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39 public bills, H.R. 8092- 8130; and 6 resolutions, H.J. Res. 154; H. Con. Res. 81; and H. Res. 1138-1141 were introduced.
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Reports Filed
Reports were filed today as follows: H.R. 1681, to require the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to establish an interagency strike force to ensure that certain Federal land management agencies, including the organizational units of such agencies, prioritize the review of requests for communications use authorizations, and for other purposes (H. Rept. 119-439, Part 2); and H.R. 5201, to direct the Federal Communications Commission to publish a report on implementation of the Kari's Law Act of 2017, and for other purposes (H. Rept. 119-574).
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Speaker
Read a letter from the Speaker wherein he appointed Representative De La Cruz to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
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Recess
The House recessed at 11:30 a.m. and reconvened at 12 p.m.
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Expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security
The House agreed to H. Res. 1128, as amended, expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security, by a yea-and-nay vote of 225 yeas to 187 nays with 13 answering ``present'', Roll No. 102.
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Pursuant to the Rule, the amendments to the resolution and the preamble printed in the H. Rept. 119-570 shall be considered as adopted.
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H. Res. 1131, providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 8029), the resolution (H. Res. 1128) and the bills (H.R. 5103) and (H.R. 7084) was agreed to yesterday, March 25th. Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act: The House passed H.R. 8029, making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, by a yea-and-nay vote of 218 yeas to 206 nays, Roll No. 104.
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Rejected the DeLauro motion to recommit the bill to the Committee on Appropriations by a yea-and-nay vote of 210 yeas to 215 nays, Roll No. 103. H. Res. 1131, providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 8029), the resolution (H. Res. 1128) and the bills (H.R. 5103) and (H.R. 7084) was agreed to yesterday, March 25th.
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Quorum Calls: Votes
Three yea-and-nay votes developed during the proceedings of today and appear on pages H2750-51, H2751-52, and H2752. Adjournment: The House met at 10 a.m. and adjourned at 7:12 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: 176 of 252 spoken turns were found. Turns without a time are still listed; they just can't seek.
Morning-Hour Debate
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 6, 2026, the Chair will now recognize Members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning-hour debate.
The Chair will alternate recognition between the parties, with time equally allocated between the parties and each Member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to 5 minutes, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m.
Madam Speaker, April is Arab American Heritage Month, and I rise today to celebrate Little Palestine, a vibrant community in the southwest region of Cook County, in my district.
In the early 20th century, families from the small Palestinian town of Betunia immigrated to Chicago, attracted by the city's prosperity.
Many found jobs in hotels, restaurants, and factories. Many of their U.S.-born children proudly served in the military and served their country. This entrepreneurial community soon began to open up bakeries, restaurants, markets, and specialty fashion stores.
Now, there are more than 200 Arab-owned businesses in Little Palestine. Little Palestine also has cultural centers, community service organizations, and mosques, contributing toward making it a close-knit community that honors the rich culture, heritage, and spirit of the Arab-American community.
I am proud and grateful for the contributions that the families, businesses, and cultural centers of Little Palestine bring to my district and to Chicagoland.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Gregorio Gomez Aguayo, a talented writer, poet, producer, and organizer.
Gregorio has been nominated for the award of poet laureate of the State of Illinois twice and has been selected as part of Chicago's Newcity Lit 50, which highlights the city's 50 most influential people in Chicago in the literary scene.
Born in Veracruz, Mexico, Gregorio has been a part of Chicago's artistic and spoken word community for almost 40 years. His poetry delves into themes of heritage, identity, and the human experience and navigates the duality of his Mexican roots and his American upbringing.
Last weekend, in Chicago, Gregorio presented his most recent poetry collection, ``Requiem: Journey Thru a Poetic Odyssey,'' and I can't wait to read all of it.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate South Side native Mayda Del Valle, who has been named Chicago's next poet laureate.
Mayda is a poet, educator, and interdisciplinary artist who will now serve as ambassador for our city's literary and creative communities.
Rooted in her Puerto Rican diaspora, her work invites audiences to see themselves reflected on it. She challenges us to remember where we come from and imagine what we can build together.
Mayda has been recognized as one of America's young innovators in the arts and sciences. She has performed on stages across the Nation. As a dedicated educator, Mayda has taught poetry in schools, colleges, and youth detention facilities, inspiring the next generation of artists.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Arise Chicago, an organization founded by a coalition of religious leaders on the principle that all workers deserve dignity in the workplace.
Its strategic vision includes effective education, advocacy efforts, and programs to empower workers to take action beyond their workplaces. Thanks to Arise Chicago's efforts, thousands of workers have recovered more than $10 million in stolen wages and compensation and increased their wages by over $6 million.
In 2026, Arise continues to work to eradicate harassment and discrimination from the workplace, to ensure fair payment, and to educate immigrant workers about their rights in the midst of the anti- immigrant environment that our country is living in.
I am grateful for Arise Chicago's work, and I look forward to continuing to partner with them.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Martha Sundquist.
Martha passed away on March 11 of this year, and she served as First Lady of Tennessee from 1995 to 2003, alongside Governor Don Sundquist, a former Member of the House of Representatives. She used her position to bring people across Tennessee closer together.
Though she was born in Illinois, Martha planted her roots in Tennessee. She often said that she got to Tennessee as quickly as she could, and over time, she and her family lived in each of Tennessee's three grand divisions.
Martha's favorite saying was to ``bloom where you are planted,'' and she carried that with her wherever life took her.
As the First Lady of Tennessee, Martha brought a steady, approachable presence and authority to the job. She was deeply involved in communities across the State of Tennessee. She spent time in schools with parents, teachers, and families, making sure that people felt seen, and leaving a lasting impression.
In addition, Martha Sundquist placed a strong emphasis on the next generation. She brought to Tennessee the Easter egg roll at the Governor's residence, which became one of her most meaningful traditions. It expanded to welcome underserved kindergartners for a morning of games, lunch, and visits from beloved characters that made the day truly feel special.
Care for Tennessee's natural beauty was also central to Martha's mission as the First Lady. Martha supported efforts to plant wildflowers along the State's highways and helped to promote products grown and made in the State of Tennessee. Martha's legacy in this area lives on in the State forest in Cocke County that bears her name.
Martha also understood the importance of preserving the Governor's residence and its history. Martha worked to maintain the Governor's residence, while ensuring that it remained a place where Tennesseans and visitors felt welcomed each and every day.
Even before Martha's time as First Lady, her commitment to service was clear. It was a real honor. In the late 1980s, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the Board of Governors of the United Service Organizations, helping to support members of our military and their families. That role was really important to Martha.
Madam Speaker, I have to tell you that for all who knew her, throughout her life, Martha led with grace. She met people with warmth in every single interaction.
I will say that Martha, for those who knew her, was never one to seek the spotlight. Those close to her would say that she and Governor Sundquist had an understanding that she would be the First Lady 24/7, but she would also focus on her family and her friends at the same time, and all the things that she loved, including time in her garden and on the golf course.
While I was working on these remarks, I talked to her longtime friend, Wendell Moore. Wendell served Tennessee as the principal deputy and chief of staff to Governor Sundquist.
This is what Wendell had to say about Martha Sundquist: ``Martha touched countless lives in various ways, and always in a kind and thoughtful way. Her humility was ever present, as she never put herself first but, rather, served others. Her selfless concern, love, and kindness for others should be a model for all of us to follow.''
Madam Speaker, Roberta and I are saddened by the loss of Martha Sundquist. I believe Martha will always be remembered not only as a strong advocate for her State and its people but also for the example that she set in public life.
Martha Sundquist was completely devoted to her husband, Don, and her entire family. Today and always, our thoughts are with her children, Andrea, Tania, and Deke.
Madam Speaker, last week, two back-to-back storms brought the most catastrophic flooding Hawaii has seen in over 20 years: landslides, washed-out roads, emergency evacuations, and destruction in every single county.
What we saw during these Kona lows was a hard truth: Nature will find a way, and water will go where she wants.
We grew up preparing for hurricane season. That was a threat that we knew. Now, disasters don't wait their turn. Hawaii experiences wildfires and floods year-round. What we are experiencing today is more than our infrastructure was ever built to handle.
I saw it firsthand. Roads ripped apart as water surged through storm drains too small to contain it. Four feet of rock and silt slammed against guardrails, pushed down from the mountains. Fields flattened where water jumped its bank, bypassed overgrown ditches, and raced toward the ocean.
In its path were homes, cars, farms, hospitals, schools, churches, entire communities, our ``family''; ``ohana.''
Madam Speaker, even in our darkest hour, I also saw Hawaii at its very best: neighbors showing up for our neighbors, no one waiting to be asked; volunteers feeding families; and first responders and healthcare workers going above and beyond. That is aloha. That is who we are.
Now, we must match that same spirit with action. We need a whole-of- government approach in response right now: disaster, SNAP, and hot food waivers for families who can't access their kitchens; debris removal so that people can begin to rebuild; the Army Corps of Engineers clearing and dredging our waterways; EPA testing soil and water to keep our communities safe from whatever ran off the farms or the mountainsides behind them; and National Health Corps support for wound care, mental health, and recovery that doesn't end when the water recedes.
To every ``family,'' ``ohana,'' to every friend, and member of our community back home in Hawaii clearing out the mud, mourning what was lost, searching for some stable ground again, you are not alone. We see you. We will always be standing with you. We will not stop fighting to bring every possible resource to help our communities recover, rebuild, and come back even stronger.
Honoring the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
Mr. VAN EPPS. Madam Speaker, I rise today with deep humility and profound gratitude to honor one of the most elite and storied units in our Armed Forces, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers.
I have the privilege of speaking not only as a Member of this body, but as someone who wore that patch, who flew alongside these extraordinary men and women, and who witnessed firsthand their quiet professionalism, their relentless discipline, and their unwavering commitment to mission and country.
I am proud to stand here as only the second former Night Stalker to serve in Congress and the first who flew as a 160th helicopter pilot.
The Night Stalkers were born out of failure and forged into excellence. In 1980, after the tragic events of Operation Eagle Claw in Iran, our Nation recognized a critical gap. We needed a unit capable of executing the most complex, high-risk missions in the most demanding environments on Earth, at night, and under any conditions.
From that necessity, the 160th was created. What began as a response to failure has become one of the most capable and respected special operations aviation units in the world. Their motto is simple: ``Night Stalkers don't quit,'' and they don't.
For decades--through Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, and countless missions that will never publicly be known--the Night Stalkers have been there: flying low, flying fast, and flying
They are pilots, crew chiefs, and maintainers who deliver our Nation's most elite special operations forces to the fight and bring them home. Often, they do it in silence, without recognition, without headlines, and without fanfare. But make no mistake: the success of countless missions and the safety of countless Americans rests on their shoulders.
Madam Speaker, my journey to the 160th began at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where I learned what it meant to lead and to serve. I went on to fly Apache attack helicopters on my first combat deployment to Iraq, but it was my selection into the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell that defined the most challenging and most meaningful chapter of my military career.
At Fort Campbell, I had the honor of serving alongside the very best. The standard is unforgiving. The training is relentless, and the expectation is clear: Mission first, people always.
It was there that I learned what true excellence looks like, not in theory, but in practice. It was there that I saw the character of the American warfighter at its finest.
Madam Speaker, we cannot talk about the 160th without recognizing the community that supports it. Clarksville, Montgomery County, and the surrounding region are more than just locations on a map. They are a critical part of the mission. They are home to thousands of servicemembers and their families. They are communities that understand sacrifice, communities that show up, and communities that support those who serve, not just in words, but in action.
Fort Campbell and the Clarksville community represent one of the strongest military civilian partnerships in our Nation, and we are stronger because of it.
Madam Speaker, the Night Stalkers are defined by their ethos: ``Night Stalkers don't quit.'' But that ethos is more than a slogan. It is a promise--a promise to the elite special operators they carry, a promise to the missions they execute, and a promise to the Nation they serve.
It means flying into danger when others cannot. It means pressing forward when conditions say turn back, and it means doing the hard things over and over again without recognition, without hesitation, and without failure.
Today, I ask this body to join me in honoring the men and women of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, past and present.
To the Night Stalkers still serving, we see you, we respect you, and we are grateful for you.
To the families who stand behind them, your strength makes their service possible.
To those who gave their lives in service to this unit and this Nation, we will never forget your sacrifice.
Madam Speaker, it was the honor of a lifetime to serve among the Night Stalkers, and it is my honor today to stand on this floor and say on behalf of a grateful Nation: Night Stalkers don't quit, and neither will we.
Madam Speaker, before I was first sworn in to the United States Congress, my predecessor gave me a great piece of advice. He told me that the most important thing to do as I was getting started was to build a great team.
I am glad I took his advice. The first person that I hired when I became a Member of Congress, to help build the team and to ultimately help lead it, was Sally Anderson.
I rise today 7\1/2\ years later to thank her for her selfless, tireless, and dedicated service--her service to the people of Colorado's Second District, her service to the people of Colorado, and her service to our country.
Sally first served as my district director and later became my Colorado chief of staff. Throughout her tenure, she worked incredibly hard each and every day to serve the citizens of our district. One can imagine the various challenges that our communities face from year to year. She faced each of those challenges with empathy, with compassion, and with unwavering determination. Historic wildfires, terrible flash floods, a devastating mass shooting, emergency after emergency, crisis after crisis, Sally was often the first call that I would make when grappling with how to solve a challenge, address an emergency in my district, and to do the work that we are solemnly charged with doing. She joined me at funerals, memorials, and remembrances. She played a pivotal role in the development of legislation here in Washington, D.C.
I could spend hours, Madam Speaker, regaling you with the stories of the constituents' lives that she shaped, the casework that she supervised, and the countless examples of her kindness, leaving an indelible impression in the hearts and minds of the people I represent from Boulder to Fort Collins, from Vail to Steamboat Springs, and every corner in between.
Sally was also a leader here in Washington. She was a mentor to district directors across the country as part of our district directors' service program. I have heard countless stories from my colleagues who have told me from their district directors of their experience, when they have relied on her counsel and advice when faced with a challenge or crisis.
Perhaps most importantly, above all else, her professionalism and the ways in which she approached her job--selfless, thankless, and always available to help a constituent in need--in my view, it helped restore some trust in our government, which is so desperately needed now more than ever.
Put simply, the Second District and our office will miss her. I wish her well and am so excited for her next chapter. On behalf of the people of the Second District, I thank Sally for her service.
Mr. Speaker, last night, in the dead of night, the FCC and the Department of Justice did something unprecedented. They approved a merger that would create the Nation's largest local television station operator.
Nexstar Media Group's $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna would make it the largest local television station owner in the United States: 265 stations across 44 States, reaching 80 percent of American households. Why did they approve it? Simple reason: Because Donald Trump wanted them to.
The deal is outrageous. It is devastating for local news, devastating for consumers, devastating for freedom of the press, but perhaps most problematic of all, Mr. Speaker, it is unlawful. The merger and the decision to approve it violates the law.
By the way, this isn't complicated. It is simple. In 2004, Congress created a very specific 39 percent national audience limitation. That is in the law. It is not ambiguous. It is not nebulous. It is clear- cut, and this merger violates it.
Let me read, Mr. Speaker, the dissent from one of the FCC commissioners. I hope every Member of this body reads it in full. ``The order is wrong on the law, wrong on the policy, and the process by which it was issued is indefensible.
``The Commission does not have the authority to raise or waive the 39 percent national audience reach limitation. Simply put: The national audience reach limitation is a statutory requirement, and only Congress has the authority to raise it.''
It is clear-cut, simple. We cannot allow this debasement of the FCC's processes to continue.
Mr. Speaker, I have a solution: Let's rein in this lawless agency through the appropriations process. That is exactly what I intend to propose. I hope my colleagues will join me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Lawrence Gelman.
For nearly 40 years, he served as a pillar of our South Texas community. A brilliant physician and visionary leader, he founded DHR Health, pioneering the physician-owned model in the Rio Grande Valley and championing the idea that doctors were the best qualified to run hospitals. Today,
Dr. Gelman's influence reached far beyond the hospital walls. A radio host and dedicated steward of the arts, he spent decades preserving historic stained glass windows now permanently housed at the Gelman Stained Glass Museum in San Juan, Texas, which remains a gift to the Rio Grande Valley.
Dr. Gelman will be remembered for his love of God and his family. He leaves behind a legacy of generosity to his friends, family, and community.
Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to congratulate Officer Joel Pulido for 28 years of service with the Edinburg Police Department.
Officer Pulido started with the department in 1997 as the calm voice on the dispatch radio. Not long after, he joined the field after earning his badge and became a mentor to the next generation of recruits.
Throughout his career, he was committed to keeping criminals off our streets and protecting our community. His exceptional detective work solved 26 murder investigations with a perfect conviction rate. He didn't just close the cases. He delivered justice for families when they needed it the most.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Officer Pulido for nearly three decades of integrity and service. I congratulate him on a well-deserved retirement.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my good friend and a friend to many, Jonathan Dandes, who tragically passed away on February 22, 2026, at the age of 72.
Born and raised in Queens, New York, he chose to put down his roots in the City of Good Neighbors, helping to cultivate Buffalo's identity and catalyze its resurgence for over four decades.
He was a champion for our city and provided our community with a steady, trusted presence in numerous corners of civic life.
In the world of local sports and entertainment, Jon was an institution. He was instrumental in the development of Sahlen Field, helping to bring professional baseball into the heart of downtown Buffalo, ensuring that generations of families could come together and create lasting memories.
As president of Rich Baseball Operations he elevated the fan experience, strengthening community ties and made baseball in Buffalo a point of pride.
He chaired and supported organizations that continued to define the Buffalo Niagara region, including Shea's Performing Arts Center, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, Visit Buffalo Niagara, and the Erie County Medical Center, among many, many more.
At the University at Buffalo, Jon served as the longest tenured member of the UB Council, being appointed by four of New York's Governors, first in 1994, and most recently, to his fifth term, dedicating decades to strengthening higher education and expanding opportunity for future generations.
He was a proud alumnus, a trusted adviser, and a relentless advocate for UB's mission to serve as a driver of innovation and public good.
In each role, he brought not only sharp insight and strategic vision but a genuine love for his community and its people.
Just as importantly, Jon believed in uplifting others. He mentored countless young professionals, guiding them, encouraging them, and helping them discover their own paths to leadership.
Jon was also keenly aware that a strong community is built through compassion. His work with organizations like the National Kidney Foundation, Upstate New York Transplant Services, and Erie County Jewish Family Services reflected a deep commitment to caring for others, especially those in need.
Through it all, he remained grounded in what mattered most: his family. He was a devoted husband to his late wife, Marcy; the proud father of Leo and Arin; and a beloved grandfather to Luca and Leif.
Jon's legacy lives on in the community he helped build, the lives he touched, and the spirit of service he embodied.
When western New Yorkers spend an afternoon with their family rooting on the Bisons, that is Jon Dandes' legacy in action. When their loved ones receive lifesaving care at ECMC, we can thank Jon Dandes for his tireless work to strengthen our region's only Level I trauma hospital. And when the next generation of UB grads decides to stay in Buffalo and call western New York home, that, too, is a testament to Jon's unwavering vision and leadership for our region.
Western New York is a better place to live, work, and raise a family because Jon Dandes decided to call it home.
Today, we honor not just what he accomplished but who he was: a leader, a mentor, a neighbor, and a friend.
May we carry forward his example, his signature generosity, energy, and unwavering belief in the community he cherished.
On behalf of a grateful city, State, and Nation, may Jonathan A. Dandes' memory be a blessing to all who knew him.
Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize my good friend and First Congressional District of Kentucky resident, Dave Baker, upon his retirement from the University of Kentucky Sports Network after 37 years.
Dave ``Buzz'' Baker began his career at WKYT in Lexington as an intern and was hired full time upon his graduation from Georgetown College in 1982.
Dave and his lovely wife, Donna, reside in Frankfort and attend church with me and my family at Forks of Elkhorn Baptist in Midway, Kentucky.
Dave began working Southeastern Conference events in 1993 and has been a constant presence on the SEC Network and other University of Kentucky televised events ever since calling men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball.
Buzz Baker is a Kentucky sports legend who has always been and will continue to be a force in what we in the Bluegrass State call Big Blue Nation.
Madam Speaker, I rise to give an update on the work that the House Oversight Committee has been doing recently. I want to remind everyone that our mission on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to identify waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the Federal Government.
We have been going State by State and focusing on identifying massive fraud in the Federal welfare programs administered by poorly run States.
We began in Minnesota. We worked with nine whistleblowers. These whistleblowers were career State employees who came forward, and I hope that whistleblowers in other States saw how we treated those whistleblowers. We protected the whistleblowers.
