[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 19, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1881-H1884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPUBLICANS' FIRST 100 DAYS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Edwards). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson)
is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the
majority leader.
General Leave
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Louisiana?
There was no objection.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, this evening, I have some of
the most influential leaders in the House Republican Conference to
address some of the key issues we are addressing this week together in
the people's House.
Mr. Speaker, I yield first to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr.
Murphy).
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Speaker, this evening, I will be talking on the
Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
I have been a physician now for over 30 years and have dealt with a
lot of different types of individuals, and there is a difference
medically between men and women. There is a difference biologically
between men and women. There is a difference chromosomally between men
and women. There is a difference genetically between men and women.
At age 5, it is an absolutely normal thing for young children to
question who they are. It is absolutely normal. We all go through that
phase. Sadly enough, our left colleagues now want to put pressure,
either from teachers, counselors, or whatever, that they may be
disillusioned, that they may not understand who they are, to try to
push them in one direction.
What has happened? We now have this huge conglomeration of
individuals who don't understand their biological sex. We have been
preached to by the left for 3 years, ``Follow the science. Follow the
science,'' even though the science was wrong.
Right now, they don't want to follow the science. It comes down to
the science of gender, and they refuse to allow that truth to be told.
They don't want to hear about the true biological and genetic
differences between XY and XX chromosomes.
As a physician, I can say there is an absolute genetic difference in
mitochondria, spindle cell formation, and everything else in a genetic
XY male from an XX female. It is how they develop.
Regardless of any type of hormonal manipulation, an XY male has a
competitive advantage over an XX female--period, point blank. It is
fact. It cannot be refuted.
Sadly enough, the left doesn't want to hear that. They want to push
the fact that the choice of a gender will get to decide a competitive
advantage. They want to trample over the rights of women and allow men
to compete in women's sports. It is an absolute absurdity.
I honestly cannot believe that this is an actual issue that we are
debating in the United States of America. It is common sense.
I won't point out any specifics, but what would happen if a male from
the NBA decided he wanted to compete in the WNBA? Would that be fair?
Absolutely not.
What would happen if somebody like Michael Phelps wanted to compete
in women's athletic sports, in swimming? It would be absolutely unfair,
but the left is not horrified if something like that would happen in
high school or college.
[[Page H1882]]
Ten years ago, I would say Democrats and Republicans would never have
dreamed we would be going down this path of lunacy, trying to erase
women's sports, that a young girl who at the age of 5 or 10 would be
competing so hard for her dream at age 18 or 22 to compete in the
Olympics for a gold medal or any other medal might have that taken away
by a biological male.
However, here we are. It is a sad state. It is time for the adults in
the room to bring common sense back to this country.
Now, I am not downgrading or denigrating the desire for those
individuals to compete in sports. I understand that, but what is fair
is fair. It is absolutely unfair for a biological male to compete
against a biological female in high school or any other type of sports.
{time} 1830
We are bringing common sense and a sense of normalcy back to women's
sports and women's rights against the unscientific madness of the left.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleagues to vote for the Protection of
Women and Girls in Sports Act.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate that. I am
a proud cosponsor with you of the Protection of Women and Girls in
Sports Act because we recognize biology is not bigotry, it is reality.
It is a very good bill, and we will pass it this week.
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield next to the gentleman from Utah
(Mr. Owens), the Super Bowl champion.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Protection of Women
and Girls in Sports Act.
Since Title IX became law 50 years ago, women and girls have
shattered records, broken barriers, and blazed a trail for generations
of female athletes to dream big and to rise to new heights in
athletics.
As a former athlete, I know firsthand the far-reaching, profound
impact of sports participation on physical, academic, and social
development.
In a recent survey, over half of the women executives of major U.S.
companies attributed their success to participating in collegiate
athletics.
The regressive, unscientific, and unsound policy of the Biden
administration to allow biological men to compete against women strips
the rights and dignity of every woman to safe and fair competition in
sports.
The science is clear. Men are physiologically faster, stronger, and
bigger than women. Biological men develop larger hearts and lungs,
denser bones, and stronger muscles.
This is common sense, my friends, and we all instinctively know this.
Putting a stronger, faster, bigger man against women turns back the
clock on this remarkable accomplishment of female athletes by half a
century.
Who also suffers from this attack on womanhood? Young men who have
already been damaged for decades of progressive left policies that have
destroyed the nuclear family.
Mr. Speaker, 80 percent of these urban men no longer have a father
who will teach them their primary job as a man is to respect and
protect womanhood, that his greatest success and legacy will be leaving
his children and wife a good name.
