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86 public bills, H.R. 1276- 1361; and 10 resolutions, H.J. Res. 59; H. Con. Res. 12; and H. Res. 129-136, were introduced.
Pages H705-10
Reports Filed
There were no reports filed today. Speaker: Read a letter from the Speaker wherein he appointed Representative Bost to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
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Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act
The House passed H.R. 35, to impose criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing Federal officer while operating a motor vehicle, by a yea-and- nay vote of 264 yeas to 155 nays, Roll No. 42. H. Res. 5, the rule providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 35), was agreed to on Friday, January 3rd.
Pages H682-91
Work Period Designation
Read a letter from the Speaker wherein he designated the period from Thursday, February 13, 2025, through Sunday, February 23, 2025, as a ``district work period'' under clause 13 of rule 1.
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Senate Referral
S. 32 was held at the desk.
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Senate Message
Message from the Senate appears on page S691. Quorum Calls--Votes: One yea-and-nay vote developed during the proceedings of today and appears on pages H690-91. Adjournment: The House met at 9 a.m. and adjourned at 1:06 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: 80 of 114 spoken turns were found. Turns without a time are still listed; they just can't seek.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a great Coloradan and a true American patriot, Rick Dunlap.
Rick's story is one of resilience, courage, and service. Born into poverty in Tennessee, he answered the call of duty at just 18, serving two tours in Vietnam as a door gunner with the 101st Airborne Division. His heroism earned him the Bronze Star for valor and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, in recognition of his extraordinary bravery in combat.
Rick's service didn't stop when he left the battlefield. He dedicated nearly three decades to law enforcement in Montrose County, rising to sheriff and leading with integrity, earning the trust of his community.
Even in retirement, he continued giving back, volunteering, mentoring, and, most recently, serving as county commissioner. Rick was a man who never stopped serving. He never stopped caring, and he never stopped fighting for people around him.
Colorado's Third District lost a leader, a friend, and a hero. To his beloved wife, Karen; his sons, Greg, Chad, and Josh; and all who knew and loved him, Rick's impact will not be forgotten. May he rest in peace.
Mr. Speaker, President Trump's first Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, once said: If we don't fully fund the State Department and diplomacy abroad, I need to buy more ammunition.
Apparently, Elon Musk, a newly minted oligarch with $20 billion in government contracts and subsidies, never heard this warning. Musk's decision to shutter USAID, supported by the current administration, will make us less safe.
USAID tracks and prevents global diseases such as Ebola and malaria from reaching the U.S. No more.
USAID programs lift people out of poverty and promote access to justice, which alleviates the root causes of terrorism. No more.
USAID counters Chinese and Russian influence by fighting against misinformation and offering funds to build. No more.
For one penny out of every dollar we pay in taxes, I cannot think of a better investment to advance America's security. Not long ago, Secretary of State Rubio said: ``Foreign aid is not charity.
Mr. Speaker, I applaud President Trump's decisive economic actions that have leveled the playing field between Hoosier businesses and the Chinese Communist Party.
The CCP has taken advantage of hardworking Hoosiers by engaging in currency manipulation, undermining our manufacturing sector, and buying American farmland in an attempt to control our agricultural future.
For too long the CCP has used the exchange rate of their currency as a dagger to be hidden under the cloak of what they describe as fair trade practices. They bought great American companies like Smithfield and masqueraded as a friendly neighborhood face, while silently gutting the already hemorrhaging mom-and-pop pork operations that are important to America's future and food supply.
To top it all off, they tried to deal a lethal blow to the third largest industry in my State by attempting to purchase Indiana steel mills. Enough is enough.
Trump has sent a clear message that America is finished with allowing the CCP to evade U.S. tariffs. Hoosiers don't want the CCP to control our farmland or our markets. It is time to change the unacceptable status quo that has taken hold and put America, not China, first.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my unwavering support for the hardworking farmers of eastern North Carolina who are facing enormous challenges.
Inflation continues to cast a shadow over our agriculture community with input costs such as seeds, fertilizer, and equipment. In our State, many farmers have experienced crop losses resulting from drought conditions and Hurricane Helene.
It is hard to catch a break as labor costs continue rising, making it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain operations and livelihoods. We cannot overlook the well-known effects that tariffs have on our agriculture communities. They hurt farmers' bottom lines and limit market access.
Congress must pass a farm bill that meets the needs of farmers, consumers, and rural communities. We must respond not just with our words but with deeds.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear about why we have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is not some fancy agency. They just simply defend hardworking people. They are the consumers' watchdog.
Think about it. We have $21 billion back in people's pockets who were cheated by big banks and corporations and $360 million recovered for veterans who were the victims of fraud. Starting this year, Americans will save $11 billion a year without bank overdraft fees.
Republicans are letting the President and Elon Musk burn it down. For what? For the banks? For large corporations? For their billionaire buddies? They don't get to pander to working people while doing the banks' dirty work.
We must protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We must protect the consumer's watchdog. We must put people's pocketbooks over billionaires and their buddies.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Santiago Canyon College for 25 years of providing quality, affordable educational opportunities to students across southern California.
Santiago Canyon College in Orange, in my district, offers one of the largest community college adult education programs in California with over 60 career training certificates. From nurses and teachers to accountants and medical assistants, the top-notch apprenticeship programs at Santiago Canyon are helping students of all backgrounds learn the skills to get jobs and contribute to our communities.
I congratulate Santiago Canyon College President Jeannie Kim, faculty, staff, and students on this outstanding achievement. I can't wait to see what is ahead for the next 25 years.
Mr. Speaker, for the uninsured, the working poor, Medicaid recipients, and rural communities, healthcare is hard to find.
Yet, for 60 years, community health centers, or CHCs, have cared for people who would go otherwise unseen and untreated.
In Pennsylvania, that is more than 1 million people, including 280,000 children, nearly 140,000 seniors, almost 15,000 veterans, and about 14,000 agricultural workers, receiving affordable and comprehensive care. In my district, the community health centers and dental centers serve four sites in Barto, Boyertown, Norristown, and Pottstown.
Some of our most vulnerable, those with no health insurance, struggling with addiction or homelessness, have no hope. Importantly, CHC offers not just primary care but preventive care, a critical aspect of our healthcare system. Not only is it cost effective, it is compassionate in giving that hope.
In Pennsylvania, thousands of doctors, nurses, behavioral specialists, and more show up every day for those most in need. They are not in it for the money. They are in it for the love of neighbor.
Mr. Speaker, not since Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus at the height of the Civil War has a President defied the United States Supreme Court. Yet, Vice President Vance has called for President Trump to fire every civil servant in the administrative State. When the courts stop you, Vice President Vance said, go like Andrew Jackson did and say the Court has made its ruling, now try to enforce it.
Perhaps the Vice President doesn't know the history that Andrew Jackson's defiance of the Supreme Court led to the forcible removal of Native Americans and the Trail of Tears and shame for the country. It is black letter law.
Vice President Vance should go back to Yale Law School where both of us studied. Article II has the President administering the law. Article III has the Courts saying what the law is. That has been the bipartisan consensus that even Richard Nixon understood. It is dangerous for him to call on the President to defy the Supreme Court.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair and refrain from engaging in personalities toward the Vice President.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up the bill (H.R. 35) to impose criminal
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the bill is considered read.
The text of the bill is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill shall be debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader, or their respective designees.
The gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 35.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, one of the great tragedies that came of the Democrats' 4 years of open-border policies was the number of fatalities of American citizens and law enforcement officers that were caused by high-speed chases of human and drug smugglers and illegal aliens who poured across our southern border.
The Democrats' open-border policies incentivized and encouraged these tragedies by creating the conditions that made these deadly high-speed chases commonplace.
Just last year, Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass told us that in the Del Rio sector alone, the cartels were making $32 million every week from human smuggling. That is just one sector of the southwest border.
These policies created an enormous incentive that emboldened criminals and cartels and human smugglers and illegal aliens alike. High-speed chases with smugglers occurred almost daily in these border communities, placing both law enforcement officials and innocent Americans in grave danger.
For example, last year, criminals led the Texas Department of Public Safety officers on a high-speed chase outside of Del Rio as they attempted to smuggle half a dozen illegal aliens into the interior of our country. At least one of the smugglers himself was a foreign national from Nicaragua. Amazingly, the Biden-Harris administration rewarded this criminal alien with a work authorization.
These criminals also smuggle deadly drugs, like fentanyl, which has poisoned thousands of Americans.
Roughly 1 month ago, in California, a high-speed chase ensued after two men had their car referred for secondary inspection at a port of entry. Border Patrol officers ultimately stopped the men and recovered nearly 5 pounds of fentanyl. That is enough to kill more than 100,000 Americans.
At the beginning of the last Congress, Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Dannels, a 38-year veteran of law enforcement, testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Sheriff Dannels told us about a woman named ``Wanda'' from his county who was killed while driving to her own 65th birthday party by an individual who was evading law enforcement while smuggling illegal aliens. She had hoped to enjoy some time at the party with her son, who was receiving treatment for stage IV cancer. According to Sheriff Dannels, the criminal who caused the crash was smuggling illegal aliens when he fled from law enforcement officers, blew through a red light, and crashed into Wanda's car, cutting it in half and instantly killing her.
These dangerous car crashes kill our law enforcement heroes, as well. On December 7, 2022, Border Patrol Officer Raul Humberto Gonzalez got up, got dressed, and he left for work. His family would never see him again. He was killed later that day in Mission, Texas, doing his job trying to protect our country. A group of illegal aliens led him on a high-speed chase that ended in a fatal wreck that took his life.
Authorities do not have the tools to fully prosecute and punish these criminals. Currently the failure to yield to a
At the same time, there are no specific immigration consequences for foreign nationals, including illegal aliens, who intentionally evade the Border Patrol. In other words, criminals and foreign nationals have little incentive not to evade them.
On November 5, the American people sent a strong message to the world: There is only one pathway into the United States, and that is to obey our laws.
This bill sends a message that we will no longer tolerate those who evade our law enforcement officers who are upholding those laws.
H.R. 35 is named in honor and in memory of Agent Gonzalez. It ensures that those who endanger border communities and law enforcement officers by failing to yield to Border Patrol agents will face meaningful consequences, ensuring these illegal aliens can be prosecuted and will be ineligible for immigration relief under our laws.
This legislation also provides escalating criminal penalties if the evasion results in serious bodily injury or death to another person.
Last session, this bill passed on a bipartisan basis, although 154 of our Democratic colleagues opposed this commonsense measure. Taking their cue, Senate Democrats refused to take it up last year. That is inexplicable to me. I don't understand that.
I hope that today, after Democrats have had time to reflect on the matter, especially in light of the decisive verdict of the American people last November, that more of our Democratic colleagues will have seen the light and will join us in protecting the American people from these dangerous criminals and cartels and human smugglers.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Arizona Representative Juan Ciscomani for his leadership on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I begin with an urgent constitutional public service announcement based on millions of calls and messages that have been flooding Congress.
There is a serial constitutional violator at large right now in the District of Columbia whose overall project to dismantle our Constitution and rule of law is now the target or subject of at least a dozen different Federal court temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions across the land and also faces emergency civil actions in dozens of other courts and jurisdictions.
The suspect has been described as a very evil individual by Steve Bannon and has been operating in a clandestine fashion with a night crew of computer-hacking juvenile associates, one of whom goes by the alias of ``Big Balls'' and another one they call ``the kid,'' who has been known to post racist and anti-Semitic provocations online.
The accelerating spree of constitutional offenses alarming the Nation involves dozens of episodes of computer fraud and data theft affecting potentially 300 million Americans and escalating threats against congressionally created Federal agencies serving the people from the NIH to the National Weather Service to NOAA to the Department of Justice; public workers; teachers and students; prosecutors of cop- assaulting criminals and seditious conspirators against our government; FBI agents; and anyone who depends on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or any other computerized public payment system.
The apparent ringleader of all the constitutional mayhem is a reported father of 12, a formerly deportable undocumented immigrant who worked illegally in the country and is apparently part of a loose network of Silicon Valley billionaires who oppose American constitutional democracy and openly favor creation of a monarchical techno-state under their control.
The suspect was seen yesterday in the vicinity of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW and is known to have been consorting as recently as a few days ago with a convicted felon from New York.
Described as the richest person in the world, the suspect is both a government contractor with billions of dollars in defense contracts-- and we learned yesterday $400 million slated from the State Department for some of his armored Tesla vehicles--and also he is a part-time government worker whose many taxpayer-supported businesses are being investigated, fined, or sued by numerous Federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The suspect has allegedly been working to seize control over several of these same agencies to shut them down, which would presumably terminate all of the relevant threatening investigations.
The public has never received from the suspect any ethics disclosure forms required of all Federal workers nor any conflict of interest waiver to resolve his glaring conflicts of interest.
The suspect spent his formative years in apartheid South Africa and has been known to post racist and anti-Semitic material and to engage in a Nazi salute in public.
Steve Bannon calls him a truly evil individual. The ringleader and his associates, sometimes called the Muskovites, have been seen by numerous Federal workers violating the separation of powers and the Spending Clause, usurping the powers of this body, trampling the civil service laws, and violating the rights of both his Federal and corporate workers.
The suspect, his sponsors, and accomplices should be considered dangerous to the constitutional rights, freedoms, and institutions of the people as well as their property, their jobs, and their livelihoods.
If you know anything about the situation and you are a Republican Member, please get in touch immediately with the Democrats so we can form a majority to stop this unprecedented attack on the Constitution and American law and order before we end up like apartheid South Africa or Orban's Hungary or Putin's Russia.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program where we avoid the constitutional crisis overtaking the first and greatest multiracial, multiethnic constitutional democracy on Earth and instead pass completely redundant, unnecessary, and sloppily drafted laws that allow us to vote against immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, as Elon Musk was, without either engaging in comprehensive immigration reform or fixing the border.
Now, with this bill, House Republicans are once again seeking to take political advantage of a horrific crime by seizing on the death of Agent Gonzalez in the performance of his duties, while doing nothing to make our border more secure or to repair our broken immigration system.
Everyone knows, of course, that they blew up the bipartisan border security deal that we had at the end of the last Congress.
H.R. 35 seeks to establish new criminal and immigration penalties on anyone--citizens, permanent residents, documented immigrants, or undocumented immigrants--for this offense: fleeing a Border Patrol agent or a law enforcement officer who is working with the Border Patrol.
Fleeing Border Patrol at the border already carries substantial criminal and legal penalties under current law. That is already a crime. Under 18 U.S. Code 758, whoever flees or evades a checkpoint operated by the Customs and Border Protection, or any other law enforcement agency, in a motor vehicle and flees from Federal, State, or local law enforcement in excess of the legal speed limit can be charged with and convicted of high-speed flight from an immigration checkpoint.
