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30Honoring Frances Mae West Byers on Her 110th Birthday
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Routine Business (8)
01House of Representatives
02Designation of Speaker Pro Tempore
04After Recess
05After Recess
06After Recess
07Adjournment
1 member spoke
08Congressional Earmarks, Limited Tax Benefits, or Limited Tariff Benefits
Daily Digest
Public Bills and Resolutions Introduced
69 public bills, H.R. 1039- 1107; and 7 resolutions, H.J. Res. 37; H. Con. Res. 8-9; and H. Res. 117-120, were introduced.
Pages H552-56
Reports Filed
There were no reports filed today. Speaker: Read a letter from the Speaker wherein he appointed Representative Miller (IL) to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
Page H509
Recess
The House recessed at 11:19 a.m. and reconvened at 12 p.m.
Page H517
Recess
The House recessed at 12:19 p.m. and reconvened at 12:28 p.m.
Page H520
Recess
The House recessed at 1:43 p.m. and reconvened at 4 p.m.
Page H533
Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act
The House passed H.R. 27, to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, by a yea-and-nay vote of 312 yeas to 108 nays, Roll No. 33.
Pages H520-33, H533-35
Pursuant to the Rule, the amendment printed in part A of H. Rept. 119-2 shall be considered as adopted.
Pages H534-35
Rejected
Trahan amendment (No. 1 printed in part B of H. Rept. 119-2) that sought to delay the enactment of this bill until the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General each certify that the bill will lead to a reduction in overdose deaths (by a yea-and-nay vote of 182 yeas to 226 nays, Roll No. 32). H. Res. 93, the rule providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 27) was agreed to yesterday, February 5th.
Pages H532-33, H534
Committee Election
The House agreed to H. Res. 117, electing a Member to a certain standing committee of the House of Representatives.
Page H535
Quorum Calls: Votes
Two yea-and-nay votes developed during the proceedings of today and appear on pages H534 and H534-35. Adjournment: The House met at 10 a.m. and adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
Every speech and line is the Congressional Record's own text, read from GovInfo. Speakers are matched to members by GPO's own metadata. Referandom places each turn on the Clerk's video by matching its words: 117 of 207 spoken turns were found. Turns without a time are still listed; they just can't seek.
Morning-Hour Debate
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 3, 2025, the Chair will now recognize Members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning-hour debate.
The Chair will alternate recognition between the parties, with time equally allocated between the parties and each Member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to 5 minutes, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Gordon Longhorns for their win over the Whiteface Antelopes with a score of 70-24 to become the UIL Class 1A Division 1 State Football Champions.
The Gordon Longhorns finished the season with a perfect record of 15 wins and 0 losses. After a season of early mornings, long hours on the field, and staying focused in school, these student athletes and trainers and coaches showed dedication, strength, and an unwavering commitment to victory. I am proud that all their hard work and dedication throughout the year has paid off.
As some of these bright and talented individuals prepare for their next endeavors, I wish them the best of luck and blessings for an even brighter and more victorious future. Go Longhorns. In God we trust.
Madam Speaker, today is February 6. It is my 80th birthday, and I should be celebrating, but you know what? I am mourning. You know why? Because Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire donor, has mounted a hostile takeover of the Federal Government.
It is an astonishing display of corruption: A billionaire CEO who is not confirmed, who is accountable to no one, and who donated millions to Donald Trump's election campaign is now in charge of the Treasury Department's payment system. He is doing what vulture capitalists have done to American businesses across the country.
They come in, do a hostile takeover, strip a company of its parts, and layoff a third of the hardworking people who make the company run. But you know what the difference is? This company is the United States of America. The parts that he is stripping out are our private information. They are attempting to dismiss committed workers who make this country run, and they are ripping the American people off in the process. Donald Trump is cosigning all of it.
The richest man in the world now has access to the personal information and financial information of millions of Americans, including Social Security numbers and bank account details. This unprecedented breach of public trust puts countless Americans at risk of identity theft, financial fraud, and political retaliation.
Handing over such sensitive information to a reckless billionaire with a history of self-serving business dealings and foreign interests is not just irresponsible, it is dangerous.
He is attempting to dismantle the systems within the Federal Government for several reasons. First, contrary to the image he has worked to cultivate, he is not a competent manager. He does not understand how many government organizations function or the important role they play in supporting the United States and its citizens. Rather than learn, he is choosing to break them like a frustrated and impatient child.
Second, he sees an opportunity to make more money. His companies already receive billions in government contracts by taking control of key parts of the Federal system. He can steer more taxpayer money into his pockets.
Last is ideological. He was born and raised in South Africa under the apartheid system, and he is a white supremacist. He elevates the opinions of neo-Nazis on his social media platform. He proudly gave a Nazi salute at a rally earlier this year. He does not want the government to work for or answer to anyone who is not a straight, rich, White man.
Since the moment my office opened Monday morning and continuing, my constituents have been calling my office understandably furious at this naked display of corruption. I share in their outrage. This is an outrageous thing we are witnessing.
My congressional colleagues and I have been in discussions over the past
To those listening, call your Representatives and tell them how you feel about this out-of-touch billionaire reaching his hands into your private information. To the civil servant employees who work every day to keep the government running, I ask you to stand your ground.
Tell those minions of the unelected billionaire donor that you don't work for them; you work for the American people. When they demand access, tell them no. When they tell you that you are dismissed, tell them to speak to your union rep because you are not leaving until you hear from them.
Stand up, American people. Stand up for your families and protect your rights. To my Republican colleagues, aren't there at least three who believe in America?
THE SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
Madam Speaker, I rise to discuss a topic fundamental to the strength of our workforce and the future of our economy: career and technical education, otherwise known as CTE.
Yesterday, I introduced a resolution celebrating CTE month and highlighting these programs' vital role in preparing students for high- skill, high-wage careers. The reach of CTE programs is vast. They shape industries that are the backbone of our economy, healthcare, information technology, advanced manufacturing, infrastructure, and the skilled trades, just to name a few.
With a record number of learners enrolled in CTE programs nationwide, more than 12 million, it is clear that these initiatives are making a difference. However, we still face a major challenge: a skills gap.
Today, there are approximately 8 million job openings in this country. Businesses, both large and small, are struggling to find qualified workers with specialized skills needed to compete in an ever- evolving job market.
Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and automation are reshaping our economy, demanding higher levels of expertise, problem-solving, and adaptability from our workforce. The solution is clear: We must continue to invest in CTE programs.
These programs bridge the gap between education and employment, ensuring that students and workers of all ages have the tools that they need to succeed. CTE is a powerful pathway to success.
By providing hands-on experience, industry certifications, and real- world knowledge applications, CTE empowers individuals to secure high- quality jobs and build prosperous careers.
I have long recognized the importance of CTE through legislation like the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. This investment modernizes Federal support for CTE programs and provides greater flexibility for States and local communities to tailor education to workforce needs.
A practical outcome of this that I have seen is we were under- enrolled, and, today, as a result of that legislation, we now have waiting lists of individuals, both youth and adults, seeking this pathway to success in life.
The results speak for themselves. According to a recent analysis, CTE students in secondary programs have a 4-year graduation rate of over 96 percent. This is significantly higher than the national average.
According to the CTE Research Network, which conducts analyses of CTE in coordination with the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education, CTE has significant, positive impacts on several high school outcomes, including academic achievement, employability skills, and post-secondary readiness.
Employers also report that CTE graduates are better prepared for the workforce, stating they possess the necessary technical skills and work readiness to excel in their roles. None of this would be possible without the dedicated educators, administrators, and support staff who work tirelessly to promote and expand CTE programs.
Their commitment to student success is invaluable, and we owe them our deepest gratitude for preparing the next generation of skilled professionals.
I thank my partner on this legislation here in the House, Representative Bonamici, as well as my counterparts across the Capitol, Senators Baldwin, Budd, Kaine, and Young, for joining me in introducing this commonsense effort.
Madam Speaker, as we look ahead, we must remain committed to strengthening CTE, ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, has access to these opportunities. By doing so, we close the skills gap and build a more competitive and resilient economy that benefits all Americans.
Madam Speaker, I rise to celebrate the incredible voices and stories captured in ``We Were Strangers Once, Too.'' This is a powerful memoir retelling the immigrant journeys and stories of students from my district.
I had the opportunity to meet these young authors and witness them share vulnerable and deeply personal experiences. Their stories highlighted the difficult reality for many migrants who leave their home country in pursuit of a better life.
These stories highlight something else: Hope--hope for a brighter future and hope rooted in the belief that, no matter where we come from, we all deserve dignity, safety, and happiness.
As immigrants are othered by divisive policies, stories like these bring us closer together and show our shared humanity is stronger than what tries to divide us. They serve as a reminder, as President Obama once said: ``We were strangers once, too.''
I commend the bravery of the student authors sharing these truths and the work of their editor, Shawn Adler, who is here with us in the gallery today. Thank you for sharing your voices with the world.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Inez Rosalie Alick Elliot, who just celebrated her 108th birthday. Known as Rose to family and friends, she celebrated her 108th birthday on January 20.
Faith has always been a cornerstone for Rose's life. A long-time member of Calvary Baptist Church in East Orange, Rose embodies the spirit of service and dedication. Her commitment to our community has been recognized with numerous accolades.
She was honored with the Essex County Legends Award for her contributions and work improving the lives of fellow seniors. Known for her grace, laughter, and wisdom, she remains a positive role model for all of us. She is a beacon of inspiration, reminding us all that faith, service, and laughter are the keys to a long, fulfilling life. Happy birthday, Rose.
Madam Speaker, I introduced the SNAP Benefits Fairness Act in the U.S. House with Representative Shontel Brown to remove the housing cap on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and make SNAP benefits more accessible to those who need them.
Madam Speaker, the cost of housing is taking up more and more of Americans' paychecks, and SNAP benefits are not keeping up. It is time to bring SNAP up to speed and create opportunities for working families to use essential programs like SNAP that reduce poverty and help them make ends meet.
By getting rid of the shelter cap, this bill ensures working families who are spending too much on rent and utilities get the benefits they deserve without being punished by high housing costs.
I am grateful to Representative Brown for joining me on this legislation that will help ease the burden on families.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds Members that the rules do not allow references to persons in the gallery.
Madam Speaker, hell hath no fury like the deep state scorned. That has become obvious from the over-the-top hysterics directed against Elon Musk as he turns over bureaucratic rocks and shines a light on what has been going on beneath them.
What he has already exposed should infuriate and alarm every American. Millions of taxpayer dollars are covertly used to support a tax on the Democrats' political opponents, millions more to support far-left causes in this and other countries, millions of dollars that were supposed to defend Ukraine and that instead vanished into the pockets of Ukrainian businessmen, millions more to fund the Wuhan lab that unleashed COVID on the world, $15 million spent on condoms for the Taliban, millions more to support illegal aliens entering our country, and still millions more on promoting leftist gender ideology around the world.
America is on the verge of bankruptcy, yet the elites within our government have no conscience at all as they hollow out the earnings of working Americans to fund their pet ideological causes. Instead of hanging their heads in shame, the Democrats actively defend this waste.
Congress never voted to spend money in this manner. Unelected bureaucrats within the sprawling Federal labyrinth did this behind the backs not only of the American people but of their elected Representatives.
They say the most closely guarded State secrets are not those marked ``top secret'' but those considered embarrassing. By exposing this outrageous waste, Mr. Musk has embarrassed the Democrats, which is why they tried to bar him from opening the books for the American people to see. Now that those embarrassing secrets are being revealed, the left has reverted to its tired old habits of personal attacks and character assassination.
The new boss hires an accountant. The accountant says: Joe, let's see the expense account records. Suddenly, it is a threat to democracy and a constitutional crisis. A threat to democracy? That is somewhat ironic from a party that just threw out a year's worth of primary elections when they didn't like the candidate that their own voters selected.
It turned out their voters didn't like their unelected nominee either, and Americans instead elected Donald Trump as President with an overwhelming majority.
To my Democratic colleagues, that is what is called democracy.
The Democrats shout constitutional crisis. Do they not understand, that under our Constitution, executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States? All executive power flows from the President to his subordinates and advisers. That includes Elon Musk, as well as every bureaucrat at USAID.
Under our Constitution, there is no executive power that is independent of the President. The difference is that Elon Musk is carrying out the policies that the people elected this government to pursue and the bureaucrats at USAID are not. That is a big problem in a democracy.
The Democrats tell us that it is undemocratic for the democratically elected President to question how the unelected bureaucracy is executing the laws, laws that the President is elected to uphold. How can a President faithfully execute the laws if he and his deputies cannot see clearly and accurately where the public money is going, verify that it is being spent in accordance with the law, and put a stop to it when it is not?
The true threat to democracy is an entrenched ruling class that operates entirely outside the control of the duly elected representatives of the people. Once that takes root, elections become meaningless because the people's decisions at the ballot box are no longer executed by their government. The Federal bureaucracy increasingly acts independently and often in defiance of the people's choices.
That was the story of the first Trump Presidency. It must not be the story of the second or of any future Presidency because it is the very definition of a tyranny, a government operating outside the control of the people. That is what the Democrats are now advocating.
In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln noted the great task remaining before us. He offered a prayer, really, ``that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.''
That remains the great question and the great challenge of our generation. It is a destiny that we must fulfill.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember William Geary, Sr., a remarkable man whose life was a testament to service, dedication, and love for his family, our country, and our community.
William Geary, Sr., grew up on Good Avenue in South Buffalo, the proud son of a large Irish Catholic family. He attended South Park High School before answering the call of duty, serving in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam war. A two-tour veteran, he returned from his first deployment to meet the love of his life, Cathleen, his future wife, on a blind date. Just 2 weeks later, they were married and began their journey together.
After his decorated military service, Bill dedicated his life to hard work and our community. A proud union man and retired Teamster, he found a second career at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park. There, he worked diligently to preserve the history of our Nation's servicemembers, laboring tirelessly on the ships he loved so much.
Service was the cornerstone of Bill's life. Whether it was his devotion to his family, his dedication to veterans, or his willingness to lend a hand or an ear to anyone in need, he lived by the creed of putting others before himself.
Bill faced health challenges later in life due to complications from Agent Orange and COPD. He received care at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, where he considered his doctors, nurses, and aides heroes. His enduring wish was to improve the VA system for others, a mission his family carries forward in his honor.
Bill was a devoted husband to Cathleen, a loving father to Kellie, Kathryn, and William Jr., and a proud grandfather to seven. William Jr. has proudly carried on his father's legacy of public service as a senior master sergeant in the United States Air Force Reserve and is the Erie County commissioner of public works.
Today, as we remember William Geary, Sr., we reflect on a life well lived, a life of service, sacrifice, and unconditional love. May his legacy inspire us to uphold the values he embodied and to continue striving for a better future for our families and communities.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of William Dunford, Jr., a dedicated public servant, educator, husband, and father.
Bill's life was defined by his unwavering commitment to his family and our entire community. Over his 17-year career as a University of Buffalo police officer, he demonstrated a steadfast dedication to protecting and serving. As the chair of the criminal justice program at Erie Community College, he taught and mentored countless young officers, instilling in them the importance of compassion, integrity, and professionalism. He believed in learning through experience.
Bill brought students on Sleep Outs to hear from people living on the streets about their experiences and challenges, teaching them about the human side of law enforcement. Bill wanted his students to see, feel, and
Aside from teaching our young people, Bill also taught seniors at the Polish Community Center how to protect themselves from fraud and other harm.
Outside of the classroom, Bill was an accomplished athlete and a star pitcher at Bishop Timon-St. Jude High School. He earned respect and accolades on every field and court he played on.
Later in life, he shared his love of sports by coaching young athletes, earning the 2000 Coach of the Year award for his dedication. He would go on to be recognized in the Western New York Baseball Hall of Fame.
A devoted husband to Denise, father to his three sons, Brendan, Matthew, and Ryan, and his daughter, Lauren, and grandfather of 14, Bill cherished his time with family and brought joy and humor to all those around him.
Bill's legacy goes beyond the classrooms where he taught or where he coached. He inspired his three sons to pursue careers in law enforcement, continuing his mission of service. His daughter is following in her own career of service to the public as a family doctor.
Bill Dunford, Jr., was a pillar of our community and a dear friend. He will be deeply missed. May his example continue to inspire all of us to serve with love, dedication, and compassion.
Madam Speaker, today, I rise with an extremely important declaration about the Kansas City Chiefs.
I am honored today to be wearing the red blazer that I made for the late, great Tony DiPardo, the bandleader for the Kansas City Chiefs for many years.
In case my colleagues haven't heard, we have a big game on Sunday that is going to make some noise, spark some joy, and make the entire Chiefs Kingdom proud.
I stand before the House today to declare, to decree, and make it official that the Kansas City Chiefs are the greatest NFL team of all time.
From the sea of red at Arrowhead to the chants of ``Chiefs Kingdom'' echoing across our great Nation, this team has captured the hearts of America. It started from a legacy of folks like Lenny Dawson, Deron Cherry, Bobby Bell, Derrick Thomas, and Will Shields, and it grew thanks to the modern-day miracle magic of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Harrison Butker.
This dynasty has put the entire NFL in the Chiefs era, giving the haters cruel summers for 3 years in a row.
To the naysayers, we say they need to calm down. They thought this year would be different, but, once again, they were having deja vu. They forgot Patrick Mahomes does nothing better than revenge. They thought Travis would be too distracted by his love story to perform in the big games. They wrongly thought that delicate Josh Allen would be tired of only winning paper rings.
Madam Speaker, we know all too well how this season turned out with the Chiefs winning the Lamar Hunt Trophy again. Now, they have turned their attention to their third consecutive trip to the Super Bowl.
When the Chiefs arrived in New Orleans, there were teardrops on the Eagles' guitars.
Get ready, America, because the 2025 Lombardi Trophy has a blank space, and the Chiefs are about to write their name in that blank space once again.
To put it quite simply, the Chiefs are unbeatable. They will be champions not once, not twice, but three times in a row.
Madam Speaker, the great Mitch Holthus is fond of saying that you can doubt the Chiefs, you can dislike the Chiefs, you can disrespect the Chiefs, but you are going to have to deal with the Chiefs.
To all the Chiefs watching, Missouri is rooting for you. The Fourth Congressional District is rooting for you.
Madam Speaker, today, I rise to acknowledge and congratulate the newly elected members of the Sixth Constitutional Convention in the Virgin Islands.
The willingness of each one of them to help us move forward to achieve civil rights and self-determination as a collective people is commendable. The work that they do in this legislative session will uplift generations of Virgin Islanders to come.
The legacy of the Virgin Islands--Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Water Island--continues to be defined by the collective greatness of all Virgin Islanders who have resisted exploitation in the name of freedom and independence.
We first exercised our right of self-determination in 1493 when a Carib war party on the island of Saint Croix fiercely resisted Christopher Columbus' expedition, preventing his men from establishing a foothold on the island.
Over the next 200 years, the Caribs fought colonization until they were completely eradicated in 1590. Their enduring resistance is our ancestral legacy. The island of Ay Ay, Saint Croix, from which I come, is proud to see this legacy continue in this Sixth Constitutional Convention.
It continues. In 1733, the Akwamu, enslaved individuals from Ghana, fought against their enslavement on the island of Saint John and became the first organized armed resistance in the Western Hemisphere against enslavement. They held that island for almost a year until the Danes working with the Spaniards, the French, and the British were able to overthrow them.
The organizers of that rebellion chose collective suicide rather than go back to slavery.
In 1848, on the island of Saint Croix, those enslaved organized themselves, rose up, and took their freedom. Our freedom was not given to us by any individual or any government. We took it for ourselves. That is the legacy from which I come, and as a daughter of the Virgin Islands, I will continue that fight.
The Virgin Islands has held five Constitutional Conventions since its acquisition by the United States in 1917, yet no constitutional drafts have been approved since 1977. Personally, I believe some of the issues that we have put in our constitution are issues that were never resolved by Denmark when we became part of the United States.
As of 2025, the Virgin Islands have governed under the Revised Organic Act of 1954, which acts as the de facto local constitution after being passed by Congress in 1936.
As not only the Representative of the Virgin Islands here in Congress but as a daughter of those islands, my family on both sides go back in records to the 1700s, maybe earlier. And it is for them that I continue to fight for the fundamental and constitutional rights for which all Americans, including Virgin Islanders, are entitled.
When we became a part of the United States, my grandfather's generation came to Washington and insisted that we be a part of the draft. We wanted the responsibility along with the privileges of being part of the American experience. We are part of the draft. We fight in every war in numbers per capita greater than any other State, and yet, no Virgin Islander can vote for their Commander in Chief.
I have built upon the work of my predecessor, Congresswoman Donna Christensen and numerous Governors of the Virgin Islands to challenge the United States' reliance on the Insular Cases as it relates to the territories. The Insular Cases were decided at the turn of the 20th century by the Supreme Court to justify a racist and colonial legal framework for the territories.
Now, you may ask, oh, why are you saying it is racist? When the Supreme Court Justice in his opinion says that the people who inhabit these islands are savages who cannot understand constitutional law, that is prima facie racism to me, particularly when a Virgin Islander who came to the United
However, through hard work, we have worked together over the years to overturn the Insular Cases, advance equality, and challenge the status quo. In both the 116th and 117th Congress, I am grateful that under Democratic leadership the For the People Act of 2019 and the For the People Act of 2021 included a path for voting rights and self- determination for U.S. territories. Both pieces of legislation included a congressional task force to review the issues and make recommendations on providing equitable voting representation in Congress, voting rights in the Presidential election, and fair inclusion in Federal voter protection and election integrity laws.
In this 119th Congress, I will continue to advocate for the equitable treatment of all Americans, including my fellow brothers and sisters in the territories. Self-determination, voting rights, and equitable treatment under Federal assistance programs must be the cornerstone of our work. If we work together, we can all achieve meaningful change.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank President Trump for his efforts to reverse the harmful immigration policies of the last administration.
On his first day in office, President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and reinstated policies to stop the flood of illegal immigrants into the United States.
Under the Biden administration, migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border reached an all-time high. Open-border policies made it easier for military-aged men to enter our country and allow drug and human traffickers to take control of our borders.
In 2024 alone, Customs and Border Protection seized over 21,000 pounds of fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border. Fentanyl overdoses during this time remained to be the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45.
I applaud President Trump for taking border security seriously, including his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico, which led their President to deploy 10,000 members of the Mexican National Guard to strengthen border security.
It is time the rest of the world sees again we have a President willing to put America first.
Mr. Speaker, recently an Oregonian told me that his young daughter and her friends, especially her Hispanic friends, are scared at school. They are kids that are at school to learn. Then I learned why they are scared.
