| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Praying For Government Openness
00:15:07
|
||
| And Congresswoman, real quick, I mean the government runs out of money March 14th. | ||
| What's the Democratic strategy for that? | ||
| Well, you know, beware of the eyes of March. | ||
| You know, and, you know, people don't want to hear it. | ||
| That, you know, that the voters, I mean, 85 million people who were eligible to vote didn't even bother to vote. | ||
| But that being said, very narrowly, the Senate, the House, and the Presidency went to Republicans. | ||
| And so I am praying that they have the power to keep the government open. | ||
| They're in the majority. | ||
| All they have to do is vote to keep the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Representative Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin. | ||
| Thanks so much for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And we'll take you right over to the House of Representatives gaveling in right now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Speaker. | |
| The Speaker's Rooms, Washington, D.C., February 27th, 2025. | ||
| I hereby appoint the Honorable Tom McClintock to act as Speaker Pre Tempore on this day. | ||
| Signed, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
| The prayer today will be offered by Chaplain Kibben. | ||
| Would you pray with me? | ||
| Be thou our vision, O Lord of our hearts. | ||
| Illumine our paths. | ||
| Guide us to see what you would have us see. | ||
| And enable us to live this day as you would have us do. | ||
| In your light do we see the light of hope and peace. | ||
| Heal our eyes, for when they are healthy, they reflect your light. | ||
| But in these times when darkness overcomes our souls, how much greater that darkness is when your light does not shine forth through them? | ||
| Yours is the light that shines in our darkness. | ||
| Nothing else matters. | ||
| Naught is all else to us except your companionship leading us on your path of righteousness. | ||
| Show forth your presence in our lives and on our journey of faith. | ||
| For your presence is our light. | ||
| In work, in play, in waking or sleeping. | ||
| On this day, be our best thought in all the things that invade our minds and our only consideration when night fails to put our worries at rest. | ||
| In the certainty that you abide with us in the darkness and in the light, may we find the joy you desire for us to experience in you this day. | ||
| God, our light, we offer our prayers in your loving name. | ||
| 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 Ohio, Mr. Kerry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | |
| The chair will entertain up to five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. | ||
| Mr. Gentleman from Ohio. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimously consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remote work. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Almost four years ago, a determined handful of friends decided that we could help change the world. | |
| One would be the candidate, the other the wise problem solver. | ||
| And the other, he would bring clarity to the new form of campaigning, new forms of campaigning. | ||
| But through it all, we all agreed that one man would keep us together and make sure that we could one day be here in the nation's capital. | ||
| And that was our campaign manager, Blaine Kelly. | ||
| After we won, Blaine took on the monumental task of being the communications director for someone who had never served in elected office. | ||
| He quickly showed how we could inform our constituents, Ohio's 15th congressional district, of the work that we were doing on their behalf. | ||
| Shortly thereafter, Blaine took on the most important role for any member who prides themselves on being in touch with all of the issues back home, the role of district director. | ||
| So, after working in and around each other for nearly a decade and every day for the last four years, Blaine will now move to a new position. | ||
| I wish him and Molly and their three children all the best. | ||
| To Blaine, you have given me that singular honor of being able to call you my friend. | ||
| And I hope that that friendship will last for many years. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| Gentlemen, time has expired. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address House Reform. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the extraordinary Oxford community and one of its most outstanding leaders, Mr. Xavier Roertham. | ||
| I had the honor of spending a day in Oxford engaging with local nonprofits, educators, clergy, elected officials, and residents. | ||
| We also visited the Masonics Children's Home and held a listening session. | ||
| Among the many remarkable people we met, Mr. Wortham's impact stands out. | ||
| For 40 years, he has served as executive director of the Oxford Public Housing Authority, providing families with crucial education, job training, and opportunities like college tours at Duke University. | ||
| Mr. Wortham's tireless commitment and love for those he serves and the community is indeed a beacon of hope. | ||
| He embodies what makes Oxford and the first congressional district exceptional. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Wortham, for your example and unwavering dedication and passion. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute as you revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Southwest Virginia is Congressman Morgan Griffith's district, has been hit hard by storms over and over again and again in the past few months, including Hurricane Helene. | |
| I visited Damascus in October where I cooked and served food for first responders with my team for the victims of Hurricane Helene. | ||
| My thoughts and prayers have been with Southwest since then and certainly remain today as they deal with the consequences of continued flooding. | ||
| I rise today to recognize and commend the nine members of the Lynchburg Fire Department's urban search and rescue team who recently deployed to Southwest Virginia in anticipation of further flooding. | ||
| The Lynchburg Search and Rescue Team represents what it means to be a proud Virginian. | ||
| No matter where you are in the Commonwealth, when you're in need, a fellow Virginian gives you a hand. | ||
| Our first responders are critical to our safety, not just in disaster, but every day. | ||
| To all of those on the front lines, thank you. | ||
| Make God and your training keep you safe. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields 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 and remind and attend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Black History Month, I rise to recognize Joanne Williams, a dedicated leader in Illinois' 4th Congressional District and a pillar of the Leclerc Hearst community on Chicago Southwest Side. | ||
| Joanne is a U.S. Army disabled veteran who has dedicated her life to service, both in uniform and in her neighborhood. | ||
| She has spent decades being a driving force of opportunity, making sure to uplift her community and ensure that other veterans receive the respect that they serve. | ||
| As the founder of the Hearst Community Organization, she's fought for jobs and public spaces and to secure critical resources to help people live better lives. | ||
| Her dedication reflects the resilience we honor this month. | ||
| Joanne, your unwavering service has left a lasting impact and has touched countless families. | ||
| Thank you for your sacrifice to our country and your service to community. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from Texas seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the Council women and to advise that send my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today for dreamers, young people brought to this country as children through no fault of their own. | ||
| They grew up in our schools, played with our children, pledged allegiance to our flag, and have made our country every single day strengthen in every way. | ||
| They are doctors, teachers, lawyers, essential workers, and business owners. | ||
| They pay taxes and they keep the American dream alive. | ||
| But they still live in a life of limbo. | ||
| Imagine building a life here, only to be told to leave for a country you don't even remember, much less sometimes even speak the language. | ||
| Even the President agrees that it's not fair. | ||
| Congress must act. | ||
| More than 70% of Americans agree DREAMers deserve citizenship. | ||
| That's why yesterday I reintroduced the bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act to give DREAMers the security they deserve and a real path to citizenship. | ||
| Over 200 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle joined me in doing that. | ||
| And also over 100 organizations from across America representing all sectors of our economy. | ||
| And our message is clear to DREAMers. | ||
| Your home is here. | ||
| We will fight for you. | ||
| Si se puede. | ||
| Thank you and I yield back. | ||
| The gentlelady's time has expired. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today because just two days ago, my Republican colleagues jammed through a budget plan that puts the point 1% above hardworking Americans. | ||
| The Republican budget would give $4.5 trillion to CEOs and big corporations. | ||
| And just who pays for the tax cut? | ||
| American families just trying to make ends meet. | ||
| The Republican cuts $880 billion from Medicaid at least. | ||
| It doesn't matter whether someone's a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, or a non-voter. | ||
| Americans across the country will either lose health care or see their premiums increase. | ||
| And all the federal workers that Lon Muss and Dodge Doge decided to fire for no justifiable reason will lose their health care also. | ||
| Republicans represent millions and millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid and CHIP, and none of them, not a single one, voted with these constituents in mind. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the Republican budget calls for a trillion dollars in Medicaid cuts to pay for tax breaks for the very wealthy. | ||
| 83% of the tax breaks go to 1% of Americans. | ||
| And what do these Medicaid cuts mean? | ||
| It means the closure of hospitals and seniors denied coverage in long-term care. | ||
| Now, Elon Musk talks about reducing deficits, but this bill would add $2.8 trillion to the deficit, taking it to $24.9 trillion. | ||
| Here's what's going on in the Republican family. | ||
| While Musk and Doge scrounge around for change under the couch, Speaker Johnson is running the credit card, bankrupting our nation. | ||
| They're taking away your Medicaid to line the pockets of the wealthiest Americans who are controlling our government. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Lattice, seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 161, I call up House Bill H.J. Res. 20 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the joint resolution. | ||
| House Joint Resolution 20. | ||
| Joint resolution provided for congressional disapproval under Chapter 8 of Title V, United States Code, of the rules submitted by the Department of Energy relating to Energy Conservation Program, Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-Fired Instantaneous Water Heaters. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 161, the joint resolution is considered read. | ||
| The joint resolution shall be debatable for one hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce for their respective designees. | ||
| The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Latta, and the gentleman from New York, pardon me, New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, will each control 30 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Latta. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend the remarks on the legislation and to insert extraneous material on HJ Res20. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I give myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| On December 26th, while American families are enjoying the holidays, the Biden administration's DOE issued a final rule once again setting cost-prohibitive energy conservation standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters. | ||
|
Amending Energy Efficiency Standards
00:15:32
|
||
| Today, the House will consider the gentleman from Alabama's sixth district's legislation's HJ-RES-20 to overturn this egregious standard. | ||
| Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, EPCA, in order to promulgate a new or amended energy efficiency standard, the DOE must find that the standard be cost-effective, technologically feasible, and result in a significant conservation of energy. | ||
| This amended standard does not meet that criteria and should be repealed. | ||
| In this final rule, the DOE fails to adequately estimate the cost difference between condensing and non-condensing water heaters. | ||
| This difference will result in a significant cost increase for consumers, especially low-income households and seniors, by removing more affordable options from the market. | ||
| In fact, the DOE itself estimated the amended standard would increase the cost of a new water heater models by $231. | ||
| However, the DOE failed to adequately estimate the cost of difference between condensing and non-condensing models in this assessment. | ||
| On top of expensive installation costs, industry stakeholders estimate the actual cost increase for American consumers will range between $450 to $665 per unit. | ||
| This staggering increase is not cost-effective, as stipulated by EPCA, and is unattainable for many families. | ||
| The Biden-Harris administration consistently ignored this stipulation in a number of rulemakings, and the gas heater rule is no different. | ||
| This amended standard will ban approximately 40 percent of tankless gas water heaters currently available, forcing consumers to purchase significantly more expensive or less efficient models. | ||
| Not only do bans on gas appliances infringe on consumer choice, but it also increases strains on our nation's grid, which cannot sustain such massive and rapid amounts of forced electrification without new baseload generation coming online. | ||
| President Trump, understanding the serious concerns of the unjustified energy efficiency standards posed for consumers, issued an executive order on day one to unleash American energy. | ||
| This EO stated that it is the policy of the United States to safeguard the American people's freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances. | ||
| Additionally, this administration has paused implementation of this final rule and issued a statement of administrative policy supporting HJ Res 20. | ||
| Congress should pass HJ Res 20 to right the wrongs of the previous administration, execute President Trump's agenda, and protect our consumers. | ||
| I thank the gentleman from Alabama's 6th District for this leadership, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman Reserves, the gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| I rise in strong opposition to HJ Res 20, the second Republican resolution in just two days that will raise energy prices on Americans. | ||
| And this harmful resolution guts a Department of Energy Efficiency rule on gas instantaneous or tankless water heaters. | ||
| Energy efficiency standards, like the one Republicans are going after today, are a popular commons money on their energy bills. | ||
| President Trump ran on a promise to cut energy costs in half in his first year. | ||
| But now Republicans and their billionaire friends are only making themselves richer while sending American utility bills through the roof. | ||
| Unfortunately, I guess it should not come as a surprise considering that earlier this week, Republicans moved forward with a budget that includes devastating cuts to Medicaid and food assistance for our kids, our seniors, our veterans. | ||
| Also, Republicans can give tax breaks to their millionaire buddies. | ||
| Let me start off by dispelling a few myths about the water heater standards targeted by this resolution. | ||
| First, these standards do not ban gas water heaters. | ||
| Regardless of what the right-wing media and fossil fuel groups say, DOE cannot ban appliances based on their fuel type. | ||
| Second, these standards do not remove consumer choice. | ||
| American families can still walk into a store, pick out a gas tankless water heater, and have it installed in their homes. | ||
| In fact, these standards preserve consumer choice. | ||
| They ensure that all products on the market meet a certain level of energy efficiency so consumers can shop with confidence. | ||
| The standards impact less than 10 percent of the gas water heater market. | ||
| And right now, 60 percent of all models on the market already meet these standards. | ||
| This isn't an effort to pull products from shelves. | ||
| Instead, it's an effort to raise the quality of the products on the shelves. | ||
| That's what we're trying to do with the standards. | ||
| And third, and most importantly, these standards do not increase costs for consumers. | ||
| They reduce total costs over the life of a water heater and save $3.1 billion. | ||
| I'll repeat that: $3.1 billion for consumers over 30 years. | ||
| They're also projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 million metric tons over 30 years. | ||
| So, to summarize, these standards allow gas tankless water heaters to stay on the market. | ||
| They preserve consumer choice and they lower costs for Americans and they reduce emissions. | ||
| So, it's no wonder that these efficiency standards are supported by consumer advocates and American manufacturers. | ||
| I stress, American manufacturers of these products support the standards. | ||
| They want to preserve the standards. | ||
| The Republican resolution before us today completely nullifies these energy efficiency standards. | ||
| It steals essentially $3.1 billion in savings from Americans. | ||
| And because it's a Congressional Review Act resolution, it goes one step further and prevents DOE from issuing substantially similar standards in the future. | ||
| Now, why are Republicans pursuing something that's bad for consumers? | ||
| Because it's good for the gas industry. | ||
| The American Gas Association and foreign manufacturers are on the side of this Republican resolution that will terminate the standards. | ||
| And why? | ||
| Because inefficiency or inefficient appliances mean that gas companies sell more gas. | ||
| Now, if you look at where the manufacturers stand on this, three out of four major water heater manufacturers are in favor of the standards and are opposed to this resolution. | ||
| All three of the manufacturers that support the efficiency standards are American manufacturers, and they have factories in many Republican districts across the country. | ||
| Foreign manufacturers, however, are lobbying against these standards because they don't want to spend a comparatively small amount of money to retool their factories to produce more efficient water heaters. | ||
| And I understand that companies are reluctant to spend money, but what I don't understand is why Republicans are willing to rob Americans of $3.1 billion in savings, all to help multi-billion-dollar foreign companies save a few million dollars. | ||
| Look, Republicans have made their choice. | ||
| They have basically sided, and it's not, I guess, that surprising, with their oil and gas friends, and they have sided also, in this case, with foreign manufacturers. | ||
| So, for the sake of American families, American manufacturers, and our climate, I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time as this. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield two minutes from the gentleman from Texas, the Vice Chair of the Energy and Commerce's Energy Subcommittee. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Speaker. | ||
| McClintock, it's interesting to hear the made-up stories on the other side of the aisle, the once-upon-a-time stories, if you will. | ||
| Nonetheless, in the 11th hour, Joe Biden, or maybe more accurately, his handlers, pushed through yet another overreaching regulation that forces the federal government into Americans' homes, dictating what appliance Americans can use or cannot use. | ||
| Newsflash, this is America. | ||
| The government has absolutely no business making these decisions for hardworking families. | ||
| Consumers, not Washington bureaucrats, should decide what works best for their homes and for their families. | ||
| Yet, thanks to Biden's mandate on his way out the door, I might add, American families are now looking at a whopping $235 million in additional cost every single year. | ||
| That's real money coming out of real pockets of real Americans, all to appease the radical Green New Deal agenda. | ||
| Today, that ends. | ||
| House Republicans are taking action to stop this federal overreach. | ||
| HJ Res 20, introduced by my colleague Gary Palmer, sends a clear message. | ||
| We reject the Biden's administration radical energy mandates. | ||
| This resolution expresses congressional disapproval of the Department of Energy's rule that effectively bans certain natural gas water heaters, which burdens families with higher costs while stripping them of consumer choice. | ||
| House Republicans will continue to fight to protect American families from Washington's overregulation and ensure that those same hardworking Americans, not government bureaucrats, decide what appliances belongs in their homes. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support HJ Res 20 and stand for consumer choice, affordability, and freedom. | ||
| And I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Gentleman from Ohio Reserves, gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, at this time, I'd like to yield such time as she may consume to Ms. Castor from Florida, who is the ranking member of our energy subcommittee. | ||
| Gentleladies recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the ranking member for yielding the time. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, here we are at the end of February, two months into the new congressional session, and House Republicans haven't offered one bill to lower the cost of living for our neighbors back home. | ||
| Instead, they bring this silly bill to the floor, a bill to force working families to spend more money, to use more energy, and to sell out American manufacturers. | ||
| Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have stood idly by while there has been an illegal shutdown of grants and loans to our local communities and nonprofits that help people save money and help families. | ||
| Plus, House Republicans didn't raise any concern when the new president illegally fired inspectors general and prosecutors that are charged with rooting out waste fraud and abuse, and that includes in the Department of Energy. | ||
| And it gets worse because Republicans now are barreling toward a massive tax giveaway to billionaires paid for on the backs of American families, children, our neighbors with disabilities, our older neighbors and grandparents in nursing homes. | ||
| This is not business as usual. | ||
| And I know the Republicans bring a bill here and they say, okay, this is just like we've always done. | ||
| This is not business as usual. | ||
| Where is the House Republicans' outrage that everything they've worked on, congressionally mandated through appropriations, is just illegally frozen? | ||
| It's not business as usual. | ||
| And this resolution is the latest of a whole lot of nonsense. | ||
| It's hard to explain except when you realize that oil and gas companies often have their way here in Washington, D.C. We've wasted hours and hours over the past couple years trying to demonize energy-efficient appliances. | ||
| These kind of appliances are popular. | ||
| And there's been a law in place for decades that say every few years you update these appliance standards. | ||
| Manufacturers work on it. | ||
| Advocates work on it. | ||
| And they come together and update it. | ||
| This actual residential water heater standard hasn't been updated since 2010. | ||
| Here we are in 2025. | ||
| And the standard we're discussing today affects less than 10% of all water heater sales. | ||
| And most, you know, over 100 of these models already meet this standard. | ||
| Meanwhile, if you want to talk about cost savings, it was Democrats that put in place tax credits and rebates to help everyday Americans lower the cost of their energy bill on appliances. | ||
| But this is one of the reasons we're so angry. | ||
| Part of the illegal freeze on government initiatives also impacts the monies that should be going into the pockets of our neighbors back home. | ||
| This includes the house, the home energy rebates. | ||
| Those are the rebates that help consumers save money on select home improvement projects that can lower energy bills by providing up to $14,000 a year for homeowners as they update their homes. | ||
| And you better believe this is important to my neighbors in Florida recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. | ||
| They would love to be able to get these funds to help them repair their homes. | ||
| Right now, frozen in Florida, $346 million that could be helping everyday Floridians recover from the storms as they repair their homes. | ||
| And that's not the only one. | ||
| Weatherization assistance, very smart, has often been bipartisan in the past. | ||
| Elon Musk and this new administration have frozen it. | ||
| They've frozen billions of dollars that go to working class households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. | ||
| In Florida alone, $94 million that should be flowing to my neighbors to help them weatherize their homes and save money. | ||
| It's frozen. | ||
| So what Republicans are doing by freezing this, by trying to roll back energy appliance standards, is contribute to the rising cost of energy for families and businesses. | ||
| It's a dereliction duty. | ||
| They're turning a blind eye to your pocketbook and Democrats are going to fight for your pocketbook. | ||
| Meanwhile, an unelected billionaire who has made his vast fortune on government contracts should not be able to unilaterally stop and take money out of the pockets of American families, of the Americans who need it most. | ||
| And here's the warning, because this major tax giveaway that House Republicans are hammering out says to our committee find $880 billion. | ||
|
Supporting Blue-Collar Workers
00:15:35
|
||
| And Republicans say, oh, okay, maybe there's enough waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| Even though they've taken the inspectors general off the playing field to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, there is no way that you can say improper payments total up to $880 billion. | ||
| So don't gaslight us and Americans if you are concerned about a major tax giveaway so that billionaires can have more of your money and you're going to have less health care for your grandparents, your children. | ||
| It's not right and we're not going to stand for it. | ||
| Who really benefits here on this gas on tankless water heaters? | ||
| Let's pull the curtain back. | ||
| Big corporate housing developers who as they build homes often install a slightly cheaper, less efficient model and they pass on the cost of higher energy bills to that new homeowner for the next 20 years. | ||
| Foreign manufacturers are going to benefit here, not the American manufacturers who have participated in these energy efficiency standards. | ||
| It's the foreign manufacturers who will get to sell their inferior, less efficient appliances and take away sales from U.S. manufacturers. | ||
| And it's the American Gas Association who will get to sell more polluting fossil gas to power inefficient appliances and pass the cost on to working families. | ||
| So once you take a closer look, you'll see this resolution really doesn't hold water. | ||
| It does nothing to lower costs. for working families. | ||
| It does nothing to support American companies. | ||
| And it does nothing to address the real challenges facing our families back home. | ||
| It's a warning. | ||
| It's a warning shot across the bow that this is not business as usual. | ||
| It's a hold on to your wallet moment because the unelected billionaires who are calling the shots, who are reaching into your wallet, who are going to take away health care, they want to rule the day. | ||
| And I'm going to tell you, House Democrats are not going to stand for it. | ||
| We're going to continue to hold Republicans accountable. | ||
| We're going to hold this administration accountable. | ||
| We're going to hold on. | ||
| We're going to fight for your wallet and your pocketbooks. | ||
| And we're going to make sure that this kind of ridiculous stuff, you're not going to be able to say this is business as usual here in the House of Representatives. | ||
| It's not. | ||
| We believe in checks and balances. | ||
| We believe in the hardworking Americans. | ||
| We do not countenance unfairness and trying to steal from our kids, loading them up with massive debt and saying that their health doesn't matter in this country. | ||
| It does. | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote no on this resolution. | ||
| It's not business as usual, and people need to know it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman from New Jersey Reserves, the gentleman from Ohio is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| At this time, I yield three minutes to the sponsor of the resolution, the gentleman from Alabama's 6th District. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen, Mr. Speaker, it's amazing to me to listen to my Democratic colleagues talk about the cost of living going up. | |
| I mean, the first week of the Biden administration, they shut down Keystone XL pipeline. | ||
| They implemented energy policies that immediately caused energy costs to go up, causing massive suffering, massive inflation. | ||
| Inflation hit 9%. | ||
| And it's amazing to me that they come in here and make these statements, and the American people figured it out. | ||
| That's why they're in the minority, because the American people were tired of being told what to do, what they could buy, what they could wear, what they could use. | ||
| And here we are, and you're hearing the same cold rhetoric that leads to cold homes and cold water. | ||
| That's why I introduced this resolution, because we're determined to restore a quality of life in this country that we enjoyed before the Democratic Party took over the White House and the House and Senate. | ||
| We believe that we can help the American people be able to afford their groceries, afford an automobile, afford education, and that's why we're doing what we're doing. | ||
| And I rise today in support of House Joint Resolution 20, the Congressional Review Act, is in response to the Biden-Harris administration's last-minute overreaching attempt to ban natural gas water heaters. | ||
| If this rule is not stopped, a substantial number of Americans would be forced to purchase more expensive and less efficient models of water heaters. | ||
| In fact, 40% of consumers directly impacted by this rule would face a cost increase, and I mean a significant cost increase, and particularly hard on senior citizens and low-income families. | ||
| Additionally, this rule's mandate of fuel switching would set a dangerous precedent for natural gas appliances. | ||
| We know they've already tried to ban natural gas stovetops. | ||
| This will allow future Democratic administrations to restart their party's regulatory attack on our home appliances. | ||
| I know when the government steps in to pick winners and losers, there are manufacturers of competing products that would profit. | ||
| It's amazing to me that they talk about a United States-based company. | ||
| This company is based in Georgia, and you claim that it's foreign manufacturing. | ||
| What do you say about Toyota and Honda and Mercedes, Kia, and the other foreign-owned companies that are based in this country creating American jobs, providing incomes for American families? | ||
| We should let consumers decide what products succeed in the marketplace, not a bureaucrat implementing a regulation pushed out in the final hours of the Biden-Harris presidency. | ||
| Earlier this week, the Trump administration issued a statement of administration policy agreeing that this egregious rule implemented by the previous administration must be repealed. | ||
| The Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, even mentioned how absurd this rule is while making a speech last week. | ||
| In conclusion, House Joint Resolution 20 is essential to prioritizing consumer choice, protecting natural gas appliances, keeping prices affordable, and undoing the damage inflicted on the American people by the Biden-Harris administration for the past four years. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote yes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman from Ohio Reserves. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we reserve the balance of our time. | ||
| Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I will yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I listened to my colleague from Alabama, who I greatly respect, but when he talks about prices, I mean, you know, since President Trump was inaugurated, prices are going through the roof. | ||
| Grocery prices, egg prices, meat prices, fish prices, poultry prices, all are up even more than ever. | ||
| Electricity costs are way up. | ||
| Housing prices. | ||
| And, you know, he mentions American jobs, but as I mentioned earlier, I think it needs to be reiterated that American manufacturers support these water heater standards. | ||
| Three out of four major water heater manufacturers are against today's resolution, and all three are American companies. | ||
| The manufacturers that are in favor of this resolution and against the standards are foreign manufacturers. | ||
| So if this resolution is successful, Republicans are giving foreign manufacturers an advantage over domestic manufacturers. | ||
| And why are foreign manufacturers against the standards? | ||
| Because they don't want to spend a bit of money on retrofits to their factories to switch their production over to products that meet the standards. | ||
| So Republicans have decided that it's more important to save foreign manufacturers some money than it is to save $3.1 billion for American families. | ||
| They've decided to listen to the lobbying efforts of foreign companies over domestic companies, many of whom have factories in Republican districts. | ||
| It just doesn't make any sense to me. | ||