Furthermore, many decades of prosecution and case law make it perfectly clear that fleeing law enforcement is a crime involving moral turpitude for which a conviction will render a noncitizen, whether documented or undocumented, immediately deportable and inadmissible to the country.
In other words, what they are dragging us through again is already against the law. If all of it is already a crime, why do we need another version of it, except for plainly opportunistic political purposes.
I know those are the only bills they have been bringing forward. They have got no other agenda for the country. They have handed over the legislative authority of the Congress of the United
In any event, they want us to pass again something that is already against the law. We don't need it. In fact, this characteristically poorly drafted, pile-on bill is so poorly drafted this time that it could subject not just undocumented people, not just permanent residents, but American citizens to prison sentences for conduct that the vast majority of Americans would not even recognize as a crime at all and would not see as a crime.
Now, unlike existing Federal law or similar State statutes, the bill does not define what it means to ``flee.'' In their haste to get this to the floor, they just rushed over that element of the crime, which is of extraordinary interest to every other jurisdiction and even Congress before when dealing with it. Leave that aside, it does not even require evidence of criminal intent, a guilty mind, what lawyers call mens rea, the intention to do the evil thing.
In other words, this bill does not require a person to know that they are fleeing Border Patrol in order to be charged with that crime.
Think about it, Mr. Speaker. It applies to citizens, not just noncitizens, and you can be prosecuted and jailed for fleeing from a Border Patrol that you didn't know was Border Patrol.
This is a radical departure from the prevailing rule in American jurisdictions.
For example, in Maryland--I looked up my State--the offense of fleeing or eluding law enforcement requires that a uniformed officer gives a person a visual or audible signal to stop and prominently displays their official badge or other insignia. If an officer is not in uniform, Maryland requires that an officer give a visual or audible signal to stop while in an officially marked police vehicle to establish the necessary mens rea before we put somebody in prison. Under either circumstance, a visual or audible signal can be by hand, voice, emergency light, or siren.
It is not only blue States like mine that require evidence that the accused knew what they were doing was wrong before convicting them of purposefully fleeing from law enforcement. That is the rule almost everywhere.
I am sure the Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Subcommittee chairman, Mr. Biggs, and the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Ciscomani, are aware that, in Arizona, the offense of unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement requires proof that the officer's vehicle had markings indicative of an official police vehicle, evidence that the driver knew that the vehicle was an official law enforcement vehicle, or the defendant must admit knowing that the vehicle was an official police vehicle.
In other words, their own State takes the exact painstaking precautions that they just run roughshod over in order to get this bill, which has not had a hearing, to the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
Should a defendant choose to exercise their right to trial by jury, the trial judge in Arizona would instruct the jury that they may consider whether the officer operated their emergency lights or siren to determine whether the defendant is guilty of unlawful flight from an actual pursuing vehicle.
As was stated in the collaborative reports ``Without Intent'' and ``Without Intent Revisited,'' published by The Heritage Foundation, which is adamant about mens rea, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, ``Ensuring that an adequate mens rea provision is included in statutes and regulations that create criminal offenses is critical.''
The Heritage Foundation says that it is critical to specify that there must be a culpable or guilty state of mind before we put people behind bars. It appears that nearly every State recognized this fact when drafting their statutes carefully to address the fears and consequences associated with people fleeing law enforcement.
We don't want people going to jail because they were simply moving away from a person they thought was a criminal who turns out to be, for example, an undercover police officer.
As a matter of fact, of the States represented by the 32 cosponsors of this legislation, all but two of them specifically require, at minimum, an audible or visual signal to stop the vehicle to prove that there was intentional flight from a pursuing officer.
Looking at statutes that address similar conduct in all 50 States, there are only 6 that do not explicitly require an order, direction, request, or signal to stop the vehicle.
Despite this widely accepted approach to legislative construction, H.R. 35 would allow Donald Trump's Department of Justice to not only convict noncitizens but citizens of a violation of this so-called offense and to deport noncitizens without allowing them their day in court and without requiring any evidence of any knowledge that they were actually fleeing a government agent.
Without any limiting characteristics, under this bill, a citizen could be sent to prison because they did not immediately pull over when hailed by someone--for example, a local undercover officer assisting Border Patrol.
Similarly, in the immigration context, admitting to acts that constitute this nebulous and vague conduct would render a green card holder deportable.
The bill applies its criminal immigration penalties even if the law enforcement officer is in plain clothes and is driving an unmarked undercover vehicle.
There are a lot of good reasons why a law-abiding citizen or permanent resident might be wary of pulling over for an unmarked vehicle. Just last week, reports emerged of an alarming trend across the country of rapists, criminals, or vigilantes pretending to be immigration enforcement personnel targeting people whom they thought might be undocumented in order to rape them, assault them, harass them, or what have you.
I saw on TV a case last night of a sexual assailant who accosted a woman and forcibly assaulted her while pretending to be an ICE agent. I saw that last night.
Another man, Sean-Michael Johnson, was arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer, along with felony kidnapping, larceny, and assault and battery, after he impersonated an ICE agent and stopped a group of men in their car because he told them they were not lawfully present in the country.
In this environment, Mr. Speaker, it would be neither unreasonable nor surprising for law-abiding citizens to be wary of pulling over for an unmarked car that claims to be working with Border Patrol. Further, given that the Trump administration is deputizing anyone they can to get to aid immigration enforcement efforts, the number of officers, both in police clothing and in unmarked clothing, to whom this law would apply is staggering.
In backing this bill, our colleagues want to impose extraordinary criminal and immigration consequences for not immediately pulling over when an unmarked car driven by a total stranger hails you at a time when criminals, including a pardoned January 6 felon, by the way, are going around impersonating immigration enforcement officers.
That is a real trend happening now, and I would love to be convinced it is not if the gentleman has reason to think that all of these reports and arrests of people impersonating officers are wrong.
This is a trend in the country. All of this is simply to give more power to target immigrants, which already exists, just for the purposes of a legislative show. This is outrageous.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, my friend argues that this bill is unnecessary because aliens who are convicted of fleeing an immigration checkpoint are already removable. That part is correct, but there are no corresponding grounds for inadmissibility.
This bill fixes that omission. It also expands the law to someone who is deliberately fleeing the Border Patrol not only from a checkpoint but from anywhere within 100 miles of the border.
This begs the larger question: If, as the Democrats say, this bill simply restates the existing law, then why are they opposing it?
They say you should prove that the alien knows that they are evading the
Leading a high-speed chase through a crowded highway is also such an inherently dangerous act, which my friends on the other side of the aisle, for some inexplicable reason, want to excuse.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cline).
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the ranking member of the committee has his talking points today when he wants to complain about a businessman helping the administration to save taxpayer dollars, and he is raising histrionics to a new level by talking about a constitutional crisis.
Mr. Speaker, we do have the power of the purse under Article I, but Article II, when given that money, has a responsibility for administering it in a responsible manner. If this administration is going to grant taxpayer funds for irresponsible purposes, or if the last administration granted money to irresponsible recipients, then this administration should be able to reconsider those grants or stop those grants from occurring and direct the money into a more appropriate place.
It doesn't surprise me that the gentleman from suburban Washington, who has so many Federal employees in his district, is now worried that we are going to have a number of Federal employees who are going to be put out of work.
Do you know what, Mr. Speaker? We have too many Federal employees in this country. It is about time that we shrink the size and scope of the Federal Government, and I think that even though it results in people in suburban Washington unfortunately having to seek employment elsewhere, it will save the taxpayers money and improve government efficiency for the long term.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this bill, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, because, in recent years, cartels and human smugglers have recruited drivers to transport illegal aliens from the southwest border further into the United States and many of our communities.
Unsurprisingly, when encountered by law enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officials, these drivers routinely flee, often at high speeds.
Raul Gonzalez was a Border Patrol agent who was killed in 2022 in a high-speed chase while pursuing a car filled with illegal immigrants in Texas. That same year, there were six Border Patrol agents who died on the job.
A high-speed chase puts agents, first responders, and innocent bystanders in danger. Because these chases happen as often as daily to multiple times a day, they take up the bulk of the U.S. marshals' responses to calls.
This bill provides a Federal criminal penalty for individuals who intentionally evade Border Patrol agents or law enforcement officers assisting Border Patrol and provides for escalating penalties when evading law enforcement results in serious bodily injury or death.
The consequences of the Biden-Harris administration's open-borders policies are clear. Now, House Republicans, along with President Trump, can ensure the safety of our communities and the security of our borders.
Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I encourage my colleagues to do so, as well.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, yes, we have hundreds of thousands of Federal employees who live in Maryland, and we are very proud of them. I assume the distinguished gentleman from Virginia is proud of the hundreds of thousands of Federal employees who live and work in Virginia, including in Roanoke. They have constitutional rights just like other American citizens have.
None of our rights, whether they are constitutional or in the civil service, should be trashed by an unelected billionaire bureaucrat who doesn't understand our system of government.
As to the merits, the distinguished gentleman talks about high-speed chases, which is what most statutes talk about in the country. This bill--I don't know if the gentleman read the language--doesn't mention high-speed chases or any speed at all. It just says ``fleeing.'' It is the only statute I could find in the country that doesn't define what ``fleeing'' means.
It is a very sloppy bill that has not had a hearing and that was brought to the floor for political entertainment purposes.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal), who is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.
Mr. Speaker, do you remember when candidate Trump said that, on day one, he would end inflation and bring prices down for American citizens? That is, in fact, the number one reason he got elected.
Guess what, Mr. Speaker? He has done nothing on this. Republicans have spent no time on the floor trying to bring down prices for average Americans. In fact, the data that was just released yesterday says that prices have shot up because of many of the proposals that Donald Trump has put forward and the chaos he is inflicting on the economy.
Are we spending time on that here on the floor? No. We are wasting time on yet another attack on all immigrants, including U.S. citizens.
Once again, the majority is moving a bill to expand the Trump administration's mass deportation machine and trample on the core American principle of due process.
All of these bills that are being put forward utilize a very simple formula: first, take laws that are already on the books about deporting and making inadmissible to the United States people who are convicted of committing certain crimes and fool the American people into thinking somehow that is not already the law; and, second, dangerously expand those laws so that simply being accused of something or admitting to something that no one would reasonably consider being a crime makes it sufficient to now deport someone or make him inadmissible without any due process and without a fair day in court.
This is terrorizing communities across the country, and Donald Trump's obsession with using every lever of government to target immigrants has undermined our national security and our safety by forcing Federal law enforcement officials to abandon fighting drug trafficking or human smuggling and instead focus on arresting, detaining, and deporting immigrants who pose no threat to public safety. Many of them have lived and worked in this country for decades.
Already, we have seen the effects on U.S. citizens, with the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens, the targeting of Native Americans, and the arrest of countless people with no criminal records.
ICE agents are treating the act of speaking Spanish as probable cause for interrogation, and they are revoking all the crucial and successful legal pathways put in place by the Biden administration, like parole and temporary protected status, including, by the way, for Venezuelans and Cubans, who feel Trump's betrayal deeply.
This bill follows the same divisive, deceptive formula. H.R. 35 amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to create a new ground of deportability and inadmissibility for any noncitizen who admits fleeing from Border Patrol while operating a motor vehicle, whether or not they knew it was Border Patrol that they were fleeing from.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. Just as I said with the formula, being convicted of fleeing from Border Patrol or any law enforcement already makes a person deportable and inadmissible. That is current law. The key word here is ``convicted.''
Remember that when we talk about deportability, we are also talking about people who are in the United States lawfully. Many are green card holders and have lived in the United States for decades. If we are going to deport them, I hope that we would all agree that they should have basic due process rights and a day in court, just like any American would want for themselves.
That is why conviction is required for deportation. Convictions also mean that law enforcement can focus on the most serious criminals, not those who are simply accused and may well be innocent.
Let me also debunk the Republican argument that admitting to fleeing is the same as a conviction. That is simply not true. People may admit to fleeing without even knowing that the person chasing them is Border Patrol.
Let me give an example. Let's say that a woman is driving alone on a deserted road at night. She hears a siren. She sees an unmarked car behind her signaling that she should pull over. She had heard many stories about the men who prey on solo female drivers by pretending to be law enforcement, so she slows down and puts on her hazards. She even calls 911 to confirm that they have an officer in the area.
They confirm that one of their officers, who is deputized by CBP, is in the area, so she pulls over. When the officer comes up to her window, she says: I am sorry, Officer. I needed to keep driving while I confirmed that you were with law enforcement since you were in an unmarked car.
That constitutes an admission that she was intentionally fleeing from law enforcement. Under this bill, even if she is a lawful permanent resident who has been in this country for 10 years or 20 years, she has just rendered herself deportable. A conviction requirement importantly ensures that people have due process and that that essential context isn't missed.
Just last week, The Washington Post reported an uptick in people who are impersonating immigration enforcement officers to harass and attack people they suspect of being undocumented. One North Carolina man showed a woman a fake badge and told her that he would deport her if she didn't come to a motel and have sex with him.
He ended up being arrested and charged with impersonating law enforcement, kidnapping, second-degree forcible rape, and assault. In this environment, it is not surprising that people keep driving away when unmarked cars tell them to pull over, claiming to work with Border Patrol.
U.S. citizens should also be aware of the fact that the new criminal penalties in this bill would subject U.S. citizens to draconian mandatory minimums for something as minor as failing to immediately stop when hailed by an unmarked police car.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, this bill applies to anyone within 100 miles of the border. That is two-thirds of the population of the United States, cities like Jacksonville; Charleston; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Fear is already pervasive. People are afraid to go to work and school. Businesses are hurting. Local economies and communities and States, from Nebraska to Ohio to Texas, are hurting.
Mr. Speaker, this bill plays on fear. It is cruel. It is unnecessary. It is dangerous for all Americans' due process rights. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Democrats even listen to themselves. The gentlewoman just told us that this bill is simply duplicative of existing law and, therefore, a farce. A moment later, the gentlewoman told us that it is a dangerous expansion of existing law. I ask them to pick at least one side or the other and stick to it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 35, legislation named after Agent Raul Gonzalez, a 38-year-old father of two, who lost his life in an ATV accident on December 7, 2022, as he was attempting to apprehend a group of immigrants who had entered the country illegally.
This legislation not only honors the sacrifice of Agent Gonzalez, but it reinforces Republican support to secure our border.
This legislation helps fulfill the promise that President Trump made to the American people to protect those who protect each of us. This legislation will protect American communities by imposing criminal penalties on people who evade U.S. Border Patrol agents or other law enforcement agents at our border.