We sat down with the whistleblowers. We interviewed them. We did transcribed interviews and took their testimony to produce a report to build our case to help with the Department of Justice's ongoing investigation in Minnesota on the welfare fraud.
What we concluded after bringing in people who were State employees in Minnesota who had been ringing the bell on fraud there for many years, we concluded that both Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz knew about the massive amounts of fraud in the welfare programs in Minnesota, yet did nothing about it, and in some instances, retaliated against the State employees who did the right thing and came forward.
Now we have moved our investigation into California, and we are focusing on a massive hospice fraud scheme--hospice of all things. This is a program I think every Member of Congress supports. Hospice is who we call in our deepest, darkest times of need.
We have zeroed in on one particular area in California: Los Angeles County. A recent audit revealed over $3.5 billion in hospice fraud primarily in one county: Los Angeles County.
What we found in Los Angeles County is that 18 percent of the total bill for the Federal Government for hospice in America went to one county. You had thousands of people registered as hospice providers billing hospice for hundreds and hundreds of patients that no one can find.
We are going to continue to work with auditors. We hope that whistleblowers will come forward in California like they did in Minnesota, and we are going to try to identify this and hopefully work with authorities in Minnesota who have prosecuted over two dozen people already in Minnesota for fraud.
We are serious on the House Oversight Committee, the Republicans are, about doing something about the massive amounts of fraud we are seeing. We want to get the backs of the American taxpayer. The hardworking taxpayers who work hard every day and send their tax dollars here to Washington are frustrated that we are losing so much money to fraud. We are going to do something about it.
Madam Speaker, let me recognize the outstanding work of the Co-op City branch of the NAACP for its many contributions to the life of African Americans in their area.
The branch is ably led by president Leslie Peterson, and she is aided by Tracy Edwards, Brenda Brown, and Anika Green-Watson and has been connected and involved in numerous programs in their community.
The branch meets on the fourth Sunday of each month in their offices in the Einstein, room 36, with interesting programs and speakers.
The branch has also hosted and sponsored major events during February's Black History Month, the January celebration of the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and in June for Juneteenth.
The group joins other NAACP branches, notably the next-door Williamsbridge NAACP, for events like Know Your Rights seminars. Their advocacy of national NAACP legislative priorities bring them to lobby their elected officials on matters promoting education, healthcare, and antidiscrimination policies.
From the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, I salute the Co- op City branch of the NAACP for their persistence and their moral leadership at a time when it is needed the most.
Madam Speaker, I rise to salute the outstanding work of the Senior Citizen Council of Tuckahoe and Bronxville and the services that they provide to address the issues of isolation and loneliness to seniors in both villages.
Their programs include a host of different activities, social and recreational programs, health and wellness, arts and crafts, musical programs, guest lectures, luncheons, and day trips.
The council is led by chair Eleanor Gustavson, along with Sarah Belair, Maryann Dennen, Barbara McGraw, Jean Murrer, and a host of other active board members.
The weekly senior programs are offered at both the Father Fata Hall in Tuckahoe and the Reformed Church of Bronxville. They are sponsored and supervised by Tuckahoe senior director Michelle Oliva and Bronxville senior director Lisa McGovern.
The council is also helped by a community advisory board of prominent Tuckahoe and Bronxville leaders who give assistance and counsel to the council.
From the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, I salute the Senior Citizen Council of Tuckahoe and Bronxville and will tell both of those senior groups I will be stopping by sometime soon with the cookies.
Madam Speaker, every freshman member comes into this institution with much to learn, and it is impossible to do that and function every day to represent the people of your district without the help of a committed, talented staff.
Let me publicly express my gratitude for the hard work of the staff that I have had the pleasure of working with in this first term: chief of staff, Rich Orsillo; senior adviser on policy, Rob Hoch. My D.C. team is led by Jessica Merritt, deputy chief of staff and legislative director; along with Ryan Reed; Sidd Gannu; Jeremy Hoffner; Samantha Kirschner; and Ellie Lockhart. My Westchester team is led by Ellen Hendrickx, the district director; Michelle Gewanter, Edili Espaillat, Daphney Sintyl, Tara Conte, and Chanah Haigh. My Bronx team is led by Tremaine O'Garro, Bronx director, and Kelly Saunders. I owe a debt of gratitude to each and every one of them.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Mrs. Janis Blocker, a South Carolinian whose legacy and impact on those around her has been nothing short of remarkable.
Janis was born in Colleton County in 1938. Following what she saw as God's calling for her, she became a devoted teacher for many years and was deeply beloved by all of her students.
She first attended Charleston Southern University where she graduated summa cum laude and later received a master's degree in teaching English from The Citadel in 1981. That is the degree that she used to teach for over 49 years.
She taught a range of topics, including English honors and journalism, and was heavily involved in the State education system. Her students honored her with Teacher of the Year in 1987, and she had a yearbook dedicated to her as a testament to her hard work spanning many years.
Janis is also known for her complete dedication to her local community, serving for all of the 24 years as a chair of the Colleton County Republican Party and as a delegate to three national Presidential conventions.
She was even recognized with the Dr. James B. Edwards Award for her dedicated and conspicuous service to the South Carolina Republican Party. These achievements are nothing short of exceptional.
She is now the vice chair of the Colleton County Board of Elections and has served as a chair of the Colleton County Library Board of Trustees from 2019 to this day, as well as a longstanding member of the Colleton Library Board of Trustees.
Janis has served as a board member of the Colleton County Board of Voter Registrations and Elections. She served two terms on the County Council and is a former member of the United Way board. As if this wasn't enough, she is also a member and officer of the South Carolina Artisans Center Board and the Colleton Historical Society.
Faith has always been an integral part of her life story. Janis not only graduated from the South Carolina School of Theology, but she is a lifelong member of the Bethel Presbyterian Church in Walterboro, South Carolina, where she has been a choir director for 67 years.
She was also a clerk of sessions at Bethel Presbyterian Church for 25 years, among many other church activities.
Her outstanding life's work has led her to receive numerous awards. Janis received the Walterboro-Colleton Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award; the Walterboro-Colleton Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Achievement in Education Award; the First Star of the Southeast award from Delta Kappa Gamma Southeastern District; the State Achievement Award from the State teachers' society, Alpha Eta State; and the Order of the Rose award from the Zeta chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma.
I would be remiss to omit that she has a husband, a beautiful family, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
This is only an inkling of the life and legacy of Mrs. Janis Blocker. She has deeply impacted her students, her community, and her home State through her vested commitment to building up all those with whom she comes in contact.
Janis Blocker's legacy demonstrates a life truly well lived. I am proud to
Madam Speaker, today, I rise on behalf of the families of Ohio's 13th Congressional District as we mark a momentous occasion: the 16th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.
This law, championed by former President Barack Obama, changed the course of history and brought affordable, accessible healthcare within reach for millions of Americans.
For 16 years, the ACA has been a lifeline. It has shown what is possible when we put people first. Because of ObamaCare, more than 50 million Americans have gained health coverage, including tens of thousands of my own constituents.
In my district, about 32,000 people currently rely on ACA coverage. Ninety percent of them depended on the enhanced premium tax credit to make that coverage even more affordable. Four out of five were able to find plans for $10 or less per month.
The ACA has allowed more than 133 million Americans with preexisting conditions to be protected, and young people can stay on their parents' health insurance until they are 26 years old. Essential benefits, from prescription drugs to preventive care, are guaranteed.
These are not just policies. They are protections that people rely on every single day.
Democrats worked to strengthen the Affordable Care Act by lowering premiums and putting an average of $2,400 back into the pockets of working families. We pushed to extend these tax credits and keep costs down.
I have cosponsored legislation and supported efforts to force a vote on the House floor because my constituents cannot afford delays and the impact of the enhanced tax credits no longer being available. It is why I have continued to prioritize lowering costs that place real pressure on families from healthcare to housing, gas, groceries, and energy prices.
Lowering healthcare costs isn't just one issue. It is central to whether families can afford to live, work, and thrive.
That safety net is now gone. On January 1, the Republicans let the enhanced ACA tax credits expire. Now, families across Ohio's 13th Congressional District are seeing their premiums jump by hundreds of dollars a month or thousands of dollars a year. Americans cannot afford to continue paying the price for Republicans' failed leadership. The consequences are real, and they are immediate.
I constantly hear from my constituents that the cost of living is too high, and it is only getting worse. Our economy is unaffordable for working people, and it is pushing the American Dream out of reach. Eight out of every 10 people enrolled in the ACA marketplace plans are experiencing higher premiums this year. Three out of four are worried about affording emergency care. Nearly 80 percent say that ending these tax credits was the wrong decision. I agree.
Families are having to cut back on groceries to afford prescriptions. Seniors are skipping care. Workers are dropping coverage altogether because they simply cannot keep up with the rising costs and Trump's tax from the war.
Instead of action, we, unfortunately, keep seeing obstruction. This is a part of a broader and very deeply troubling pattern. For 16 years, Republicans have tried to dismantle ObamaCare and oppose our healthcare reforms, with nothing else to offer. They tried to take us back to a time when care was out of reach, when people could be denied coverage for preexisting conditions, and when a single diagnosis can mean financial ruin.
Now, they are closer than ever. Through their big, ugly bill, Republicans cut more than $1 trillion from our healthcare system, gutting marketplaces, driving up premiums, and making it harder for families to get the care that they need, all while prioritizing tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
The American people are feeling the squeeze.
Madam Speaker, the choice before us is clear: We can continue down this path where premiums soar, coverage disappears, and families are left to fend for themselves, or we can act, restore affordability, strengthen the ACA, and stand up for the people who sent us here to serve them.
For the families of Ohio's 13th Congressional District and for millions across this country, the time to act is now. Trust and believe, I will be right there with you.
Madam Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to remember Bryan Rosica of Doylestown, a beloved educator, devoted husband and father, advocate, and truly good man.
For more than 26 years, Bryan served the children and families of Buckingham Elementary School as a teacher and guidance counselor. Early in his tenure, he established the school's character education program and coined a phrase that captured both the spirit of the school and the spirit of his own life: Home of the Mighty Knights.
It was more than a motto. It reflected what Bryan believed at his core: that very few things matter more than kindness and respect, and that character is formed not in grand gestures alone but in the small, daily choices that shape one's life.
Bryan did not simply teach those values. He lived them. After being diagnosed with ALS in 2020, at just 49 years old, Bryan met that battle every day with extraordinary courage, grace, and his signature positive spirit. In the face of a cruel and unforgiving disease, he became not only a source of strength for his beloved wife, Lisa, their three children, and all who loved him, but a powerful advocate for others walking that very same path.
Madam Speaker, as co-chair of the ALS Caucus, I have seen the heartbreak this disease leaves behind and the extraordinary strength of those who face it. Bryan was one of them. Working alongside ALS warriors in our community, we fought to advance the Right to Try Act so that those facing terminal illness would be met not with indifference, but with urgency, compassion, and every single possible avenue of hope.
Bryan's life is a reminder of why that work matters and why it must continue. Bryan brought joy, inspiration, humor, and hope wherever he went. He will be remembered forever as a beloved pillar of our community. His legacy will live on in the family that he loved, the countless lives that he touched, and in the fight we will continue in his honor.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Florence Kawoczka of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a trusted partner, dear friend, and leader who has spent her life helping families in our community build not only homes but lasting foundations.
For more than 14 years as CEO and executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County, Florence has understood that the work of building a home reaches far beyond the lumber, brick, and mortar. It is the work of building homes for people who are facing uncertainty, dignity where there has been struggle, and conditions in which a family can begin to imagine a different future.
Madam Speaker, I have had the honor of working alongside Florence and witnessing those unforgettable moments when a family crosses the threshold of a home of their own, not simply receiving a set of keys, but entering a new chapter of possibility.
Under Florence's leadership, Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County has partnered with more than 50 new homeowners, completed repairs on almost 400 homes, launched the Almost Home financial empowerment program, and pioneered a permanent workforce housing model that ensures that every home sold since 2022 remains permanently affordable. It is a legacy that will continue opening doors for Bucks County families for years to come.
Madam Speaker, as Florence enters retirement this summer, I and our entire community offer our deepest gratitude for the life of service that she has lived, which has, without a doubt, made our community a better place.
Madam Speaker, I congratulate and thank my friend, Florence, and extend best wishes to her as she enters this next chapter of her life.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize a remarkable group of graduates from the Bucks County Opportunity Council's Economic Self-Sufficiency program.
Since 1997, this program has helped families in our community build brighter, more stable futures through education, skill building, and a path to lasting economic independence.
Today, I am proud to recognize this year's graduates: Thais Defalco, Haussine Guengous, Kelsi Klinger, Amanda Leary, Haleigh Oliemuller, Tanya Quiles, Allina Ramirez, Jacklynn Ramsey, Ashley Reukauf, and Katlynn Whiteley.
Madam Speaker, these graduates now join more than 420 families whose lives have been transformed through this program, families who have broken cycles of poverty that, in many cases, had stretched across generations.
That kind of change does not happen by accident. It takes courage, discipline, perseverance, and supportive people willing to invest in their potential. That is exactly what my friends and longtime partners at the Bucks County Opportunity Council have delivered for decades.
As Bucks County's leading anti-poverty organization, BCOC has worked tirelessly to reduce poverty, expand opportunity, and help our neighbors at home.
Madam Speaker, ICE is an untamed agency that continues to overstep the bounds of legality. They have shot and killed American citizens in Minnesota, and almost 50 people have died under their custody. They continue to pound people all over the country.
We saw how they lurked around schools, bringing fear to American families. They body slammed a sitting Member of the U.S. Senate from the State of California. They tear-gassed and threw chemicals at duly elected Members of the House of Representatives in California. They continue to establish that they have no civility and no respect for sensitive locations, for houses of worship, schools, and hospitals. Instead of addressing these issues and protecting constituents, Republicans have withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars from FEMA, TSA, and Coast Guard personnel.
This week, Madam Speaker, we are voting on a dishonest resolution that supposedly shows support for Department of Homeland Security agencies. Republicans are also putting the same DHS funding bill on the floor that has already failed in the Senate numerous times.
This is a disingenuous effort, a failed proposal, and, frankly, a lie. If Congress really supported these workers, then we would be having a serious discussion, a conversation, about how to end the shutdown.
Let's fund TSA. Let's separate TSA from ICE. Let's make sure that the men and women who work at our airports get their salaries. We can do that.
ICE deserves to be dismantled because of their rogue behavior and because of their deadly behavior. A discussion must be had about the future of any agency, and TSA agents deserve to get their salaries.
Passengers across the country that are waiting hours upon hours and missing their flights deserve not to have their lives disrupted. Let's pay the TSA agents, and let's have a full discussion about the wrong ways of this deadly agency called ICE.
Meanwhile, more than 400 TSA officers have already quit since the shutdown on February 14. The FEMA disaster fund is now depleted. DHS employees have been forced to go without pay for nearly 6 weeks.
Airline travelers are experiencing the worst wait times in the history of our Nation, and some are being harassed at the airport by ICE agents.
The President has not helped this disaster by insisting that Republicans reject any and all proposals that come before his desk. Any attempt to pass a bill to resolve this matter the President has automatically rejected.
In fact, he has thrown gasoline on top of this conflict by adding a voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act, to this discussion, something that has nothing to do with the airports or TSA.
In fact, many Americans, including married women, seniors, and others feel that this is a voter suppression effort, trying to throw us decades back from the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act legislation that protected all Americans.
We must hold this effort, dastardly effort, accountable. ICE's mission under Trump was never to keep America safe. It was to keep immigrant communities frightened through fear and intimidation tactics. We must hold this agency accountable, and we begin to do that by dismantling it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate four Boilermakers from Purdue University who competed in the NCAA wrestling championships.
These student-athletes are Joey Blaze, a 165-pound weight class junior; Blake Boarman, a junior in the 133-pound weight class; 174- pound weight class senior Brody Baumann; and senior Ben Vanadia in the 197-pound weight class.
Purdue junior Joey Blaze wrapped up a sixth place finish, becoming the 13th two-time All-American in Purdue wrestling history.
Brody Baumann is a three-time NCAA qualifier and was one of the only three Indiana natives to qualify for the nationals in 2026.
Blake Boarman went to the nationals for the second time, his first time as a Boilermaker.
Competing in his fourth year, Ben Vanadia went to the nationals for the first time.
Congratulations to these outstanding student-athletes. They should be proud of their hard work. Boiler up.
Mr. Speaker, I would like today to congratulate an un-bee- lievable young speller from northwest Indiana.
David Betourne recently won the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee of northwest Indiana after seven rounds and nearly 2 hours of intense competition. David ultimately triumphed by spelling the word biomimicry, proving that every letter truly counts.
With this impressive victory, Mr. Betourne now has the opportunity to represent the Lafayette area at the National Spelling Bee in May in our Nation's Capital. Competing on the national stage takes not only knowledge but focus, preparation, and a vocabulary that would impress the dictionary.
I know David will do an excellent job, and I want him to know and remember that we are all rooting for him. I congratulate him again on this well-deserved and well-worded achievement. He will make Indiana proud.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate two Wabash College students who were honored at the North Coast Athletic Conference track and field.
Quinn Sholar was named the 2026 NCAC Men's Field Athlete of the Year. Brock DeBello earned the NCAC Newcomer of the Year award as a freshman. Quinn Sholar won shot put with a top mark of 16.42 meters. He also made a conferencewide and school record throw of 18.69 meters to win a February 27 weight throw competition.
As a freshman, Brock DeBello is having quite the season. Producing intense executions on the track, he broke a school record at the February 27 400-meter preliminaries with a time of 48.6 seconds. DeBello returned in the finals to secure a fourth-place finish at 47.47 seconds.
Congratulations to these two and to the entire Wabash track and field team for an amazing championship run.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember Emmanuel Damas, who was 56 years old, a father, brother, son, valued community member, and neighbor of the Massachusetts 7th.
Like so many, Emmanuel came to this country seeking safety from the violence, instability, and crisis in Haiti, only to be abducted by ICE and transferred far from his family.
Now, while in custody, Emmanuel pleaded for necessary medical care for a toothache, a basic human right. He was repeatedly denied medical care. That toothache became an infection, an infection that resulted in septic shock, as infection took over Emmanuel's body. I can only imagine the agony he was in. Eventually, Emmanuel fell into a coma, and he died a tragic, preventable, shameful death.
Mr. Speaker, this is not an isolated tragedy, but a pattern of cruelty and neglect that is robbing us of lives. Emmanuel was at least the 10th person to die in ICE custody this year, and his death was entirely preventable.
While there can never be true justice for Emmanuel--in a just world he would still be alive, at home with his family--there must be accountability.
Today, we extend our deepest condolences to his loved ones and community, and together we will keep pushing for the accountability, transparency, and healing they deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of our dedicated TSA workers throughout the country, including in the Massachusetts 7th, who take pride in their essential work and call Boston Logan International Airport their employer. They have gone 40 days without pay for their essential work.
The Trump administration does not care about protecting our workers or serving the traveling public. This is all a ploy for power and pushing an inhumane agenda against our immigrant neighbors.
Let's go back to Project 2025. I am a cofounder of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force here in the House. Project 2025 proposed privatizing TSA screening, shifting airport workers away from the government and its protections and into the hands of private contractors. It called for the deunionizing of TSA workers immediately.
What we see unfolding right now, this is not a contingency plan. It was always the plan. To bring in ICE agents who continue to be paid as if they will be able to step in for these highly trained, dedicated, and still unpaid TSA workers is not a solution.
Mr. Speaker, these are the lives and livelihoods of our neighbors, who are strained by missing paychecks and an inability to put food on the table.
Democrats have put forward multiple proposals to keep key agencies, such as TSA and FEMA, funded while not giving another cent to ICE.
Republicans have refused each and every time. The cruelty is truly the point.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to survivors of sexual violence in my district, across the country, and around the world. As a survivor of sexual violence myself, their stories matter. I am so sorry for what they have been through, the shame they carry that was never theirs to carry.
For too long, survivors have suffered in silence while abusers have carried on without consequence. Last week, our sister survivor Dolores Huerta shared her story publicly for the first time. She revealed that she feared if she came forward there would be no justice or accountability, only the vilification of a workers' movement she had dedicated her life to. Imagine the burden, the pain, the silence she carried.
Women and mothers far too often experience the brutal violence, only to hide their pain and wake up every day carrying on for their children, for their community, for their family, while they are shattered inside.
No survivor should have to suffer in silence. Society tells us our silence will stop the shame and trauma. It does not.
While I will always respect and fight for survivors who choose privacy if it is part of their healing journey, I want survivors to know that I believe them. I believe them if their voice shakes. I believe them if it happened decades ago. I believe them if they shared their story in real time or buried it away for years. I believe them.