I rise today to strongly condemn the Trump administration's unconscionable decision to rescind guidance that restricted immigration arrests near sensitive locations, including hospitals, places of worship, and schools.
For several years, ICE operated under a policy that designated certain areas as safe from immigration enforcement raids. Now, Donald Trump has reversed that. This decision to no longer protect schools from immigration enforcement is harmful, and it makes our schools less safe.
We should all be working together to keep students safe at school. Instead of criminalizing undocumented children and children who look like they might be undocumented, we should be protecting all children from the horrors of mass shootings, which unfortunately, are far too frequent in this country.
I want to be clear. Immigrant children are not hiding in American schools as the current administration wants you to believe. They are there to learn, and taking them from their schools will cause immense suffering and chaos for families and communities. These are children who may go on some day to find the next cure for cancer or write a great American novel. They have tremendous potential.
Now, I ask my colleagues to show some humanity. Please join Representative Adriano Espaillat from New York and me in supporting the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act.
Show some humanity for children. Help keep our schools and other sensitive locations to be safe from harmful immigration enforcement actions.
Madam Speaker, if you have ever had a steak dinner, you have likely seen a little sprig of parsley on the plate. Yes, it is food, but clearly it is meaningless to your dinner. It is simply a splash of color, likely left on your plate when you are done that will get washed off or thrown away in the garbage because ultimately it is meaningless, which is how the Republican majority in Congress is acting during this moment in our Nation.
As Donald Trump bends and breaks the Constitution and congressional authority, almost every Republican lawmaker is sitting back and playing the part of parsley. They are silent, maybe a little colorful, but ultimately useless. That is too bad.
As a coequal branch of government to the executive branch, Congress has an obligation to steer our country's direction. The current majority doesn't even have a steering wheel, much less a car. They are sitting on the sidelines cheering on the takeover of our constitutionally given powers acting like pieces of parsley.
Well, House Democrats won't stand by. We may not be in the majority but we are going to call out every illegal action and improper use of power that the executive branch is taking that is hurting our country. We are going to encourage, and where we can, participate in lawsuits, and we are going to expose those who sit quietly by and allow a want- to-be authoritarian and his billionaire benefactor to attempt to destroy our democracy.
We will fight Republicans' enabling agenda in Congress. We won't be washed off the plate. Too much is at stake.
Madam Speaker, Elon Musk is the 47th President's financial benefactor. He has invested $277 million of his own money into electing Donald Trump and other Republicans, and now apparently, he thinks he owns them.
Elon Musk is destroying our Federal Government. He doesn't understand how things work, and he is breaking it agency by agency every single day while Republicans sit idly by.
I think the worst part is that Elon Musk profits mightily from contracts with the Federal Government. His company's contracts total over $20 billion, more than $3 billion in the last year alone. Now, he has the new title of special government employee, for all practical purposes, a Federal employee himself.
Now, if you follow the law, Federal employees can't also profit from the Federal Government via a Federal contract because they can use their position to swing contracts their way. USAID doesn't offer much profit for Musk, so he wants it dismantled, but NASA does, and his contract likely won't get touched. Maybe it will even grow.
That is why we have laws that prevent Federal employees or other officials, including Members of Congress, from profiting off the Federal Government. It is grifting from the taxpayers, and it is against the law, except apparently, if you are Elon Musk.
Enough is enough. I am introducing legislation to ensure that special government employees like Musk cannot profit off of government contracts. Elon Musk can't be both the beneficiary and decider of where Federal funds are spent simply because he feels he bought himself a President.
It is unconscionable that Elon can collect $20 billion from American taxpayers with one hand while slashing funds for childcare and healthcare, nutrition assistance, and public education with the other.
The Eliminating Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State
Last week, Donald Trump tried to do what many authoritarian leaders and dictators in other countries have done. He tried to steal money that Congress appropriated for the American people so that he could provide a tax break to Elon Musk and other billionaires and multimillionaires across the country.
His main focus has been to raise the $4 trillion that he needs to fund his tax break for the wealthiest for the next 10 years.
That theft will ultimately take away funds from education and housing, healthcare, veterans benefits, and funds for working people so that we can give billionaires an extra home in the Cayman Islands or membership to Mar-a-Lago.
Social Security and Medicare should beware. A privatized post office is possible. Programs like Medicaid, healthcare and long-term care for people with disabilities and those in need, for sure beware.
Everything we warned you about in Project 2025 is coming true and more. Shutting down Federal agencies won't lower the costs of groceries one dime, but it sets up a gigantic tax break for Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
Now is the time to ensure you don't treat politics as a spectator sport. It is about our survival.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Andra Bucci, a Holocaust survivor whose remarkable story of resilience, survival, and education continues to inspire generations.
Andra and her sister, Tatiana, were just 4 and 6 years old when they were taken from their home in Italy and sent to Auschwitz. A tragic case of mistaken identity saved their lives. Josef Mengele, the so- called Angel of Death, believed they were twins and spared them for his inhumane experiments.
Their father, a prisoner of war in South Africa, had no idea if his family had survived. Their mother, in an act of extraordinary courage, risked her life to visit them inside the camp, reminding them never to forget their names and never to let their identity be reduced to a tattooed number.
After the war, the sisters were placed in an orphanage run by Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud. They believed they were alone in the world until a picture, the same picture they had kissed every night in Auschwitz, arrived with a letter. Their parents had survived. They were among the rarest of Holocaust survivors: children whose entire family made it through.
Today, Andra Bucci calls Sacramento County home, but she and her sister have never stopped telling their story. Since 1995, they have returned to Auschwitz bringing hundreds of students with them to ensure the world never forgets. Just recently, Andra spoke in my district where she shared her harrowing testimony.
Madam Speaker, as the years pass, the voices of Holocaust survivors grow fewer, but their stories never fade. Never Again is not just a phrase. It is a command. It is our responsibility to remember, to educate, and to stand against hatred in all forms.
May Andra's story and the stories of all survivors live on.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate the exceptional students of Rio Americano High School AM Jazz Band for outstanding achievement.
This talented group has been selected to compete at the prestigious Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival at Lincoln Center in New York City. This is one of the most distinguished honors in high school jazz, and Rio Americano has now earned this recognition for the 12th time, the most of any high school in California.
Sacramento has long been known for its vibrant arts and music community. Rio Americano High School is helping put our city on the map as one of the best music programs in the country.
This year's festival is particularly special as it celebrates its 30th anniversary, bringing together 30 high school bands, including three from international schools.
Hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center, this competition not only showcases talent but also promotes jazz education and appreciation, carrying forward the legacy of the legendary Duke Ellington.
This is a moment of pride not only for Rio Americano but our entire Sacramento community.
Madam Speaker, let us recognize and celebrate this extraordinary accomplishment.
Congratulations to Rio Americano High School AM Jazz Band. Let's go win.
Madam Speaker, I rise with grave concern about reports that President Trump is scheming to eliminate the Department of Education and similar concerns about legislation that has been introduced to do just that.
This move would be detrimental for Wake County students and public school students around the country. Our community is home to world- class K-12 schools, community colleges, universities, and HBCUs that are shaping the bright minds of tomorrow.
Our schools rely on resources from the Department of Education to support teachers, assist students with disabilities, and ensure that young people get healthy meals. In addition, thousands of North Carolina students depend on grants and loans managed by the Department to pay for college. Their future is our country's future.
Let's be clear. The President does not have the authority to unilaterally abolish agencies that were created by Congress. Under this plan, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are attacking our kids and their teachers. We will fight this every single way that we can.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride, for 5 minutes.
On February 6, 2025, on page H514, in the third column, the following appeared: The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Delaware (Ms. McBride) for 5 minutes.
The online version has been corrected to read: The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Miller of Illinois). The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride, for 5 minutes.
Madam Speaker, when I was elected, I promised to work with anyone who would help deliver for Delawareans and to stand up to anyone who seeks to harm my State.
Instead of seeking common ground, the Trump administration from day one has waged an unrelenting attack on working people in Delaware and across the country, seeking to freeze funding for first responders, domestic violence shelters, schools, and healthcare facilities that my constituents rely on.
Last week, as I traveled up and down our State meeting with seniors, military families, students, mayors, doctors and nurses, the fear and outrage was palpable. People were terrified by the administration's funding freeze.
A senior center in the heart of my State was worried that they wouldn't be able to provide meals to the Delawareans they serve. Critical services like opioid prevention programs could grind to a halt.
Research programs fostering innovation in Delaware already received stop work orders, putting Delaware jobs at risk. Mayors were fearful they wouldn't be able to pay first responders or continue pivotal water and transportation infrastructure projects.
Perhaps most disturbing, some of our hospitals, community healthcare centers, and clinics that serve rural and urban communities facing desperate health deserts, don't know if they will be able to continue serving some of our State's most vulnerable.
In all of these instances, the Federal funds my State relies on were appropriated by Congress and signed into law by the executive, but the current administration is threatening to illegally freeze funding for these lifesaving services and to gut the Federal workforce tasked with helping my neighbors. It has thrown communities across
The attacks we have seen in recent days on public servants and lifesaving programs administered by USAID don't just put our security and health globally at risk, they lay the foundation here at home to gut Federal support for education, for healthcare, for housing, for childcare, and for workers. If they can do what they are doing at USAID, then they can do it anywhere in the Federal Government. That means no place and no program is safe from unilateral evisceration.
This week it is USAID. Tomorrow it may be the Departments of Education and Labor. We shouldn't pretend that this path doesn't ultimately lead to Social Security and Medicare.
Piece by piece, department by department, the Trump administration is defunding critical Federal services, purging employees, consolidating power, and cutting and gutting programs that Delawareans rely on. They are trying to decimate the Federal Government and sell it for parts to line the pockets of donors at the expense of working people.
It is clear. They do not want to solve the problems facing American people. They do not want to make government more efficient. They want to prove that government can't work by making it not work.
In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt was in this very Chamber and declared that necessitous men are not free men and that democracies can't survive if people are hungry or out of a job. They want Americans hungry. They want Americans scared for their future. They want Americans to stay angry because that is the fuel of Trumpism. That is how Donald Trump keeps his power.
My constituents reject this administration's cycle of chaos, corruption, and cynicism. Delawareans sent me here to make government work better for people, not to make it worse. Delawareans want a government that respects everyone by delivering for them. By helping them learn, live, and thrive.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to sound the alarm for the American people about the abuse of power that House Republicans are allowing and that puts the American people in danger.
House Republicans have allowed billionaire Elon Musk and his gang of thieves to enter the U.S. Treasury Department, fire the people entrusted with secret, private information about Americans, and give them that access.
Madam Speaker, this billionaire, his interns, and his young workers have complete access to your Social Security number, your bank account number, your name, your address, your Medicare payments, your tax refunds, and your veterans benefits.
This privacy violation endangers the personal information of the American people. Yet, where are House Republicans? They are totally silent, doing nothing, and saying nothing. They are just allowing it to happen because they are okay with it.
What is the worst that could happen? Madam Speaker, your data could be accessed in a way that makes it vulnerable to hackers or identity theft. SNAP benefits could be cut, Head Start shut down, and your Medicare payments delayed or frozen, all without a paper trail. Elon Musk and his DOGE friends have the ability to choose what government bills to pay and what not to pay.
I have heard from the American people. They do not want a Federal contractor who receives billions of dollars in government payments to decide which contracts to pay or to punish Americans who disagree.
These individuals with no government accountability are now inside the very heart of our Federal systems, and Republicans are nowhere to be found. Elon Musk has bragged on social media that he has been able to cancel contracts and programs he doesn't like. This is reckless and illegal.
Why would he want access to the information? It is to look for programs to cut, programs the American families and people rely on every day. It is to have more money to make sure House Republicans can give to their billionaire friends, and tax cuts.
This is the Republican rip-off. Just last week we saw the consequences of this Republican rip-off in action. The administration issued an illegal shutdown order, a freeze that threw nonprofits, schools, health clinics, and entire communities into chaos. Critical grants and programs were frozen without warning. Just yesterday, we learned that some community health centers in rural America are shutting down because of it.
Where are House Republicans? They are certainly not speaking out, and they are not standing up for our community health centers.
Madam Speaker, imagine going to your doctor and you are told you cannot be seen because Elon Musk has cut off Medicaid payments to your State. Imagine your child's school closing because the money to fund it was frozen.
That was the fear that went through our communities last week. Domestic violence shelters and health clinics worried about whether they would have to shut their doors. Meals on Wheels and the seniors who rely on it didn't know where their next meal would come from.
While a judge has temporarily blocked the government-wide freeze, many grant recipients still cannot access funding. The administration has said that they are still going to implement the funding shutdown.
The administration is also targeting programs such as the EPA's clean ports program which affects millions of dollars going to ports across the country to help clean up air pollution. In my district alone, that is over $400 million in funding to reduce pollution at the Port of Los Angeles.
Madam Speaker, what could be next? How will it affect your family? There are reports that the Department of Education and our public schools' funding is next on their target list.
Let me be clear. This is unconstitutional. Congress controls the purse strings, not the President and not Elon Musk. This money was legally appropriated by the people's Representatives. Elon Musk and House Republicans want to steal it from the American people to give tax breaks to billionaires and to get investments in our communities.
House Republicans continue to remain silent. Their silence makes them complicit. Americans will pay the price. Democrats will stand up, speak out, and fight back. Just one of those things Democrats are doing to fight back is we are demanding that Republicans quickly bring up legislation to protect your private information. Let's all support that.
Madam Speaker, good morning and happy Black History Month.
Black history is American history, so I rise today to give a history lesson.
I think, at moments of inflection for our country, history provides a critical contextualizing. In order to go forward, we need to look back, especially when the White House is working overtime, as laid out in their playbook, Project 2025, to ban our history and to dismantle our Department of Education.
Let's start at the beginning.
Why did we establish a Federal Department of Education? In the early days of this Nation, education was left entirely to the States, and schools were run by a patchwork of religious schools and one-room schoolhouses, leaving many children excluded based on their race, gender, or poverty.
Madam Speaker, there is much I disagree with our Founding Fathers on, but they knew that preserving democracy required an educated population, one that could participate in civic issues, understand social and political issues, vote, and resist tyrants.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the concept of free public education began to take hold, but not for everyone. Enslavement ruled the day. Black and Native American families faced State-sponsored violence and systemic exclusion from education.
In the 1830s, it was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a legislator named Horace Mann who established the common school movement, pushing to extend free public education to poor and middle- class children. Yet, Black children across the Nation were still barred from learning and faced severe punishment and abuse if they tried.
By the 1870s, Reconstruction in the South gave way to Jim Crow laws that segregated public spaces, explicitly including our schools.
Additionally, child-labor exploitation was rampant; education for girls lagged far behind; and children with disabilities were far too often institutionalized and not educated at all.
A little more than 100 years later, our Department of Education in its modern-day form was championed by none other than the late, great President James Earl Carter. May he rest in peace and power.
He knew that fully implementing the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and fighting Jim Crow would require a well-resourced Federal role in education. This agency had existed for over a century in many iterations, but Carter explicitly understood that at the core of education was a vision of opportunity and access for every child in America.
He and Congress resourced the Department accordingly, and this Department was tasked with implementing core tenets of the Civil Rights Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Federal funding through the Department of Education became integral to addressing disparities, hiring and training teachers, building accessible school facilities, enforcing civil rights protections, heating and powering those buildings, and, finally, living up to our ideals of education as a pathway to opportunity in America.
Madam Speaker, today, that progress is under attack. The Trump administration's attack on education is a fundamental attack on democracy and on every child who calls this country home.
Let's call it what it is: resegregation and a full-scale attack on civil rights.
Dictating what can be taught is shameful.
Madam Speaker, I stand firmly on the side of our public school babies and our educators and families today and always.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate an extraordinary milestone for an extraordinary man, Live Oak County Sheriff Larry Busby.
Sworn in on New Year's Day for his 12th consecutive term, Sheriff Busby has cemented his place in history as Texas' longest serving sheriff. With a remarkable 50 years in law enforcement, 44 of those years as sheriff of Live Oak County, he exemplifies dedication, resilience, and leadership.
Sheriff Busby's philosophy of treating everyone with respect has earned him not just the trust of his community but also their enduring support.
His history, rooted in cowboy values of hard work and responsibility, inspires all of us. Whether as a teacher, cowboy, or law enforcement officer, he has always served with honor and humility.
I congratulate Sheriff Busby on this historic achievement, and I thank him for his unwavering commitment to Live Oak County. Here is to the legacy he continues to build and the many lives he has touched along the way.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Lieutenant Oscar Trevino of the Edinburg Police Department in Texas. Lieutenant Trevino retired after an extraordinary 37 years of service.
On January 10, Lieutenant Trevino marked the conclusion of his remarkable career with an emotional last call over the radio, a powerful moment that symbolized his unwavering dedication to protecting and serving his community.
Lieutenant Trevino's legacy is one of courage, leadership, and selfless commitment. He has made an indelible impact on Edinburg, and his years of service will not be forgotten.
As he begins his well-deserved retirement, we express our deepest gratitude and wish him all the best in his upcoming retirement and new chapter of life.
We thank Lieutenant Trevino for his service and sacrifice.
Madam Speaker, I rise to celebrate the historic achievement of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley chess team, who claimed their first outright victory at the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship earlier this month.
Out of 91 teams, UTRGV's A team delivered a flawless performance, winning all six matches, a feat unmatched in the tournament. This victory exemplifies talent, teamwork, and the ``vaquero,'' ``cowboy,'' spirit.
This win secures UTRGV's spot in the prestigious President's Cup, where they will compete for their fourth national collegiate chess championship. Their success is a testament to the extraordinary caliber of UTRGV students.
I congratulate the team, their coach, and the entire UTRGV community. We are all so proud of them and look forward to cheering them on in April.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor my guest for this year's National Prayer Breakfast, Dr. Milton Gonzalez from McAllen, Texas.
For over 25 years, Dr. Milton Louis Gonzalez has taught and inspired south Texans. He has dedicated his life to ensuring that the next generation is able to reach their potential and live a life full of faith.
Not only has his gift for speaking touched many, many lives, but his insightful speeches have empowered people all across the United States and the world.
Outside of his incredible work, Dr. Gonzalez is a great man of faith, devoted husband, proud father of two, and grandfather.
I am honored to recognize Dr. Gonzalez. It was my pleasure to have him join me in praying for our Nation and our leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago, President Trump was sworn into office. He won the popular vote and the electoral college. I didn't like the results, but I accepted them.
For the past 4 years, I have heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle passionately defend Article I of the Constitution. Not anymore.
I heard them speak about the importance of Congress' power of the purse. Not anymore.
I heard them insist that only Congress can change laws and determine the structure of our government. Not anymore.
In the past 2 weeks, we have seen a familiar pattern emerge: The President creates an issue, causing a crisis. There is confusion. Then, he fixes the crisis, often by walking back the very same issue he created.
Just this week, he threatened tariffs against our closest neighbors, import taxes that would drive up the costs for American consumers. There was no real reason and no real justification, but after days of uncertainty for businesses across the country, President Trump backed down.
What did he get in return? Promises from Canada and Mexico that they were already planning to do around border security.
To make matters worse, while President Trump plays the bully on the world stage, an unelected billionaire has been running our government. Elon Musk, who was never confirmed by the Senate, never elected by the American people, now wields immense power.
He has installed loyalists who stand to profit from unrestricted access to government records and the personal data of millions of Americans. He donated nearly $300 million to elect President Trump, and now he is getting his return on investment.
He now has access to his competitors' financial information. He can dismantle agencies that have challenged
Elon Musk is not accountable to the American people, yet he is using his unchecked influence to reshape our government for his own gain.
The world's richest man has received over $20 billion from the Federal Government in the past. He enriches himself by pretending to be a selfless innovator. He uses his social media empire to amplify voices that agree with him and to spread misinformation designed to divide and destabilize.
He is now trying to shut down or overturn funding approved by Congress. This is funding that saves lives. Bipartisan programs, like PEPFAR, which provides lifesaving HIV treatment to millions, have been thrown into uncertainty. Stop-work orders have frozen global health initiatives. New funding obligations and disbursements have been suspended.
Healthcare workers have been told to stop. Clinics are being forced to close. Essential medicine and supplies can no longer reach those in need. The impact is devastating, especially for women and children who rely on these programs for survival.
Here at home, this administration has found a new scapegoat for everything that goes wrong: diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A plane and helicopter crash in our Nation's Capital? Must be diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Wildfires in Los Angeles? Must be diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A major IT system failure? Must be DEI.
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge? Must be DEI.
Republicans blame DEI not because it is responsible but because it is an easy target because fear and division are their most effective tools. Yet, as the majority wages this culture war, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle ignore the real crises threatening our democracy and our communities.
Mr. Speaker, we have entered Black History Month, but now Federal agencies are uncertain about how to recognize it due to new executive orders.
The Pentagon even paused training about the Tuskegee Airmen because they weren't sure if teaching American history violated the President's mandate.
We should not be afraid to teach our history to soldiers. We should not be afraid to teach our history to our children.
Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Maya Angelou, A. Philip Randolph, and many more titans for diversity, equity, and inclusion played essential roles in shaping our Nation. Their contributions made America stronger, and their stories need to be told. Yet, today, politicians are telling young Black and Brown children that they will never earn or deserve a place in this country because of the color of their skin.
We are at a crossroads. We can stand up for democracy, truth, and inclusion, or we can allow fear and division to dictate our future.
I choose to fight for a country where every person, regardless of race, religion, or background, has a fair shot.
I choose to stand against corruption and self-interest that puts lives at risk.
I choose to defend the values that make our Nation strong.
I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will remember their oath of office and that we answer to the U.S. Constitution, not a President.
Mr. Speaker, 88 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt stood before the American people in Philadelphia and warned of an economic aristocracy that sought to dominate not just our markets but our democracy.
He spoke of those who amassed great wealth and then used that wealth to shape the laws of our Nation to serve their own worldview rather than the public good. He pledged that the government must serve the people, not the privileged few.
That same challenge exists today, but now it is billionaires themselves taking over our government. They bankroll the campaigns, install their loyalists, and want to control government so they can make the rules.
They push for deep cuts to public education, including eliminating funding for decent schools in working-class neighborhoods to fund massive tax breaks for the investor class that we cannot afford.
They fight to deregulate social media platforms to grow the market value of companies in my district just as the railroad barons of the past fought against every piece of regulation to protect their profits.
They move fast and break things, treating our government like their own personal experiment, blind to the millions of Americans who rely on its services.
Why? Because they believe they are entitled to rule. They see themselves as an aristocracy of talent, a select few whose wealth and success make them the rightful decisionmakers for the rest of us.
