[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 50 (Thursday, March 21, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1344-H1348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SWAMP BUS PART 2: MORE ILLEGALS, LESS FREEDOM
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) is recognized for
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I come here to the floor recognizing the state
of affairs that we find ourselves in, given the extent to which the
President of the United States and his radical progressive Democrat
allies on the other side of the aisle here and in the Senate, are
continuing an assault on the well-being of the American people with
open borders, with inflationary spending, with radical environmental
agenda policies that are regulating the economy to death, driving up
the cost of goods sold, and overall diminishing America and the world.
There is no other way to view it than intentional.
That kind of an assault on the well-being of the American people
ought to be and deserves to be met with the kind of resistance that the
American people who sent us here to represent them expect.
The American people, who sent at least Republicans here to be in the
majority to stand athwart the radical policies of the Biden
administration, supported by our radical progressive Democrats here in
this House and in the Senate, they sent us here to stand athwart those
policies. Therefore, it is our duty, it is incumbent upon us to
actually do so.
Last year, when given the majority, a number of us set out to change
the way the House of Representatives works, or should I say, was not
working.
We set out to make sure that bills could be read, that you have 72
hours to review a bill.
We set out to ensure that you would have adequate and varied
representation on the various committees.
We set out to ensure that there would be a process by which we could
move appropriations bills out of committee on to the floor, from the
floor to the Senate, so that we could pass individual bills, try to
restore what we might call regular order.
We set out to do that last year. We passed seven appropriations bills
out of the House, three more from the committees down to the floor, two
others were ready to go. We passed H.R. 2, the strongest border
security bill that has ever been moved off of the House floor. We
passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would elevate the debt
responsibly while making policy changes to try to drive down the amount
of debt that we are racking up on a daily and weekly basis.
Those are the things we are able to accomplish as Republicans when we
were honoring the commitments that we made to our constituents, and we
were not hiding.
Unfortunately, today, Republicans are hiding. They are hiding behind
the fear of a so-called shutdown and hiding behind the so-called razor
thin majority to pass a massive omnibus spending bill--the second part
of a two-part omnibus spending bill that blows past the spending caps
passed on a bipartisan basis, increases the spending over the very
levels perpetuated by Nancy Pelosi that virtually every Republican in
this Chamber opposed not 15 months ago.
They are about to pass legislation that will blow past those caps and
spend more money, and they are going to do so knowing full well that we
are not achieving the vast majority--barely any--of the policy changes
that we fought for all last year in the appropriations process. That is
the actual truth.
We are going to abandon the efforts that we set out to change this
Chamber last year, and we are doing it violently.
We got a bill this morning that is over 1,000 pages long, $1.2
trillion, and we are expected to pore over it in 1 day, in 24 hours. We
are still uncovering ridiculous uses of taxpayer funds. The American
people are about to learn what some of those are.
Not only are we abandoning what we accomplished last year to try to
take the House back, make the House work again, but we are abandoning
the people of this country, the hardworking American people, right now,
today, who are looking at their Congress and saying: What are you
doing?
The hardworking Americans who sent us here are seeing their country
being taken away from them right before their very eyes and seeing
their way of life being eviscerated.
This isn't about holding on to power. We are not sent here to
accumulate power. We are not sent here to run for re-election. We are
sent here to do something. We are sent here to fight for the people who
sent us here.
What we are doing right now is looking at a country that we love, a
country that is being destroyed, throwing up our hands as Republicans,
and saying that apparently it is just not worth the fight because we
might have a poll that looks bad because of a shut down. That is what
we are telling the American people.
Instead of using the power of the purse, the power of the purse to
force change as was stated by James Madison in Federalist Paper 58:
``The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can
propose the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in
a word, hold the purse, that powerful instrument . . . all the
overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of government. This power
over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and
effectual weapon with which any Constitution can arm the immediate
representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every
grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary
measure.''
Those were the words of James Madison, the father of the United
States Constitution. When he was arguing for the adoption of the
Constitution, he was saying that this body, the one that I am standing
in right now, the House of Representatives through the power of the
purse is the only body in the world that can restrain the power of the
executive branch, the President of the United States. We, this body, in
concert with the Senate, of course, hold the power to check an out-of-
control President.