This legislation will also help protect the brave men and women who enforce our border, those who risk their lives for the mission of keeping us safe and providing a secure border for all Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to work alongside President Trump to make our country safe for all American citizens. I am proud to support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to please vote ``yes'' on H.R. 35.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, just in answer to a couple of the recent comments that the good gentleman, the floor manager, says: How could it be possible that this bill is both duplicative and wildly expansive?
Mr. Speaker, it is duplicative of the actual criminal offense. That already exists. It is already a crime for somebody at the border to flee in a high-speed chase away from an officer. That is already a crime.
What is expansive is this applies to citizens. It goes way beyond the border. It goes all over the country. It doesn't define what it means to flee. It doesn't require a high-speed chase.
As the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal) was saying, it can apply to a woman who hears on the news, the way I heard last night, that there is a maniac out there claiming to be an ICE agent who is attacking women. She hears about it, and then a plainclothes officer in an unmarked car begins to chase her. If she moves away and stops three or four blocks later, she is guilty of violating their sloppily drafted bill.
If Republicans are serious about it, we should go back and have a real hearing, and the majority should look at what States across the country are doing.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bynum).
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 35.
Let's call this bill what it is: fear-mongering dressed up as officer safety.
This bill echoes one of the darkest chapters in our Nation's history, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Just like that shameful law, H.R. 35 forces local authorities and encourages the deputizing of randos to do the Federal Government's work, punishing them if they refuse.
Back then, it was hunting down people who dared to seek freedom. Today, it is forcing local police to become Federal enforcers, which is a violation of States' rights.
This bill is duplicative of existing law. It threatens members of our community who are here legally and lacks the surgical precision needed for solid immigration policy. We need to start focusing on real solutions for the border.
I support law enforcement. I support public safety, but I oppose the Federal Government overreach that erodes local control and threatens civil rights.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to continue seeking comprehensive immigration policy reform and to vote ``no'' on H.R. 35.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, which I am proud to have co-led with Congressman Ciscomani.
Agent Raul Gonzalez was stationed in my community of McAllen, Texas, and was dedicated to protecting the Rio Grande Valley and, quite frankly, all of the Nation. In 2022, he tragically lost his life while pursuing a car full of illegal immigrants.
By passing this legislation, we can take critical steps to protect the safety of law enforcement officers and prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.
This bill will make failing to yield to Border Patrol agents or law enforcement a Federal crime. Further, if anyone is killed during the apprehension, it could result in life in prison.
Criminals will think twice before engaging in dangerous and reckless behavior like a high-speed chase from Border Patrol agents.
Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities. I am committed to protecting those who protect us, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill in honor of the life and service of a Texas hero, Agent Raul Gonzalez.
Mr. Speaker, here we go again. We are voting on yet another bill that just promotes racial profiling.
That is exactly what is happening because Americans right now who are Brown or Black or have an accent and who are American citizens are carrying passports with them. Why? It is because we are going to allow the targeting of communities that look like my district, to police them and to militarize them.
This bill strips away the right to due process. We already know that. I think that many of my colleagues who are supporting this know that.
This is going to target even legal permanent residents. The majority is going to separate families instantly without ever allowing anyone to be able to go to trial or even have a conviction. It is absolutely and clearly unconstitutional.
Everyone in our country has rights, and I want my residents to hear me say this again: Everyone has rights, no matter their status, in the United States of America.
This is what Republicans want. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to make racial profiling the law of the land and make discrimination the law of the land. That is what my Republican colleagues want. Republican Members want to go back to that kind of militarization and policing of targeting people who look like my mother and who look like my neighbors in the 12th Congressional District.
Mr. Speaker, I will be very clear, though. What my colleagues don't get, and I want my residents to hear me when I say this, is that no President--none--has the power to end constitutional rights, the right to due process; not one.
Mr. Speaker, this is not about fixing our immigration system. The dollars and the people who support measures like this and the fear- mongering want a broken immigration system because, as the ranking member probably knows, they make money off of our broken immigration system.
If my colleagues really wanted to address it, let's get to the core issues of the fact of who is benefiting the most from not allowing our families and our loved ones who have been here for decades and years to be able to have a pathway to citizenship. It is because someone benefits from it, and it is unfortunate.
Mr. Speaker, Democrats will have the backs of our immigrant neighbors and even our American citizens who feel like they are being targeted by this law.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act.
This important legislation would make it a crime to evade arrest or detention while operating a motor vehicle within 100 miles of the U.S. border. For aliens, the bill would go a step further, making it a deportable offense to flee from a pursuing Border Patrol agent.
Our southern border is under attack, and our Border Patrol agents are on the front lines. The former administration depleted Border Patrol resources, leaving them with an impossible task that routinely puts them in harm's way.
The Border Patrol experienced over 5,700 encounters every day in December 2022, the month that Agent Raul Gonzalez was killed while pursuing an illegal alien who was evading arrest.
The following year, the Biden administration doubled down on its open-border policies, surging these encounters to 2.5 million in 2023.
Under President Biden's so-called leadership, border wall materials were sold off, and razor wire was removed.
Under President Trump's leadership, we are taking full advantage of our resources to secure the border, and Mexico and Canada have already agreed to bolster enforcement.
The Trump policies are already working. Yesterday, The Washington Times reported what they called a reverse flow of illegal immigrants streaming back home after being blocked at Trump's border.
When migrants learn of the new, enhanced security measures at the southern border, they are giving up and going home. Border Patrol agents who previously encountered as many as 10,000 illegal immigrants in a day are seeing fewer than 500.
By passing this legislation, we are showing Border Patrol agents that we have their backs and that we prioritize their safety. This bill provides additional protections for Border Patrol agents by imposing harsher penalties for illegal aliens evading arrest at our border.
Mr. Speaker, Democrats have been saying for 2 weeks now, instead of stopping the stupid spending, they attack the guy who is exposing the stupid spending. I think we should maybe get rid of the stupid spending.
Trans comic opera in Ireland, Sesame Street on Iraqi television, I think maybe we should focus on that. No. No. No. We can't do that.
I think this just underscores the fundamental difference between the left and those of us in the Republican Party, those of us who are conservatives.
The left thinks the bureaucrats are smarter than we the people. You have to trust the bureaucracy. You have to trust the experts in the government. I would rather trust the people, the 77 million people who elected President Trump who told us he was systematically going to go through these agencies and identify dumb things where taxpayer money is going to. He told us he was going to do it. The American people understood it. He got elected, and now he is carrying out that mission. Now they are attacking the guy who President Trump has put in charge of this effort.
The bureaucrats who decided Big Bird and Bert and Ernie on Baghdad TV was a good use of taxpayer money, can't question them. We can't do that. We can't question the people in the bureaucracy. We can't question the 108,000 people who work at the Department of the Treasury. No. No. No. They are smarter than the folks President Trump has asked to come in and look at where our tax money is going.
Think about this, the smartest bureaucrat in the history of the world, Dr. Fauci, the things he told us. We weren't allowed to question him for 2 years, and he ran our lives.
Here is the irony: Everything he told us turned out to be false. He told us the virus didn't come from a lab. Yes, it did. We have agencies now that tell us that and confirm that. He told us the vaccinated couldn't get it. He told us the vaccinated couldn't transmit it. He was wrong on both those counts. He told us that masks work. He told us 6 feet social distancing was based on science, but they just made it up.
Here is the kicker: He told us this is the first virus in history where there was no such thing as natural immunity. We can't question him. We have to trust the bureaucracy. I prefer to trust the people.
By the way, remember when they tried to set up a bureaucracy in the government that was going to tell us what we were allowed to say? They actually tried to set up the Disinformation Governance Board as if a bunch of Federal bureaucrats can tell us what we can say, what we can't say, what is information, and what is disinformation. You have to be kidding me.
I will trust the guy who was elected by 77 million Americans. I will trust the Constitution that says: The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States.
Do you know why they did that in the Constitution? Because that is the guy who puts his name on a ballot and has to get votes, not the bureaucracy.
I trust the guy who was elected and the people he has put in charge of this effort. He told us he was going to do it. The American people elected him to do it. Maybe we should focus on stopping the stupid spending. After all, we have a $36 trillion debt.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. McClintock for yielding me time here to talk about this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of my legislation, H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act.
We have heard talk on both sides of the aisle on the floor on this bill on the merits of it, and I am very proud to be supporting this and to actually share a little bit of the story of how we came about this bill.
One of my first official meetings that I had after being elected in '22 was to go back to one of my border counties in Cochise. This meeting happened in early '23.
I asked them, if there is one bill that I could start on immediately, what would it be? This meeting included law enforcement, local law enforcement from the State, from the county, Border Patrol, and stakeholders. The unanimous vote and feedback was to make sure that something like what happened to Agent Raul Gonzalez never happened again. The issue we homed in on dealt with the issue of high-speed chases and the inability of law enforcement to be able to pull over and punish those that are fleeing law enforcement and their failure to yield not being a Federal crime. This was it.
To all those on the other side of the aisle here who criticize this bill as saying that it is anti-fill in the blank, this came from the same people that my friends on the other side claim that this is against. This is a bill that came from the feedback of those that are highly impacted by this in our border communities.
It is not only law enforcement that is suffering and actually being risked in this kind of activity, it is innocent bystanders that are hurt by these high-speed chases that are literally dying in border communities and being killed by these pursuits.
The bill is simple: It makes evading law enforcement within 100 miles of the border a Federal crime. To me, it is simply common sense that this should be a Federal crime. Far too many lives have been jeopardized and even tragically taken, like I said, at the hands of bad actors who engage in these high-speed chases.
If you evade CBP or local law enforcement, you clearly don't have good intentions. That is obvious. Unfortunately, the current law does not make this a crime in and of itself. It leaves the burden of prosecuting these individuals to our local border communities, as if they don't have enough challenges already with what the previous administration caused at the border.
Not only is this bill common sense, it is crucial and in some cases, even lifesaving.
To quote one of my constituents, he said: At least once a week there is a high-speed chase through town that includes a 15-mile-an-hour school zone. Do residents need to die to get the attention needed to correct the border problem?
The sad truth is that some have died, both law enforcement and innocent civilians. Law enforcement wants this bill, Mr. Speaker. Mayors in my border districts want this bill. My constituents want this bill, but every opposition that I have heard from my friends on the other side is coming from the same people that stood by as the previous administration and the White House caused this border crisis. Forgive me if I am not moved by those arguments. I am moved by the feedback from those that are on the front lines of this border crisis.
I consistently hear about the detrimental impact that high-speed chases have in southeastern Arizona and across the southern border, specifically in the county that I mentioned earlier, Cochise County.
This criminal activity is not just reserved to drug cartels or illegal immigrants or smugglers themselves. These cartels are targeting American citizens to be those drivers. In most cases, those drivers happen to be American citizens, as well.
Yes, this legislation goes beyond just the illegal immigrants that are driving. It goes to punish also U.S. citizens that are engaging in this activity. Anyone endangering American lives should be held to account.
This bill is about supporting our law enforcement communities who deal with this crisis on a daily basis to stop the smuggling and trafficking.
In calendar year 2022 and 2023, Cochise County reports booking 2,884 individuals for border-related crimes, costing over $9.4 million to that local community. This is in one county, in one State. I have seen the toll it takes firsthand in our communities.
We should be asking ourselves why these people are fleeing law enforcement. The answer is: These are bad actors who the cartels want to evade law enforcement.
Finally, I will highlight the hero that this bill is named after.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Agent Raul Gonzalez was killed in 2022 while pursuing illegal immigrants in Texas. His death underscores the tragic truth that our Customs and Border Protection agents and officers risk their lives every day to protect our community.
By passing this legislation, we are showing them that we have their backs. That is why this bill is supported by law enforcement groups like the National Border Patrol Council and the National Sheriffs' Association and many local law enforcement groups in Arizona, as well.
This bill passed last Congress with bipartisan support. I hope and encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, prioritize border security, and make our border communities safer.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee (Mr. Jordan) invites us to believe that we should just suspend our own interests in legislative power. We should no longer defend the laws we have passed, the programs we have adopted, the money we have appropriated but that we should turn it over to the new fourth branch of government, Elon Musk, who can do whatever he wants.
Then he wants to also delegate to Mr. Musk our oversight power. We have an entire committee chaired by Mr. Comer. We have our own subcommittee on Oversight in the Judiciary Committee, but do they want to have hearings on Big Bird and Ernie and all of the alleged waste, fraud, and abuse that Mr. Musk is finding with his untutored, unvetted, juvenile computer hacker crew?
Come on. Let's show some institutional self-respect. This is the Congress of the United States. We are not delegating our power to Elon Musk or anybody else.
Mr. Speaker, many of our great heroes have understood that sloppy legislation undertaken as part of an attempt to whip up anti- immigration hysteria comes to haunt not just the immigrant community, of course, but citizens, too.
This bill is a great example of that because I don't know if they meant to write it this way, but it applies to citizens. It doesn't require mens rea, so call the Heritage Foundation about that. They are opposed to bills like this that don't require you prove that people have a specific intent to violate the law and commit a criminal offense. It doesn't define what fleeing even means. It doesn't require a high-speed chase, which is what they keep talking about. That is already against the law in lots of places.
It is a sloppy bill that is going to come back and haunt us if it were ever to become law, which it won't.
Thomas Jefferson said during the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts where people were trying to whip up hysteria--
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I first am tempted to address my friend's obsession with Elon Musk. The situation is pretty simple: A new boss takes over and he brings in an auditor. The auditor calls in the Democrats and says, I would like to see your expense account receipts, and the Democrats go absolutely berserk.
Now, what does that tell you about what has been going on with our money all this time?
My experience has been that the most closely guarded secrets of government are not those that are marked ``top secret,'' they are the secrets that are embarrassing.
Elon Musk is embarrassing the Democrats, which is why they have unleashed this torrent of invective, vitriol, and character assassination upon him, and why they have spent so much time today obsessing on Elon Musk rather than the bill before us to protect the victims of illegal immigration that they themselves unleashed upon our country.
Mr. Speaker, Scott Jennings of CNN recently wondered aloud: What possesses the Democrats to constantly take the 20 percent side of every major issue, whether it is waste in government, men competing in girls' sports, crime and homelessness, or, in this case, border security? They seem instinctively to reject a commonsense position expressed by 80 percent or more of the electorate and double down on the 20 percent or less position taken only by the lunatic fringe of the radical left, and they are doing that again today.
High-speed chases due to human and drug smuggling at the border have claimed the lives of far too many Americans, including a Border Patrol agent who was simply trying to protect his local community. This bill, named in his memory, makes it a Federal crime to evade the Border Patrol or local law enforcement acting in support of the Border Patrol within 100 miles of the international border.
