| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Navy's Role in Global Security
00:02:28
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|
unidentified
|
Today, our nation is facing growing and real threats from adversaries around the world. | |
| China, who continues to rapidly grow their naval capacity at an alarming rate. | ||
| Iran and its proxies. | ||
| Terrorist proxies who are threatening our allies and disrupting free trade in the Red Sea. | ||
| And then finally, South American cartels and drug smugglers who harm the health and well-being of American citizens. | ||
| To face these growing threats, our Navy must rise to the occasion. | ||
| That means projecting strength throughout the world while bolstering our naval fleet. | ||
| The LCS supports America's maritime security, sea control, and deterrence, and importantly, President Trump's agenda. | ||
| Just this past April, the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul helped the U.S. Coast Guard stop two alleged drug smuggling operations in the Caribbean Sea. | ||
| These ships assist in stopping narcotics, protecting the homeland from illicit maritime drug trafficking, and securing our border. | ||
| Also, sea mines are actually responsible for more damage to U.S. Naval warships than any other weapon since World War II. | ||
| Although it is 10 years after originally planned, the LCS platform is now providing support for detecting, localizing, neutralizing surface, near-surface moored and bottom mines, helping our sailors to stay safe around the world. | ||
| The Navy has emphasized the need for a mixed naval fleet in the past, consisting of both blue water and littoral combat ships that act as fast-moving surface warfare vessels. | ||
| They continue to undergo upgrades to improve their lethality and survivability in littoral waters so they can intercept drug and human traffickers in the Caribbean, sweep for deadly mines, and most importantly, support U.S. naval efforts to end Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. | ||
|
Why LCS Vessels Matter
00:04:50
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|
unidentified
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Our littoral combat ships have risen to the occasion to defend our homeland. | |
| They have provided the necessary backup needed to protect America's homeland and abroad. | ||
| If we want our military to continue to be the best in the world, Mr. Speaker, we cannot throw away a dime to save a nickel, especially when an LCS vessel has only reached its half-life cycle. | ||
| But that's exactly what this amendment could do. | ||
| The decommissioning of the Navy's mixed fleet strategy, the LCS vessels, is not the answer to our budget constraints. | ||
| And that's why I stand in opposition to this amendment, and I ask my colleagues to vote no on the Davison Amendment. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| Jem yields back. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Ohio. | ||
| Those in favor say yay. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| The amendment is not agreed to. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Minnesota seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Chair, I rise as the designee of the gentlewoman from Connecticut and move to strike the last word. | ||
| The gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Mexico, Ms. Stansbury. | ||
| The gentlewoman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in the strongest opposition to this defense spending bill because once again, in the dark of night, the GOP is passing bills stripping the American people of their safety, security, and support. | ||
| Last night at 3 a.m., the Senate shoved through a dangerous rescissions package that guts foreign aid and public broadcasting. | ||
| And just this morning, the OMB director suggested that he was just getting started and didn't care whether or not the appropriations process proceeded as our founding fathers and the Constitution imagined it. | ||
| He said it should be more partisan and that he would continue to send rescissions packages like the one that they passed on the Senate floor last night. | ||
| Let us be clear. | ||
| The White House and an unelected bureaucrat are trying to steal the power of the purse and to steal the power of the people. | ||
| And to my colleagues across the aisle, it is happening under your watch. | ||
| You are allowing it, enabling it, and giving away our constitutional authority to a corrupt and a chaotic administration while trying to pass fake bills like the one you have on this floor right now that will weaken our military readiness, | ||
| abandon our allies, strip service members of tools and training and pay, that will undermine our national security and abandon our troops, and yes, make the world less safe. | ||
| And so I say to my colleagues across the aisle, what are you doing? | ||
| How can you abandon the American people, the Constitution, our troops, our national security? | ||
| It's time to stand up and grow a backbone and vote no. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentlelady yields. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield back. | ||
| Gentlewoman yields back. | ||
| The chair understands that amendment number 58 will not be offered. | ||
| The chair understands that amendment number 91 will not be offered. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number 106, printed in part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Arizona seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I am in it at the desk. | |
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 106, printed in Part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Mr. Gosar of Arizona. | ||
|
Prohibiting Biomaid Funding
00:08:48
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||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Gosar, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| My amendment number 106 prohibits funds for the DOD's Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem, or Biomaid, that funds lab-grown meat and protein projects for the military for feeding our men and women. | ||
| I know how disgusting does that sound. | ||
| With a national debt of over $37 trillion, we can't afford little sensible appropriation bills without wasteful spending. | ||
| On October 2020, press releases revealed Biomaid received $87 million in federal dollars under the Biden-Harris administration to produce lab-grown meat to reduce carbon emissions on military bases. | ||
| In March of 2023, BioMade received an additional $450 million from the MAN Tech program. | ||
| Let me just name a few of these projects these taxpayer dollars funded. | ||
| One called Potential Benefit of Super Brewed Foods Sustainable Postbiotic Protein or Warfighter Health that produces lab-grown protein in shortened recovery times and improves the concentration of service members. | ||
| Another, development of a sustainable, low-cost oil process for heart-healthy DOD rations, or producing oil from microalgae for service members or alternative protein bars, a lab-grown protein derived from a microbiological agent similar to fungus. | ||
| Yummy. | ||
| This is a food that built America? | ||
| I think not. | ||
| Why do Marines, sailors, soldiers, guardsmen, and Coasties need to have lab-grown meat when the U.S. is full of delicious beef? | ||
| In fiscal year of 2022 alone, the DOD awarded more than $369 million in the U.S. for contracts for beef, $2.3 million of which was supplied by Phoenix, Arizona. | ||
| Serving lab-grown meat over domestic beef or poultry rewards the government-funded bioindustry and punishes the American cattle ranchers, who have a far smaller so-called carbon footprint than these big corporations. | ||
| In 2024, Florida and Alabama banned lab-grown meat to protect farmers and the cattle industry. | ||
| This year, Mississippi, Montana, and Indiana followed suit. | ||
| I asked my colleagues to end this experiment on our armed forces and support my amendment number 106. | ||
| With that, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen of Reserves. | ||
| For what purpose the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I rise in opposition to the amendment. | |
| The gentleman is recognized for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think there may be a misunderstanding about bioindustrial manufacturing and what it is and what it's not. | |
| Bioindustrial manufacturing is not for cultivating meat. | ||
| However, bioindustrial manufacturing is critical to energetics and what are energetics, such as hypersonic fuels, critical chemicals for munitions and missiles, and materials that literally increase the bang for the buck. | ||
| In the 1980s, the United States developed what we called CL-20, one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosion chemicals ever created, but did not produce it at scale. | ||
| China, unfortunately, found our research and then scaled production, and now the Chinese and Russian arsenals have this very powerful ingredient. | ||
| We cannot allow China to be the world innovation leader in any field, including bio-industrial manufacturing. | ||
| We must continue to try and true practices to adopt new technologies to fortify American defense industrial base. | ||
| American lethality is degraded without bioindustrial manufacturing. | ||
| Meanwhile, China and Russia benefit from American research, and that's got to stop. | ||
| I may make a point here. | ||
| Biomade is a product, is not a manufacturer, does not manufacture lab-grown meat. | ||
| Biomade has never funded research projects for lab-grown meat, has no current research projects on lamb-grown grown meat, and has no plans to fund projects on lamb-grown meat in the future. | ||
| So I think we have a misunderstanding. | ||
| We need this technology for our energetics, which we use in our explosion devices very effectively. | ||
| And with that, I yield two and a half minutes to the ranking member, the gentlelady from Minnesota. | ||
| Gentleladies recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. | ||
| Let me be clear, as the Chairman was. | ||
| Biomaid has never funded any efforts to develop or produce lab-grown meat for any purpose. | ||
| The Rules Committee should not have made this amendment in order because it's just not germane to this bill. | ||
| But let me tell you a little bit more about why this is important that this amendment be defeated. | ||
| By preventing funding to the Biomanufacturing Design and Ecosystem Partnership, or Biomaid, this amendment would be a clear win for China. | ||
| The bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology recently completed its comprehensive review on biotechnology's impact on national security, and it concluded: China recognizes the immense military and commercial potential of bio technology and biomanufacturing. | ||
| They've made it. | ||
| China's made it a strategic priority, and they're quickly starting to ascend into dominance. | ||
| To preserve our lead, we must take swift action to commercialize and scale back biomanufacturing here at home. | ||
| These new technologies use the power of biological cells and systems to form complete chemistry. | ||
| Complex issues. | ||
| It will enable us to onshore the production of critical chemicals, including those used in munitions and high-performance aviation fuels, as the chair mentioned, to develop new medical cures and treatments and to produce them on demand near the front lines, to engineer biological sensors that could detect pathogens and chemical threats on the battlefield in real time, and then to better extract critical materials from domestic mining deposits to reduce our dependence on China for rare earth mining. | ||
| And that, again, Mr. Chair, is why the National Security Commission report recommended that Congress support a network of manufacturing facilities to scale up bio-industrial production, including for defense needs. | ||
| So, Biomaid is a private-public partnership with nearly 300 members across 37 states. | ||
| Its mission is to partner with industry to enable innovators to pilot new bioindustrial products and facilities across the country that are linked to regional supply chains and agricultural feedstocks and train the future workers in this industry. | ||
| To be clear, we should be accelerating biomaids efforts, not senselessly blocking them. | ||
| Last year, the Chinese government invested over $4 billion in biomanufacturing. | ||
| We must take action. | ||
| Now, we must not secede to China, and we must win the biotech competition. | ||
| And for that reason, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in strongly opposing this amendment. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| General Lady Yields, gentlemen from California is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How much time do I have remaining? | |
| The gentleman has 30 seconds remaining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield to the gentleman for a quick question. | |
| Powell Reserve. | ||
| General Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Arizona is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm a little bit confused here, so I want to ask a question. | |
| If we're going to do good faith advertising to the American people, because that's what our job is, tell me why we would actually say potential benefit of super-brewed foods, sustainable post-biotic protein, and warfighter health. | ||
| That's awfully not what you're talking about. | ||
| And then we're talking about the sustainable, low-cost oil process for heart-healthy DOD rations. | ||
| And then the other side's a moniker to go low-carbon, getting rid of cattle. | ||
| Now you wonder why the cattle industry has problems in understanding why you're doing this. | ||
| So I accept what the gentleman said in regards to what biomaid is, but your truth in advertising fails, fails dismally to the American public, because that's what it says here. | ||
| I yield to the gentleman from the quickly. | ||
| Our interests are energetics that go into explosion devices, which is primarily a big part of that is the biomaid industry. | ||
|
Amendment on Defense Aid Funding
00:07:08
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unidentified
|
Well, I'd love to see all the money go to that aspect, but not to these substitutes for meat. | |
| Okay? | ||
| I'm not interested in the substitute for me. | ||
| I am interested in substituting because I don't think our warfighters should have to have that. | ||
| And I would like people to make that distinction, even if it costs me the amendment. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentlemen from California? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yield back. | |
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| Is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Arizona. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| The amendment is not agreed to. | ||
| The chair understands that amendment number 110 will not be offered. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number 111, printed in part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlemanwoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 111, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Ms. Green of Georgia. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Green, and a member opposed will control five minutes each. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We support our great men and women in our military, and we want to fund them to have the best equipment, be afforded the best housing, the best pay, and to be treated the best among the world. | ||
| But I have an amendment today that would strike $118 million of funding to overseas humanitarian disaster and civic aid programs of the Department of Defense. | ||
| These accounts fund programs for humanitarian assistance in foreign countries, in other nations, for foreign peoples, humanitarian mind action programs, foreign disaster relief for foreign countries and foreign peoples that the American people are having to pay for. | ||
| And I want to remind everyone: the American people are $37 trillion in debt because of this institution and the way Congress has spent their money. | ||
| Think about our own national disasters and problems that we face here at home. | ||
| The American taxpayer faces. | ||
| Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton, the Lahaina wildfires, the LA wildfires, the Texas flooding, where there are still over 100 missing people, the opioid epidemic, the fentanyl epidemic, and all over the country, people are suffering. | ||
| The American people voted to put America first, and Mr. Speaker, the American people are still being put last. | ||
| Right now, the average health insurance premium for a family has risen by 22% since 2018. | ||
| Fentanyl still kills hundreds of people every single day in America. | ||
| And more than 32,000 veterans, people who served in our military, were homeless in 2024. | ||
| And there were 6,407 suicides among Americans in 2022. | ||
| This is unacceptable. | ||
| In our Department of Defense appropriations funding, we should be funding for our military and not paying for funding for humanitarian aid in crisis in foreign countries. | ||
| America simply cannot afford it anymore. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
| General Aid Reserves. | ||
| For what purposes the gentlelady from Minnesota seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this amendment. | ||
| This program is designed to assure that our allies and partners of the U.S. are supported in times of trouble. | ||
| This funding provides basic humanitarian aid and essential services to the population that's in need. | ||
| Let's talk about what it does for America's national security. | ||
| This program is an important tool for our combat combatant commanders who use this to assist our allies, and it builds and cements our relationships. | ||
| Let me just give you a few examples. | ||
| When we help our allies improve their capacity to prepare and to respond for a crisis that will take place, when we help implement the Humanitarian Mine Action Program, this provides significant training, readiness, and enhanced benefits even to our United States military. | ||
| It contributes to alleviating the worldwide problem of explosive remnants of war, which includes landmines, unexploded ordnance, and small arms munitions. | ||
| The program allows our military to hone their critical wartime and military civilian skills, language, culture, and foreign international defense skills. | ||
| And finally, through the Foreign Disaster Relief Program, a program executed by our combatant commanders, we provide unique assistance during natural and man-made disasters when interagency support is requested. | ||
| DOD's ability to respond rapidly with extensive manpower, transportation, communication capabilities is critically important in a time of crisis. | ||
| When we assist in filling in these capability gaps with our partners, when we help contain the crisis and limit the threats to regional stability by providing relief aid within hours or with even days of a disaster, each of these programs are vital to the success of our batten commanders' relationships with their counterparts. | ||
| Cutting these funds would lessen the ability of our armed forces to execute their missions. | ||
| For these reasons, I oppose this amendment and I ask my colleagues to do the same. | ||
| But, Mr. Chair, I'd like to yield 30 seconds to the chairman of the committee, Mr. Calvert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, gentlelady. | |
| This amendment strikes all funding for overseas humanitarian disaster and civil aid account. | ||
| The funding is used by DOD to assist during humanitarian disasters. | ||
| The funding is also used when specialized DOD experience is needed, such as detection and clearance of landmines, unexploded explosive ordnance, and other explosive remnants of war, which even to this day we are cleaning up World War II remnants. | ||
| The President's budget, President Trump's budget request, includes just over $100 million in funding for this account. | ||
|
America First Chips Funding
00:13:19
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|
unidentified
|
I urge a no vote on this amendment and reserve the balance of my time. | |
| Gentlemen of Reserves. | ||
| The gentleman has no time to reserve. | ||
| Gentleman has no time to reserve. | ||
