June 11, 2025 13:31-17:27 - CSPAN
03:55:40
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
Participants
Appearances
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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House Bill 331 Consideration
00:02:07
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| And as you know, the President federalized the National Guard under U.S. Code 10, which he has the authority to do. | ||
| And our United States Marines and the National Guard's men and women who are on the ground right now are helping to create a peaceful environment for ICE and Border Patrol, who were being, again, hailed with rocks, who were being violently and viciously attacked. | ||
| They needed reinforcements, and so our United States Marines who are on the ground are providing those reinforcements to ensure the environment is peaceful so that these raids and deportations can continue. | ||
| But he realizes they can't actually arrest people unless he invokes the Instruction Act, which, I mean, seemingly was not something that was in Secretary Noeb's memo, a clear distinction she did not make there. | ||
| Again, you're trying to conflate a letter that was sent to the Department of Homeland Security to the President's legal authority. | ||
| The President understands the legal authority that he invoked, and that's the current situation right now. | ||
| When it comes to federalizing the National Guard, what is the specific criteria that the President is using for when he's deciding to? | ||
| We're going to break away from this and get you live to the House for legislative business. | ||
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unidentified
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Mr. Speaker. | |
| Madam Secretary. | ||
| I have been directed by the Senate to inform the House that the Senate has passed S-1136, an act to authorize sentencing enhancements for certain criminal offenses directed by or coordinated with foreign governments, in which the concurrence of the House is requested. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 489, I call up the bill Senate 331 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
|
unidentified
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The clerk will report the title of the bill. | |
| Senate 331, an act to amend the Control Substances Act with respect to scheduling of fentanyl-related substances and for other purposes. | ||
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unidentified
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Pursuant to House Rule 489, the bill is considered read. | |
| The bill shall be debatable for one hour, equally divided, and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee of Energy and Commerce or their respective designee. | ||
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Permanently Scheduling Fentanyl Analogues
00:12:02
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unidentified
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The gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Griffith, and the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, each will control 30 minutes. | |
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the legislation and to insert extraneous materials on S-331. | ||
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unidentified
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Without objection. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
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The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Unfortunately, most members in this chamber know someone who's been affected by the drug overdose epidemic plaguing our country. | ||
| According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023, there were more than 107,000 overdose deaths that occurred in the United States. | ||
| These staggering numbers are due in large part to the increasing presence of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, which are approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. | ||
| The lethal dose of fentanyl is just two milligrams or about four grains of sand. | ||
| A loophole that the cartels have tried to use to traffic their illicit fentanyl into our country is by changing one part of fentanyl's chemical structure to create fentanyl analogs. | ||
| The cartels did this in an attempt to evade our criminal laws. | ||
| Right now, fentanyl analogs are considered Schedule I substances, but only because of a series of temporary scheduling orders, and that order is now set to expire on September 30th of this year. | ||
| That is why the HALT Fentanyl Act, led by myself and my friend, the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Latta, in the House, and then Senators and then Senators Cassidy and Heinrich in the Senate is critically needed. | ||
| This bill aims to curb overdose deaths by permanently scheduling fentanyl analogs as Schedule I substances, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| This will strengthen the law enforcement's ability to prosecute fentanyl traffickers and act as a deterrent. | ||
| The HALT Fentanyl Act promotes research by improving the registration process so eligible individuals can conduct studies on Schedule I substances with the appropriate safeguards. | ||
| In the Energy and Commerce Committee, we have heard there may be as many as 4,800 analogs. | ||
| My understanding is that experts at NIH and FDA and other agencies have studied roughly 30 of those 4,800 analogs. | ||
| By encouraging research of Schedule I substances like fentanyl analogs, we can better understand how these substances work and how we can prevent potentially harmful impacts in the future. | ||
| The temporary bans, Mr. Speaker, did not deal with the research component. | ||
| So without this bill, we cannot legally do the research on the analogs that may someday be found to have medical benefits. | ||
| Because fentanyl itself has a proven medical use, it is considered a Schedule II drug. | ||
| But illicit derivatives of fentanyl, also called fentanyl analogs, currently have no demonstrated medical value. | ||
| Let me be clear: this bill will have no impact whatsoever on a physician's ability to administer fentanyl in medical settings. | ||
| HALT deals specifically with fentanyl analogs, not medicinal fentanyl. | ||
| We must address this bipartisan issue immediately and not allow this temporary extension to expire in September. | ||
| Once fentanyl analogs are permanently placed into Schedule I, Congress will continue to build off this work to continue to address the illicit fentanyl crisis in our country. | ||
| According to a 2021 GAO report, there was a 90% decrease in these fentanyl analogs coming into our country the year they were placed temporarily into Schedule I. | ||
| This bill is a critical step in combating the opioid crisis in our country because China and Mexico are heavily involved in this business. | ||
| China sends the precursors of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, the API or active pharmaceutical ingredients, to the cartels in Mexico who are then making the drugs and bringing it across our borders. | ||
| By making these analogs permanently Schedule I, it removes the incentive to traffic these drugs into our country due to the penalties if you are caught. | ||
| China has even realized the risk of fentanyl analogs themselves and permanently scheduled these analogs on their strictest schedule. | ||
| Other countries have followed suit and done the same. | ||
| This bill received bipartisan support on the House floor with a vote of 312 to 108 in February. | ||
| The bill has the support of many law enforcement agencies and other entities calling for the need to pass the bill. | ||
| With passage of this version of the bill, it will be sent to the President's desk, and I am hopeful the President will sign this bill into law quickly so that we can continue to combat this crisis and begin research in earnest to see if there's any benefit from any of the analogs that may help people who are afflicted having been addicted by accident or on purpose to fentanyl. | ||
| I urge all of my colleagues to support Senate 331, the HALT Fentanyl Act, and Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen from Virginia, reserves. | |
| Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in opposition to S-331, the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself time as I may consume. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the House of Recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The House approved this bill in February, and since that time, the Trump administration has set its sights on dismantling our nation's public health infrastructure, including the agency directly responsible for addressing mental health and substance abuse disorders. | ||
| Republicans are going to claim today that they are addressing the opioid overdose crisis with this bill, but this is nothing but a distraction from the fact that Republicans continue to silently stand by and allow the Trump administration to gut our public health agencies. | ||
| Republicans are also attempting to distract from the fact that last month they passed the largest cuts to health care in American history as part of their big, ugly bill. | ||
| Republicans are stripping health care away from 16 million Americans so they can give giant tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations, two groups that don't need any help right now. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, over the last couple of years, we've made significant progress in addressing the opioid overdose crisis. | ||
| Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a 24 percent decline in drug overdose deaths for the 12 months ending in September of 2024, compared to the previous year. | ||
| This is encouraging news, but I am deeply concerned that the Trump administration's attacks on public health, coupled with the Republican attacks on Americans' health care, will seriously threaten the improvements we've made. | ||
| The bill before us today permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances on Schedule I of the Control Substances Act. | ||
| This is based on a class definition disputed by scientists. | ||
| I oppose this bill because it's a permanent extension instead of a temporary one that we agreed on for two years in the end-of-the-year appropriations package. | ||
| Now, that bipartisan package was pushed aside by Speaker Johnson after Elon Musk voiced his opposition to the overall package. | ||
| The temporary option would have left the door open for an off-ramp to substances found to have potential medical applications. | ||
| But this Republican bill would also exacerbate inequities in our criminal justice system because drugs placed on Schedule I include mandatory minimum sentencing. | ||
| And S-331 also does not provide additional resources for prevention, treatment, recovery, or harm reduction. | ||
| So the bill is essentially recycling an incarceration-first response to what I consider mainly a public health challenge. | ||
| And that's because Republicans don't want to talk about this as a public health challenge. | ||
| Instead, President Trump and House Republicans want to focus on piecemeal policies in the hopes it will distract from their efforts to gut Medicaid and drug treatment programs. | ||
| Now, Republicans are sabotaging Medicaid, which will be devastating to people who struggle with mental health and substance use issues. | ||
| Medicaid is the single largest payer in the country for behavioral health services, covering 40 percent of all Americans with opioid use disorder. | ||
| Americans with substance use and mental health issues will face new barriers and red tape for signing up for and staying enrolled in the health insurance. | ||
| House Republicans are setting up new barriers and roadblocks to care that will unfortunately result in our mental health and substance abuse crisis and only make it worse. | ||
| And Republicans are silently standing by as the Trump administration is moving forward with an unauthorized and illegal plan to eliminate the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, better known as SAMHSA. | ||
| SAMHSA is the very agency responsible for preventing substance use disorder, increasing access to treatment, and promoting recovery. | ||
| It will be combined with other agencies that the Trump administration doesn't care about under the banner of a larger Make America Healthy Again office. | ||
| And these critical programs to treat mental health and substance abuse will be deprioritized or eliminated in favor of Cabinet member Secretary RFA Jr.'s pet projects like destroying Americans' access to vaccines. | ||
| He's going to prioritize that and not SAMHSA and substance abuse treatment. | ||
| And Congress has received zero information from the Trump administration about how this new office will work and how the work of SAMHSA to address the mental health and substance use treatment needs of our communities will be prioritized. | ||
| I'd like to enter into the record, Mr. Speaker, if I could, that ask unanimous consent, a letter from the nation's leading mental health and substance use treatment organizations. | ||
| It's called the Mental Health Liaison Group. | ||
| And this letter is in strong opposition to the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate SAMHSA as well as their efforts to drastically cut funding and eliminate critical SAMHSA programs. | ||
| And as they write in this letter, and I'll just quote, these proposals would have quote devastating consequences for the 84.5 million Americans with a mental health and/or substance use disorder, many of whom rely on SAMHSA's programs, research, oversight, and leadership to address critical mental health and substance use disorder needs. | ||
| And that's the end of the quote. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the Trump administration is also rescinding more than $1 billion in essential funding that states rely on through block grants. | ||
| This rescission is wreaking havoc on states' efforts to support prevention, treatment, and recovery because states and counties and towns are the main places where these treatment programs are. | ||
| So my Republican colleagues refuse to hold this administration to account for these devastating and illegal cuts. | ||
| Instead, they're trying to distract with this bill. | ||
| This bill is opposed by nearly 190 national, state, and local public health, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations. | ||
| So I oppose the bill and encourage my colleagues to oppose it as well. | ||
| I don't want anyone to misunderstand. | ||
| What I'm saying is, if you don't treat mental health and substance abuse as a public health crisis, and instead you just say we're going to throw everybody in jail, we're going to have mandatory sentences and throw everybody, you know, lock the door, throw away the key, I don't think that's going to solve the problem. | ||
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Considering Individual Circumstances
00:15:22
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| And I will continue to highlight that while Republicans propose these mandatory sentences and want to make this a permanent, you know, put fentanyl permanently on this schedule, that is not the answer to this mental health crisis. | ||
| It is not the answer. | ||
| The answer is to provide adequate treatment, education, also to prevent the drugs from coming into the country, but not to just put people in jail and throw away the key. | ||
| And with that, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Gentleman from New Jersey Reserves, gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I would like to yield three minutes to my colleague who has helped lead the charge on this legislation for many years now, the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Lana. | ||
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unidentified
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The gentleman from Ohio is recognized for three minutes. | |
| Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my good friend for yielding time to me. | ||
| For over four years, I've worked tirelessly with my colleague from Virginia's 9th District to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| In 2023, we saw over 107,000 overdose deaths. | ||
| 75,000 of those attributed to synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| Currently, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs temporarily fall under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the CSA, due to a temporary scheduling order that runs through September 30th of this year. | ||
| This bill would permanently place fentanyl analogs into Schedule I of the CSA. | ||
| A Schedule I controlled substance is a drug, substance, or chemical that has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical value, and is subject to regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal penalties. | ||
| Today, this chamber is permanently scheduling fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I. | ||
| We owe it to our communities, our constituents, the families, and to the victims. | ||
| Cartels are quite literally killing Americans for 10 cents. | ||
| Among teens, fentanyling accounted for an average of 22 deaths per week in 2022. | ||
| Fentanyl is the number one cause of death among adults 18 to 49, more than cancer, heart disease, and car accidents. | ||
| This is about criminal justice reform. | ||
| This is about victims getting justice. | ||
| Currently, to trigger a 10-year mandatory minimum, an offense must involve 100 or more grams of a mixture containing a fentanyl analog. | ||
| Two milligrams of fentanyl will kill. | ||
| It means 100 grams of fentanyl analog can kill roughly 50,000 people. | ||
| I thank our Senate colleagues for passing this critical legislation, and I encourage all my House colleagues to support the HALT Fentanyl Act so we can get this to the President's desk and to stop the greatest poisoning in American history. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the remainder of the Senate. | ||
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unidentified
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The gentleman yields back. | |
| Gentleman from Virginia Reserves, gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as it may consume. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman's recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, House Republicans, I think, know that we can't simply schedule our way out of this crisis, but they've refused to pass bipartisan solutions that address prevention, treatment, and recovery to help stop overdose deaths. | ||
| I know that they passed, reauthorized the Support Act last week, but the bottom line is that all the programs under the Support Act that have helped treatment, helped with treatment, helped with education, caused the number of overdose deaths to decline are being gutted. | ||
| And the staff that administer them and SAMHSA, the program that they're under, all these things are being either eliminated or gutted or the funding frozen by the Trump administration. | ||
| But my point today is this is not just a criminal justice issue. | ||
| We must combat this opioid crisis through a multi-pronged public health approach. | ||
| Nearly half of all people in federal prison today have been convicted of a drug-related offense, with a racial and ethnic disparity among those convictions. | ||
| Access to treatment remains a challenge today. | ||
| In 2023, according to SAMHSA, approximately one quarter of the people who were classified as needing substance use treatment received it in the last year, and people with a substance use disorder who are untreated are eight times more likely to die of an overdose compared to those who receive medication treatment. | ||
| So just putting people away and locking the key is not the answer. | ||
| And cutting back on the treatment programs, the education programs under SAMHSA is certainly going to make things worse. | ||
| I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman from New Jersey Reserves, gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I would now like to recognize for two minutes to speaking on the measure the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentleman from Kentucky. | ||
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unidentified
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Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky for taking a second. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I appreciate the gentleman for yielding, and I appreciate the time. | ||
| You're not going to solve this problem by, it's not the answer to the problem. | ||
| You're not going to solve this problem by only putting people in jail and throwing away the key. | ||
| But I will tell you there are people who are purveyors of this illicit fentanyl that deserve to be put in jail and throw away the key. | ||
| That's what we have to do to the people that are selling this poison to our children. | ||
| We have people that have testified before our committee that their child took Adderall before a test and it was laced with fentanyl. | ||
| So there were poison. | ||
| It's not that they just had addiction issues. | ||
| It's also just poisoning our communities. | ||
| And so there are people selling this and they're purveying it and creating it and growing and creating it chemically. | ||
| And so what we do on the Energy and Commerce Committee today we're doing the HALT Fentanyl Act to address the criminal justice side of it. | ||
| But my friend from New Jersey is correct. | ||
| We also have to address the issues of people that are suffering from substance use disorder. | ||
| And we did that in the Support Act. | ||
| We had over, I think, 350 votes on the floor. | ||
| It was broadly bipartisan on the floor of the House. | ||
| And we are committed to ensuring that people have access to treatment. | ||
| But we are equally committed to ensuring that people that are purveying this poison on our communities, our cities, bringing it across the border, deserve to have their day in court, deserve to answer to justice, and deserve, if it be the case that these are the people poisoning our children, they should be put in jail and the key thrown away. | ||
| Our committee will not apologize for that. | ||
| It takes all of the above approach for this issue, and we're willing to do all the above approach. | ||
| And I ask my colleagues to support this bill. | ||
| It's extremely important. | ||
| The EAA DEA alone has said that they support this. | ||
| And it's time we do it. | ||
| And I will ask this body to support it, and I will yield back the balance of my time. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman yields back. | |
| I reserve, Mr. Speaker. | ||
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unidentified
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Virginia Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman is recognized. | |
| The chairman of our committee knows I have great respect for him, but the bottom line is that this bill does not consider individual circumstances. | ||
| It's not just people that are selling drugs. | ||
| Look, I totally agree with you that if someone is selling fentanyl, it's a totally different situation from someone who was arrested for possessing it. | ||
| But the fact of the matter is this bill covers both. | ||
| Those who possess it, who are using it for themselves, those who are selling it, and maybe those who have a huge ring of selling it. | ||
| My point is that when you have mandatory minimums, all those people come under the same rubric. | ||
| And the legislation, because it now makes permanent fentanyl on the Schedule 1, the mandatory minimums apply, and the harsh penalties do not consider individual circumstances. | ||
| So I don't want to keep repeating, but I will about how the legislation has no resources for prevention or treatment and just simply locks people up. | ||
| But the point is that you're going to have families and communities that, because of the minimum sentencing and the inability of the judge to look at the individual circumstances, that we're going to repeat the same mistakes that we made for many years responding to other drugs. | ||
| Right now we know that people of color have been disproportionately incarcerated and sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences. | ||
| The trend of racial disparity also can be seen in prosecutions for offenses involving fentanyl and fentanyl analogs. | ||
| The sentencing commission data from fiscal years 2021 to 23 provides strong evidence that these prosecutions disproportionately target people of color. | ||
| I'd like to get beyond the point here when we debate these bills of saying that mandatory sentencing is a good thing regardless of whether you're charged with possession or selling or how much you're selling. | ||
| But that's not what this bill does. | ||
| You get locked up. | ||
| There's no individual circumstances considered. | ||
| And we know the consequences of that for people in many cases who, in my opinion, if it was the judge, would not impose these harsh mandatory penalties. | ||
| But I'll reserve the balance of my time. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman from New Jersey reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now recognize the gentleman from Florida for two minutes speaking on the measure. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman is recognized for two minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia, who is the original sponsor, along with Bob Ladder, Representative Ladder from the great state of Ohio. | ||
| This is a very, very important bill. | ||
| And I strongly urge that the House pass this particular bill. | ||
| For far too long, our communities have been plagued by poisonings from fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| Every one of our congressional districts have been affected by this crisis. | ||
| Kids are dying, folks. | ||
| They're dying. | ||
| And we've got to make this permanent. | ||
| Illicit drugs have poured across the border, made it on the streets, and affected our communities, every one of our communities. | ||
| They're often mixed with other illicit drugs. | ||
| And users are often unaware of the presence and potent effects, which makes the danger even harder to stop. | ||
| I mean, you know, you hear stories on a regular basis where kids go out and party and they shouldn't be using recreational drugs. | ||
| But they don't deserve to die when lentinol is you heard the example just today by our chairman with regard to some of these drugs. | ||
