| Speaker | Time | Text |
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Live Capitol Votes
00:15:22
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unidentified
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And a live look at the U.S. Capitol this evening, where the U.S. House is about to gavel back into session. | |
| We're expecting members to go right to a pair of votes on energy-related bills. | ||
| These should be the last votes of the day. | ||
| Live coverage of the U.S. House is here on C-SPAN. | ||
| To talk about the congressional stock trading, this is Dave Leventhal, investigative journalist. | ||
| He's also a contributing editor at Notice. | ||
| Dave, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
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Great to be with you. | |
| All right, so the Stock Act. | ||
| Following order. | ||
| Passage of H.R. 3109 and passage of H.R. 1949. | ||
| 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. | ||
|
unidentified
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Slam. | |
| Pursuant to clause 8, Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on passage of H.R. 3109, on which the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union calendar number 223, H.R. 3109. | ||
| A bill to require the Secretary of Energy to direct the National Petroleum Council to issue a report with respect to petrochemical refineries in the United States and for other purposes. | ||
| The question is on passage of the bill. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the first and only votes of the day here in the House as members have been working on energy-related legislation. | |
| This first vote is on a bill requiring the National Petro Petroleum Council to report on the state of petrochemical refineries in the United States. | ||
| The privately funded council, which is comprised of representatives selected by the Energy Secretary and represents the views of the oil and natural gas industry in advising, informing, and making recommendations to the Energy Department regarding oil and natural gas issues, last issued a report on U.S. petrochemical refining in 2004. | ||
| The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved that bill 28 to 20 on June 25th. | ||
| Three Democrats voted yes. | ||
| Fletcher of Texas, Lansman of Ohio, and Veazey of Texas. | ||
| In other congressional news, Florida Democrat Sheila Scherfilis-McCormick has been accused of misusing emergency relief funds. | ||
| While we're in this vote, we'll show you her reaction from earlier today. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Any thoughts on the indictment, please? | ||
| Well, it's an unjust indictment, and it seems like his intimidation tactics have been pervasive. | ||
| We spent all week seeing different members getting censured, all in hopes of intimidating and kind of distracting from the Epstein files. | ||
| And I look forward to my day in court so I can prove myself and actually state the truth. | ||
| But if this is what Congress is becoming, where they're always trying to intimidate you, scare tactics, especially attacking minorities, black and brown people, then we're going to have to keep fighting for the district. | ||
| And everybody has been giving me so much support that we're going to keep fighting until the district gets what it needs, which is fair prices, housing, and fair representation. | ||
|
unidentified
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Did you think you improperly calls on some of your colleagues to step down or resign? | |
| They didn't elect me. | ||
| It was my district. | ||
| And so we'll keep fighting for the people and keep working like we're doing now until they get what they need. | ||
| So we're here for the people. | ||
| So the only people who elected me should make that decision. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
|
unidentified
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And once again, House members here voting on a bill requiring the National Petroleum Council to report on the state of petrochemical refineries in the United States. | |
| While we're in this vote, we'll show you a news conference with congressional Democrats on climate change. | ||
| Good afternoon, everyone. | ||
| I'm delighted to welcome Leader Jeffries here, and very shortly, Speaker Amerital Pelosi will be joining us as well to talk a little bit about the climate situation and the failure of the United States to be present at the Conference of the Parties in Belém, Brazil, other than yours truly. | ||
| I'm not only grateful to the leader and the speaker for being here, but my travel there was facilitated by the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, which is a house organization that helped get me there because for the first time in Codel history that I'm aware of, the State Department refused to support or facilitate my travel or my credentialing. | ||
| My credentials don't say United States of America. | ||
| They say Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment, GLOBE, because the State Department refused to support this. | ||
| That's how bad the Trump administration has become. | ||
| I went there to make four points. | ||
| One, Trump does not represent the United States of government on matters related to climate. | ||
| He represents the fossil fuel industry and specifically his big billionaire fossil fuel donors when it comes to climate matters. | ||
| The United States is still very solid on climate action. | ||
| He just has chosen to represent his crooked billionaire donors. | ||
| The second is carbon pricing is essential. | ||
| The good things that have come out of COP so far mean that the plane crashes higher up the mountain. | ||
| But if you want to get the plane over the mountaintop safely, you've got to have carbon pricing. | ||
| And the best carbon pricing on the planet right now is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in the European Union. | ||
| And my mechanism to them was to stand fast against any Trump attacks and be ready to stand against them when they come. | ||
| The third is that we are seeing globally signs of the great climate insurance collapse. | ||
| It's been warned of in the United States now by the Federal Reserve, by Aon Insurance, by Freddie Mac, the chief economist. | ||
| The Economist magazine has warned of a $25 trillion hit the global real estate markets because climate risk makes insurance unmanageable, which makes mortgages unavailable, which makes property values fall, which leads to 2008-style recession. | ||
| That's the cascade, and you could see it in the New York Times piece yesterday that showed how Louisiana property values are already falling from the climate risk. | ||
| The last point I made is it's about damn time we told this story truthfully with the villains in it. | ||
| We wouldn't be where we were if the fossil fuel industry had not run a long and fraudulent campaign of climate denial. | ||
| And we wouldn't be where we are if the fossil fuel industry had not, since Citizens United, used its power to spend unlimited dark money in politics and threaten and promise to spend unlimited dark money in politics to prevent reasonable, sensible climate action from happening. | ||
| This is a story that has villains, and we need to talk about it in those terms. | ||
| And what we'll do is I'll recognize Leader Jeffries right now. | ||
| When Speaker Pelosi gets here, we'll interrupt for her. | ||
| When he's done, if Speaker Pelosi is not here, we'll take a few questions and wait for Speaker Merit to Pelosi. | ||
| Leader Jeffries, thank you, sir, for being here. | ||
| Well, good afternoon. | ||
| It's an honor and a privilege to be here in the United States Senate side of the Capitol and certainly with Senator Whitehouse, who's been an extraordinary leader on so many issues of importance, not simply to the people of Rhode Island, but the people of this great country and throughout the world, particularly as it relates to the climate crisis. | ||
| Now, from the very beginning of this Congress, the very beginning of this presidency, there's been an unwillingness by Donald Trump and House Republicans and Senate Republicans to deal with issues of importance to the American people, particularly as it relates to the cost of living crisis that we have in this country and the various reasons why it continues to get worse in the United States of America. | ||
| It's shameful that the Trump administration and the United States government chose not to be involved and engaged at the most recent COP conference, essentially ceding leadership on this issue in the world to our rival China and the Chinese Communist Party, while leaving America and Americans behind. | ||
| Now there's a direct connection between the climate crisis, which continues to grow more urgent by the day, and the rise of extreme weather events that are not a partisan issue because they hit blue states, purple states, and red states all across America. | ||
| A direct connection between the climate crisis and the rise of extreme weather events that threaten the health, the safety, and the well-being of the American people, and a direct connection between the rise of extreme weather events and the homeowners insurance crisis that exists now in state after state after state. | ||
| Home ownership has become unaffordable in far too many places, ripping away the possibility of home ownership for millions of Americans. | ||
| And we know that home ownership has always been central to the great American dream. | ||
| And so it's incredibly important that we deal with the climate crisis because there is only one Earth. | ||
| There is no Planet B. | ||
| We have no other option. | ||
| We have to deal with protecting God's green earth. | ||
| But we also should deal with the climate crisis because the absence of doing it causes life in America to just continue to become more unaffordable, | ||
| particularly in this instance as it relates to both the home insurance crisis and the rise in electricity costs and utility bills all across the country because of the administration's assault on the progress that was made related to standing up a clean energy economy under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, | ||
| Senator Whitehouse, Democrats in the House and the Senate, and of course the Biden administration. | ||
| Republicans have taken a sledgehammer to the clean energy economy, which hurts our ability to both deal with the climate crisis and hurts our ability to drive down costs for everyday Americans. | ||
| And I look forward to the continued leadership of Senator Whitehouse and of course the continued leadership on this issue by our Speaker America, Nancy Delessandro Pelosi, who has been a champion on so many issues for the children, of course, at all times, for the country, the Constitution, the Congress, and of course, decisively, for the climate. | ||
| It's now my honor to yield to Speaker Pelosi. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Leader. | ||
| I almost called you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Just a few more months. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Whitehouse, for hosting us here today, but also for your tremendous leadership on the ongoing, your relentless, persistent determination to save the planet for the children. | ||
| And I saw some of it on my phone that you presented, your visit to Brazil. | ||
| And I want to associate myself with the remarks of the distinguished House Democratic leader, Mr. Jeffries, because he put it all in perspective from being God's creation to the kitchen table of the American people in terms of the cost. | ||
| One other part of it that he referenced in terms of natural disasters cost people family life, livelihood, character of their communities, but also cost the national treasury hundreds of billions of dollars to make up for this. | ||
| So what is the point of this, except that they're in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry? | ||
| We're there to use every resource we have to save the planet, to make things affordable for people. | ||
| My invitation to be here was to talk in a little bit of a historic thing. | ||
| My first COP, it was so early they didn't even call it COP. | ||
| It was 1992 in Brazil. | ||
| Our delegation was led by Senator Al Gore. | ||
| While we were there, he made one of the most spectacular save the planet speeches you ever heard right after the Dalai Lama. | ||
| It was a religious and a scientific meeting in Brazil. | ||
| Then we couldn't find him. | ||
| We were supposed to all have dinner. | ||
| We couldn't find him. | ||
| He was called away by Bill Clinton to ask if he wanted to be Vice President of the United States. | ||
| So that's just placing it in time in history. | ||
| I just left Al Gore at the funeral of Dick Cheney. | ||
| In those days, this was not, we had bipartisan delegation to go to some of these meetings. | ||
| That was then, this is now. | ||
| This is so important to our society, to our challenge of a generation. | ||
|
Values, Health, and Security Crisis
00:15:26
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| This issue is, of course, a values issue. | ||
| That's been said again and again. | ||
| But let's start with it's a health issue. | ||
| for our children, clean air, clean water, just saving the planet for them. | ||
| It's an economic issue in terms of green technologies and for us to be preeminent in the world instead of cutting off the funding for tax credits that enable us to be that, as they are doing with the IRA bill. | ||
| It's a security issue. | ||
| Security issues. | ||
| We go around the world and study migration and the rest, much migration, especially from, well, the Northern Triangle in Central America. | ||
| Many people were coming to the United States because of drought. | ||
| They couldn't farm. | ||
| And they didn't have food that they were growing for themselves. | ||
| So it's a migration issue, and a migration issue is a security issue. | ||
| So it's health, it's economic, it's a security issue because, well, we have the encroachment of deserts, the rising of the sea levels, the droughts, floods, everything else that goes with it, as the distinguished leader mentioned, so many of the natural disasters. | ||
| And it is a values issue, as was mentioned. | ||
| If you believe as I do that this is God's creation, then we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards. | ||
| But even if you don't, we all agree that we owe it to our children as a value to pass on this planet in a way that is sustainable. | ||
| And they have no belief in science. | ||
| It's the strangest thing. | ||
| If science says this is what is causing the more intensity of storms and the rest of that, and government says we should do this, they don't believe in science and they don't believe in governance. | ||
| So two no's do not make a right. | ||
| So we have a real problem here. | ||
| And I will just close, did I say that already, by saying this. | ||
| On this subject, and you both have taken us to this place, we have to have truth. | ||
| We have to have truth in how this is all presented. | ||
| That's not what they're doing. | ||
| And we have to have trust in the policies and the appeal that we're making to the American people to understand the connection to their kitchen table, their energy bills and the rest. | ||
| Second, in closing, when we, when I was speaking the first time, this is my flagship issue, President Bush was president, we passed the most fantastic energy bill working together. | ||
| He wanted nuclear, I wanted renewables. | ||
| We had a big celebration and a very big bill, President Bush anti-Pelosi as Speaker. | ||
| And of course we then went from energy, which is part of the climate issue, but then to the climate bill and pass the climate bill in the House. | ||
| We couldn't get it passed in the Senate with filibusters going to that. | ||
| But then under President Biden, we were able to do that with the IRA legislation. | ||
| So progress has been made. | ||
| Now they're pulling it back. | ||
| And why? | ||
| Because it doesn't even go through the brain. | ||
| Just the money goes in the pocket, the vote goes on the board, and the President insists on it. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| Questions? | ||
| My question is for Speaker America Pelosi. | ||
|
unidentified
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The Trump administration has repeatedly undercut efforts to address climate change, including removing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord and, more recently, obviously not offering any U.S. representation to COP30. | |
| Do you think that any efforts to mutilate the climate crisis could be made under this administration? | ||
| Well, I'm going to yield to you because you just came back and you saw the enthusiasm that 80 countries had that. | ||
| I think it's going to be difficult. | ||
| But I think the more the spotlight goes on to the Trump administration for its corruption for the fossil fuel industry, for his donors, and the more we can compare that corruption and the terrible policy that it creates against where the American people want to be, it creates another wedge between the Trump administration and the people. | ||
| And as particularly our House colleagues come to the November election, that wedge between the Trump administration and the people begins to have a big effect in those elections. | ||
| And so I think you've seen it beginning with the Epstein dramas. | ||
| But I think this is another issue that shows that Trump is not aligned with the American people, that he can't be trusted to protect people's pocketbooks and their electric utility bills and their homeowners' insurance and their home values, and that that becomes a powerful political issue that gives us the opportunity to correct their corrupt policies. | ||
| I would add that mobilization has been my own thing. | ||
| I say inside maneuvering to get things done, but outside mobilization makes it all the better. | ||
| And the outside mobilization on this issue among young people is very vital. | ||
| To the point that the distinguished Senator made about us winning the House when Speaker Jeffries takes over, we won't be able to get new legislation because it's doubtful that there's an understanding of truth and trust on this subject in the White House. | ||
| But we will be able to hold in check some of those things. | ||
| And I'll point out the issue. | ||
| Well, I associate myself with everything that Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Senator Whitehouse have said. | ||
| As House Democrats, we plan on focusing the attention of the American people on three issues, which is a big difference between Democrats and Republicans. | ||
| Affordability, health care, and corruption. | ||
| And in this particular space, as it relates to dealing with the climate crisis, a corrupt bargain has been struck, as Speaker Pelosi indicated, between these outside special interests, Donald Trump, and Republicans in the Congress, which is why there's no action in dealing with the climate crisis, because they are following the perspectives of GOP big donors. | ||
| That's corruption in real time, and it's having an adverse impact on the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, to Leader Jeffries and Speaker America Pelosi, it seems like in recent months climate has sort of fallen lower on the list of talking points that Democrats here in Congress are bringing up. | |
| How do you think you can, if at all, keep focus on this issue? | ||
| I don't think that's the case at all. | ||
| Affordability is the issue, and this is an affordability issue in every way in terms of jobs, in terms of cost of living, and the rest. | ||
| And also in terms of education, STEM, training young people for the future. | ||
| That's who we are. | ||
| But I will say this, just to that point and the previous question. | ||
| Donald Trump is the worst president of the United States for America's children. | ||
| The worst president American children have ever had in terms of their health, their education, the clean, safe environment in which they can thrive, including safety from gun violence, Aguilar, the job economic security of their families, and a future, a future that is fair and just in terms of, yes, the planet, the air they breathe, but also the economic situation that you're in. | ||
| And he is giving them as a gift, a $600 billion increase in the national debt for them to pay off as he takes away health care from them, takes down the Department of Education, and the rest of it. | ||
| And to this very point, the air they breathe, the water they drink, he doesn't care. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
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unidentified
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All of you, given that the renewable liquid fuel incentives in IRA, it's one of the few clean fuel climate-related provisions to survive the current administration and Republican majority. | |
| Could you address how you view the role of liquid biofuels in reducing emissions? | ||
| And do you support E-15 legislation that farm state legislators are trying to push through? | ||
| Well, let me generally comment on the assault on the Inflation Reduction Act and the clean energy economy. | ||
| And as Democrats, we're united in pushing back against the damage that was done, notwithstanding the fact that there were several more than 20 House Republicans who said, hands off the clean energy tax credits and provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and then, of course, bent the knee to Donald Trump as soon as he ordered them to decimate the overwhelming majority. | ||
| So we think that there's a lot of repair work that has to be done in order to get back to the place where we are standing up a clean energy economy for the good of the climate, for the good of communities across the country, the jobs that are created, the economic development, the lowering of electricity prices, particularly in an environment now where because of the rise of artificial intelligence, we're going to see exponential demand for energy, and we shouldn't be cutting things back. | ||
| So in terms of ethanol and that particular dynamic, it's in the mix of things, right? | ||
| Important to remain a part of the picture related to the future. | ||
| But I'm really concerned about the damage that was done to renewables, to wind, to solar, and to the opportunity that really was groundbreaking coming out of the Inflation Reduction Act. | ||
| So ranking member on Environmental Public Works, I told Republicans that is something I'm very willing to consider, but waiting for their first offer. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Treaty, one more, and then the leader. | ||
|
unidentified
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Speaking of climate and administration, tomorrow the administration has announced it's going to issue new regulations, pretty much gutting the Endangered Species Act. | |
| One of them says that they will not be able to consider matters such as climate change in listing species as endangered. | ||
| I wonder what's your reaction to that? | ||
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unidentified
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Are you going to oppose that? | |
| Of course. | ||
| This is all in keeping with their, well, let me say, use the President's language. | ||
| He said this whole climate issue is the biggest con job in American history. | ||
| Always projecting his own vulnerability onto others. | ||
| He is President Trump is the biggest con job in American history. | ||
| And so what they're doing, again, this is God's creation. | ||
| Everything in nature is connected. | ||
| You can't just say we're going to do this or that and connect it from everything else in nature. | ||
| But it's just as if they treat people. | ||
| We don't want to have any differentiation with people either. | ||
| That's why we have to have truth. | ||
| We have to make sure people are not apathetic about listening to what is at stake here. | ||
| Truth and trust in the collaboration that we want to have. | ||
| Collaboration, the transparency of it all. | ||
| And what they're doing, that's almost irreversible. | ||
| That's why it's really important for us to win this election so that we at least can hold up some of that. | ||
| And then hopefully we can have some truth and trust in the Supreme Court so they don't let him get away with destroying God's creation. | ||
| One of the points I made in Brazil is that at events like the COP, you see the smiling mask of the fossil fuel industry. | ||
| Oh my God, they're indeed happy. | ||
| But if you want to see their true face, you look at what they are having the Trump administration do. | ||
| And the depravity of the corruption, the depravity of the lying, and the disinterested in anybody's well-being other than the big donors. | ||
| That's the true face of the fossil fuel industry, and we need to recognize that. | ||
| Thank you all very much, and thank you particularly to the leader and Speaker Matt for coming over. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Do you want to say something on that? | ||