Instead, you see in these urban, crime-ridden Democrat cities young
men who have lost hope and as a result are losing their souls.
Turn on the TV. In the same cities where these urban city political
leaders are closing their eyes to sexualization of children as young as
3 or 4 years old, where confusing our children about gender fluidity is
at its heights, you will see gangs of young men with no respect for
women as they bully, use, abuse, and beat up girls and women and, with
no shame, boast about it as they post their insidious attacks on
TikTok. No hope, no soul.
I'll make a request to those on the other side of the aisle; ask the
urban community of Black women what they think of turning men into
women, not the elitist Black minority who are married and have a safe
life inside their middle-class neighborhood bubble, but the 78 percent
of single mothers who are trying to raise and provide for their
children solo.
Ask them how it is for generations to deal with the absence of good,
God-fearing, honest, hardworking, committed, visionary, and courageous
men who will stand and sacrifice anything, including their lives, for
their wives and children.
These women will tell you that they already live in communities where
males no longer identify as men. We will not stand by and allow the
anti-family, anti-women progressive left to add women to their long
list of hopelessness.
Our message with this bill is to all women, regardless of your
politics, creed, color, background, social status, or religion.
The Republican Party will ensure that you and your daughters will
never lose hope; that your efforts, your work, and your dreams will
never be stolen by an ideology that has driven the party that has lost
its way.
We promise never to demean your contributions, past and present, your
efforts and sacrifice, acknowledged or forgotten, that has helped to
forge this great Nation. We start today by defending meritocracy and
granting every woman a level playing field of fairness.
As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce
Development, I am proud to support the Protection of Women and Girls in
Sports Act to end the reckless, anti-women, and unfair policies of the
Biden White House against female athletes.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. I am so grateful for your expertise and
wisdom and all the years you worked with troubled and incarcerated
youth. This gentleman knows that of which he speaks.
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield next to the gentleman from
California (Mr. LaMalfa).
Mr. LaMALFA. Thank you, again, to my colleague from Louisiana (Mr.
Johnson), for leading this time for us to further inform the American
people on these key matters.
Really, this is what House Republicans have demonstrated so far in
this majority here in the last 3 months or so.
The priorities of the American people are our priorities for their
well-being, their prosperity, and we are achieving that in the
legislation we are pushing through.
Unfortunately, that priority is not shared by our President, and a
lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are focused on a
lot of other things that are very destructive to our economy,
destructive to the well-being of what has really made this country
strong economically and morally.
Our economic base pivots mainly on energy, continued development of
it, developing newer, better technologies which in this country, when
we have the entrepreneurship, the freedom and means to continue to
innovate instead of getting railroaded into things that don't work.
A lot of that is this massive bent toward electrifying all of our
energy-consuming devices, whether they be automobiles or appliances,
things that we use for manufacturing, industry, what have you.
I just have to tell you, remind you, that our power grid, our
electricity grid, especially in my home State, is this close,
especially on a hot summer day, toward collapsing.
It is not enough, certainly, to take into account the big ideas there
are to electrify cars, trucks, leaf blowers, stoves, and this is over
the protests of the very people who are going to be expected to buy
them and replace them.
Have you seen cities and municipalities moving in the direction of
banning all new gas stoves? Well, gas stoves work awfully well for
people, for homeowners that wish to have that choice.
When we see government continuing to take choices away from people,
you are not seeing it from House Republicans.
You are seeing it from the left. You are seeing it from this White
House. You are seeing it from the policies that come from the Democrat
leadership. People need to realize where this comes from.
Legislation that was passed in the seventies, NEPA as part of
Endangered Species Act, as part of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act,
those are good things, were good things at the time.
They have been weaponized over the last 30 or 40 years to stop
projects that people want from getting done, whether it is widening
their highways to have better transportation infrastructure; whether it
is agriculture. You
[[Page H1883]]
know, incredibly, we are seeing that in this country, we might have
empty store shelves of certain products that people come to expect;
certainly we are seeing much higher prices for food.
What is the key to this? Energy. We don't have low-cost energy,
reasonable energy, and we have stopped exploring for new oil and gas.
We stopped building power plants. Indeed, in my district, they are
trying to tear down hydroelectric plants that make CO2-free
power.
We all love CO2-free stuff, and they want to tear out this
infrastructure. Our only nuclear power plant left in California, Diablo
Canyon, got a 5-year reprieve by the legislature recently.