| You can say marijuana, what have you, and other drugs. | ||
| And the kids should not be using these drugs. | ||
| But they don't deserve to die. | ||
| They're laced with fentanyl. | ||
| And it's just awful, awful for the kids, but also for the families and the friends of the kids. | ||
| We must ensure that law enforcement has the tools it needs to address these threats, and that's what we're doing today. | ||
| The HALT-Fentanyl Act will permanently schedule fentanyl-related substances as a Class 1 drug. | ||
| This is long overdue. | ||
| And I know my good friend Mr. Griffith and also Mr. Aladda have been working on this for years. | ||
| So this must pass the United States Senate after we get it out of the House today. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We need to save lives. | ||
| That's the bottom line. | ||
| I appreciate it, and I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
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unidentified
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The gentleman from Virginia Reserve, gentlemen from New Jersey is recognized. | |
| I'll continue to reserve. | ||
| I think my colleague has more speakers. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | |
| I now recognize the chairman of the Health Subcommittee, the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Carter, for two minutes. | ||
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unidentified
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The gentleman is recognized for two minutes. | |
| I thank the gentleman for yielding. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the HALT Fentanyl Act, which permanently, permanently extends President Trump's 2018 Schedule I classification of fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the United States is facing a poisoning epidemic, and it is caused by illicit fentanyl and its related substances that are pouring over our borders and into our communities. | ||
| In 2023, under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 107,000 people died of drug overdoses. | ||
| Roughly 75,000 of whom died from synthetic opioids, largely illicit fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| Including in that number is a family from Georgia who lost their two sons, 22-year-old Gannon and 19-year-old Max, to fentanyl poisoning. | ||
| We cannot allow this lawlessness and tragedy to continue to tear our communities apart. | ||
| That is why we must stop deadly fentanyl from flooding across our borders and crack down on traffickers. | ||
| President Trump has already made progress by securing our borders, and Congress must support him in this critical effort. | ||
| That's why we must pass the HALT Fentanyl Act that is before us today. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, let's pass this bill, secure our borders, stem the tide of the growing fentanyl crisis, and save lives. | ||
| Again, Mr. Speaker, this is fentanyl poisoning. | ||
| We're not talking about addiction here. | ||
| We're talking about one pill, one pill that poisons, that kills people. | ||
| And that's what we're trying to prevent here. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman yields back. | |
| I reserve. | ||
| Gentleman from Virginia Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen's recognized. | |
| Again, Mr. Speaker, I listened to what the chairman of our health subcommittee said, and I'm not arguing with him that we have to look at the fentanyl crisis in many ways, particularly at the border, and prevent it from coming into the country from China and other places that flood this country with it. | ||
| But my point is that what we're hearing from the Trump administration and from the Secretary of HHS, Sir Robert Kennedy Jr., is that we're going to defund substance use disorder programs, mental health programs, and treatment. | ||
|
Exacerbating Addiction Through Incarceration
00:15:44
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| And the fact of the matter is that about 58% of the people in prison now have a substance use disorder. | ||
| People with these disorders have challenges in getting appropriate treatment, and often incarceration exacerbates their symptoms. | ||
| So by having these mandatory penalties, putting more people in prison, who in many cases are only there because of mandatory sentences for possession of fentanyl and analogs, it only exacerbates their condition. | ||
| It leads to individuals staying incarcerated longer and they don't get the treatment. | ||
| In the congressional justification for the Trump administrations for a healthy America, HHS proposes, the agency proposes, to cut various substance use and mental health programs that are helping state and local health departments combat the opioid crisis. | ||
| For fiscal year 26, the Department of Health and Human Services proposes a zero-out state opioid response grants, the Community Mental Health Service Block Grant, the first responder training, youth prevention and recovery programs, and many, many more. | ||
| I talked about this recently. | ||
| The bottom line is if you zero out all these programs, I think it's over a billion dollars that's already been frozen, you're going to have nothing locally. | ||
| You're going to have no opportunity locally to actually help people with treatment and education. | ||
| And all you're going to do now is just throw them in prison, which only exacerbates the problem. | ||
| In the President's budget, they propose to cut SAMHSA programs that assist with harm reduction strategies to help those in need, as well as programs that help prevent Americans from controlled substances. | ||
| The President budget also calls for reducing opioid overdose prevention and surveillance by $29 million. | ||
| I think that every dollar that's cut for prevention, for treatment, for education is a life that's left unprotected. | ||
| And terminating these critical programs and offices just put millions of lives battling substance use in jeopardy. | ||
| I just wish my colleagues would spend as much time on these issues in protecting public health and coming up with solutions instead of retreading a bill that prioritizes this criminal justice approach, which I think doesn't work. | ||
| And I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Reserve gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield two minutes to the gentleman from California, Mr. Obernoti. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman is recognized for two minutes. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S-331, the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, opioid overdoses have become an epidemic in this country. | ||
| Last year, over 100,000 Americans lost their lives to overdose, and fentanyl poisoning is the driving force behind that. | ||
| But, Mr. Speaker, it is not just the country at large that's experienced this problem. | ||
| In my own district, we've seen an over 1,000 percent increase in the rate of fentanyl poisoning and deaths. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I had the most difficult day in my over 20 years in public office recently when I had to console one of my constituents, a mother who lost both of her sons in the same day to the same fentany poisoning event. | ||
| We must give our law enforcement the tools to combat this problem. | ||
| This bill does exactly that. | ||
| It permanently reschedules fentanyl and its analogs as a Schedule I narcotic, and it gives our law enforcement agencies the tools that they need to begin dealing with this problem. | ||
| That's why I'm proud to be a co-sponsor of the House version of this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to vote in support of it. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman yields back. | |
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Virginia Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| I was going to continue to reserve. | ||
| Does the gentleman have additional speakers? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I do. | |
| Gentleman from New Jersey Reserves, gentlemen from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Fitzgerald, two minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to Chairman Guthrie and Congressman Griffith for your leadership on the issue. | ||
| This is a historic moment, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| House Republicans are delivering on a promise to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl that for years has been flooding our communities and tragically tearing families apart. | ||
| Today, drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death across the country, and fentanyl-driven overdoses are the leading cause of death for American adults between 18 and 45 years of age. | ||
| That's because it's cheap to make, easy to transport, and so potent just a few milligrams can be lethal. | ||
| Addressing the spread of illicit and illegal fentanyl-related substances has been a top priority, not only for myself, but for many other colleagues in this House. | ||
| It's hard for me to believe what I'm hearing from the minority right now. | ||
| One of the first pieces of legislation that we introduced in the 117th Congress was Stopping the Overdose of Fentanyl Act. | ||
| SOFA is the same acronym as an organization started by Lori Baudra of O'Connellock, Wisconsin, saving others for Archie. | ||
| Archie was her son. | ||
| Lori has worked to raise awareness of the dangers of drug addiction throughout Wisconsin following the loss of her son Archie to a fentanyl overdose. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'd like to personally recognize the work of Lori as well as Dr. Timothy Westlake of Waukesha, Wisconsin, for spearheading legislation in the Wisconsin state legislature that culminated in the bill being debated before us today. | ||
| Since 2017, they have been working on a permanent solution, and that is scheduling fentanyl as a substance one item. | ||
| It is the most important thing that this House of Representatives will do in this Congress. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chairman yields back. | |
| The gentleman from Virginia Reserve, gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| Yes, Mr. Speaker, I yield now three minutes to the gentleman from Colorado, who is our assistant majority leader. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Colorado is recognized. | |
| I think the gentleman, I want to first say thank you to the Ranking Member for his leadership in addressing the scourge of fentanyl overdoses across our country. | ||
| I serve as one of the co-chairs of the bipartisan fentanyl prevention trafficking caucus with Representative Issa and Representative Madeleine Dean, and it's certainly an issue that we have worked tirelessly on and appreciate the bipartisan cooperation, notwithstanding, obviously, the disagreements with respect to this particular bill. | ||
| And I think the ranking member has spoken really eloquently with respect to his concerns. | ||
| I want to say thank you for the ranking member indulging me and giving me a few minutes to speak on the floor, because at the conclusion of this debate, I intend to make a unanimous consent request of the chair. | ||
| And I would hope that it's a consent request that everyone in this House could agree to. | ||
| As many of my colleagues, of course, are well aware. | ||
| It was a terrible, heinous terrorist attack in my district 10 days ago in Boulder, Colorado. | ||
| We've introduced a resolution, H.R. 481. | ||
| It's a bipartisan resolution. | ||
| Several of my Republican colleagues have joined me on this resolution. | ||
| It denounces anti-Semitism, condemns the horrific attack in my community, lifts up the organization, Run for Their Lives, which was heinously targeted by this terrorist. | ||
| This is an organization that's been working every week to peacefully call for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. | ||
| I'm simply asking for this House to consider my resolution. | ||
| This terrible attack happened in my district. | ||
| I have no doubt that if Republican leadership just puts the resolution on the floor, it will pass unanimously in this House. | ||
| I have no doubt. | ||
| And so I'm just asking my colleagues to give us the opportunity to weigh in or at least explain to us and explain to my constituents why this resolution that honors law enforcement, that honors the FBI and the Boulder Police Department that acted so swiftly in response to this terrorist attack, why my community is being deprived of that opportunity. | ||
| And so I would just hope I know my colleagues. | ||
| Of course, I know Mr. Griffith in particular. | ||
| I know him to be somebody who shares, I believe, my views as I've articulated them with respect to this particular attack, and would just hope that everyone would agree to give this resolution its due course. | ||
| And with that, I yield back to the gentleman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields back. | |
| Gentleman from New Jersey Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now recognize for two minutes the Vice Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Dr. Joyce. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized for two minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today I rise in strong support of the HALT Fentanyl Act, critical legislation to crack down on the criminals who produce, who traffic, and who sell fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. | ||
| Earlier this year, we were able to hear powerful testimony from two of my constituents, Ray and Deb Collin, who tragically lost their son Zach to fentanyl poisoning. | ||
| And unfortunately, they are not alone in this pathway to pain. | ||
| Last year, one Pennsylvanian died from an overdose every two hours, with the overwhelming majority of those who passed resulting from fentanyl poisoning. | ||
| We owe it to our future generations to end this plague, this plague on our society. | ||
| By passing the HALT Fentanyl Act, our courageous Border Patrol and law enforcement officers will be more effective in removing fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances that come across our border and end up in our community poisoning our children, our friends, our neighbors. | ||
| Additionally, this legislation will also result in harsher penalties for the criminals and the cartel members who are responsible for the spread of this poison. | ||
| As a nation, we can no longer sit by while future generations of American workers, parents, and community leaders are taken away from us. | ||
| I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this legislation today and to save the lives of so many throughout this great country. | ||
| It is time to halt fentanyl. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields back. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Virginia Reserves, gentlemen from New Jersey is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| You know, we had this bill in the House back in February, and then it went to the Senate, and essentially what came back today for final approval or final passage is the same bill. | ||
| And as was mentioned by my Republican colleagues, if it passes, say, it goes straight to the President's desk. | ||
| But at the time, in February, when we were discussing this bill, I had pointed out that President Trump had just pushed a scheme, really, straight out of Project 2025, to choke off virtually all federal funding, including halting over $8.6 billion in grant funding for the federal programs to combat the opioid crisis. | ||
| And at the time, the Congressional Republicans just stood by silently as it happened. | ||
| He halted over, Trump, that has halted over $6.5 billion in funding for the substance abuse of mental health services, SAMHSA, which supports treatment programs and prevention efforts. | ||
| He also halted nearly $1.5 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health, Drug Abuse and Addiction Research Programs, which conduct and support research on substance abuse and addiction, basically to better understand the causes of addiction and identify treatments and interventions that reduce overdoses. | ||
| Trump also halted all federally funded programs that provide critical opioid-related services, including federally qualified health centers, which serve a high proportion of patients disproportionately impacted by the opioid crisis. | ||
| And the Department of Health and Human Services also eliminated the workforce training programs, including the Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program, which trains professionals to provide opioid use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery services. | ||
| Now, a lot of these things, we went to court, and many of them were overturned. | ||
| But I don't want anyone to understand or to think that the President is giving up. | ||
| He's going to continue his efforts to illegally cut these programs, and I've mentioned some of them before. | ||
| And again, the House Republicans are doing nothing to halt any of this. | ||
| In addition to that, I have to say that the big ugly bill, which was passed a couple of weeks ago by the Republicans, makes about, I think, altogether between Medicaid, the ACA, and Medicare because of sequestration, cuts about, I don't know, I would say $1.7 or so trillion dollars. | ||
| And understand that Medicaid is the single largest payer for behavioral health services in the United States and covers nearly 40 percent of all individuals with opioid use disorder. | ||
| Medicaid covers a full array of services and supports for people with behavioral health needs, including services and supports that typically are not covered by other health programs. | ||
| So this is an assault on every effort for prevention and treatment of opioid disorders, whether it's cutting Medicaid, whether it's eliminating SAMHSA programs, cutting the money that goes back to states and towns to help people with treatment. | ||
| So again, you know, this bill is a distraction because it gives the impression that if you lock somebody up with a mandatory penalty, even if it's just for possession, and throw away the key, that's going to solve your problem. | ||
| It's not. | ||
| And everything that the President is doing and the Republicans are doing to support him eliminates, if it not completely eliminates, really cuts back significantly on the treatment and the education that are much going to be much more important in terms of trying to save people's lives. | ||
| But with that, I'll reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jersey Reserves, gentlemen from Virginia, is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I recognize the gentleman from Ohio, who I understand is the youngest Mr. Joyce in the House, for two minutes. | ||
|
Supporting the HALT Fentanyl Act
00:08:18
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||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized for two minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in strong support of Senate Bill 1331, the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| This bipartisan bill will save lives by providing critical tools for law enforcement to combat the ongoing opioid crisis across our country. | ||
| Thousands of Americans continue to die each year from fentanyl overdoses, and Ohio has been particularly hard hit by the epidemic. | ||
| Prior to the temporary rescheduling in 2018, fentanyl-related substances could only be controlled individually, allowing cartel chemists to easily create new, uncontrolled compounds. | ||
| This temporary rescheduling proved to be effective as the new number of compounds since then has significantly declined. | ||
| The prevalence of fentanyl-related substances and continued trafficking of dangerous narcotics across our southern border requires strong, decisive action from our Congress. | ||
| According to the DEA, there were more than 36 million fentanyl pills and nearly 4,000 pounds of fentanyl powder seized in 2025. | ||
| This represents over 157 million deadly doses. | ||
| As a former prosecutor and a co-chair of the Addiction Treatment and Recovery Caucus, I understand the importance of law enforcement aggressively targeting traffickers and making sure that we are addressing societal challenges of addiction. | ||
| Each life lost to an overdose is a tragedy. | ||
| We must declare war on the drugs that are killing our kids in our community. | ||
| I encourage my colleagues to support this bill and send it to the President's desk. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from Virginia. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve, I believe, that I am prepared to close, but I am curious as to how much time each side has. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Virginia has 10.5 minutes remaining. | |
| Gentleman from Virginia has 10 and a half minutes remaining. | ||
| Gentleman from New Jersey has 10 minutes remaining. | ||
| You are prepared to close. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I'll close. | |
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Gentleman from Virginia Reserves. | ||
| I reserved and I'm prepared to close. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Sugar. | ||
| I yield myself such time as it may consume. | ||
| As I mentioned before, the bill before us today is the Senate companion to H.R. 27, which we voted on here in the House on February 6th of this year. | ||
| But the two bills are identical other than a couple of minor punctuation differences, and so this bill would go to the President's desk, and he said he would sign it. | ||
| But since that vote in February here in the House, the Trump administration has seriously threatened our nation's ability to confront the ongoing opioid overdose crisis by attempting to dismantle the substance abuse and mental health service administration, SAMHSA, as I mentioned, firing hundreds of workers, including senior key officials, and rescinding over $1 billion from state and local behavioral health programs. | ||
| I continue to oppose this bill because it is a permanent extension of fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs instead of the temporary one that we agreed on for two years in the end of the year 24 appropriations package. | ||
| The temporary option would have left the door open for an off-ramp to substances found to have potential medical applications. | ||
| This bill would also exacerbate inequities in our criminal justice system because drugs placed on Schedule I include mandatory minimum sentencing. | ||
| So S-331 also does not provide additional resources, as I've mentioned, for prevention, treatment, recovery, or harm reduction. | ||
| For all these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I would urge my colleagues to vote no on the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from New Jersey yields back the balance of his time. | |
| The gentleman from Virginia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman said, this is an identical bill to the one that passed out of the House. | ||
| There are a few technical changes the Senate made, including sticking their number on it instead of the House number. | ||
| But other than that, it's essentially the same bill that this House passed and frankly with bipartisan support. | ||
| I understand the gentleman's objections related to mandatory minimum sentences, but that is a different bill in a different day. | ||
| That is not what this bill is about. | ||
| This bill is about making fentanyl analogs Schedule I or making all of them Schedule I substances. | ||
| But the gentleman referenced that there's no off-ramp. | ||
| And I would suggest to him that the off-ramp is in the eye of the beholder. | ||
| What we did in this bill, and I think it's something that everybody on the floor can be proud of, is we put into this bill the capability to do extensive research by our research universities, by the NIH, by the FDA. | ||
| We created a framework to do research on the 4,800 believed analogs of fentanyl. | ||
| I believe it has two advantages. | ||
| One, if we find one of these analogs that has no harm and even has a positive for some issue, that creates your off-ramp because there's already an off-ramp in the law for drugs that show promise and that have a medicinal benefit. | ||
| So that opens up other statutes. | ||
| This one doesn't have that off-ramp, but other statutes do that would allow, if somebody comes in and says, wow, look at what this does, it does good things in the X area or the Y area or whatever. | ||
| That this bill has the component parts to make that possible. | ||
| Unlike our Schedule I on marijuana, which never allowed research or realistic research and created some of the dilemmas that we have today with that substance, we fixed that with this bill. | ||
| Secondly, that research component, I believe if there's any benefit in the analogs at all, it may be that one of the analogs, I'm not saying it will, and I think the odds are slim, but it is possible that one of the analogs will have a blocking effect on the deadly aspects of fentanyl itself. | ||
| And that would be a huge positive. | ||
| So, when my colleague says that it has nothing on dealing with the problem as far as people who have an addiction, he's right, not today. | ||
| But that research component has great potential for the future. | ||
| In the short run, we stop the Chinese bringing the precursors to Mexico and the Mexican cartels creating new analogs and trying to get around our laws by claiming it's not really fentanyl, it's an analog. | ||
| We stop those attempts by the bad guys, the illegal people trying to bring this into our country and bringing it in, unfortunately, successfully. | ||
| We stop it. | ||
| We stop them using that technique to get around the law. | ||
| And then we leave the door open for positive future benefits, if any, in the analogs. | ||
| I'm proud to have helped draft this legislation. | ||
| I'm proud to have drafted the part on the research component. | ||
| And I am proud that, notwithstanding the fact they made a few tweaks and sent back a Senate bill and sending back mine and Mr. Latta's original House bill, I'm proud to stand here today in support of the HALT Fentanyl Act. | ||
| I urge all of my colleagues in this House to vote yes, send it to the President's desk. | ||
| Let's make this a permanent law in the United States and make our kids just a little bit. | ||
| As Chairman Guthrie said, it's not going to solve every problem, but it makes our kids just a little bit further. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All time for debate has been yielded. | |