| No, what about the endangered species? | ||
| Failure to protect endangered species represents an assault on the divine creativity of Almighty God, and we plan to strongly oppose it. | ||
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unidentified
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House members here voting on a bill requiring the National Petroleum Council to report on the state of petrochemical refineries here in the United States, the first of two votes this evening. | |
| Vote tallying just a little bit slower than expected. | ||
| We're seeing reports of a fire emergency in the tunnel to the Rayburn House office building. | ||
| There is a subway system on Capitol Hill that shuttles members and staff between buildings. | ||
| And we got a note from the House Radio TV gallery that's encouraging members to take an alternate tunnel, the Cannon office building tunnel, to get to the House chamber. | ||
| So all members continue voting here. | ||
| Florida Democrat Sheila Scherfilis-McCormick has been accused of misusing emergency relief funds. | ||
| While this vote continues, we'll show you her reaction from earlier today. | ||
| Well, it's an unjust indictment, and it seems like these intimidation tactics have been pervasive. | ||
| We spent all weeks seeing different members getting censured, all in hopes of intimidating and kind of distracting from the Epstein files. | ||
| And I look forward to my day in court so I can prove myself and actually state the truth. | ||
| But if this is what Congress is becoming, where they're always trying to intimidate you, scare tactics, especially attacking minorities, black and brown people, then we're going to have to keep fighting for the district. | ||
|
Speaker Emerita Pelosi's Fight
00:01:35
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| And everybody has been giving me so much support, and we're going to keep fighting until the district gets what it needs, which is fair prices, housing, and fair representation of Congress. | ||
| Did you think you'd be able to improperly? | ||
|
unidentified
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What's your responsibility to step down or resign? | |
| They didn't elect me. | ||
| It was my district. | ||
| And so we'll keep fighting for the people and keep working like we're doing now until they get what they need. | ||
| So we're here for the people. | ||
| So the only people who elected me should make that decision. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| On this vote, the yays are 230 and the nays are 176. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from California, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, rise? | ||
|
Visionary Chief of Staff
00:03:00
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| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, Speaker Emerita Pelosi is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a visionary, steadfast, and deeply respected leader, an indispensable participant in advancing our mission for the people, my longtime Chief of Staff, Terry McCullough. | ||
| I'm not finished. | ||
| Terry is stepping down this month to spend more time with her family, teenagers. | ||
| Terry's service has been defined by wisdom, by warmth, and by her unwavering belief in the power of public service to improve private lives. | ||
| From her beginnings as an intern in my San Francisco office, a district office nearly 30 years ago, to her outstanding leadership as chief of staff in the Speaker's office, Terry has embodied the very best of her core values, integrity, excellence, and compassion. | ||
| Terry made history as the first woman to serve as the chief of staff in the speaker's office. | ||
| A testament not only to her extraordinary capabilities, but to her trailblazing example for women across this institution and the nation. | ||
| Her leadership helped guide our work throughout times of enormous challenge and change, from strengthening our institution to delivering historic progress for working families. | ||
| Her judgment, strategic insight, and care for every member of our office, our caucus, our Congress, has been essential to our success. | ||
| While we will miss her daily leadership, we wish her every happiness in the next chapter of her life. | ||
| We look forward to continuing our collaboration, friendship, and shared mission in new ways. | ||
| Thank you, Terry McCullough, for everything. | ||
|
unidentified
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I yield that. The gentlelady yields. | |
|
Jobs Numbers Debate
00:06:14
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| Congratulations, and thank you for your service. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business, is the vote on passage of H.R. 1949, on which the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union calendar number 225, H.R. 1949, a bill to repeal restrictions on export and import of natural gas. | ||
| The question is on the passage of the bill. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we heard remarks there from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced earlier this month that she will not seek re-election after 40 years in Congress, almost 40 years. | |
| Again, the focus in the House today has been on energy-related legislation. | ||
| This vote is on a bill that eliminates all current restrictions on the import and export of liquefied natural gas and provides that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will have exclusive authority to approve or deny applications for the siting, construction, expansion, or operation of LNG terminals or other facilities for gas exports or imports. | ||
| The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill along party lines 26 to 23. | ||
| Back on June 25th, the House passed a similar bill, 224 to 200, during the last Congress in 2024. | ||
| That was never considered by the Senate. | ||
| During this vote, we'll hear from Vice President Vance at an event with Breitbart News. | ||
| I got American parks. | ||
| I got American faith in America's heart. | ||
|
unidentified
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They say. | |
| Mr. Vice President, thanks for taking the time to do this. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Well, I love to be here with all of you. | ||
| It's a beautiful building and a beautiful morning. | ||
| I always joke with Matt, but it's not actually not a joke. | ||
| I'm being dead serious, that this is the most well-sourced journalist in Washington, D.C. | ||
| And if you remember maybe six months ago, maybe it was actually a year, year and a half ago, when there was this big conversation in the Washington Post about what do we do to actually get in touch with the other half of America? | ||
| How do we actually make our journalism more appealing to the half of the country that doesn't agree with far-left politics? | ||
| And I actually, I think I texted Jeff Bezos and I said, if you're really serious about this, you should just hire Matt Boyle and make him run your entire political reporting shop. | ||
| Now, Larry Soloff, I'm sure, is pissed off at me for that suggestion, but unfortunately for the Washington Post, they did not take my advice. | ||
| So I'm proud to be here with Matt Boyle and Breitbart and thanks for everything you guys do. | ||
| All right, so Mr. Vice President, the big news this morning is new jobs numbers blew away expectations. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Huge. | |
| From the September numbers, so these were delayed because of the government shutdown, more than double, 119,000 new jobs. | ||
| And then also there's some interesting stuff in the wage number, wages numbers there as well that shows wages on the rise. | ||
| Your thoughts on the jobs numbers? | ||
| Okay, so a huge jobs report and I assume the market is going crazy right now, probably just opened, because what this shows is that the Trump economic policies are actually working. | ||
| And you've got 119,000 new jobs. | ||
| Economists thought that we would have about 50,000 new jobs, but that's actually just the headline number. | ||
| If you look below the surface, I think the numbers are actually better. | ||
| So number one, wages continue to way outpace inflation. | ||
| If you go back to the three years of the Biden administration, the average American worker actually lost about $3,000 of take-home pay. | ||
| In the first 10 months of the Trump economy, we've increased take-home pay by about $1,200, adjusting for inflation. | ||
| So that's a huge, huge thing, and this jobs report confirms that. | ||
| You have the number of manufacturing hours worked in the economy is actually going up. | ||
| You see the private sector is really driving this economic growth and is driving the job creation. | ||
| And this is really important, I know, to you, Matt, but really to me. | ||
| And it's that we are seeing the job growth go to native-born American citizens. | ||
| And what happened under the Biden administration is to the extent there was any job growth at all, if you looked at the data, almost all of the net job creation in the United States under the Biden administration went to the foreign-born. | ||
| Now, of course, some of those people are illegal immigrants to the United States, but that means that a lot of the job creation was actually going to illegal aliens who shouldn't have been in our country. | ||
| The best thing that you can say about the Trump economy is that American jobs are going to American workers for a change, and that's the thing that I'm proudest about with these numbers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| So, now, another big story is that last night President Trump announced that tomorrow he's going to be hosting a meeting with the New York City mayor-elect Zorhan Mamdani. | ||
| He calls him communists. | ||
| I might have a snow about that. | ||
| So, but anyway, the point is that Mamdani's rise can be attributed to his, you know, everybody's the new buzzword, if you will, is affordability. | ||
| So, how do we people out there feel like the economic situation isn't that great? | ||
| Look, we're 10 months to the day here since the inauguration. | ||
| But they want to see more, they want to see more action. | ||
| We've seen a lot of steps you guys have taken. | ||
| A lot of people are putting a lot of faith in what Secretary Besson is saying: that the first half of next year, the economy is going to boom because of the policies you guys have enacted. | ||
| What's your message to those out there who feel like they haven't seen that gain yet? | ||
| Yeah, well, first, Matt, the government shutdown didn't help, to be clear. | ||
| And I do think that actually pumped the brakes a little bit on all the great economic news that we were seeing. | ||
| And look, the Democrats, our attitude was: why are the Democrats doing this? | ||
| They're the party of government. | ||
| Why are they shutting down the government? | ||
| For 10 years, they said to shut down the government is an act of economic terrorism on the United States. | ||
|
Rural Health Care Concerns
00:15:57
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|
unidentified
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And it's sort of a question that answers itself because I think that they're the nays are 217 and the nays are 188. | |
| The bill is passed without objection. | ||
| A motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
|
unidentified
|
House will be in order. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Wisconsin seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on House Administration be discharged from further consideration of HCON Res 62 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the concurrent resolution. | ||
| House Concurrent Resolution 62: Concurrent Resolution Authorizing the Use of Emancipation Hall and Capital Visitor Center for an event to unveil the statue of Barbara Rose Johns. | ||
| Is there objection to the consideration of the concurrent resolution? | ||
| Without objection, the concurrent resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered as the first sponsor of H.R. 2180, the Keep the Watchdogs Running Act, H.R. 759, the Federal Firefighters Families First Act, H.R. 1560, Postal Supervisors and Managers Fairness Act, H.R. 1559, Postal Employee Appeal Rights Amendment Act. | |
| All bills originally introduced by Representative Connolly of Virginia for the purposes of adding co-sponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of Rule 12. | ||
| Without objection, for what purpose does the gentleman from Rhode Island seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, with deep admiration for the memory of our departed colleague Sylvester Turner. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, with deep admiration for the memory of our departed colleague Sylvester Turner, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered as the first sponsor of H.R. 1034, the Cybersecurity on the Job Training Program Act, for the purposes of adding co-sponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to Clause 7 of Rule 12. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I hereby remove my name as co-sponsor from H.R. 5494. | ||
| So ordered. | ||
| The chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address this body for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| I object. | ||
| I withdraw that objection. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the skyrocketing cost of health care. | ||
| When President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, he promised affordable coverage for all. | ||
| 15 years and billions of dollars of later. | ||
| All we've gotten is higher costs and less coverage. | ||
| Basic economics tells us that when government subsidizes the price consumers pay, demand surges and prices soar. | ||
| We've seen this movie before. | ||
| Since federal student loans began, college tuition has risen four and a half times faster than inflation. | ||
| When Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act and spent $1.8 trillion on subsidies for all kinds of things, inflation hit 40 years high. | ||
| It's clear that pouring taxpayer money into a broken system will only drive prices higher. | ||
| As we debate health care costs, the solution is not spending more. | ||
| It's time for real market-driven reforms with choice and competition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
To address the House for one minute and then to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I rise today to call for a vote on the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that help 22 million Americans afford their health care. | ||
| As you all know, they expire at the end of the year. | ||
| If Congress does nothing, costs will skyrocket and people will lose their health care. | ||
| In my district alone, 32,000 people will see their costs skyrocket. | ||
| 14,000 will lose their health care entirely. | ||
| This means that people will be unable to afford their Medicaid, medicine, kids missing critical treatment, and people with serious conditions losing access to care overnight. | ||
| There is still no commitment from the Speaker to extend these credits and no plan to prevent the health care crisis we know is coming. | ||
| There is a bipartisan effort and bipartisan support to extend these credits. | ||
| And I urge my colleagues to join these efforts in getting this done and getting it done now. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Virginia seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an extraordinary achievement in high school athletics, Benedictine College Preparatory School, located within Goochland County. | ||
| They have made program history by capturing its third consecutive VISAA Division I State Championship defeat in Trinity Episcopal 20-0. | ||
| From the first snap, the cadets showed they came ready to compete. | ||
| Benedictine set the tone, demonstrating exceptional determination, discipline, and heart. | ||
| JoJo Johnson led the charge with an impressive 85-yard touchdown run, followed by key contributions from quarterback Caden Kohler and BMI commit Landon Snyder, giving cadets a command in 20-0 halftime lead. | ||
| Defensively, the cadets were nothing short of dominant, ultimately leading to their championship win. | ||
| Benedictine forced five turnovers, including a critical interception by Malachi Mingo, that helped seal the shutout. | ||
| I'm honored today to recognize the student athletes, coaches, families, and entire Benedictine community for their remarkable accomplishment, as well as for the pride they have brought not only to Virginia's 5th congressional district, but also to the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House in one minute and to advise and extend my remarks. | ||
| objection. | ||
| Okay. There we go. | ||
| Oh, it's new. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| For more than 40 days, families across our country suffered through the longest government shutdown in history. | ||
| And how did our president and congressional Republicans respond? | ||
| By amputating the east wing of the White House to make way for a $300 million gilded ballroom. | ||
| By throwing a lavish, Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-Lago, where the President's wealthy friends toasted with champagne mere moments before 42 million Americans lost their monthly food assistance. | ||
| By inserting a disgusting, corrupt provision into a so-called clean spending bill that allows for a slush fund for eight Republican senators at the last hour to each collect as much as a million dollars or more. | ||
| One million taxpayer dollars each because their phone records were lawfully seized in connection with the January 6th insurrection. | ||
| The president and congressional Republicans aren't looking for ways to feed people or lower costs. | ||
| They are thieves lining their pockets. | ||
| I believe F. Scott Fitzgerald would have called them careless people. | ||
| Gentleladies' time has expired. | ||
| Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Indiana seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I seek permission to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| That objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the air traffic controllers and the men and women of the FAA. | |
| For 43 days, while the Democrats kept our government closed, the aviation system they rely upon and the traveling public depends upon was pushed to the brink. | ||
| As a member of the Aviation Subcommittee, I've seen up close how critical a fully functioning system is to safety and commerce. | ||
| The Indianapolis International Airports in my district, I spent time in the tower. | ||
| I've spent time in Indy Center, the regional air traffic control center. | ||
| I met with the team running traffic in and out of the second largest FedEx air cargo hub in our district. | ||
| When the good people who keep our skies moving tell you what's at stake, you pay attention. | ||
| Their work is why I pushed to secure funding to modernize our outdated air traffic control technology. | ||
| We've got to invest in the next generation of controllers, cut the bureaucratic leg, and build a system worthy of the people who run it. | ||
| I intend to keep at it. | ||
| I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to bring attention to the Trump administration's plan to raise health care prices for seniors. | ||
| That's right, you did not mishear me. | ||
| The Trump administration announced that they will be raising Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles will surge around 10 percent in 2026, almost double the increase from 2025. | ||
| Next year, the annual standard Medicare Part B premium will be over $2,400. | ||
| Seniors and disabled enrollees rely on Medicare Part B to cover costs for outpatient hospital care, ambulance services, preventative screenings, medical equipment, certain prescription drugs, and more. | ||
| If that's not enough, since Medicare premiums are typically deducted from Social Security payments, the average anticipated cost of living increase to Social Security will be reduced by almost a third. | ||
| Many seniors who could have seen an increase of about $56 in their monthly Social Security payments will be lucky to see $38 after premium increases. | ||
| This administration continues to attack Americans' access to health care and undermine affordability. | ||
| This is simply a disgrace. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlelady from North Dakota seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, I am seeking a consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | |
| The gentlelady is recognized without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the University of North Dakota for earning the Gold Award as a 2025-2026 military-friendly school. | ||
| UND was named among the nation's top 10 military spouse-friendly schools nationwide. | ||
| This honour places UND in the top 10% of universities across the U.S. for its commitment to serving our service members, veterans, and their families. | ||
| UND's leadership reflects a long tradition of service that dates back to its founding. | ||
| This gold recognition marks a proud milestone, especially with more than 2,000 military-affiliated students enrolled this year. | ||
| From peer-to-peer mentoring to faculty training and veteran advocacy, UND continues to raise the standard for how universities can support members of our military. | ||
| Congratulations to President Armacost, Director Angie Carpenter, and the entire UND community for their dedication to those who defend our freedoms. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Virginia rise? | |
| I rise to take your hand as the center. | ||
| objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate National Rural Health Day and National Rural Health Month. | ||
| Due to a lack of infrastructure and support, rural communities suffer from the worst health outcomes nationwide. | ||
| Pharmacy deserts, maternal health deserts, mental health deserts, worker shortages, and more limit people's access to care, sometimes forcing residents to travel an hour or longer for primary and emergency care. | ||
| And these communities that already need help accessing affordable quality of care now face a growing crisis due to draconian cuts to Medicaid in the big ugly law signed in July, which will make it harder for rural communities to access the care they need. | ||
| 338 rural hospitals from across the country have been identified as at risk, six in Virginia, one in my district. | ||
| I traveled around rural areas during our recesses talking to these providers about their concerns. | ||
| I was accused by my Republican colleagues of fear-mongering, yet I was amplifying the fears they had. | ||
| And lo and behold, weeks after visiting some of these providers, three rural providers closed their door, citing the big ugly law's Medicaid cuts. | ||
| A Farmville Hospital announced the closure of its labor and delivery unit, citing a reduction in federal care. | ||
| We need to do more for our rural communities and providing care, not less. | ||
|
Without Objection
00:09:42
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||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Missouri rise? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask your unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today, I introduce the House companion to Senator Ted Cruz's ROTAR Act, legislation that I believe as a pilot is essential to strengthen safety and communication in America's airspace. | ||
| Earlier this year, the devastating collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Blackhawk helicopter claimed 67 innocent lives. | ||
| Among those on board was Azra Hussein, a neighbor of mine from the St. Louis region. | ||
| Azra was a newlywed and a brilliant young professional whose life was ended far too soon. | ||
| That disaster exposed troubling gaps in how federal aircraft operate in complex airspace. | ||
| The families who lost loved ones deserve answers, and the American people deserve swift action to rebuild trust in the safety of our skies. | ||
| The ROTAR Act closes loopholes that allow military aircraft to disable location sharing during routine flights and requires aircraft in high-traffic airspace to use modern tracking and location sharing technologies. | ||
| This reform is backed by ATC pilots and, most importantly, the families forever changed. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support the ROTAR Act's timely safety reforms. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Minnesota seek recognition? | |
| To address the House for a one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Minneapolis American Indian Center and to celebrate their 50th anniversary. | ||
| The Minneapolis American Indian Center has carried out its mission of celebrating and uplifting Native culture through a wide range of programs and services that preserve important traditions. | ||
| The center creates pathways for opportunity for over 35,000 tribally diverse American Indians living in the metro area. | ||
| I am proud that my office was able to secure $3 million in federal funding to support their renovation and expansion. | ||