Abusers may think they wield the power through violent acts, but let me tell you, anyone who violates another person in this way is small and broken. They should not be feared. They should be named, shamed, and held accountable for survivors everywhere.
Mr. Speaker, good morning. This is a great day for the Larson and Messier family. My granddaughter Soleil Audrey Messier turns 1 year old today. She is the sunshine of our lives and a bundle of joy. We wish her and her mom a happy birth day.
Mr. Speaker, also on her birthday, I come to the floor as a concerned Member of this body and note that we are in a constitutional crisis, a constitutional crisis where this administration is currently ignoring the rule of law.
The President of the United States treats the Constitution as though it is a mere suggestion and that he is above the law. Article I of the Constitution means little to him.
Mr. Speaker, fortunately, there are citizens in this country who care deeply about this. I am honored to have such a citizen who is one of my constituents, the renowned, legendary, and iconic Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader is coming to Washington, D.C., on April 8, along with Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and authority on the Constitution. I will be holding meetings open to staff and open to people here in the Rayburn Building on this campus to talk about governmental accountability.
Ralph Nader has long been a voice throughout his history of public service since he first published ``Unsafe at Any Speed,'' where he went after the automobile industry because of what they were doing to the American people and citizens.
He has been a voice, and I have to read this, Mr. Speaker: An author, lecturer, attorney, political activist, and in 2006 he was cited by The Atlantic as one of the 100 Most Influential Figures in American History.
Time magazine called him ``the U.S.'s toughest customer.'' The New York Times has said of him that Nader stands apart because he is moved beyond social criticism to effective political action--beyond criticism to effective political action.
In 1974, a survey conducted by the U.S. News & World Report rated him the fourth most influential person in the United States. I am proud to have him as a constituent.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Nader along with Bruce Fein will be discussing articles on government and corporate accountability on April 8.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Nader also gets up and says every day that there can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship. That is so true.
We just heard Mr. Comer over here talking before about the need for bringing forward whistleblowers. Yet, on the Committee on Ways and Means, we have been asking for the whistleblowers who have said that every person, including all the viewers here today, Social Security information has been stolen and placed in an insecure cloud--not one whistleblower, but two. Who brought them forward? The Trump Judiciary Department, the judicial branch of the Trump administration.
I listened to Mr. Comer call for whistleblowers coming forward in Minnesota and California. How about right here in the United States Congress, we hold accountable people who are looking at every Member of Congress' 435 districts, all of their data and information.
The public should be outraged. We should be demanding that they come before us as we have. Instead, we voted yesterday, once again, to alleviate resolutions of inquiry, the minority's choice to get answers.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in outrage over the negligence that led to the death of Emmanuel Clifford Damas on March 2, 2026.
Emmanuel Damas was a 56-year-old Haitian asylum seeker who died after reportedly being denied adequate medical care while in ICE custody after complaining about a toothache to the staff at Florence Correctional Center in Arizona.
On March 13, I traveled to the Florence Correctional Center to conduct an oversight visit. I was met by more than a dozen people, including, to my surprise, private counsel for CoreCivic, the company that operates the facility and profits from mass detention.
When I asked basic questions about medical staffing, available care, and what happened to Mr. Damas, there was extreme reluctance, especially from the private lawyer.
Under DHS leadership, and masterminded by Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration's racist mass deportation agenda, ICE has made it nearly impossible for Members of Congress to do our jobs.
Despite following ICE's arbitrary requirements, I was denied the ability to speak with detainees that day. I returned on March 20 and what I learned confirmed the worst. Detainees described Mr. Damas in excruciating pain. They called the medical care ``fatal.'' His face had swollen to the size of a potato. He could no longer speak or walk. Night after night, he begged for help but was ignored. ICE only checked his blood pressure. By the time he was taken to the hospital, he could barely breathe.
Mr. Damas' death was a clear case of medical negligence at the hands of ICE. I have called for a full independent investigation into Mr. Damas' death, including the release of his medical examiner's report, a complete timeline of his care, and all medical records from his time in custody.
My heart goes out to the Damas family. They should never have experienced such a tragedy, perpetrated by the U.S. Government and funded by our taxpayer dollars.
These taxpayer dollars should be going to healthcare, to food assistance, and programs that support communities.
Mr. Speaker, this is not the only case. My constituent, Yari, is currently detained while suffering from leukemia. She has endured severe medical neglect for over a year. What happened to Mr. Damas could very well happen to her. Every time I visit these detention facilities, it brings me to tears. It is sickening. It is traumatizing. It is deeply un-American.
Firstly, I will not stop until there is an independent investigation into the death of Emmanuel Damas. At least 46 people have died in ICE custody under the Trump regime, and it cannot stand.
Second, I will be a ``hell no'' on ICE funding. Republicans are blocking essential workers from being paid just to protect a lawless, violent ICE system, while Democrats are pushing to separate ICE funding from the rest of the Department of Homeland Security.
Third, I urge my colleagues to sponsor my DRAIN ICE Act and the Stop Inhumane Conditions in ICE Detention Act. These bills would rescind ICE's $75 billion slush fund and improve oversight, transparency, and conditions in detention centers.
Fourth, release my constituent, Yari, now so she can receive the care that she needs.
Finally, it should not be that damn difficult to provide humane conditions. ICE and companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group have billions of dollars at their disposal, and yet are choosing to treat human beings in this country like animals.
I will keep fighting until the American people know the truth about what is happening in ICE detention centers.
Mr. Speaker, all of us on this floor are heirs to a political system that generations before us believed could be the way to overcome our differences.
Is it perfect? Anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention for the past 250 years knows the answer to that question, but each generation has believed in our democracy. All of us elected to this body believe we can make people's lives better, not by fighting in the streets, not by fighting, where might makes right, but by coming together, by talking, by arguing, and then by voting.
Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose.
Why is it that the majority party seems to be doing everything in its power to prevent voters from having their say?
I am actually old enough to remember when the Republican Party was the party of States' rights. Now, unfortunately, it is the party of following the lead of their President, overriding State laws to ``nationalize the vote.'' It is the party of an executive order attempting to eliminate voting by mail under the guise of voter fraud, which we know is virtually nonexistent.
The SAVE Act and the MEGA Act make it harder for voters to cast a ballot. It has sadly become a party of deniers who only believe election results when they win.
President Trump's Department of Justice raided an election office in Georgia. He sent FBI agents to seize ballots. Meanwhile, he is attempting to extort Minnesota, California, and others into handing over voter data. His supporters are calling for ICE to surround the polls in November. We remember he sent an angry mob into this citadel of democracy to hang his Vice President and overturn the results of an election he lost in order to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. History will never forget.
The American people always have the last word on who has power in this country. If there is one thing we know how to do in this country is run elections. We cast our ballots in school gyms, in churches, in community rooms, and more commonly now at the kitchen table. Even President Trump votes by mail.
Ours is a decentralized system by design. The Framers of the Constitution, flawed as they were, knew that we would one day be faced with this moment: A strongman and his followers ready to throw it all away to avoid another free and fair election, but we won't let them.
My Republican colleagues, many of whom I genuinely like and respect, know better. Privately, I believe they are deeply ashamed by what is happening, and without a doubt, the American people are increasingly disgusted with what they are seeing and experiencing.
They know America is less affordable than it was even just a year ago. Support for the President's callous immigration policies has collapsed. The images of Federal agents executing Americans in the streets have been horrific.
All the while, the President is more obsessed with personal grievances, renaming buildings, starting wars, and exacting revenge on his opponents than making people's lives better.
He and his party know this is not a winning political message, so they are resorting to changing the rules to cling to power, but the American people know better.
All of us have a duty to protect elections. All of us must let the will of the people prevail. This Congress must seat the winners of the election regardless of party.
I hope there are some colleagues on the other side of the aisle who can still muster the courage to do the same because our 250-year-old experiment in democracy depends on it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded us again to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to recognize Frank W. Harris III, a
In each of these wars, Colonel Harris stood in defense of freedoms at moments when it was tested most. Colonel Harris has demonstrated time and again what it means to put Nation before self.
In doing so, he has embodied the highest ideals of the Marine Corps: honor, courage, and commitment.
Having lived through a century of American history, Colonel Harris represents more than remarkable longevity. He represents resilience. To witness 101 years and to have spent so many of them in service to others is itself extraordinary. His life tells the story of perseverance through hardship, faith through uncertainty, and leadership through change.
Mr. Speaker, I am truly honored to have him as my constituent. From this Army colonel: Oorah and Semper Fidelis.
Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to recognize Patrice Summers on her 26 years of exceptional service to Prince William County.
Inspired by her mother's civic engagement, Patrice committed herself to public service from a young age. For over two decades, she served as an elections officer and then chief elections officer right here in Prince William County.
Patrice is also actively involved in the Virginia 512 organizing committee.
Beyond her public sector and union work, Patrice is a devoted caregiver to two of her family members. Her dedication to uplifting her neighbors, her family, and giving back to her community embodies a lifetime of selflessness.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to congratulate her on this well-earned recognition and honor her as this week's Constituent of the Week. Congratulations, and I thank her for all that she does.
Mr. Speaker, today, I honor my Constituent of the Week, Pranav Vedula, of Stafford County, Virginia, for winning the Seventh Congressional District's App Challenge.
The Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide competition that encourages students to explore STEM, coding and computer science by creating original software applications.
Pranav, a senior at Colonial Forge High School, did exactly that by developing an innovative app called ReCheck. ReCheck is a productivity app designed to assist individuals experiencing memory loss.
It allows people living with dementia to build customized to-do lists that help them maintain independence and confidence in their daily lives.
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Pranav for using his skills to bring awareness to this critical issue and for his clear commitment to improving people's quality of life. I wish him continued success in his future academic and professional pursuits.
Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to congratulate my constituent of the week, Curry Roberts, on his retirement from serving as the president of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance at the University of Mary Washington.
A Fredericksburg-area business leader, Mr. Roberts has dedicated his career to our community.
Mr. Roberts has attracted over 6,000 new jobs to the region, laying groundwork for key opportunities for industry to work with local government.
In addition to work on the FRA, Mr. Roberts also had a 35-year career in leadership on various nonprofit, public sector, and private-sector jobs.
Mr. Roberts has always had the back of our communities, and I am committed to paying this forward in Congress.
I congratulate him on his retirement, and I wish him well on his next chapter.
Mr. Speaker, it is my great honor to recognize Richard E. Toye, Sr., a 98-year-old World War II veteran, for his service to our country.
Mr. Toye was drafted in 1944 and stationed in Okinawa as the member of the Quartermaster Corps.
After being discharged from Active Duty, he reenlisted and served in the Navy Reserves until 1950.
Mr. Toye has been a steady voice for positive change in Spotsylvania County. He volunteered with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, United Way, and the Spotsylvania County Democratic Committee.
As a 25-year Army veteran and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I know the depth of sacrifice that his service to our country demands.
That is why this week I am proud to recognize Mr. Toye as a constituent of the week. I thank him for his service to our Nation and for his continued work in our community. I will always work to deliver for veterans like him.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize two outstanding
Officer Rainone, recently named the department's 2025 Officer of the Year, has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to public safety.
Over the last year, she made 98 arrests, conducted more than 2,500 traffic stops, and handled 81 crashes, all while serving as lead investigator on serious cases.
Just as importantly, she earned the respect of her community through her professionalism, fairness, and dignity.
It is especially fitting that we recognize Officer Rainone and the example she sets forth in law enforcement this month as it is Women's History Month.
I also rise to Recognize Detective Brandon Peebles as he retires after 24 years of dedicated service.
Throughout his career, he played a key role in major investigations, locating missing individuals, and dismantling large-scale drug operations.
Detective Peebles' legacy is not only in the cases he solved, but in the community that he made safer, helped build, and the trust he earned along the way.
Mr. Speaker, I thank both Officer Rainone and Detective Peebles for their unwavering commitment to protecting the people of Greenville and keeping us safe.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize National Kidney Month and to speak plainly about it and what it means for my constituents in the Virgin Islands.
Chronic kidney disease affects more than one in seven American adults. When it progresses to end-stage renal disease, Black Americans bear four times the burden of other Americans.
The Virgin Islands already carries elevated rates of diabetes and hypertension, the primary drivers of kidney failure. Also, there is a genetic dimension that too few people know about: APOL1-mediated kidney disease. AMKD is caused by gene variants found almost exclusively in people of West African descent.
I was proud to introduce a resolution and host a roundtable, along with my fellow Georgetown alum, Alonzo Mourning, and the American Kidney Fund to raise awareness of AMKD.
I urge my colleagues to recognize that for thousands of Virgin Islanders and millions of Americans most vulnerable to these diseases, Medicaid and Medicare are lifelines. Any efforts to cut these programs is a direct attack on the most vulnerable among us.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Lee Polikov, the longtime county attorney for Sarpy County, Nebraska.
Lee is a graduate of Omaha Westside High School. He later earned his bachelor's and J.D. from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Along the way, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
He was eventually appointed to become the Sarpy County Attorney, after serving as a deputy in the sheriff's office. Through the years, he has managed a team of about 100 staff as he has worked to maintain the integrity of the county attorney's office and keep people safe.
This year, Lee decided not to run for reelection.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Lee for his work leading the Sarpy County Attorney's Office and for serving the people of Sarpy County through the years.
Best wishes on his retirement, and I am sure tonight, like we all are, he will enjoy watching the Big Red defeat the Hawkeyes in the Sweet 16.
Mr. Speaker, Vance Charter School won its first-ever North Carolina High School Athletic Association 1A boys' basketball State championship defeating Thomas Jefferson 79-54.
Senior Gary Wilkins led the victory with the double-double, 23 points and 14 rebounds.
The Knights secured the title with an incredible second-half performance.
Hats off to Coach Downey, the Conference Coach of the Year, to his entire coaching staff, the team, fans, and community for making school history.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor athletic excellence in Virginia's Fifth Congressional District.
The University of Virginia women's swimming and diving team captured their seventh consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Championship and their 22nd conference title overall.
The team of 29 women won 11 titles, including seven individual and four relay events.
Junior Claire Curzan claimed two individual events and contributed to three relay wins, earning her the honor of being named the championship's Most Valuable Swimmer.
This team continues to exemplify discipline, teamwork, and the pursuit of excellence.
We congratulation the athletes, coaches, and staff of the University of Virginia's women's swimming and diving team.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of the House the potential sale of the Middleburg Training Center to the Army.
The training center has been a bedrock of the town's local economy since its establishment in 1956. It is one of the leading horse training facilities in the country and a major driver of the local economy. There is really not a horse training facility, public or private, nearby.
To be clear, we welcome the Army and the Old Guard Caisson Detachment in Loudoun, but we need to give the community a voice in this process and consider alternative sites that won't disrupt the local economy.
If this sale goes through, thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars that benefit the local economy may be lost.
I ask that we slow this process down and consider an alternative site within the region that can appropriately accommodate the Caisson horses and provide a turnkey solution for the Army's needs.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1131, I call up the bill (H. Res. 1128) expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1131, the amendments to the resolution and the preamble printed in House Report 119-570 are adopted, and the resolution as amended, is considered read.
The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution, as amended, shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security or their respective designees.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Mackenzie) and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Mackenzie).
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H. Res. 1128.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1128, Expressing the Support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security.
As we meet today, tens of thousands of Federal workers serving on the front lines of our national security are going unpaid. For over 40 days, the men and women we count on to protect passengers, secure our critical infrastructure, and step up during disasters have gone unpaid.
For the third time in 6 months, politics is getting in the way of critical American workers, the pay that they have earned. The impact of these political games isn't theoretical. It is causing real-world impacts each and every day.
Over 50,000 Federal employees are going without paychecks just at TSA alone. Hundreds of employees have quit. Call-out rates are in the double digits, and those who are able to go to work are stuck managing some of the longest lines that we have seen at U.S. airports.
All of this is happening at a time when our Nation is preparing to host major events while experiencing heightened national security risks.
We have to do better.
Today, this House will have an opportunity to vote on my resolution, H. Res. 1128, affirming the importance of DHS, the necessity of funding its agencies and employees, the risks of defunding our security apparatus, and our gratitude to the men and women who are working every day to protect this Nation.
The House has already passed the appropriations bill to fully fund DHS twice, both times with bipartisan support.
Now, it is time for us to speak with one voice putting aside politics to thank the members of the Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA, and more, who are continuing to do their jobs and keep us safe, despite many now going nearly a month and a half without a paycheck.
Saying ``yes'' to funding does not mean saying ``no'' to reform. There are concerns that need to be addressed with respect to certain ICE and CBP operations, and when there are opportunities for positive reform we should work together to achieve it.
That is why the DHS funding bill passed twice by this House already features significant new measures aimed at reducing tensions and improving transparency, including new funding for body cameras, de- escalation training, and the DHS Office of Inspector General.
Despite this, in the face of grave terror threats against our Nation, some are choosing to politicize our national security and hold paychecks hostage until all of their demands are met.
Let me be clear. Conversations about commonsense reforms at DHS operations are underway. They were underway before this shutdown. They continue to go on, and we will not stop until we get the reforms that the American people are looking for.
I look forward to continuing to engage on this issue and working together to achieve a system of immigration enforcement that meets the needs and standards of the American people.
Defunding our security apparatus, robbing workers of their paychecks, and creating chaos at our airports across this country does not bring us any closer to achieving those goals. It is time to put the politics aside and get serious about our national security.
In the meantime, the American people are waiting. Throughout this shutdown, we have seen powerful examples of our communities stepping in to provide for neighbors and those who are impacted. In my district in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, we have seen residents coming forward to donate everything, like food and diapers, to our dedicated TSA agents at our local airport. They are continuing to do their jobs every single day, even as the bills pile up and savings are stretched thin.
To the TSA staff at the ABE airport and to all those impacted workers in my district and throughout the country who are continuing to work, I say: Thank you. I also thank all of those who stepped up to provide support for them and their families.
Here is the reality: We shouldn't have to count on local communities to provide for our Federal workers. That is the job of our elected Representatives. That is why I and so many in this Chamber have voted to provide full funding for DHS.
Tens of thousands of Federal workers are doing their jobs. We, in a bipartisan fashion, have already done that here in the House of Representatives, but we need bipartisan buy-in from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to make it a reality. We need bipartisan support in the Senate to get Democrats to go along with this full funding of DHS to make sure that this makes its way to the President's desk and gets signed into law.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution thanking these workers and recognizing the critical nature of the work that they do to protect our communities and our country, and calling for the Department of Homeland Security to receive full funding--full funding-- for its needs to keep our community safe.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, after 40 days of this Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, this symbolic resolution is all that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have.
Let's be clear: We are here today because Republicans who control the White House, the Senate, and this House have failed to govern. Their failure, and their failure alone, has produced this shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
Instead of sitting down to negotiate a serious path forward, they have brought us this: a nonbinding resolution that does nothing to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, nothing to pay its workforce, and nothing to make our country safer.
A resolution is not a paycheck. A resolution is not accountability. A resolution is not a substitute for governing. Transportation security officers are working without a paycheck right now. The men and women of FEMA, CISA, and across DHS are showing up every day, not knowing when they will be paid. They do not need our words; they need a check. They need this shutdown to end.
Let me be clear about where Democrats stand. Democrats have been fighting for the TSA workforce and the broader DHS mission long before Republicans discovered this week that DHS is more than ICE and CBP.
I, personally, have worked for more than one decade to give TSA personnel the same employment protection as other Federal workers. When TSA and the American Federation of Government Employees reached a collective bargaining agreement 2 years ago, I was proud to celebrate that milestone with them.
House Republicans voted against those very protections, and now, the Trump administration is moving to strip TSOs of their collective bargaining rights. This is a record.
This is how we got here: Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, and Corey Lewandowski have tried to turn DHS into a national police force, a weapon for their political agenda, while systematically neglecting the critical missions of TSA, FEMA, CISA, and every other component outside of ICE and CBP. House Republicans watched it happen and failed to say a word, and Americans are less safe for it.
We are here because Americans saw their fellow citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, gunned down by masked DHS agents in broad daylight for exercising their First Amendment rights. The American people have rightly demanded change.
We are here because thousands of employees have already left DHS as a result of Republican mismanagement and intimidation, leaving dangerous staffing gaps in some of the most technically demanding positions in the Federal Government.
H. Res. 1128 does not mention any of that. It does not mention that, for over 1 year, the Trump administration has withheld or delayed homeland security grants to State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments. Even before this shutdown, disaster survivors have had to wait for relief, and first responders have lacked the resources they need to protect their communities. Words on paper will not fix that. Only real action will.