| The Trump administration is all about America first. | ||
| But when it comes down to it, the words are meaningless. | ||
| Republicans aren't here to stand up for American families and American companies. | ||
| It's very much the opposite. | ||
| They're here to attack regulations and help out their big oil and gas friends. | ||
| So again, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with American companies and families and to vote against this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| I'm sorry, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I didn't see the switch. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, that's quite all right. | |
| The gentleman from New Jersey Reserves, the gentleman from Ohio, is recognized. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I yield four minutes to the gentleman from Georgia's 3rd District. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Georgia is recognized. | |
| Madam Speaker, I commend the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Palmer, for his leadership on this resolution. | ||
| And I rise today in strong support of HJ Res 20, a resolution authorized by the Congressional Review Act that will enable our Congress to repeal a job-killing regulation that would ban and eliminate non-condensing tankless water heaters and American product made by blue-collar American workers in the heart of my congressional district in Georgia. | ||
| This regulation was imposed on December 26, 2024, the midnight hour of the Biden administration and the day after Christmas, putting in peril the livelihoods of hundreds of my constituents during the holiday season. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I should also note the timing of this regulation was seven weeks after Americans overwhelmingly rejected the Biden-Harris regulatory regime. | ||
| To my colleagues who support the free market, this job-killing regulation eliminates consumer choice by effectively enabling nameless and faceless bureaucrats to choose which companies may operate and which companies may not operate in the marketplace for household appliances. | ||
| Ultimately, under this regulation, the American consumer would suffer, and in my congressional district, hundreds of hardworking Georgians would be without a job. | ||
| And that is why I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this critical legislation. | ||
| To put everything that we've heard today into perspective, non-condensing tankless water heaters account for 40% of our country's tankless water heater market. | ||
| A majority of those water heaters are manufactured in my congressional district in the heart of Georgia by an incredible company called Renai America Corporation. | ||
| These appliances are the most advanced and efficient non-condensing tankless water heaters on the market. | ||
| And perhaps most importantly, which I would encourage the other side to research, Renai America is the only company that builds non-condensing tankless water heaters on American soil. | ||
| Renai America is headquartered in my hometown of Peachtree City, Georgia, and three years ago it opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Griffin, Georgia, two cities I proudly represent in this Congress. | ||
| Over 500 of my constituents are working to manufacture and market these water heaters the Biden administration attempted to outlaw. | ||
| The job-killing regulation we seek to repeal today is another painful example of the radical left's never-ending war on hydrocarbons and American energy production. | ||
| And the sinister purpose of this regulation was to try to single out and eliminate an American manufacturer of water heaters to benefit their competitors. | ||
| Madam Speaker, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have spent an enormous amount of time the past few weeks arguing that they are the party of blue-collar American workers. | ||
| Well, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I encourage my Democrat colleagues to join me in support of this resolution to protect and champion hundreds of blue-collar American jobs in the heart of our country. | ||
| And to my Republican colleagues, let's join together as a team and end this war in American energy production now. | ||
| As the distinguished gentleman from Alabama noted, President Trump's White House has explicitly endorsed this resolution, and I urge all of my Republican colleagues to join us and vote for this critical legislation to empower consumer choice, champion American manufacturing, and save blue-collar jobs in the heart of our country. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Georgia yields. | |
| The gentleman from Ohio. | ||
| The gentleman from Ohio Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I just yield myself such time as they may consume. | ||
| I respect the gentleman from Georgia for looking out for his district, but this plant that he's talking about in his district, this is the one, this is the Japanese company. | ||
| This is the one non-American manufacturing company. | ||
| All the other companies that manufacture these products are American, and they're the ones that support these energy efficiencies because they've made the investments and created more jobs when they retrofitted their companies for this product. | ||
| Now, this company is a multi-billion dollar Japanese company in Georgia. | ||
| It's estimated it would cost them about $10 million to retrofit their plants so that they could produce more efficient tanks. | ||
| And they don't want to do it, right? | ||
| They don't want to make that investment, which would create more jobs. | ||
| So, again, I understand where my friend from Georgia is coming from, but we have to look at this as the total picture. | ||
| Most of these tanks are manufactured in the United States by American companies, and they are in a lot of the red states, Tennessee, for example. | ||
| And they're saying this is fine. | ||
| We want the more efficient standards. | ||
| We want to save Americans money. | ||
| We are the good actors, not the bad actors. | ||
| And if I could, I'd like to yield now to a member of our committee, the gentlewoman from Virginia, Ms. McClellan, for how much time would you like? | ||
| Three minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the gentleman from New Jersey for the time. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to HJ Res 20, which will undo a common sense energy conservation standard and raise costs for consumers, all to benefit the gas industry. | ||
| My friends on the other side of the aisle talk a lot about how we need to lower costs. | ||
| We need to lower costs. | ||
| We need to lower costs. | ||
| The best way, the fastest way, the most efficient way to lower energy costs, to lower utility bill costs that every American pays is to reduce energy demand. | ||
| We've seen that time and time again. | ||
| And this standard is a way to help lower energy demand needed for water heaters. | ||
|
Yays and Nays Rise
00:11:37
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||
| Energy efficiency standards are popular, and it's a common sense tool and again the fastest way to save taxpayers and American people money on their energy bills. | ||
| This resolution targets these standards, not realizing that these standards will save consumers $3.1 billion. | ||
| And they're good for the environment because they cut 32 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 30 years. | ||
| As you heard, all major manufacturers already sell models that meet these standards, which is why they widely support the standards. | ||
| Consumer groups widely support the standards. | ||
| Efficiency advocates widely support the standards. | ||
| Consumers widely support the standards. | ||
| And again, the only manufacturers that oppose them are the foreign manufacturers and industry CEOs who make more money when water heaters are less efficient and use more gas. | ||
| So I urge my colleagues to reject this resolution and live up to the promise of lowering costs for the American people by lowering their energy bills. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He yields back the gentleman from New Jersey. | |
| Do you reserve the gentleman from Ohio recognized? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we have no other speakers. | ||
| I'm not sure if the ranking member is prepared to close. | ||
| You're prepared to close? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Ohio Reserves, the gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| I just want to call out some of the problems that I see on the Republican side in terms of their arguments, which we've heard this morning. | ||
| Over the last two years, Republicans have claimed that they care about energy costs. | ||
| And on the campaign trail, they repeatedly promised to lower cost and lower inflation. | ||
| But again, none of their actions line up with their promises. | ||
| And if you're paying attention to energy load growth in this country, you know that in addition to increasing generation, we have to incorporate ways of reducing energy demand. | ||
| And energy conservation standards are one of the tools that help lower costs and help reduce demand. | ||
| Now, the previous administration's efficiency standards are estimated to save consumers $1 trillion over 30 years. | ||
| That's $1 trillion. | ||
| The water heater standards alone will save, as I said, $3.1 billion. | ||
| And that is if Republicans don't kill the standards right here today, which is what they're doing. | ||
| Because Republicans don't want Americans to realize those savings. | ||
| They want Americans to be stuck with older energy-guzzling appliances that cost more money every time you turn them on. | ||
| And I think that's ridiculous, and so should everyone else in this chamber. | ||
| Republicans claim they're concerned about the higher upfront costs of these appliances. | ||
| But two and a half years ago, when we voted on the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained $9 billion in rebates and other investments in lowering the cost of energy efficiency appliances, Republicans all voted no. | ||
| So let's review. | ||
| They don't want to make positive economic investments because they're concerned about the upfront costs. | ||
| But then they also refuse to take action to lower those costs. | ||
| If we brought the mentality to the private sector, you'd be fired in a heartbeat. | ||
| But that's the orthodoxy in today's Trump-Musk Republican Party. | ||
| Lowering energy costs for consumers via efficiency gains used to be a bipartisan issue. | ||
| We made real progress on this in 1992 and again in 2005. | ||
| But somewhere along the way, Republicans decided to become the party of higher energy costs rather than the ones fighting for the American homeowner. | ||
| And that's a real shame. | ||
| And for that reason, I urge and more, I urge my colleagues to vote no on this resolution and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from New Jersey Yields, the gentleman from Ohio is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself as much time as I may consume and close. | ||
| You know, we've heard from various speakers today, but I think it's really important to point out once again, because of the Biden-Harris administration gas rule on the gas heater rule, we're going to ban approximately 40 percent of the tankless gas water heaters currently available, forcing consumers to have to pay more and get less efficient models. | ||
| This doesn't make sense. | ||
| And not only are we going to be, does this rule go on to ban these gas appliances infringement on consumer choice, but it also increases strains on the nation's grid, which cannot sustain such massive and rapid amounts of forced electrification without new baseload generation coming online. | ||
| It's also, you know, when we talk about this loss of consumer choice, but the DOE underestimated the cost by $231, because, you know, when you look at the actual costs out there from the industry stakeholders are estimating, it's going to bring the cost up between $450 to $665 per unit. | ||
| I think it's also important to note this. | ||
| In the last Congress in the Energy and Congress Committee on the Energy Subcommittee, I asked everybody that came before us the same question when we had this testimony concerning it. | ||
| Do we have to have more energy in this country or less? | ||
| And everybody said the exact same thing. | ||
| We have to produce more energy in this country. | ||
| But we also have to make sure we're producing the energy to make that energy in this country. | ||
| And Republicans have led that way starting back in 2008 with our all of the above energy policy, which said we weren't going to pick winners and losers. | ||
| We're going to let the consumer decide and let the market decide. | ||
| And that's important because if we're going to make sure we can become energy independent in this country, we have to start thinking about those things. | ||
| And it's important. | ||
| So, Madam Speaker, I urge the passes of HJ Res 20 and yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Ohio Yokes. | |
| All time for debate has expired pursuant to House Resolution 161. | ||
| The previous question is ordered on the joint resolution. | ||
| The question is on engrossment and third reading of the joint resolution. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| Joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under Chapter 8 of Title V United States Code of the rules submitted by the Department of Energy relating to Energy Conservation Program Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-Fired Instantaneous Water Heaters. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question on passage of the joint resolution. | |
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no? | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The joint resolution. | ||
| Ask the yays and the nays. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The yays and nays are requested. | |
| Those favoring a vote by the yays and nays will rise. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| It's a 15-minute vote. | ||
| Do I hit the thing? | ||
| And the | ||
| House wrapping up its legislative work for the week with this measure to repeal a Biden administration rule, which set new energy efficiency standards for tankless water heaters starting in 2029. | ||
| This is a final vote on the legislation. | ||
| It's one of a number of measures being considered under the Congressional Review Act. | ||
| It's a process that allows Congress to overturn regulations issued by federal agencies. | ||
| The water heater rule was submitted by the Energy Department. | ||
| Also, live underway on C-SPAN 3 coverage of a hearing with four of President Trump's nominees for Council of Economic Advisors, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Commerce Department. | ||
| Also, today, President Trump is meeting with British Prime Minister Kier Starmer. | ||
|
Senator's Contract Concerns
00:15:48
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|
unidentified
|
And if the House gavels out, we'll bring you live coverage of their joint press conference at 2 p.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN. | |
| Next week, the President will address a joint session of Congress to lay out his priorities and his vision in his second term. | ||
| We'll have live coverage of that address Tuesday, starting with a preview at 8 p.m. Eastern, and then the Democrats' response. | ||
| We'll also be taking your calls and get reaction on social media live next Tuesday night. | ||
| While we're in this vote on removing efficiency standards for tinkless water heaters, we'll take you live to another part of the Capitol for some of the confirmation hearing for President Trump's Secretary of the Navy. | ||
| Skilled labor doesn't leave so quickly and actually passes on those skills. | ||
| Mr. Phelan, when a shipyard welder can go outside the gate and work at a convenience store for a competitive price, that has got to be fixed, does it not? | ||
| It does, sir. | ||
| That needs to be analyzed and looked at, and you can't have that kind of wage differential for those types of different jobs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Thank you very much for your testimony. | ||
| I'm going to recognize the distinguished ranking member for questions and hand the gavel to Senator Cotton until I'm back from another hearing. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Phelan. | ||
| Let me zero in on one aspect of the shipbuilding, and that's submarine construction. | ||
| As I pointed out, and as you well know, we're behind. | ||
| And in addition to being behind, we've always ready-made commitments to Australia to provide attack submarines, and that increases the demand on the system. | ||
| Fortunately, we've been trying to increase funding for submarine construction. | ||
| I must commend the chairman for his efforts last year to include $5 billion. | ||
| But let me just ask you: how do you evaluate the importance of submarine, not only the Navy, but the national defense? | ||
| And how do you propose to secure sufficient funds to get us back on track? | ||
| Thank you for the question, Ranking Member Reed. | ||
| I appreciated the time we spent talking about this for sure. | ||
| Look, I think it's the Columbia submarine program is incredibly important. | ||
| It's the most important nuclear deterrent we have. | ||
| It's the most resilient, survivable one that we have. | ||
| I think that I need to really get in there and dig in and take a look at what exactly is causing the delays. | ||
| I'm a big believer in what we call kind of root cause analysis. | ||
| I think there's a lot of this going on between requirements, contractors, workers. | ||
| And I've not had the benefit of visiting the yard. | ||
| I look forward to doing that with you if confirmed. | ||
| And I think that, you know, it's a very complicated manufacturing process. | ||
| I do think we need to analyze ways to create more competition for some of the components that are made in this sub and potentially in sub-making. | ||
| And the question is, how do you do that? | ||
| And that comes from incentives. | ||
| That comes from working together with the private sector. | ||
| And I think ultimately, at the end of the day, what you want to try to do is make it so that the private sector make the pie bigger and so that they can have a smaller slice of a bigger pie. | ||
| And I think if we can create the right incentives, that's the right way. | ||
| I think one of the things, again, and I've not reviewed contracts from what I can see, I'm candidly fearful of what I'm going to find when I read some of these contracts and get in there in terms of their pro to the private sector side. | ||
| But we're going to need to go in there, take a look at them. | ||
| If they need to be restructured, then we're going to have to do that. | ||
| But we have to get back to more of a concept of shared risk. | ||
| I think it's fine for the private sector to earn a profit. | ||
| They should make a profit based on the risk that they're taking. | ||
| And that's what we need to really get back to and look at. | ||
| So if confirmed, Ranking Member Reed, this will be a top priority for us very quickly to get our arms around this and try to get this out. | ||
| Well, thank you very much. | ||
| And I think you recognize the invaluable role that the civilian workforce provides to the Navy and Marine Corps. | ||
| Is that your view? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| Well, it's interesting because the Department of Defense announced a few days ago that 5,400 probitionary, probationary employees would be fired without any real analysis of the need. | ||
| But more troubling is the declaration that there will be an eventual 5 to 8 percent reduction, which works out to about 70 plus thousand people. | ||
| And I don't know if you aware of this, but Section 129A of Title 10 requires that no Federal civilian workforce employee can be fired unless the Secretary quotes, | ||
| I'm quoting out, unless the Secretary conducts an appropriate analysis of the impacts of such reductions on workload, military force, structural lethality, readiness, operational effectiveness, stress on the military force, and fully burdened course. | ||
| So the simple question is: do you intend to follow law as you pursue these reductions? | ||
| Thanks for the question, Senator. | ||
| If confirmed, I will follow all laws, lawful orders that we get. | ||
| I am not privy to the actual cuts that have occurred. | ||
| I've just read what's been in the paper as it relates to it. | ||
| I do think the shipbuilding force is critical. | ||
| I don't know if we have labor shortages. | ||
| I suspect in certain yards we do. | ||
| And, you know, if confirmed, I will sit down with the Secretary of Defense and the President and very quickly talk about that because I know that is a key priority for the President: ensuring that our shipbuilding is done. | ||
| And frankly, finally, will you make available the documentation that the Department of Defense must have to justify these firings? | ||
| I'm sorry, say that again, Senator. | ||
| Would you commit to the committee to make available to us the documentation of all the criteria that I've listed in the statute so that we can confirm that such a review has been conducted? | ||
| I will, Senator, I will follow all laws that exist. | ||
| I assume you guys get that documentation. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Fisher. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Cotton. | ||
| It's nice to see you here today, Mr. Phelan, and welcome to your friends and family for being here with you. | ||
| I appreciate you putting yourself forward to serve your country in this capacity. | ||
| Mr. Phelan, in your advanced policy questions to the committee, you stated, quote, if confirmed, I will ensure the Department complies with existing statutory requirements to continue funding development of the nuclear sea launch cruise missile, unquote. | ||
| Do you stand by that statement, yes or no? | ||
| Senator, I think the nuclear sea launch cruise missile is a very important program. | ||
| I have not been read in on the briefings on that, but I know it is a critical component to our defense. | ||
| And will you follow those statutory requirements? | ||
| Yes, I will. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| To follow up on the shipbuilding part that's been discussed by the chairman, the Strategic Posture Commission recommended the establishment of additional shipyards dedicated to nuclear-powered ships and submarines. | ||
| If confirmed, would you be open to exploring that option? | ||
| Yes, I would, Senator. | ||
| I think it's a very important part of our strategic focus. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| What we've learned from the war in Ukraine is that the United States Defense Industrial Base was not equipped to scale up production rates of munitions for these modern conflicts. | ||
| Is it your view that the United States must further increase munition production capacity? | ||
| Yes, Senator. | ||
| I think we're at a critical shortage and we have far too much dependence on one facility. | ||
| Do you have any initial thoughts that you can share with us about steps that maybe you would be taking to ensure that the Navy has the munition stockpiles that are required to meet the needs of the combatant commanders? | ||
| Yes, Senator. | ||
| I think, as you know, we are short munitions. | ||
| As we've seen, I think we need to create more of a manufacturing base and incentivize more munitions plants in order to supplement what we already have. | ||
| So if confirmed, I intend to focus on this very quickly and get that resolved because I think we're at a dangerously low level from a stockpile perspective and as well as new. | ||
| So I will use the skills that I had in the business world in terms of incenting. | ||
| I think a lot of that also comes with working with you and the committee and the Congress because we do need to send signals to the private sector to incentivize them to build these plants to get going. | ||
| So ordering and giving them a contract to build, I think, will be critical. | ||
| And I'd like to believe we should be able to create a win-win between the private sector and for the taxpayer of the United States. | ||
| You mentioned contracts with the shipbuilding, too, to be able to do a review of those contracts to make sure that there are incentives, that private companies can make profits with that. | ||
| You mentioned contracts again now. | ||
| Would you look at that as well in depth on current contracts that we have with regards to our munitions and if maybe what we're looking at here are roadblocks in being able to move ahead with being able to provide these munitions? | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator. | ||
| Yes, I intend to sit down day one and we are going to go through every contract that we have and understand what exactly they say and what flexibility they do or do not give us, what contract needs to change or not change and why. | ||
| I intend to do the same thing as it relates to an audit. | ||
| I need to understand why the Navy cannot pass an audit. | ||
| The Marine Corps has done it two years running now. | ||
| They deserve a lot of credit for that. | ||
| I think that's a great thing. | ||
| We are going to change and create much more accountability and understanding because all of these things affect readiness. | ||
| And as I said in my statement, readiness is critical. | ||
| And I think we are at a very critical inflection point, particularly versus our peer or near-peer adversaries. | ||
| So these are all things that are a reflection of a culture, as I mentioned, in decay. | ||
| We really need to have a tight focus on these things. | ||
| If we don't know where our inventory is, how can we have a training mission? | ||
| I've heard stories of training missions that have failed because the equipment wasn't there, and so we ended up losing that money, and that's not good. | ||
| Thank you very much, sir. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Cotton. | ||
| Senator Shaheen. | ||
| Good morning, Mr. Felin. | ||
| Congratulations on your nomination. | ||
| Welcome to your family and your friends who are here with you. | ||
| Last week, Secretary Hegseth issued a memo to the Defense Department, which we've referenced already, but it asked the services and the joint staff for proposals to cut the defense budget by 8 percent every year for the next five years. | ||
| The memo provides a handful of exemptions, including for the Virginia-class submarine program and military construction in the Indo-Pacific only. | ||
| It does not provide an exemption for our country's maritime industrial base. | ||
| And I'm actually concerned that Secretary Hagseth may not be aware of the work that the Navy is doing to modernize our public shipyards. | ||
| It's something that we discussed when you were kind enough to meet with me. | ||
| But because in his questions for the record following his own confirmation hearing, Secretary Hegset said, and I'm quoting here in his statement, the Navy has not made investments to modernize our four public shipyards. | ||
| Mr. Phelan, that simply is not true. | ||
| The Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan, or SIOP, which we discussed a little bit when we met, is a 20-year, $21 billion investment to make sure that our shipyards are ready to meet the needs that our Navy has into the next century. | ||
| I think we discussed the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which we have an interest in in New Hampshire. | ||
| It sits between New Hampshire and Maine. | ||
| It's our nation's longest-serving public shipyard. | ||
| It's in Maine, Senator, just to be clear. | ||
| But it has an address that's Portsmouth, New Hampshire. | ||
| So I'm willing to share it with you, Senator King. | ||
| It has the best record for on-time, on-budget maintenance and repair of our submarine force. | ||
| So I appreciate your focus on operational readiness, but I'm trying to square how operational readiness comports with the 8 percent budget cuts that are going to affect our investment in our public shipyards. | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator Sheen, and I did appreciate the time with you, and it was enjoyable. | ||
| What I would say to you is my understanding, again, and I've just read what is in the paper, is that there is Secretary Hegseth has talked about this as a planning tool to kind of look at what would happen if we need to cut 8 percent. | ||
| And that's my understanding, which I think is a useful exercise to go through, which is where would we cut if we need to cut. | ||
| Now, my other understanding is it is to take money away from non-lethal activities and reallocate that capital to more lethal activities. | ||
| Do I view the construction of our subs and ships as lethal activities? | ||
| The answer is yes, because we need to have these ships and we need to get them out there quickly. | ||
| Go ahead, sorry. | ||
| Well, and as you know, our nuclear attack submarines are one of the advantages that we have over the Chinese. | ||
| And as we're thinking about how do we stay competitive and stay ahead, it's very important that we ensure that we are able to maintain those subs and keep them operational. | ||
|
Senator Ernst On Directed Energy
00:15:28
|
||
| Yeah, that is critical. | ||
| And I believe that both the Secretary of Defense and the President would agree with those statements. | ||
| Our nuclear subs and attack subs are critical. | ||
| And so whatever we need to do to get them out as fast as possible on time, hopefully quicker than the delays that are currently being estimated. | ||
| And hopefully with some budget savings, we should be able to do that. | ||
| So I think that's very critical. | ||
| I do look forward to visiting the shipyard in Maine and New Hampshire as well and see what you're doing. | ||
| And one of the things I want to see is, you know, you guys are doing things on time. | ||
| Why aren't other shipyards adopting this? | ||
| What are the things that are not happening? | ||
| And those are things we need to really start to do. | ||
| One of the things that's critical to ensuring that that work continues on time and on budget is making sure that we have the workforce that's required to do that maintenance. | ||
| Two weeks ago, Senator Collins and I sent a letter to Mr. Emmert, who is the acting Secretary of the Navy pending your confirmation, asking him to work with the Office of Personnel Management to create an exception for shipyard employees that would protect them from mass layoffs. | ||
| We've received no response from Mr. Emmert. | ||
| The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to fire up to 75,000 civilians, as Senator Reed said. | ||
| Portsmouth, I think, cannot afford to cut its workforce. | ||
| In fact, they need to hire 550 workers annually just to keep up with the Navy's demand for submarine repairs. | ||
| So can you commit to this committee that you're going to engage with OPM to protect our employees who are necessary to ensure that they can do the maintenance that's required for our nuclear subs? | ||
| Senator, I commit to you that I will look into this and I will sit down with the Secretary of Defense and go through this issue and ensure that we have the workforce we need to complete the work we need on the ships and the subs and make sure we have our talent. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I look forward to hearing a report on that meeting. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Phelan, greetings. | ||
| I want to continue along the line of questions that Senator Fisher had about munitions. | ||
| You mentioned increasing capacity, building new facilities, and I think that's going to be important in some cases. | ||
| However, there's also cases in which the Navy has consistently underfunded munitions production and therefore we have excess capacity that isn't being fully used. | ||
| That's the case, for instance, outside Camden in Arkansas, the Highland Industrial Park, where we build many of the munitions the Navy uses, like the standard Missile 3 and the standard Missile 6. | ||
| What are your thoughts on fully funding those programs so we can get up to full capacity in the facilities that we have now for the Navy, for the other services, as well as for foreign partners? | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator Cotton. | ||
| I know it's an issue important to you. | ||
| Appreciated the time we got to spend in your office. | ||
| If confirmed, I will look into that. | ||
| I think it's crazy to not have facilities running at full capacity. | ||
| So if you're under capacity, it just raises expense, in effect. | ||
| It's one of the things I've noticed when I've looked at all these different weapons programs. | ||
| It seems like the next missile costs more than the first missile. | ||
| So you have no economies of scale. | ||
| That is a prescription for bankruptcy. | ||
| I don't understand how the second and third one is not less than the first one. | ||
| And that's something, if confirmed, we intend to dig into very hard and understand. | ||
| And I do think having more flexible manufacturing when you have excess capacity in plants that are already making munitions, we should absolutely make sure that we're taking advantage of that capacity. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I do agree. | ||
| That's probably the quickest and easiest way to address some of these shortfalls. | ||
| As I said, we're going to need more manufacturing capacity, but making sure that current lines that have excess capacity are fully used is probably the quickest way we can get there. | ||
| I can assure you that we have lots of people in South Arkansas who are eager to do that work. | ||
| One other point I'd like to make is just to encourage you, once confirmed, to work with our State Department on foreign military sales. | ||
| That's another way to send the demand signal to our industry, not just our services, but our friends in Europe and the Middle East and East Asia, cutting through the red tape and allowing them to buy the weapons that we're providing here to provide for their common defense. | ||
| If confirmed, I will agree with you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Senator Fisher also mentioned the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear, also occasionally known as Slick'em In. | ||
| I'm glad to hear you're committed to carrying out the law there. | ||
| I think it's an important part of our deterrent. | ||
| Another critical part of our deterrent is the Columbia-class submarine. | ||
| It's one of the three legs of our nuclear triad. | ||
| It's the most survivable leg because they're almost undetectable. | ||