In their eyes, business entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers, and tech tycoons are the engines of America's prosperity, while working families are expected to accept whatever scraps trickle down.
They believe that democracy should cater to their vision, their profits, and their power no matter what the cost to society. They even refuse to accept what separates human beings from God: mortality itself.
We must ask ourselves: Will we allow a handful of powerful interests to dictate the future of our economy, our jobs, and our democracy, or will we reclaim the promise of an America where anyone who works hard can thrive?
That is our task in this generation: to rebuild an economy that works for the many, not just for the mighty; to invest in American production, empower workers to share in the wealth they create, and ensure that people, not financial power, determine our Nation's course.
It is up to us to make good on the radical American belief that our genius lies in ordinary Americans, defying a world history in which national glory belonged only to kings, oligarchs, or politburos.
America's distinguishing excellence, unlike Russia or China, is our belief in the boundless potential of every citizen.
Today, our government must stand up against the impersonal economic forces that have snatched away livelihoods from those working in factory towns and concentrated wealth into a few cities.
Our government must make economic independence possible for citizens so they can assert control over their destiny.
Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood up to the economic royalists of his time, we must stand up today to the unholy alliance of wealth and power not out of resentment but out of resolve, not to punish wealth but to ensure that prosperity is built by and for the people who make this country run.
Mr. Speaker, that is our mission. This is our moment. Let us make sure that together we meet it and believe in the American people again.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the birthday of one of America's most outstanding leaders, Ronald Reagan.
More than just our 40th President, Reagan was a champion of freedom, prosperity, and American exceptionalism. His leadership restored confidence in our Nation, revived our economy, and helped bring an end to the Cold War without firing a shot.
Through progrowth policies like tax cuts and deregulation, Reagan ushered in an era of economic expansion that lifted millions of Americans into prosperity. His belief in limited government and individual liberty reshaped our political landscape and continues to inspire conservative leadership today.
Beyond policy, Reagan reminded us that America's best days are always ahead. His unwavering optimism and steadfast commitment to our founding principles resonate as strongly in 2025 as they did in his time. His legacy lives on in every effort to lower taxes, strengthen our military, and uphold the values that make this Nation exceptional.
Today, as we remember President Reagan, let's recommit ourselves to his vision of a strong, prosperous, and free America. As he so often reminded us, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is up to us to preserve it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the richest man in the world is buying access to our government at the expense of the American people.
Elon Musk, who wasn't elected by anyone, is accessing the private information of millions of Americans and eliminating Federal agencies.
As a little girl in D.C., I was taught that the Nation's Capital being taken by storm was our country's worst nightmare. It is happening today, not by a foreign adversary but by the boy band billionaires looking to line their pockets.
This week, many of us stood up and fought back. Our country does not have time for this foolishness.
No one can seem to explain to me what the Trump administration has done to bring down prices at the grocery store, to make it easier to buy or rent a home, or to lower the price of a gallon of gas.
Mr. Speaker, we have to do whatever it takes to get this government working for the American people again.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the critical steps that my colleagues and I are taking to protect Americans and their families from the illicit fentanyl crisis that has been harming our communities for years.
Illicit fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 and ravages communities in every corner of Arkansas.
In 2019, my Fentanyl Sanctions Act became law, imposing sanctions on Chinese drug manufacturers that supply synthetic opioids and transnational criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl into our country.
In 2022, my Preventing Overdoses and Saving Lives Act passed the House with overwhelming support and became law. That bill expands lifesaving drugs like naloxone by promoting its coprescription with opioid medications.
Later this afternoon, the House will come together again and pass the HALT Fentanyl Act, permanently extending President Trump's 2018 classification of illicit fentanyl-related substances in schedule I.
Mr. Speaker, together, this Chamber and President Trump will continue our work to save American lives by keeping illicit fentanyl off of our streets and out of our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life and legacy of Apolinario Ysit, or Ario, a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and leader in our community who passed away last month.
Ario learned values of hard work and service to others on his 13-acre ranch and as an active member of the Boy Scouts of America. He met the love of his life, Joyce, at the local movie theater, and they married in 1957.
Ario also proudly served in the U.S. Marine Corps and locally served on the Alameda County Planning Commission. He was named the Commissioner of the Year in 2003. He was also on our local fire commission.
He was considered the unofficial mayor of Sunol. He worked tirelessly to secure funding for local projects, developed the Sunol Depot Gardens park, and strengthened community organizations like the Sunol Business Guild.
Mr. Speaker, he will forever be remembered to me as a friend but an even bigger friend and public servant to the community of Alameda County.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of my constituents, Representative Dean Arp of the North Carolina General Assembly, for going above and beyond and putting his life on the line for a fellow North Carolinian just this week.
On Monday night, Representative Arp found himself in the position of seeing something that looked concerning. During a road trip, he noticed smoke coming from a roadside mobile home. Being moved in his heart to turn around and stop, Representative Arp discovered a woman in a wheelchair, trying to escape her burning home.
What did Representative Arp do? He took his public service to a whole new level, rescuing her from the flaming house and saving the woman's life.
Not everyone would have the courage to step up and get engaged, but Representative Arp clearly has a hero's heart.
Mr. Speaker, in a day of the slogan, If You See Something, Say Something, I thank God Representative Arp saw something and did something to change the outcome.
Mr. Speaker, across America, working families and seniors are feeling the high costs of goods. All the while, scammers are using AI technology to impersonate loved ones, their banks, or even their government. Too often, it ends up with people being duped.
Every sheriff in my district tells a similar story. Police reports get filed. In some instances, hundreds of thousands of dollars are gone. Many of these hustlers are not even in our country.
That is why I am reintroducing the QUIET Act. My bipartisan legislation would increase the penalties for any scammer who thinks that they can use AI to make an easy buck off of a senior citizen by stealing their Social Security check.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up to these bad actors and join me in this fight.
Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the comments made by my colleague from North Carolina (Mr. Harris) about Representative Dean Arp. I had the opportunity to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly with him for many years. Talk about a man who embodies a servant's heart. That is Dean Arp.
Part of the rest of the story that Representative Harris didn't get a chance to mention, because of the time constraints, was that this was no ordinary thing. When Representative Arp saw this trailer on fire, he had to actually go inside. The lady was in a wheelchair. I think he described her wheelchair as being as hot as a pan on a stove. He got her out of there and clearly saved her life.
The one thing that is very telling about Representative Arp is he didn't give credit to himself. He gave credit to God. He said something told him to go back and had him on that particular route that day at that time to save that lady's life.
On behalf of all of our colleagues in the House, I congratulate Representative Dean Arp, a fine North Carolinian, a fine American, and a fine man of God.
Our Founding Fathers created three coequal branches of government to ensure that no one man can be king, but here we are. We have a President who is willing to tear up our Constitution in order to seize more power for himself.
Last week, Donald Trump empowered Elon Musk to delete USAID. Now, they are trying to eliminate the Department of Education and go after Medicaid. What is next, Social Security?
Let's be clear. It is unconstitutional for any President to abolish any Federal agency created and funded by Congress.
My question to the body is this: Where are my Republican colleagues?
They would not be okay if this were Kamala Harris or Joe Biden, and the difference is, neither would I.
Mr. Speaker, stand with me. We all must stand up to do something to stop it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, as a family farmer, I am very concerned with America's prime farmland being covered with taxpayer- subsidized solar panel installations.
Food security is national security, and if we cover our farm ground with Chinese solar panels, we will become dependent on foreign adversaries for food.
According to the EPA, solar panels contain hazardous waste that can be harmful to human health. That is why we should be alarmed by the increasing number of solar panels being installed on our most fertile farmland, especially when the Federal Government is handing out tax credits for it.
Today, I reintroduced the No Solar Panels on Fertile Farmland Act to stop Federal Government tax incentives for installing Chinese solar panels on American farmland.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to cosponsor this important legislation and put an end to the left's green bad deal that puts fake environmental goals over food security.
Mr. Speaker, the fentanyl epidemic has devastated communities across our Nation for far too long.
In North Carolina's First Congressional District, an estimated three individuals die each week from fentanyl overdose.
Over the past year, law enforcement has seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced fake pills nationwide.
During a trip to the southern border, I visited the Tucson Border Patrol sector, the epicenter of the fentanyl crisis. I saw firsthand how deadly drugs make their way into our community.
To combat these lethal and counterfeit pills, I am introducing the Modern Authentication of Pharmaceuticals Act, or the MAP Act.
The MAP Act would require more advanced tracing technology on controlled substances in our drug supply chain. I urge Congress to pass this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, today I rise today to honor an amazing person, Frances Mae West Byers from Bumpass, Virginia, in my district, Virginia's Fifth Congressional District.
Mrs. Byers was born on January 25, 1915, in Hanover County, where my family is from, in the district, and she just celebrated her 110th birthday on January 25, 2025.
In 1932, she married John Franklin Byers and became the proud matriarch of a lineage that now spans six generations.
Her family's dedication to service is evident with three sons in the military. John was in the Navy. Thomas was in the Army. Paul was in the Air Force. Her son Dan served on the Louisa Board of Supervisors.
Mrs. Byers has lived a life grounded in morality. In addition to her faith, which she has in common with me, we have never tasted alcohol, and we have never smoked. Instead, she invests her time reading the Bible and helping those in need, which I have no doubt has added significantly to her longevity and to the vitality of her spirit.
At the remarkable age of 110, Frances Mae still leads a home Bible study, sharing her wisdom and faith with others.
On behalf of the people of Virginia's Fifth Congressional District, I wish Mrs. Byers a happy 110th birthday.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 93, I call up the bill (H.R. 27) to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 93, the amendment printed in part A of House Report 119-2 shall be considered as adopted. The bill, as amended, is considered read.
The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro temore. The bill, as amended, shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their respective designees.
After 1 hour of debate on the bill, as amended, it shall be in order to consider the further amendment printed in part B of House Report 119-2, if offered by the Member designated in the report, which shall be considered read, shall be separately debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to a demand for a division of the question.
The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) each will control 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the legislation and to insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 27.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Kentucky?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances remain one of the greatest health threats this Nation faces. That is why both Congress and the Trump administration are working to keep fentanyl out of our communities across the country.
What we know about these lethal substances is that they are largely created with chemicals sourced from China and trafficked into our country and communities by Mexican drug cartels.
Part of making this Nation safer and more secure is empowering law enforcement with the tools necessary to prosecute those who traffic this poison into our communities. The HALT Fentanyl Act plays an important role in that objective by permanently placing fentanyl- related substances into schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act so law enforcement can crack down on drug traffickers. This will help save lives.
Last Congress, this bill passed the House with 289 votes, and I am hopeful for a robust vote today. I am confident this bill can pass the Senate and be signed into law.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in opposition to H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, throughout this debate today, House Republicans will claim that they are committed to tackling fentanyl, but their actions show that simply is not true.
As the Trump administration illegally stole billions of dollars from Federal programs dedicated to helping people who are fighting a substance use disorder, House Republicans buried their heads in the sand.
Last week, the Trump administration froze virtually all Federal funding, stealing billions of dollars in funding for critical opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Clinicians have been left wondering if they would receive a paycheck for their work. Patients have been left worrying about whether their access to treatment and recovery had been cut off indefinitely.
Fortunately, several courts have already ruled in favor of parties seeking to put a stop to this unconstitutional power grab. Make no mistake, there are still real concerns about Federal funding not getting out the door to help us combat the drug overdose epidemic. Moreover, if this freeze is allowed to go forward, substance use and mental health clinicians who dedicate their lives to helping those experiencing substance use disorder would be forced to shut down, and millions of Americans would lose access to care. This is not the way to combat this epidemic.
House Republicans are now considering trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid so they can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. Medicaid covers nearly 40 percent of all people with an opioid use disorder. Republican plans to cut Medicaid will further limit access to care for substance use disorders leading to more deaths.
Again, Mr. Speaker, when you hear Republicans talk about their commitment to fighting this epidemic, remember their actions over their words.
Let's go to the bill before us today. Two years ago, my Democratic colleagues and I shared deep concerns
In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, first issued a temporary class-wide scheduling order of fentanyl-related substances under schedule I, which is the strictest classification for drugs. Since that administrative action, Congress has voted to extend the temporary order numerous times, most recently in the American Relief Act where we voted to extend the scheduling until March 31 of this year.
House Republicans know we cannot simply schedule our way out of this crisis, but they have refused to pass bipartisan solutions that address prevention, treatment, and recovery to help stop overdose deaths. This is not just a criminal justice issue. We must combat this crisis through a multipronged public health approach.
That is exactly what we did in an end-of-year bipartisan deal that would have extended temporary fentanyl-related substances scheduling for 2 years. However, it also reauthorized a wide range of prevention and treatment programs to help address the opioid overdose crisis. The deal has bipartisan support, but it was squashed by Speaker Johnson so he could please Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire who is now illegally stealing Americans' personal private information from inside of Federal agencies.
Again, Mr. Speaker, actions speak louder than words, and Republicans are not serious about combating this fentanyl crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill. I encourage my colleagues to oppose it, as well, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to note that the bill before us today schedules illicit fentanyl. We had testimony to say this will save lives. That is the vote before us today. Hopefully my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will vote for it.
We can talk about criminal justice reform, but the people who are putting the poison into our cities and our children deserve to go to jail.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the committee for yielding me time.
My colleagues on the other side cry: Action, action. However, in February of 2025, there will be no action unless we pass H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this bill, H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act, that I have championed along with my colleague and good friend, Representative Latta from Ohio. We have worked on this bill for 4 years.
This bill is critical to stop the trafficking of fentanyl analogues into our country by giving the law enforcement officers the tools they need and also allowing streamlined research into these substances.
This bill has the support of multiple law enforcement agencies and other groups to pass the bill as it is.
This week, the Trump administration released a statement in support of the HALT Fentanyl Act. Last Congress, the Biden administration even supported various provisions in the bill, specifically making fentanyl analogues permanently schedule I and allowing more research into them.
The bill passed with wide bipartisan support last Congress. It wasn't just one Member on the other side of the aisle who joined me, Mr. Speaker. There were 74 Members who voted in favor of this bill.
This is one small step to solve the opioid crisis in this country. We cannot let the temporary scheduling expire at the end of March.
To those who don't know, we have some law right now that helps protect us, but at the end of March, it is gone. We can't do that.
The Senate introduced an identical version of this bill with broad bipartisan support. With the passage of this bill, I am hopeful that H.R. 27 will quickly move through the Senate and get to the President's desk to become law.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage all my colleagues to support this bill so that we can actually have action and not rhetoric.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his comments, but I want to inform him that the Trump administration's funding freeze could impact as much as $164 million in funding for substance abuse and mental health services and research in the Commonwealth of Virginia that his constituents rely on.
Cutting this vital funding will greatly hamper our response to the opioid epidemic and result in more overdose deaths in Virginia.
I urge my colleagues to work together with Democrats to ensure that the Trump administration end this illegal funding freeze and work together to pass bipartisan, evidence-based legislation to address this intractable crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor), who is the chair and ranking member of our Energy Subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 27. I am here to say this is not business as usual right now in Washington, D.C., or all across the country.
House Republicans are offering this bill as window dressing, Mr. Speaker, to a lot of the illegality that is going on across the agencies that is distracting from the White House's stop work orders and payment freeze orders that have been deemed illegal and have been restrained by Federal courts.
This is a window dressing bill to distract from what is happening to payments with our partner States and nonprofit agencies like Head Start centers, infrastructure projects, and medical research across the country.
This is window dressing to distract us from the incursion into Treasury and Medicare payment systems by an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, and based on some fake, made-up agency, a so-called Department of Government Efficiency. This is a distraction from the illegal and dangerous purge of law enforcement officers and intelligence agents in other agencies.
Mr. Speaker, this is a way to distract and spin your wheels at a time when Elon Musk has just decided to ride into a congressionally appropriated agency in USAID and just say that we are closed for business, which runs completely counter to the United States Constitution.
Where are the Republicans? The American people are demanding answers. Where are the House Republicans?
Mr. Speaker, your silence is deafening.
Federal courts have issued orders to stop this illegal and dangerous activity, and we are not going to allow these illegal operators to run amuck.
Instead, what are House Republicans doing here today? They are offering a flawed bill to address opioid addiction.
I would say to my good friends and colleagues: Your record does not match your rhetoric because there is a back story that belies what House Republicans are bringing here today. First of all, this bill doesn't get the job done. My providers back home say that this is overbroad and really fails to meet the moment of our opioid addiction crisis.
Here is the back story: The SUPPORT Act was adopted in a bipartisan fashion in 2018. It was the largest congressional investment in overdose prevention at the time, and it directed resources to communities that need it to save lives through community-based treatment and recovery. It required Medicaid to cover medications for opioid use disorder. The SUPPORT Act and everything was broadly successful and appreciated. It was working to help free people from fentanyl addiction.
We have to do so much more, however. That is why in the last Congress we worked together to pass a new and more robust SUPPORT Act to address the third wave of the opioid crisis. However, when it came to the year- end appropriations package that was crafted to include it, who shows up but Elon Musk to throw a wrench into our year-end compromise between Democrats
The Republicans let him do it. You are allowing it to happen again, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, why didn't Republicans bring the SUPPORT Act to the floor, something that really meaningfully helps families and communities address the opioid addiction crisis and the fentanyl crisis?
Second, by standing by and allowing the White House and the Justice Department to purge FBI agents and CIA personnel, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are taking the cops off the beat who are tracking the drug traffickers who are trying to break up the fentanyl cartels. So Republicans are making us less safe and are heaping a lot of costs on families that just don't need this chaos.
Third, Mr. Speaker, Republicans have this sneaky and chaotic halt to the flow of healthcare dollars back home, medical research and NIH. Medicaid, we know from all of the reporting, is on Republicans' chopping block. Medicaid is the backbone to providing healthcare and substance abuse treatment for people all across America. Mr. Speaker, Republicans have that in their sights, too.
Tell me whose record doesn't match their rhetoric. I would say it is the House Republicans. No one has the legal authority to turn Treasury payments into means of political retribution. No one in the executive branch has the authority to cancel or ignore congressional appropriations. That is a basic constitutional precept.
Why do Republicans serve in Congress if they want to be a royal subject to a king rather than a Representative of the Article I branch?
Mr. Speaker, we are going to work on the SUPPORT Act, but the vote before us today that people are going to put their names to, a yes or no: Do we want to make illegal derivatives of fentanyl produced and conceived in China sent to Mexico and across our border to kill our people?
That is what the vote is going to be today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the full committee for yielding to me.
For 4 years, I have worked tirelessly with my colleague and friend, the gentleman from the Ninth Congressional District of Virginia (Mr. Griffith), to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act to permanently label fentanyl- related substances as a schedule I narcotic.
During this time, we have seen heartbreaking numbers of fentanyl poisonings across our country. There were 73,000 deaths reported in just 1 year alone.
If the current classwide scheduling were to expire, which is a little less than 2 months away, I can assure Members that drug traffickers would push deadlier drugs, and more Americans will die.
I am proud today that this House is finally stopping the temporary delay and permanently scheduling fentanyl-related substances as a schedule I. We owe it to our communities, our constituents, our families, and, most of all, the victims.
Cartels are literally killing Americans for 10 cents a pill. Illicit fentanyl poisoning among teens accounted for an average of 22 deaths each week in 2022 from drug poisoning, raising the death rate for teens to 5.2 deaths per 100,000, driven by fentanyl in counterfeit pills, thus making fentanyl the number one cause of death among adults aged 18 to 49. That is more than cancer, more than heart disease, and more than car accidents.
This isn't about criminal justice reform. This is about victims getting justice.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, currently, to trigger a 10-year mandatory minimum, an offense must involve 100 or more grams of a mixture containing a fentanyl analogue. Since the average lethal dose of fentanyl or a fentanyl analogue can be as small as 2 milligrams, the offense would need to contain roughly 50,000 lethal doses in order to trigger the 10-year mandatory minimum.
Mr. Speaker, I ask this House to approve this legislation, and let's start saving lives here in the United States.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta) but inform him that the Trump administration's funding freeze could impact as much as $304 million in funding for substance abuse and mental health services and research in the State of Ohio that his constituents rely on. Cutting this vital funding will greatly hamper our response to the opioid epidemic and result in more overdose deaths.
I urge my colleagues to work together with Democrats to ensure that the Trump administration ends this illegal funding freeze and work together to pass bipartisan, evidence-based legislation to address this intractable crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Gillen).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a proud cosponsor of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
The epidemic of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances has ravaged countless communities across our country. Families throughout my district have experienced unimaginable pain and suffering from losing their loved ones to this deadly drug.
Just 1 year ago, a family in my district dropped off their precious child to college and went back a week later to pick up their child's body because of fentanyl.
We must get fentanyl off of our streets and away from our kids. The crisis has killed Americans of every age, every background, and every walk of life.
A single ounce of fentanyl can have a devastating effect upon a community. It is time we take on the cartels and hold traffickers accountable.
The DEA, the Fraternal Order of Police, and countless other law enforcement groups have said the HALT Fentanyl Act will save lives and improve public safety.
It shouldn't take more overdose deaths, more grieving families, and more criminals skirting prosecution to take action. It is time.
Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. I am proud to support this bipartisan bill today, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in that.
I also urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to find ways that we can work together to make better bills.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give my emphatic support for H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act. This commonsense solution is exactly what our Nation needs to effectively crack down on the illicit fentanyl flowing across our borders.
For years, the Mexican drug cartels have recruited college chemistry majors to chemically alter the fentanyl precursors that come from the Chinese Communist Party right into Mexico to make more deadly and less- illegal fentanyl analogues.
Classifying these fentanyl analogues as schedule I drugs will allow our law enforcement officers and our Border Patrol agents the ability to effectively seize these substances and will result in harsher penalties for the criminals who make, traffic, and sell these poisons.
In 2023, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, an individual died every 2 hours from an overdose. More than three-fourths of those overdose deaths were the result of fentanyl.
The future generations of our great Nation cannot afford to wait any longer. The time is right now to stop this scourge on our society and to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act, which will allow us to do just that.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help save American lives, starting today with their vote to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act.
This is critical legislation. It does not care which party the individuals
Mr. Speaker, I want to be honest. This legislation is literally breaking my heart because I am a New Mexican, born and raised, and there is not a single family in the State of New Mexico who has not been touched by the addiction crisis--the opioid crisis, fentanyl, alcoholism. There is not a single family that I know who has not lost somebody to this crisis, including my own.
What I can tell Members about this crisis is that the way that we address it is that we stop the flow of fentanyl coming into our communities, and we make sure that our family members and our friends who are struggling with addiction can get the help that they need.