The resolution does not mention that DHS and FEMA continue to withhold counterterrorism funding for nonprofits, synagogues, churches, and mosques, the very institutions that have been targeted by terrorist attacks on American soil.
A resolution is not protection. Funding is protection.
The resolution does not mention that the administration has politicized DHS' cybersecurity mission, leaving our critical infrastructure and Federal networks more vulnerable than they should be. This resolution will not secure a single network. Only leadership and funding will do that.
Let us tell the whole story here: The Trump administration caused this shutdown. The Trump administration has disparaged and diminished the DHS workforce since the first day it took office. The Trump administration has made the American people less safe in the process.
House Democrats have been at the negotiating table from the very beginning. We want DHS funded and reopened. We have said so consistently, and if House Republicans were sincere about ending the shutdown their own failures created, then they would work with us, fund the full mission of DHS, and answer the public's legitimate demand for accountability and reform of ICE and CBP.
Some Republicans are beginning to see the light, but who remains standing in the way? Donald Trump.
Don't just take my word for it. Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told FOX News on Monday night that when Senate Republican Leader Thune informed the President that his Conference was prepared to accept the Democratic compromise position, the President said: No deals with the Democrats.
It gets worse. The President is now attaching new conditions to ending the shutdown, including his so-called SAVE Act. That makes no sense. It has nothing to do with funding the DHS workforce. Yet instead of showing any leadership, House Republicans are backing the President's order to deploy untrained ICE officers into airports-- contrary to their mission and contrary to common sense--apparently, to intimidate travelers.
In fact, we have learned that in airports where ICE has been deployed, waiting times at TSA screening checkpoints have actually gone up. While all of that is happening, we are here debating a nonbinding resolution that will not pay a single TSO, will not reopen a single office, and will not make a single American safer.
The American people deserve better than this Republican failure theater. The DHS workforce deserves better. I urge my colleagues to stop the performance and start governing--not a resolution, but action. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, what we just heard was not, in fact, the whole story. The previous speaker mentioned that he wanted to tell the whole story. Well, I think it is important that we get all the facts on the record.
What the gentleman left out was that he, himself, voted twice against funding for DHS. This resolution is not in lieu of the opportunity to vote for funding. We are going to give you another opportunity, but you are going to vote ``no'' again. That is the whole story.
The Democrats in this House want to stand in the way of keeping America safe. The Democrats in the Senate want to change the rules of the game. What they choose to do is they go out there and demand all kinds of unrealistic conditions that would actually hamstring DHS, keep our country less safe, and are totally unworkable in practice.
We, as Republicans, have offered full funding. We have offered partial funding with reforms. We have said here is the way that we can make this system not only better but keep America safe while making these reasonable commonsense reforms.
What did they do? They dismissed them out of hand.
He said Donald Trump, our President, our duly elected President, has shot down these opposition proposals. That is not the case. The Senate, the Congress are the ones that are going to advance these pieces of legislation to the President's desk.
The Senate has put forward those proposals to Democratic colleagues, and what did they do? They are the ones who rejected the latest offer. We have extended the olive branch, we have extended our hand and said: Come together, work with us, fully fund the Department of Homeland Security.
They will never fund ICE because of their radical left. They are beholden to the fringe in their party that will do everything to protect and promote illegal immigrants over the interests of American citizens. However, it should be noted that ICE actually does some very critical work in our local community.
There is Homeland Security Investigations, HSI. What does that do as a part of ICE? They go out and protect people against human trafficking, drug trafficking, drug smuggling. That is what you are opposed to? It is ludicrous.
Mr. Speaker, we have to fully fund ICE. The previous gentleman said that this resolution doesn't do enough. I agree. I agree. The resolution is a way to thank and recognize DHS and all of its employees for the great work they do to keep us safe. We should agree on that.
We should also agree on getting funding to fully fund the operations of DHS. You voted against it twice. You are going to vote against it again, and you are going to leave the American people less safe. That is the full story.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1128, Expressing the Support of the House of Representatives For the Department of Homeland Security.
For 41 days, the Department of Homeland Security has been operating without the necessary funding to carry out its core mission. Tens of thousands of dedicated employees across the country are working without pay while our national security sits at an elevated threat level.
The men and women of the 22 Federal agencies whose funding is tied to DHS continue to show up every day, standing watch over our borders, protecting our transportation systems, and safeguarding the American people despite missing multiple paychecks. Their commitment to our Nation is unwavering, and we owe them more than our gratitude. We owe them action. We owe them a paycheck for their service.
Congress must fund DHS and bring this shutdown to an end so that our first responders and our Federal law enforcement officials can refocus on the very real public threats we face.
The American people deserve and the American people demand the Democrats end this political theater and that Democrats step up and join Republicans in fully funding the Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to help my colleague out on the other side. Everybody in this country knows that Donald Trump is running everything. Nothing happens in Washington without Donald Trump's approval. Legislation is not passed unless he agrees with it. If they were strong enough, they would admit that.
Republicans run the executive branch. They run both bodies of the legislative branch, but now you blame Democrats on your inability to get things done.
Let me help you out.
This resolution does not pay one TSO, FEMA, or CISA employee. It doesn't pay a mortgage. It doesn't pay a car note. It doesn't buy groceries. Quit pretending like you are doing something to help the people.
Before this debate is over, I am going to give you a chance to put your mouth where it ought to be on this resolution.
But for this point, HSI's mission is not to walk in airports and assist ICE. That is not why they were created. They are an investigatory body. They ought to be out here in communities finding bad people. You have changed their mission. You--your President--has changed their mission, so they are now doing things for which they were not trained to do.
For the record, our loyal and faithful TSOs who you say you love, their training is from 4 to 6 months to make sure that individuals who get on planes don't have anything in their possession that would bring it down. Our ICE agents are trained for 47 days. Now, can you tell me how someone who is trained for 47 days is going to help somebody do a job where the training is almost double what is required?
The technology that they do in the screening, no ICE agent performs that. No TSO walks up and down an airport trying to keep crowds in line. That is not their mission, nor should they be harming people in communities like we have seen with our own eyes.
Let's get back to basics. If you really want to help our loyal TSOs, as you say, then let's pay them. Put a resolution on the floor that says you want to pay them right now, but you are afraid to do it because the White House is calling the shots.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. I would remind speakers on both sides of this argument that they please understand they are to direct their comments to the Chair under House rules.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I appreciate the spirited debate, but it is important when you are debating somebody to call out their half-truths and their deflections. The half-truth that this gentleman speaks of is that Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, and so that gives us total ability to pass whatever we want. That is not the case.
We know that in the Senate you need 60 votes to get something passed in policy, so you do need bipartisan support to actually get something passed into law and help the American people.
We are asking, Mr. Speaker, for our Democrat colleagues to come along and join us in fully funding the operations of DHS.
Now, the deflection comes when he tells you all about the important and critical training and the ways that DHS operates.
We are talking not only in this resolution but also in an appropriations bill that is going to follow about fully funding the operations of ICE.
The gentleman tries to obfuscate, tries to change the conversation. The bottom line is that that funding for DHS was voted on twice in this House already. We voted for it in a bipartisan fashion, and we are going to give all Members of this body the ability to vote on it for a third time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Van Epps).
Mr. VAN EPPS. Mr. Speaker, Democrats' government shutdown has now lasted over 40 days, and it will have lasting consequences.
This goes far beyond long airport lines.
Only a fraction of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's
Modern conflicts aren't limited to air, sea, and land. Adversaries now target critical infrastructure, including energy grids, financial systems, transportation networks, government systems, and healthcare services.
Democrats say they want a deal. Well, let's look at their deals.
Under the Biden administration, officials apprehended a Venezuelan illegal alien at the border and still released him into the country. Now, 3 years later that man killed an innocent 18-year-old American, Sheridan Gorman.
This is the consequence of Biden's failed policy: When the Democrats are in control, they prioritize criminals over citizens.
Now the damage extends beyond our streets. The shutdown is setting back American shipbuilding and weakening our maritime readiness. The Coast Guard can't pay shipyards to maintain its fleet, and contractors are reconsidering whether it is even worth doing business with the Federal Government.
Think about that. It is now too risky to work with the United States Coast Guard. That is the direct result of Democrats using DHS as leverage. They put Americans at risk to advance a political agenda. As we approach the 25th anniversary of September 11, we should be strengthening Homeland Security. Instead, Democrats are weakening it.
After three shutdowns in a single fiscal year, their priorities are clear: They care more about politics than protecting the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time-- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Excuse me. You would yield yourself such time as you choose. The gentleman is recognized.
Mr. Speaker, for the record, the CISA employees, over 1,000, were discharged by the DOGE committee before the shutdown occurred. We want to make sure the Record reflects that, so this shutdown does not comport with what was said by the speaker.
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans actually have the ability to stop this performance art and stop the shutdown of their own making today. We should send the compromised bill to reopen DHS to the Senate right now. Let us pay our TSA, FEMA, and CISA personnel, who will continue to reform ICE and CBP as the American people demand.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committees on Appropriations and Budget be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 7481, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2026, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. I would advise the gentleman that the majority manager, in this case the gentleman from Pennsylvania, would need to yield for that purpose, and if he does not choose to yield for that purpose, then the gentleman would be recognized for his continuation.
House Republicans have an hour to debate a nonbinding symbolic resolution but not even a few seconds to do the job that would actually pay our DHS workers. This is the Republican DHS shutdown.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is so critically important that we fund and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security. The best way to do that is in a bipartisan fashion. That is why this House of Representatives has already voted twice with bipartisan support to advance that legislation over to the Senate.
The previous speaker, his wishful thinking, his off-the-wall Rube Goldberg proposal, saying that Republicans in the House are somehow opposing his scheme, it is just simply unrealistic. The American people don't buy it because there is not something before us that has the bipartisan support of over 218 votes to pass. That is not what he is proposing. What we have is the pragmatic, commonsense solution that has the bipartisan support to pass twice. Join us in that effort. Join us, please. Please. I don't understand, Mr. Speaker--
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend. The gentleman will direct his remarks to the Chair. The gentleman needs to be in line with House rules. The gentleman is recognized.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate all this discussion, again. We have to do what is best for the American people. We already have something that is advanced. We are going to continue that conversation. In addition to that, we can continue to thank and recognize all of our workers at DHS.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Evans).
Mr. Speaker, I am a proud cosponsor of this resolution to support full funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Not many policy debates in this Chamber are simple, but this one is. The Department of Homeland Security needs funding now.
In just 6 months, Mr. Speaker, Democrats have shut down our government twice, and now they claim that shutting down DHS makes us safer.
As someone who spent 12 years in the Army and another 10 years as a police officer, I know this is the furthest from the truth you can be. In fact, I left law enforcement and serve now in Congress because for years Democrats pushed to defund the police. They championed defunding the police knowing the consequences that it has on public safety. Today, Mr. Speaker, that same pattern continues this time by defunding the Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. Speaker, when someone shows you who they are, believe them. House Republicans have passed Homeland Security appropriations funding twice: H.R. 7147 and H.R. 7747. Twice this funding was rejected by House Democrats and repeatedly blocked by Senate Democrats. Facts matter.
Now, because the department is unfunded, FEMA's local pre-disaster planning is halted right as Colorado enters wildfire season. CISA, which protects Americans from cyberattacks, is impaired. The Coast Guard, essential in combating drug trafficking that killed 400,000 Americans under the open-border policies of my colleagues across the aisle, is weakened.
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which provides the training to our Federal agents, is impaired. If that is not bad enough, twice Democrats have voted against funding the Department of Homeland Security and preventing our TSA officers from receiving a paycheck.
Mr. Speaker, Democrats need to stop their reckless practice of holding paychecks hostage for their political agenda. We need to fund the department.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. You would like to recognize the distinguished gentleman from Maryland? The distinguished gentleman from Maryland is now recognized.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman to whom I was addressing my question apparently doesn't want to yield and left the floor at the advice, probably, of somebody else.
You want to speak the truth? Even if you are new--and I have been here a little longer--there is a way to fund the TSA, to fund Secret Service, and it
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will yield. The gentleman will confine his remarks to the Chair. These are House rules, and the gentleman needs to subscribe to those.
Mr. Speaker, the argument being made on the other side is not accurate. I will give them the benefit of the doubt because, perhaps, they don't know it is not accurate.
We have over 110 people who are prepared to vote for all of the funding in DHS other than both of the components who recently have snatched people off the streets of America, wearing hoods and no badges and putting them into unmarked cars. Yes, we are not for that.
The gentleman said he was--that I asked to yield--a law enforcement officer. I was going to ask him whether he ever wore a mask during the course of his duties, not a gas mask, a mask to keep him secret. I was going to ask him whether he ever went into a home without a warrant, inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. Yes, we want to defend the Constitution of the United States.
By the way, unless you missed it, when we passed the appropriation bills that have funded most of the government, we did so, and we took DHS out and told you we are not for that. What you continue to do is to bring to this floor something we have told you we are not for.
Mr. Speaker, if the Speaker of the House brought that bill to the floor to fund all of DHS' components, except those two agencies, it would pass overwhelmingly today, within this hour. I guarantee it as a former majority leader. Assuming that all of you say, oh, we want to fund TSA, we want to fund Secret Service, we want to fund Coast Guard-- assuming that you would follow your rhetoric, it could be done like that. I say that as a majority leader of this House for 8 years, and I know of what I speak.
Mr. Speaker, they talk about shutdowns. Under Ronald Reagan, there were eight shutdowns. They lasted for an average, Mr. Speaker, of 1.3 days. Nine of those were weekend days. Why? Because Ronald Reagan and we Democrats who controlled the House were prepared to go to the table and make an agreement. If we couldn't make an agreement, we nevertheless funded the government.
This President has said numerous times, Mr. Speaker, I would welcome a shutdown of the government, all of it.
Those of you who come to the floor and try to, like Pontius Pilate, wash responsibility away and blame it on Democrats because, yes, there are things on which we very strongly disagree, and that is the violation of the Constitution, the violation of statutes--and I would have asked my law enforcement friend--the violation of norms followed by every police department in America.
I am tired of hearing totally inaccurate information about some fraud bill. That is not the word that was used, Mr. Speaker, but that was implied. The bill that we want is no fraud. The bill we want would fund TSA, Secret Service, Coast Guard, CISA, and all other agencies in DHS tomorrow.
What is the majority bringing to the floor, Mr. Speaker? They are bringing a bill to the floor that has failed three times.
Why? The majority has done that because Democrats don't want warrantless searches. Democrats don't want people's doors being broken down without probable cause. Democrats don't want people apprehended by masked people. I grew up in an era when I was a young man where there were a lot of people wearing masks going around assaulting people. We didn't call them police.
Try to be honest with the American people. Mr. Speaker, we owe them that. Tell them, look, we are afraid that if we fund all of these components of which we all talk and support, if we do that, then we won't make as good a deal on DHS.
We won't keep them immune from following the Constitution. We won't keep them immune from following the laws of their State. We won't keep them immune from the norms that police follow.
Don't come to this floor and be dishonest and say Democrats are shutting down the government. We are not.
Democrats sure do want to raise the question and have a debate about whether we follow the Constitution in terms of law enforcement in this country.
Do you know why you have warrants? There are warrants because King George could go into any house at any time, every time that he wanted to, and the Founding Fathers thought that was wrong.
I see my chairman is standing, so he may want to speak himself and not have me take all the time.
I would plead with my Republican friends, Mr. Speaker, be honest. Republicans are holding off that bill because they think tactically it will undermine what ICE is doing, undermining that two, three, four-- five people were killed by officers not following the law. Don't come here pretending that Democrats somehow are shutting down the government.
By the way, when Joe Biden was President of the United States, do you know how many shutdowns there were? Mr. Speaker, the answer to that is zero.
Mr. Speaker, let's fund the important services that the American people deserve. Let's have the Speaker put the bill on the floor and have 10 Republicans sign the discharge petition. We will put it on the floor, and we will pass it overwhelmingly, I predict.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for giving me some time to try to correct the record that is being, unfortunately, made poorly on this floor.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleague who just spoke can stick around to hear this. It is important that we are on the same page.
My esteemed colleague was here years ago during 9/11. The reason why we established the Department of Homeland Security, as the gentleman knows, is to break down silos. What Democrats are advocating for is building up walls, siloing off parts of our Department of Homeland Security, and leaving our country less safe.
That was the whole point of having a unified Department of Homeland Security. The previous speaker knows that history, Mr. Speaker. The gentleman knows that full well. Everybody who was here after 9/11 knows that full well.
To go back on that and try to break down these silos and say that we want to fund everything, but we want to defund Federal law enforcement, that is an affront to our national security. That is an affront to the American people.
Mr. Speaker, what I am saying is that we need to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security. We have that resolution on the floor. We are going to offer it up again. We are going to give them a third opportunity, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful that my colleague stuck around to hear that it is a disastrous idea to build silos in the Department of Homeland Security and to defund Federal law enforcement. That is absolutely accurate,
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Fong).
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 1128, Expressing the Support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security.
As lawmakers, we have a fundamental obligation to govern responsibly and to protect our communities from emerging threats, both foreign and domestic.
Twice on this very House floor, we passed a bipartisan funding package for the Department of Homeland Security. However, Senate Democrats have chosen to walk away from that bipartisan, bicameral deal, threatening operations that ensure the safety and security of American communities from our transportation systems to our cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and emergency response capabilities.
Today marks 41 days since Democrats made the reckless decision to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. A prolonged government shutdown undermines our national security, creates financial hardship for Homeland Security workers and their families, and leaves critical emergency response and preparedness efforts at risk.
Yet again, dedicated public servants, like TSA security officers, Coast Guard civilian personnel, FEMA personnel, and cybersecurity teams, are working without the certainty of their next paycheck, while others have been furloughed. That is why my colleagues and I on this side of the aisle have consistently voted to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hear directly from frontline security agencies about the negative impact that this shutdown has had on their missions and workforce. As TSA's Deputy Administrator shared: ``What I am hearing from our workforce is that what is happening to them is nothing short of cruel.''
Mr. Speaker, it is dangerous for Democrats to keep weakening our national security posture for their own political gain, especially amid a heightened threat environment. Every day this shutdown continues, our Nation's security is put at greater risk, and the men and women who protect us are further sidelined.
The 260,000 Americans employed by DHS should be focused on their no- fail mission to keep our country safe, not worrying about how they will pay their bills, rent, and groceries, or find another job in order to do so. Every agency tasked with America's homeland security needs to be operating at full strength right now.
Today, I reaffirm my commitment to public safety and those who are sworn to uphold it. I urge my colleagues across the aisle to come to their senses, immediately reopen the Department of Homeland Security, and end the shutdown immediately.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman on the other side asked me to come back. I came back. He made a comment. I wanted to correct him. He would not yield for that purpose.
Mr. Speaker, 86 percent of ICE is being funded. There are no silos being undermined, except by not funding all the other agencies that we are prepared to support--no silos.
Mr. Speaker, 85 percent of CBP is funded. You funded it, Mr. Speaker, in reconciliation at three times, essentially, what the annual appropriation was for those two agencies.
There ought not to be, again, this Pontius Pilate hand-wringing that somehow we have shut down those two agencies. We have not. You provided for that, Mr. Speaker, and they are funded.
The question is: Do you still want to use as a political tactic shutting down all the other agencies?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate the spirited debate with my colleagues, especially the past speaker. We appreciate his experience. He has been a Member of this body since even before I was born. I am 43 years old now. He has been a Member of this Chamber for longer than that. He was elected in 1981, and we appreciate his experience and knowledge that he brings to this debate. Yet, when somebody is wrong, regardless of their age or experience, it is our obligation to recognize that and call that out.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Fine).
Mr. Speaker, I actually have an anecdote, as well.
Mr. Speaker, 35 years ago, when the previous speaker from the Democratic side was here as a Member of Congress, I was a 16-year-old page wandering around the floor in a blue blazer and a khaki pair of pants. It is an interesting moment for me because what he said is let's fund the important services that the American people deserve.
Let's talk about important services that they don't think they deserve.
Over the last 4 years, 20 million illegal immigrants have come into this country, and those illegal immigrants have killed 1,400 Americans.
Let me give you just a few of their names: Kate Steinle, who was 32 years old, in California; Laken Riley, who was 22 years old, in Athens, Georgia; Rachel Morin, who was 37 years old, in Bel Air, Maryland; Jocelyn Nungaray, who was 12 years old, in Houston, Texas; and Lizbeth Medina, who was 16 years old, also in Texas. Yet, those apparently aren't services that need to be funded.
Since the conflict in Iran began, there have been four terrorist attacks in four separate States by four unaffiliated groups. They were working independently. Those are apparently not important services that the American people need to know. Let's say their names: Ryder Harrington, 19; Savitha Shan, 21; Jorge Pederson, 30; and Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah, in Virginia. Those who are apparently stopping that are not important services that the American people deserve.