Are the President of the United States and the people who work for
him in this administration out of control? Yes.
How do we know this? Because the President of the United States goes
to the microphone and says he is going to ignore the United States
Supreme Court when the Supreme Court says you cannot do what you are
doing, it is against the law, with respect to student loan bailouts.
The President of the United States is ignoring his duty and his oath
of the Constitution to defend the border of the United States, using
policies meant for very narrow exceptions for asylum and parole to blow
open the border and endanger the American people.
That is tyrannical activity, an abuse of power endangering the people
that we represent. That is what is happening. That is what the
President is doing.
A President who has abused his power at the FBI and in the
intelligence agencies. That is what is happening, and what is the
response from Republicans? Crickets. It is beyond a whimper because
they are afraid that someone might cry shut down. They are afraid that
they might lose their
[[Page H1345]]
precious election certificate that I think apparently is what gives
some people in this body their worth.
However, the election certificate is only as good as the people that
we are here to represent, and they sent us here to do something, to
change the place.
Today, in Texas, more than 100 illegal aliens charged past the Texas
National Guard. The State I represent is on fire and trying to pick up
the pieces as the Federal Government refuses to do its job, and we saw
it unfold today in real time.
And what are my Republican colleagues going to do? Give the President
and the Department of Homeland Security and the impeached Homeland
Security Secretary more money.
Can someone explain that to me?
Can someone explain to me how any Republican can, over the next 6
months, go out and campaign against Joe Biden's open borders when they
are writing the checks? They are going to do it tomorrow, right here on
the floor of this body. They are going to write him the check and say,
here you go, Mr. President. ``Thank you, sir. May I have another?''
Yes, I inserted ``Animal House.''
This bill does not include one single policy necessary to secure the
border. I am tired of hearing Republicans go to the microphone, whether
they are in leadership or rank and file, and say otherwise because it
is not true.
I have heard Republican leadership go down and talk about ICE beds.
Oh, don't worry, Chip, we increased the ICE beds.
Are you telling the American people that the ICE memos--that this
administration has in full force--basically make it impossible for ICE
to do their job, that those beds will, therefore, not be filled?
Oh, Chip, that is for future President Trump to use. President Trump
can increase the ICE beds to what he had when he was President before,
which was as many as 57,000 beds.
{time} 1800
This is nonsense. It is nothing. No, it is worse than nothing. It is
actually worse than nothing because my same Republican colleagues go up
to the microphone and say that we are going to increase Border Patrol.
First of all, good luck recruiting more Border Patrol agents right
now. They can't even achieve the numbers that they are currently at, at
17,000 or 18,000. No, in our bill we say: Oh, don't worry, we will be
at 22,000 Border Patrol agents.
Guess how our Democratic colleagues characterize that amazing feat of
negotiation that Republicans carried out? They characterize it as
expediting the processing of more illegals because, you know what, at
least they are honest about it, that is exactly what it would do.
You are going to give more funding for more Border Patrol agents to
process more illegal aliens who are overrunning our border, overrunning
our cities, overrunning our hospitals, overrunning our jails,
overrunning our schools, driving mass crime into our communities,
resulting in the death of Laken Riley, resulting in the death of Kayla
Hamilton, resulting in the death of too many people for me to sit here
and mention, and Republicans are going to go cower in the corner
tomorrow, wring their hands, and say we can't talk about a shutdown.
That is what is going to happen.
Meanwhile, we are going to go out this summer and do what? It is the
80th anniversary of D-Day, let's go give some speeches over in
Normandy. What? You are so proud of those young men who walked into a
wall of bullets and went up a cliff so that you could give your country
away with billions of dollars to an administration that is going to
allow every single thing they fought for to get winnowed away? That is
the truth.
Every Republican tomorrow--and Democrat--every Republican tomorrow
who votes for this abomination of a bill will own, personally own the
mass release of illegal aliens in violation of law because you are
funding it, on top of 4.5 million releases so far and almost 2 million
got-aways so far. You vote for this, you own it.
You own the release of illegal aliens with notices to appear in court
as far out as 2035 and growing and limited knowledge as to where they
even are. You own it.
