of providing quality, affordable educational opportunities to students across Southern California. | ||
| Santiago Canyon College in Orange, in my district, offers one of the largest community college adult education programs in California with over 60 career training certificates. | ||
| From nurses and teachers to accountants and medical assistants, the top-notch apprenticeship programs at Santiago Canyon are helping students of all backgrounds learn the skills to get the jobs and contribute to our communities. | ||
| I want to congratulate Santiago Canyon College President Jeannie Kim, faculty and staff, and students on this outstanding achievement. | ||
| And I can't wait to see what's ahead for the next 25 years. | ||
| Go Hawks. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| The member yields back. | ||
| For what purpose, gentlewoman from Pennsylvania 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 gentlewoman from Pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, for the uninsured, the working poor, Medicaid recipients, and rural communities, health care is hard to find. | ||
| Yet for 60 years, community health centers or CHCs have cared for people who would go otherwise unseen and untreated. | ||
| In Pennsylvania, that's more than 1 million people, including 280,000 children, nearly 140,000 seniors, almost 15,000 veterans, and about 14,000 agricultural workers receiving affordable and comprehensive care. | ||
| In my district, the community health centers and dental centers serve four sites in Bartow, Boyertown, Norristown, and Pottstown. | ||
| Some of our most vulnerable, those with no health insurance, struggling with addiction or homelessness, have no hope. | ||
| Importantly, CHC offers not just primary care, but preventative care, a critical aspect of our health care system. | ||
| Not only is it cost-effective, it's compassionate and giving that hope. | ||
| In Pennsylvania, thousands of doctors, nurses, behavioral specialists, and more show up every day for those most in need. | ||
| They're not in it for the money. | ||
| They're in it for the love of neighbor. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'd like to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, not since Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus at the height of the Civil War has a president defied the United States Supreme Court. | ||
| Yet Vice President Vance has called for President Trump to, quote, fire every civil servant in the administrative state. | ||
| And when the courts stop you, Vice President Vance says, go like Andrew Jackson did and say the court has made its ruling. | ||
| Now try to enforce it. | ||
| Perhaps the Vice President doesn't know the history that Andrew Jackson's defiance of the Supreme Court led to the forcible removal of Native Americans and a trail of tears and shame for the country. | ||
| But it is black letter law. | ||
| Vice President Vance, go back to Yale Law School where both of us studied. | ||
| Article 2 has the president administrating the law. | ||
| Article 3 have the courts saying what the law is. | ||
| That has been the bipartisan consensus that even Richard Nixon understood. | ||
| It is dangerous, dangerous for you to call on the president to defy the Supreme Court. | ||
| Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the chair. | ||
| Refrain from engaging in personalities of the vice president for what purpose does the gentleman from California, Mr. McClintock, seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up H.R. 35 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| H.R. 35, a bill to impose criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing federal officer while operating a motor vehicle. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the bill is considered red. | ||
| The bill shall be debated for one hour, equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader of the respective designees or their prospective designees. | ||
| The gentleman from California, Mr. McClintock, and the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin, each will control 30 minutes. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. McClintock. | ||
|
Incentive to Evade Borders
00:05:44
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||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I'd ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 35. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| And I yield myself such time as I may consider. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, one of the great tragedies that came of the Democrats' four years of open border policies was the number of fatalities of American citizens and law enforcement officers that were caused by high-speed chases of human and drug smugglers and illegal aliens who poured across our southern border. | ||
| The Democrats' open border policies incentivized and encouraged these tragedies by creating the conditions that made these deadly high-speed chases commonplace. | ||
| Just last year, Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass told us that in the Del Rio sector alone, the cartels were making $32 million every week from human smuggling. | ||
| That's just one sector of the southwest border. | ||
| These policies created an enormous incentive that emboldened criminals and cartels and human smugglers and illegal aliens alike. | ||
| High-speed chases with smugglers occurred almost daily in these border communities, placing both law enforcement officials and innocent Americans in grave danger. | ||
| For example, last year, criminals led the Texas Department of Public Safety officers on a high-speed chase outside of Del Rio as they attempted to smuggle a half a dozen illegal aliens into the interior of our country. | ||
| At least one of the smugglers was himself a foreign national from Nicaragua. | ||
| Amazingly, the Biden-Harris administration rewarded this criminal alien with a work authorization. | ||
| These criminals also smuggle deadly drugs like fentanyl, which has poisoned thousands of Americans. | ||
| Roughly one month ago in California, a high-speed chase ensued after two men had their car referred for secondary inspection at a port of entry. | ||
| Border Patrol officers ultimately stopped the men and recovered nearly five pounds of fentanyl. | ||
| That's enough to kill more than 100,000 Americans. | ||
| At the beginning of the last Congress, Cochise County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Daniels, a 38-year veteran of law enforcement, testified before the House Judiciary Committee. | ||
| Sheriff Daniels told us about a woman named Wanda from his county who was killed while driving to her own 65th birthday party by an individual who was invading law enforcement while smuggling illegal aliens. | ||
| She'd hoped to enjoy some time at the party with her son, who was receiving treatment for stage 4 cancer. | ||
| According to Sheriff Daniels, the criminal who caused the crash was smuggling illegal aliens when he fled from law enforcement officers, blew through a red light, and crashed into Wanda's car, cutting it in half and instantly killing her. | ||
| These dangerous car crashes kill our law enforcement heroes as well. | ||
| On December 7th, 2022, Border Patrol Officer Raul Umberto Gonzalez got up, got dressed, and he left for work. | ||
| His family would never see him again. | ||
| He was killed later that day in Mission, Texas, doing his job, trying to protect our country. | ||
| A group of illegal aliens led him on a high-speed chase that ended in a fatal wreck that took his life. | ||
| Authorities do not have the tools to fully prosecute and punish these criminals. | ||
| Currently, the failure to yield to a Border Patrol agent or any other law enforcement officer assisting Border Patrol is not explicitly criminalized under federal law. | ||
| At the same time, there are no specific immigration consequences for foreign nationals, including illegal aliens, who intentionally evade the Border Patrol. | ||
| In other words, criminals and foreign nationals have little incentive not to evade them. | ||
| On November 5th, the American people sent a strong message to the world. | ||
| There is only one pathway into the United States, and that is to obey our laws. | ||
| And this bill sends a message that we will no longer tolerate those who evade our law enforcement officers who are upholding those laws. | ||
| H.R. 35 is named in honor and in memory of Agent Gonzalez. | ||
| It ensures that those who endanger border communities and law enforcement officers by failing to yield to Border Patrol agents will face meaningful consequences, ensuring these illegal aliens can be prosecuted and will be ineligible for immigration relief under our laws. | ||
| This legislation also provides escalating criminal penalties if the evasion results in serious bodily injury or death to another person. | ||
| Now, last session, this bill passed on a bipartisan basis, although 154 of our Democratic colleagues opposed this common sense measure. | ||
| Taking their cue, Senate Democrats refused to take it up last year. | ||
| That's inexplicable to me. | ||
| I don't understand that. | ||
| But I hope that today, after Democrats have had time to reflect on the matter, especially in light of the decisive verdict of the American people last November, that more of our Democratic colleagues will have seen the light and will join us in protecting the American people from these dangerous criminals and cartels and human smugglers. | ||
|
Constitutional Mayhem: Dozens of Episodes
00:04:22
|
||
| I want to thank Arizona Representative Juan Siscomoni for his leadership on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, a gentleman from Maryland, is recognized. | ||
| And thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I begin with an urgent constitutional public service announcement based on millions of calls and messages that have been flooding Congress. | ||
| There is a serial constitutional violator at large right now in the District of Columbia whose overall project to dismantle our Constitution and rule of law is now the target or subject of at least a dozen different federal court temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions across the land and also faces emergency civil actions in dozens of other courts and jurisdictions. | ||
| The suspect has been described as a very evil individual by Steve Bannon and has been operating in clandestine fashion with a night crew of computer hacking juvenile associates, one of whom goes by the alias of Big Balls, and another one they call the kid, who has been known to post racist and anti-Semitic provocations online. | ||
| The accelerating spree of constitutional offenses alarming the nation involves dozens of episodes of computer fraud and data theft affecting potentially 300 million Americans and escalating threats against congressionally created federal agencies serving the people from NIH to the National Weather Service to NOAA to the Department of Justice, | ||
| public workers, teachers and students, prosecutors of cop-assaulting criminals and seditious conspirators against our government, FBI agents, and anyone who depends on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or any other computerized public payment system. | ||
| The apparent ringleader of all the constitutional mayhem is a reported father of 12, a formerly deportable undocumented immigrant who worked illegally in the country and is apparently part of a loose network of Silicon Valley billionaires who oppose American constitutional democracy and openly favor the creation of a monarchical techno-state under their control. | ||
| The suspect was seen yesterday in the vicinity of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and is known to have been consorting as recently as a few days ago with a convicted felon from New York. | ||
| Described as the richest person in the world, the suspect is both a government contractor with billions of dollars in defense contracts, and we learned yesterday $400 million slated from the State Department for some of his armored Tesla vehicles, | ||
| and also he is a part-time government worker whose many taxpayer-supported businesses are being investigated, fined, or sued by numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. | ||
| The suspect has allegedly been working to seize control over several of these same agencies to shut them down, which would presumably terminate all of the relevant threatening investigations. | ||
| The public has never received from the suspect any ethics disclosure forms required of all federal workers, nor any conflict of interest waiver to resolve his glaring conflicts of interest. | ||
| The suspect spent his formative years in apartheid South Africa and has been known to post racist and anti-Semitic material and to engage in a Nazi salute in public. | ||
| Steve Bannon calls him a truly evil individual. | ||
| The ringleader and his associates, sometimes called the Muscovites, have been seen by numerous federal workers violating the separation of powers and the spending clause, usurping the powers of this body, trampling the civil service laws, and violating the rights of both his federal and corporate workers. | ||
|
Unmarked Vehicles and Fleeing Law Enforcement
00:15:13
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||
| The suspect, his sponsors, and accomplices should be considered dangerous to the constitutional rights, freedoms, and institutions of the people, as well as their property, their jobs, and their livelihoods. | ||
| If you know anything about the situation and you're a Republican member, please get in touch immediately with the Democrats so we can form a majority to stop this unprecedented attack on the Constitution and American law and order before we end up like apartheid South Africa or Orbans Hungary or Putin's Russia. | ||
| Now, back to our regularly scheduled program where we avoid the constitutional crisis overtaking the first and greatest multiracial, multi-ethnic constitutional democracy on earth and instead pass completely redundant, unnecessary, and sloppily drafted laws that allow us to vote against immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, as Elon Musk was, without either engaging in comprehensive immigration reform or fixing the border. | ||
| Now, with this bill, House Republicans are once again seeking to take political advantage of a horrific crime by seizing on the death of Agent Gonzalez in the performance of his duties, while doing nothing to make our border more secure or to repair our broken immigration system. | ||
| And everyone knows, of course, that they blew up the bipartisan border security deal that we had at the end of the last Congress. | ||
| But H.R. 35 seeks to establish new criminal and immigration penalties on anyone, Citizens, permanent residents, documented immigrants or undocumented immigrants for this offense, fleeing a Border Patrol agent or a law enforcement officer who's working with the Border Patrol. | ||
| But fleeing Border Patrol at the border already carries substantial criminal and legal penalties under current law. | ||
| That's already a crime. | ||
| Under 18 U.S. Code 758, whoever flees or evades a checkpoint operated by the Customs and Border Protection or any other law enforcement agency in a motor vehicle and flees from federal, state, or local law enforcement in excess of the legal speed limit can be charged with and convicted of high-speed flight from an immigration checkpoint. | ||
| Furthermore, many decades of prosecution and case law make it perfectly clear that fleeing law enforcement is a crime involving moral turpitude for which a conviction will render a non-citizen, whether documented or undocumented, immediately deportable and inadmissible to the country. | ||
| In other words, what they're dragging us through again is already against the law. | ||
| So if all of it is already a crime, why do we need another version of it? | ||
| Except for plainly opportunistic political purposes. | ||
| And I know those are the only bills they've been bringing forward. | ||
| They've got no other agenda for the country, and they've handed over the legislative authority of the Congress of the United States to Elon Musk, the fourth branch of government. | ||
| But in any event, they want us to pass again something that's already against the law. | ||
| Well, we don't need it. | ||
| And in fact, this characteristically poorly drafted pylon bill is so poorly drafted this time that it could subject not just undocumented people, not just permanent residents, but American citizens to prison sentences for conduct that the vast majority of Americans would not even recognize as a crime at all and would not see as a crime. | ||
| Now, unlike existing federal law or similar state statutes, the bill does not define what it means to flee. | ||
| In their haste to get this to the floor, they just rushed over that element of the crime, which is of extraordinary interest to every other jurisdiction and even Congress before when dealing with it. | ||
| But leave that aside, it does not even require evidence of criminal intent, a guilty mind, what lawyers call mensrea, the intention to do the evil thing. | ||
| In other words, this bill does not require a person to know that they're fleeing border patrol in order to be charged with a crime. | ||
| Now think about it. | ||
| It applies to citizens, not just non-citizens, and you can be prosecuted and jailed for fleeing from a border patrol that you didn't know was border patrol. | ||
| This is a radical departure from the prevailing rule in American jurisdictions. | ||
| For example, in Maryland, I looked up my state. | ||
| The offense of fleeing or eluding law enforcement requires that a uniformed officer gives a person a visual or audible signal to stop and prominently displays their official badge or other insignia. | ||
| If an officer is not in uniform, Maryland requires that an officer give a visual or audible signal to stop while in an officially marked police vehicle to establish the necessary mensrea before we put somebody in prison. | ||
| Under either circumstance, a visual or audible signal can be by hand, voice, emergency light, or siren. | ||
| It's not only blue states like mine that require evidence that the accused knew what they were doing was wrong before convicting them of purposefully fleeing law enforcement. | ||
| That's the rule almost everywhere. | ||
| I'm sure the crime subcommittee chairman, Mr. Biggs, and the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Siscomani, are aware that in Arizona, the offense of unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement requires proof that the officer's vehicle had markings indicative of an official police vehicle. | ||
| Evidence that the driver knew that the vehicle was an official law enforcement vehicle, or the defendant must admit knowing that the vehicle was an official police vehicle. | ||
| In other words, their own state takes the exact painstaking precautions that they just run roughshod over in order to get this bill, which has not had a hearing to the floor of the United States House of Representatives. | ||
| And should a defendant choose to exercise their right to trial by jury, the trial judge in Arizona would instruct the jury that they may consider whether the officer operated their emergency lights or siren to determine whether the defendant is guilty of unlawful flight from an actually pursuing vehicle. | ||
| As was stated in the collaborative reports, Without Intent and Without Intent Revisited, published by the Heritage Foundation, which is adamant about mensrea, and the National Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, quote, ensuring that an adequate mensrea provision is included in statutes and regulations that create criminal offenses is critical. | ||
| The Heritage Foundation says it is critical to specify that there must be a culpable or guilty state of mind before we put people behind bars. | ||
| It appears that nearly every state recognizes this fact when drafting their statutes carefully to address the fears and consequences associated with people fleeing law enforcement. | ||
| We don't want people going to jail because they were simply moving away from a person they thought was a criminal who turns out to be, for example, an undercover police officer. | ||
| As a matter of fact, of the states represented by the 32 co-sponsors of this legislation, all but two of them specifically require at minimum an audible or visual signal to stop the vehicle to prove that there was intentional flight from a pursuing officer. | ||
| And looking at statutes that address similar conduct in all 50 states, there are only six that do not explicitly require an order direction request or signal to stop the vehicle. | ||
| Despite this widely accepted approach to legislative construction, H.R. 35 would allow Donald Trump's Department of Justice to not only convict non-citizens but citizens of a violation of this so-called offense and to deport non-citizens without allowing them their day in court and without requiring any evidence of any knowledge that they were actually fleeing a government agent. | ||
| Without any limiting characteristics, under this bill, a citizen could be sent to prison because they did not immediately pull over when hailed by someone, a local undercover officer, for example, assisting Border Patrol. | ||
| Similarly, in the immigration context, admitting to acts that constitute this nebulous vague conduct would render a green card holder deportable. | ||
| Now, the bill applies its criminal and immigration penalties even if the law enforcement officer is in plain clothes and driving an unmarked undercover vehicle. | ||
| There are a lot of good reasons why a law-abiding citizen or permanent resident might be wary of pulling over for an unmarked vehicle. | ||
| Just last week, reports emerged of an alarming trend across the country of rapists, criminals, and vigilantes pretending to be immigration enforcement personnel and then targeting people that they thought might be undocumented in order to rape them or assault them or harass them or what have you. | ||
| I saw on TV a case last night of a sexual assailant who accosted a woman and forcibly assaulted her while pretending to be an ICE agent. | ||
| I saw that last night. | ||
| Another man, Sean Michael Johnson, was arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer along with felony kidnapping, larceny, assault and battery after he impersonated an ICE agent and stopped a group of men in their car because he told them they were not lawfully present in the country. | ||
| In this environment, Mr. Speaker, it would be neither unreasonable nor surprising for law-abiding citizens to be wary of pulling over for an unmarked car that claims to be working with Border Patrol. | ||
| Further, given that the Trump administration is deputizing anyone they can to get to aid immigration enforcement efforts, the number of officers, both in police clothing and in unmarked clothing, to whom this law would apply is staggering. | ||
| In backing this bill, our colleagues want to impose extraordinary criminal and immigration consequences for not immediately pulling over when an unmarked car driven by a total stranger hails you at a time when criminals, including a pardoned January 6 felon, by the way, are going around impersonating immigration enforcement officers. | ||
| That is a real trend happening now. | ||
| And I would love to be convinced it's not if the gentleman has reason to think that all of these reports and arrests of people impersonating officers are wrong. | ||
| But this is a trend in the country. | ||
| And all of this simply to give more power to target immigrants, which already exists, just for the purposes of the legislative show. | ||
| This is outrageous, and I urge my colleagues to oppose the legislation they'll reserve at this point, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, my friend argues that this bill is unnecessary because aliens who are convicted of fleeing an immigration checkpoint are already removable. | ||
| That part's correct. | ||
| But there's no corresponding grounds for inadmissibility. | ||
| This bill fixes that omission, and it also expands the law to someone who's deliberately fleeing the Border Patrol, not only from a checkpoint, but from anywhere within 100 miles of the border. | ||
| But this begs the larger question. | ||
| If, as the Democrats say, this bill simply restates existing law, well, then why are they opposing it? | ||
| Well, they say you should prove that the alien knows that they're evading the Border Patrol when they initiate a high-speed chase through a crowded neighborhood. | ||
| Well, he forgets there are many, many acts that are themselves deadly and dangerous that we sanction. | ||
| Drunk driving is such an offense. | ||
| It doesn't matter if you intended to kill somebody when you got behind that wheel drunk. | ||
| The behavior itself is deadly and dangerous and punishable under law. | ||
| Leading a high-speed chase through a crowded highway is also such an inherently dangerous act, which my friends on the other side of the aisle, for some inexplicable reason, want to excuse. | ||
| I'm now pleased to yield three minutes to the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Klein. | ||
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for three minutes. | ||
| I thank the gentleman, and it's clear that the ranking member of the committee has his talking points today when he wants to complain about a businessman helping the administration to save taxpayer dollars, raising histrionics to a new level by talking about a constitutional crisis. | ||
| You know, we do have the power of the purse under Article I, but Article II, when given that money, has a responsibility for administering it in a responsible manner. | ||
| And if this administration is going to grant taxpayer funds to irresponsible purposes, or the last administration granted money to irresponsible recipients, then this administration should be able to reconsider those grants or stop those grants from occurring and direct the money into a more appropriate place. | ||