| Yields back. | ||
| The gentlelady from Minnesota is recognized. | ||
| I would reserve my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She reserves. | |
| Gentlewoman of Reserves. | ||
| Gentlelady from Georgia is now recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the American people are $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| The Department of Defense's mission statement is to deter war and ensure our nation's security. | ||
| That is their mission, and that is exactly what their funding should be for. | ||
| I'd like to ask: what foreign country showed up to help Americans in our need in our time of distress, in our humanitarian crises? | ||
| Which foreign country has come to clean up the hundreds of people that die every single day on the streets from fentanyl? | ||
| Which foreign country showed up to defend our border as we were invaded by millions of people for the past four years? | ||
| Which foreign country said, here, America, here's millions and billions of dollars to help you? | ||
| I'm going to tell you, zero. | ||
| Zero foreign countries showed up. | ||
| And here we are again, while the American people are enslaved by $37 trillion in debt, a debt we can never climb out of, but yet a debt that continues to rise because here in Congress, we go by this belief that we have to fund every foreign country all around the world. | ||
| And I say enough. | ||
| And the American people say enough. | ||
| Right now, Americans can't afford their rent. | ||
| They can't, young people cannot afford to buy a home. | ||
| Ask any 20-year-old, 30-year-old, and ask them if they believe they will ever be a homeowner. | ||
| And their answer overwhelmingly is no. | ||
| Americans can't afford their bills. | ||
| They can't afford car insurance, health insurance, homeowners insurance. | ||
| And life does not look good in the future. | ||
| But you want to know why inflation is high? | ||
| Do you want to know why life continues to be unaffordable? | ||
| Because Congress cannot rein in its America-last spending. | ||
| It cannot stop, and it refuses to stop. | ||
| It continues to say yes to the lobbyists for the military-industrial complex. | ||
| It continues to say yes to every lobbyist that walks in this institution as congressmen and women take donations into their campaign accounts. | ||
| Americans are the most generous in the world. | ||
| Americans can donate through charities to foreign countries to help foreign issues and foreign people. | ||
| But the American people should not be forced to write the check, and the Department of Defense should be able to focus on their mission to deter war and ensure our nation's security. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield. | ||
| Gentlelady Yields. | ||
| Gentlelady from Minnesota is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I would just like to point out again that when we do these projects together with our allied nations, it provides significant training, access, and readiness enhancement benefits to the United States military. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the question was asked on this House floor, who came to our aid? | ||
| Who stood for the United States? | ||
| I was here on September 11th, serving in Washington, D.C., my first term in Congress. | ||
| NATO. | ||
| The world came to our aid. | ||
| The world came and helped us when we fought against the Taliban. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Chair, I thank those nations for standing with us, and I look forward to working with them in the future in this type of partnership. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| Gentlelady yields back. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from California. | ||
| My apologies from the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded vote. | ||
| Gentlelady asks for a recorded vote. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 6 of Rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia will be postponed. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number 112, printed in part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 112, printed in Part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Ms. Green of Georgia. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Green, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| As the House considers funding $831 billion to the Department of Defense for the funding of our great men and women in our military to defend our nation and our nation's interests, it's important to talk about the foreign aid that we are funding to foreign countries. | ||
| The American people are $37 trillion in debt, $37 trillion in debt, and the debt keeps rising, and the interest on our debt is at $1 trillion now per year. | ||
| $1 trillion. | ||
| My amendment would strike $500 million of military assistance to Taiwan. | ||
| This is an increase of $100 million from fiscal year 2025 and will be used to provide a wide variety of assistance, including planes, drones, missile defense, munitions, and more. | ||
| The entire, listen to this, as we're giving an extra $100 million, making it $500 million in this Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, the entire defense budget of Taiwan is less than $20 billion. | ||
| Our defense budget is $831 billion. | ||
| It wouldn't be so high if we weren't giving foreign aid. | ||
| We've given Taiwan over $2 billion in funding and munitions over the past two years. | ||
| We've already given them $2 billion, but now we're giving them another $500 billion. | ||
| Increasing foreign aid to Taiwan will only increase their reliance on the United States. | ||
| And the United States should be serving the American people and stop enslaving the American people in massive debt that drives the inflation that is causing Americans to suffer, that is causing Americans to not be able to afford everyday life. | ||
| The United States is $37 trillion in debt, and we can't even hardly afford our own massive military budget, let alone funding the significant portions of other countries, of foreign countries and foreign nations and foreign people that do not pay taxes here in America. | ||
| We have so many of our own domestic problems here at home and should not be funding foreign countries, foreign aids, and quite frankly, instigating World War III with China. | ||
| Before we start worrying about Taiwan's borders or Ukraine's borders or any other country's borders, we should be focusing on the continued security of our own border and deporting the criminals and terrorists and millions of people that invaded our country and are somewhere within our country after they invaded our own borders. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
| Gentlelady Reserves. | ||
| For what purposes the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I rise in opposition, gentlelady's amendment. | |
| The gentleman is recognized for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I greatly admire the gentlelady from Georgia's passion for ensuring support for our overseas allies, our wise use of taxpayers' dollars, but support for Taiwan must be part of that equation. | |
| Just yesterday, the Trump administration released a statement of administration policy for the Defensive Appropriation Bill, very supportive of the bill we produced. | ||
| One of the very few areas the administration expressed any slight disagreement with our bill was wanting more money for Taiwan. | ||
| The administration has proposed including $1 billion, while this bill provides $500 million. | ||
| Now, had OMB delivered budget materials to us in time for consideration, we would have certainly taken a look at providing what they requested, but that wasn't the case. | ||
| Supporting Taiwan in the face of unrelenting Chinese aggression is absolutely in the vital interests of the United States. | ||
| I want to point out that Taiwan makes 90% of the world's chips and close to 100% of the highly needed chips for artificial intelligence and high-technical devices. | ||
| The funding will go a long way to make sure that Taiwan has the resources necessary to help prevent a Chinese invasion. | ||
| That's the position of the Trump administration, and that's the position of this bill. | ||
| With that, I urge a no vote on the amendment and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| And I yield two minutes to the ranking member, the gentlelady from Minnesota. | ||
| Gentlelady is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I am very, very proud of my vote to vote against the President's big tax package, which added $3.4 trillion debt to our national debt over the next 10 years. | ||
| But right now, I'm rising in opposition to this amendment. | ||
| America's strength around the world does not only stem from our military power, but our network of alliances in Europe and the Pacific that allow us to project power. | ||
| Our allies support us, and we support them. | ||
| That means when our allies are threatened, the United States needs to be with them. | ||
| That's exactly what we're doing in Ukraine, helping sovereign nation defend itself against its democracy from Russian aggression. | ||
| A similar situation could easily occur in the Pacific, where Taiwan is threatened by the People's Republic of China. | ||
| China has a recent history of seizing territory. | ||
| Look at the invasion of Tibet in the 1950s. | ||
| They've suppressed democracy in Hong Kong. | ||
| And when the Chinese president speaks of reunification of Taiwan, we should believe that he will attempt it. | ||
| We cannot allow that to happen. | ||
| China may not stop with Taiwan. | ||
| If Taiwan falls, other Pacific Island nations like the Philippines would be threatened. | ||
| And America is not alone in these concerns. | ||
| Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand are deeply concerned about the future of Taiwan's democracy. | ||
| And that's why they're working with us to deter China and to prevent an invasion of Taiwan from happening. | ||
| The $500 million in this bill will assist Taiwan in preparing their military, increasing their readiness and their deterrence capabilities. | ||
| So I support the inclusion of the funds in this bill, and I strongly oppose this amendment. | ||
| I ask my colleagues to do the same, and I yield back. | ||
| Nobody yields. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Georgia is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The best way to compete with China is to have a strong American economy. | ||
| We shouldn't be having to fund the protection of a foreign country that is producing over 90 percent of our chips when we should be producing those chips right here at home. | ||
| Currently, many of our rare earth minerals are tied up on federal lands, and this is a problem that is tying up the production of chips here in America. | ||
| You see, America should be building our strength and resilience. | ||
| Instead of an additional, let's say an additional $500 million being given to Taiwan for their defense budget, we should be investing that $500 million into America's ability to produce chips so that we don't have to be the world's police that go defend all these other foreign countries from China's aggression. | ||
| The best way to beat China is with a strong America. | ||
| But decades of America-last policies where our manufacturing jobs were sent overseas and sent to China is what made China strong. | ||
| America created that problem. | ||
| And America is continuing to create that problem by dependence on foreign countries for our own manufacturing. | ||
| This is why rural America has been crumbling for decades because of the economic loss of their own small towns. | ||
| In America today, the cost of college tuition has increased by over 180 percent. | ||
| That means it's unaffordable for many students and they're laden with student loan debt. | ||
| According to American Compass, in 1985, 40 weeks of a typical worker's income could provide the middle-class essentials for a family of four. | ||
|
HIV Prevention Funding Debate
00:11:18
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| But now, this requires over 62 weeks of income, exceeding the 52 weeks in a year. | ||
| Life is unaffordable for Americans, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We're $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote for my amendment, and I yield. | ||
| Gentlelady Yields. | ||
|
unidentified
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California. | |
| Gentleman from California. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yield. | |
| Gentleman Yields. | ||
| Question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, I asked for the recorded vote. | ||
| Gentlelady asked for a recorded vote. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 6 of Rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia will be postponed. | ||
| It is now in order to consider Amendment No. 113, printed in Part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 113, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Ms. Green of Georgia. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Green, and member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as we're debating today the $831 billion Defense Appropriation Bill, it's important to talk about the foreign aid that is in this bill and why it must be stopped. | ||
| The American people are $37 trillion in debt, and this institution is to blame for it. | ||
| You see, it's Congress and the men and women that serve in Congress that can never say no to every single lobbyist and every single foreign country that walks in their office. | ||
| My amendment today, my amendment would strike the funding for HIV prevention education activities in foreign countries. | ||
| This bill provides at least $15 million for HIV prevention educational activities undertaken in connection with the United States military training, exercises, and humanitarian assistance activities conducted primarily in African nations. | ||
| My amendment would strike this provision to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted teaching African soldiers about how to have safe sex. | ||
| I mean, this is an issue that should be resolved by now. | ||
| The U.S. already spends a massive amount of money on HIV AIDS, primarily through PEPFAR, the President's emergency plan for AIDS relief. | ||
| To date, U.S. funding for PEPFAR has totaled over $120 billion. | ||
| That's $120 billion that the American people do not have, that never helped them solve any of their problems. | ||
| This has grown from $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2004 to $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2025. | ||
| Additionally, the National Security Department of State and related programs appropriations bill released this week would provide $5.8 billion to prevent and treat HIV AIDS globally. | ||
| When the American people are $37 trillion in debt, their credit cards are maxed out. | ||
| Young people in America have no hope for the future. | ||
| Why are we continually paying for HIV prevention activities and education in Africa and other foreign countries? | ||
| And how does this provide for the defense of our nation? | ||
| It doesn't. | ||
| Again, the American people are some of the most generous people in the world. | ||
| They donate to charities, causes, and all types of organizations and foundations to help people. | ||
| This should be a private donation out of the generousness of their heart. | ||
| It shouldn't be part of our defense appropriation bill that's already $831 billion. | ||
| When do we ever look at the balance sheet? | ||
| When do the American people's empty pockets ever matter to Congress, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| Our reserve. | ||
| Gentlewoman from Minnesota is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in opposition to the amendment. | ||
| The Department of Defense works with partner militaries around the world to advance regional stability and mutual security. | ||
| These foreign military forces must be healthy and functional to effectively engage with our forces and support these missions. | ||
| But the HIV AIDS epidemic has a devastating impact on many countries, including on their militaries. | ||
| It reduces readiness. | ||
| Units deployments become limited. | ||
| It exaps the morale and capabilities of the infected individuals and in their communities. | ||
| DOD's HIV AIDS prevention program pairs health and security assistance to provide care and treatment in concert with military training exercises and humanitarians. | ||
| This amendment would eliminate a successful military-to-military HIV AIDS prevention, care, and treatment efforts in more than 55 countries. | ||
| In doing so, it would increase the burden, the risk for American forces, weaken global security by reducing the capacity of our partners' forces. | ||
| And for these reasons, I will urge defeat of this amendment. | ||
| And Mr. Chair, I would like to yield Mr. Calvert 30 seconds. | ||
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
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unidentified
|
Thank you, gentlelady. | |
| The amendment strikes $15 million for HIV prevention education activities undertaken in connection with the United States military training exercises and humanitarian assistance activities conducted primarily in African nations. | ||
| This funding supports the Defense Health Program. | ||
| Those funds are credited with scaling back AIDS epidemic in Africa. | ||
| This program has long enjoyed support across party lines. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Chairman yields back. | ||
| Mr. Chair, gentlewoman from Georgia is now recognized. | ||
| How much time do I have remaining, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| Gentlelady has two minutes remaining. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| While the Defense Appropriations Bill funds $15 million for HIV prevention educational activities undertaken in connection with the United States military training exercises and humanitarian assistance activities conducted primarily in Africa, I want to talk about something that is plaguing black Americans today. | ||
| According to the Department of Education, 85% of black students lack proficiency in mathematics and reading skills. | ||
| That's appalling. | ||
| That is a failure of our education system to black Americans. | ||
| But in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, we're supposed to send $15 million to teach soldiers and teach them how to avoid getting AIDS. | ||
| Isn't this already known? | ||
| This has been going on for years and years and years, and we're having to pay for that. | ||
| Why are the American people that are $37 trillion in debt having to pay for people in Africa, soldiers in Africa, to tell them how to avoid getting AIDS? | ||
| When our own black students here in America, 85% of them lack proficiency in mathematics and reading skills, which is extremely important for their success in their adult life. | ||
| Furthermore, their entire high school, there are entire high schools in our cities where not a single student scores proficiently on a standardized test. | ||
| But the most important thing we can do is send $15 million to teach adult soldiers in Africa how to not get AIDS. | ||
| This is insanity. | ||
| And this is the exact America-last spending that the American people are fed up with. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, at what point does sanity enter the halls of Congress? | ||
| Because it hasn't been here for a very long time. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment to at least save the American people $15 million or help students in America. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| Gentlelady yields. | ||
| Gentlewoman from Minnesota is recognized. | ||
| Well, Mr. Chair, I agree with the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| We need to do more for our children here at home. | ||
| I fail to see how cutting the Department of Education, canceling grants, some of them in my district, for special education teachers, ending the AmeriCorps help that our schools were getting with many students having someone to sit with them and help them with extra one-on-one for reading and for math to help them succeed. | ||
| The cuts to snap. | ||