You own the unlawful mass parole programs, the use of the CBP One
app. The funding you are voting for tomorrow will fund that, the mass
parole of over 1 million individuals, including the known member of a
Venezuelan prison gang who violently murdered Laken Riley. You own
that. It was not good enough to pass a bill last week named after Laken
Riley and then come here and write the check to the very people who
were responsible for allowing it to occur.
You own bringing the chaos in Haiti to the shores of America via the
Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program. You own
that. The Haitian migrant who raped a 15-year-old disabled girl who was
here as a migrant in Massachusetts. You are funding that.
The dismantling of the migrant protection protocols that were
effective under the previous President, you are funding that.
You are funding the halt of the wall construction.
You are funding the legal attacks on the State of Texas for standing
up to try to secure our border even as our National Guard gets overrun.
You are funding that if you vote for this bill tomorrow.
Texas has had to spend over $12 billion of its own money. I can tell
you what you are not funding. You are not funding paying Texas back,
and I am talking to my Texas delegation friends now. Are you literally
going to go home to Texas when your own National Guard are getting
overrun, your own State is not getting paid back, we are not getting
any policy changes, you are going to increase the debt, and you are
going to go try to sell that garbage to the people of Texas?
Spare me when I see you campaigning this year on border security. It
is a fraud. It is a fraud for Republicans to campaign on border
security while you fund it. You fund the lawlessness. You fund the open
borders. You fund the death of Laken Riley. You fund the fentanyl
pouring into our communities and killing our kids.
You own the DHS memos policies and rules that restrict Border
Patrol's ability to do their job. You own it. You own the continued
exploitation of unaccompanied minors, little girls getting sold into
the sex trafficking trade, the 85,000 children that were lost by the
very Office of Refugee Resettlement that you will fund tomorrow. You
own it. Don't campaign against it and then write the check.
You own the funding for the sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate
with immigration law enforcement which, by the way, are hamstrung in
the first place by an administration that doesn't care about the law.
You own it. Don't go complain about sanctuary cities. You are funding
it.
It is worse, as I said before, because DHS gets more money. They get
an increase in funding not to change the policies, but to give Border
Patrol the ability to process more people quickly, which means more
people come to the border.
The Defense Department is also attached to this total capitulation on
our border. We continue to fund a woke Department of Defense in the
wake of a weak National Defense Authorization Act passed in December
which, by the way, we were promised by Republican leadership was just
one step. Just get past that, don't worry, then we will fight on
spending.
Well, if this is what fighting on spending looks like, I am not sure
why you bother flying to Normandy to go regale those who had the
courage to walk into a wall of bullets and scale a cliff to defend
America and go fight against Nazi Germany. Is this what we do when our
hour is before us?
We will be funding, and, therefore, own if you vote for this bill,
Biden's illegal Department of Defense abortion travel fund. You own it.
By the way, all you social conservative groups out there, all you so-
called pro-life groups, where the hell are you? Crickets. Silence,
because you care about political power more than the very thing you say
you are for. You know who you are.
Transgender surgeries in the Pentagon. Where are the social
conservative groups? Cowering in the corner.
Woke DEI offices across the Pentagon destroying the military morale.
You can't even recruit anybody to the Pentagon anymore. You are funding
it. Don't complain about it while you are funding it.
[[Page H1346]]
Biden's climate change executive orders undermining our warfighting
capabilities. You are funding it.
The deputy inspector general for diversity and inclusion extremism in
the military. You are funding it. You own it.
The Department of Defense's ability to classify Americans'
communication as misinformation. You are funding it. You own it.
State and Foreign Operations are part of this bill. We are going to
export the radical, progressive Democrats' woke agenda abroad, and you
are going to pay for it while we rack up a trillion dollars of debt
every 100 days. You are going to take that borrowing, undermine your
own dollar, drive up your own inflation, funding the bureaucrats who
are carrying out this agenda. Congratulations, America, that is what
your House of Representatives is doing, and that is precisely what you
will have Republicans campaigning against after they funded it, after
they own it.
I will give credit where it is due. Republican leadership, led by the
Speaker, negotiated to defund UNRWA. Well, it is about dang time. Some
of us were calling for that 3 years ago when we introduced legislation
to do it. We had eight Republicans who voted against defunding UNRWA in
September in the appropriations package.
