| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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| Live now to the House floor, where lawmakers are getting ready to establish a quorum to conduct legislative business for the second session of the 119th Congress. | ||
| The house will be in order, and the prayer will be offered by Chaplain Kibben. | ||
| Would you pray with me? | ||
| Eternal God, you who hold the past, the present, and the future in your hand, may we, like the wise of old, make haste to give you honor and offer our hearts to your presence. | ||
| Then, as we stand in the nearness of your spirit, may we who mourn the death of our friend and colleague Doug Lamalfa and the deep loss of his generous friendship and his affable nature among us be consoled in the hope that he has been received into your everlasting arms. | ||
| May this promise give his wife Jill, his family, and those who loved him a measure of comfort and peace in the distress of these days. | ||
| Then, as this body returns to its regular order of business, we pray that you protect and uphold each one in this new year. | ||
| As we stand on the cusp of its promise, buoyed by its opportunities, yet uncertain as to what lies ahead. | ||
| Trusting in you, may we be grateful for the new hope and the new attitude you inspire in each of us. | ||
| This day, this year, may we take on conviction of character, tempered with gentleness of demeanor. | ||
| May we demonstrate perseverance and righteousness, all the while preserving self-control and faithfulness in our relationships. | ||
| May we hold fast to our commitment to peace and justice while never ignoring the divine law of love for our neighbor, be they friend or foe. | ||
| Whatever it is we bring to this year, or to this day, or to this place, may we allow it all to be transformed by the renewal you are working in us. | ||
| Now to you, who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to your work at power among us, to you we offer both ourselves and our prayers. | ||
| Amen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Under clause 5D of Rule 20, the chair announces to the House that in light of the resignation of the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Green, and the passing of the gentleman from California, Mr. LaMoffa, the whole number of the House is 431. | |
| A call of the House is ordered to ascertain the presence of a quorum. | ||
| Members will record their presence by electronic device. | ||
| House members are back from their holiday recess to officially begin the second session of the 119th Congress. | ||
| In order for them to conduct legislative business, lawmakers are voting to establish a quorum in the House by recording their presence in the chamber. | ||
| The House GOP are beginning this second session with fewer members after it was announced earlier today that California Representative Doug LaMalfa has died at the age of 65. | ||
| A statement from the Sheriff's Office in California says the Republican lawmaker died after being taken to the hospital following a medical emergency, but still no word on an official cause of death. | ||
| His absence narrows the House GOP majority even more following the recent resignation of Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, which went into effect last night. | ||
| The current count in the House is 218 seats for Republicans and 213 for Democrats. | ||
| While lawmakers are recording their presence on the House floor, here's a look at key legislative priorities that we expect to come up in the House and Senate during this next session. | ||
| Joining us now for details on the agenda for the second session of the 119th Congress is politico-congressional reporter Nicholas Wu. | ||
| A lot of big items on the agenda to start. | ||
| Trump administration officials are briefing House and Senate lawmakers this week behind closed doors on Capitol Hill about the recent military strikes in Venezuela and the capture of the country's president, Nicolas Maduro. | ||
| The Senate plans to vote later this week on a war powers resolution in response to those recent strikes. | ||
| Can you tell us what legislation would do and what are its main authors? | ||
| And does it have any Republican support? | ||
| So what this bill would do in the Senate is basically require congressional approval for any further military action in Venezuela. | ||
| And this is the kind of legislation that has historically had some level of bipartisan support. | ||
| But in the Trump era, the politics of that have really become somewhat scrambled. | ||
| And so now this is the kind of vote where you might have most Democrats, if not all the Democrats, and then a couple more almost libertarian-minded Republicans keeping an eye on folks like Rand Paul, for example, who might be inclined to support this kind of legislation to rein in executive power. | ||
| So over in the House, members plan to vote on legislation extending and expiring health care subsidies through a discharge petition. | ||
| Can you tell us why lawmakers will be voting on this legislation through this process? | ||
| And does it have enough votes to pass? | ||
| And if the legislation is approved in the House, what are its prospects in the Senate? | ||
| Also, are any alternatives being discussed among Senate lawmakers? | ||
| So this is the kind of process that, you know, for the longest time in copy, you know, we would have to say that this was a kind of procedure that rarely works because this requires 218 lawmakers to sign on to this discharge petition to force a piece of legislation to the floor. | ||
| That requires folks to buck leadership and is something that they don't often do. | ||
| Now, when it comes to the health care issue, this was much different because there was a group of Purple District House Republican lawmakers who were very much worried about the political ramifications of not acting on these expiring Obamacare subsidies. | ||
| And that is how you got from a proposal that was backed by Hakeem Jeffries to that magic 218 number. | ||
| This is expected to pass the House when it comes up later this week on a bipartisan basis. | ||
| But its future in the Senate is pretty uncertain since Senate Republican leaders have been pretty skeptical of a straightforward extension of these subsidies, especially since it's something that Republicans are very much divided over themselves. | ||
| There is a bipartisan Senate group that has been talking about some kind of extension of the Obamacare subsidies. | ||
| But the problem is Americans are already signing up for their health insurance now through the open enrollment process. | ||
| And there's a real question of whether that process may have to be reopened and what issues that might cause, or for that matter, how this could affect markets, the healthcare markets if some proposal is passed after open enrollment technically ends. | ||
| As if that's not enough, we have another government funding deadline coming up at the end of the month, January 30th. | ||
| The House will be the first chamber to address the issue this week, looking to avoid a government shutdown. | ||
| What will members be voting on, and will each chamber have enough time to pass additional spending legislation before the deadline? | ||
| So this is a bundle of bills, so to speak, to fund a subset of the federal government, a certain subset of agencies. | ||
| And this is the kind of legislation that actually might pass on a bipartisan basis in the House and probably in the Senate as well. | ||
| And that gets us part of the way towards averting a government shutdown. | ||
| But remember, that deadline's on January 30th. | ||
| They might need some kind of stopgap resolution to pass before then. | ||
| And the thing I've been watching is what Democratic leaders are saying about their posture heading into this funding fight. | ||
| And so far, House and Senate Democratic leaders really aren't taking the kind of hard line they did in September, where we had the longest ever government shutdown. | ||
| There's a lot more optimism this time around that Congress can avert a government shutdown. | ||
| So finally, the House plans to vote to attempt to override President Trump's first two vetoes of his second term on legislation that both passed the House and Senate unanimously. | ||
| Are we expecting Republicans to join with Democrats? | ||
| And are there any political ramifications on Republican members if they vote against the president's vetoes? | ||
| It's very likely that Republicans will vote with Democrats to override these vetoes, even from unlikely corners of the party, like Lauren Boebert of Colorado. | ||
| These two bills that are coming up for veto overrides could very well be the first of Trump's presidency, this time around, rather. | ||
| And at the time, these were relatively non-controversial bills that passed through both chambers to address very specific issues for things in lawmakers, constituencies, and communities. | ||
| And when President Trump vetoed those, that caused a lot of concern, even among Republicans who saw these as things that they were doing for their constituents that were overridden by the president for separate reasons. | ||
| And so it's very likely this will hit the two-thirds majority mark. | ||