| I used to teach the last thing you want is a child with a hungry stomach in your classroom because they're more focused on what they didn't eat than learning. | ||
| So, Mr. Chair, there's more we can do, and that's another reason why I'm so glad I didn't vote for the president's tax cut. | ||
| But I just want to reiterate again that this mill-to-mill training builds resilience, support, and respect between the militaries. | ||
| It keeps their militaries healthy. | ||
| And with that, I continue to oppose this amendment, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentlelady yields back. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
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Aye. | |
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| I asked for the recorded vote. | ||
| Gentlelady calls for a recorded vote. | ||
| Pursuant to clause six of Rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia will be postponed. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number 114, printed in part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 114, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Ms. Green of Georgia. | ||
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Amending Defense Funding
00:08:42
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| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Green, and member opposed each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| As the House considers the defense appropriation bill today that costs the American people $831 billion, it's important to talk about that this is the funding for our great men and women serving in our military and our nation's defense. | ||
| The Department of Defense's mission statement is to deter war and ensure our nation's security, and that is worthy of the American people's hard-earned tax dollars. | ||
| However, the American people are $37 trillion in debt, so this is money that is being spent that they already don't have. | ||
| My amendment would strike $500 million in funding for nuclear-armed Israel's missile defense system. | ||
| And it's important to phrase it that way. | ||
| Israel is a nuclear-armed nation, which is very capable of defending themselves, and they have been proving that so, as we've watched on the world stage. | ||
| The U.S. already provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in foreign aid. | ||
| $3.8 billion. | ||
| That's a lot of money. | ||
| Additionally, the April 2024 security supplemental included $8.7 billion for Israel. | ||
| That is nuclear-armed Israel. | ||
| And during the recent 12-day war, the U.S. used 15 to 20% of our terminal high-altitude area defense missiles stockpiles defending nuclear-armed Israel, which cost us over $800 million. | ||
| The $500 million provided in this bill will fund Israel's, that is nuclear-armed Israel's, missile defense system, the Iron Dome David Sling arrow system. | ||
| Yet Israel is a nuclear-armed nation. | ||
| That's a pretty big deterrent for any of their enemies. | ||
| Any nation that has a nuclear bomb has the greatest threat against their enemies. | ||
| U.S.AID typically accounts for 15 to 20 percent of Israel's defense budget, even though Israel, nuclear-armed Israel, has universal health care for their citizens and subsidized college for their citizens. | ||
| They're able to provide that. | ||
| However, here in America, we're $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| My amendment to strike $500 million in foreign aid will ensure an America first Department of Defense, and that is exactly what we need and we haven't had for a very long time. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
| Gentlelady Reserves, for what purposes the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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I rise in opposition to the amendment. | |
| Gentlemen is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady's amendment would strike $500 million in funding for the vital Israeli missile defense capability. | |
| Over the past two years, Israel repeatedly has been attacked by Iran and its terrorist proxy groups, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. | ||
| Each time, these groups have vowed to destroy the state of Israel. | ||
| The United States has affirmed our resolve to stand with Israel by helping defend against the recent missile raids launched by Iran against Israeli's civilian population. | ||
| The success of Israel's robust missile defense capability is in part because these funds were provided in this bill and prior bills. | ||
| Furthermore, this funding benefits our own missile defense industrial base as it provides for co-production activities and shared technology development. | ||
| It's certainly to our mutual advantage. | ||
| With that, I urge a no vote on the amendment and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen of Reserves, would yield 90 seconds to the ranking member and gentlelady from Minnesota. | ||
| Gentleman yields the or excuse me, the gentleman of reserves, the gentlelady from Minnesota is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this amendment. | ||
| To be clear, I have disagreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. | ||
| Israel totally had the right to defend itself after the heinous attacks on October 7th, and all the hostages should come home. | ||
| But the Israeli military campaign has been an absolute tragedy for the people of Palestine. | ||
| The people of Gaza are in desperate need of more humanitarian relief, which I strongly support. | ||
| But the funding in this bill does not support offensive weapons for Israel. | ||
| That's funding in a separate appropriations bill. | ||
| This bill provides for defensive measures only, like Iron Dome, which I support. | ||
| Safety is what everyone in the region deserves. | ||
| Israeli children deserve to go to bed at night knowing that missiles from Yemen, Iran, or from the Houthis, or anywhere else in the region will not rain down on them. | ||
| And Palestinian children deserve to go to bed at night knowing that their schools, their hospitals, and their homes will not be bombed. | ||
| And that's what we all need to work towards, peace. | ||
| I urge the defeat of this amendment, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Israel is a nuclear-armed nation, and they're less than $400 billion in debt. | ||
| They are quite a thriving and successful nation. | ||
| Their economy is strong. | ||
| They're doing a great job for their people. | ||
| However, the United States, the American citizens, are $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| Yet we are continuing to send hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid constantly to foreign countries. | ||
| This has to end at some point. | ||
| Our problems here at home for Americans and the American taxpayer that are paying for all of this have gotten too large. | ||
| And I also want to point out that Israel bombed the Catholic Church in Gaza and that an entire population is being wiped out as they continue their aggressive war in Gaza. | ||
| Now, we are heartfelt about the October 7th tragedy, that when people were killed, innocent people were killed. | ||
| However, at some point, the United States needs to recognize that Israel is a strong country. | ||
| They are nuclear-armed, and they are capable of defeating their own enemies. | ||
| It's right to stop funding this as we give them $3.8 billion every single year, anyways. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for support for my amendment, and I yield the remainder of my time. | ||
| Gentlewoman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
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I yield 60 seconds to the gentleman from Florida. | |
| General from Florida is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I rise in opposition to this America Last Amendment and reject the premise of the arguments that are being made. | ||
| There are 600,000 Americans who live in Israel, and one rocket has been fired against every 23 of them. | ||
| 26,000 rockets since October 7th. | ||
| 43 Americans killed on October 7th, 12 taken hostage. | ||
| But more importantly, the research that this fund is the premise behind the Golden Dome. | ||
| When we support research and development for the Iron Dome, we are creating the capability for the United States to defend itself as well. | ||
| And I have news. | ||
| We have a nuclear weapon, too. | ||
| That doesn't get you off the hook with those who are out to get you. | ||
| When we pass this, when we oppose this amendment, when we vote it down, we are not only standing with Israel, we are standing with the best interests of the United States. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Chairman Yields. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yield back to the balance of my time. | |
| The gentleman yields back the balance of his time. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
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Aye. | |
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for a recorded vote. | ||
| The gentlelady asked for a recorded vote pursuant to clause 6 of rule 16. | ||
| Further proceedings on the amendment pursuant to the clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia will be postponed. | ||
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Jordan's $1.65 Billion Dilemma
00:15:34
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| Thank you. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number 115, printed in part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 115, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Ms. Green of Georgia. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Greene, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as we are considering the Defense Appropriations Bill that costs the American people $831 billion, it is important to consider the amount of foreign funding that we are spending every single year. | ||
| The American people are $37 trillion in debt. | ||
| Life in America has become unaffordable, especially for our youngest generations. | ||
| This amendment would strike $500 million in military assistance to Jordan. | ||
| This bill provides up to $500 million in military assistance to support the armed forces of Jordan. | ||
| However, our Department of Defense mission statement is to deter war and ensure our nation's security. | ||
| My amendment would strike this provision to ensure that our defense appropriation bill funds only our military, not foreign militaries. | ||
| Why does our Department of Defense Appropriations Bill continue to pay for other countries' militaries? | ||
| Furthermore, the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill released this week already provides for an additional $1.65 billion in aid to Jordan. | ||
| So why are we giving them another $500 million in our appropriations bill for our Department of Defense? | ||
| Congress has appropriated between $1.5 billion and $1.65 billion in economic and military aid annually to Jordan since 2018, annually. | ||
| We're already sending them billions and billions and billions of dollars as the American people continue to tumble further and further and further in a graveyard of debt. | ||
| $37 trillion is a debt that we don't think we'll ever be able to claw our way out of. | ||
| However, it's this institution and the irresponsible continued spending year after year after year that continues to enslave the American people in debt. | ||
| At what point do our military bases in the Middle East and around the world make our country safer? | ||
| In America today, there are still hundreds of the American people dying every single day from fentanyl that has come from China and that cartels create and depress pills and other drugs and smuggle into our country. | ||
| It's time to put the American people first, Mr. Speaker, and it's time to finally consider the drastic amount of spending that we spend every single year in foreign aid. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
| Gentlelady reserves. | ||
| Gentlemen, for what purpose, gentlemen from California? | ||
|
unidentified
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I rise in opposition to the gentlelady's amendment. | |
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
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Jordan remains an indispensable ally in an extremely dangerous region. | |
| Our partnership with the Kingdom of Jordan is critical both to the regional and U.S. and national security. | ||
| We must continue to ensure Jordan can counter extremist terrorist threats, have the resources necessary to continue their role as a linchpin in the region. | ||
| With that, I urge a no vote on the amendment and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| With that, I yield 90 seconds to the ranking member and the gentlelady from Minnesota. | ||
| Gentlelady is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in opposition to the amendment. | ||
| Jordan's a long-standing, reliable ally in the region, as the chair pointed out. | ||
| And when there's any type of incident in the region, our national security officials, from CENTCOM generals to diplomats, first contact that they make is to get the temperature of the region from their Jordan counterparts. | ||
| The United States and Jordan have, since 1996, the status of force agreements and a 2006 acquisition and cross-service training agreement and a 2021 defense cooperation agreement. | ||
| This is a 30-year stability-built relationship in the Middle East with an Arab partner, and we need to nurture and maintain it. | ||
| We've deployed military personnel to Jordan to support operations that defeated ISIS, to enhance Jordan's security, and to promote regional stability. | ||
| Jordan air bases have been particularly important for U.S. to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition and reconnaissance missions in Syria and Iraq. | ||
| Just two weeks ago, our U.S. Central Commander traveled to Jordan, where he met with the chairman of the Jordan Joint Chief of Staff and key staff. | ||
| They discussed the evolving security situation in the region, the deepening bilateral defense relationship between the United States and Jordan, and further expand in the military-to-military relationship between Jordan's armed forces and ours. | ||
| This partnership continues to serve as a steadfast, capable, strategic partner for peace and stability in the region, and we need strong allies. | ||
| Jordan's been and continues to be one of our strongest, and for this reason, I oppose this amendment. | ||
| I ask my colleagues to do the same, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentlelady yields back. | ||
| Gentlewoman from Georgia is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| With the American people $37 trillion in debt, and we are weighing whether we should send another $500 million to Jordan after they have already received $1.65 billion in another appropriations request, and they receive already another $1.65 billion every single year from the American taxpayer who can hardly afford to pay their bills. | ||
| Let's talk about America's veterans. | ||
| You know, for the past several decades, we have men and women in our country, great men and women, who served in our military, but yet were shipped over to some foreign war in the Middle East. | ||
| That didn't defend America's border. | ||
| Our border continued to be overrun by foreign people from all over the world. | ||
| But they were sent over there to fight for our freedoms, and you know what they came home with? | ||
| They came home with physical injuries that they have to live with the rest of their life, and they came home with PTSD and mental injuries that they live with for the rest of their life. | ||
| And unfortunately, they have a suicide rate of over 22 a day. | ||
| Over 6,400 veterans committed suicide in 2022, and 32,000 veterans were homeless in 2024. | ||
| Yet the debate is about sending another $500 million for the defense of Jordan, and that's a country, I guarantee you, most Americans can't even find on a map. | ||
| But most Americans have a veteran in their family or their friends that suffers every single day from this country's continued pursuit of foreign wars and funding foreign wars. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, enough of the foreign aid and foreign wars and funding for the security of foreign borders that have nothing to do with our own borders and our own American people and the $37 trillion in debt that's killing us. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support my amendment and I yield the remainder of my time. | ||
| Gentlelady yields. | ||
| Gentleman from California. | ||
| Gentleman, California yields. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| Any opinion of the chair? | ||
| The no's have it. | ||
| I asked for the recorded vote. | ||
| Gentlelady, yes, for a recorded vote. | ||
| pursuant to Clause 6 of Rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the Generalwoman from Georgia will be postponed. | ||
| It is now in order to consider Amendment No. 116, printed in Part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Georgia seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 116, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Ms. Green of Georgia. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 5, Ms. Green, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as we're considering the Department of Defense appropriations of 2025 that is going to cost the American people $831 billion, my amendment would be that none of the funds made available in this act may be used for the assistance to the Ukraine war. | ||
| This is a war that has nothing to do with America. | ||
| Ukraine is not a NATO member nation. | ||
| It is not the American people's responsibility to pay for this war, and it's not the American military's responsibility to fund it. | ||
| My amendment would ensure that no further resources will be sent to Ukraine. | ||
| To date, Congress has provided nearly $175 billion in assistance to Ukraine, including direct military aid, funding for their government, and other forms of economic assistance. | ||
| For the past four years, we had a Democrat president that cared more about the borders of Ukraine than the country he swore to protect, the United States of America. | ||
| They allowed our own country to be invaded by murderers, rapists, and terrorists, all while sending nearly $175 billion to defend the borders of Ukraine and fund their entire economy. | ||
| Our country funded their government at $1 billion a month, and the American people were forced to pay for their businesses. | ||
| At a time when our government shut down American-owned businesses, families could not afford groceries, and our people were suffering. | ||
| It was reported that nightlife in Ukraine was thriving and that there were more bars and restaurants open in the capital city, Kyiv, than before the start of the war. | ||
| Yet the American people, they couldn't send their children to school. | ||
| Their businesses were shut down, and life here was closed. | ||
| But the American people were paying for Ukraine. | ||
| It was shameful that Americans were forced to foot the bill of the Ukrainian economy while ours suffered. | ||
| Furthermore, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt governments in the world. | ||
| And Zelensky is a dictator who, by the way, stopped elections in his country because of this war. | ||
| He's jailed journalists. | ||
| He's canceled his elections, controlled state media, and persecuted Christians. | ||
| The American people should not be forced to continue to pay for another foreign war in a country that has no effect on our own and we are not contractually bound to defend. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve. | ||
| Gentlewoman reserves her time. | ||
| The gentlewoman from, for what purposes, the gentlewoman from Minnesota, rise. | ||
| Madam Chair, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. | ||
| Gentlewoman is recognized. | ||
| First, the majority has already eliminated, already eliminated funding for Ukraine Security Assistance initiative in this bill. | ||
| It's zero. | ||
| I personally believe that to be a huge mistake, and that that only emboldens Putin. | ||
| And President Trump seems to be agreeing now because just the other day he announced the decision to provide billions of dollars of equipment to Ukraine through our NATO partners. | ||