| Pursuant to House Resolution 489, the previous question is ordered on the bill. | ||
| The question is on the third reading of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
|
Parliamentary Inquiry Requested
00:03:18
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|
unidentified
|
Third reading. | |
| Nat to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances and for other purposes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question is on passage of the bill. | |
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The yeas and nays are requested. | ||
| Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20. | ||
| Further proceedings on this question will be postponed. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Colorado seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent that H.R. 481, my bipartisan resolution to condemn the terror attack in Boulder and denounce anti-Semitism, be called for consideration by the full House. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Under guidelines consistently issued by successive Speakers, as recorded in Section 956 of the House Rules and Manual, the Chair is constrained not to entertain the request unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, my understanding of the Jefferson's manual is that the Speaker has the power to disclose for debate. | ||
| Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman will state his inquiry. | |
| Mr. Speaker, my understanding under the Jeffersons manual is that the Speaker has the ability to disclose in the congressional record the source of the objection. | ||
| The minority leader, the minority, does not object to this unanimous consent request. | ||
| So will the Speaker tell the House and the American public, is it Speaker Johnson that opposes this? | ||
| Who opposes unanimous consent to this resolution denouncing the attack? | ||
|
unidentified
|
As indicated in section 956 of the House Rules and Manual, it is not a proper parliamentary inquiry to ask the chair to indicate which side of the aisle has failed under the Speaker's guidelines to clear a unanimous consent request. | |
| That would be a good time to look forward to the gallery. | ||
|
District Of Columbia Immigration Compliance
00:15:47
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unidentified
|
How's it going today? | |
| Enjoying to watch it? | ||
| We've got a little action going over here. | ||
| Who do we got? | ||
| Mr. Comer. | ||
| For what purposes, a gentleman from Kentucky and Mr. Comer seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 489, I call up the bill, House Resolution 2056, the District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act of 2025, and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
| Does the gentleman intend to call it HR? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does the gentleman intend to call it HR? | |
| What do you think? | ||
| 2056. | ||
| HR 2056. | ||
| Yeah, HR 2050. | ||
| Yeah, 2056. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union calendar number 100, H.R. 2056, a bill to require the District of Columbia to comply with federal immigration laws. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pursuant to House Resolution 489, the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, printed in the bill, modified by the amendment printed in House Report 119-151 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered red. | |
| The bill as amended shall be debatable for one hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on oversight and government reform or their respective designee. | ||
| Gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Comer, and the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Lynch, will each control 30 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Comer. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask you now to consent that all members have five legislative days to revise the extended remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized. | |
| I rise in support of H.R. 2056, the District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act. | ||
| The House Oversight Committee has held multiple hearings on the failings of the Biden-Harris administration to secure our borders and protect our citizens. | ||
| In March, the committee heard from Sanctuary City mayors who offered carefully crafted lawyerly statements defending their decisions not to work with the Trump administration as it works to remove criminal illegal aliens as quickly as possible. | ||
| At the end of the day, illegal alien criminals who threaten our communities have no right to be here in the first place. | ||
| State and local governments must work with the Department of Homeland Security to share information on individuals they arrest. | ||
| They must also honor lawful detainers. | ||
| When they do not, Congress must act. | ||
| H.R. 2056 ensures that the District of Columbia cooperates with federal immigration agencies, including ICE, to protect our citizens and nullifies prior attempts by the district to make itself a sanctuary city. | ||
| I want to thank Mr. Higgins from Louisiana for his work on this important topic. | ||
| I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
From Kentucky Reserve, gentlemen from Massachusetts is recognized. | |
| Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I strongly oppose H.R. 2056, which would effectively nullify laws, policies, and practices duly enacted by the District of Columbia because I strongly support the ability of the residents of the District of Columbia to govern themselves on local matters. | ||
| This is one of two D.C. bills that the House is considering this week to demonize immigrants. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| The District of Columbia is in full compliance with federal law. | ||
| It does not obstruct ICE from carrying out its duties. | ||
| D.C., like many other jurisdictions, limits its cooperation with federal immigration agencies to what federal law actually requires. | ||
| Why do jurisdictions limit such cooperation other than the fact that immigration is a federal responsibility? | ||
| Let us ask the police chiefs for an explanation. | ||
| The major cities' chief association opposes such cooperation for four reasons, and I will quote them. | ||
| Enforcement of routine civil immigration by police would undermine the trust and cooperation with immigrant communities, which are essential elements of community-oriented policing. | ||
| Courts have held that the lack of legal authority to enforce federal civil immigration statutes exposes local police to liability for unlawful arrest and detention. | ||
| Local agencies do not possess adequate resources to enforce these laws, in addition to the added responsibility of Homeland Security and others. | ||
| Immigration laws are very complex, and training required to understand them and to properly prosecute them significantly distracts from the core mission of local police to create safe communities. | ||
| And I close quote. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| Again, D.C. is in full compliance with federal law. | ||
| It does not obstruct ICE from carrying out its duties, and it is backed by evidence demonstrating that limiting cooperation keeps people safer. | ||
| Counties with laws that do not honor extrajudicial civil detainers had significantly lower levels of violent crime than counties that don't have such laws. | ||
| Mayors, police chiefs, sheriffs, and local leaders across the country have made clear that the way to combat violent crime is allowing local police to do their jobs of ensuring public safety in their own communities, not commandeering local police to spend limited time and resources rounding up and detaining nonviolent immigrants who pose no threat. | ||
| Forcing the District of Columbia to carry out the federal government's immigration duties also discourages residents from coming forward to share information with the police about violent crimes for fear that they or someone close to them will be detained or deported. | ||
| This is simply bad policy and will hurt the residents of the District of Columbia. | ||
| The House should reject H.R. 2056 and stop interfering in local D.C. matters. | ||
| Instead, it should pass the D.C. Local Funds Act and H.R. 51, the D.C. statehood bill. | ||
| With that, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Speaker, I'll reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chairman from Massachusetts Reserves, the gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield five minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana, the sponsor of the bill, Mr. Higgins. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Louisiana is recognized for five minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Let's have a candid conversation, if we could serve my colleagues across the aisle about what's happening here. | ||
| Congress of America, you know, we need to clarify for the citizens watching, Mr. Speaker, Congress has a unique authority and therefore responsibility for our nation's capital as opposed to other municipalities across the country. | ||
| You know, why not Phoenix, New Orleans, Atlanta, et cetera? | ||
| Because it's not the nation's capital, that's why. | ||
| Because it's not reflected in the responsibilities that are enumerated for Congress for the District of Columbia, for our nation's capital. | ||
| So with the pendulous swing of majority control that we observe in our nation, from Democrat majority to Republican majority, my Democrat colleagues feel responsible to make changes when they have the majority, as do we. | ||
| And when we were under Democrat-majority control in recent years, since I've been in Congress, the Democrats supported and did not oppose some policy and legislative decisions at the municipal level in our nation's capital that we knew would injure our nation's capital in the realm of law enforcement. | ||
| So that's where we are. | ||
| If Republicans have majority control in the House, the Senate, the White House. | ||
| So of course we're going to respond to the threat that we face within our nation's capital towards law enforcement. | ||
| And this is how simple this bill is. | ||
| It's my bill. | ||
| It requires the District of Columbia to comply with federal immigration law. | ||
| What's wrong with that, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| My colleague says, he stated two or three times in his opening statement, that the District of Columbia does not obstruct federal law enforcement. | ||
| That's not true. | ||
| You have to read between the lines, America. | ||
| When he says they do not obstruct, he means they don't like physically stop ICE from executing a warrant. | ||
| But what he's not saying, Mr. Speaker, is that the District of Columbia does not comply with federal immigration law enforcement warrant detainers, which is the safest, | ||
| most widely accepted means by which a human being that's in the custody of one jurisdictional authority is transferred to another jurisdictional authority safely and within the parameters of the law for the benefit of the individual and the community. | ||
| D.C. doesn't do that for federal immigration detainers. | ||
| If they have somebody in custody, Mr. Speaker, for whatever purposes, and that guy has a warrant for ICE, they know that there's a warrant for that man. | ||
| And under normal circumstances, the custody of that individual will be transferred safely once the District of Columbia was finished with that individual. | ||
| They don't do that with ICE. | ||
| They subject their communities to dangerous circumstances and law enforcement to absolutely unnecessary danger. | ||
| So my bill just mandates that the District of Columbia, the one city that Congress has authority and therefore responsibility to be involved with things like this. | ||
| And we shouldn't have to have this law. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because the District of Columbia should be following the federal law in the first place. | ||
| We shouldn't have to bring this to the floor. | ||
| We shouldn't have to engage in this debate. | ||
| I shouldn't have to explain these things. | ||
| Well, we are going to, by God, require that our nation's capital comply with our nation's federal law. | ||
| So I encourage my colleagues to take a deep breath and step back and say, yes, our nation's capital will be subject to the very laws that this body passes. | ||
| I appreciate the chairman's advocacy for my bill. | ||
| I encourage my colleagues to support it, and I yield the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields back. | |
| The gentleman from Kentucky Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| So let's take up that challenge. | ||
| Let's take up that challenge. | ||
| Let's make sure the laws that we have passed in this House apply and are complied with in Washington, D.C. | ||
| So, gentlemen may forget this is the first debate we've had about Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia. | ||
| We've had this debate through history ever since the founders of this country created the district. | ||
| It's a special district in addition to being our national capital. | ||
| And most recently, in 1973, this Congress, this Congress, created the Washington, D.C. Home Rule Act. | ||
| And I will explain to the gentleman what that requires. | ||
| The Home Rule Act in D.C. says, because there is shared jurisdiction within this district, that the people of Washington, D.C., the residents here, may govern their local affairs as they please, as they please, for local affairs. | ||
| And the performance of their local police force is an area within their local control. | ||
| That's number one. | ||
| Let's apply, let's enforce the laws that have been passed in this House respective to the people of the District of Columbia. | ||
| Number two, violent crime, the special circumstances about keeping Washington, D.C. safe. | ||
| Violent crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low this year, this past year. | ||
| A 30-year low. | ||
| Compare that to any city in the country, and it's a favorable comparison. | ||
| The police department in Washington, D.C. is doing an amazing job. | ||
| And the leadership, the political leadership at D.C. has stepped up. | ||
| There were years, many years ago, when there were deep and serious questions about the leadership in Washington, D.C. | ||
| They have improved dramatically over the last few decades. | ||
| This year, violent crime in D.C. is down 22% compared to the same period last year. | ||
| And studies show that handling law enforcement the way they have with community policing and getting to know the people in the neighborhoods has been a key element. | ||
|
Affording Respect to Local Law Enforcement
00:02:08
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||
| This is according to the last five police chiefs in this city that spans over about 50 years. | ||
| This is what they say, that this is the way to keep the people safe. | ||
| Work with the local community. | ||
| And I know the gentleman is from law enforcement, and I'm just asking to afford the same respect and deference to our local law enforcement leaders here in this community. | ||
| Give them the benefit of the doubt of how they provide safety in their own city. | ||
| They know it best. | ||
| They know the people, they know the streets, they know the challenges. | ||
| It's a special place. | ||
| There's a protest every couple of days, a major one in this city. | ||
| People for various causes march into the city, take it over, and the local law enforcement has to be part of that effort to keep those people safe so they can express their rights. | ||
| It's a special place. | ||
| But I think we should give deference to the local law enforcement community that they know how best to provide that safety, especially with the record that they've got, a 30-year low on crime in this city, 22% less violent crime this year compared to the same period last year. | ||
| And the gentleman's closing argument was correct. | ||
| He shouldn't have to bring a bill up here to do this. | ||
| He shouldn't have to interfere with local control in this city. | ||
| He shouldn't have to bring a bill up here to tell the local people how to run their city when Congress has already in 1973 given them that power in the Home Rule Act for Washington, D.C. | ||
|
Why D.C. Residents Lack Local Control
00:06:26
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||
| I shouldn't be here either. | ||
| I shouldn't have to defend that right that has already been granted by previous Congresses. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as the gentlelady requires to the representative from the District of Columbia, Ms. Eleanor Holmes-Norton. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady is recognized. | |
| I thank the gentleman for yielding. | ||
| I strongly oppose this undemocratic anti-immigrant bill, which would nullify laws, policies, and practices enacted by the locally elected District of Columbia government. | ||
| The over 700,000 DC residents, the majority of whom are black and brown, are capable and worthy of local self-government. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from every member of D.C.'s locally elected legislature, the council, opposing this bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from D.C.'s locally elected Attorney General, Brian Schwab, opposing this bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| D.C. residents are treated as second-class citizens by Congress. | ||
| They are required to pay federal taxes, serve on federal juries, and register with selective service in the same manner as residents of the states. | ||
| They have served in the military since the Revolutionary War, which was fought to end taxation without representation and to give consent to the governed. | ||
| Yet Congress has denied them voting representation in Congress and full local self-government over the past 200 years. | ||
| Last Congress, 100 bills and amendments were introduced to repeal or block local D.C. laws and policies. | ||
| This Congress, 28 such bills and amendments already have been introduced, including bills to abolish the locally elected D.C. government. | ||
| Three months ago, Congress passed a bill that cut over $1 billion from the local D.C. budget, which consists entirely of locally raised revenue. | ||
| While Congress has the authority to legislate on local D.C. matters, it does not have a duty to do so. | ||
| In Federalist 43, James Madison said of D.C. residents, quote, a municipal legislature for local purposes derived from their own suffrages will of course be allowed them, close quote. | ||
| In 1933, the Supreme Court held that, quote, there is no constitutional barrier to the delegation by Congress to the District of Columbia of full legislative power, close quote. | ||
| The Council has 13 members. | ||
| If D.C. residents do not like the members' vote, residents can vote them out of office or pass a ballot measure. | ||
| This is called democracy. | ||
| Congress has 535 voting members. | ||
| None are elected by D.C. residents. | ||
| If D.C. residents do not like how the members vote on local D.C. matters, residents cannot vote them out of office or pass a ballot measure. | ||
| That is the antithesis of democracy. | ||
| Congress has the authority to grant D.C. residents voting representation in Congress and full local self-government. | ||
| It simply needs to pass H.R. 51, the D.C. statehood bill, which would make the residential and commercial areas of D.C. a state. | ||
| The admissions clause of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to admit new states. | ||
| All 37 new states were admitted by an act of Congress. | ||
| The district clause of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to reduce the size of the federal districts, which it has previously done. | ||
| The substance of H.R. 56 is irrelevant since there is no justification for Congress to legislate on local D.C. matters, but I will briefly discuss it. | ||
| Consistent with federal law, the position of the major cities, Chiefs Association, and D.C.'s values, D.C. limits cooperation with federal immigration agencies. | ||
| D.C. concluded that cooperating with federal immigration agencies would make D.C. less safe for all residents by diverting police resources and discouraging immigrants from interacting with the police department and other government agencies. | ||
| Many states, cities, and counties have reached the same conclusion. | ||
| I urge members to respect the will of D.C. residents by voting no, no, on this bill. | ||
|
Granting Power, Bearing Responsibility
00:07:54
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||
| And I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady yields back. | |
| Gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. | ||
| I yield three minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Timmins. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen is recognized for three minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2056, the District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act. | ||
| I got to be honest, I'm kind of disappointed in the debate right now. | ||
| My colleague from Massachusetts is talking about how we have previously granted the authority to the District of Columbia to do X, Y, and Z, and he is correct. | ||
| But with us granting power, there comes responsibility. | ||
| There comes responsibility. | ||
| And my colleague from Washington, D.C. is talking about home rule and this and that. | ||
| This city makes me sad. | ||
| I mean, I have hope now that President Trump is here, that the D.C. government is starting to do the things that they should have been doing all along. | ||
| What about Representative Quayar, who was mugged, robbed at gunpoint carjacking? | ||
| What about the Rand Paul Stafford that was stabbed to death in the bar five blocks from here? | ||
| I don't go there anymore. | ||
| I don't go there anymore because it's not safe. | ||
| What about Brad Finstead, who got robbed at gunpoint? | ||
| What about the Staffordshire got robbed six months ago? | ||
| Justice Sodomoyor's details shot an 18-year-old 15 times because he was trying to rob the Supreme Court justice. | ||
| In what world are you living in that you think that the power that we granted to the District of Columbia is being executed responsibly? | ||
| So here we are, and we're talking about something very simple. | ||
| Abide by federal detainers. | ||
| If the federal government says you have arrested an illegal immigrant that has a criminal detainer, you got to follow the law. | ||
| We didn't give the billion dollars to the city of the District of Columbia because they need to understand that actions have consequences. | ||
| When I don't feel safe at night, when my constituents come here and I tell them to be careful, when my commanding officer stays at a hotel three blocks from here and I tell him, do not walk to the baseball game, take an Uber. | ||
| What world are you living in? | ||
| This is unacceptable. | ||
| We will have law and order in this city. | ||
| The president has said so much, and we are going to use every tool in our toolbox to make this city what it should be. | ||
| A capital, a nation's capital in decline is a nation in decline. | ||
| We are not a nation in decline. | ||
| The city of D.C. needs to live up to its obligations. | ||
| Keep us safe. | ||
| Get the homeless people, get them help. | ||
| Letting them live in the streets, you're not helping them. | ||
| You're hurting them. | ||
| Get them mental health counseling. | ||
| Get them a shower. | ||
| Get them a job. | ||
| Get them help. | ||
| Letting them live under bridges is not helping them. | ||
| It's wrong. | ||
| It's wrong. | ||
| And the fact that I have to sit up here and tell you this, it makes me sad. | ||
| We are going to make this city safe. | ||
| We are going to show the world that we are not a nation in decline, and we are going to not only make America great again, we're going to make the United States Capitol great again. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from Kentucky Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| So let's talk about crime in D.C. Let's talk about crime in D.C., as the gentleman mentioned. | ||
| Let's talk about that. | ||
| Let's talk about January 6th. | ||
| We had 1,500 people ransack the Capitol. | ||
| And let's talk about what happened to them in consequence. | ||
| They were rewarded. | ||
| They were pardoned. | ||
| And yet, to this day, the Speaker of the House refuses to hang the plaque honoring the over 150 police officers who defended the people in this chamber, who defended the Republicans. | ||
| And I know all the Republicans didn't feel safe that day because I saw them running. | ||
| I saw them running from the crowd, running in fear, until the president told them that, no, that was just a tour of the Capitol. | ||
| And they all made excuses. | ||
| All made excuses of what happened that day. | ||
| Not one of them, not one of those people who ran out of the Capitol, ran for safety that day. | ||
| Came back to say, oh, they should be held responsible. | ||
| So now all those people have been pardoned. | ||
| You talk about crime in D.C. and holding people accountable and feeling safe. | ||
| And you think that day was making democracy great again? | ||
| When the elected leaders had to hide, being chased out of this chamber, doing the people's business? | ||
| That's an example. | ||
| That's an example of how the Republicans are going to bring the rule of law to D.C. Give me a break. | ||
| Give me a break. | ||
| You've got to be kidding me. | ||
| And to this day, you know, we have a lot of the officers, Sipnick, his family, and the families, a lot of the, there were three officers that eventually died of causes related to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. | ||
| And they would hope that the people who were saved that day might be grateful. | ||
| Those families, they lost their husbands, their fathers, their sons, and they simply want to have their sacrifice recognized by the people who were rescued. | ||
| The people who were rescued. | ||
| Law enforcement. | ||
| And I know there are a number of my colleagues on the other side who have exemplary careers in law enforcement. | ||
| And they understand better than any. | ||
| And when you have a son or a daughter or a husband or wife who gives their life, gives their life in service of protecting the people in this chamber, you would hope at least just a small gesture, a plaque to commemorate that heroism and that service to their country. | ||