| Nicholas Wu is the congressional reporter with Politico. | ||
| Thanks for joining us today. | ||
| A live look at the House chamber here as voting continues on a procedural measure to begin this second session of the 119th Congress. | ||
| We just heard from Politico congressional reporter Alex Wu on some of the agenda items for the Congress, including legislation limiting executive authority around military action, as well as a looming government funding deadline. | ||
| Over in the Senate, Democratic lawmakers have been speaking all day about the fifth anniversary of the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| While the House continues voting, we'll show you remarks from President Donald Trump and Democrats, who held a vigil marking the fifth anniversary of the January 6th attacks. | ||
| But first, a portion of President Trump's speech at a House GOP retreat where he addressed House leadership and recent strikes on Venezuela. | ||
| I do love that song, but we got to get to business. | ||
| I love that song, but I want to thank you all, you special, special people. | ||
| And I want to just say that, you know, I announced I was coming over here and I said, I love those Republicans. | ||
| And I meant it. | ||
| I said, except for maybe a couple. | ||
| A couple I don't love. | ||
| But the people in this room, I don't know if those couple are here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know. | |
| I don't care if they're here or not. | ||
| But we love you. | ||
| And you've done an amazing, you've done an amazing job. | ||
| You love the country. | ||
| You're doing what's right for the country. | ||
| And I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year, the most successful House Republican majority in decades. | ||
| And we did it with not a big majority. | ||
| This was not a big majority, but it's a unified majority and it's people that know what it takes to make America great again. | ||
| So together we had 12 months of unprecedented success in 2025 and now we're going to make history and break records with the epic midterm victory that we're going to pull off. | ||
| It just doesn't seem to happen for people that win the presidency. | ||
| It's an amazing phenomenon. | ||
| You know, you win the presidency and we sure as hell are having a successful presidency. | ||
| I will say that. | ||
| But even if it's a successful presidency, there's been nothing like what we're doing. | ||
| We had a very good day two days ago, too. | ||
| But even if it's successful, they don't win. | ||
| I don't know what it is. | ||
| It's something psychological, like you vote against. | ||
| You can win by a lot. | ||
| We won every swing stay. | ||
| We won the popular vote by millions. | ||
| We won everything. | ||
| But they say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm. | ||
| So you're all brilliant people. | ||
| Most of you are in this business longer than me. | ||
| That makes me smarter than you. | ||
| Because look where I am, right? | ||
| No, it doesn't. | ||
| But I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the mind of the public because we have the right policy. | ||
| They don't. | ||
| They have a horrible policy. | ||
| They do stick together. | ||
| They're violent. | ||
| They're vicious. | ||
| You know, they're vicious people. | ||
| And they stick together like glue. | ||
| They don't have a couple of the people that we have. | ||
| A couple of people, not too many, really very few. | ||
| And that's why I want to just say that before we go any further, I want to express our tremendous sorrow at the loss of a great member, a great, great, great member, Congressman Doug Lamalfa, who passed away yesterday, as you probably have heard. | ||
| And he was the leader of the Western caucus, a fierce champion on California water issues. | ||
| He was great on water. | ||
| He wanted, release the water, he'd scream out. | ||
| And a true defender of American children, he was a defender of everybody. | ||
| And our hearts go out to his wife, Jill, and his entire family. | ||
| You know, he voted with me 100% of the time. | ||
| And by the way, he wasn't a three o'clock in the morning person. | ||
| Do you know what I mean by that? | ||
| Where the speaker goes, sir, could you call up? | ||
| Could you call? | ||
| I said, what time is it, Speaker? | ||
| Sir, it's three in the morning. | ||
| Could you make a couple of calls? | ||
| How many? | ||
| Nine. | ||
| So I'd start calling. | ||
| I'd start calling. | ||
| Three in the morning. | ||
| I said, like, I shouldn't use any names. | ||
| I'm just going to create problems. | ||
| But hi, Jim, and I'm not talking about Jim Jordan. | ||
| I never had a call three in the morning for him. | ||
| But I say, hi, Jim, how you doing? | ||
| They just called to say hello. | ||
| You know, three and two, okay, sir. | ||
| Sir, you haven't spoken to me in three years, and it's now three in the morning, so I know what you want. | ||
| You want my vote? | ||
| And usually almost always they'd give it, but they wanted to be called. | ||
| And with Doug, I never had a call. | ||
| He was with us right from the beginning. | ||
| I love those guys. | ||
| I must say I probably love them the best, you know. | ||
| The guys that I don't have to call, they know we're doing the right thing. | ||
| I have a couple that are going to be with us all the way, but they just want the call. | ||
| They want love. | ||
| They need love. | ||
| They're more insecure than most of you. | ||
| It's true. | ||
| No, most of you are secure people. | ||
| Don't you're all laughing. | ||
| No, most of you are secure people. | ||
| I had a couple say, look, I could have Trump call me all the time. | ||
| I just have to break his ass a little bit. | ||
| And he'll be calling, calling, calling. | ||
| But I appreciate those. | ||
| We actually had a little party. | ||
| We opened up a beautiful section of the White House in the Rose Garden and we had a party for all of those people that I never speak to and vote for me. | ||
| And you know, I spoke to Doug, but I didn't speak to him about, I mean, never had a problem. | ||
| And I was really, I was really saddened by his passing and was thinking about not even doing the speech in his honor. | ||
| But then I decided that I have to do it in his honor. | ||
| I'll do it in his honor because he would have wanted it that way. | ||
| He would have wanted it that way. | ||
| He would have said, do that speech. | ||
| Are you kidding me? | ||
| Do the speech, big guy. | ||
| But he was a fantastic person. | ||
| Man, that was a quick one. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know quite yet what happened, but boy, it's a tough one. | ||
| He was just with us. | ||
| He was our friend, all of us, every one of us. | ||
| And I also want to send our best wishes to Congress and Jim Baird and his wife, who are recovering from a car accident. | ||
| They're going to be okay, but they had a pretty bad accident. | ||
| And we're praying that they get out of that hospital very quickly. | ||
| He's going to be fine. | ||
| She's going to be fine, but it was a bad accident. | ||
| And I want to thank the man who has been central to so many of our triumphs. | ||
| He really has been. | ||
| He's the guy that would call me to make those calls all the time. | ||
| He's always working. | ||
| And he's a nice person. | ||
| You know, he's a very nice, he's a high-quality person. | ||
| But I wouldn't tell you, he's a very tough cookie. | ||
| I've seen both sides. | ||
| Not often do I have to see the other side because he's just, by nature, he's a very fine, religious person. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I like that. | |
| He's a religious person. | ||
| I like that. | ||
| I like religious people. | ||
| It usually means they're more honest. | ||
| Sometimes it doesn't happen that way. | ||
| I've had some real religious ones that did numbers on me and I said, I'm going to get them someday. | ||
| They got me by surprise. | ||
| But it's usually good, okay, right? | ||
| And his name is Mike Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
| He has my complete and total endorsement. | ||
| Stand up, Speaker. | ||
| So, you know, but it is true. | ||
| A lot of times they'll say, I wish Mike were tougher, tough. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He's tough. | |
| He's tough as anybody in the room, actually. | ||
| But it can't be tough when you have a majority of three. | ||
| And now, sadly, a little bit less than that. | ||
| I mean, a little bit less than that, maybe. | ||
| But you can't be, you can't be Trump. | ||
| You can't, I warrant you. | ||
| You make 10 enemies, 20 enemies. | ||
| That's the end of that, right? | ||
| Everybody loves him. | ||
| I would say there's one person he's given up on. | ||
| I mean, I think he just gave up on this guy. | ||
| He's so bad. | ||
| He never votes for us. | ||
| But no matter how good, he won't vote for us. | ||
| There's a sickness there. | ||
| You know, there's something wrong. | ||
| You can have the greatest bill, the greatest for the country. | ||
| Forget about for Republicans. | ||
| Great, great, great for the country. | ||
| I'm a no-vote. | ||