Guess what? October 7 was one of the most horrific attacks on one of
our friends in history, and we realized what many of us already knew,
UNRWA was right there involved. UNRWA was funding it. The United
Nations Relief and Works Agency was funding it.
Congratulations. We defunded an entity that is funding terrorists
against our friends in Israel. Good. Let's put one over here in the win
column, this green check box. Congratulations, Republicans, you did it.
You did something that you can actually go sell.
However, sorry to say, you are still funding the World Health
Organization, which wants to take away our American sovereignty, that
worked to force COVID tyranny on the American people, force it down the
throats of the American people. In the process of negotiating a new
pandemic treaty that would massively expand its reach, you funded it.
Congratulations, you own it. You own the World Health Organization.
You own the dystopian United Nations Population Fund, targeted at
basically exterminating people. Congratulations, you own it. Again, to
all you social conservative groups out there, thanks.
The Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund and LGBTQ envoys. Border
security for Jordan and Pakistan, you are funding border security for
Jordan and Pakistan, but you are not doing anything to secure the
border of the United States. You own it.
The climate czar office, formerly occupied by John Kerry, flitting
around the planet in his private planes. You paid for it; you own it.
You are funding it.
$3.8 billion for the migration and refugee assistance programs while
our southern border is not secure. Think about that.
Again, to my Republican colleagues, who vote for this bill, people
are going to follow you around, you are going to campaign against all
of these things. I know you are. I guess you are going to go all in,
Texas Hold'Em style, on President Trump and say: Well, it is going to
take President Trump to save us.
How is that separation of powers thing working out for you? Did you
skip that part of civics, that we are a coequal branch of government?
Oh, but Chip, we can't do that. We need a President to save us. Why the
hell are you in Congress? We are actually supposed to be more important
than the President of the United States. That is why we are Article I.
However, we are too chicken to use the power, the most powerful tool
that we have.
These guys can't do what they are doing to the American people and to
our country without the money to do it. Not only are we giving them the
money, we are giving them more money, and we are borrowing to do it, at
extraordinary rates.
Does anybody need to be reminded that we are now spending more on our
interest on the debt than we are on defense this year? All of the hawks
in here who are totally happy selling out our country vote by vote so
they can go home and say they brought home a troop pay raise, great,
but you are now spending more on interest than you are on the Pentagon.
In 2 years you are cracking a trillion dollars in interest.
The President's budget that he just sent to us has us spending more
on interest over the next decade every year than we do on defense.
Congratulations, Republicans, you own it.
How about the FBI headquarters? Good job, Republicans, you went out
and campaigned when we passed the last omnibus bill and said: We got
cuts to the FBI. You went out and sold that. First of all, it was
bogus. The vast majority of the cuts came from one earmark from a
building in Alabama that Richard Shelby got in the last Congress. He is
no longer here to defend it, so you axed it and then claimed you had
some massive cut to the FBI. That is called swamp politics.
However, now in this omnibus spending bill, guess what? We go ahead
and fund the new FBI headquarters. Who cares that the FBI just
massively spied on the American people? By the way, we haven't done
anything about that except for extend their powers through the
continuation of FISA without actually putting in a warrant to protect
warrantless searches. Oh, we haven't done that yet, put that over there
as another thing Republicans own, continued spying on Americans without
warrants to protect them. Good job. What, are you going to go check
that campaign box this year? We are going to stop and make sure FISA is
no longer abused by the FBI. We are going to protect you, but we are
not going to do it when we have the power to do it.
{time} 1815
$200 million to the FBI for its new headquarters.
We don't prohibit the Treasury from establishing a central bank
digital currency, which we did in the House bill. Somebody tell me, how
can you not negotiate to stop the formation of a central bank digital
currency, one of the most pernicious assaults on freedom that you could
possibly have?
We couldn't even stand up as Republicans to demand that that stop. We
passed it here in the House. The Senate didn't want it, apparently, or
the Biden administration didn't want it.
In our grand negotiation, we didn't even do that. Do you know what a
central bank digital currency can do? It can totally shut your life
down, based on whatever they choose to prioritize.
Using too much gas because you didn't get an electric vehicle? No.