| And I give the credit to the President for that decision. | ||
| But now we have an amendment to further prohibit any support of Ukraine as they fight to defend their country from an illegal Russian invasion. | ||
| Putin is attempting to rewrite the map of Europe through use of force. | ||
| He's doing so in violation of international law. | ||
| He's deliberately killing civilians, targeting hospital schools, destroying the economy and the livelihood of Ukraine in the process. | ||
| And Putin has put his thugs who are committing war crimes on a mass scale in the United States and the Democrats, Democratic nations of the world. | ||
| Well, they're putting us on notice, and that's why we must strongly oppose him. | ||
| If we do not, then he or other authoritarian leaders will likely try something like this again, either in Ukraine or elsewhere in the world. | ||
| America is not alone in our military support of Ukraine. | ||
| Our NATO and European allies are continuing to provide billions of dollars of support themselves, and that's in line with the decision that President Trump announced the other day. | ||
| So let's not abandon the EU, our NATO allies now, and let's not abandon Ukraine. | ||
| The Ukrainian people did not ask for this war. | ||
| They deserve our continued support. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. | ||
| And, Madam Chair, I'd like to yield 60 seconds to the gentleman from California. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for 60 seconds. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I rise in opposition to the gentlelady's amendment. | |
| Sadly, we saw for years how the Biden administration failed to provide Ukraine the resources necessary to fight back in an effective way against Russian aggression. | ||
| Just the other day, President Trump took decisive action to provide weapons to Ukraine to defend against these unprovoked attacks. | ||
| The President is right to support efforts to ensure innocent lives are no longer lost. | ||
| He is right to undertake efforts to stop the bloodshed. | ||
| As he continues to work toward a peaceful solution, we should not now remove the ability to provide what he thinks will help the Ukrainian people to prevent further losses and use as leverage to negotiate a peace agreement, hopefully very soon. | ||
| With that, I urge a no vote on the amendment and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentlewoman reserves and the gentlewoman from Georgia is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining? | ||
| The gentlewoman has two and a half minutes remaining. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Democrats used to be the anti-war party, yet every single Democrat voted to fund the war in Ukraine. | ||
| This funding has been approximately $175 billion of the American people's hard-earned tax dollars, yet the American people are in debt by $37 trillion in debt. | ||
|
Supporting American Trucks
00:14:24
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| It's said that the Ukrainian people didn't ask for that war. | ||
| Well, the American people didn't ask for this debt. | ||
| And the American people are not obligated to defend every single country around the world. | ||
| At what point do we defend our own citizens and their ability to actually be able to afford life in America? | ||
| As our debt continues to climb because Congress refuses to stop spending on America last priorities and refuses to stop spending on foreign aid and foreign wars, the American people will have no chance. | ||
| Now that our border is closed, thank God to Tom Homan and ICE and President Trump and his administration, we are conducting the largest deportation operations our country has ever seen. | ||
| And we must continue to put America first and continue to address the needs of our own people within our own homeland. | ||
| This means no more assistance to Ukraine. | ||
| The only assistance that America should be providing is a pathway to peace, not furthering a war. | ||
| That is not what the American people want. | ||
| That is not what the American people voted for. | ||
| Americans deserve to not have their hard-earned tax dollars fund a bloody and deadly war in Ukraine. | ||
| We need peace and we need peace all over the world. | ||
| This is an unwinnable war in which Americans are footing the bill and it's resulted in mass casualties in both nations. | ||
| Americans don't want to pay for murder. | ||
| Rough estimates show that over 1.5 million people have been killed and injured since the start of this war. | ||
| A Ukrainian assessment earlier in 2024 placed Ukrainian troop losses at 80,000 killed and 400,000 wounded. | ||
| Estimates from June of this year show that approximately a million Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded. | ||
| These are people's sons. | ||
| These are people's brothers, their cousins, their husbands. | ||
| And an entire generation of Ukrainian men are being wiped out and so are Russian men. | ||
| This isn't something the American people should pay for. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Gentlewoman from Minnesota is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| Once again, I just want to stress to the body, and I believe this is a huge mistake, but the majority has already eliminated any funding for Ukraine security assistance initiative in this bill. | ||
| So the amendment accomplishes not cutting any funding. | ||
| But I would like to just point out again, Madam Chair, when I talked about international war crimes and the previous speaker was talking about the loss of life in Ukraine, there are 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped by Russia, ripped from their homes, the arms of their mothers and fathers. | ||
| That's a war crime. | ||
| And we should not be silent on that. | ||
| And with that, I thank President Trump for now realizing it's important that we come to Ukraine's aid through our NATO partners, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentlewoman yields back, and the question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| Those in favor say no. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it, and the amendment is not agreed to. | ||
| Madam Speaker. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman rise? | ||
| I ask for the recorded vote. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 6 of Rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Georgia will be postponed. | ||
| It is now in order to consider Amendment No. 159 printed in Part A of House Report 119199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 159 printed in Part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Mr. Joyce of Pennsylvania. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Joyce and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| I rise today to speak in support of Amendment No. 159 to provide funding for the purchase of heavy dump trucks or HDTs for the active Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve. | ||
| While much of the focus of our FY26 Defense Appropriations Bill is on weapons and on other defense materials, the tools that our military use to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support our service members are just as critical to our nation's success. | ||
| HDTs are necessary for the construction and the maintenance of supply routes, airfields, helipads, and logistical facilities in both combat and non-combat zones. | ||
| Currently, our military is forced to rely on an outdated and an unreliable fleet of trucks. | ||
| Upgrading these vehicles will provide our service members with up-to-date safety features such as blindside detection, collision avoidance, and anti-lock brakes that are common in most modern vehicles. | ||
| Additionally, modernization of the fleet will also accommodate armored ballistic cabs, vitally critical for protecting our warfighters. | ||
| Not only will this amendment ensure that our service members can utilize modern technology when the building of the infrastructure that our warfighters rely on, but also puts millions of dollars into local economies throughout our country. | ||
| Communities across the United States, from my home state of Pennsylvania to Minnesota, play a vital role in supporting the HDT industrial base. | ||
| And this amendment will continue to support the hardworking Americans who build these trucks. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support this common sense amendment to ensure that our service members have the most up-to-date technology to support our warfighters. | ||
| Madam Chair, I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| Does anyone seek time in opposition? | ||
| Seeing none, to my colleague from Pennsylvania, Mr. McKenzie, for as much time as he might consume. | ||
| The gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Madam Chair, I rise to support this amendment by my colleague from Pennsylvania, which increases funding by $30 million for the procurement of the Army's heavy-duty trucks and offsets it with a $30 million reduction to future tactical unmanned aircraft system development. | |
| While that development remains important, the Army's heavy-duty trucks are critical to current operational needs. | ||
| These trucks are manufactured by companies like MAC Defense in Allentown, Pennsylvania. | ||
| I've had the opportunity to tour that facility and see firsthand how this facility provides well-paying jobs in our community, at the same time reinforcing the strength of our nation's defense industrial base. | ||
| This amendment delivers the tactical vehicles our troops rely on that are built by a critical manufacturer right in the Lehigh Valley. | ||
| I'm proud to co-sponsor this amendment and urge my colleagues to join me in supporting its passage. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized. | ||
| Madam Chair, I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman has the only time to yield back. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it, and the amendment is agreed to. | ||
| It is now in order to consider Amendment 221, printed in Part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Iowa seek recognition? | ||
| Ms. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 221, printed in Part A of House Report number 119-199. | ||
| Offered by Mrs. Miller-Meeks of Iowa. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentlewoman from Iowa, Ms. Miller-Meeks, and a member opposed will each control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Iowa. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| America's warfighters rely on more than courage and training. | ||
| They rely on an uninterrupted supply of expertly manufactured weapons, parts, and ammunition. | ||
| That lifeline begins with our Army arsenals. | ||
| My amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act protects that lifeline by prohibiting any federal funds from being used to reduce the workforce at Rock Island Arsenal, Joint Munitions Command, Army Sustainment Command, or any other active U.S. Army arsenal. | ||
| Rock Island Arsenal is more than just a military installation. | ||
| It's a critical node in our nation's defense infrastructure. | ||
| Its civilian experts, many of them veterans, produce, repair, and innovate the equipment our troops depend on from the front lines to the forward operating bases. | ||
| Every rifle site calibrated, every artillery shell inspected, and every 3D printed replacement part shipped from Rock Island shortens the time between a soldier's need and the answer that keeps that soldier alive. | ||
| When rumors surfaced of workforce reductions at the island, I wrote to Secretary of the Army Driscoll, made a site visit with him, and spoke directly with the men and women whose skills cannot be replicated overnight. | ||
| This amendment cements their mission readiness. | ||
| It prevents talent loss, preserves irreplaceable know-how, and keeps our defense industrial base resilient against any adversary who hopes to see it weakened. | ||
| In addition to being a pillar of our national defense, Rock Island Arsenal supports more than 15,000 jobs. | ||
| Nearly half of those workers live in Iowa. | ||
| It also contributes over $1.2 billion annually to the economy of the Quad City regions. | ||
| These are good-paying jobs that support families, grow our communities, and most importantly, provide the backbone of our military supply chain. | ||
| As a 24-year Army veteran, I know how vital these arsenals are, not just to the military, but to the nation. | ||
| This is about protecting readiness, protecting our military, and protecting America. | ||
| And with the assurance of the chair that he will work with me to ensure that this amendment does what we intend it to do and continue to supply our military with the munitions they need, I will always fight for Rock Island Arsenal and the men and women in uniform and out who power its mission and protect our nation. | ||
| And with the hope of the chairman, I reserve. | ||
| The gentlewoman reserves. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California rise? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's to state from the gentlelady that I certainly look forward to working with her as we move forward with this legislation to make sure that we have the right type of language that would not... | |
| Can the gentleman claim time in opposition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll claim time in opposition, but not the intent of the amendment. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| But what I'm going to do is work with the gentlelady as we move forward on this legislation to make sure that we don't have any unintended consequences in the language. | ||
| And so we'll do that as we move this legislation forward. | ||
| And I appreciate the gentlelady withdrawing the amendment. | ||
| Does the gentleman yield back to the time? | ||
| Does the gentleman yield back his time? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I reserve back. | |
| I yield back my time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Iowa is recognized. | ||
| With the assurance that the chairman and I will work together, I withdraw the amendment and I yield. | ||
| Withdrawing the amendment. | ||
| The amendment has been withdrawn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's see. | |
| It is now in order to consider Amendment No. 248, printed in Part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| It is now in order to consider Amendment No. 277, printed in Part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 277, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199. | ||
|
Lebanese Military's Dilemma
00:11:01
|
||
| Offered by Mr. Stuby of Florida. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Stuby, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. | ||
| And the chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| It is our duty to afford the American people the assurance that their tax dollars are spent fulfilling the needs of the American people, not funneled to terrorist proxies who threaten our very existence. | ||
| My amendment would ensure not a single taxpayer dollar would be sent to the Lebanese Armed Forces, a military force riddled with Hezbollah sympathizers, and acts as yet another proxy of the Iranian terror regime. | ||
| To say that Hezbollah and its allies do not have any control over the Lebanese state is just categorically false. | ||
| Hezbollah and other terror groups that operate freely throughout the country have launched countless attacks upon our ally, Israel. | ||
| In the past year alone, Hezbollah has indiscriminately launched nearly 2,000 missiles into Israeli territory, attempting to replicate the horrific atrocities that occurred on October 7th. | ||
| Yet the Lebanese military has consistently failed to take any substantive action to eliminate Hezbollah from its control over the Lebanese state. | ||
| Not only does Hezbollah and its allies control dozens of seats in Lebanon's parliament, but they literally sit at the helm of the military force that the American taxpayer has been propping up since 2006. | ||
| As a matter of fact, Nabee Berry, the Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, is a Hezbollah sympathizer himself. | ||
| As the head of the Amal movement, his group joined Hezbollah in their war against Israel and launched attacks upon the IDF. | ||
| Like Hezbollah, Amal is just another proxy of the Iranian terror regime. | ||
| Why should we trust the Lebanese government that our assistance to their military won't be funneled to terrorism when their own Speaker of Parliament is a terrorist supporter himself? | ||
| While the Lebanese military alleges willingness to disband and disarm Hezbollah, their actions prove otherwise. | ||
| The Lebanese military is conveniently absent in Hezbollah's strongholds and is far too reluctant to take any meaningful action to eliminate Hezbollah once and for all. | ||
| That's why I introduced legislation providing for an eight-point plan to condition aid to the Lebanese military, including provisions that would disband Hezbollah, eliminate all coordination with and support from the Iranian regime, and end persecution of American citizens who've advocated against Hezbollah's influence over the government of Lebanon. | ||
| This bill, the PAGER Act, offers a clear roadmap to strategically realign the Lebanese government to no longer threaten the United States or allies and interests in the Middle East. | ||
| In fact, a significant portion of Lebanon's military expenditures don't even go towards its defense. | ||
| Over 70% of its budget has consistently allocated for personal salaries and excessive benefits, including domestic servants and drivers for high-ranking officers. | ||
| American taxpayers expect their hard-earned tax dollars to be spent on American interest, not armed Mercedes and other luxury goods for Lebanese generals. | ||
| This really should be a bipartisan issue. | ||
| But where are the Democrats complaining about Lebanon's human rights atrocities? | ||
| The Democrats were silent when the Lebanese military shot protesters, silent when they forcibly repatriated Syrian refugees, and silent when the Lebanese military failed to prevent Hezbollah from indiscriminately targeting our ally, Israel. | ||
| Yet they tell us to turn a blind eye and let the Lebanese military abuse the generosity of the American taxpayer. | ||
| We cannot, in good conscience, continue sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to Lebanon when they are complicit in the empowering a terrorist organization whose primary mission is to destroy America and Israel. | ||
| Money is fungible, and every dollar funneled to Lebanon is another resource aiding Hezbollah's operations, undermining regional stability, and threatening Israeli security. | ||
| Until they finally eliminate Hezbollah and stop reporting to their handlers in Tehran, any more funds to the Lebanese military are simply unjustified. | ||
| I encourage my colleagues to recognize this pressing danger that exists within the Lebanese military and vote for my amendment. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Madam Chair, I yield time to my colleague from Illinois first. | ||
| The gentleman from Illinois is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I rise in strong opposition to this misguided amendment. | |
| The long-standing U.S. military investment for the independent Lebanese Armed Forces, also known as the LAF, has worked to support U.S. security interests in the Middle East for close to 20 years. | ||
| As co-chair of the U.S.-Lebanon Friendship Caucus and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I work closely with the brave men and women in the U.S. military who work alongside the LAF to ensure robust oversight of U.S. military funding and training resources. | ||
| The stability of the LAF is important not only to the security of Lebanon, but also our neighboring countries and the United States. | ||
| That stability is more important than ever as the LAF works to permanently disarm and destroy Hezbollah's presence in Lebanon. | ||
| Building on the tremendous success of Israel in weakening Iran and eliminating Hezbollah's terrorist leader network, Hezbollah is now at its weakest point. | ||
| This is a tremendous opportunity for the LAF and for the people of Lebanon to root out terror proxy influence from within their borders. | ||