If you are a foreign national, it makes a conviction or admission of such a crime grounds for inadmissibility and removability. If you endanger our local law enforcement officers or innocent bystanders by initiating a high-speed chase, we will throw you in prison for a long time. Then, we will send you packing when you get out.
I suspect this bill has the support of well over 80 percent of the American people, yet once again, the Democrats oppose it. I suspect most will vote against it, as they did last year.
The American people have seen this unfold in this Chamber time and time again. They clearly understand what is at stake, and they well understand the implications to the sovereignty of our country and to the safety of our communities. Last November, they gave us the votes to pass this legislation, and they gave us a President who will sign it. Let's get on with it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition H.R. 35. This bill is a solution that has already been addressed in law. Right now, the House of Representatives has important work to do. The deadline to fund the government is only one month away, and the price of eggs is skyrocketing under President Trump. But instead of addressing these problems, Republicans put forward the same messaging bill we voted on last Congress.
To be clear, fleeing the border patrol already carries criminal and legal penalties under current law, and a conviction for fleeing border patrol already makes a person deportable. This bill is poorly written and politicizes a tragedy. It does nothing to make our border more secure or fix our broken immigration system. Republicans continue to demonstrate they are not willing to work toward real solutions to bring order to the border and fix our immigration system.
This is another bill in a series of Republican slippery-slope immigration bills that erodes the rights of everyone present in the United States, including green card holders, students, temporary workers, DACA recipients, and even citizens. It attacks due process under the United States Constitution and targets immigrants who are lawfully in the United States. In H.R. 35, there is no requirement that a noncitizen actually be charged by law enforcement, making a person deportable without even being convicted of a crime. Our Constitution holds that in the United States, you are innocent until you are proven guilty. This bill undermines that basic principle.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the previous question is ordered on the bill.
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 rise today in support of my bipartisan bill, the Orphan Well Grant Flexibility Act. We all know that orphaned wells, either unplugged or improperly plugged, can pose serious environmental health risks to surrounding communities.
In Pennsylvania alone, there are more than 27,000 documented abandoned and orphan oil gas wells across the State. This is not just a Pennsylvania issue, however, as abandoned wells are found across the country.
The Orphan Well Grant Flexibility Act, which I introduced alongside my colleague, Congressman Deluzio from Pennsylvania, will empower States to maximize their flexibility when plugging abandoned oil wells and cut red tape to accelerate environmental rehabilitation.
We have many of the resources we need to plug these wells. It is our job to ensure they are able to be used for their intended purpose. I thank Congressman Deluzio for joining me in leading this critical effort. I encourage all my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I want to share the words of a mother in Detroit who today said she was sorry but she tried. She is talking about the fact that she was evicted. A mother of five, she had no choice but to park her minivan in the parking lot of downtown Detroit on one of our coldest nights. She lost two of her children, a 2-year- old and a 9-year-old. They froze to death in the car.
We know that last year we saw a record 18 percent rise in homelessness in our country. Nearly 150,000 children are unhoused every night. We know, again, that our country spends trillions of dollars, though, on weapons and war, while children freeze to death in our country.
It is estimated that ending homelessness in our country could cost as little as $11 billion. The Pentagon spends $12 billion a year on F-35 jets that can't even fly in the rain. Our priorities are fundamentally broken.
I want to tell Ms. Williams we failed her. She should not be apologizing because she tried. We are not trying hard enough here in this institution to protect her and her children.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life of Thelma Baker. Thelma is what one might call a local legend, both in Missoula County where she made her home and across the Treasure State.
To some, she was known as the owner and proprietor of the Thunderbird and Canyon Motels, to others a great-great-grandmother. Those are two greats for the folks keeping track at home.
The Thelma I knew was a tireless advocate for conservative causes, who lived a life of dedicated service to her community, to her State, and to her country. She was a voting member of the Montana electoral college since 2000 and was actively involved with local organizations like the University of Montana Grizzly Athletic Association, Copper Connections, and the Missoula Chamber of Commerce.
Thelma lived the life of a model citizen, and generations of Montanans will be better off for her devotion to civic engagement and community involvement.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Union City, Georgia, for being named a City of Civility by the Georgia Municipal Association.
Union City has adopted a civility resolution and a pledge built on active listening, empathy, and respect for differing opinions, efforts which, to quote from their materials: Encourage ``respectful and constructive dialogue'' in public spaces.
We, this body, must work harder than ever before to improve our civic and political discourse. Recalling the words of President Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address: May we not let passion break our bonds of affection, that we be touched by the better angels of our nature.
I am proud that leaders in my district in Georgia are setting this example for the entire Nation. I congratulate Mayor Williams and the Union City Council for earning this distinguished recognition.
Mr. Speaker, I commend President Trump for his steps to close down the Department of Education and to return power back to the parents. For too long the Department of Education has overstepped its bounds, imposing top-down policies that have done more harm than good.
Since its creation, this bureaucracy has grown into a bloated, unaccountable institution that prioritizes Federal control over the actual needs of our children. It has drained billions of taxpayer dollars, while delivering little in the way of education. Sadly, we have declining test scores, a one-size-fits-all curriculum, and policies that have often placed ideology over learning.
It is time to recognize that the Federal Government does not know what is best for our sons and daughters. Decisions about education should be made at the State and local level by those who are closest to the students, not by bureaucrats in Washington. Eliminating the Department of Education isn't radical. It is common sense.
I thank President Trump for standing up for all the parents and students across this Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the inspirational work of the LEAP Youth Alliance in my district.
LEAP stands for leadership, education, advocacy, and prevention. This coalition of teens works to educate their friends and peers about how to lead healthy, happy, and substance-free lives. Today's teens confront higher rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges than previous generations, leading some to use e-cigarettes, alcohol, and other harmful substances in order to cope.
It is a disturbing trend, and we must work together, using every tool in our toolbox to reverse it. As a leader in the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, I am working to find solutions and pass legislation that will break the stigma and make healthcare more affordable and accessible for our youth, but I cannot do it alone.
That is why I was honored to meet with members of LEAP in my D.C. office where I learned more about how they lead by example and encourage their peers to take control of their lives and health. I am so proud of these young changemakers who truly make a difference in our community.
They will keep up the good work, and I look forward to partnering with them to raise awareness and connect teens with the mental health care and resources they need to thrive.
Mr. Speaker, sadly, too many Americans have lost their lives due to illegal aliens engaging in high-speed chases.
This week highlights the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act led by Congressman Juan Ciscomani. This bill creates criminal offenses when driving a vehicle within 100 miles of the southern border, while fleeing from Border Patrol. Consequences include severe jail time with prohibition from receiving legal status.
Under the leadership of President Trump, Republicans are sending a clear message. When Americans are at risk, they will be protected.
In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues. Open borders for dictators puts all Americans at risk of more 9/11 attacks imminent, as warned by the FBI. Trump is reinstituting laws to protect American families with peace through strength.
The world is inspired by the patriots demonstrating in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia for fair and free elections. Legitimate President Salome Zourabichvili is tireless for the people of Georgia opposing the rigged elections for President in Georgia.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today because a billionaire with unchecked power is calling the shots in our government.
I am outraged that President Trump is enabling this unelected billionaire donor Musk to wreak havoc on our Federal workers, dismantle critical Federal agencies, and even gain access to the personal data of millions of Americans without any vetting, security clearance, or congressional approval.
The richest man in the world should not have access to our payment systems for him to decide whether you should or should not receive payments such as Social Security benefits or Medicaid.
For the past few weeks, my office has been flooded with messages from concerned constituents wondering about the impact that Trump and Musk's actions will have on their lives.
While Republicans and Trump look with a blind eye, Musk exploits the system for his own benefit. I refuse to stay silent. Billionaires like him may think they can buy our democracy, but, we, the people, will fight back.
Mr. Speaker, I come from the great State of Florida, and we believe in government and spending in the sunshine.
As a leader in the Florida Senate, we created a website that allowed for every dollar to be seen how it is spent, how every contract is spent, not just for government officials. Every Floridian, every American, can look at how their dollars are being spent. They deserve to know. They are the ones who earn the money to pay those taxes.
It is an American issue, especially considering the fact that our prices have gone up over the last 4 years by 20 and 30 percent, and they are hearing about these nefarious acts in which, let's just say, money is spent on questionable items, to be generous.
We must continue to fight for transparency to make sure every tax dollar is spent in a wise fashion. More importantly, Americans deserve to know with a website that shows everyone where those dollars are spent.
Mr. Speaker, on February 7, Members of the United States House of Representatives were denied access to the Department of Education. In recent weeks, Members have also been denied access to other Federal agencies, including USAID, the Department of the Treasury, and the EPA.
Members of Congress are a branch of the Federal Government and should be allowed to legally access Federal buildings. Through Article I of the Constitution, we are a co-equal partner and have the same authority to check and balance the other branches.
I introduced the All Access Act, with 44 of my colleagues, to ensure Members of Congress have access to Federal buildings upon showing a valid Member ID. Even Republicans should agree that this separation of power should be protected.
I ask my colleagues to join me in securing our Article I authority and protecting the ability to do our jobs that we were elected to do.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Greg Parker, a visionary leader and dedicated philanthropist, as he celebrates 50 years as CEO of Parker's Kitchen.
Mr. Parker went from operating a single store in Midway, Georgia, to running a thriving business with nearly 100 locations, embodying the spirit of hard work, innovation, and community service.
In 1975, he opened his first store, working every role from pumping gas to cooking food. He built Parker's Kitchen into a household name across Georgia and South Carolina. Even today, he remains hands on, stocking shelves and engaging with customers.
Mr. Parker pioneered a customer loyalty program that has saved customers millions in credit card fees. He also introduced an AI- powered smart kitchen to improve efficiency and reduce waste.
The Parker's Community Fund focuses on four key pillars: healthcare,
As Greg Parker steps down as CEO, his focus shifts toward philanthropy. His aim is to grow the Parker's Community Fund to $100 million and continue prioritizing giving back, strengthening communities, and spending time with loved ones.
Greg Parker's success is not measured by stores built or revenue earned, but by the lives he has touched and the communities he has strengthened.
Mr. Speaker, today, we celebrate a victory for military families. After introducing my bipartisan Support Military Families Act, the administration has heeded our call and granted an exemption to the return to in-person work order.
This is a massive win for patriotic military families who all serve together, ensuring that they have flexibility, stability, and the support they deserve. When we strengthen military families, we strengthen our national security.
I am grateful to the bipartisan group of legislators who stood with me, and I will give a special shout-out to my colleagues from the Commonwealth, Congressman Rob Wittman and Congresswoman Jennifer Kiggans, for their support in getting this across the finish line.
When we work together, we deliver results. Today, we did just that for our military families.
Mr. Speaker, before President Trump was elected, there were an average of 3,430 illegal immigrant crossings per day. Today, under President Trump, that number has dropped 126 per day.
Despite this decrease, the threat from illegal immigration has not evaporated. H.R. 35, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, passed just a few minutes ago, gives law enforcement authorities the necessary tools to fully penalize criminals who intentionally evade border security agents.
Penalties include jail time and a permanent ban on obtaining legal status. This legislation does send a clear message to cartels and traffickers: If you endanger Americans lives, we will hold you accountable.
The American people have had enough. We will no longer tolerate lawlessness and policies that put criminals ahead of citizens. We won't stop fighting to secure our border, stop illegal drugs and human trafficking, and protecting our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today because Oregon's children don't have access to all the tools they need to succeed, and that is unacceptable.
Now, Elon Musk is threatening to eliminate the Department of Education. That would leave millions of students without resources they rely on; end financial aid programs, making higher education more expensive; and leave rural schools behind. As the mom of a kid with disabilities, I know they aren't getting all the funding that they need in their classrooms to thrive.
I would like anybody to tell me how this is helping our kids and how it is going to make us competitive in a global economy. How is this going to make life better for anyone? I know they can't.
If Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are trying to make the government more efficient by giving tax breaks to the rich at the expense of our schools and our children, to that we say: No thanks.
Mr. Speaker, if I were to ask you what you had for lunch last Wednesday, chances are you would struggle to remember. If I were to ask you who your favorite teacher was from 40 years ago, you would know instantly.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate one of those unforgettable teachers, Mr. Vincent Taylor from Cedar Hills Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida, on being named the 2025 Duval County Teacher of the Year.
For 27 years, Mr. Taylor has been a guiding force in Duval County Public Schools, inspiring students as a teacher and math coach.
His impact extends beyond the classroom. Through his mentorship, professional development work and--how about this--10 professional books published, including ``If Instruction Isn't Engaging, I Quit!''
Though he once envisioned a different career, Mr. Speaker, his path to teaching is a gift to our students and our community.
Today, we celebrate Mr. Taylor's unforgettable dedication and thank him for shaping the future one student at a time.
Mr. Speaker, it has been another week of the attempted great billionaire takeover of our Federal Government, being led by DOGE, which actually stands for destruction of government by Elon.
They have shut down the agency protecting Americans from fraud and predatory lending. They are gutting funding for medical research. They are targeting at-risk and special education programs, all without a single vote from Congress.
Where do we go from here?
I know some Republicans support these objectives. I get it, but this is not the way. Congress must act. The Constitution requires it.
Our Founders were clear, but too many in this body are looking the other way, fearing political backlash. Our system of government only works if we all do our jobs. This isn't about left or right.
To my friends across the aisle, I ask: Would they want a future Democratic President to act without guardrails, to act without any checks or balances? The situation they are allowing is dangerous. The choices we make now will shape our Nation for generations. They should do better.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Bobby Tyner, who passed away peacefully at his home in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, this week.
Bobby was a faithful steward of the Palmetto State and dutifully served our country as an engineer in the U.S. Army.
Following his service, Bobby became an advocate for those impacted by Agent Orange chemical exposure during the Vietnam war, helping to share the stories of veterans and their loved ones and advocate for good public policy.
Our country would not be where it is today without the sacrifices of Bobby and men and women like him serving on the front lines to ensure our Nation's freedom.
South Carolina's Seventh District will certainly miss Bobby. We will miss his grit. We will miss his passion. We will miss his humor. We will forever cherish the lives he touched as a husband, a father, and a veteran.
Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to remind my colleagues who Dreamers are. Dreamers and DACA recipients came to this country as young children by no fault of their own. They follow the law and pay taxes. They are nurses, teachers, police officers, and police chiefs.
There are Dreamers like Dr. Oliver Lopez, a professor of mathematics at Chapman University in my district. What America needs are more STEM degrees. What America needs are more STEM instructors. We need more people like Dr. Oliver Lopez.
Dreamers are also people like Officer Mitchell Soto-Rodriguez, a police officer in Blue Island, Illinois. She dreamed of being a police officer all her life. She achieved her dream because of DACA.