Sorry. We are shutting you down.
Buy too much ammo this month? No. Shutting you down.
The Chicoms do this on a regular basis. We are trying to get in front
of that, thinking maybe the basic foundational principles in the
Constitution matter, but no. We couldn't even negotiate that.
Congratulations, Republicans. You own the continued ability of the
executive branch to work up the formation and creation of a central
bank digital currency. Congratulations. You own it.
No prohibition on the funds to invest in so-called ESG in the Federal
Thrift Savings Plan, which we had gotten adopted. It got punted.
No prohibition on funds for Federal employee health insurance plans
to cover the cost of transgender-affirming care. Guess what,
Republicans? You own it. You are paying for it. Go home to your
colleagues or your constituents and explain to them how excited you are
to take their tax dollars and then add to that a bunch of borrowing to
fund transgender-affirming care. Good job. You own that.
No prohibition on implementing Biden's climate change EOs.
No governmentwide prohibition on vaccine mandates. A few partial
ones--we always want to be fair.
There was a note in the bill that moderately defunded the COVID vax
and mask mandates. There was some modest defunding of the Wuhan lab in
the DOD bill, but in the vast majority of it over at HHS, all the stuff
in there that was carried out, it is still there. Congratulations.
We shut down the biggest economy in the history of the world--racked
up $8 trillion in debt, put our kids behind--now to the tune of
trillions of dollars of economic harm, all because we allowed the Wuhan
lab to be abused, which we funded. Guess what? We are still funding it.
Republicans own it.
Don't go out and campaign against the China virus or the Wuhan virus
or
[[Page H1347]]
the Wuhan lab. You own it. You are funding it. Right now, today, you
are doing it.
House Republicans had aggressive cuts to HHS last year, but now we
are going to give a billion-dollar increase.
We are still funding the student loan Ponzi scheme. You go out and
criticize President Biden and the student loan program, ignoring the
Supreme Court. You are funding it.
Gender-affirming surgeries and drugs, you are funding it.
Research with aborted fetal tissue, you are funding it.
HHS and DOL DEI offices, you are funding it.
President Biden's radical antiworker agenda, you are funding it.
You are funding the Wuhan lab.
Again, I would like to give a shout-out to the social conservative
groups out there for being so invested in life and DEI and all the
issues involving, say, aborted fetal tissue that you are doing nothing
about this bill because you like power.
We banned earmarks at one point. The previous omnibus spending bill
had like 6,000 or something earmarks. I don't even know. It is hard to
keep count. This one had a bunch more because it was Transportation.
Everybody loves to get their little bridges and roads and stuff, but
there are bike paths and all sorts of crazy stuff named after crazy
people using your money. I am not sure where that is in Article I,
Section 8, but whatever.
The bill contains 1,400 earmarks--this one does--for $2 billion. My
colleagues think: It is just an earmark. I am a Member of Congress. I
don't want to let a bureaucrat decide this. I get to decide how this is
spent. I get to bring home something to my district that is so
critically important to the well-being of my constituents.
That is what they all say. That is what they say when they bring back
earmarks.
Chip, we know how to do this better than the bureaucrats. Why would
you stand in the way of these all-knowing Congressmen to make the right
decisions for their constituents rather than turning over that power to
the bureaucrats?
Let's see how that is working out for you, America. $156,000 for the
Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, an organization self-
described as champions of--I don't know how many letters I have to put
here together--LGBTQIA+ equity and provides training on LGBTQ+ cultural
competency and accessing healthcare for LGBTQ+ youth. Well, that is a
good use of money.
$1.1 million for an EV innovation hub while EVs pile up on all the
car dealership lots around the country, while we fund the Chinese to
make sure that they are enriched, and while we kill natural gas and
kill energy in this country and make it harder for Americans to work,
but I digress. We did a really cool bill today on energy, so everything
is good.
$2 million for an Oregon clinic that provides hormone therapy to
kids.
$850,000 for LGBTQ senior housing in Massachusetts. Yes, gay senior
housing. Good job, Republicans. That is what you are funding.
$400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services in Wisconsin. One of their
programs is called Teens Like Us, LGBTQIA2S, whatever that is, with a
gender-affirming clothing program for ages 13 to 18. You are funding
it. You own it.