| But it doesn't surprise me that the gentleman from suburban Washington, who has so many Federal employees in his district, is now worried that we are going to have a number of Federal employees who are going to be put out of work. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| We have too many Federal employees in this country. | ||
| It's about time that we shrunk the size and scope of the Federal Government. | ||
| And I think even though it results in people in suburban Washington unfortunately having to seek employment elsewhere, it will save the taxpayers money and improve government efficiency for the long term. | ||
| I rise to support this bill, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, because in recent years, cartels and human smugglers have recruited drivers to transport illegal aliens from the southwest border further into the United States and many of our communities. | ||
| Unsurprisingly, when encountered by law enforcement and customs and border protection officials, these drivers routinely flee, often at high speeds. | ||
|
Agent Raul Gonzalez's Legacy
00:15:51
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| Raul Gonzalez was a Border Patrol agent who was killed in 2022 in a high-speed chase while pursuing a car filled with illegal immigrants in Texas. | ||
| That same year, there were six Border Patrol agents who died on the job. | ||
| High-speed chases put agents, first responders, and innocent bystanders in danger. | ||
| And because these chases happen as often as daily to multiple times a day, they take up the bulk of the U.S. Marshal's response to calls. | ||
| So this bill provides a federal criminal penalty for individuals who intentionally evade Border Patrol agents or law enforcement officers assisting Border Patrol and provide for escalating penalties when evading law enforcement results in serious bodily injury or death. | ||
| The consequences of the Biden-Harris administration's open borders policies are clear, and now House Republicans, along with President Trump, can ensure the safety of our communities and the security of our borders. | ||
| I support this bill and encourage my colleagues to do so as well. | ||
| And with that, I yield back to the gentleman. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California, Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, thank you. | ||
| Yes, we have hundreds of thousands of federal employees who live in Maryland, and we're very proud of them. | ||
| And I assume the distinguished gentleman from Virginia is proud of the hundreds of thousands of Federal employees who live and work in Virginia, including in Roanoke. | ||
| And they have constitutional rights just like other American citizens have. | ||
| And none of our rights, whether they're constitutional or in the civil service, should be trashed by an unelected billionaire bureaucrat who doesn't understand our system of government. | ||
| As to the merits, the distinguished gentleman talks about high-speed chases, which is what most statutes talk about in the country. | ||
| This bill, I don't know if you've read the language, doesn't mention high-speed chases or it doesn't mention any speed at all. | ||
| It just says fleeing. | ||
| It's the only statute I could find in the country that doesn't define what fleeing means. | ||
| So it's a very sloppy bill that has not had a hearing, that's just brought to the floor for political entertainment purposes. | ||
| I now yield six minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from Washington, who is the ranking member on the subcommittee on immigration. | ||
| Ms. Jibald. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Washington is recognized for six minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Remember when candidate Trump said that on day one he would end inflation, he would bring prices down for American citizens? | ||
| That is in fact the number one reason he got elected. | ||
| But guess what? | ||
| He has done nothing on this. | ||
| Republicans have spent no time on the floor trying to bring down prices for average Americans. | ||
| And in fact, the data that was just released yesterday says that prices have shot up because of many of the proposals that Donald Trump has put forward and the chaos he is inflicting on the economy. | ||
| Are we spending time on that here on the floor? | ||
| No. | ||
| We're wasting time on yet another attack on all immigrants, including U.S. citizens. | ||
| Once again, the majority is moving a bill to expand the Trump administration's mass deportation machine and trample, trample on the core American principle of due process. | ||
| All of these bills that are being put forward utilize a very simple formula. | ||
| First, take laws that are already on the books about deporting and making inadmissible to the United States people who are convicted of committing certain crimes and fool the American people into thinking somehow that's not already the law. | ||
| Second, dangerously expand those laws so that simply being accused of something or admitting to something that no one would reasonably consider being a crime makes it sufficient to now deport you or make you inadmissible without any due process, without a fair day in court. | ||
| This is terrorizing communities across the country. | ||
| And Donald Trump's obsession with using every lever of government to target immigrants has undermined our national security and our safety by forcing federal law enforcement officials to abandon fighting drug trafficking or human smuggling and instead focusing on arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants who pose no threat to public safety and many of whom have lived and worked in this country for decades. | ||
| Already we've seen the effects on U.S. citizens with the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens, the targeting of Native Americans, the arrest of countless people with no criminal records. | ||
| ICE agents are treating the act of speaking Spanish as a probable cause for interrogation. | ||
| And they are revoking all the crucial and successful legal pathways put in place by the Biden administration, like parole and temporary protective status, including, by the way, for Venezuelans and Cubans who feel Trump's betrayal deeply. | ||
| This bill follows the same divisive, deceptive formula. | ||
| H.R. 35 amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to create a new ground of deportability and inadmissibility for any non-citizen who admits fleeing from Border Patrol while operating a motor vehicle, whether or not they knew it was Border Patrol that they were fleeing from. | ||
| Now, let's be clear. | ||
| Just as I said with the formula, being convicted of fleeing Border Patrol or any law enforcement already makes a person deportable and admissible. | ||
| That is current law. | ||
| But the key word here is convicted. | ||
| Remember that when we talk about deportability, we're also talking about people who are in the United States lawfully. | ||
| Many are green card holders and have lived in the United States for decades. | ||
| So if we're going to deport them, I hope that we would all agree they should have basic due process rights and a day in court, just like any American would want for themselves. | ||
| That is why conviction is required for deportation. | ||
| Convictions also mean that law enforcement can focus on the most serious criminals, not those who are simply accused and may well be innocent. | ||
| Let me also debunk the Republican argument that admitting to fleeing is the same as a conviction. | ||
| That's simply not true. | ||
| People may admit to fleeing without even knowing that the person chasing them is Border Patrol. | ||
| Let me give you an example. | ||
| Let's say that you're a woman driving alone on a deserted road at night. | ||
| You hear a siren, you see an unmarked car behind you signaling that you should pull over. | ||
| You've heard many stories about the men who prey on solo female drivers by pretending to be law enforcement. | ||
| So you slow down, you put on your hazards, you even call 911 to confirm that they have an officer in the area. | ||
| They confirm that one of their officers who's deputized by CBP is in the area. | ||
| So you pull over, and when the officer comes up to your window, you say, I'm sorry, officer, I needed to keep driving while I confirmed that you were with law enforcement since you were in an unmarked car. | ||
| That constitutes an admission that you were intentionally fleeing law enforcement. | ||
| And under this bill, even if you're a lawful permanent resident who has been in this country for 10 years or 20 years, you have just rendered yourself deportable. | ||
| A conviction requirement importantly ensures that you have due process and that you don't miss essential context. | ||
| Just last week, the Washington Post reported an uptick in people who are impersonating immigration enforcement officers to harass and attack people they suspect of being undocumented. | ||
| One North Carolina man showed a woman a fake badge and told her that he would deport her if she didn't come to a motel and have sex with him. | ||
| He ended up being arrested and charged with impersonating law enforcement, kidnapping, second-degree forcible rape and assault. | ||
| But in this environment, it is not surprising that people keep driving away when unmarked cars tell them to pull over, claiming to work with Border Patrol. | ||
| U.S. citizens should also be aware of the fact that the new criminal penalties in this bill would subject U.S. citizens to draconian mandatory minimums for something as minor as failing to immediately stop when hailed by an unmarked police car. | ||
| And the bill applies within to anyone. | ||
| I can yield another 20 seconds. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| This bill applies to anyone within 100 miles of the border. | ||
| That's two-thirds of the population of the United States. | ||
| Cities like Jacksonville, Charleston, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. | ||
| So fear is already pervasive. | ||
| People are afraid to go to work in schools. | ||
| Businesses are hurting. | ||
| Local economies and communities in states from Nebraska to Ohio to Texas are hurting. | ||
| This bill plays on fear. | ||
| It's cruel. | ||
| It's unnecessary. | ||
| It's dangerous for all Americans due process rights. | ||
| Vote no. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentlewoman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Democrats even listen to themselves. | ||
| The gentlelady just told us that this bill is simply duplicative of existing law and therefore a farce, and then a moment later tells us that it's a dangerous expansion of existing law. | ||
| I'd ask them at least to pick one side or the other and stick to it. | ||
| I now yield two minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Guest. | ||
| The gentleman from Mississippi is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 35, legislation named after Agent Raul Gonzalez, a 38-year-old father of two, who lost his life in an ATV accident on December 7, 2022, as he was attempting to apprehend a group of immigrants who had entered the country illegally. | ||
| This legislation not only honors the sacrifice of Agent Gonzalez, but it reinforces Republican support to secure our border. | ||
| This legislation helps fulfill the promise that President Trump made to the American people, a promise to protect those who protect each of us. | ||
| This legislation will protect American communities by imposing criminal penalties on people who evade U.S. Border Patrol agents or other law enforcement agents at our border. | ||
| And this legislation will help protect the brave men and women that enforce our border, those who risk their lives for a mission of keeping us safe and providing a secure border for all Americans. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to work alongside President Trump to make our country safe for all American citizens. | ||
| I am proud to support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to please vote yes on H.R. 35. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Just in answer to a couple of the recent comments, the good gentleman, the floor manager, says, how could it be possible that this bill is both duplicative and wildly expansive? | ||
| Well, it's duplicative of the actual criminal offense. | ||
| That already exists. | ||
| It's already a crime for somebody at the border to flee in a high-speed chase away from an officer. | ||
| That's already a crime. | ||
| What's expansive is this applies to citizens. | ||
| It goes way beyond the border. | ||
| It goes all over the country. | ||
| It doesn't define what it means to flee. | ||
| It doesn't require a high-speed chase. | ||
| And it can apply to, as the gentlelady was saying, a woman who hears on the news the way I heard last night that there is a maniac out there claiming to be an ICE agent who's attacking women. | ||
| And she hears about it, and then a plainclothes officer in an unmarked car begins to chase her, and she moves away and stops three or four blocks later. | ||
| She is guilty of violating their sloppily drafted bill. | ||
| And if they're serious about it, we should go back and have a real hearing and they should look at what states across the country are doing. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
| Oh, I'm sorry, I'm going to recognize Representative Bynum, who's arrived for two minutes. | ||
| The gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 35. | |
| Let's call this bill what it is. | ||
| Fearmongering dressed up as officer safety. | ||
| This bill echoes one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. | ||
| Just like that shameful law, H.R. 35 forces local authorities and encourages the deputizing of Randos to do the federal government's work, punishing them if they refuse. | ||
| Back then, it was hunting down people who dared to seek freedom. | ||
| Today, it's forcing local police to become federal enforcers, which is a violation of states' rights. | ||
| This bill is duplicative of existing law. | ||
| It threatens members of our community who are here legally and lacks surgical precision needed for solid immigration policy. | ||
| We need to start focusing on real solutions for the border. | ||
| I support law enforcement. | ||
| I support public safety. | ||
| But I oppose the federal government overreach that erodes local control and threatens civil rights. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to continue seeking comprehensive immigration policy reform and vote no on H.R. 35. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Yield back. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. De La Cruz. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Texas is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| Thank you to my colleagues for yielding. | ||
| I rise today in support of H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, which I am proud to have co-led with Congressman Siscomani. | ||
| Agent Raul Gonzalez was stationed in my community, McAllen, McAllen, Texas, and was dedicated to protecting the Rio Grande Valley and, quite frankly, all of the nation. | ||
| In 2022, he tragically lost his life while pursuing a car full of illegal immigrants. | ||
| By passing this legislation, we can take critical steps to protect the safety of law enforcement officers and prevent this tragedy from ever happening again. | ||
| This bill will make failing to yield to Border Patrol agents or law enforcement a federal crime. | ||
| Further, if anyone is killed during the apprehension, it could result in life in prison. | ||
| Criminals will think twice before engaging in dangerous and reckless behavior, like a high-speed chase from Border Patrol agents. | ||
| Law enforcement put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities. | ||
| I am committed to protecting those who protect us and urge my colleagues to support this bill in honor of the life and service of a Texas hero, Agent Raul Gonzalez. | ||
|
Backlash Against Militarization
00:05:35
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| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| I'm yielding two minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from Michigan, Ms. Talip. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Michigan is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| Here we go again. | ||
| We're voting yet on another bill that just promotes racial profiling. | ||
| That's exactly what's happening because Americans right now that are brown or black or have an accent that are American citizens are carrying passports with them. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because we're going to allow the targeting of communities that look like my district, to police them, to militarize them. | ||
| You know, the sprill strips the right to due process. | ||
| We already know that. | ||
| I think that many of my colleagues who are supporting this know that. | ||
| This is going to target even legal permanent residents. | ||
| I mean, they're going to separate families instantly without ever allowing anyone to be able to go to trial, to get even a charge, like a charge or a trial or even a conviction. | ||
| It is absolutely and clearly unconstitutional. | ||
| Everyone in our country has rights, and I want my residents to hear me say this again. | ||
| Everyone has rights no matter their status in the United States of America. | ||
| But this is what they want, right? | ||
| They want a racial profile. | ||
| Make it law of the land, discrimination, law of the land. | ||
| That's what they want. | ||
| Again, they want to go back to that kind of militarization and policing of targeting, again, people that look like my mother, that look like my neighbors in the 12th congressional district. | ||
| But I want to be very clear, though. | ||
| What my colleagues don't get, and again, I want my residents to hear me when I say this, is that no president, none, has the power to end constitutional rights, right to due process, not one. | ||
| This is not, Mr. Speaker, about fixing our immigration system. | ||
| You know why? | ||
| Because the donors and the people that support measures like this, the fear-mongering, they want a broken immigration system. | ||
| Because Ranking Member probably knows this. | ||
| They make money off of our broken immigration system. | ||
| Because if you really wanted to address it, you would get to the core issues of the fact of who's benefiting the most from not allowing our families and our loved ones who have been here for decades and years to be able to have a pathway to citizenship. | ||
| It's because someone benefits from it. | ||
| And it's unfortunate. | ||
| But again, we have the backs of our immigrant neighbors and even our American citizens that feel like they're being targeted to the United States. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I had to assure the gentlelady that the innocent victims of these high-speed chases come from all races and all backgrounds. | ||
| I'm now pleased to yield three minutes to the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Onder. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized for three minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in strong support of H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act. | ||
| This important legislation would make it a crime to evade arrest or detention while operating a motor vehicle within 100 miles of the U.S. border. | ||
| For aliens, the bill would go a step further, making it a deportable offense to flee from a pursuing Border Patrol agent. | ||
| Our southern border is under attack, and our Border Patrol agents are on the front lines. | ||
| The former administration depleted Border Patrol resources, leaving them with an impossible task that routinely puts them in harm's way. | ||
| The Border Patrol experienced over 5,700 encounters every day in December 2022, the month that Agent Raul Gonzalez was killed while pursuing an illegal alien, evading arrest. | ||
| The following year, the Biden administration doubled down on its open border policies, surging these encounters to 2.5 million in 2023. | ||
| Under President Biden's leadership, so-called border wall materials were sold off and razor wire was removed. | ||
| Under President Trump's leadership, we are taking full advantage of our resources to secure the border, and Mexico and Canada have already agreed to bolster enforcement. | ||
| And already the Trump policies are working. | ||
| Yesterday, the Washington Times reported that what they called a reverse flow of illegal immigrants streaming back home after being blocked at Trump's border. | ||
| When migrants learn of the new enhanced security measures at the southern border, they are giving up and going home. | ||
| Border Patrol agents who previously encountered as many as 10,000 illegal immigrants in a day are seeing fewer than 500. | ||
| By passing this legislation, we are showing Border Patrol agents that we have their backs and that we prioritize their safety. | ||
| This bill provides additional protections for Border Patrol agents by imposing harsher penalties for illegal aliens evading arrest at our border. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| We reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased to yield three minutes to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Jordan. | ||
|
Can't Question the Bureaucrats
00:03:38
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| I think the chairman of the Republican Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chairman. | ||
| Democrats for now, what, two weeks have been saying instead of stopping the stupid spending, they attack the guy who's exposing the stupid spending. | ||
| I think we should maybe get rid of the stupid spending. | ||
| Transcomic Opera in Ireland, Sesame Street on Iraqi television. | ||
| I think maybe we should focus on that. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| Can't do that. | ||
| And I think this just underscores the fundamental difference between the left and those of us in the Republican Party, those of us conservatives. | ||
| The left thinks the bureaucrats are smarter than we, the people. | ||
| Got to trust the bureaucracy. | ||
| You've got to trust the experts in the government. | ||
| I'd rather trust the people. | ||
| The 77 million people who elected President Trump told us he was systematically going to go through these agencies and identify dumb things that dumb things where taxpayer money is going to. | ||
| He told us he was going to do it. | ||
| The American people understood it. | ||
| He got elected. | ||
| Now he's carrying out that mission, and they're attacking the guy who President Trump is put in charge of this effort. | ||
| The bureaucrats who decided Big Bird and Burton Ernie on Baghdad TV was a good use of taxpayer money. | ||
| Can't question them. | ||
| Can't do that. | ||
| Can't question the people in the bureaucracy. | ||
| Can't question the 108,000 people who work at Treasury. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| They're smarter than the folks President Trump has asked to come in and look at where our tax money is going. | ||
| Can't question, I mean, I think about this. | ||
| The smartest bureaucrat in the history of the world, Dr. Fauci, the things he told us, we weren't allowed to question him for two years, and he ran our lives. | ||
| And here's the irony: everything he told us turned out to be false. | ||
| Told us it didn't come, to tell us the virus didn't come from a lab. | ||
| Yes, it did. | ||
| We got agencies now that tell us that, confirm that. | ||
| Told us the vaccinated couldn't get it, told us the vaccinated couldn't transmit it. | ||
| He's wrong on both those counts. | ||
| Told us mass work, told us six feet social distancing was based on science. | ||
| They just made it up. | ||
| Here's the kicker. | ||
| He told us this is the first virus in history where there was no such thing as natural immunity. | ||
| Can't question him. | ||
| Got to trust the bureaucracy. | ||
| I prefer to trust the people. | ||
| Oh, by the way, this was remember when they tried to set up a bureaucracy in the government that was going to tell us what we were allowed to say? | ||
| They actually tried to set up the disinformation governance board as if a bunch of federal bureaucrats could tell us what we can say, what we can't say, what's information, what's disinformation. | ||
| You got to be kidding me. | ||
| So I'll trust the guy who was elected by 77 million Americans. | ||
| I'll trust the Constitution. | ||
| The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States. | ||
| You know why they did that in the Constitution? | ||
| Because that's the guy who puts his name on a ballot and has to get votes. | ||
| Not the bureaucracy, not the thousands and thousands of people who think they're so much smarter than us regular folks who just get to vote. | ||
| Trust the guy who was elected and the people he's put in charge of this effort. | ||
| He told us he was going to do it. | ||
| The American people elected him to do it and maybe focus on stopping the stupid spending. | ||
| After all, we have a $36 trillion debt. | ||
| Finally, I would just say this: this is a good bill by a good member of our Congress, Mr. Siscomani. | ||
|
Ayes and Nays Requested
00:13:49
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| We passed it last year. | ||
| We should pass it again. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| We'll reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm now pleased to yield five minutes to the author of this measure, the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Siscomani. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. McClintock, for yielding me time here to talk about this bill. | ||
| I'm proud to rise in support of my legislation, H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act. | ||
| We've heard talk on both sides of the aisle in this place on this bill, on the merits of it. | ||
| And I am very proud to be supporting this and to actually share a little bit of the story of how we came about this bill. | ||