There are people already trying to put a stop to that 5-year reprieve
of it being shut down--more CO2-free power, 9 percent of the
grid.
So the weaponization of the environment has been pretty successful so
far in stopping important projects. Instead, we get red tape, bloat,
all sorts of things from the government instead of the projects people
need in order to continue.
Western civilization is defined by our ability to produce not only
what we need but to help others around the world. We are unable to do
that effectively if we keep going in this direction.
A bill we passed last week, H.R. 1, was critical toward moving back
this 2\1/2\ to 3-year funk we had under President Biden and also
pivoting off of COVID shutting down our lives, largely.
I can even extend that to the importance of forest management because
the smoke plume from that affects the whole country when you have a
million-acre fire like I had in my district.
H.R. 1 has these key components toward helping with energy. One key
component to help with forest management is to be able to do the types
of thinning and work that is going to make the forests healthy. When
you are talking about the Forest Service lands, they are an asset of
the American people and they need to be saved.
The lunacy we have seen with the extremists manipulating
environmental laws and, of course, court decisions that aren't really
based so much on what the intent of the law was 50 years ago is really
harming our country. It is really harming the people, causing
unnecessarily high costs of everything, and taking choices off your
table, taking choices out of your garage, et cetera, et cetera.
H.R. 1 is a good start on that. We need our colleagues in the Senate
to pass that and get it to the White House and, hopefully, convince the
President to do the right thing; not just shut down more energy.
Folks, we have got to have you pay attention to this stuff and be on
our side on this because we are actually on your side and not trying to
take away your choices, your livelihoods, and harm you economically.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Thank you for drawing attention to it
because energy security is national security, as we say all the time.
Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield next to my great friend, the
great gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany).
Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Representative from Louisiana
for giving me a couple minutes here.
I have been here for 3 years now in the House of Representatives, and
we have seen the other side try to overturn the laws of economics.
Here is a quote: ``We absolutely cannot go bankrupt because we have
the power to create as much money as we need to spend. . . .''
That was Nancy Pelosi's budget chairman.
Trying to overturn the laws of economics, trying to overturn the laws
of physics, we are going to make internet power into base load power.
It doesn't work.
Well, now it is a sad day because now we are debating basic biology
on the House floor. Unfortunately, over 50 years since Congress passed
the landmark legislation of Title IX, we now have Democrats denying
that basic biology and women's rights.
Let me be clear: Biological men have no business competing in women's
sports. It is anti-women and it is anti-science to think otherwise.
Here is a headline from NBC news: ``Trans women retain athletic edge
after a year of hormone therapy, the study finds.''
From The Guardian: ``Trans women retain 12 percent edge in test 2
years after transitioning.''
Those are the facts, and we have already seen the results. Over 20
biological men have won national or international competitions or
championships in the women's category.
With the Biden administration seeking to erase women's rights and
continuing to make a mockery of Title IX's fundamental principle of
basic biology, Republicans will protect them.
Tomorrow, House Republicans will defend women's sports when we pass
the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023.
This will ensure that school athletics comply with the Title IX
recognition of a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
As a father of three daughters, I will always stand up to protect our
daughters. I would hope all Members of Congress, both Republican and
Democrat, would protect decades of progress we have made in securing
women's rights.
That starts by passing this legislation.
At a time when Democrats would rather erase our daughters' rights,
let me repeat: Republicans will protect them. Thank you to the
gentleman from Louisiana.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. From one father to another, I thank you for
those strong words. We will do that. That is our obligation.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield next to my friend and classmate, the
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff).
Mr. KUSTOFF. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for
organizing tonight when we can speak directly to the American people.
Monday marked 100 days of the new Republican majority here in the
United States House of Representatives.
Since then, we have been committed and worked hard to fulfill our
commitment to America. That is our promise; to build an economy that is
strong, a Nation that is safe, a future that is built upon freedom, and
a government that is accountable to the American people.
Our very first vote here in the majority was to defund President
Biden's army of 87,000 new IRS agents that were to target families and
small businesses with more burdensome audits.
We passed the Parents Bill of Rights. Now, House Republicans know how
important it is to have a say in their children's future, and the
Parents Bill of Rights ensures that their important voice is heard.
The Parents Bill of Rights does five things: First, the right for
parents to know what is being taught in schools and to see reading
material. Secondly, the right to be heard. Third, the parents' rights
to see schools' budgets and schools' spending. Fourth, the right to
protect their child's privacy. Fifth, the right for parents to be
updated on any violent activity at school.