Officer Soto-Rodriguez and Dr. Lopez are essential pillars of our community. They are Dreamers, and they deserve an opportunity to earn the American Dream.
Mr. Speaker, in one of the many eleventh-hour actions by the Biden administration, the EPA handed California unprecedented power to enforce extreme vehicle regulations, giving them the green light to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035 and impose crushing new emissions standards on heavy-duty trucks, and also using the ever-increasing price of fuel to price people out of being able to drive or into these vehicles they don't want to be in.
This wasn't about cooperative federalism. It was about one State backed by Washington, D.C. bureaucrats forcing its agenda on the rest of the country.
The EPA's waivers let California dictate the future of the auto and trucking industries, driving up costs for regular consumers, squeezing small businesses, and putting even more strain on an already struggling supply chain, at the same time that they are now trying to put in a high-speed rail system whose costs quadrupled what they told the taxpayers just 15 years ago.
Instead of letting Congress weigh in, the Biden EPA let California call the shots for everyone across the country, bypassing the legislative process we hear so much complaining about here, and pushing policies that could force everyday Americans to pay more and get less for their hard-earned money.
That is not how this country is supposed to work. We are about having choice, choice of automobiles, choice of trucks, and what have you.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Joseph Bernal, a veteran, educator, and pillar of San Antonio and Texas politics who passed away on January 25.
Born on San Antonio's westside during the Great Depression, Dr. Bernal graduated from Lanier High School before enlisting in the U.S. Army where he supported postwar reconstruction efforts in Japan.
Upon his return to San Antonio, he earned a bachelor's degree through the GI Bill, which was soon followed by a master's degree and a Ph.D.
As a young teacher, he witnessed the grave inequities facing Hispanic students, an experience that would lead him to elected office in the Texas Legislature and the State Board of Education, where he fought to repeal laws that banned speaking Spanish in public schools, championed the State's first bilingual education law, and led efforts to create the University of Texas at San Antonio and the UT Health Science Center.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to celebrate the life and service of a trailblazer who will be long remembered in my hometown and across the State of Texas.
Mr. Speaker, I have already spoken on the very significant hearing we had in the subcommittee regarding what is normally called welfare on Tuesday. There is another point I would like to make.
In that hearing, it came out that, while it varies from couple to couple, there are about 90 programs which largely make up the welfare safety net, which if somebody were to get married, a single parent would get married to someone with an income, they would lose the benefits of those programs.
We heard testimony from Robert Rector that you could easily come up with hypotheticals in which someone would lose $28,000 if getting married.
In the 1950s in this country, the rate of children born without a mother and father at home was only 4 percent. We are now at 42 percent. This didn't happen by mistake. It is something that the radical feminists and the Marxists have always wanted: the destruction of the American family, particularly not having a man in the American family.
As we work our way through the budget process and reconciliation process, I hope we all remember that it is not anticipated that America would be a country without families and get rid of these perverse incentives.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about an urgent issue facing our Nation, and that is a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. These were children who were brought to our country oftentimes as infants. Mr. Speaker, you have already heard about them.
It has been almost 13 years since President Obama announced DACA. Since then the program has provided needed relief for Dreamers, including work authorization and temporary relief from deportation.
However, more than a decade later, Dreamers still do not have permanent protections. As the program continues to be challenged in the courts, Dreamers are left stuck in limbo.
For so many Dreamers, again, this is the only country they have ever known. They came as children and infants. They grew up here. They studied here. They worked hard here.
As you heard, Mr. Speaker, they are nurses, teachers, businessowners, and they are beloved members of our communities. This is their home.
Congress must finally come together to make a real difference for our Dreamers and our families, our businesses, and our communities. We have to get this done. It is the right thing to do.
I also believe in the family.
Why are we not allowing these families to stay, Mr. Speaker?
It is the right thing to do. We are good-hearted people as Americans. Let's get this done.
Mr. Speaker, so we now know what a $280 million- investment in a Presidential campaign will give you: the opportunity to totally destroy one of America's most important soft power, and that is the United States Agency for International Development.
Mr. Musk and Mr. President, before you set about destroying USAID and the work that it does to provide necessary support for people, refugees and starving children around the world, I want you to hold in your hand a starving child. Look at their extended belly, look at their eyes, and understand what you are doing to hundreds, indeed millions, of people around the world when you take USAID and put it in the wood chipper.
Reverse it.
Have you any sense of humanity?
Do you have any compassion?
If you do, you will reverse the policy of destroying USAID.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday I introduced an amendment during the House Natural Resources Committee markup to strengthen Congress' oversight of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, specifically addressing net metering policies and the PREPA bankruptcy.
Though the amendment didn't pass, it received bipartisan support from Representatives Tom McClintock, Nydia Velazquez, Darren Soto, and others. It is critical that Congress ensures transparency and accountability in Puerto Rico's financial and energy decisions.
The FOMB's stance on net metering harms our people, and the PREPA bankruptcy remains unresolved. After 7 or 8 years of questionable Federal oversight, it is time to hold the overseers accountable.
I will continue to fight for fairness and transparency for Puerto Rico, and I urge my colleagues to join me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise because many people want to paint Federal workers and contractors as unskilled bureaucrats who waste taxpayer dollars. However, the reality is the opposite. I know this because Virginia is home to hundreds of thousands of our country's Federal workers and contractors, and I have heard from many of them.
These Federal workers actually save taxpayers money, and they keep all Americans safe and healthy, despite all the regulations imposed on them by Congress. That is the bureaucracy. In almost all cases, they bring critical skills or expertise that are hard to replace.
One GSA employees says firings in her department, which is focused on threats to America's crops, could cost us hundreds of millions of dollars down the road.
One contractor who supports anti-terrorism efforts overseas was fired despite his track record of success countering extremism.
These firings even threaten border security. A contractor who vets refugees has to lay off 100 security experts because of the cuts.
No one will want to serve our government if Federal workers and contractors are treated this way. The attacks on Federal civil servants will cost taxpayers money and make all Americans less safe and less healthy.
Mr. Speaker, working families are getting screwed. Last year, I met a young family in Sullivan County who was struggling to make ends meet.
Mr. Speaker, do you cut back on the groceries to pay the rent? Do you maybe pick up a couple of extra shifts at work? However, then you have to pay for more childcare.
They are the tough conversations families are having at kitchen tables across Upstate New York.
Then, as if that is not enough, they get a letter in the mail from the utility company saying they are going to jack up rates again. These corporations are raking in billions of dollars, bragging to their investors about it, and now they want to take even more money from families struggling to get by.
Hell no.
Today I am fighting back. I am introducing a bipartisan bill to create good union jobs making homes more efficient. My bill will save families up to $400 per year on their utility bills.
Mr. Speaker, $400 is a lot of money for daycare, groceries, and rent because that young family in Sullivan County needs that money a hell of a lot more than the utility monopolies do.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a friend, a great journalist, a humanitarian, and a man of faith, Rev. Dr. Tim Tooten.
Tim was an admired journalist having spent more than 35 years reporting at Baltimore's WBAL-TV. He was a distinguished pastor at Harvest Christian Ministries and an accomplished writer.
Tim was also an award-winning filmmaker, a documentary person who believed in reporting and sharing facts, as well as a cherished teacher to so many.
He confronted life with the courage of his convictions and confronted death with the conviction of his faith.
Our condolences across the Baltimore area go out to his wife, Charlene; his loving children; and his grandchildren during this time.
We will miss you, my friend, but we will never ever forget you.
Trump Administration's Dismantling of the Federal Government
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. Speaker, I am a stand-in. This is actually Marcy Kaptur's Special Order hour. She is tied up in a hearing, so I will try to do my best to lay it out.
She was going to speak for 7 minutes on the issues of the Trump administration's dismantling of the Federal Government and the hiring of, or I guess the acquiescence of, Elon Musk as the principle agent of destruction.
What has happened over the last 17 days is an extraordinary display of contempt for the American Government. If you think about this, Mr. Speaker, in its totality, right off the start, all funding stopped.
What does that mean to the programs that Americans depends upon?
Healthcare, education, research, infrastructure programs, for what purpose was that done?
Perhaps it was in order to set up the next step which is the dismantling of extraordinary important programs for me and for my wife. More than almost 58 years ago, we participated in a USAID program which at that time was just 4 years old set up by Kennedy.
It was a vaccination program, an effort of the United Nations, funded by the American Government through USAID, to eradicate smallpox. We spent 1 month in rural Ethiopia doing vaccinations.
As our life worked on, we continued working to provide the necessary services so that people could survive, the Food for Peace program. Patti actually ran that when she was at the USDA as an assistant administrator.
The famine camps, we were there. We saw the children who were dying of starvation. We saw the American grain arrive. I remember clearly one evening at the famine camp in Ethiopia in the mid-eighties, a woman literally in rags, was picking up individual grains of wheat that had spilled from the bags trying to fill a cup so that there would be enough food that she could take back to her children.
They died that night of starvation.
The richest man in the world invested over $250 million in a Presidential campaign, and he was given the keys to the American Government and the opportunity to destroy things that he didn't like.
USAID not only providing the necessary food to allow people to continue to live, but also to thrive through agricultural programs and economic development programs around the world. People who didn't have the opportunity were given the opportunity through the generosity of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, when someone has the greatest wealth of any individual and seems to think they have the right to destroy lives, before our President gives someone the power to do that, I would ask the individual to get on their private jet or to get on Air Force One and go to one of the famine camps in southern Sudan and hold a starving child in their arms. The individual should look at the extended belly, the vacant stare, the fact that they are not even able to hold up their head and know that the American people have developed an emergency supplemental food program that can revive that child. After that, come back and decide whether to put USAID into the wood chipper. If anyone has just a modicum of humanity and a sense of compassion, they would never, never ever take USAID and destroy it.
There are other programs out there, and we will be talking about these other programs as my colleagues join us here on the floor. There is the Department of Education and the Labor Department.
Giving the richest man in the world the keys to the U.S. Treasury? What is going on here?
What information has been gathered?
Where did that information go?
What will it be used for?
Who owns that information now: the U.S. Government, or Elon Musk?
These are serious questions. My colleagues and I will raise these questions.
Mr. Speaker, last week, my colleague, Haley Stevens, and I introduced the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. I am going to get to that in a minute.
I woke up this morning to find that apparently this bill had gotten Mr. Musk's attention. I will read the tweet from that great statesman and special government employee, Elon Musk:
``Any given law will do the opposite of its name.
``The one this guy wants to pass is called `Taxpayer Protection,' which means its real goal is giving taxpayers the shaft!
``What he really cares about is hiding the biggest scam in human history.''
Those are his words, the great statesman, Elon Musk.
I would point out that we attack what we fear. As Teddy Roosevelt said: It is the man in the ring who matters.
I would like to give Mr. Musk a little view from inside this ring. A couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk and his goons hacked into the Treasury payment system. That is the system that controls $5 trillion a year of payments. They came in with unsecured software, unsecured hardware, and unvetted individuals. They claimed they only had read-only access. It now turns out that they actually had write access, as well.
We don't know what information they extracted from that system, but it may make them targets of our foreign adversaries. They could have stolen data that affects the privacy of every single American taxpayer. They also potentially accessed data on the payment systems and identities of intelligence assets that we have embedded overseas in hostile foreign governments who are risking their lives to keep America safe.
What this bill does is exactly what it says it does, notwithstanding this childish tweet. It is the Taxpayer Data Protection Act.
I point out that the only reason Mr. Musk got into the system is because, when he asked Treasury Secretary Bessent to let him into the system, the civil servant and patriot, David Lebryk, who was running the system, said: No, you cannot do this. At that point, Secretary Bessent fired Mr. Lebryk, and the theft of data occurred.
What we did in this bill is said that, going forward, the Treasury Secretary cannot allow anybody to access the Treasury payment system unless: number one, they have a top secret clearance; number two, they have no economic conflicts of interest; number three, they are not a special government employee; and, number four, they have been employed by the Federal Government for at least 1 year.
That is a problem if one is a Nazi-saluting, economically conflicted, special government employee who is so desperately in need of validation that they bought a social media company and tweaked its algorithm to amplify their own tweets and fill their own sense of self-worth, who is currently cosplaying as a public servant.
It is not a problem for taxpayers. It is not a problem for data integrity.
I understand protecting personal data has never been Elon Musk's jam, but it is necessary. This bill does exactly what it says, which is why he fears it and why he attacks it.
Let me say what I fear. I fear what happens to our country if his conflicts of interest are allowed to run roughshod and trample over Americans' right to privacy and all that has ever truly made America great.
We are attacking what we fear, as well, and I hope that we can find three Republicans who are committed to the idea that that is something worth defending.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I thank my fellow appropriator and friend, Marcy Kaptur, for initiating and hosting this Special Order hour.
I thank my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), for standing in for the gentlewoman because it is incredibly disturbing that we must come together to condemn what should be inherently obvious.
Elon Musk was elected by no one, confirmed by no one, and is accountable to no one. Yet, President Trump allows this conflict- riddled billionaire to rifle through Americans' highly sensitive records and attack the public servants who look out for all of us. I have never witnessed such utter contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law.
It is clear who is running this White House. It is Elon Musk, whose nonstop lies would leave human rights groups in Cuba and Venezuela out to dry and victims of famine and natural disasters left to starve or die.
Donald Trump is allowing Musk to illegally slash our efforts to counter dictators and protect democracy, the man with billions on the line in China.
Trump and Musk are gutting agencies that are investigating Musk's companies. Is that coincidence?
All the while, Donald Trump ignores what he committed to prioritizing throughout his campaign: making everyday life more affordable for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, this chaos crew in the White House is rocking the faith of Americans. It is alienating allies and destabilizing our businesses. It is trashing our ability to honor our commitments and fulfill the basic functions of government.
My constituents are angry and afraid, and they should be. It is understandable. Musk and his minions will gut any program that doesn't line their own pockets.
These cruel, reckless cuts built on lies and illegal funding freezes will devastate the children, veterans, and seniors that we Democrats fight for every day, and worse. All that this chaotic Republican rip- off will do is raise grocery prices and healthcare costs for our families. While Musk steals children's Social Security numbers, Trump is busy enacting policies that will raise prices on everything from prescription drugs to affordable housing.
As Musk digs through mom and dad's tax returns, he and Trump are gutting consumer protections that keep scammers from ripping Americans off. All of this is designed for one thing: to pay for more millionaire and billionaire tax breaks and open the door to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
In fact, the Budget Committee is meeting right now, as we speak, to do
Mr. Speaker, we are not going to roll over and let this madness continue. Every dollar illegally stolen from our Federal agencies must be restored. We must continue to hold Trump and his billionaire friends accountable. We are going to continue to protect victims of scams and natural disasters, regardless of what Trump or his billionaire puppeteer proposes.