| But that's not happening. | ||
| And that's a shame. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield three minutes to the gentlelady from Georgia, Ms. Green. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in support of H.R. 2056, District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act, introduced by my good friend, Mr. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. | ||
|
Setting Records with Criminals
00:04:35
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||
| Bringing in and harboring illegal aliens is not only a crime under federal law, but it is an absolute affront to the American people. | ||
| As a matter of fact, it already says in our law under Title VIII, Section 1324, that there are criminal penalties for any person who knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, | ||
| entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection such an alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation. | ||
| This is already our law, but not here in Washington, D.C. Prohibiting officials from cooperating with federal immigration agencies and preventing the release of an individual in custody for the purpose of transferring them to a federal immigration agency is shielding and concealing illegal aliens for my Democrat colleagues. | ||
| Sanctuary cities that protect and defend these criminal illegal aliens and by definition, if they've broken our immigration laws, they are criminals and they must be held accountable. | ||
| Because of Democrats' last four years of wide open borders, we experienced one of the greatest national security threats in our entire history as a country. | ||
| Democrats welcomed over 13 million people from all over the world to come across our border and then they made the American people pay for them. | ||
| This was outrageous. | ||
| These are people that came into our country, invaded our country, raped our women and children, murdered our own people, and then the cartels trafficked fentanyl across from China that killed an average of 300 people a day. | ||
| They set historic records by allowing the highest number of border encounters ever recorded in a single day. | ||
| That was in a single month. | ||
| And over 3 million illegals in fiscal year 2023, which was the highest ever recorded in a single history. | ||
| Democrats set records, they sure do. | ||
| They set records by supporting criminals to invade our country. | ||
| Instead of defending the American people, the Democrats defend illegal alien criminals and gangs and cartels at all costs. | ||
| Take, for example, their favorite MS-13 gang member, Kilmar Arbrego Garcia. | ||
| This MS-13 gang member, wife beater, was deported to El Salvador for countless violations of our laws. | ||
| Democrats labeled him wrongfully deported Maryland man, oh boo-hoo, and they flew to El Salvador to meet with him. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And Democrats couldn't wait to go on vacation to go down and pretend like they cared about this MS-13 gang member like they really actually do. | ||
| He is now being charged on multiple felony counts for human trafficking. | ||
| As a matter of fact, we're thrilled to bring him back and prosecute him and make you guys continue to own him. | ||
| Remember, he's your Maryland man. | ||
| According to the indictment, his transporting of illegals spans decades and includes children and MS-13 gang members. | ||
| He is alleged to have participated in more than 100 trips. | ||
| Wow, that's impressive. | ||
| That's the face of the Democrat Party. | ||
| This is who they defend. | ||
| This is who they fight for. | ||
| Not the American people, not their districts, not the people's hard-earned tax dollars, not obeying the law. | ||
| They fight for illegals, and I'm proud to support this bill. | ||
| Please, I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 2056, and with that, I yield. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady yields back. | |
| Gentleman from Kentucky. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I might add: the gentleman that Ms. Green was referencing is the same gentleman that two members of the House Oversight Committee requested travel to go down and defend in El Salvador. | ||
|
Motion to Recommit
00:13:29
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||
| So I think that she was very factual in everything she said, especially her criticism. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen, reserves, and members are reminded to direct their remarks to the chair. | |
| A gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The title of this bill is misleading. | ||
| The District of Columbia already complies with federal immigration law, including warrants and orders related to immigrants issued by Article III courts. | ||
| It is ironic that at the same time that the Republican leadership is cutting or denying the ability of the District of Columbia to spend a billion dollars of the money that they have raised within the district to meet their obligations here in the city. | ||
| And yet, while they're cutting their budget by a billion dollars, they're saying, okay, even though federal law doesn't require you to do all this other stuff, we want you to do the federal government's job as well. | ||
| That's the irony here. | ||
| So, federal immigration law doesn't require the states or cities to inquire about citizenship or immigration status or manage immigration policy. | ||
| They don't require cities to do that, especially a smaller jurisdiction like Washington, D.C. | ||
| So what my colleagues want to do is they want to shift the burden of doing the federal responsibilities onto the District of Columbia and their political leadership at the same time when they're cutting a billion dollars of the budget from Washington, D.C. | ||
| So it's adding insult to injury. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill because I strongly support D.C. home rule. | ||
| For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. | ||
| If House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill. | ||
| My amendment would have been the text of Senate 1077, the District of Columbia Local Funds Act. | ||
| So I would have tried to put that billion dollars back into their budget, their own budget. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the text of that amendment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I must note that it has been nearly three months since the Senate passed the bipartisan D.C. Local Funds Act, which would undo the $1 billion cut to the local D.C. budget in the House Republican drafted fiscal year bill. | ||
| The Republican-led Senate understood immediately the cuts, harms, and passed the D.C. Local Funds Act within four hours of its introduction by the Republican Senator Susan Collins, the chair of the Committee on Appropriations. | ||
| The local D.C. budget consists entirely of revenue raised by D.C., raised by the District of Columbia, which is why the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the D.C. Local Funds Act would have, quote, zero effect on the federal budget, close quote. | ||
| For the prior two decades, Congress had allowed the District of Columbia to spend under its current local budget for the duration of every continuing resolution. | ||
| However, the fiscal year 2025 full year continuing resolution forced D.C. to revert to its fiscal year 2024 local budget. | ||
| And it did so halfway through the fiscal year. | ||
| And in doing so, the continuing resolution sabotaged the D.C. local budget. | ||
| There was no time to respond. | ||
| On March 28th, President Trump called on the House to pass the Local D.C. Funds Act immediately. | ||
| And last month, Speaker Johnson said the House had been too busy, too busy to act on the D.C. Funds Act while it worked on the reconciliation bill, though the House somehow found time to rename the Gulf of Mexico. | ||
| Well, the House passed the Reconciliation Bill on May 22nd, and the House has found time this week to take up three bills to overturn the ability of the people of Washington, D.C. to govern themselves. | ||
| The House is now out of excuses on the D.C. Local Funds Act. | ||
| So I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for the motion to recommit, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman, Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. | ||
| Reserve. | ||
| Gentleman, Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I agree. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields back his time. | |
| Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| President Trump's electoral mandate includes his promise to the American people that Republicans would resolve the criminal, illegal, alien crisis across our nation. | ||
| This bill is a necessary step in ensuring our nation's capital as an ally, not an opponent, in the fight to end this crisis. | ||
| Specifically, H.R. 2056 represents an important step in codifying President Trump's executive order on making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful by directing support by directly supporting the directive for enhanced coordination between the federal government and local law enforcement regarding illegal aliens. | ||
| I encourage each of my colleagues to support this critical legislation sponsored by Mr. Higgins. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All time for debate has expired. | |
| Pursuant to House Resolution 489, the previous question is ordered on the bill as amended. | ||
| The question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| A bill to require the District of Columbia to comply with federal immigration laws. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from Massachusetts seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I believe I have a motion to commit to recommit at the desk. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will report the motion. | |
| Mr. Lynch of Massachusetts moves to recommit the bill H.R. 2056 to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pursuant to clause 2B of Rule 19, the previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit. | |
| The question is on the motion. | ||
| All those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| In the opinion, the no's have it. | ||
| The motion is not agreed to. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for a call to yeas and nays. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The yeas and nays are requested. | |
| Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 8 of Rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. | ||
| What purpose | ||
| does a gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 499 and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will report the resolution. | |
| House Calendar Number 33, House Resolution 499. | ||
| Resolve that upon adoption of this resolution, it shall be an order to consider in the House the bill H.R. 4 to rescind certain budget authority proposed to be rescinded in special messages transmitted to the Congress by the President on June 3rd, 2025, in accordance with Section 1012A of the Congressional Budget and Empowerment Control Act of 1974. | ||
| All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. | ||
| The bill shall be considered as read. | ||
| All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. | ||
| The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passes without intervening motion except one. | ||
| One hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and the minority leader or their respective designees. | ||
| And two, one motion to recommit. | ||
| Section two, the provisions of section 1017 of the Empowerment Control Act of 1974 shall not apply to a bill or joint resolution introduced with respect to the special message transmitted under Section 1012 of that Act on June 3rd, 2025. | ||
| Section 3, House Resolution 492 is hereby adopted. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady from North Carolina is recognized for one hour. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. McGovern, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. | ||
| And I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and of the underlying legislation. | ||
| Yesterday, the Rules Committee met and produced a rule, H Res 499, providing for the House's consideration of H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act of 2025. | ||
| This rule provides for consideration of HR 4 under a closed rule. | ||
| The rule provides one-hour debate equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader or their respective designees and provides one motion to recommit. | ||
| Additionally, the rule provides that H resolution, House Resolution 492, is hereby adopted. | ||
| Before we get into the substance of the bill today, I'd like to clear up any confusion about any remarks I made in the Rules Committee last night. | ||
| Let me be crystal clear. | ||
| I encourage all members to support the rule before us today. | ||
| My comments last night were lacking in context. | ||
| Democrats made the argument throughout the hearing that this process is somehow another vote on H.R. 1. | ||
| That is false. | ||
| The resolution today makes purely technical changes to protect the privilege of the reconciliation bill as it heads to the Senate. | ||
| It is not a redo or re-litigation of any underlying policy issues in the bill. | ||
| Let me repeat: there are no policy decisions included in this engrossment correction. | ||
| That is what the Senate is working through, and I look forward to considering H.R. 1 when the bill returns from the other chamber. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, House Republicans remain on a positive, forward-moving trajectory in delivering upon the American people's mandate from November. | ||
| Just a few short weeks ago, we passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. | ||
| This week, we're taking up a nearly $10 billion rescissions package, and soon we will be moving into the appropriations process. | ||
| Discretionary waste is about to be put through the congressional shredder. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the American people demand that this happens. | ||
| Now, our colleagues across the aisle will leap to their feet and scream bloody murder about how the waste we're targeting simply doesn't exist and how we're laying siege to everything under the sun. | ||
|
NPR's Political Bias Exposed
00:04:10
|
||
| A contraire, we have the receipts to back everything up. | ||
| Here's just a small sampling of the mind-boggling discretionary waste that we'll be slashing in foreign funding. | ||
| $158 million from the Lebanon peacekeeping mission, which has been fraught with waste and abuse, as evidenced by its abject failure to contain Hezbollah. | ||
| $3 million for an Iraqi Sesame Street. | ||
| $833,000 for services for, quote, transgender people, sex workers, and their clients and social networkers, end quote, in Nepal. | ||
| And $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda. | ||
| These examples barely skim the surface, Mr. Speaker, and it's really no wonder why Americans are outraged that their tax dollars are being squandered. | ||
| It's the American people's money. | ||
| A single dollar of taxpayer money wasted is one dollar too many in our view. | ||
| Then there's NPR. | ||
| I honestly don't even know where to begin on that one. | ||
| Even if someone were to accept the premise that we need to finance a public radio outlet, certainly we can all agree that it simply cannot be NPR any longer. | ||
| NPR's own CEO testified before Congress that she has never seen any political bias at NPR. | ||
| I don't know what reality she's living in, but it clearly isn't this one. | ||
| Here's the kicker. | ||
| NPR does harbor political bias. | ||
| It took a $1.9 million grant to, quote, improve objectivity and diverse viewpoints, end quote. | ||
| There's the proof. | ||
| And it's a concrete example that NPR's CEO was giving false testimony to Congress. | ||
| You either understand that you're biased and need help, apparently in the form of taxpayer grants, or you haven't witnessed any bias. | ||
| You can't have it both ways. | ||
| Then there's PBS. | ||
| Again, I honestly don't know where to begin. | ||
| On top of the concrete, statistically proven bias against conservatives, Republicans, and the Trump administration, this is the 21st century. | ||
| We have Sesame Street now streaming on private services, so the taxpayer is now subsidizing for-profit companies. | ||
| We've seen private celebrities like Ms. Rachel who are engaging in crossovers with Sesame Street, which again leverage taxpayer dollars to concentrate wealth to private individuals. | ||
| It's clear that we must slash this tranche of wasteful spending and continue down a path to fully restore fiscal sanity in our nation. | ||
| With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady from North Carolina Reserves, gentlemen from Massachusetts is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the gentlelady from North Carolina for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as they may consume. | ||
|
Republicans Lock In Disastrous Cuts
00:15:34
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|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen's recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, before we even get to the rescissions, let's be really, really honest about what's going on here. | ||
| This isn't just a debate about cuts, because in this rule, Republican leadership snuck in a rewrite of their big, ugly bill. | ||
| Yep, that's right. | ||
| A vote on this rule is effectively a revote on the reconciliation package, a do-over, a desperate attempt by Republican leadership to fix the mess they made with their awful tax scam. | ||
| Now, when they rushed it through in the middle of the night, they included provisions that aren't even allowed under the Senate reconciliation rules. | ||
| And instead of coming clean and holding a straightforward vote on the corrections, they're trying to bury it in this rule for the Doge rescissions package, hoping that nobody will notice. | ||
| And think of it like a Trojan horse, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And let's be clear. | ||
| The rescissions could be brought to the floor anytime. | ||
| You heard that right. | ||
| They could be brought to the floor anytime. | ||
| They're privileged. | ||
| Speaker Johnson doesn't need this rule to move them. | ||
| The only reason these things are being tied together is to trick certain Republicans into voting for a bill that they've already said they regret. | ||
| Now, it should be said that Republicans have an opportunity right now to change the bill before it goes to the Senate. | ||
| Last night in the Rules Committee, we could have voted to strip out the state AI moratorium from the reconciliation bill, or we could have dropped the controversial language on contempt that some Republican members objected to. | ||
| But Republican leadership deliberately decided not to do any of that. | ||
| They decided that the very stuff their members are concerned about doesn't matter and instead are entirely leaving changes up to the Senate, as if we had no power or influence here in the House. | ||
| And as the gentlelady from North Carolina, the chairwoman of the Rules Committee, said herself last night during the meeting, and I quote, any member who has any regrets about his or her vote on the first bill has the opportunity to vote no on the rule. | ||
| She didn't recommend a no vote, but she pointed out the choice that members have. | ||
| And I agree with her. | ||
| Members have a choice here. | ||
| Those who didn't like this bill have a choice to stop it right here in the House. | ||
| So to all of the Republicans who said they regret voting yes for this reconciliation bill, especially those who complained about how much this will add trillions to the deficit and debt, this is your chance for a redo. | ||
| This is your chance for a redo. | ||
| Vote no. | ||
| I vote no here to stop this big, ugly bill from moving to the Senate. | ||
| If you have the courage of your convictions, you will vote no. | ||
| And while Republican leadership is busy playing procedural games, trying to slip this through, let's talk about what they're attaching this rewrite to. | ||
| The Republican rescissions package is based on a scam, a conjob, a grift. | ||
| This is not about actual savings, nor is it about rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| This is based on cementing stupid, preposterous, self-defeating Doge cuts into law. | ||
| Doge cuts that, I might add, have already illegally been in place for months when the Trump administration wreaked havoc on our government systems by freezing critical funding. | ||
| From day one, Doge has been one big excuse to reward Trump's wealthy donors, gut public services, and funnel resources away from programs that help ordinary people and into the pockets of the wealthy and well-connected. | ||
| Let's not forget this is the same Doge review that cut off funding to USDA bird flu experts in the middle of a bird flu outbreak that sent pink slips to the people who secure our nuclear warheads, that gutted the National Weather Service so badly that right now we might not have enough meteorologists to warn communities about tornadoes and hurricanes. | ||
| Doge was a total, complete failure. | ||
| And now Republicans want to lock their disastrous cuts into law. | ||
| Come on, that's insane. | ||
| That's crazy. | ||
| And look at what these cuts are targeting. | ||
| Funding for global health, for clean water, for food security, for democracy programs, for UNICEF, for the World Food Program, for diplomacy and humanitarian aid, for world peace, for Christ's sakes. | ||
| People think our foreign budget is some huge, massive thing. | ||
| We are talking about something that's 1% of our budget. | ||
| So please do not come down here and pretend like this is a serious attempt to cut funding. | ||
| If you want to go after waste and save taxpayer money, count me in. | ||
| Count me in. | ||
| You know, I wish my Republican friends would express some concern about the fact that their president is spending maybe up to $40 million for a parade of military tanks on his birthday. | ||
| I mean, really? | ||
| We're cutting money to save lives in this rescues package, but $40 million plus, no big deal, as long as Donald Trump is happy. | ||
| But we should start with the Pentagon if we're serious about getting after fraud, waste, and abuse. | ||
| The Pentagon, which, by the way, has never, ever passed an audit. | ||
| Never passed an audit. | ||
| Let's look at tax breaks for big oil. | ||
| I can't do that because they write out big checks. | ||
| Let's go after the loopholes for billionaires. | ||
| Let's end the corporate giveaways. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| Republicans don't want to touch any of those things. | ||
| Meanwhile, the cuts in this rescissions package, these cuts hurt America. | ||
| They weaken our leverage around the world. | ||
| They pull back critical funding for our allies. | ||
| They strip away tools we use to prevent conflict and promote stability. | ||
| These cuts will lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, devastating the most vulnerable in the world. | ||
| And at a time when China and Russia and Iran are working overtime to challenge American influence, this bill says, oh, go right ahead. | ||
| This is China's dream come true. | ||
| The U.S. pulling back our soft power from around the world. | ||
| This is self-sabotage, masquerading as savings. | ||
| And it's not even a lot of money. | ||
| I mean, these slivers of our federal budget, these dollars that generate enormous return by keeping people alive and preventing crises before they happen. | ||
| That's what this money does that you're cutting. | ||
| This isn't just penny-wise and pound foolish, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| It's like saving money by burning down your house so you don't have to pay for the heat. | ||
| You know, I'd like to think that America's greatness comes from our humanity. | ||
| Well, it's clear Republicans believe that America's greatness is found in our inhumanity, from cruelty and callousness. | ||
| And I believe everyone can agree that's a truly dark, dangerous, and morally bankrupt place to govern from. | ||
| The American people deserve better than this. | ||
| They deserve smarter than this. | ||
| They deserve a government that prioritizes what works, not what flatters the egos of billionaires hopped up on ketamine. | ||
| This rule is a disgrace. | ||
| The underlying bill is a disgrace. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
General from Massachusetts Reserves, the gentlelady from North Carolina is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Once again, I need to set the facts straight. | ||
| Our colleagues keep flip-flopping on their characterization of cuts to wasteful spending in our campaign to get our fiscal house in order. | ||
| At one moment, our spending cuts are so monumental, draconian. | ||
| The earth is going to stand still. | ||
| People are going to die, they told us in rules. | ||
| Literally seconds after they said that yesterday, not even minutes later, they tell us that this spending cut is inconsequential. | ||
| It's a rounding era. | ||
| It's a drop in the bucket. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, what is it? | ||
| It has to be one or the other. | ||
| The fact that our colleagues keep twisting themselves in knots is simply evidence that they're doing everything in their power to hide the facts about this vote. | ||
| At one minute, this is not worth Congress's time, this $10 billion return on taxpayer dollars. | ||
| At another minute, they will tell us that these are draconian cuts they'll oppose with every ounce of strength in their bodies. | ||
| Give me a break. | ||
| Republicans are finally offering taxpayers relief from years of profligate spending from Democrats. | ||
| Again, they expanded the federal government with an unprecedented $11 trillion in spending, $6 trillion of which has been added to the national debt. | ||
| It's time to end that spending. | ||
| We're ending it in H.R. 1. | ||
| We're ending it in this package here today, and we won't stop fighting for taxpayers. | ||
| We can cut spending in little chunks and in big chunks. | ||
| In response to Mr. McGovern's obvious assertions, members always have a choice to vote up or down on legislation, be it a rule, authorization, or appropriation. | ||
| The plain text of the rule provides for consideration of this rescissions package and advances HR1 by adopting the engrossment resolution. | ||