They are not criminals. They are our brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, and children.
Do my colleagues know what it is like to have their child disappear to the streets due to addiction?
We do not need to incarcerate these people. They need help, and the way that they get help is to actually get with an addiction recovery doctor, peer support, clinic, or somewhere where they can get sober.
Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues want to actually solve this crisis, we need to stop fentanyl from coming into the United States, to make sure that our communities can access care, and to save lives and help the members of our families and communities who are trying to reclaim their lives from this crisis. That is how we solve this crisis.
That is why I cannot vote for this bill because the way that this bill tries to address the crisis is through the exact same playbook that was used in the 1980s and 1990s that led to the mass incarceration of our families and community members who were struggling with addiction.
While Republicans are standing here trying to pass this bill, literally across town the President and an unelected billionaire are gutting funding for our Federal agencies. They are doing a purge of the FBI.
Do my colleagues know who stops fentanyl from coming across the border? The FBI.
Do Members want to solve the fentanyl crisis? We have to go to the heart of the matter and not mass incarcerate the people who are actually addicted.
That is why I introduced the STOP Act. The STOP Act would actually empower the Federal Government to stop fentanyl at the border. It is why I am investing millions of dollars in my State, local, and Tribal law enforcement, to make sure that they can actually stop fentanyl in our communities. It is why I have invested millions of dollars in my community in behavioral health centers and addiction recovery and to help peer support programs so that we can save lives.
That is how the fentanyl crisis is stopped. That is how we do it.
I can say that the way that we don't do it is by empowering a billionaire, who is not even an elected or a vetted official, to gut our Federal agencies. I want to take a moment to talk about that.
Yesterday, in the Oversight Committee, in the guise of trying to promote government efficiency, my colleagues across the aisle called a hearing. When we asked for Elon Musk to come to our hearing and actually answer for what he is doing, they went out of their way to shut it down.
What is going on in this country right now? They are gutting our agencies, defunding our agencies, and holding up payments. Last week, as was said by the ranking member, they stopped payment for the very health clinics that will actually help to stop the fentanyl crisis.
My colleagues refuse to do their most basic constitutional duty, which is to bring in an unelected and unvetted official who is stealing their personal data and undermining the fundamental fabric of our democracy, our Constitution, and our institutions, to hold them to account.
That is why Ranking Member Jamie Raskin and I will be introducing legislation to hold Elon Musk accountable because nobody elected Elon Musk and because we, the taxpayers, are going to be left holding the bag when he gets bored and moves on to his billionaire buddies. We are going to be the ones left in the wake of this crisis. We are the ones who are going to have our communities and families decimated, and we will not stand for it.
Respectfully, I will vote against this legislation, and we will continue to hold the majority to account.
Mr. Speaker, I just will say that, if someone is trafficking in illicit fentanyl, they belong in jail. I understand the argument that people who are addicted need help and support, but if someone is trafficking in illicit fentanyl, they belong in jail. If someone is trafficking in a fentanyl derivative that is not scheduled, they don't go to jail. That is what we are here to do today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Evans), my good friend.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the HALT Fentanyl Act.
This critical bill would enable law enforcement to get dangerous drug traffickers off of our streets by permanently and responsibly classifying fentanyl analogues as schedule I narcotics.
Last year, DEA's Rocky Mountain Division seized a record 2.7 million fentanyl pills, enough to kill everyone in my district 1\1/2\ times, or 1.3 million people. We must do more to stop this drug from infiltrating our communities, and that starts with empowering law enforcement.
As a Colorado cop for 10 years, I witnessed firsthand how not supporting law enforcement enables traffickers and the flow of fentanyl into our communities.
This bill, of which I am a proud original cosponsor, gives cops the tools that they need to bring traffickers of this poison to justice.
Since 2020, illegal drugs like fentanyl have claimed over 7,000 lives in Colorado, twice the death toll of September 11.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, the HALT Fentanyl Act would put us on a pathway to adopting the ill-informed practices of the past.
The 1994 crime bill decimated generations by expanding harsh criminal punishment that fell hardest on Black and Brown communities. The bill expanded the school-to-prison pipeline and increased racial disparities in juvenile justice involvement while also contributing to the mass incarceration problem in this Nation.
Individuals convicted under this bill lost access to public housing, Pell grants, and any chance at being rehabilitated in order to become productive members of society, making it even more difficult for them to be integrated back into their communities and perpetuating a cycle of violence.
Mr. Speaker, I grew up in a community like that, plagued by these cycles.
My community was suffering from a public health crisis and Congress abandoned us. There is a difference between a teenager and a trafficker. We cannot make those same mistakes today.
I believe that those trafficking and distributing should be prosecuted. Those poisoning our communities and our kids should be jailed, but addiction is a medical issue. We must include provisions for treatment and harm reduction in any legislation we pass.
This legislation would force the implementation of steep mandatory minimum sentences with no discretion for judges to consider individual cases. There would be no distinction.
The HALT Fentanyl Act also does nothing to provide prevention, treatment, recovery, harm reduction, or even money for law enforcement to do what they are asking them to do in this bill.
We cannot incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis. For this reason, I will be voting ``no.'' I implore my colleagues across the aisle to support a long-term public safety solution that
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding the time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act, a commonsense bill to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl from pouring across our southern border.
During the 4 years of the Biden administration, our border was wide open, allowing the cartels and drug traffickers to transport fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances into our country.
Let's be clear: The Democrats failed to address this issue and so did the administration. Why in the world would we allow that to happen? We have all heard the heart-wrenching stories from families who have lost loved ones.
Illicit fentanyl poisonings are now the number one cause of death among adults 18 to 49. This is more than just a statistic. Under the Republican-controlled House, Senate, and White House, this crisis will come to an end.
The HALT Fentanyl Act would make the temporary classwide scheduling order for fentanyl-related substances permanent and ensure law enforcement have the tools they need to keep this dangerous drug off our streets.
This legislation, combined with President Trump's latest border security wins and his team at the White House, will make our communities safer and save lives. They mean business.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to get the job done, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, this simply is not business as usual today. They bring a bill, H.R. 27, in an effort to paper over the crisis that is going on out there.
Mr. Speaker, I just have to ask my Republican colleagues, because we have so few opportunities to do it in public officially, where is your backbone? Where is your backbone to stand up for Article I and tell the executive branch they are not allowed to destroy agencies that have been constitutionally and congressionally funded?
The Republicans can't allow some made-up department to come in and steal away an agency that we have authorized. Where is your courage?
This bill is also such a diversion from what we should be doing, which is funding opioid-use addiction. They can bring H.R. 27 and say it is the be-all and end-all, but everyone has weighed in to say it doesn't get the job done.
Don't take it from me. Take it from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the doctors and counselors who treat our neighbors who suffer from addiction. They say, on behalf of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, which is a national medical specialty representing more than 8,000 physicians and associated health professionals who specialize in the prevention and treatment of addiction, they write to urge that the amendments to mitigate the unintended negative consequences be added.
In the end, though, they said, if you are not going to allow us to offer real amendments to fix the bill, they recommend not passing the HALT Fentanyl Act. They say it just preserves the deadly status quo.
However, what do they say in the end? They say they support the SUPPORT Act for patients and communities. That was the agreement at year-end, which Republicans let Elon Musk pull out of the year-end appropriations package.
Republicans shouldn't come today and say, oh, we are solving this problem when they are now complicit in doing it.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record another letter from 190 national, State, and local public health, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations that also write today to urge us to reject and vote ``no'' on the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights on behalf of this large and diverse coalition of 240 national organizations.
Mr. Speaker, they are going to score this for voting records. The majority has to do something and stand up for their Article I constitutional duty and say: We are going to protect Medicaid; We are not going to listen to billionaires; We are going to bring the SUPPORT Act; and We are not going to pull the rug out from under the counselors and providers back home who are doing it.
Mr. Speaker, I just read online that community health centers are being forced to close in Virginia. All over this country, this is what is going on, and you can't paper over it with some fake legislation like this.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the HALT Fentanyl Act.
In North Dakota, my State, we are known for our tight-knit communities where people look out for one another, but even in my State, illicit fentanyl is smuggled in, stealing innocent lives and leaving families shattered.
North Dakota law enforcement says record amounts of fentanyl are pouring into our State. What is most disturbing is how traffickers are targeting our kids. They are poisoning our children. We must pass the HALT Fentanyl Act to permanently give law enforcement the tools they need.
This will punish traffickers who play a dangerous game of tweaking formulas to stay one step ahead of the law.
The American people have trusted us to fix the mess created by the Biden administration's open-border policies. For every devastated family and every community on the front lines of this crisis, we must act.
Mr. Speaker, this is not a partisan issue. It is an important part of the solution, and it is the right thing to do. Let's pass H.R. 27.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this bill because it is abundantly clear it is not a serious effort to address the drug overdose epidemic in this country.
It is, in fact, partisan. Treatment is not partisan, but this bill is.
Before coming to Congress, I was a practicing physician. In 2022, I took care of a young person in the ICU who had unintentionally overdosed on what was thought to be a pain pill but turned out to be a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl.
I worked all night to save this young man's life, but his brain never woke up. I was the one who had to tell his mother and extended family that he was never going to come home.
This tragic story is all too familiar for Oregonians. In Congress, I am laser-focused on getting my community the resources it needs to ensure that no parent or family ever has to experience the pain of losing a loved one to an overdose.
That is why I am disgusted by the administration's current illegal freezing of all Federal funds, including over $8.6 billion in grant funding for Federal programs to combat the opioid crisis.
I offered a simple amendment to this bill before us today. That amendment stated that this bill could not take effect until we get confirmation that last week's funding freeze and any future freeze does not jeopardize Americans' access to substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery services.
The Republicans claim to care about addressing this crisis, but they refused to bring that amendment up for a vote. It is shocking to me what we have come to. My Republican colleagues are so afraid to stand up that they will rip essential healthcare services away from our most vulnerable.
We must take a stand, and I am going to take a stand. For those who are watching who are suffering, please know that we will not stop fighting. We cannot arrest our way out of this.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
I will share two stories of constituents from Wisconsin's Fifth District. Lauri Badura of Oconomowoc lost her eldest son, Archie, in 2014 due to an accidental overdose.
Since then, she has dedicated herself to advocate on behalf of those struggling with mental health and substance abuse and started a grassroots organization called Saving Others for Archie to help fight the opioid epidemic on the local, State, and national level.
Erin and Rick Rachwal of Pewaukee lost their son, Logan, to an overdose in 2021. The results of that toxicology report indicated three different forms of fentanyl were present.
In response, Erin and Rick started the Love, Logan Foundation to end the stigma surrounding mental health and substance abuse disorders.
Mr. Speaker, we need strong congressional action on fentanyl, and we need the permanent designation of fentanyl-related substances to schedule I.
One of the first pieces of legislation I introduced in Congress was Stopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues Act to address the very issue we are considering today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I think you have heard many statements on the Democrat side of the aisle about how this legislation that is before us today only looks at one aspect of the fentanyl crisis and ignores funding, if you will, for treatment.
Right now, Medicaid cuts could and actually would seriously undermine our ability to address the opioid epidemic so they can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations.
What I want to emphasize is that not only is there nothing in this legislation to deal with treatment, but in addition to that, what we assume is going to happen, based on statements that have been put out by Republicans, is they are going to cut the Medicaid program in order to pay for their tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy.
Last week, in case anyone doubts it, the Trump administration temporarily suspended Federal Medicaid payments, and now we are hearing that congressional Republicans are considering up to $2.5 trillion in Medicaid cuts.
Keep in mind that Medicaid is the single largest payer for behavioral health services in the United States and covers nearly 40 percent of all individuals with opioid use disorder. Medicaid covers a full array of services and supports for people with behavioral health needs, including services and supports that typically are not covered by other health programs.
As the opioid crisis continues, States can draw down Federal funds to cover medication-assisted treatment, MAT, medications and therapy, expand coverage of community-based benefits to support treatment and recovery, and to integrate behavioral health services into primary care and other settings. All that will stop with the Medicaid cuts that we are hearing that the Republicans want to implement.
Republican plans to cut Medicaid will further limit access to care for substance use disorders, jeopardize treatment for Medicaid beneficiaries, and lead to more deaths as a result of termination of treatment.
Again, I understand that the Republicans are talking today about law enforcement and penalties, but they are completely ignoring the fact that for many people this crisis is really dependent upon the fact that people continue to seek out fentanyl, and if they don't get treatment, then there are going to be more people that are doing the same.
Part of the reason that we are opposed to this bill today is because it doesn't say anything about treatment, which is one of the major aspects of this crisis. What we hear is cuts, cuts, cuts on all these treatment programs, which are totally unacceptable if you actually want to deal with this epidemic.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
This bill would permanently classify fentanyl and its analogues as schedule I controlled substances, which will give our law enforcement officers more tools to use in tracking down and stopping the dealers who are trafficking this substance into our communities.
Mr. Speaker, this is a deeply personal issue for me. I represent parts of Los Angeles County, which has experienced an over 1,000 percent increase in fentanyl deaths in the last few years.
Mr. Speaker, the most difficult day in my 19 years in elected office was several years ago when I tried to console a constituent, a grieving mother who had lost both of her sons in the same day to fentanyl poisoning. As the father of two boys myself who were about the same age at the time, I can't imagine how devastating that must have been.
This bill would give our law enforcement agencies more tools to help stop this problem. That is why I am proud to be a cosponsor of it, and I strongly urge its passage.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for allowing me to speak. I rise in strong favor of the HALT Fentanyl Act to combat the deadliest drug crisis our Nation has ever faced.
Fentanyl-related substances are wreaking havoc in our communities all across this country, with illicit fentanyl poisoning now the leading cause of death among young adults from 18-49. Last year alone, 109,000 Americans died of an overdose, the overwhelming majority of that related to fentanyl.
Drug traffickers exploit loopholes in our law, tweaking fentanyl's chemical structure just enough to create new, unregulated substances that are equally as deadly.
To be clear, Democrats have already voted for this. They have voted for the temporary extension of this with a continuing resolution, and this has never come up. This is a bipartisan bill. If this goes away, that is a win for the cartels, criminals, and Chinese Communist Party.
The HALT Fentanyl Act permanently classifies all fentanyl-related substances, analogues, and derivatives as schedule I drugs, ensuring that law enforcement has those necessary tools to do their jobs.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McDowell), a new member of the Republican Conference, a new Member of Congress, and my good friend.
Mr. Speaker, this is the first time that I have had the honor of speaking on the floor of this great body, and it isn't by chance. It is because of how important this legislation is and how personal it is to my family and me.
In 2017, we lost my little brother, Luke, to fentanyl poisoning. He was only 20 years old. It changed everything for our family, and there is not a day that goes by that we don't feel the pain of that loss.
Days like tomorrow, February 7, which would have been his 29th birthday, will always come with an especially painful reminder that he should be here.
Unfortunately, the pain that we feel is not unique to my family because tens of thousands of American families are being shattered by this crisis each year.
Today, fentanyl is the leading cause of death among young adults.
Enough is enough, Mr. Speaker. Enough is enough.
This legislation before us today would make important changes. Right now, because of an emergency order, fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances are considered a schedule I drug, but this order is set to expire at the end of March. If it expires, it means that law enforcement will have no authority to seize many of these deadly drugs, that drug traffickers will be empowered to push deadlier drugs on our streets, and that our Border Patrol officials will lose the authority to seize these drugs coming across our border.
This bipartisan legislation is simple. It is not window dressing, Mr. Speaker. It is simple. It would make this emergency order permanent. However, let's never mistake simple for insignificant. We have before us the opportunity to save many lives.
Mr. Speaker, we lost my little brother to fentanyl, and I will not stop until we ensure that others don't lose theirs.
Mr. Speaker, what you see next to me is a tiny speck of fentanyl, just a few milligrams, a dose so small it could fit on the ear of Lincoln on a penny, yet that speck is enough to take a life and destroy a family.
In 2023, over 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses or poisoning, with fentanyl responsible for nearly 75 percent of those deaths.
As a State senator, I eliminated preauthorization for medicated assisted treatment for substance use disorder. In Congress, I have the Alternatives to PAIN Act. I have also helped veterans to get access to substance use disorder treatment.
This poison is flooding our streets and killing our children, parents, and neighbors. It is killing my constituents in Iowa. That is why we must pass the HALT Fentanyl Act. This bill would make the temporary classwide scheduling order for fentanyl-related substances permanent, ensuring law enforcement has the authority to seize these deadly drugs before they destroy more lives.
If we fail to act, traffickers will continue to exploit loopholes, pushing even deadlier drugs onto our streets.
The time for action is now. Lives are on the line. We must pass this bill to protect our families and stop this crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Iowa for her comments, but I want to inform her that the Trump administration's funding freeze can impact as much as $57 million in funding for substance abuse and mental health services and research in the State of Iowa that her constituents rely on. Cutting this vital funding will greatly hamper our response to the opioid epidemic and result in more overdose deaths.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the HALT Fentanyl Act because it is the most obvious thing in the world to be in support of.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their lives to fentanyl. Fentanyl is supposed to be used in the operating room and on the battlefield. It is not meant to be laced into street drugs and sold online to kids. Due to its street use, it has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans--75,000 deaths a year. It is the Nation's biggest mass poisoning in our history.
There is a supply-side element to that. It is the Mexican drug cartels.
It is also worth mentioning the counterarguments to this. Everyone says, well, if we schedule this as a schedule I drug, then we are going to go right back to the old days of the 1980s and 1990s of mass incarceration.
There is a really big problem with that argument, and it is this: This has been temporarily scheduled since 2018. I would love my colleagues who are making that claim to show me the data on how this has hurt minority communities over the last 7 years. You can't because it doesn't exist. It has been schedule I for 7 years.
We cannot let that expire because then we take away the tools that our prosecutors and law enforcement need to stop this deadly threat.
I hate to break it to everybody, but incentives matter, behaviors matter. You need higher penalties for dealing fentanyl, a heck of a lot higher than the mandatory minimums we are even talking about here, if we actually care about saving kids' lives.
Mr. Speaker, we should stop playing politics. Let's do what is right. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I have sat here and listened to some of the arguments from the other side, and I feel like we are back in bizarro world again.
The election last time told us that people don't want crime, fentanyl, and the things that come with it. We are merely trying to get this off the streets.
Let me give a good example of what this means in the HALT Fentanyl Act. Let's say I am from the Pepsi company, and let's say people don't like Coke. Well, we have to get rid of Coke. We not only have to get rid of Coke, but that means we also have to get rid of vanilla Coke, lemon Coke, and all the other Cokes. In this case, we get rid of the derivatives, the basic element of fentanyl.
That is all that we are doing. We are not trying to protect our criminals. We are not going to hurt our physicians. We are not going to hurt any particular segment of society. We are trying to bring back what Americans wanted during the election, and that was law and order-- very simple.
I have known nine young men who have died from fentanyl overdoses. There is not a single person in this Chamber who doesn't know somebody who has died from this. This is the scourge of folks under age 50. It is the number one cause of death. Anything we can do to move that barrier is critical.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stop the partisan nonsense and shenanigans and let everybody get back on board to understanding that this is a scourge upon our Nation. We just want it scheduled correctly, as in schedule I. It will save lives, no matter what you look like or where you live.
Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the HALT Fentanyl Act and urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Fentanyl is destroying lives across America, and my district is no exception. Traffickers have been cutting fentanyl with additional uncontrolled substances, such as xylazine-cut fentanyl, making overdoses even harder to reverse. We cannot allow drug traffickers to push deadlier mixtures that are poisoning our youth.
This bill is a critical part in combating the fentanyl crisis in America. It will ensure that these deadly substances are classified permanently so law enforcement has the ability to seize these lethal drugs.
Law enforcement is on the front lines, fighting this crisis every single day, as drugs flow across the southern border. It is our job in this Chamber to ensure that they have the tools they need to stay ahead of drug traffickers,
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to protect our communities by voting ``yes'' on H.R. 27.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.
Let me be clear, what the Trump funding freeze does is to pause any funding to go to opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Fortunately, several Federal courts have enjoined this funding freeze from going into immediate effect, but make no mistake, if this freeze is allowed to go forward, substance use and mental health clinicians who dedicate their lives to helping those experiencing substance use disorder would go without their paychecks and close their doors.
Clinics and programs such as certified community behavioral health clinics and the Drug-Free Communities Support Program funded by the CDC would be cut off from Federal funding.
We just learned yesterday of community health centers closing in the State of Virginia, so it is already happening that some of the community health centers are closing. The millions of Americans who depend on these programs will be losing access to their care across the country.
The HALT Fentanyl Act is a bill that is opposed by over 190 organizations. It is a box to check rather than having the hard, collaborative conversations that must be done to address a longstanding problem.
Let me be clear again: The fentanyl-related substances do, in fact, pose a danger to public health. There is no question about it. That is why the DEA enacted a temporary classwide scheduling order in 2018, and we have voted to extend it over nine times since, most recently in December of last year. We included and supported it as part of a bipartisan end-of-year agreement to continue the temporary status for actually another 2 years.
Don't be fooled by the majority's fear-mongering. The upcoming expiration of the temporary order on March 31 is a crisis of their own making. If they had adopted the bipartisan agreement at the end of the year, we wouldn't be facing this deadline.
I hope that we can all agree that the substance use and overdose crisis impacts all of our districts. Those who are suffering deserve bipartisan solutions that protect public safety, support public health, and don't perpetuate criminal justice bias.
As I said before, Democratic opposition is primarily based on the fact that there is nothing here to help with support and treatment. If anybody on the other side of the aisle thinks we are just going to criminalize ourselves out of this fentanyl crisis, they are just kidding themselves.
A larger part of this problem is the fact that we need a lot more funding for support and treatment, so that the demand, if you will, for fentanyl is significantly decreased. Right now, the demand is so great, and that is a big part of why we have such a crisis.
If we don't do something about treatment and behavioral health, we are never going to deal effectively with this crisis.
For all of those reasons, I oppose this bill, and I ask my colleagues to vote ``no.''
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, speaking as the primary sponsor on the Republican side of the bipartisan bill, the SUPPORT Act, we do need treatment. We have worked on treatment. We have record treatment that has happened since the SUPPORT Act first passed, and we will work on it again this Congress.
We know it is going to expire by the end of March. What is happening is the scheduling of illicit fentanyl. What that means is, fentanyl is scheduled. What the people in China do who send their recipes for fentanyl to Mexico to be manufactured and sent across the border is if they could slightly change the molecule just enough that it is no longer fentanyl, it is no longer scheduled.