| The center stands as a powerful example of resilience and the enduring strength of the Native community. | ||
| I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the Minneapolis American Indian Center's 50 years of service. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentleman from Georgia seek recognition? | |
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Sheriff Judge Smith of Barrow County, who has been named Georgia's 2025 Sheriff of the Year. | ||
| Throughout his career, Sheriff Smith has led with integrity, professionalism, and an unwavering commitment to the people he serves. | ||
| His steady leadership during times of crisis, including the tragic events at Appalachie High School, brought comfort and stability to a grieving community and reminded us of the vital role law enforcement plays in keeping our neighborhood safe. | ||
| A lifelong resident of Barrow County, Sheriff Smith has dedicated his life to public service. | ||
| He has earned the trust of his community through compassion, humility, and unrelenting dedication to justice. | ||
| The people of Georgia are grateful for his courage, for his faith, and his service. | ||
| Today, we honor Sheriff Smith for exemplifying what it means to lead with heart and to serve with honor. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | |
| My remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce bipartisan legislation alongside my Northwest Ohio colleague, Representative Bob Ladda. | ||
| Our purpose is to honor a legendary Ohioan and pioneer of American military history, Rear Admiral Aileen B. Dirk. | ||
| Admiral Dirk was the first woman in the United States Navy to achieve the rank of Rear Admiral, and our legislation would require the Navy to rename a naval vessel in her honor. | ||
| Admiral Dirk was born in Defiance, Ohio, raised in Holgate, and graduated from the Toledo Hospital School of Nursing in 1941. | ||
| Over her long career, she treated wounded service members during World War II and the Korean War, and in 1972, she became the first woman in Naval history to attain flag rank. | ||
| In August, I also joined Representative Tim Kennedy in sending a letter to the Secretary of Defense asking to rename a vessel in her honor and in September sponsored a separate amendment to this year's National Defense Authorization Act. | ||
| Our added legislation continues our effort to properly honor Rear Admiral Dirk. | ||
| I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure Rear Admiral Dirk's legacy of service, sacrifice, and excellence is properly honored and commemorated by the people of the United States of America. | ||
| Go, Navy. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio seek recognition? | |
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Today, I rise to recognize Rhys Gallagher as the champion of the week for Ohio's 13th Congressional District. | ||
| Reese is a senior at Archbishop Hoban High School, and she was named the Girls Division III Player of the Year by the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association. | ||
| Reese has been described as an aggressive and ferocious player and is heralded as the most prolific goal scorer in the Akron area. | ||
| This season, Reese scored an impressive 44 goals and 15 assists, leading the Hoban Knights to the state semifinals. | ||
| This is Reese's fourth year on the varsity team, and over her impressive soccer career, she has been recognized as a Division II all-Ohiowan and an all-American. | ||
| Next, not only is she a first-class athlete, she is also a stellar and star student, carrying a 4.1 GPA. | ||
| Next year, she will represent us proudly on the women's soccer team at the University of Dayton GoFlyers. | ||
| Reese is a shining example of why Ohio's 13th congressional district is known as the birthplace of champions. | ||
| I look forward to seeing all that Reese accomplishes in her future. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| The chair will receive a message. | ||
| Speaker, messages from the Senate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker. | |
| Mr. Secretary. | ||
| I've been directed by the Senate to inform the House that the Senate has passed S222, an act to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to allow schools that participate in the school lunch program to serve whole milk and for other purposes in which the concurrence of the House is requested. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Maryland seek recognition? | ||
| To seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Mr. Speaker, Mohammed bin Salman's visit to Washington this week has been a disgrace to American democracy. | ||
| The President of the United States scolded a reporter as insubordinate and then tried to explain away bin Salman's central role in the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who was ambushed in Istanbul, strangled, drawn and quartered and dismembered by Bin Salman's 15-member security detail, according to U.S. intelligence. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, our Constitution overthrew kings. | ||
| It opposes cruel and unusual punishment. | ||
| It bans titles of nobility. | ||
| And yet, the President's foolish actions will embolden vicious monarchs, autocrats, and theocrats all over the world. | ||
| This warm welcome dishonors the Constitution and the American people. | ||
| We must be doing a lot better than this. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, in Vickminton, we call our baseball team the Rumble Ponies, and you probably want to know why. | ||
| Rumble Pony is another name for a carousel horse, and the Triple Cities is the carousel capital of the world. | ||
| We have more carousels per capita than any place in the entire world. | ||
| It's true. | ||
| And when the Endicott Johnson Chew factory built the Triple Cities, it employed tens of thousands of people, built homes and parks, and the parks had carousels. | ||
| And the carousels are free to ride. | ||
| They always have been. | ||
| They always will be. | ||
| It's part of the square deal. | ||
| So we're very proud of our Rumble Ponies, and these days we call them something else too. | ||
|
Honor Bishop Kenneth Spears
00:02:55
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unidentified
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Eastern League Champions. | |
| Trailing 2-1 on the road in the bottom of the sixth in an elimination game, the Ponies did what we do in upstate New York. | ||
| They picked themselves up, they fought back, and they won. | ||
| Congratulations to manager Reid Brigdack, Jet Williams, Pitcher of the Year, Jonah Tongue, Ryan Clifford, KJ and David Sabaka, and of course, Rowdy and Ruby on a 90-win season and an Eastern League Championship. | ||
| Go ponies. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Bishop Kenneth Spears, a pastor of 1st St. John Missionary in Fort Worth, who passed away suddenly on November the 17th. | ||
| Bishop Spears was a proud son of Fort Worth and devoted more than four decades of his life to the ministry and service and spiritual uplift of our community. | ||
| Bishop Spears answered his calling at just 17 years old. | ||
| And from that moment forward, he dedicated himself to leaning, teaching, and leading. | ||
| He pursued theology study at Bishop College, which he was very proud of, and the United Theological Seminary College there. | ||
| In 1995, he faithfully shepherded First St. John Cathedral, guiding its growth to a vibrant multi-campus ministry with much outreach. | ||
| His Be Restored broadcast reached thousands each week, offering hope, healing, and encouraging words. | ||
| And within the full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, he rose to the district overseer to state bishop of North Texas and always, always committed to expanding the fellowship's reach and strengthening its mission. | ||
| Bishop Spears was not only a spiritual leader, but he also was the author of several books. | ||
| He, alongside his wife Angela, and his sons Kenneth and Kyle, who were the joy of his life. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Bishop Spears' ministry transformed lives in Fort Worth in North Texas. | ||
| And I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring his extraordinary services, enduring faith, and the powerful legacy that he leaves behind. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, is recognized for 60 seconds, 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. | |
|
Mandate Dispute: Normalizing Lunacy
00:15:41
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| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. | ||
| And still I rise. | ||
| A proud, unbought, unbossed, liberated Democrat. | ||
| And still I rise. | ||
| Censured, but not silenced. | ||
| And it's important to have this photo tonight because it will get us into some very important issues. | ||
| This was the occasion when I stood before the president as he stood behind me giving a statement at a joint session of Congress. | ||
| I was seated right over in the third row up and the president started to talk about his mandate. | ||
| I collected my portable items and I was about to make my way out to the aisle so that I could traverse my way out through the doors. | ||
| That was my means of peacefully protesting. | ||
| But as I moved and he talked about his mandate, something came over me. | ||
| It was spontaneity. | ||
| It was not contrived. | ||
| I stood and I said to the president, you don't have a mandate to cut Medicaid. | ||
| That was what I said. | ||
| Now the press has distorted that, a good many of them, these opinion makers, opinion shapers, they want to define people and define what you say, notwithstanding your having said something contrary to what they'd like to hear. | ||
| So they've said that I said he didn't have a mandate. | ||
| I never said he didn't have a mandate. | ||
| I said he didn't have a mandate to cut Medicaid, and I still stand by it. | ||
| By the way, it became something that people across the country agreed with. | ||
| So I said it. | ||
| And then I left. | ||
| And after I left, after having been told that I had to leave, because the speaker concluded that I was out of order. | ||
| I have no hard feelings as it relates to the speaker. | ||
| I have no animus related to his requiring me to be removed. | ||
| Although I am the only person who's ever been removed from a joint session of Congress. | ||
| But here's what happened after I left. | ||
| The president from this podium, the president looked over toward my Democratic colleagues and the president said to them as he was talking words tantamount to them being lunatics. | ||
| He said it. | ||
| Members of the Congress of the United States of America at a joint session of Congress and the president calls the Democrats lunatics. | ||
| I wasn't here. | ||
| I don't know what I would have done had I been here and he called me a lunatic because I never insulted him by saying something negative about his personhood. | ||
| I didn't do that. | ||
| But I was censured. | ||
| The president was not censured for calling members lunatics at a joint session of Congress. | ||
| He's not been reprimanded in any way. | ||
| We have allowed him to normalize his behavior. | ||
| I was censured. | ||
| I had to stand in the well. | ||
| I accepted my punishment. | ||
| I accepted it. | ||
| I never criticized the notion that it was improper for me to be removed. | ||
| I did say that I didn't think that the punishment was appropriate in terms of being censured, but I never said anything that would cause the president to believe that I was disrespecting him as a human being. | ||
| But he called Democrats lunatics. | ||
| No penalties. | ||
| Nothing done. | ||
| We cannot allow the president to normalize demeaning people, calling them names, low IQ. | ||
| We can't allow him to do this. | ||
| If we do, at some point, what I have in my hand now will occur. | ||
| I have in my hand an article from Politico dated 11, 20, 20, 55. | ||
| When we allow the president to say these things with impunity, this is what we face. | ||
| 2025, 10.42 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. | ||
| It is styled, Trump Calls for Democratic Lawmakers to Face Trial for Seditious Behavior. | ||
| Well, I don't agree with that, but that's not the point. | ||
| There's more to be said. | ||
| It goes on to say, seditious behavior in bold print. | ||
| This is in quotations. | ||
| Seditious behavior. | ||
| Punishable by death. | ||
| He wrote on Truth Social. | ||
| President is saying now that someone, Democrats, have engaged in seditious behavior punishable by death. | ||
| Then he goes on, and the article reads, Donald Trump on Thursday called for six Democratic lawmakers to face arrest and trial after they made a video encouraging U.S. service members and members of the intelligence community to refrain from following orders if they broke the law. | ||
| Well, what does that mean if they broke the law? | ||
| Well, it means this. | ||
| If the president gives you an unlawful order, you are not to follow that order. | ||
| That's what it means. | ||
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unidentified
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And by the way, that's what the law says. | |
| You don't follow unlawful orders. | ||
| We don't want people following unlawful orders. | ||
| I'm not going to name the people, but then it goes on to say, it's called seditious, this is the president now, it's called seditious behavior at the highest level. | ||
| Trump charged in a post on Truth Social. | ||
| Each of these traitors, now they have become traitors. | ||
| Each of these traitors to our country should be arrested and put on trial. | ||
| I don't agree with that, but that's not the most egregious thing in this document that I hold in my hand. | ||
| I'll get to that as I read on. | ||
| Their words cannot be allowed to stand, he says. | ||
| And then he goes on to say, we won't have a country anymore. | ||
| Three exclamation points. | ||
| An example must be set, he says. | ||
| Now we're getting close to the reason I'm standing here tonight. | ||
| If he had only said the other things, I probably would have done as many others are doing and just let it go. | ||
| But sometimes you can cross a line of no return. | ||
| The president crossed that line with these words. | ||
| The president then posted 16 truth social posts, including one that advocated for hanging Democrats. | ||
| Now that's the line. | ||
| Mr. President, what is wrong with you? | ||
| Don't you know that there are people who will read this and consider doing something dastardly? | ||
| Don't you know that you are putting people in harm's way? | ||
| And by the way, I don't think it just includes the eight people that are named here. | ||
| I don't think it just includes them. | ||
| I think if you're a Democrat, any Democrat should be concerned about what this president has done. | ||
| I just don't think that this applies to the six Democratic lawmakers that's mentioned here, six, not eight. | ||
| I think it applies to all of us. | ||
| Just so that you will know, my friends, when you walk into my office now, the first thing you see is a person with a gun. | ||
| When I first got elected to Congress, we didn't have police officers sitting out in the lobby. | ||
| You walk in now, the first thing you see is a person with a gun. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because of this kind of ignorant behavior on behalf of the president. | ||
| And by the way, I'm being kind by saying ignorant. | ||
| There are many other ways. | ||
| Many other ways. | ||
| Many other adjectives. | ||
| There's something wrong with the president. | ||
| There's something wrong with the president of the United States of America. | ||
| For the president of the United States of America to say that people should be, let me read it to you one more time. | ||
| The president then responded 16 truth social posts, including one that advocated for hanging Democrats. | ||
| There's something wrong with the president. | ||
| There's something wrong. | ||
| We can't ignore this. | ||
| We cannot allow him to say this with impunity. | ||
| We can't. | ||
| Now, I don't speak for anybody other than myself and everybody who agrees with me. | ||
| And a lot of people agree with me that the president can't be allowed to do this. | ||
| That's why I say censured but not silenced. | ||
| I have not been silenced. | ||
| I will not be silenced. | ||
| I am not going to be one that is going to allow this to take place and not speak up and speak out and say to the world that this has to change. | ||
| We are normalizing not just hate, but we are normalizing these signals to persons who may not be as stable as I would like for them to be, who will then proceed to do something to harm someone. | ||
| Yes, when you come to my office, the first thing you see is a person with a gun. | ||
| When I go out to events now, I have to have someone to escort me out to events. | ||
| When I'm in the airport, we have to be escorted through the airports. | ||
| Do you think this improves the situation? | ||
| This does not. | ||
| This only exacerbates a situation that we already are having to deal with. | ||
| We've had to allocate more funds so that members can have armed protection. | ||
| For me, it's armed. | ||
| Maybe for some others, it's not, but protection. | ||
| This is not normal. | ||
| And if we just allow it to continue, we may find ourselves at a point where we can't stand here in the well and saying. | ||
| We may find ourselves at a point in our history of the United States of America, a functioning democracy, when the president took office for this term. | ||
| A functioning democracy. | ||
| We may find ourselves with an inability to exercise the constitutional right of free speech. | ||
| You have to see what's coming. | ||
| You've seen what he has done, calling all of the generals in, all of these high-ranking officers. | ||
| And in a sense, they spoke down to them, changed the name of the Defense Department into the Department of War. | ||
| He has become a might makes right president. | ||
| Might makes right. | ||
| In a might makes right world, the weak are wrong. | ||
| If you don't have the might to match what the president is doing, then you are weak. | ||
| This is a president. | ||
| I'm coming back to this, but I have to step aside for a second and say this to you. | ||
| This is a president who has decided that he will use the awesome power of the Justice Department to punish people that are perceived to be, in his mind, persons who have harmed him in some way by simply prosecuting him. | ||
| Now look, if we can all decide that we're going to indict the prosecutors in our cases, then we're not going to have a rule of law in this country. | ||
| What happens to the rule of law if everyday people like you and me, I can't force the Justice Department to do anything. | ||
| But he knows this. | ||
| He knows that he and the Justice Department have unlimited time, a coffer in the millions, if not billions, and that you may beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride. | ||
| You won't beat the indictment. | ||
|
Countdown to Impeachment
00:15:37
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| You'll have to pay. | ||
| This is all so obvious in terms of what he's doing. | ||
| But back to this. | ||
| Censured but not silenced. | ||
| Well, there's a remedy. | ||
| If my colleagues who generally sit on this side, if they won't reign him in, if the Supreme Court has decided that it won't for whatever reasons, then there's but one option left. | ||
| There's but one. | ||
| The Congress of the United States of America has the authority to reign in a president who commits impeachable offenses. | ||
| Impeachable offenses. | ||
| Saying that members of Congress that advocated for people to follow the law, saying that these Democrats should be lynched. | ||
| At some point, there's a line. | ||
| This is the line. | ||
| This is the solution. | ||
| We're in a countdown to impeachment. | ||
| I intend to bring articles of impeachment to remove this president who is normalizing violations of the Constitution. | ||
| He could care less about due process, due process. | ||
| The notion that you ought to be able to at least raise your hand and say, hey, you got the wrong person when you're being taken away by people who have masks and are not properly identifying themselves as members of the constabulary. | ||
| You should be able to stop that. | ||
| In my opinion, people ought to be identified so that you'll know who arrested you. | ||
| But he doesn't care. | ||
| It doesn't matter to him that we have a branch of the government called the judiciary. | ||
| He wants to impeach the judges when they differ with him. | ||
| We've got a member of Congress who has, Congress, who has filed articles of impeachment against a judge because they don't agree with the opinion. | ||
| Most people in this country of more than 300 million people can't do that. | ||
| They can't decide that they're going to impeach the judge because they don't like the opinion. | ||
| We have entered into an era now where an authoritarian president has control of the House of Representatives, control of the Senate, and a Supreme Court that has to date not challenged him properly, in my opinion. | ||
| So now he believes that he can say we should hang members of Congress. | ||
| Well, Mr. President, you shouldn't. | ||
| You shouldn't say that. | ||
| And the remedy is to remove you from office. | ||
| He shouldn't be allowed to serve out his entire term. | ||
| I'm not implying that anything should be done to his physical person. | ||
| No. | ||
| I'm talking about what we can lawfully do, peacefully do. | ||
| He should not be allowed to finish his term of office because he's not getting better. | ||
| There's something wrong with him and he's not getting better. | ||
| It's progressively moving toward a point in time when he will say something that's going to impact every person in this country, it seems. | ||
| I hope that it never happens. | ||
| But I do believe that he is setting us up such that when he's to leave office, when his term is up, he'll have some rationale for staying on. | ||
| And he will have the power, the awesome power of the presidency to back him up. | ||
| What he did when he should have left office before and he encouraged, there are other words that I can use, people to come over to the Capitol. | ||
| Person was killed. | ||
| People died. | ||
| Walking around the Capitol, people were with gallows, looking for the vice president, calling out Speaker Pelosi's name, defecating in the Capitol and not in the necessary facility, but in inappropriate places. | ||
| He did that. | ||
| When do we get enough evidence to realize that what he did once, he will do again? | ||
| But he has now greater authority because of the Supreme Court saying to him that he's immune to certain things. | ||
| He's been given a certain amount of immunity, which he's taken as absolute immunity. | ||
| But we can see what's happening. | ||
| He is progressively moving toward the date that he's to leave office, when in my opinion he will not. | ||
| I think he'll try to stay on. | ||
| And I think he'll use the awesome power of the presidency. | ||
| And if he can, the United States military to stay. | ||
| That's my prognostication. | ||
| And I don't want to wait until he does it to take a stand. | ||
| That's why I'm counting down to impeachment now. | ||
| That's why I'm taking a stand now. | ||
| I'm not saying to any other member that you must vote to impeach. | ||
| But I'm saying to everybody, you have notice now. | ||
| You can do all of the things that you want to do to prevent the articles of impeachment from coming to the floor for a vote. | ||
| Go ahead and do that. | ||
| But I want posterity to know that there was one member of Congress at least, I believe there are others, but one member of Congress at least that realized that we should have taken action and one did. | ||
| We must take this action. | ||
| If nothing else, maybe if he sees that impeachment is imminent, maybe he'll change his behavior. | ||
| I doubt it. | ||
| But maybe he'll change it. | ||
| Maybe he'll come to his senses and realize that what he's doing is harmful to democracy, to democracy. | ||
| Not just to the people that he demeans, but to democracy. | ||
| So I'm going to bring these articles of impeachment. | ||
| Everybody is on notice now. | ||
| Everybody. | ||
| Not only am I going to file them, I'm going to ask for a vote. | ||
| This cannot stand. | ||
| There are people who will say in quiet places something similar to what I've just said. | ||
| I hope that those people will have the courage. | ||
| If you don't want to say it publicly, I just hope that you'll have the courage to do what you can do to prevent the imminent threat that this president has become to American democracy. | ||
| I say threat. | ||
| It's an assault on democracy now. | ||
| It was a threat. | ||
| It has now become an assault. | ||
| So we're in a countdown to impeachment. | ||
| And I am giving every assurance that I can. | ||
| Please take me literally. | ||
| I plan to bring these articles of impeachment against this president. | ||