| Since Democrats seem to have selective memory, let me remind them and Americans that during the 117th Congress, very recently, House Democrats deemed 29 items total. | ||
| Also included in that number is the engrossment correction resolution they deemed in a rule for the American Rescue Plan Act, which included section and paragraph strikes. | ||
| In contrast, Republicans in the 118th Congress deemed only two measures. | ||
| We understand that this is a tool of the majority that should be used only when necessary. | ||
| We all know the Democrats opposed H.R. 1. | ||
| They opposed it weeks ago, and they opposed the engrossment resolution last night on the basis that it advances HR1. | ||
| And Mr. McGovern's tying himself in knots here. | ||
| In a dear colleague he circulated, he characterized this rule as repassing HR1, just before he went on to complain that HR1's engrossment is not getting its own vote. | ||
| Nothing was added to HR1. | ||
| Let me repeat, nothing was added to HR1. | ||
| Every change was technical or simply removed provisions to make sure this big, beautiful bill has its day in the Senate. | ||
| Let's remind the American people what the Democrats voted against in HR1. | ||
| Democrats went on record against tax cuts for families, against tax relief for tips, against tax relief for senior citizens. | ||
| They went on record against protecting Medicaid by advocating for the enrollment of 1.4 million illegal aliens. | ||
| They went on record against increasing the quality of life, quality of life funds for our nation's military families. | ||
| But we have a rule before us to protect HR1's process in the Senate and restore fiscal sanity to our nation. | ||
| And the American people need and want us to deliver. | ||
| With that, I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady from North Carolina Reserves, the gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | |
| So, Mr. Speaker, let me try to explain this again because I don't know why this is such a tough concept for my Republican colleagues to understand, but two things can be true, right? | ||
| Your Doge cuts can be incredibly cruel, which they are, and at the same time mathematically insignificant compared to the massive trillions of dollars that you are adding to the deficit and the debt because of your reconciliation bill. | ||
| So two things can be true. | ||
| I don't think that's that hard for the American people to understand. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as we have made clear time and time again, the big, ugly GOP tax scam is set to add $3 trillion to the deficit. | ||
| $3 trillion. | ||
| And to be clear, that isn't me saying that. | ||
| That's the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, CBO. | ||
| And it isn't just CBO. | ||
| Every other reputable, independent analysis of the bill, including the Joint Committee on Taxation, Yale Budget Lab, and Penn Wharton Budget Model, came to the same conclusion. | ||
| Even the right-wing Tax Foundation agrees that this bill explodes the deficit, explodes it. | ||
| And yet here we are, with Republicans patting themselves on the back over the Trump Doge recision package, a package that in all reality barely makes a dent in the very debt that they've ballooned. | ||
| But since they want to talk about the debt, let's talk about the debt. | ||
| And I want the American people to take a look at this chart, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I want the American people to look at this chart. | ||
| The red indicates the $3 trillion Trump's big, ugly bill will add to the deficit. | ||
| And then you might see, you see this little tiny blue sliver, and thank God I'm wearing my bifocals here, but you can barely see it. | ||
|
Public Broadcasting vs. Gun Silencers
00:15:48
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| But that little tiny blue sliver, you know, again, you might need a magnifying glass to see it, but that's the $9.4 billion Republicans are trying to save through these rescissions. | ||
| And to break that down a little bit more, the $3 trillion deficit increase in the GOP tax scam is 320 times bigger than the $9.4 billion that Republicans are trying to rescind through these Doge cuts. | ||
| And the real kicker here is that under their GOP tax scam, CBO says that the top 5% of earners will get $1.6 trillion in total tax cuts. | ||
| That's 170 times bigger than the $9.4 billion Republicans want to rescind. | ||
| Republicans are cutting $9.4 billion in federal spending so they can try to justify the trillions and trillions of dollars they plan to add to the debt so they can deliver massive tax cuts to their billionaire friends. | ||
| So these rescissions, they're not even a drop in the bucket. | ||
| They're a drop in the ocean compared to the multi-trillion dollar deficit-busting bill that Republicans are trying to jam through. | ||
| But just because the sliver on this chart seems small doesn't mean these Republican rescissions are not harmful. | ||
| Republicans want to cut $900 million from global health programs, including $400 million for PEPFAR, an overwhelmingly bipartisan program created by President George W. Bush to combat HIV. | ||
| And this program has saved more than 26 million lives over the past 20 years. | ||
| That's not fraud, waste, or abuse. | ||
| That's a big deal, and that's something we should be proud of. | ||
| Not properly funding PEPFAR means people will literally die. | ||
| And that's not hyperbole. | ||
| It's just the truth. | ||
| In fact, because Doge and the Trump administration illegally suspended PEPFAR already earlier this year, tens of thousands of people have already died, including thousands of children. | ||
| It is despicable. | ||
| And they want to cut $2.5 billion in development assistance that our allies and partners use to build schools, help farmers grow food, fund clean water projects, and combat poverty. | ||
| And they want to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Ukraine and our allies at the border of Russia. | ||
| And they want to completely eliminate federal funding for public TV and radio, which are trusted sources of news and educational programming for millions of American households, particularly in rural areas. | ||
| I don't know what you have against rural areas, but those areas will be particularly hard hit by those cuts. | ||
| It's important to note once again that many of these rescissions, especially to foreign aid, have already started to hurt and even kill people. | ||
| And that's because the administration illegally froze U.S. AID programs, which has threatened the lives of millions of people who rely on this funding to prevent or treat disease, afford food, and access clean water. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article by the Associated Press titled, Children Die as USAID Aid Cuts to snap a lifeline for the world's most malnourished. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, according to the Boston University School of Public Health, and listen to this, more than 50,000 adults and 6,000 infants have died of HIV due to the disruption of PEPFAR. | ||
| People are already dying. | ||
| More than 29,000 children have died of malaria, and 25,000 people have died of tuberculosis because the Trump administration froze funding. | ||
| Republicans want to rubber stamp the Trump administration's illegal funding freeze into law and they claim that they are reining in the debt. | ||
| Well, as you can see, Mr. Speaker, that's a huge load of garbage. | ||
| This rescissions package is a moral failure masquerading as fiscal responsibility, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it, and I reserve my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jennifer from Massachusetts Reserves, the gentlelady from North Carolina is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this rescissions package does reduce certain global health accounts by hundreds of millions. | ||
| But keep in mind that $10 billion has been appropriated for this work in these accounts, making this rescission exact and very targeted. | ||
| The Trump administration has communicated it will not reduce funds for treatment in PEPFAR. | ||
| Rather, it eliminates programs antithetical to American interests and ones that worsen the lives of women and children. | ||
| Enacting this rescission will get this funding stream back to its core mission by refocusing it on protecting health and supporting life-sustaining treatment. | ||
| What we don't need is the wasteful spending priorities of President Biden, now exposed by the Trump administration. | ||
| $500,000 for a lesbian justice foundation in Canada. | ||
| $9.3 million to the John Snow Research and Training Institute to advise Russian doctors on how to perform abortions and gender analysis. | ||
| $800,000 for transgender people, sex workers, and their clients and sexual networks in Nepal. | ||
| $7.4 million for a One Health Workforce project whose curriculum includes teaching practitioners about, quote, environmental racism and the importance of DEI. | ||
| This spending, guided under the terms equity, reproductive health, and family planning, stray far from the mission of sustaining life and serve no benefit to the populations they are intended to help. | ||
| These are wasteful programs financed by the American taxpayer, funded by deficit spending. | ||
| But no longer, this money is better off returned to the Treasury, and PEPFAR's integrity is now being restored. | ||
| And I yield three minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Norman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chairman's recognized for three minutes. | |
| Thank you, Representative Fox. | ||
| I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act of 2025, a bill that finally codifies the spending cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as Doge. | ||
| You know, the American people are giving a front row seat to one party who is perfectly content to bankrupt this country. | ||
| One party. | ||
| We will get no votes on this rescission package. | ||
| None from the Democrat Party. | ||
| And they had their time when their president, who was cognitively, let's just say, deficient, where were the cuts? | ||
| None. | ||
| They didn't say anything. | ||
| They didn't stand up for the American people. | ||
| They were silent. | ||
| Where were our good friends with the 15 to 20 million illegals coming in this country? | ||
| With the drugs flowing in, with the children that were trafficked. | ||
| Where were they? | ||
| They were quiet. | ||
| They didn't say a thing. | ||
| And folks, it's anti-American. | ||
| This package is not about tightening belts. | ||
| It's about cutting loose the dead weight. | ||
| And as Congressman Fox just mentioned a few things, let me mention a few of the things that they will spend your money for. | ||
| $3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street. | ||
| $6 million for net zero cities in Mexico. | ||
| Net zero cities. | ||
| What is that? | ||
| In Mexico. | ||
| $158 million for Lebanon peacekeeping operations, which failed to contain Hezbollah. | ||
| $135 million for the World Health Organization, controlled by China. | ||
| This is what they're for. | ||
| This is what they're to spend your money. | ||
| And folks with $38 trillion in debt, they will keep on spending and spending on their pet projects. | ||
| President Trump is calling an end to it. | ||
| Of this, we're talking about $9.4 billion in rescuions, funds that should have never been appropriated in the first place. | ||
| This includes $8.3 billion from foreign aid programs, which some I just read, $1.1 billion from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, because taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize a left-wing media operation like NPR and PBS. | ||
| These cuts are more than symbolic, folks. | ||
| They are structural. | ||
| They target woke U.N. handouts, failing to keep the peacekeeping efforts in Biden's DEI and climate propaganda campaigns masquerading as humanitarian aid. | ||
| Let me be clear: this does not cut defense. | ||
| This does not cut Social Security. | ||
| This does not cut Medicare. | ||
| This is about rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and very simply, putting America first, which they are not doing. | ||
| If we don't codify these cuts, they will be reversed quietly over time with no vote from this chamber. | ||
| This rescues package is the lockbox. | ||
| It makes the DOE cuts permanent. | ||
| It ensures the victories that we don't want to get washed away in the next budget cycle. | ||
| This is our chance to turn temporary discipline. | ||
| I'll give the gentleman an additional 30 seconds. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this is about freedom. | ||
| This is about maintaining America as we have known it in the past. | ||
| This is about returning the American people to some fiscal sanity, which my friends on the left will not do and never have done, particularly in the last four years. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields back. | |
| Gentlelady from North Carolina Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Oh, Mr. Speaker, I don't even know where to begin after that. | ||
| The gentleman talked about $100,000 here and a million there, but not a word about the $3 trillion added to the deficit because of the big, ugly bill that he and Republicans voted for and supported. | ||
| Not a word about all that's going to be added to the debt. | ||
| And maybe the gentleman forgot this, but I'm looking at a Fox News story here when you referred to the $9.4 billion as a teardrop in the ocean when you were interviewed. | ||
| But again, maybe I don't know what happened, but somehow you couldn't bring yourself to talk about the $3 trillion that you're adding to the debt. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm going to urge that we defeat the previous question. | ||
| And if we do, I'm going to offer an amendment to the rule to bring up Amendment No. 1 to H.R. 4, offered by Mr. Goldman of New York, which would block Republicans from zeroing out federal funding that Congress has already appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. | ||
| Public TV and radio are trusted sources of news and educational programming for millions of households across America and are particularly important in rural areas where public stations are often the only source of local news. | ||
| This is a $1.1 billion cut, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Now, let's compare that to the big, ugly Republican Reconciliation Bill, which adds $3 trillion to the deficit and includes a provision. | ||
| Get this, it includes a provision that Republicans have been bragging about that removes a tax on gun silencers that has been on the books for a century. | ||
| Now, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the JCT, this new tax break on silencers alone will increase our nation's deficit by $1.5 billion. | ||
| That's more than the $1.1 billion Republicans are, quote, saving by eliminating all funding for public TV and radio. | ||
| Now, let me ask the American people and my Republican colleagues: is this whole trade-off worth it? | ||
| Public broadcasting in exchange for cheaper gun silencers? | ||
| I mean, really? | ||
| Unless you're an assassin or a hitman, I hope the answer is a resounding no. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| And to discuss that proposal, I yield two minutes to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Goldman. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Gentlemen, thank you very much to the ranking member. | ||
| I rise today to speak on my amendment to President Trump's reckless and stunningly short-sighted rescissions package, which would, among other harmful cuts, entirely eliminate federal funding for the corporation of public broadcasting. | ||
| Now, let's be very clear. | ||
| This is not cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| This isn't trimming around the edges. | ||
| This isn't the teardrop in an ocean. | ||
| This is all federal funding for the corporation of public broadcasting, which is PBS, NPR, local public television and radio. | ||
| This is not just an attack, though, on PBS and NPR, as so many of my Republican colleagues have said. | ||
| They know full well that more than 70% of this cut will be felt by the local radio and television stations in their own communities and across the country. | ||
| These stations use federally funded CPB radio towers and infrastructure to disseminate life-saving emergency alerts. | ||
| And they don't just inform rural Americans about and serve news deserts to discuss local news, which of course they do, and they're often the only source of educational programming for children around the country. | ||
| But they are essential for disaster response and emergency preparedness. | ||
| 20 states list NPR in their emergency response plans. | ||
| This infrastructure is essential for emergency alerts, geotargeted text messages, and first responder communications. | ||
| But my colleagues know all of this. | ||
| They know how devastating this defunding will be. | ||
| Even Chairman Adderhalt acknowledged yesterday in the Rules Committee that these cuts will harm his state's public broadcasting networks, and he would like to work on it with Democrats. | ||
| Well, your chance is right now on the previous question, which if you vote no, we can work together on funding the corporation for public broadcasting. | ||
| Yield a gentleman 30 seconds. | ||
| Gentleman's recognized. | ||
| But this is not about actual funding. | ||
| This is caving to Donald Trump's thin skin and his inability to deal with facts rather than to stand up for local stations, local communities, and the First Amendment, which specifically prevents Congress from abridging the freedom of the press. | ||
| So to every Republican listening, this is yet another chance to oppose Donald Trump's attack on any objective form of accountability and do what's best for your constituents. | ||
|
Deficits and Blocked Growth
00:15:25
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||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no on the previous question and choose your constituents over Donald Trump. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts Reserve's members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. | ||
| The gentlewoman from North Carolina is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 mandates that all public broadcasting programs must demonstrate strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs. | ||
| There's a myriad of statistical studies that prove they are not. | ||
| NPR banned coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story, claiming it was a, quote, mere diversion, end quote. | ||
| PBS made 162 references to far right versus only six references to far left. | ||
| Perhaps most damning for NPR is the fact that it had to utilize a $1.9 million federal grant to improve objectivity and diverse viewpoints last year. | ||
| The problem with the Public Broadcasting Act is that it lacks an enforcement mechanism. | ||
| So we'll go with our constitutional prerogatives here to enforce the law, and it starts with this rescission of funding. | ||
| PBS and NPR will continue to pivot their response to this cut back and forth, as they have for some time. | ||
| They tell us that their taxpayer-funded gift is just a drop in the bucket, not worth our attention. | ||
| Nothing to see here. | ||
| But when we want to hold them accountable, it's the end of the world. | ||
| They'll weaponize their content against congressional Republicans. | ||
| They'll hire lobbyists. | ||
| They'll buy ads. | ||
| In fact, they have. | ||
| They can continue to do that, but thankfully it won't be subsidized by the taxpayer any longer. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield four minutes to my distinguished colleague from Texas, Mr. Roy. | ||
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| I thank the Speaker. | ||
| I thank the chairwoman, my friend from North Carolina. | ||
| I support this rule and I rise in support of the rule. | ||
| But the American people watching back home, we are here because on June 3rd, the House, the House of Representatives, received a rescissions request from the White House to eliminate $9 billion in unobligated spending. | ||
| Well, let's just say there's much more to go. | ||
| This is step one. | ||
| Under the Empowerment Control Act, once a request is received, Congress has 45 days to act. | ||
| Well, the House is now acting. | ||
| These rescissions are in part due to what Doge was able to uncover and bring forward in terms of wasteful government spending. | ||
| Just look at what we've been funding with taxpayer dollars. | ||
| $6 million for net zero cities in Mexico. | ||
| $5.1 million for programs to strengthen the resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer global movements. | ||
| $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces. | ||
| $2 million for Moroccan pottery classes. | ||
| $2 million for sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala. | ||
| $33,000 for being LGBTI. | ||
| I can't even keep up with this stuff. | ||
| $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt. | ||
| $32,000 for transgender comic books in Peru. | ||
| $1 million to help disabled people in Tajikistan become climate leaders. | ||
| Is that what you think your taxpayer dollars should go toward? | ||
| I can promise you that the people that I represent think this is absolute garbage. | ||
| How on earth can you possibly defend that? | ||
| Yet my friends on the other side of the aisle would like you to believe seriously that if you don't use your taxpayer dollars to fund this absurd list of projects and thousands others that I didn't even list, that somehow people will die and our global standing in the world will crumble. | ||
| Well, let's just reject this now. | ||
| The White House is right to send up this rescissions package. | ||
| This should be just step one. | ||
| There should be numerous other steps. | ||
| We should rescend billions upon billions of dollars of wasteful spending that are destroying our country through inflation and through increasing the size and scope of government, undermining the safety and security of the American people. | ||
| How about the $160 million we can save by not giving more money to UNRWA, the organization whose own employees participated in Hamas's slaughter of Israeli citizens on October 7th, which we now know to be verifiably and completely true. | ||
| Why would we continue to shovel money to an organization like that that is funding terrorism against our allies and against our American citizens? | ||
| Yet that is precisely what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would wish us to continue to do. | ||
| Now let's address the big beautiful bill issue. | ||
| Because my friends on the other side of the aisle are raising this prospect of $3 trillion of additional deficits. | ||
| I have been very open in my belief that this bill should be better, that we should cut more spending, that we should be more mindful of reducing the size of government to get deficits down much further than we're seeing in this bill. | ||
| But to be very clear, and we had this debate in the Rules Committee, what my friends on the other side of the aisle are forgetting and not putting forward here in this debate when they say $3 trillion of additional deficits is what you believe the growth rate will be if you adopt policies that will actually increase economic growth, which is putting more money in the pockets of the American people and deregulating so that businesses can create wealth. | ||
| We assume 2.6% economic growth. | ||
| That is higher than the CBO's expectation at 1.8, but lower than the historic growth of 3.2%. | ||
| We hit the sweet spot. | ||
| We believe that if you get that growth, you will have deficit neutrality on this bill so that you will end up creating wealth, creating jobs, putting more money in people's pockets, and try to deliver on the spending cuts and the reversal and the termination of the Green News scam and the application of Medicaid work requirements to make sure that people aren't getting benefits when they should be working. | ||
| We believe it's a good bill. | ||
| 15 more seconds. | ||
| I yield the gentleman 15 more seconds. | ||
| Gentlemen's recognized. | ||
| We believe it is a good bill, and I will say it again. | ||
| I think the bill can get better. | ||
| I think the Senate should improve it. | ||
| I think we should find more savings. | ||
| But to say to the American people that it's creating deficits, ignoring economic growth, is just simply not true. | ||
| And with that, I will yield back. | ||
| The gentlelady reserves. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Yeah, wow, Mr. Speaker, that's something. | ||
| You know, we were trying to keep up with the gentleman as he was ticking off all the initiatives that he doesn't like. | ||
| And we were looking at these accounts, and I think we added, they all added up to $23.5 million. | ||
| And I don't know about some of the programs that he talked about. | ||
| I'm happy to look into them. | ||
| But he came up with $23.5 million in programs he doesn't like. | ||
| I just want my friends to understand that's half. | ||
| That is half of what Donald Trump is going to spend on his parade, one-day parade, on Saturday. | ||
| That's half. | ||
| So, I mean, give me a break. | ||
| And then the gentleman talked about, you know, that the CBO doesn't assume growth rates. | ||
| Not only did the CBO take into account the growth rate, so did every other think tank that did a budget analysis on the great big ugly bill that Republicans passed. | ||
| And I should also say to the gentleman and to the gentlelady, many of these programs have already been halted illegally by the Trump administration. | ||
| And just for the record, it is estimated that over 107,000 adults have died as a result of the denial of funds and over 224,000 children. | ||
| I'm ashamed that our government has pulled funding for programs that save people's lives. | ||
| And maybe my friends think that's fraud and waste and abuse. | ||
| I don't. | ||
| People are already dying. | ||
| People are already dying because the Trump administration has illegally halted funding for many of these programs, just withholding the money from USAID. | ||
| And I'm happy to share with them the statistics. | ||
| And with that, I reserve my time. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves, the gentlewoman from North Carolina is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I'll reserve. | ||