While I stood here waiting to speak, the government announced that they have arrested two Chinese people in the State of Florida for attempting to put an IED outside of a military base.
We are told that funding 86 percent of the Department of Homeland Security is funding all of the Department of Homeland Security. That is not true.
Also, as I stood here, I read one other thing. In New York City, a four-time deported Honduran illegal alien was charged with murder for shoving an 83-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran onto the subway tracks in New York City. Apparently, protecting him is not an important service that the American people deserve.
What I have learned in this debate is that Democrats care about three things: Muslim terrorists, Somali pirates, and illegal immigrants.
What is clear to me: If we want to fund the Department of Homeland Security and get them on board, there is one simple solution. Have all of those TSA agents declare that they are illegal immigrants, because then they will rush to get the money over to them to get them funded.
It is not right to keep the government closed. If people want changes in policy, let's have those debates.
The same people who demand these folks not be masked spent years demanding the rest of us get arrested if we weren't willing to wear them. The hypocrisy is stunning, and the American people are not being served.
Congress needs the job to get done. We need to get the whole thing funded, and I support the resolution fully.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this shutdown is a result of Republican's failure to govern. Democrats have been at the negotiating table for weeks, and the American people are demanding accountability and reform for ICE and CBP.
We cannot forget that two American citizens got killed by masked Federal agents for merely exercising their First Amendment rights on the streets of a major city, and then their government
Where are Republicans? They are here offering symbolic resolutions to score political points for the White House. They are not reforming ICE and CBP. They are not negotiating. If they want Democrats to vote with them, they have to earn our vote.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, again, Republicans are offering this resolution to thank our great men and women of the Department of Homeland Security for all of their work during this Democratic shutdown, where they are not receiving funding and their paychecks to support them and their families.
Republicans have this resolution and also the resolution for appropriating all of the funding, and those are both going to come before the full House. I encourage all of my colleagues to support it. We have had bipartisan support for the appropriations in the past, and, hopefully, we will get that again this time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Harris).
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding the time.
Mr. Speaker, I have a message for the American people.
Dear Americans: Democrats do not care about your safety.
They are displaying this right before our very eyes. Democrats do, obviously, before our own eyes, practice political gamesmanship rather than provide real security for our homeland safety.
At a time when our Nation faces threat after threat, it is imperative that we have a strong and fully funded Department of Homeland Security.
The brave men and women of DHS work hard every single day to keep Americans safe. They have earned our support. How do Democrats repay them for their work? They shut down the Department of Homeland Security.
I am proud to stand in support of this resolution today to shine a light on the great work that they do. However, it cannot go unsaid that many of my Democrat colleagues who may vote in favor of this resolution today will still continue to maintain that DHS would be unfunded, as they have voted four separate times against its reopening, purely because of political games.
At a time when our Nation faces increased security risks, Democrats are choosing politics over our Nation's safety.
They are giving us one crystal clear message: They do not care about Americans' safety. If they did, wouldn't the agency whose sole job is to protect America be funded at this very hour?
Securing America's safety and the ensuring brave employees of the Department of Homeland Security receive the funding they undoubtedly deserve must happen, and it must happen soon.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, one of President Trump's top informal advisers, Steve Bannon, recently said that the President's deployment of ICE to the Nation's airports was a ``test run'' before ICE's deployment to election sites during November's midterm elections.
Now, why, Mr. Speaker, would Immigration and Customs Enforcement be needed at State and locally run election sites?
The Trump administration has tried to make DHS and ICE into their private, politically-motivated national police to intimidate travelers at the airport now and voters at the ballot box in November.
That is why the American people are demanding that Congress reform ICE, but Congress could reopen the Department today while those reforms continue to be worked on. House Republicans and Donald Trump, however, are standing in the way.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this conversation has been rewarding and enlightening for the American people.
I have heard half-truths, deflections, and obfuscations from the other side throughout our conversation today. I have also heard fearmongering.
What we need are pragmatic, commonsense solutions that have bipartisan support. That is what we have with the DHS funding appropriations that Congress has already passed through the House that we are going to have an opportunity to vote on again. It is a chance to give the American people the results that they are looking for. It is not a conversation. It is fact.
Mr. Speaker, it has been great to hear the other side put themselves on the record for not fully funding parts of the Department of Homeland Security, for building up silos, for advocacy about defunding law enforcement. That is what we have heard here today. It is shocking, but I think it is enlightening for the American people to see that contrast and have it on full display.
I wish that we had more than an hour to have this debate. I think this is something that every American should see: Republicans coming together to support national security, to fund our workers, and to give our workers, the American people, the paychecks they deserve for the work that they are doing. However, Mr. Speaker, the other side stands in objection as an obstacle to this commonsense solution every single day.
Mr. Speaker, at this point, I thank the other side for putting this contrast on full display for the American people, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, Republican failures have shut down the Department of Homeland Security for more than 40 days.
Before this Republican shutdown, the Trump administration did its dead level best to hollow out the Department and make America less safe.
At least 2,000 permanent FEMA staff have left that agency since the day Donald Trump took office.
$275 million in nonprofit security grant program funds remain stuck at DHS and FEMA instead of helping high-risk, nonprofit organizations like churches, mosques, and synagogues.
At the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Trump administration terminated, reassigned, or pressured into resigning nearly 1,000 employees.
The former CISA Acting Director said that the vacancy rate at the agency hampered its ability to fully support national security objectives.
The President's fiscal year 2026 budget called for roughly $500 million in cuts to CISA, including cutting programs meant to secure our elections from foreign bad actors.
At TSA, the Trump administration has moved to cut collective bargaining agreements meant to improve working conditions for the personnel keeping our airways safe.
For over a year, Republicans have failed DHS and the American people at every turn, yet Republicans are shameless enough to lecture us about supporting DHS.
Republicans have the power to end this shutdown today. Instead of wasting time on symbolic resolutions, they could pass H.R. 7481, the Democratic compromise proposal that would allow DHS to reopen while we continue to work on reforms to ICE and CBP, but instead, Republicans seem almost addicted to failure.
To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Take ``yes'' for an answer. Let's stop the failure theater and reopen DHS today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I couldn't agree with my colleague more that we should fund and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security today. That is why we are going to have the opportunity for every Member to vote ``yes'' on that resolution to fully fund it.
We are also going to have the opportunity in addition to that funding to
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 1131, the previous question is ordered on the resolution and the preamble, as amended.
The question is on adoption of the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1131, I call up the bill (H.R. 8029) making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1131, the bill is considered read.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees.
The gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) and the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole).
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Oklahoma?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, last year, Democrats initiated the longest full government shutdown in American history. It severely impacted families, agencies, personnel, and services across the Nation.
What should have been a lesson on how not to treat hardworking Americans has instead become routine for Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats.
Today marks day 41 of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, already the longest partial shutdown on record. In just 3 days, it will surpass even last year's historic lapse, further compounding the harm to our national security and the workforce charged with protecting it.
There are many ways to measure the damage, yet every metric reflects a burden on our citizens.
We can look at time. DHS has been comprehensively shut down for close to 50 percent of the fiscal year. That is nearly 100 days of dysfunction and counting.
We can look at personnel. More than 100,000 employees have missed paychecks.
We can look at travel. Airports across the Nation are experiencing severe lines and delays as TSA callout rates soar.
We can look at contingency funds. FEMA's disaster relief fund is nearly empty.
The list doesn't end there, yet it makes clear exactly what Senate Democrats have chosen.
But today, we are once again providing our colleagues across the aisle an opportunity to stop the chaos. Life doesn't offer many second chances, but here on the House floor this afternoon offers many Democrats a third chance to get it right.
I am proud to say my friend and fellow appropriator, Mr. Ciscomani from Arizona, has introduced a Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act. This legislation comprehensively funds DHS.
It resources critical security efforts, pays personnel, and gets our front line back to operational strength. It doesn't just pick and choose which parts of Homeland Security matter. It ensures that missions and personnel are supported across the board for the rest of the fiscal year.
Representative Ciscomani put it plainly in a recent piece that he wrote, saying: ``This should not be a partisan issue. Paying the people who protect our country should be the bare minimum expectation of a functioning government. It is about respect. It is about responsibility. And most importantly, it is about safety.'' Mr. Ciscomani got it exactly right.
This isn't a game. We are dealing with real security objectives, real community impacts, and real livelihoods.
Congress has a basic responsibility: fund the government, pay the workforce, and protect the homeland.
Republicans have consistently voted to meet that duty, and I urge Senate Democrats to follow our example.
I call on everyone to vote ``yes.'' End this shutdown, and keep our Nation safe.
Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Before I make my remarks on the bill, I would like to take a moment to praise the work of one of our staff who is leaving the committee next week.
Jocelyn Hunn is a trailblazer. In 1983, she became the second woman to ever work as a professional staff member for the House Appropriations Committee.
In her career, she fought to preserve our natural and cultural resources, ensure access to clean air and water, and provide services to all Americans to advance their well-being and help them to achieve a better life.
Jocelyn is retiring from a career in government service on Tuesday. The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee and the entire House of Representatives owe her a debt of gratitude for her tireless work, and that began more than four decades ago.
I wish my friend Godspeed. It has been a pleasure to work with her. It really has.
Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this twice-doomed legislation.
Madam Speaker, what is the definition of insanity?
It is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result. This is not a serious effort. It is just more political theater.
Here is the truth: The President has given up on funding DHS. He said earlier this week that any deal Congress makes, ``I am pretty much not happy with it.'' Then, he said to Republicans: Don't make a deal with the Democrats.
Does that sound like someone who wants to end this crisis and pay TSA workers?
Madam Speaker, the Congress is on its own. The only way we are getting out of this logjam is if we work together to exercise our power of the purse.
The talks in the Senate have all but fallen apart. The President is refusing to get behind anything. Tomorrow will mark the second full paycheck that TSA workers and others across DHS will miss.
I might just make a note here, because I think it is important to say something about this. In fact, at this moment, 85 percent of ICE and CBP are being paid; Secret Service, 75 percent; and Coast Guard, 85 percent.
TSA workers are being paid zero, but the TSA Administrator confirmed yesterday that the Department made the decision not to pay TSA workers. The Department made that decision, I am sure in concert with the President of the United States, that these are folks who are expendable. We don't have to pay them. Let's pay the others and leave them on their own.
Again, this is not someone or some Department that cares about TSA workers.
I have put forward a proposal that I honestly believe is a reasonable middle ground between the two sides of this discussion. Democrats do not want to provide more funding for ICE or CBP without legally binding policy changes that protect our communities. Republicans are opposed to many of these changes and want to fund ICE and CBP without any new protections.
Neither side disagrees over funding for TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, or other parts of DHS. What we are caught up on is whether or not we can deal with ICE and CBP separately, or if we have to fund everything all at once. I do not believe that it must be all or nothing.
My proposal, which I introduced over 1 month ago, funds the parts of DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, that we all agree on. It funds TSA so that these workers can get paid--they can pay their bills, they can stop sleeping in their cars, and they can avoid evictions--and so that we can put an end to the long lines at airport security.
It funds FEMA so that we can replenish the Disaster Relief Fund and ensure that our communities are prepared for the next natural disaster.
It fully funds cybersecurity so that we are equipped to prevent or respond to any threat that comes our way.
It separates out the funding for ICE and CBP for the time being, just for the time being, so that we can negotiate on that issue without holding the rest of the Department hostage.
I have been listening to the debates over this impasse. I believe some of my Republican colleagues are under the impression that my proposal is designed to permanently shutter ICE and CBP. That is not true. That is not the case. We will have to pass a bill to fund those agencies, and we will do so when we have come together on an agreement that establishes reasonable protections against abuse, reasonable protections, I might add, that the vast majority of Americans support.
We cannot have masked, armed Federal agents roaming our communities, breaking down doors with no warrants, arresting people with no explanation, and, yes, even murdering Americans in the streets.
In the meantime, there is no reason to keep the rest of the Department shut down.
Madam Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.
My amendment would have replaced the text of the doomed Republican proposal with the text of my bill to fund the parts of DHS over which there is no disagreement.
Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Connecticut?
Madam Speaker, before I yield to my next Speaker, I want to associate myself with the remarks of my good friend, the ranking member, in terms of her retiring staff, Jocelyn Hunn. I join my friend in congratulating her on her distinguished service and wishing her well in the next chapter of her life.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).
Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Oklahoma, the great chairman of the Appropriations Committee, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of Congressman Ciscomani's bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Madam Speaker, this is a bill that should have passed weeks and weeks ago. In fact, today will mark the third time that this House has voted to fully fund the Department. In case you want to know how that vote went, Madam Speaker, there has been a record vote twice already in the House. You can see who is voting ``yes'' to fund TSA agents, to fund the people at the Department of Homeland Security who work every day to keep us safe here in America. All the Republicans, almost every Republican, voted ``yes.'' On March 5, almost every Democrat voted ``no,'' voted to shut the Department down. The Democrats shut this down, Madam Speaker.
Then, we brought another vote, Madam Speaker, and you can see January 22 was the first vote, almost a party-line vote, Republicans voting ``yes'' to fund the Department and Democrats voting ``no.''
March 5, same thing, Republicans voting ``yes'' to fund the Department and Democrats overwhelmingly voting ``no'' to shut it down.
Now, today is a day where they can seek redemption and stand up for those workers, the TSA agents, who are showing up for work and not getting paid.
Do you know that if you are a TSA agent in America this fiscal year, Madam Speaker, you have gone 49 percent of this year without a paycheck?
That is disgraceful. It is disgraceful that Democrats have voted time and time again to deny pay for those especially who are showing up to do this hard work.
You have Americans waiting in line for hours and hours, 3 hours, 4 hours. At my home airport in New Orleans, people were sleeping overnight there so they would have a chance to make their flight. There are people waiting over 3 hours and still missing a flight, Madam Speaker, to go maybe on a family vacation, maybe they have to go to a funeral or a wedding.
This is disrupting the lives of real people.
Let me tell you what the TSA chief testified to yesterday, just yesterday. The TSA chief told lawmakers that their agents ``have received eviction notices, lost their childcare, missed bill payments and been charged late fees, damaged their credit, defaulted on loans, and have been unable to even qualify for a loan to help ease the financial burden during the shutdown.'' That was testimony given yesterday, and it is totally avoidable.
That kind of pain should not be inflicted on our Federal workers, and yet you can see the party-line vote time and time again, like today when we bring a bill to say let's just give these people paychecks for the work that they are doing.
We can all have disagreements over how government operates. Go look at the changes President Trump has already made at the Department of Homeland Security. This week we got a new Secretary. There have been dramatic changes to the Department. In fact, changes both sides have made or have asked for have been made.
Yet, Democrats don't want to take ``yes'' for an answer, Madam Speaker, because they want chaos. Let's just call it for what it is. They want open borders. They want chaos. We are going to give them an opportunity to do the right thing because the American people are sick and tired of it, and they should be.
There is going to be a moment of accountability real soon. In about an hour, you will be able to see, America will be able to see who is voting ``yes'' to fund these people who are working so hard, and who is voting ``no'' to keep the chaos going, to keep the long lines going.
Now, I would like to say I am going to read you some good news. I want to read you a quote from Hakeem Jeffries, Madam Speaker. I think this is an important quote that everybody should listen to right now. This is Hakeem Jeffries: ``We are here today to do a single job, and that should be to fund fully the Department of Homeland Security. Anything else is an abdication of our responsibility. Anything else is an act of legislative malpractice. So we are playing political games at a time when the safety and the security of the American people is being threatened.''
That is Hakeem Jeffries, Madam Speaker. Unfortunately, that was Hakeem Jeffries from February of 2015. What happened to that Hakeem Jeffries?
How will Hakeem Jeffries of 2026 vote? The previous two times we know, Madam Speaker, the vote was ``no.'' However, in 2015, he said it would be an act of malpractice to shut this Department down.
Let's talk about what times we are in. Some people want to think that we are at a September 10 mentality, a pre-September 11 mentality. We are at a heightened state of alert right now. We have actually had, Madam Speaker, four terrorist attacks on our American homeland in the last month.
This Department is more critical than ever, and this is when Democrats choose to shut it down, to put Americans at risk? It is dangerous.
It is not just cruel to these workers who are going without pay. They testified yesterday that there are some TSA agents sleeping in their cars because they can't afford rent. That is cruel, but it is also dangerous to this country to shut down this Department at a time like this.
Don't go back to a pre-September 11 mentality. This Department was created for a reason, to protect the homeland so we don't ever have a September 11 again.
``Never forget,'' remember that mantra? It seems like some people want to forget, have forgotten. Maybe they have amnesia. Maybe they need to remember that quote from the Democratic Leader back in 2015 who said it would be political malpractice to vote to shut this agency down.
Let's do the right thing. Let's everybody--not just Republicans today--let's have Republicans and Democrats join together and do what is needed to protect America's homeland. Vote ``yes'' on Congressman Ciscomani's bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, get this back open. Bring common sense back into this country.
Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, let me just make a couple of quick points here.
I think I said earlier it was the TSA Administrator yesterday who confirmed that the Department made the decision not to pay TSA workers.
In addition to that, the Department of Homeland Security has a $10 billion slush fund that comes from the Republicans' big, beautiful bill. They could dip into that slush fund to pay TSA screeners if the Trump administration chose to do so.
By the way, this is the same account that former Secretary Noem used to buy two luxury jets for her use and to rent a horse for $20,000 so she could ride atop it in her ads. If she can do that, then the new Secretary could use this $10 billion slush fund to pay TSA screeners. They have chosen not to do it. They are not shedding any tears for those workers.
It is false. It is politics. It is a cudgel, and they are using them and playing them for political reasons. Again, they choose not to pay them, and so it falls to us. Yes, it falls to us.
Everyone in this room wants to pay TSA employees and Coast Guard and FEMA. My bill does that. It actually does it. The bill before us does not do this.
Let's be reasonable. We have done this before when parts of the government were closed and we thought that some should open. We did it for food inspectors because our food should be inspected so that people can get access to it. We have done it for military pay. Why aren't we doing it for TSA employees? We could do that today.
Do you know what. We don't need a discharge petition. We need a Speaker of the House to take this bill and bring it to the floor, and I would bet you dollars to doughnuts that, in fact, we would have overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans in passing it. Then TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, Cybersecurity, and Secret Service can get paid for the jobs that they are doing.
Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei), the distinguished chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and my very good friend.
Madam Speaker, Mr. Chairman, and Madam minority leader, well, here we are again. It is going to come as a surprise to nobody here that as the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, I am rising in support of the 2026 Homeland Security appropriations bill. Later today, we will vote on the bill for a third time, and unfortunately it won't be the charm.
This shutdown should have never happened. The Committee negotiated a full bill on a bicameral, bipartisan basis, and then the goalposts got moved at the north end of the building.
Now our colleagues have taken the Department hostage over radical and unachievable policy demands which never would have made it into the original bill. This is a smokescreen for what we are really talking about here: stopping immigration enforcement--stopping immigration enforcement.
Most Americans support removing dangerous criminal aliens from our communities, stopping immigration enforcement. Most Americans support removing those who have final orders of removal instead of stopping immigration enforcement, but apparently there is a new priority on the other side of the aisle.
We are in day 40 of the shutdown with no apparent end in sight, and I find it interesting that we keep hearing about this wonderful discharge petition, which is H.R. 7481.
Well, I have read H.R. 7481, and if it was, as we like to say in the appropriations business, a clean bill, just funded those other ones, you know what, I think my distinguished colleague would have a good point. You know what is not in there--don't ask me why. I didn't draft it--no body-worn camera money. That was one of the things everybody agreed to, but it is not in H.R. 7481. By the way, this is an act of oversight whether you agree with it or not.
Madam Speaker, you know what is not in H.R. 7481, all sorts of the preexisting, previously agreed to oversight provisions. This is about stopping immigration enforcement.
How many of us would miss the paychecks that those folks at TSA have missed and still continue to work? Good question. Who knows what the answer to that is.
Over 400 TSA officers have quit since the beginning of the shutdown. I can't really blame them.
The Democrats' solution is to pick and choose which agencies at DHS get funded to ease the pain they created to alleviate their guilt for the hardship they have caused to our hardworking national security professionals.
No. The right call is to fund the entire Department. We can all vote to do that again today. The time to fund the Department of Homeland Security is now. That is not news to anybody. That is the position.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to do the right thing: Vote ``yes'' and end this shutdown.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut for all her work and for yielding.