| The LAF has an active mission and expectation from the United States and others to fully disarm Hezbollah, and they're working to accomplish that every day. | ||
| Eliminating military funding from the LAF now will only serve to further embolden Hezbollah and allow them to regroup. | ||
| This cannot happen with Hezbollah on their back foot. | ||
| U.S. support and funding for the LAF is more important than ever. | ||
| This amendment is misguided. | ||
| To prove that point, I would like to reference an article from earlier this week from July 12th of 2025. | ||
| This week, the Trump administration and the State Department and the DOD approved $100 million to go to the LAF for the Super Tacano aircraft. | ||
| And so in listening to what the State Department said regarding the sale of military equipment to Lebanon, this is their statement. | ||
| The proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of our partner country, Lebanon. | ||
| That continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East. | ||
| And I would like to insert this article dated July 12th of 2025 for the record, which shows that the current Trump administration supports military funding to the LAF. | ||
| I oppose this misguided amendment and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman's request will be covered by General Leave. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| And gentlemen reserves and the gentleman from Florida is recognized. | ||
| How much time I have remaining? | ||
| A minute and a half remaining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I reserve. | |
| Gentleman Reserves and the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Two and a half minutes remaining. | ||
| I'm prepared to close. | ||
| Can the gentleman is recognized? | ||
| Madam Chair, the gentleman from Florida is entitled to his opinion. | ||
| It's an opinion he's brought to us not once, but multiple times. | ||
| Each time this body has voted down on a broad bipartisan basis this amendment. | ||
| There's a reason for that, Madam Chair. | ||
| It has been voted down repeatedly because in fact it is misguided and it relies on facts that simply aren't facts. | ||
| I don't know about the author of this bill, where he got it, but I can tell you this. | ||
| I've stood in Lebanon with our special forces who are training and working on a constant basis with the LAF. | ||
| I have stood in Lebanon and seen the destruction of Hezbollah cachets, massive amounts. | ||
| But more than that, I've met with our ally, Israel, and in conversation with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, I asked him, should we continue to give money to the LAF? | ||
| His answer was short. | ||
| Give them more. | ||
| So, Madam Chair, whether it's King Abdullah of Jordan who has been passing on necessary vehicles to help them do their job better, or Israel that created the opportunity for them to retake all of Lebanon and rid it of the Iranian influence and Hezbollah once and for all, | ||
| or even our president, his predecessor, Joe Biden, his predecessor, Donald Trump, his predecessor, Barack Obama, or his predecessor, George W. Bush. | ||
| They don't agree on much. | ||
| They agree on this. | ||
| It has been worth the investment. | ||
| It is paying dividend. | ||
| And you do not let up just at a point when they are clearing out and making safe for a democracy that in fact would work there but for foreign forces with weapons. | ||
| So Madam Chair, this has been defeated before, but before we didn't have the good news and the support of every neighbor and our president the way we do today. | ||
| So I ask all members to vote against this, not because they can't make a point that Lebanon is a country that has been influenced, but because they can't make a point that the LAF is anything but the only force that can, in fact, bring an eradication of Hezbollah and keep Iran from reoccupying that, something that Israel supports and we support. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back his time and the gentleman from Florida is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| This is a headline from two days ago. | ||
| Israeli military attacks Hezbollah sites in eastern Lebanon. | ||
| The Israeli military on Tuesday said it attacked Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. | ||
| Fighter jets targeted military sites in the eastern Beka Valley, which the Iranian-backed militia used for training purposes. | ||
| This is a Yahoo news report that I would ask inserted for the record. | ||
| Here's another one two days ago. | ||
| 12 said killed as Israeli hits elite Hezbollah force deep inside Lebanon. | ||
| Israeli jets carried out a wave of airstrikes deep inside Lebanon aimed at stopping elite Hezbollah units from regrouping and rebuilding. | ||
| The military camps that were targeted are used by the Hezbollah Terror Organization for training and preparing terrorists for the planning and execution of terror operations against IDF forces and the state of Israel. | ||
| We should put America first, not Lebanon first and America last. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman's requests are covered by General Leave and the gentleman yields back his time. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Florida. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| Those in favor say no. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
|
LC-130 Recapitalization
00:03:35
|
||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| The amendment is not agreed to. | ||
| Pursuant to clause six of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Florida will be postponed. | ||
| Madam Chair, I ask for a recorded vote. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number 287 printed in part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from New York seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have an amendment at the desk. | |
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 287, printed in part A of House Report number 119-199. | ||
| Offered by Ms. Tinney of New York. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentleman from New York, Ms. Tenney, and a member opposed will each control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New York. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Madam Chair. | |
| I rise today to offer an amendment, offer and withdraw my amendment 287 to provide $71 million for non-recurring engineering expenses associated with designing the new LC-130J as part of the LC-130 recapitalization project. | ||
| LC-130s are polar ski planes that possess the unique capability of being able to land on snow instead of solely on a paved runway. | ||
| The LC-130 is the only plane in the world with this capability and provides the United States with a key competitive edge in the Arctic and Antarctic domains. | ||
| The LC-130 fleet is wholly operated by the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard at Stratton National Guard Base in Scotia, New York. | ||
| Beyond its national security importance in supporting our Arctic strategy, the LC-130 fleet is also critical in supporting our nation's scientific research efforts. | ||
| Each year, the current LC-130 fleet assists in critical missions in both Greenland and Antarctica pursuant to President Ronald Reagan's Presidential Memorandum 6646. | ||
| However, our current LC-130H fleet is aging quickly, with some planes over 50 years old. | ||
| Despite the great work of the 109th Airlift Wing in maintaining these planes, we must quickly recapitalize these planes to ensure the U.S. does not lose the critical capabilities provided by the LC-130 fleet. | ||
| Before I conclude, I want to thank Bob Epp and Dennis Feeney from the New York National Guard's legislative team, General Stephen Slosick from the 109th Airlift Wing, General Michael Bank, the New York Air National Guard commander, and General Ray Shields, the New York Adjunct General, for their tireless efforts in advocating alongside with me for the LC-130 recapitalization. | ||
| Last year, with the help of these individuals and Chairman Calvert, we were able to secure $29 million in the FY25 CR spend plan for the Department of Defense for these non-recurring engineering expenses. | ||
| Rest assured, I will continue fighting to secure the additional funding in the final FY26 Defense Bill. | ||
| Before I withdraw this amendment, Mr. Chairman, Chairman Calvert, I ask you to commit to working with me on the continued LC-130 recapitalization project, as you have so graciously in the past, and I yield my time to you. | ||
| I look forward to working with the gentlelady. | ||
| We need a place, we need those aircraft to land them in Greenland. | ||
|
China Is China, Taiwan Is Taiwan
00:07:58
|
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|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you so much. | ||
| A mission of our president, of course. | ||
| I want to say thank you, and I withdraw this amendment and yield back my time. | ||
| Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| Seeking no other member seeking recognition, the amendment is withdrawn. | ||
| It is now in order to consider Amendment No. 293, printed in Part A of House Report 119-199. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition? | ||
| Madam Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number 293, printed in Part A of House Report number 119-199, offered by Mr. Tiffany of Wisconsin. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Tiffany, and a member opposed will each control five minutes. | ||
| And the chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin. | ||
| Mr. Chairman and Madam Speaker, my amendment would prohibit the Department of Defense from creating, procuring, or displaying any map which depicts Taiwan as a part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. | ||
| The House approved a similar amendment as part of the State Department Appropriations Bill last Congress, and today's amendment would simply extend this policy to the Department of Defense. | ||
| This is not a controversial amendment, since all of us know that Taiwan is not, nor has it ever been, part of communist China, even for a single day. | ||
| The people of Taiwan elect their own leaders, deploy their own armed forces, conduct their own foreign policy, and maintain their own trade agreements with other countries. | ||
| By every measure, Taiwan is a sovereign, democratic, and independent nation, and any claims to the contrary are simply false. | ||
| Since the 1970s, America's so-called One China policy has acknowledged Beijing's unsubstantiated claims over Taiwan. | ||
| This is an antiquated and dishonest policy, and it is one that we should abandon. | ||
| While my amendment will not end that misguided policy, it will at least require that the maps that we use reflect a simple reality: China is China, Taiwan is Taiwan. | ||
| I ask for a yes vote on my honest maps amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Minnesota seek recognition? | ||
| Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment. | ||
| The gentlewoman is recognized. | ||
| I understand why the gentleman from Wisconsin is offering this, and I don't agree with the spirit in which it's being offered. | ||
| But the Department of Defense and the administration of this Congress and myself, I've been pretty clear on my opposition to the unwelcome assertions of China's control over Taiwan. | ||
| As a former social studies teacher, geography was part of what I would teach. | ||
| I would never use in my classroom display a map showing rightly that China is in possession of Taiwan. | ||
| But let me take the teaching just one step farther. | ||
| This amendment would prevent the Department of Defense from buying or displaying a map that shows how China views itself in the world, how China is putting out myths and disinformation on what they think the world should look like according to them. | ||
| It would force the department, in my opinion, to put its head in the sand when at the military academies showing China's view of the world and why we have to work so hard to defeat that. | ||
| So I hope we can all agree it's important to know what our allies and our adversaries are thinking, that we have adults at our military academies that can sort out the difference and see the differences in the maps. | ||
| And as a geography teacher and a person who used to use maps, that is my only opposition to the gentleman's amendment. | ||
| I know what he's getting at. | ||
| I don't disagree with it. | ||
| But sometimes you have to have what your enemy and how they view the world and what they're showing the world in just a position for how we view the world and how Taiwan needs to remain independent. | ||
| Congress and the department should focus our time and energy on being clear about China with respect for international boundaries and rule of law. | ||
| So I just, as a geography teacher, I had to say something. | ||
| And with that, I'm just going to yield back. | ||
| I thank the chair. | ||
| The gentlelady yields back her time and the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're going to yield me time. | |
| I will yield the chairman. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I certainly rise in support of the amendment. | |
| The amendment prohibits the expenditure of funds to create, procure, or display any map that depicts Taiwan as part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| Taiwan is not a part of the People's Republic of China. | ||
| We should not appease the desires of the Communist Chinese leadership by pretending that it is. | ||
| Our map should accurately reflect this reality. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time to the gentleman. | ||
| The gentleman yields and gentlemen from the gentleman reserves his time. | ||
| He's the only one that controls Taiwan. | ||
| I would like to yield one minute to my friend from Arizona, Mr. Biggs. | ||
| The gentleman from Arizona is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Taiwan's a great friend of the United States, and it's a unique friend to Arizona. | ||
| The CCP uses every tool it can, including maps, to undermine truth and assert illegitimate claims over sovereign territory. | ||
| Congress should not fund anything that supports the CCP's disinformation efforts. | ||
| And now is the time for strategic clarity with rising bellicosity coming from the CCP. | ||
| We cannot allow for authoritarian regimes to dictate how our government communicates facts. | ||
| And if we truly stand for freedom, sovereignty, and truth, then we must also stand with Taiwan. | ||
| And this is one way to do so. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back his time. | ||
| And the gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized. | ||
| I'll just close by saying I appreciate the consistency by the gentlelady from Minnesota because she said the same thing a couple years ago. | ||
| But this body was excluded back in 1979 when the One China policy was implemented by President Carter. | ||
| And it's up to this body to make sure it claims its rightful place in Foreign policy when we have an issue like this before us. | ||
| And she talks about the spirit of this amendment. | ||
| I would say this amendment is issued in the spirit of freedom. | ||
| And that is all that Taiwan is looking for, is to defend its freedom, and it should be able to do it. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Wisconsin. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, and the amendment is agreed to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That underlining really helps. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| The chair understands that amendment number 303 will not be offered. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I move that the committee do now rise. | |
|
State Union Debate Stalemate
00:05:07
|
||
| The question is on the motion that the committee rise. | ||
| All those in favor say aye. | ||
| All those opposed say no. | ||
| The ayes have it, and the motion is adopted. | ||
| Accordingly, the committee rises. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is awkward. | |
| Right now? | ||
| Madam Chairwoman. | ||
| Madam Speaker, the committee and the whole House on the State of the Union, having had under consideration H.R. 4016, directs me to report that it has come to no resolution thereon. | ||
| The Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union reports that the committee has had under consideration H.R. 4016 and has come to no resolution thereon. | ||
| Proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. | ||
| Votes will be taken in the following order: passage of H.R. 3633, passage of Senate 1582, and passage of H.R. 1919. | ||
| The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on passage of H.R. 3633, on which the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union calendar number 134, H.R. 3633, a bill to provide for a system of regulation of the offer and sale of digital commodities by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and for other purposes. | ||
| The question is on the passage of the bill. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So the first of three roll call votes in this series. | |
| Members here voting on a bill aiming to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets and clarity jurisdiction over the digital asset market between two independent federal government agencies. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
| Also, part of the fabric of the issues the administration is dealing with recently is the Jeffrey Epstein files and how to address the outcry to release the files. | ||
| Jake Sherman of Punch Bowl News has just posted this. | ||
| Speaker Johnson and his leadership team are discussing offering an Epstein-related resolution to try to quell the fur of members of the House Rules Committee. | ||
| The resolution would almost certainly be non-binding. | ||
| Dems keep offering Epstein-related amendments in the Rules Committee, release the files, etc. | ||
| Republicans on the Rules Committee are pissed. | ||
| They're being asked to oppose these amendments, and GOP members of Rules want political cover. | ||
| Rules was supposed to meet this morning. | ||
| They still haven't even scheduled a hearing on rescissions, all because of this row over Epstein and the House GOP's handling of it. | ||
| Of course, we'll be watching for how this is dealt with and report on it as we get information. | ||
| As members vote here, we'll show you floor debate on this legislation from earlier today. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, I call up the bill H.R. 3633 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union Calendar Number 134, H.R. 3633, a bill to provide for a system of regulation of offer and sale of digital commodities by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and for other purposes. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 580, in lieu of the amendments in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committees on Agriculture and Financial Services printed in the bill, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 119-6, modified by the amendment printed in Part B of House Report 119 through 199 is adopted and the bill, as amended, is considered red. | ||
| The bill shall be debatable for one hour, equally divided among and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Agriculture or their respective designees, and the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Financial Services or their respective designees. | ||
| After one hour of debate, it shall be in order to consider the further amendment printed in Part C of House Report 119 through 199 if offered by the member designated in the report, which shall be considered read. | ||
| It shall be separately debatable for the time specified in the report, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to a demand for a division of the question. | ||
|
Fill Regulatory Gaps
00:07:39
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| The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Thompson, the gentlewoman from Minnesota, Ms. Craig, the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Hill, and the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Waters, each will control 15 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in this bill in the record. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| I rise in strong support this morning of the Clarity Act. | ||