Our police officers have to find it and get it tested. Once they get it tested, they have to go back and say, okay, that is fentanyl. It is deadly. Let's go to Congress and get Congress to put that on the schedule. Then we put that on the schedule. Then they start to process and slightly change it again.
That is the reason we put this in an emergency order to begin with. That is why we want to put it in permanently because we know that it is effective.
We have had testimony to say that it is effective. We had my friend from New York (Ms. Gillen) come and say that she read that the DEA says this will save lives. Other groups say this will save lives. We have testimony that this will save lives. There is so much we need to do in helping people with their substance use disorders and struggles. There is no doubt there is a lot we need to do.
What we need to do today, what we are going to put our name on and record our vote on, yes or no, is: Do we believe that derivatives of fentanyl that are being trafficked from China to Mexico across our border, do we believe that should be schedule I and give the tools to our law enforcement officers to fight it?
That is what we are voting on today. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill. We had Mr. Cullen from Pennsylvania testify this morning in a hearing on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee for Health, who lost his son.
We all know people who suffer from this. We need to keep up the fight. This is important for us to do, and I encourage a ``yes'' vote.
Mr. Speaker, fentanyl has ravaged communities in my district and across Ohio.
In 2023, our state saw more than 3,500 fentanyl overdoses, representing 98 percent of all opioid deaths.
Families are being torn apart and law enforcement is fighting an uphill battle to keep this poison off our streets.
That's why I proudly support the HALT Fentanyl Act, which gives law enforcement the certainty and stability they need to crack down on traffickers and prevent illicit fentanyl from entering our country.
We cannot allow this crisis to continue unchecked. And we must act now to protect our communities, support law enforcement, and save lives.
I urge my House colleagues to support this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate on the bill has expired.
It is now in order to consider amendment No. 2 printed in part B of House Report 119-2.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 2 printed in part B of House Report 119-2.
Mr. Speaker, as the designee of Congresswoman Pettersen, I have an amendment at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 93, the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Mrs. Trahan) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Massachusetts.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer amendment 2 on behalf of my colleague, Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, who welcomed her second son, Sam, last week.
Unfortunately, outdated House rules prevent Congresswoman Pettersen from voting remotely while she recovers and cares for her newborn. I am proud to stand here today to advance the critical amendment that she authored, one that ensures the legislation before us does what it is intended to do: Save lives.
This amendment adds a straightforward but essential guardrail. Before this bill can take effect, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General must certify that it will actually reduce overdose deaths.
Mr. Speaker, we are at a pivotal point in the fight against the opioid crisis. For the first time since 2018, overdose deaths have declined over a 12-month period. That is not by chance. It is because of evidence-based strategies, including many championed by the Bipartisan Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Task Force.
The investments we have made to disrupt the illicit drug trade, expand access to treatment and recovery support, and make naloxone widely available, they are working. We should be building on this progress, not undermining it.
That is what this amendment ensures. While we have made real strides in this fight, the reality is still devastating: More than 80,000 Americans lost their lives to overdoses in 2024. This crisis remains a national emergency, one that demands a public health response, not a return to failed policies that devastated communities for generations.
Everyone in this Chamber agrees that we must keep fentanyl and other illicit substances out of our neighborhoods, and we have to do it in a way that actually reduces overdose deaths. That is why I urge my colleagues to support this amendment because it guarantees that this bill will save lives. We cannot afford to go backward. Let's keep moving forward.
Mr. Speaker, we know that if this emergency declaration expires, that illicit fentanyl will no longer be scheduled and individuals will no longer be subject to arrest and prosecution.
I don't believe we need to study this. That is why we have the emergency in place because of the problem. Putting this off until a study comes back, people are going to die. I don't think we need to certify that people are going to die. I think that is self-evident.
Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak, and I rise to strongly support this amendment. If we want to save lives, if that is truly what we are all here to do, let's make sure that is the outcome before we move forward.
As I stated, I am a physician. I am a lung doctor. I have taken care of people with addiction for 20 years. I know, Mr. Speaker, that people have to fail before they succeed most times when they struggle with addiction.
Criminalizing all use of fentanyl derivatives means that people will be driven into the shadows because they fear going to jail should they have an addiction. This is a chronic disease.
If we believe criminalization is the path to helping save lives, I want to see that because that has not been our experience in Oregon where it has been nationally recognized that we have struggled.
The other point I will make is that the scheduling of all fentanyl derivatives ties our hands. We cannot develop treatments that are derivatives of fentanyl if we criminalize all fentanyl-related derivatives.
Mr. Speaker, not only do we deny ourselves the opportunity for treatment upstream, but downstream, we criminalize people into the shadows where they are more likely to die of overdose.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act, and oppose the amendment.
It takes only 2 milligrams of fentanyl to kill a person. That is the weight of a single grain of sand. In fact, on average, one Pennsylvanian dies from a drug overdose every 2 hours. These aren't strangers.
The fentanyl that has poured in across our borders during the past few years has wreaked havoc on our families, neighbors, and communities. This includes me. My 16-year-old cousin lost her life to this crisis.
No race, no gender, no ZIP Code is immune from the fentanyl epidemic. This is why I am proud that we are wasting no time in bringing the HALT Fentanyl Act to the floor.
This bill should have passed both Chambers in the last Congress. It should have passed with unanimous support, but here with are. Let's show the American people we are prepared to fight for them and address this crisis. Let's deliver a tangible victory for our families and neighbors back home.
Mr. Speaker, I am totally focused on codifying President Trump's executive actions to Make America Great Again. This bill will do just that, permanently solidifying President Trump's decision to classify fentanyl-related substances and fentanyl as schedule I drugs.
Really, maybe it doesn't go far enough. I think fentanyl should be a weapon of mass destruction. I have a bill to do exactly that. Maybe that will be the next bill that we are debating on the floor this Congress.
In Colorado, I can't even go into the grocery store, the gas station, or the local firearms store without meeting someone who has had a loved one die from fentanyl.
According to the CDC in 2022 alone, fentanyl was responsible for over 73,000 deaths. That is like losing seven of my rural communities in just 1 year. Guess what? Now, it is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. It is a shame because it didn't have to be this way.
The Biden-Harris regime sacrificed American lives at the altar of open borders. Shame on them. Enough is enough. It is time we put an end to this crisis that was completely preventable and wasn't happening until Democrats enabled China and cartels with wide-open border policies.
Let's pass the HALT Fentanyl Act. Let's codify President Trump's executive orders, and let's put American lives ahead of open-border extremist policies.
Mr. Speaker, it is a very spirited debate on the other side, but this is on the amendment. This amendment would just make sure that the underlying bill actually does what it is intended to do, which is save lives simply by ensuring that the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General certify that this bill will reduce overdose deaths.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues, in order to make this legislation effective, vote ``yes'' on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, all I will say is that we know, and we have had testimony. We have had testimony from so many people who have come before our committee. We know that if we have illicit fentanyl that is no longer illegal, it is not going to save lives. It is going to cost lives.
We know this emergency order is expiring at the end of March. This needs to be done. It has to go to the Senate. Somebody mentioned earlier on the other side that it lingered in the Senate. We now have a Senate that will take this up. We have a President that will sign it.
We need to get this done so we can protect children and not delay this until we have another study when we know what is going on in our neighborhoods, our homes, our communities, and our country.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the defeat of this amendment and support the underlying bill. I yield back the balance of my time.
THE SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the previous question is ordered on the bill, as amended, and on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Mrs. Trahan).
The question is on the amendment by the gentlewoman from Massachusetts.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the noes appeared to have it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the question on amendment No. 2 to the bill, H.R. 27, to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, and for other purposes, printed in part B of House Report 119-2, offered by the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Mrs. Trahan) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.
The Clerk redesignated the amendment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the amendment offered
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 182, nays 226, not voting 24, as follows:
Ms. STEFANIK, Messrs. ZINKE, NEWHOUSE, RUTHERFORD, WHITESIDES, McCLINTOCK, Ms. De La CRUZ, Messrs. WITTMAN, McCAUL, and HURD of Colorado, changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mrs. McCLAIN DELANEY, Messrs. DAVIS of Illinois, CONNOLLY, and NORCROSS changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the amendment was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. Speaker, I missed the vote series today. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 32, the Trahan Amendment to H.R. 27 and YEA on Roll Call No. 33, Passage of H.R. 27 the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, I was unable to vote today as I had an immovable commitment. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 32, Trahan Amendment to H.R. 27 and YEA on Roll Call No. 33, H.R. 27.
Mr. Speaker, I regret that I was unable to vote today as I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 32, Amendment No. 2 to H.R. 27 and NAY on Roll Call No. 33, H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, I recently gave birth and am unable to travel to DC to vote. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 32 and NAY on Roll Call No. 33.
Mr. Speaker, I was necessarily absent and missed two votes on the House Floor. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 32, Amendment No. 2 to H.R. 27, and YEA on Roll Call No. 33, Final Passage of H.R. 27, HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, American families are still suffering from the disastrous Biden-Harris ignorant war on fossil fuels, attacking domestic producers, destroying jobs, increasing prices.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will unleash American energy by ending policies of climate alarmism, replacing them by streamlining permits and having realistic regulations.
Republicans are working to lower energy costs and to provide for all- of-the-above energy capabilities, including nuclear power, with such leadership as the new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, David Wright.
This week, House Republicans will vote on the Protecting Energy Production Act, led by Congressman August Pfluger. This bill ensures that States maintain control over fracking regulation and energy production.
In conclusion, God bless our troops, as the global war on terrorism continues. Open borders for dictators put all Americans at risk of more 9/11 attacks imminent as warned by the FBI. Trump is reinstituting existing laws to protect American families with peace through strength.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Marine Captain Miguel Justin Nava, a west Michigan hero.
Captain Nava was tragically killed in a helicopter accident outside of San Diego while serving our country. This week marks 1 year since his death.
Captain Nava grew up in Comstock Park, Michigan, and was a cherished member of our community. He graduated from Comstock Park High School and then went on to attend the United States Naval Academy. After graduating from the Naval Academy, he was commissioned into the Marine Corps to become a pilot.
During his time of service, Captain Nava earned several decorations, including the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
Captain Nava leaves behind an incredible legacy and a loving family who I have had the honor of getting to know throughout this past year. Together, alongside the Comstock Park community, we passed a bill to rename the local post office after him, which was signed into law last month.
In so many ways, Captain Nava represents the best of west Michigan. It is only right that his legacy is remembered in the community that raised him.
My thoughts are with the Nava family during this difficult time, including his beloved wife, Ryann; his son, Luca; his parents, Lisa and Javier; and his brother, Nikolas.
West Michigan is forever grateful and indebted to Captain Nava's service, and we remain committed to honoring his sacrifice and his enduring legacy.
Mr. Speaker, this week, I introduced the bipartisan ORPHAN Cures Act, legislation to remove barriers to lifesaving medical innovations.
The ORPHAN Cures Act protects the incentives for critical research and development implemented by the Orphan
More than 30 million Americans are affected by nearly 10,000 rare diseases. Unfortunately 95 percent of these diseases have no treatment. We cannot abandon the American patients who suffer from diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease, ALS, cystic fibrosis, and scleroderma, which I treated during my time in active medical practice.
By protecting critical research and developing incentives, we can give millions of Americans hope for the future. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation to foster innovative cures for patients throughout this great land.
Mr. Speaker, an unelected, self-dealing multibillionaire who has made his vast fortune off huge government contracts should not be able to buy access to the U.S. Treasury, but he has done just that.
For the princely sum of $250 million, Elon Musk bankrolled President Trump's reelection campaign. For that, he has been given the keys to the Treasury kingdom.
Let's follow his footprints. Musk is now deploying unsecured private servers with his merry band of men aged 19 to 26, none with security clearances nor experience working in government agencies, to tap into the U.S. records of every single citizen and business.
What is his mission? To track private records for more self-dealing and more contracts, looking up what his competitors are invested in and tax cuts for the billionaire class. As has been reported, one of these men with access to our Nation's sensitive data is a green card holder and apparently not even a citizen.
Article I of our Constitution rests the power of the purse with Congress. I challenge every Member, follow the footprints of Elon Musk across this government and ask yourself why he should have access to the private tax records of the people of this country.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Protecting Energy Production Act.
This bill is simple. It ensures that no President can unilaterally ban hydraulic fracturing by natural gas and oil, protecting one of America's most vital energy resources from being shut down by ideological policies.
I represent the Marcellus shale, one of the largest natural gas- producing regions in the world. Pennsylvania is leading the way in clean, affordable, and reliable energy production.
Mr. Speaker, natural gas and oil are essential to our way of life, powering our grid, our homes, our cars, our manufacturing facilities, and serving as raw materials for countless American-made goods.
Mr. Speaker, the entire world is fracking, but we do it best and cleanest here in the USA. The more natural gas we produce here at home, the cleaner the world will become. This bill is a serious economic, national security, and environmental vote. I urge my colleagues to vote for clean energy and for American economic and national security strength by supporting this legislation which we are voting on tomorrow.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to pay tribute to the life and service of Captain Rebecca Lobach, an accomplished U.S. Army aviation officer who was aboard the Black Hawk helicopter during the tragic accident at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, and a distinguished military graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Captain Lobach excelled in every aspect of her military career.
From her rigorous flight training to her role as a White House social aide, her dedication to excellence, coupled with her remarkable leadership skills, earned her the respect and admiration of her peers and superiors alike.
During her service, Captain Lobach was awarded several honors, including the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Army Service Ribbon.
She was a dedicated officer with a bright future, and her service to our country will not be forgotten. I offer my deepest condolences to Captain Lobach's family and loved ones and to all those affected by this devastating national tragedy.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mourn the loss of Charles Tamlin Hall, Jr., who unfortunately passed away this week at the age of 74.
Mr. Hall attended the University of Georgia and proudly served as the president of the University of Georgia College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Alumni Association Board of Directors. He touched the lives of countless individuals as a leader in the State of Georgia and throughout his 52 years of marriage to his beloved wife, Jan.
Mr. Hall founded his company, Association Services Group, in 1995, which was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Georgia, a testament to his reliability and leadership.
His faith was the cornerstone of his life, spending time as a deacon and greeter for the First Baptist Church on the Square. He enjoyed his Friday morning Bible study, which has been meeting for over 45 years.
Mr. Hall is survived by his lovely wife, Jan; their children, Emily Brewton and Tamlin Hall; five grandchildren; his brother, and five nieces and nephews.
Mr. Speaker, today, I stood with the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic Whip, Katherine Clark, our House Democratic Chair, Pete Aguilar, and Congressman Sean Casten to introduce the Taxpayer Data Protection Act because what is going on in the Treasury Department is lawless and wrong and frightening for the American people.
Elon Musk should not have access to your data and to the payment systems. What is going on? Mr. Speaker, I deliver this statement and this bill to this Chamber calling on all of my colleagues to join because I was a Treasury employee.
I served in the Treasury during the Barack Obama administration. In fact, I worked in a time of crisis, the Great Recession, when General Motors and Chrysler were staring bankruptcy in the face. Millions of jobs were on the line. We were doing the work for the American people, not threatening their payments and their data.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Peter Ankney in honor of his promotion in the United States Marine Corps to colonel. I had the distinct privilege of being able to attend Colonel Ankney's promotion last weekend in his hometown of Colstrip, Montana.
I could go on and on about the values of leadership, honor, or service when describing Peter, but the word that came to my mind at Colonel Ankney's promotion was ``community.''
The city hall in Colstrip was packed as the people of Rosebud County came together to honor one of their own. Montana is among the top States in veterans per capita of people with patriotism and service coursing through our veins.
I know that I speak for all of us when I say that I am proud to have a man like Colonel Ankney representing our State in uniform. I thank him for his service to our great Nation. He made us proud, bringing honor to himself, his family, his community, our State, and to our country.
Mr. Speaker, recent reports suggest that President Trump may attempt to dismantle the Department of Education unilaterally. An executive order of this nature would be catastrophic for the tens of millions of students and teachers in schools across our Nation, including in the great State of Colorado.
It would undercut support for children learning to read and write. It would, in my view, scrap key programs for high school students looking to get their college degree and abandon hardworking educators, schools, and students in rural and low-income communities.
Mr. Speaker, any effort to unilaterally dismantle this department would be clearly unconstitutional and unlawful. House Democrats will use every tool available to us to stop it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dave Alexander, the founding director of Serve the Border, a man and organization that has made it their mission to care for those who protect us along the southern border.
Serve the Border has provided meals, entertainment, and better living conditions for thousands of Border Patrol agents, Texas State troopers, and National Guardsmen stationed in some of the most challenging environments in our Nation.
This work is not glorious. It requires countless hours of preparation, logistical planning, and often personal financial sacrifice. Yet, Mr. Alexander has done it all with joy motivated by a belief in the importance of honoring those who serve.
For example, 2 weeks ago while many Texans faced an unusually cold winter, Mr. Alexander and his team on Serve the Border drove over 6 hours to Eagle Pass, Texas, from the Texas Eighth Congressional District to support the agents, the troopers, the soldiers, and the marines stationed in the Del Rio and Laredo sectors to make sure they had hot meals and a place to refocus for their next mission.
On behalf of the district, I thank Mr. Alexander and all those who serve in Serve the Border for their extraordinary contributions. Fair winds and following seas.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize February 4 as Saka Nakodar Day. On that day in 1986, in the Punjab region of India, four unarmed Sikh students were shot and killed while peacefully protesting the desecration of the sacred scripture of the Sikhs.
The killing was abhorrent, but the investigation was deplorable. The victims' bodies were disposed of in secret. No perpetrator was ever brought to justice, and reports, commissions, and other inquiries on the massacre received absolutely no action.
February 4 remains a dark day for the Sikhs in Punjab, but also for Sikhs here in America. For 39 years, they have fought for truth, justice, and accountability. As United States Representatives, it is our responsibility to fight for our values at home and abroad and call out these tragedies for our partners around the globe.
That is why I recognize Saka Nakodar Day and that justice is still waiting to be served for Ravinder Singh, Baldhir Singh, Jhilman Singh, and Harminder Singh.
Mr. Speaker, for years, America led the world in energy production, thanks in large part to the miracle of hydraulic fracturing. This innovation not only created jobs and boosted our economy but also made the U.S. the top producer of oil and gas.
The last administration has given us dangerous policies that drive up these costs, threaten the jobs, and make us much more dependent on foreign adversaries for our energy.
Instead of supporting domestic production, those policies have prioritized extreme climate agendas that weaken our energy security and raise costs for American families, which is one of the main drivers of inflation.
I am pleased to see the Protecting Energy Production Act come to the House floor this week. This bill ensures no President can unilaterally ban fracking and keep States in control of their own energy production.
Democratic administrations and radical activists have long pushed policies that would cripple domestic production, send our jobs overseas, and make life much more expensive for Americans and our allies. We cannot afford to let that happen.
Protecting domestic energy production means lower costs, stronger national security, and a future where America remains an energy powerhouse. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation later and stand for energy American independence.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate three downtown Minneapolis restaurants on their achievement of being named semifinalists for the 2025 James Beard Award. Minneapolis has one of the best food scenes in the country, and that is exemplified by these recognitions from the James Beard Foundation.
Spoon and Stable is nominated for outstanding restaurant. They have a been a hallmark of the North Loop for over a decade, extending a fusion of French and local cultures through cuisine.
Vinai and Bucheron, both established in 2024, are nominated for the best new restaurant. Vinai features Hmong culture, stories, and ritual through food. Bucheron presents French-American fusion, while pulling inspiration from rural Minnesotan culture.
All of these restaurants are doing incredible work expanding Minneapolis' culture and food scene, and we are very proud of the work they have done to achieve this honor.
Mr. Speaker, across this Nation, men and women rise before dawn, lace up their boots, and power America forward. They drill, refine, transport, and innovate, fueling homes, factories, and cities.
Yet, time and again, Democrats in Washington try to strangle their livelihoods with bans, red tape, and radical restrictions.
Just last month, Democrats pushed policies to lock away 670 million acres of land and water from energy production. While they push their anti-energy agenda, hardworking Americans pay the price at the pump, on their utility bills, and on their paychecks.
Congressman August Pfluger's Protecting Energy Production Act stops this sabotage. It blocks any President from banning fracking, unlocks leasing on public lands, slashes red tape, and restores energy independence. More energy means lower costs, better jobs, and a stronger America.
We must pass the Protecting American Energy Production Act.
Mr. Speaker, this week, my office was flooded with calls from constituents who are angry and frustrated about Elon Musk and his takeover of our government.
I am just as outraged as they are. This billionaire was neither elected by the American people nor Senate confirmed. Yet, he is sitting in our Nation's highest office, openly seizing power, making consequential decisions about Americans' personal data, and gutting the services and programs that working families in the San Fernando Valley rely on.
Why does Elon Musk have access to your personal information without any oversight or accountability? House Democrats and I are taking action. We are legislating. We are supporting litigation, and we are mobilizing.
I also ask why our Republican colleagues are sitting in silence while Elon Musk takes control our government and harms Americans' lives. I urge my Republican colleagues to join us in the fight against Elon's takeover.
Mr. Speaker, in 1993, the VA established the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or DIC, benefits which are paid to the survivors of servicemembers who died in the line of duty or to veterans who died from service-related injuries or conditions. Unfortunately, the DIC benefits have fallen drastically behind the cost of living, causing a financial hardship on veterans and military families.
That is why I have led the introduction of the bipartisan Caring for Survivors Act, which would increase the DIC benefits from 43 percent to 55 percent, amounting to an increase of approximately $454 per month for surviving family members. The legislation also fast-tracks DIC benefits to family members who currently have to wait a decade before receiving benefits.
Honoring the sacrifices our servicemembers make on behalf of our Nation means caring for the loved ones they leave behind.
Mr. Speaker, President Trump said he was going to lower food prices on day one, end the war in Ukraine on day one, bring down housing costs, make the government more efficient, and bring peace to the Middle East. All those things sound great, don't they?
Instead of reducing the price of eggs, his administration is kneecapping the CDC's efforts to report on the avian flu outbreak. Instead of making housing more affordable, he is pushing tariffs on Canada and Mexico that would make construction significantly more expensive. Instead of making government more efficient, he is paralyzing agencies like the IRS which under the Biden administration recovered over a billion dollars in taxes owed by wealthy Americans who weren't paying their fair share.
Frankly, my constituents are terrified this administration will ruin their lives. On Tuesday alone, my staff answered and spoke with more than 700 constituents specifically concerned about Elon Musk running roughshod over the payment systems. We have received thousands of emails.
Mr. Speaker, in Trump's view, making America great again comes at the expense of hardworking Americans who already make our country great. He also seems to think that Elon Musk is going to do it for him.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life of a great man who just so happened to be my high school principal, Mr. Mytron Lisby.