Madam Speaker, the Republican TSA shutdown has dragged on now for over a month. Officers haven't been paid in weeks. Hundreds have walked off the job because they simply can't afford to work for no pay. Travelers are stuck waiting in lines that have soared up to 9 hours because Republicans have decided to use airport security as a political weapon.
If they cared about what we are seeing in airports across the country, if they really cared about the chaos they have caused, they would end this today. House Democrats have a bill to get TSA funded, to get these officers paid, and to get passengers where they need to go safely.
We have tried repeatedly to bring it to the floor, and every time Republicans have stood in the way. If any one of them are feeling a bit of regret, they could help us force a vote. We have a discharge petition right there on the dais. Not one Republican has signed it.
Why the obstruction? Why refuse to solve an agonizingly solvable problem? Well, Donald Trump said it himself. He will not support a single dollar for the TSA. He will not allow airports to get back to normal unless we make it harder to vote and harder to register to vote, unless we drown voters in red tape and ban mail-in voting, except for the President.
That is what this has come down to. Our national security is being compromised. Airports are in chaos. Officers and travelers are the ones paying
If there is any Republican across the aisle who is ready to choose their constituents and the working people of this country over Trump, if anyone in the GOP is starting to realize this is spinning out of control, join us. Let's end this insanity. Let's pay TSA workers, and we can have an ICE operation that works like every other police department across the country.
Madam Speaker, let's do it today. Put the safety and security of the American people first.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Ciscomani), my good friend and the vice chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my bill, H.R. 8029, the Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act. The name of the bill itself is pretty self-explanatory.
As the Representative of a district with an international airport, a border with Mexico, many Border Patrol and CBP agents, ICE, HSI, other Homeland Security personnel, and a State that gets struck by devastating wildfires every single year where FEMA is essential, as well as the vice chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, I am proud to lead this legislation to ensure that the men and women who keep our country safe are paid for their service and that we stop putting every single American at risk by funding our agencies responsible for our national security.
It has been said here before that this bill was drafted in a bipartisan basis with both sides having input on it and both sides making compromises to make sure that this bill passed and that we funded our Department of Homeland Security.
What my friends on the other side of the aisle are doing now is backtracking on those agreements that they made. That is unacceptable.
From TSA agents to the countless personnel working behind the scenes to protect our airports and national security, these professionals should never be caught in the middle of political gains, and we are grateful for the work that they are doing day in and day out.
This legislation is about doing what is right: making sure those who show up every day to defend our homeland can count on their paycheck and that the American people know whose side we are on.
Anyone who votes ``no'' and against this bill in just an hour or so should be embarrassed to go past a TSA agent at the airport on the way here or home knowing they just voted to continue their lack of payment.
This legislation ensures full funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Let me emphasize full funding. No area in Homeland Security should not be funded, including TSA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, U.S. Secret Service, FEMA, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Shutting down DHS over a fight of funding is wrong. Our DHS bill is just about $97 billion. The ICE portion of this is roughly 10 percent, so my colleagues on the other side are shutting down the entire Department over a dispute of about 10 percent of the funding of this bill.
Make no mistake: This is a Democrat shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
Give me all or you get nothing. Give me what I want or you get nothing. That is their posture. It is not complicated, Madam Speaker.
Today, we will see who votes to open it and who votes to close it. They can gaslight all they want, but the reality is that when they vote ``no,'' they will be voting to not pay our personnel.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
For 41 days now, the ongoing DHS shutdown has disrupted critical operations, impacted the livelihoods of dedicated personnel, and weakened key components of our national security.
This bill is a necessary step to restore stability, support our workforce, and ensure the safety of the American people.
As of today, DHS employees have missed a full paycheck, and 400 TSA agents have flatout quit. You can't blame them for that. Due to staff shortages, security lines are longer, impacting travelers across the country.
I have never supported a Government shutdown of any kind, partial or full. The current Department of Homeland Security shutdown has been in effect since February 14, 2026, making it the longest partial shutdown in history, followed previously by the longest full shutdown in U.S. history, both caused by Democrats.
Without immediate funding to DHS, these challenges will continue to escalate, further straining our workforce and jeopardizing our national security.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to put hardworking Americans first by supporting my Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act.
Madam Speaker, I also thank my distinguished colleague, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, the Honorable Rosa DeLauro, for yielding and for her tremendous leadership.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this Republican budget that prioritizes ICE brutality over the American people.
We are now more than 40 days into a Trump Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Why are we here? Republicans are trying to convince the American people that Democrats should be blamed. Wait a second. Last time I checked, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.
You spent the last 15 months trying to lecture the American people that you have some historic mandate. If, in fact, that is the case, when the Government shuts down in its entirety, or partially, it is because Republicans have decided to shut the Government down and, in this particular instance, to prioritize ICE brutality over the American people.
There is legislation that is available for Republicans to bring to the floor that would pass overwhelmingly to fund the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security, with the exception of ICE and the Trump extreme mass deportation machine, which has unleashed incredible and unspeakable brutality on the American people and on law-abiding immigrant families.
Why have Republicans chosen to prioritize ICE brutality over the American people when it is not that complicated? We should be paying TSA agents. Instead, Donald Trump and Republicans have sent ICE agents to airports all across the country.
Watch this: ICE agents are sitting around, standing up, doing nothing to address the airport crisis right now.
ICE agents, however, at these very airports, are doing nothing and are being paid at the same period of time TSA agents who are doing the work have been forced by Republicans to work without pay for more than 40 days. Why? Because Republicans have decided that they don't want to get ICE under control and, instead, are forcing TSA agents to work without pay, inconveniencing millions of Americans all across the country and causing chaos at airports throughout the land. Unacceptable. Enough is enough.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans can simply bring a bill to the floor to reopen every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, pay ICE agents, support FEMA, stand up for the Coast Guard, and make sure that this country can continue to function. Instead, as we have repeatedly seen, Republicans have decided they would rather jam their rightwing extreme ideology down the throats of the American people.
We haven't been complicated in the point that we have made to our Republican colleagues about what needs to happen when it comes to ICE. We are standing on the side of the American people. Yes, we will always support securing the border, today, tomorrow, and forever. At the same period of time, immigration enforcement in this country should be fair, just, and humane.
If you have something to say to me, you can say it right now.
That is what I thought.
Immigration enforcement in this country should be fair, it should be just, and it should be humane. Instead, you are unleashing brutality on the American people and using taxpayer dollars, in some instances, to kill American citizens, like Renee Nicole Goode and Alex Pretti, a nurse who was dedicating his life to be there for veterans who serve this country.
We believe, in America, taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them--to make life more affordable for the American people.
Here is what we have put on the table: yes, we believe dramatic changes to ICE should be bold and transformational and meaningful, but there are also commonsense changes vastly supported by the American people that includes ensuring judicial warrants are required before masked ICE agents can storm the homes of the American people and rip them out of bed in the middle of the night.
There should be independent investigations by State and local authorities so that ICE agents, who violently break the law, can be held accountable, just like every other American. We believe that ICE agents should be compelled to conduct themselves like every other cop, police officer, or law enforcement agency.
That is not what is happening right now. We need an end to roving patrols that are violently targeting law-abiding immigrant families and brutalizing the American people. The masks need to come off and body cameras need to come on.
Yes, we also need to protect sensitive locations like houses of worship, hospitals, schools, and polling sites. These are commonsense reforms that, at the same period of time, are bold, meaningful, and transformational. They are designed to accomplish one chief objective: make sure that ICE conducts itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country, like every other cop, every other police officer, and every other State trooper. That is not what is happening in this country right now.
This Republican budget that is before us prioritizes ICE brutality over the American people, and that is why House Democrats are strongly opposed to it.
What is interesting, to make matters worse--because this is all about priorities and choices and the choices that Republicans have made--the priorities that Republicans are emphasizing are all hurting the American people. They are using taxpayer dollars to brutalize them and at the same period of time spending billions of dollars in a reckless war of choice in the Middle East. They are dropping bombs in the Middle East but won't spend a dime to make life more affordable for everyday Americans? What kind of choice is that?
That is where their priorities are, Madam Speaker. It is extraordinary to me. We think taxpayer dollars should be used to make life better for the American people, and there are a variety of ways to do it. We should be focused on that because America is too expensive right now.
Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. Costs aren't going down. They have gone up. Housing costs are out of control. Health insurance premiums are out of control. Grocery bills are out of control. Childcare costs are out of control. Utility bills are out of control. America is too expensive, and it is getting more expensive because of failed Republican policies.
Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. Costs aren't going down, Madam Speaker, in the United States of America.
Costs are going up as a direct result of failed Republican policies.
The Trump tariffs have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.
Republicans have refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. As a result, more than 20 million Americans are experiencing dramatically increased health insurance premiums, making it unaffordable for everyday Americans, working-class Americans, and middle-class Americans to go see a doctor when they need one. That is policy violence that Republicans are inflicting on the American people.
Republicans have launched a reckless war of choice in the Middle East, dropping bombs, spending billions of dollars, but they can't find a dime to make life more affordable for the American people. What kind of choice is that?
Republicans continue to lean in to their one big, ugly bill, which Democrats will continue to expose. It is policy violence being inflicted on the American people.
In that one big, ugly bill, Republicans ripped healthcare away from more than 14 million Americans. That is what Republicans have done. It was a $1 trillion cut, the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. My Republican colleagues are choosing ICE brutality over the healthcare of the American people.
In the same period of time, in that one big, ugly bill, which every single Democrat in the House and the Senate opposed on behalf of the American people, in that one big, ugly bill, Republicans cut nutritional assistance by $186 billion, the largest cut to SNAP in American history.
Republicans literally ripped food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans, and then turned around in that same bill and gave the Department of Homeland Security--watch this--$191 billion, including creating a $75 billion slush fund for ICE to unleash brutality and violence on the American people, to kill American citizens in at least three instances, and to violently target law- abiding immigrant families.
This is policy violence that Republicans are inflicting on the American people. Then, they present this budget in front of us today that again prioritizes ICE brutality over standing up and making life more affordable for the American people?
These are challenging times that we are living through here in the United States of America. Republicans are unleashing extremism and policy violence each and every day of this Presidency. These are challenging times in the United States of America, but help is on the way. We are seeing that in elections all across the country, including, most recently, in the district where Mar-a-Lago sits.
Help is on the way, and so I promise to the American people that we are going to fight as hard as we can. We are going to show up, stand up, and speak up for the American people.
We will lower the high cost of living. We will fix our broken healthcare system. We will clean up corruption. We will get ICE under control. We will stop this reckless war of choice in the Middle East. We will end this national nightmare. One day soon, we will continue America's long, necessary, and majestic march toward a more perfect Union.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Strong), vice chair of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. Speaker, did I just hear the Member say ``fair, just, and humane''?
The Democrats allowed 15 million illegal aliens to enter into this country under the last administration, and now they don't want to fund Homeland Security. Connect the dots. They are begging for chaos.
As a member of both the Appropriations Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, I rise today in strong support of the Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act, to ensure that our frontline personnel are paid and that our Nation is secure.
While I stand here, the men and women who protect our borders, secure our airports, patrol our coastlines, and respond to disasters are being asked to do their jobs without certainty and stability. In many cases, they are being asked to do it without pay, all because Democrats want to block the deportation of violent criminals who are here illegally.
This is unacceptable. Our Nation faces growing and rapidly evolving threats. We are confronting increasingly aggressive adversaries who have built a global network of proxies, terrorist organizations, and illicit financing operations designed to target the United States and our allies.
On top of that, transnational criminal groups and emerging technologies are being exploited by bad actors to conduct surveillance, smuggle contraband, and enable criminal activity. These are not distant threats. They are real threats, and they demand a fully functional Department of Homeland Security to confront these threats.
America will soon host the World Cup, the Olympic Games, and our Nation's 250th anniversary, events that will bring millions of visitors and place unprecedented demands on our security infrastructure. Yet, right now, airports across the country are seeing a surge in TSO callouts.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Just yesterday, during a Homeland Security Committee hearing, the TSA Acting Administrator warned that newly hired screeners will not be trained in time for the 2026 World Cup because of staffing shortages. This alarms every single one of us because it means that we are knowingly walking toward a major international event without the staffing necessary to secure it.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for her incredible leadership during such tumultuous times.
Mr. Speaker, I had not intended to speak. I was watching this debate unfold from my office in Rayburn and could not resist the temptation to come down to the floor to call out the clear intellectual dishonesty that we have heard for the better part of the last hour from my Republican colleagues.
Spare us these crocodile tears.
Let me read you two headlines, Mr. Speaker: ``[Ted] Cruz proposes splitting ICE from Homeland Security funding bill to end airport chaos.'' Another headline: ``Republican Senator Says Trump Killed Bipartisan Deal to Pay TSA workers `by the End of the Week.' ''
Mr. Speaker, you have multiple Republican Senators saying what we all know to be true, which is that Republicans refuse to come to the table and pass a bill that is sitting at the Clerk's desk that the ranking member has introduced to pay TSA workers, to pay folks at FEMA, and to ensure that public servants working on cybersecurity and at the Coast Guard are fully compensated. We could do that today. Republicans refuse to do so.
That is not me talking. That is Ted Cruz talking. That is Senator John Kennedy talking. Every day, another Republican concedes to the reality that has befallen all of us.
I would implore my colleagues that if they truly care about ending this crisis at our airports, pass our bill to fund TSA. Do that today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Alford), my very good friend and the vice chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veteran Affairs, and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. Speaker, I feel as if I need to start with an apology to the minority leader. I wrongly laughed out loud when I heard him say in the well of the floor of the House of Representatives: ``Yes, we will always support securing the border--today, tomorrow, and forever.'' It was an uncontrollable laugh.
This is what started all of this: an administration that did not care about securing our border and the Democrats who backed him up, along with Alejandro Mayorkas, who let 15 million illegal aliens into our great Nation to cause chaos, not to be a part of the fabric of America but to tear apart the fabric of America.
This is the stupidest shutdown in U.S. history, Mr. Speaker. Why do I say that? I will quote the ranking member from a press release January 20, the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), my good friend: ``The Homeland Security funding bill is more than just ICE. If we allow a lapse in the funding, TSA agents will be forced to work without pay, FEMA assistance could be delayed, and the U.S. Coast Guard will be adversely affected. All while ICE continues functioning without any change in their operations due to $75 billion it received in the One Big Beautiful Bill.''
That prediction came true, and now we have chaos in America--chaos that the Democrats want and promote. Airports are backed up. TSA agents are working without pay. Some are sleeping in their cars and going on the weekends to food banks in their communities to get food to feed their families.
Democrats are playing political games. Instead of protecting American families, every day that they keep the DHS unfunded is another day that the ranking member's prediction comes true in America. This must end today. Today, for the third time, House Republicans will vote to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Let's get back on track. Let's pay the people who protect you, who protect me, who protect the ranking member, and who protect the minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
The good news, Mr. Speaker, is that we are paying the people who protect us, and this side will not admit it. DHS is getting 86 percent. ICE is 86 percent funded. CBP is 85 percent funded.
Don't tell the American people, Mr. Speaker, that they are not getting paid. They are getting paid, and you know it. If you say otherwise, you are misrepresenting the facts to the American people.
Now, somebody said ``our bill.'' It is not our bill. It is your bill. Most of you voted for this bill and every nickel that we are asking you to vote again on, because this was a compromised bill. All the funding that was in Ms. DeLauro's bill was a bipartisan agreement, all of it. That is not a political game. That is saying: We will take it.
What you are saying is: Unless you take everything, we are not going to give you anything. That is what you are saying.
Mr. Speaker, that is not how we legislate in this House. We have to compromise.
Now, we have some problems because you tell us if you don't allow ICE agents to break into homes without a warrant, we will not fund TSA, we will not fund the Coast Guard, we will not fund CISA. That is what you are saying, but you are trying to pretend to the American people that it is somehow us, who are ready to vote for 98 percent of the bill, but you say: No, either all or nothing.
Think about it honestly. You are shutting down TSA. The American people don't care who is at fault, so we are both trying to say the other guy is at fault. But today we could come together, all--at least 400 of us--and open TSA tonight. You won't do it because you want masked people arresting people on the streets of America without any accountability.
That is what this is about. Democrats want accountability. They want to honor the Constitution. They want to honor the laws of the United States. They want to honor the norms of police activity in this country.
That is what makes us different. We talk about an exceptional Nation. That is why we are exceptional, and that is why Democrats want to make sure those protections for the American people are included in this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's be honest with one another. This is a tactical argument. You are afraid that if you separate out those two instances of the Border Patrol and ICE, you are afraid that you may have to honor what the American people want, and that is constraints. That is what you are against: constraints on illegal actions by police officers.
The American people are hoping that you will support constraints and support a bill, our bill. Republicans and Democrats put that bill together that
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the extraordinary men and women of the Department of Homeland Security. At a time of complex and evolving threats, our commitment to homeland security must be unwavering.
Despite this reality, some of my colleagues continue to block funding. This does not make us safer.
Thousands of employees at FEMA, TSA, and CISA are working without pay. These are people who save lives, prevent attacks, support communities in crisis, and safeguard the systems that keep our country running. These personnel serving in high-risk roles face an unacceptable stress of doing their jobs without the resources they need.
Supporting Homeland Security is not about ideology. It is about protecting the American people and ensuring our Nation is nearly and evenly taken care of during these threat periods.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to rise above partisanship and prove that the security of the United States will always come first. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear: ICE and CBP are being paid. TSA is not. That is what President Trump and the Republicans have decided.
I am delighted to hear about this newfound concern that my Republican colleagues have about wanting to fund these agencies. I think it is very clear: Where were they when the administration proposed eliminating FEMA entirely? Where were they when the President proposed cutting cybersecurity by $500 million? Where were they when the President unilaterally eliminated collective bargaining rights for TSA workers? They were silent, not one word.
Spare me, spare all of us, and spare the American people these crocodile tears which you shed about people that you cut. Republicans cut a thousand people. Republicans allowed Elon Musk to cut a thousand people from cybersecurity and then sat around saying nothing. So, again, spare us all.
Now, let me just say this to you: The chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee said a little while ago that what the Democrats were offering were radical and unachievable reforms.
Let's take a look at the radical and unachievable reforms: arrest warrant requirements; prohibit the detention and detainment of U.S. citizens; Fourth Amendment protections; search and seizure protections; officer ID requirements; no mask but badges like other law enforcement agencies; prohibit immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as schools, churches, and medical facilities; end racial profiling; restrictions on the use of force to prevent future deadly incidents like those we saw in Minnesota; prohibiting the Department from withholding evidence for use of force-related investigations; protecting Member access to all ICE facilities, including new facilities that they are buying with $45 billion that they received in the big, beautiful bill; and, yes, mandatory body-worn cameras.
These policies have to be built into law. That is what needs to happen here. I have offered--and I did this a month ago, more than a month ago now--I said plainly speaking--because there are serious disagreements about ICE and about CBP, serious disagreements.
Mr. Speaker, 70 percent of the United States, the people in this country, believe that these agencies need to be brought under control and that we need protections. Let's hammer that out. Let's hammer it out on its own.
Why do we want to hold hostage the men and women who are doing their job every single day? They are not asking for more. They are asking to be paid for the work and the service that they give to all of us. Why are we holding them hostage and deliberately doing so with TSA agents? As I said, ICE and CBP, they are being paid. CBP has $65 billion. ICE has $75 billion.
Our people are hurting. They need to get help.
The President said $500 million cuts to cybersecurity. That is what he said in his budget. No one blinked an eye when he said he was cutting 1,000 workers from cybersecurity. Now we have this newfound worry about cybersecurity? Again, spare us.
There is a very simple solution to this.
Let us take the agencies on which we have mutual agreement. It is a reasonable middle ground between two sides of this discussion. We don't want to provide more funding for ICE or CBP without the binding policy changes that protect our communities.
Republicans are opposed to many of these changes and want to fund ICE and CBP without any new protections. Neither side disagrees over funding TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, or other parts. What we are caught up on is whether or not we can deal with ICE and CBP separately or if we have to fund everything all at once.
I personally do not believe it must be all or nothing. That is not the spirit of compromise that allows us to move forward and to create policy changes and initiatives in this Nation.
My proposal funds the parts of DHS that we all agree on. It funds TSA so they would get paid. They can pay their bills, stop sleeping in their cars, and avoid evictions. We can put an end to the long lines at airport security. It funds FEMA so we can replenish the disaster relief fund. It ensures that our communities are prepared for the next natural disaster. It fully funds cybersecurity so we are equipped to prevent or respond to any threat that comes our way. It separates ICE and CBP for the time being, not forever, for the time being, so we can negotiate on that issue without holding the rest of the Department hostage.