| We've been here before, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Just last year, we passed landmark legislation FIT 21 with an overwhelming bipartisan majority to apply strong federal standards to digital asset markets. | ||
| For more than five years, our committee has heard from dozens and dozens of experts, held numerous roundtables and hearings with market participants of all sizes in all segments of the market to learn more about the emerging digital asset ecosystem. | ||
| We learned about the value proposition and relevant risks associated with digital assets and the use of blockchain technology. | ||
| We've heard time and time again from market participants and regulators about the need for clear regulatory guardrails. | ||
| We've talked about the need to fill those regulatory gaps that have left millions participating in crypto markets vulnerable. | ||
| In fact, Mr. Speaker, both President Biden in his Executive Order 14067 and President Trump in his Executive Order 14178 identified those market regulatory gaps, asking Congress to act to fill those gaps. | ||
| And we certainly witnessed in 2022 consumer harm when the Financial Services Committee heard unprecedented testimony from an expert called in to clean up the failed digital asset crypto firm FTX and the mess it left behind. | ||
| In his words, never had he seen such an utter failure in corporate controls. | ||
| In its wake, then-Chairwoman Waters wisely stated, We need legislative action to ensure that digital assets entities cannot operate in the shadows outside of robust federal oversight and clear rules of the road. | ||
| If we needed action then, we certainly need it now, and we risk history repeating itself, and that's why we gather today on the House floor. | ||
| After years of bipartisan work, numerous iterations, this bill would apply rigorous rules to digital asset firms, prohibiting commingling of customer funds and requiring capital record-keeping and conflict of interest mitigation standards. | ||
| Importantly, the bill recognizes that decentralized finance or DeFi developers do not take custody of user assets, nor do they control user assets. | ||
| Therefore, we should not treat them in the same way that we treat centralized actors who do have custody, who do have control over assets. | ||
| It's important to note that in an agriculture committee hearing, the former general counsel of FTX USA himself testified, quote, had we the regulatory structure provided for in clarity applied to FTX, close quote, the story would, and he goes on to say, would be almost certainly have been a much different ending. | ||
| Let's ensure that we learn from the past, Mr. Speaker, the digital asset ecosystem is evolving at a remarkable pace, enabling real-time settlement of peer-to-peer transactions, initiating a renaissance in applied cryptography, the laying the groundwork for the next generation of the use of the internet. | ||
| The United States has along had the most innovative financial and technology sectors and the deepest, most liquid capital markets. | ||
| But while other jurisdictions are building frameworks for the future of finance to be on change and digitally native, our great country, with those great characteristics, is lagging. | ||
| For too long, our digital asset regime has been the worst of both worlds. | ||
| Regulation by enforcement, which has pushed good actors to leave the United States, and the regulatory gaps that I talked about identified in both President Biden and President Trump's executive orders that have left consumers unprotected from the bad actors. | ||
| Now, today, we have an opportunity to reverse course and establish the United States as the global hub for digital innovation. | ||
| To do so, we must close the regulatory gaps with common sense rules. | ||
| The Clarity Act does just that. | ||
| By leveraging the expertise of our two market regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Future Trading Commission, to ensure wrap-around oversight of digital asset markets from initial sales, raising capital, to daily trading, it provides clarity for banks also engaging in this ecosystem. | ||
| And as we said in the last Congress, Mr. Speaker, these rules need to be fit for purpose for the digital ecosystem. | ||
| Now, all of us on this House floor know that the status quo is simply unacceptable. | ||
| We know, all know American consumers and innovators deserve this clarity, deserve better, deserve rules of the road. | ||
| The choice before us is whether to lead in the financial markets of the future or watch the next FTX fail while we're left saying, once again, well, we've been here before. | ||
| I urge all my colleagues to join me on both sides of the aisle and support the Clarity Act. | ||
| Let's fill these regulatory gaps with the proper federal oversight. | ||
| Let's create a competitive digital ecosystem. | ||
| I support this bill. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to, and I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman reserves, the gentlewoman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| The gentlewoman is recognized. | ||
| Crypto Week has been going so well, hasn't it? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, that's because bailing out billionaires is hard work. | ||
| I look how hard Republicans worked to strip health care from 17 million Americans, shutter rural hospitals, and take food assistance from 12 million people just to hand the richest 1% of Americans a tax break they don't need. | ||
|
Trump's Crypto Journey
00:02:49
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| No one should be surprised that the Republicans' next order of business is a billion-dollar handout to the president himself. | ||
| In just six months, President Trump has enriched himself and his family to the tune of $1.2 billion, and that's just the beginning. | ||
| President Trump used to call crypto a scam in 2021. | ||
| Trump said, and I quote, Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. | ||
| I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar, end quote. | ||
| Melania was actually first to get involved in the crypto ecosystem. | ||
| In January 2022, she announced an auction of her non-fungible token or NFT collection. | ||
| Trump then followed suit in December 2022, launching his own NFT collection, ditching his concerns about crypto because he saw it as a way to pad his pockets. | ||
| Now during the campaign trail, Trump ramped up his crypto involvement. | ||
| In September 2024, he and his family launched World Liberty Financial, a crypto trading platform. | ||
| So days before the inauguration, Trump launched his meme coin, which he later used to offer access to the White House to the highest bidder, foreign or domestic. | ||
| But his family's crypto empire hasn't stopped there. | ||
| World Liberty Financial launched a stablecoin called USD1. | ||
| And shortly after that, the Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm MDX bought $2 billion worth of Trump's coin to make an investment in Binance. | ||
| Trump's family has also launched a Bitcoin mining operation and multiple crypto exchange traded funds or ETFs. | ||
| All of this comes at the same time that the Trump administration has taken away the independence of the financial regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission. | ||
| He issued Executive Order 14255, which now requires all rules written by the financial regulators to be reviewed and approved by, guess what? The White House Budget Office. | ||
|
Stop Crypto Overreach
00:15:21
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||
| This means this bill would hand over to the President the ability to write the rules he wants to advance his crypto operations. | ||
| Not only that, but under the Trump administration, the SEC has said that meme coins, stablecoins, and Bitcoins, mining all do not fall under their oversight. | ||
| Can you imagine that? | ||
| Do these assets sound familiar? | ||
| Oh, yes, they do, because these are all ventures that Trump and his family are pursuing. | ||
| Now, with no oversight, no oversight by Wall Street's comp on the beat, that is the SEC. | ||
| Surely each of you can see how this is a blatant conflict of interest, right? | ||
| Well, Democrats do. | ||
| It's why I introduced the Stop Trump and Crypto Act to ban the President, Vice President, and all the members of Congress from crypto corruption. | ||
| If we do not ban elected officials, including the President or Vice President, from this crypto corruption in H.R. 3633, each of us will be complicit. | ||
| And yet, even if we included language to stop the crypto con, this bill, which should be called the Calamity Act, is bad public policy. | ||
| Plain and simple. | ||
| The bill would lead to increased investor harm, plant the seeds for the next financial crisis, and endanger our national security. | ||
| Just last week, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission warned that this bill would allow traditional companies like Apple or Google to evade securities laws. | ||
| They could walk away from the disclosure, anti-fraud, liability, and corporate governance protections that investors have relied on for 90 years. | ||
| And the bill blocks our state regulators from protecting seniors against fraud and crypto. | ||
| Additionally, the Calamity Act does not address illicit finance and other crimes commonly seen in the crypto space. | ||
| It does not provide nearly enough direction to agencies which would be required to match the level of financial crimes and non-compliance seen in the industry. | ||
| Nor does it provide sufficient funds for federal agencies to examine and enforce these laws. | ||
| For all of these reasons, I strongly, strongly oppose this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Honorable women reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I would like to include in the record the CBO estimate for this bill. | ||
| Without objection, so ordered. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to yield two minutes to an essential leader in our committee, the chairman of our committee that handles financial technology, digital assets, and Artificial intelligence. | ||
| The gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Stahl, right now, for two minutes. | ||
| Gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| I thank Chairman Hill for all of his hard work on that. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Clarity Act. | ||
| I think two things are clear. | ||
| First, the digital asset and blockchain technology are leading the next wave of financial innovation, and we need to make sure that that innovation is occurring here in the United States of America. | ||
| Second, under the previous administration, the United States failed to enact a regulatory framework that's aligned with the realities of the technology and adequately protects consumers. | ||
| Today, the House has an opportunity to meaningfully improve the status quo that for too long has been marred by uncertainty and regulatory enforcement. | ||
| The Clarity Act establishes a workable, forward-looking framework. | ||
| The Clarity Act provides and ensures the markets operate with transparency, accountability, and strong consumer protections. | ||
| Today, our laws leave digital asset developers guessing which regulator and which regulator in what jurisdiction and what even compliance looks like. | ||
| It's not bad for business, it's bad for consumers and bad for U.S. competitiveness. | ||
| Without action, we'll continue to see innovation move overseas to jurisdictions that are providing the legal clarity that we thus far in the United States have failed to deliver. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, what we want is innovation and developing not occurring in boardrooms and law firms in the United States. | ||
| We want them occurring in basements and dorm rooms. | ||
| Ensuring the United States leads the Web3 revolution isn't a partisan issue. | ||
| It's an American issue. | ||
| The Clarity Act legislates in a thoughtful way in a rapidly evolving space. | ||
| The Clarity Act protects consumers and fosters innovation. | ||
| Today we can lead not by accident, but by design. | ||
| Let's send a message that America intends to lead in the golden age of digital assets. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I support the Clarity Act and encourage my colleagues to vote yes. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentlewoman from California is recognized. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Lynch, who is also the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| Good morning, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the gentlelady from California for your leadership on this issue. | ||
| I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3633, the so-called Clarity Act. | ||
| I believe this misguided legislation will have devastating impacts on our financial stability, national security, and investor protections. | ||
| While my Republican friends claim that this bill will regulate the crypto market structure, in reality, it eviscerates the long-standing history of investor protections that have made our markets the end of the envy of the world. | ||
| Most importantly, this bill, this push for crypto, will not end well for the U.S. taxpayer. | ||
| This bill will lead to the next financial crisis, and the largest crypto donors who wrote this bill will walk away unharmed. | ||
| Because the worst aspect of this bill is that Republicans have repeatedly refused to include a single amendment preventing a federal taxpayer bailout of the crypto industry. | ||
| That's what this bill does. | ||
| Additionally, this bill includes zero provisions to prevent the president, who has a $620 million conflict of interest, from continuing his ability to accept emoluments from foreign governments like Abu Dhabi. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no and protect the American taxpayer. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I want to yield two minutes to our majority whip, who has been an absolute essential early focused policymaker in the digital asset space, Mr. Emmer of Minnesota, for two minutes, please. | ||
| The gentleman from Minnesota is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The United States stands at the forefront of the next digital renaissance, a transformative shift towards a decentralized peer-to-peer digital economy. | ||
| For many years, innovators and investors were forced to operate in a legal gray zone while agencies jostled for regulatory superiority over the digital asset ecosystem, leading blockchain developers to pack up and move abroad. | ||
| The Clarity Act fixes this by creating regulatory guardrails tailored to the unique attributes of blockchain technology while giving users and developers the confidence to engage and innovate in this ecosystem. | ||
| Gone are the days of arbitrary enforcement actions and regulatory turf wars that only hindered the development of this groundbreaking technology and drove capital overseas. | ||
| This bill gives market participants the confidence to build, invest, and grow right here in the United States of America. | ||
| We are proud to have the Securities Clarity Act included in this legislation. | ||
| This provision provides market certainty for innovators and clear jurisdictional boundaries for regulators. | ||
| Subsequently, elements of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act were included, clarifying once and for all that digital asset developers and service providers who do not custody consumer funds are not considered money transmitters. | ||
| Importantly, the Clarity Act will help further decentralize our financial system so that Americans can forego intermediaries and transact directly with each other. | ||
| Having this choice will fundamentally transform the digital economy and unlock new opportunities for innovators, investors, and consumers around the globe. | ||
| I want to thank Chairman Hill and Chairman Thompson for their leadership and for working with us to include our two bills in the Clarity Act. | ||
| The United States has an opportunity to lead and deliver on President Trump's promise to make America the crypto capital of the world. | ||
| We cannot and will not fail. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentlewoman from California. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Kaston, who is also the vice-ranking member of the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| The gentleman from Illinois is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the only thing you need to know about the Clarity Act is that it is designed to destroy U.S. capital markets. | ||
| U.S. capital markets are the envy of the world because investors like putting their money in them. | ||
| They are the envy of the world because we provide robust investor protections when people put their money in them, in part through the Security Exchange Commission. | ||
| And yet the Clarity Act would allow companies to raise up to $200 million without any disclosure, without any transparency, just by tokenizing their security. | ||
| But let's be clear, putting a security on the blockchain doesn't make investors safe. | ||
| It might make money for the crypto industry. | ||
| I know you all like that. | ||
| It might make it possible for the companies to temporarily raise more money from dumb investors because they don't get that protection. | ||
| But if we stop protecting investors, why would investors put their money in the stock market? | ||
| They will abandon the U.S. to go to places with a better risk reward. | ||
| I understand we've got a lot of fraud and grift in the White House. | ||
| I understand you are a big fan of fraud and grift in the White House, but we don't need any more. | ||
| Let's protect Americans' hard-earned savings. | ||
| Let's protect markets and not just make crypto bros richer. | ||
| I urge a resounding and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| To yield one minute to the gentleman from Michigan, the vice chairman of our full committee, Mr. Heisinger, who's been a longtime advocate for reform in the digital markets. | ||
| Gentleman from Michigan is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that. | ||
| From the chair, the digital asset ecosystem currently operates in a fragmented regulatory environment that lends itself to significant challenges for both businesses and, more importantly, investors. | ||
| The ambiguity in classifying a digital asset either as a security or as a commodity has led to confusion, legal uncertainty, and ultimately consumer harm. | ||
| American innovation is a critical element of job creation and economic opportunity here in the United States. | ||
| Congress must look to preserve this competitive advantage and not let it leave our shores. | ||
| By passing a comprehensive market structure framework, responsible actors will now have greater certainty and consumers greater protection from bad actors. | ||
| This bill establishes a regulatory framework for digital assets that aligns with our existing financial markets while accounting for the unique characteristics of digital assets. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, our markets are the envy of the world. | ||
| American innovation is a critical element of job creation and economic opportunity here in the United States. | ||
| Congress must not cede its responsibility. | ||
| I urge all of my colleagues to support this important legislation and yield back the balance of the public. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| I now yield one minute and 15 seconds to the gentleman from California, Mr. Sherman, who is also the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets. | ||
| Gentleman from California is recognized for one minute and 15 seconds. | ||
| I submitted many amendments to rules, as did other Democrats. | ||
| They made only one in order. | ||
| I will not be offering it because, in the absence of the other amendments, it's really not useful. | ||
| This bill is an attack on working families, which is why the AFL-CIO says no, and they are scoring it. | ||
| This bill prohibits Congress members from sponsoring cryptocurrencies because of the obvious corruption and conflict of interest, but it allows the president to create electronic monopoly money. | ||