| That guarantees a second strike capability against Russia and against China in particular as China continues its breakneck nuclear buildup. | ||
| Are you committed to continuing the Navy's highest priority on the Columbia-class submarine? | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator Cotton. | ||
| Yes, the nuclear triad and in particular the Columbia-class submarine is critical to the triad and its deterrence, and we have to absolutely make sure we make that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I'm very glad to hear that. | ||
| Some people up here in Congress need to hear it as well. | ||
| The Surface Navy has not been in a good place for a long time. | ||
| I've made this case for many years now. | ||
| Two destroyers years ago were wrecked in the Pacific. | ||
| The Bonhomme Richard caught fire. | ||
| Commanders were found to be overburdened by administrative tasks and under-focused on warfighting. | ||
| You had a friendly fire incident with the Gettysburg in the Red Sea in December of 24, and just recently a collision between the Truman and a merchant ship in the Suez Canal. | ||
| I raised this for the last administration. | ||
| It didn't seem like we made much progress on it. | ||
| What are your thoughts on how we can get the Surface Navy in particular back up to the standards of leadership and execution that the nation expects? | ||
| Thank you for the question. | ||
| I did read the study that you helped commission in 2021, and I think one of the captains mentioned compliance-centered warfare versus warfire-centered warfare. | ||
| This comes back to the kind of culture issues that I mentioned, which is I think that we've lost some of the adaptability, some of the accountability, some of making sure that people are doing their jobs and those who are being promoted are the right ones. | ||
| And so I think there's also a lot of pressure on these captains and these commanders today because they're under, we're undermanned, and that puts pressure on the entire force, which is very difficult. | ||
| So I think this comes back to recruiting. | ||
| I think it comes back to retention. | ||
| I think it's making sure that we promote the best. | ||
| These people are operating huge, huge assets that are very, very valuable. | ||
| And so we need to make sure they have the skills and that they have the requisite capabilities around them to execute on this. | ||
| So if confirmed, you know, I will focus on this relentlessly. | ||
| And I would hope that we would not have any more issues like that at all. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Senator King. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I love your focus on maintenance. | ||
| I have a half facetious but half serious suggestion. | ||
| We should benchmark our availability of our ships against Mersk and Carnival cruise lines. | ||
| If they had the low availability that we have, they'd been out of business a long time ago. | ||
| And you understand that. | ||
| When you have a major, an enormous capital asset, it should be used. | ||
| Every minute that it's not used is penalizing the taxpayers and also diminishing the effectiveness of the Navy. | ||
| So I hope that you'll really focus on that and see, and I'd like to see the metrics over a period of years of time in dry dock versus availability. | ||
| So I take it that that's going to be a significant focus of your work. | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator King, and I did enjoy our time together. | ||
| I jokingly say that President Trump has texted me numerous times, very late at night, sometimes after one in the morning, of rusty ships or ships in a yard asking me what am I doing about it. | ||
| And I've told him I'm not confirmed yet and have not been able to do anything about it, but I will be very focused on it. | ||
| So I view it as a critical issue, as you and I do. | ||
| And I think your idea about benchmarking versus some of those other private sector companies is a very good idea. | ||
| And understanding how they keep these things running is very important. | ||
| I know under a prior secretary before they used Southwest Airlines to come in to help with our planes and getting more efficient. | ||
| So I think there's a lot of best practices to be shared across the two. | ||
| And I'm hoping with my relationships and contacts in the private sector, we should be able to do that. | ||
| And I loved it when you said we've never done it that way before is not a sufficient excuse. | ||
| We've got to be looking forward, not backward. | ||
| And that brings me to fighting the next war rather than the last war. | ||
| There are two areas we have fallen behind in, and I believe have been very damaging to national security and our deterrent. | ||
| One is directed energy, the other is hypersonics. | ||
| For years, I've been asking admirals that have been sitting in your seat, you're in the GI UK gap. | ||
| Hypersonic missile is launched from Vermansk. | ||
| It will hit your aircraft carrier in 12 minutes. | ||
| What do you do? | ||
| I've never had a good answer to that question. | ||
| We've got to be able to answer that question. | ||
| If part of our deterrent and our strategy is forward-based naval assets, we've got to have defensive capability as well as offensive capability in hypersonics. | ||
| Do you take that as a mission? | ||
| I do, Senator King. | ||
| I believe, as I think Mr. Feinberg the other day mentioned, hypersonics is a key component to our defense, and we seem to be behind, and I believe we need to focus on that. | ||
| I think it's to directed energy. | ||
| You and I spoke about this when we met. | ||
| I believe that recently the Navy executed a successful directed energy defense against drones in the Red Sea. | ||
| I think it was the Helios program, which was very effective. | ||
| I think it's a very smart way to deter drone attacks. | ||
| Using $2 million missiles to take out $30,000 drones is not a model that's going to survive. | ||
| It's not very businesslike. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| And the directed energy, I think, is about 50 cents a shot once you have the device there. | ||
| And I do appreciate that finally the Prebel and the Helios system are in the Red Sea. | ||
| It's taken an awfully long time. | ||
| So that's one I hope you'll follow up on. | ||
| The next major surface combatant is called DDX. | ||
| It's a successor to the DDG, which is being built now in Mississippi and in Maine. | ||
| By the way, I want to invite you both to the ill-named Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and to Bath Ironworks, where the DDGs are built. | ||
| In our legislation, we talked about fostering a collaborative relationship between the Navy and the two major shipyards that build DDGs on the DDX design so that it's designed and is buildable. | ||
| One of the problems is design is separated and then you go to build it and it's very, very expensive. | ||
| I hope you will commit to continuing that collaborative relationship and actually stepping it up because I understand it has faltered to some extent. | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator King. | ||
| If confirmed, I look forward to visiting Maine and New Hampshire with you. | ||
| Yes, I think I'm very focused on that. | ||
| I think understanding, I've been trying to spend as much time trying to understand how the whole process works. | ||
| I read a book about how the B-2 bomber was designed by 12 people. | ||
| And I believe when I met with Senator Ernst, she had mentioned to me that I believe on one ship we have 800 people designing a ship. | ||
| So I don't know how you build something with 800 people. | ||
| It just adds to requirements. | ||
| Mission creates. | ||
| Collaboration between the Navy and the shipbuilders, I think, would bear fruit for the taxpayers as well as the buildability of the ship and the time to getting there. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Workforce and shipbuilding, I wanted to talk about, believe it or not, parking and child care are issues in workforce. | ||
| And that's something it doesn't sound like it would be a Navy project to build a parking garage or a child care center, but that's absolutely necessary in order to maintain the workforce in the shipbuilding and the economy that we're in today. | ||
| I hope that's something you'll attend to. | ||
| Yeah, as I mentioned in my opening, quality of life issues are something we need to focus on. | ||
| And if confirmed, I will certainly look into that. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Phelan. | ||
| Thank you for your testimony. | ||
| Thank you for your willingness to serve your country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Senator Ernst. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning, Mr. Phelan. | ||
| I want to start by welcoming you, saying thank you for stepping up for this position and to your family as well. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Now, we've talked about this, but I've long been committed to cutting waste in Washington, D.C. | ||
| And even the areas that are very, very important to me, like the Department of Defense and the Navy as well, they are no exception. | ||
| So the Department of the Navy receives about 30 percent or a little more of the defense budget, but there's a lot of financial mismanagement and we have audit failures that are persisting there. | ||
| So what reforms will you implement to ensure budget accountability and financial transparency throughout the Department of the Navy? | ||
| Thank you for the question, Senator Ernst. | ||
| I know that's a topic important to you and I appreciated the time we spent in your office. | ||
| I think as I mentioned, you know, in the private sector, if you fail an audit, two things happen. | ||
| You either go to jail or you get fired. | ||
| And so I think you need to fix it very fast. | ||
| What I don't currently know, and I've gotten two different answers as I was getting kind of preparatory briefs, is some have said we have the systems in place to tell us where everything is, and others have told me we've got three more fleet commands to get done. | ||
| So I don't know the answer. | ||
| I will get the answer if confirmed and get to it very quickly. | ||
|
Navy Procurement Challenges
00:02:08
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||
| I think it's, you know, candidly, we should be embarrassed that we cannot pass these things and that we don't know where they are. | ||
| That's important. | ||
| And it's little things that you don't do that start to become big problems later. | ||
| And so I suspect that financial sorts of management, financial discipline are just not viewed as that important throughout the Navy. | ||
| And it's always that they'll get the money. | ||
| And I think that just needs to change. | ||
| That's a culture change. | ||
| That's a shift. | ||
| I think we need to be more transparent, more communicative, and if confirmed, I will sit down and very quickly we will get our arms around when we will get this done. | ||
| That Congress and the committee has authorized us to meet an audit by 2028. | ||
| My question is: if we have all these systems in, why can't it happen this year? | ||
| I've not gotten that answer, but I promise you I will, and you will hear directly from me and straight from me if we can't get there and the reasons why. | ||
| And I will endeavor to get those fixed as quick as possible. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
| And I just want to take a moment and get on my soapbox about being very wise about some of our acquisitions. | ||
| We've talked about the acquisitions process, but I want to remind everybody that we all need to participate in exercising a little more thoughtfulness when it comes to our taxpayer dollars. | ||
| The Navy procured a number of littoral combat ships years ago when I was in the United States. | ||
| On this vote, the yays are 221 and the nays are 198 and 2 answering present. | ||
| The joint resolution is now passed. | ||
| Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
|
Come to Order
00:15:35
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||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Georgia take recognition? | ||
| Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourns to meet on Monday next, when it shall convene at noon for morning hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business. | ||
| Without objection, we're done. | ||
| Come to order. | ||
| House will be in order. | ||
| The chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Iowa seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I'm going to ask for one minute. | ||
| no objection. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in recognition of Ms. Emily Tull Miller, our Deputy Chief of Staff. | ||
| Over the course of Emily's tenure, she served in numerous roles, consistently demonstrating her professionalism and extraordinary work ethic with a steadfast dedication to excellence. | ||
| Emily was not only a vital member of our team, but she was also an integral force behind our success for folks back home in Iowa. | ||
| As Deputy Chief of Staff, Emily tackled strategic goals, including our passage of legislation to address veteran suicide with the Adam Lambert Act, helping support couples start a family with the HOPE Act, and delivering on U.S. national security priorities enshrined in the National Defense Authorization Act. | ||
| As a fighter for folks in the heart of the heartland, she helped lead more amendments to the prestigious farm bill than nearly any other member in Congress. | ||
| Further, Emily worked across the state and across the aisle to earn bipartisan support and helped our team become the top 10 most bipartisan member of Congress. | ||
| Throughout her tenure, Emily has been a true plankholder from day one. | ||
| And whether she was operating in a role as communications director, scheduler, and ultimately deputy chief, she has continued to be a true mentor. | ||
| Emily, thank you for all you've done for our team, your ability to foster collaboration and growth to create a more united effort. | ||
| And despite your University of Illinois pedigree, you'll always be an Iowan and a Hawkeye at heart. | ||
| From the corn dogs at the state fair to winning friends under the Golden Dome in Des Moines to right here at the marble steps of the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| Our country, our state, and our family are grateful for your service, and we wish you great success in your next adventure. | ||
| Thanks, Emily. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Kentucky seek recognition? | ||
| With no objection, the representative from Kentucky is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. Speaker, since before Christmas, I've heard from Louisville every day about mail delays. | ||
| I've heard from people who haven't received paychecks, prescriptions, or W-2s. | ||
| One woman told me she received a bill so late she owed more in late fees than she did on the bill. | ||
| What concerns me is if the Trump administration gets its way, things will get worse. | ||
| USPS has operated independently since 1970, but now Donald Trump wants to take it over. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why? | |
| So Elon Musk can go in and fire letter carriers and sorters? | ||
| These are hardworking people who go above and beyond. | ||
| This weekend, I heard about a Louisville letter carrier who wears a headlamp because she works well into the evening. | ||
| She deserves support, not demonization. | ||
| So let's fix this. | ||
| Let's get our letter carriers the resources they need. | ||
| Let's get our sorters the machinery they need. | ||
| And let's ensure Americans don't pay late fees if their mail is delayed. | ||
| Let's get this done. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Iowa seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to remove the gentleman from New York, Mr. Goldman, as a co-sponsor to H.R. 1301. | |
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 44th anniversary of the CBYX exchange program and to thank David Byrne, a current participant and intern in my office. | ||
| The CBYX program is jointly funded by the U.S. Congress and the German Bungestad. | ||
| Every year, this unique program offers 75 young Germans and 75 young Americans the opportunity to study, work, and volunteer in Germany and in the United States. | ||
| The participants fully immerse themselves into the other's culture, attending university, interning, and living with host families all over both countries. | ||
| CBYX is an excellent example of how cultural and political exchange among citizens can positive impact international relations in a different, more grassroots, and hands-on way. | ||
| As the co-chair of the bipartisan German-American caucus and representing Pennsylvania, a state with a long history of German heritage, I'm proud to support this program. | ||
| Thank you, David, for your work and time in my office, and I wish you the best in your future endeavors. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Acts unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of Black History Month and to highlight the importance of our nation's historically black colleges and universities and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. | ||
| This month is a time to reflect and recognize the immense sacrifices and contributions that black Americans have made throughout our nation's history. | ||
| Today, we are witnessing blatant attempts to stifle DEI efforts, which were designed to promote fairness and provide resources to communities that have systemically been left behind. | ||
| These initiatives, in tandem with our nation's rich web of HBCUs, have allowed for culturally relevant and supportive environments for black Americans, making higher education more accessible to students of color, many of whom are first-generation college students, and are producing top talent in a wide variety of fields. | ||
| These efforts are about supporting those in our community with the resources and education they need to thrive. | ||
| And these policies help close the racial wealth gap and create more opportunities for upward mobility. | ||
| There is still much work to be done to properly support the black community, and I am committed to eliminating discrimination in all forms and continuing to uplift the invaluable contributions of black Americans to this country. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from California seek recognition? | ||
| The answer is in Risabels 18. | ||
| With no objection. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Well, this week we made an important step passing the budget resolution in order to carry out the business of the House and for the American people. | ||
| As we get into the budget reconciliation process, which is going to be a positive one for getting spending under control, we also need to have a lot more truth surrounding what is going to be happening in that process. | ||
| And for more than I'd like to have heard the last week, week and a half, two weeks, we keep hearing the same rhetoric about Republicans are going to cut Medicare, they're going to cut SNAP, they're going to cut Medicaid, they're going to cut Social Security, they're going to cut all these things. | ||
| And nowhere in that budget reconciliation document does it say that in the resolution. | ||
| Nowhere does it say that. | ||
| So we need not lie about what we're doing around here in order to gain political points. | ||
| We actually should be sitting down at the table together and looking at long-term how do we make these programs work better longer. | ||
| Social Security is going to be in big trouble within seven, eight years. | ||
| And so if we want to have solutions to that, then why don't we sit at the table together and figure these things out instead of lying about it because we're trying to achieve better budgets and closer to balancing the budget than what we've had the last four years. | ||
| So why don't we be truthful in this process instead of the nonsense? | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
To address the House for 100 semi-remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| The Social Security Fairness Act, which we passed a few months ago, is now in effect. | ||
| And 3.2 million Americans will see a big increase in their monthly Social Security checks. | ||
| We're talking about retired public school teachers, retired police officers, retired firefighters, retired letter carriers. | ||
| They paid into Social Security for years, but weren't getting their full benefits. | ||
| They were missing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month. | ||
| The bill was introduced in every Congress for the last 25 years. | ||
| It had the most bipartisan support of any bill in the last Congress. | ||
| We had to force a vote on the bill, a discharge petition. | ||
| And within two days, we got 218 signatures. | ||
| We fought very hard to get this done, and now our public retirees will finally start to see the benefits they were owed each month. | ||
| We could not have done this without the advocacy of thousands, thousands of public servants, retirees, and I hope it can help restore some faith in our government that this institution does still get things done. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| One moment, ma'am. | ||
| The chair will receive a message. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, messages from the President of the United States. | |
| Mr. Speaker, Madam Secretary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I am directed by the President of the United States to deliver to the House of Representatives messages in writing. | |
| For what purpose does the representative from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| No objection. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I rise today to honor Chuck Haflinger of Chino Hills, who passed away on February 3rd at the age of 77. | ||
| He had a distinguished 32-year career in the Army, serving as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War and retiring as a lieutenant colonel. | ||
| He earned a Bronze Star Medal and five meritorious service medals. | ||
| Chuck's service continued after his retirement to our Chino Hills community. | ||
| He helped fellow veterans transition back to civilian life, became a mentor for the Reaching New Heights Foundation, and was an active member of the Chino Hills 55 Plus Club Veterans Group, playing a key role in raising funds for the military service monument at the community center. | ||
| He was also a valued member of my Veterans Advisory Group. | ||
| I thank Chuck for his contributions to our community and extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. | ||
|
unidentified
|
With that, I yield back. | |
| For what purpose does the representative from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask Adam's consent to address the House for one minute and revise and scan my remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, in January, a career mid-level, largely unknown employee at the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, was caught sharing unauthorized data with Elon Musk's team at Doge. | ||
| Senior officials were so alarmed they put him on leave and launched an investigation. | ||
| And he may have violated privacy and tax laws. | ||
| And here's the stuff you can't make up. | ||
| President Trump just promoted him to be the acting Commissioner of Social Security. | ||
| Now DOE, which I think stands for Destruction of Government by Elon, is reportedly demanding plans to gut the Social Security Administration, firing up to 50% of workers and closing field offices across the country, potentially including one of mine in our district. | ||
| This isn't about efficiency. | ||
| It's a backdoor attack on Social Security itself. | ||
| And if they succeed, tens of millions of Americans will face delays, disruptions, and denials of benefits they have earned. | ||
| This is nothing more than an attempt to dismantle Social Security from the inside. | ||
| We cannot allow it. | ||
| We need answers. | ||
| We need oversight, and we need to stop this now. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the heroic actions of Deputy Hunter Thomas of the Ware County Sheriff's Office, who recently saved a life through his quick thinking and decisive actions. | ||
|
Deputy Thomas's Heroic Response
00:15:48
|
||
| On January 29th, Deputy Thomas responded to a severe accident on US-1 Georgia 4 near Mile Marker 8. | ||
| A semi-truck had collided with a Ford F-150, leaving several people injured. | ||
| Upon his arrival, Deputy Thomas found the semi-truck driver severely wounded, suffering from a deep bleeding cut on his elbow. | ||
| Without hesitation, he used his training and experience to apply a tourniquet, effectively stopping the excessive blood loss. | ||
| His immediate response undoubtedly saved the driver's life. | ||
| Deputy Thomas's professionalism, dedication, and courage exemplified the best of law enforcement. | ||
| His actions not only protected a life that day, but also set a standard of excellence for his department and colleagues. | ||
| He was rightfully honored with the lifesaving ribbon accommodation bar by Sheriff Carl James. | ||
| We are beyond grateful for his bravery and service to the Ware County community. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Michigan seek recognition? | ||
| With no objection. | ||
| I want to honor the life and legacy of my dear friend, Renee Lickman, a Holocaust survivor and activist in our community who deeply was committed to justice in southeastern Michigan and around the world. | ||
| He was my adopted ammo uncle. | ||
| Renee passed away at 87 years old, dedicated his life to teaching others about the Holocaust, ensuring that stories of survivors would never be forgotten. | ||
| He worked so hard to live by the mission of Never Gain to Anyone. | ||
| Through his art, film, and photography, he captured the resilience of the human spirit, and through his activism, he fought for social justice and the end to human suffering. | ||
| At the age of 63, Renee got his PhD in instructional technology and spent two decades working at a hospital in our community. | ||
| Even in the end of his life, Renee was painting, organizing with Jewish Voices for Peace in Detroit, and standing up for Palestinian human rights. | ||
| His impact and legacy will live through his work and the countless lives he touched. | ||
| May his memory and work live forever. | ||
| I will miss you, Renee. | ||
| I love you. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
| I asked unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and service of Sergeant Gregory E. Walls of the Town of Pound Ridge Police Department. | ||
| Greg dedicated his life to serving others. | ||
| Before his career in law enforcement, he worked as an EMT and paramedic, providing life-saving care across Westchester County. | ||
| In 2008, he joined the Pound Ridge Police Department, where his skill, dedication, and leadership left a lasting impact. | ||
| Throughout his career, Greg was a mentor, a protector, and a friend to so many. | ||
| His expertise saved lives, and his commitment to public safety earned him the respect of his fellow officers and the community he served. | ||
| As a police officer, Greg was honored with the Top Cop Award by Westchester County for his outstanding efforts in traffic safety through DWI enforcement. | ||
| In 2016, he was promoted to detective, where he took on investigative work and played a key role in training new officers. | ||
| Just this month, Greg was promoted to sergeant, a testament to his unwavering commitment to Pound Ridge. | ||
| His passing is a tremendous loss to the Pound Ridge community, and my thoughts are with his wife, Lisa, his family, and his loved ones. | ||
| Today, we honor his service, his sacrifice, and his legacy. | ||
| May he rest in peace. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| With no objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share an incredible story of one of my constituents, a proud DACA recipient, Martha Delgado. | ||
| Raised by a single mother who worked in the fields and cleaned houses, Martha was determined to earn the American Dream. | ||
| She graduated with high honors from Godena's High School in Santa Ana and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in public health from UC Merced in 2019. | ||
| And Martha's passion for innovation led her to University Lab Partners, where she helps startup companies develop groundbreaking medical devices and diagnostic devices. | ||
| She helps bridge the gap between research and real-world problems. | ||
| Martha's journey is a testament to the impact our youth can have when they have the opportunity to earn the American dream. | ||
| And I will not stop fighting until she and other DACA recipients have a shot to earn American citizenship. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from Northern Mariana Islands 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 is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the Northern Mariana Sports Association and all our athletes in the Northern Mariana Islands who are celebrating the 40th anniversary of this great community organization today, February 27. | ||
| Being an athlete has given me so much, and it's not just about sports, it's about building self-confidence, understanding teamwork, and finding value in ourselves and our abilities. | ||
| Lessons essential both on the field and in life. | ||
| I have seen firsthand how critical the support of governing organizations like Namasa is, to smaller sports groups in our islands, and to giving our athletes moments of triumph and lessons for life that become a part of who they are. | ||
| Namasa, for all you do in our community and for the lives you have shaped, you have my sincere gratitude and congratulations. | ||
| And to all our CNMI athletes, especially those who are being recognized this week, you make the Northern Marianas proud. | ||
| I am honored to share your stories and amplify your voices here in Congress. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield my time. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Arizona seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark Black History Month and recognize the contributions of black-led organizations in Arizona's 3rd District doing the work on the ground to uplift their communities. | ||
| Today, I want to honor Project Roots. | ||
| Project Roots is a non-profit community garden founded by two incredible women, Dion Washington and Bridget Petis, who recognized an unmet need in their community and stepped up to address it. | ||
| Their goal is to empower community members to grow their own crops so that their neighbors have access to fresh produce while also providing food to anyone who needs it. | ||
| Project Roots is a pillar in our community and an inspiring example of what can be when we envision a future where every single person has reliable access to fresh, nutritious food. | ||
| This Black History Month and every month, I hope we can follow Dion and Bridget's example by centering those with the most need and working together to build a more connected, healthy, and equitable community for all. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address this body for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, if families across the nation pay their debts and live within their means, shouldn't we in Congress reevaluate how money is being spent in Washington and across the nation? | ||
| Of course we should. | ||
| For far too long, our government has put the cost of not just emergencies, but on everyday expenses on our nation's credit card. | ||
| And now, as a result, our national debt is a staggering $36 trillion and growing every day. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is. | ||
| And that's why I've introduced Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act to reduce congressional office budgets by $100,000, just a paltry 5.2%. | ||
| The American credit card has reached its limit. | ||
| We must tighten our belts. | ||
| We have bills to pay and emergencies to cover, and we need to be in this together. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, one question for you and this body. | ||
| Are we willing to put our money where our mouth is? | ||
| I encourage all of our colleagues to join us in this effort. | ||
| Let's go get them. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| To address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| With no objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to honor Minister Dwayne Roberts of Second Baptist Church for his incredible 50 years of service to our community. | ||
| Second Baptist Church is the oldest black church in Orange County and has become a home for faith, music, and fellowship. | ||
| Minister Roberts' 50 years of leadership are unprecedented. | ||
| He's served longer than any minister in the church's history and through his gift for music ministry, he's touched and transformed countless lives. | ||
| Minister Roberts' talents are numerous. | ||
| He's a singer, musician, songwriter, and compelling speaker. | ||
| And for 50 years, he's used these gifts to help others. | ||
| Last weekend, I had the honor of joining his congregation to celebrate Minister Roberts' 50th anniversary. | ||
| I was moved by the love and respect for the minister in that room. | ||
| So this Black History Month, I'm proud to recognize Minister Roberts and his tremendous legacy in Orange County. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| It is my privilege today to honor Colonel Anthony W. Young, a distinguished veteran and dedicated public servant in our community. | ||
| Colonel Young is a retired United States Army officer and has devoted his life to serving both our nation and our local community. | ||
| Tony is a native of Vero Beach. | ||
| He has served as mayor, councilman, and vice mayor and has been a key leader in the Florida League of Cities. | ||
| His military career spanned over 30 years, serving both the 24th Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division and the 30th Medical Brigade. | ||
| His dedication and leadership have left an indelible mark on our military, our city, and our nation. | ||
| Most recently, his leadership as the president of the Indian River County of the Military Officers Association of America, Tony, spearheaded the creation of a permanent memorial for local World War II veterans, ensuring that their sacrifice will never be forgotten. | ||
| Colonel Tony Young is a true patriot and an embodiment of service, and we are grateful for his unwavering commitment to our community and our country. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Washington seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I request consent to have unanimous consent to address the House of Lords. | |