The Musk-Trump unchecked raid of taxpayer dollars must end. We must commit together to reduce people's everyday kitchen-table costs, and Democrats will stand up every single day to fight to put lowering people's costs at the top of the agenda.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also talk about Elon Musk and to ask the Speaker and my colleagues to follow the money.
Elon owns six companies, two of which are Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX alone has received something like $20 billion in Federal contracts. That is Federal taxpayer dollars. Tesla, when it was struggling to get off of the ground, got a half-a-billion-dollar loan from the Department of Energy.
This is in addition to the billions that they have received in tax credits and other supplements from the Federal Government. He is not just the world's richest man, but Elon Musk is trying to become the first trillionaire in the history of the world.
Mr. Speaker, during the 2024 election, Musk gave over $200 million to Trump and Republicans. That is a lot of money. Trump wins, and Elon, just weeks--not months--after the election, generates several hundred billion dollars in new wealth, making his way to that trillion-dollar number.
He generated all of that new wealth because the markets knew that, with Trump, he was going to have access to even more of our money. They knew he was going to get billions more in contracts, billions more in Federal subsidies, and he is well on his way.
To expedite these efforts, Trump empowers Musk, moments after he is inaugurated--Musk, an unelected tech billionaire. He empowers him to take access of our personal data, all of it. He gives him access to the Federal payment system. He gives him power to purge as many Federal workers as he possibly can, all in the name of waste, fraud, and abuse, which, in the end turns out to be somewhat accurate.
By the way, what happened with the data breach and the fact that he now has access to all of our data is arguably the greatest data breach in the history of the United States of America.
Mr. Musk has defunded Federal programs, purged public servants, and stripped resources away from government oversight, all while getting richer and richer at the expense of the rest of us.
Today, the State Department said they plan to spend $400 million of our tax dollars to purchase Tesla Cybertrucks.
Why in the world would the Federal Government buy one Tesla Cybertruck, let alone $400 million of Tesla Cybertrucks: waste, fraud, and abuse.
Every day, Elon Musk makes $8 million from government contracts. That number just went up. In comparison, seniors on Social Security get $65 a day.
The question that so many are asking is: How do you fight back against this waste, fraud, and abuse?
There is a playbook, Mr. Speaker. It is the Constitution of the United States. Article I does not lay out the powers of the Presidency or the Supreme Court, the Judiciary, Article I lays out the powers of the Congress of the United States.
This Congress is responsible for appropriating funds and oversight of the Federal Government and holding the President accountable. The Founders envisioned this moment. They didn't know that it would come with a billionaire tech donor, but they envisioned this moment. With Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, they have to step up and deal with this waste, fraud, and abuse.
Mr. Speaker, critical important issues have been raised in the last 20 minutes or so about the issues of conflicts of interest, of corruption, and of policy mistakes that the current administration has put in motion over the last 15, 16 days.
I will draw the attention of the House to this diagram, and this is just a display of some of the contracts that Elon Musk has with the government. In total, it is more than $15 billion, but in each of these there are some very subtle and ominous opportunities for corruption.
I will point out just one. In the Inflation Reduction Act and in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, there is money for electric vehicle charging stations. In fact, there is a substantial amount of money. It turns out that Tesla has some 20,000 charging stations around the United States and has become the principal charging station connection to all electric vehicles.
If Elon Musk were to shut down the money for other companies to build charging stations, he would then have a monopoly. It is subtle but obvious to those of us who watch.
My colleague spoke to the issue of the State Department putting out on its website a very specific $400 million purchase order of just one vehicle, a Tesla cybertruck.
Corruption, yes. Waste, probably. Yet, here we are with an unelected individual who has extraordinary power, in fact, the power of the Presidency, and the Presidency is misusing the power to shut down organizations around this country.
I will suggest that the Democrats have a different view of government and a different view of purpose.
Franklin Roosevelt once said: ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.'' That test is now before the Congress of the United States.
Hardworking families are struggling, dealing with inflation. Yet, it appears as though the Trump administration is going to focus on making the wealthier even more wealthy. We need to think about this.
In the days ahead, I am certain that our Democratic colleagues will put forth a rigorous defense of the programs that Americans and indeed people around the world depend upon. We will do that together with the men and women around this Nation who have seen the effect, in many cases, the tragic effect of the shutdown of government and the shutdown of agencies upon which we all rely.
Simultaneously, we will put forth a positive agenda about what we stand for and how we see America growing in the future.
Mr. Speaker, I notice the arrival of the esteemed gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) who had actually put together this 1 hour. It has been a privilege for me to stand as a substitute. She has now arrived, and I turn my attention back to Marcy Kaptur and her 1 hour. I thank her for the opportunity to sub for a bit while she was tied up in committee. I know she had good work to do there.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Garamendi, who is such a distinguished Member, for substituting for me while I was in our Budget Committee. I know what a phenomenal job he does and how deeply he loves our country and how hard he fights for her and for all the people that he represents and those include my constituents, too. His work is just phenomenal. I thank him for being here today.
Mr. Speaker, I will focus a little on Elon Musk and put some materials in
Mr. Musk is so rich he could buy my entire congressional district and have lots left over.
He spent millions upon millions, more than I and all of our relatives are worth, to defeat House Democrats for Congress, myself included.
I couldn't come near to match his money. He did the same to many of my colleagues in this House, including some with us today.
Can you imagine having enough money to put millions and millions of dollars up against Members of Congress to control Congress? That is what is going on.
Political victories to billionaires equate to the fall of our Republic. Presidents Washington and Lincoln could never have imagined this selling off of our Republic. Musk has endless money. He uses it fiercely.
Some of us won despite the tidal wave of his money. Politics shouldn't be about raising oodles of money. It should be about serving our people and strengthening our Nation for all, not just the superrich. You know what? They have enough.
The America we have known is at risk of becoming owned by a billionaire class. If and when that happens, our precious freedoms will vanish.
Now, our family and I have been citizens of this country for our entire lives, three generations, totaling over a century and a half: grandparents, parents, and us. Every generation worked very hard here. It wasn't easy. They fought fiercely for our Nation as veterans in every major war to defeat dictators, to preserve liberty for our Nation and others, and then they bequeathed that precious gift to us. We all worked hard to become more educated. Our family, community, and Nation are my treasures.
By contrast, Elon Musk holds citizenship in three countries: South Africa, Canada, and then for the last 22 years, the USA.
I keep asking myself: To which one is he most loyal? He was born and raised in apartheid South Africa in very well-to-do circumstances. With the fall of that apartheid regime not so many years ago, after a great human rights struggle inside South Africa, his father knew that economic circumstance would change in South Africa, so he took Elon, then a teenager, to visit over a dozen countries, including Canada, where Elon's mother still resides.
Elon took a second citizenship in Canada. He obtained a visa then to attend college in the United States as a foreign student, graduating in economics and physics. He then moved to Silicon Valley for graduate school, but dropped out after 2 days.
There is still remaining some questions as to whether he illegally overstayed in our country on a student visa. Records show he has only been a citizen of our country for 22 years, having become a citizen in the year of 2002.
Bottom line: Why has President Donald Trump just given a naturalized citizen with two other citizenships and with no Federal clearance and only 22 years of residency in our Nation the keys to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's electronic payment systems. That data records every citizens' private financial information and every businesses' private information across our country.
Musk got the position completely without the normal ethic investigations required of every political appointee to any President.
When I served President Carter, the FBI checked our records, people all the way back to grade school. That was not done for this man.
The American people need to know more about exactly how Elon, now an unelected billionaire, built his fortune off Federal Government contracts. In our Budget Committee, a number was just stated that he holds up to $18 billion of contracts with the Government of the United States. That began with a huge $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to launch Tesla in California. Who exactly lobbied in that department for that loan, and who and why was it accepted? We are told it was paid back.
Frankly, I have never known anyone who has gotten a loan that large from the Government of the United States with his background.
For the record, Elon Musk paid that loan back over time, but began increasing the amounts of his gigantic loan and grant applications to the Federal Government with the largest thus far, we think, being with NASA.
Wouldn't we call this a conflict of interest, Mr. Speaker? Would we allow the head of GM or any other large corporation in our country to sit next to the President and go into the U.S. Department of the Treasury and not say it was a conflict of interest? Are we all fools?
In using his financial leverage to re-elect Donald Trump, Musk should have been vetted by the FBI as is anyone who works close to the Presidency or critical government records. It appears Musk simply has been leveraging his vast fortune off government contracts.
Is he rummaging through Treasury files to gain an advantage over competitors or to seek vengeance in business dealings?
Just this year, he ordered the State Department to buy $400 million worth of his own cybertrucks, but when scrutiny came, the purchase order mysteriously disappeared the word ``Tesla'' from their procurement orders.
How about that?
Over the past 5 years alone, he has received over $13 billion in government awards to his company. I ask every Member of Congress here and listening, do you know any other human being who has ever been allowed this kind of access with such private-sector interest in dipping into the U.S. Department of the Treasury time and again across all these agencies? It is unbelievable.
Conflict of interest equals Elon Musk. He should not be able to invade the private records of the American people at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Yet, he has done just that. Every person hearing my words, he has invaded your records, your tax records, your business reports.
Think about that. Think about the investments that the Department of the Treasury makes in order to roll over our debt.
No one listening to this today, nor any elected official here in Congress, could ever have gained access to the records of the American people held in confidence in the U.S. Treasury. I can tell you how difficult it is even for a Member of Congress to get an appointment to see the Secretary of the Treasury. We have been trying over the last several weeks. We haven't gotten it yet.
With Musk, what a breach of privacy for every American citizen. One must ask, how did he finagle this heist for the princely sum of $250 million spent on Presidential campaigns and congressional campaigns? I am sure that number doubles.
It literally is more and more like a quid pro quo. Elon Musk bankrolled President Trump's reelection, and for this, he is given the keys to America's financial kingdom. Wow. This is new in American history.
Musk is now using unsecured, private servers to snoop on the millions of private accounts of the American people and businesses with which he is in competition.
Where is the business community? Are they afraid of him? Will they speak up?
Wall Street is speaking up in a very interesting way. The markets have been really rickety these last few days. They are not too comfortable. They are not dumb.
Pay attention. Musk must be identifying individuals he would like to upend. Are they afraid, too, like Members of Congress who are afraid to speak out because they are afraid Musk will put more money up against them in the next campaign? Guess what? He is going to do it anyway, so speak out.
Whatever he is concocting with his inverted merry band of minions, aged 19-26? They have no security clearances and no experience to work at the U.S. Treasury Department.
Every person in America must have a concern about this. Their Social Security records, their health benefits, the profits of their corporations, and who they do business with is all there. His sole mission is to collect private, confidential information for more self- dealing and maybe threats and tax cuts for the billionaire class.
Does Elon Musk have to file a financial disclosure statement like all of us? Where is it? We have to have them. Where is his? It seems his will be kept private.
Musk is ruthless and a self-enabler. Surely, he seeks to wipe out his competitors or spy at will on the privileged information of the American people. I might ask anyone listening today, why does he have access to your mom's Social Security records and your grandpa's Medicare? What does he now know about you and your family?
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleagues joining me today, and I yield to the gentleman from Georgia, Congressman Hank Johnson. I thank him so very much for participating. I also thank Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for substituting when I was not able to be on the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for convening us for this Special Order today and for her very thoughtful comments.
Today, I rise to voice my alarm about the rapid descent of our democracy into a dictatorship.
While co-President Donald Trump focuses on expanding his business opportunities globally while ignoring his campaign promise to lower the cost of living for ordinary Americans, co-president Elon Musk has taken a wrecking ball to the Federal Government one agency at a time.
Congress established the agencies that Musk is trying to delete, and it is only Congress, under our Constitution, not an unelected co- president, that has the constitutional authority to abolish a Federal agency.
We still live in a democracy, which is government of, by, and for the people who have the right, the precious right, to vote for their leaders.
We tell our constituents to vote. We tell them their votes and voices matter, that their choices shape the future of this country, but what does that mean when an unelected billionaire can waltz into our agencies and slash and burn the whole thing to the ground like a Taliban terrorist, threatening 2 million Federal employees to resign under false pretenses, putting other folks out of work, and stopping payments to small businesses and nonprofits while illegally putting in purchase orders for the State Department to spend $400 million in taxpayer money for Tesla pickup trucks?
This level of corruption is shocking. Co-President Trump and the Republicans in Congress, all of whom have abrogated their legislative power to the king, have handed the keys to the Nation's Treasury to unelected co-president Elon Musk. Their actions are taking what we know as corruption to a whole new level. This is banana republic-style corruption at its ugliest.
While the powerful play their games, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire buddies get richer while the cost of living goes up for everybody else.
Every day, my constituents call me, worried and scared, asking how an unelected billionaire they never voted for is gutting the very resources they rely on to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.
They see a man who wants billionaires like himself to pay nothing while hardworking Americans foot the bill.
They see him kneecapping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created to shield the people from scams, fraud, and corporate greed.
They ask why someone with a long history of union-busting, worker abuse, and blatant disregard for labor laws is being allowed to scuttle the Department of Labor.
They want to know why a billionaire businessman from South Africa, who holds no elective office, has been given unchecked access and influence over their most sensitive personal and financial information, their rights, and their future.
Let me be clear: I am committed to ensuring that president Musk stops this attack on the American people. House and Senate Democrats will not stand by, like my Republican colleagues are doing, while Elon Musk hijacks our government. We will fight to protect the institutions that serve the people, not the privileged. That is what we must do to protect democracy and freedom.
We will stand, and we will fight. With the American people roused in peaceful, nonviolent protests across the country, Mr. Speaker, we will win. This country belongs to the people, not to the billionaires.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Johnson for his comments. I yield to the gentleman from New York, Congressman Tim Kennedy, a phenomenal new Member from Buffalo.
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for her leadership on this important issue.
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Government exists to protect the rights and well-being of all Americans. People in my district want a government that works and works to improve the lives of western New Yorkers and all Americans.
People in my district and others across the country do not want an unelected billionaire dismantling our government for parts and raking in profits in the process.
That is what is happening. President Trump has allowed Elon Musk to operate with unchecked authority, unilaterally and illegally gutting the agencies that protect everything we hold dear, all without necessary congressional approval.
In my district alone, there are 8,500-plus Federal employees, including those at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, the Social Security Administration, the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, and many, many other agencies that help our communities each and every day.
We can't protect the privacy of millions of Americans if Elon Musk has access to private taxpayer data, including that of Social Security recipients, Medicare beneficiaries, and taxpayers. We can't advance lifesaving, scientific, and cancer research breakthroughs if Elon Musk hollows out the National Institutes of Health. We cannot provide the benefits and services to our military heroes, who have earned and deserve it, if Elon Musk drives away Federal employees who serve our veterans.