As I said earlier, I listened to the debates. I believe some of my Republican colleagues are under the impression that the proposal is designed to permanently shutter ICE and CBP. That is not true. We have to pass bills to fund those agencies. We will do so when we can come together on an agreement that establishes those protections against abuse, which the majority of Americans support.
There is no reason for us to keep the rest of the Department shut down. It is an easy solution if we choose to take it. This is about political will and a choice. Quite frankly, we do not need a discharge petition. The Speaker of the House could call up this bill at any moment, place it on the floor, and it would pass overwhelmingly. But there is a discharge petition. If we have to try to get it to the floor, it would be my hope that several of my Republican colleagues would find that this is a reasonable solution, a way to accommodate both sides of the argument.
Let's come to a compromise on what we can do with ICE and CBP, but let us fund the agencies that so deserve to get paid for the job that they are doing for the American people. It should be up to us to do our job for the American people, and today our job is to bring up this compromise and allow us to fund these agencies and to continue to negotiate about ICE and CBP.
That is the responsible thing for all of us to do today. It can be done, and I would just say one last thing. What we are doing here today is what I said at the outset. This is not three times is the charm. This bill has nowhere to go, nowhere to go, and it is an argument that has failed in the past. It will fail again.
Let's fund the agencies that deserve our support. Let's make sure we get the kinds of protections for the American people and ICE and CBP.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I begin by thanking my friend for a spirited debate. We have certainly had one today. But to me the facts of this situation seem pretty clear.
The House has done its job twice already. It has fully funded the Department of Homeland Security, and if we are fortunate, we will fully fund it again in a few minutes with I hope a bipartisan vote, but we will see about that.
Frankly, we sent that legislation over to the Senate, and to be fair, a majority of the United States Senate
Now, the Senate operates differently from us, Mr. Speaker. As most Americans know, they have a rule that is not in the Constitution. It is not in law. It is just simply a Senate rule that says they have to reach 60. So what we have is a situation where a minority of Senate Democrats have repeatedly voted to shut down the government.
That is even though we sent them a bill that they agreed to vote for before we sent it over there in the first place. Then, they changed their mind and broke their word. They have done that repeatedly in the Senate, not in the House. That is in the Senate.
We now have a situation where a majority of both Chambers have repeatedly said that we would like to open the government. I know my friends would like to open parts of the government. I heard that argument, and I didn't agree with it back when we were in the majority during the ObamaCare debates. We brought measure after measure on the floor to open part of the government. Surely we can vote for defense. Surely we can vote for this or that. Our Democrat friends said, no, we should vote to fund all the government. I actually agree with that, and we compromised there.
There seems to be, on this floor, a belief that the President has not been willing to compromise. That is not the case. The President, Mr. Speaker, has changed leadership at the Department of Homeland Security. The President, in negotiation with the Democrats in the Senate, has repeatedly made concessions.
Frankly, it is the Democrats in the Senate who keep moving the goalposts. They just like the fight. They don't care who is not getting a paycheck. They don't care who is not meeting a mortgage payment. They don't care who is not meeting a car payment. They don't care who is sleeping in a car. They just want to score a political point.
They want to score it even though the majority of both Chambers have passed legislation to keep the government open and even though the President of the United States has made considerable concessions in their direction.
That is stupidity. That is irresponsibility. It is reckless, and it is dangerous. To do it at a time when the country is engaged in military operations overseas with an adversary that is the largest sponsor of state terrorism and that would do anything it could to hurt Americans is the height of irresponsibility.
Mr. Speaker, I just simply hope that in this Chamber today we do what we have done twice more and give the Senate another opportunity. I know there are negotiations going on over there. Let's just do the right thing: Fund the government.
The President has shown my friends that he is willing to make changes. He did that in Minnesota in terms of leadership, and he has done it in terms of the Department itself. That normally would be enough.
I would ask my colleagues to look within themselves to see if this is really worth it, if running this risk for 330 million Americans is really worth it, if making 100,000 people miss another paycheck is really worth it.
I don't know what political gain my friends think they might be getting out of this. I don't think it is worth it, so I would just ask us to do the responsible thing, to pass what was a bipartisan, negotiated product, yet again, in this House, send it over to the Senate, point out the concessions that the President has made in good faith, finally get the government up and operational, and making changes in leadership. My goodness, what more do you want?
That is because it doesn't matter what he does, they want something else. That tells me that we are dealing with somebody who doesn't want to be dealt with in a rational and fair manner.
I think we have done that in this body in the entire appropriations process. That is why most of these bills have passed this Chamber, most of them with strong bipartisan support. That is why, in the United States Senate, we thought we had a deal, but the Democrats in the Senate changed it. That is why the President, I think, probably has tried multiple times to move in the direction of his critics, yet they still won't accept it.
Again, I would just ask to do the right thing. Let's fund the Government of the United States. Let's get about our business. Let's make sure that, in a very dangerous moment in our history, our people have every protection that we can provide them. Let's not wait for something bad to happen so that we can come to our senses. Let's do it today.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1131, 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. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question will be postponed.
Proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. Votes will be taken in the following order:
Adoption of H. Res. 1128;
The motion to recommit H.R. 8029; and
Passage of H.R. 8029.
The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as 5-minute votes.
Expressing the Support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on adoption of the resolution (H. Res. 1128) expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 225, nays 187, answered ``present'' 13, not voting 7, as follows:
Mr. BERA changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Ms. PEREZ changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
Ms. HOYLE of Oregon changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``present.''
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion to recommit on the bill (H.R. 8029) making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes, offered by the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk will redesignate the motion.
The Clerk redesignated the motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 210, nays 215, not voting 7, as follows:
Mr. FOSTER changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to recommit was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
Pursuant to clause 10 of rule XX, the yeas and nays are ordered.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 218, nays 206, not voting 8, as follows:
Mr. MIN changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the long-awaited reopening of Augusta, Georgia's, premier municipal golf course, otherwise known as The Patch, which was recently renovated with the help of golf legends Tom Fazio, Beau Welling, and Tiger Woods.
The Patch has been engrained into the fabric of our local community since 1928. In the early 1900s, the popularity of golf was quickly on the rise in Augusta, and it was the establishment of The Patch that made the game accessible for locals and visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
This is a mission that our community continues to embrace today-- growing the game of golf and the values it instills in those who play. Beyond the game of golf, The Patch will serve as a catalyst for community renewal through job training at Augusta Tech's agronomy center. It will help rescue underserved youth through the First Tee of Augusta initiative and offer a community clubhouse for neighbors to enjoy.
Robin and I are proud supporters of this initiative. We congratulate Chairman Fred Ridley; members and staff of the Augusta National Golf Club; Mayor Garnett Johnson and our commissioners; and Randy Hatcher, outgoing chairman of the Augusta Technical College Foundation for their tireless work to make this project a reality.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember the six men who lost their lives and to commend the first responders whose courage prevented even greater tragedy when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed exactly 2 years ago.
I grew up in the shadow of that bridge. Our entire community still feels the profound loss of our cathedral in the sky.
Thanks to the efforts of Team Maryland and partnerships at the Federal, State, and local levels, the shipping channel has been cleared, the Port of Baltimore is again thriving, and funding for a new bridge is established law. However, we must keep going.
The Key Bridge's absence is still deeply felt every day. Rebuilding it as quickly as possible is an American priority, and we must do everything we can to make it happen.
Today, as we remember the souls lost and the heroism of that day, let us also recommit ourselves to the Key Bridge project with the speed, focus, and resolve this moment demands.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of my good friend, Michael Tennant.
For the last 14 years, Mike has served as chairman of the Sun Lakes Republican Club, an active East Valley community in my district. He is a true patriot.
Mike was born on November 25, 1949, in Orion, Illinois. He had a long career with International Harvester in Illinois and Wisconsin, but ultimately settled with his lovely wife, Sandy, in the great State of Arizona.
Mike's life wasn't without its challenges. While living in Wisconsin, he courageously battled leukemia and survived, thanks to a lifesaving bone marrow transplant from his brother.
Since retiring to Sun Lakes, Mike has dedicated his time to serving his community. He is well known as a grassroots activist for the conservative cause. I am also happy to see a smiling face at grassroots meetings, rallies with the President, get-out-the-vote efforts, and more.
I am truly grateful to Mike for following his call to service and to Sandy for supporting him. As Mike steps down as chairman after 14 years of dedicated leadership, I am honored to celebrate him here today and to call him a friend.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day to honor the extraordinary life and service of one of these brave aviators, Jerry Hodges, Jr.
At a time when our Nation was thrust into World War II and in the thick of Jim Crow, Jerry stepped up to serve his country, joining the first group of Black military pilots in the U.S. Armed Forces.
His commitment to challenging the status quo while supporting our Nation did not end with the war.
After graduating from the University of Southern California, he helped lead one of the first African-American-owned insurance companies in California.
His legacy of excellence, courage, and unwavering devotion to justice and equity has paved the way for generations of African Americans in uniform and beyond.
That is why I am proud to introduce legislation to rename a Post Office in my district in his honor. As we pass by the future Jerry T. Hodges Post Office, may we be reminded to carry forward his legacy and strive to be changemakers in our own communities.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration take decisive action to crack down on waste, abuse, and fraud.
According to Secretary Bessent, 10 percent of the Federal budget is lost to fraud each year, and according to Dr. Oz and CMS, perhaps as much as 20 percent is scammed there.
As chairman of the Committee on Financial Services' Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, our work uncovered how poor agency management, outdated IT systems, and officials perhaps looking the other way allowed criminals to exploit Federal programs under the Biden administration. Extensive fraud in Minneapolis and L.A. are glaring examples.
We are coordinating with HUD Secretary Scott Turner as we correct years of mismanagement at public housing agencies.
At our recent field hearing in Little Rock with Chairman French Hill, we heard testimony showing that serious fraud was ignored by the prior administration for years.
The President's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President Vance, is a critical step towards restoring accountability. I plan to work with the task force to protect taxpayers and work to drain the swamp.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Ms. Edna Jean Hamler from the village of Hempstead in honor of her 84th birthday.
Growing up in Alabama during the horrid Jim Crow era, Edna's life is one of a remarkable, brave journey. She took part and met pivotal members of the civil rights movement while facing the daily injustice of racial segregation.
In the 1960s, Edna made the courageous decision to leave her home and find opportunity in the village of Hempstead, where she raised her six incredible children. She taught them the values of respect, integrity, and a deep commitment to education while attending Hempstead Public Schools.
Her life has been marked by fortitude, cultivated by confronting segregation and seeking a better future for her family.
It is a privilege to represent and recognize Edna today. She represents the strength of a generation that endured profound injustice and helped shape the diverse and vibrant Hempstead community through her quiet determination.
Mr. Speaker, I wish Edna a wonderful 84th birthday.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the 35,000 children in Ukraine that Putin and others have stolen during this unprovoked and brutal war.
Shockingly, our government just made things worse as it relates to these children. Last week, Trump waived sanctions on Russian oil companies, including two Russian oil companies that, based on recent reporting, have directly funded and facilitated the abduction and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.
Lifting the sanctions will do little to nothing to ease gas prices but will significantly benefit these two Russian oil companies. These companies are helping to steal children, and Trump just helped them out. They will make billions of dollars.
In the coming days, we will work to rally Congress to compel Trump to reverse these sanctions. Every single person responsible for stealing Ukrainian children must be held accountable.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Washington University women's track and field team who just captured the 2026 NCAA Division III Indoor National Championship. This team found a way to turn individual effort into a collective title. You don't do that without character, and you don't do that without each other.
With the WashU women's soccer team winning back-to-back national titles a few months ago and now their women's track and field team, these ladies are making St. Louis title town.
Especially during Women's History Month, St. Louis is so proud of these young women. They define student-athlete and do both at the highest level.
When we talk about what makes St. Louis a great city, this is a big part of that answer. Champions live here. Champions are developed here.
I congratulate the athletes, the coaching staff, and the entire WashU family on this remarkable achievement.
Mr. Speaker, since getting into office, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have actively tried to undermine the brave women who answer the call to service and joined the United States military.
When Pete Hegseth took office, six women, leaders at the highest levels of our Armed Forces, were forced out of their positions. They were not minor roles. These women were generals, captains, admirals, and commandants who earned their rank through decades of service and sacrifice, yet they were removed because Pete Hegseth couldn't accept women holding the same authority and responsibility as their male counterparts.
Additionally, executive orders were put into place to change standards such as physical evaluations, harassment reporting, and equal employment regulations.
At a time when military enrollment is at an all-time low, Trump and Hegseth are doing everything in their power to make it even harder for half of our population to serve and protect the country they love.
We salute and praise the women who show their love of country by serving in the United States military.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the graduates from the Bucks County Opportunity Council's Economic Self-Sufficiency Program.
Since 1997, this program has helped families in our community build brighter, more stable futures through education and a path to lasting economic independence.
Today, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to recognize this year's graduates: Thais Defalco, Haussine Guengous, Kelsi Klinger, Amanda Leary, Haleigh Olie-Muller, Tanya Quiles, Allina Ramirez, Jacklynn Ramsey, Ashley Reukauf, and Katlynn Whiteley.
Mr. Speaker, as Bucks County's leading antipoverty organization, the BCOC has worked tirelessly to reduce poverty and to help our neighbors achieve true self-sufficiency.
I thank the BCOC team for changing lives for the better and for strengthening our community. I congratulate the graduates. We celebrate all that you have achieved and all the many great things to come.
Mr. Speaker, like many Americans, I am outraged by what Trump is doing to the Cuban people.
The oil blockade enacted by the Trump administration is cruel and indefensible. Cuba poses no threat to us, yet we are strangling an entire nation with economic warfare.
Families are going without food. Water systems are failing. Hospitals are struggling to stay open.
These tactics are designed to suffocate an island into submission, and its civilians, ordinary Cuban men, women, and children, are paying the price.
Make no mistake, this unconscionable suffering is occurring because Trump is trying to force regime change.
Across our country and around the world, people are standing in solidarity with the Cuban people. They are calling for dignity for humanity, for an end to this harm.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor recognize and celebrate Ohio Extension Agent Amy Stone for 33 years of extraordinary, vigilant service to the agricultural community of Ohio through the Ohio State University Extension. Northwest Ohio says: Thank you, Amy Stone.
Amy's career has been defined by dedication. She was and always will be willing to assume leadership of the youth, families, and farmers who call Lucas County and northwest Ohio home.
Our freshwater tidal basin is the largest in the Great Lakes, and her job was consequential.
From horticulture and urban forestry to confronting invasive specious like the emerald ash borer and spotted lanternfly, Amy dug in. She was always protecting Ohio's natural resources. When that first emerald ash borer infestation was discovered in Ohio, she identified it and changed the course of conservation across our entire region and Ohio.
Her impact goes far. She has taught, mentored, and inspired thousands of students and strengthened both our rural roots and urban canopy.
Amy Stone has elevated northwest Ohio to be sustainable, stronger, more arable, healthier, and greener than she found it.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with great pride to recognize a historic moment for my hometown of Tucson and Arizona's Seventh Congressional District: the naming of Monica Prieto as the chief of the Tucson Police Department, the first woman to ever serve in this role over the department's 155-year existence.
Chief Prieto has dedicated more than 25 years to public service, starting in 1999 and rising through the ranks, serving in multiple divisions across the department throughout the community, including most recently as deputy chief.
Having been born and raised in Tucson, including graduating from CD07's own Desert View High School, Chief Prieto knows this community, knows this department, and she understands the people she serves.
This appointment is a testament to her leadership, her commitment, and her trust that she has built throughout the city and with her colleagues over the decades.
I am proud to congratulate Chief Prieto, and I look forward to her leadership as she helps guide Tucson forward. ``Congratulations''; ``felicidades'' to Chief Prieto.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate, honor, and recognize Dr. T.A. Sims, who we just lost recently. He was the longest serving member of the Fort Worth Independent School District and did an outstanding job and left a lasting impact on the lives of so many students and so many of our residents in Fort Worth.
His dedication to the board lasted for more than 35 years. He was elected in
Throughout his tenure, he championed vocational programs, advocated for students who needed additional support, and worked to strengthen community involvement in our local schools.
He was an amazing member and a very loyal Methodist.
I want to give special recognition to his family that stood by him for so many years: his wife, Nancy; his three children; and his grandchildren. He really was someone who was a testament to believing in kids, faith, and built an amazing legacy during his tenure on the board. He was a dear, dear friend of mine, and we are going to miss him so much.
Mr. Speaker, we thank him for his years of service. We thank his family for the many years of service in which he gave, and, T.A. Sims, I want you to know up there that you made a big difference in everyone's life. We will miss you, sir.
Mr. Speaker, for 35 years, PeaceHealth Hospital, the only level II trauma center between Corvallis, Oregon, and Crescent City, California, abruptly ended its contract with our local emergency room staffing group, Eugene Emergency Physicians.
With little notice and significant local opposition, PeaceHealth has awarded the contract to a Georgia-based management and medical staffing firm, Apollo.
Beyond losing locally based physicians who have met or exceeded performance standards in a hospital that has refused to address the lack of adequate patient care rooms, the Apollo Group appears to be a shell company set up to get around Oregon's law to ban the corporate practice of medicine.
The Apollo Group bills itself as physician-owned; however, their office houses 40 local groups in Atlanta, which also houses ValorBridge, a venture capital fund managed by the same person who manages the Apollo staffing firm.
When my office asked PeaceHealth CEO Jim McGovern about the obvious conflict, he said: ``That is just a side hustle.'' Uber is a side hustle. Corporate practice of medicine is not a side hustle.
Allowing venture capital firms and hedge funds to siphon money from our healthcare system instead of providing quality, affordable, and appropriate care to our communities is what is wrong with our healthcare system. We need to follow Oregon's lead and make this practice illegal.
Mr. Speaker, Trump and Republicans are the party of mass deportations and family separations. That is right, Republicans are the party of putting children in prison, 3-year-olds and 5-year- olds, inflicting lifelong trauma on our children.
What happened to family values?
Mr. Speaker, let me tell you about 5-year-old Gael, whom I met in Dilley, Texas. He was totally bloated. He hadn't gone to the bathroom in 8 days. He went to the medical center. They pretty much dismissed him, saying, ``Oh, here are some laxatives,'' and let him go, a 5-year- old in pain and suffering. This is how they are treating our children. It is disgusting, and it needs to end.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material into the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Oregon?
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you about a second grader named Diana Crespo-Gonzalez. She loves to draw, and she loves school.
On January 16, she was sick. She had a persistent fever, her nose wouldn't stop bleeding, and her parents did what any good parents would do. They took their child to see a doctor. They never made it inside.
Instead, immigration agents surrounded their car. The parents pleaded with the agents to just let their daughter get seen.
Think about that for a second, Mr. Speaker. Put yourself in their car, wondering if you made a mistake by taking your child to a doctor.
Shortly after, Diana and her parents were detained and transported 2,000 miles from their home in Gresham, Oregon, to the Dilley child family detention facility in Texas, the largest child detention facility in the United States.
I will say that again: the largest child detention facility in the United States. That is a sentence that should not exist.
The conditions at Dilley are not just bad; they are indefensible and inhumane. The food is inedible. One father detained there with his child said: ``We were given wormy food, and when someone spoke out about it and said that the children should get better food, he was taken in the middle of the night and threatened that he and his family would be separated.''
Another said: ``Sometimes there are strange things in the food, and it seems like strange parts of an animal that shouldn't be in the food, but many children do not eat the food here. It worries me when there are so many small children who are just not eating.''
A 14-year-old said that his 7-year-old brother stopped eating entirely. Many report that the water is not drinkable, that it is too salty, and that it smells of chemicals. If you do drink it, your stomach turns with pain.
It is not just food and water, but the foundation of human life. As if that weren't bad enough, these kids and families are also being deprived of sleep, healthcare, and education. Children inside have reported ideas of self-harm, even suicide.
A 14-year-old who was detained for 45 days said: ``Since I got to this center, all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression.''
Mr. Speaker, if you advocate for yourself, or as a parent advocating for your child, there is the threat of retaliation.
One father said: ``We are scared to ask for anything because the officers start threatening us that they will put us in different detention centers and put our children in foster care.''
This is where they sent Diana, a second grader who just needed to see a doctor.
I couldn't stand back while she was in prison there, and I had a chance to help. One of the most important lessons I have learned in my first year in Congress, Mr. Speaker, is that you cannot defend your constituents from behind a desk. Showing up and advocating for the people you represent matters.
So I traveled to Texas with plane tickets in hand to bring Diana and her parents back to Oregon. When I arrived, officials repeatedly blocked my entry, giving shifting and contradictory explanations as to why.
I was told I could not enter because of measles cases, despite an officer telling me just the day before that there were no active cases and no risk.