| With no objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, on behalf of millions of people in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, I rise to express outrage and bewilderment at the senseless workforce cuts by Elon Musk and President Trump to Bonneville Power Administration, an agency that's not even funded by taxpayer dollars, but by our utility bills. | ||
| Bonneville system operators keep the lights on. | ||
| They match demand, supply to demand, whether in a heat wave or a cold snap. | ||
| They maintain the majority of our transmission lines, so when we have a windstorm like our recent ones, their linemen go out and fix those lines in the worst weather. | ||
| These specialized employees, frankly, are irreplaceable. | ||
| So the decision by Elon Musk and by the president to fire nearly 20% of Bonneville workers in the name of efficiency and saving taxpayer dollars is not just wrong-headed, it is reckless and outrageous and will make power less reliable and more expensive for our four states. | ||
| In other words, all downside, no upside. | ||
| We have now seen weeks of taking a chainsaw to our federal programs and damage to our grid, our national forests, our national security, and frankly, our personal security. | ||
| It's time for Congress to take our power back and protect our constituents. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak for one minute to make advice in my remarks. | ||
| With no objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Mr. Speaker, let's make corruption criminal again. | ||
| Three days before his inauguration, President-elect Trump launched the Trump meme coin. | ||
| Trump's partners and some investors based in China pumped up the price, making hundreds of millions of dollars with early selling while the price was high. | ||
| As they sold, though, the price plummeted. | ||
| They duped more than 800,000 Americans who collectively lost $2 billion. | ||
| Welcome to what experts refer to as a rug pull. | ||
| When I was a criminal prosecutor, though, we had a different name for this. | ||
| It was corruption. | ||
| Foreign interests got the best presidency money can buy. | ||
| Donald Trump got richer and Americans got screwed. | ||
| Today, I introduced the Meme Act, which prohibits top federal officials from issuing, sponsoring, or promoting financial assets with criminal and civil penalties. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, our public offices do not belong to us. | ||
| They belong to the American people, and they're not for sale. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president during their remarks. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The federal government runs out of money in two weeks. | ||
| Republicans, who lead both chambers and the White House, have yet to produce an actual funding plan. | ||
| Instead, House Republicans passed a blueprint to slash up to $2.5 trillion from Medicaid. | ||
| In my state, Pennsylvania alone, that jeopardizes care for nearly 3 million people, including 100,000 people struggling with addiction. | ||
| In my district, that means risking medical care for more than 45,000 people under the age of 21 and more than 15,000 people over the age of 60. | ||
|
Protecting Vulnerable Lives
00:13:27
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| Children and seniors, vulnerable people who rely upon Medicaid for their health and for their very lives. | ||
| Negotiations are always part of the process, yet our duty remains to safeguard our children, our seniors, the working poor, people with disabilities, and people struggling with addiction. | ||
| That's not negotiable. | ||
| Our budget reflects our values. | ||
| Protecting life, liberty, and happiness are our values. | ||
| We must live up to that. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from the Virgin Islands seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and assimilate. | ||
| Court, without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I rise today to celebrate three teachers from the Virgin Islands, Ms. Charisse Davis, Mr. Cornell Hanley, and Mr. Andre Douglas, for their outstanding contributions and exceptional dedication to their students and our community. | ||
| Ms. Davis, an elementary teacher at Wanita Gardeen School, is a committed community leader and an 11-year veteran of teaching. | ||
| Mr. Hanley, a special education teacher at Bowski Elementary School, has dedicated more than 20 years to teaching and is known for his leadership and devotion to his students. | ||
| And Mr. Andre Douglas, a mathematics teacher at Evanya Adora-Ken High School, was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, one of the highest honors in the field. | ||
| Each of you has elevated the standard of education in our territory and secured a brighter future for generations of Virgin Islanders to come. | ||
| Thank you for your service. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today, I rise to recognize Reverend Dr. Curtis Theodore Walker Sr. as Ohio's 13th Congressional District Champion of the Week for his 50-year career in the ministry. | ||
| Reverend Walker served as a minister and pastor at multiple African Methodist Episcopal Zion churches in New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Alabama. | ||
| And in 1992, he became the senior pastor at the Wesley Temple Church in Akron, which is Akron's oldest black congregation. | ||
| Reverend Walker has been a faithful servant of God, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the Bethel AMB Zion Church, where he currently serves as pastor. | ||
| Not only is he serving his ministry, he serves the countless individuals and families he has pastored throughout the 50 years of service. | ||
| The understanding and compassion that he demonstrates has served to benefit not only his congregation, but also society as a whole. | ||
| And as his congregation is made up of dedicated members of our community who work to spread the Lord's message of good deeds, throughout his 50 years of Christian ministry, Reverend Dr. Walker has displayed a solemn commitment to the Lord, which encourages all who have known him to have faith and do all things for the glory of God. | ||
| Congratulations again to Reverend Dr. Curtis Theodore Walker Sr. on this remarkable milestone, and thank you for all that you do for our community. | ||
| I wish you many more years of continued success and dedication to the ministry and to our entire community. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection? | ||
| Recognize for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I thank you. | |
| Mr. Speaker, there is new reporting that the Social Security Administration has been told to cut its workforce in half. | ||
| And unfortunately, I heard from a constituent who works there who was just put on a 30-day leave with no promise to keep their job. | ||
| This agency helps keep 364,000 of Virginia seniors out of poverty, supports over 181,000 disabled Virginians, and upholds the American promise that if you spend your life paying into the system, the next generation will have your back. | ||
| This agency is already understaffed, only reaching 20% of their hiring goals. | ||
| So why would Doge do this? | ||
| They want to gut Social Security. | ||
| My constituents sent me here to protect their benefits, but it's clear to me that my colleagues across the aisle and this Doge program will never stand up against this administration, but we will. | ||
| And as the President and Doge delay payments, disrupt services, and deny these hard-earned benefits, I will push back and protect Social Security. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from New York see recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| There were reports last night that the Social Security Administration may reduce staff by more than 50 percent. | ||
| This will affect whether seniors receive all the benefits that they are entitled to. | ||
| 10,000 baby boomers every day become eligible for Social Security. | ||
| How could they possibly keep up with that demand with a 50% reduction in staff? | ||
| In my district, we've been told that the Social Security Administration is closing the White Plains Hearing Office. | ||
| That will mean that people in Westchester and the greater Hudson Valley will have to drive longer distances at a greater expense to fight for their benefit, and this is happening nationwide. | ||
| This all comes in the same week as House Republicans passed their budget plan that would cut Medicaid by $880 billion. | ||
| We were told this president would lower costs. | ||
| Nothing I just mentioned lowers costs, and it actually throws people's livelihoods into chaos. | ||
| I'm committed to making Westchester and Bronx' lives less expensive. | ||
| I urge this body to reverse course and do the same. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Maryland seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one moment. | |
| Without objection? | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, I had the honor of standing with community leaders, friends, and family to remember an amazing woman, former Congresswoman Beverly Byron, the last woman to hold my seat in the 6th District of Maryland and who honorably served from 1978 to 1992. | ||
| Bev, as she was known, was sharp, funny, and wise. | ||
| She was a true public servant who always put her country first. | ||
| She stepped into her seat in 1978 after the sudden death of her husband Goodlow, and she went on to serve for 14 years with distinction on matters that mattered most to Maryland families. | ||
| To me, she was more than just a role model. | ||
| At 92 years old, she was a friend and a strong support system. | ||
| Even in her last months, she was by my side on the campaign trail, as she was for John when he held the seat. | ||
| She often reminded me, and she said, April, remember our rural America. | ||
| Remember, Western Maryland is important. | ||
| We need our voices to be heard, and remember our armed services and our national parks. | ||
| Bev set the stand for public service and left a legacy we are all inspired to follow. | ||
| She will be very much missed, but will honor that memory by continuing the work she cared about so much. | ||
| Rest in peace, Bev. | ||
| We'll have a special place in our hearts for you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise or extend my remarks. | |
| With no objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago, we saw more than 1,000 staff announced being fired at the VA. | |
| Then this week, 1,400 more staffers fired at the VA. | ||
| Who are these folks? | ||
| They support a veterans crisis hotline. | ||
| They take care of medical research, studying cancer, mental health, you name it, burn pit exposure. | ||
| Remember, the federal government is the largest veteran employer in the United States. | ||
| Around a third of all VA employees, veterans themselves. | ||
| Yesterday, we learned the Trump administration canceling more than 800 VA contracts. | ||
| You know what these things fund? | ||
| Getting toxic-exposed veterans access to their records to prove their claims, cancer care for veterans, calibrating radiation detection equipment. | ||
| I could go on and on. | ||
| It's a betrayal to attack veterans' care. | ||
| You do not send young Americans off to fight wars and then come back to this country and betray them and attack the VA. | ||
| You want to talk about fiscal responsibility? | ||
| Go look at fraud, waste, and abuse at the Pentagon. | ||
| Go tax billionaires and offshoring corporations. | ||
| You don't do it on the backs of veterans. | ||
| This is unacceptable. | ||
| We're going to fight this every way we can. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the representative from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I ask your name. | |
| It's considered to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Previse and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, there's always good news in America. | ||
| It's contained in the hearts of its people. | ||
| I rise today in recognition of an extraordinary citizen of Northwest Ohio, Mr. Steve Martin, for his selfless dedication to our community. | ||
| Steve creates community. | ||
| Since April of last year, Steve has volunteered with I Want to Mow Your Lawn, a not-for-profit providing free lawn care to elderly individuals, veterans, people with disabilities, and families in need. | ||
| Through his hard work and generosity, Steve has completed 30 visits to care for the homes of Nancy Kincaid and Bill Orzahowski, two neighbors facing serious health challenges. | ||
| His services not only maintain their yards, he has given them peace of mind, dignity, and the knowledge that their community cares. | ||
| Steve's contributions exemplify the very best of Northwest Ohio's spirit. | ||
| Neighbors helping neighbors, lifting each other up in times of need. | ||
| His work reminds us all that small acts of kindness can have a profound impact. | ||
| I'm honored to recognize Steve Martin today. | ||
| Let's thank him for his unwavering commitment to making our communities a better place for all. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from New Mexico seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to address the House and to revise my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| As you know, there are hundreds of sovereign tribal nations across the United States. | ||
| And since this great nation's founding, the United States has signed hundreds of treaties with tribal nations and passed hundreds of laws reaffirming tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and U.S. commitments to Indigenous communities. | ||
| But over the last month, we've seen and heard from tribes all over the country whose federal funds have been frozen and their programs impacted by mass firings, including at Indian Health Service, BIA, and BIE, including in my district, at SIPI, and at Haskell College, where faculty and students have been devastated by mass firings. | ||
| That's why yesterday, myself and the New Mexico delegation and 111 members of Congress sent a letter to the administration calling on them to halt and reverse these harmful cuts to tribal programs. | ||
| These programs are vital to Indian country and part of the United States' solemn tribal trust and treaty responsibilities. | ||
| Our sovereign tribal nations depend on these programs. | ||
| Gentlewoman's time has expired. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House Gordon Minutes revising. | |
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to honor an incredible career of Glenn Ramage and to congratulate him on his retirement. | ||
| A resident of Milstad, Illinois, and a lifelong labor champion, Glenn has inspired so many, including myself. | ||
| For 25 years, Glenn served as business manager for the downstate Illinois Laborers District Council. | ||
| During that time, he fought to secure better benefits and higher wages for more than 10,000 union families. | ||
| As a member of the Illinois Capital Development Board, Glenn brought workers' voices to the table that oversees state construction projects. | ||
| He also chairs the Illinois Laborers and Contractors Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee to help build the next generation of construction workers. | ||
|
National Emergency Continues
00:05:01
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| Glenn, thank you for all that you have done for Illinois' workers, for the labor movement, and for our community. | ||
| Congratulations on your retirement. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, ma'am. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The chair logs before the House a message to the Congress of the United States. | |
| Section 202D of the National Emergency Act 50 USC 1622D provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency at last within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of his declaration. | ||
| The President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. | ||
| In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for Publication the enclosed notice stating that the National Emergency declared an Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015, with respect to the situation in Venezuela is to continue in effect beyond March 8, 2025. | ||
| The situation in Venezuela continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. | ||
| For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the National Emergency declared in Executive Order 13692 with respect to the situation in Venezuela. | ||
| Signed, Donald J. Trump, the White House, February 27, 2025. | ||
| Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered printed. | ||
| The Chair logs before the House a second message. | ||
| To the Congress of the United States, Section 202-D of the National Emergency Act 50 USC 1622D provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. | ||
| In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the National Emergency declared in Executive Order 13660 of March 6, 2014, which was expanded in scope in Executive Order 13661, Executive Order 13662, and Executive Order 14065, | ||
| and under which additional steps were taken in Executive Order 13685 and Executive Order 13849 is to continue in effect beyond March 6, 2025. | ||
| The actions and policies of the persons that undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and contribute to the misappropriations of its assets, as well as the actions and policies of the government of the Russian Federation, including its purported annexation of Crimea and its use of force in Ukraine, | ||
| continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. | ||
| Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13660 with respect to Ukraine. | ||
| Signed sincerely, Donald J. Trump, the White House, February 27, 2025. | ||
| This is referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered printed. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy as of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from California, Ms. Kamalfa, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I appreciate the time and effort to make this time available so that we can communicate directly with the American public. | ||
| And what is going on in Congress? | ||
| And I'm disappointed that sometimes here there's a lot of misinformation going out, including several presentations just a few minutes ago on the distortion of what the intentions are under the budget resolution and ultimately budget reconciliation and how we're going to return the United States back in the direction of a balanced budget, which has ballooned so unbalanced in the last few years from, well, at least let's get back to the pre-COVID numbers instead of $2 trillion annually. | ||
|
Indiana's Hardworking Hoosiers
00:03:26
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| But, you know, we'll resolve that. | ||
| We'll talk about this. | ||
| We'll talk about it publicly in upcoming weeks, and the people can tune right into the committee hearings and see for themselves rather than having to believe lies made by politicians and by the media. | ||
| So I'd also like to share this time and this hour here with colleagues and including my new colleague here from Indiana, Mr. Shreve, would like to give his comments and thoughts here. | ||
| So I will yield to him as much time as he may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| During our district work week this past week, I had the opportunity to visit with Hoosiers across Indiana's 6th District. | ||
| I plied my first in-district work week traveling from Indianapolis to Columbus and points in between. | ||
| It was great to hear directly from Hoosiers about their priorities and listening to the issues that are important to them. | ||
| Above all else, in this role, our job as representatives is to listen to our constituents. | ||
| I was honored to attend the Indiana National Guard change in command ceremony at which Brigadier General Lawrence Munich assumed command from Major General Dale Lyles, making General Munich the 60th Adjutant General of Indiana's National Guard. | ||
| I met with constituents from the Indiana Railroad Association and the Indiana Trucking Association. | ||
| The district that I represent literally lies at the crossroads of America, and industries such as these represent key parts of the lifeblood of our economy. | ||
| Indiana 6 continues to be home to safe and prosperous communities in which to raise families. | ||
| It was highlighted by my visit with the leadership at Franklin College and a number of state of the city addresses that occur in the month of January, including Greenwoods, where I attended Mayor Mark Meyer's 14th state of the city address. | ||
| I visited with the leadership of Cummins Engine Company headquartered in the district, toured their cutting-edge engineering facility at their Cummins engine plant. | ||
| I toured Rolls-Royce and their massive aircraft engine design and manufacturing facility where they are at the bleeding edge of military aircraft production for our national defense. | ||
| I also visited with SABIC, a company in Bartholomew County that's part of a global plastics industry. | ||
| At each of these companies in my district, I witnessed the best of Indiana, highly skilled, hardworking Hoosiers who are contributing to the success and the defense of our country. | ||
| Above all, I heard a common theme as I traveled to my district. | ||
| Let's bring more Hoosier common sense to Washington. | ||
| That's the commitment I made, and that's what I'll continue to do. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you for participating and letting us know what's going on in your district, Mr. Shreve, and best to you in your first term and new term as a member of Congress. | ||
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Long-Term CO2 Trends
00:12:49
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All right. | |
| Just in quick review once again here, as in passing the budget resolution this week, H.R. 14, and I invite people to look that up yourselves. | ||
| It's a 60-page document. | ||
| And decide for yourselves as what you're hearing and what they're trying to scare the public with on things are going to be cut because of it. | ||
| They're not in there. | ||
| Again, Medicaid, no cuts. | ||
| Medicare, no cuts. | ||
| Social Security, no cuts. | ||
| SNAP, none. | ||
| And we even heard a bit ago about veterans. | ||
| No, we want to make these things better for them. | ||
| We want to make them more effective. | ||
| Our veterans deserve to have the best possible care, the best possible services for them. | ||
| And this is going to come from the type of rhetoric that we're hearing here. | ||
| Wells, as I mentioned before, Social Security. | ||
| No one's going to reduce Social Security, but looking forward long term, it's going to be in big trouble in seven or eight years. | ||
| And so should we be working together, bipartisan, to make sure that that program can sustain itself beyond that when the trust fund runs out, you know, when that at such a point that more money will have to be paid in by workers or less benefits, things like that, because it just flat runs out. | ||
| And that's not good. | ||
| Let's have an honest debate on that and how Medicaid is going to go forward as well. | ||
| All these programs need to be looked at in order to keep them on a solid fiscal course. | ||
| And that doesn't happen when lies get told about what we're trying to do here in sight of running $2 trillion budget deficits. | ||
| So with so many different issues for us to be looking at in Congress, we also have to revitalize our economy. | ||
| And a growing economy will help a lot in solving our deficit problem. | ||
| You know, two big drivers of inflation are overspending by federal government and the cost of energy, which is integral to so much of our economy. | ||
| So much, every aspect of production and transportation and delivery and what we do in our daily lives. | ||
| Cost of energy, electricity in your homes and businesses, manufacturing, and fuel for vehicles, trains, aircraft, you name it. | ||
| Those are the two main drivers. | ||
| And as we've seen the last several years, when the federal government has basically put a giant vacuum on the available money supply, prices of everything go up. | ||
| And the energy to produce those things prices are set up. | ||
| I'm a farmer in my real life at home. | ||
| And a couple years ago, I saw the tripling of the cost of fertilizer as an input for our crops and the doubling of fuel. | ||
| I mean, where's that going to be made up? | ||
| Price of food, right? | ||
| And everybody's kind of mad about the price of eggs right now. | ||
| Hey, I get it. | ||
| I understand that. | ||
| A couple things and the factors there is that we have California regulations, especially on how eggs are to be produced and the chickens raised. | ||
| We've seen all those things that drive inflation, expect, you know, excuse me, affect the egg growers, the poultry folks, and also the, I believe, overreaction on bird flu, where the last number I saw, 160 million chickens have been exterminated because of the idea or perception on that. | ||
| Yeah, there's a real deal out there, but the Biden administration, I think, took it way too far. | ||
| So when you have these things going on, that's going to affect the price of eggs. | ||
| So the Trump administration is working diligently. | ||
| I spoke to Secretary of Ag just yesterday, and they're looking at remedies for that. | ||
| And so we'll be soon getting a handle on that and other things that are inflationary if we're allowed to have our economy thrive and be open enough to take care of these things. | ||
| So I'm encouraged by this direction. | ||
| You know, a lot of talk about Doge and what it's doing. | ||
| And it's indeed flipping over rocks and find a lot of cockroaches scurrying away on some things that the American public cares zero about on what's being spent in foreign areas at USAID. | ||
| I mean, at the beginning there were some good aspects to USAID, but it sure turned into something else that the public doesn't care about or want. | ||
| So the effects of these costs, these actions of government, and then let's look at the regulatory side. | ||
| With the expended on climate change that in my home state of California especially, and what is actually climate change? | ||
| And let's look at long-term trends. | ||
| And there's a lot of science behind that's being ignored, I believe, in what are the trends on temperatures, what are the trends on CO2, and so many different aspects that are a lot more scientific than politicians, me included, that are trying to expound upon that. | ||
| So we've seen very difficult regulations come down the pike on the regulation, especially of CO2. | ||
| Now you've probably seen this poster of mine in the past where I've pointed out the makeup of CO2 in our atmosphere, one of the greenhouse gases that are the main concern by several administrations now. | ||
| And so you see the main gases, nitrogen, oxygen, and these trace gases. | ||
| We put right over here especially carbon dioxide. | ||
| Look at that very narrow strip that represents of that. | ||
| People are astounded when I actually show them this stuff that how little CO2 is in the atmosphere because they've been scared and had so much fear instilled in them by media, by politicians, by regulatory agencies to say that CO2 is going to be the end of mankind. | ||
| It's an existential threat. | ||
| It's the biggest threat we have, according to John Kerry and others, not the actions of China, the actions of others in promoting war and terrorism around the world. | ||
| Well, let me show you my updated chart here. | ||
| This one points out the same one I just showed you here. | ||
| This is currently in 2025. | ||
| This is what it looked like back in 1970, back when I was a kid in school and they were instilling fear in us that we're going to have an ice age. | ||
| Those are the days of the ice age. | ||
| Those are the days of global cooling. | ||
| So look at the two charts. | ||
| They're a bit smaller than the first poster here, but they're the same ratios. | ||
| There's CO2, once again, that little skinny purple piece of pie in that chart here. | ||
| There it is right there. | ||
| It's the same ratios. | ||
| Yeah, CO2 has bumped up a little bit over that time, but that can be defined by so many things besides human activity. | ||
| And so the credit that we would get as a nation isn't very often forthcoming that, hey, we've actually already done a lot of good things in this time, in this timeline. | ||
| You know, you have the Paris Accord. | ||
| Well, it's the U.S. and only the U.S. and one other country have actually seen their CO2 numbers go down in that period of time and leading up to it. | ||
| Everyone else's is going up. | ||
| So when you see in the efforts that are being made to so dramatically regulate carbon dioxide, it's killing our economy. | ||
| It's killing people's choices. | ||
| Look at my home state of California where they want to ban vehicles that are gas or diesel powered by the 2035. | ||
| They're coming after locomotives. | ||
| They're going to more and more force aircraft into using different types of fuels. | ||
| Like, well, that's fine. | ||
| If you can develop the fuel and it's a better fuel, let's look at it. | ||
| But is it really going to produce? | ||
| Are you really going to see where the, instead of where the rubber meets a road, I guess where the wing meets the air, are you going to see dramatic savings in the different pollutants that are being focused on, or is it going to be offset by such tremendously high costs that it's never worth doing it? | ||
| So when you look at the CO2, so many things are being done to try and avoid CO2. | ||
| Again, vehicles, they want to take away gas stoves and gas water heaters. | ||
| We've had legislation on that recently to address that, no, this isn't something that should just be done by the whim, by the stroke of a pen, and an executive order, you know, by EPA or others. | ||
| So we've had congressional review acts to say, no, we're going to let people keep what they have because it really hasn't been shown that there's going to be a dramatic positive effect by taking away people's appliances, their gas stoves, or their vehicles, what have you. | ||
| Let's go back a little bit to the when we want to when we want to talk about greenhouse gas and the efforts by the EPA and different administrations. | ||
| So we're looking in 2003 under the Bush administration, there was a petition submitted to EPA for the agency, EPA agency, to regulate greenhouse gases and CO2 under the Clean Air Act. | ||
| So it led to litigation that went all the way up to the Supreme Court. | ||
| It ruled in 2007 that the Clean Air Act was written broadly enough, at least in that court's decision, for EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, which includes CO2, supposedly as a greenhouse gas. | ||
| You can debate that if you want, and that EPA must decide if emissions from new motor vehicles endangered public health or welfare. | ||
| So once the Supreme Court in 2007 made that ruling, two years later, the Obama administration, under their EPA, jumped to issue a 2009 finding that CO2, greenhouse gas, endangered public health and that these emissions from new motor vehicles contribute to that endangerment. | ||
| So that's the endangerment clause that will be talked about. | ||
| With these actions, the EPA is now required to establish that CO2 standards for new motor vehicles for upcoming years. | ||
| So after the 2007 ruling, so up until that, excuse me, the 2007 ruling, EPA generally did not regulate CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. | ||
| So we saw that in 2009, as I mentioned, the Obama administration moved in that direction, and that's when we've been hearing about CO2 as a pollutant ever since. | ||
| Well, let's go back to a little basic school chemistry and science on that. | ||
| CO2 is an important element in the atmosphere, even though it is only this tiny fraction at 0.04%. | ||
| It's enough to sustain plant life. | ||
| It's an important element, a key element. | ||
| We breathe oxygen, basically. | ||
| We breathe all this, but the oxygen is what we carry in our bloodstreams. | ||
| And so CO2 is basically the same oxygen for plant life, tree life, all of it. | ||
| And interestingly, if we're too successful at reducing CO2 below the 0.02% level, you're going to see plant life starting to die off. | ||
| So you'll see with certain agriculture operations and horticultural that some will put up greenhouses and in order to get the new developed plants to grow faster, maybe for retail sales so you can buy your tomatoes at the market to plant in your garden, they'll inject extra CO2 into that to boost the speed of the plants. | ||
| And that shows right there, firsthand, that CO2 is essential to plant life, to tree life, and that if we're making that an existential threat, then we're really, I think, missing an important key to the science, even though back in 2009 in that area, everybody wanted to say the science is settled. | ||
| This is a catastrophe waiting to happen. | ||
| It's been happening ever since. | ||
| Especially in my home state of California, where they're hell-bent on taking away people's choices, their vehicles and gas stoves and gas leaf blowers and whatever you can think of. | ||
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Engines and Emissions
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| Even catch this generators. | ||
| Now, think of what a generator does during an emergency. | ||
| Generally, they're pretty portable and they're needed when there's no electricity available in an area. | ||
| A lot of times, this might be up in the hills in the woods, but there's no electricity anyway, a remote area, maybe out on a farm, you know, for maybe you need to weld something on your farm equipment. | ||
| So there's a generator on the truck that can hook to the welder. | ||
| But a lot of people have home generators that are fuel-powered, frequently gas-powered, some diesel-powered. | ||
| So let's say they get their way and ban fuel-powered generators of all types. | ||
| You know, hospitals have backup generators when the power goes out there. | ||
| And Lord knows, in my part of the state here, we've seen plenty of power outages where we have what's called public safety power shutoffs. | ||
| in Northern California because we've had so many fires, forest fires, and some of them have been started by the interaction of trees and tree branches and such with power lines. | ||
| And so you get two bad results when that happens. | ||
| A tree falling into a power line or a large branch, etc., sparks, causes fire. | ||
| The two bad outcomes are frequently it'll cause a blackout, the power will be knocked out. | ||