| And who's buying? | ||
| Abu Dhabi is buying $2 billion of Trump stablecoin, while the Chinese interests behind TikTok are buying $300 billion worth of Trump coin. | ||
| And that's just what we know about. | ||
| There's a lot we don't know about because cryptocurrency literally means hidden money. | ||
| It allows for bailouts under Section 13.3 of the Federal Reserve Act. | ||
| Jay Powell won't do it, but the next guy will. | ||
| And Congress won't stop him because crypto spends more in super PACs than any other industry by far, five times more than the combination of big oil and big pharma. | ||
| It allows for the purchase of Bitcoin and Trump coin, and Trump has announced that he's going to do just that with our tax dollars going into his crypto. | ||
| And finally, this creates the perfect creates the perfect financial tool for drug dealers and for tax evaders. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized for 15 more seconds. | ||
| It creates the perfect financial tool for drug dealers and tax evaders. | ||
| Because every time a billionaire cheats on his taxes, a member of the Freedom Caucus earns his wings. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the gentleman from Ohio, the chairman of our Subcommittee on National Security, and a longtime policy advocate for reform in our digital markets. | ||
| Mr. Davidson. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Chairman. | |
| The ability to move payments or digital tokens that represent other assets person to person without a third party, any intermediary, across any space digitally at the speed of light is part of the reason this industry was created. | ||
|
Urge Support for Clarity Act
00:15:55
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||
| So what do those tokens represent? | ||
| Either securities, commodities, real-world assets. | ||
| We've needed a bright-line test since this market began to decide who regulates them. | ||
| I introduced the first piece of legislation on this back in 2018 called the Token Taxonomy Act. | ||
| Think of the harm that could have been prevented if we had that bright line test all this time. | ||
| And the other essential component is self-custody. | ||
| The ability to control your own assets. | ||
| You can't go person to person if you have to go through an intermediary without a permission. | ||
| So it does that. | ||
| It does just what we need to do, just like cash. | ||
| We finally have market structure in place with this bill. | ||
| I hope the Senate delivers the same structure soon and we get the certainty the markets need. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| And I yield one minute to the gentlewoman from New York, Ms. Velasquez, who is also the ranking member of the Small Business Committee. | ||
| Gentlewoman from New York is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this bill. | ||
| It is ironic we are debating a bill called the Clarity Act when it offers no clarity on one of the biggest issues in crypto, the blatant conflicts of interest inside our own government. | ||
| Since returning to office, President Trump has turned the presidency into a crypto cash machine. | ||
| It is now estimated that crypto makes up the majority of Donald Trump's net worth. | ||
| Foreign investors, some under further investigation, are pouring millions into these ventures by an access, influence, and favorable treatment. | ||
| So I ask, what are we doing here? | ||
| With this bill, not only are we continuing to allow President Trump to issue his cryptocurrency, we are allowing him and his cronies to be in charge of the regulators overseeing that venture and compromising the stability of capital markets in our country. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no and I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from how much time I have remaining, please. | ||
| The gentleman has two and a half minutes remaining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. Flood, the chair of our housing and insurance subcommittee. | ||
| The gentleman from Nebraska is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I'll be brief. | ||
| It's been a longer wait than expected, but I am excited that the Clarity Act has finally made it to the House floor for debate. | ||
| The Clarity Act is not just about digital assets like Bitcoin. | ||
| This bill will usher in a new age of blockchain innovation that will go well beyond the tokens that we know well today. | ||
| Chris Dixon's book, titled Read, Write, Own, talks about a future where blockchain technology enables a new generation of the internet. | ||
| He terms Web 3.0. | ||
| Technology like NFTs can be used as tickets to events, identity verification tools, and serve other real-world uses that will change our digital economy. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to see the bigger picture. | ||
| The vote today is not just about cryptocurrency as we know it. | ||
| It's about enabling the next generation of innovation enabled by blockchain. | ||
| This is a good, bipartisan product that builds on the years of work from Chairman Hill and subcommittee chairman style, the Financial Services Committee, and the Ag Committee. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support the bill and yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back to the gentleman from Arkansas Reserves. | ||
| The gentlewoman from California is recognized. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Foster, who is also the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions. | ||
| The gentleman from Illinois is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Clarity Act, which claims to bring digital assets under a regulatory umbrella, but fails in two major areas. | ||
| First, because it has no KYC, know your customer requirements for self-hosted wallets. | ||
| It allows anonymous trading on DeFi exchanges and the dark web, which means there is no way to prevent wash trading, front-running, corruption, ransomware, extortion and kidnapping payoffs, and all the parade of horribles that unregulated crypto has unleashed upon the world. | ||
| This legislation simply applies a patina of regulation while codifying loopholes that leave large parts of the industry, including the president's own meme coin schemes, completely unregulated. | ||
| Secondly, the Clarity Act also lacks basic investor protection present in the securities laws. | ||
| For example, firms are not required to serve the best interests of their investors or to separate critical market functions and many other basic protections. | ||
| Now, I am not ideologically opposed to crypto, and both of these flaws are fixable, but in clarity, they have not been fixed, and so I oppose this bill and urge my colleagues to vote no. | ||
| Yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield one minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Fischer. | ||
| The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the bipartisan Clarity Act, common sense legislation that finally gives digital asset markets the regulatory certainty they need to grow responsibly right here in the United States. | ||
| For too long, innovators have been stuck in a regulatory gray zone, caught between agencies and overlapping authority, and subject to enforcement instead of clear rules. | ||
| The uncertainty has driven jobs, investment, and innovation offshore while leaving American consumers exposed. | ||
| The Clarity Act fixes this. | ||
| It establishes clear functional rules for digital assets, drawing a bright line between the SEC and the CFTC and creating strong, enforceable protections for consumers. | ||
| It ensures that digital assets developers and consumers facing firm play by the rules, disclosing who owns what, segregating customer funds, and avoiding conflicts of interest. | ||
| It is long overdue, and I commend Chairman for bringing this bill to the floor today. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentlewoman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts. | ||
| She's an unapologetic leader for justice. | ||
| She's from Massachusetts, Ms. Presley. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Massachusetts is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Ranking Member Waters. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in vigorous opposition to the Clarity Act. | ||
| This bill gives a green light to self-enriching crypto schemes where officials at the highest levels of power, including in the White House, have generated hundreds of billions of dollars in personal profit. | ||
| We need legislation that stops financial abuse, not encourages it, especially during a time when the SEC has dropped enforcement actions against major crypto firms and undermined investor safety. | ||
| Across our country, millions of working families are battling rising costs. | ||
| Our elders are targeted by financial scams, and investors are trying to recover from volatile markets. | ||
| But Republicans are ignoring all of that to prioritize the crypto industry's wish list. | ||
| To be clear, the people deserve crypto legislation that is fair, transparent, and accountable, not a bill that opens the floodgates to conflicts of interest and weakens investor protections. | ||
| The Clarity Act fails that test. | ||
| Republicans need some clarity, all right, moral and legislative. | ||
| I agree with Ranking Member Waters. | ||
| This is really the Calamity Act. | ||
| And I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentlewoman from California has reserved. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of my time. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| We're here today, Mr. Speaker, because of the exceptional work by the House Financial Services Committee over a five-year period, including under the leadership of then-Chair Maxine Waters and our former Chairman Patrick McHenry, gathering feedback from experts, looking at market participants, analyzing the markets, talking to regulators, and that's how we got the Clarity Act on the floor today that is built on the backs of that hard work. | ||
| This chamber has passed a similar bill in the last Congress with exceedingly strong bipartisan support. | ||
| Since then, the Clarity Act has only been further refined and strengthened in terms of both legal and consumer protection. | ||
| This bill, Mr. Speaker, as we've demonstrated over that period of time, would prevent consumer harm like FTX. | ||
| I support the bill. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| The gentlewoman from California. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining? | ||
| The gentlewoman has two minutes remaining. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Kumlager-Dove. | ||
| Gentlewoman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, acts deregulatory | |
| loopholes without addressing core issues like transparency, fraud prevention, or equity in access. | ||
| The SEC doesn't even like this bill. | ||
| We need comprehensive, thoughtful regulation, not rushed frameworks driven by the people who will gain the most that ignore the voices of everyday investors, builders, and communities left behind. | ||
| Crypto deserves rules that are smart, fair, and future-facing. | ||
| The Clarity Act is none of these things, because if it was, Republicans would have had the votes much earlier. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| The gentlewoman yields back to the gentlewoman from California. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of the time. | ||
| The gentlewoman is recognized. | ||
| Let me reiterate. | ||
| A vote for H.R. 3633 is a vote to give Trump the pen to write the rules that would put more money in his family's pockets. | ||
| A vote for H.R. 3633 is a vote for increased investor harm. | ||
| A vote for H.R. 3633 is a vote to plant the seeds for the next financial crisis. | ||
| And a vote for H.R. 3633 is a vote to endanger our national security. | ||
| That is why I am voting no on H.R. 3633, the Calamity Act. | ||
| And I urge all members, don't give your vote to Trump to own crypto. | ||
| Don't give your vote to the Vice President. | ||
| They're the only two elected officials in this bill who can own crypto businesses. | ||
| I want to see all of the cabinet, the president, the vice president, and all members of Congress unable to own crypto business. | ||
| I urge all members to vote no, no, no on this bill. | ||
| Gentlewoman's time has expired. | ||
| Four and the nays are 134. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business and the vote on passage of Senate 1582, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Senate 1582, an act to provide for the regulation of payment stablecoins and for other purposes. | ||
| The question is on passage of the bill. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we have a vote now on passage of a measure that would create a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the crypto market. | |
| The bill would establish specific rules on stablecoin issuer eligibility, oversight, and national security compliance. | ||
| The Senate passed this bill last month with bipartisan support. | ||
| Should the House go on to approve this bill, it'll head to the White House for President Trump's signature. | ||
| Just a note: we understand the House is expected to go into recess after the next vote as they prepare to debate the Senate-approved $9 billion spending cuts bill today. | ||
| The House Rules Committee has yet to meet on the measure, which needs to happen before it can come to the House floor. | ||
| Earlier, White House Budget Director Russell Vogt answered questions from reporters on the spending cuts package and President Trump's reversal and is thinking that he'd like to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. | ||
| The Biden administration added all sorts of executive requirements to the PE program, broadband, internet program. | ||
| I'm curious if the Trump administration will use that as a template to add new executive requirements for some of the leftover money from the Inflation Reduction Act for some of these great projects. | ||
| We're going through a process with regard to the bead funding. | ||
| I refer you to Commerce on all the details there. | ||
| And, you know, we're going to make sure we put the President's stamp on that funding. | ||
| And any funding that goes out, we're always looking for opportunities on that front. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Any update on the rescues back into the House that needs to share on the public? | |
| No, we're looking forward to the House blessing the Senate package. | ||
| I'm not worried about it. | ||
| We need to get it done and get it across the finish line, but very historic moment, the return of using rescissions, getting the muscle memory for that back into the system. | ||
| We've talked about defunding corporation for public broadcasting for decades. | ||
| President Trump's the first one to be able to do it. | ||
| He had a lot of enthusiasm for this package, and we're just thrilled that we made it through that critical juncture last night. | ||
| Is the president satisfied with having more funding versions out of the you know the president has always been supportive of life-saving treatment and we continue to put forward proposals to make sure PEPFAR is more geared towards actual life-saving treatments. | ||
| We had good reasons to put the rescission up that we did, but you have to make adjustments along the way. | ||
| They maintained a $9 billion package. | ||
|
Hud Building Overrun Investigation
00:08:41
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||
| Hard to get upset about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Your reaction to the discussion about whether we file non-power, and I commented on it before, but the president said yesterday kind of might be unlikely to require him, but also bringing up commissioners with open lawmakers. | |
| What's your take on this latest factor? | ||
| Well, I mean, you know, I think the president was pretty clear yesterday. | ||
| He's unlikely to fire the chairman, but he has substantial concerns with regard to how he's managed the Fed, not just from an interest rate policy, but with regard to cost overruns. | ||
| And that's something I'm in particular looking at in conjunction with the National Capital Planning that has a number of new fantastic members. | ||
| We're trying to get a site visit right now and get over there. | ||
| I've been around it as I've gone up to the Martin building quite a few times, but I want to see it. | ||
| I want to walk around the building with the other members of the commission and get a sense for why is the overrun happening, the inconsistencies between the plan that was submitted to the commission originally, the statements that the chairman made before the Financial Services Committee, how those reflect, and it's either misleading to Congress or it needs to go back through the Planning Commission. | ||
| I think one of the features of our fiscal plans is that we have a plan to get to balance, to make savings where we want to make savings, and then there are areas where we feel like we need to spend money. | ||
| That could be one. | ||
| There's obviously things in the national security perspective, shipbuilding, aircraft carriers. | ||
| You know, we obviously think we need additional resources for border that we just secured. | ||
| So this notion that somehow if you're a fiscally responsible administration, that that means you have to take the same view to every dollar of spending, we just reject the notion. | ||
| And so it doesn't make answering those kind of questions particularly hard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Russ Beck, Jay Powell, do you think there are any signs of fraud in the renovation project? | |
| Are there only signs of fraud at this point or not yet? | ||
| Look, we want to go over there. | ||
| We want to see what's going on. | ||
| Obviously, the cost overrun is very concerning. | ||
| And the extent to which we don't believe that just having the Inspector General do a review is something that is going to be enough. | ||
| So we want to have sit down with those that are in charge of the project and get a brief from them and see where we're at. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You've got investigations of different kinds of fire power. | |
| No, the president's a builder. | ||
| He has concerns with an overrun of this nature. | ||
| I mean, it's just not an overrun of a normal building. | ||
| We're talking about a building that's approaching the largest amount of spending that's ever been done on a building before. | ||
| And we want to know why. | ||
| And we want to get an answer some clarity as to the features with regard to this large S. | ||
| And it has implications for the country's fiscal situation. | ||
| The Fed's been mismanaged for a number of years. | ||
| They're no longer providing a profit that comes back to the Treasury in the form of remittances. | ||
| And so that's something that there are implications across the board, and we're going to continue to get our handle on it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
HUD is also doing a major renovation in the Union. | |
| How is that any different than the benefits? | ||
| Sorry, what's that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
HUD is actually building a new building. | |
| Have you been to HUD? | ||
| Ever? | ||
| HUD is, if you had to work at HUD today, you would not want to work at HUD. | ||
| Like, it's a bad building. | ||
| It falls, like, portions of the building fall on people. | ||
| It needs a new building. | ||
| And we're going to do everything we can to make sure that career staff and the people who work at HUD have a building that reflects the hard work and public service that they're providing. | ||
| Again, this isn't a statement that says we're against renovations. | ||
| Renovations need to occur, but the notion that moving the people out of the HUD, and it's literally depressing when you go there, and moving them to a place where they can have a physical presence that they can do their job effectively, that's not the same thing as a $700 million cost overrun. | ||
| Director Smith, look at her and then you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, I just wanted to talk a bit about on the subject of buildings, the Grand Canyon Lodge that fell that has been burned to the ground in Grand Canyon. | |