This is to say nothing of Elon Musk's dizzying list of conflicts of interest. This is an unelected billionaire who has made those billions in large part from taxpayer-funded government contracts. This President has handed him unprecedented power to wring out hardworking families for every penny that they have.
We can't allow an individual who prioritizes profits above all and cozies up to adversaries like China and Russia to make decisions for the American people. We must continue to fight for the rights and well- being of hardworking families and put people over billionaire profit. Our constituents deserve nothing less.
Mr. Speaker, I believe an additional speaker is coming.
While we are waiting, Mr. Speaker, I want to point to this. If there are citizens who are listening, if we look at some of the government contracts that Mr. Musk is engaged in, we are trying to make this as complete as we can.
For example, NASA is one of the largest contracts that he personally has. Look at this number, $11.8 billion with NASA. Can you imagine how many subcontractors there are on that job? That is just one connection.
Then, we look over to the U.S. Department of Defense, and that is $3.6 billion.
These are enormous contracts. I have companies in my district that do contract with the government. They don't have contracts that size.
We look at the Department of Commerce, $1.9 million. Mr. Musk has a contract there.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is an interesting one, $463,000. I am not sure what that is for.
The Department of State is $440,000. You can do a lot with $440,000. There is a lot of information at the State Department. What is that contract for?
Then, we have a whole series at other agencies. We know it is well over a million dollars. We can't even track how much it is. This is an enormous amount of money. Even General Dynamics and some of our large corporations, I don't think, have this kind of reach.
Mr. Speaker, apparently, we don't have any final speakers. I thank the Speaker and all those who are listening for their indulgence. This is a time for the American people to be intrepid and on the watch and providing information to their Members of Congress about information they may have
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 gentlewoman from North Dakota (Mrs. Fedorchak) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to start this speech with a real-time exercise. I wanted to suddenly have all the lights go out in here. Imagine what would happen if we did that. It would be pitch black in this room. Everything would come to a halt. The microphones would stop. We wouldn't be able to see each other. People watching online would certainly be confused. We would all wonder what was going on.
Would we be able to see to walk around, to get out? Would anyone panic? Then, let's imagine if the outage wasn't just in this room or this building, but all across Washington, D.C. At first, there would be silence, but it wouldn't take long before confusion and, perhaps, chaos ensued.
Now, let's imagine this happening in my State of North Dakota where just this week, temperatures dropped to minus 22 degrees for many days in a row. In fact, this morning was the first day it rose above zero.
What would that mean to lose power when it is 22 below? People's livelihoods be at risk. Children couldn't go to school. Hospitals would be unable to care for people. Businesses would come to a standstill. Energy production would halt. Livestock would be threatened. Homes and properties would freeze up.
It wouldn't take very long in that kind of weather for the economy of North Dakota to grind to a halt and for people to die if we had no power. This isn't some farfetched scenario. This is a real threat in America today.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that two- thirds of the United States is at an elevated risk of blackouts, of not having enough reliable power to meet demand when we need it the most. This map clearly illustrates the problem.
Every area of America in red and yellow on this map has an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand; not tomorrow, not in 5 years or 10 years, today. This is the scenario today in America.
That is why I am on the House floor today to sound the alarm about our grid reliability crisis and to highlight five practical solutions to keep the lights on. First, let's talk about why this happening. What is driving this problem?
It really comes down to one thing: We are retiring power plants faster than we are replacing them. Seriously, it is that simple. In States throughout our Nation, power providers are shutting down massive amounts of traditional power generation from power plants that can be turned on, up or down, as needed to follow demand.
They are retiring these generators faster than they are able to bring on new generators that can provide the same kind of always-available power. Grid operators measure this availability in terms of capacity, and there are two kinds.
First, there is installed capacity. That is the maximum amount of power a generator can churn out in the best conditions. For example, most wind farms in North Dakota have a nameplate capacity of 300 megawatts. Our largest coal fire facility is 1,100 megawatts. Over on this chart, the blue line on top represents nameplate capacity.
The second capacity term, is called accredited capacity. That is the amount of power that can be counted on, regardless of conditions. Grid operators determine the value of accredited capacity. They look at performance of a generator over time, how it works in different conditions, and they determine how much of that power they can rely on when they need it the most in any weather condition.
That same wind farm would likely have an accredited capacity that is 30 percent of its nameplate capacity or in a 300-megawatt wind farm, a fraction of that would be accredited capacity. The coal facility probably comes in at about 80 to 90 percent of nameplate capacity, so about 950 megawatts of accredited capacity.
In the MISO market, this region here in red, that serves 15 States. Roughly, 42 million Americans get their power in the MISO region. The operators in that region warn that the accredited capacity, the line on the bottom here, the red, is shrinking dramatically even though we are spending a lot of money installing more and more generation on a nameplate capacity.
You can see this clearly in these two lines. The top line, the blue, is nameplate capacity. Americans are paying for that to be installed. The red line below is accredited capacity. Americans are already paying for that, too. The red line is what you can count on when times are tough, when it is 22 below. The blue line is questionable. That is dependent on the weather.
If you ever wonder why your utility prices are rising, but you face more risk for blackouts or brownouts, this gap is why. That is why NERC keeps warning us with reports, forecasts, and maps like this. MISO is in the red zone on this map. All the yellow zones also have elevated risk.
In a nation as blessed with natural resources and brilliant people like the United States, there is no reason to ever run short of power. Our whole country should be blue. We should never run short of power ever.
We will have storms that knock the power off for a time, but to not have enough power to meet demand, that is just bad planning and terrible leadership. That is the bad news today. The good news is this: We can fix this. We have the resources. We have the technology, and now we just need to act.
Here are the five key steps--the five solutions to this problem. First, we need regulatory relief. Right now, Federal regulations are strangling our energy producers, making it nearly impossible for them to meet our power demand. We must repeal the EPA's greenhouse gas rule. We must eliminate the methane fee rule and roll back the BLM resource management plan for North Dakota and other States. We must reform the new source performance standards that prevent power providers from making efficiency improvements to their existing fleets, the ones that are already connected to the grid, to improve them, to help them produce more power in a cleaner and more efficient way.
That new source performance standard is just bad policy. It makes no sense at all. These are just a few examples of Biden administration policies that have imposed crushing costs and regulatory burdens on the power sector. They are jeopardizing the stability of our grid and the livelihoods of hardworking Americans.
Second, we must reevaluate Federal incentives for energy production. Our government has distorted the energy market with subsidies that favor certain resources while neglecting others. This has resulted in a grid that is too dependent on the weather. Think back to the map from NERC, two-thirds of the country at an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand.
It is time to realign these incentives. Today, our grid operators are calling for more dispatchable generation, more capacity. They want to fill that gap in those two lines that I showed earlier.
Think of the MISO zone in red on my first map. MISO is desperate for more power resources that can be turned on when needed, but here is the stack of resources that are in line to connect with the MISO grid. You see this over time, it goes back to the year 2000, and shows back then there was a decent amount of gas--the blue lines are gas, and then you start seeing wind coming online.
If you go all the way over to the far side of this map, you see this stack of resources currently in line in MISO, 171 gigawatts of resources, actually more resources than the entire nameplate or the entire peak demand in MISO is currently in line.
Today, in that column, you see it is almost filled with solar and wind resources. Fortunately, some battery too, but those are not the dispatchable resources MISO is calling for and clamoring for. Only a sliver of gas on the bottom is in line to connect to MISO, even though they are desperate for more gas to help make it a more stable grid.
We must ensure that our Federal policy doesn't exacerbate this problem and current vulnerabilities that have been created by a flood of wind and solar, which are weather-dependent generation. Instead, we must support fair markets that better encourage the investments needed to meet growing demand and long-term grid reliability and stability.
Third, we need to speed up the permitting process. Right now, it can take years, sometimes decades, to get approval for new energy projects. This is unacceptable, especially when we have transformative technologies ready to go, like small modular reactors. These advanced nuclear systems are safe, reliable, clean, and capable of powering entire communities.
I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and leaders, like Energy Secretary Chris Wright, to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and accelerate deployment of these new technologies.
Fourth, we must implement rules that protect grid reliability. As I mentioned earlier, it was well below freezing throughout North Dakota this week. My State and region weathered those temperatures largely because of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.
This chart here is straight from MISO data. It illustrates the energy that was used this week in the MISO region to meet demand. As you can see, fully 80 percent of those resources were coal, natural gas, and nuclear. That is what came online when the temperatures were 22 below to keep the power on for all the people living in those cold areas.
Yet, despite this reality, States are racing to shut down these reliable baseload power generators that are responsible for powering our communities, replacing it with intermittent resources--that huge stack that was in the queue in the line in MISO, that huge stake of wind and solar--the intermittent resources that cannot reliably meet all the demands of our grid or the people who depend on it.
I have nothing against wind and solar. North Dakota has tons of wind generation online, but it is simply not capable today to meet the demands of the grid. The people who are responsible for making sure our grids are reliable are the ones saying that over and over.
This is reckless. We need Federal safeguards to ensure before a power plant is retired, there is a reliable replacement ready to go online. We cannot afford to gamble with our Nation's energy security. Energy security is national security.
Finally, we need to better understand the growing demands of the AI industry. AI and other data-intensive technologies are driving massive increases in energy consumption.
As Vice President Vance acknowledged in Paris this week, if we are to remain competitive in the global economy, we need to remove the barriers to development and unleash the full potential of American energy resources. This means embracing an all-of-the-above strategy that includes battery technology to back up renewables, but also oil, gas, nuclear, and hydropower, whatever it takes to power our future.
Mr. Speaker, grid reliability is not a partisan issue. It is an American issue. Our security, our economy, and our way of life depend on it. We cannot be a beacon for the world, or even safe in our own homes, if we are sitting in the dark without power. We have the resources. We have the technology. Now, we must act. America can and must remain the most powerful, prosperous, and innovative Nation on Earth. I look forward to working with my colleagues to do just that.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim).
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Congresswoman Fedorchak for hosting this Special Order to raise awareness of the critical need the United States is facing to become energy independent.
Protecting our environment is not controversial. I represent a district in southern California. Unfortunately, Californians know too well the consequences of rushing to implement energy policies.
Mr. Speaker, as Governor Newsom pushed to ban gas-powered cars, he then said people couldn't charge electric cars as our community saw rolling blackouts. It doesn't need to be one or the other--environment or economy, natural gas or renewables.
We need an all-of-the-above energy strategy. Through American innovation, we create jobs, expand our energy supply, protect our environment, lower costs, and strengthen our national security.
Energy fuels everything from our cars to our homes, and we must ensure we have energy resources here at home that we can rely on. I will keep fighting to bring commonsense energy policies to Congress. Again, I thank Congresswoman Fedorchak for her leadership on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Kim. She has lived this in her State of California, and I appreciate her bringing attention to the false choice of one or the other. We can and must do it all.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Haridopolos).
Mr. Speaker, this is an important issue which has affected us all. We have seen prices rise by 20 to 30 percent over the last 4 years. Unfortunately, because of the policies of the previous administration, we have seen these challenges become more and more difficult as we take the reins of power once again in Washington, D.C.
There is no other way to put it other than energy dominance is essential. It is the best way to ensure we have American prosperity, national security, innovation, excellence in energy, and a reliable grid, as the Congresswoman has talked about today.
Fortunately, we have persons who are experts right here in the United States Congress, a new Member of Congress, Mrs. Fedorchak, on the Energy and Commerce Committee. She understands firsthand the essential nature of energy and why it is so important to all Americans as they face challenges here and abroad.
If we can meet all of those criteria--prosperity, national security, innovation, and reliable energy--we will once again have lower prices at the grocery store, lower prices for the gas tank, and make sure we stay warm in the winter and cool in places like Florida in the summer.
Mr. Speaker, I applaud this effort. If we have an all-in energy solution and energy dominance, once again, as the Congresswoman has talked about, America can move forward and meet the challenges of tomorrow.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak this afternoon on this Special Order and make sure that we are moving forward with the leadership of Donald Trump and leaders like Congresswoman Fedorchak on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Haridopolos. We certainly need a lot of power to get out in space. His dreams and his leadership in that area are certainly noted. We need power to fuel those, too, and I thank him for being here today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Dakota. Like my preceding colleague just said, she is great on the Committee on energy. She is an energy busybody. She is moving and shaking for being brand new. I thank her for the opportunity to speak today.
Mr. Speaker, I will tell everyone that being on the Energy and Commerce Committee has been the delight of my life. It means a lot to America.
When I speak to groups, Mr. Speaker, whether they are school-aged kids or whether they are college or whether they are industry or whatever it might be, I tell people that the things that make America great are the things that America makes.
How do we do that? We do that with a reliable, affordable, dependable
Today, our system is under threat. When we talk about grid reliability, we have to start with the facts. Right now fossil fuels, natural gas, coal, and even petroleum supply 60 percent of our electricity. Natural gas alone provides 40 percent and up. It keeps the lights on in homes. It keeps the lights on in businesses and factories all across America.
Did I mention, Mr. Speaker, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes?
Add in nuclear power at nearly 19 percent, and it is clear that these are the backbone of our energy system economically, politically, and militarily. Yet, despite this reliability, these proven sources are under attack by radical policies that push unreliable energy at the expense of energy that actually works.
Mr. Speaker, that is changing now. The Trump administration has made it clear. We are going to put American energy first. We are increasing domestic production, cutting unnecessary regulations, and ensuring that our power grids remain strong and resilient. That means expanding natural gas. That means investing in nuclear energy. That means making sure we have the very infrastructure to keep energy flowing to American homes and businesses.
Did I mention, Mr. Speaker, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes?
Yet, here is what is happening. The premature shutdown of our most reliable energy sources--coal, natural gas, and nuclear--put our entire grid at risk. The Nation's largest grid operator, PJM, which serves much of the eastern U.S., warns that up to 30 percent of its power generation could retire by 2030.
Meanwhile, demand is expected to rise 40 percent by 2039. I am not good at math, Mr. Speaker. I don't think that adds up. We cannot take away reliable generation and then just simply pretend we don't face an energy crisis. That is pie in the sky.
Thankfully, President Trump understands this and is working to ensure we do not face a future of rolling blackouts and energy shortages. He probably understands, Mr. Speaker, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes.
If the United States is serious about remaining a leader in energy and technology, we must embrace energy expansion. That means building more pipelines. Pipelines are the safest and most efficient way to transport energy. Yet they are being blocked by overregulations and bad policy, and that is why the Trump administration is committed to cutting the red tape, getting pipelines built, and making sure American energy can move freely to where it is needed so that the things that make America great can continue to be made.