| The gentlewoman reserves. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to also point out for my colleagues that the big, ugly way in which Republicans have advanced this big, ugly bill is just the tip of the iceberg. | ||
| You know, last Congress, the Republican majority presided over the most unproductive, dysfunctional Congress in modern American history. | ||
| What an achievement. | ||
| I know they're all proud. | ||
| Republicans shattered their own record by issuing 115 closed rules, meaning 115 times where the House could not debate a single amendment on the House floor. | ||
| Did they learn anything from being the most unproductive Congress in history? | ||
| Of course not. | ||
| In just five months, the Republicans have racked up over 50 closed rules. | ||
| More than 90 percent of the bills they bring up, no amendments, no discussion, no input, just take it or leave it. | ||
| I mean, what are we even doing here? | ||
| Republican leadership has blocked over 800 amendments, and we have yet to see a single bipartisan amendment make it to the House floor this year, not even one. | ||
| Only 14 amendments have been selected by Republican leadership to be debated across just four bills. | ||
| That's a 98 percent rejection rate. | ||
| They blocked 98 out of 100 ideas they received. | ||
| Mr. Adelholt, who was testifying before the rules committee, said, oh, this rescues bill gives us an opportunity to vote up or down on whether we want to support public broadcasting. | ||
| But the bottom line is, no, it doesn't, because we're not having separate votes. | ||
| You have to take the whole package or leave it. | ||
| So we can't even vote on the individual cuts that are being part of this residence package. | ||
| Republicans have blocked a debate on amendments that would help states protect against deadly wildfires and post-disaster recovery. | ||
| They blocked amendments that would support new mothers and infants impacted by substance use. | ||
| And they blocked amendments to protect SNAP and Medicaid for millions of Americans. | ||
| Really? | ||
| No wonder why no one likes Congress. | ||
| Republicans are happy to debate trivial issues passionately, but important ones not at all. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, here's the kicker. | ||
| At this point, in our majority, Democrats gave Republicans more chances to debate their ideas than their own leaders do. | ||
| In five months, only six of the 220 Republicans in this chamber have had amendments made in order. | ||
| I mean, that means over 97 percent of Republicans have not had a single amendment debated. | ||
| I mean, are my Republican colleagues proud of being excluded from the legislative process? | ||
| And again, to the gentleman from Texas who just spoke, I'm sorry. | ||
| Don't lecture us about deficits when you voted for a bill that added $3 trillion to the deficit. | ||
| I mean, it's shameful. | ||
| I mean, the so-called budget hawks around here who talk a tough game and then they cave. | ||
| And yeah, we did have a debate in the Rules Committee about this last night, but the gentleman was absent. | ||
| And with that, I reserve my time. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts Reserves, the gentlewoman from North Carolina, is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I think my colleague from Texas, Mr. Roy, explained very well why we are not voting to increase the deficit by $3 trillion. | ||
| And we all know that that is coming from the fact that we are extending tax cuts that were passed in 2017. | ||
| And by the way, if we go back and look at the record at all the scare tactics and all the Armageddon comments that were made when we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, we hear the same things. | ||
| None of those things happened. | ||
| In fact, we had a booming economy. | ||
| And so I don't think the same scare tactics are going to work again. | ||
| And with that, I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, every major organization that does budget analysis says that they're going to add trillions to the debt. | ||
| The only people who don't are the gentlemanlady from North Carolina. | ||
| I'm sorry, I didn't know that you do independent budget analyses, but every other one does. | ||
| There's one Republican in this House who is not afraid of Mr. Trump, and that's Mr. Massey. | ||
| And let me read a couple of tweets that he posted. | ||
| He writes, why didn't Trump's 2017 tax cuts and job act make tax cuts permanent? | ||
| And he writes, because the impact of the tax cuts on the debt after 2025 was understood by them to be too great. | ||
| So now they're employing new math to claim that renewing the tax cuts without cutting spending won't impact the debt. | ||
| He writes, hidden inside of a resolution we will vote on today to bring rescissions to the floor is in order to pass HRES 492 without a vote. | ||
| HRES 492 changes the text of the big beautiful bill after it already passed the House. | ||
| Sneaky. | ||
| Sneaky. | ||
| So look, you know, again, I mean, can we at least be honest about what's happening here? | ||
| And at this time, I'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from New Mexico, Ms. Stanbury. | ||
| The gentlewoman's recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to oppose this harmful, shameful, and offensive rescission package. | ||
| The GOP is canceling $9.4 billion. | ||
| Yes, billion. | ||
| Billions in funding for programs that fund life-saving work across the world. | ||
| Funding for public television and public radio, for agriculture and research jobs in my own district, and to codify the Doge cuts the two-thirds of Americans oppose and which their own president asked just two weeks ago of his other cabinet members if they were just total bullshit. | ||
|
Striking Tough Choices
00:07:23
|
||
| That's a quote of the President of the United States. | ||
| So I'm here to tell members of this chamber to vote no on this rescissions package. | ||
| Transmitted by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought, this package would make permanent cuts to USAID and the State Department put into motion illegally. | ||
| And they knew it because they were impounding funds and essentially admitted that in the rescissions package because they said it was pursuant to the Budget Control Act. | ||
| They knew that what they were doing was illegal. | ||
| So now, five, six months later, they've transmitted this package to cut $8 billion in programs to save lives of children across the world that would gut UN programs and that would save thousands of lives and to gut public broadcasting. | ||
| This is a full-scale attack on our international system, global peace and security, the health and welfare of millions of children across the world, and on public television. | ||
| And we will fight back every step of the way. | ||
| So not only am I a no, I am a hell no on this package. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| Members are reminded to refrain from using vulgarities in the House chamber. | ||
| The gentleman observes, the gentlewoman from Virginia, or North Carolina is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Americans are the most generous and caring people in the world. | ||
| We've set up lots of programs to save the lives of people across this country, across the world, and we'll continue to do that, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And what we're doing here is not going to cause people to be dying if the money is spent the way Congress intends for it to be spent. | ||
| Now, as my Democrat colleagues are well aware, reconciliation bills are different from other types of legislation and are prohibited from including provisions deemed as extraneous in the Senate. | ||
| So what we are doing here in terms of the engrossment resolution for HR1 is we're striking a few provisions in the bill that Senate parliamentarians concluded would jeopardize the privileged status of the bill in the Senate. | ||
| The House is taking all necessary steps to enable the One Big Beautiful bill to be considered expeditiously in the Senate and sent to President Trump's desk under the reconciliation process, which is what this engrossment resolution does. | ||
| I also remind the ranking member and my Democrat colleagues, when they were last in the majority, they also utilized an engrossment resolution to strike extraneous provisions from their American Rescue Plan in 2021. | ||
| Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, what we are doing with the reconciliation bill and with the rescission bill is we're doing everything we can to get our country back in fiscal shape. | ||
| That's more important to the people in this world than any individual program is. | ||
| It's important that the United States remain the greatest country in the world and that we reduce our debt and deficit. | ||
| And that's the focus of Republicans. | ||
| And with that, I reserve. | ||
| This is recognized. | ||
| From the gentlelady, how many more speakers she has? | ||
| We're prepared to close if the gentleman from Massachusetts is prepared to close. | ||
| Gentlemen, how much time do I have left, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts has two minutes remaining. | ||
| I yield myself through any time, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The gentleman's recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we've heard a lot of talk today about tightening belts and making tough choices. | ||
| This bill doesn't make tough choices. | ||
| It makes stupid choices. | ||
| These rescissions would gut PEPFAR, a program that saved millions of lives by preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS. | ||
| It would slash funding for malaria prevention, for maternal and child health, for clean water, for food assistance. | ||
| These programs are not giveaways. | ||
| This money isn't a handout. | ||
| These are smart, strategic investments that make Americans safer and save this government money down the road. | ||
| Every dollar we spend on global health, on diplomacy, on humanitarian aid, can save 10, 100, even $1,000 later by preventing conflict, disease, outbreaks, refugee crises, and wars. | ||
| This bill eliminates those smart investments. | ||
| It strips away those tools. | ||
| It tells the world at a time when it's desperate for American leadership that we're walking away and it will let China and Russia and Iran fill the power vacuum that we leave behind. | ||
| And for what? | ||
| So Republicans can say they cut spending while they protect billions and tax breaks for big oil and billionaire donors? | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| This bill isn't serious about fiscal responsibility. | ||
| If it were, there'd be a rescissions package for the Pentagon. | ||
| We'd be debating clawbacks for defense contractors who charge $10,000 for a toilet seat. | ||
| We'd be looking at whether Elon Musk's company should be getting massive government subsidies. | ||
| But no, no, the party of billionaires would rather defund Sesame Street. | ||
| They'd rather go after Elmo. | ||
| And they'd rather go after programs that help save lives. | ||
| And yes, this is about Trump's military parade, too. | ||
| The Army estimates it could cost between $25 to $40 million. | ||
| So let's do the math. | ||
| We're going to kill disaster relief, gut UNICEF, and stop investing in global AIDS prevention. | ||
| But we're fine with Donald Trump throwing himself a birthday party with tanks, missiles in the streets like it's, you know, North Korea. | ||
| What the hell are we doing here, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| This is why people don't trust government. | ||
| If you want to be serious about budgeting, fine. | ||
| Let's be serious. | ||
| Let's look at where the waste, fraud, and abuse runs rampant. | ||
| Let's audit the Pentagon. | ||
| Let's go after corporate welfare and big oil handouts. | ||
| Let's close the loopholes that let billionaires pay zero in taxes. | ||
| But let's not pretend this bill is about any of that. | ||
| This bill is a fraud, a con job. | ||
| America deserves better. | ||
| The world needs better. | ||
| This is a revote on the reconciliation bill. | ||
| So vote no if you are against gutting Medicaid, Medicare, and staff. | ||
| The gentleman's time is free drilling. | ||
| You finally vote no if you voted yes the first time. | ||
|
Yays and Nays Vote
00:02:52
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| The gentleman is no longer recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the House is not in order. | ||
| The gentlewoman from North Carolina is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The answer is clear. | ||
| The American people gave Republicans a mandate to restore fiscal sanity. | ||
| This rescissions package is part of achieving that end. | ||
| Republicans are cleaning up the ruin that the Biden-Harris administration left this country in. | ||
| We're taking a fiscal scalpel to waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government. | ||
| It's the right thing to do, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| With that, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the previous question and yes on the rule. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and move the previous question on the resolution. | ||
| Gentlelady yields back. | ||
| The question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. | ||
| Those in favor will say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| Opinion chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, to what purpose does the gentleman from Massachusetts seek recognition? | ||
| The yays and nays. | ||
| The yays and nays are requested. | ||
| Those favoring the yays and nays will rise. | ||
| Sufficient number having arisen, the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, the chair will reduce to five minutes the minimum time of any electronic vote on the question of adoption of the resolution if ordered. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And a vote now on whether to begin debate on legislation to cut $9.4 billion in foreign aid and PBS funding. | |
| Included in the rescissions bill are some 20 changes to the House passed version of President Trump's tax and spending plan, known as the Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| These changes are being made to the House bill to comply with Senate budget procedures. | ||
| This is the only vote series planned today. | ||
| A final vote on the spending cut bill and other measures debated this morning will happen tomorrow. | ||
| As the vote continues, we'll take you to the White House briefing from earlier today. | ||
| Good afternoon, everybody. | ||
|
Violent Mob Against Law Enforcement
00:05:06
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| Good afternoon, how are you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| Good to see you all. | ||
| What we have seen transpire in Los Angeles, California in recent days is shameful. | ||
| Left-wing radicals waving foreign flags viciously attacked ICE and Border Patrol agents as well as Los Angeles police officers. | ||
| These criminals injured police, threw rocks at police cars and officers, burned vehicles, shut down freeways, and lobbed Molotov cocktails, all because the Trump administration was removing violent criminal, illegal aliens from the city. | ||
| These attacks were aimed not just at law enforcement, but at American culture and society itself. | ||
| Rioters burned American flags, chanted death to ICE, and spray painted anti-American slogans on buildings. | ||
| But President Trump will never allow mob rule to prevail in America. | ||
| The most basic duty of government is to preserve law and order, and this administration embraces that sacred responsibility. | ||
| Democrats like Governor Gavin Newsome and Mayor Karen Bass shamefully failed to meet their sworn obligations to their citizens. | ||
| They didn't have the courage to do the right thing and protect law-abiding Californians from rioters. | ||
| That's why President Trump deployed the National Guard and mobilized Marines to end the chaos and restore law and order. | ||
| The mob violence is being stomped out. | ||
| The criminals responsible will be swiftly brought to justice. | ||
| And the Trump administration's operations to arrest illegal aliens are continuing unabated. | ||
| When the initial immigration enforcement actions took place on June 6th, Mayor Bass took to social media to say she was deeply angered by what has taken place. | ||
| Mayor Bass then embarked on one of the most outrageous campaign of lies this country has ever seen from an elected official, blaming President Trump and brave law enforcement officers for the violence. | ||
| She accused heroic American immigration and customs enforcement officers targeting illegal alien murderers, rapists, and pedophiles of, quote, sowing terror in communities and disrupting basic principles of safety in our city. | ||
| Around the same time, Governor Newsom claimed that immigration enforcement actions were causing chaos. | ||
| That's how radical Democrats have become. | ||
| Their opposition to President Trump has forced them to side with illegal alien criminals in their communities and violent rioters and looters over law enforcement officers who are just doing their jobs. | ||
| Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom fanned the flames and demonized our braved ICE officers. | ||
| Instead of defending their city and their state, Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom claim that in order for the riots and the violence to stop, ICE needed to leave and immigration raids must end. | ||
| In other words, the position of the Democrat Party is that the federal government is not allowed to enforce our laws and to arrest and deport illegal alien criminals. | ||
| They're attempting to use a violent mob as a weapon against their own constituents to prevent the enforcement of immigration law. | ||
| This is deeply un-American and morally reprehensible. | ||
| President Trump received a clear mandate from voters to reverse the illegal invasion ushered in by Joe Biden's open border and to end the lawlessness represented by Karen Bass in Gavin Newsom's California. | ||
| President Trump promised to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history, and left-wing riots will not deter him in that effort. | ||
| Sanctuary cities and states will no longer be allowed to shield illegal criminals from deportation. | ||
| Just take a look at some of the illegal monsters who were taken off the streets in Los Angeles in recent days. | ||
| A Vietnamese national, a known gang member with a conviction for second-degree murder. | ||
| A Mexican national with convictions for child molestation who was armed with a dangerous weapon and had previous arrests for robbery and domestic violence. | ||
| A Filipino national with convictions of rape, assault, burglary, and theft. | ||
| A Mexican national convicted of statutory rape, narcotics violations, and hit and run. | ||
| A Nicaraguan national with convictions for domestic violence in hit and run and a previous arrest for willful cruelty to a child. | ||
| And an illegal alien from Mexico who was arrested after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at law enforcement officers during the Paramount riots on Saturday. | ||
| He is now being charged with attempted murder. | ||
| Law-abiding American citizens do not want these public safety threats living in their communities, no matter what Democrats like Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom may claim. | ||
| And let this be an unequivocal message to left-wing radicals in other parts of the country who are thinking about copycatting the violence in an effort to stop this administration's mass deportation efforts. | ||
| You will not succeed. | ||
| Any lawlessness will only strengthen this president's resolve to defend the majority of Americans who want to live their lives peacefully, free from the fear of violent criminal illegal aliens. | ||
|
Inflation Below Expectations
00:02:54
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| As President Trump said, order will be maintained and illegal aliens will be expelled from our country. | ||
| In economic news, the latest Consumer Price Index inflation report came in today below expectations again. | ||
| Since President Trump took office, inflation has come in below economics expectations every single month. | ||
| Core inflation held steady and remains at the lowest level since March of 2021. | ||
| Wage growth remains strong. | ||
| The average private sector worker is on track to see their real earnings increase by around $1,200 adjusted for inflation. | ||
| And prices continue to fall for everyday Americans. | ||
| Energy prices fell from April to May. | ||
| Gasoline has fallen each month since President Trump took office, down 12% over the past year. | ||
| And prices for meat, poultry, eggs, and fish are all down from April to May as well. | ||
| Under President Trump's strong leadership, America is beating Joe Biden's record-high inflation crisis. | ||
| And once the One Big Beautiful bill passes, our economy will boom like never before. | ||
| This bill is the largest tax cut for middle-class Americans in history. | ||
| The One Big Beautiful bill gives a 15% tax cut to working Americans and families who will see increased take-home pay of $10,000 per year. | ||
| The One Big Beautiful bill expands the child tax credit to $2,500 for more than 40 million American families with children. | ||
| And the One Big Beautiful bill cuts taxes for overtime workers, saving them nearly $2,000 per year, and ends taxes on tips, saving tipped workers nearly $2,000 per year as well. | ||
| All of these provisions are broadly popular with an overwhelming support from the American people. | ||
| We need Republicans in Congress to finish the job and send the One Big Beautiful bill back to President Trump's desk for his signature as soon as possible. | ||
| With that, we'll get to questions. | ||
| I'm sure you have many of them today. | ||
| Here in our new media seat is Elizabeth Mitchell, the White House correspondent for the Daily Signal, who's not afforded a seat in this room, but today she is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Elizabeth. | |
| Thank you so much, Caroline. | ||
| I have two questions. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| First, a few Republicans on Capitol Hill are suggesting that President Trump scale back deportations, even as ICE is reportedly gearing up for raids in five more Democrat-led areas. | ||
| Would anything dissuade President Trump, and would he consider sending in Marines if anti-ICE violence occurs in these cities? | ||
| Well, I think I may have just answered both of your questions with my opening monologue. | ||
| The Trump administration is going to continue the mass deportation effort that the President promised the American public. | ||
|
President's Protest Concerns
00:15:28
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| Many of you were at those rallies in cities and communities across the country when the President spoke about his commitment to removing violent illegal criminals and anyone who has broken our nation's immigration laws from American communities. | ||
| And God bless our ICE and Border Patrol who are working hard on that effort. | ||
| This administration is going to continue that. | ||
| And it's part of the reason we do need the One Big Beautiful bill to pass as well, may I add, because the bill provides funding to hire more ICE agents and Border Patrol agents, more personnel on the ground to conduct this important public safety work. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And on another topic, President Trump has indicated that aides to former President Biden who used the AutoPen to sign major orders and pardons should be investigated for potential crimes. | ||
| Does he think that Biden allowing or at least being negligently unaware of this activity was an impeachable offense? | ||
| I haven't heard the president address whether it's an impeachable offense, but it could perhaps be a criminal offense, especially on behalf of staffers who may have been utilizing the president's signature without his authority or consent. | ||
| I understand that Republicans on the Hill are moving in the right direction to call attention to this and to bring in some former White House staffers who clearly knew more than they ever shared and never addressed with the American public. | ||
| And so we look forward to seeing where this investigation continues. | ||
| And I know the Department of Justice is also looking into the matter as well. | ||
| Alex, good to see you today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good to see you, Caroline. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| You mentioned foreign flags being flown during these protests. | ||
| There are protests and activities being organized for this weekend. | ||
| Part of it are Democrats saying they want to reclaim the American flag. | ||
| It's also being titled No King's Day. | ||
| Does the President see himself as a king? | ||
| And does the White House expect to see American flags being thrown, being flown during these protests this weekend? | ||
| The President views himself as the President of the United States of America. | ||
| This is a constitutional republic, and we want to see all of our citizens be proud of the country in which they are given the privilege and the blessing to live. | ||
| And I think that those images of foreign flags being waved by illegal criminals and by violent rioters in the face of cars blowing up and of flames in the city, I have photos of that here to show you with this violence and destruction that occurred is an image that Governor Gavin Newsom owns. | ||
| This is his city, and President Trump saw these images, and he said that is not going to be accepted or tolerated, and hence why he deployed the National Guard and United States Marines who have helped to quell that violence. | ||
|
unidentified
|
If I can ask another question, if the president does end up deploying any National Guard members, perhaps Marines, to blue states, would he be in contact with the governors prior to this? | |
| Would it be necessary? | ||
| Well, President Trump was in contact with Governor Gavin Newsom despite some of the claims he's made in the last couple of days. | ||
| The president called the governor on Friday evening and told him to let law enforcement in California do their jobs. | ||
| And Los Angeles Police Department, by the way, are fantastic people. | ||
| They are trying to do the work that they've so bravely signed up to do to enforce the law. | ||