As a kid, I was a bit of a troublemaker. One day I played a prank at school that landed me in Mr. Lisby's office. Honestly, I should have been expelled that day, but he told me: Maxwell, I am not expelling you. I think you can be great, and I see something in you.
He believed in me, and he gave me a second chance. Honestly, I think that second chance is one of the reasons I am here today. He came to know Jesus Christ as his Savior at a young age and served him faithfully. He served as a teacher and an administrator for 43 years.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the tens of thousands of students across this Nation he has inspired, I thank Mr. Lisby. I have to think that at the gates of Heaven, God is going to greet him with that administrator school radio because maybe even Heaven sometimes needs help keeping things on track just like a great principal does.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Haridopolos) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida?
Mr. Speaker, lives destroyed, trust violated, and hearts broken, this is the story of illegal immigration.
Young girls and boys have been sold into sexual slavery. Hundreds of thousands have been killed by fentanyl. Hundreds of known terrorists have entered our Nation. Schools, hospitals, and towns have been overrun by numbers of illegal aliens and the high cost of taxpayers. Criminals entered and preyed on our citizens. Sadly, many committed murder and rape.
Yet, we learned just over 2 weeks ago that this is a problem that could be quickly solved, and that is what is happening today with the election and actions of our new President. This crisis can be quickly solved with commonsense and decisive action.
Today, I am joined by other freshmen Members of this Congress who are problem-solvers, people who have made it work at the local level at businesses across our country, and they understand how to get things done just like our President has been doing for the last 2\1/2\ weeks.
The first of our speakers today comes from the experienced Missouri Legislature, serving in both the house and senate. He has great accomplishments as both an attorney and a doctor. He represents a central part of Missouri just west of St. Louis, and he is a person who back in 2008 knew this problem was coming to a head. He sponsored and passed legislation to make sure we did not have sanctuary cities.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Onder), the Congressman from the Third District.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Florida for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an issue important to all Americans, not just Americans living on our border. Illegal immigration directly impacts our society, our safety, our security, and the future of our Nation. Dangers posed by illegal immigration are many. The consequences of policies from the Biden administration are many and severe.
Deaths from murder, poisonings from fentanyl, and victimization of the innocent by human traffickers could all have been solved if only the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrat Congress were willing to secure our borders.
I want to begin by sharing a case that sadly demonstrates the dire consequences of our porous border and weak immigration enforcement. In my district, in St. Charles County, Missouri, two innocent women were sexually assaulted by an illegal alien of Middle Eastern descent who overstayed his tourist visa. Instead of returning home like he was supposed to and as our law required, he flouted the law and stayed illegally.
Ultimately, he victimized two innocent American women. The trauma inflicted upon these women and upon many others like them is immeasurable. If we are to prevent this from happening again, we must remember that the pain is a direct result of the open border policies that have failed to prioritize the safety of Americans.
Mr. Speaker, this is not an isolated incident. This is a pattern and an epidemic of lawlessness that has swept across our country. Criminals, foreign nationals, and even terrorists have attempted to exploit our immigration policy failures.
Over the past 4 years, we have rightfully turned our attention to the southern border. We also have illegal immigrants taking advantage of lax enforcement and overstaying visas without consequence. The story of this individual in St. Charles County is part of a pattern with these overstays being a large source of our illegal alien population.
For that reason, I will soon be introducing the Timely Departure Act. This important legislation would require certain visa recipients to post a cash bond which they would forfeit should they overstay their visas. Under this law, overstayers who overstay would be unable to obtain lawful immigration status for at least 4 years, and they would be unable to submit an asylum claim or withholding of removal claim after their scheduled departure date. Visitor, business, and pleasure visas are important to our economy, but they are being abused.
Before the Biden administration's change to the asylum policy, visa overstays were a leading contributor to illegal immigration. As of 2023, visa overstays accounted for 42 percent of the illegal population. This legislation is necessary to enforce visa exit dates, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Timely Departure Act.
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system, which was once designed to be a source of legal immigration and lawful entry, has become nothing more than a wide-open door and a red carpet. This must end. This is why President Trump and House Republicans have to act forcefully to protect Americans.
Another border security issue is the abuse of our asylum process. Over the past couple of years, especially as Texas has taken action to secure its border, fewer illegal aliens have been entering our country by sneaking by border crossings like Eagle Pass or Brownsville.
More and more illegal aliens are presenting themselves to immigration authorities and claiming asylum. Most of these asylum cases are bogus. The Biden administration has not detained these aliens but, rather, released them into the country with some far-off asylum hearing date to which they never show. We found time and time again that these so- called refugees are violent criminals.
Under our America First border policies, this abuse of the asylum process is going to end. President Trump's actions at the border, his executive orders, and his diplomacy with Colombia, Mexico, and Canada show that he means what he says. He means business.
In Congress, we will assist with legislation like the Laken Riley Act, and we will provide funding for the border wall, border guards, and the legal resources to clean out the many bogus asylum claims.
A message to all the countries who are part of the problem is the era of the U.S. playing the fool ends now. They should not empty their prisons or coddle drug and human trafficking cartels at our expense or they will face consequences.
Another equally important issue is that the open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration have led to an epidemic of fentanyl poisonings across our country. Fentanyl, which is smuggled across our southern border, is responsible for 100,000 American deaths in the last year alone.
We have become a global dumping ground for the world's deadliest drugs with Mexican cartels making and smuggling fentanyl and methamphetamine into the United States, drugs made from Chinese precursor chemicals. We will secure our border. We will build the wall. Yes, we will target drug cartels as international terrorists.
Occasionally, we hear apologists for the open border policies of the Biden administration argue that somehow mass illegal immigration is good for our economy or that some illegal aliens pay taxes. It is nice that illegal aliens sometimes pay taxes, but these individuals fail to account for the full cost of illegal immigration.
The strain on our economy has been profound. Taxpayer dollars have been spent to fund social services, healthcare, and education for illegal aliens. That is money that could be better spent on securing the future, money that we do not have with our debt of $36 trillion, not to mention the economic and social costs of the victims of crime caused by illegal aliens or the lives cut short by fentanyl poisoning or the immeasurable and lifelong trauma of the victims of human trafficking.
Police officers, teachers, and healthcare providers are working harder than ever to accommodate an influx of people who have no legal right to be here. Democrats have told us to accept this as the new normal. House Republicans and President Trump are here to tell our communities this ends now.
Mr. Speaker, this crisis is not just a border issue. It is a national security issue. It is a public safety issue. It is a public health issue. It is an economic issue. We must take swift action to protect our country, our communities, and our people.
Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration's open border policies have failed, and it is time for a change. In collaboration with Donald Trump, it is time to make America safe again.
Mr. Speaker, next we have Congressman Tony Wied from the great State of Wisconsin. He represents the northeastern portion of Wisconsin, the Eighth Congressional District.
He comes with the real-world experience of being a businessowner, as he and his wife have developed an amazing business in their neck of the woods. He serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the Committee on Agriculture, as well as the Committee on Small Business.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Wied).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues to address an issue that has plagued our Nation over the last 4 years and to let the American people know that the House GOP is working alongside President Trump to secure our border and make the safety of American citizens our number one priority.
When President Trump left office 4 years ago, our border was secure, and significant progress was being made on the border wall. On the first day of the Biden administration, Joe Biden unilaterally reversed nearly all of the successful policies of the Trump administration and invited an invasion at our southern border.
Every State became a border State, including my home state of Wisconsin. Every county became a border county. Every town became a border town. We saw unprecedented numbers of illegal aliens crossing our border and invading our country. Many of these individuals have committed violent felonies and other serious crimes since entering this country.
As I traveled through all 11 counties in Wisconsin's Eighth Congressional District, I heard from citizens who wanted the lawlessness to end. I also heard from sheriffs who had gang members taking up spaces in their jails with no plans to deport them.
Make no mistake, this crisis was a policy choice of Joe Biden and the Democrats. They purposely shredded President Trump's successful border security playbook and allowed unmitigated illegal immigration to continue uninterrupted and unimpeded for 4 straight years.
In just over 2 weeks since President Trump has taken office, he has done more to secure our border and protect
As you can see, over the past 2 years, there was an average of more than 1,500 illegal migrants encountered at our border every single day.
In President Trump's first days in office, that number had fallen to fewer than 50 encounters. Since then, we have continued to see a 63 percent drop in illegal encounters at the border on average.
This is what happens when you have a President who prioritizes the safety of American citizens.
President Trump has reinstated the remain in Mexico policy, and I am proud to cosponsor a bill by Representative Brandon Gill to make this policy permanent so that future, radical administrations cannot undo our progress.
We also passed the Laken Riley Act and the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act. These bills ensure that anyone in this country illegally who commits a crime, whether it be a theft or sexual assault, will have an ICE detainer placed on them immediately.
The House of Representatives just passed the HALT Fentanyl Act, permanently criminalizing fentanyl.
In 2023, 70 percent of the 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. involved a synthetic opioid such as fentanyl.
Every single life lost is more than a statistic. Families should not have to feel this heartbreak, and this legislation will prevent future lives from being lost to this deadly drug.
This is just the beginning. We will not rest until our border is secure again and Americans feel safe in their communities again.
My pledge to the people of Wisconsin's Eighth Congressional District and to citizens all across the United States is that House Republicans will never relent in our mission to make America safe again.
I thank President Trump and my Republican colleagues for their leadership on this issue. A nation without borders is no nation at all.
Mr. Speaker, my next speaker, Representative Brad Knott, is a Federal prosecutor, and he has seen firsthand the challenges that come with illegal immigration. It was one of the ways that I truly learned about what was going on at the border. Congressman Knott and I had long discussions about the challenges we faced at the Department of Justice and the everyday trials and tribulations that people face because of this illegal activity.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Knott), who represents central North Carolina in District 13.
Mr. Speaker, I rise as the newly elected Representative of North Carolina's 13th Congressional District. This being my first speech on the House floor, I want to take an opportunity to introduce myself to the House, to talk a little bit about our incredible district, and then highlight one of the single most important issues to me personally and one of the main motivating factors that led me to run for office: illegal immigration and the deep harm it inflicts on our country each and every day.
First, the 13th Congressional District of North Carolina stretches all the way from Lee County to the State's northern border, and it includes: Wake, Johnston, Harnett, Franklin, Caswell, Person, and Granville Counties along the way.
We tout a wide array of professions from dedicated farmers and retailers to manufacturers and medical professionals, providing the Nation and the world with food, fuel, clothing, and care.
On January 3 when I was sworn in to Congress, I was blessed and humbled to have my grandfather in the House Chamber with me. Also a lifelong North Carolinian, he fought and was wounded in World War II fighting the Nazis before coming home to start a business, raise a family, and serve his community in many ways for decades.
He and my father both inspired me to work hard and pursue a lifelong goal of serving as a Federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of North Carolina, which I did for the better part of the last decade.
I proudly worked alongside law enforcement at every level, local, State, and Federal, to prosecute organized crimes in cases that touched every corner of the country.
This, of course, included drug cartels, human traffickers, those who were here to commit financial crimes, national gangs, and many, many more.
I saw how harmful policies weakened law enforcement and gravely wounded communities and households all over the country. The most glaring policy flaws involved the southern border.
As soon as the Biden administration took power, their decisions made one thing very clear: The policy flaws involving the southern border and the illegal immigration crisis, they were no blunders of the Biden- Harris administration. This was a conscious and deliberate policy to flood the Nation with illegal immigrants, not just from our neighbors to the south, but from all over the world.
Behind me is a chart. Many of the viewers may recognize it as the chart that President Trump was viewing when he turned his head, a divine miracle that saved his life. The chart itself shows directly that all President Biden and Kamala Harris had to do was nothing.
We can see that the border was secure and illegal immigration was descending. As soon as they took power, it was like a vertical rocket ship. There was no gradual increase. It was an immediate increase.
Me personally, I saw how the Biden-Merrick Garland DOJ put the brakes on enforcing immigration laws, purposely slowing immigration prosecutions down to a trickle.
Open borders and redirected efforts allowed the international criminal organizations not only to take hold in this country, but they took hold in such a way that it is far more pervasive than many Americans realize.
Yes, we see the effects, but most do not fully understand the wide- reaching influence of these bad actors. As a point in thesis, we must address illegal immigration now.
Now, I will say I was very glad to read the report yesterday of our new Attorney General, Ms. Bondi. On her very first day in office, she directed the DOJ to pause all Federal funding for sanctuary cities. I applaud the Attorney General for taking this important step and I will state it is high time that public officials in Democratically controlled cities and States around the country follow her lead and adhere to the rule of law.
It is because of the reckless open-border policies, again, designed and embraced by the Democratic Party, that every State has suffered.
If I can turn to the next chart.
Again, this next chart will show just how drastic the open border crisis was during the last 4 years, it is a little clearer. Again, these are the individuals on the terrorist watch list apprehended illegally crossing the open border.
Again, we are talking about the ill effects of these policies. In fiscal year 2017, '18, '19, '20, again, no involvement, and then in '21, '22, '23, and '24, it skyrockets.
Again, all Americans have been put at risk. It is because of these open-border policies, that we continue to mourn the entirely preventable crimes that so many Americans have faced. This, of course, includes the young lady named Laken Riley from Georgia and Rachel Morin from Maryland and many others who died at the hands of illegal immigrants.
As one other statistic, West Virginia, a rural State, loses more than a thousand people every year from fentanyl smuggled across our southern border. Opioid overdoses are the leading cause of death among Americans in every State from 18 to 45.
In Nevada, just those that we know about, human traffickers that are here illegally prey on up to 500 minors shuffling them into sex trafficking.
The statistics are endless. The examples are too numerous. And make no mistake about this, this wide, far-reaching crisis is in my community, it is in your community, and it is in every community around the country.
With an open border and weak law enforcement policies, every incentive imaginable exists for individuals to come to the United States and prey on our people. I saw it firsthand as a prosecutor when I talked to these criminals, when I investigated their crimes. We must face the reality that every incentive exists for criminals around the
Again, when I was prosecuting these cases, I saw firsthand how criminal illegal immigrants completely disregard our border and disregard our laws. They come here with one intent, to inflict harm on Americans while enriching themselves.
Again, it was no secret what was happening across the Department of Justice. Statistics were overwhelming as it relates to drug overdose deaths, addiction, and the presence of cartels in our communities. Human traffickers and drug cartels clearly saw that the Biden administration was intent on undoing every enforcement mechanism that they had at the border.
President Trump had figured it out. Joe Biden undid it.
Our criminal justice system immediately, State and Federal, became weighed down by the surging crime that accompanied our invasion from illegal immigrants. This crisis burdens not just our communities with public safety issues, as my colleague from Missouri just mentioned, this crisis burdens our healthcare system, and it burdens our public school system. By some estimates, illegal immigrant children account for up to 10 to 15 percent of the public school students in various portions of our country.
By some estimates, it is estimated that we spend up to $150 billion per year at local, State, and Federal levels that are direct payments for illegal immigrants.
Again, there is one study that the Homeland Security Committee did in the 118th Congress that reported that nearly 10 percent of the births covered by Medicaid were children of illegal immigrants.
Now, proponents of illegal immigration and weak borders have for years gaslit Americans into believing that it is inhumane to enforce our borders. Of course, this empty argument is ridiculous and easily rebutted on multiple levels.
For those who have experienced the crime brought to our country from illegal immigration, we have a different perspective. I would submit allowing a criminal illegal alien who was arrested on multiple occasions to be free in our midst and to murder an innocent girl like Laken Riley, that is inhumane.
Surrendering apartment complexes that are filled with hardworking American taxpayers to vicious gangs, that is inhumane.
Allowing hundreds of thousands of Americans to die from one drug that enters into our country through one mechanism, an open southern border, through meticulous schemes of multinational criminal organizations day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and to do nothing about it, that is inhumane.
Allowing millions more to fall into treacherous addiction with wide availability of dangerous drugs flowing across the open border, and again, to do nothing about it, that is inhumane.
We see once mighty centers of American exceptionalism from New York City, Manhattan; Philadelphia, specifically the Kensington neighborhood; or even San Francisco. From East to West and North to South, a tsunami of illegal drugs have hollowed out countless individuals and countless homes, ruining lives, ruining neighborhoods, ruining cities, and ruining States.
What have our leaders done over the last 4 years? Nothing. Instead and insultingly, they have continued to incentivize without check illegal immigration, and they force the taxpayers to foot the bill.
Weak border proponents, including some of my colleagues on the other side of this aisle, expect law enforcement to turn a blind eye to the trafficking of people across our border and around the country. They have played right into the hand of cartels, making their policies and their efforts complicit in the abuse and the atrocities that we all see.
This cycle is not only inhumane, it is as shameful as it is dangerous, and it will destroy our country if we do not fix it and fix it with urgency.
I personally saw firsthand how criminal illegal aliens and the organizations that send them here capitalized on our open-border policies and how flatly wrong many, if not all, of the left's talking points are as they relate to the broader immigrant issue.
The following observations of mine are supported by facts within our national law enforcement communities and, again, through firsthand observations.
First, the left throws out any distinction between legal immigrants and legal immigrant descendants and illegal immigrants and their descendants. There is a very stark contrast between those two camps.
Second, the left claims that immigrants, broadly speaking, only want to come here to the United States for a better life and that they only engage in legal and honest work. Again, that is simply not the case uniformly by any stretch. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who come here repeatedly illegally, again, looking to enrich themselves through illegal activity at the American people's expense.
I investigated and prosecuted dozens of individuals who worked in various sectors, like banking, the auto repair business, the public school system, the agricultural business, shipping enterprises, law enforcement, and countless other outlets. Yes, even law enforcement. Those same people, while they had an honest job, they also engaged in violent crime, Medicaid fraud, and organized retail theft. They engaged in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and/or other types of crime in addition to their ``honest'' work. At times they even used their jobs to better facilitate criminal endeavors.
This type of sophisticated criminal infrastructure is a cancer, and it must be eradicated. Again, we must redirect the terrible policies that enabled this ill in our country.
Lastly, I will say this: The claim that immigrants commit far fewer crimes than native-born Americans, again, this statement is far too broad, and it is easily refuted.
First, as the President's team has stated correctly, every person who enters our country illegally has committed a crime. That is 100 percent across the board. However, secondly, and even more importantly and going directly to the heart of what that claim indicates, one must ask oneself: If we do not know who you are and why you are here, is it likely that you will be successfully investigated and prosecuted?
Of course not. There are hundreds of thousands of people who cross over the border undetected. One must ask themselves hypothetically: Regarding a native-born, local thief, a pickpocket, is it easier to investigate and prosecute him or someone that even our border enforcement authorities, our Federal law enforcement authorities, or local law enforcement have no idea who they are? Of course, the former is easier to convict.
With all that our country has endured, we simply must know who is entering our country and why they are coming here. Thankfully, we have all turned the page. The disastrous policies of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Mr. Mayorkas are being undone with rapid speed.
For a decade, President Trump alone has identified the threat of illegal immigration and how the American taxpayers are being damaged by those who come here to harm us collectively.
We say America First because there is simply no plan B. Flatly speaking, nobody can save us if we do not save ourselves. As my colleagues have stated, so far Republicans have made great progress this cycle. We passed the Laken Riley Act. We passed the Preventing Violence Against Women By Illegal Immigrants Act. President Trump's executive orders have made an immediate difference, but our work is far from over.
We must reverse the incentive structures. We must classify illegal immigrant criminals for what they are, and we must punish them severely. It is a no-brainer, Mr. Speaker. We must protect our borders and, by extension, all American citizens. If we don't, then we run a grave risk of losing our country.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the good words of the Congressman from the 13th District of North Carolina giving real-world examples of how this unfair policy has impacted so many of us not just with dollars but with lives.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a crime which we must end. The good news is we are moving in that direction. What I have mentioned before is so telling, and that is the idea of lives destroyed, trust violated, and hearts broken.
America is the land of opportunity and equal justice. What was so frustrating in watching this issue grow over the last 4 years is that as people are paying more and more for rent, gasoline, and the basics of life, here was the Federal Government actually subsidizing illegal activity by giving phone cards, giving cash cards, free housing, and other benefits while the Americans were suffering each and every day.
To further complicate that issue, they were hiding not only illegal individuals but people who had committed crimes in sanctuary cities. Everyone in that neighborhood knew exactly who these people were. We saw on day one when Donald Trump took the Office of the Presidency once again, those people were quickly identified, arrested, and deported or put into jail if they committed a completely violent act.
It was a no-brainer. As our colleagues before me talked about, all he had to do was nothing. It is the ultimate goal of life, just show up and do nothing, and you would actually continue to solve a problem. However, the former President actually took action. New executive orders repealed the successful policies of President Trump, and the problem grew and grew and grew.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I reached out to the place that I used to serve in the Florida legislature talking to what is called AHCA. AHCA is the group that oversees our healthcare system in Florida. The numbers are there in concrete form. Over half a billion dollars was put on the backs of taxpayers because illegal aliens accessed the medical system for free through Medicaid or other devices, and those cost shifts would take place. That means that half a billion dollars was taken out of taxpayers' pockets that could have been spent on schools, hospitals, roads, the environment, or even tax reduction. Instead, it was spent on folks who shouldn't be here, period.
Mr. Speaker, as you can imagine, my last name is a unique one. My dad was actually born in Athens, Greece, but he came here to make a better life. He wanted to play by the rules. That is the second thing I want to get into tonight.
There are millions of people who want to come here legally. Yet, they are being cut in line by people who are undercutting the rule of law. Those folks want to contribute. They have skills that we need: Science, technology, engineering, math, and other skills that we desperately need in this potential growing economy, especially if the Trump tax cuts are reinforced.
However, instead, we continue to spend, spend, spend with no hope in sight for folks who just don't want to contribute to the American Dream. It is a great frustration because, Mr. Speaker, when you look at the graphs before, the President called it correctly, his policies actually worked. It is so enlightening for all of us and such a joy that when the President simply went back to the old policy, the number of illegals diminished to almost zero. That means we can now go after those people who have been preying on the system, whether it be for financial or more, let's just say, devious reasons.
I am proud to represent the great State of Florida. They have been aggressive about illegal immigration. In one of my first days in the Florida Legislature, one of the bills that was introduced was to give the illegal aliens a driver's license, a ticket to ride, so to speak. Fortunately, we were able to kill such legislation.
Congressman Unger back in 2008 passed legislation to get tough on sanctuary cities. Those policies simply work. I think what all of us want, whether on the left side of the aisle or our side, we want problem solvers in America again. We want people who just want to come here and get things done.