Let me be clear, Mr. Speaker. Modernizing our grid does not mean pushing expensive and unreliable energy mandates on taxpayers. Americans should not be forced to foot the bill for an agenda that actually weakens our power supply. What we need is a balanced, commonsense approach that prioritizes affordability, reliability, stability, and security.
With the Trump administration back in office, Mr. Speaker, we now have leadership that values energy independence, as well as economic growth. This Congress, on the Energy and Commerce Committee, I look forward to advancing real solutions to hardening our energy grid, to protect it from cyberattacks, to protect it from supply chain disruptions, and to protect it from natural disasters.
Mr. Speaker, America needs a grid that works when we need it. That means standing up for natural gas. That means investing in nuclear. That means protecting our pipelines. That means rejecting reckless policies that put politics ahead of not only reliability but reality.
The things that make America great are the things that America makes.
President Trump, thanks to his leadership, is on the right path to securing a future based on that premise, and I thank the gentlewoman from North Dakota for holding this Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Weber for being here and leaving us with that really great phrase. The things that make America great are the things that America makes. I love that.
Mr. Speaker, we can and we must meet the challenge of a reliable, affordable, sustainable power grid.
As President Trump said: ``In America, the impossible is what we do best.'' We can do this, and we will lead the world in this venture.
Mr. Speaker, we have talked a lot about the challenges that face American energy. I want to talk about the opportunities we have, too. With an energy supply that is affordable, reliable, and dependable, the United States can lead the way on emissions reductions and artificial intelligence.
Today, I want to talk about AI. To be AI dominant, we must first be energy dominant. That is why today I am announcing my plans to create an AI and Energy Working Group.
While my colleagues are thankfully working hard on regulations, speech, and other components of AI, this working group will focus exclusively on AI and the energy this growing technology demands.
This work will be complementary to and not duplicative of other efforts by my colleagues, including the Speaker's Task Force on AI, which completed its work last December. My goal is to bring in experts and stakeholders, legislators, and other interested parties to fully explore these power needs, the current barriers to meeting them, and Federal policy solutions to help reliably, affordably, and sustainably power the future of AI. I plan to follow four main pillars.
My first pillar is: Meeting AI energy demands requires American energy dominance.
Today, AI searches consume nearly 10 times the electricity of standard internet searches. In 2024, data centers accounted for 4.3 percent of total U.S. power demand. Analysts predict this could climb to as much as 12 percent by 2030.
To put that into perspective, that would be more electricity than the entire State of Texas uses today. Yet, the U.S. isn't scaling up reliable baseload power quickly enough to support this rapid growth. In fact, the Biden administration's policies are forcing this baseload power offline.
If we don't act, we risk energy shortages, higher costs, and a slowdown in technological advancement. To secure their energy needs, major tech companies are locking in exclusive long-term power contracts.
For example, in September, Microsoft entered an agreement to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to reliably power its AI data center. While I support these types of agreements, we must also ensure that smaller companies and new players in the AI industry have access to the power they need to innovate and compete.
Meeting the energy demands of AI isn't just about powering technology. It is about powering America's future.
Now that brings us to pillar number two: A strong, secure electronic grid.
The rapid, forced transition to intermittent power sources, paired with the retirement of reliable baseload generators, has left our electric grid increasingly vulnerable to outages.
Today, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that two-thirds of the United States faces an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet the demand of having blackouts.
As we have become more reliant on power-dependent digital infrastructure, the stakes are even higher.
Having enough power isn't our only concern. Cyberattacks targeting U.S. grid operations and infrastructure are a growing threat that could disrupt everything from everyday conveniences to our national security. If AI is to flourish, we must prioritize grid reliability and security.
This leads me to pillar number three: This requires the right energy regulations.
According to the report from the bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, new AI models are developed roughly every 6 months, and data centers are built within 1 to 2 years.
Meanwhile, new power plants and transmission infrastructure can take at least 5 to 10 years to build. This creates, obviously, a significant gap between the rapid growth of AI and the slow growth of the power supply needed to support it.
Our current energy regulatory environment is not equipped to bridge this gap. I know this environment well. I served 12 years as a State energy regulator.
We need forward-thinking regulations that empower both small innovators, who depend on the bulk power system, and larger firms that secure power through long-term agreements.
By ensuring a level energy playing field, we can position America as the global leader in AI development, and we can outpace China.
This leads me to pillar number four: America, not China, must be the global leader of AI innovation.
On January 20 of this year, China unveiled DeepSeek-R1. It is the most advanced large language model reportedly developed with less advanced processors at a fraction of the cost of U.S. models. This proves that China is rapidly closing the gap, and we can't afford to fall behind.
The Trump administration recognizes this urgency. That is why, just 3 days after the new Chinese revelation, on January 23, President Trump signed Executive Order No. 14179: Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.
This order overturned President Biden's mandates that had stifled American investment and innovation in AI. With this decisive action, we are reclaiming our competitive edge. It is time to take the handcuffs off our AI industry and unleash the full potential of American ingenuity.
Winning the future of AI requires bold action, smart energy policy, and a commitment to American innovation. That is why I will engage with a broad range of voices and stakeholders, big and small, to craft a legislative framework that secures our energy dominance, strengthens our electric grid, and positions America as the global leader in AI.
For those with ideas on how we can achieve these goals, my door is always open. Together, we can power the future of AI and assure that America, not China, leads the way back.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cline).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for holding this Special Order and for her leadership on energy issues. The House is truly fortunate to have her as a Member.
Mrs. Fedorchak is exactly right. We have, as our top priority, the need to restore energy independence for this country and energy dominance, especially in regard to our relationship with nations like China that are pushing to lead in AI and other technologies.
We are dependent on China for rare earth minerals that are so important to powering our grid, powering the technologies that support AI. That is why it is great that the Trump administration is leading on ways in which we can explore not only in the continental United States for rare earth minerals but also talking to other countries, talking to countries like Greenland and Ukraine, quite frankly, making comments about the need to ensure that the U.S. has the rare earth mineral supply that it needs to support the AI initiatives that are happening in this country. We need to be the leader in AI globally. If not, we cede it to China.
We just had a hearing yesterday in the Judiciary Committee about what would happen with the censorship-industrial complex if other nations, whether it is Europe and their privacy directive or China through their efforts in AI, to dictate what can and cannot be said on the internet.
When it comes to energy, what is most important is the American consumer, the American citizen. What we have seen over the last several years is that American citizens are suffering under the Green New Deal agenda, the increasing dependence on other countries for our energy needs, and the need to restore that energy independence in order to target costs, bring down inflation, and actually allow Americans to be able to afford the important technologies and appliances and other things that are critical to daily living.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, since 2021, energy prices under the Biden administration outpaced inflation, with consumers seeing an average rise of 10 percent. This is all despite the massive glut of subsidies that the Biden administration pushed to prop up Green New Deal technologies that otherwise wouldn't exist without government handouts.
Thankfully, we have a new President, a new sheriff in town, one who will bring online more energy production and ensure that the days of $5 gas prices are left behind along with Biden's failed legacy.
Moreover, this administration will prioritize affordability and consumer choice in appliances, focusing on cutting burdensome red tape, not on regulating your gas stoves or water heaters at home, which we saw the Biden administration seek to regulate in the waning days of the administration, the outgoing days of that administration.
Just this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed his first secretarial order meant to unleash a golden era of American energy dominance. I look forward to working with them and the administration to lend whatever support and authority is needed from Congress to achieve tangible results for the American people.
At the end of the day, that is what it is all about, is making sure that we deliver for the American people and ensure that this great Nation continues its energy dominance that we had under the first Trump administration, that we lost under the failed Biden administration, and that we are seeking to regain under the current Trump administration.
I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership, and I look forward to working with her on these issues.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Cline for taking the time to participate in the Special Order this afternoon, especially on a fly- out day when everyone is heading back to their districts to be with the citizens they represent.
Energy dominance and energy independence is the foundation for the massive new agenda that we must move forward with in America today. It is the foundation for driving down inflation, for lowering costs of everything from housing to utilities to rent to groceries and gas. The cost of power is baked into everything we buy. It is the foundation for powering economic growth. It is the foundation for becoming AI dominant, and it is clearly the foundation for national security.
I thank everyone who participated in this Special Order this afternoon, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) for 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, a proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid. I rise, Mr. Speaker, today, in the name of liberty and justice for all, in the name of government of the people, by the people, for the people. I rise to remind us of the words of Ben Franklin. He reminded us that we have a republic if we can keep it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to warn all of the greatest living threat to our Republic. I rise to explain how we must deter this threat or we must remove it. I rise to explain how the consequences of doing nothing can be harmful to all that we hold dear.
Mr. Speaker, our greatest living threat is a President who defies court orders. Our greatest living threat is a President who defies court orders. One can but only imagine what America would be like today if President Eisenhower had defied the order of the court in Brown v. Board of Education.
It was Brown v. Board of Education that desegregated society to the extent that it is, that integrated it to the extent that it is, that probably has given me a means by which I can stand here in the House of Representatives.
Brown v. Board of Education was a seminal moment in time. It was a moment in time which has changed time from the point of its announcements to
I am so grateful that President Eisenhower--who was reluctant, who was not a fan of Brown v. Board of Education, who didn't really want to deal with the great racial issues of his time. I am glad that he did not defy the court. There are things that he could have done to prevent Brown from being fully realized. Quite frankly, it has not been fully realized to this day.
A President who defies court orders is the greatest threat to American democracy because that President has the ability to not only defy court orders but in so doing to become the final arbiter of what the law is. That President assumes an inordinate amount of power.
That President will destroy what we know as the three branches of government, because that President will no longer recognize the judiciary and what the judiciary has been allowed to do since Marbury v. Madison. That President, Mr. Speaker, will become a person who is not only above the law, but that President will become the law, if we allow a President to defy court orders.
What we must do to prevent this? We can prevent a President from defying court orders with impeachment, impeachment in two senses of the word.
One, it can act as a deterrent. The other is it can act as a means of removal. If a President defies a court order, we can remove him, but let's not go there just now. Let's talk about deterrence.
I learned from the last time I engaged in this impeachment process of the value of deterrence, impeachment as a deterrent.
Here is how it works. If a President believes that he will be impeached for defying a court order, because he will in effect become the law of the land, we will no longer be a land where laws govern but a land where a man governs or a woman governs, a person governs.
We are a land of laws, and we want to remain such. If a President defies a court order and if he knows this, that we can deter him or we can impeach him, he can opt to take advantage of the warning of deterrence. This is what I learned.
This President or any President can be deterred if the President believes that impeachment is a remedy. If the President does not believe that impeachment is a remedy, then he can go on and defy the court's orders.
If he believes that impeachment is there as a possible remedy, then he will not.
I say it can be a deterrence. I say it can be a deterrence if the President believes that we will impeach. I believe that if a President knows that we will impeach, then he may back off, and he may back down.
I believe that this President knows that I will bring Articles of Impeachment against him. He knows that I have no fear of him as many others do.
I believe he understands that those who fear him will cower. They are pusillanimous. I am not a pusillanimous politician. I will not kneel; I will not bend; and I will not break. I will stand for liberty and justice for all.
Mr. President, you know that if you cross the line and if you defy court orders, then there is one Member of Congress who has pledged to bring Articles of Impeachment against you.
Let that deter you, Mr. President. Don't go forward, Mr. President. Don't believe what the Vice President is telling you about defiance of court orders. Don't believe those around you who are trying to convince you that you can do this with impunity.
Mr. President, you have been made immune to some laws, but you are not immune to impeachment. Impeachment is the final straw that can break the back of the camel who happens to decide that he is going to continue with his ruthless, reckless orders and defy even the courts of this country.
No President--no President--should ever defy court orders because, at that point, that President becomes a dictator. We in this country have decided that we have a republic, and we want to keep it. If we are going to keep this Republic, then we must use impeachment as a deterrence, which means that this President has to know that it is there for him and that we will use it against him, impeachment as a deterrence.
Now, let's move to impeachment as a form of removal. If a President defies a court order or court orders, then that President has committed an impeachable act. It is an impeachable act to defy your oath of office to execute the laws, to honor the laws of the United States, and to protect the Constitution. You are charged with the responsibility of defending the Constitution.
If you do this, Mr. President, then you will now have committed an impeachable act. The question is not whether you will be impeached by way of a resolution being presented and not whether a resolution will be presented because you know that I am going to present that resolution. I am telling you now that I will present the resolution.
If you defy court orders, then I will present resolutions to impeach you. I will present the resolution.
Now, the question is: Will the Congress act? What will the Congress do? I believe that even some of the most conservative Members of Congress will recognize that we don't want a dictatorship and that if we don't act, then we will have a dictatorship. The consequences of our inaction and the consequences of our failure to impeach and convict would be a dictatorship.
I don't believe that the Congress of the United States of America and I don't believe that the Senate of the United States of America will stand by and watch a dictatorship develop while they are in office.
This is our watch. I don't believe that, on our watch, we have such persons who are going to simply stand by. There may be some, but I believe there will be enough to impeach, and I believe there will be enough to convict. That is because no one in this country, I believe, wants a dictatorship. If there are some who want it, then you don't know what you are asking for.
Mr. Speaker, this is an alarm. I am warning our country. I want you to know that we are this close to a dictatorship because we have a President who is seriously considering, it seems, disobeying court orders.
That is the line. That is the line in the dirt. That is the Rubicon. If you cross this line in the dirt, you will have moved into the area of impeachment, and I assure you, Articles of Impeachment will be brought against you.
Mr. President, you are a Goliath. You have been made to be above the law in certain cases. You are a Goliath. There is nothing on the planet like you, it seems, because you happen to be armed with the nuclear weapons that are capable of changing life on Earth as we know it or obliterating all life on Earth. You are armed with the mightiest Army.
You are armed, Mr. President, and you are dangerous if you decide you are going to move forward and deny court orders. You are a Goliath, but I will let you know now, Mr. President, that there are Davids among us. There are Davids, Mr. President. There are 435 Davids.
The question is, will these Davids use their slings to bring you down with impeachment?
That is the only question. I believe the Davids among us will do this. I believe that there is a majority on a given day when impeachment is brought who will vote to impeach. These are the Davids that will save this country. They will preserve the Republic. They will continue to have the justice that we understand we should have through the courts. They are the persons who are on watch, and they understand that this is their watch, Mr. Speaker.
I would pray that the President would not move forward. I would pray that he will back down from his notion of defying court orders. I also know that if he does, the Davids of the Congress of the United States of America will bring him down.
Mr. Speaker, I am one of those Davids.
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 and to direct their remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