| But they have been kneecapped by incompetent Democrat policies and Democrat politicians who do not allow their local law enforcement to correspond and coordinate with federal immigration authorities. | ||
| And so President gave Gavin Newsom a warning and said, get it together. | ||
| 24 hours later, we saw more images like this. | ||
| We heard about Border Patrol agents who were being the target of rocks. | ||
| These illegal criminals were throwing rocks at our Border Patrol and ICE agents. | ||
| And so the President made the decision to federalize California's National Guard. | ||
| Stephanie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Two questions on the China trade deal, if I may. | ||
| First, will the President formally sign the trade deal? | ||
| And if so, when? | ||
| And Secretary Luttnick sort of alluded to the fact that it might be in a couple of days, but there is a fear that would be more specific to RENA. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| I do have more specifics for you. | ||
| I spoke to the President about this. | ||
| He spoke to his trade team, who did a fantastic job negotiating this on behalf of the United States and meeting with their Chinese counterparts. | ||
| The president is talking to them about the details of it now. | ||
| But what the president heard, he liked. | ||
| China has agreed to open their markets to the United States separately of this deal. | ||
| And when it comes to this deal, we're going back to the terms that were agreed upon in Geneva for the release of some of those critical minerals and the magnets from China to the United States. | ||
| And we have agreed to fully comply with the Geneva Agreement as well. | ||
| So the President is reviewing the details of that with his trade team now, and you'll hear more from him, I'm sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then the second question on tariffs, Secretary Luttnick suggested that the tariffs would remain unchanged with China. | |
| I'm wondering if there's any room for them to negotiate even lower or if this is the floor. | ||
| I won't get ahead of any further negotiations. | ||
| We're in a great place right now and I would add that this is the result of a lot of hard work from the president and his team and the president has a good and respectful relationship with President Xi and as you know they had a direct conversation which led to this success that the president announced on True Social this morning. | ||
| JJ. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On North Korea, has the president tried to resume dialogue with Kim Jong-un? | |
| There's some reporting that the president sent a letter and tried to give it to Kim Jong-un through some North Korean diplomats through the UN and they declined to take it and send it to Kim Jong-un? | ||
| The President remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong-un and he'd like to see the progress that was made at that summit in Singapore, which I know you covered in 2018 during his first term. | ||
| As for specific correspondence, I'll leave that to the President to answer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Good afternoon. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| Back to the trade deal, negotiations with China. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jimmy Lai, as you know, is a pro-democracy advocate, Catholic, sitting in solitary confinement in Hong Kong as we speak. | |
| His family believes he may be close to death. | ||
| Did his name come up, Jimmy Lai's name, come up in these negotiations with China? | ||
| Not to my knowledge. | ||
| I understand the negotiations were very much focused on our trade and economic relationship with China. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does the President believe he can free Jimmy Lai from prison? | |
| I will check with the President. | ||
| It's certainly an important issue, and I'll get back to you. | ||
| Thanks, Caroline. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The President said yesterday that paid insurrectionists were behind or involved in the protests in Los Angeles. | |
| Does the White House have any more details about who they believe is paying these? | ||
| Yeah, the President spoke about this last night when he returned from Fort Bragg because, frankly, the President has a lot of common sense. | ||
| And if you look at some of the imagery that we ever received from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE and law enforcement who are on the ground, you will see boxes and boxes of very professionalized masks and rioting equipment being dropped off for these protesters. | ||
| So it's a good question the president is raising and one we are looking into about who is funding these insurrectionists and these rioters and these protesters and these illegal criminals. | ||
| And I have updates for you on the numbers, by the way. | ||
| Since June 6th, there have been 330 illegal aliens that have been arrested as part of these riots in Los Angeles. | ||
| 113 of those illegal aliens had prior criminal convictions. | ||
| And overall, and this includes arrests of American citizens, there's been 157 people arrested for assault and obstruction-related charges, including the attempted murder of a police officer with a Molotov cocktail. | ||
| So who is funding these illegal aliens who are coming in with this very professional riot gear? | ||
| It's a question everyone in this room who cares about truth should be asking. | ||
| And we encourage your help in trying to get to the bottom of that question. | ||
| Indina. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Caroline. | |
| About Elon Musk, he issued an apology this morning. | ||
| Has the president accepted the apology, or does he think it's too little too late? | ||
| The president acknowledged the statement that Elon put out this morning, and he is appreciative of it. | ||
| And we are continuing to focus on the business of the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And has the administration started a review of Musk's government contracts, something that the President said he's considering? | |
| What do you mean by that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Has the administration started a review of the contracts that Musk and his companies currently have? | |
| No efforts have been made on that front, as far as I'm aware. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| And just one more, if I may, on just everything sort of we've seen so far with the president's response to the LA protests. | ||
| There is criticism that seems to suggest that the president responded the way he did because it was a deliberate, calculated attempt to sort of shift focus away from his field with Musk. | ||
| How would you respond to that? | ||
| The president responded to the LA riots condemning the violence from Musk. | ||
| That's an incredibly disingenuous attack. | ||
| The president saw images of Border Patrol and ICE agents being hailed with rocks and Molotov cocktails. | ||
| He saw vehicles being burned to the ground with illegal aliens flying foreign flags. | ||
| And that's what prompted the president to have this response that has clearly worked because last night in Los Angeles you didn't see many of those images. | ||
| And I would add the governor and the mayor need to actually do more. | ||
| I know Gavin Newsom had a big address to the nation last night. | ||
| I guess he thought that's what it was for maybe his future political ambitions. | ||
| But he spoke a lot of words. | ||
| We haven't seen action. | ||
| California has been a mess for years because of the incompetence of Gavin Newsom. | ||
| So the President was responding to that only. | ||
| Caitlin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Caroline, two questions for you. | |
| Over the weekend, Secretary Noam sent a memo to the Pentagon asking Secretary Mecca to have and direct the military that's on the ground in LA to arrest and detain what she said were lawbreakers. | ||
| Is the President okay with that and under what authority would the members of the military be able to arrest people inside the United States? | ||
| I can't speak for a letter that came from the Department of Homeland Security. | ||
| I can't speak for the President and what's currently happening on the ground now. | ||
| And as you know, the President federalized the National Guard under U.S. Code 10, which he has the authority to do. | ||
| And our United States Marines and the National Guardsmen and women who are on the ground right now are helping to create a peaceful environment for ICE and Border Patrol who were being, again, hailed with rocks, who were being violently and viciously attacked. | ||
| They needed reinforcements. | ||
| And so our United States Marines who are on the ground are providing those reinforcements to ensure the environment is peaceful so that these raids and deportations can continue. | ||
| But he realizes they can't actually arrest people unless he invokes the Insurrection Act, which, I mean, seemingly was not something that was in Secretary Noam's memo, a clear distinction she did not make there. | ||
| Again, you're trying to conflate a letter that was sent to the Department of Homeland Security to the President's legal authority. | ||
| The President understands the legal authority that he invoked, and that's the current situation right now. | ||
| When it comes to federalizing the National Guard, what is the specific criteria that the President is using for when he's deciding to do that and in which states? | ||
| The President was asked and answered this yesterday. | ||
| wants to see an end to the chaos and the violence. | ||
| He doesn't want to see law enforcement officers being attacked. | ||
| He wants to see peace. | ||
| He wants law-abiding Californians to be able to bring their kids to school, to be able to go to work without seeing this violence in the streets. | ||
| That's what the president's hoping for and that's why he's taken this action. | ||
| John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks a lot, Carolyn. | |
| Two questions on two separate topics. | ||
| One has to do with the military parade taking place here in Washington this weekend. | ||
| There's a lot of security around the White House complex, around the Capitol complex, even along the title basin. | ||
| Is that just proactive? | ||
| Are you expecting anything in particular in terms of unrest like we've seen in Los Angeles? | ||
| These are proactive security measures to protect those marching in the parade, many of whom will be veterans and our brave men and women in uniform and Gold Star families. | ||
| There's going to be military families from around the country who are flying into this parade. | ||
| And of course, it's to protect the spectators who will be enjoying this incredibly patriotic show on Saturday. | ||
| And I hope you'll all join us there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then secondly, Secretary Pete Hegset testified on the Senate side of the Capitol today and he was asked about America's administration's view of Vladimir Putin's intentions. | |
| And specifically it was asked whether or not his intentions go beyond, his territorial ambitions go beyond Ukraine. | ||
| When that question was posed to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Kane replied that he does believe that his territorial ambitions go beyond Ukraine. | ||
| But Secretary Hegset says it's not clear at this point. | ||
| How does the President view this issue? | ||
| The President has spoken on this. | ||
| He said, as he calls it, he believes Ukraine was always the apple of Putin's eye. | ||
| And he made it very clear to Putin in his first term not to invade Ukraine. | ||
| Putin didn't invade Ukraine because of President Trump's peace-through-strength foreign policy agenda and the effective deterrence policies that he implemented in the first term. | ||
| Unfortunately, because of the weakness and incompetence of the previous administration, Vladimir Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine, and now we have this brutal war, which the president is working very hard to end. | ||
| Jasmine. | ||
| Thanks so much, Caroline. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The president warned that any protests on Saturday would be met with force. | |
| Can you clarify what kind of protest President Trump does support or find acceptable? | ||
| The President absolutely supports peaceful protests. | ||
| He supports the First Amendment. | ||
| He supports the right of Americans to make their voices heard. | ||
| He does not support violence of any kind. | ||
| He does not support assaulting law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their job. | ||
| It's very clear for the president what he supports and what he does not. | ||
| Unfortunately for Democrats, that line has not been made clear and they've allowed this unrest and this violence to continue and the president has had to step in. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So if there were peaceful protests on Saturday for the military parade, President Trump would allow that. | |
| Of course the president supports peaceful protests. | ||
| What a stupid question. | ||
| Rick Hel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much, Caroline. | |
| Rick Helen and then I can go to you, Francisco. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much, Caroline. | |
| I have two questions. | ||
| One about Israel. | ||
| Yesterday, the ambassador, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, said the U.S. no longer is pursuing the goal of independent Palestinian state. | ||
| Can you confirm that the president is no longer supporting a two-state solution? | ||
| And is President Trump considering diplomatic action against countries who take action against Israel during next week's UN conference? | ||
| Right now, the President views the situation in Israel and Gaza as deeply unfortunate and needing to end. | ||
| And the President is realistic about the current state of affairs in this region of the world. | ||
| And that's why the President has said the number one focus and priority of the administration is to release all of the hostages from Gaza and to end this conflict as soon as possible. | ||
| The administration is still pushing very hard for the release of all the hostages. | ||
| And as for what happens next, clearly Gaza is an uninhabitable place. | ||
| It needs to be rebuilt with the help of our Arab partners, and the President wants to see that happen as well. | ||
| Take a couple of questions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just one on the G7 engagement. | |
| President Trump is traveling there on Sunday. | ||
| Other presidents beyond the G7 leaders are also going. | ||
| President Lula from Brazil, President Scheinbaum from Mexico, and President Zelensky from Ukraine are also going. | ||
| Do you have confirmation if President Trump is meeting any other leaders on the sideline of the G7? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I can confirm there will be quite a few bilateral meetings between the President and other foreign leaders. | ||
| The White House is still working very hard to finalize that schedule, and we will provide that for you as soon as we have it. | ||
|
Why Silence On Protesters' Rights?
00:03:05
|
||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Kelly. | |
| Just back to the China Trade Deal. | ||
| Can you talk about the status of the export controls that the U.S. imposed? | ||
| Are those no longer being imposed? | ||
| We are fully complying with the Geneva Agreement. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| Thanks, Carolyn. | ||
| One foreign question for you, and one domestic. | ||
| The President, of course, has said he would relieve, he would lift sanctions on Syria. | ||
| Is there an executive order coming along soon to go do that? | ||
| And is the President planning to try to get involved in any kind of a peace agreement between Israel and Syria that would disengage those two? | ||
| To the best of my knowledge, the Treasury Department took action after the President made that announcement in Saudi Arabia. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then on the domestic side, you were just asked about the First Amendment rights issues. | |
| In the President's comments yesterday, though, he just said protesters would be strongly dealt with. | ||
| In your list before, you referred to insurrectionists, rioters, and protesters together. | ||
| Obviously, they're quite different from your earlier answer. | ||
| I'm struck by the fact that the president has not at any point said the most important thing here is to protect the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters. | ||
| So I'm wondering where in his hierarchy of interests does he place that? | ||
| Is the First Amendment protection the most important? | ||
| Is stopping violence most important? | ||
| Why is he not out saying all peaceful protesters will be protected? | ||
| I think two things can be important at the same time. | ||
| And the President, as I just answered, supports the right of Americans to peacefully protest. | ||
| He supports the First Amendment. | ||
| But that is not the majority of the behavior that we have seen taking place in Los Angeles. | ||
| We have seen mobs of violent rioters and agitators assaulting law enforcement officers, assaulting our federal immigration authorities. | ||
| And we have seen, as I said, this goes back to what this administration is trying to do and accomplish, and that's enforcing law and order in our nation's communities. | ||
| And it's removing public safety threats from communities in Los Angeles. | ||
| You're saying the majority have not been peaceful, the majority have been lost. | ||
| I just read for you the arrest numbers. | ||
| We've arrested nearly 400 illegal aliens alone, just illegal aliens who have been arrested in these riots since June 6th, since they began. | ||
| Yeah, and we've had hundreds of people who have assaulted law enforcement officers. | ||
| Are you saying that that's not appropriate behavior? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are you saying that at all? | |
| I'm just trying to figure out. | ||
| The Democrat governor and the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles have failed their citizens. | ||
| And the majority of Americans, the majority of Californians, do not want to see law enforcement officers being assaulted in the streets. | ||
|
Vote Underway
00:05:40
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||
| And thankfully, the President took action and stepped in to protect our federal law enforcement agents, to protect federal buildings, to protect the federal mission of deporting illegal criminals off of our streets. | ||
| And that mission will continue every day as far as we're concerned. | ||
| Thank you guys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the vote underway just about wrapping up on whether to begin debate on legislation to cut funding from foreign aid programs and public broadcasting. | |
| Included in the rescissions bill are some 20 changes to the House pass version of President Trump's tax and spending plan. | ||
| That's called the Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| The changes are being made to make the House bill comply with Senate procedures. | ||
| This is the only vote series planned today, and a final vote on the spending cut bill and the other measures debated this morning will be happening tomorrow. | ||
| Just under a couple dozen votes left from House lawmakers. | ||
| 2-10. | ||
| The nays are 204. | ||
| The previous question is ordered. | ||
| Question is on adoption of the resolution. | ||
| All those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| Final chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I asked for a recorded vote. | ||
| A recorded vote is. | ||
| Did I not have to okay? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I didn't call the vote. | ||
| I didn't announce that vote. | ||
| Did I? | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| A recorded vote is requested. | ||
| Those favoring a recorded vote will rise. | ||
| Espicion number having arisen. | ||
| Recorded vote is ordered. | ||
| Members record their vote by electron divide. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And this is the last vote of the day underway now on debate rules for the legislation to cut $9.4 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funding, including about 20 changes to the House Pass version of the tax and spending plan. | |
| The changes to the so-called Big Beautiful bill are to make the House version comply with Senate budget rules. | ||
| This is the only vote series planned today, and a final vote on the spending cut bill and other measures debated this morning will be held tomorrow. | ||
| And looking ahead, the chamber will not be in session on Friday. | ||
| That will allow members to attend the funeral for former New York Congressman Charlie Wrangel in Harlem. | ||
| During this last vote, we'll show remarks made by Senate Democrats earlier on the effects on energy costs in the tax and spending cuts bill. | ||
| We can't wait. | ||
| We agree. | ||
| I agree. | ||
|
Tax Credits Gone Wrong
00:04:56
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||
| My children agree. | ||
| And my grandchildren agree. | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| I'm so glad to be joined by three of my great colleagues in the Senate, Senators White House, Markey, and Blunt Rochester. | ||
| Mr. Seat here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On our way. | |
| On our way. | ||
| We have Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters, Dean Warch of the Great IBEW Electricians, and Brad Van Wert, the Montana Renewable Energy Coalition. | ||
| So I want to thank everybody for being here. | ||
| Look, one of the greatest accomplishments we had in the Congress, the last Congress, was getting the best pro-environmental bill ever passed through the Congress and signed into law. | ||
| And one of the mainstays of those provisions was tax credits for clean energy. | ||
| Tax credits for wind, tax credits for solar, tax credits for hydro, you name it. | ||
| We put it in there to help clean energy grow. | ||
| And it was usually successful. | ||
| Originally, we estimated it would be about $370 billion would use the tax credits, but it's now close to a trillion. | ||
| And solar and wind and clean energy are among the fastest-growing energy components. | ||
| We say we need more energy in America. | ||
| The quickest and best way to get it, the cheapest way to get it, is clean energy. | ||
| Plain and simple. | ||
| And yet, what has happened is this. | ||
| The House has sent us a bill that kills the program. | ||
| This is not just a haircut. | ||
| This is not just a trim. | ||
| This is death with a dagger through the heart by the provisions they put in in the dark of night at the last minute. | ||
| Most House Republicans didn't even know, didn't even know what was going on. | ||
| And yet these provisions, if passed, would basically end clean energy. | ||
| You all know what they are, but just listen to the perfidy of this one. | ||
| If you don't have a new project in the ground 60 days after the bill passes, you get no credits. | ||
| If you had any relationship in any way with China even decades ago, you get no credits. | ||
| By all estimates, it would kill the bill. | ||
| So what does this mean? | ||
| Why do the Americans, why does the American people care about this so much? | ||
| Well, one, it's going to raise their costs dramatically. | ||
| And we just got new estimates today. | ||
| We thought originally it would cost Americans about $32 billion on their household energy bills. | ||
| We've gotten a new estimate that it's much, much worse, unfortunately, $170 billion. | ||
| It's the new modeling that has come out from one of the most respected modelers, where's Tim, called Energy Innovation. | ||
| And they've been our lodestar for a long time, of $170 billion to keep your lights on. | ||
| Isn't that incredible? | ||
| Electricity bills would go up more than 10% next year in some states, Republican states, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, they go up 15%. | ||
| And if you live in Kentucky, you can pay $860 more a year. | ||
| So that's the cost. | ||
| Second, the jobs. | ||
| We estimate there are 850,000 clean energy, good-paying jobs in this bill. | ||
| Gone. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gone. | |
| That's a load of jobs, and about 70% of them are in red state. | ||
| So this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. | ||
| This is an American issue. | ||
| And third, if you wanted to write a law that surrenders American independence and energy independence to the Chinese Communist Party and to the Chinese government, this is it. | ||
| Look no further than this bill. | ||
| China's gaining in solar, wants to dominate. | ||
| If we cut off all solar production, China will dominate, and our children and grandchildren, and even many of us, will be at China's whim. | ||
| China will have a grip on our energy policy. | ||
| It will be outrageous. | ||
| Outrageous. | ||
| And so why did all this happen? | ||
| How could they be so bad? | ||
| The reason they're making these cuts is they want tax breaks for billionaires. | ||
| It's outrageous. | ||
| Outrageous. | ||
| And a small group in the House led by Chip Roy, these are 99.07. | ||
| The resolution is adopted. | ||
|
Philippines' Independence Commemoration
00:15:35
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||
| Without objection, motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to i'm sorry, pursuant to section three of House resolution 499, house resolution 492 is hereby adopted. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chair announces | |
| the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 4d of House resolution 5, the 119th congress and the order of the House of january 3 2025. | ||
| of the following individuals to serve on the governing board of the Office of Congressional Conduct. | ||
| nominated by the Speaker after consultation with the Minority Leader, Mr. Jody B. Heiss of Georgia. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The Chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, requesting Emma's consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the exceptional artistic talent of Emma Zacharo, a sophomore at Clarion Limestone High School, and this year's winner of the Congressional Order Competition for Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District. | ||