| I pray that the Senate will convict. | ||
| The articles of impeachment filed in the House are comparable to an indictment, but not the same, but comparable to in a sense. | ||
| The Senate then has a trial. | ||
| And I would hope that the Senate would vote, Republicans and Democrats, to remove, convict, and remove this president from office. | ||
| That would be my desire. | ||
| But I don't always get what I want, which means I've got to be prepared to file again. | ||
| I'm not going to let this die, this behavior. | ||
| If you don't vote this time, it's okay. | ||
| I'll file again because there's plenty that he's already done. | ||
| Not everything should be put into just one set of articles. | ||
| So there are plenty of other things. | ||
| I already have articles pending against him that I call the sword of Domocles for what he has done in defying court orders, flouting court orders, not giving due respect to orders of the court. | ||
| This is a president of the United States doing it. | ||
| It's not just some other person. | ||
| President. | ||
| So they're hanging there. | ||
| And I'm waiting. | ||
| I'm waiting on him to get the order from a judge who's looking at it. | ||
| I've been waiting since this occurred. | ||
| There's a judge looking at a case that was before him. | ||
| And if this judge rules as I think he will, the sword of Domocles will fall on him. | ||
| Meaning the articles that I've already filed dealing with his failure to obey the simple constitutional premise of persons having a right to due process. | ||
| Everybody in the country knows, as he would say, everybody. | ||
| We know that everybody doesn't, but that's his terminology. | ||
| Everybody knows that you get due process in the United States of America, except the president. | ||
| You get what a might make right mentality accords you when you're dealing with the president. | ||
| So we'll have this countdown to impeachment. | ||
| I'm going to file against him before the Christmas break. | ||
| Just let everybody have their fair shots at me. | ||
| Do whatever you need to do. | ||
| Probably shouldn't have said shots. | ||
| Take whatever lawful measures you think you should take. | ||
| But before the Christmas break, I plan to have articles filed and voted on right here in the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
| Because we cannot allow him to normalize the notion that you can just hang members of Congress because you don't agree with their position. | ||
| Even if their position is wrong, he shouldn't say, according to this, in six truth social posts, one including that he advocated for hanging the Democrats. | ||
| Anybody wants to read this? | ||
| It's in Politico. | ||
| Thank God for Politico. | ||
| Trump calls for Democratic lawmakers to face trial for seditious behavior. | ||
| And by the way, there are members who will agree with this. | ||
| There are members who are going to say, oh, it's okay for the president to say you can hang people in this fashion. | ||
| They'll say it because it's become normal for some people. | ||
| I don't live in that world. | ||
| I live in a world where the president of the United States is supposed to be the most respected person in the country, where the president of the United States is a person who sets the example. | ||
| He's an exemplar, not just an example, an exemplar, a supreme, superb exemplar of what behavior should be like in the country. | ||
| Even presidents make mistakes, but these are not mistakes. | ||
| These things are done with intentionality, and they're done almost on a daily basis. | ||
| There's something new almost every day. | ||
| I expected something new today, but I didn't expect this. | ||
| So before Christmas, we will vote again on impeachment. | ||
| And I'm giving notice now so that no one will say that they're surprised when I bring additional articles. | ||
| I already have some on file, and there are other things that he's done that I shall pay attention to. | ||
| This has some specificity associated with it, but there are other things as well. | ||
| So, Mr. Speaker, as I conclude my message tonight, I think it's important to note that we live in a participatory democracy. | ||
| Every person has a duty, responsibility, and an obligation to participate in the functioning democracy. | ||
| You should vote. | ||
| You should serve on a jury. | ||
| But you also have a duty in a participatory democracy to protect the democracy. | ||
| You got to protect it. | ||
| You can't just allow a president to become a might makes right authoritarian. | ||
| We have to protect the democracy that we've inherited. | ||
| We do it for ourselves. | ||
| We do it for posterity. | ||
| We do it because without this participatory democracy, the world itself becomes at greater risk. | ||
| The United States of America is a pretty important piece of the puzzle of life that the entire planet Earth is a part of. | ||
| We've got to protect this participatory democracy. | ||
| I thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president and to direct their remarks to the chair and not to any perceived viewing off. | |
| The chair will remind all persons in the gallery that they are here as guests of the House and that any manifestation of approval or disapproval of proceedings is in violation of the rules of the House. | ||
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Missed And Complex
00:00:50
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unidentified
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Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from Arizona missed for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Pro Tem. | ||
| I've missed all of you. | ||
| I don't know if you missed me, but we're going to actually try something tonight. | ||
| And some of what we're going to do this evening is a little bit complex. | ||
| It's going to be a little bit thick, but we've double-checked and triple-checked abortion of the math, which means a number of our brothers and sisters will turn their ears off almost immediately because remember, we all work in a math-free zone. | ||
|
10-Year Bond Puzzle
00:15:45
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| A couple clean items of order first. | ||
| I want to thank, I think it is, though I don't know if they were screwing with me or having some fun. | ||
| I think it's Forbes Breaking News, took like 12, 13 hours of these floor speeches and put them up on YouTube. | ||
| And I've actually had a couple people who obviously don't have lives who've been watching them. | ||
| And we've been playing this game of, here's the prediction, Schweikert, you made over the last year. | ||
| Here's what you got right and here's what you got wrong. | ||
| Let's first do, I got wrong, my prediction on interest rates. | ||
| I really thought the 10-year bond would be closer to five. | ||
| It's at 4-1. | ||
| But things like the U.S. getting downgraded, things like the semi-glutites crashing in price by the end of the year, we've actually gotten right. | ||
| But the one thing I wish I had gotten wrong was the debt and deficit projections. | ||
| And for the trolls out there who immediately go, well, there's all this spending in the tax bill, most of that hasn't started yet. | ||
| If you actually look at the breakdown of what's going on, what are the two drivers of U.S. sovereign debt? | ||
| It's the very things that we're not allowed to talk about. | ||
| It's interest and demographics. | ||
| And we're going to walk through some of the reality of the math because this is how perverse this place has become. | ||
| The Democrats, well, they'll blame and Republicans will blame and we're going to come blame shiny objects, things that actually have almost no actual value to our future, to this republic and where we're going. | ||
| Okay, so as we start this, I need everyone to embrace a couple factoids. | ||
| You got seven years. | ||
| And the Social Security Trust Fund is empty. | ||
| And no one stole the money. | ||
| We just didn't have enough young people to keep the ratios. | ||
| So in seven years, the math right now says a 24% cut. | ||
| In seven years, we double senior poverty in America. | ||
| In seven years, the math says you're going to start to see baby boomers doubling homelessness. | ||
| In seven years, the Medicare trust fund is empty. | ||
| Hospitals right now and others who are part of the Medicare Part A cash flow take about an 11% cut. | ||
| In seven years, we double the spending on Medicare. | ||
| We go from $1 trillion right now to $2 trillion. | ||
| It's demographics. | ||
| And I'm going to show you some of those charts. | ||
| But let's first walk through the craziness. | ||
| And look, I've had some administration folks and other folks talk to me about, look, tax receipts are up, and they are. | ||
| And there's a whole series of things we've done to reduce spending. | ||
| We have. | ||
| But none of it appears to be big enough to deal with the cost of the refinancing of debt that's coming off the very low interest rates from a few years ago to the much higher interest rates today, to the medical inflation, to the health care utilization, to just the things that are basic driven by our demographics. | ||
| So let's deal with some reality. | ||
| And if anyone, if you have a question about my math, go, you can look it up online. | ||
| Go to the Treasury's website. | ||
| But this is important. | ||
| We're now 51 days, I believe, into the new fiscal year. | ||
| So we're 51 days. | ||
| Do you realize we've now borrowed $628 billion in the first 51 days of this new fiscal year? | ||
| Yeah, Treasury has put more, is holding almost $900 billion in cash, which they typically operate with about $800 billion because of the in-and-out. | ||
| But you start to realize at the current borrowing rate, we crossed a trillion dollars this fiscal year before Christmas. | ||
| And it's not Republican or Democrat, it's demographics and interest. | ||
| But that isn't a lot of fun because our political consultants need something where we can attack each other. | ||
| But by doing that, we are incapable of an honest conversation of the bleed. | ||
| Understand a basic principle. | ||
| At this rate of borrowing, when you're clicking off a trillion dollars in just four months, five months? | ||
| You've decided the bond market basically is the most powerful organization ruling your country. | ||
| It's not us as policymakers. | ||
| It's not the White House. | ||
| It's the bond market. | ||
| Because if you do the last 12 months, we've been borrowing about $6.3 billion a day. | ||
| So far this last 51 days, we're borrowing closer to $12 billion a day. | ||
| It's just math. | ||
| Except we're incapable of actually talking about it. | ||
| Think about these microphones here, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| How many people, since we got back from the shutdown, have you heard on the left, on the right get behind these things and say, hey, guys, the greatest threat to your republic is actually the math. | ||
| Yeah, this group hates something Donald Trump does. | ||
| Our side doesn't like some things they do. | ||
| And okay, great. | ||
| The lack of civility is crushing. | ||
| But one of my personal theories is the reason you just had a 40-some day shutdown is it's not like the old days where you could have bought the senators' votes. | ||
| Hey, if you'll vote for us, you get a bridge. | ||
| We're now having to deal with the fact you don't have cash laying around. | ||
| We will borrow, and you're going to start to see this. | ||
| We went from $37 trillion to $38 trillion. | ||
| We did that in 71 days. | ||
| And look, there was lots of excuses for this. | ||
| There was, hey, we had the debt ceiling. | ||
| We had to repopulate, you know, pay back the internal debt borrowing we did, those things. | ||
| Except the difference is here we are into the new fiscal year after the debt ceiling's been raised. | ||
| And the burn rate still looks really similar. | ||
| But I'm sure all the committees, all the leadership, all the folks who are helping us watch the bond market and the liquidity and our ability to borrow are all paying attention to the bleed rate. | ||
| But it's math. | ||
| It's real. | ||
| And look, our debt to GDP when we closed the 25 fiscal year actually got slightly better, but we also rolled some of the borrowing into the next day, which hit a new fiscal year. | ||
| So look, it happens all the time. | ||
| You have strike dates of when you can actually pay certain bills, but this one isn't in question. | ||
| Last year, for every dollar of tax receipts we took in, this is customs duties, this is excise tax, income tax, corporate tax, everything we took in, we spent $1.43. | ||
| This year, for every dollar we take in, our budget says we're going to also spend $1.43. | ||
| How long can we do this? | ||
| How long can we do this? | ||
| And look, my three-year-old, and yes, I'm this age, my wife's my age, we have a 10-year-old and three-year-old. | ||
| There's a data set out there that basically says when my three-year-old is about 22, 23 years old, so 20-some years ago, every tax in America, every tax needs to be doubled just to maintain baseline spending. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, how many people have you had come behind this mic and just said, look, is this moral? | ||
| Is this really what America is all about? | ||
| And yes, I'm going to show the slides that show what the Democrats say is, well, we'll just tax billionaires and rich people. | ||
| It doesn't get you anything close. | ||
| It doesn't close the gap, and you know it. | ||
| And for our side, we're going to cut spending. | ||
| Really? | ||
| It doesn't get you close because we're not really ready to have the revolution of how we spend money. | ||
| Because adopting the very technologies, the cures, the things we can do, the army of lobbyists outside this door lose their blankened minds because we're requiring them to either change their business models or make the bureaucracy do it differently or maybe come up with the conclusion we shouldn't do it at all once again for every dollar we take in in tax receipts we're going to spend a dollar 43 cents | ||
| Why doesn't that almost create a sense of panic, of Ajahnar, for the left or the right? | ||
| Is it just we run into the problem of telling the truth to our voters after maybe we've lied to them? | ||
| It's rich people we don't tax enough. | ||
| It's waste and fraud. | ||
| It's illegals all of those are real, except in the scale of the spending. | ||
| They're just not that much and we're not in and it's just the the the, the insanity of what's going on. | ||
| Look, and I'm trying to help understand. | ||
| Wages yeah, let's back up. | ||
| Tax receipts are up. | ||
| Spending is up dramatically more, but most of the tax receipts that we're gaining is it's almost all capital gains. | ||
| So of the increased tax receipts, only about 5.5 percent of it is actually the growth in wages. | ||
| Almost 65 percent is capital gains. | ||
| It's because the stock market's been doing well. | ||
| So once again we're back to the world of financial engineering. | ||
| Those of us with assets, we're doing great. | ||
| You keep hearing people talk about the k-shaped economy. | ||
| What they mean by that is, if you're on the lower tier, you don't hold assets, particularly after the years of inflation. | ||
| Those with assets, the assets inflated, they're just fine. | ||
| If you didn't hold assets, you are poorer today. | ||
| For my district in the Phoenix, Scottsdale area. | ||
| I think our calculation is uh, after sort of the first year of the Biden administration. | ||
| If you don't make today at least 28 percent more than you did, then you are poorer today. | ||
| now you don't there's almost no cycle where magically prices start to come down the way you deal with this is economic growth wage growth is prosperity moral is it republican or democrat it's just the right thing to have a society where people their lives get better every day | ||
| So just a board i've used before, but it's just to make a point for anyone that's paying attention. | ||
| This is the 10-year bond. | ||
| Right now, the United States isn't at four percent, we're about four point one. | ||
| Okay, we can sell a ten year bond today for about four point one percent. | ||
| But I need you to look here. | ||
| Greece can sell a 10 year bond today for about 3.3, when Greece has a better strike, a better let's call it a credit rating. | ||
| It's technically not a credit rating, but can sell a 10-year bond cheaper than the United States. | ||
| Should that actually raise the hair on the back of your neck? | ||
| Are you thinking the fact that the United States, on the industrialized countries, is like number 12 let's call it the credit stack, the ability to sell a 10-year bond? | ||
| Why are other countries Able to sell a 10-year bond cheaper than the biggest economy in the world? | ||
| The country with the reserve currency. | ||
| Does anyone pay attention to this? | ||
| Oh, David, that's not fair. | ||
| Greece engaged in fiscal consolidation. | ||
| They're actually lowering their debt where we're now over 100% of debt to GDP, and there's no plans to tell the truth about it. | ||
| Because if you tell the truth, you might get unelected. | ||
| You have a dozen countries that can sell a 10-year bond cheaper than the United States today, Greece being one of them. | ||
| So let's get into some of the complications. | ||
| So when I say it's one of the primary drivers, interest and demographics. | ||
| Remember, if you have 38 trillion, and remember we play this game, the United States does this, other countries don't do this. | ||
| So here's 30 trillion that we have to go to public markets. | ||
| People from all over the world, primarily the United States, buy our bonds. | ||
| It's in your pension. | ||
| It's in the banknote you buy. | ||
| It's this, that. | ||
| But there's another several trillion that's actually borrowed internally. | ||
| But it's not magic money. | ||
| We still owe the Social Security Trust Fund money, the Medicare Trust Fund money. | ||
| When we borrow the cash out of those trust funds, they are paid interest. | ||
| So it's still an obligation. | ||
| And it's one of my great frustrations when you hear some of the government economists, well, publicly borrowed money is this. | ||
| Yeah, but the internally borrowed money we still owe interest on. | ||
| Are we not going to pay it back? | ||
| It's borrowing. | ||
| And so when I come back and say demographics, understand age groups as a share of the population, 2004 to 2024, so a year plus ago. | ||
| We had 1.4% of the population was 18 years old. | ||
| In 2024, 1.3% of the population was 18 years old. | ||
|
Demographic Decline
00:15:16
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| It's just demographics. | ||
| The United States in around 1990-91 started to roll over in the number of children we have. | ||
| And for people who are in the natalist policy, we spend lots of time researching this. | ||
| There's no magic solution. | ||
| You have a country out there when you have your third or fourth child, they buy you a house. | ||
| Still hasn't increased fertility rates. | ||
| There's a crazy math set, and I've never vetted it. | ||
| It was saying like South Korea in 150 some years, there's almost no South Koreans left. | ||
| It's happening all over the industrialized world. | ||
| This is why getting tax policy, regulatory policy, things so correct, because we're going to have to be able to find a way to have productivity grow and grow and grow so we can raise people's wages because so many of our brothers and sisters are poorer today. | ||
| And the way you raise wages is two things. | ||
| Inflation, well, that doesn't get you anywhere. | ||
| Or productivity. | ||
| You can't be afraid of AI, synthetic biology, robots. | ||
| And people go, oh, David, you're not supposed to say that, but it's true. | ||
| Because next year, the number of 18-year-olds is smaller than this year. | ||
| And the year after that, it's smaller than that. | ||
| And it's smaller than that. | ||
| America will actually is now running into a situation. | ||
| We have too many classrooms, too many school buses, and not enough senior centers. | ||
| So this place is doing an amazing job having an honest conversation about the United States demographics and where we're going. | ||
| Oh, David, we're not supposed to talk about that. | ||
| How do you make public policy if you can't even be honest about the most basic parts of the math? | ||
| So the other part of the punchline here. | ||
| 20 years ago, 12.3% of the population was 65 and up. | ||
| 20 years later, it's functioning 18%. | ||
| It's not double, but it's pretty darn close to you double those who are 65 and up. | ||
| And look, a weird little factoid. | ||
| When I was a teenager, 1970s, and I remember this number, there was functionally $7 spent for every young person and $1 spent on seniors. | ||
| Today that is flipped. | ||
| It's just demographics. | ||
| The baby boomers have moved into their retirement years. | ||
| We have a societal promise we've got to keep. | ||
| We made a promise. | ||
| But once again, in seven years, the Medicare Trust Fund's gone. | ||
| In seven years, the Social Security Trust Fund's gone. | ||
| And we're going to lie our high knees off around here. | ||
| If we just tax rich people more. | ||
| And I'll show you the slides. | ||
| The math doesn't work. | ||
| But once again, we work in a math-free zone. | ||
| So let's have a little more fun with reality. | ||
| Change in population by age. | ||
| Now, this board is controversial, but the math is accurate. | ||
| And I'll see if I can try to describe this in a way where we can all absorb it. | ||
| 2004, I had functionally 77 million that were under 18 or younger. | ||
| We estimate in 2035, if we do not have immigration, remember this year we expect almost zero population growth. | ||
| So let's just first do those that want no immigration. | ||
| In 2035, we have only 64 million that are under 18. | ||
| With immigration, you still have fewer people. | ||
| And that's over 20 years. | ||
| Okay, fine. | ||
| Maybe that's the policy, the decision of our society. | ||
| In that case, don't stand in our way when people like me are trying to find ways to actually have productivity, wages grow. | ||
| This is something very unique the United States is up against. | ||
| Massive amounts of debt, massive amounts of debt. | ||
| Remember, so far this fiscal year, if I, God, I got to do this math really quick. | ||
| I think we're borrowing like $130,000, maybe $131,000 every second. | ||
| If I take it over the last 12 months, it's like $71,000 a second. | ||
| So you have this massive debt and then a population that's flat. | ||
| And where we're going right now, it actually could be declining over the next decade. | ||
| Not by a lot. | ||
| Tell me how I make the economy grow. | ||
| How do I make sure your pension is there? | ||
| How do I make sure your access to health care is there? | ||
| How do I make sure your wages go up? | ||
| There's ways we can do it. | ||
| And I've come up behind these mics over and over and over and talked about the adoption of technology of redesigning government. | ||
| That actually would save $3 trillion. | ||
| And I can't get a single other member of Congress to sponsor them because they're hard. | ||
| I'll get lobbyists who will say mean things about me. | ||
| So let's keep just doing the shiny objects. | ||
| Let's just keep doing the petty around here. | ||
| Maybe we can actually, I think yesterday was the 14th time we've tried to reprimand or censure a fellow member. | ||
| Let's just do more of that because it gives great Twitter traffic. | ||
| And we don't have to talk about the fact that that day we borrowed over another $6 billion. | ||
| Actually, if it's just this fiscal year, it's closer to $12 billion that day. | ||
| So let's take another look. | ||
| Change in employment status of native-born and foreign-born. | ||
| This is something that's really, really interesting. | ||
| We're actually taking a look right now for what we believe is sort of this fiscal year snapshot. | ||
| We actually have foreign-born actually going down. | ||
| Now, some of this is self-deportation, other things going on. | ||
| We don't have enough data to completely understand it. | ||
| But my problem is, I don't actually have enough folks for the civilian labor force. | ||
| And look, something funky happened in this morning's unemployment numbers where a good pop in jobs, maybe almost two, two and a half times what many of the economists expected. | ||
| But did you notice unemployment popped up? | ||
| Now that's typically saying, oh, we don't like that. | ||
| I need you to think about this. | ||
| We've been desperate for more of our brothers and sisters to come back into the labor force. | ||
| But here's my problem. | ||
| How many of those folks are coming back into the labor force because they can't pay their bills? | ||
| Because wages still haven't gone up enough to make up for the years of inflation. | ||