| We don't even bother calling him at three in the morning, do we? | ||
| But I want to thank another guy who's as tough as they come because he went through something that none of us have gone through. | ||
| I went through a little shot, but I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while. | ||
| But what he went through was incredible. | ||
| And that Steve Scalise, he got hit hard. | ||
| Where's Steve? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Steve, he's a tough cookie. | |
| He was dead. | ||
| I went to the hospital. | ||
| His wife was crying so much. | ||
| He was a mess. | ||
| Oh, yeah, yeah, she loves you. | ||
| That's the only thing I learned about Steve that he has a wife who loves him. | ||
| Because I've gone to hospitals where guys are in bad shape, and the wife couldn't care less. | ||
| She's looking for the next guy. | ||
| Who's the next guy down the bike? | ||
| Who the hell is the next guy? | ||
| He's died. | ||
| I said, that's so bad. | ||
| Oh, yeah, yeah. | ||
| I had one where the dog died and the husband died at the same time. | ||
| I said, it's so sad. | ||
| Yes, I love this dog so much. | ||
| She couldn't give it, and the guy left her a fortune. | ||
| Can you imagine? | ||
| He shouldn't have left her anything, but she was much more concerned. | ||
| Oh, the dog was devastated. | ||
| The husband, he was like an afterthought. | ||
| Your wife loves you, Steve. | ||
| She's a great wife. | ||
| Another one who has a great wife, Jackie, is Tom Emmer, right? | ||
| Look at you. | ||
| You have a great wife, but you haven't been tested like these guys. | ||
| We don't want to test her, right? | ||
| She's incredible. | ||
| She's a strong, beautiful, great person. | ||
| She's a great person. | ||
| She actually liked me at the beginning when we were having little fights. | ||
| We weren't even having fights. | ||
| We just didn't know each other. | ||
| We didn't know each other. | ||
| And I heard he said something negative about me. | ||
| He was sort of right about the subject, but you're not supposed to say ever, even though you're right. | ||
| But Jackie was signed, I'm telling you, he's a great guy. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| He's going to be a great president, blah, blah, blah. | ||
| She was fighting for me. | ||
| And now I love this guy. | ||
| He's great. | ||
| Jackie's right about, she was right about both of us, I think. | ||
| But Tom has been incredible. | ||
| He's incredible at what he does. | ||
| He's a great team player. | ||
| Your conference chair, Lisa McLean, is so strong and powerful and beautiful. | ||
| Thank you, Lisa. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I think they're broadcast. | ||
| You know, we said we don't care if the press comes or not. | ||
| So when I say that, that means that they're broadcasting all this. | ||
| And I'm letting my feelings out because it's true. | ||
| I feel that way about so many people in the room. | ||
| I could say it about many of the people in the room. | ||
| Some I don't know as well, but many of the people in the room, they're incredible people. | ||
| You're incredible what you're doing. | ||
| We also have another one, Richard Hudson, chairman, NRCC. | ||
| Richard's always in there. | ||
| Always with a smile. | ||
| No matter what's happening, Richard. | ||
| He always has a smile. | ||
| He's always just a positive guy, smart and positive. | ||
| Thank you, Richard. | ||
| Really appreciate it. | ||
| You do a great job. | ||
| Republican Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hearn. | ||
| Kevin, where are you, Kevin? | ||
| Thank you, Kevin. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Did a great job. | ||
| Every one of you, you've got to be proud of yourselves. | ||
| And basically the entire House Republican conference. | ||
| It's been really amazing what you've done. | ||
| And we're going to give you some ammunition today. | ||
| I said, I'd love to make a speech. | ||
| The speaker asked me, would you make a speech? | ||
| I said, sure. | ||
| You think Biden would do that? | ||
| Would you make a speech? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What? | |
| First of all, his people wouldn't ask him to make a speech because it never worked out well, right? | ||
| Could never find the exits. | ||
| You finished, look, stare here, stare there, stare here. | ||
| You could jump off the front if you had to. | ||
| No matter what he did, he got himself into trouble. | ||
| So basically, they didn't ask him to, but if he did, it wouldn't be good. | ||
| But it's good with me because, you know, we have so much ammunition. | ||
| We have ammunition. | ||
| The problem is the fake news. | ||
| That's why I like being on it. | ||
| I'd much rather do live television than do non-live because like when they say, as an example in my speech, peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol, peacefully and patriotically. | ||
| Do you know that the unselect committee didn't report it that I said those words? | ||
| Do you know that the news never reported the words walk or march peacefully and patriotically to the capital? | ||
| Do you know they never reported it? | ||
| It's a scandal. | ||
| The unselect committee never reported that. | ||
| They never reported that Nancy Pelosi was offered 10,000 soldiers, National Guard soldiers, whatever you want. | ||
| No, I don't want them. | ||
| And the mayor. | ||
| The mayors were in writing. | ||
| She was more honorable about it. | ||
| But Nancy got caught when her daughter did a documentary. | ||
| She's a documentary. | ||
| And she has her mother saying, it's my fault. | ||
| I should have taken the soldiers or something. | ||
| I saw that in the documentary. | ||
| I said, whoa, this was a major story. | ||
| Has she spoken to her daughter since that? | ||
| But they just, you know, they are vicious people, even on the attack. | ||
| And it was an amazing military feat that took place yesterday. | ||
| Think of it. | ||
| An amazing military. | ||
| The people are saying, well, thank you. | ||
| You know, people are saying it goes down with one of the most incredible. | ||
| It was so complex. | ||
| 152 airplanes, many, many. | ||
| Talk about boots on the ground. | ||
| We had a lot of boots on the ground. | ||
| But it was amazing. | ||
| And think of it, nobody was killed. | ||
| And on the other side, a lot of people were killed. | ||
| Unfortunately, I say that, soldiers. | ||
| Cubans, mostly Cubans, but many, many killed. | ||
| And they knew we were coming, and they were protected, and our guys weren't. | ||
| You know, our guys are jumping out of helicopters, and you're not protected, and they were. | ||
| But it was so brilliant. | ||
| The electricity for almost the entire country was boom turned off. | ||
| That's when they knew there was a problem. | ||
| There was no electricity. | ||
| Caracas said, there's no electricity. | ||
| The only people with lights were the people that had candles. | ||
| It was just off. | ||
| So we sort of got him a little by surprise. | ||
| But it was brilliant tactically. | ||
| It was an incredible thing. | ||
| But I watched where Schumer, he's such a bad guy. | ||
| I mean, I've known the guy for a long time. | ||
| And he's such a bad guy. | ||
| You know, at some point they should say, you know, you did a great job. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Congratulations. | ||
| Wouldn't it be good? | ||
| I would say that if they did a good job, their philosophies are so different. | ||
| But if they did a good job, I'd be happy for the country. | ||
| They've been after this guy for years and years and years. | ||
| And, you know, he's a violent guy. | ||
| He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit. | ||
| But he's a violent guy, and he's killed millions of people. | ||
| He's tortured. | ||
| They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they're closing up. | ||
| But he's tortured people, and now what they do, the radical left, they actually have people, and it's hard to get them. | ||
| They're all paid people. | ||
| Most of these people are paid. | ||
| You know, they're paid when they have brand new, beautiful printed signs by like the highest quality printer, and you have a woman, free Maduro. | ||
| And the sign is before we even did the attack. | ||
| You know, Free Maduro. | ||
| Why do you want him freed? | ||
| I don't know, but he should be free. | ||
| Oh, she reads a sign. | ||
| What does that say? | ||
| It says free. | ||
| Well, that's what I believe. | ||
| And you know, you see the sign. | ||
| It's like, Lisa, we should all have quality signage like that. | ||
| The one thing I want, I want their sign maker. | ||
| The guy is great. | ||
| He does beautiful signage. | ||
| You know, the old days was better when they used to write out their own sign, wasn't it? | ||
| They'd make a sign in the basement. | ||
| They'd have an old broken board holding up a sign, and it's made with a magic marker, sloppy as hell, and it meant something. | ||
| But today, when you have that yellow and black, they should use different colors a little bit. | ||
| But the yellow is a beautiful shade of yellow. | ||
| No, I want to find out who that is. | ||