| One of my first official meetings that I had after being elected in 22, so this meeting happened in early 23, was to go back to one of my border counties and co-chees. | ||
| And I asked him, I said, what is, if there's one bill that I could start on immediately, what would it be? | ||
| And this meeting included law enforcement, local law enforcement from the state, from the county, also Border Patrol, stakeholders. | ||
| And the unanimous vote on this, the unanimous feedback was to make sure that something like this never happened again with what happened to Agent Raul Gonzalez. | ||
| That we dealt with the issue of high-speed chases and the inability of law enforcement to be able to pull over and punish those that are fleeing law enforcement and their failure to yield not being a federal crime. | ||
| This was it. | ||
| So, to all those on the other side of the aisle here who criticize this bill as saying that it is anti-fill-in-the-blank, this came from the same people that my friends on the other side, Speaker, claim that this is against. | ||
| This is a bill that came from the feedback of those that are highly impacted by this in our border communities. | ||
| So, it's not only law enforcement that is suffering and actually being risked in this kind of activity, it's innocent bystanders that are hurt by these high-speed chases that are literally dying in border communities and being killed by these pursuits. | ||
| So, the bill is simple: it makes evading law enforcement within 100 miles of the border a federal crime. | ||
| To me, it's simply common sense that this should be a federal crime. | ||
| Far too many lives have been jeopardized and even tragically taken, like I said, at the hands of bad actors who engage in these high-speed chases. | ||
| If you evade CBP or local law enforcement, you clearly don't have good intentions. | ||
| That's obvious. | ||
| Unfortunately, the current law does not make this a crime in and of itself, and it leaves the burden of prosecuting these individuals to our local border communities as if they don't have some enough challenges already with what the previous administration cost at the border. | ||
| Not only is this bill common sense, it's crucial in some cases even life-saving. | ||
| To quote one of my constituents, he said, At least once a week, there's a high-speed chase through town that includes a 15-mile-an-hour school zone. | ||
| Do residents need to die to get the attention needed to correct the border problem? | ||
| The sad truth is that some have died, both law enforcement and innocent civilians. | ||
| Law enforcement wants this bill, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mayors in my border districts want this bill. | ||
| My constituents want this bill. | ||
| But every opposition that I've heard from my friends on the other side is coming from the same group of people that stood by as the previous administration and the White House cost this border crisis. | ||
| So, forgive me if I am not moved by those arguments. | ||
| I am moved by the feedback from those that are in the front lines of this border crisis. | ||
| I consistently hear about the detrimental impact that high-speed chases have in the southeastern Arizona and across the southern border, specifically in the county that I mentioned earlier, Cochise County. | ||
| The criminal activity is not just reserved to drug cartels or illegal immigrants or smugglers themselves. | ||
| These cartels are targeting American citizens to be those drivers, and in most cases, those drivers happen to be American citizens as well. | ||
| So, yes, this legislation goes beyond just the illegal immigrants that are driving. | ||
| It goes to punish also U.S. citizens that are engaging in this activity. | ||
| Anyone endangering American lives should be held to account. | ||
| This bill is about supporting our law enforcement communities who deal with this crisis on a daily basis and stop the smuggling and trafficking. | ||
| In calendar year 2022 and 2023, Cochise County reports booking 2,884 individuals for border-related crimes, costing over $9.4 million to that local community. | ||
| This is in one county, in one state. | ||
| I've seen the toll it takes firsthand in our communities. | ||
| We should be asking ourselves why these people are fleeing law enforcement. | ||
| The answer is: these are bad actors who the cartels and them want to evade law enforcement. | ||
| Now, finally, I want to highlight the hero that this bill is named for, named after. | ||
| Agent Raul Gonzalez was killed in 2022 while pursuing illegal immigrants in Texas. | ||
| His death underscores the tragic truth that our customs and border protection agents and officers risk their lives every day to protect our community. | ||
| By passing this legislation, we're showing them that we have their backs. | ||
| That's why this bill is supported by law enforcement groups like the National Border Patrol Council and the National Sheriff's Association and many local law enforcement groups in Arizona as well. | ||
| This bill passed last Congress with bipartisan support. | ||
| I hope and encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, prioritize border security, and make our border communities safer. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yield back. | ||
| The gentleman from California reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| And we reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| We're prepared to close. | ||
| The gentleman is prepared to close. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| And we have no more speakers. | ||
| We're ready to close. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Jordan, invites us to believe that we should just suspend our own interests in legislative power. | ||
| We should no longer defend the laws we've passed, the programs we've adopted, the money we've appropriated. | ||
| We should turn it over to the new fourth branch of government, Elon Musk, who can do whatever he wants. | ||
| And then he wants to also delegate to Mr. Musk our oversight power. | ||
| We have an entire committee chaired by Mr. Comer. | ||
| We've got our own subcommittee on oversight and the judiciary committee. | ||
| But do they want to have hearings on Big Bird and Ernie, all of the alleged waste and fraud and abuse that Mr. Musk is finding with his untutored, unvetted, juvenile computer hacker crew? | ||
| Come on. | ||
| Let's show some institutional self-respect. | ||
| This is the Congress of the United States. | ||
| We're not delegating our power to Elon Musk or anybody else. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, Mr. Speaker, many of our great heroes have understood that sloppy legislation undertaken as part of an attempt to whip up anti-immigration hysteria comes to haunt not just the immigrant community, of course, but citizens too. | ||
| And this bill is a great example of that because I don't know if they meant to write it this way, but it applies to citizens. | ||
| It doesn't require mensrea, so call Heritage Foundation about that. | ||
| They're opposed to bills like this that don't require you prove that people have a specific intent to violate the law and commit a criminal offense. | ||
| And it doesn't define what fleeing even means. | ||
| It doesn't require a high-speed chase, which is what they keep talking about. | ||
| That's already against the law in lots of places. | ||
| It's a sloppy bill that's going to come back if it were ever to become law, which it won't, it's going to come back to haunt us. | ||
| Thomas Jefferson said during 1798 Alien Sedition Acts, where people were trying to whip up hysteria. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And I'm happy to quote Mr. Jefferson if my friend wants to share anything. | ||
| All gentlemen time having been expired, the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I first am tempted to address my friend's obsession with Elon Musk. | ||
| The situation is pretty simple. | ||
| A new boss takes over and he brings in an auditor. | ||
| The auditor calls in the Democrats and says, I'd like to see your expense account receipts. | ||
| And the Democrats go absolutely berserk. | ||
| Now, what does that tell you about what's been going on with our money all this time? | ||
| My experience has been that the most closely guarded secrets of government are not those that are marked top secret. | ||
| They're the secrets that are embarrassing. | ||
| Elon Musk is embarrassing the Democrats, which is why they have unleashed this torrent of invective and vitriol and character assassination upon him and why they have spent so much time today obsessing on Elon Musk rather than the bill before us to protect the victims of illegal immigration that they themselves unleashed upon our country. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Scott Jennings of CNN recently wondered aloud what possesses the Democrats to constantly take the 20% side of every major issue, whether it's waste in government, men competing in girls' sports, crime and homelessness, or in this case, border security. | ||
| They seem instinctively to reject the common sense position expressed by 80% or more of the electorate and double down on the 20% or less position taken only by the lunatic fringe of the radical left. | ||
| And so it is again today. | ||
| High-speed chases due to human and drug smuggling at the border have claimed the lives of far too many Americans, including a Border Patrol agent who was simply trying to protect his local community. | ||
| This bill, named in his memory, makes it a federal crime to evade the Border Patrol or local law enforcement acting in support of the Border Patrol within 100 miles of the international border. | ||
| If you are a foreign national, it makes the conviction or admission of such a crime grounds for inadmissibility and removability. | ||
| And if you endanger our local law enforcement officers or innocent bystanders by initiating a high-speed chase, we will throw you in prison for a long time and then we will send you packing when you get out. | ||
| I suspect this bill has the support of well over 80% of the American people, and yet, once again, the Democrats oppose it. | ||
| And I suspect most will vote against it as they did last year. | ||
| Well, the American people have seen this unfold in this chamber time and time again. | ||
| They clearly understand what's at stake, and they well understand the implications to the sovereignty of our country and to the safety of our communities. | ||
| Last November, they gave us the votes to pass this legislation, and they gave us a president who will sign it. | ||
| So let's get on with it. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All time for debate has expired. | |
| Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the previous question is ordered on the bill. | ||
| Questions on engrossment and third reading of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| A bill to impose criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing federal officer while operating a motor vehicle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Question is on passage of the bill. | |
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| Opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| I'd like to ask for the ayes and the nays, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen from Maryland asked for the ayes and nays. | |
| The ayes and nays are requested. | ||
| Those favoring a vote by the ayes and nays will rise. | ||
| Sufficient number having risen, the ayes and nays are ordered. | ||
| Members record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This will be a 15 minute vote. | ||
| And here on the House floor this morning, the last of the work for the rest of the week underway now a vote on imposing new federal penalties on those who evade U.S. Border Patrol agents in car chases within 100 miles of the border. | ||
| Additionally, migrants who are convicted or admit to the crime could be deported from the U.S. | ||
| The measure is named after in honor of a Border Patrol agent, Raul Gonzalez Jr., who was killed in 2022 as he was in pursuit of a group of migrants in Texas. | ||
| Now, while members are voting, we'll take you live to a Senate hearing that's underway. | ||
| It's on the confirmation of Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon, some of the introductions underway. | ||
| In our country, disillusioned about the American dream. | ||
| The answers they are looking for rarely come from Washington. | ||
| With all of our good intentions, the Department of Education has simply failed the poorest kids in the United States of America, the greatest nation on the planet. | ||
|
Linda McMahon's Vision for Education Reform
00:12:26
|
||
| To turn that around, We need someone who's already succeeded in business and in government. | ||
| And let me just close with this. | ||
| The Department of Education doesn't educate kids. | ||
| It's a federal agency. | ||
| Local communities and local teachers educate kids. | ||
| Our Department of Education is a federal beam that needs to focus on getting more money in the hands of more students so that they have a better chance. | ||
| And yes, I do believe that competition makes your quality go up and your cost go down. | ||
| Charter schools prove that. | ||
| Private schools prove that. | ||
| And finally, Pell Grants. | ||
| Pell Grants take public dollars to private schools. | ||
| Unfortunately, poor black kids today, the vast majority, won't have a Pell Grant. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because if you don't graduate from high school, if you don't have proficiency in reading, math, and science, the likelihood of you going to college is zero. | ||
| Let's improve our K-12 system so that more of America's poor rural kids and inner city kids both have the experience I have of realizing their version of the American dream. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Scott. | ||
| Very powerful. | ||
| Senator Britt. | ||
| Well, that was amazing. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My colleague nailed it. | ||
| Chair Cassidy, Ranking Member Sanders, and members of this committee, I am honored to join you today to introduce President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, my friend Linda McMahon. | ||
| It is clear that our current education system isn't working. | ||
| We have the status quo, and that's actually failing our kids. | ||
| As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, the latest NAPE scores show the students' reading and math scores are down in almost every single state, to the point where only 30% of eighth graders are meeting reading proficiency levels. | ||
| The status quo in education just hasn't failed students. | ||
| It's failed parents just like me. | ||
| And very respectfully, Mr. Ranking Member, the America that you just described, the one that you're fearful will be created, it already exists. | ||
| Our students deserve better. | ||
| Our parents deserve better. | ||
| We have to do something different in order to achieve a different result. | ||
| For far too long, the Department of Education has catered to far-left bureaucrats at the expense of moms and dads. | ||
| It has pushed for school closures, removed parental rights from the equation, promoted radical ideologies in the classroom, and supported allowing men and boys to play in women and girls' sports. | ||
| Enough is enough. | ||
| We need a change agent at the Department of Education. | ||
| And that change agent is Linda McMahon. | ||
| She is the perfect antidote to what is wrong with education in this country. | ||
| Linda has an immensely successful track record as a business executive, as a leader of a government agency, and at the America First Policy, as an America First Policy Advocate. | ||
| She is not just an overwhelmingly qualified nominee for Secretary of Education, but a nominee who can make a real difference at the department that sorely needs it. | ||
| She's also a grandmother of six with a personal stake in the quality of our education system. | ||
| She understands how important it is that our kids learn what they're supposed to and how important it is for parents to be empowered. | ||
| I'm right there with her. | ||
| And that's not the only mission that Linda will pursue at the Secretary of Education as a secretary. | ||
| Attending a four-year college or university is the right path for many Americans, but it's not the only one available to graduating high schoolers. | ||
| And Linda will ensure that students know that. | ||
| Linda led efforts to empower the American worker at AFPI, and I am confident that she will make aligning our education system and our workforce systems a priority at the Department of Education. | ||
| That means strengthening 21st century skills, training, and job preparedness, bridging the gap between technical school programs and industries, and expanding apprenticeships and credentialing programs. | ||
| Linda McMahon is someone who knows how to reform our education system so it actually prepares our kids for the future, while also empowering parents to make decisions that affect their children's lives. | ||
| She has the experience as an executive. | ||
| She already demonstrated her immense ability to get the government out of the way as head of the Small Business Administration. | ||
| And she knows both K-12 and higher education, as my distinguished colleague Senator Scott said, in serving on the Connecticut State Board of Education and the Sacred Heart University Board. | ||
| She was on that since 2004. | ||
| Her confirmation as Secretary of Education will be a monumental step towards preserving the American dream and making a bright future possible for the next generation of Americans. | ||
| Let's put parents in the driver's seat. | ||
| Let's return to the fundamentals of the classroom learning and teach kids the skills they need to actually achieve their goals. | ||
| Let's put education in the hands of states, not unaccountable federal bureaucrats. | ||
| And for our kids' sake, let's confirm my friend, Linda McMahon. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Britt. | ||
| Ms. McMahon, now for your opening statement, and you're welcome to introduce your guest. | ||
| Thank you very much, Chairman Cassidy. | ||
| Yes, I'd like to introduce my daughter, Stephanie McMahon, Paula Veck, her husband, and my son, Shane McMahon. | ||
| I'm so happy to have them here and many friends from have come from far places, so I welcome having them here today and appreciate that they're here. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman Cassidy, Ranking Member Sanders, and distinguished members of the committee. | ||
| I'm honored to have your consideration to serve as the Secretary of the Department of Education. | ||
| And I'd like to thank both Senators Scott and Britt for their introductions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members of the audience remind them that constructions will not be considered while the committee begouts. | |
| We have to do respect that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm sorry. | |
| Certainly. | ||
| And I'd like to thank both Senators Scott and Britt for their introductions and for the opportunity to welcome my friends and family. | ||
| Thank you all so much for being here with me today. | ||
| I would also like to thank President Trump for his confidence in me to lead a department whose mission and authority were a special focus of his campaign. | ||
| He pledged to make American education the best in the world, return education to the states where it belongs, and free American students from the education bureaucracy through school choice. | ||
| November proved that Americans overwhelmingly support the President's vision, and I am ready to enact it. | ||
| Education is the issue that determines our national success and prepares American workers to win the future. | ||
| I've been passionate about education since my earliest college days when I studied to earn a teaching certificate. | ||
| This has continued through my business career as a Connecticut State Board of Education member, as a university trustee, and as the chair of the America First Policy Institute, which advocates for workforce development, parental choice, and accountability in higher education. | ||
| I'm also a mother and a grandmother, and I join millions of American parents who want better schools for our kids and grandkids. | ||
| The legacy of our nation's leadership in education is one that every person in this room embraces with pride. | ||
| Unfortunately, many Americans today are experiencing a system in decline. | ||
| The latest scores from the nation's report card show achievement in K through 12 math and reading at their lowest level in years. | ||
| More than two-thirds of public colleges are beset by violent crime on campuses every year. | ||
| And most tragically, student suicide rates have dramatically increased over the last two decades. | ||
| We can do better. | ||
| We can do better for the elementary and junior high school student by teaching basic reading and mathematics, for the college freshmen facing censorship or anti-Semitism on campus, and for parents and grandparents who worry that their children and grandchildren are no longer taught American values and true history. | ||
| In many cases, our wounds are caused by the excessive consolidation of power in our federal education establishment. | ||
| So, what's the remedy? | ||
| Fund education freedom, not government-run systems. | ||
| Listen to parents, not politicians. | ||
| Build up careers, not college debt. | ||
| Empower states, not special interests. | ||
| Invest in teachers, not Washington bureaucrats. | ||
| If confirmed as Secretary, I will work with Congress to reorient the department toward helping educators, not controlling them. | ||
| My experience as a business owner and leader of the Small Business Administration, as a public servant in the state of Connecticut, and more than a decade of service as a college trustee, has taught me to put parents, teachers, and students, not bureaucracy, first. | ||
| Outstanding teachers are tired of political ideology in their curriculum and red tape on their desks. | ||
| And that's why School Choice is a growing movement across the nation. | ||
| It offers teachers and parents an alternative to classrooms that are micromanaged from Washington, D.C. | ||
| We should also emphasize career-focused education, especially in cutting-edge STEM fields, where American companies need high-skill employees. | ||
| Our workers deserve more post-secondary pathways, career-aligned programs, apprenticeships, and on-the-job learning, and jobs in tech, skill trades, and health care for non-college degree holders. | ||
| Those who do attend college deserve transparent costs and courses of study aligned to workforce demand. | ||
| The United States is the world leader by far in emerging technologies like AI and blockchain, and we need to invest in American students who want to become tech pioneers. | ||
| We should encourage innovative new institutions, develop smart accountability systems, and tear down barriers to entry so that students have real choice and universities are not saddling future families with unsurmountable debt. | ||
| We must protect all students from discrimination and harassment. | ||
| And if I am confirmed, the department will not stand idly by while Jewish students are attacked and discriminated against. | ||
| It will stop forcing schools to let boys and men into female sports and spaces. | ||
| And it will protect the rights of parents to direct the moral education of their children. | ||
| The opportunity before us these next four years is momentous. | ||
| I look forward to working with the committee, our nation's parents, teachers, and students, and education leaders from all political perspectives to build a better future for every American learner. | ||
| Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today, and I look forward to your questions. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
Addressing Dyslexia Backlogs
00:15:49
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| I shall begin. | ||
| Everybody is rightly focused on the fact that we have a problem with reading scores, and they've been anchored where they are for quite some time, with an incredibly high percentage of children not reading at grade level. | ||
| And the old kind of truism that kids learn to read by grade three or four and they read to learn thereafter. | ||
| But they're not learning to read by grade three or four. | ||
| So that said, dyslexia, according to NIH kind of reviewed literature, affects 20% of our population. | ||
| Those 20% learn to read differently, and if their differences are not acknowledged, then they will be among those almost an anchor holding reading scores down. | ||
| Now, it would just intuitively make sense to diagnose the child with dyslexia as early as possible. | ||
| Most states do not screen. | ||
| That said, you can see where I'm going with my own thoughts. | ||
| But what would be your approach to addressing the issue of dyslexia, which is frankly ignored, not in a state like New Hampshire, where Governor Hassan actually put in such programs, but in other states. | ||
| What would be your approach to make sure that the child who is dyslexic is diagnosed at an early stage and receives the intervention that she or he would need to receive? | ||
| Well, thank you very much, Chairman Cassidy. | ||
| And I know this is a very sensitive subject for you, since I believe it is your son that does have dyslexia, as you and I discussed when I visited with you in your office. | ||
|
unidentified
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My daughter, but that's the best. | |
| I'm sorry, it's your daughter. | ||
| But I certainly very much would like to be sure that we are looking to diagnose issues like dyslexia early because we have found that it can be turned around. | ||
| So I'd like to work with you and understand how we could have a better approach for that in our school systems. | ||
| You had mentioned that you would not tolerate the anti-Semitism that has been on the rise. | ||