Candidly, I think that is why so many people love President Trump. He is a problem solver. He looks at a problem in a common sense way. He doesn't automatically put a Republican or a Democratic spin on it. He said: How do we solve the problem? He talked to the experts. He put those items in place, and the border crisis went away in his first term. He implemented those policies once again 2 weeks into office, and we are back in a successful border. Without a successful border, we simply don't have a nation.
Again, I am encouraged by these actions. I am just amazed that the prior President and his team would turn their backs on the American people who gave them this opportunity to lead. It is going to be a challenging time to get this thing right. The good news is that with President Trump in place, we have seen the changes in a clear and let's just say discernible way.
As we look at the testimony earlier by Congressman Knott, it is one of the reasons I wanted to have this conversation today. A few weeks ago before we were actually sworn into office, Congressman Knott and I sat down in Boston. I said: What is really happening at the Department of Justice? Why are they not prosecuting these crimes?
As he mentioned in his very eloquent speech, he walks us through the crisis. He tells us how simple it is to solve this crisis, and the other team just chooses to turn a blind eye.
The statistics are pretty overwhelming with the number of people who were in challenging situations. Just to give you an idea, Mr. Speaker, of how frustrating it is to so many people on this issue. As the Biden administration was winding down, they were actually looking to sell off the very border wall that the American public had already paid for. You talk about insulting; it is to the highest degree. They are literally letting this metal rot and rust in the desert instead of just simply putting it up.
I am glad to see, I must admit, one of the real highlights of my early career here in Congress was actually seeing the bipartisanship that was shown on the Laken Riley bill. It was a pleasant surprise given the rhetoric of the prior 4 years. I hope it is a sign of things to come.
I happen to serve on the Financial Services Committee, I serve on the Science Committee, and I chair the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. Those should be bipartisan solutions in which we come across the aisle and solve problems as opposed to pointing fingers.
I really appreciate the kind words of the President this morning during his address at the National Day of Prayer. He talked about reaching across the aisle and solving problems in a concrete way. This issue should be one where we all solve that problem. Again, I don't care about who gets the support because the American people support the idea of finally closing the gates to these people who come across illegally and opening the door once again to smart, commonsense legal immigration as opposed to illegal immigration.
As I get ready to close, I am thankful, first of all, for these types of opportunities. America is such a unique place. I noticed as the other side of the aisle is going to have their Special Order hour today, that we need to have these constructive dialogues. It seemed so hyperbolic during the campaign, the pointing of fingers, but it is so nice to see a quick and decisive result in talking about illegal immigration and how quickly we can solve this issue and truly secure our border and remove those people who should not be here.
I am so glad the President is going after those violent offenders first, the ones who have been protected by sanctuary cities. My former Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has now taken the reins at the Attorney General's Office. She is a tough-on-crime prosecutor. She is not a politico. She is a person who has been a problem solver throughout her career and who cared about her State and now her Nation. She is saying: We will go after those offenders. If the law is not going to be enforced and it is a sanctuary city, then move over. We are taking away the funding. We are extracting these people who have preyed on the system for too long and who have been protected, sadly, by the political class in their community. The political class who has been turning their backs on the very people who put them into power and into office.
I hope that we can have this constructive dialogue, and I am optimistic that the Senate will take up our tough border ideas so that we can, again, create a logical immigration system that
We each have a story about how our parents, our grandparents, and our great-grandparents, for that matter, came to this country. That is that dream of America, that they want to come to America, assimilate, and live the American Dream.
Sadly, the actions of the previous administration undercut that very ideal because people take a sour view of immigration.
As I get ready to close today, I am sorry that the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Crank) could not make it back from his other obligations, but I appreciate the good words of Congressman Knott, Congressman Onder, and Congressman Wied. They have done a remarkable job of putting a human face on illegal immigration.
Let us never forget that the biggest victims of this, besides the crisis with fentanyl, are those young boys and girls who have been sold into sexual slavery.
I don't like the term ``human trafficking'' because it is such a bland term. The term is ``sexual slavery,'' and I can't imagine the horrors that these individuals have gone through as they came across the border thinking that they would be given an opportunity in America. Instead, they were sentenced to a life of evil.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight on this important issue, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring attention to an issue that should concern all Americans.
This evening, in this Special Order, we will be talking about scientific integrity. To be a problem solver today, I believe it is important for leaders to embrace scientific integrity, and we will talk about that throughout the course of the next hour.
Every day, our Nation's scientists are making vital contributions to our public health, economy, and national security.
Modern society as we know it is only possible due to Federal investments in everything from medical research and food safety to severe weather forecasting and pollution reduction. These contributions extend far beyond our own borders, lifting up people all over the world through life-changing scientific breakthroughs and innovations.
Under normal circumstances, federally funded scientists could often avoid the noise and clamor of public political debates. As the world has seen over the last 2\1/2\ weeks, the Trump administration is anything but normal.
The President and his billionaire cronies took no time at all to begin attacking our world-renowned institutions that support publicly funded science.
They are shamelessly attempting to destroy the visionary ideals of great leaders like President Franklin Roosevelt, who created the Federal Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War. The creation of this office led to untold advancements in radar technology and nuclear energy, becoming a roadmap for our government to advance independent, fundamental, and necessary scientific knowledge for the benefit of all.
After the war, our government treated science as a necessary answer to clear and present threats. Today that is not the case. Federal research and development are primary targets of political attacks from this administration.
Science is no longer the answer but a direct threat to the cruel, backward, and barbaric Trump-Musk agenda. We can only look at the President's first term in office to know how his administration will treat the scientific community.
What exactly is on the table here? What is at stake? It is scientific integrity.
``Scientific integrity,'' as defined by the National Science and Technology Council, ``is the adherence to professional practices, ethical behavior, and the principles of honesty and objectivity when conducting, managing, using the results of, and communicating about science and scientific activities.''
Inclusivity, transparency, and protection from inappropriate influence are hallmarks of scientific integrity. Integrity in research is essential--essential--for maintaining scientific excellence and keeping the public's trust.
It is true that administrations from both parties may have violated scientific integrity at some point during their time in office, but the first Trump term exceeded them all with well over 150 reported attacks on science. They suppressed studies, altered reports, interfered in scientific processes, ignored concerns, refused to adopt scientifically backed guidelines, and politicized health assessments.
The level of damage from these attacks was, indeed, staggering and affected every single agency that employs science in its decisionmaking process.
That is why, as an engineer myself, I have consistently made it one of my top priorities in Congress to right the ship of America's science policy because science lives at the very core of a healthy democracy.
As part of that broad effort, I am proud to lead the bipartisan Scientific Integrity Act, which was reintroduced today alongside my dear friends and colleagues, Representative Lofgren, Representative Beyer, Representative Bonamici, and Representative Stevens, and over 100 original cosponsors.
This legislation establishes consistent scientific integrity policies across all agencies so that scientists, Members of Congress, and the American people can put their faith in Federal research findings.
Thanks to the efforts of the Biden administration, more than 28 Federal agencies have some form of scientific integrity policy today, but standards remain inconsistent.
America's most important science is conducted, reviewed, communicated to the public, and incorporated into policymaking in ways that must be transparent and free from inappropriate political, ideological, financial, and other undue influences.
My colleagues and I are fighting to ensure that sound, evidence-based policy is always readily available for policymakers and that scientists and advisers should never feel threatened to speak the truth.
This is a critical moment.
America is facing unprecedented challenges in the form of a rapidly changing climate, environmental contamination, and countless other concerns that threaten our public health, national security, and general welfare. We cannot afford to let the integrity of our scientific enterprise be demolished.
The Trump administration and Elon Musk are direct threats to U.S. scientific leadership on the global stage. My colleagues and I will highlight many of the most recent and egregious violations of scientific integrity by this new administration.
From removing data and censoring research at the CDC to the politicization of career scientists across government, this administration has once again made it clear that they do not care about scientific integrity.
They do not care about our national security or competing with China.
They do not care about saving American lives threatened by the climate crisis.
They do not care about public health or ensuring the safety and well- being of families from the threat of the deadly viruses that we have seen, like COVID-19.
The scientific knowledge we carry forward is critical for our continued survival, even as its validity is being questioned at a scale unprecedented in modern history.
America has both the skill and the structure to develop the knowledge that we need. Thankfully, many are rising to the defense of scientific integrity, and the reality is that this should not be a partisan issue.
Over the many years that I have led this bill, my colleagues across the aisle have been more than willing to join the effort. It passed out of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee back in the 116th Congress with overwhelming support from both parties.
I like to think that we all recognize how important sound science is to
It is in the interest of all Members of this body, from every district across our country, to support scientific integrity and to support the outstanding scientific talent who come from all over the Nation and globe to do research right here in our Federal agencies or with federally funded grants or at our world-class academic institutions.
I hope that my colleagues across the aisle hear this and understand what is at stake. Decades of repair will be necessary to undo the damage that has already been done.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the Eighth District of Virginia (Mr. Beyer), my good friend.
Don is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, but the gentleman is also an active person who is working for improvement as it relates to scientific integrity. We appreciate his sponsorship of the bill and his work to drive soundness and reflection of science in all of our policy discussions.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Tonko for his leadership, for putting this together, and for leading this bill year after year.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Trump administration's unconscionable and irresponsible attacks on America's scientific integrity.
The very foundation of our success as a world power has been our scientific prowess, and now, the Trump administration is threatening to undermine that success.
That is why I am here to talk about our bill with Representative Paul Tonko, the Scientific Integrity Act, and to defend the very foundation of what makes America a global leader: our scientific leadership and infrastructure.
I am proud to represent the National Science Foundation here in Alexandria, Virginia, the very heart of Virginia. The NSF is an incredible resource and institution. It was established in 1950 by Congress as an independent agency to promote scientific advancement in America. For 75 years, it has repeatedly accomplished that goal.
NSF has helped to keep the U.S. at the forefront of scientific discovery. It helped catalyze the internet and develop the technology for MRI machines and 3D printing machines. It helped to create the ``Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles,'' detected gravitational waves, developed LASIK eye surgery, and much, much more.
Over its lifetime, the National Science Foundation supported over 350,000 scientists, and of this number, 262 have won Nobel Prizes.
Trump has already begun unprecedented attacks on the scientific community with purges of NSF workers and grants, scientific advisers, and the broader scientific workforce.
I strongly oppose these efforts to target the National Science Foundation and weaken one of the guiding lights that makes America strong.
I am also deeply concerned about this new era of censorship in science. NSF employees were given this list of words to look for in grants and flag them for possible termination. This, by the way, is only a sampling of the words. It is much longer.
Mr. Speaker, I invite all who are watching to take a look at this list right next to me. This is just a portion of the full list, but it is a representative sample.
Oh, wait. I can't use ``representative.'' It is on the list.
What is most frustrating to me is that many of these words are just standard words used in basic science.
Why the censorship? I thought Republicans hated the cancel culture.
This list contains ``women'' and ``female,'' but no mention of ``men'' or ``male.'' My Republican friends have been telling me that there are only two genders, but now that we can't speak the word ``woman,'' are we down to just one?
There is ``black'' and ``indigenous'' on this list, but no ``white.''
It is very clear that the only identity not censored is mine, but why does being a woman or being part of a Tribe make one ineligible for science? Why is the Trump administration attacking Tribal communities?
I also don't understand this censorship of indigenous communities. It is also clear that the person who wrote this list has never been a scientist. It is ill-fitting, unwise, and actively harmful for scientific purposes.
The inclusion of many of these words, like ``bias,'' ``included,'' or ``excluded,'' clearly shows that none of the people in charge of this list were scientists. If they were, they would know that many of these words are commonly used in scientific papers.
Mr. Speaker, imagine being a grant applicant applying to develop the newest MRI technology or to develop a new drug locally, or being on the precipice of discovering a new gene in a plant or about to be taking pictures of two black holes for the first time. Imagine that this is someone's life's work.
Now, imagine having to comb through a proposal or dissertation, the work of months or years, just to find every instance of words that don't belong there.
It doesn't matter if the instance of the word ``polarization'' refers to the magnetic field on an MRI machine instead of political polarization.
It doesn't matter if the use of the word ``indigenous'' is referring to an indigenous plant or if ``activism'' refers to the state of an enzyme or ``inclusion'' or ``excluded'' refers to the statistical analysis of the variables used. It also doesn't matter if ``black'' refers to the black hole being studied.
The study is now going to be flagged by Trump's immature and sometimes, we learned today, even blatantly racist cronies at DOGE, who built a flowchart on how to handle these words. They want to find any way to terminate the program regardless of intent.
The fact that these commonly used words are on this list indicates a lack of consideration of basic science. Someone should have spent more time in high school chemistry, physics, or biology class.
The list also indicates that the Trump administration is sending NSF on an internal manhunt, one that will waste an incredible amount of time and energy that could be much better used on advancing science.
If this list forces scientists to rewrite papers to avoid or minimize use of the words found on this arbitrary list, it further delays our already long grant process and then it hurts science.
If this list delays a drug's development or incredible discoveries that keep America at the forefront of scientific development, then it hurts science.
If scientists are interrogated by DOGE to determine if their use of polarization refers to a scientific principle or a political principle, then it hurts science.
If our scientists have to seriously reconsider whether they even want to apply for the grant in the first place, then it hurts science.
If NSF is discouraged from hiring or giving grants to any scientist except White, non-Hispanic men, well, we shouldn't expect many Nobel Prizes in the future.
If this treatment of our science and our scientists escalates and pushes scientists out of America or out of the field, then it only hurts our economy, hurts our country, and it helps China.
It is time to stop this madness and protect the American success story, and that is why I am here today, to decry these attacks on America, our science, and the National Science Foundation. That is why our Scientific Integrity Act is so important.
This bill would call on agencies to develop scientific integrity standards. We need scientists, not corrupt industry hacks, leading our future.
We need scientists who seek the truth rather than those who are paid to produce studies that help the businesses who pay them.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us on the Scientific Integrity Act and act now to protect America's international leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Beyer for joining us in this fight and for his very challenging observations that he has shared. His activism on behalf of this bill and science, in general, is most appreciated.
Mr. Speaker, within the first few weeks of the Trump administration, we
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alone, we have seen public communications halted, critical datasets made inaccessible, and scientific manuscripts purged of terms deemed to invoke so-called gender ideology.
CDC researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms such as: gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female.
Now, this effort to scrub scientific terms, erase demographic data, and silence researchers is not just wrong; it is dangerous.
Health disparities exist. The data proves it. Ignoring those disparities, preventing experts from studying them will not make them disappear. It will only make our response to crises weaker, less effective, and certainly less equitable.
When we can't track racial and ethnic disparities, gender, and sexual orientation in health outcomes, we lose the ability to make informed, evidence-based decisions.
Doctors and policymakers rely on clear, unaltered data to guide their work. Without it, we risk failing in the fight against public health crises like HIV, mpox, and maternal mortality.
Let me be clear: This is not just about words on a website. This is about access to lifesaving information.
It is about whether we allow science to function as it should or whether we allow political interference to dictate what truths we can or cannot acknowledge.
I urge all of my colleagues, this administration, and all who value truth in science to push back against this alarming trend.
Scientific integrity must be protected not just for our research community but for the millions of Americans whose health and well-being certainly depend on it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster), a good friend, and a very active, outspoken, bold voice for scientific integrity, he represents Illinois' 11th District, and is a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Tonko for holding this Special Order hour on preserving scientific integrity.
Mr. Speaker, I am a scientist. For 25 years before entering Congress, I worked at Fermi National Accelerator Labs, smashing protons and antiprotons together to make particles that have not been around since the Big Bang.
If you are a scientist and you stand up and deliberately say something that you know is not true or if you publish something fraudulent, it is a career-ending move. You will lose your position. Nobody will publish your papers. You are done. It should be that way, frankly, in politics.
The reason that we scientists take truthfulness so seriously is that we are always operating on the frontiers of what is scientifically known. We are always operating with statistically incomplete datasets, with partially confirmed hypotheses, and defining the next experiments to perform to get to the next level of scientific truth.
So we scientists simply cannot tolerate the additional uncertainty of whether or not the person that we are listening to is deliberately lying or even hiding parts of what they know to be the scientific truth.
That is why it is so corrosive and demeaning when the Trump administration orders scientists to suppress their best understanding of the scientific truth, forcing scientists to choose between either their scientific integrity or potentially their jobs.
As the Trump administration has already made it clear that they will continue to undermine science and dismiss evidence-based policies, this discussion could not come at a more important time.
Unfortunately, the situation is not new. During the first Trump administration, as chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, one of the first hearings that I held was on the damage done to our Nation's scientific enterprise by the President's policies.
The statistics were concerning. There were significant losses in key STEM positions at the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, including a 20 percent reduction in the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy, something that Republicans claim to support.
Far too often, a scientist's expertise was simply ignored or their motives were questioned or their work was dismissed or censored.
Unsurprisingly, this resulted in the hemorrhaging of career scientists of all different backgrounds from our Federal workforce and from the university programs that they supported. Often, these talented scientists left for better offers in the private sector.
The departure of so much scientific talent and institutional knowledge from the government and from our universities represents a permanent, competitive disadvantage for the United States.
The responsibility, once again, falls on lawmakers like myself and my colleagues to protect the funding and the scientific freedom of speech that drives scientific advancement. It is our duty to ensure that regardless of the political climate, science remains at the forefront of our Nation's progress and innovation. Even as Trump continues his onslaught of executive orders that neglect scientific fact, I know that many of my sensible colleagues on the other side of the aisle would not want to see the U.S. fall behind in this era of rapid technological innovation.
That is precisely what we risk if we do not continue to fund and support the scientists at our Federal agencies and the scientific programs that they support around the country.
At the same time, we must also make sure that we support scientists of all different backgrounds, including those who come to the U.S. for their education and want to stay and contribute their skills to our economy.
During my two decades at Fermi National Accelerator Lab, some of the brightest and most accomplished scientists and engineers that I had the privilege to work with came from foreign countries. In one circumstance that still makes me angry, we lost one of our best and brightest through LGBT intolerance in our immigration policies.
I know firsthand that Trump's dangerous rhetoric against diversity in our Federal workforce threatens the very foundation of what fuels U.S. innovation. Both Democrats and Republicans actually recognize this truth.
My Keep STEM Talent Act, which would effectively staple a green card to a graduate degree for international STEM students who study at a U.S. university, received bipartisan support with multiple Republican cosponsors.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my sensible colleagues on the other side of the aisle to support efforts like this and increase the resiliency of our Federal workforce and help defend our Nation's competitive edge in the face of these growing threats.
Mr. Speaker, we appreciate Mr. Foster's participation this evening and for his work as a scientist, engaging all of us in the importance of having unadulterated science policy and science research done so that we can move forward with a pure truth and science-based and evidence-based discussion.
Mr. Speaker, so scientific integrity, or the lack thereof, has its consequences.
Once again, we are witnessing a troubling pattern: Science and public health experts are being sidelined.
The decision to purge members of the EPA's Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee is nothing short of a setback for scientific integrity.
These panels exist to provide statutorily required, independent, science-driven public health reviews, not to serve as a revolving door for political agendas.
History has shown us what happens when we weaken those advisory bodies by replacing well-respected academic experts with representatives that are financially tied to regulated industries.
The last time a similar purge took place, key air quality standards were delayed and polluters were given a pass. And who suffers? Children with asthma, seniors with heart and lung
Let's be clear: Sound science is the foundation upon which we built public health protections.
Just last year, based on expert recommendations from the CASAC, EPA strengthened fine particle pollution standards for the first time in over a decade.
The reason was simple: The science was sound.
Fine particulate matter from sources like fossil fuel combustion and wildfires is directly linked to lung disease, heart attacks, and premature death.
The evidence demanded action and public health won, but now that progress is at risk. This move sends a dangerous message that politics matters more than science and that corporate interests carry more weight than public health.
That simply is unacceptable. The American people deserve clean air and strong environmental protections grounded in facts, not the whims of special interests.
I will not stand by while scientific integrity is undermined, expert voices are silenced, and our Nation's environmental safeguards are eroded.
I will continue fighting to ensure that science, not politics, guides our policies and that the health and well-being of our communities remain the top priority.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici), a good friend and colleague, who is a bold voice on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Congresswoman Bonamici from Oregon's First District has been preaching scientific integrity for a long while, and we appreciate her joining us this evening.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Tonko for his leadership on this important issue.
I have been on the Committee of Science, Space, and Technology since I joined Congress 13 years ago, Mr. Speaker.
It has been so inspiring to meet and hear from some of the Nation's, and sometimes the world's, leading scientists.
Today, I rise in defense of science and scientific integrity and in defense of truth. I rise in defense of the hardworking scientists and researchers who dedicate their careers to keeping our country safe, our economy strong, and our future secure.
The assault that is happening right now at our Federal science agencies is appalling and dangerous, and it must be stopped.
The Trump administration, working hand in hand with Elon Musk and his shadowy group of hackers calling itself the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is dismantling the critical programs that protect clean air and water, grow the economy, and save American lives.
Experienced and talented scientists at NOAA and the National Science Foundation are being demeaned and threatened with termination. Communications have been disrupted and critical research has been stalled. This is not just an attack on these individuals; it is an attack on the very foundation of our Nation's scientific enterprise. It is also affecting higher education. There is a lot of research being done in higher education with NSF grants.
It is not efficiency. It is not reform. It is sabotage. For what? Is it to silence the truth about the fact that climate change is real and poses a serious threat? Is it to give billionaires more control over public institutions? Is it to gut the research that drives American innovation at a time when China and the EU and the rest of the world are making moves to surge ahead?
My home State of Oregon received more than $370 million in Federal research grants last year. That funding supported groundbreaking research into cleaner, cheaper energy, earthquake and tsunami warning systems, and wildfire prevention. That funding is now in jeopardy because Donald Trump has unlawfully and unconstitutionally halted Federal research dollars.
That means stalled renewable energy innovation. It means fewer tools to combat wildfires. It means fewer jobs in the growing industries that help our State and country thrive.
I want to follow up on the remarks that Mr. Beyer made recently and all the words that are going to trigger this review. ``Women'' but not ``men''? ``Disability,'' ``advocacy,'' ``institutional,'' ``barrier''? What if someone is doing research on the Great Barrier Reef? Are they going to be denied their funding?
Mr. Speaker, there is nothing woke, DEI, or radical about predicting the next devastating earthquake or tsunami, detecting a wildfire before it spreads, or protecting ocean health to support our coastal and fishing economies.
Demonizing committed scientists is shameful. Impairing decades of lifesaving research because it might help communities on the front lines of the climate crisis is derelict. Infiltrating Federal agencies with unelected hackers and rescinding lawfully appropriated funds is illegal.