| I want him to work for the Republican campaign. | ||
| He's much better than our guy, whoever the guy is. | ||
| But the United States proved once again that we have the most powerful, most lethal, most sophisticated, and most fearsome. | ||
| It's a fearsome military on planet Earth, and it's not even close. | ||
| You know, I've been saying it for a long time. | ||
| Nobody can take us. | ||
| We don't want to have it. | ||
| We don't have a discussion, but you read all and you see everything else. | ||
| Nobody could have done that. | ||
| Nobody has our weapons. | ||
| Nobody has the quality of our weapons. | ||
| The problem is we don't produce them fast enough. | ||
| We're going to start producing them much faster. | ||
| We're going to be very tough on the companies. | ||
| We have the best weapons in the world, but it takes too long to get them, including allies when allies want to buy them. | ||
| They have to wait four years for a plane, five years for a helicopter. | ||
| We're not letting that happen anymore. | ||
| We're telling our defense contractors, you're going to start building faster. | ||
|
unidentified
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Order their presence. | |
| a quorum is present. | ||
| The chair has examined the journal of the proceedings of January 3rd, 2026, and announces to the House the approval thereof. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 1 of Rule 1, the journal stands approved. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Rose. | ||
| I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, one God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | ||
| Fourth purpose is the gentleman from Pennsylvania. | ||
| Seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
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unidentified
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The clerk will report the resolution. | |
| House Resolution 974 resolved that a committee of two members be appointed by the Speaker to notify the President of the United States that a quorum of the House has assembled and that the House is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | |
| Pursuant to House Resolution 974, the Chair appoints the following members to the committee to notify the President of the United States that a quorum of the House has assembled and that the House is ready to receive communication that he may be pleased to make. | ||
| The gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Scalise, and the gentleman from New York, Mr. Jeffries. | ||
| For purposes, the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
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The clerk will report the resolution. | |
| House Resolution 975. | ||
| Resolve that the clerk of the House inform the Senate that a quorum of the House is present and that the House is ready to proceed with business. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | |
| For purposes, the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. | ||
|
unidentified
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The clerk will report the resolution. | |
| House Resolution 976, resolved that unless otherwise ordered, the hour of daily meeting of the House shall be 2 p.m. on Mondays, noon on Tuesdays, or 2 p.m. if no legislative business was conducted on the preceding Monday, noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 9 a.m. on all other days of the week. | ||
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unidentified
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Without objection, the resolution is agreed to, and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | |
| For purposes, the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the order of the House of January 3rd, 2025, providing for morning hour debate be extended for the remainder of the 119th Congress, except that House Resolution 976 shall supplant House Resolution 6. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection. | |
| For what purposes the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
| I would think of the selected clause 2C of Rule 15. | ||
| I rise to provide notice of my intent to offer a motion to discharge the Committee on Rules from the further consideration of House Resolution 780. | ||
|
unidentified
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Did the gentleman sign the petition? | |
| Yes, Mr. Speaker, I did. | ||
|
unidentified
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Pursuant to Clause 2C of Rule 15, a motion to discharge is privileged only at a time designated by the Speaker within two legislative days after the intent to offer such motion is offered. | |
| The chair will entertain the gentleman's motion at that time. | ||
| The chair lays before the House of Communication. | ||
| The Honourable, the Speaker, House of Representatives, sir, as we begin this new session of the 119th Congress, I write today to offer my resignation from the House Committee on Ethics. | ||
| It has been a privilege these past five years to participate in the committee's vital role in educating and upholding the laws and rules of the House. | ||
| The committee plays an important role in protecting the integrity of this institution, and I sincerely appreciate each of my House colleagues who understand this solemn duty to uphold for the American people. | ||
| Both the committee members and the team of exceptional staff with whom I have served are points of pride in this body. | ||
| Serving alongside individuals of such strong character has been an honor. | ||
| It is my hope that my departure from the committee creates an opportunity for other members to serve their colleagues in this unique way. | ||
| Thank you again, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to serve on the House Committee on Ethics. | ||
| Signed sincerely, John Rutliford, member of Congress. | ||
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unidentified
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Without objection, the resignation is accepted. | |
| The chair now will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to recognize Denise Stitcher for 30 years of dedicated service to communities across Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district and beyond. | ||
| Denise recently retired as the executive director of Center County Library and Historical Museum, a position she's held for more than seven years. | ||
| In this position, Denise oversaw library services for 29 municipalities. | ||
| This included the main library in Belfont, branch libraries in Center Hall and Phillipsburg, a world-class research library, and a local historical museum in Belfont. | ||
| In 1981, Denise began her career at the Murraysville Library. | ||
| Following her position at the Murraysville Library, Denise worked at various institutions, including Setton Hill, Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County Federated Library System, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the Berks County Public Libraries. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Denise has provided exceptional literary services to communities across the state, being an outstanding leader and mentor to many. | ||
| I wish Denise the best and wish her for many more years of service. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the insurrection that took place here in this Capitol building, in this very room, at this very podium on January 6, 2021. | ||
| Five years ago today, I watched with the American people the events that took place as an attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election took place, all incited by the President. | ||
| I was not in Congress that day, but today, as I stand on the House floor, everything has a different feel. | ||
| It has a personal connection to that day. | ||
| I think of the violence visited upon the Capitol Police, the same ones that I greet every morning as I walk into the building. | ||
| I think of staff and members crouching under these very chairs in this chamber. | ||
| Everyone who works here for the people of this country do so because they believe in our democracy and they believe in upholding our democracy. | ||
| And on this day, five years ago, this institution was tested. | ||
| Lives were lost in the days and months that followed. | ||
| I'm disgusted by the attempts to whitewash what happened that day to deny and lie about what is true. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The truth will be told yet. | ||
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unidentified
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Members are amended to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. | |
| For what purposes, the gentleman from Tennessee seek recognition. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, do we rubber stamp fraudulent election results or stand for election integrity? | ||
| That was the question before Congress five years ago today. | ||
| It was a sunny day in Washington. | ||
| A largely peaceful protest was growing outside and unfortunately made its way into the Capitol. | ||
| As a result, a joint session of Congress originally set to be conducted in the afternoon wasn't finished until midnight or after. | ||