| How much money do you allocate to situations like that, or does it only come from the state? | ||
| They're doing paper investigations. | ||
| 80 buildings were lost. | ||
| All the staff lost their accommodation and absolutely everything. | ||
| How quickly do you move now through FEMA and will you put fiscal packages better? | ||
| We'll take a very close look at it and go through our normal FEMA process, but I don't have anything for you right now on that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And your program and bond are both headed to Alcatraz today, and that is anticipated if this was to be rebuilt like the present. | |
| It's anticipated to cost around $3 million. | ||
| How do you square that with the cuts that the administration have been making across the entire federal government? | ||
| Well, again, you know, we don't have a cost estimate for that yet, but I would just refer you to what I said earlier. | ||
| The administration puts forward a comprehensive fiscal strategy. | ||
| We have cuts that we send to Congress and we have increases. | ||
| And in the net, we reduce the deficit and reduce debt. | ||
| But that doesn't mean that if something costs money, we're going to treat every dollar of spending or cut the same way. | ||
| The president doesn't believe that. | ||
| There are certain things as a federal government we need to spend money on. | ||
| And the president has talked about restoring that. | ||
| I'm glad that the secretaries are out there to get a handle on that. | ||
| So do you believe that it would be cost-effective, these renovations of Alcatraz? | ||
| We're going to go through the process like we do everything else, see what it costs, do it as efficiently as possible. | ||
| And this is, I think, the start of that process on which their site visit is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Director, do you have evidence of Fed Share Jerome Powell overseeing fraud or directing any lavish spending as part of this construction that would justify ending fire? | |
| We're going through the process right now. | ||
| The facts are very clear, and he will attest to the facts. | ||
| It's overrun by $700 million. | ||
| Where we want to get a sense for is the reasons why. | ||
| We want to get a sense for the difference between his statements and the plans that were submitted to the National Planning Commission. | ||
| And then we'll see where we are. | ||
| You might have missed it. | ||
| We're trying to get a site visit. | ||
| Myself, the National Planning Commission members, some senators that are concerned, Bill Pulte, the fantastic FHFA director, we want to go over there, take a tour, and have some really good conversations with the Fed on this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've disputed the idea of any terrace gardens or VIP dining room. | |
| And that conflicts with their own policy plans that were submitted to the Commission. | ||
| In my letter, you'll see the page numbers for those up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What do you get though from cost overruns, which can happen to all a lot of building projects in this city and many other cities? | |
| How do you get from there to fraud? | ||
| Fraud is an accusation of committing a crime, of stealing the taxpayers' money. | ||
| How do you get from the cost overrun to the crime accusation? | ||
| We have a building that is being horribly mismanaged, and there is a ton of oversight that's already going on. | ||
| We've brought an added layer with our own commissioners that are now on the job. | ||
| And we're going to see where this takes us. | ||
| But this is not something the American people should expect from their government. | ||
| And it comes at the real-world implication of us not having the Fed running a large S program that doesn't allow us to bring in the necessary resources to the Treasury. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The President posted on Trissocio that he had gotten information about Senator Schipp's mortgages from Fenny Mac's criminal investigation department. | |
| Is Bill will take giving the president information on his political adversaries' mortgages? | ||
|
Stablecoin Legislation Negotiations
00:15:40
|
||
| I refer you to Bill. | ||
| He's doing a great job. | ||
| He's been very out in front on this issue and helping expose it. | ||
| We're happy to come alongside. | ||
| And, you know, I'll just refer you to FHFA on that. | ||
| Mr. Roger, you weren't able to get these cuts to a cut far this time. | ||
| Are there any further rescissions packages to try and get those cuts or any other packages or you know, with regard to rescissions, we wanted to see how this vote was going to go. | ||
| It was really important for it to be successful. | ||
| We're on the one-yard line in the House. | ||
| We need to get across that one-yard line. | ||
| The critical vote was in the Senate. | ||
| We are very, very pleased with the passage of the Senate bill. | ||
| Our enthusiasm, the President's enthusiasm to send additional packages, we were watching closely about that first vote, and I think it's likely you'll see an additional package. | ||
| We're not here to announce anything on this front, but in terms of seeing whether this was a useful effort that was not a waste of time, it certainly has satisfied that threshold. | ||
| And we'll see where we go from here. | ||
| All right, thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members, you're voting on passage of a measure creating a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the crypto market, establishing specific rules on stablecoin issuer eligibility, oversight, and national security compliance. | |
| Here's a look, while we have some time, what members had to say about the legislation earlier on the floor. | ||
| Such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Senate Genius Act. | ||
| And I thank my colleague and longtime friend, Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee, for his leadership in ushering this bipartisan bill through the United States Senate. | ||
| Around the world, payment systems are undergoing an evolution. | ||
| New technologies are modernizing legacy infrastructure and unlocking innovative solutions to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and expand access to financial services. | ||
| Members of this House Financial Services Committee have long recognized the promise of payment stablecoins and have worked since 2022 to establish a legislative framework. | ||
| Last Congress, under the leadership of former Chairman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, the committee passed the Clarity for Payment Stable Coins Act of 2023. | ||
| This bill provided for bank and non-bank pathways for issuers to obtain regulatory approval, preserve state-level oversight, and set standards for reserve composition, audits, and sound risk management. | ||
| When the 119th Congress started in January, we picked up this effort in close coordination with the Senate Banking Committee. | ||
| And our base legislation and our legislative work over the past two years has laid that foundation for the progress made in both the House and the Senate. | ||
| Today, we have an opportunity to send stablecoin legislation to President Trump's desk. | ||
| This is a multi-Congress priority item, and it ensures American competitiveness, strong guardrails for our consumers. | ||
| We should not, Mr. Speaker, squander that opportunity. | ||
| This priority has been agreed to by both President Biden with his executive order and President Trump in his Executive Order 14178. | ||
| Through multiple versions of stablecoin legislation, the House and Senate have shared ideas and crafted workable approaches, and our joint efforts before us helped enhance the legislation on the floor this morning. | ||
| I want to recognize the hard work of my friends in the Senate to get the core fundamentals of what payment stablecoin legislation demand. | ||
| I also want to recognize the diligence and thoughtful work of my colleagues here in the House, including the chairman of our Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Subcommittee, Brian Stile, who championed and worked through our committee through markup in successfully designing, writing, and passing in committee the Stable Act. | ||
| I thank my House colleagues for their principled approach to key policies that guided and distinguished our effort, particularly around state regime oversight, the reserve composition, the anti-money laundering and territorial integrity issues around stablecoins, and finally the corporate structure of issuers. | ||
| Furthermore, it's my firmly held belief that only by enacting payment stablecoin legislation and, Mr. Speaker, I repeat, and comprehensive market structure reform in this Congress, like we just debated a few minutes ago, the Clarity Act, only by passing both will this Congress fully usher in the era of digital finance and ensure that consumers are protected whenever they engage with digital assets. | ||
| I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill and sending it forward to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for President Trump to sign into law in our reserve. | ||
| Gentlemen Reserves, gentlelady from California is recognized. | ||
| I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
| Two weeks ago, Republicans boasted about how they would provide billionaires with tax cuts they don't need by stripping health care from 17 million Americans, shuttering hospitals across the country, and starving 12 million families, including millions of children. | ||
| These billionaires are the same individuals who proudly gave millions of dollars to President Trump's campaign, literally brought votes during the last election, and even sponsored Stalinists' military parades to celebrate the president's birthday. | ||
| No one should be surprised that these same Republicans' next order of business is to validate, legitimize, and endorse the Trump family's corruption and efforts to sell the White House to the highest bigger. | ||
| SD 1582, the so-called Genius Act, establishes a woefully deficient federal framework for dollar-denominated payment stablecoins. | ||
| In the United States, stablecoins are a form of digitized private money. | ||
| Unlike other types of crypto, these coins claim to always maintain their value, often one coin for one dollar. | ||
| Nevertheless, that promise of stability is precisely what causes stable coins to be the subject to bank-like runs where the public rushes to sell their stable coins at the first whip of instability, making a bit of bad news into a full-blown financial crisis. | ||
| It was for this reason that when I was chairwoman of the committee, I sought to create a federal framework to oversee these stable coins and ensure that consumers are protected. | ||
| I worked with the Biden administration and former Republican chairman Patrick Henry to craft legislation. | ||
| We achieved that goal and I posted that legislation earlier this year. | ||
| We wanted to create a strong federal system to oversee this type of crypto market that protected consumers, our national security, and financial stability. | ||
| Unfortunately, the election of Donald Trump ended those bipartisan efforts and brought a significant new challenge to stablecoins. | ||
| The Trump family's brazen corruption using crypto to sell access in exchange for official acts. | ||
| And it just so happens that those stablecoins are one of the main vehicles Trump is using to make his corrupt crypto billions. | ||
| The Trump family crypto company, World Liberty Financial, launched a stablecoin called USD1 in April. | ||
| And shortly after that, the Abu Dhabi-backed investment from MGX brought $2 billion of Trump's coin to make an investment in Binance, a company that had been under investigation for numerous legal violations. | ||
| Trump and his family will make tens of millions of dollars just on that transaction alone, from the interest earnings alone. | ||
| That's Abu Dhabi's money. | ||
| More concerningly, by passing this bill, Congress will be telling the world that Congress is okay with corruption, okay with foreign companies buying influence, okay with criminals buying Trump coins to seek pardons and beneficial treatment. | ||
| Surely each of you can see how this is blatant conflict of interest, right? | ||
| Well, Democrats and the rest of America does as well. | ||
| It is why I introduced the Stop Trump and Crypto Act to ban the president, vice president, and members of Congress from crypto corruption. | ||
| If we do not ban elected officials in S-1582, including the president or vice president, from crypto corruption, each of us will be complicit. | ||
| And let me be clear on this point, because there's been a lot of misinformation. | ||
| This bill has a policy statement that elected officials, like members of Congress and senators, as well as government officials, cannot issue their own stablecoins. | ||
| But do you know who Republicans did not ban? | ||
| Now, get this straight: the president and the vice president. | ||
| They're the only elected officials that can have a crypto business. | ||
| Why are the Republicans protecting the president to make billions and billions more dollars? | ||
| Don't just take my word for it. | ||
| Earlier this week, the ayes are 308 and the nays are 122. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid to the table. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on passage of H.R. 1919, on which the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union calendar number 66, H.R. 1919. | ||
| A bill to amend the Federal Reserve Act to prohibit the Federal Reserve Banks from offering certain products or services directly to an individual to prohibit the use of central bank digital currency for monetary policy and for other purposes. | ||
| The question is on passage of the bill. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so the House now voting on legislation that will prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency to individuals or from using similar digital assets to implement the Fed's monetary policy. | |
| This is a five-minute vote, and while members vote here, we'll show you an interview with the on the cryptocurrency bills being voted on today. | ||
| Phone to talk about crypto week in the U.S. House is Jasper Goodman, who covers economics policy at Politico. | ||
| Thanks for being with us. | ||
| You wrote Wednesday night when the House finally advanced the three crypto bills that it came after a group of Republican hardliners dropped their opposition to the effort following a chaotic day of turnabouts and negotiations with Republican leaders. | ||
| What were the day-long negotiations about? | ||
| How did they get resolved? | ||
| Well, thanks for having me. | ||
| This saga really began on Tuesday afternoon when House Republicans put on the floor of the lower chamber a rule to begin debate on the crypto bills, a slate of three crypto bills that Republicans are hoping to pass this week, along with a fiscal year 26 defense spending measure. | ||
| And this was expected, I think, by most observers to be relatively smooth sailing. | ||
| They would pass this procedural step and move on to consideration of those bills. | ||
| But out of nowhere, at least from where we were sitting, a group of Republican rebels took down the rule that would allow the House to begin considering this legislation. | ||
| And that led to a chaotic day, day and a half of negotiations between the House Freedom Caucus members, the hard-right members who voted against this initial rule on Tuesday, President Trump, who got involved both late Tuesday night and late Wednesday night, and House Republican leaders who were trying to mediate this situation. | ||
| The objection from the hardliners, ostensibly, was that they wanted two of the crypto bills that were being taken up this week by House Republicans to be linked together to ensure that a bill that would ban a central bank digital currency would have a viable path forward in the Senate. | ||
| And conservatives have long been concerned that a CBDC, which is effectively a government-issued digital dollar, doesn't currently exist in the U.S. and would need congressional authorization in order to exist. | ||
| But there have long been concerns that a CBDC would stifle private sector innovation and also lead to privacy invasions. | ||
|
CBDC Controversy Overhaul
00:04:45
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|
unidentified
|
And so the hardliners were pushing to merge this CBDC ban bill in with one of the other crypto bills in order to force the Senate to take it up. | |
| But that would be highly unlikely because most Democrats don't support a CBDC ban, and that means they likely wouldn't have a path to 60 votes in the Senate. | ||
| So basically what happened here is late Tuesday night, this group of Republican hardliners went to the White House, met with Donald Trump, and they struck a supposed deal to add the CBDC language to one of the other crypto bills being considered this week called the Clarity Act, which is a sweeping market structure overhaul led by the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, French Hill. | ||
| But there was one problem with this. | ||
| The leaders of the House Financial Services and Agriculture Committees, which crafted these crypto bills, were not on board with this deal that the Freedom Caucus members struck with the president. | ||
| So we got back to the House floor on Wednesday for another vote on this rule. | ||
| And the hardliners were preparing to vote yes on the rule. | ||
| But then the senior members of the Financial Services and Agriculture Committee withheld their votes. | ||
| And this led House Republican leaders to have to leave this rule vote open for more than nine hours on the House floor yesterday as Republican leaders tried to mediate a solution between the hardliners and the leaders of the financial services and agriculture committees. | ||
| And just briefly, the reason that they opposed this proposal to attach CBDC language to the Clarity Act is that it would mean that Democrats wouldn't vote for the Clarity Act when they put it on the floor. | ||
| And they want to send a signal to the Senate that there is a lot of bipartisan support for their Clarity bill, the market structure overhaul, because they want to make law on this this year. | ||
| So they were categorically opposed to anything that would add a CBDC related poison pill to that bill. | ||
| This led to the protracted standoff. | ||
| And it was eventually resolved late on Wednesday night when House Republican leaders agreed to add language that would ban a central bank digital currency to the National Defense Authorization Act when the House takes that up later this year. | ||
| Of course, that'll create a whole other struggle, but that's a problem for tomorrow and for today. | ||
| They came to this deal with the hardliners to unfreeze the House floor, and they eventually passed this rule late on Wednesday night after what eventually became the longest vote in the history of the House. | ||
| Well, as you can see, just a few votes remain to be tallied. | ||
| The House is expected, we understand, to go into recess as members prepare to debate the Senate-approved $9 billion spending cuts bill today. | ||
| The House Rules Committee has yet to meet on that measure, which needs to happen before it can come to the floor today in the House. | ||
| Here's a look at more floor debate on cryptocurrency legislation being considered today. | ||
| I'll rise and yield myself such time as I may consume in support of H.R. 1919. | ||
| This bill has been before us before in this House chamber. | ||
| We debated it in the last Congress. | ||
| It's had the outstanding leadership, support, and advocacy by our majority whip here in the House, Mr. Tom Emmer of Minnesota. | ||
| And I rise in strong support. | ||
| At stake is a floor. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 12A of Rule 1, the chair declares the House in recess subject to the call of the chair. | ||
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And as we told you, the House now in recess after passing three bills related to cryptocurrency and debating the defense spending package for fiscal year 2026. | |
| Members will return after the House Rules Committee approves debate rules for the $9 billion spending cuts package that passed the Senate earlier on Thursday morning. | ||