| What steps would you take to make sure the backlog of anti-Semitism cases at the Office of Civil Rights is processed and those responsible for illegal discrimination held accountable? | ||
| Senator Kennedy, I think that, Cassidy, I'm sorry, I think that by far what we saw happening on our campuses was absolutely deplorable. | ||
| Kids locked in libraries, afraid to come out. | ||
| Now, I believe in freedom of speech on campus, open debate, and we should encourage that. | ||
| But we cannot allow violence happening on our campuses. | ||
| That puts all students in an unsafe place. | ||
| And if I were confirmed as the Secretary of Education, I would want to make sure that the presidents of those universities and those colleges are taking very strong measures not to allow those to happen. | ||
| They can call in the police, they can do whatever they need to do, set standards, and to make sure those standards are upheld. | ||
| We cannot allow that kind of violence to take place on our college campus. | ||
| Now, there's a current backlog in the Office of Civil Rights within the Dartmouth Department of Education to address this. | ||
| Do you have any specific plans about how you could help them address that backlog? | ||
| Well, I'd like very much to be confirmed and to be able to get into the department and understand that backlog, to talk to those lawyers who were there, and let's focus on what we need to do to clear out that backlog. | ||
| And I'd look forward to doing that. | ||
| President Trump is reportedly drafting an executive order requiring the Secretary of Education to develop a plan for downsizing the Department of Education and working with Congress to eliminate entirely. | ||
| Yes or no, do you agree that since the Department was created by Congress, it would need an act of Congress to actually close the Department of Education? | ||
| And certainly President Trump understands that we'll be working with Congress. | ||
| We'd like to do this right. | ||
| We'd like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with and our Congress could get on board with that would have a better functioning Department of Education, but certainly does require congressional action. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And in terms of the plans to downsize, what would be the components of that plan that would not require congressional approval? | ||
| Well, I do believe, Senator, that there are departments of education that are established by statute. | ||
| And those particular departments we'd have to pay particular attention to. | ||
| But long before there was a Department of Education, we fulfilled the programs of our educational system. | ||
| Are there other areas, other agencies where parts of the Department of Education could better serve our students and our parents on a local level? | ||
| And I am really all for the President's mission, which is to return education to the States. | ||
| I believe, as he does, that the best education is closest to the child and not certainly to the wider. | ||
| If the department is downsized, would the states and localities still receive the federal funding which they currently receive? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| It is not the President's goal to defund the programs. | ||
| It is only to have it operate more efficiently. | ||
| With that, I yield to Senator Sanders. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| When we talk about education, kind of we're looking at it in a vacuum. | ||
| We're talking about the struggles that low-income kids are having, and that's true. | ||
| But, Mrs. McMahon, you are also aware that in America we have more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had before. | ||
| You are aware that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. | ||
| You are aware, I suspect, that teachers are dealing with kids who are literally homeless, kids who come from dysfunctional families where there is violence. | ||
| Does it concern you in America that we are living in a society where the people on top are doing phenomenally well while 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck? | ||
| And how do you think that impacts our educational system? | ||
| Thank you very much, Senator, for that question. | ||
| First of all, let me say that I believe that teaching is one of the most noble professions that we have in our country, and we have so many good, dedicated teachers to help our students. | ||
| I do think that we are trapping students often in low-performing schools, and that's why the President has such a strong policy towards school choice. | ||
| But you will agree, I don't mean to interrupt you, but you will agree that you can't just look at education. | ||
| The truth is that middle-class, upper-middle-class public schools in America generally do pretty well. | ||
| But if you are homeless, if you were a homeless person and you had kids, the odds of your kids doing pretty well. | ||
| I'm just asking you, what do you think about the massive level of income and wealth inequality, the fact that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty? | ||
| Is that something you think you might want to pay attention to? | ||
| Well, certainly, Senator, I do believe that we want to make sure that every child in our country has the opportunity to have equal access to a quality education. | ||
| And the Department of Education really is not setting economic policy in the country. | ||
| We should focus on educating our children, and we should focus on it at the local level. | ||
| Let me ask you this. | ||
| You mentioned correctly that we have many great teachers in America, right? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| If you as a businesswoman wanted to attract the best and the brightest, would you be starting them off after they leave school, maybe $50,000, $60,000 in debt with salaries of $35,000, $40,000? | ||
| Or would you say we respect, you talked about teaching being the noblest profession. | ||
| I agree with you. | ||
| Would you agree with me? | ||
| Support my legislation that says no teacher in America should earn at least $60,000 a year? | ||
| Well, certainly the pay to teachers is up to the states where those teachers reside. | ||
| I do believe we should pay our teachers fairly. | ||
| They spend so much time with our students and they should be well compensated for that. | ||
| Paying them fairly, nobody in the world will disagree with you. | ||
| I mean, the question is, if teaching is a noble profession, if teaching is an important profession, you know, should we be paying them salaries commensurate with the value of the work that they are doing? | ||
| So I'm asking you a simple question. | ||
| Would you recommend to states, as the leader of education in America, that teachers at least make $60,000 a year? | ||
| I would certainly recommend to states that teachers be paid what is commensurate with the kinds of jobs that are part of their states. | ||
| Not all states have the same living costs. | ||
| Not all states have the same ability to pay teachers. | ||
| But to attract really good teachers and to keep them, we should definitely pay them commensurate with the job performance that they are undertaking. | ||
| Millions of young people, low-income people, are finding it very difficult to afford to go to college. | ||
| And they're leaving school $50,000, $200,000 in debt. | ||
| Pell Grant program provides assistance to over 7 million low-income young people in this country. | ||
| Can you guarantee to us, if you are made Secretary of Education, that no student in America will lose their Pell Grant as the department is dismantled? | ||
| Surely, the defunding is not the goal here. | ||
| The continuation of Pell Grants, I'd actually even like to see an expansion of Pell Grants. | ||
| I'd like to see short-term certificates for Pell Grants for students who aren't going on to four-year universities, who could have the opportunity to use Pell Grants for skill-based learning. | ||
| So what I'm hearing you say is the Pell Grant program will continue under your administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Mr. Senator Cassidy asked you an important question, and that is, do you agree? | ||
| Let me just once again get your feelings on this, that if there is a movement to abolish the Department of Education, it has to go through the United States Congress. | ||
| Yes, it is set up by the United States Congress, and we work with Congress. | ||
| It clearly cannot be shut down without it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Collins. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Welcome. | ||
| First of all, let me say I was very pleased to hear your strong commitment to enforcing the Office of Civil Rights jurisdiction over the many incidences, horrible incidences of anti-Semitism that we've seen on our college campuses. | ||
| Among the important programs that are administered by the Department of Education are Title I, IDEA, and the TRIO programs, all of which have been high priorities for me. | ||
| I want to briefly discuss those programs. | ||
| Title I helps public schools that are serving low-income students. | ||
| It helps level the playing field in terms of resources compared to more affluent communities. | ||
| In Maine, 63% of our public schools receive Title I funds, very important to our state. | ||
| Second, IDEA, the Disabilities in Education Act, which helps children with special needs. | ||
| Maine receives more than $65 million to support K through 12 students with special education needs. | ||
| I would note that that falls far short of the 40% that was promised when the legislation was passed in the 1970s. | ||
| TRIO programs, which we've discussed, have changed the lives of countless first-generation students who are going to college and come from families with no experience with higher education. | ||
| I've seen so many success stories as a result of TRIO. | ||
| So my question for you is how do we maintain the administration and oversight of these programs if we abolish or substantially reorganize the Department of Education? | ||
| Thank you, Senator Collins. | ||
| And I know how passionate you are about these issues. | ||
| And I enjoyed meeting with you in your office and talking about these various things, especially I think the TRIO program, which we both agreed was just hit a terrible blow just by regulation when some of the students who were applying, their applications were rejected simply because of spacing on a form. | ||
| And that kind of regulatory control just cannot stand. | ||
| That is just impossible. | ||
| The Title I programs that you've been discussed will continue to be appropriated through Congress. | ||
| Today they go directly to the State Department of Education and then are distributed to the districts. | ||
| Not looking to defund or reduce any of those amounts. | ||
| IDEA is the same. | ||
| But might it be better served in a different agency? | ||
| I'm not sure. | ||
| It started at HEW. | ||
| And the concerns for disabilities and health issues with students may very well rest better within an agency that has more oversight of all of those. | ||
| So I think if I am confirmed to be able to get in and assess programs, how they can have the best oversight possible, how we can really take the bureaucracy out of education and focus on teaching our children to read and to do math and to appreciate our history is certainly my goal and would be my goal as the Secretary of Education. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| On Monday, the administration announced that the Department of Education was going to terminate 89 contracts from the Institute of Education Sciences. | ||
| They were worth $881 million, as well as terminating 29 training grants. | ||
| This week, my office heard from a former teacher from Oakland, Maine, who has developed a high-impact tutoring model, and it's currently being used in 12 schools in Maine alone. | ||
| And she has one of the grant applications pending to more thoroughly evaluate the impact of this model on the students' outcomes. | ||
| She's worried that it's now going to be in jeopardy due to these sudden cuts. | ||
| Considering the poor reading and math scores reported by NAPE, and that unfortunately includes poor scores in my home state, shouldn't the Department of Education continue to collect data and evaluate outcomes rather than halt these activities so that you can help states know what works? | ||
|
Assessing Education Programs
00:12:06
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| Well, thank you, Senator. | ||
| And it is my goal, if I am confirmed, to get in and assess these kinds of programs, because I'm not sure yet what the impact of all of those programs are. | ||
| I know that there are many worthwhile programs that we should keep, but I'm not yet apprised of them. | ||
| I want to study them. | ||
| I'd like to get back and talk to you more and to work with you. | ||
| I look forward to working with this committee and all of Congress to make sure we can deliver for our education. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate your responses. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Protect our schools. | ||
|
unidentified
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The committee will come to order. | |
| There's no more charters. | ||
| Senator Murray. | ||
| Thank you, Mrs. McMahon. | ||
| Elon Musk's Doge staffers have reportedly set up camp at the Department of Education. | ||
| They've already been given access to highly sensitive student data and have already started holding back money that Congress decided on a bipartisan basis was needed to help our schools and students. | ||
| We're also hearing, as you know, about an executive order coming any day that will seek to dismantle the Department of Education. | ||
| These are bipartisan laws. | ||
| You indicated that you understood that the Congress has passed these laws. | ||
| But a lot of turmoil is happening. | ||
| You heard it from my colleague just asking that question now. | ||
| So I want to ask you, if confirmed, do you commit to getting every dollar we have invested in our students and schools out to them? | ||
| Well, the appropriated dollars and those monies that are passed by Congress, yes. | ||
| I have no issue, however, with the fact, and I believe the American people spoke loudly in the election last November to say that they want to look at waste, fraud, and abuse in our government. | ||
| So DOGE, there are a couple of implants at the Department of Education as there are with agencies throughout the district. | ||
| And they're doing an audit. | ||
| Right. | ||
| I understand an audit. | ||
| But when Congress appropriates money, it is the administration's response. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The nays are 155. | |
| Majority voting is affirmative. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. | ||
| The chair will receive a message. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, a message from the Senate. | ||
| Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
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Madam Secretary. | |
| I have been directed by the Senate to inform the House that the Senate has passed S-32, an act to clarify where a court may be held for certain district courts in Texas and California, in which the concurrence of the House is requested. | ||
| Okay. The house will be in order. | ||
| The Chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | ||
| What purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we request the amendment to consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan bill, the Orphan Well Grant Flexibility Act. | ||
| We all know that orphan wells, either unplugged or improperly plugged, can pose serious environmental health risks to surrounding communities. | ||
| In Pennsylvania alone, there are more than 27,000 documented abandoned and orphaned wells, orphan and oil and gas wells across the state. | ||
| This is not just a Pennsylvania issue, however. | ||
| However, as abandoned wells are found across the country, the Orphan Well Grant Flexibility Act, which I introduced alongside my colleague, Congressman DeLuzio from Pennsylvania, will empower states to maximize their flexibility when plugging abandoned oil wells and cut red tape to accelerate environmental rehabilitation. | ||
| We have many of the resources we need to plug these wells, and now it's our job to ensure that they're able to be used for their intended purpose. | ||
| I'd like to thank Congressman DeLuzio for joining me in leading this critical effort, and I encourage all my colleagues to support this legislation. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Michigan seek recognition? | ||
| She would revise my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I don't know how to put this down. | ||
| Does anybody know how to put this down? | ||
| Sorry. | ||
|
unidentified
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Okay. | |
| Oh, thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to share the words of a mother in Detroit that today said, I'm sorry, but I tried. | ||
| She's talking about the fact that she was evicted and a mother of five had no choice but to park her minivan in a parking lot in downtown Detroit on one of our coldest nights. | ||
| She lost two of her children, a two-year-old and a nine-year-old. | ||
| They froze to death in the car. | ||
| We know that last year we saw a record 18% rise in homelessness in our country. | ||
| Nearly 150,000 children are unhoused every night. | ||
| We know, again, that our country spends trillions of dollars, though, on weapons and war while children freeze to death in our country. | ||
| It's an estimated that ending homelessness in our country could cost as little as $11 billion. | ||
| The Pentagon spends $12 billion a year on F-35 jets that can't even fly in the rain. | ||
| Our priorities are fundamentally broken. | ||
| I want to tell Ms. Williams, We failed you. | ||
| You should not be apologizing because you tried. | ||
| We're not trying hard enough here in this institution to protect you and your children. | ||
| With that, I yield. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Montana seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I ask your 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life of Thelma Baker. | |
| Thelma is what you might call a local legend, both in Missoula County, where she made her home, and across the Treasure State. | ||
| To some, she was known as the owner and proprietor of the Thunderbird and Canyon Motels. | ||
| To others, a great-grandmother. | ||
| That's too great for the folks keeping track at home. | ||
| But the Thelma I knew was a tireless advocate for conservative causes who lived a life of dedicated service to her community, to her state, and to her country. | ||
| She was a voting member of the Montana Electoral College since 2000 and was actively involved with local organizations like the University of Montana Grizzly Athletic Association, Copper Connections, and the Missoula Chamber. | ||
| Thelma lived the life of a model citizen, and generations of Montanans will be better off for her devotion to civic engagement and community involvement. | ||
| May her memory be a blessing. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Union City, Georgia for being named a city of civility by the Georgia Municipal Association. | ||
| Union City has adopted a civility resolution and a pledge built on active listening, empathy, and respect for differing opinions, efforts which, to quote from their materials, encourage respectful and constructive dialogue in public spaces. | ||
| We, this body, must work harder than ever before to improve our civic and political discourse, recalling the words of President Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address, and I quote, that we not let passion break our bonds of affection, that we be touched by the better angels of our nature, end quote. | ||
| I am proud that leaders in my district in Georgia are setting this example for the entire nation. | ||
| Congratulations to Mayor Williams and the Union City Council for earning this distinguished recognition, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
| I ask permission to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I would like to commend President Trump for his steps to close down the Department of Education and to return power back to the parents. | ||
| For too long, the Department of Education has overstepped its bounds, imposing top-down policies that have done more harm than good. | ||
| Since its creation, this bureaucracy has grown into a bloated, unaccountable institution that prioritizes federal control over the actual needs of our children. | ||
| It has drained billions of taxpayer dollars while delivering little in the way of education. | ||
| Sadly, we have declining test scores, a one-size-fits-all curriculum, and policies that have often placed ideology over learning. | ||
| It is time to recognize that the federal government does not know what's best for our sons and daughters. | ||
| Decisions about education should be made at the state and local level by those who are closest to the students, not by bureaucrats in Washington. | ||
| Eliminating the Department of Education isn't radical. | ||
| It's common sense. | ||
| Again, thank you, President Trump, for standing up for all the parents and students across this nation. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentlewoman will suspend. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Oregon rise? | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the inspirational work of LEAP Youth Alliance in my district. | |
| LEAP stands for Leadership, Education, Advocacy, and Prevention. | ||
| This coalition of teens works to educate their friends and peers about how to lead healthy, happy, and substance-free lives. | ||
| Today, teens confront higher rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges than previous generations, leading some to use e-cigarettes, alcohol, and other harmful substances in order to cope. | ||
|
Breaking Stigma in Youth Health Care
00:15:43
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|
unidentified
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It's a disturbing trend, and we must work together using every tool in our toolbox to reverse it. | |
| As a leader in the mental health caucus, I'm working to find solutions and pass legislation that will break the stigma and make health care more affordable and accessible for our youth. | ||
| But I cannot do it alone. | ||
| That's why I was honored to meet with members of LEAP in my D.C. office, where I learned more about how they lead by example and encourage their peers to take control of their lives and health. | ||
| I'm so proud of these young changemakers who truly make a difference in our community. | ||
| Keep up the good work, and I look forward to partnering with you to continue to raise awareness and connect teens with the mental health care and resources they need to thrive. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute, revise, and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Sadly, too many Americans have lost their lives due to illegal aliens engaging in high-speed chases. | ||
| This week highlights the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act led by Congressman Juan Siscomani. | ||
| This bill creates criminal offenses for driving a vehicle within 100 miles of the southern border while fleeing from the Border Patrol. | ||
| Consequences include severe jail time with prohibition from receiving legal status. | ||
| Under the leadership of President Trump, Republicans are sending a clear message. | ||
| When Americans are at risk, they will be protected. | ||
| 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 imminent, as warned by the FBI. | ||
| Trump is reinstituting existing laws to protect American families through peace through strength. | ||
| The world is inspired by the Patriots demonstrating in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia for fair and free elections. | ||
| Legitimate President Salome Trashville is tireless to the people of Georgia, opposing the rigged elections, the rigged elections for president in Georgia. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today because a billionaire with unchecked power is calling the shots in our government. | ||
| I'm outraged that President Trump is enabling this unelected billionaire, Donor Musk, to wreak havoc on our federal workers, dismantle critical federal agencies, and even gain access to personal data of millions of Americans without any vetting, security clearance, or congressional approval. | ||
| The richest man in the world should not have access to our payment systems for him to decide whether you should or should not receive payments such as Social Security benefits or Medicaid. | ||
| For the past few weeks, my office has been flooded with messages from concerned constituents wondering about the impact that Trump and Musk's action will have on their lives, while Republicans and Trump look with a blind eye. | ||
| Musk exploits the system for his own benefit. | ||
|
unidentified
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I refuse to stay silent. | |
| Billionaires like him may think they can buy our democracy, but we, the people, will fight back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask you to ask your exception 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 come from the great state of Florida and we believe in government and spending in the sunshine. | ||
| As the leader of the Senate in Florida, we created a website that allowed for every dollar to be seen how it's spent, every contract, how it's spent, not just for government officials, but for every Floridian, every American. | ||
| They can look at how their dollars are being spent. | ||
| They deserve to know they're the ones who earn the money to pay those taxes. | ||
| It's an American issue, especially considering the fact that our prices have gone up for the last four years by 20 and 30 percent, and they're hearing about these nefarious acts in which let's just say money is spent on questionable items to be generous. | ||