| We actually don't know completely yet, but we do know our brothers and sisters out there are stressed out of their mind when you start to look at credit card delinquencies, car delinquencies, or impairments is the better way to phrase it. | ||
| We need to get our heads out and start thinking about those policies that get the economy working, a tax code that actually gets investment in the next generation. | ||
| But are we going to adopt policies? | ||
| All right, let me go jump on a landmine. | ||
| Does it make sense to have a government that goes out and owns 10% of Intel? | ||
| So your government is the largest shareholder of Intel. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I love Intel, but I can actually show you some brilliant economic papers that say it should be four different, three different companies. | ||
| Here's the fab, here's the engineering, here's this and that. | ||
| The concept of creative destruction. | ||
| Here's how the thought experiment works. | ||
| If you're old enough to remember blockbuster video, should we have slowed down the internet so Netflix could not have put blockbuster video out of business? | ||
| Because that's sort of what we're doing today, is we're choosing the winners and losers instead of the creative destruction that starts the next cycle of productivity. | ||
| We need the creative destruction in our economy to have the rebirths of the newer, better, faster. | ||
| And yes, it's always uncomfortable. | ||
| It's also really great free market economics. | ||
| And it's as if we've repealed the rules of free market economy in this country right now. | ||
| So let's actually take another look. | ||
| Now we're going to step on to the next, the much bigger landmine. | ||
| Let's talk about Social Security. | ||
| Social Security finances and workers benefit ratio. | ||
| This is how many workers there are compared to our brothers and sisters receiving. | ||
| Do you see the red lines here? | ||
| This is actually the trust fund. | ||
| You'll notice actually around 2020 the trust fund had $5 trillion in it. | ||
| In seven years, it's all gone. | ||
| And no one stole your money. | ||
| The average couple, it's a crap rate of return. | ||
| You've got to understand, if 20, 25 years ago, you'd been allowed to take a little sliver and put it in the markets, you'd be dramatically better off moving into retirement. | ||
| But the left lost its mind on the discussion, the unions lost its mind, AARP lost its mind, but now we can look back. | ||
| We got 25 years. | ||
| We can actually do the calculation, tell the truth. | ||
| They were wrong. | ||
| But it's too late to do anything like that today because the population bubble has already moved into their retirement years. | ||
| So here we're at. | ||
| Seven years, that trust fund's gone. | ||
| But what's also interesting, it's a little hard to see in this chart, as we get in the outer years, you're getting to the point where you have 2.2, 2.3. | ||
| So you and your spouse, you and your partner functionally will have one retiree. | ||
| And that's the way the system was designed. | ||
| They didn't think about when they designed things like the Social Security Trust Fund that we would have a day when the population of young people in the United States actually was declining. | ||
| It's demographics. | ||
| We know the math. | ||
| We've known for how many years we had baby boomers and 67 million of them. | ||
| Yet this place, because it's crap politics to tell the truth about math, we lie. | ||
| We make up things. | ||
| Well, if we tax billionaires, I'm going to show you boards that every dime of every billionaire in America would only run the government nine months. | ||
| And also, you'd put the world into a depression because most of that value is actually in stocks. | ||
| So if you happen to have some stocks in your retirement fund, it's all gone. | ||
| We're going to crash everything. | ||
| But it's a thought experiment. | ||
| And there was someone who had an article out this last week that talked about saying, well, when the Social Security Trust Fund's gone, we'll just borrow it from the General Fund, and the General Fund will borrow it from the debt market. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's see, when you start to look at the scale of debt, you see the red here? | ||
| That's already where we're going. | ||
| That's already in the baseline. | ||
| This line here of exploding up. | ||
| That's as if we took the Social Security Trust Fund and this isn't even with, I don't believe this even has the Medicare Trust Fund, which is also empty in seven years. | ||
| And if anyone really wants to understand how difficult the policy choices are and also how, let's have a brutal moment. | ||
| the members here don't tell the truth, particularly my brothers and sisters on the left, we just tax rich people. | ||
| Please go look up Jessica Riedel's calculations, Manhattan Institute. | ||
| There's a couple great articles. | ||
| They walk you through the math. | ||
| Every tax. | ||
| So do the Bernie Sanders math. | ||
| We're going to take people over $400,000, $500,000, and we're going to maximize tax. | ||
| You maximize everything. | ||
| And it's almost the laugh a curve. | ||
| We're going to tax you to the point that it rolls over. | ||
| On every tax, you get 1.5% of GDP in new taxes. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| Probably be really helpful. | ||
| On the Republican side, the things we talk about cutting, we only get about 1% of GDP. | ||
| Last year, if you do the internal borrowing, we borrowed about 7.6, 7.4% of the entire economy. | ||
| We're actually looking in 2035, we're going to borrow 8.4% of the entire economy. | ||
| And the solution I get from the left covers 1.5%. | ||
| Often the solution I get on my side is 1%. | ||
| Does anyone see the math problem? | ||
| But we're all going to go home and talk to our partisan audience and say, if I just could tax people, if I could just cut things. | ||
| Maybe we have to do that, but it doesn't get you close. | ||
| Once again, 1.5% taxing all the rich people. | ||
| 1% of GDP. | ||
| And the cuts we have actually articulated. | ||
| I got 2.5%. | ||
| In nine budget years, we're borrowing 8.4% of the entire economy. | ||
| And that's assuming interest rates don't go up. | ||
| Remember, in nine years under today's interest rate scheme, 30% of tax receipts go just interest. | ||
|
Top Subsidies Messing Healthcare
00:09:31
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| If interest rates go up 1%, it's 45% of all tax receipts of the United States in nine years would go just interest. | ||
| And I'll say this. | ||
| I've said it how many times behind these microphones. | ||
| And people will go, David, that's interesting. | ||
| Please never say that again, because I don't want to actually have to explain this. | ||
| If we do the math, take every billionaire in America, and you could get full face value, sell everything they have, every stock, every yacht, every this, every that. | ||
| Okay, great. | ||
| You covered government for nine months. | ||
| And it's assuming you don't put the world into a depression, you don't crash all the stock markets, you don't crush all the asset markets. | ||
| It covers nine months. | ||
| Why do we live in this fantasy world where people throw out solutions like this that they know are absolute frauds? | ||
| Because it's great politics. | ||
| It's crap math. | ||
| And so let's actually go on to one of our current debates. | ||
| I watched someone come to the floor yesterday on the subsidies on top of the subsidies in the ACA. | ||
| Let's call it Obamacare because that's the common vernacular, but it's the ACA. | ||
| And we're having the debate because the Democrats actually did these enhanced subsidies on top of the subsidies, and those subsidies expire. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Well, here, let me do this one backwards so there's a little more understanding of the line. | ||
| How much of the health care population in America is actually in the ACA? | ||
| It's really important. | ||
| 48% is employer-sponsored. | ||
| 7% we believe is uninsured. | ||
| Veterans are about 3%. | ||
| Medicare is 18. | ||
| Medicaid is 22. | ||
| Now, over the next couple years, that flips. | ||
| Only 7% of the health care population is actually in the ACA. | ||
| Okay, that's the entire population that's receiving subsidies today. | ||
| The enhanced subsidies, so the subsidies on top of the subsidies, is a fraction of that. | ||
| Now you got to also take a look at what's wrong in that math. | ||
| We actually keep looking at these numbers over and over and over. | ||
| We've been analyzing them with our joint economic economists. | ||
| And I have a couple PhDs in healthcare economics. | ||
| And we're trying to understand what the hell is going on with these numbers. | ||
| But you start looking at it after the COVID subsidies. | ||
| Do you know you've got 41% of the population that's actually supposed to be just receiving government subsidy to make it more affordable and they're paying zero? | ||
| And you understand what they did with the subsidies on top of the subsidies. | ||
| They took populations 400% of poverty and up. | ||
| And in some areas, you have four or five kids, you had people making four or five hundred thousand dollars qualifying, except that's a small population of them, but they still would qualify. | ||
| And why this is important, and Mr. Speaker, if I could have some way to burn this into people's psyche. | ||
| What the ACA, Medicare for All, the Republican alternative had better actuarial distribution, but they've tried to turn healthcare into financial engineering. | ||
| What you've done is financing, is subsidies healthcare. | ||
| Well, we'll tax these people and we'll subsidize this population. | ||
| And listen to the debates here. | ||
| It's about subsidies on top of subsidies. | ||
| It's financial engineering now is healthcare. | ||
| And why it's health care is because it's easy. | ||
| It makes the lobbyists happy. | ||
| It makes the people receiving the money happy because no one gets cut. | ||
| No one has to do a new design. | ||
| No one actually has to adopt new technology. | ||
| No one has to fixate on our brothers and sisters. | ||
| If obesity is 47% of U.S. health care, none of the money goes to making our brothers and sisters healthier so they live longer and they don't have multi-chronic conditions because we're just going to subsidize them. | ||
| It's perverse. | ||
| Could you imagine the $35 or $40 billion that the Democrats are demanding for the subsidy on top of the subsidy for populations that are upper income if some of that money actually went to lowering the actual cost of health care instead of the financial engineering of subsidizing insurance companies? | ||
| Because that's what they're talking about. | ||
| Let's just go to this one and see if I can make this make sense. | ||
| This is a bit complicated, but we've been trying to do the analytics of how much the subsidies have screwed up the price of health care. | ||
| And if you walk through it, you say, okay, we can actually chart where the subsidies come in and it actually raises the price of health care. | ||
| The way the insurance companies retain their profits, we've screwed up the price. | ||
| We've actually built a model that shows of the stunning amounts of money we're spending, only 34% actually goes to the insured and their health care. | ||
| Another 28% is disappearing into people that didn't even know. | ||
| You've actually seen, we all, I'm sure, have been reading the articles, that a third, 30% of those in the enhanced ACA subsidies, so the subsidies on top of the subsidies, didn't even know they had health insurance. | ||
| A couple days ago, you saw someone got convicted of or pled guilty to a couple hundred million dollar fraud scheme where they were signing people up, getting the money, getting the government subsidies, those things. | ||
| And the people had no idea they had insurance because they really didn't. | ||
| They were just taking the money. | ||
| The system is absolutely screwed up, and we have 38% disappearing in the insurance malaise. | ||
| This is what we've turned health care into. | ||
| It's a financing. | ||
| I beg of my brothers and sisters here, we have pieces of legislation, dozens of them, that would change the cost of health care. | ||
| When we think we may have spent 25 to 35 billion dollars last year in duplicative MRAs, x-rays, CTs, ultrasounds, why not a simple piece of legislation when you get your MRA, or MRI, sorry, MRI, it's attached to this thing so it's portable to your next doctor. | ||
| Is that that scary? | ||
| Except the lobbyists show up and say, David, you don't understand. | ||
| The duplicate scans are part of our profit model. | ||
| Oh, I'm not supposed to say that out loud. | ||
| We have dozens of things like this. | ||
| We've turned health care into being about the money instead of our brothers and sisters living better, living healthier. | ||
| How about if some of the money goes to the cures so we don't finance your misery? | ||
| We finance your freedom from that misery. | ||
| And I say these things, and tomorrow morning there'll be an army of lobbyists, an army of groups from my district, saying, David, you don't understand. | ||
| We need the cash. | ||
| Don't make us do it in a modern fashion. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm going to make the argument: prosperity is moral. | ||
| Curing people's misery is moral. | ||
| Using the technology that makes you sovereign, that makes you free so you can help take care of your own health is moral. | ||
| And what we do here is absolutely immoral. | ||
| We don't tell the truth about the debt. | ||
| We don't tell the truth about the demographics. | ||
| We don't tell the truth about the damage we're doing to your retirement, my kids' little kids' future. | ||
| And we don't tell the truth that if we would actually legalize technology, and I'm serious about this, legalize it, how much healthier every American could be. | ||
| And we could crash the price of health care. | ||
| Will this go on dead ears? | ||
| That I yield back. | ||
|
Honoring Pastor Siaba
00:06:24
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| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois, Mr. Mirez, for 30 minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for all members to have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of my special order hour. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I would like to start my special order hour honoring someone who has been monumental in my life. | ||
| And so I rise today to honor the life and legacy of my pastor and friend, the one, the only Reverend Fernando Ziaba. | ||
| It is hard to fully describe the impact that he had on my life and how much I will miss him. | ||
| Blessing me with Dios Terendiga Mana. | ||
| Pastor Siaba lived a life that exemplified love for God and for his neighbors. | ||
| I met Pastor Siaba at Humboldt Park United Methodist Church when I was just 15 years old. | ||
| He invested heavily in my spiritual and professional development, both as my pastor and as board chair of Humboldt Park Social Services Center for Changing Lives, the organization that I had the honor to be the executive director for for nine years. | ||
| Mentoring leaders, particularly women of faith and leadership, was one of Pastor Siaba's greatest gifts. | ||
| Over his impactful career, he served eight congregations. | ||
| And even after his retirement, he continued serving mentoring pastors, being registrar for the John Wesley Theological Institute, volunteering at a food pantry, and leading at Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church. | ||
| Pastor Siaba had a gift for thoughtful planning. | ||
| He was so detail-oriented, humble, and truly the best listener. | ||
| In true Pastor Siaba fashion, he planned his own funeral and he requested his eulogist preach on John 1:16. | ||
| From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. | ||
| While he may have defined his life by grace, we all benefited from the grace he extended to us. | ||
| He wanted the best for all of us. | ||
| He advocated for immigrants, people who were unhoused, people who were struggling with substance abuse. | ||
| He truly lived a life of love in action. | ||
| He taught us to love God, to serve our community, to seek justice, and to welcome our neighbors with open arms. | ||
| Today, on behalf of Illinois' 3rd Congressional District, that young person that you mentored, you supported, and you believed in, has the greatest honor to commend you here on the House floor on the House of Representatives to commend the life of Reverend Fernando Siaba for his legacy of love, of joy, and service. | ||
| We express our sincere condolences to his wife, Judy Siaba, his three daughters, Erika, Marta, and Ruth, and his entire beloved family. | ||
| May his memory be a blessing that sustains our fight for justice, and may he be welcomed in the company of saints and ancestors as a good and faithful servant. | ||
| Rest in peace, Pastor Siaba. | ||
| Rest in peace. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, I also rise today to honor someone else. | ||
| Today, I want to honor Marisol Velez, known as Pinky Ring. | ||
| She is a rooted revolutionary Puerto Rican MC from Chicago, decolonizing minds as a rapper, as an educator, as a mentor, and as a speaker. | ||
| As a cultural worker and disruptor, Pinky's music ignites our imaginations and sustains our struggles against displacement and erasure. | ||
| As an educator and mentor, she shapes the next generation of creative changemakers through culturally rooted programming and radical care. | ||
| Pinky is a Grammy U mentor. | ||
| She sits on the National Advisory Board for Music Will and serves as a U.S. hip-hop cultural ambassador to facilitate cultural diplomacy programming and conflict transformation through music. | ||
| In her roles, she is shaping the first ever K-12 hip-hop guidelines with the Hip Hop Education Center. | ||
| And so, Pinky, on behalf of Illinois' 3rd Congressional District, it is my honor to commend Marisol Veles for helping young people find their truth unapologetically and share it creatively. | ||
| And now, here in the House of Representatives, your name will live on past you and me. | ||
| Congratulations, Marisol. | ||
| With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to now yield to one of my colleagues. | ||
| I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois, Ms. Underwood, for as much time as she may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I rise today because what happened in Illinois during Operation Midway Blitz can never happen again. | |
| The last time this chamber convened before House Republicans took an eight-week vacation was September 19th. | ||
| So, this is the first chance that I've had to address the House about the outrageous abuses of power our community has endured for the past two months. | ||
|
Discharge Petition Needed
00:15:39
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||
|
unidentified
|
Under Christine Ohm's so-called leadership, Department of Homeland Security agents have terrorized my district. | |
| Their reckless and incompetent methods have traumatized families and endangered entire neighborhoods. | ||
| No community in America should live under siege by the federal government, as mine has. | ||
| Federal immigration officers and National Guard personnel, weaponized and politicized by the Trump administration, swept into my district with no communication, no coordination, no transparency, no accountability, and no regard for public safety. | ||
| They came barging into our towns, ignored our laws, and trampled on our civil and human rights. | ||
| In Aurora, a federal agent pepper sprayed a constituent of mine directly in the face from inches away while she was standing completely still with her hands at her sides unarmed. | ||
| Elsewhere in my district, we heard reports that federal officers used an elementary school as a staging area, positioning armed tactical teams on school grounds in full view of children. | ||
| Parents are afraid to leave their homes after hearing about neighbors abducted by masked agents while walking their kids to school, leaving the children unattended by the side of the road. | ||
| Workers fear going to their jobs. | ||
| Our economy is suffering, and local businesses have seen foot traffic collapse. | ||
| Because despite the Trump administration's claims of targeting, quote, the worst of the worst, their immigration enforcement operations have been a chaotic mess, sweeping up U.S. citizens, legal immigrants, and people with no criminal record. | ||
| I was horrified when federal agents rappelled down from helicopters to a Chicago apartment complex in the middle of the night, smashed windows and doors, threw flashbang grenades, dragged children from their beds, zip-tied, and detained U.S. citizens for hours. | ||
| And yet, after all that, federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone detained that night. | ||
| And in a recent court filing, DHS listed 614 people arrested as part of Operation Midway Blitz. | ||
| And only 16 of them, 16 of them have criminal histories of any kind. | ||
| That's 2.6%. | ||
| The other 598 people have no criminal record. | ||
| What's happening in Illinois is called racial profiling. | ||
| Greg Bavino, the Border Patrol agent who led Operation Midway Blitz, literally told a reporter that agents arrest people based on, quote, how they look. | ||
| Masked officers are violently targeting people, including U.S. citizens, because their brown skin and their black hair make them seem suspicious. | ||
| This is a complete failure. | ||
| Our founding fathers warned us about this type of government overreach after seeing how a desperate king's troops could trample on our unalienable right to liberty. | ||
| And yet, as we approach our nation's 250th birthday, we are confronting a similar tyranny. | ||
| That's not all. | ||
| Many of those arrests were essentially disappeared. | ||
| Members of Congress could not get basic information from DHS about where they took our constituents. | ||
| During the Republican shutdown, DHS leadership chose to furlough the liaisons that we rely on to locate detainees and resolve urgent casework. | ||
| When a constituent reached out because her husband was denied access to medical care in a detention facility, my office's emails bounced back and our calls went unanswered. | ||
| Weeks later, I'm still waiting for a response. | ||
| But the shutdown didn't stop DHS agents from harassing citizens and using force on peaceful protesters because the administration deemed those violent tasks essential. | ||
| That was not an accident. | ||
| That was a policy choice. | ||
| My fellow Americans, this is not what legitimate law enforcement looks like. | ||
| Operation Midway Blitz disregarded Illinois state laws, federal laws, and the U.S. Constitution. | ||
| Due process, a foundational constitutional right for all people in this country, went out the window. | ||
| Local police and officials were kept in the dark. | ||
| People were snatched off the streets, seemingly at random. | ||
| Many of my constituents felt like they were being hunted because of the language that they speak or the color of their skin, simply because they needed to run an errand at the hardware store or walk their kids to school. | ||
| This is not about public safety. | ||
| When the president has the power to terrorize American communities for his political purposes, it makes us all less safe. | ||
| It makes us all less free. | ||
| The people of Illinois deserve answers and Americans deserve better. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Thank you, Congresswoman. | ||
| Thank you for your hard work, for your courage, for your commitment, and for speaking truth to power in the People's House. | ||
| You know, Speaker, I look around and I look at every single chair here. | ||
| And I think about the fact that members of Congress, every one of us represents about 700,000 people. | ||
| But together, we represent every single person that lives in this country. | ||
| That's got to be the greatest honor and privilege for anyone to be able to serve humanity in this way. | ||
| And so it's important for me as we think about the people's house, the people's house, about the fact that we went 43 days without session. | ||
| The Speaker put us into recess, and some of my colleagues were not even in their district. | ||
| But here we are, 43 days later, on the fourth day of this week of session. | ||
| And as a reminder, I feel the necessity to remind my fellow Americans around the country and everyone watching what has happened here. | ||
| And so, as a reminder, Republicans' big ugly bill perpetrated the greatest transfer of wealth from working people to the ultra-wealthy in American history. | ||
| I can tell you that when I visited food pantries in my district, I met people who said to me, Congresswoman, Every single year I donate $1,000 to this food pantry. | ||
| But here I am making a line, and I've been here for three hours. | ||
| This is not the country and the promise that I thought the president made. | ||
| Here we are now. | ||