| But the things that are more dramatic and more noticeable, I guess, long term are the fire that could come from that and then torch tens, even hundreds of thousands, in one case a million acres in my district from a tree, a healthy looking tree, a perfectly healthy looking tree that had been inspected and deemed to be okay, fell into a power line. | ||
| So we have the Dixie fire, 1 million acres. | ||
| So what are the effects of that fire on CO2 and air quality and all that? | ||
| Really bad. | ||
| The Dixie fire, for example, was, as I mentioned, 1 million acres of such concentrated smoke that that smoke plume got up into the atmosphere and in such a density that it made it up into the jet stream that comes across west to east in this country and affected here on the East Coast. | ||
| People in New York, Philadelphia, even here in D.C. were advised for a several day period, don't go out and do physical athletic activities outside because the smoke was seen as above healthy levels. | ||
| This isn't just in my backyard where it happens so often that people are almost used to that of having brown skies because of burning forests. | ||
| Our fire is affecting the East Coast. | ||
| Now, you noticed a year or two ago the Canadian fires where it was coming down just from either Ontario or Quebec, much more close by and suffering those effects too. | ||
| That came all the way from back there. | ||
| So that's a result of regulations not allowing us to manage the forest in such a way that you can put fire out much simpler, much sooner. | ||
| You're always going to have fires. | ||
| You're always going to have burning forests. | ||
| But the last 50 years or so, the way they have not been managed, the forests are now so dense, so full of material, burnable material, burnable fuels, that it's extremely difficult to put a fire out. | ||
| We need what's called, this terminology, shaded fuel breaks, which in plain English means thinning areas of the forest. | ||
| We should start, we should prioritize around towns and cities, of course, but any area that you can do that means that you're going to have a lower density of trees per acre and a lot of the brush and other material that gathers on the bottom of the forest. | ||
| That biomaterial can actually be used for positive things. | ||
| There's folks talking to us even more about expanding the use of that for pellets for use to export. | ||
| There's positive export, positive for our economy and our trade deficit, but also for cleaning up our forests and putting jobs back in our forests. | ||
| For some reason, we're the number one reporter of wood products in this country of the Western countries. | ||
| So let's get some wins on that. | ||
| Let's get some wins for everybody on the management of the forest and the environmental negative effects you have on air quality, as well as water quality, because you have all the ash that's left behind on these catastrophic fires that basically leave you a boonscape. | ||
| That's washed into the streams and the brooks and rivers and eventually the lakes, such as lakes in Northern California that store mass amounts of water. | ||
| It's 4.5 million acre feet in Mount Lake Shasta, 3.5 million acre-feet in Lake Oroville when they're full, when they're allowed to be full. | ||
| And that's the water supply for most of the rest of California. | ||
| Drinking water for LA. | ||
| That's important. | ||
| So what do you do without water quality with all that stuff flowing in there because we're not managing the forest lands? | ||
| So when we harm ourselves with CO2 information that really isn't accurate or proportional, then we hamper our ability to do much of anything. | ||
| So I'm excited to see that under our new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, he's taking a look at this again. | ||
| We're not just accepting that back in 2009 that the Obama administration was just able to say the science is settled. | ||
| You know, what do you know about science? | ||
| Science is never settled. | ||
| Science is constantly evolving at some level or another as new information is found. | ||
| I don't know how many things you can really decide are the final word in the area of science, biology, what have you. | ||
| We're always learning more. | ||
| And so how you can have the whole equation on how whether it's mankind's involvement or what nature does with forests, trees and the rainforest, for example, is plant life grows and dies and that as it absorbs oxygen doing so, it releases CO2 when it dies off. | ||
| And what is happening in the ocean? | ||
| There's a lot of sources where CO2 could be happening. | ||
| That's under the assumption that we think CO2 is bad. | ||
| But ask a tree. | ||
| CO2 is good. | ||
| And carbon, everything is carbon-based anyway, pretty much in our world, in our lives. | ||
| And so if we're going to eliminate CO2, which I don't know that we can eliminate that much down to 0.02%, but that'd be really dangerous in doing so. | ||
| So I'm pleased that under the executive order that President Trump put out, the EPA administrator is going to look at recommendations on taking a look at the 2009 endangerment finding, as it was called at the EPA under the Obama administration. | ||
| It's been the basis for many, many climate-related regulations. | ||
| So this executive order will determine whether this really aligns with what the energy policies and legal interpretations, but more importantly, the needs of Americans are for energy and all the things that come from energy. | ||
| Remember, I talked about the main cost drivers of inflation and why everything's so expensive now, including your eggs and your fuel. | ||
| Our fuel in California is about a buck and a quarter, a buck and a half a gallon higher than the national average. | ||
| That's another thing we get to enjoy under the regime in California. | ||
| So that taking a look at this endangerment finding and saying, no, the science isn't settled is going to be extremely important. | ||
| And we can actually get some more science back involved in how we're going to look at CO2. | ||
| Now, the other greenhouse gases I think we need to continue to look at. | ||
| You know, methane, NOx, NOX, known as nitrous oxides, those are still issues we need to look at. | ||
| And I think certainly that Mr. Zeldin over there at EPA is going to be responsible in that area. | ||
| But I also am very glad that we're asking the question once again, because if you watch this floor very much, you might see me pretty often talking about this chart, because so many people have been scared into believing that CO2 is this giant existential danger. | ||
| I ask people frequently when we have gatherings or meetings and we sway into this topic a little bit. | ||
| Most people on the street believe the atmosphere is somewhere between typically 20 to 50 percent of is CO2. | ||
| And again, they're dumbfounded when they find out that it's that, 0.04 percent. | ||
| And we're exporting our jobs to the Pacific Rim or to Mexico or other places because we don't want to do it here. | ||
| I tell you, you know, it's part of the findings are that when you look at the whole equation, We're not helping overall global emissions. | ||
| The overall finding itself states that even if the U.S. cut its emissions to zero, global emissions would keep increasing because of countries like China and India and others in that neighborhood. | ||
| They would keep going up. | ||
| You know, you remember the Olympics that were held in China just a few years ago? | ||
| The air is so nasty there in those large cities. | ||
| They actually shut down their industries for about a couple weeks leading up to the Olympics and during the Olympics so they could try and have blue skies and cleaner air for the athletes to participate back then. | ||
| We don't have to do that stuff here, except when we have forest fires. | ||
| Of course, no one's to go outside if the forest fire is affecting. | ||
| That gets down to a forest management thing I'll talk about a different day more so. | ||
| But we've achieved so much, and we have achieved good things with regulations in this nation here, going back to 66 and 68. | ||
| A lot of those rules came in on car emissions devices and such that have helped. | ||
| You know, the LA basin is a lot cleaner than it was in the late 60s and early 70s and probably before that as well. | ||
| But we've done so much. | ||
| The technology with engines these days, with internal combustion engines, they call it ICE, internal combustion engines, they're so tremendously much cleaner burning now than they used to be. | ||
| And that credit doesn't seem to be given to industry for doing that. | ||
| Truck engines, tractor engines, as they're up to tier four now. | ||
| They burn pretty darn clean. | ||
| We can still do more to improve, but if industry is allowed to improve on its own as technology is done organically instead of being forced by a regulation that has taken it in the wrong direction away from improving what we have, we're not going to get there. | ||
| And so we're going to have these electric vehicles that nobody can afford, nobody really wants, other than the elitists and what have you, but they're being forced upon people and they're forced upon the industry that's trying to develop a way to make it better. | ||
| And battery technology, I'm sorry, has not caught up to the desire to have battery-powered vehicles. | ||
| Storage batteries, you know, it takes so much area, so many resources to build the batteries. | ||
| So many metals, metals that were not allowed to mine in this country due to other EPA and other regulations. | ||
| In one case, a copper mine took 29 years to permit. | ||
| Copper is going to be dramatically needed more so as more and more AI technology, AI centers are built, and the amount of electricity to run them is going to be tremendous as well. | ||
| So where are we going to get the energy to do all this? | ||
| Well, we have these clean forms of energy that have been shunned for a long time. | ||
| Hydroelectric power, my own district, they took four hydroelectric dams down just recently that generated CO2-free power. | ||
| Hydroelectric makes zero CO2 in making that electricity. | ||
| Nuclear power makes zero CO2. | ||
| And the type of power they make is 24-hour, seven-day a week availability of power. | ||
| You don't have to wait for the sun to come up, the rain to go away, the clouds to go away, or for the wind to blow for a windmill or solar plant to become effective. | ||
| I'm not against those forms of power, but I'm just looking at what is the efficiency of them versus what we know. | ||
| What we know has worked for a long time. | ||
| You know, the country has moved away from coal. | ||
| Coal is still a very important component. | ||
| Coal can still be a win if we would design the power plants and allow them to be retrofitted and maybe as a good backup plan. | ||
| I'm not sure. | ||
| That's a tougher debate. | ||
| Natural gas. | ||
| Those are very, very clean running plants. | ||
| We need more of them. | ||
| as we have so much natural gas available after the miracle of hydraulic fracturing has been invented and being perfected each more each day. | ||
| So much potential there. | ||
| And natural gas is important that we up to production on that and the export as well. | ||
| Look at Europe, where Russia built the giant pipeline to bring gas into Germany and other areas, I suppose. | ||
| I just am astounded by that when you look at history of that area of the world there that Europe would want to be dependent upon Russia for natural gas. | ||
| They could take that 90-degree valve and shut it off any time if they didn't like what Germany or others were doing politically or what have you. | ||
| And we have a much stronger relationship with Europe. | ||
| We're in NATO together, which we need to maintain that relationship. | ||
| I'm glad to see President Trump is also requiring stronger participation by NATO folks to pay for more their own way. | ||
| Why should that be on the American taxpayer? | ||
| And they seem to be getting it. | ||
| Germany was talking more recently about participating at a stronger level. | ||
| And that's all good. | ||
| But we're still their friends. | ||
| We're still allies together. | ||
| There's nothing wrong with that. | ||
| But why would they want to be dependent on the Russian bear for their natural gas? | ||
| What if there was actually not a political crisis, but just some kind of hiccup anyway? | ||
| The U.S. has tremendous ability to develop more natural gas and export it via those big ships to Europe. | ||
| We should be doing a lot more of that as a good ally, as a good trading partner. | ||
| And it will help with trade. | ||
| You were talking about trade in agriculture a little bit earlier today. | ||
| We're not having a lot of great results on that trade as dairy, for example, is really suffering in this country as there's a tremendous amount of import coming from there, kind of undercutting our dairies. | ||
| Why is that? | ||
| Why are we seeing so much Canadian lumber and wheat coming down, as I said at the railroad crossings in Northern California when a train goes by? | ||
| And why are we importing all that? | ||
| Especially the lumber, when we burn hundreds of thousands, millions of acres each year that are not being managed by the Forest Service or allowed those contracts to go out to be let out for the lumber, the timber that needs to be taken from those areas. | ||
| And you'll hear first thing from the environmental groups like, oh, you want a clear cut. | ||
| You're just in for big lumber for big timber companies. | ||
| That's not what it is at all. | ||
| If we're managing these lands, we're going to be much more successful. | ||
| The forests are healthier. | ||
| It's better for the wildlife. | ||
| Nothing's good for the wildlife when you burn a million acres and all the spotted howl habitat and the cougar habitat and raccoon habitat and everything else goes up with it and the water quality, on and on and on. | ||
| But it comes back to these choking regulations that don't allow us to do what we need to do. | ||
| So getting back to the CO2 and the work that EPA will be looking at. | ||
| As I mentioned, the U.S. has cut emissions in absolute terms as a share of the global emissions since really the 90s, despite our enlarging population, larger economy. | ||
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110 Billion for High-Speed Rail
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| We've been able to accomplish that. | ||
| An important thing to note about the ruling by the 2009 Obama EPA is that Congress has not given directly the EPA the authority to regulate these emissions. | ||
| It was by the sweep of a pen by a Supreme Court. | ||
| Well, isn't Congress the most responsive, the closest to the people, especially this House, as each of us represents about 750,000 people and we have the most opportunity to interact most directly with our constituents and hear from them. | ||
| That's the model that was set up by the founders: the U.S. House is the one most directly responsible to the people and has two-year election cycles so that if they get tired of us, they can throw the bums out. | ||
| So that has to have a responsiveness, and that has that, and it has a responsibility in that it really should be leading the way on how regulations are going to affect those same people that send us here. | ||
| So for the EPA and others, and that's why we thankfully have the Congressional Review Act, where if a regulation is put in and it's seen to be overreaching, overbearing, we have that opportunity in the House here to hear those, and we've passed a couple lately, to say, no, we're going to put you back. | ||
| We're in your more reasonable role as a regulatory agency, because what we're hearing from the people is they don't want their light bulbs taken away. | ||
| They don't want their cars taken away. | ||
| They don't want all these things to happen to them when the science is unsettled, if it's really helping anything. | ||
| They know it's driving costs up. | ||
| They know they have less choices. | ||
| So the Supreme Court has already had another recent ruling where the EPA has tried to move even more aggressively to regulate emissions and have found that some of these rulings were illegal and they're overreach. | ||
| So it comes back to us to legislate on it. | ||
| So let's take credit for what we've done. | ||
| Let industry take credit for having done the research development to make cleaner running vehicles, more efficient vehicles, cleaner power plants, more efficient appliances than ever. | ||
| Just over time by attrition, when more and more of these are replaced with the newer stuff, you're going to see improvements in that, even with improved, or excuse me, increased population and more things going on with the economy. | ||
| And as I mentioned, AI a minute ago, the amount of need for electricity is going to grow dramatically just for that. | ||
| And if we did have all these electrify everything mandates, the electricity needs to be grown as well. | ||
| So how are we going to do that if we're not building more power plants like nuclear power, like natural gas, hydroelectric? | ||
| You know, they're after more hydroelectric plants in Northern California and Washington, Oregon. | ||
| They're just all about tearing dams out right now. | ||
| And we're seeing some of the negative effects there. | ||
| Let's talk about the Klamath River. | ||
| As soon as they tore the dams out, these millions of cubic yards of silt flushed right down the Klamath River. | ||
| I got the pictures in the other room there. | ||
| I've shown them to you enough times probably of dead fish, dead wildlife, and the muck that's been moving down the Klamath River. | ||
| And that's a pretty negative effect from all the hype of what it was going to do to help that. | ||
| So with all this happening, we still have a pretty amazing strong economy in this country. | ||
| And I'm very, very pleased that President Trump is trying to restore that after the four dark years of the Biden administration, not really paying attention to much of what we need, especially in the rural sector with the economies we used to have in timber and in mining and agriculture as well. | ||
| I mean, we have to resort to, for example, because of the timber industry being devastated for most of the last 50 years, something called the Secure Rural Schools Act that myself and Mr. Nagoos of Colorado are putting forward. | ||
| That it's a fund that comes from the U.S. Treasury to make sure that the schools and roads in local areas have some of the money they need they used to get from timber receipts. | ||
| When you cut timber in those areas, they had this fee upon that timber that went to local roads, local schools in counties, et cetera. | ||
| With the sweeping away of the timber industry and the mills that have, you know, so many mills that we've lost in the West, then the negative effect it's had on those local funds has been required to be replaced by the Secure Schools, Secure Roads and Schools Act that we're again putting forward. | ||
| So we've enjoyed pretty good bipartisan support in the past on that, but it does have a budget effect, so we have to fight for it every year. | ||
| But wouldn't we rather fight for the timber receipts and not have to come hat in hand to Congress, to the American people, to say, yeah, we need this fund for something that got taken away by a regulatory act. | ||
| Something we need anyway, these wood and paper products that would come from American forests instead of us being the number one importer of wood products, as I mentioned. | ||
| Why are we doing that? | ||
| We're not forced to take these products by any type of trade agreement, including certainly President Trump in looking at how we're going to even the score with other countries via tariffs. | ||
| Tariffs are controversial, I get it. | ||
| But I've long held, just personally, just as a non-politician when I was much younger, our policy with other countries ought to just be a mirror. | ||
| You treat us how we'll treat you, or vice versa, and that's what our trade policy is going to be. | ||
| If you're going to tariff us, then I guess we should tariff you back until we get to the point where we can just get rid of the tariffs. | ||
| And whoever can build the best product or compete the best is going to be able to trade with each other. | ||
| And India has been pretty bad on that. | ||
| We have even some of our best trading partners. | ||
| We have these tariffs and such. | ||
| So I hope that ultimately, if that has to be a stick until we can get to the carrot, and I hope we get to the carrot soon, then that's something we have to look at. | ||
| So I'm encouraged that under this administration, we are looking at things in a different way, maybe more scientifically than we had in a long time. | ||
| But the greenhouse gas thing is going to be very detrimental long-term to our economy and the things that we do well unnecessarily. | ||
| I mean, still in California, they're still pushing forward on this high-speed rail project. | ||
| You've heard me talk about this maybe a few times, but what started as an idea back in 2008 put before the California voters was a $33 billion fast train from SF to LA. | ||
| Well, this is 2025. | ||
| That's 17 years. | ||
| Not a single mile of track has been laid yet. | ||
| There's been kids born and graduated high school during the amount of time here that this hasn't been done. | ||
| It was projected to be finished from SF to LA by 2020, is what the voters were told when they approved by a narrow 52 to 48 percent, okay, we'll put forth $9 billion of bonds to kickstart the investment. | ||
| I love that word investment around here, meaning we're going to spend your dollars, we're going to invest. | ||
| But that said, they narrowly agreed to that because private investment was going to come along as well. | ||
| They would be attracted into this will be a great project, it would be a money maker, it'll be a great thing. | ||
| Private investment has stayed away in droves. | ||
| Nobody wants to come in on this, unless they can have guarantees that they'll make money. | ||
| But in that bond initiative, specifically, in order to pass it, because people would be warning against that, it specifically outlined that no subsidies of trading tickets, what have you, are allowed in that. | ||
| Now, they're going to find ways, try and find ways around that, which is another lie to the voters on that proposition. | ||
| But still, they forge ahead. | ||
| Many years later, not a single mile of track has been laid. | ||
| Now, they've got these bridges and causeways built, which one day will be monuments to the idiocy of this project. | ||
| They forge ahead. | ||
| You can only identify between that $9 billion and then right back in 2009. | ||
| There's kids in junior high school now that had that happen, that are still in high school, I mean, that saw during that timeline where the Obama administration had the ARRA funds, which was known as a stimulus package then for shovel-ready projects. | ||
| How many years can you do a project to have it still be deemed shovel-ready when we're 17 years in on high-speed rail? | ||
| So, shovel-ready projects, they've had a component for high-speed rail around the country. | ||
| Three other states had wanted a piece of that, and after a while, looking at the costs, they gave it back. | ||
| So, it all went into one pile. | ||
| California says, we'll take that $3.5 billion. | ||
| And here we are, 17 years later, without having anything, a mile of track even been laid. | ||
| So, we're having an investigation on that, too. | ||
| I appreciate Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy came out to LA a little over a week ago and announced that they're going to be auditing that, reviewing that, and seeing are the American taxpayers getting banged for the buck for the money they've been really not asked but had put in there, that original $3.5 billion in 2009, and then right at the end of the Biden era, another approximately $4 billion. | ||
| So, as I started to mention, you can only identify between all this money, the $9 billion, the two chunks from federal, and then California has implemented a cap and trade act to tax people's ability to make CO2, as in manufacturing. | ||
| If you're a certain size or larger manufacturer, you have to go buy the right to do what you've always done if that produces CO2, you know, 0.04% of the atmosphere, in that. | ||
| They've created their own phony currency. | ||
| They just had the auction for it. | ||
| They have an auction where people have to go bid for this. | ||
| They had it sometime in February and raised some money for the state government to spend. | ||
| So, about a billion of that is dedicated each year since then to high-speed rail. | ||
| So, if you add all these numbers up, and if they are somehow allowed to keep the $3.5 to $4 billion that Secretary Duffy is looking at, that I hope to claw back. | ||
| But adding all that up, it's about $18 to $19 billion. | ||
| Well, the price of that rail, that price of that project, has quadrupled since its inception in 2008, from the $33 billion to now about $130 billion. | ||
| So, let's look at these numbers for a bit. | ||
| $130 billion. | ||
| After all this trouble, after all this battling to get federal money, you know, two chunks of a little over $3 billion, and the $9 billion from the voters, and this $1 billion at a time for the CO2 cap and trade money generated in California with that fake currency that they're taxing people that produce $18 billion to $19 billion. | ||
| So they're about $110, $112 billion short of the $130 billion that is commonly accepted to be the total price. | ||
| They've extracted maybe $7 or $8 out of the federal government. | ||
| They're going to want another $110 billion. | ||
| And the private sector is not coming forward to finance this thing because they know it's a loser. | ||
| They can recognize that. | ||
| All right? | ||
| Are they going to hit the people of California with another bond instead of just $9 billion, $110 billion bond, which takes 30 years to pay back, which you double the price for that? | ||
| Where are they going to get the $110 billion? | ||
| So Secretary Duffy of Transportation, he's right. | ||
| He's smart in looking at the $4 billion that's still hanging there right now, just recently given by the Biden administration. | ||
| Let's claw that back now and let them figure it out in California, my home state. | ||
| Let them figure it out. | ||
| Because why should the other 49 states pay for something that isn't working at all, that is so late? | ||
| You know, you know, they promised back when this first came along in 2008, 9, 10, they said it'll provide a million jobs for California. | ||
| A million jobs. | ||
| Are you kidding me? | ||
| Really? | ||
| People up there in that diet were some of them promising that number. | ||
| Well, it turns out after review a couple years later in a state senate hearing, they said, we meant a million job years. | ||
| Oh, job years. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's a different technology than what you've been telling us, right? | ||
| Or a different terminology than what you've been telling the people. | ||
| So currently they claim there's 14,000 jobs involved in building whatever portions of high-speed rail they're doing. | ||
| So when you do the math on that, 14,000 divided into that million job years, that means about 70 years of 14,000 people at a million job years. | ||
| It'll take about 70 years to make that math work, which they're right on track. | ||
| It's going to take about 70 years to build this rail if they actually got the financing. | ||
| But I don't know that anybody wants to come forward with $110 billion to continue this. | ||
| So thank you, Secretary Sean Duffy, for looking at this. | ||
| Thank you, Secretary Lee, our EPA director, I mean, Lee Zeldon, for looking at the CO2 side of it here, because most of the premise of the high-speed rail in California is that it'll be a CO2 saver, right? | ||
| You have this electric train. | ||
| Where's electricity come from? | ||
| How many trains can you actually run on that track from North Cal to Southern Cal to displace Southwest Airlines and all the other airlines that have a heck of a lot of traffic? | ||
| How much is a ticket going to cost to ride this since it's not allowed to be subsidized? | ||
| Probably somewhere in the range of 300 bucks. | ||
| They say, oh, it'll be cheaper than airlines. | ||
|
unidentified
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How? | |
| How at these rates? | ||
| It can't be. | ||
| It can't possibly be. | ||
| So the people will be riding it will be riding up for the novelty. | ||
| And even at one point, they said, well, in order technically for it to be the high-speed rail getting from SF to LA in two and a half hours, they only have to run one train as an express each day to do that. | ||
| Other trains they can stop in little bergs along the way, which means it won't be high-speed rail anymore, except for in between the cities. | ||
|
Cattle Rendering Controversy
00:05:47
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| So it'll probably end up being a four-hour train anyway by the time they do all that. | ||
| So what have you really gained? | ||
| What have you gained for all that money? | ||
| What have you gained for all that pain from the ag land, the farmland, a rendering plant that's in the way of it? | ||
| You know, rendering plants are very essential where they take discarded farm animals that have died on place, dairy, horses, whatever. | ||
| To recite a rendering plant isn't popular. | ||
| No one wants to be next to one of those, especially in this day and age where people don't understand rural issues and rural needs as well. | ||
| They think, oh, what's all this dust? | ||
| What's all this noise? | ||
| What are all these tractors going slow down the road? | ||
| You know, that's making your food is what it's doing, but we'll worry about that later. | ||
| Maybe we can import all that. | ||
| You know, brings back this old poster I always use here. | ||
| We're not growing the food in California if we're not growing these crops. | ||
| Somewhere between 90 and 100 percent of these crops listed here are grown in California. | ||
| If we don't grow them there, then you're going to have to import them or you have to do without them. | ||
| You have to pay a lot higher prices. | ||
| You won't have the stability of where they come from. | ||
| All because it's being regulated out of business. | ||
| The water is being taken away for these growers. | ||
| The land's being taken away in some cases, like this debacle going on at the Point Reyes National Seashore Park there, where farmers for dairy ranch and beef ranches are being kicked off right now because the national parks have muscled them off, along with environmental organizations muscling them off because of phony NEPA stuff that they've made up to just move them out of the way. | ||
| They say the Thule elk will now thrive there because of that. | ||
| Well, cattle and Thule elk get along just fine on these lands and cattle are very essential for helping maintain the landscape, grazing at a level that helps with keeping it healthy and where areas where it would dry, even keeping it fire safe. | ||
| So that's more government regulation muscling people out there. | ||
| That's what we see. | ||
| That's why we have the Congressional Review Act. | ||
| That's why we have what we're looking at here with DOE's flipping things over, finding these phony baloney contracts, giving it even to some of the media here to buy subscriptions to the media to keep them pumped up. | ||
| It's interesting to see how many people are getting laid off from some of the higher levels of media and some of the programs that are closing because maybe they're not getting these hidden subsidies anymore from things like USAID. | ||
| So I'm it's disgusting, I think, for when a lot of people see what has been going on, what this federal government has been getting away with behind the scenes. | ||
| But it's exciting to see the rocks being flipped over and watching the cockroaches running away on this. | ||
| Yeah, there's criticisms of how some of it's coming about, and I think that's being looked at and refined. | ||
| But to throw away the process of making government accountable is a giant mistake if that was allowed to happen. | ||
| And the rhetoric flying out of here on that is just amazing. | ||
| People defending basically this massive government waste and these scandalous issues that are being funded by your tax dollars. | ||
| I understand your tax dollars, these aren't contributions. | ||
| You don't have the option of making these contributions for these investments. | ||
| No, these are mandatory. | ||
| If you don't pay your taxes, they do bad stuff to you. | ||
| They garnish your wages. | ||
| They take your stuff away. | ||
| They auction your stuff off. | ||
| You might even find yourself in handcuffs being prosecuted if they think it's a high enough level. | ||
| So I think American people need to be optimistic about the direction things are going and not fall for all the scare stories. | ||
| Again, I've been hearing it all week long. | ||
| They're going to cut Social Security. | ||
| They're going to cut Medicaid, you know, billions and billions. | ||
| Nope. | ||
| We need to look how these programs could be made better, but there is nothing in the budget resolution this week that said we're going to do that. | ||
| And ongoing, you know, the President has pledged that. | ||
| We in Congress are looking at how do we make them better, not take a single benefit away from anybody. | ||
| So don't buy the lies. | ||
| Read the document, H.R. House Resolution 14 on the budget resolution. | ||
| See for yourself. | ||
| It's not even listed in there. | ||
| Don't buy the lies flying out of this place and the media keeps pushing. | ||
| So with that, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time, the ability to try and get some of these ideas across the American public and our colleagues here. | ||
| So with that, I will yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Mfube, is recognized for 60 minutes as a designee of the minority. | ||
| You are recognized. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I don't suspect I'm going to use the entire amount of time that's been allotted, but I would ask unanimous consent that all members would have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material on the subject of my special order today. | ||
|
unidentified
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Recognized. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to talk about two things. | ||