| Yet the events of that day didn't change the serious concerns raised about the ways six states conducted their elections. | ||
| Members of Congress still had a constitutional duty to defend our nation's election laws. | ||
| I was proud to object to the results in six states and vote not to certify the results of the two states that came to a vote in this room on that day. | ||
| I was proud to stand for our election laws and to stand with President Trump. | ||
| The American people remember that election well, and they remember those members of Congress who turned their backs on election integrity and principle. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for your damage for South Carolina. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, in 2025, we fought every day to deliver real results for Eastern North Carolinians, putting working families, veterans, and rural communities first. | ||
| Our Care Act provisions became laws strengthening health care for our veterans. | ||
| Our service members will receive a well-earned pay raise, and millions of federal dollars are coming to Eastern North Carolina for schools, water systems, fire departments, and public safety. | ||
| After 2024 redistricting, we expanded our offices so people could get help close to home. | ||
| And we'll do it again. | ||
| We backed job-creating investments that mean good-paying jobs in a stronger local economy. | ||
| We stood with our military, first responders, farmers, seniors, and students, securing major investments for a child development center and a combat training facility at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. | ||
| It was a year of action and results, ensuring eastern North Carolina is never, ever forgotten. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For what purposes, the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Doug Lamoffa, American patriot, will always be appreciated for his dedicated service for families. | ||
| In 2025, Houpicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson worked closely with President Donald Trump with real results for American families first. | ||
| Promises made, promises kept. | ||
| There was Republican success on the border security, unleashing American energy, keeping money in the pockets of families through lower taxes, and more. | ||
| House Republicans passed 441 bills. | ||
| 70 executive orders were codified. | ||
| Passage of the Big Beautiful Bill creating jobs and preventing the largest tax increase in history. | ||
| Effective border enforcement with enhanced border infrastructure. | ||
| Funding military readiness to defeat the axis of evil. | ||
| War Kimberle Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, and Tehran murderers. | ||
| In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues. | ||
| Trump is reinstituting peace through strength, revealing war criminal Putin lies, insulting and mocking Trump, fabricating a non-existent attack on the Putin mansion. | ||
| With President Donald Trump, I look forward to a legislative year dedicated in the memory of Congressman Dougla Moffa. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Illinois seek recognition? | ||
| The Speaker asked unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
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unidentified
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Without objection, the gentleman from Illinois is recognized for one minute. | |
| I rise today on behalf of lowering costs for working families in my district who deserve better than to be ripped off by big corporations. | ||
| Last month, the Guardian exposed dollar stores for quietly overcharging customers. | ||
| The report found evidence of a systemic scam where companies like Dollar General and Family Dollar leave the wrong price tags on products and hope that customers don't notice when it rings up higher at the register. | ||
| That's just wrong, especially when dollar stores are sometimes the only nearby option for everyday items. | ||
| States have tried to crack down on this practice, but often the penalties aren't enough to deter the practice. | ||
| That's why I led 29 members of Congress in a letter to Dollar General and Family Dollar to hold them accountable. | ||
| Because when inflation is crushing families, we won't let big corporations squeeze people who are just trying to get by. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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What purpose does the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition? | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate what matters in America: good character. | ||
| In the personhood of a remarkable woman, Heidi Hess, whose quiet strength has shaped the very heart of emergency care in northwestern Ohio. | ||
| Thank you, Heidi. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| For 36 years. | ||
| Heidi stood at the front of the classroom at Owens Community College and she prepared over 1,000 men and women to answer the most urgent calls and tackle those lifesaving moments when every second counts. | ||
| You know how hard that is? | ||
| Her students became paramedics, EMTs, and lifesavers. | ||
| They learned to carry with them her calm, steady voice, and deep compassion for humanity. | ||
| Heidi's gift has never been just in teaching technique. | ||
| It has been in teaching purpose. | ||
| She instilled in each student that service is sacred, that courage and empathy partners. | ||
| In every response, her gifts saved thousands of lives and comforted families. | ||
| Through wisdom and devotion, Heidi built a living legacy of protection and care across our region and from all of us in northwestern Ohio and from every life touched by those she trained. | ||
| Thank you, Heidi Hess. | ||
| What a great American you are. | ||
| Thank you for giving your heart and skills to others for decades. | ||
| We wish you joy, good health, and satisfaction in your well-earned retirement. | ||
| I and our citizenry are so proud and thankful to you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the fifth anniversary of an awful day in American history in this chamber. | ||
| I was one of the last members of Congress evacuated by the Capitol Police in a room just to my left, off the floor. | ||
| On that day, the damage caused is hard to quantify. | ||
| 174 Capitol Police officers were injured while protecting this sacred place, and five officers lost their lives. | ||
| The Capitol itself sustained $30 million in damages, and in total, that day cost American taxpayers $2.7 billion, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Think of that. | ||
| And while the insurrectionists did not succeed in that day, they did cause even bigger damage than the dollar damage. | ||
| And the person most responsible for this continues to behave the way he did then. | ||
| George Santayana famously said, for those who forget history are condemned to repeat it, I pray that that is not the case. | ||
| We must remember honestly, all of us, what happened that day. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Vermont seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman was recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, it is a somber day of remembrance in our nation's capital. | ||
| It was on this day five years ago when this chamber, the People's House of the United States of America, was viciously attacked by a violent mob. | ||
| And no tweet, no post, no spin, no disgusting lie-filled website is going to change the facts, the history of what happened on that day. | ||
| I rise today to honor the men and women who with great courage and sacrifice defended this Capitol building. | ||
| Our Capitol police are still being treated with disrespect and now denigration from the president who today has accused them of somehow being responsible for their own beatings. | ||
| They have already given so much. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the leader of this chamber is bound by law to hang the plaque in remembrance of what these brave men and women did on January 6th, and there is no excuse, no excuse for his moral failure. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3rd, 2025, the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Clyburn, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous assent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this special order. | ||
|
unidentified
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Without objection. | |
| Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor this CBC in special order, along with my distinguished colleague, Representative Stinley Hoyer of Maryland. | ||
| For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people on the January 6th insurrection attack, an issue of great importance to the Congressional Bycaucus, the constituents we represent, and all Americans. | ||
| Now, Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay homage to the men and women who, five years ago, risked their lives protecting the lives of those elected officials who met in this hall in fulfillment of their constitutional duties to peacefully transfer presidential power after the November 2020 elections. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, January 6, 2021 will be forever remembered for the vicious, unprecedented insurrection that took place on that date. | ||