| This week, instead of actually fixing health care, instead of passing legislation where we're actually strengthening the safety net for our constituents, instead of working together to build in the people's house, we are here filled with censures. | ||
| And this week, Republicans are attacking more of the programs that our fellow Americans rely on, resolving that programs like Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, insurance, workers' compensation, and more are horrors. | ||
| So let's talk about the truth of the so-called denouncing the horrors of socialism resolution that we are going to be voting on in a couple of hours in the morning. | ||
| Republicans must despise you and hate the idea of seeing our communities thrive. | ||
| Look, Republicans are quick to steal the programs and services you rely on to bail out the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. | ||
| So we know that it's not the subsidies or supports that are the problem. | ||
| Republicans champion socialism when it's benefiting the rich and the powerful, who they think deserve it most. | ||
| But when it comes to working families, when it comes to working families, then social programs are a nightmare because bottom line, they do not believe you deserve the support. | ||
| Let me give you a few examples of social welfare programs that Americans rely on every single day, whether they're in a Republican district or a Democratic district. | ||
| SNAP benefits, VA benefits, local fire departments and police departments, the United States Postal Service, FEMA, public education, and the interstates that make commerce possible. | ||
| Listen, socialized programs are the foundation and safety net that ensures all members of our community can thrive regardless of our personal economic ability to pay into a capitalistic society. | ||
| So let's be very clear. | ||
| I know, Speaker, you may not want to hear this, but it feels like hypocrisy. | ||
| They want to give money to the elites while leaving nothing for everyday working families. | ||
| It goes without saying that I will be voting no on this resolution. | ||
| I believe that our country must reprioritize and reconsider what we invest in. | ||
| For me, that's working people. | ||
| The ultra-rich don't need more subsidies. | ||
| We're about to have a trillionaire that comes from this country. | ||
| And they should finally be paying their fair share in taxes. | ||
| I believe that everyday hardworking people deserve more and better. | ||
| And they've said this to you directly. | ||
| They've said this to all of us directly. | ||
| I believe in universal health care. | ||
| I do. | ||
| I believe in free higher education. | ||
| I do. | ||
| and social housing and pensions for all so that people don't have to work until they're 90 and they can retire with dignity. | ||
| I also believe in guaranteed minimum income, free public transit, and so much more. | ||
| You see, working families should be giving every single thing they need to thrive. | ||
| They shouldn't have to work 40 hours a week and still feel like they can't make it. | ||
| And so we demand more. | ||
| We demand a future that works for every working person. | ||
| And we can, in fact, build that together. | ||
| But we can't do that as we're destroying health care. | ||
| You see, since day one, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have been clear about the pain they're willing to inflict on the American people. | ||
| You see, in only 11 months, Republicans have used their power to cut our health care, to close our hospitals, to raise our health care costs in order to make sure that billionaire bosses become richer. | ||
| It's open enrollment season, and working families are already seeing double, triple the cost they usually pay for health insurance premiums. | ||
| These are the very same people that have been telling you that they can barely afford their health care and to pay for their mortgage. | ||
| In Illinois, many people will see their costs rise between $3,000 to $23,000. | ||
| Money that every family in our state should be able to keep to invest in their families and communities' quality of life. | ||
| Here's the bottom line. | ||
| Costs keep increasing and people won't be able to afford their health care. | ||
| Millions will go without the goods and services that they need. | ||
| And the president wants us unhoused. | ||
| He wants us foreclosed. | ||
| He wants us poor. | ||
| And it seems like he also wants us uninsured. | ||
| Look, I've already signed a discharge petition to ensure that the ACA subsidies extension is put on the floor for a vote because we need to use every single tool at our disposal to fight for our working families. | ||
| But I think it's time, it is past time for Republicans to join Democrats in prioritizing working people and address the pain that our communities are enduring. | ||
| We should be demanding more, and it means that we could be using the discharge petition process. | ||
| We have seen it work before this week to release the Epstein files. | ||
| We can do the same thing and get to the magic number of 218 members of Congress who care more about their constituents than they care about a dictator, who care more about their constituents, and they care about insurance companies, who care more about their constituents than they care about billionaires. | ||
| Because here's the bottom line. | ||
| We must demand more. | ||
| Every member of Congress who says they care about health care and working people, it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or you're a Republican, needs to sign the discharge petition and take action on the rising cost of living. | ||
| And Mr. Speaker, people keep saying, so where does my money go? | ||
| My taxes keep increasing. | ||
| Where are they going? | ||
| Well, Mr. Speaker, you and I both know where the money is going. | ||
| Yes, it's going to Homeland Security, $150 billion there, so that the Secretary can cosplay and jump on those $200 million jets. | ||
| But it's also going to other parts of the world to pay for bombs. | ||
| And so I want to talk to you about a bill that I introduced a few months ago. | ||
| It's called Block the Bombs Act. | ||
| Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, it must frustrate you that our government is using your money, your dollars, your taxpayer dollars, so that someone else can use them in another country and bomb women and children. | ||
| Look, I've been clear since the beginning of the ceasefire in Gaza and Israel that Netanyahu and Trump are a lethal, unaccountable duo that cannot be trusted. | ||
| In the time since the most recent ceasefire agreement, the Netanyahu government has continued to bomb Gaza, including refugee camps, restrict the movement of humanitarian aid, move to annex the West Bank, and has continued to arrest Palestinians without charge. | ||
| All while Netanyahu continues to lobby the U.S. for more and more of your money so that they can get more weapons unconditionally. | ||
|
Oversight and Accountability
00:04:55
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| Which Trump is inclined to deliver as long as he can turn Gaza into the next Middle Eastern Riviera. | ||
| Well, today on this House floor, we must say enough is enough. | ||
| Congress must assert its oversight authority and withhold the weapons that are still being used right now, even in the midst of this so-called ceasefire, to violate U.S. and international law. | ||
| And that is why we must continue to demand that Congress pass the Block the Bombs Act as a first step in accountability and oversight. | ||
| Do not be fooled into thinking that blocking bombs is no longer necessary. | ||
| The only thing that will actually affirm a permanent ceasefire is the oversight that this body gives. | ||
| It is needed more than ever because every member of Congress should join us today. | ||
| So Mr. Speaker, as I prepare to close, I think about the moment we're living. | ||
| I think about the children in schools who are wondering what the future will look like for them. | ||
| I think about the responsibilities that we all took when we took an oath to protect the Constitution, to protect the well-being of our communities, to uphold the Constitution, and to honor our constituents. | ||
| And I have to tell you that these last 11 months have been painful. | ||
| I will tell you that as someone that lives in the city of Chicago, I never thought that I would say that I knew what it felt like to feel like you're living under siege. | ||
| As a Chicagoan under the leadership of Christy Noam, we have felt like we've lived under siege. | ||
| I know firsthand what it feels like to have a Black Hawk helicopter surrounding your home every other day because they're getting someone else. | ||
| They're arresting another mother in front of a school or tear gassing someone else who's just recording. | ||
| I know firsthand the terror that DHS immigration raids have had on our communities. | ||
| We have been surveilled. | ||
| People have been threatened. | ||
| A one-year-old was tear gassed. | ||
| A U.S. citizen child tear gassed. | ||
| A pastor was pepperballed seven times. | ||
| Subjected to warrantless arrest, precision immobilization technique maneuvers, kidnapped and disappeared. | ||
| Neither Trump's administration nor DHS cares if you're a U.S. citizen, a baby, a senior, or a pastor. | ||
| There is no respect for the rule of law. | ||
| Terror has been unleashed on American cities, and they think that as long as they issue a statement with whatever fabricated lie that they have created, that they can continue to get away with it. | ||
| So I want to give you three examples of what I'm talking about. | ||
| On Saturday, October 25th, Border Patrol agents aggressively disrupted a children's Halloween parade and terrorized and injured a 67-year-old U.S. citizen, a 67-year-old U.S. citizen, pulling him out of his vehicle, tackling him to the ground, and detaining him, arresting him. | ||
| On Saturday, November 8th, ICE agents pepper sprayed a family and their one-year-old child as they were leaving Sam's Club. | ||
| A one-year-old girl, a baby. | ||
| On Friday, October 10th, an unmarked vehicle driven by federal agents crashed into Diana Svigueroa's vehicle, and they exited the vehicle with weapons drawn to her to forcibly drag her out of her car and arrest her, a U.S. citizen. | ||
| So here is my question to my colleagues in the People's House. | ||
| If DHS cannot be held accountable, if we can't do our oversight work, if we're obstructed from conducting oversight, if they are systematically undermining our civil rights and perpetrating violence in our communities, then what is Congress's responsibility? | ||
| Let me say this: the answer, Mr. Speaker, is very clear. | ||
| We must strip away every tool they are using to terrorize our communities. | ||
| We can start with the taxpayer dollars they are using to harm Americans. | ||
| It is time for us to begin defunding ICE. | ||
|
Nevada County's Loss
00:05:12
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| With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| The gentlelady yields. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley, for 30 minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this last month, Nevada County, indeed the entire state of California, lost one of its finest, its truly great citizens. | ||
| Eduardo Aguyo Garcia was born in Barcelona, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. | ||
| He was the second child and only son of Jose Esperanza. | ||
| His favorite memory as a child was playing marbles in the streets, although he frequently returned home with an empty bag. | ||
| His life was forever changed when he applied and was accepted into the American Field Service program and became an exchange student in 1955. | ||
| He sailed across the Atlantic with fellow students. | ||
| They spent the time discussing American customs and culture. | ||
| It was on this ship that he was advised to avoid asking out girls that wore a pin because the pin indicated that they'd been pinned by a boy and were not available to date. | ||
| So he traveled across the United States on his way to Millbrae in California, where he was hosted for the school year by the mayor of Milbrea Webb Whitner. | ||
| When he arrived at the San Francisco airport, he was greeted by American AFS students, including Nancy Campbell. | ||
| Now, while he was intrigued by Nancy, he would not ask her out because he saw a pin. | ||
| But he didn't realize until the end of the school year at Cappuccina High School in San Bruno that she wore a pin because she was a jobs daughter of an international organization. | ||
| So it was not the type of pin that he thought. | ||
| So when he discovered that she was not actually seeing someone, he immediately asked her out. | ||
| After Eddie graduated from Cappuccino High School, he returned to Spain to complete his compulsory military service. | ||
| After the military, he went to work for a chemical company in Spain, and he and Nancy continued their relationship via letters and visits. | ||
| As Nancy near completion of her degree at Cal Berkeley, he asked her to marry him. | ||
| They were married in California in 1961 and moved to Barcelona for several years. | ||
| Their daughter was born in 1963, and eight months later, they moved back to Northern California. | ||
| Eddie was importing and selling sporting rifles and ammunition, but turned to wholesale decorative accessories, starting his company, Garcia Imports, out of the garage of their house in Melbourne. | ||
| Soon it grew to a small warehouse in San Bruno, then a bigger warehouse in San Mateo, and then in Redwood City, and finally in Hayward. | ||
| He traveled extensively for business both overseas and in the United States, and he achieved one of his greatest goals by becoming a citizen of the United States in 1973. | ||
| After over 40 years in the home furnishings industry, working side by side with both his wife Nancy and his daughter Barbara, he and Nancy retired in 2008. | ||
| In 2009, they moved to Grass Valley. | ||
| They were not entirely sure what they wanted to do in retirement, but they met some wonderful friends and soon became very involved with the Tea Party, the state of Jefferson, and the Nevada County Republican Party. | ||
| It was a full-time passion for both Nancy and Eddie. | ||
| Eddie joined the Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation in 2011 as a director. | ||
| In 2015, Eddie and Nancy, as well as a daughter Barbara and son-in-law Larry McDonald, were named the Family of the Year by the Nevada County Fairs Board of Directors. | ||
| The board chose the Garcia McDonald family for their volunteer efforts, their vision for the foundation station, and their ongoing support of the Nevada County Fairgrounds. | ||
| After nearly 60 years of marriage, Nancy passed in 2020, which was of course such a great loss for Eddie. | ||
| But he stayed busy in the last several years supporting political campaigns, keeping an eye on local politics, and working to improve his adopted country. | ||
| He was very passionate about the candidates he supported and traveled with friends to support those candidates wherever he could. | ||
| And he continued to pursue his passions right up until he passed peacefully and quickly on October 9th, 2025. | ||
|
Redistricting Madness Spread
00:04:30
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| Eddie, we miss you, my friend. | ||
| but your legacy will be felt by our community forever. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to again call for an end to the terrible redistricting war that is cascading across the country with a domino effect. | ||
| going from one state to the next. | ||
| States throwing out their entire congressional map, upending representation in their state. | ||
| It is something that is deeply unpopular with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and is deeply unpopular with the American people. | ||
| Gerrymandering is bad enough, but throwing out the maps specifically to gerrymander in the middle of the decade is even worse. | ||
| At this point in time, we have seen Texas and California both adopt gerrymandered maps, although both states now find their new maps being challenged in federal court, which adds yet another element of uncertainty for representatives and constituents alike. | ||
| But it's gone far beyond California and Texas. | ||
| We now have where you are now seeing states either already or in the process of starting to adopt new maps in states like Missouri and potentially Indiana and Kansas and Florida perhaps, as well as Virginia or Illinois or Maryland and several others. | ||
| It seems hardly any state will be spared and many that have said they wanted to simply don't have time this year, so they're waiting to do it until the next cycle. | ||
| It's gotten completely out of hand. | ||
| It's gotten to the point where we could get into this world of rolling redistricting, where district lines are never settled for more than a couple of years, where the connection between voters and representatives is continually being severed. | ||
| So I have called time and again for an end to this redistricting war, for an armistice. | ||
| And the fact of the matter is that there still is an opportunity to do that. | ||
| But it's a very narrow window of opportunity that exists. | ||
| My bill, H.R. 4889, would bar mid-decade redistricting in every state in the country. | ||
| And this makes sense as an act of Congress under our Article I election clause authority, but it makes sense in particular because redistricting itself is a creature, is a creation of the Constitution of the federal government, which says that it has to be done every 10 years. | ||
| And it's only a new phenomenon, a fairly recent phenomenon, where states are deciding to do it more frequently than that. | ||
| So we can, as a House, pass this measure, and I believe if it were brought to the floor, it would pass overwhelmingly to stop this madness in every state in the country. | ||
| And the reason I say it's a narrow window is because the filing deadline in Texas is coming up on December 8th. | ||
| And realistically, nothing that we do here would affect the map in that state after that point in time. | ||
| So that is really effectively the deadline for a national solution to this problem. | ||
| Even if, by the way, that deadline were to pass and Texas or California could not be affected, I still think we should move forward to spare these other states from having to deal with the adverse consequences. | ||
| But I'm again today calling upon the Speaker of the House to bring this bill to the floor for a vote so we could end this madness, we can stop mid-decade gerrymandering, we could go back to the way it's supposed to be where we redaw district lines once every 10 years, and we could focus all of the time and energy and resources being put into this fight, which, by the way, it seems is not even going to help one party or the other to any significant degree. | ||
|
Prop 50 and Political Gerrymandering
00:12:34
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| It's probably all going to be more or less a wash, but we can get back to focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, last week, Governor Gavin Newsom's chief of staff was indicted for 23 felony counts in a federal corruption investigation. | ||
| This is his former chief of staff. | ||
| She left the office at the end of last year. | ||
| The charges include conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice, subscribing to false tax returns, making false statements to the FBI. | ||
| The main conduct being alleged involves theft of campaign funds totaling $225,000, tax fraud, as well as fraud surrounding a PPP loan. | ||
| The indictment lists a number of co-conspirators, including the former chief of staff for California's Attorney General, including a high-powered lobbyist, including another well-known consultant, as well as a number of other unnamed co-conspirators. | ||
| So in other words, these are the people running our state government in California. | ||
| These are the people who control our politics in California. | ||
| Now, I have spoken about a culture of corruption that exists in Sacramento. | ||
| And this latest series of events has cast that culture of corruption in stark relief. | ||
| Indeed, the former chief of staff or communications director for both Jerry Brown and Diane Feinstein used those very words in the aftermath of this indictment to describe the area that he had worked for many, many years, a culture of corruption. | ||
| He referred to Governor Newsom's chief of staff, who's now been indicted, as, quote, a mafia boss. | ||
| So I think it's important for people to take note of what has transpired, because it does cast a light on the corruption that is endemic to politics in Sacramento. | ||
| And I believe that this is really the core issue when you look at why California has declined as a state, why our quality of life has declined as a state. | ||
| Why we pay the highest gas taxes yet drive over the deepest potholes. | ||
| Why we spend tens of billions of dollars on a high-speed train and yet absolutely nothing gets built. | ||
| Why we spend more and more and more money on education every year, yet we have the highest illiteracy rate in the state. | ||
| The fundamental issue is not Democrat versus Republican, even. | ||
| It is the people of our state versus this entrenched and corrupt political class. | ||
| And so I do believe that in order to get our state back on track, we need to reform the way politics and government are done in California. | ||
| And I believe we are actually on our way to starting to do that. | ||
| Not only with examples of people being held accountable, as with this indictment, but also with the coalition for common sense that you see forming across California. | ||
| The same coalition, for example, that came together last year to defeat our political establishment and pass Prop 36 to make crime illegal again in California by an overwhelming margin, 68% of the vote in that election. | ||
| So I do believe that there is a coalition of people who care about California and want to reform our state and want to restore sanity and good government and common sense. | ||
| And hopefully this latest truly troubling, horrifying example will help to speed that process along in a very healthy way. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today I voted for, and the House passed, the Refinery Act. | ||
| This is an important piece of legislation that's designed to identify obstacles to expanding refining capacity in the United States. | ||
| It's designed to promote energy independence. | ||
| And before going through exactly what the bill does, I wanted to make clear why this is so important for those of us in California. | ||
| Because California is seeing the closure of two of its refineries, Philip 66 and Valero, representing a significant chunk of our state's overall refining capacity. | ||
| Now, we already pay the highest gas prices of any state in the country. | ||
| We also have electricity prices that have gone up by 34% over the last several years, the New York Times just reported, far more than in any other state. | ||
| But we pay the highest gas prices out of all 50 states, substantially more than the national average, higher even than Hawaii, which is an island state. | ||
| And the causes of that are well understood, and it is those very causes that are now causing these refineries to close in a way that is going to make the problem even worse by further constraining supply. | ||
| The reason, of course, the causes is the taxes, the regulations, the particular fuel blend that's required, the continually changing environmental mandates that cause the cost of doing business to continually grow, that require these refineries to continually update their equipment in a way that makes doing business just no longer viable. | ||
| All of these things together led researchers at USC to determine that by the end of next year, Californians could be paying an average of $8 a gallon for gasoline. | ||
| So the bill we passed today here in Congress in the House of Representatives will help with this because in addition to the data collection that it requires and the aspects of it that seek to support an agenda designed to promote energy independence through getting rid of needless regulations, | ||
| it also is looking at state actions that are continuing, that are contributing to our decline in refining capacity. | ||
| And California, I'm sure, will be the state where the most such actions are identified. | ||
| And I'm looking forward to the results of this and then being able to act to use whatever levers we have here at the federal level to try to spare Californians from the continually rising cost of gasoline and to restore a little bit, little dose of common sense to our state's energy policy. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, yesterday, California's nonpartisan legislative analyst revealed that the state has an $18 billion deficit. | ||
| $18 billion deficit. | ||
| The nonpartisan legislative analyst noted that this is the fourth straight year that the state has had budget problems, even though revenue has been increasing. | ||