| We must continue the fight for transparency to make sure that every tax dollar is spent in a wise fashion. | ||
| And more importantly, Americans deserve to know with a website that shows everyone where those dollars are spent. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Connecticut seek recognition? | ||
| I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| On February 7th, members of the United States House of Representatives were denied access to the Department of Education. | ||
| In recent weeks, members have also been denied access to other federal agencies, including USAID, the Department of Treasury, and the EPA. | ||
| Members of Congress are a branch of the federal government and should be allowed to legally access federal buildings. | ||
| Through Article 1 of the Constitution, we are a co-equal partner and have the same authority to check and balance the other branches. | ||
| I introduced the All Access Act with 44 of my colleagues to ensure members of Congress have access to federal buildings upon showing a valid member ID. | ||
| Even Republicans should agree that this separation of power should be protected. | ||
| I ask my colleagues to join me in securing our Article I authority and protecting the ability to do our jobs that we were elected to do. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Greg Parker, a visionary leader and dedicated philanthropist, as he celebrates 50 years as CEO of Parker's Kitchen. | ||
| Mr. Parker went from operating a single store in Midway, Georgia, to running a thriving business with nearly 100 locations, embodying the spirit of hard work, innovation, and community service. | ||
| In 1975, he opened his first store, working every roll, from pumping gas to cooking food. | ||
| He built Parker's Kitchen into a household name across Georgia and South Carolina. | ||
| Even today, he remains hands-on, stocking shelves and engaging with customers. | ||
| Mr. Parker pioneered a custom loyalty program that has saved customers millions in credit card fees. | ||
| He also introduced an AI-powered smart kitchen to improve efficiency and reduce waste. | ||
| The Parkers Community Fund focuses on four key pillars: health care, hunger, supporting heroes, and education. | ||
| This foundation has donated $30 million in the last eight years to support these pillars. | ||
| As Greg Parker steps down as CEO, his focus shifts towards philanthropy. | ||
| His aim is to grow the Parkers Community Fund to $100 million and continue prioritizing giving back, strengthening communities, and spending time with loved ones. | ||
| Greg Parker's success is not measured by stores built or revenue earned, but by the lives he has touched and the communities he has strengthened. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for 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. | ||
| Today, we celebrate a victory for military families. | ||
| After introducing my bipartisan support Military Families Act, the administration has heeded our call and granted an exemption to return to the return to in-person work order. | ||
| This is a massive win for patriotic military families who all serve together, ensuring that they have flexibility, stability, and the support they deserve. | ||
| When we strengthen military families, we strengthen our national security. | ||
| I'm grateful to the bipartisan group of legislators who stood with me, and I want to give a special shout-out to my colleagues from the Commonwealth, Congressman Rob Whitman and Congresswoman Jen Kiggins, for their support in getting this across the finish line. | ||
| When we work together, we deliver results. | ||
| And today, we did just that for our military families. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, before President Trump was elected, there were an average of 3,430 illegal immigrant crossings per day. | ||
| Today, under President Trump, that number has dropped to 126 per day. | ||
| Despite this decrease, the threat from illegal immigration has not evaporated. | ||
| H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, passed just a few minutes ago, gives law enforcement authorities the necessary tools to fully penalize criminals who intentionally evade border security agents. | ||
| Penalties include jail time and permanent ban on taming legal status. | ||
| This legislation does send a clear message to cartels and traffickers. | ||
| If you endanger American lives, we will hold you accountable. | ||
| American people have had enough. | ||
| We will no longer tolerate lawlessness or policies that put criminals ahead of citizens, and we won't stop fighting to secure our borders, stop illegal drugs and human trafficking, and protecting our communities. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Oregon seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today because Oregon's children don't have access to all the tools they need to succeed. | ||
| And that is unacceptable. | ||
| And now Elon Musk is threatening to eliminate the Department of Education. | ||
| That would leave millions of students without resources they rely on, end financial aid programs making higher education more expensive, leave rural schools behind, and as the mom of a kid with disabilities, I know they aren't getting all the funding that they need in their classrooms to thrive. | ||
| I'd like anybody to tell me how this is helping our kids and how it's going to make us competitive in a global economy. | ||
| How is this going to make life better for anyone? | ||
| I know they can't. | ||
| If Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are trying to make the government more efficient by giving tax breaks to the rich at the expense of our schools and our children, to that, we say no thanks. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address this House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, if I were to ask you what'd you have for lunch last Wednesday, chances are you would struggle to remember. | ||
| But if I were to ask you who your favorite teacher was from 40 years ago, you would know instantly. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate one of those unforgettable teachers, Mr. Vincent Taylor from Cedar Hills Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida, on being named the 2025 Duval County Teacher of the Year. | ||
| For 27 years, Mr. Taylor has been a guiding force in Duval County public schools, inspiring students as a teacher and math coach. | ||
| His impact extends beyond the classroom through his mentorship, professional development work, and how about this, 10 professional books published, including If Instruction Isn't Engaging, I Quit. | ||
| Though he once envisioned a different career, Mr. Speaker, his path to teaching is a gift to our students and our community. | ||
| Today we celebrate Mr. Taylor's unforgettable dedication and thank him for shaping the future one student at a time. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, spent another week of the attempted great billionaire takeover of our federal government being led by DOGE, which actually stands for Destruction of Government by Elon. | |
| They've shut down the agency Protecting Americans from Fraud and Predatory Lending. | ||
| They're getting funding for medical research. | ||
| They're targeting at-risk and special education programs, all without a single vote, a single vote from Congress. | ||
| So where do we go from here? | ||
| I know some Republicans support these objectives. | ||
| I get it. | ||
| But this is not the way. | ||
| Congress must act. | ||
| The Constitution requires it. | ||
| Our founders were clear. | ||
| But too many in this body are looking the other way, fearing political backlash. | ||
| But our system of government only works if we all do our jobs. | ||
| This isn't about left or right. | ||
| To my friends across the aisle, I would ask: would you want a future Democratic president to act without guardrails, to act without any checks or balances? | ||
| The situation you are allowing is dangerous. | ||
| The choices we make now will change our country for generations. | ||
| Do better. | ||
| What purpose does the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Bobby Tyner, who passed away peacefully at his home in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, this week. | ||
| Bobby was a faithful steward of the Palmetto State and dutifully served our country as an engineer in the U.S. Army. | ||
| Following his service, Bobby became an advocate for those impacted by Agent Orange's chemical exposure during the Vietnam War, helping to share their stories and their loved ones and advocate for good public policy. | ||
| Our country would not be where it is today without the sacrifices of Bobby and men and women like him serving on the front lines to ensure our nation's freedom. | ||
| South Carolina's 7th District will certainly miss Bobby. | ||
| We will miss his grit. | ||
| We will miss his passion. | ||
| We will miss his humor. | ||
| And we will forever cherish the lives that he touched as a husband, father, and a veteran. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, to address the body for one minute without objection. | ||
|
DREAMers and Their Contribution
00:14:36
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| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today I rise to remind my colleagues who DREAMers are. | ||
| Dreamers and DACA recipients came to this country as young children with no fault of their own. | ||
| They follow the law, pay taxes. | ||
| They are nurses, teachers, police officers, and police chiefs. | ||
| Dreamers like Dr. Oliver Lopez, a professor of mathematics at Chapman University in my district. | ||
| What America needs is more STEM degrees. | ||
| What America needs are more STEM instructors. | ||
| They lead more Dr. Oliver Lopez's. | ||
| Dreamers are also people like Officer Mitchell Soto Rodriguez, a police officer in Blue Island, Illinois. | ||
| She dreamed of being a police officer all their life. | ||
| She achieved her dream because of DACA. | ||
| Officers Soto Rodriguez and Dr. Lopez are essential pillars of our community. | ||
| They are dreamers and they deserve an opportunity to earn the American dream. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Seek unanimous dissent to address the House one minute and rise sooner remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| In one of the many 11th hour actions by the Biden administration, the EPA handed California unprecedented power to enforce extreme vehicle regulations, giving them the green light to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035 and imposing crushing new emissions standards on heavy-duty trucks, and also using the ever-increasing price of fuel to price people out of being able to drive or into these vehicles they don't want to begin with. | ||
| This wasn't about cooperative federalism. | ||
| It was about one state backed by Washington, D.C. bureaucrats, forcing this agenda on the rest of the country. | ||
| The EPA's waivers let California dictate the future of the auto and trucking industries, driving up hush for regular consumers, squeezing small business and putting more strain on an already struggling supply chain at the same time that they are now trying to put in a high-speed rail system as costs quadruple what they told the taxpayers just 15 years ago. | ||
| Instead of letting Congress weigh in the Biden EPA, let California call the shots for everyone across the country, bypassing the legislative process we hear so much complaining about here, and pushing policies that could force everyday Americans to pay more and get less for their hard-earned money. | ||
| That's not how this country is supposed to work. | ||
| We're about having choice, choice of automobiles, choice of trucks, what have you. | ||
| This federal overreach needs to be stopped. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas rise? | ||
|
unidentified
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I ask for 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. | ||
| I rise to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Joseph Joe Bidnal, a veteran, educator, and pillar of San Antonio and Texas politics, who passed away on January 25th. | ||
| Born on San Antonio's West Side during the Great Depression, Dr. Bidnal graduated from Lanier High School before enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he supported post-war reconstruction efforts in Japan. | ||
| Upon his return to San Antonio, he earned a bachelor's degree through the GI Bill, which was soon followed by a master's degree and a PhD. | ||
| As a young teacher, he witnessed the grave inequities facing Hispanic students, an experience that would lead him to elected office in the Texas Legislature and the State Board of Education, where he fought to repeal laws that banned speaking Spanish in public schools, championed the state's first bilingual education law, and led efforts to create the University of Texas at San Antonio and the UT Health Science Center. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to celebrate the life and service of a trailblazer who will be long remembered in my hometown and across the state of Texas. | ||
|
unidentified
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I yield back. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition? | ||
| I'd like to ask unanimous consent to speak for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I've already spoken on the very significant hearing we had on the subcommittee with regard to what is normally called welfare on Tuesday. | ||
| There's another point I'd like to make. | ||
| In that hearing, it came out that it varies from couple to couple. | ||
| There are about 90 programs, which largely make up the welfare safety net, which if somebody were to get married, a single parent would get married to someone with an income, they would lose the benefits of those programs. | ||
| We heard testimony from Robert Rector that you could easily come up with hypotheticals in which someone would lose $28,000 of getting married. | ||
| In the 1950s in this country, our rate of children born without a mother and father at home was only 4%. | ||
| We're now at 42%. | ||
| This didn't happen by mistake. | ||
| It's something that the radical feminists, the Marxists have always wanted, the destruction of the American family, particularly not having the man in the American family. | ||
| As we work our way through the budget process and reconciliation process, I hope we all remember that it is not anticipated that America would be a country and get rid of these perverse incentives. | ||
| The time of the gentleman has expired. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Mr. Speaker, thank you. | ||
| I rise today to speak about an urgent issue facing our nation, and that is a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers. | ||
| These were children that were brought to our country, oftentimes as infants. | ||
| You've already heard about them. | ||
| It's been almost 13 years since President Obama announced DACA. | ||
| Since then, the program has provided needed relief for DREAMers, including work authorization and temporary relief from deportation. | ||
| But more than a decade later, DREAMers still do not have a permanent protection. | ||
| As the program continues to be challenging, of course, DREAMers are left stuck in limbo. | ||
| For so many DREAMers, again, this is the only country they've ever known. | ||
| They came as children, infants. | ||
| They grew up here. | ||
| They studied here. | ||
| They worked hard here. | ||
| As you heard, there are nurses, teachers, business owners. | ||
| They're beloved members of our communities. | ||
| And this is their home. | ||
| Congress must finally come together to make a real difference for our DREAMers and our families, our businesses, and our communities. | ||
| We have to get this done. | ||
| It's the right thing to do. | ||
| I believe also in the family. | ||
| Why are we not allowing these families to stay, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| It's the right thing to do. | ||
| We're good-hearted people as Americans. | ||
| Let's get this done. | ||
| Thank you very much, and I yield back. | ||
| The time of the gentleman has expired. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So we now know what $280, $280 million investment in a presidential campaign will give you. | |
| The opportunity to totally destroy one of America's most important soft power. | ||
| That is the United States Agency for International Development. | ||
| Mr. Musk, Mr. President, before you set about destroying USAID and the work that it does to provide necessary support for people, refugees, and starving children around the world, I want you to hold in your hand a starving child. | ||
| Look at the extended belly. | ||
| Look at the eyes, and understand what you are doing to hundreds, indeed millions of people around the world when you take USAID and put it in the wood chipper. | ||
| Reverse it. | ||
| Have you any sense of humanity? | ||
| Do you have any compassion? | ||
| If you do, you will reverse the policy of destroying USAID. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Puerto Rico seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Yesterday, I introduced an amendment during the House Natural Resources Committee markup to strengthen Congress's oversight of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, specifically addressing net metering policies and the PREPA bankruptcy. | ||
| Though the amendment didn't pass, it received bipartisan support from Representatives Tom McClintock, Nilia Velasquez, Darren Soto, and others. | ||
| It's critical that Congress ensures transparency and accountability in Puerto Rico's financial and energy decisions. | ||
| The FOMB stance on net metering harms our people and the PREPA bankruptcy remains unresolved. | ||
| After seven or eight years of questionable federal oversight, it's time to hold the overseers accountable. | ||
| I will continue to fight for fairness and transparency for Puerto Rico and urge my colleagues to join me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, to revise and send my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise because many people want to paint federal workers and contractors as unskilled bureaucrats who waste taxpayer dollars, but the reality is the opposite. | ||
| And I know this because Virginia is home to hundreds of thousands of our country's federal workers and contractors. | ||
| And I've heard from many of them that these federal workers actually save taxpayers money and they keep all Americans safe and healthy, despite all the regulations imposed on them by Congress. | ||
| That's the bureaucracy. | ||
| In almost all cases, they bring critical skills or expertise that are hard to replace, too. | ||
| One USDA employee says firings in her department, which is focused on threats to America's crops, could cost us hundreds of millions of dollars down the road. | ||
| And one contractor who supports anti-terrorism efforts overseas was fired despite his track record of success countering extremism. | ||
| These firings even threaten border security. | ||
| A contractor who vets refugees has to lay off 100 security experts because of the cuts. | ||
| No one will want to serve our government if federal workers and contractors are treated this way. | ||
| And the attacks on federal civil servants will cost taxpayers money and make all Americans less safe and less healthy. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I speaker is consent to address the House for a minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Working families are getting screwed. | ||
| Last year, I met a young family in Sullivan County who was struggling to make ends meet. | ||
| Do you cut back on the groceries to pay the rent? | ||
| Maybe you pick up a couple extra ships at work, but then you've got to pay for more child care. | ||
| They're tough conversations that families are having at kitchen tables across upstate New York. | ||
| And then, as if that's not enough, they get a letter in the mail from the utility company saying they're going to jack up rates again. | ||
| These corporations are raking in billions of dollars, bragging to their investors about it, and now they want to take even more money from families that are struggling to get by. | ||
| Hell no. | ||
| Today, I'm fighting back. | ||
| I'm introducing a bipartisan bill to create good union jobs, making homes more efficient. | ||
| My bill will save families up to $400 per year on their utility bills. | ||
| $400 is a lot of money for daycare and groceries and rent because that young family in Sullivan County needs that money a hell of a lot more than the utility monopolies do. | ||
| I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Maryland seek recognition? | ||
| Speaker, ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute, to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a friend, a great journalist, a humanitarian, and a man of faith, Reverend Dr. Tim Tooton. | ||
| Tim was an admired journalist, having spent more than 35 years reporting at Baltimore's WBAL-TV. | ||
| He was a distinguished pastor at Harvest Christian Ministries and an accomplished writer. | ||
| Tim was also an award-winning filmmaker, a documentary person who believed in reporting and sharing facts, as well as a cherished teacher to so many. | ||
| He confronted life with the courage of his convictions and confronted death with the conviction of his faith. | ||
| Our condolences across the Baltimore area go out to his wife, Charlene, his loving children and grandchildren during this time. | ||
| We will miss you, my friend, but we will never, ever forget you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| The chair lays before the House a communication. | ||
| The Speaker's Rooms, Washington, D.C., February 13th, 2025. | ||
| I hereby designate the period from Thursday, February 13th, 2025, through Sunday, February 23rd, 2025, as a district work period under clause 13 of Rule 1. | ||
| Signed sincerely, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from California, Mr. Garimundi, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I'm a stand-in. | ||
| This is actually Marcy Kaptur's one hour. | ||
| She's tied up in a hearing. | ||
| And so I'll try to do my best to lay it out. | ||
| She was going to speak for seven minutes on the issues of the Trump administration's dismantling of the federal government and the hiring of, or I guess the acquiescence, of Elon Musk as the principal agent of destruction. | ||
|
Opportunity Through Generosity
00:04:50
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unidentified
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What has happened over the last 17 days is an extraordinary display of contempt for the American government. | |
| If you think about this in its totality, Right off the start, all funding stopped. | ||
| What does that mean to the programs that Americans depend upon? | ||
| Healthcare, education, research, infrastructure programs. | ||
| For what purpose was that done? | ||
| Perhaps to set up the next step, which is the dismantling of extraordinarily important programs for me and for my wife. | ||
| More than almost 58 years ago, we participated in a USAID program, which at that time was just four years old, set up by Kennedy. | ||
| A vaccination program, an effort of the United Nations funded by the American government through USAID to eradicate smallpox. | ||
| We spent a month in rural Ethiopia doing vaccinations. | ||
| And then as our life moved on, we continued working to provide the necessary services so that people could survive. | ||
| The Food for Peace program. | ||
| Patty actually ran that when she was at USDA as an assistant administrator. | ||
| The famine camps. | ||
| We were there. | ||
| We saw the children that were dying of starvation. | ||
| And we saw the American grain arrive. | ||
| I remember clearly one evening at the famine camp in Ethiopia in the mid-80s, a woman, literally in rags, picking up individual grains of wheat that had spilled from the bags, trying to fill a cup so that there would be enough food that she could take back to her children. | ||
| They died that night of starvation. | ||
| The richest man in the world invested over $250 million in a presidential campaign. | ||
| And he was given the keys to the American government and the opportunity to destroy things that he didn't like. | ||
| USAID, not only providing the necessary food to allow people to continue to live, but also to thrive. | ||
| Programs, agricultural programs, economic development programs around the world. | ||
| People that didn't have the opportunity. | ||
| We're given it the opportunity by the generosity of the American people. | ||
| And so when you have the greatest wealth of any individual, you seem to think you have the right to destroy lives. | ||
| Before you do that, Mr. Chairman, before our President gives someone the power to do that, I would ask them, get on your private jet, get on Air Force One, go to one of the famine camps in southern Sudan and hold a starving child in your arms. | ||
| Look at the extended belly, the vacant stare, not even able to hold up the head. | ||
| And know that the American people have developed an emergency supplemental food program that can revive that child. | ||
| And then after you have done that, come back and decide whether you want to put USAID into the wood chopper. | ||
| If you have just a modicum of humanity and a sense of compassion, you would never, never, ever take USAID and destroy it. | ||
|
Data Breach and Government Access
00:16:05
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|
unidentified
|
There are other programs out there, and we'll be talking about these other programs as my colleagues join us here on the floor. | |
| Education, Labor Department, giving the richest man in the world the keys to the U.S. Treasury. | ||
| What is going on here? | ||
| What information has been gathered? | ||
| Where did that information go? | ||
| What will it be used for? | ||
| Who owns that information now, the U.S. government or Elon Musk? | ||