Is this what happens when we have a lawless, science-denying, vindictive person in the White House? I tell you, we won't stand for it.
Oregon's coastal communities rely on NOAA for fisheries management, ocean health monitoring, and storm forecasting. Without it, livelihoods and lives are at risk.
Let me be crystal clear: Silencing scientists doesn't stop hurricanes. Firing researchers doesn't stop rising sea levels. Blocking climate data doesn't change the fact that last year was the hottest year in recorded history.
The United States has long been the world leader in scientific innovation. We led the space race. We mapped the human genome. We pioneered the technology that powers the global economy. Today, under this administration's reckless interference, we are watching that leadership slip away, our scientific edge erode, and America's future be sold off to the highest bidder.
This is frustrating. I just read that the National Cryptologic Museum just taped sheets of paper over plaques that celebrated women and people of color who served honorably in the National Security Agency. That is absurd and demeaning.
The assault on science demands action. What is happening now is not leadership or patriotism. It is corruption.
I truly hope that my Republican colleagues who for years have recognized the value of Federal science agencies and advocated for their investment will join me in speaking out against this reckless attack on scientists and science. Congress must reassert its constitutional authority to guard the science agencies it authorized and the funds it has appropriated from political corrosion.
Public data, peer review, and a diverse research workforce are the cornerstones of the U.S. science enterprise. Yes, I said ``diverse.'' Politically driven propaganda masquerading as science, like we saw during the first Trump administration--remember Sharpiegate--erodes public trust and damages scientific credibility.
Mr. Speaker, we must protect the integrity of our Federal science agencies. The world is watching. We must restore funding to the research that drives our economy. It is a lot of the basic research that then goes into advanced research in the private sector. We must hold those who undermine scientific integrity accountable, no matter how powerful they think they are.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Bonamici for joining us this evening but, more importantly, for her work on science, tech, and space as a committee member and for her leadership in fighting for scientific integrity.
Earlier, Mr. Speaker, I made mention of ongoing censorship at the Centers for Disease Control. We are seeing climate-related information targeted in other agencies, too. It is not just targeting CDC. We are seeing climate-related information disappearing from government sites, from NASA to the Department of Agriculture.
This isn't just about tweaking websites. It is a deliberate effort to erase essential data that researchers, farmers, businesses, and communities across the country rely on. We have seen this playbook before. The Trump administration is once again using the same tactics from its first term, removing climate language, pausing programs, and undermining science.
Take the USDA's Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities, for example.
We cannot afford to turn back. We cannot allow climate denial to override science. The cost of inaction is already upon us.
In just the last few years, extreme weather has wiped out entire peach crops in Georgia, flooded farms in North Carolina, and worsened citrus greening disease in the Florida oranges crop. Wildfires in the West have devastated vineyards, while droughts have forced ranchers to shrink their herds.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues and this administration to reject this dangerous retreat from science. We must defend the data, research, and progress for which we have fought because, in the case of a worsening climate crisis, denial is just not irresponsible, but it, indeed, is deadly.
Scientists knew that change was coming under the Trump administration, but few were prepared for the chaos and fear caused by a flurry of executive orders and policy shifts that have destabilized the American engine for innovation and discovery. Overnight, researchers were left questioning whether their work, funding, or even careers could survive a political assault on science itself.
This is not an abstract concern. It is an existential threat to our Nation's scientific enterprise.
Scientists should be focused on their next breakthrough, not their next paycheck. They should be in the lab, not fighting for the right to pursue knowledge free from political interference.
Instead, we see confusion, delays, and outright fear gripping our research institutions. Postdoctoral fellows are scrambling to pay their bills because their stipends have been frozen.
Research projects essential to public health, economic prosperity, and national security are being reviewed not for their scientific merit but for whether they contain words like ``diversity,'' ``women,'' or ``underrepresented.''
Our United States has long been a beacon of research excellence because we uphold principles that transcend politics. We have built a system that rewards rigorous peer-reviewed research, fosters a diverse and dynamic workforce, and keeps American innovation at the forefront globally.
Those principles are now under attack. We cannot allow political ideology to dictate which discoveries are pursued and which are silenced. We cannot allow critical research--whether on climate change, public health, or emerging technologies--to be derailed by shortsighted political mandates. We certainly cannot allow the United States to cede its leadership in science and technology to competitors that are eager to capitalize on our self-inflicted wounds.
The CHIPS and Science Act, which I was proud to support, underscores our commitment to a broad, inclusive, and merit-based research enterprise. It recognizes that diversity is not a threat to science; it is a strength. The next great discovery, the next cure, the next technological revolution could come from any lab, any researcher, any corner of this country. I truly believe the pioneer spirit is really in our DNA as a nation, but only if we let science be science.
I stand with the scientific community in calling for the protection of scientific integrity and the rejection of any effort that seeks to muzzle, manipulate, or politicize research.
We must ensure that American scientists can continue to push the boundaries of human knowledge, free from fear and with full confidence that their government stands behind them.
I ask again, Mr. Speaker, that people join us in this effort for the Scientific Integrity Act to be passed in this House, moved to the Senate, and signed into law. It is about the strength of our Nation, the future of discovery, and, again, honoring the pioneer spirit of America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Kiley) for 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say a few words this evening about the rapid advancements that we are witnessing when it comes to the capability of artificial intelligence models.
I don't refer just to some of the narrow applications that folks are familiar with, that they might take advantage of in their work, that they might fear eventually replacing them in work. These are sort of the narrow conceptions that exist in public discourse.
The broader situation here involves the explicit goal of the leading labs to create what is known as artificial general intelligence, which is incredibly capable models that exceed human capability across essentially any domain.
I actually find it stunning that some of the advancements that we have seen lately have gone essentially unnoticed, unreported on by the media. What we have seen just in the last few weeks, I think on several occasions, there should have been front-page stories about the dramatic advances that have been made, given the capacity these advances hold for transforming our lives, economy, society, and much else.
What I wanted to do today is present just a few basic thoughts and pieces of information on the development and innovation that has been taking place. I am someone who has no technical expertise in this area at all. I just try to follow it closely because I believe the changes that will be upon us soon are so profound.
To give you just kind of a flavor for the scale of change that I am talking about, here are a few quotes from leaders in the field:
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said: ``AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.''
Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind, echoed these sentiments. He said that AI should not be thought of as just another technology. He said that it is more epoch-defining than even the internet or mobile, more like electricity or fire.
Sam Altman, who, of course, is the head of OpenAI, said: ``With these new abilities, we can have shared prosperity to a degree that seems unimaginable today. In the future, everyone's lives can be better than anyone's life is now. . . . Eventually, we can each have a personal AI team full of virtual experts in different areas working together to create almost anything we can imagine.''
Along those lines, Elon Musk, who, in addition to his other ventures, is the founder of xAI, said: ``AI will ultimately render money meaningless.'' Why is that? He believes the capabilities will essentially allow any person access to basically any good that they desire.
Dario Amodei, who is the CEO at another lab, Anthropic, says that it is his guess that powerful AI could accelerate the rate of scientific discoveries by a factor of 10, giving us the next 50 to 100 years of biological progress in just the next 5 to 10 years.
We are already seeing incredible applications such as AlphaFold from DeepMind, which Demis Hassabis recently won the Nobel Prize for, which has predicted the 3D structures of over 200 million proteins, essentially solving the protein folding problem.
At the recent unveiling of the Stargate initiative, Mr. Altman was joined by Larry Ellison, who also spoke about the potential to cure cancer and essentially any other disease.
This might all sound pretty vague and certainly very optimistic. Maybe it sounds like hype, so I want to present a couple of charts that really clearly make this point, not only about the ultimate potential of AI models but about the rapid acceleration that we are right now currently in the midst of.
This chart is one metric of basically how smart a model is. It is called the GPQA diamond. If you look at the chart here, this axis is how well it does on the test, the model.
This axis is when the model was released. The different models over the time are the ``Xs'' there. The chart doesn't actually go back that far. It just goes back to July of 2023. We are looking at basically 35 percent for one of the models then.
You see that the line continues to go up steadily, a little bit at a time. Now, just in the last few weeks, you have seen this truly exponential growth rate. Those are both OpenAI models that are listed there; o1 pro and o3. I guess the o2 there was some trademark issues, so they jumped right from 1 to 3.
That shows you that we are on a rapidly accelerating curve. Now, the second chart I think makes this point even more clearly. One of the problems with the benchmarks that are being used to judge the capability of models is they get saturated very quickly. The models are becoming so much smarter that they ace the exam, and so the exam isn't good for anything anymore.
There was this effort to come up with what they called humanity's last exam, saying once they can solve this, then they have solved just about anything. This was unveiled, and the model's GPT-4o, which is actually the model that most people use--if you just go to ChatGPT, that is the one that it sort of defaults to--it didn't so well, 3.3 percent.
However, we are now up to the latest model that OpenAI has released, 26.6 percent. I included this tweet from--I think this actually is a reporter who said: When I wrote about humanity's last exam, the leading AI model got an 8.3 percent score. Five models now surpassed that, and the best model is 26.6 percent. That was 10 days ago.
In 10 days, we have gone from 8.3 percent to 26.6 percent on humanity's last exam. By the way, you will see that DeepSeek here at a respectable 9.4 percent. This is kind of the exception where you have seen a lot of media coverage of an advancement in AI.
The coverage really focused on the geopolitical implications of having this breakthrough come from a Chinese company. Of course, that is a very, very serious and concerning topic. Kind of lost in the coverage was perhaps the more important point of what it means for all of us, for humanity collectively, when we see this sort of exponential growth in the capability of these AI models.
What is essentially driving this very recent trend of exponential growth is the advent of unlocking a new scaling law around what is called test time compute. For a while, the way that these models were getting more capable was by scaling up the compute, the computation, that went into training them.
You trained the model, and it became more and more powerful as you use more and more GPUs and compute to train them. Then, after a fine- tuning process, you end up releasing them, and folks use them.
That sort of scaling law has leveled off some. What is now happening is the new scaling law that has been unlocked is when you, the user, actually enter a query into, you know, a Claude or Gemini or ChatGPT or whatever your model is, it will take time to think about the answer. Then, we are scaling up the compute that is involved in that thinking process. They are called thinking or reasoning models.
Just in a few weeks, whatever it was, when OpenAI went from the o1 model to the o3 model, we saw this incredible increase in capability, and there is not really any sign that it is slowing down.
The implication of that is that we might see even more rapid and even more astonishing advances very soon. It is pretty astonishing what these systems can accomplish even now.
I mean, I am someone who doesn't know how to write a line of code, but you can go to the latest models, and I can basically design you a rudimentary computer game instantly by just telling the model what to code.
For some of them, like Claude, it will actually produce some version of it right there for you. Others, you can just cut and paste it into some other application, but then it creates the application for you.
On the last chart, it said we are now kind of above the level of a Ph.D. in their field, which is a pretty high bar to begin with. The acceleration ahead could be further stimulated by the fact that this applies to many fields, but also computer science.
You could well see, and, in fact, you are already seeing it to some extent, and it is likely to pick up dramatically, the models themselves that are working on their own coding that are contributing to their own growth and capability.
You are also, by the way, seeing models that are built around solving specific problems. I mentioned AlphaFold or models built around discovering new materials. You also have uses of AI that are guiding action in the physical world, such as self-driving cars.
If you don't live in L.A. or San Francisco or Phoenix, you probably haven't ridden in a Waymo. It works incredibly well as a driverless vehicle. It surpassed the market share of Lyft, I believe, now in San Francisco. This has been made possible largely by AI or similarly Tesla's self-driving systems available in millions of cars being trained with a neural network.
Also, none of this accounts for the potential of quantum computing where Google recently achieved an incredible breakthrough and the interaction of quantum and AI could lead to even more staggering results.
This acceleration is happening very, very fast. My purpose in talking about it is not a call for regulation. Although, I do think some regulation is appropriate, but ultimately no regulation is going to stop this or really even dramatically slow down this progress.
I mean, the example of DeepSeek and what China is working on makes that point very clearly. I do, however, think that we need to invest heavily in research around AI safety and alignment. I think what we really need to ask are just some fundamental questions about how we might prepare for the radical transformation that could be upon us very soon.
We need more public awareness of what is going on and more voices involved because right now, the advance from OpenAI's latest models from o1 to o3 isn't really a topic of public discussion, it isn't a headline in any major newspaper.
The discourse is really limited to those who work at these labs or work adjacent to them in Silicon Valley or some fairly small online communities who are talking about these things.
They are increasingly becoming very relevant to the lives of all of us. I think we need to have more voices involved in shaping how we manage this technology; how we prepare for what is ahead; and how we can identify and preserve the values that really matter to us as a nation and as humanity in the face of this radical change.
To that end, I am planning to continue to give regular updates from this floor on advances in artificial intelligence, advances toward AGI, artificial general intelligence, or ASI, and the implications that it might have. I do this, again, as someone who is not an expert in this area, that doesn't understand the technology at a deep level, but believes that its implications are so profound that we need to have everyone in our country involved in considering how we prepare for it.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce that I am sponsoring the High Quality Charter Schools Act, which has the potential to give millions more students in this country access to an excellent education.
Now, as the chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education that spans K-12, as well as pre-K, I am extremely concerned about the continual decline of American education as illustrated dramatically in the recent National Assessment for Education Progress scores, showing that our test scores continue to decline in math and in reading.
This is incredibly concerning when it comes to the life prospects for these young people, as well as the future of our country. I think one of the powerful ways that we can change this trajectory is by highlighting the schools that are out there that are doing a really good job because there are a lot of great schools out there.
In my district, we have a number of phenomenal schools. This is true for traditional public schools, for charter schools, as well as for private schools. You don't, in a sense, have to reinvent the wheel when you think about good education policy because we have schools and school systems out there
This is especially true when it comes to the charter sector. Charters have generally shown, as a sector, to lead to additional days of student learning in any given year, but you can then home in on the truly excellent charter schools. They are getting unbelievable results in a lot of cases.
This bill is providing a 50 percent tax credit for donations to nonprofit charter school organizations that have a track record of excellence. It will make it easier for them to replicate themselves, to expand, to open new schools based upon their already-proven successful model, and thereby invite in more kids.
A lot of these really successful charters have hundreds or thousands of kids on their wait-lists. If we can create more seats, then that is going to be that many more kids getting access to a great education.
By the way, that will also have good effects on the neighboring school districts that will then be able to adapt themselves and try to offer a higher quality education product themselves.
The virtue of the charter school model, which I think ought to be incorporated more into the traditional public school system, as well, is that, number one, you have flexibility for the folks that run the schools. They are not told by State or Federal Departments of Education exactly how they have to run their schools. They don't have a million regulations to comply with. They are able to pursue their own educational vision.
The tradeoff is that in turn for that flexibility in terms of how the schools run, there is accountability for outcomes. There is accountability for actually doing a good job educating kids.
That accountability also comes from the fact that they don't get students assigned to them just by default based who is in the neighborhood. They actually have to attract families to come and sign up to go to school there.
The third part of the equation is that families do have that choice: Providing choices to families as to where they send their child to school. You have flexibility on the front end, accountability on the back end, and choices for families. That is the formula that has proven to be so successful. This legislation will be very powerful in expanding the impact of that formula.
There is perhaps no more high-impact use of education dollars than expanding successful charter schools because they are already doing the job very well. By the way, they are most effective when it comes to closing achievement gaps and to helping students in underserved communities.
I am very excited about this legislation, look forward to building support for it throughout this year, and ultimately getting it signed into law.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize a valued member of my team who will be retiring at the end of this month: Edward G. Heidig. Before joining my office, Ed had a vibrant career in public service.
Early on in that career, he worked for former Senator Pete Wilson in his D.C. office as a legislative assistant. Ed then went on to serve in a variety of roles within State and Federal departments, including as the Director of the Department of Conservation for the State of California; Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency; Director of the California Office of Administrative Law; General Counsel for the Diocese of Sacramento; Chief Deputy Director for the California Department of Managed Healthcare; and the Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Shortly after I was elected and came into office, Ed came out of retirement to become my senior field representative for Placer County. During his tenure as a senior field representative, Ed played an absolutely vital role toward establishing my congressional district office, and he quickly became integrated and much beloved in the Placer County community.
His role included responsibilities in facilitating community relationships with government entities, providing congressional recognition and awards, hosting events, participating in community gatherings, scheduling meetings, mentoring interns, and recording the oral histories of veterans through the Veterans History Project, just to name a few.
He has become very popular in Placer County. He did a fantastic job for us. He is known by our team for his quick wit, tenacity, care, and compassion, not to mention his unique vocabulary, and, of course, his signature catch phrase: ``Thank you for your consideration.''
Mr. Speaker, Ed is held in high esteem by his colleagues and those who have the great pleasure of knowing him. We were very fortunate to have had his high level of expertise in my district office, which he used to provide outstanding constituent services during my first term in Congress.
Ed's sense of humor, congeniality, team spirit, hard work, and determination will be missed by me and by all of our team.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to thank and recognize Edward Heidig for his service to the people of Placer County and California's Third Congressional District. I wish him the very best in his retirement.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize the receipt of a new Holocaust Torah at the Temple Or Rishon, a Jewish synagogue located in Orangevale, California.
I was honored to attend the rededication of the Torah for its original purpose to this temple community on February 2, along with the Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, Marco Sermoneta.
This scroll is approximately 155 years old, having survived the Holocaust during World War II, and it came to the temple from the Memorial Scrolls Trust. The trust is a charitable organization that was established to preserve and care for the over 1,500 Torah scrolls rescued from Czechoslovakia, where they had been looted by the Nazis. These scrolls were discovered in the early 1960s in a warehouse in Prague.
Having raised the funds to restore this particular Torah scroll, Temple Or Rishon is among the few institutions in the world entrusted with one of the Holocaust Torahs. This Torah represents the incredible traditions and resilience of the Jewish community in Orangevale, Sacramento, and around the world.
It certainly speaks to the Temple Or Rishon that it has been entrusted for this very important role and the incredibly important role it plays for so many folks in our community and our entire region. This ceremony is especially important in light of January 27 being Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the receiving of this Holocaust Torah at Temple Or Rishon.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize Supervisor Wendy Thomas for her years of service.
Supervisor Thomas has served the people of El Dorado County for nearly 40 years, with an overall career in public service spanning over a decade.
Even prior to her career in public service, Supervisor Thomas had longstanding ties with her community. She was born and raised in Placerville, and she established a strong educational foundation at Principia College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in both business administration and fine art.
Wendy then further fostered her business acumen by owning and operating The Printing Press in Placerville for about 23 years, strongly contributing to the local economy.
In addition to her business endeavors, Wendy showcased her artistic gifts for years. She achieved recognition in multiple exhibitions for her watercolor artistry, authored a book, and had her work featured in several other watercolor publications.
Wendy's family has called the region home for many generations, finding success as placer miners in 1850 and, shortly thereafter, becoming businessowners in Placerville. In fact, public service is in her family's history. Her great-great-grandfather was a recorder-clerk of El Dorado County and later served as county sheriff and tax collector in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. So, he was the recorder-clerk, the sheriff, and the tax collector, which is pretty good.
In 2010, Wendy Thomas began her own career in public service after being
In 2014, she was named Woman of the Year for District 5 of the California State Assembly.
After being elected to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors in 2020, Wendy brought with her years of experience in governance and knowledge gained from earning her master's degree in political science from Southern New Hampshire University. She embodied a passionate, resourceful, and respectful style of leadership, driven by her deep and abiding love for her community.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize County Supervisor Wendy Thomas for her extraordinary career and her commitment to public service. I join the community in wishing her the very best in her next chapter.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to mark and celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Roseville Host Lions Club, a truly remarkable organization located in my district that is dedicated to meeting the needs of the Roseville community and people around the world.
In 1925, a group of civic-minded individuals formed what was to be among Roseville's first community service clubs. Throughout its history, the men and women of this organization have sought to exemplify what it means to be true community servants.
With major rail hubs and the Lincoln Highway propelling Roseville to serve as a critical logistical hub during World War II, club members and their families housed GIs traveling through the city on their way to the Pacific theater. The level of care and comfort provided by the club helped to bolster the morale of the young men and women sent to ensure the safety of our great Nation.
In recent years, the Roseville Host Lions Club has dedicated themselves to supporting local youth and seeing them thrive.
In the past, I have had the opportunity to join them for their Student Speaker Contest, an exceptional program in which students are challenged to improve upon their research and speaking abilities while being provided with various scholarships.
Building upon their initial foundations, the Roseville Lions also worked to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. Through their support of various initiatives like the Folsom Prison Project for the Visually Impaired and the Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Roseville Host Lions Club continues to fulfill its obligation of being knights for the blind, given to them by Helen Keller 100 years ago.
In times of great hardship and crisis, the Roseville Host Lions Club has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to community service. From providing critical services and aid to victims of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami to sending medical equipment to Mexico and sponsoring exchange students both locally and internationally, the Roseville Host Lions Club has left an indelible mark on the world and our community most profoundly.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize the Roseville Host Lions Club for their 100 years of community service and commend them for their significant contributions in Placer County and across the globe.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize outgoing Placer County Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper for his years of devoted service to Placer County.
Chief Hopper has been an integral part of Placer County's probation system for nearly three decades and has served as chief probation officer for the last 14 years.
Chief Hopper earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice at Sacramento State University and his master's degree in public administration from Golden Gate University.
Chief Hopper first served his country as a military police officer for the Army National Guard and as a probation guard in Shasta and El Dorado Counties. In 1997, he began in Placer County as a deputy probation officer. After serving as a senior deputy probation officer, he was promoted to probation manager in 2005, assistant chief in 2010, and, finally, as chief probation officer in 2011.
Chief Hopper's steadfast dedication to public service and to making a positive impact on those under his probation supervision has been a hallmark of his leadership. His efforts to promote innovation in the department led Chief Hopper and his team to spearhead many projects implemented throughout the county and even the State.
Some of Chief Hopper's wide diversity of accomplishments include creating the department's Professional Standards Division, initiating the Placer Re-Entry Program, creating the nationally recognized Probation Outreach Vehicle program, and establishing the county's low- barrier homeless shelter.
Through these efforts and many more, the probation system in Placer has excelled. It is because of the efforts of Chief Marshall Hopper and those like him that the residents of Placer County are afforded a strong sense of safety, security, and prosperity within our communities.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, it is an honor and a privilege to acknowledge Placer County Chief Probation Officer Marshall Hopper for his exceptional career in law enforcement. I am proud to join Marshall's wife, Stefanie; his children, Tyler and Emily; Placer County; and California's Third Congressional District in wishing him the very best in his next chapter.