| The LAO, the Legislative Analyst's Office, also noted in their report on the state budget that the state's economy is not in good shape. | ||
| Indeed, job growth this year has amounted to zero. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| There has literally been no job growth in the state of California. | ||
| In addition, consumers in California are increasingly pessimistic about our state's economy. | ||
| So these problems have all been building and building and building and have in particular accelerated during the governorship of Gavin Newsom. | ||
| In his first year as governor, our state budget was $208 billion. | ||
| Now the budget is $322 billion. | ||
| So it has increased by a factor of more than 50%. | ||
| And can Californians say they're getting 50% more for their tax dollars? | ||
| Of course not. | ||
| The problems in our state have continued to grow. | ||
| We continue to lead the nation in homelessness, in unemployment, in taxes, in regulations, in poverty. | ||
| So I would hope that this latest report from the legislative analysts will be a wake-up call for the politicians in Sacramento that we need to start doing things differently. | ||
| We need to have less of a tax and regulatory burden. | ||
| We need to support small businesses and workers. | ||
| We need to get the budget under control so we don't continue to spend more and more as we get less and less. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this is the first opportunity I've had to address the House since the passage of Prop 50 in California to re-gerrymander our state and return us to the era of political gerrymandering. | ||
| Now, of course, I was against the proposition and because I'm against gerrymandering everywhere. | ||
| I'm against it in California. | ||
| I'm against it in Texas. | ||
| I'm against it in every state, Republican or Democrat. | ||
| And my district, the currently drawn third congressional district, did indeed vote against Prop 50. | ||
| And if it had its way, it would remain one contiguous district. | ||
| Unfortunately, this was not decided on a district-by-district basis. | ||
| So it must be acknowledged that the people have spoken. | ||
| And even though there is ongoing a federal challenge to the new map, I'm proceeding under the assumption that that new map will govern the elections in 2026. | ||
| But I did want to point to one particular provision in Prop 50 that I actually support. | ||
| And indeed, I think this is a good part of the reason why it passed, because they actually put this provision, this sentence, right there in the description that people saw on the ballot when they voted, which is the proposition established a state policy of supporting independent redistricting nationwide. | ||
| And while it, on the one hand, brings back gerrymandering in California, it on the other hand calls upon Congress to establish independent redistricting commissions in every state in the country. | ||
| So I am going to answer that call to action from the voters of our state. | ||
| I am currently working on legislation to do precisely what the initiative calls for, to establish independent redistricting in every state in the country. | ||
| And it will be modeled on the independent redistricting commission that Prop 50 just pushed aside in California. | ||
| So that if we can get this passed here in Congress and signed into law, then by the time of the next census in 2030, when states are actually supposed to be redrawing district lines, the horrible scourge of derrick gerrymandering, this scourge on our democracy, will finally be put to an end in the United States of America. | ||
|
Bronx Giant Remembered
00:05:02
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| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| The speaker now recognizes the gentleman from New York, Mr. Torres, for 30 minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a Bronx giant, Eric Andrew E. Boogie Farmer. | ||
| His passing on October 8th leaves a profound void in forest houses and in the heart of our borough. | ||
| Eric Farmer was born and raised in the Bronx, and for more than 50 years, he embodied the very best of our community. | ||
| A gifted athlete whose dreams were interrupted by tragedy, Eric transformed personal loss into public purpose. | ||
| In 2012, he became the tenant association president of Forest Houses, a role he carried out with honesty, compassion, and relentless effectiveness. | ||
| When Eric called the meeting, the room was full of people because people trusted him. | ||
| They knew he listened, and they knew he delivered. | ||
| He forged partnerships with NYPD, PSA 7, community organizations, and city officials to bring real resources into forest houses. | ||
| He invested deeply in young people by offering mentorship, securing grants, creating summer programs, and opening doors for anyone seeking a second chance. | ||
| His community events like book bag giveaways, turkey distributions, Christmas gifts for every child were not just traditions, they were often lifelines. | ||
| Eric's leadership extended far beyond the Bronx. | ||
| His work on the Gram C Monument brought international attention and investment to Forest Houses, employing more than 150 residents and showcasing the cultural brilliance of our community. | ||
| Eric never sought recognition. | ||
| His mission was the people. | ||
| He was the heartbeat of Forest Houses, a mentor, a connector, a unifier, and a friend. | ||
| May his memory be a blessing and may his legacy continue to guide the Bronx for generations to come. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Rosa Jonai, a woman whose story embodies the very best of the American immigrant experience. | ||
| Born in 1948 in Montenegro, Rosa grew up grounded in compassion, community, and faith. | ||
| In 1966, she married her beloved husband, Zeph, and just two years later, they embarked on a courageous journey to the United States to build a better life. | ||
| And what a life she built. | ||
| As a devoted mother to Mark, Elza, and Paul, and as Nana Rosa to seven grandchildren, Rosa created a family rooted in love, generosity, and unwavering support. | ||
| Her nurturing spirit and deep care for her family were evident in everything she did. | ||
| Rosa's commitment extended far beyond her home. | ||
| She was a dedicated friend, a pillar of her community, and a passionate supporter of civic engagement. | ||
| This was never more evident than in her tireless advocacy during her son's marks political endeavors. | ||
| As a woman of deep Catholic faith, Rosa carried and shared that faith everywhere she went, often literally by gifting rosaries to others. | ||
| Her spirituality was not only personal, it was a beacon of hope and a reminder of the power of prayer. | ||
| Rosa Jonah's life was defined by love, faith, and service. | ||
| Her legacy lives on in the community she strengthened and the family she so fiercely cherished. | ||
| May her memory be a blessing, and may we honor her by striving to live with the same grace that she exemplified every day. | ||
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Dominic Smith's Journey
00:15:44
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| Mr. Speaker, Dominic Smith is a testament to perseverance, purpose, and the power of second chances. | ||
| A graduate of the College of New Rochelle with a bachelor's degree in psychology, he continued to elevate his expertise by becoming a certified substance abuse counselor. | ||
| His journey has been anything but linear, from exploring the music industry as an aspiring writer and artist to becoming a respected leader in youth development. | ||
| For more than 18 years, Mr. Smith has dedicated his life to uplifting youth and families across New York City. | ||
| His work has connected him with parents, teens, educators, elected officials, and community members who share his belief that every young person deserves guidance, opportunity, and hope. | ||
| As a preventative manager at the Marshal Montafier Community Center, where he has proudly served for over 12 years, he oversees transformative programs, including drug prevention and restorative justice. | ||
| Through his leadership, these programs reach more than 700 youth and families every year. | ||
| Mr. Smith's impact also extends to his time as the program director at MMCC's Edenwald Community Center. | ||
| There, he launched essential support systems such as narcotics anonymous meetings, a mentorship program for high-risk youth, and a men's support group, spaces that continue to change lives and restore hope to those who participate. | ||
| Beyond titles and positions, Mr. Smith is a youth advocate at heart. | ||
| He is a motivational speaker, mentor, and guide for young people navigating some of life's toughest challenges. | ||
| As the CEO and founder of Your Second Chance, he leads a powerful youth leadership initiative that supports high-risk students, alternative school populations, justice-involved youth, and individuals returning home from incarceration. | ||
| Mr. Smith's story is a reminder that with resilience, vision, and commitment to serve others, one person can inspire change that ripples across families, communities, and endures for generations. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a remarkable leader and a cornerstone of faith in the Bronx, Reverend Reginald E. Paris of the United Christian Baptist Church. | ||
| Since its founding on May 16, 1960, by the late Reverend Elias Minor, United Christian Baptist Church has stood as a steadfast pillar of hope, service, and spiritual resilience. | ||
| What began as a small gathering of believers has grown into a thriving ministry that has produced reverends, deacons, evangelists, and generations of community leaders, all committed to winning the world for Christ. | ||
| The church's journey from its humble beginnings on Amsterdam Avenue to its permanent home on East 222nd Street reflects a legacy of perseverance and divine purpose. | ||
| With more than 22 ministries and partnerships with over 20 interdenominational churches, United Christian has fed the hungry, empowered families, supported youth, and uplifted the Bronx for more than six decades. | ||
| At the heart of this extraordinary institution stands Reverend Reginald E. Parris. | ||
| Reverend Paris is a proud son of the Bronx whose own path to ministry began as a Sunday school teacher, then deacon, and now just celebrated his eighth pastoral anniversary in the church. | ||
| His leadership is rooted in humility, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to service. | ||
| Through initiatives like Cripple to Crowned, youth mentorship, anti-gun violence advocacy, and daily acts of care, Reverend Paris lives the gospel not only in word, but in deed. | ||
| Under his guidance, United Christian Baptist Church is a sanctuary where people are lifted, restored, and empowered, and it remains a beacon of faith for the Bronx community. | ||
| I thank Reverend Paris and the entire United Christian family for their enduring service. | ||
| May their work continue to bless the Bronx and beyond. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge Tanya Pedler, a passionate community leader, disability advocate, and the current president of the Morrisania Air Rights Houses Tenant Association in the South Bronx. | ||
| A dedicated mother and tireless organizer, Tanya has become a leading voice for families living in NYCHA developments, especially those raising children with autism and other developmental disabilities. | ||
| Since her son Glenn's autism diagnosis in 2018, Tanya has worked to address the lack of services, programs, and inclusive spaces for children and families with special needs in the Bronx. | ||
| She has made it her mission to ensure the New York City Housing Authority, that NYCHA residents, are not left behind in the fight for access, equity, and opportunity. | ||
| Because of Tanya's dedication and activism, she was instrumental in securing $750,000 in federal funding for the first sensory garden and sensory playground at the Maurice Sena Air Rights Houses. | ||
| These groundbreaking spaces are designed to provide safe, inclusive environments for children of all abilities to play, explore, and thrive, transforming public housing into communities where families feel seen, supported, and valued. | ||
| In 2023, Tanya founded the Sensory Exploration Center Incorporated, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing sensory play, therapy, and inclusive programming to the Maurice Sena air rights community and beyond. | ||
| Tanya has also expanded her advocacy beyond local infrastructure. | ||
| In 2025, she organized and led a groundbreaking trip for over 220 children and families with autism, providing them with a day of joy and connection in honor of Autism Awareness and Disability Pride Month. | ||
| Under Tanya's leadership, Morris Senior Air Rights has become a hub for inclusive programming, sensory-friendly initiatives, and strong community engagement. | ||
| Her vision and persistence have reshaped the way NYCHA communities embrace children and families with disabilities, setting a precedent, a powerful precedent, for public housing developments within the Bronx and across New York City. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a dear friend and constituent, Rosetta Kirkland, a dedicated Bronx community member, SEIU 1199 union member. | ||
| and current president of the Board of Directors of Concourse Village of the Bronx. | ||
| I am grateful for her immense community contributions, social justice advocacy, and her ongoing fight to improve the lives of working people in the Bronx. | ||
| Rosetta consistently strives to improve the lives of all working people, as well as the lives of those she lives with in her community in Concourse Village. | ||
| She has worked alongside local groups and elected officials, including myself, putting on powerful community events such as family days, turkey giveaways, and Halloween events. | ||
| Through her tireless work, Rosetta has become a powerful force for good in her community. | ||
| In addition to her Bronx community leadership, Rosetta is a leader in her faith community. | ||
| She's taken part in different functions at Greater Universal Baptist Church, New Season Church, and the Pastors Aid League of Greater New York and Vicinity as a choir member, the president of the Pastor Aid Committee, and much more. | ||
| Her commitment to her faith is an integral part of her identity and an inspiration to those around her. | ||
| Rosetta spent 21 years within the MTA's President's office aiding the largest public transportation system in the country. | ||
| While at the MTA, Rosetta joined the powerful 1199 SEI union and has been a proud member since 2011. | ||
| She was hired as part of the administrative staff at Kings Harbor Multicare Center, where her peers elected her as their union delegate. | ||
| In that capacity, she persistently and effectively represented the members in grievance procedures and ensured their rights were always protected. | ||
| She engages members in union campaigns to preserve sufficient funding for health care and organizes member-to-member electoral campaigns. | ||
| As a delegate, Rosetta went on to become a union activist where she demonstrated her drive to make a positive difference for social and human justice. | ||
| She is now part of the 1199 candidate screening team, which is a committee of 1199 staffers who the union relies upon to be responsible for choosing the next political candidate they support with an endorsement for their run for office. | ||
| It is with immense respect and admiration that I honor Rosetta Kirkland for her dedicated service to her community, her advocacy for workers' rights, and her ongoing commitment to improving the lives of those around her. | ||
| Her leadership, compassion, and tireless work on behalf of others exemplify the values of our great borough. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a New Yorker whose leadership embodies the best of our city's spirit. | ||
| A spirit of service, inclusivity, and relentless dedication to community. | ||
| Melissa Sigmund. | ||
| Melissa is a transformational leader and currently the CEO of the Riverdale Y. | ||
| I can state from personal experience that partnering with Melissa means partnering with someone who understands impact not in the abstract, but in the everyday lives of real people. | ||
| As the CEO of the Riverdale Y, Melissa has taken an already important institution and elevated it to new heights. | ||
| Under her leadership, the Riverdale Y has not simply been a community center, but a community anchor. | ||
| It supports New Yorkers of every age, background, and identity. | ||
| It is a place where children learn, where seniors find companionship, where families gather, and where every person who walks through the doors feels seen, valued, and welcomed. | ||
| In addition to her work at the Riverdale Y, her career spans Fortune 500 firms, financial institutions, and some of the most mission-driven philanthropic organizations in our nation. | ||
| Whether working with education non-for-profits, technology innovators, or faith-based institutions, Melissa has brought the same steady hallmark of excellence, a commitment to strengthening community connections and lifting people up. | ||
| She understands something essential about public life. | ||
| Solutions are strongest when government, nonprofit leaders, and industry work hand in hand. | ||
| Today, we honor her achievements, her compassion, and her unwavering dedication to the people of New York. | ||
| And we thank her for her service, her vision, and her enduring belief in what a community can be when we choose to build it together. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a true Bronxite, Mr. Gene Edwards. | ||
| His story is inseparable from the story of our borough, our city, and our country. | ||
| Gene grew up in the very heart of the Bronx, attended New York City public schools, raised in public housing, and from those humble beginnings, he charted a path defined by courage and service. | ||
| After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served for 10 years with distinction. | ||
| Over three combat tours in Iraq, Gene demonstrated extraordinary bravery and valor. | ||
| His acts of service earned him decorations and the deep gratitude of our nation. | ||
| In 2024, he was rightfully inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame. | ||
| When Gene returned home, he did what true public servants do, continue to serve. | ||
| For the past 15 years, he has worked in the Bronx District Attorney's Office, fighting for justice on behalf of victims of crime and standing up for the safety and dignity of our communities. | ||
| Gene's service extends far beyond the walls of any institution. | ||
| He is a senior leader of the Youth Literacy Initiative, Ms. Ann's World, which has placed thousands of free books into the hands of low-income children to nurture the minds and imaginations of the next generation. | ||
| For his military service and his work as a district leader, Gene is a vice-state commander of the National Association of Black Veterans, advocating at the state level to ensure that veterans receive the support and services they have earned. | ||
| As district leader of the 79th Assembly District, Gene has championed voter education, civic engagement, and political empowerment, always ensuring that the people of the South Bronx know their rights and know their power. | ||
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Pride in Public Service
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| Mr. Speaker, Gene has fought for this country, he has fought for the Bronx, and he continues to fight every day for the people. | ||
| His life is a testament to what it means to rise from the Bronx and serve the Bronx with unwavering devotion. | ||
| it is my honor to recognize him today. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Sherman Brown, an extraordinary community leader and the CEO of the AIM High Empowerment Institute. | ||
| Raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands and now a proud member of the Bronx community, Sherman brings a lifetime of resilience, public service, and dedication to empowering young people. | ||
| His background in public administration and youth development gives him a deep understanding of the challenges facing the young men he serves. | ||
| Through the AIM High Empowerment Institute, Mr. Sherman leads a transformative program that provides weekly in-school empowerment sessions, personalized coaching, leadership training, and academic and career support. | ||
| He works to ensure that students are surrounded by mentors who believe in their potential and he helps them build confidence, discipline, and purpose. | ||
| Reaching young adults early, ensuring they understand and reach their potential, is critical work to prepare the next generation of leaders from the Bronx. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to honor Sherman Brown for his unwavering commitment to our youth and for helping build stronger, brighter futures across our community. | ||
| He represents the best qualities in what it truly means to be a mentor by inspiring, listening, and instilling confidence in the youth of the Bronx. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a man who has dedicated his life to the Bronx and his community, Miguel Peterson, President of the Teller Avenue Resident Association. | ||
| For more than four decades, Mr. Peterson has lived in the same neighborhood, building a life rooted in family and community. | ||
| He and his wife, Maria, have been married for 43 years and together have raised nine children. | ||
| His family is a testament to generosity, responsibilities, values that have long strengthened the Bronx. | ||
| Mr. Peterson dedicated his professional career to helping others, working as an orthodontics and prosthetics technician before joining NYCHA, where he rose to the position of superintendent. | ||
| His commitment to public service extends even further. | ||
| He served honorably in the U.S. Army Reserves, earning the rank of staff sergeant, and volunteered as a police officer for more than two years, leaving the police force with the rank of sergeant. | ||
| For nearly 20 years, Mr. Peterson has served as the president of the Teller Abbey Resident Association. | ||
| And for the past eight years, he has been elected vice chair of the Bronx South District Council of Presidents, where he advocates tirelessly for safer housing, stronger services, and a better quality of life for his neighbors. | ||
| A graduate of Bronx Community College, a father to a Bronx family, and a superintendent of Bronx Housing, Mr. Peterson embodies the very best of civic duty and community leadership. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I am proud to recognize his extraordinary contributions to our borough and thank him for a lifetime of service. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Roy, for 30 minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Speaker, my friend from North Carolina. | ||
| And I rise this evening to say to the American people: well, Congress is back. | ||
| Congress is back because we were finally able to do our job after 43 days of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, our Democrat colleagues, parading around the country, acting like they were fighting for you, when in fact they were preventing us from being able to do the work we were sent here to do. | ||
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Funding Government Through Crisis
00:15:30
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| They were fighting to make worse a broken health care system that they have been holding you, the American people, hostage to, as they were also holding our government funding hostage. | ||
| They were fighting to protect a broken health care system on behalf of insurance companies and regulators to fund health care for illegal aliens and transgender surgeries and abortions. | ||
| Republicans said enough. | ||
| We fought back and we held the line and we funded government through January with three appropriations bills because that's what we told you we would do. | ||
| And the president deserves credit and the speaker of the house deserves credit because we were able to deliver. | ||
| Throughout all the headlines that this place gets, House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and the President have done a lot this year to deliver tangible results and wins for the American people. | ||
| Let's just take a look at a few. | ||
| On day one of his return to office, President Trump addressed many of the issues upon which he campaigned. | ||
| He fought the powers of globalists, defunding UNRWA, the dollars that were going to Hamas against Israel and against our national security interests. | ||
| He defunded the United Nations Human Rights Council. | ||
| He defunded the World Health Organization. | ||
| Each one of these were things that I had introduced legislation, and many of my Republican colleagues had introduced legislation, but our Democrat colleagues wouldn't allow us to move. | ||
| The president came in and executed on those important items to get us removed from these world bureaucrats. | ||