| One, particularly of import and interest, because we're exiting what we have come to know in this country as Black History Month, and the other, more pertinent in terms of the current news and what's going on, particularly what's been going on over the last month and a half. | ||
|
Sarah Page's Encounter
00:05:18
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| But I want to talk today to begin my remarks talking about this whole notion of history, why it is important, why nobody owns it, why it affects all of us as Americans, and why it's important to remember, because in remembering, we tend not to make the same mistake again. | ||
| And so as we end the month, tomorrow officially, I wanted to take some time today to bring to the attention of the American public something that is not highlighted and very seldom ever talked about, | ||
| but very, very important because it was a grave injustice and a mark on our nation's history, referred to as the Tulsa Race Massacre, which occurred in the summer of 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. | ||
| And I want to begin by trying to walk us back to that summer, those three nights, when the affluent Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, often referred to then and now as Black Wall Street, was burned to the ground, totally burned to the ground. | ||
| And 300 African American people, men, women, and children, were murdered. | ||
| 300. | ||
| It's hard to imagine that that happened in this country in just the last century, just a little over 100 years ago, but it did. | ||
| And the fact that it did, I think, speaks volumes about why it is so very important that we understand the deep hurt that took place and why we understand also it's really our responsibility to remember that and to make sure that we don't allow this nation to creep down that dark kind of a road again. | ||
| And so that Tulsa race massacre, again, 300 people murdered. | ||
| It started with a young man being falsely accused of sexual assault, a 19-year-old kid, when on May 30th, 1921, Sarah Page, who was a young white woman, operating an elevator in the Drexel building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, encountered him. | ||
| He encountered her. | ||
| Dick Rowland was the name of the 19-year-old black kid. | ||
| He was a shoeshiner, delivery boy, and worked in the Drexel building. | ||
| And he was in that building at that time because they had a public, quote, colored restroom facility. | ||
| And so he came there to relieve himself as he normally did. | ||
| But while there, both Nolan, Roland, and Page were both in an elevator. | ||
| And a clerk, ironically, a white clerk, claimed to have heard a scream and called the police telling them that this kid, this 19-year-old kid, Roland, had sexually assaulted the young lady. | ||
| The police chief, whose name was John Gustafuson, reported that the young lady bore no scratches, no bruises, no disarranged dress. | ||
| And the young woman said, no, he never made a bad remark to me of any kind. | ||
| This is a public record. | ||
| So you would think that that would be enough to really negate this false claim that someone just yelled out of the clear blue. | ||
| But despite that, despite that, charges were brought against the 19-year-old kid, Mr. Roland. | ||
| He was arrested and then taken to the Tulsa courthouse. | ||
| And then later that afternoon, newspapers ran inflammatory articles hot off the press that suggested that the 19-year-old kid, Roland, had sexually assaulted the young lady. | ||
| And they ran with a story that stirred emotions at that time. | ||
| And the story was, headline, headline, read all about it. | ||
| Young Negro nabbed for attacking girl in elevator. | ||
| Even though the girl's testimony was, he never touched me, we never spoke. | ||
| He got on the elevator, he got off. | ||
| And even though there was no physical evidence to the contrary, that's what the newspaper ran at the time. | ||
| And that worried, as most of the residents were, that this kid was going to be lynched, approximately 300 men met at the courthouse and an estimated 25 black men also arrived at the scene to back up the sheriff who had sent out a plea for help. | ||
|
Standoff At The Courthouse
00:15:24
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| The sheriff wanted somebody there to protect the courthouse, to ensure justice, and to make sure that this kid he had had to take into custody was in fact safe. | ||
| However, when the crowd of white men swelled to roughly 3,000 and the group of black men swelled to about 75, confrontation did not take place. | ||
| There was a standoff at the courthouse and the National Guard Armory in Tulsa opened its doors and allowed people to come in, citizens, to arm themselves. | ||
| They just took whatever weapons they wanted and then they dispersed. | ||
| Now, if this sounds a little strange, it really, really is. | ||
| This was 104 or so years ago. | ||
| And it's the sort of thing that in this month where we talk about Black history and American history, which are both intertwined. | ||
| It's important to say to a lot of people: this really happened. | ||
| I'm not making it up. | ||
| We've got court records, there are newspaper records, there's reports of all sorts of type by those who reported the news. | ||
| This is an American fact. | ||
| It's chilling. | ||
| I mean, it is sad. | ||
| It is very, very sad. | ||
| And I don't raise it today to make anybody feel bad. | ||
| I just raise it to say that you can't simply close the books and act like things did not happen, call it DEI if somebody wants to talk about it, and pretend that something that did happen that was gross and so anti-human that it just is still repulsive to pretend that it did not happen. | ||
| So for someone just tuning in right now, these are the statistics from that day. | ||
| Again, this community, Greenwood, was known as the Black Wall Street at the time. | ||
| It was thriving, thriving with businesses and entrepreneurship and commerce. | ||
| 85 of the businesses in that town owned by the black population were burned to the ground. | ||
| 1,000 of their homes were set on fire and burned to the ground. | ||
| As I indicated in my opening remarks, 300 African Americans were killed that day and the next day, and that there were 700 people injured, overflowing the hospitals that in that day and time were challenged anyway. | ||
| So the total damage was estimated to be 1.5 million, but in today's dollars, it's 32 million plus. | ||
| So what was left of the town? | ||
| Just smoldering ashes. | ||
| And again, it's important to talk about this because this actually happened. | ||
| And for anybody thinking that Black History Month is just a celebration of all the great things that African Americans did or invented or their role in the arts or in sports or anything like that, it is. | ||
| But it's also about the shame of massacres in this country, the home of the free and the land of the brave, and how somehow we're supposed to just cover it over and never believe that it happened. | ||
| There's importance in remembering, and the importance is to remember so that it never happens again. | ||
| So, as I indicated, there's this standoff. | ||
| The sheriff has called for help. | ||
| He believes that this mob of 300 white men are going to storm the small jail, are going to take the 19-year-old kid and lynch him. | ||
| The National Guard, for some reason, opened its doors so that citizens can run in and get weapons and arm themselves. | ||
| We don't know who fired the first shot or what happened, but we do know that what was to happen would be the worst race massacre in American history. | ||
| Gunfire broke out between the Greenwood men and the white mob, and at least 20 persons fell dead right there at that first volley. | ||
| During the shootout, this is published reports. | ||
| This is not hearsay. | ||
| During the shootout, white mobs prevented the ambulances from treating wounded black men and let them lay there and die. | ||
| And around the city, racial violence ensued, including an unarmed black man being chased into the royal theater and then murdered viciously on the stage. | ||
| Greenwood men fled from the courthouse because they were outnumbered and because they were pursued by this crazy mob of enraged men. | ||
| Most of the black men made it back to their side of town, preparing to defend their community, their wives, their children, their property, which caused rumors to circulate again, rumors that ginned up a response that was completely out of touch with reality. | ||
| And it was being said that there was a Negro uprising, a Negro uprising. | ||
| And therefore, get ready to protect yourself and get ready at the same time to defend your property, even though the property was not under assault. | ||
| It was the property of the black citizens there. | ||
| So throughout the night, they were engaged in gun battles at the Frisco tracks. | ||
| Those were the tracks that separated black Greenwood from the white sections of Tulsa. | ||
| Interestingly, many of the black men, and you will see some of them in some of these photographs, donned their World War I uniforms, their military uniforms, the uniforms that they had worn to protect the nation in segregated troops in our armed services. | ||
| Those uniforms had hung in their closets. | ||
| They put them back on to remind the mob that they were Americans, that they were patriots, that they had offered to give their lives and that so many never returned home. | ||
| And I thought that was kind of fascinating that you're being besieged, you're watching scores of your neighbors be murdered, lynched, burned, you're watching businesses being destroyed, and you still love your country so much that you go and get your uniform, your military uniform, | ||
| and put it on and stand in your doorway to protect your health. | ||
| On that same night, police chief, sheriff, and a judge requested that Governor J.B.A. Robinson send the National Guard in so that they would have troops to restore the order. | ||
| Around this time, however, fires began to erupt in the town of Greenwood. | ||
| Remember, this was called then and it is now the Black Wall Street of America. | ||
| It was great commerce, great independence, great businesses, and great people developing a community that they could be proud of, that Oklahoma could be proud of, and that the nation could be proud of. | ||
| But around this time, fires began to erupt, and firefighters were actually threatened by the white mobs as they tried to extinguish the flames. | ||
| And so they could not protect all of the homes, which is why a thousand homes burned down. | ||
| And they started rounding up black civilians for them to be interred, locked up, put in jail. | ||
| From 2 a.m. that morning until 5 a.m., members of the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa National Guard and the American Legion formed mobs of white men into companies and made a plan, made a plan to invade Greenwood at daybreak. | ||
| They were going to end it once and for all, even though they had started it. | ||
| And unlike the gun battles of the night before, this violence was more one-sided during this invasion as it was carried out. | ||
| Despite pockets of resistance from black residents, they were overwhelmed. | ||
| Women, children, and the elderly. | ||
| So we have this crazy, crazy situation where this is happening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and yet there is not a sound from the White House, knowing that the National Guard has been called up, knowing by this time that 200 black citizens have been murdered. | ||
| There's this eerie, eerie silence. | ||
| And so the mobs carried out a terrorizing campaign. | ||
| They did it with the old-style early automobiles, the few that were around at the time. | ||
| They did it with machine guns mounted on grain elevators. | ||
| They did it as mobs with tiki torches and knives and shotguns. | ||
| They were organized and began metholically burning Greenwood down block by block while women and children stood there watching people being set ablaze. | ||
| So it's horrific. | ||
| It's the sort of thing that I really don't even want to have to come here and talk about. | ||
| But unless we tell the story of how we became who we are, every aspect of that story, I think we do a disservice to history. | ||
| And it's something, as I've said before, that is just absolutely shameful. | ||
| Dr. A.C. Jackson, who at the time was a black doctor and one of America's more prominent surgeons, a black man, was murdered, surrendering with his hands in the air on the steps of his porch. | ||
| His home was then looted and burned. | ||
| An elderly, paralyzed black man was gunned down when he refused an order to stand. | ||
| Well, he couldn't stand. | ||
| He's paralyzed and shot down and killed. | ||
| These are the reports that are still in the newspapers of the time that talked about and wrote about what was happening. | ||
| A black double amputee was tied to the bumper of a car and dragged through the streets until he died and could not say anything else. | ||
| And while there was resistance, including a group of black men fighting the invaders at the Mount Zion Baptist Church there in Greenwood, the resistance was ultimately scattered by overwhelming machine gun fire. | ||
| So as I've said before, This scene and scenes like this are part of the history that we have to pledge ourselves that we will never ever revisit. | ||
| And you see these persons who were the last ones that did not get murdered. | ||
| And what does the headline say? | ||
| Captured Negroes on the way to Convention Hall, June 1st, 1921. | ||
| So what was a community of law-abiding, hardworking, successful people that caused black communities around the nation to look at Tulsa as the epitome of what could happen in terms of commerce and what could happen in terms of education and what could happen in terms of just being able to raise families the right way in America. | ||
| That picture never returned to the way it was. | ||
| People envied what was going on there until what they knew had happened and what we all know did happen. | ||
| Again, practically every building in that black community. | ||
| Dozens of churches, five hotels, three restaurants, four drugstores, eight doctors' offices, two dozen grocery stores, a public library, and over 1,000 homes burned to the ground. | ||
| As I said before, this is really not something that anybody wants to talk about or regurgitate. | ||
| It's very painful, quite frankly, when you read through the books of history and you hear this. | ||
| And my role here on the floor is not to make anybody feel bad or to shame anybody. | ||
| I just want us to remember that this took place, to know it, and not to assume that things like this will never happen again, because, you know, if you live long enough, you might see everything twice. | ||
| But to pledge ourselves as a nation that we would never, ever permit something like this to take place. | ||
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National Guard's Role
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| Again, silence from the White House when this was happening. | ||
| The governor there finally got involved on the third day. | ||
| Martial law was declared on June 1st. | ||
| The massacre had largely ceased by then, and the fires continued to smolder and burn throughout the day. | ||
| That martial law was lifted on June 3rd. | ||
| The National Guard left Tulsa on June 4th. | ||
| And the primary role of the National Guard during the massacre was to arbitrarily take any and all black men into custody, which prevented them from trying to fight the blazes that were burning down their own homes. | ||
| Now, this may be hard to believe also, but internment camps were set up at the Convention Hall, at McNulty Park, and at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. | ||
| We didn't see internment camps again until the 1950s, when Japanese ancestered Americans were huddled up and locked behind bars out of a strange and twisted paranoid fear that they somehow would forget their loyalty to their new homes and their loyalty to the country that they loved. | ||
| These were the first internment camps set up in Tulsa, and armed guards were placed there to oversee the 4,000 to 6,000 people that were detained in those camps, which were reported at the time to have terrible sanitary conditions and inadequate food. | ||
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Difficult Confirmations
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| And for at least a month after the massacre, African Americans needed to be sponsored, sponsored by a white Tulson in order to get a special ID card in order to leave the internment camp for 24 hours. | ||
| You just really can't make this up. | ||
| Without their card, and those without employment were forced to work to clean the city, to bury more bodies that had not been buried, and to live in that internment camp for almost a year. | ||
| Four to six thousand people. | ||
| You know, it's difficult to fully confirm the number of casualties. | ||
| I've told you before the best estimates by reporters at the time and the newspaper were that there were 300 people killed, that many of them were just thrown into mass graves, and it was difficult to count because you were not allowed out on the streets. | ||
| And, you know, reports from the Red Cross at that time documented at least 700 injuries, people who lost their eyes, lost their limbs, people who had their fingers cut off. | ||
| These sights, these sounds, these horrors that I've just described bear a resemblance to an apocalyptic war zone, quite frankly. | ||
| But it wasn't a war zone. | ||
| It was the country that we love. | ||
| My country tis of the sweet land of liberty. | ||
| So it was devilish destruction that took place. | ||
| And I want to put up again these numbers so that for somebody just tuning in saying, oh, what is he talking about? | ||
| I'm using the end of Black History Month. | ||
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Mostly Against Black Victims
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| Again, not to sing flowery songs or to talk about great achievements within the African American community. | ||
| We do that throughout the year. | ||
| But to talk about a pain that continues to burn in the hearts of people that had to go through that. | ||
| And to remind all of us that this really did happen. | ||
| In 1921, Oklahoma unpaneled a grand jury that subpoenaed 200 witnesses and returned 70 indictments. | ||
| And interestingly enough, mostly against black people in the community who were the victims of the riot and the victims of the massacre. | ||
| And appallingly, the only people ever accused and the only people to go to prison were the black people of that community. | ||
| The grand jury deemed that the massacre was a riot and blamed it on black men who went to the courthouse at night at the request of the sheriff to help protect the courthouse and to help to keep mobs from lynching the young 19-year-old kid that was there who had been falsely accused. | ||
| Tulsa's Public Welfare Board was formed to handle the rebuilding. | ||
| Remember, this was 1921, which was replaced by then Tulsa Mayor T.D. Evans with a quote reconstruction committee. | ||
| In his speech announcing the committee, Mayor Evans blamed the riot again on the black people of Greenwood and suggested that the land should be redeveloped for industrial purposes. | ||
| Remember, this was Black Wall Street of the time. | ||
| The envy of communities around the country, the model of self-initiative and discipline, and citizenship. | ||
| But the mayor said it ought to be redeveloped for industrial purposes. | ||
| So, seated on the committee that granted his wish were individuals that included the likes of Tate Brady, who was a wealthy white landover, who was also later identified in several reports as a leading Klansman. | ||
| The city tried to enforce or force survivors out of Greenwood by passing also a new fire ordinance that made rebuilding extremely expensive, even though your house had been burned down. | ||
| You should think the government would try to help you. | ||
| They made it more expensive since so many homes of the 1,000 that burned never got rebuilt. | ||
| A year later, in September of 1921, an African-American attorney named Buck Colbert Franklin secured a permanent injunction against that ordinance, even though many had already been arrested, for simply trying to rebuild their homes. | ||
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FBI's Role in 1921 Tulsa Riot
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| The FBI got involved, and a gentleman by the name of T.F. Weiss, a special agent, was leading up this effort. | ||
| The FBI's predecessor agency was also sent at that time to investigate whether crimes had taken place during the riot. | ||
| Whether crimes had taken place, we have a complete onset of violence that carries over for three days, where 300 people are murdered living in the community that they helped to build, where all of their businesses are burned to the ground, where 1,000 homes are totally destroyed, | ||
| where the cost and the estimate was more than the state of Oklahoma even wanted to think about. | ||
| And yet, in Agent Weiss's own report, he makes mention that on the night of May 31st, a police officer recruited men from nearby towns to join in the raid that would take place the next morning, which should have been evidence itself of pre-planning, but the report was never turned in. | ||
| Agent Weiss took less than a week to complete his interviews and write a report which may have never been reviewed by an individual at the Justice Department. | ||
| In the halls of our judicial systems, victims and descendants desperately continued to seek some form of redress, and they were all met with similar blockades. | ||
| Four years later, in September of 1926, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that insurance companies could not be sued from the damages that took place as a result of the massacre. | ||
| So you can pay your insurance year after year after you've built your own house and lived there with your family and somebody burns it down and you go to whatever the insurance company was at the day and to try to seek some relief, the Supreme Court in Oklahoma ruled that those insurance companies didn't have to do a damn thing, nothing. | ||
| Residents tried to sue Mayor Evans. | ||
| They tried to sue the Tulsa police and others throughout the decade of the 1920s. | ||
| All of those lawsuits, all of them, were dismissed. | ||
| And so in 2003, survivors and descendants of Tulsa alleging civil rights violations and a denial of equal protection in the case Alexander versus Oklahoma, that began a process that gets us closer to where we are today. | ||
| And there were descendants. | ||
| In fact, there are two women who both I believe are 105 or 106 years of age who fought this, never stopped trying to give up. | ||
| They were the last group of survivors. | ||
| They brought their case all the way to the Supreme Court. | ||
| These are the witnesses that saw 300 people murdered, 1,000 homes destroyed, 85 businesses destroyed, and they held on some sort of way because they believed, as they said, they have to tell the story before they died because no one else wanted to tell the story. | ||
| It's unbelievable. | ||
| And so in June of last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed the case, finding that the plaintiffs did not have legitimate grievances or that their grievances did not fall within the scope of the law that they sought to utilize. | ||
| Just absolutely amazing. | ||
| And I don't know what it would have been like holding on all those many years with a nightmare of a story in your gut and in your belly with the crying and the pain and the violence that you witnessed as a young person, but they held on. | ||
| They held on. | ||
| In 2010, this is a decade before the Supreme Court of Tulsa's Oklahoma's decision, the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation was opened in Tulsa. | ||
| That center was established to foster dialogue about historical and racial violence and the lingering effects that it has on people and how do you find that pain and promote healing. | ||
| And that's why this story is so interesting. | ||
| Mrs. Mrs. Viola Ford Fletcher and Ms. Leslie Beningfield Randall never stopped believing that their country would in fact correct a wrong that had gone on so long. | ||
| And God only knows when they leave this country for this planet, for their internal rest, that we have to carry on with their belief also that there will be a reckoning, that there will be reconciliation, | ||
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Diverse Colors, Creeds, and Conflicts
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| and that there will be a need to tell the story not to make anybody feel bad, but to make everybody more committed to the fact that we have to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty for all. | ||
| I've got some documents that were sent over. | ||
| Eric, give me those, would you? | ||
| I don't want to belabor the point, and so I won't. | ||
| I can just tell you that I've lived long enough to know that difficulties between groups in our society are not novel, nor are they new, but that our approach to those differences must be both. | ||
| For more than 200 years, we have joined together different colors, different creeds, different nationalities, all under that one flag. | ||
| And while this assembled diversity has produced the most successful experience of democracy in the world's history, we have by no means clearly achieved perfect harmony. | ||
| Slavery was allowed to exist legally for almost 200 years. | ||
| Crosses were burned to terrorize black people in an ugly desecration of the symbol of love. | ||
| Just a century ago, Protestants and Catholics battled in the streets of New York City, and on that day, 44 Catholics were killed. | ||
| At the end of the decade of the 1930s, a ship by the name of the St. Louis with a human cargo of Jewish men and Jewish women was denied safe harbor in this, the land of the free and the home of the brave and sent back to a madman named Hitler. | ||
| At the beginning of World War II, as I mentioned earlier, Japanese Americans were huddled up and placed behind bars and in internment camps out of a fear that they somehow would forget their loyalty to their new home. | ||
| After the attacks of 9-11, Arab and Muslim Americans were set upon and beaten in the streets of America, lest we ever forget, by angry men who formed mobs of their own because their religion and because their ethnicity were deemed to be a threat to the land that they professed to love. | ||
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Differences Producing Alienation
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| And so there have been times when we have sought as a nation to ban the teaching of a foreign language and to slam shut the doors of elementary schools simply because they were sponsored by religious groups. | ||
| And so there have been occasions and there have been periods where our differences of race, our differences of religion, our differences of nationality have produced an ugly alienation instead of producing harmony. | ||
| But as I prepare to conclude this portion of my remarks, let me remind all of us that there is still yet another difference. | ||
| The difference between the people who have and the people who have not. | ||
| The difference between the people in this room, members of the United States Congress, you and I, and the millions of people in this country who at this hour are out of work or working at jobs that provide them with a scant living and no real dignity. | ||
| The difference between us, you and I, on one hand, living as we do in relative comfort, and the millions of people in the streets across America torn by the terrible pain of drug addiction. | ||
| The difference between us and the illiterates. | ||
| The difference between us and the homeless. | ||
| The difference between our children parents and the 15-year-olds in towns and communities across this nation who at this hour are about to have children of their own, creating a situation where they are lost, unprepared, and doomed to raising another generation of disadvantaged children. | ||
| Those differences produce frustration. | ||
| They produce anger. | ||
| America at her best has always treated those differences with a blend of common sense and compassion. | ||
| America at her worst has treated such differences with the empty even-handedness of Marie Antoinette. | ||
| You know, just let them eat cake. | ||
| We can't be bothered. | ||
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Last Generation's Possibility
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| And yet we know that this is not a perfect nation. | ||
| And we are not perfect people. | ||
| But God calls all of us to a perfect mission. | ||
| It is still, whether we are Christian, Jew, Muslim, or something else, it is still a mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, teach the illiterate, provide guidance to our young, and security to our seniors. | ||
| And a part of that guidance means remembering the stony road that we chod to get to where we are here in 2025. | ||
| By remembering something as painful even as this Tulsa race massacre, which I've tried to talk about now over and over again, and in remembering, committing ourselves and promising those who have gone before us and those who will come after us that we will never allow something like that to happen again. | ||
| I've not given up on the American dream or the American possibility. | ||
| And I have come to the floor tonight to ask people around this country not to give up also. | ||
| I'm convinced that this nation still stands before the world as perhaps the last expression of a possibility of mankind devising a social order where justice is the supreme ruler and law is but its instrument, where freedom is the dominant creed and order but its principle. | ||
| Where equity, equity is the common practice and fraternity the true human condition. | ||
| And it is also my conviction that we may be the last generation of Americans that has the opportunity to help our nation totally fulfill that promise and to realize that still yet to achieve possibility. | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, I again call our attention to The matter of the Tulsa race massacre. | ||
| As we conclude Black History Month tomorrow, but this could be December, it doesn't matter. | ||
| It's something we've got to not hide in books and say those books are banned and tell a generation of young people, you can't read this, you don't need to know that. | ||
| Again, we have to use it in an instructive way to talk about how far we have come since then and why we must do more and why something like that can't take place again. | ||
| So I am going to talk a bit, just briefly, about this whole situation that we're facing, regrettably, with people being laid off and fired and being asked, what you do last week. | ||
| But I do want to make sure that my colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Alabama, has an opportunity to come forward and to take as much time as he deems necessary to make another very important point. | ||
| And so I would yield to Representative Figures as much time as he may consume. | ||
| Thank you, Representative Infume, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today with a question similar to many of the questions we just heard the distinguished gentleman from Maryland raise as it related to historical events that happened across this country, particularly in Tulsa. | ||
| But it's a question that gets to the core of what he's saying is who are we as America? | ||
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Who are we? | |
| Who are we as a nation? | ||
| Who are we as a people? | ||
| In the flurry of activity that comes out of this administration that comes out of the White House, it is easy to overlook certain things that the administration is doing that is impacting people that we may not see every day that you may not even know. | ||
| One of those unfortunate occurrences happened late last week when the administration decided to revoke the temporary protected status for about half a million people who are in the nation legally from the nation of Haiti. | ||
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Temporary Protected Status
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| Now the TPS program, Temporary Protected Status Program, is designed. | ||
| It is specifically designed to provide temporary, temporary, temporary status, legal status, not permanent status, not citizenship, but temporary status to people who are from nations that find themselves in situations similar to what is going on in Haiti right now, | ||
| where they are wrapped in a situation of a destabilized government, a not too long ago assassinated president, a situation where gangs are literally controlling large swaths of the country, over 85% of the capital city. | ||
| It's not safe for people to be pushed back into those environments. | ||
| And this is one that's personal to me. | ||
| It's personal to me because I've had the privilege in life to meet a man named Gerald, a man named Gerald DeSources, who came to this country from the nation of Haiti, | ||
| who worked his way through college, refined his English by listening to Sesame Street, by listening to Martin Luther King speeches, went on to become an engineer at a Fortune 500 company here in the United States in New York. | ||
| I've had the privilege to get to know a woman from Haiti by the name of Kathleen DeSources, who immigrated here as a young child following her mother who was pursuing that American dream of making life better for her children. | ||
| And she too worked her way, worked her way through to her American dream. | ||
| And she's been a healthcare worker for decades. | ||
| And the two of them, Gerald and Kathleen, it didn't stop with them. | ||
| Those same values that they brought with them, that same dream that they brought with them from the country of Haiti, they instilled that in their children, their four daughters, one of whom is a schoolteacher, one of whom is a speech pathologist, one of whom is an Ivy League-educated gynecological oncologist in North Carolina, and the fourth of whom holds four different degrees from three different Ivy League schools. | ||
| I have the privilege of calling her my wife and the mother of our children. | ||
| They come from Haiti. | ||
| They are evidence of what Haitians have produced for this country and contributed to this country. | ||
| And for us as America to ignore the current conditions of what is happening in Haiti, to turn our backs on people who need us most. | ||
| This is a nation that prides ourselves on being that beacon of hope. | ||