| Serious questions. | ||
| My colleagues and I will raise these questions. | ||
| I now turn to Mr. Caston. | ||
| Thank you, Congressman Garamendi. | ||
| So last week, my colleague Haley Stevens and I introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. | ||
| I'm going to get to that in a minute. | ||
| I woke up this morning to find that apparently this bill has gotten Mr. Musk's attention. | ||
| So I would like to read to you the tweet from that great statesman and special government employee, Elon Musk. | ||
| Any given law will do the opposite of its name. | ||
| The one this guy wants to pass is called the Taxpayer Protection, which means its real goal is giving taxpayers the shaft. | ||
| What he really cares about is hiding the biggest scam in human history. | ||
| Those are his words. | ||
| That great statesman, Elon Musk. | ||
| I would point out to you that we attack what we fear. | ||
| And as Teddy Roosevelt said, it's the man in the ring who matters. | ||
| So I'd like to give Mr. Musk a little view from inside this ring. | ||
| A couple weeks ago, Elon Musk and his goons hacked into the Treasury payment system. | ||
| That is the system that controls $5 trillion a year of payments. | ||
| They came in with unsecured software, unsecured hardware, unvetted individuals. | ||
| They claimed they only had read-only access. | ||
| It now turns out that they actually had write access as well. | ||
| We don't know what information they extracted from that system, but it may make them targets of our foreign adversaries. | ||
| They stole data, could have stolen data, that affects the privacy of every single American taxpayer. | ||
| They also potentially access data on the payment systems and identities of intelligence assets that we have overseas embedded in hostile foreign governments who are risking their lives to keep America safe. | ||
| What this bill does is exactly what it says it does, notwithstanding this childish tweet. | ||
| It is the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. | ||
| I would point out that the only reason Mr. Musk got into the system is because when he asked Treasury Secretary Besant to let him into the system, the civil servant and patriot David Lebrick, who was running the system, said, no, you cannot do this, at which point Mr. Besant fired Mr. Lebrick and the theft of data occurred. | ||
| So what we did in this bill is said that going forward, the Treasury Secretary cannot allow anybody to access the Treasury payment system unless number one, they have a top-secret clearance. | ||
| Number two, they have no economic conflicts of interest. | ||
| Number three, they are not a special government employee. | ||
| And number four, they have been employed by the federal government for at least one year. | ||
| That is a problem if you are a Nazi-saluting, economically conflicted special government employee who is so desperately in need of validation that you bought a social media company and tweaked its algorithm to amplify your own tweets and fill your own sense of self-worth, who is currently cosplaying as a public servant. | ||
| It's not a problem for taxpayers. | ||
| It's not a problem for data integrity. | ||
| And I understand protecting personal data has never been Elon Musk's jam. | ||
| But it is necessary. | ||
| And this bill does exactly what it says, which is why he fears it, which is why he attacks it. | ||
| Let me tell you what I fear. | ||
| I fear what happens to our country if his conflicts of interest are allowed to run roughshod and trample over Americans' right to privacy and all that has ever truly made America great. | ||
| We're tacking what we fear as well. | ||
| And I hope that we can find three Republicans who are committed to the idea that that is something worth defending. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Caston. | |
| I now turn to the Honorable Representative from the state of Florida. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I thank the gentleman for yielding, and thank you to my fellow appropriator and friend Marcy Kaptur for initiating hosting this special order hour and to my friend Mr. Garamendi from California for standing in for her. | ||
| Because it is incredibly disturbing that we must come together to condemn what should be inherently obvious. | ||
| Elon Musk was elected by no one, confirmed by no one, and is accountable to no one. | ||
| Yet President Trump allows this conflict-riddled billionaire to rifle through Americans' highly sensitive records and attack the public servants who look out for all of us. | ||
| I've never witnessed such utter contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. | ||
| It is clear who is running this White House. | ||
| It is Elon Musk, whose nonstop lies would leave human rights groups in Cuba and Venezuela out to dry, and victims of famine and natural disasters left to starve or die. | ||
| Donald Trump is allowing Musk to illegally slash our efforts to counter dictators and protect democracy. | ||
| The man with billions on the line in China. | ||
| Trump and Musk are gutting agencies that are investigating Musk's companies. | ||
| You think that's coincidence? | ||
| And all while Donald Trump ignores what he committed to prioritizing throughout the campaign, making everyday life more affordable for everyone. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this chaos crew in the White House is rocking the faith of Americans. | ||
| It's alienating allies and destabilizing our businesses. | ||
| It's trashing our ability to honor our commitments and fulfill the basic functions of government. | ||
| My constituents are angry and afraid, and they should be. | ||
| It's understandable. | ||
| Musk and his minions will gut any program that doesn't line their own pockets. | ||
| These cruel, reckless cuts built on lies and illegal funding freezes will devastate the children, veterans, and seniors that we Democrats fight for every day. | ||
| And worse, all this chaotic Republican ripoff will do is raise grocery prices and health care costs for our families. | ||
| While Musk steals your child's Social Security number, Trump is busy enacting policies that will raise prices on everything from prescription drugs to affordable housing. | ||
| And as Musk digs through your mom and dad's tax returns, he and Trump are gutting consumer protections that keep scammers from ripping you off. | ||
| And all this is designed for one thing: to pay for more millionaire and billionaire tax breaks and open the door to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. | ||
| In fact, the Budget Committee is meeting right now as we speak to do just that. | ||
| They all get wealthier, and the lives of working families become even more unaffordable. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we are not going to roll over and let this madness continue. | ||
| Every dollar illegally stolen from our federal agencies must be restored. | ||
| We must continue to hold Trump and his billionaire friends accountable. | ||
| We are going to continue to protect victims of scams and natural disasters, regardless of what Trump or his billionaire puppeteer proposes. | ||
| The Musk-Trump unchecked raid of taxpayer dollars must end. | ||
| We must commit together to reduce people's everyday kitchen table costs. | ||
| And Democrats will stand up every single day to fight to put lowering people's costs at the top of the agenda. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back my time to the gentleman from California. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I thank the gentlelady from Florida, and I'll now turn to the representative from the state of Ohio, Mr. Lanceman. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also talk about Elon Musk and to ask the Speaker and my colleagues to follow the money. | ||
| Elon owns six companies, two of which are Tesla and SpaceX. | ||
| SpaceX alone has received something like $20 billion in federal contracts, federal taxpayer dollars. | ||
| Tesla, when it was struggling to get off the ground, got a half a billion dollar loan from the Department of Energy. | ||
| This is in addition to the billions that they have received in tax credits and other supplements from the federal government. | ||
| He is not just the world's richest man, but Elon Musk is trying to become the first trillionaire in the history of the world. | ||
| Now, Musk, during the 2024 election, gives over $200 million to Trump and Republicans. | ||
| It's a lot of money. | ||
| Trump wins. | ||
| And Elon, just weeks, not months, after the election, generates several hundred billion dollars in new wealth, making his way to that trillion-dollar number. | ||
| He generated all that new wealth because the markets knew that with Trump, he was going to have access to even more of our money. | ||
| They knew he was going to get billions more in contracts, billions more in federal subsidies. | ||
| and he is well on his way. | ||
| To expedite these efforts, Trump empowers Musk moments after he's inaugurated. | ||
| Musk, an unelected tech billionaire. | ||
| He empowers him to take access of our personal data, all of it. | ||
| He gives him access to the federal payment system. | ||
| He gives them, it gives him power to purge as many federal workers as he possibly can. | ||
| All in the name of waste, fraud, and abuse, which in the end, it turns out to be somewhat accurate. | ||
| By the way, what happened with the data breach and the fact that he now has access to all of our data is arguably the greatest data breach in the history of the United States of America. | ||
| He has defunded federal programs, purged public servants, and stripped resources away from government oversight, all while getting richer and richer at the expense of the rest of us. | ||
| And today, the State Department said they plan to spend $400 million of our tax dollars to purchase Tesla cybertrucks. | ||
| Why in the world would the federal government buy one Tesla cybertruck, let alone $400 million of Tesla cybertrucks? | ||
| Waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| Every day, Elon Musk makes $8 million from government contracts. | ||
| That number just went up. | ||
| In comparison, seniors on Social Security, they get $65 a day. | ||
| The question that so many are asking is: how do you fight back against this waste, fraud, and abuse? | ||
| And there is a playbook, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| It's the Constitution of the United States. | ||
| And Article 1 does not lay out the powers of the Presidency or the Supreme Court and the judiciary. | ||
| Article 1 lays out the powers of the Congress of the United States. | ||
| This Congress is responsible for appropriating funds and oversight of the federal government and holding the President accountable. | ||
| The founders envisioned this moment. | ||
| They didn't know that it would come with a billionaire tech donor, but they envisioned this moment. | ||
| And with Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, they have to step up and deal with this waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Landsman. | ||
| Critical, important issues have been raised in the last 20 minutes or so about the issues of conflicts of interest, of corruption, and of policy mistakes that the current administration has put in motion over the last 15, 16 days. | ||
| I want to draw the attention of the House to this diagram. | ||
| And this is just a display of some of the contracts that Elon Musk has with the government. | ||
| In total, it's more than $15 billion. | ||
| But in each of these, there are some very subtle, very, very subtle and ominous opportunities for corruption. | ||
| I want to point out just one. | ||
|
Tesla's Charging Station Monopoly
00:02:19
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unidentified
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In the Inflation Reduction Act and in the Infrastructure Jobs Act, there's money for electric vehicle charging stations. | |
| In fact, a substantial amount of money. | ||
| It turns out that Tesla has some 20,000 charging stations around the United States and has become the principal charging station connection to all electric vehicles. | ||
| If we were to shut down, excuse me, if Elon Musk were to shut down the money for other companies to build charging stations, he would then have a monopoly. | ||
| Subtle, well, but obvious to those of us who watch. | ||
| My colleague talked to the issue of the State Department putting out on its website a very specific $400 million purchase order of just one vehicle, a Tesla cyber truck. | ||
| Corruption? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Waste? | ||
| Probably. | ||
| And here we are with an unelected individual who has extraordinary power, in fact, the power of the presidency. | ||
| And the presidency is misusing the power to shut down organizations around this country. | ||
| I would suggest that the Democrats have a different view of government, have a different view of purpose. | ||
| Franklin Roosevelt once said, the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it's whether we provide enough for those who have too little. | ||
| That test is now before the Congress of the United States. | ||
| Hardworking families are struggling dealing with inflation. | ||
|
Put Forth A Vigorous Defense
00:04:23
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unidentified
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Yet it appears as though the Trump administration is going to focus on making the wealthier even more wealthy. | |
| We need to think about this. | ||
| And in the days ahead, I am certain that our Democratic colleagues will put forth not only a vigorous defense of the programs that Americans and indeed people around the world depend upon, | ||
| and we will do that together with men and women around this nation who have seen the effect, in many cases the tragic effect, of the shutdown of government and the shutdown of agencies upon which we all rely. | ||
| And simultaneously, we will put forth a positive agenda about what we stand for and how we see America growing in the future. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I noticed the arrival of the esteemed lady from Ohio who had actually put together this one hour. | ||
| It's been a privilege for me to stand as a substitute. | ||
| She has now arrived, and I turn my attention back to Marcy Kaptur and her one hour. | ||
| Thank you for the opportunity to sub for a while while you were tied up in committee. | ||
| I know you had good work to do there. | ||
| Ms. Captor, the floor is yours. | ||
| Does the gentleman yield back? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I do. | |
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentlewoman from Ohio, Ms. Captor, is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| May I ask the time remaining? | ||
| The gentlewoman has 35 minutes remaining. | ||
| All right, thank you. | ||
| And I want to thank Congressman Garamendi, such a distinguished member, for substituting for me while I was in our budget committee. | ||
| And I know what a phenomenal job you do and how deeply you love our country and how hard you fight for her and for all the people that you represent. | ||
| And those include my constituents too. | ||
| Your work is just phenomenal. | ||
| Thank you for being here today. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I wanted to focus a little on Elon Musk and put some materials in the record. | ||
| He's an unelected billionaire with no federal cleance, standing or sitting right next to the President of the United States almost on a daily basis. | ||
| Mr. Musk is so rich, he could buy my entire congressional district and have lots left over. | ||
| He spent millions upon millions, more than I and all of our relatives are worth, to defeat House Democrats for Congress, myself included. | ||
| I couldn't come near to match his money. | ||
| He did the same to many of my colleagues in this House, including some with us today. | ||
| Can you imagine having enough money to put millions and millions of dollars up against members of Congress to control Congress? | ||
| That is what is going on. | ||
| Political victories to billionaires equate to the fall of our republic. | ||
| Presidents Washington and Lincoln could never have imagined this selling off of our republic. | ||
| Musk has endless money. | ||
| He uses it fiercely. | ||
| Some of us won despite the tidal wave of his money. | ||
| Politics shouldn't be about raising oodles of money. | ||
| It should be about serving our people and strengthening our nation for all, not just the super rich. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| They have enough. | ||
|
22 Years, Educated, Bequeathed, Precious Gift, Become Educated
00:02:48
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| The America we have known is at risk of becoming owned by a billionaire class. | ||
| If and when that happens, our precious freedoms will vanish. | ||
| Now, our family and I have been citizens of this country for our entire lives, three generations, totaling over a century and a half. | ||
| Grandparents, parents, and us. | ||
| Every generation worked very hard here. | ||
| It wasn't easy. | ||
| They fought fiercely for our nation as veterans in every major war, to defeat dictators, to preserve liberty for our nation and others. | ||
| And then they bequeathed that precious gift to us. | ||
| We all worked hard to become more educated. | ||
| Our family, community, and nation are my treasures. | ||
| By contrast, Elon Musk holds citizenship in three countries, South Africa, Canada, and then for the last 22 years, the USA. | ||
| I keep asking myself, to which one is he most loyal? | ||
| He was born and raised in apartheid South Africa in a very well-to-do circumstance. | ||
| With the fall of that apartheid regime not so many years ago, after a great human rights struggle inside South Africa, his father knew that economic circumstance would change in South Africa. | ||
| So he took Elon, then a teenager, to visit over a dozen countries, including Canada, where Elon's mother still resides. | ||
| Elon took a second citizenship in Canada. | ||
| He obtained a visa then to attend college in the United States as a foreign student, graduating in economics and physics. | ||
| He then moved to Silicon Valley for graduate school, but dropped out after two days. | ||
| There's still remaining some questions as to whether he illegally overstayed in our country on a student visa. | ||
| Records show he's only been a citizen of our country for 22 years, having become a citizen in the year of 2002. | ||
| Bottom line, why has President Donald Trump just given a naturalized citizen with two other citizenships and with no federal clearance and only 22 years of residency in our nation the keys to the U.S. Treasury Department's electronic payment systems? | ||
|
Elon Musk's Unethical Access
00:15:34
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| That data records every citizen's private financial information and every business's private information across our country. | ||
| Musk got the position completely without the normal ethic investigations required of every political appointee to any president. | ||
| When I served President Carter, the FBI, I mean, our records were checked, people all the way back to grade school. | ||
| That was not done for this man. | ||
| The American people need to know more about exactly how now an unelected billionaire built his fortune off federal government contracts. | ||
| In our budget committee, a number was just stated that he holds up to $18 billion of contracts with the government of the United States. | ||
| That began with a huge $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to launch Tesla in California. | ||
| Who exactly lobbied in that department for that loan, and who and why was it accepted? | ||
| We are told it was paid back. | ||
| Frankly, I have never known anyone who has gotten a loan that large from the government of the United States with his background. | ||
| For the record, Elon Musk paid that loan back over time but began increasing the amounts of his gigantic loan and grant applications to the federal government, with the largest thus far, we think, being with NASA. | ||
| Wouldn't we call this a conflict of interest, my friends? | ||
| Would we allow the head of GM or any other large corporation in our country to sit next to the president and go into the U.S. Treasury and not say it was a conflict of interest? | ||
| Are we all fools? | ||
| In using his financial leverage to re-elect Donald Trump, Musk should have been vetted by the FBI, as is anyone who works close to the presidency or critical government records. | ||
| It appears Musk simply has been leveraging his vast fortune off government contracts. | ||
| Is he rummaging through Treasury files to gain an advantage over competitors or to seek vengeance in business dealings? | ||
| Just this year, he ordered the State Department to buy $400 million worth of his own cyber trucks. | ||
| But when scrutiny came, the purchase order mysteriously disappeared, the word Tesla, from their procurement orders. | ||
| Hmm, how about that? | ||
| Over the past five years alone, he has received over $13 billion in government awards to his company. | ||
| I ask every member of Congress here and listening: do you know any other human being who has ever been allowed this kind of access with such private sector interests in dipping into the U.S. Treasury time and again across all these agencies? | ||
| It is unbelievable. | ||
| Unbelievable. | ||
| Conflict of interest equals Elon Musk. | ||
| He should not be able to invade the private records of the American people at the U.S. Treasury. | ||
| Yet he has done just that. | ||
| Every person hearing my words, your records, your tax records, your business reports, think about that. | ||
| Think about the investments that Treasury makes in order to roll over our debt. | ||
| No one listening to this today, nor any elected official here in Congress could ever have gained access to the records of the American people held in confidence in the U.S. Treasury. | ||
| And I can tell you how difficult it is, even for a member of Congress, to get an appointment to see the Secretary of Treasury. | ||
| We've been trying over the last several weeks. | ||
| We haven't gotten it yet. | ||
| With Musk, what a breach of privacy for every American citizen. | ||
| One must ask: how did he finagle this heist for the princely sum of $250 million spent on presidential campaigns and congressional campaigns? | ||
| I'm sure that number doubles. | ||
| It literally is more and more like a quid pro quo. | ||
| The more Elon Musk bankrolled President Trump's reelection, and for this, he's given the keys to America's financial kingdom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| This is new in American history. | ||
| Musk is now using unsecured private servers to snoop at the millions of private accounts of the American people and businesses with which he's in competition. | ||
| Where's the business community? | ||
| Are you afraid of them? | ||
| Will you speak up? | ||
| Wall Street's speaking up in a very interesting way. | ||
| The markets have been really rickety these last few days. | ||
| They're not too comfortable. | ||
| They're not dumb. | ||
| Pay attention. | ||
| Musk must be identifying individuals he'd like to upend. | ||
| Are they afraid too? | ||
| Like members of Congress who are afraid to speak out because they're afraid Musk will put more money up against him in the next campaign. | ||
| Guess what? | ||
| He's going to do it anyway. | ||
| So speak out. | ||
| Whatever he is concocting with his inverted merry band of minions aged 19 to 26, they have no security clearances nor experience to work at the U.S. Treasury Department. | ||
| Every person in America must have a concern about this. | ||
| Your social security records, your health benefits, the profits of your corporation, who you do business with, it's all there. | ||
| Their sole mission, his sole mission, is to collect private, confidential information for more self-dealing and maybe threats and tax cuts for the billionaire class. | ||
| Does Elon Musk have to file a financial disclosure statement like all of us? | ||
| Where is it? | ||
| We have to have them. | ||
| Where's his? | ||
| It seems his will be kept private. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hmm. | |
| Musk is ruthless and a self-enabler. | ||
| And surely he seeks to swipe, to wipe out his competitors or spy at will on the privileged information of the American people. | ||
| I might ask anyone listening today, why does he have access to your mom's social security records and your grandpa's Medicare? | ||
| What does he now know about you and your family? | ||
| I appreciate my colleagues joining us today, and I will now yield to my colleague Congressman Hank Johnson from the great state of Georgia. | ||
| Thank you so very much for participating, and I want to thank also Congressman W. Wasserman Schultz for also substituting when I was not able to be on the floor. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| Thank you, Madam. | ||
| I appreciate you convening us together for this special order today and for your very thoughtful comments. | ||
| And thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today I rise to voice my alarm about the rapid descent of our democracy into a dictatorship. | ||
| While Co-President Donald Trump focuses on expanding his business opportunities globally while ignoring his campaign promise to lower the cost of living for ordinary Americans, Co-President Elon Musk has taken a wrecking ball to the federal government one agency at a time. | ||
| Congress established the agencies that Musk is trying to delete, and it is only Congress under our Constitution, not an unelected co-president, that has the constitutional authority to abolish a federal agency. | ||
| We still live in a democracy which is government of, by, and for the people who have the right, the precious right, to vote for their leaders. | ||
| We tell our constituents to vote. | ||