| The president also signed a declaration declaring cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. | ||
| Again, a bill I introduced five years ago that Democrats were blocking. | ||
| The president was able to deliver. | ||
| We should codify it, but we've got to beat Democrats to do that. | ||
| The FACE Act. | ||
| The President stopped the abuses of the FACE Act against pro-life Americans and people that had the Department of Justice abusing them for carrying out their faith. | ||
| And then he pardoned the pro-life activists that had been targeted and given jail time for praying and standing in defense of life. | ||
| I introduced a bill to get rid of this pernicious abusive law. | ||
| The president came in and he executed. | ||
| January 6th, alongside pro-life observers, Americans who were charged and jailed, often unfairly targeted, were pardoned after the federal government conducted a massive sweep to overly punish thousands of Americans, including some of my constituents. | ||
| Some of us had to go down to the jail to force them to release people that the president pardoned. | ||
| Gender sanity. | ||
| In a return to normalcy, the administration removed the gender X designation on U.S. passports. | ||
| A piece of legislation I was proud to introduce that JD Vance carried in the Senate when he was there. | ||
| The Lake and Riley Act. | ||
| In March, the Lake and Riley Act would ensure federal immigration officials detain illegal aliens that commit crimes and would allow states to sue the feds. | ||
| I was proud to introduce legislation, along with my colleague from North Carolina, Dan Bishop. | ||
| The Sioux Act, which was included in the Lake and Riley Act, which will allow us to sue the federal government in the future when they fail to secure the border. | ||
| A monumental change in allowing states to defend themselves against the abuses that we saw under Biden and my OCUS. | ||
| Speaking of the border, perhaps the most comprehensive and consequential policy achievements under President Trump has been securing our border with the leadership of Tom Homan and Secretary Noam and Stephen Miller, the president himself, Border Patrol, ICE, all of these great law enforcement officials, despite the criticisms of leftists and Marxist mayors in cities that refused to work with them. | ||
| They have brought down the flow across our border down to basically zero, a 92% reduction from the massive flowing across our border that were endangering Americans, endangering the people. | ||
| Energy independence. | ||
| Trump signed an executive order ending American dependence on unreliable energy sources, slashed $3 billion in bogus abusive emergency spending that wasn't even being used for emergencies. | ||
| ICE officials were given access to data for the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees to be able to look at it and go find illegal aliens that were using Medicaid. | ||
| The Interior Department announced today that all agency-related decisions related to wind and solar energy must undergo strict reviews. | ||
| The Treasury Department announced today that they're taking action to ensure no tax benefits will go to illegal aliens. | ||
| This year, we advanced a responsible budget along with President Trump to reflect our well-established goal to return to pre-COVID spending. | ||
| But let's look at more. | ||
| This Congress, working with the president, has held spending flat for the last two years, and now it's flat through January. | ||
| And if we honor our commitments, it'll be flat through next September. | ||
| By holding government spending flat and growing our economy, we are reducing the size and scope of a bureaucracy. | ||
| We are reducing debt as a percentage of our GDP and honoring the commitment that we gave to reduce inflation and to take our country back from the grasp of debt. | ||
| We avoided a massive omnibus spending bill twice. | ||
| The scourge of this town, where you have these huge omnibus bills in December at the end of the year, we have now stopped that twice with a mix of appropriations work and continuing resolutions. | ||
| We achieved major rescissions in wasteful spending. | ||
| We cut IRS funding. | ||
| We gutted the Commerce Slush Fund. | ||
| We boosted immigration enforcement and deportation operations. | ||
| We set the stage for additional rescissions and pocket rescissions that the OMB director, Russ Vogt, has been able to carry out, as well as impoundments. | ||
| We delivered on cutting the federal spending that went to the badly broken PBS and NPR. | ||
| And I'd point out for those that want to apologize for them, NPR didn't utter a word the morning on the radio stations in my district in Kerrville, Texas, when the floods were underway. | ||
| They were running ads trying to fight for their own funding. | ||
| But the private radio stations were going out and putting out emergency alerts to help people. | ||
| And the president rightfully reduced their funding. | ||
| If they want to survive, they can go compete. | ||
| But they don't need taxpayer dollars for effectively leftist propaganda. | ||
| We were able to pass the Big Beautiful bill, which is a monumental achievement in which we reduced taxes for the American people, insured taxes wouldn't go up. | ||
| We were able to secure a trillion, over a trillion and a half in deficit reduction, five times the original projection of $300 billion. | ||
| We were able to end over half of the Green New scam subsidies that were enriching the Chinese and enriching massive leftist corporations at the expense of the ability of the American people to have reliable grids and affordable energy. | ||
| We were able to advance welfare and Medicaid reforms, snap work requirements, common sense work requirements for Medicaid, phase down Medicaid provider tax threshold to save money and save hundreds of billions of dollars, cracking down on states provider tax money laundering schemes, which were going to illegal aliens, saved money, made the system better and going to American citizens. | ||
| We were able to protect life by defunding Planned Parenthood and Medicaid. | ||
| We were able to protect the Second Amendment by ending taxation for suppressors and short-barrel rifles. | ||
| We were able to ensure full funding for border security when we knew Democrats were going to shut down the government with $150 billion set aside for continued operations for border security, as well as $150 billion for our defense, knowing that they would risk defense and border so they could try to shut down the government for political gain. | ||
| We did that. | ||
| We did that with the president. | ||
| And we were able to ensure that our men and women in uniform didn't miss a paycheck in October because we did that. | ||
| And we were able to ensure that we're continuing to revamp and restore our Defense Department, our War Department now, to a fighting rather than a woke indoctrination machine. | ||
| And now we have enlistments at record numbers. | ||
| We have people wanting to go to the military academies, proud to be in the military again, and people around the world are respecting our military again. | ||
| And now let's talk about this November continuing resolution. | ||
| Democrats orchestrated the longest shutdown in history. | ||
| And they did so because they have nothing to run on, because they have nothing to sell to the American people except for hatred of President Trump and wanting to play games with your health care. | ||
| Because they broke the health care system. | ||
| You now can't afford either health insurance or health care. | ||
| You can't go to the doctor of your choice. | ||
| If you do get any insurance, you're told that you only have a handful of doctors and that you have a massive copay or any other kind of limitations on your ability to choose a doctor. | ||
| Or, for example, in my case, as a cancer survivor on Obamacare, I can't go back to MD Anderson, which saved my life because Obamacare doesn't have MD Anderson as an option. | ||
| That's not coverage. | ||
| That's fake. | ||
| Democrats sold you fake coverage, and now your premiums have doubled, your copays and your deductibles have doubled or tripled, and you have fewer options for less quality care. | ||
| But we were able to defeat the Democrat-led effort to spend another trillion and a half dollars to fund health care for illegals, abortions, transgender surgeries. | ||
| We kept the reduction in workforce cuts that were made prior to the shutdown in order to hold and save money back for you, the American people, rather than bureaucrats that are at war with you. | ||
| We affirmed the president's goal of reducing the size of the bloated federal government, which 90% of Americans share. | ||
| We crafted a responsible short-term continuing resolution through January, and now we're going to do the work to continue our job of holding spending flat. | ||
| We've done a lot. | ||
| We've delivered on a large number of the promises upon which the president campaigned on tax policy, on border security, on reductions in spending, on trying to drive down inflation, on getting interest rates under control, and we're just getting started. | ||
| That's the truth. | ||
| And the American people, the American people, are going to be the beneficiaries of that. | ||
| But my message to my colleagues in this chamber and generally is we have miles to go. | ||
| We have so much more to do. | ||
| We have to continue to undo the damage of the last 12 of the last 16 years under Democrat control of the executive branch and policies that have been destroying the average hardworking American family. | ||
| We've had 10 months. | ||
| We're going to continue to fight and to make those changes, but it takes a little time to unwind those damaging 12 years. | ||
| For example, health care. | ||
| Almost 30% of our budget. | ||
| Health care is destroying the average American family. | ||
| I know businesses in Austin, I know schools in Austin that are having to increase prices and increase tuition and increase what they have to deal with because simply because of covering insurance premiums, which are going into the pockets of insurance companies, to provide you substandard options in health care. | ||
| They don't provide you care. | ||
| They don't. | ||
| They're a middleman, a funding mechanism that gets in the way of you going to the doctor of your choice. | ||
| Republicans have plans to fix that. | ||
| We've put forward those plans to fix that. | ||
| Democrats block it at every turn. | ||
| The simple truth is, we believe in patients going to doctors. | ||
| We believe in being able to share costs across MediShare, health-sharing ministries, other options, direct primary care, and getting bureaucrats out of your way. | ||
| We believe in ensuring that you will, in fact, have coverage that you can actually afford. | ||
| And we do that through expansive ability for you to have the same tax treatment as corporations and the same tax treatment, whether you're self-employed or employed by a business. | ||
| We can do that tomorrow, literally. | ||
| We can transform the health care system in a day if we would put the legislation on the floor and Democrats would get out of the way. | ||
| That's the simple truth. | ||
| The American people deserve, in a supposedly free country, to be able to go and get insurance products that work for them, doctors that are best for them, care that is best for them, and to be able to provide and take care of their families. | ||
| But Democrats would rather you be beholden to insurance companies, government bureaucrats, and their political priorities. | ||
| They want to scare you into believing they've got plans. | ||
| They tried to do it with a shutdown. | ||
| We called their bluff, and now we need to deliver health care freedom for the American people. | ||
| We have the legislation to do it, and we've got to deliver. | ||
| And we need to make sure that we address the price of housing. | ||
| We shouldn't have corporate and foreign ownership of our housing supply. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| I don't know why foreign nationals and major corporations, BlackRock or otherwise, are buying up single-family residences. | ||
| We should stop that. | ||
| We should, frankly, give tax advantages to those to get rid of the ownership of those from corporations, foreign nationals, to get them to American citizens so they can own those houses and own their ability to have a future for their kids and grandkids. | ||
| There are other things we can do, but we've got to drive down the price of housing, and we can do it if American citizens are the ones who are able to get access. | ||
| You can get it also if you don't flood the country with literally tens of millions of people that are illegally here or through an abused legal immigration system. | ||
| Congressional stock trading. | ||
| I just got to be honest, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, stop it. | ||
| Like you come here, you're serving out in the private sector. | ||
| God bless you. | ||
| Do what you want to do. | ||
| But when you come here and you want to serve, why don't you just pause and let's take our investments and put them in broadly held mutual funds, do our work for two, four, six, eight, ten years, and then go home. | ||
| But if you want to day trade, get off the House floor because too many of my colleagues are day trading while we're voting on important issues. | ||
| We could pass that tomorrow. | ||
| We've just got to have the willpower to do it. | ||
| And the American people want us to. | ||
| It's like an 85-15 issue. | ||
| Education. | ||
| Give it back to the states. | ||
| Get out of the way. | ||
| Empower states and parents. | ||
| Expand choice. | ||
| Expand those options, but don't fund bureaucrats. | ||
| The president's right to dismantle the Department of Education. | ||
|
Codifying Border Security
00:04:21
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| It was started in 1979. | ||
| We put a man on the moon in 1969. | ||
| Why do we need the Department of Education? | ||
| We don't. | ||
| And importantly, we need to codify what the president is doing on our border and go even further. | ||
| We passed HR DU in the last Congress, the most comprehensive border security plan we've ever had. | ||
| It wasn't about future flow. | ||
| It wasn't about amnesty. | ||
| It was about securing the border. | ||
| It was about fixing the broken asylum, the broken parole, the broken catch and release, all of the things that Biden and my orcas were using to abuse our system to flood our country with foreign nationals. | ||
| President Trump is delivering that through execution as president. | ||
| We need to codify that and prevent a future administration from abusing it ever again. | ||
| We could do that. | ||
| We could do it tomorrow. | ||
| We passed HR2 in the last Congress. | ||
| Let's pass it again. | ||
| Let's send it to the Senate. | ||
| And let's fix our broken immigration system. | ||
| I introduced legislation today to say that we should pause legal immigration except for very short-term tourist visas. | ||
| Yes, pause it all. | ||
| We have 51 million people in this country who are foreign-born. | ||
| We have massive abuses with diversity visas and chain migration in which tens of thousands of people come into our country. | ||
| We have serious abuses under H-1Bs, which are not really being used for high-skilled workers. | ||
| They're often for entry-level positions. | ||
| We're leaving American workers behind and we need to reform it. | ||
| We need to reduce the magnets that are here. | ||
| We need to end birthright citizenship as it's currently known and make it what the American people actually expect if you talk to them that you're a citizen if you're born of an American citizen. | ||
| You're not a citizen just because somebody walked across the Rio Grande. | ||
| And you've got to stop the Supreme Court's forcing of states from having to fund the education of illegal aliens. | ||
| Which brings me to my final point about legal immigration. | ||
| We have got to stop allowing people who are adherent to Sharia law from coming into the United States and then trying to force Sharia law into our system. | ||
| It is in direct conflict with Western civilization. | ||
| It is in direct conflict with the Constitution and the rule of law. | ||
| If you want to see what America is going to look like across this country, if we don't address it, look at Dearborn. | ||
| Look at Minneapolis. | ||
| Look at Mom Donnie's election in New York. | ||
| Look at London. | ||
| Look at Paris. | ||
| Look at Germany. | ||
| And ask yourself if that's what you want in Dallas or Houston or Charlotte, North Carolina or Atlanta or Denver or Phoenix or anywhere else. | ||
| But it's happening and it's happening in Texas. | ||
| And I'm going to fight it in Texas. | ||
| I'm going to fight it here. | ||
| I've introduced legislation to deal with it, but this body's got to deal with it and speak up about it. | ||
| And that starts with ending the importation of people who want to undo our system. | ||
| They openly say it. | ||
| If they're adherent to Shia law, then they have no business being here. | ||
| That's just the simple truth. | ||
| We have a country to save. | ||
| We have the greatest country in the history of the world. | ||
| And we are making massive progress with a president who is bold and willing to lead. | ||
| But we need Congress to continue what we did with the Big Beautiful Bill, continue what we did with the Lake and Riley Act, continue to do what the Speaker did a great job of, which is holding the line against Democrats who shut our government down for political purposes. | ||
| And now we need to drive forward and force Democrats in the Senate to deal with great legislation to codify our border, make sure that people can afford health care, make sure people can afford housing, and do the things that we said we would do. | ||
| I'm going to close with this, since today is Thursday, and a week from today is Thanksgiving. | ||
| And I know that most of the people that I represent are deeply thankful to be Americans, to be Texans. | ||
| Every Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal runs an editorial called The Desolate Wilderness. | ||
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Parting Tears
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| It has run every year, to the best of my knowledge, since I think 1960 or 61. | ||
| And it goes like this. | ||
| Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620 as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof. | ||
| So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leiden, which had been their resting place for above 11 years. | ||
| But they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city, and therein quieted their spirits. | ||
| When they came to Death's Haven, they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipped and to take their leaves of them. | ||
| One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and other real expressions of true Christian love. | ||
| The next day they went on board and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting. | ||
| To hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them, what tears did gush from every eye and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart. | ||
| That sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the key as spectators could not refrain from tears, but the tide, which stays for no man, calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their reverend pastor falling down on his knees. | ||
| And they all with him, with watery cheeks, commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and his blessing. | ||
| And then with mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them. | ||
| Being now past the vast ocean and a sea of troubles before them and expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses or much less towns to repair unto to seek for succor. | ||
| And for the seasons it was winter. | ||
| And they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts. | ||
| Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men? | ||
| And what multitudes of them there were. | ||
| They then knew not for which waysoever they turned their eyes save upward to heaven. | ||
| They could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object. | ||
| For summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. | ||
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We Must Fight For Our Faith
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| If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed and was now as a main bar or gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. | ||
| This editorial appeared since 1961. | ||
| That's what they did. | ||
| And they came here and then they went into the desolate wilderness and carved into it a great country, a country that has seen its fortune rise because of our collective recognition of our faith in the Almighty and our willingness to acknowledge it, such that the speaker stands below the phrase, and God we trust here in this chamber. | ||
| If we dare to leave the faith that built this country, then this country will lose the blessings that have been bestowed upon it. | ||
| We are ever thankful to live in a country where you are free to believe what you want, where you can think what you want, or you can say what you want for the most part. | ||
| But when it comes to setting up a country and a system of laws, they must bind us together. | ||
| They must bind us together as a community. | ||
| The kind of community that could pull people from the four corners of a country to sit in foxholes together to fight the most evil forces in World War II and beyond without question, without fail, because we were bound together as Americans. | ||
| That is who we are. | ||
| And we must fight for it every day. | ||
| We must fight to keep her. | ||
| And we do that here by stopping the ridiculousness of spending money we don't have to indebt our children and grandchildren. | ||
| We do it here if we pass policies that allow the American people to prosper under their own devices, to be able to afford health care and houses and food for their families without interference from people here who say they know best in the false name of compassion. | ||
| We do it here when we secure our communities with secure borders and secure laws and to make sure that criminals don't roam free on the streets, but that law-abiding citizens can prosper by walking freely on the streets knowing that they'll be safe. | ||
| But we do it mostly if we adhere to our faith in the Lord Almighty, acknowledge that faith, and fight to defend our collective belief in Him. | ||
| We have people who wish to undermine that way of life. | ||
| It is real, and you cannot win a war that you refuse to acknowledge exists. | ||
| And that war is here. | ||
| And we either fight right now to save this country for our kids or grandkids, or we lose it forever. | ||
| This Thanksgiving, I will be ever thankful to be an American, to be a Texan, to live free, but ever more committed to double down to save this country for our kids and grandkids through responsible action here on this House floor and as a responsible member of my community back home in Texas and in every step that I try to take. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Does the gentleman have a motion? | ||
| I move that we adjourn. | ||
| The question is on the motion to adjourn. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The motion is adopted. | ||
| Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until 9 a.m. tomorrow. | ||
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The U.S. House today working on a pair of energy-related bills. | |
| The first requiring the National Petroleum Council to report on the state of petrochemical refineries in the United States, the privately funded council, which is comprised of representatives selected by the Energy Secretary and represents the views of the oil and natural gas industries in advising, informing, and making recommendations to the Energy Department regarding oil and natural gas issues. | ||
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal Live
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Last issued a report on U.S. petrochemical refining in 2004. | |
| The second measure eliminated all current restrictions on the import and export of liquefied natural gas and gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission exclusive authority to approve or deny applications for the siting, construction, expansion, or operation of LNG terminals or other facilities for gas exports or imports. | ||
| More live house coverage when members return here on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum, inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country. | ||
| Coming up Friday morning, we'll talk about the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education with Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and newly appointed Washington Democratic Representative Emily Randall discusses the Epstein files and congressional news of the day. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Friday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| And pass precedent dominance. | ||