| On December 31, 2025, the House Judiciary Committee released the transcript of its December 17th private eight-hour interview with Special Counsel Jack Smith, | ||
| whose investigation into the events of that day led him to describe January 6th as an event that, and I quote, does not happen without President Trump. | ||
| End of quote. | ||
| Smith testified that Donald Trump is the most culpable and most responsible person in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. | ||
| He continued, these crimes were committed for his benefit. | ||
| The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit. | ||
| Smith concluded, Trump caused the violence, exploited it, and refused to stop it. | ||
| Now, Mr. Speaker, I was in this hall on January 6, 2021, and was among those whisked away to an undisclosed location. | ||
| My staff huddled behind barricaded doors that were badly damaged by the mob that was described by some of my Republican colleagues as patriots on a tour of the Capitol. | ||
| Our valiant United States Capitol Police and first responders did everything they could to keep us out of harm's way. | ||
| Some were beaten, strangled, and tased. | ||
| This building, the People's House, was trashed, damaged, and subjected to despicable acts. | ||
| Members of Congress and their staffs feared for their lives. | ||
| Some of the insurrectionists waved Confederate battle flags and exhibited Nazi symbols. | ||
| And some brave American citizens died. | ||
| A Republican senator, Senator Ron Johnson, said, by and large, it was a peaceful protest. | ||
| Now, Mr. Speaker, this was not a peaceful protest. | ||
| It was unadulterated violence. | ||
| The President of the United States and all members of Congress take an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. | ||
| That oath is a recognition of the fact that there will be times throughout history when we must deal with the enemy from within. | ||
| On the second day of his presidency, President Trump granted blanket pardons and commutations to nearly 1,600 of the rioters who stormed this Capitol on January 6, 2021. | ||
| The president decided that these perpetrators should be pardoned and not pay for their crimes. | ||
| By pardoning these individuals, this president has made a mockery of the pardon process and smeared the oath he took to uphold the Constitution. | ||
| These actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for our democratic principles and the sanctity of the vote. | ||
| The great John Lewis once shared his great fear that, and I quote, one day we may wake up and our democracy is gone. | ||
| John and I often spoke of the delicacy of our democracy and its future was far from guaranteed. | ||
| On January 6, 2021, we came face to face with the reality of this fragility. | ||
| But our democracy also prevailed. | ||
| We were not deterred from doing our constitutional duty and certifying the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election. | ||
| But even during this unrelenting campaign to weaken our laws and impede justice, members of this body have stood up for our Constitution. | ||
| The exceptional work of the bipartisan January 6th Committee, ably chaired by Representative Benny Thompson of Mississippi, illuminated for the American people the severity of the conspiracies behind the January 6th attack. | ||
| Congress has also passed critical reforms to safeguard the legal process for future presidential elections to help ensure this never happens again. | ||
| Earlier today, the leader of our caucus, Hakeem Jeffers, held a special hearing to shed further light on the ongoing threats to free and fair elections and the threats to public safety posed by some of the violent criminals President Trump has let out of prison. | ||
| The threat to our democracy that we witnessed five years ago has not lessened and our obligations to be vigilant in its defense and steadfast in our pursuit of a more perfect union is as important as ever. | ||
| The Constitution that binds this country together is a sacred document that has guided our pursuit of perfection for nearly 250 years. | ||
| We came close to dealing or derailing that pursuit on January 6, 2021. | ||
| If we refuse to acknowledge the facts and give due deference to the violence that took place five years ago, we run the risk of abdicating our responsibility to the American people to safeguard our nation's core principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | ||
| The insurrection of January 6th could very well be the worst domestic attack on our government since the Civil War, which ended in 1865. | ||
| That insurrection incented much of my recently released third book entitled The First Eight, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the eight African Americans who served in Congress from my home state of South Carolina before me. | ||
| The book also highlights the social and political events that occurred in the aftermath of the Civil War and calls attention to the violence and lawlessness that occurred during their service and took our great nation into a dark place that lasted for nearly a century. | ||
| There are 95 years between number eight in that group and yours truly, number nine. | ||
| The book is a cautionary tale that reminds us of the warning of the Spanish philosopher George Santillano that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. | ||
| I fear that the danger John Lewis fretted about is facing us today. | ||
| The aftermath of January 6, 2021 continues to test our ability to protect our freedom and our willingness to continue our trek toward a more perfect union. | ||
| And now, Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield to the Honorable Cindy Hawyer from the state of Maryland. | ||
| Mr. Hoyer. | ||
| I thank my friend for yielding. | ||
| He and I have known each other for some 60 years. | ||
| We've served in this body for a very long time. | ||
| I can remember two events. | ||
| One was on September 11th, 2001. | ||
| And we were, as the gentleman observed, attacked by an enemy from without. | ||
| That was horrific. | ||
| America lost thousands of lives that day. | ||
| We stood on the steps of the United States Senate that evening And sang, God bless America. | ||
| On January 6th, I was sitting where the gentleman from South Carolina now stands. | ||
| I saw an officer, a detail officer from the Capitol Police come in and take Speaker Pelosi from the rostrum. | ||
| And then a Capitol policeman assigned to my detail, as we call it, came up to me, took me by the arm, said, We have to get out of here. | ||
| And I got to that door and we went through that door and I said to him, What has happened? | ||
| And the stunning words of his reply was, the Capitol has been breached. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I observe and don't know whether the cameras are painting this house, but the other side of the aisle is empty, failing to recognize one of the most grievous and the other side of the aisle, failing to recognize one of the most grievous | ||
| criminal, treasonous events that has happened during the 44 plus years that I've been in this House. | ||
| As if it were not an historic event where every member of this House, 435 of us, ought to be rising today and say, America, we will not survive that kind of conduct. | ||
| That is not America. | ||
| And urging every one of our constituents, as I'm going to quote George Washington in just a minute, to honor democracy in victory and in defeat. | ||
| Al Gore lost a presidential election 5-4 when the Supreme Court said the election is over by a vote of 5-4. | ||
| And Al Gore did what real patriots do. | ||
| He said, the court has declared the election ended. | ||
| And because of my love of America and democracy, and because that is how our system works, a nation of laws, not of men and women. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, my favorite painting in the Capitol hangs in the rotunda. | ||
| Painted by John Trumbull, it depicts George Washington in the Maryland State Senate Chamber as he resigns his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army at the end of the Revolutionary War. | ||
| That painting, Mr. Speaker, is testament to a man who so eagerly relinquished his power and who only reluctantly reclaimed it when the American people called him to serve as their first president. | ||
| It is a symbol of the peaceful transition of power upon which our democracy depends. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, five years ago, today, that painting towered over the swarm of insurrectionists Donald Trump sent to this Capitol. | ||
| That is why he was deemed to be, as the whip said, the most culpable of the figures involved in this insurrection. | ||
| What did George, what did he say? | ||
| He told the mob to stop the steal and fight like hell. | ||
| And then he deployed them to the capital of the United States of America. | ||
| The beacon of democracy, freedom and liberty for all the world. | ||
| And the Capitol was breached. | ||
| There, of course, was no steel. | ||