| Since its inception in 1982, the Congressional Order Competition has offered a platform for young artists across the country to showcase their creativity. | ||
| More than 650,000 students have participated nationwide, and I'm proud to say that this year's winning entry from our district is a stunning example of that legacy. | ||
| Emma's piece, Waiting, a painting created using water-mixable oils, will soon hang in the U.S. Capitol along winning entries from across the country. | ||
| For an entire year, thousands of visitors, guests, and members of Congress will have the opportunity to view her artwork. | ||
| This marks Emma's second time taking first place in our district's competition, an incredible achievement that speaks volumes about her talent, her vision, and dedication to her craft. | ||
| I'm honored to welcome her to Washington, D.C. and look forward to all she will accomplish in the years ahead. | ||
| Congratulations to Emma and to all the students who participated in this year's competition. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Mr. Speaker, as prices rise on our economy stalls, this week House Republicans are pushing a cruel and a senseless plan to cancel $9.8 billion in funding that Congress already passed into law. | ||
| The rescission package enacts the extreme and out-of-touch agenda that includes doge-slashing support, reducing support for AIDS prevention, reproductive health, and even public broadcasting. | ||
| As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I'm particularly disturbed by the $8.3 billion in cuts to foreign assistance, targeting programs that help the most vulnerable people across the world, including a $9 million cut to the President's emergency plan for AIDS relief, which has saved over 26 million lives. | ||
| At home, gutting $1.1 billion from PBS and NPR, silencing trusted voices and educational contact like Sesame Street. | ||
| These cuts are being celebrated as savings at the same time that the majority is pushing their big, ugly bill that will add at least $3 trillion to our national debt. | ||
| It's clear this isn't about savings, it's about pushing a harmful ideology on the rest of the world. | ||
| I will not support it. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield my time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Utah seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today, I rise to recognize and congratulate the outstanding White Horse High School team from Montezuma Creek, Utah, for achieving national distinction in the Capitol Hill Challenge. | ||
| Out of hundreds of teams from across the country, this remarkable group finished in the top 10, a truly impressive accomplishment that speaks to their academic excellence and their strong grasp of financial markets, economics, and civic engagement. | ||
| These students demonstrated exceptional teamwork, discipline, and a genuine passion for learning throughout the competition. | ||
| The team members who I met today, along with their teachers, are Hope, Josiah, Gabrielle, Nateao, and Calvin, and they excelled under the leadership of their dedicated teacher, Mr. Ghazni. | ||
| Their success is a testament to both their individual talents and the support and guidance that they received. | ||
| We are immensely proud to have such bright and committed young leaders representing Utah's 3rd District. | ||
| Their achievement reflects the strength, resilience, and character of our community. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
For unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to Trump's rescission package, which includes an unfathomable $8.2 billion cut to USAID funding. | |
| My home state of North Carolina is the fourth largest recipient of U.S. AID funding, which invests roughly $194 million into our state economy. | ||
| Gutting this support threatens local jobs, weakens our research institutions, and undermines the economic stability of communities across my state. | ||
| In my district alone, the damaging effects of the administration's cuts to USAID are already being felt. | ||
| Thousands of talented professionals have lost their jobs, and vital partnerships with our local universities have been terminated. | ||
| These devastating cuts are not only costing people their livelihoods here at home, but are also putting lives at risk around the world. | ||
| USAID is a cornerstone of our national security, advancing global health, powering research across the country, and reinforcing America's leadership on the world stage. | ||
| Slashing this funding will be disastrous for our allies, destabilize vulnerable regions, and hurt communities. | ||
| And we cannot stand for it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Guam seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask the unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with great pride to commemorate the 127th anniversary of Philippines' independence and to honor the remarkable resilience and spirit of the Filipino people. | |
| On June 12, 1898, the Philippines declared independence, breaking free from centuries of colonial rule. | ||
| Like Guam, the Philippines displayed extraordinary strength and unity during World War II under occupation. | ||
| The Filipino community has long been a cornerstone of our island. | ||
| They are educators, health care professionals, business owners, and service members. | ||
| More importantly, they are our neighbors, friends, and family. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Philippine independence celebrates not just the past, but the people who continue to carry its legacy of freedom, unity, and cultural pride forward. | ||
| That is why today I introduced a resolution with Representative Bobby Scott to officially recognize June 12, 2025, as this year's Observance of Philippines Independence Day. | ||
| To the Filipino community in Guam, across our nation and around the world, thank you for your countless contributions and lasting impact. | ||
| Mabuhai Nang, Filipinas, happy Philippines Independence Day. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Tennessee seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| My father was a physician. | ||
| One of the main things he was taught in medical school, I think it's part of the Hippocratic Oath, is do no harm. | ||
| Our budgets are doing a great deal of harm to our health care system. | ||
| The Association of Medical Colleges came out with a statement yesterday that our health care is in an existential crisis because of the cuts to research and the cuts to graduate medical education. | ||
| That our medical schools will suffer, the number of doctors that are produced will suffer, and that's not even to mention the problems immediately to people with taking away their Medicaid, taking away their ACA, and taking away that health care. | ||
| Do no harm. | ||
| This bill is a big, deadly bill. | ||
| People will die because of it, because we're not putting money in the NIH that does the research to protect us from cancer, from Alzheimer's, from Parkinson's, from heart disease, from diabetes, the diseases that kill us. | ||
|
Charlie Wrangell's Legacy
00:12:27
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| The NIH is our Department of Defense. | ||
| Frances Collins did a great job, left it in good hands. | ||
| Let's keep ourselves do no harm. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's my time. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Rachel Kensall, who was recognized by the Georgia Department of Education as the Georgia Teacher of the Year for 2026. | ||
| She led an exceptional career in the Morgan County school system as a teacher of agricultural science, extending her involvement beyond the academic setting. | ||
| Rachel serves as a chapter advisor to the Future Farmers of America organization and the president of the Morgan County Farm Bureau. | ||
| She continues to help inspire students to create their own philanthropic projects developing future community leaders. | ||
| Her efforts focus on fostering leadership, collaboration, and a sense of community in the young minds she educates. | ||
| As an alumnus of the University of Georgia, Go Dogs, she has received several accolades, including the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and recognition as the 2025 Milken Educator of the Year. | ||
| Congratulations, Rachel, on your well-deserved recognition as Georgia Teacher of the Year. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Oregon seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute if they revise my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| This week, Mr. Speaker, my office received our 100,000th message from the people of Oregon's 3rd District. | ||
| This is incredible. | ||
| On an average day, I received more than 650 messages. | ||
| And that is just since being sworn in. | ||
| We've got a lot to go. | ||
| And here's what I'm hearing. | ||
| People in Portland are fearful. | ||
| They fear for their children and their neighbors. | ||
| People in Rhododendron want to see courageous leadership that understands the needs of working families. | ||
| People in Gresham are working hard and are barely making ends meet. | ||
| They want to know their families will be able to thrive. | ||
| People throughout Oregon's 3rd want immigrant neighbors to feel safe, housing to be affordable, the climate to be protected, schools to be funded, and to have universal health care that they can access. | ||
| These messages aren't just correspondence, they're marching orders. | ||
| To every Oregonian who has written, thank you. | ||
| Keep the emails coming. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition? | ||
| I'd like to ask unanimous consent to speak for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Over the last couple weekends, I have attended two events of the Hmong Americans which populate Wisconsin. | ||
| Wisconsin has the third highest Hmong population in the country. | ||
| I always love to talk about the Hmong because they came here not knowing a word of English, or many of them do not know a word of English. | ||
| Nevertheless, they have largely succeeded. | ||
| I like to have a conversation with somebody, maybe in the 60s or 70s, and I ask them how many children they have, and then I ask them how many grandchildren they have, how many brothers and sisters they have, and how many nieces and nephews they have. | ||
| Well, the Hmong came here with big families, like recent immigrants frequently do, so they might be here with 40 or 50 children or grandchildren plus nieces and nephews. | ||
| And then I asked them, how are they doing? | ||
| How many of all these children did not graduate from high school? | ||
| None. | ||
| How many of these 40 grandchildren, nieces, or nephews had any problems with the law? | ||
| None. | ||
| How many of the young gals got pregnant out of wedlock? | ||
| None. | ||
| Nevertheless, they all seem to be succeeding despite the fact that they came here with all these supposed disadvantages. | ||
| So I would like to one more time salute the Hmong who prove that anybody who comes here and works hard can succeed. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New Jersey seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to celebrate the life of one of this body's greatest members, the late Congressman Charlie Wrangell of New York. | ||
| There are few men anywhere who have made as large a mark on their community and their government as Charlie Wrangell. | ||
| Charlie Wrangell led an extraordinary life. | ||
| He was a decorated Korean war veteran, one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the first black American chairman of the Story Ways and Means Committee. | ||
| In his beloved community of Harlem, Charlie was a revered, legendary figure. | ||
| He was loved by his constituents. | ||
| He carved paths that others follow for decades. | ||
| He was also an incredible dresser. | ||
| In the long history of the U.S. House, over 11,000 men and women have served in this chamber. | ||
| Of them, just nine served longer than Charlie Wrangell. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Charlie Wrangell's death has hit our communities particularly hard as his son-in-law, Howard, is the longtime leader of Evis Village, which is a vital resource of our neighbors in the city of Patterson in my district. | ||
| Last year, I had the pleasure of sitting with Congressman Rangel at a reception. | ||
| Even at 94, he was full of energy, anecdotes, and stories, and he remained a sharp dresser. | ||
| I send my condolences to Howard, his wife, Alicia Wrangell-Halton, to Stephen Wrangell, and the Charlie Wrangell's family. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New Hampshire seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the HALT Fentanyl Act when it comes to the floor tomorrow. | ||
| For the past five years, I've engaged with law enforcement, public health experts, and colleagues across the aisle to ensure the scheduling of fentanyl analogs doesn't lapse and is finally made permanent. | ||
| Permanent scheduling will ensure law enforcement retains important tools they need to tackle the opioid crisis and hold traffickers accountable, tools that have helped drive down drug-related deaths in New Hampshire to its lowest levels in 10 years. | ||
| This is thanks to New Hampshire's all-hands-on-deck approach, pairing enforcement with treatment to bring down both the supply of opioids reaching our communities as well as the demand for them. | ||
| There's still work to be done, including getting this bill across the finish line and restoring vital funding cut by the current administration for treatment and recovery. | ||
| I'll continue fighting to ensure our communities have the support they need to save lives and confront addiction head-on. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today I would like to congratulate my constituent of the week, Dr. Janet Gulligson, as she retires from her post as president of Germana Community College. | ||
| In 2017, Dr. Gulligson became the first woman to serve as president in the history of the college. | ||
| Throughout her tenure, Germana has been praised for its quality education and professional development opportunities, from helping nursing students access experiential learning through their work with Mary Washington Healthcare to ensuring that Germana remains on the cutting edge by becoming the first institution of higher learning to receive Amazon Web Services mobile classroom. | ||
| Dr. Gulligson has dedicated her presidency to ensuring that her students are set up for success in the classroom and beyond. | ||
| I also want to recognize Dr. Janet Gulligson as a great military mom. | ||
| She raised a great soldier and military lawyer and my former captain. | ||
| I wish her well in her next chapter and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Ten soldiers and Nixon's come in. | ||
| We're finally on our own. | ||
| This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio. | ||
| Got to get down to it. | ||
| Soldiers are gunning us down. | ||
| Should have been done long ago. | ||
| What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? | ||
| How can you run when you know? | ||
| Got to get down to it. | ||
| Soldiers are cutting us down. | ||
| Should have been done long ago. | ||
| What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? | ||
| How can you run when you know? | ||
| Ten soldiers and Nixon's coming. | ||
| We're finally on our own. | ||
| This summer, I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, those are the lyrics to the song Four Dead in Ohio, written after the National Guard was deployed at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. | ||
| As a bright-eyed 17-year-old, I started college at Kent State University and I lived in Prentice Hall. | ||
| And in the parking lot lies a memorial where each student who was killed by the Ohio National Guard died. | ||
| It's still there, and it serves as a reminder to all who pass by of what happens when you deploy the military against its own citizens. | ||
| The lives of Allison Cross, William Schroeder, Jeffrey Miller, and Sandra Shore were cut too short, but should not be in vain because we know the consequences of what happens when the National Guard is deployed against its citizens. | ||
| Tragedy. | ||
| Four dead in Ohio. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| For what purposes, the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to attach to the record additional materials. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Jonathan Ford Orser. | ||
| Jonathan was a devoted familyman, public servant, community pillar, and proud son of northwestern Ohio. | ||
| Born into the Ford family, whose vision helped build Northwest Ohio's glass manufacturing legacy, John Orser lived a life shaped by service to his family, his country, his city, and his neighbors. | ||
| From his time in the U.S. Marine Corps, which he didn't have to do, to his diplomatic service in Africa and his amazing leadership as mayor of Perrysburg, Ohio, John never ceased working for the greater good. | ||
| By launching the Perrysburg Farmers Market, he brought new life to his hometown of historic Perrysburg, Ohio. | ||
| He nurtured the arts as a generous benefactor of Toledo Symphony and its zoo and preserved the history for future generations to come. | ||
| He was unselfish. | ||
| His legacy includes more than buildings or institutions. | ||
| His lasting legacy lives in the lives of people and communities he inspired time and time again. | ||
| John's deep commitment to civic duty, his boundless generosity, and his reverence for tradition marked every chapter of his productive 83 years. | ||
| We offer our deepest condolences to his beloved wife and first mate, Deborah, who walked in life with him every step of the way. | ||
| May she and his enormous extended family, numerous friends, and all who cherish his memory be blessed with gratitude and memory of a generous, kind, and patriotic American who left his community and America a better place. | ||
|
Chancellor Jones' Appointment
00:07:19
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| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purposes the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| In 2017, the United States ranked 14th in the world for solar panel manufacturing. | ||
| Today, we're third. | ||
| This happened in large part due to Congress providing long-term certainty for tax incentives to both produce and deploy American-made energy technologies. | ||
| Clearly, this strategy is working. | ||
| But the Republicans' big, ugly tax scam is putting hundreds of thousands of American energy jobs at risk. | ||
| The uncertainty caused by this process has already resulted in over 62,000 jobs being lost or threatened. | ||
| Repealing these tax credits won't stop people around the world from driving EVs or using solar. | ||
| But it all but guarantees they'll be using Chinese technologies. | ||
| If China is the big winner, American consumers are the big losers. | ||
| If their credits are functionally repealed, the average American could see their utility bills rise by hundreds of dollars per year. | ||
| This is a lose-lose. | ||
| It's bad for people's wallets. | ||
| It's bad for building a strong competitive economy. | ||
| It sells out current and future generations to fund tax cuts for billionaires. | ||
| I urge the Senate to reject this disgusting abomination. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purposes the gentleman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I rise today to honor Robert Jones, the Chancellor of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who is stepping down to take on a new role as President of the University of Washington. | ||
| I would also like to congratulate Dr. Charles Lee Isbel Jr., who has been appointed as the new Chancellor. | ||
| As a proud alum of the University of Illinois, I have sincerely enjoyed working with Chancellor Jones during my time in Congress. | ||
| A crop physiologist by trade, Chancellor Jones made history in 2016 when he became UIUC's first black chancellor. | ||
| Throughout his tenure, Chancellor Jones helped launch a new program to provide free tuition to low-income students, oversaw the start of the Carl Illinois College of Medicine, and grew the university's profile as one of America's top research institutions. | ||
| He has partnered with the JJK Foundation in East St. Louis on their new Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Innovation Center. | ||
| Chancellor Jones, thank you for your dedicated leadership. | ||
| I wish you all the best. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purposes the gentleman from Maryland seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise from China unanimously to address the House and revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this week, the majority is tempting to take back appropriated funds for important core initiatives like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Humanitarian Foreign Aid. | ||
| This is a terrible decision, one that undermines our national security, our global health, and our kids' cognitive and emotional development. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| Foreign aid is not a handout. | ||
| It is a strategic investment that helps secure U.S. interests, prevent unrest, and combat disease and famine. | ||
| Moreover, most of my career, I focused on children's online safety and digital learning. | ||
| For rural communities like those in Western Maryland, where I represent, PBS provides trusted news and educational programming free of charge. | ||
| Our neediest families often lack access to broadband and can't afford the charges. | ||
| They simply cannot be able to stream Netflix. | ||
| Instead, they rely on shows like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street to teach their kids about the world and about how to read. | ||
| Draconian budget cuts like the Rescission Package cut programs that strengthen our communities, our national security, and take critical learning resources from our kids. | ||
| American families deserve more. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purposes, the gentleman from Rhode Island seek recognition. | ||
| I ask to address the House for one minute and then to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 20th time to demand that the Trump administration restore funding for life-saving food aid around the world. | ||
| Now, today I want to talk about promises. | ||
| Because since the Trump administration paused funding for emergency food aid through USAID five months ago, we've heard a lot of promises. | ||
| Elon Musk tweeted that emergency food aid would be restored, and he even mentioned the name of a factory in my district, Edesia, that makes Plumpy Nut a type of emergency food aid. | ||
| Secretary of State Marco Rubio multiple times has said that emergency food aid will be restored. | ||
| He said it in his confirmation hearing. | ||
| He said it just a few weeks ago in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee when asked by my colleague from Rhode Island, Representative Amo. | ||
| And just yesterday, the State Department told Fox News that they have a plan to restore this funding. | ||
| But Mr. Speaker, it has been five months. | ||
| Every day that goes by is another day that children around the world are going hungry and starving to death because this aid has been held up. | ||
| I will continue to speak on this House floor every day until the administration honors its commitment to restore this aid. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Does the I move that the House do now adjourn. | |
| Questions on the motion to adjourn? | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The motion is adopted. | ||
| Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning for morning-hour debate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, sir. | |
| Lawmakers debated rules on legislation to cut $9.4 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting. | ||
| Included in the rescissions bill are some 20 changes to the House passed version of President Trump's tax and spending plan, known as the Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| These changes are to make the House bill comply with Senate budget rules. | ||
| Lawmakers also worked on a bill to repeal a D.C. Sanctuary City law and another to permanently classify fentanyl with the highest penalties and controls, which will get final votes tomorrow. | ||
| Watch live coverage of the House when members return here on C-SPAN. | ||
| And a count of two balls in one strike. | ||
| And a swing of a base hit left field. | ||
|
Historic Matchup Live
00:00:33
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unidentified
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Tune in today to C-SPAN's live coverage of the Congressional Baseball Game coming to you from Nationals Park. | |
| Since 1909, this tradition has united Democrats and Republicans on the field for a spirited evening of camaraderie and competition. | ||
| And this is Drilled into Centerfield of Base Hit. | ||
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unidentified
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Two runs are going to score. | |
| Don't miss the historic matchup. | ||
| Live coverage starts today at 7 p.m. Eastern on the C-SPAN Networks. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, or online at C-SPAN.org. | ||
Chapters
- 00:00:00 House Bill 331 Consideration
- 00:01:53 Permanently Scheduling Fentanyl Analogues
- 00:13:56 Considering Individual Circumstances
- 00:29:03 Exacerbating Addiction Through Incarceration
- 00:44:33 Supporting the HALT Fentanyl Act
- 00:52:36 Parliamentary Inquiry Requested
- 00:55:39 District Of Columbia Immigration Compliance
- 01:11:12 Affording Respect to Local Law Enforcement
- 01:13:06 Why D.C. Residents Lack Local Control
- 01:19:17 Granting Power, Bearing Responsibility
- 01:26:56 Setting Records with Criminals
- 01:31:32 Motion to Recommit
- 01:44:47 NPR's Political Bias Exposed
- 01:48:42 Republicans Lock In Disastrous Cuts
- 02:04:01 Public Broadcasting vs. Gun Silencers
- 02:19:35 Deficits and Blocked Growth
- 02:34:45 Striking Tough Choices
- 02:41:53 Yays and Nays Vote
- 02:44:46 Violent Mob Against Law Enforcement
- 02:49:38 Inflation Below Expectations
- 02:52:17 President's Protest Concerns
- 03:07:31 Why Silence On Protesters' Rights?
- 03:10:22 Vote Underway
- 03:15:47 Tax Credits Gone Wrong
- 03:20:28 Philippines' Independence Commemoration
- 03:35:48 Charlie Wrangell's Legacy
- 03:48:01 Chancellor Jones' Appointment
- 03:55:06 Historic Matchup Live
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