| This is a nation where when you look at one of our most famous, famous landmarks, the Statute of Liberty, it says, bring me your tired, bring me your poor, bring me your huddled masses who yearn to be free. | ||
| But by ignoring the conditions that are currently present in Haiti, we're not living up to that model. | ||
| We're not living up to that creed. | ||
| What we're doing is sending people back to an environment where they are certain to meet, certain to meet, ends that we would not wish on anybody. | ||
| We see the reports of gang violence in the streets. | ||
| We see the reports of women being raped. | ||
| We see the reports of children being forced to partake in armed conflict. | ||
| We see the reports of food insecurity. | ||
| We see the reports of people who no longer own the homes that they left from because they're now under the control of armed gangs. | ||
| We see the reports that Haiti doesn't have a police force that can protect its people. | ||
| They don't have a military force that can protect its people yet. | ||
| We are sending people back to that environment. | ||
| It's not safe. | ||
| It's not the right thing to do. | ||
| There are ways to lead with strength but decency. | ||
| There are ways to enforce the law in a manner that recognizes reality and exudes compassion. | ||
| This is not that. | ||
| This is not who we are as Americans. | ||
| We can do so much better than this. | ||
| We can be that place of refuge. | ||
| We can be that place that America and the world still looks up to as standing up for people that need us most. | ||
| Again, TPS is, this is not about permanent citizenship. | ||
| This is about a temporary place for people to be safe from gun violence, from armed conflict, from being kidnapped, from being held for ransom. | ||
| Because that is what will surely happen to some of the people that are returned back to Haiti. | ||
| And these are people who are a proud people, who are a hardworking people. | ||
| My wife's family is just one example of that, just one example. | ||
| But there are millions of Haitian Americans who make vital contributions to this country every single day. | ||
| And for us to turn our backs on them now, it is simply not right. | ||
| It is indecent. | ||
| It is inhumane. | ||
| And quite frankly, it is un-American. | ||
| So I urge, I plead, I beg of the White House to reconsider its restriction on TPS and extend the protection for the Haitians that are in America. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, might I ask how much time is remaining? | ||
| The gentleman has nine minutes. | ||
| Nine minutes. | ||
| Nine minutes. | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| Well, that was more time than I thought. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| I want to associate myself with the remarks from the distinguished gentleman from Alabama and to also urge the White House to move forthwith on that request and other similar requests. | ||
| I do want to just say a couple of words before I conclude. | ||
| The matter of the Tulsa race massacre was very important. | ||
| I hope that to the extent anybody paid attention, that it makes a difference in terms of trying to remember how far we've come and why we can't, in fact, go back. | ||
| And I want to simply also indicate that it's my intention to come back onto the floor next week and to spend time again on the matter of the mass layoffs and firings that have been taking place affecting federal workers throughout this country, 80% of whom are outside of Washington, D.C., many of whom are in my state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore, and to again urge some sort of prudence. | ||
| I think most people will agree that we all want to do away with waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| I am the ranking member of a federal operations subcommittee that has been doing just that for the last two or three years, identifying it and trying to make sure that we, in fact, come to grips with it. | ||
| And I think the thing that concerns most Americans has been the speed and the surgical way that people have been cut out of employment, oftentimes without any kind of review. | ||
| It's wrong. | ||
| I've said it over and over again, and I think most people now are starting to recognize that due process is more than just two words. | ||
| It's a way that we have to move forward. | ||
| It doesn't mean stopping anything, but it does mean affording people the courtesy of a process. | ||
| And I would strongly urge members of this body to keep that in mind as we go forward. | ||
| So I want to thank the gentleman from Alabama. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for this time, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Grothman, for 30 minutes. | ||
| You are recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We just got done with a very interesting week in which this House passed a budget bill, and now we proceed to actually the more difficult process in which sometime over the next four months we plan on passing both a reconciliation bill and appropriation bills. | ||
| Between the two, we deal with all of government spending. | ||
| And as the result, we have an opportunity to look at programs and examine programs the way we haven't before, particularly because we have as president someone who is somewhat of a person who promises change. | ||
| And clearly his election meant that they want fundamental changes in government. | ||
| Now, different programs have different goals. | ||
| And just so the public understands, the appropriation bills are for what we call discretionary spending. | ||
| The reconciliation bills are what are referred to as mandatory spending. | ||
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Feminist Programs and Family Structures
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| But between the two bills that must eventually pass, or several separate appropriation bills, we will be looking at virtually all of the federal government. | ||
| Now, different programs have different goals. | ||
| And obviously, one of our goals has got to be to reduce spending, given that we have over $35 trillion in debt. | ||
| But some of these programs also have perhaps intentional, perhaps unintentional goals. | ||
| And these are the goals that I'm going to address today. | ||
| And by the way, this is relevant whether or not we're running a trillion dollar, over trillion dollar increase in debt every year or whether we were in fact in a surplus situation. | ||
| I'm going to look at some programs which again, maybe intentional, maybe unintentionally, penalize people who are raising children while they are married. | ||
| We had a hearing on a subcommittee which I've been fortunate enough to chair a couple weeks ago. | ||
| And in that hearing, Robert Rector, who works for the Heritage Foundation, found approximately 90 programs in which eligibility depended upon having a small income. | ||
| In other words, you would lose eligibility for these programs if you either worked and depending on the program made more than $12,000, made more than $25,000, made more than $50,000, or had somebody else in the household make more than this money. | ||
| So this would include if, say, a single parent had a husband or a wife and the single parent was not working or making very little, if they married someone with an income, $30,000, $40,000, or $50,000, they would lose the benefits from that program. | ||
| Now, we're all familiar with some of these larger programs. | ||
| I think most people wouldn't be able to name all 90. | ||
| But there are things like food share, the earned income tax credit, which requires a little bit of work, but as you work your way up and get a higher income in the company where you work, you lose that. | ||
| Low-income housing, which I think is maybe the worst program of the bunch because you're given housing if you're a young person, allowing you to get out from having to live with your parents as a benefit for having a low-income. | ||
| Medicaid, TANF, a cash benefit, child care, Pell Grants, payments for children with some disabilities. | ||
| All of these programs are conditioned upon not making too much money and of our primary concern today, not marrying somebody who makes too much money. | ||
| Frequently these programs are in certain ways more generous than the middle class normally has. | ||
| A perfect example would be Section 42 low-income tax credits. | ||
| I've known people to look for housing and the housing they get is not as lavish as the housing available in low-income housing because the way the programs are set up, | ||
| The owners of the low-income housing are encouraged to build very modern, very upscale apartments that maybe some of the average people cannot afford. | ||
| As a matter of fact, a lot of the average people, even after they get married, may still be living with their parents for a while. | ||
| We have our Medicaid program, which is a fine program providing health care for the poor. | ||
| But again, there are a lot of people out there working who may have a $10,000 or $15,000 or $20,000 deductible on their medical payments. | ||
| And of course, the government program has, in most cases, no deductible. | ||
| We have the food share, and all you have to do is talk to people who work in the food stores, and they will tell you that frequently people on the food share can afford types of food that the people who are working at the grocery store feel they cannot afford. | ||
| So not only do we have these programs, which are conditioned upon not marrying somebody with an income, but they even have benefits that are sometimes superior to people who are not taking advantage of these programs. | ||
| I mentioned Robert Rector and what he said at the relevant hearing. | ||
| The penalty for getting married obviously varies from person to person. | ||
| But in his example, a young person who married the father or mother of their children would be penalized by $28,000. | ||
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It's therefore not surprising that if you ask around, you will find examples of people who are living together but not getting married because they want the benefits, or inevitably, the percentage of people getting married when they have children falls because the generosity of the programs is such that there's a feeling, why would I get married at all? | |
| These programs also cause cheating or breaking the law because of course they frequently don't catch it if you're getting cash off the books. | ||
| So all these programs encourage working for cash. | ||
| They also encourage, I think, earning money by doing things illegal because that's another thing that is not reportable. | ||
| We were on a different hearing the other day and there was a feeling of somebody who I think would have to say Lean's Democrat, one of our witnesses, and they didn't like the fact that sometimes people are stuck in the muck and are not making as much money as other Americans. | ||
| This woman did not seem to realize that one of the reasons that people sometimes make less money is because they shouldn't try to improve their lot in their employer's company because if they improve their lot, they'll lose some of these 90 benefits. | ||
| Now, a question is, is this penalty for getting married? | ||
| And it's had a huge impact on society. | ||
| I want to point out in the 1950s, 4% of the children in this country were born into a household with a mother and father. | ||
| That number is now over 40%. | ||
| So America has fundamentally changed because of these programs. | ||
| The question is, was this on purpose or was it an inadvertent problem caused by these programs? | ||
| And I think most people would say, well, people didn't realize what they were doing. | ||
| The fact that we have had the number of children born out of wedlock skyrocket from 4% to over 40% was an oversight. | ||
| But one thing I think America should realize is there were always radicals out there who were trying to get rid of the American family. | ||
| Karl Marx, back in the 1800s, made it clear, I think because he wanted the government to have the absolute power, that he felt that to have his socialist paradise, we had to get rid of the family. | ||
| In the 1960s, the leading feminists who were celebrated by the left at that time made it clear a goal of theirs was to get rid of the nuclear family. | ||
| Here's Kate Millay, who has been described as the mother of women's studies classes, which dot our universities around the country. | ||
| The complete destruction of traditional marriage and the nuclear family is the revolutionary or utopian goal of feminism. | ||
| Linda Gordon, another prominent feminist, the nuclear family must be destroyed. | ||
| Whatever its ultimate meaning, the breakup of families now is an objectively revolutionary process. | ||
| Michelle Barrett, in the book, The Anti-Social Family, the family sucks the juice out of everything around it, leaving other institutions stunted and distorted. | ||
| So there is no shortage of radical feminists. | ||
| I could quote Angela Davis, who some on the left view is a hero, as another person who was anti-family. | ||
| More recently, Black Lives Matter during their ascendancy a few years ago in documents written by their founders wanted to get rid of the so-called the Western prescribed so-called nuclear family. | ||
| And even after that was out there on the internet, before they took it down, a significant number of people in this institution, I think, showed up at rallies or whatever you want to call them sponsored by Black Lives Matter, a group that at least initially said they were against the traditional family. | ||
| So it is entirely possible that one of the reasons we have all these programs is because some of the powerful feminists and Marxists that influence what goes on in this body were in favor of destroying the nuclear family. | ||
| Now people can say, oh, there's nobody in this conference who would yield to these radical feminists. | ||
| I want to remind the public that the radical feminists are for eight and a half month abortions. | ||
| Now you'd say nobody here would be for an abortion like that. | ||
| Oh my god, my goodness. | ||
| But there are individual states who have that law right now, and that's what the radical feminists wanted. | ||
| You would say nobody would allow transgenders in women's sports. | ||
| But again, that's what the radical feminists want. | ||
| They want to blur the distinctions between men and women. | ||
| And almost all Democrats in this institution follow along and vote to allow transgenders and women's sports. | ||
| Same thing about transgenders in women's bathrooms. | ||
| You'd say, oh, nobody in Congress would be for transgenders and women's bathrooms. | ||
| But in fact, overwhelmingly, the Democrat Party is for that. | ||
| Now, I'll ask yourself, if the Democrat Party is for these things, all which would have been considered absurd 40 years ago, eight and a half-month abortions, transgenders and sports, transgenders in women's bathroom, is it too much to conclude that one of the reasons our government's programs are designed to destroy marriage is because the power of the radical feminists and the power of the Marxists in the Democrat Party, it's got to be in there for some reason. | ||
| It's something that we should look out, look out for. | ||
| Now I want to point out one more time that I think this is the most critical debate that we are going to have over the next four or five months as we debate our appropriation bills and as we debate our reconciliation bills. | ||
| This is a debate we should have regardless of whether we are in a difficult financial plight or not. | ||
| I want to emphasize, I don't care if we were running trillion-dollar surpluses around here. | ||
| The idea of putting out programs, substantially generous programs, whose effect is to destroy the family is wrong. | ||
| And while I certainly know many single parents who are doing a tremendous job and have done a tremendous job, when I talk to people in different fields, they do say the explosion in families without a mother and father at home are causing other problems for society. | ||
| When I talk to law enforcement, they feel one of the root causes of the crime is the breakdown of the American family. | ||
| And I'm sure like everybody around who has been in politics for a while, you sit in these committee hearings and hear the problems of high crime and murders and such, and people have suggestions as to how to deal with them. | ||
| But we don't spend enough time pointing out that one way that would certainly reduce the crime rate, maybe back down to where it was in the 1950s, is to do what we can to build up the traditional family rather than what we do now, and that is try to have as few people as possible in the family. | ||
| The second thing that I am told, families of all backgrounds can have problems with drug abuse, and right now we have over 100,000 people a year dying of drug abuse. | ||
| It can happen everywhere. | ||
| But again, when I talk to the professionals who deal with this, disproportionately, the 100,000 people who die every year are from difficult family backgrounds. | ||
| And this drug culture, I think, would be less strong in America if we did more to promote the traditional family rather than do all we can to make sure the traditional family is weakened. | ||
|
Families Doing a Fantastic Job
00:02:15
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| The third institution I'll point out that is harmed by this government's policy of penalizing traditional families is the education. | ||
| And I know my friends on the other side of the aisle like to claim they care about education. | ||
| When I have talked to school superintendents, when I have talked to teachers, and we talk about the additional money that has to be spent on children with certain problems, again, those kids are disproportionately from families in which, you know, you don't have both a mom and dad there. | ||
| And again, I know a lot of families like that who do a fantastic job. | ||
| But I'm pointing out if you really cared about education, you would look at these programs that have caused the children who are born into a family with only one parent there to have skyrocketed from 4% to over 40%. | ||
| So I ask the chairman of the relevant committees that are going to have to deal with the appropriation bills and the deal with the appropriation bills and deal with their designated spending limits on the reconciliation bill to pay particular attention to the bills, | ||
| to the programs that are designed to penalize the nuclear family, which is so despised by Karl Marx and some of the radicals who are around in the 1960s and 1970s. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
|
Resolution for Slavery Remembrance Month
00:03:05
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||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Under the announced policy of January 3, 2025, the chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, for 30 minutes. | ||
| You are recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to first announce two pieces of legislation, and thereafter I will go into my message, which will be the impact of President Trump's engagement in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. | ||
| First, let's look at the two resolutions. | ||
| The first resolution is our Black History Month resolution. | ||
| I'm proud to say that this resolution will be filed on tomorrow. | ||
| And this is the original Black History Month resolution for 2025. | ||
| We have many persons who have signed up to co-sponsor, but it is still not too late for additional persons to sign up. | ||
| The theme is for African Americans and Labor. | ||
| It deals with African Americans and labor in America. | ||
| And it will trace the history of labor from enslavement through current times. | ||
| The second resolution is one that I'm very proud to present. | ||
| This is a resolution for Slavery Remembrance Month. | ||
| As you know, August of 1619 was the year that enslaved persons from Africa were introduced into the colonies. | ||
| And since that time, we have had an adverse impact on African Americans in the United States of America. | ||
| Well, we need to retrace some of the history of what actually happened, not just on one day. | ||
| We have a slavery remembrance day that we proposed. | ||
| Now we are proposing a slavery remembrance month. | ||
| There's still time to sign on to this resolution as well. | ||
| We will file it tomorrow. | ||
| So if members desire to be original co-sponsors of either of these two, they have until the close of business tomorrow or until we have our last opportunity to file tomorrow any type of legislation. | ||
| I would suggest by noon tomorrow for members who want to file. | ||
| Now, let me get to my message. | ||
| The impact of the president on the peace process. | ||
|
Respecting Babies Equally
00:15:48
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| The impact of the president on the peace process. | ||
| The president, as it relates to this process, is not an honest broker. | ||
| He is not an honest broker because an honest broker has to be impartial. | ||
| The president has made it perspicuously clear that he is not impartial. | ||
| He has already sided with Israel. | ||
| And the president has every right to do that, to side with one side as opposed to another. | ||
| But let's be clear about the role that he's playing. | ||
| He's not playing the role of an honest broker. | ||
| The president is not playing the role of a negotiator because the president does not seek to get input from the Palestinians. | ||
| The president will get input from one side, that will be the Israelis, and he will make his decisions with the Israelis. | ||
| And it appears that there will be an all or nothing offer made. | ||
| The president has gone so far as to say that certain things must be done or certain conditions will manifest themselves. | ||
| The president doesn't want peace. | ||
| It appears to me that the president wants to stop the killing. | ||
| And there's a difference between stopping the killing and peace. | ||
| Peace requires more than the absence of tension, the absence of violence, the absence of killing. | ||
| Peace requires justice. | ||
| Justice. | ||
| Stopping killing is not going to end the process because you won't have justice for all parties involved. | ||
| And there must be justice for all parties involved if we are to have genuine peace between Palestinians and Israelis. | ||
| The president appears to currently be engaging in a process of ethnic cleansing. | ||
| This is where his thoughts are. | ||
| He seems to believe that we can take Gaza from the Palestinians. | ||
| He seems to believe that the Gazas can be relocated. | ||
| Just place them someplace else. | ||
| Give them nice homes in some other place and let us, meaning the United States or Israel, have Gaza. | ||
| Friends, that won't happen because the Palestinians have made it very clear that they don't intend to leave their homeland. | ||
| But there's more to it than simply replacing them, putting them someplace else. | ||
| We have to think about what the president is saying. | ||
| The president is making it clear that we are an existential threat to the creation of a Palestinian state. | ||
| Because if you remove the Palestinians from the land that was once Palestine, they won't have a Palestinian state there. | ||
| We indeed are an existential threat to Palestine. | ||
| And in fact, if the language that the president is using as it relates to the Palestinian, if it were used as it relates to the Israelis, the President would have some serious problems. | ||
| You cannot say with any degree of credibility that we ought to remove the Israelis from Israel, which is now in land that was once labeled Palestine. | ||
| You can't say that. | ||
| If you say from the river to the sea, you are saying that you are proclaiming an existential threat to exist as it relates to the state of Israel. | ||
| The mere statement. | ||
| Whereas Israel's Knesset has already, by way of resolution, indicated that there will not be a Palestinian state in the land of what we now call Gaza, in the land of what we now call the West Bank, that there won't be a Palestinian state. | ||
| And if there's not going to be a Palestinian state, then Israel is declaring that it is an existential threat to the creation of a Palestinian state. | ||
| So the president doesn't want a Palestinian state. | ||
| He's with the Israelis. | ||
| The president wants Gaza. | ||
| He wants the West Bank to be controlled and possibly become a part of Israel. | ||
| This is not the way to achieve justice. | ||
| Remember, you cannot have peace without having justice. | ||
| You've heard the phrase, no justice, no peace. | ||
| Well, there has to be justice for us to have peace. | ||
| And the president is willing to sacrifice the Palestinians. | ||
| He seems to be willing to sacrifice them because he's indicated as much as if a certain thing doesn't happen, if hostages aren't returned by a certain time that he has chosen, that all hell will break loose. | ||
| Well, that seems to indicate that he's willing to see an inflagration unlike we've not seen so far, something more than we've seen so far, because quite frankly, Gaza has been decimated. | ||
| The roads have been destroyed, bridges have been destroyed, schools have been destroyed, hospitals have been destroyed, homes destroyed, people killed. | ||
| And until we decide that we want peace, then we're not going to have the kind of place that people should have as a homeland for Palestinians. | ||
| There has to be peace. | ||
| And to have peace, there must be justice. | ||
| And to have justice, we have to at least decide that there are certain things that we're willing to do. | ||
| Justice is going to require equal respect for the lives of all babies. | ||
| Equal respect for the lives of all babies. | ||
| I will tell you that I, just as early as this morning, had tears to well in my eyes when there was a story about the Israeli babies that were returned after they had been held hostage by Hamas. | ||
| Hamas did a dastardly thing in taking babies as hostage. | ||
| Israel has done nothing that would warrant Hamas to take babies as hostages. | ||
| And then for those babies to be returned in caskets, it's heartbreaking. | ||
| Those parents had to suffer immeasurable heartache as a result of what happened to their children. | ||
| Those babies were young babies, infants. | ||
| Hamas is not, is not an organization that seeks peace. | ||
| If you're going to do these kinds of things, you're not seeking peace because what you did was not just. | ||
| It was an injustice to take those babies. | ||
| And it was an injustice to keep those babies. | ||
| And now you're returning them lifeless to their parents. | ||
| And they have to suffer for the rest of their lives knowing what happened to their babies. | ||
| But you can't stop there. | ||
| All babies have to be treated equally. | ||
| The lives of all babies have to be treated equally. | ||
| You cannot say that it is shameful and sinful for Hamas to do what they did to those Palestinian babies and not condemn what Israel has done to the Palestinian babies. | ||
| Babies have been bombed, body parts scattered all over. | ||
| Parents, one parent just had the baby born and was about to register the baby, comes back and the baby is no longer alive. | ||
| All babies have to be treated equally. | ||
| Their lives have to be respected in the same way regardless as to where they are, where they're from, what their ethnicity is. | ||
| We cannot continue to believe that some babies have lives that are more valuable than others. | ||
| Nothing Israel has done merits what Hamas did to the babies that they took hostage or other babies that may have been killed as well. | ||
| And nothing that the Palestinians have done merits the killing of, nothing that the Israelis have done merits the killing of Palestinian babies to the extent that they have been killed. | ||
| Palestinian babies, Palestinians cannot have done anything that would merit Israelis killing their babies to the same extent that they have. | ||
| Israelis have to understand that Palestinian babies have lives that have to be respected to the same extent as they want Israeli babies' lives to be respected. | ||
| And by the same token, Palestinians have to respect Israeli babies' lives to the same extent that they want Palestinian lives to be respected. | ||
| All babies have to be respected equally. | ||
| All babies. | ||
| And so today I want to say to the Israelis and the Palestinians, there will be no peace until you respect the babies equally. | ||
| But you've got to do more than this, and we have to do more because we have to rebuild Palestine. | ||
| I say we, I believe the United States has to make a contribution, just as we contributed to the rebuilding of Japan after we dropped bombs on Japan, just as we have contributed to the rebuilding of other places when we've been involved in the destruction. | ||
| We helped to destroy Palestine. | ||
| Yes, I know that what Hamas did was dastardly. | ||
| I understand that, and it shouldn't have been done. | ||
| But that did not give Israel the right to kill babies and innocent people to the extent that Israel has killed these babies and innocent people. | ||
| We have to respect their lives. | ||
| Now we have to respect their property. | ||
| There has to be a home for Palestinians, and that home has to have some help from the United States because we sent our weaponry over there. | ||
| We have to pay for weapons that were used to bomb the Palestinians. | ||
| The bombs, many of them were actually munitions that came from us. | ||
| We have a duty to respect their lives and their property, and we have a duty to help to rebuild. | ||
| This is something that we can't push off on others. | ||
| And we can't just decide, Mr. President, that the Palestinians should not have a state and that we can just simply take their land. | ||
| This land belongs to them. | ||
| It was theirs in 1948. | ||
| The majority of the people in Palestine in 1948 were not people who were there to perform, to have a state of Israel. | ||
| People came into this place called Palestine and helped to build and construct the state of Israel. | ||
| And I have said that a two-state solution is a solution. | ||
| But you can't have a two-state solution without respecting the babies that are Palestinian and the land that was once Palestine. | ||
| So we've got to give Palestinians a homeland, more specifically a state, and Palestinians have the right to live there with sovereignty, not to be told what to do by others, not to have the flow of their electricity controlled by others, not to have others to determine whether they can have ingress and egress. | ||
| They've got to have a state. | ||
| But that means that there has to be some negotiation. | ||
| It can't just be dictation. | ||
| The president wants to dictate what the policies will be and expect everybody to live happily thereafter. | ||
| If we want true peace, then Mr. President, you've got to cease to be a dictator and become a negotiator. | ||
| You're going to have to talk to the Palestinians and get their opinions about what they want. | ||
| And you've got to decide that you cannot side with one side and conclude that that is going to give you the necessary strength to bring peace about. | ||
| You may have calm, but you won't have peace. | ||
| And you won't have the kind of peace that will be lasting if you just decide you're going to stop the killing. | ||
| Stopping killing does not bring about peace. | ||
| It just brings about an absence of a certain amount of tension. | ||
| But Dr. King reminded us that if you want peace, you have to have more than the absence of tension. | ||
| You've got to have the presence of justice. | ||
| The presence of justice must be accorded not only to the Israelis, they deserve justice, but also to the Palestinians. | ||
| They deserve justice. | ||
| Justice for both sides, peace for both sides in one country, one place, Palestinians on one side of that place, the Israelis on the other side. | ||
| Two people, two homes, two sovereignties living side by side in peace. | ||
| And finally, this on this whole question. | ||
| Dr. King also reminded us that we have to learn to live together as brothers, this is how he put it, or we will perish together as fools. | ||
| Living together as brothers, and I would add and sisters, is an imperative. | ||
| We no longer have, as Dr. King put it, a choice between violence or nonviolence. | ||
| He said we have a choice between nonviolence or non-existence. | ||
| And we are marching toward non-existence. | ||
| As we decide who is going to have certain pieces of land and how land is going to be divided, many countries who are viewing this are concluding that to protect themselves, they are going to have to have the ultimate weapon. | ||
| Just as North Korea made that decision, others are making that decision. | ||
| I don't support any of those decisions. | ||
| I don't support any nuclear weapons. | ||
| I'd like to see the absence of nuclear weapons across the globe. | ||
| But I also understand that they exist. | ||
| And I understand that others are going to want them to protect themselves from us, from the United States, from Israel. | ||
| They're going to want them to protect themselves from other countries that have them. | ||
| Friends, it is no longer the choice between nonviolence or violence. | ||
| The choice is going to be between nonviolence or non-existence. | ||
| And we have to learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will perish together as fools. | ||
| Those were the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. | ||
| I stand for peace, peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and I stand for loving all babies, all babies the same. | ||
| The lives of all babies should be treated equally. | ||
| Hamas shouldn't hide behind babies. | ||
| But that doesn't give you the right to just kill babies indiscriminately. | ||
| Thousands of babies killed. | ||
| You can't do that. | ||
| That is antithetical to having a just society where peace presides. | ||
| So I present to you my belief that if we are to have true peace, there has to be justice. | ||
| And if there is to be justice, all babies have to be treated equally. | ||
| All babies have to be respected equally. | ||
| All babies' lives are equally as important. | ||
| Doesn't matter where they are or who they are. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman Yields. | ||
| Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president and to direct their remarks to the chair and not to be perceived viewing audience under the speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025. | ||
| The chair recognized the gentleman from California, Mr. Sherman, for 30 minutes. | ||
|
Firing People for Fun?