$400,000 to the Garden State Equality Education Fund in New Jersey
that helps minors transition genders and promotes biological boys
playing girl sports and using the same restrooms. Congratulations,
Republicans. You own it.
$5 million for Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care in Maryland.
It does transgender procedures. ``Mary's Center can serve as your `home
base' during the transition process.'' Congratulations, Republicans.
Again, a special shout-out to all you great social conservative groups
out there just whistling Dixie while this is happening.
$1 million for the Inner-City Muslim Network, which calls for the
destruction of Israel. Guess what? We are going to go send an
invitation for Bibi Netanyahu to come address a joint session right
here in this body. I am sure we will get up, and everybody will wear a
little Israel pin, and we will go, ``Yay, Israel. We love Israel.''
Then we will give a million dollars to the Inner-City Muslim Network,
which calls for the destruction of Israel. Good job, Republicans. You
own it.
$1.6 million for Cape Cod electric buses.
$350,000 for theater programs.
$567,000 for an inclusive playground. What is an inclusive
playground? When I was kid, an inclusive playground was a bunch of bars
that basically were about 150 degrees in the summer heat that you
scalded yourself on where you are hanging up over a bunch of asphalt
and taking your life into your own hands. It was equal--equal stupid
but fun. This? I don't even know what an inclusive playground is, but
there it is, $567,000 of money printed right out of thin air. Here you
go.
$650,000 for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Nashua, New Hampshire, which also
provides late-term abortions. Shout-out again to the social
conservative groups--completely MIA.
$740,000 for increasing diversity in State hiring for the State of
Maryland. Maryland can't figure out how to fund its own diversity
programs without getting a Federal grant out of printed money?
$870,000 for a group that wants to defund the police in Connecticut.
Republicans who get up and rant about police being defunded are going
to fund the defunding of police in Connecticut. You can't make this
stuff up. You can't.
$655,000 for Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition Inc. I don't even
know what that is.
I could keep going.
The American people did not send us to Washington to continue down
the road of destruction for the greatest country in the history of the
world for which so many men and women have died to defend and protect
it.
The cherry blossoms are all exploding. When we go walk down by the
Tidal Basin, when we walk by the Jefferson Memorial, we read all those
words. We walk by the Lincoln Memorial and go across the Memorial
Bridge to what? 400,000 tombstones on the other side of the Potomac for
those who either actually gave the last full measure of devotion or
were willing to do it and survived, came back, and were buried there.
What did those 400,000 give that last full measure of devotion for?
It wasn't for this. Yet, Republicans campaign on it all the time and
then fund it.
I don't know how to go back to the people who I represent in Texas
and tell them that while the National Guard had 100 illegal aliens bum-
rush them in El Paso, while we have young women like Laken Riley
getting killed by somebody released on mass parole, while a 2-year-old
right outside of the Nation's Capital gets killed by someone let out on
mass parole by this administration ignoring the laws, endangering our
people, undermining our sovereignty.
I want to know, for the life of me, how a single Republican can look
with a straight face at the people who they represent and say that
funding is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, consistent
with their duty to the people they represent, consistent with the
fiscal responsibility they campaign on, consistent with the border
security that they campaign on.
I want to know how they do that. If any Republican votes for this
omnibus spending bill tomorrow, he or she owns it, owns every one of
those funding priorities, owns the open borders, owns the woke
Pentagon, owns the recruiting chaos at the Pentagon, owns the World
Health Organization continuing to be funded to undermine our
sovereignty.
This omnibus bill is the anti-American sovereignty omnibus bill, and
Republicans should not vote for it. We didn't come here for more of the
same while our kids have to inherit $34\1/2\ trillion of debt and
another trillion dollars of debt every 100 days.
There will not be a country left to stand next to Israel. There will
not be a country left to help Ukraine. There will not be a country left
for our kids to inherit if you are borrowing, mortgaging their future,
all to pay for open borders undermining our sovereignty, world
organizations designed to undermine our sovereignty, all purposeful
while my colleagues sit back and go: Gosh, I hope President Trump wins.
I hope President Trump comes in, and then he will save us.