| And the courts said so in court after court after court after court. | ||
| But unlike Al Gore, President Trump did not honor the courts. | ||
| Rather, he deployed an army to come to the Capitol, breach it, and stop democratic proceedings. | ||
| The army he deployed maimed some 140 of our brave U.S. Capitol police officers, several of whom lost their lives. | ||
| They paraded Confederate and Nazi symbols through these halls, as the whip observed as well. | ||
| They erected gallows. | ||
| They erected gallows on the Capitol lawn to hang the Republican Vice President of the United States, and so stated. | ||
| Unlike the past few months, the National Guard was nowhere to be found. | ||
| Donald Trump had every opportunity to restore order. | ||
| The Republican leader of this House, Mr. McCarthy, called the White House and said, Mr. President, you need to stop this violence. | ||
| And nothing happened. | ||
| Instead, the president played the figurative fiddle as the Capitol was sieged and the Constitution was challenged. | ||
| The same man responsible for the violence that day is now trying to distort it, to erase it. | ||
| Perhaps, Mr. Speaker, that's why there's no other Republican on the floor to try to forget what happened, erase it from the minds of Americans, erase it from the history books. | ||
| It was just a group of tourists taking an amble through the Capitol. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States inexplicably has described January 6 as a day of love. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I call it what it was: a day of violence, sedition, and treason. | ||
| Trump has called those who stormed the Capitol unbelievable patriots. | ||
| 435 of us ought to be on this floor saying, no, sir, it was unbelievable violence and sedition. | ||
| I call those unbelievable patriots what they are. | ||
| Criminals convicted of such. | ||
| Insurrectionists, cop killers, cop beaters, democracy destroyers. | ||
| In one of the first actions in his second term, the whip has mentioned this, others will mention it, and I use the word inexplicable. | ||
| In his first days in office, some 1,600 insurrectionists who stormed this Capitol, who breached this Capitol, who tried to stop democracy from working, were pardoned by the President of the United States, Mr. Donald J. Trump. | ||
| David Dempsey, sentenced to 20 years, viciously assaulted and injured police officers, including the Lower West Terrace at the Lower Works Terrace Tunnel, using weapons made from broken furniture, pepper spray, and flagpoles. | ||
| Daniel Joseph Rodriguez, sentenced to 12 and a half years after being found guilty. | ||
| Filmed deploying fire extinguishers and dragging Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fenon and repeatedly shocked Fanon in the neck with a taser. | ||
| pardon The chief of the Capitol Police, when asked about those pardons, said it was deeply troubling to the Capitol Police, as well it should be. | ||
| Patrick McGaughey, seven and a half years, used a stolen riot shield to pin Maryland Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodge to a metal doorframe while another assailant beat Hodge in the face with a stolen baton. | ||
| U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden described McGaughy as the poster child of all that was dangerous and appalling about January 6th. | ||
| Peter Francis Stager, four years and four months, wielded a flagpole and struck defenseless officer who was lying face down. | ||
| I would ask any member of the President's party or of our party to come to this floor and defend pardoning somebody who perpetrated a crime on a police officer. | ||
| Stuart Rhodes, since the 18 years, said this, patriots, using Donald Trump's word for them, it was a long day, but a day when patriots began to stand. | ||
| Stand now or kneel forever. | ||
| Honor your oaths. | ||
| Remember your legacy. | ||
| That's what he said. | ||
| Pride in assaulting the officers. | ||
| Pride in assaulting democracy. | ||
| Pride in driving the Congress, thankfully for just hours, out of this Capitol so they could not proceed in doing their constitutional duty. | ||
| That part of the list includes 600 who were charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement. | ||
| So much, Mr. Speaker, for supporting the thin blue line. | ||
| So much for supporting the brave men and women of law enforcement. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to forget January 6th. | ||
| We cannot afford to be absent, Mr. Speaker, to take a walk, to turn our backs on what happened on January 6th. | ||
| To do so is to risk its repeated actions. | ||
| It did not end when a bipartisan majority in this House impeached Trump the following week. | ||
| And it still has not ended. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask this House now, as I did on January 6th, standing where the gentleman from South Carolina is standing now, do we have the courage to stand up to a president who violates our Constitution, our laws, and our norms? | ||
| Will enough of my colleagues across the aisle find that courage? | ||
| Liz Cheney found that courage. | ||
| Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Liz Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Cheney. | ||
| She found that courage to recognize that day for the tragedy it was. | ||
| I pray others will do the same. | ||
| So would General Washington, whom I mentioned earlier. | ||
| He would tell them what he told his own officers when he learned they were conspiring to overthrow the Continental Congress just a few months before he resigned his commission. | ||
| He said this. | ||
| Express your utmost horror and detestation of a man who wishes, under any speechless premises, to overturn the liberties of our country and who wickedly attempt to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising nation in blood. | ||
| That is what happened on January 6th. | ||
| On January 6th, we saw the floodgates of insurrection open. | ||
| If we forget that, if we gloss over that fact of history, if we ignore it, if we diminish its vanality or glorify the actions of the mob as Trump does, we risk letting that dream of liberty for which our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor be swept away. | ||
| Let us remember January 6th, lest it be repeated. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding back the time, and thank you. | ||
| I thank him for his friendship for these 60 plus years, 30 years as my colleague. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield two minutes to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congresswoman Yvette Clark of New York. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, good evening. | ||
| I'm Congresswoman Yvette D. Clark, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 119th session of Congress and proud representative of New York's 9th Congressional District, located in central and southwest Brooklyn. | ||
| I want to thank my colleagues, Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina and Congressman Stenny Hoyer of Maryland, for co-anchoring this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order Hour. | ||
| I rise tonight with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Democratic Caucus to reflect on the solemn anniversary of the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. | ||
| The deadly insurrection of January 6th, 2021 was not merely an attack on a building, but a direct and violent assault on members of Congress, law enforcement, staff, and the very foundations of our democracy. | ||
| Today, this evening, we honor the extraordinary bravery of the United States Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers who protected our democracy and ensured that the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results failed. | ||
| Five years later, it is not lost on members of our caucus that efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election through false claims of illegitimate voting occurred during a year when we saw historic participation of black voters. | ||
| That participation resulted in Democratic victories up and down the ballot, as well as the election of the first black woman vice president. | ||
| Today, we cannot ignore the reality that efforts to disenfranchise black communities are still ongoing. | ||
| Soon, in Louisiana v. Calais case, the Supreme Court will decide whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which outlaws racial discrimination in our electoral system, still allows black and minority voters to challenge racially discriminatory voting maps in court, making clear that the fight to protect our democracy is far from over. | ||
| We will never forget the horrors of January 6th, nor will we turn a blind eye to the efforts that continue to threaten the promise of equal participation in our democracy, undermine the very foundations on which this nation and its governance has been built. | ||
| The January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the occupants of the Capitol complex is a day that will live in infamy. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the gentleman from South Carolina. | ||