00:12:09
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| You are recognized, Mr. Sherman. | ||
| I ask for the opportunity to not only address the House for 30 minutes, but to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Good. | ||
| He got his start on a TV show, The Apprentice. | ||
| And we saw how entertaining it can be to fire people. | ||
| But that's entertainment. | ||
| That's not how you run an organization. | ||
| And we have seen a performative effort to try to convince us that they're saving money. | ||
| They're doing this in order to justify their plan for a $3.5 trillion tax cut for hedge fund managers, multinational corporations, and billionaires. | ||
| But they're really not saving anything. | ||
| And then yesterday we passed a budget resolution, and all my Republican colleagues are on Twitter, X, whatever they want to call it, saying that that resolution contains statutory language to say no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. | ||
| Well, what did Elon Musk have to say about that? | ||
| Or what did his organization have to say? | ||
| You know, they organized the readers' content comments to correct falsehoods that people put in their tweets. | ||
| And every single time a Republican went up and said that that resolution hadn't eliminated taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security, the Musk organization said, readers added context, none of the policies mentioned in this post were included in the House budget resolution. | ||
| It does nothing to exempt tips, Social Security, or overtime. | ||
| And we know they're not going to ultimately do that because they need the $4.5 trillion to provide tax breaks for hedge fund managers, multinational corporations, and billionaires. | ||
| Now, government is frustrating. | ||
| Frustrates me often, needs to be improved. | ||
| You know what's also frustrating? | ||
| Sometimes my computer's on the blink a little bit. | ||
| And I just want to take a hammer and hit it up the side. | ||
| You know, that makes me feel good, but it doesn't actually make the device work any better. | ||
| And there are several techniques being used on the federal government that may make us feel good, but don't make it work any better. | ||
| You see, you can fire people, and they are firing just about everybody in the government with less than two years of government service, the probationary employees. | ||
| That destroys our future. | ||
| Those are the people hired in 2024 that we're going to need in 2034. | ||
| You know, the Dodgers are a pretty well-run organization. | ||
| I think run better than government. | ||
| Imagine if the Dodgers were going to fire everybody who'd join all the players that had joined in the last two years, just eliminate everybody in single A and double A ball. | ||
| I would say that's going to be that would make it a bad, they'd be worse than the White Sox. | ||
| So you can fire people. | ||
| You can also do the buyouts. | ||
| They offered everybody in government a buyout. | ||
| So who took the buyout? | ||
| The people who could easily get another job elsewhere because they have very high capacity. | ||
| And the people who are going to retire in the next year or two anyway, so why not get eight months' free vacation? | ||
| And then they have the hiring freeze. | ||
| Well, imagine if the Dodgers stopped signing new talent. | ||
| Where would they be in the 2030s? | ||
| You can also stop all research. | ||
| And I'll get to an example of that. | ||
| And then you argue, well, hey, if in 2026 they can say, hey, we saved all this money and the research wouldn't have benefited you by 2026. | ||
| But who is going to be dying from cancer and other diseases in the 2030s because of the research they're stopping now? | ||
| And then they can do a whoopsie-daisy and say, oh, we stopped the research. | ||
| Oh, we started it again. | ||
| No, You stop the research, and all those little white rats are dead. | ||
| You can't start again. | ||
| You got to start over the research. | ||
| You can stop maintenance. | ||
| And I'll get to an example of that. | ||
| Saves you money unless you actually want things to work well. | ||
| And again and again, we're told that there's just a government mulligan. | ||
| They'll just do it over. | ||
| Oopsie daisy is not a way to run a multi-trillion dollar organization. | ||
| We're told that there's $50 million for condoms and $100 million for condoms in Gaza. | ||
| And then they said, never mind, we got it wrong. | ||
| We made a mistake. | ||
| Oopsie-daisy. | ||
| They decided to offer all of the air traffic controllers eight months' free pay for quitting. | ||
| And then they say, oopsie-daisy. | ||
| And then today, Ed Elon Musk tweets, there's a shortage of top-notch air traffic controllers. | ||
| If you have retired but are open to returning to work, please consider to do so. | ||
| He just gave them eight months' pay to stay home. | ||
| Now he hopes they're going to come back. | ||
| No, the fishing is good. | ||
| The eight months' pay is guaranteed. | ||
| But it's even worse. | ||
| You see, not only did they give buyouts to the air traffic controllers, they have fired the navigational aid and maintenance personnel. | ||
| So those air traffic controllers are going to be looking at empty screens, and those folks remain fired. | ||
| What could go wrong? | ||
| They also stopped our efforts against Ebola. | ||
| Some of the charities were barely getting by, they've gone bankrupt. | ||
| They pull or they've pulled their people out of Africa. | ||
| And then he says, oopsie-daisy, we're going to start that again. | ||
| What a way to run a government. | ||
| There are people who are going to get Ebola as a result of this oopsie-daisy mistake. | ||
| And that's another opportunity for Ebola inside a human being to mutate a little bit and then be a more pathogenic Ebola when it comes here. | ||
| And then finally, they fired 300 people who were in charge of security of our nuclear weapons. | ||
| Oopsie daisy. | ||
| What could have gone wrong? | ||
| And keep in mind, if you fire somebody, then hire them back or say you're going to fire them and you don't fire them, you say, oh, no harm, no foul, oopsie-daisy. | ||
| Nope. | ||
| You see, once you do that to a person, their resume is on LinkedIn. | ||
| They're looking for a new job. | ||
| Nobody wants to stay with an employer if they have other opportunities if that employer is teasing them about firing them, or worse yet, actually fired them and then got them back. | ||
| So, whom our best people will be leaving in the weeks to come, even if they hired them back. | ||
| Now, there is real waste, fraud, and abuse in government. | ||
| And this is an example: $200 million of our taxpayer money being spent on advertisements praising Donald Trump. | ||
| How do they justify this? | ||
| Well, they aim these at their own base to tell their own base, hey, Donald Trump is great, and here's a commercial to tell you that. | ||
| But they claim that these ads are aimed at undocumented immigrants, and that somehow by watching a 30-second ad, the immigrants are going to say, Oopsie Daisy, I made a mistake. | ||
| Venezuela really is better than California. | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| There's nothing you can put in a 30-second ad that's going to cause somebody who's here to decide that they want to be back there. | ||
| These are people who walked here from Venezuela. | ||
| They went through the Darien Gap. | ||
| They dealt with the forest. | ||
| They dealt with the snakes. | ||
| They dealt with the predators. | ||
| They dealt with the drug dealers. | ||
| They came into our country at great person. | ||
| And they're going to see a 30-second ad praising Donald Trump and decide to walk back or even fly back. | ||
| What a stupid excuse that is for the obvious election interference of spending $200 million taxpayer money on ads praising Donald Trump. | ||
| Well, let's look what's happening at the VA. | ||
| They fired 2,000 people there. | ||
| Oh, they're still hiring, but they fired 2,000 people there. | ||
| We have a nursing shortage, they have a nursing shortage in this country. | ||
| The nurses they've fired are going to find jobs elsewhere very quickly, and they're not going to get them back. | ||
| The VA has stopped its clinical trials on cancer. | ||
| So, even if you're not a veteran, you may be dying next decade because of the research that's not being done this decade. | ||
| They're canceling operations. | ||
| They're increasing the wait times at the VA, and they have fired the suicide crisis line counselors. | ||
| There is veterans' blood on the hands of a man who never served his country. | ||
| That's right, Elon Musk never served in the South African Army. | ||
| My district includes the Pacific Palisades. | ||
| I want to thank so many of my colleagues for their expressions of sympathy. | ||
| And I've had a chance to work, as I always do with my constituents dealing with government, and it's sometimes frustrating. | ||
| Short deadlines imposed on people who have fled their homes. | ||
| Form letters that are confusing as hell and make people think they're not eligible. | ||
| But you know how you can make it all worse? | ||
| Fly to my district, as the president did, and announce you really want to eliminate FEMA entirely. | ||
| While I've got FEMA workers working 12 hours a day with my constituents trying to solve problems, offering the FEMA workers a buyout, including the temporary workers. | ||
| In any disaster, you go in with temporary work, you have to hire temporary workers. | ||
| They all may not only have a three or four month job, but they were offered eight months' pay to stay home. | ||
| What a way to deal with a disaster. | ||
| And then the president says he wants to impose conditions on the aid. | ||
| They want to abolish the California Coastal Commission, which takes steps to prevent billionaires with beachfront property to not wall off the beach and prevent anybody else from getting in the sand. | ||
| I can see why Donald Trump would identify with those billionaires, but that is the condition he wants to impose. | ||
| I voted for aid for hurricane victims in Louisiana, and it never occurred to me to turn to a victim of a hurricane in Louisiana and say, you stay on your cousin's couch, no federal aid for you until your state changes its abortion laws. | ||
|
Confronting China in International Lending
00:10:58
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||
| Now is not the time to take hostage fire victims or hurricane victims in an effort to try to force a state government to take an action that this or that member of Congress or this or that president wants them to take. | ||
| Now, I will say that we are going, and I want to assure the country, we're going to build back better. | ||
| We're going to make sure that the Palisades do not burn again. | ||
| We have a very strict fire building code that's applicable to all new construction in the Palisades and other fire-prone areas. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I would ask how much time I have remaining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman has 17 minutes remaining. | |
| The gentleman has 17 minutes remaining. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You know, Mr. Speaker, I've been, my party has put confidence in me and may be the chief Democrat dealing with the subcommittee on the stock and bond markets. | ||
| Our SEC oversees our capital markets, which are the nerve center of global capitalism. | ||
| Virtually all the most powerful companies in America and really the world focus on one goal, and that is to increase their value of the value of their company stock on our capital markets. | ||
| Our capital markets are the envy of the world. | ||
| The securities traded there are worth over $800 trillion. | ||
| It is fragile. | ||
| It is delicate. | ||
| It is the nerve center of global capitalism. | ||
| So why don't we just let big balls take a whack at it? | ||
| What could go wrong? | ||
| Now, whether it is crime in the streets or crime in the sweets, we should not defund the police. | ||
| You don't defund the men and women in blue, and you don't defund the Securities Exchange Commission that oversees the stock and bond markets. | ||
| The SEC has a $2 billion budget. | ||
| It secured over $3.2 billion in fines, in effect, to those on Wall Street that did the wrong thing, so it more than paid for itself. | ||
| And no, that was $3.2 billion that went back to investors. | ||
| $8.2 billion in fines. | ||
| So the federal government made four times its money on the SEC. | ||
| But there are those at Doge that want to, in effect, abolish the SEC, get the same kind of securities regulation on Wall Street that they have in Botswana or Kazakhstan, that is to say, no regulation at all, and see what happens. | ||
| Well, two years from now, we'll have to see, did the SEC under the Trump administration secure $8.2 billion paid to the federal government or $3.2 billion returned to investors? | ||
| If not, it will not be because there's no crime in the sweets, that there's no crooks on Wall Street. | ||
| It will not be because the wolves of Wall Street have become lambs. | ||
| It will because they defunded the police of Wall Street. | ||
| A lot of attention is being spent here in Congress on China. | ||
| And with 28 years of experience on the Foreign Affairs Committee, I would like to address that issue. | ||
| The problem started, the big part of the problem started, when this Congress voted to give most favored nation status to China. | ||
| That was at the beginning of this century. | ||
| We were told that it would only increase our trade deficit by a billion dollars a year. | ||
| That prediction was off by 4,000 percent. | ||
| The vast majority of Democrats voted no on that bill, which was the action which made China a worldwide economic superpower, got it in to the international trading organizations, opened up access to our markets. | ||
| And we voted no when a Democratic president was twisting our arms to vote yes. | ||
| It was our proudest moment. | ||
| And I hope my Republican colleagues will have a proud moment when they stand up to a president of their own party. | ||
| Unfortunately, Republican votes and a few Democratic votes passed that. | ||
| We now have our markets wide open to China. | ||
| Their markets aren't particularly open to us. | ||
| And we have huge trade deficits, and those trade deficits with China were $150 billion higher under the Trump administration than they were under the Biden administration. | ||
| And they were particularly high in the portion of the Trump administration before COVID. | ||
| It wasn't a COVID thing. | ||
| Trump's policy is to yell loudly and accomplish nothing when it comes to dealing with our trade deficits with China. | ||
| Now, Trump talks about other countries eating our lunch. | ||
| Under his first administration, China ate our lunch, our dinner, our dessert, and our snacks. | ||
| So now we have Americans who are investing in Chinese stocks. | ||
| And the question I've asked at hearing after hearing is, can anybody give me a reason why we should use our tax system and lose our tax dollars to incentivize Americans buying Chinese stocks? | ||
| And not a single member can give a reason, not a single one of our witnesses can give a reason why we should do that. | ||
| We forego hundreds of millions, billions of dollars in taxes on the gains people earn on investing in Chinese stocks. | ||
| We encourage them to invest in the Chinese economy with our tax dollars. | ||
| But only one Republican has stepped forward and co-sponsored my legislation to eliminate the capital gains allowance, the tax incentive for investing in Chinese stocks. | ||
| Why is that? | ||
| Because the billionaire class wants subsidies for every investment they make, even when they're building the Chinese economy or the Russian economy or the Iranian economy. | ||
| It is time to stand up to the billionaire class. | ||
| You cannot confront China if you're unwilling to do so. | ||
| We also need to take steps so that Chinese stocks are not included in index funds and so that every company that reports to the SEC informs its shareholders of what risk they have due to their dependence on China and what they're doing about it so that every private company is de-risking from China. | ||
| and doing everything they can so that if God forbid China wants to end the trade relationship or God forbid China invades Taiwan, these companies have minimized the risk that our economy faces. | ||
| Now one area where we need to be particularly strong is in those islands in the Pacific between the United States and China. | ||
| My father fought in the Pacific. | ||
| He landed the boats on island shores. | ||
| We need to maintain our influence in places like the Solomon Islands, in places like the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands being a place where thousands and thousands of American Marines died and many in the Navy as well. | ||
| And so what have we done? | ||
| We've eliminated our aid program of 20, and these countries are very small, these islands are small, the aid programs are small, yet they have a tremendous impact on influence in these strategic islands. | ||
| We eliminated the $21 million support island for the Solomon Islands. | ||
| We eliminated our $95,000 for the Cook Islands. | ||
| And this is how we confront China, or this is how we have performative savings. | ||
| Now, we need to confront China. | ||
| One way we also need to confront China is in international lending and the credit rating agencies, the bond rating agencies that rate the creditworthiness of countries. | ||
| And we need to tell those who rate other countries' creditworthiness that if they don't repay a phony debt to China, a debt trap debt to China, that should not be counted against them. | ||
| What do I mean? | ||
| I mean when China makes a loan to Sri Lanka that they know Sri Lanka is not going to be able to pay from that project and they put in there that if you don't pay, we get to control your port. | ||
| Sri Lanka should be encouraged, don't give your port to China, give your middle finger to China. | ||
| And you will be able to borrow from American banks and European banks and international lending associations. | ||
| We should never allow a credit rating agency under our control to ding a country that is subject to this kind of blackmail from China. | ||
| And this brings up the issue of foreign aid in general. | ||
| You know, if you poll Americans, they'll say we're spending too much on foreign aid. | ||
| And then you ask them how much of our budget should go to for is going to foreign aid. | ||
| They say 25% of our American budget is going to foreign aid. | ||
| It ought to be less. | ||
| Then you ask them what percentage should we be spending on foreign aid. | ||
| They say 10%. | ||
| Well, guess what? | ||
| We're spending way less than 1% of our budget on foreign aid. | ||
| We're spending way less than the American people think we're spending. | ||
| We're spending less than they want to spend. | ||
| But they want it cut because they think it's over 30 times what it actually is. | ||
|
AIDS Prevention in Egypt
00:09:00
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| And that is why Ronald Reagan recognized the importance of our foreign aid program. | ||
| Now, I've been in Congress for a long time. | ||
| And I remember when Congress confronted the executive branch. | ||
| It wasn't just Democrats against Republicans. | ||
| It was all of us against the executive branch. | ||
| And there are times when both sides of the aisle are going to need to do that. | ||
| Now, there are some criticisms that are valid against our foreign aid and State Department budget. | ||
| The State Department is doing something that is too woke for me, but is supported by Elon Musk. | ||
| And that is when they have in their budget spending $400 million to replace the perfectly good armored cars that the State Department has now, armored vehicles designed to make sure that our diplomats are safe in dangerous places. | ||
| We have perfectly good armored cars, but there's a proposal the State Department spend $400 million on new zero greenhouse gas emitting armored cars. | ||
| Pretty damn woke. | ||
| You'd expect the State Department, you'd expect the Doge to have crossed that out, but they won't because the explicit statement is this is $400 million for Tesla cyber truck armored cars. | ||
| So you know Elon ain't cutting that. | ||
| And you know what they did to fool us because they think we're stupid? | ||
| They changed the document a little bit. | ||
| They took out the word Tesla. | ||
| So now the State Department is going to spend $400 million on armored U.S.-made cyber trucks. | ||
| Do they really think those aren't going to be Tesla cyber? | ||
| Is there somebody else who makes armored cybertrucks in the United States? | ||
| That money is going to reduce the greenhouse gases of our armored vehicles, and it's going to Elon Musk. | ||
| But there are a lot of things that are said about our foreign aid budget that are completely false. | ||
| Elon Musk already has admitted that his statement that $50 million was going to condoms for Gaza was just a total mistake. | ||
| Oopsie-daisy. | ||
| He apologized. | ||
| It's okay, he thinks, for Doge to make a mistake, but if he can find even a single dollar of misspent money in any other agency, he says, well, that's a reason to abolish the whole agency and fire all the employees. | ||
| Well, that $50 million was going for anti-AIDS programs in Africa, and some of it was going for condoms. | ||
| That's one of the ways you try to prevent this transmission of AIDS. | ||
| Now, why are these foreign aid programs in the interests of America? | ||
| Well, first, you might think that we have a moral responsibility as the richest country in the world to do something very poor as well, but let's put that aside. | ||
| If we don't provide foreign aid, China steps in, our influences decline, China's influence increases. | ||
| If we don't provide aid to the very poorest people there, that gives them a strong incentive to try to come here. | ||
| And you can try to stop them with a wall, but he had four years to build a wall and he didn't build a wall. | ||
| The best way to reduce irregular migration to America is to eliminate the reason that people are so desperate to come here. | ||
| But finally, and most importantly, our aid deals with diseases. | ||
| Musk already said, oopsie-daisy, he doesn't. | ||
| We didn't mean to cut the program to fight Ebola in Africa. | ||
| He tries to restore it. | ||
| Of course, he's already done so much damage to it, wasted so much money. | ||
| Who knows what? | ||
| So that's more people getting Ebola in Africa, more chances for the disease to mutate, and then it comes here. | ||
| But he is fine with cutting our actions against HIV AIDS. | ||
| Same issue. | ||
| That disease mutates in every human it infects. | ||
| One out of a thousand, one out of a million of those mutations make the disease more capable of surviving the drugs that we have, make it more communicable, make it more powerful when it comes back here. | ||
| So a lot of Americans will be dying of AIDS next decade because of what we're doing or not doing in Africa this decade. | ||
| So then they try to point to some other programs that are a waste of money. | ||
| $6 million to help Egypt encourage tourism. | ||
| Now USAID, I've got Republican colleagues who think that, well, that's aid, that must be food for people who are hungry right now and are about to die of starvation. | ||
| They don't know that USAID says U.S. Agency for International Development. | ||
| The goal is not just to feed people who are hungry now, not just give a man a fish, not just give a woman a fish, teach them how to fish. | ||
| And that's why an agency for international development would help Egypt develop its economy. | ||
| You know what Egypt has? | ||
| They got a lot of sand. | ||
| That doesn't help them too much. | ||
| They got pyramids. | ||
| And if they can develop their tourist industry, which is a big chunk of their economy, they won't need our food aid because they'll have money of their own. | ||
| So it was a good program, $6 million to help them get more tourists. | ||
| You know who started that program? | ||
| Donald Trump in his first. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| They made a big deal of cutting a wasteful program that Donald Trump started. | ||
| Then we're told that there's a circumcision program. | ||
| Well, there was a circumcision program, voluntary, providing this very inexpensive operation. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because you reduce by 60% the risk of female-to-male transmission of AIDS. | ||
| It is the single cheapest thing you can do to reduce AIDS. | ||
| And then you make a joke out of it. | ||
| And yes, you can make a joke. | ||
| But it's not a joke when more people die of AIDS in Africa and more AIDS mutates in Africa because you had a funny joke. | ||
| The Ebola cut was a mistake. | ||
| Musk admits it. | ||
| Oopsie-daisy. | ||
| The cutting of efforts to deal with HIV-AIDS in Africa, also a mistake. | ||
| Then we were told that USAID was spending... | ||
| I would ask one last thing. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent for a conclusion. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman makes a unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | |
| The gentleman may ask for unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| You're recognized. | ||
| There's one other cut they made. | ||
| And that is they cut oxygen in a clinic for people who had fled the terrible deaths in Burma, Myanmar. | ||
| And as a result, a 71-year-old woman, Pei Ko Lau, died without her oxygen. | ||
| And so I ask that this House not only reflect on the other 10,000 people in that refugee camp who are without medical care, But I ask that we adjourn in silence in the memory of Pei Kao Lau, who died at the hands of Elon Musk and Doge. | ||
|
Motion to Adjourn
00:02:05
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| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Does the gentleman have a motion? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I was not given the script for this, but I am given the script for this. | |
| It's really very simple. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Sherman. | ||
| The question is on the motion to adjourn. | ||
| All those in favor say yay. | ||
| Yay. | ||
| All those opposed say no. | ||
| The yeas have it. | ||
| The motion is adopted. | ||
| Accordingly, the house stands adjourned until noon on Monday next for a morning hour debate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The House is wrapping up legislative work this week with a bill to repeal a Biden administration rule, which set new energy efficiency standards for tankless water heaters starting in 2029. | |
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