One individual was arguing with me here on the floor today. I said,
``Why
[[Page H1348]]
are we doing this?'' Well, we can't have a shutdown. We would lose.
Oh, boy. That is courageous, but okay. What if I accept your premise?
What if I accept your premise that we can't do this because we have a
thin majority in the House, don't have the Senate, and have a radical
regime in the White House? Let me accept your premise. I have been
around the block here in town a couple of times.
What happens next January? Say Republicans run the trifecta.
Republicans win the White House, and President Trump is coming back in.
We have the Senate with, say, 52 or 53 seats. We have a 10-seat
majority or a 15-seat majority here in the House. Then what? Someone
tell me then what because I have been there before.
We were there in 2017, and we didn't repeal ObamaCare and didn't pass
healthcare reform.
We were there in 2018, and we didn't pass border security. Goodlatte
1, Goodlatte 2--we couldn't figure out what we were doing. We didn't do
it.
What I said to this individual on the floor today was: Do you know
what the excuse will be? We don't have 60 in the Senate.
That individual said: Well, we have to have a conversation about
that.
That individual knows full well that the same excuses being levied
right now to foist this monstrosity, this abomination, on the American
people will be the same excuse in January: We can't shut down the
government. You need 60 votes in the Senate, Chip. Don't you
understand?
Yeah, I do understand. So do the American people, and they are tired
of it.
They are tired of having their country traded away day by day, second
by second, while our National Guard gets stormed at the border in El
Paso, and we don't do anything about it.
We walk around wearing little pins, feeling good about ourselves as
Members of Congress who refuse to stand up and defend the very
Constitution that gave us the power to do something about it.
Instead of deferring to the President, we are supposed to use the
Article I power under the Constitution to stop funding an executive
branch that is at war with its own people.
{time} 1830
We came here to change it. Last year we started to. We were working
together to change this place, to vote bills off the floor, to have
single-subject bills, and to have 72 hours--a mere 72 hours--to read a
bill, and in just over a year, we have tossed all of that out the
window, and we are back to business as usual. We jam a bill through in
24 hours. It is over a thousand pages. It is $1.2 trillion. It is
littered with all manners of sin and earmarks and spending and programs
that are undermining the well-being of the American people. We are
still figuring out what is in it.
Tomorrow, Republicans have a choice. You can choose to fund an
executive branch at odds and at war with the American people that you
represent or you can choose to say no. If you refuse to say no, if you
go along to get along, you own it. You own every penny. You own every
program. You own every American who gets harmed by open borders. Don't
dare come looking for sympathy as you are trying to campaign all year
trying to win votes when your constituents come up to you and say, why
in the hell did you fund it? Because you did.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito),
a colleague of mine, so that he can, I think, regale a basketball team
or talk about some good stuff back home, which is always a good thing
to do.
Recognizing Incredible High School Basketball Players Across the Fourth
District
Mr. D'ESPOSITO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Chip Roy from
Texas, for yielding me the time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of some incredible high
school athletes from across the Fourth Congressional District back on
Long Island in New York.
I would like to congratulate both the Elmont Memorial High School
boys' basketball team for winning the New York State championship in
their class, as well as the Baldwin High School boys' team for being
crowned Nassau County champions.
The girls' teams across the district had a remarkable season, as
well, with East Meadow High School winning its first Nassau County
championship in its history earlier this month.
I also must give a shoutout to the boys' basketball team from my alma
mater, Chaminade High School, for a big win in double overtime to
secure the CHSAA Class A New York State championship.
I am incredibly proud of these student athletes who represented our
community with pride and made memories that will last a lifetime.
I wish these Nassau County neighbors nothing but success in their
future academic and athletic endeavors, and we will continue to
advocate to make sure that girls play girls' basketball and that boys
play boys' basketball.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for the opportunity to
speak.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York. I
appreciate what he came to the floor to address. We all have these
great stories back home in our districts, and it is worth regaling
those things, and I am glad he got the ability to do that.
Mr. Speaker, I want to give a special shoutout to my daughter today.
Today is my daughter's 13th birthday, and I just want to say happy
birthday to my little girl, who is out in California of all places for
this Texan--out in San Diego with her mama having a little fun for her
13th birthday.
Happy birthday to my wonderful daughter, Virginia.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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