| I thank the gentlelady for her comments, and with that, I'd like to yield one minute to Kwaizi Infume from the great state of Maryland. | ||
| Representative Mfume. | ||
| I want to thank the gentleman from South Carolina for yielding and the gentleman from Maryland for co-participation. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, five years ago at this time, those of us who were in this chamber could hear the sound of glass being swept up outside of this door. | ||
| There were persons in here sweeping the room to see if there were any explosive devices that had been planted after they break-in. | ||
| Up and down these halls, you could hear murmurs and questions. | ||
| And for those of us who are here, this is not a joke. | ||
| This is not Donald Trump's history and it's not his story. | ||
| It's what actually happened to our nation's capital. | ||
| And some of you who are here will remember that day. | ||
| I had to run out through this door from the second floor, find my way down to the tunnels underneath the Capitol, to walk for a quarter of a mile to get to an office building where I could be safe. | ||
| But there were so many others that were not fortunate to do that. | ||
| They got swept up, as the gentleman from South Carolina said, taken away, whisked away, and stayed in seclusion for hours, sometimes in the same closets almost, breathing the same air. | ||
| So the fact that that happened and the fact that there is no one on the other side of the aisle concerns me because it's an acclamation almost that it's okay and it's not okay. | ||
| Five police officers were murdered that day. | ||
| Five, 150 or so were taken to the hospital, 18 of which had to stay there. | ||
| These walls, these doors, these hallowed venues that we have walked in and people have come to and thought of as being a symbol of democracy were shattered unnecessarily. | ||
| And so it is important to find a way to commemorate this day. | ||
| It is important to remind the rest of the country that what Donald Trump said were visitors visiting the Capitol to go sightseeing was a lie and that his pardon of over a thousand individuals later is a shameful, shameful act. | ||
| I pray to God that nothing like this ever happens again. | ||
| And if it does, I pray to God that every member of this body will stand up and speak out. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| I thank the gentleman for his remarks, and I'd like to yield one minute to the gentlelady from New Jersey, Ms. Watson-Coleman. | ||
|
unidentified
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I first want to thank both of our members of Congress who are co-leading this very important special order hour. | |
| Five years ago, a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. | ||
| Yet on the first day of Donald Trump's second term, he pardoned more than 1,500 criminals involved in that insurrection and carried out in his name. | ||
| This is just one action amid a comprehensive campaign to erase the memory of what happened on that day. | ||
| It's a slap in the face to law enforcement who selflessly put their lives at risk to defend all of us. | ||
| Some of them lost their lives, like Officer Brian Sicknick, a New Jersey native who tragically died following injuries he sustained that day. | ||
| Many more are still dealing with trauma. | ||
| In Brian's honor, I introduce a resolution condemning those blanket pardons. | ||
| We must never forget their sacrifice. | ||
| We cannot let Donald Trump and his allies rewrite the history of one of the darkest moments in the 250th history of this nation. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| I thank the gentlelady for her remarks, and now I'd like to yield one minute to the gentlelady from Georgia, Congresswoman Lisa Macbeth. | ||
| Thank you both to our leaders this evening, Representative Hoyer and Representative Clyburn, for making sure that we never forget. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today we pause on the five-year anniversary of one of the darkest days of our democracy. | ||
| On January 6th, writers stormed the heart of American government and sought to overthrow the will of the people with bats and clubs. | ||
| Now the individual responsible for promoting such baseless allegations once again occupies the highest office in the land. | ||
| I extend profound gratitude for the Capitol Police who stood on the front lines on that terrible day. | ||
| I thank my colleagues, our appointed officials, and every congressional staff member who worked to ensure the true will of the American people was done. | ||
| I urge every citizen that is watching today to remember that the eyes of the world have not looked away in the five years since. | ||
| We must work to ensure that the American ideals of freedom and justice and liberty endure for generations to come. | ||
| Never, ever forget, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, gentlelady, for her remarks, and we'll now yield one minute to the gentlelady from North Carolina, Ms. Valerie Fouchy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you to our distinguished leaders for this opportunity. | |
| Mr. Speaker, five years ago, our nation witnessed an unthinkable assault on American democracy when a violent crowd breached the U.S. Capitol with one purpose, to overturn a lawful election and hold on to power by force. | ||
| Law enforcement officers stood between that mob and the Constitution. | ||
| More than 140 brave officers were injured and several lost their lives defending this institution. | ||
| Their courage deserves not just remembrance, but that we remain vigilant in upholding the rule of law. | ||
| The attack on January 6th was the result of a president who chose division over truth, grievance over governance, and chaos over accountability. | ||
| And that choice continues to threaten our democracy today as Donald Trump practices deliberate deception and escalating extremism. | ||
| Democracy is fragile and it demands our constant defense. | ||
| And it can only survive when we act to protect it each and every day. | ||
| Thank you and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, General Lady, for your remarks. | ||
| And now I'll give you one minute to the gentleman from Maryland, Representative Glenn Ivey. | ||
| I thank my distinguished colleague from South Carolina and certainly my distinguished colleague from Maryland for giving us the opportunity to speak on this issue tonight. | ||
| the fifth anniversary of that tragic day of the attack on this Capitol. | ||
| I want to focus on two men who were here that day. | ||
| One was Nathan Tate. | ||
| He was a police officer who'd grown up in Prince George's County. | ||
| He had mixed feelings about what the police do because he'd had some bad experience in his childhood and in his neighborhood, but he decided he could make a difference. | ||
| He felt called to public service as a police officer. | ||
| And when he went to work, he joined the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. and was sent to some of the toughest neighborhoods in Washington, where I'd actually been a prosecutor many years before. | ||
| On that tragic day, he was one of the 140 officers who were attacked and injured. | ||
| Fortunately, he was not one of the four who died that day, and another one died the next day. | ||
| And four officers committed suicide in the wake of the trauma that they'd experienced that day. | ||
| Mr. Tate was attacked, temporarily blinded by bear spray. | ||
| He hit his head on the scaffold as he was knocked to the ground and lost consciousness temporarily. | ||
| He was afraid he wouldn't make it home that night to see his six children. | ||
| He didn't know if he was going to make it. | ||
| His attacker was a man named Andrew Talky. | ||
| And Mr. Talky later pled guilty to attacking officers, including Mr. Tate, with bear spray and a metal whip. | ||
| Now, you heard a moment ago that our president and some of our Republican colleagues said that this was a tourist event, but I know not many tourists bring bear spray and whips to the Capitol. | ||
| And the man who attacked him was also a fugitive from justice at the time he came here. | ||
| He'd been released on bond from Texas. | ||
| He was a 32-year-old man, and he was charged with online solicitation of a minor. | ||
| Fortunately, he was an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old girl. | ||
| But there was an arrest warrant out for his arrest at the time he came here and launched that attack. | ||
| Now, he ended up pleading guilty and accepting responsibility in front of the judge, or so he said. | ||
| Because when you plead guilty, the prosecutor reads a statement of what you've done, and you have to swear under oath that that statement is true. | ||
| He did that. | ||
| But at the same time, he'd been bragging about attacking these officers. | ||
| And later, he came out and he denied responsibility for what he'd done. | ||
| In fact, he said Officer Tate had attacked him. | ||
| Now, the judge in that case was appointed by Donald J. Trump, and he heard all of the evidence, and he heard the guilty plea and the evidence that both sides presented, and he sentenced Mr. Talky to six years in jail. | ||
| Donald Trump's pardon wiped that away with the stroke of a pen. |