| We tell them their votes and their voices matter, that their choices shape the future of this country. | ||
| But what does that mean when an unelected billionaire can waltz into our agencies and slash and burn the whole thing to the ground like a Taliban terrorist, threatening 2 million federal employees to resign under false pretenses, putting other folks out of work, stopping payments to small businesses and nonprofits, | ||
| while illegally putting in purchase orders for the State Department to spend $400 million in taxpayer money for Tesla pickup trucks? | ||
| This level of corruption is shocking. | ||
| Co-President Trump and the Republicans in Congress, all of whom have abrogated their legislative power to the king, have handed the keys to the nation's treasury to unelected Co-President Elon Musk. | ||
| Their actions are taking what we know as corruption to a whole new level. | ||
| This is banana republic-style corruption at its ugliest. | ||
| And while the powerful play their games, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire buddies get richer while the cost of living goes up for everybody else. | ||
| Every day my constituents call me worried, scared, asking how an unelected billionaire they never voted for is gutting the very resources they rely on to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. | ||
| They see a man who wants billionaires like himself to pay nothing while hardworking Americans foot the bill. | ||
| They see him kneecapping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created to shield the people from scams, fraud, and corporate greed. | ||
| They ask why someone with a long history of union busting, worker abuse, and blatant disregard for labor laws is being allowed to scuttle the Department of Labor. | ||
| And they want to know why a billionaire businessman from South Africa, who holds no elective office, has been given unchecked access and influence over their most sensitive personal and financial information, their rights, and their future. | ||
| Let me be clear. | ||
| I'm committed to ensuring that President Musk stops this attack on the American people. | ||
| House and Senate Democrats will not stand by like my Republican colleagues are doing while Elon Musk hijacks our government. | ||
| We will fight to protect the institutions that serve the people, not the privileged. | ||
| That's what we must do to protect democracy and freedom. | ||
| We will stand. | ||
| We will fight. | ||
| And with the American people aroused in peaceful, nonviolent protests across the country, Mr. Speaker, we will win. | ||
| This country belongs to the people, not to the billionaires. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you very much, Congressman Johnson. | ||
| And we'd now like to yield time remaining to Congressman Tim Kennedy, phenomenal new member from the great state of New York, Buffalo. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let me begin by thanking Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for her leadership on this important issue. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the U.S. government exists to protect the rights and well-being of all Americans. | ||
| People in my district want a government that works and works to improve the lives of Western New Yorkers and all Americans. | ||
| People in my district and others across the country do not want an unelected billionaire dismantling our government for parts and raking in profits in the process. | ||
| Because that's what's happening. | ||
| President Trump has allowed Elon Musk to operate with unchecked authority, unilaterally and illegally gutting the agencies that protect everything we hold dear, all without necessary congressional approval. | ||
| In my district alone, there are 8,500-plus federal employees, including those at the VA Hospital of Buffalo, the Social Security Administration, the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Base, and many, many other agencies who help our communities each and every day. | ||
| We can't protect the privacy of millions of Americans if Elon Musk has access to private taxpayer data, including that of Social Security recipients, Medicare beneficiaries, and taxpayers. | ||
| We can't advance life-saving scientific and cancer research breakthroughs if Elon Musk hollows out national institutes of health. | ||
| And we cannot provide the benefits and services to our military heroes that have earned and deserve it if Elon Musk drives away federal employees who serve our veterans. | ||
| This is to say nothing of Elon Musk's dizzying list of conflicts of interest. | ||
| This is an unelected billionaire who's made those billions in large part from taxpayer-funded government contracts. | ||
| And this president has handed him unprecedented power to wring out hardworking families for every penny that they have. | ||
| We can't allow an individual who prioritizes profits above all and cozies up to adversaries like China and Russia to make decisions for the American people. | ||
| We must continue to fight for the rights and well-being of hardworking families and put people over billionaire profit. | ||
| Our constituents deserve nothing less. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| I don't believe that we have any additional speakers. | ||
| One more is coming. | ||
| Okay, an additional speaker is coming. | ||
| While we're waiting, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I just wanted to point to this. | ||
| If there are citizens who are listening, if we look at some of the government contracts that Mr. Musk is engaged in, we are trying to make this as complete as we can. | ||
|
Enormous NASA Contracts
00:02:24
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| And so, for example, NASA is one of the largest contracts that he personally has. | ||
| Look at this number: $11.8 billion with NASA. | ||
| And can you imagine how many subcontractors there are on that job? | ||
| That's just one connection. | ||
| But then we look over to the U.S. Department of Defense of Defense. | ||
| And that is $3.6 billion. | ||
| These are enormous contracts. | ||
| Companies in my district don't have that kind of control, and I have companies that do contract with the government. | ||
| They don't have contracts that size. | ||
| We look at the Department of Commerce, $1.9 million. | ||
| Mr. Musk has a contract there. | ||
| Department of Veterans Affairs, that's an interesting one, $463,000. | ||
| Not sure what that is for. | ||
| Department of State, $440,000. | ||
| You can do a lot with $440,000. | ||
| There's a lot of information at the State Department. | ||
| What is that contract for? | ||
| And then we have a whole series at the other agencies. | ||
| We know it's well over a million dollars. | ||
| We can't even track how much it is. | ||
| This is an enormous amount of money. | ||
| I don't know, even General Dynamics and some of our large corporations, I don't think, have this kind of reach. | ||
| We have no final speaker. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I just want to thank the Speaker and all those who are listening for their indulgence. | ||
| This is a time for the American people to be intrepid and on the watch and providing information to your members of Congress about information you may have about what Mr. Musk and all of his alliances are doing across this country to benefit the Republic. | ||
| Thank you so very much, and I yield back. | ||
| Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the President. | ||
|
Imagine Darkness
00:03:41
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| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentlewoman from North Dakota, Ms. Fidorchek, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days on which to revise and extend their remarks on the topic of this special order. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| I yield myself as much time as I may consume. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I wanted to start this speech with a real-time exercise. | ||
| I wanted to suddenly have all the lights go out in here. | ||
| Imagine what would happen if we did that. | ||
| It would be pitch black in this room. | ||
| Everything would come to a halt. | ||
| The microphones would stop. | ||
| We wouldn't be able to see each other. | ||
| People watching online would certainly be confused. | ||
| We would all wonder what was going on. | ||
| Would we be able to see to walk around, to get out? | ||
| Would anyone panic? | ||
| Then, let's imagine if the outage wasn't just in this room or this building, but all across Washington, D.C. At first, there would be silence, but it wouldn't take long before confusion and perhaps chaos ensued. | ||
| Now, let's imagine this happening in my state of North Dakota, where just this week, temperatures dropped to minus 22 degrees for many days in a row. | ||
| In fact, this morning was the first day it rose above zero. | ||
| What would that mean to lose power when it's 22 below? | ||
| People's livelihoods would be at risk. | ||
| Children couldn't go to school. | ||
| Hospitals would be unable to care for people. | ||
| Businesses would come to a standstill. | ||
| Energy production would halt. | ||
| Livestock would be threatened. | ||
| Homes and properties would freeze up. | ||
| It wouldn't take very long in that kind of weather for the economy of North Dakota to grind to a halt and for people to die if we had no power. | ||
| This isn't some far-fetched scenario. | ||
| This is a real threat in America today. | ||
| The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that two-thirds of the United States is at an elevated risk of blackouts, of not having enough reliable power to meet demand when we need it the most. | ||
| This map clearly illustrates the problem. | ||
| Every area of America in red and yellow on this map has an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand. | ||
| Not tomorrow, not in five years or ten years, today. | ||
| This is a scenario today in America. | ||
| And that's why I'm on the House floor today, to sound the alarm about our grid reliability crisis and to highlight five practical solutions to keep the lights on. | ||
| But first, let's talk about why this is happening. | ||
|
Capacity Crunch
00:15:19
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| What's driving this problem? | ||
| It really comes down to one thing. | ||
| We are retiring power plants faster than we're replacing them. | ||
| Seriously, it's that simple. | ||
| In states throughout our nation, power providers are shutting down massive amounts of traditional power generation from power plants that can be turned on up or down as needed to follow demand. | ||
| And they're retiring these generators faster than they are able to bring on new generators that can provide the same kind of always available power. | ||
| Grid operators measure this availability in terms of capacity. | ||
| And there are two kinds. | ||
| First, there's installed capacity. | ||
| That's the maximum amount of power a generator can churn out in the best conditions. | ||
| For example, most wind farms in North Dakota have a nameplate capacity of 300 megawatts. | ||
| Our largest coal-fired facility is 1,100 megawatts. | ||
| Over on this chart, the blue line on top represents nameplate capacity. | ||
| The second kind of capacity, the second term, is called accredited capacity. | ||
| That's the amount of power that can be counted on regardless of conditions. | ||
| Grid operators determine the value of accredited capacity. | ||
| They look at a performance of a generator over time, how it works in different conditions, and they determine how much of that power can they rely on when they need it the most in any weather condition. | ||
| That same wind farm would likely have an accredited capacity that is 30% of its nameplate capacity, or in a 300-megawatt wind farm, a fraction of that would be accredited capacity. | ||
| The coal facility probably comes in at about 80 to 90 percent of nameplate capacity, so about 950 megawatts of accredited capacity. | ||
| In the MISO market, this region here in red, that serves 15 states. | ||
| Roughly 42 million Americans get their power in the MISO region. | ||
| The operators in that region warn that the accredited capacity, the line on the bottom here, the red, is shrinking dramatically, even though we're spending a lot of money installing more and more generation on a nameplate capacity. | ||
| You can see this clearly in these two lines. | ||
| The top line, the blue, is nameplate capacity. | ||
| Americans are paying for that to be installed. | ||
| The red line below is accredited capacity. | ||
| Americans are already paying for that too. | ||
| The red line is what you can count on when times are tough, when it's 22 below. | ||
| The blue line is questionable. | ||
| That is dependent on the weather. | ||
| If you ever wonder why your utility prices are rising, but you face more risk for blackouts or brownouts, this gap is why. | ||
| That's why NERC keeps warning us with reports, forecasts, and maps like this. | ||
| MISO is in the red zone on this map. | ||
| All the yellow zones also have elevated risk. | ||
| In a nation as blessed with natural resources and brilliant people like the United States, there is no reason to ever run short of power. | ||
| Our whole country should be blue. | ||
| We should never run short of power, ever. | ||
| We will have storms that knock the power off for a time, but to not have enough power to meet demand, that's just bad planning and terrible leadership. | ||
| But that's the bad news today. | ||
| The good news is this. | ||
| We can fix this. | ||
| We have the resources, we have the technology, and now we just need to act. | ||
| And here are the five key steps, the five solutions to this problem. | ||
| First, we need regulatory relief. | ||
| Right now, federal regulations are strangling our energy producers, making it nearly impossible for them to meet our power demand. | ||
| We must repeal the EPA's greenhouse gas rule. | ||
| We must eliminate the methane fee rule and roll back the BLM resource management plan for North Dakota and other states. | ||
| And we must reform the new source performance standards that prevent power providers from making efficiency improvements to their existing fleets, the ones that are already connected to the grid, to improve them, to help them produce more power in a cleaner, more efficient way. | ||
| That new source performance standard is just bad policy. | ||
| It makes no sense at all. | ||
| These are just a few examples of Biden administration policies that have imposed crushing costs and regulatory burdens on the power sector. | ||
| They're jeopardizing the stability of our grid and the livelihoods of hardworking Americans. | ||
| Second, we must re-evaluate federal incentives for energy production. | ||
| Our government has distorted the energy market with subsidies that favor certain resources while neglecting others. | ||
| This has resulted in a grid that is too dependent on the weather. | ||
| Think back to the map from NERC, two-thirds of the country at an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand. | ||
| It's time to realign these incentives. | ||
| Today, our grid operators are calling for more dispatchable generation, more capacity. | ||
| They want to fill that gap in those two lines that I showed earlier. | ||
| Think of the MISO zone in red on my first map. | ||
| MISO is desperate for more power resources that can be turned on when needed. | ||
| But here is the stack of resources that are in line to connect with the MISO grid. | ||
| You see this over time. | ||
| It goes back to the year 2000. | ||
| And it shows, you know, back then there was a decent amount of gas. | ||
| The blue lines are gas. | ||
| And then you start seeing wind coming online. | ||
| And if you go all the way over to the far side of this map, you see the stack of resources currently in line in MISO, 171 gigawatts of resources, actually more resources than the entire nameplate or the entire peak demand in MISO is currently in line. | ||
| But today in that column, you see it is almost filled with solar and wind resources, fortunately some battery too. | ||
| But those are not the dispatchable resources MISO is calling for and clamoring for. | ||
| Only a sliver of gas on the bottom is in line to connect to MISO, even though they are desperate for more gas to help make it a more stable grid. | ||
| We must ensure that our federal policy doesn't exacerbate this problem and the current vulnerabilities that have been created by a flood of wind and solar, which are weather-dependent generation. | ||
| Instead, we must support fair markets that better encourage the investments needed to meet growing demand and long-term grid reliability and stability. | ||
| Third, we need to speed up the permitting process. | ||
| Right now, it can take years, sometimes decades, to get approval for new energy projects. | ||
| This is unacceptable, especially when we have transformative technologies ready to go, like small modular reactors. | ||
| These advanced nuclear systems are safe, reliable, clean, and capable of powering entire communities. | ||
| I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and leaders like Energy Secretary Chris Wright to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and accelerate deployment of these new technologies. | ||
| Fourth, we must implement rules that protect grid reliability. | ||
| As I mentioned earlier, it was well below freezing throughout North Dakota this week. | ||
| My state and region weathered those temperatures largely because of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. | ||
| This chart here is straight from MISO data. | ||
| It illustrates the energy that was used this week in the MISO region to meet demand. | ||
| And as you can see, fully 80% of those resources were coal, natural gas, and nuclear. | ||
| That's what came online when the temperatures were 22 below to keep the power on for all the people living in those cold areas. | ||
| Yet, despite this reality, states are racing to shut down these reliable baseload power generators that are responsible for powering our communities, replacing it with intermittent resources, that huge stack that was in the queue in the line in MISO, that huge stack of wind and solar, the intermittent resources that cannot reliably meet all the demands of our grid or the people who depend on it. | ||
| I have nothing against wind and solar. | ||
| North Dakota has tons of wind generation online, but it is simply not capable today to meet the demands of the grid. | ||
| And the people who are responsible for making sure our grid is reliable are the ones saying that over and over. | ||
| This is reckless. | ||
| We need federal safeguards to ensure that before a power plant is retired, there's a reliable replacement ready to go online. | ||
| We cannot afford to gamble with our nation's energy security. | ||
| Energy security is national security. | ||
| And finally, we need to better understand the growing demands of the AI industry. | ||
| AI and other data-intensive technologies are driving massive increases in energy consumption. | ||
| As Vice President Vance acknowledged in Paris this week, if we are to remain competitive in the global economy, we need to remove the barriers to development and unleash the full potential of American energy resources. | ||
| This means embracing an all-of-the-above strategy that includes battery technology to back up renewables, but also oil, gas, nuclear, and hydropower, whatever it takes to power our future. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, grid reliability is not a partisan issue. | ||
| It's an American issue. | ||
| Our security, our economy, and our way of life depend on it. | ||
| We cannot be a beacon for the world or even safe in our own homes if we are sitting in the dark without power. | ||
| We have the resources. | ||
| We have the technology. | ||
| Now we must act. | ||
| America can and must remain the most powerful, prosperous, and innovative nation on earth. | ||
| I look forward to working with my colleagues to do just that. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Kim. | ||
| Thank you very much, Congresswoman Federic. | ||
| I appreciate you yielding and hosting this special order to raise awareness of the critical need the United States is facing to become energy independent. | ||
| Protecting our environment is not controversial. | ||
| I represent a district in Southern California. | ||
| Unfortunately, Californians know too well the consequences of rushing to implement energy policies. | ||
| As Governor Newsom pushed to ban gas-powered cars, he then said, people couldn't charge electric cars as our communities saw rolling blackouts. | ||
| It doesn't need to be one or the other, environment or economy, natural gas or renewables. | ||
| We need all of the above energy strategy. | ||
| Through American innovation, we create jobs, expand our energy supply, protect our environment, lower costs, and strengthen our national security. | ||
| Energy fuels everything from our cars to our homes, and we must ensure we have energy resources here at home that we can rely on. | ||
| So I'll keep fighting to bring common sense energy policies in Congress. | ||
| And again, I want to thank Congresswoman Federalcek for your leadership on this issue, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Congresswoman Kim. | ||
| You have lived this in your state of California, and I appreciate you bringing to the attention that the false choice of one or the other. | ||
| We can and must do it all. | ||
| I now yield two minutes to the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Haradopoulos. | ||
| Well, thank you very much. | ||
| This is an important issue which has affected us all. | ||
| We've seen prices rise by 20 to 30 percent over the last four years. | ||
| And unfortunately, because of the policies of the previous administration, we've seen these challenges become more and more difficult as we take the reins of power once again in Washington, D.C. There's no other way to put it other than energy dominance is essential, and it is the best way to ensure that we have American prosperity, national security, innovation, and excellence in energy, and a reliable grid, as the Congresswoman has talked about today. | ||
| Fortunately, we have persons who are experts right here in the United States Congress, new member of Congress, Ms. Fedorcek, on the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| She understands firsthand the essential nature of energy and why it's so important to all Americans as they face challenges here and abroad. | ||
| And if we can meet all those criteria, prosperity, national security, innovation, and reliable energy, we'll once again have lower prices at the grocery store, lower prices at the gas tank, and making sure we stay warm in the winter and cool in places like Florida in the summer. | ||
| And I applaud this effort because if we have an all-in energy solution and energy dominance once again, as the Congresswoman is talking about, America can move forward and meet the challenges of tomorrow. | ||
|
Energy Dominance for AI
00:15:17
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| I really appreciate the opportunity to speak this afternoon on this special order and make sure that we are moving forward with the leadership of Donald Trump and leaders like Congresswoman Fedorcek on the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Haradopoulos. | ||
| We certainly need a lot of power to get out in space. | ||
| Your dreams and your leadership in that area are certainly noted, and we need power to fuel those too. | ||
| So thank you for being here today. | ||
| I now yield five minutes to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Weber. | ||
| I thank the gentlelady from North Dakota. | ||
| Like my preceding predecessor here just said, she's great on energy. | ||
| Boy, she's an energy busy bunny. | ||
| I tell you, she's moving and shaking for being brand new. | ||
| I want to thank her for the opportunity to speak today. | ||
| And I will tell you all that being on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Speaker, has been the delight of my life. | ||
| It means a lot to America. | ||
| When I speak to groups, Mr. Speaker, whether they're school-aged kids or whether they're college or whether they're industry or whatever it might be, I tell people that the things that make America great are the things that America makes. | ||
| Now, how do we do that? | ||
| We do that with a reliable, affordable, dependable source of energy, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We do that with grid reliability, a critical issue that affects every single American. | ||
| Our nation's economy, our security, and our very way of life depend on energy that is stable, affordable, and yes, resilient. | ||
| But today, our system is under threat. | ||
| When we talk about grid reliability, we have to start with the facts. | ||
| Right now, fossil fuels, natural gas, coal, and even Even petroleum supply 60% of our electricity. | ||
| 60%. | ||
| Natural gas alone provides 40% and up. | ||
| It keeps the lights on in homes. | ||
| It keeps the lights on in businesses and factories all across America. | ||
| Did I mention, Mr. Speaker, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes? | ||
| Add in nuclear power at nearly 19%, and it's clear that this is the backbone and energy of our system, economic, political, militarily. | ||
| Yet, despite this reliability, these proven sources are under attack by radical policies that push unreliable energy at the expense of energy that actually works. | ||
| Ah, that's changing now, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The Trump administration has made it clear we are going to put America energy first. | ||
| We are increasing domestic production, cutting unnecessary regulations, and ensuring that our power grids remain strong and resilient. | ||
| That means expanding natural gas. | ||
| That means investing in nuclear energy. | ||
| That means making sure we have the very infrastructure to keep energy flowing to American homes and businesses. | ||