I was proud and am proud to cosponsor this legislation that puts
power back in the hands of parents certainly across our country and
also empowers them with the information that they need to ensure that
their children receive the best education possible.
In addition, for people following at home, we passed a bill, the bill
number is H.R. 1, the title of the bill is the Lower Energy Costs Act.
H.R. 1, what it does is it unleashes American energy. It lowers
energy costs for families across my district in West Tennessee and
across the Nation.
{time} 1845
President Biden's war on American energy, frankly, has made us more
reliant on foreign energy sources. Americans know that because they
have been paying the price for this in higher gas prices, higher
utility bills, higher energy prices, in general.
H.R. 1 will unleash American energy and lower costs.
It does five things: It increases domestic energy production.
It reforms the permitting process for all industries. That is the
second thing.
The third thing, it reverses anti-energy policies advanced by
President Biden's administration.
Fourth, it streamlines energy infrastructure and exports.
Fifth, it boosts the production and processing of critical minerals.
I think that is so important.
[[Page H1884]]
That is H.R. 1. Obviously, it is one of the most important pieces of
legislation that will pass here in the United States House of
Representatives.
We as House Republicans have also been doing our part to talk
directly with Americans, in part by taking our committee hearings
outside of Washington, D.C. We are talking directly to people across
the country by having committee hearings outside of Washington, D.C.,
in the heartland of the country.
I am honored to be on the House Committee on Ways and Means. Under
the chairmanship of Jason Smith who chairs the House Committee on Ways
and Means, we have had field hearings in West Virginia and in Oklahoma.
By taking these committee hearings to places like West Virginia and
Oklahoma, we have been talking--but more importantly, listening--in our
committees to people who may not be able to travel to Washington, D.C.,
who could testify directly to our committee and to the other
committees.
By doing that, again, listening to issues that are important to the
House Ways and Means Committee, and certainly to the other committees,
as well, we really appreciate their valuable input.
In addition to all this, other things that House Republicans have
done, we have reopened the people's House. It is great to walk around
the House Chamber, to walk around the Halls of Congress and see people,
see our constituents, see school groups.
Here in the House of Representatives under the Republican majority in
these 100 days, we have worked to protect the sanctity of life.
We have worked to counter the Chinese Communist Party and their
influence.
We have worked to counter the Biden administration for their
weaponization of the Federal Government.
Mr. Speaker, frankly, we are just getting started. We have got a lot
of work cut out for us, but we are up to the challenge. We are working
hard for the American people. The Republican majority is committed to
delivering results for the American people each and every day in this
body.
Like you, I appreciate the honor to serve, and I appreciate
Congressman Johnson for organizing tonight's Special Order so that
Members like me and other Members in the Republican House majority can
talk to the people, can talk about the accomplishments and also the
important issues that our Nation faces.
Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend who is
always a voice of great credibility and reason.
You're exactly right, and I am glad you highlighted that the first
100 days of this Congress under Republican leadership has been
remarkably successful. As you said here, this week and in the days
ahead, our important work has really just begun. We have a lot more to
do.
Mr. Speaker, in my remarks this evening, I would speak very briefly
as a father.
We have to defend women's sports. My wife, Kelly, and I have been
blessed with four amazing children. Two of them are bright, beautiful
young women who were high school athletes themselves. But today,
radical transgender ideology is threatening the very same opportunities
that my girls had, and all of our girls have had.
This week, Congress is going to send a clear message: We will not
stand by and tolerate the erosion of fair and equal competition in
women's sports.
We know that right now women's freedom to play sports at competitive,
collegiate, and professional levels epitomizes how far we have come in
breaking down so many boundaries.
How in the world have we gotten to this point where women's ability
to compete on a fair playing field is in question?
Mr. Speaker, this week, Congress will vote, and we are going to pass
out of this House the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
We will address one of the major problems stemming from today's
extreme liberal ideology, all of these activists.
Just in the last few years, we have seen countless instances of men
competing in women's sports at all stages of competition. It is not
fair.
Our legislation would simply aim to crack down on this backwards
policy by prohibiting federally funded education programs or activities
of any kind from allowing biological men and boys to participate in the
programs or activities designed for women.
Biology is not bigotry. It is reality. Our legislation will make
clear that one's gender, their sex, is based on their reproductive
biology. It is our obligation; it is our duty and responsibility here
to protect and defend the rights of women and girls across this country
to compete and succeed in sports.
I am proud to cosponsor the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports
Act, and I am glad that that legislation will accomplish that very
thing.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________