| Did I mention, Mr. Speaker, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes? | ||
| Yet here's what's happening. | ||
| The premature shutdown of our most reliable energy sources, coal, natural gas, and nuclear, put our entire grid at risk. | ||
| The nation's largest grid operator, PJM, which serves much of the eastern U.S., warned that up to 30% of its power generation could retire by 2030. | ||
| Meanwhile, demand is expected to rise 40% by 2039. | ||
| I'm not good at math, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I don't think that adds up. | ||
| We cannot take away reliable generation and then just simply pretend, we don't face an energy crisis. | ||
| That's pie in the sky. | ||
| Thankfully, President Trump understands this and is working to ensure we do not face a future of rolling blackouts and energy shortages. | ||
| He probably understands, Mr. Speaker, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes. | ||
| If the United States is serious about remaining a leader in energy and technology, we must embrace energy expansion. | ||
| And that means building more pipelines. | ||
| Pipelines are the safest and most efficient way to transport energy, yet they're being blocked by over-regulation and bad policy. | ||
| And that is why the Trump administration is committed to cutting the red tape, getting pipelines built, and making sure American energy can move freely to where it's needed so that the things that make America great can continue to be made. | ||
| Then let me be clear, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Modernizing our grid does not mean pushing expensive and unreliable energy mandates on taxpayers. | ||
| Americans should not be forced to foot the bill for an agenda that actually weakens our power supply. | ||
| What we need is a balanced, common sense approach that prioritizes affordable reliability and stability and security. | ||
| With the Trump administration back in office, Mr. Speaker, we now have leadership that values energy independence as well as economic growth. | ||
| This Congress on the Energy Commerce Committee, I look forward to advancing real solutions to harden our energy grid, to protect it from cyber attacks, to protect it from supply chain disruptions, and to protect it from natural disasters. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, America needs a grid that works when we need it. | ||
| That means standing up for natural gas. | ||
| That means investing in nuclear. | ||
| That means protecting our pipelines. | ||
| That means rejecting reckless policies that put politics ahead of not only reliability but reality. | ||
| The things that make America great are the things that America makes, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| President Trump, and thanks to his leadership, he's on the right path to securing a future based on that premise. | ||
| I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for holding this special order, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Representative Weber. | ||
| Really appreciate you being here and leaving us with that really great phrase, the things that make America great are the things America makes. | ||
| I love that. | ||
| We can and we must meet the challenge of a reliable, affordable, sustainable power grid. | ||
| As President Trump said, in America, the impossible is what we do best, and we can do this, and we will lead the world in this venture. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we've talked a lot about the challenges that America energy that face American energy, but I want to talk about the opportunities we have too. | ||
| With an energy supply that is affordable, reliable, and dependable, the United States can lead the way on emissions reductions and artificial intelligence. | ||
| Today, I want to talk about AI. | ||
| To be AI dominant, we must first be energy dominant. | ||
| That is why today I'm announcing my plans to create an AI and energy working group. | ||
| While my colleagues are thankfully working hard on regulation, speech, and other components of AI, this working group will focus exclusively on AI and the energy this growing technology demands. | ||
| This work will be complementary to and not duplicative of other efforts by my colleagues, including the Speaker's Task Force on AI, which completed its work last December. | ||
| My goal is to bring in experts and stakeholders, legislators, and other interested parties to fully explore these power needs, the current barriers to meet it, and federal policy solutions to help reliably, affordably, and sustainably power the future of AI. | ||
| I plan to follow four main pillars. | ||
| First, meeting AI energy demands requires American energy dominance. | ||
| Today, AI searches consume nearly 10 times the electricity of standard internet searches. | ||
| In 2024, data centers accounted for 4.3% of total U.S. power demand. | ||
| But analysts predict this could climb to as much as 12% by 2030. | ||
| To put that into perspective, that would be more electricity than the entire state of Texas uses today. | ||
| Yet the U.S. isn't scaling up reliable baseload power quickly enough to support this rapid growth. | ||
| In fact, Biden administration policies are forcing this baseload power offline. | ||
| If we don't act, we risk energy shortages, higher costs, and a slowdown in technological advancement. | ||
| To secure their energy needs, major tech companies are locking in exclusive long-term power contracts. | ||
| For example, in September, Microsoft entered an agreement to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to reliably power its AI data center. | ||
| While I support these types of agreements, we must also ensure that smaller companies and new players in the AI industry have access to the power they need to innovate and compete. | ||
| Meeting the energy demands of AI isn't just about powering technology, it's about powering America's future. | ||
| Which brings us to pillar two, a strong, secure electric grid. | ||
| The rapid forced transition to intermittent power sources, paired with the retirement of reliable baseload generators, has left our electric grid increasingly vulnerable to outages. | ||
| Today, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that two-thirds of the United States faces an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand, of having blackouts. | ||
| And as we've become more reliant on power-dependent digital infrastructure, the stakes are even higher. | ||
| But having enough power isn't our only concern. | ||
| Cyber attacks targeting U.S. grid operations and infrastructure are a growing threat that could disrupt everything from everyday conveniences to our national security. | ||
| If AI is to flourish, we must prioritize grid reliability and security. | ||
| This requires the right energy regulations, which is my pillar number three. | ||
| According to the bipartisan House Task Force Report on Artificial Intelligence, new AI models are developed roughly every six months, and data centers are built within one to two years. | ||
| Meanwhile, new power plants and transmission infrastructure can take at least five to ten years to build. | ||
| This creates, obviously, a significant gap between the rapid growth of AI and the slow growth of the power supply needed to support it. | ||
| Our current energy regulatory environment is not equipped to bridge this gap, and I know this environment well. | ||
| I served 12 years as a state energy regulator. | ||
| We need forward-thinking regulations that empower both small innovators who depend on the bulk power system and larger firms that secure power through long-term agreements. | ||
| By ensuring a level energy playing field, we can position America as the global leader in AI development, and we can outpace China. | ||
| And this leads me to pillar number four. | ||
| America, not China, must be the global leader of AI innovation. | ||
| On January 20th of this year, China unveiled DeepSeek R1. | ||
| It's the most advanced large language model, reportedly developed with less advanced processors at a fraction of the cost of U.S. models. | ||
| This proves that China is rapidly closing the gap and we can't afford to fall behind. | ||
| The Trump administration recognizes this urgency, and that's why just three days after the new Chinese revelation, on January 23rd, President Trump signed Executive Order 14179, removing barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence. | ||
| This order overturned President Biden's mandates that had stifled American investment and innovation in AI. | ||
| With this decisive action, we're reclaiming our competitive edge. | ||
| It's time to take the handcuffs off our AI industry and unleash the full potential of American ingenuity. | ||
| Winning the future of AI requires bold action, smart energy policy, and a commitment to American innovation. | ||
| That's why I will engage with a broad range of voices and stakeholders, big and small, to craft a legislative framework that secures our energy dominance, strengthens our electric grid, and positions America as the global leader in AI. | ||
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Supporting AI Through Rare Earth Minerals
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| For those with ideas on how we can achieve these goals, my door is always open. | ||
| Together, we can power the future of AI and assure that America, not China, leads the way back. | ||
| I need to get my script back. | ||
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Kate. | |
| All right. | ||
| One second here. | ||
| All right, Mr. Speaker, I now yield five minutes to the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Klein. | ||
| Thank the gentlelady for holding this special order and for her leadership on energy issues. | ||
| The House is truly fortunate to have you as a member, and you are exactly right. | ||
| We have as our top priority the need to restore energy independence for this country and energy dominance, especially in regards to our relationship with nations like China that are pushing to lead in AI and other technologies. | ||
| We are dependent on China for rare earth minerals that are so important to powering our grid, powering the technologies that support AI. | ||
| And that's why it's great that the Trump administration is leading on ways in which we can explore not only in the continental United States for rare earth minerals, but also talking to other countries, talking to countries like Greenland, talking to countries like Ukraine, quite frankly, | ||
| making comments about the need to ensure that the U.S. has the rare earth mineral supply that it needs to support the AI initiatives that are happening in this country. | ||
| We need to be the leader in AI globally, if not we cede it to China. | ||
| And we just had a hearing yesterday in the Judiciary Committee about what would happen with the censorship industrial complex if other nations, whether it's Europe and their privacy directive or China and their efforts through AI, to dictate what can and cannot be said on the Internet. | ||
| But when it comes to energy, what's most important is the American consumer, the American citizen. | ||
| And what we have seen over the last several years is that American citizens are suffering under the Green New Deal agenda, the increasing dependence on other countries for our energy needs and the need to restore that energy independence in order to target costs, | ||
| bring down inflation, and actually allow Americans to be able to afford the important technologies and appliances and other things that are critical to daily living. | ||
| According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, since 2021, energy prices under the Biden administration outpaced inflation with consumers, seeing an average rise of 10 percent. | ||
| This is all despite the massive glut of subsidies that the Biden administration pushed to prop up its Green New Deal technologies that otherwise wouldn't exist without government handouts. | ||
| Thankfully, we have a new president, a new sheriff in town, one who will bring online more energy production and ensure that the days of $5 gas prices are left behind along with Biden's failed legacy. | ||
| Moreover, this administration will prioritize affordability and consumer choice and appliances, focusing on cutting burdensome red tape, not on regulating your gas stoves or water heaters at home, which we saw the Biden administration seek to regulate in the waning days of the administration, the outgoing days of this administration. | ||
| Just this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed his first secretarial order, meant to unleash a golden era of American energy dominance. | ||
| So I look forward to working with them and the administration to lend whatever support and authority is needed from Congress to achieve tangible results for the American people. | ||
| Because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about, is making sure that we deliver for the American people and ensure that this great nation continues its energy dominance that we had under the first Trump administration, that we lost under the Biden-failed administration, and that we are seeking to regain under the current Trump administration. | ||
| So I thank the gentlelady for her leadership. | ||
| I look forward to working with her on these issues, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Representative Klein. | ||
| Really appreciate you taking time to participate in the special order this morning or this afternoon, especially on a flyout day when everyone's heading back to their districts to be with their citizens that they represent. | ||
| Energy dominance, energy independence is the foundation for the massive new agenda that we must move forward with in America today. | ||
| It is the foundation for driving down inflation, for lowering costs of everything from housing to utilities to rent to groceries, gas. | ||
| Everything is the cost of power is baked into everything we buy. | ||
| It's the foundation for powering economic growth. | ||
| It is the foundation for becoming AI dominant and is clearly the foundation for national security. | ||
| So I want to thank everyone who participated in this special order this afternoon. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| The gentle lady yields back. | ||
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Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, for 30 minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, a proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid. | ||
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Consequences of Defying Court Orders
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| And I rise, Mr. Speaker, today in the name of liberty and justice for all, in the name of government of the people, by the people, for the people. | ||
| I rise to remind us of the words of Ben Franklin. | ||
| He reminded us that we have a republic if we can keep it. | ||
| So I rise today to warn all of the greatest living threat to our republic. | ||
| I rise to explain how we must deter this threat or we must remove it. | ||
| I rise to explain how the consequences of doing nothing can be harmful to all that we hold dear. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, our greatest living threat is a president who defies court orders. | ||
| Our greatest living threat is a president who defies court orders. | ||
| One can but only imagine what America would be like today if President Eisenhower had defied the order of the court in Brown versus the Board of Education. | ||
| You see, it was Brown versus the Board of Education that desegregated society to the extent that it is, that integrated it to the extent that it is, that probably has given me a means by which I can stand here in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Brown versus the Board of Education was a seminal moment in time. | ||
| It was a moment in time that has changed time from the point of its announcement to this very day. | ||
| Brown versus the Board of Education has made a difference in my life and in the life of many others. | ||
| I'm so grateful that President Eisenhower, who was reluctant, who was not a fan of Brown versus the Board of Education, who really didn't want to deal with the great racial issues of his time. | ||
| But I'm glad he did not defy the court because there are things that he could have done to prevent Brown from being fully realized. | ||
| And quite frankly, it has not been fully realized to this day. | ||
| So a president who defies court orders, the greatest threat to American democracy, the greatest threat to American democracy because that president has the ability, the ability to not only defy court orders, but in so doing, to become the final arbiter of what the law is. | ||
| That president assumes an inordinate amount of power. | ||
| That president will destroy what we know as the three branches of government because that president will no longer recognize the judiciary and what the judiciary has been allowed to do since Marlbury versus Madison. | ||
| That president, Mr. Speaker, will become a person who is not only above the law, that president will become the law if we allow a president to defy court orders. | ||
| So what must we do to prevent this? | ||
| We can prevent a president from defying court orders with impeachment. | ||
| Impeachment in two senses of the word. | ||
| Two senses. | ||
| One, it can act as a deterrent. | ||
| The other is it can act as a means of removal. | ||
| If a president defies a court order, we can remove him, but let's not go there just now. | ||
| Let's talk about deterrence. | ||
| I learned from the last time I engaged in this impeachment process of the value of deterrence, impeachment as a deterrent. | ||
| And here is how it works. | ||
| If a president believes that he will be impeached for defying a court order, because he will in effect become the law of the land, we will no longer be a land of where laws govern, but a land where a man governs or a woman governs, a person governs, and we are a land of laws and we want to remain such. | ||
| So if a president defies a court order, and if he knows this, that we can deter him or we can impeach him, he can opt to take advantage of the warning of deterrence. | ||
| This is what I learned. | ||
| This president or any president can be deterred if the president believes that impeachment is a remedy. | ||
| If the president does not believe that impeachment has a remedy, then he can go on and defy the court's orders. | ||
| But if he believes that impeachment is there and it's a possible remedy, then he will not. | ||
| I say it can be a deterrence. | ||
| I say it can be a deterrence if the president believes, believes that we will impeach, that we will impeach. | ||
| I believe that if a president knows that we will impeach, he may back off, he may back down. | ||
| I believe that this president knows that I will bring articles of impeachment against him. | ||
| He knows that I have no fear of him as many others do. | ||
| I believe he understands that those who fear him will cower. | ||
| They are pusillonymous. | ||
| I am not a pusillonyous politician. | ||
| I will not kneel. | ||
| I will not bend. | ||
| I will not break. | ||
| I will stand for liberty and justice for all. | ||
| So, Mr. President, you know that if you cross the line and if you defy court orders, there is one member of Congress who has pledged to bring articles of impeachment against you. | ||
| Let that deter you, Mr. President. | ||
| Don't go forward, Mr. President. | ||
| Don't believe what the vice president is telling you about defiance of court orders. | ||
| Don't believe those around you who are trying to convince you that you can do this with impunity. | ||
| Mr. President, you have been made immune to some laws, but you're not immune to impeachment. | ||
| Impeachment is the final straw that can break the back of the camel who happens to decide that he is going to continue with his ruthless, reckless orders and defy even the courts of this country. | ||
| No president, no president should ever defy court orders because at that point, that president becomes a dictator. | ||
| We in this country have decided that we have a republic and we want to keep it. | ||
| And if we are going to keep this republic, we must, we must use impeachment as a deterrence, which means that this president has to know that it is there for him and that we will use it against him. | ||
| Impeachment as a deterrence. | ||
| Now, let's move to impeachment as a form of removal. | ||
| If a president defies a court order or court orders, that president has committed an impeachable act. | ||
| It is an impeachable act to defy your oath of office to execute the laws, to honor the laws of the United States, to protect the Constitution. | ||
| You are charged with the responsibility of defending the Constitution. | ||
| If you do this, Mr. President, you will now have committed an impeachable act. | ||
| And the question is not whether you will be impeached by way of a resolution being presented, not whether a resolution will be presented, because you know that I'm going to present that resolution. | ||
| I'm telling you now that I will present the resolution. | ||
| You defy court orders, and I will present resolutions to impeach you. | ||
| I will present the resolution. | ||
| Now the question is, will the Congress act? | ||
| What will the Congress do? | ||
| I believe that even some of the most conservative members of Congress will recognize that we don't want a dictatorship, that if we don't act, we will have a dictatorship. | ||
| The consequences of our inaction, the consequences of our failure to impeach and convict, would be a dictatorship. | ||
| I don't believe that the Congress of the United States of America, I don't believe that the Senate of the United States of America will stand by and watch a dictatorship develop while they are in office. | ||
| This is our watch. | ||
| I don't believe that on our watch we have such persons who are going to simply stand by. | ||
| There may be some, but I believe there will be enough to impeach, and I believe there will be enough to convict because no one in this country, I believe, wants a dictatorship. | ||
| If there are some who want it, you don't know what you're asking for. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this is an alarm. | ||
| I am warning our country. | ||
| I want you to know that we are this close to a dictatorship because we have a president who is seriously considering, it seems, disobeying court orders. | ||
| That's the line. | ||
| That is the line in the dirt. | ||
| That's the Rubicon. | ||
| If you cross this line in the dirt, you will have moved into the area of impeachment. | ||
| And I assure you, articles of impeachment will be brought against you. | ||
| Mr. President, you are a goliath. | ||
| You have been made to be above the law in certain cases. | ||
| You're a goliath. | ||
| There is nothing on the planet like you, it seems, because you happen to be armed with the nuclear weapons that are capable of changing life on earth as we know it or obliterating all life on earth. | ||
| You're armed with the mightiest army. | ||
| You are armed, Mr. President. | ||
| And you're dangerous if you decide you're going to move forward and deny court orders. | ||
| You are a Goliath. | ||
| But I'll let you know now, Mr. President, that there are Davids among us. | ||
| There are Davids, Mr. President. | ||
| There are 435 Davids. | ||
| The question is, will these Davids use their slings to bring you down with impeachment? | ||
| That's the only question. | ||
| I believe the Davids among us will do this. | ||
| I believe that there are a majority on a given day when impeachment is brought who will vote to impeach. | ||
| These are the Davids that will save this country. | ||
| They will preserve the Republic. | ||
| They will continue to have the justice that we understand we should have through the courts. | ||
| They are the persons who are on watch. | ||
| Then they understand that this is their watch, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And I would pray that the president would not move forward. | ||
| I would pray that he would back down from his notion of defying court orders. | ||
| But I also know that if he does, the Davids of the Congress of the United States of America will bring him down. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I am one of those Davids. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
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unidentified
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Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president and to direct their remarks to the chair and not to the perceived viewing audience. | |
| Pursuant to clause 13 of Rule 1, the House stands adjourned until 1:30 p.m. tomorrow. | ||
| Today, the House approved legislation that imposes new federal penalties on those who evade U.S. Border Patrol agents in car chases within 100 miles of the border. | ||
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Next Week on C-SPAN
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Migrants who are convicted or admit to the crime could also be deported from the U.S. | |
| The measure is named in honor of a Border Patrol agent, Raul Gonzalez Jr., who was killed three years ago while in pursuit of a group of migrants in Texas. | ||
| The lower chamber is scheduled to be out next week for the President's Day holiday and a district work period. | ||
| Watch live coverage of the House when members return here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Starting next week, watch C-SPAN's new Members of Congress series, where we speak with both Republicans and Democrats about their early lives, previous careers, families, and why they decided to run for office. | ||
| On Monday at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, our interviews include Democratic Congresswoman Janelle Bynum, the first African-American ever elected to Congress from Oregon. | ||
| My mother graduated in 1970 from one of the last segregated high schools in the state, in the country, rather, in South Carolina. | ||