I was told to leave. I was told to wait. I was told nothing at all. The message was clear: Don't look too closely.
Oversight isn't optional. When ICE blocked me from entering, I made it clear that if they would not let me in, they would at least bring my constituents out to speak with me. After hours of waiting and arguing, ICE actually did more than that. They released the Crespo-Gonzalez family altogether. I was able to escort them home.
Diana made it home, but there are children today who are still trapped in Dilley. Legally, children are not supposed to be in custody for more than 20 days, yet dozens of children have been
It is not just children who have been detained who feel the trauma of this immigration crackdown. Children in my district live in fear of the ICE man. He comes to them in their dreams, and it worries them that they are going to come to get them or a loved one. I heard it from a teacher in Oregon who shared how devastating ICE's presence has been for her students.
She said: ``Many students stopped coming to school for weeks, either because parents did not feel safe to bring them to school or students did not feel safe to leave their parents, knowing they might come home to an empty house.''
Across this country, ICE is targeting children outside of schools, outside of clinics, and outside of their own homes. Immigration enforcement against children is inhumane and unnecessary. Families can and should be able to navigate their immigration cases together and in community, with the support of loved ones and legal services.
This is about who we are and who we want to be as a country. Kids need care and compassion, not cruelty and cages.
Today, we will spotlight the importance of ending cruel immigration enforcement against children once and for all.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko), who is my co-host for this important event.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I thank Congresswoman Dexter for being such a strong and bold voice for justice and fairness in this House. She is such a great, welcome addition to the Caucus and to the House, and we appreciate her work.
We are convening this effort because of the urgent discussion that is necessary to bring very strong, laser-sharp focus to this issue.
The Trump administration has repeatedly shown that it is willing to use any method in its brutal and inhumane immigration agenda. That includes detaining kids like 5-year-old Liam Ramos on his way home from school in January in Minnesota or ending longstanding guidance that banned immigration enforcement activities at sensitive locations like our hospitals, courthouses, or schools. It includes putting a former ICE official in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, the agency responsible for unaccompanied children.
It is no surprise, then, that this administration is treating unaccompanied children like criminals. Often, these children arriving in the United States without a parent or guardian are fleeing persecution, violence, and trafficking.
Congress expressly authorized the ORR to care for unaccompanied children with a separate charge from immigration enforcement. However, tragically, over the past year, the ORR and ICE have become one and the same, and it is traumatizing our children.
Unaccompanied children are now being held by ORR for an average of over 200 days. Let me repeat that. Kids who are alone who have fled all that they have ever known are being held by our government for over half a year of their life. They thought they were coming to America for a better life.
In many instances, these facilities are failing to provide basic care to these children. Yet, they continue to hold these kids even when they have a family member who is ready to care for them outside of ORR custody.
Take Diego. His father was approved to care for him after he arrived unaccompanied in 2024, but he was re-detained in November of 2025 and held for 4 months because of a new DNA requirement by ORR.
To make matters worse, ORR is now sharing data and information on potential sponsors with ICE, so many parents and family members who want to care for these children are frightened to provide any information that could lead to their arrest or their detention. On several occasions, ICE has used these kids as a lure, a lure to detain family members.
Carlos, a father with temporary protected status, was detained during a December 2025 appointment with ICE in New Mexico that he thought was a regular step in his effort to reunify with his 14- and 16-year-old children who had been held in ORR custody for almost a year.
While Carlos was released on a judge's order, his children are still in ORR custody. His son is now 15 and regularly has panic attacks. His daughter is afraid that she will wait for her father forever. That is despicable. These draconian tactics are creating lasting trauma for these kids and their families, and we are already seeing the effects.
No child should have to worry about whether they will be used as bait by the government. No child should sit in detention for months on end. No child should face additional trauma here in our United States.
This issue is deeply personal for me. As a once-New York State legislator, one of my proudest accomplishments was passing Timothy's Law, which enacted mental health care parity across the State of New York. The law was named after a young constituent of mine, Timothy O'Clair, who, after suffering with mental illness and not receiving the care that he needed, took his own life at 12 years of age.
We must take the mental health of children seriously. They are not pawns. They are not bait. They are not criminals. They are children who deserve care. Stop traumatizing children. Stop the cruel immigration enforcement against our kids.
Mr. Speaker, I thank both my colleagues for holding this Special Order. It is such an important issue that so many of our constituents care about. I know that, representing my home State of Vermont, people are just absolutely outraged by what is happening.
I am a former teacher. I am also a mom of two teenagers, and I know deep in my bones that we have to care for all our children. When I see ICE targeting children and using kids as bait to get to their parents, I feel sick. I am disgusted.
What has happened to our humanity, our moral compass in this country?
From the start of Trump's term until last October, at least 3,800 kids were booked into ICE custody. This includes roughly 500 children under the age of 5 and at least 20 infants.
Do you remember the experience of Liam Ramos? He was 5 years old when he was picked up. He was 5. I remember what my kids were doing when they were 5. My son and daughter were learning how to spell their names. They were learning how to count to 10. They were drawing and singing and riding their bikes. They were running around with wild abandon on a playground.
This is what we are talking about when we talk about 5-year-old kids. Our government is locking them up with our taxpayer money. This is who President Trump and Stephen Miller want us to believe are villains in our national story. They are kids. They are kids.
As my colleague said: What is happening in these facilities? They don't have clean water. They don't have food that they can eat that isn't filled with worms. Think about that. There is nothing that justifies treating children like this. Nothing.
They are our kids, and I am using that because it is the truth of the matter. It is not somebody else's kids. These are our kids. They live in our communities. They live in our districts, and we should care about all of our kids. Every single child in this country deserves care and humane treatment. It is that simple.
What is happening at the hands of ICE is an abomination. Kids are not the enemy. I can't believe I even have to say that on the floor of the House of Representatives of the United States of America, that kids are not the enemy. This is a fundamental question of decency and who we claim to be as Americans.
Are we a country that looks at a child and sees innocence and wonder and potential or are we looking at a child and seeing some kind of enemy, an enemy of the people?
This is absurd. This is unconscionable. Again, it is happening with our
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Dexter and Tonko for shining a spotlight on the impact on children from the enforcement efforts of ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents.
Here is what is happening in communities across the country: A 1- year-old baby and his parents are pepper-sprayed while driving to the grocery store.
A high school student was zip-tied and detained on his way to school despite his U.S. citizenship, and he was detained for several days.
Families with children were ripped out of bed in the dead of night, zip-tied, and detained after the apartments that they lived in were raided by agents using military helicopters, so Kristi Noem could get her videos.
Children at a daycare were startled, scared, and traumatized by the armed agents bursting into their classrooms, chasing one of their teachers to abduct her.
These scenes are not from a war zone. These are violent incidents that happened in Cicero, in Roscoe Village, in South Shore, and in my own neighborhood of Little Village in Chicagoland.
Those were ICE and CBP agents, paid by our tax dollars, committing atrocities, targeting my constituents and their children because of the color of their skin or the places where their parents worked.
More than 500 children were being held at the immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, in January alone. Many for more than twice the 20 days that the law allows the government to hold children in detention.
We have seen the pictures drawn by some of these children. Their letters longing for their friends, schools, and families, a return to normalcy. Then the administration took away their crayons and paper so that people outside the detention center wouldn't learn what was happening inside.
Right now, two of my constituents are detained at Dilley, a mother and her 13-year-old son who were taken by ICE at a routine check-in appointment. Both had developed serious physical and mental issues, but ICE is denying them medical attention and medication.
They are not the only ones. Children have suffered for months because of the abuses of ICE and CBP agents. Many of them may never overcome the trauma caused by their time in detention and the violent actions of our own government.
The stories I shared are just some of the children we know about. There are hundreds of children terrorized by ICE who we don't know about.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my Republican colleagues, what is the purpose of imprisoning innocent children? No moral or legal argument exists to justify imprisoning and neglecting children. I implore my Republican colleagues to care for these children as if they were our own. Anything less is inexcusable.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to share Steven's story. Who is Steven some may ask?
Steven is a constituent, and he is a 14-year-old boy, an eighth grader with autism, who spent 66 days incarcerated in Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
Steven and his dad are finally back home with their family and the community that loves them. However, this past Monday, I accompanied Steven and his father, Victor, to their check-in at ICE. I witnessed firsthand the pain and the trauma caused by the cruelty of separation and detention. Each day that Steven spent in inhumane and unsanitary conditions in Dilley took a toll on this little boy.
Steven didn't want to go to his check-in on Monday because the last time he showed up for the check-in with his father as he had been told, he was kidnapped for 66 days.
When he got there and he saw me, he was grateful, but I can see the great distress in the face of this little boy. I saw a child as we went in for his check-in cower in the corner of a chair in the fetal position with his ears covered because he was so afraid to hear the words that he and his father heard the last time he was there. He was so afraid of going back to detention.
Let me say it and let me say it loud and clear in the people's House. Shame on every person in this country who thinks it is acceptable to terrorize children. Shame on you who talk about being the party of children and family who is locking them up in cages, who is separating them from their loved ones, from their community, denying them from air, from Sun, from play, from laughter, from joy, and every single thing a baby, a child deserves.
President Mandela said: ``There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.''
Incarcerating children is an evil, morally bankrupt practice that calls into question any commitment our Nation has or claims to care about their preciousness.
We must unleash our collective outrage. Don't look away and don't normalize children in cages. We must demand that no other children experience what Steven has experienced or more than 3,800 children have experienced in ICE so far.
We will melt ICE, and I have a bill to do just that. We will dismantle the Department of Homeland Security because, frankly, at this juncture, nothing less is acceptable.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Trump administration's careless and cruel family separation policies.
Experts like the Society for Research and Child Development and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that immigration detention and separation is a deeply traumatic, adverse childhood experience causing post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is never in the best interest of the child.
Yet, day after day, ICE continues to abduct children from their families, subjecting them to prisonlike confinement and conditions and exposing them to lifelong trauma.
Since President Trump took office, the number of children held in ICE detention each day has increased sixfold. By October 2025, at least 3,800 children had entered ICE custody and more than 1,300 of them were detained for over 20 days.
Mr. Speaker, these are not just numbers. These are real children, human beings whose lives have been disrupted and damaged permanently.
DHS facilities often fail to meet the basic standards of care, decent and adequate food, including medical care and mental health care. We just cannot stand by and watch while the administration forcibly separates families, inflicts long-term trauma on our Nation's youth, and strips our youth of safety and dignity.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has unleashed a cruelty that really knows no limits.
Trump's ICE agents have beaten, tear-gassed, and murdered innocent people. They have wrongfully detained and deported U.S. citizens, but nothing demonstrates the cruelty of this administration more than the way that they have treated children, children, as we have heard today.
There has been a sixfold increase in the daily number of children in ICE detention under Trump. these are children like Liam Conejo Ramos, the little boy in the blue hat who was detained on his walk home from school and sent to the Dilley Family Detention center, or children like Susej, a 9-year-old detained at Dilley, who, in a letter released by ProPublica, wrote: ``I miss my school and my friends. . . . I have been here too long.'' She is a 9-year-old girl.
My wife and I have two daughters, and the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 127 that children are a blessing. They are not a burden. They are a blessing. I can tell you for a fact that our children
I think every parent, when they saw that little boy with the blue hat, remembered their child and said: How can we be doing this in our own country? What an immorality and what an injustice this is. Yet, we do it, and we do it every day.
These children have been held captive in detention and are missing their friends. They are falling behind at school and facing deplorable conditions, as we have heard today. Their health and wellness are deteriorating.
It is just not detention. Kids across the country are struggling under the constant threat of ICE. Children are being wrongfully deported. They deserve better.
We will never forget the nightmare this administration has inflicted on children across our country. It is going to leave an indelible mark, an evil mark. We must hold this administration and ICE accountable. We cannot accept anything less. Remember our own children.
Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that I have many friends on the other side, and I cherish their friendship. I pray with them on Thursdays. I know they love children. I know they love their own children. Yet, to allow this to happen is immoral, it is a crime, and we have to do something about this together.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Washington and the ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement (Ms. Jayapal).
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Dexter and Tonko for hosting this incredibly important Special Order hour.
Since Donald Trump was sworn in 14 months ago, DHS has terrorized our children. Every single day 50 U.S. citizen children have had a parent detained, on average, and over 11,000 American children in total. After Trump restarted the cruel practice of detaining families and children, ICE has jailed about 3,500 adults and children. That includes over 900 children jailed beyond the 20-day legal limit set by longstanding legal settlement.
More and more children are forced to appear in court alone as Trump has cut funding for legal representation. Let's talk about what this all looks like.
In Washington State, ICE arrested a mother dropping off her 4-year- old son at a preschool.
In Oregon, masked ICE agents broke the car windows and arrested a father dropping off his son at preschool.
In Chicago, ICE dragged a daycare worker out of the facility, slammed her face against the daycare's glass doors, and arrested her.
Recently, in Vermont, the community surrounded a home for hours as ICE sought to enter without a warrant. Demonstrators created a human tunnel allowing a 4-year-old child wrapped in a blanket to escape the home. Her mother was desperate to get her to safety.
This is horrifying. We can't talk about any of this without recognizing the toll on our educators and our daycare workers who are on the front lines doing everything they can to protect our children, even as many of them are immigrants as well and face threats to their own safety.
We have also seen Federal agents use physical violence and chemical weapons indiscriminately.
In Chicago, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino deployed tear gas in a residential neighborhood as children were gathering for a Halloween parade. In the words of a Federal judge: These kids, their sense of safety was shattered, and it is going to take a long time for that to come back.
In Minneapolis, ICE deployed tear gas near a family in their car, causing a 6-month-old baby to stop breathing.
All of this leads to lasting trauma for our children, regardless of their immigration status or whether they have an immigrant parent or a family member.
Here is what Allison Bassett Ratto, a child clinical psychologist, has said about the harms to children: What they see are their classmates, their family members, and their neighbors often being apprehended in violent and confusing ways while doing things like picking up their children from the bus stop or going to their jobs. For children, this creates a sense that nowhere and no one is safe. The stress, the anxiety, and the trauma can become chronic, leading to both immediate and long-term damage to children's mental and physical health.
Tomorrow, as ranking member of the Immigration Subcommittee, I will be holding a hearing entitled: Trump's Assault on Our Children, and we will have legal and medical experts, educators, and directly impacted people who will testify to the harms and the trauma being caused to our children.
Donald Trump ran on going after the so-called worst of the worst. It has been very clear that this was never his intent. He made it clear that chaos and cruelty go hand in hand with mass deportation. It is inflicting lasting trauma on our children, regardless of immigration status.
Do not close your eyes. Do not close your eyes to this harm that our own government is inflicting on our children. Do not talk about Christian values or any other religious value and then traumatize our children.
Mr. Speaker, we will not stop fighting against this horror. We will not stop because it is our responsibility in this body to make sure that our government is not traumatizing these kids.
Mr. Speaker, a 9-year-old boy named Deiver, told Ms. Rachel, a well-known online educator in a recent interview: Can you help us leave here? I don't want to be here anymore. I want to leave and go to the spelling bee.
This is so heartbreaking, cruel, and reprehensible. It shows the real harm caused by immigration policies pushed by Trump. The Republican Party isn't just watching. It is supporting, defending, and funding it. Our children, ``our babies,'' ``nuestros ninos,'' are being locked in detention, separated from their families, and traumatized.
There are too many stories like Deiver's, and each one is a moral failure of our government and this administration. No family deserves this. No one deserves this.
Deiver has been released. But what about the hundreds of babies and children who haven't? Who will be torn from their parents next? Who will be disappeared next?
These children don't belong locked away in jails. They belong in classrooms. They belong at school, learning, dreaming, and preparing for spelling bees, not living in constant fear that they will be taken away from their family and friends, and disappeared.
How does locking up our babies make this country safer? This is not politics.
Mr. Speaker, this is a moral crisis, and it is on all of us, on every single one of us, to act.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Dexter and Congressman Tonko for hosting this conversation that shines a light on ICE's cruelty.
I have seen firsthand the cruelty of ICE in my district, the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.
Last year, a mother and two children were detained at the Van Nuys Courthouse after a judge dismissed their asylum case. They were immediately taken by ICE and sent to the Dilley detention center in Texas. My casework team worked to release them from ICE custody and return them back to Van Nuys.
I am grateful for my team, for working to keep my constituents safe, and for helping to bring them home.
However, they never should have been in this position. My constituents were following the rules and obeying the laws, and ICE still took them and sent them to Texas to live in horrid conditions.
They were part of the over 68,000 people who have been in ICE detention, and the kids were part of the over 3,800 children booked into ICE custody.
ICE is terrorizing families and inflicting unspeakable harm on our most vulnerable. Despite all of this, Donald Trump and Republicans continue to refuse to hold ICE accountable. Children, parents, and our communities are
Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to cohost this Special Order with Congresswoman Dexter. Again, I thank the gentlewoman for her caring voice.
Obviously, listening to these horrific stories that are impacting our children in this Nation is very difficult to absorb.
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement has increased its coordination with ICE. That partnership is very troublesome. It bothers me to think of what can happen. ORR is sharing data on prospective guardians for unaccompanied children with ICE, and then ICE is increasingly using these children as lures to detain family members.
Our children should not be used as pawns. This, as a civilized nation, has an image cast to the entire world. A civilized nation nurtures its children. A civilized nation respects its children. A civilized nation loves its children. Where is our moral compass here?
Beyond the impact on these children and families, beyond the hurt and the physical and mental damage, there is an image cast to the entire world. This uncivilized behavior is a scar on our history. It is one that indicates that unaccompanied children are now waiting an average of more than 200 days in ORR detention, despite the many, many family members who are ready and able to care for them.
That is more than double the highest average seen during the first Trump administration of some 93 days and, yes, more than six times as long as the 30-day average seen under the Biden administration.
The Office of Inspector General found that the longer that children remain in ORR custody, the more likely they are to exhibit mental health or behavioral issues.
Think about that. We are inflicting damage on children, innocent children escaping harm in their native land, perhaps, or asking just to live their version of the American Dream. Longer stays in ORR detention are leading to more instances of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
We can, and we must, do better.
Mr. Speaker, it is so important that these stories are shared this afternoon with the American public because they challenge us. They inspire us to respond, to reach out to our Representatives, and to speak to this government about the way that it is conducting itself in regard to children. They are not pawns. They should not be impacted so severely and have lifetime damage.
We are a better people than that. We are a better nation than that. We are proud as a country and should maintain that sense of pride by doing right, by doing just, and by doing fair by all children, our children.
With that, I see we have been joined by another colleague.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today because our country has normalized something that should never be normal: locking up kids. Under the Trump administration, ICE has detained thousands of children, many of them under 5 years old.
As a Representative from San Diego, an immigrant and border community, I have seen firsthand the consequences of our immigration system. As someone who has spent my career working on human rights, I can tell you that this is state-sanctioned child abuse.
These children are not threats. They are not statistics. They are kids, some just babies and toddlers, who have fled violence, poverty, and instability. They have done nothing wrong. Many have experienced trauma before they ever set foot on American soil.
Instead of care and instead of compassion, we are detaining them and traumatizing them for life.
To be honest, I don't actually care what their parents may or may not have done. Children should not be punished for their parents' actions.
Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago, I went to the Dilley immigration detention center in Texas, the primary site for family detention in our country. What I saw and what I heard would rattle any parent, and it should disturb everyone.
Kids have nightmares so bad that they wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Teenagers are regressing developmentally and wetting the bed. The classrooms were empty. The playground was empty. There was no joy or laughter, just the look of fear and despair in people's eyes.
The mom of a 3-year-old told me that her daughter was anxious and depressed, but the nurse said that she was fine because she hadn't lost too much weight yet, so they didn't help her.
This kind of fear and uncertainty doesn't just go away. It will follow these kids. It will shape their development and leave lasting scars.
This isn't just my observation. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said for years that detaining children causes toxic stress that can permanently alter brain development. Pediatricians call it institutional harm.
When medical professionals are telling us that what we are doing to these kids causes the same neurological damage as physical abuse, we need to stop calling it immigration policy and start calling it for what it is.
I know immigration is complicated. I know that there are strong opinions on all sides of this issue, but protecting children should not be controversial. Ensuring that children are treated with dignity and care should not be political or partisan. Apparently, it is because the Republican Party, the so-called profamily party, is complicit in child abuse.
I won't be complicit. My colleagues and I will not be complicit. We need to shut down Dilley and end family detention for good. We need to reject the idea that locking up children and their parents is an acceptable response to migration.
That means Congress needs to do its job and cut off funding for family detention and claw back the $75 billion blank check that was given to ICE and Border Patrol.
While we are at it, not a single committee in this House has held a hearing on conditions inside family detention facilities, not one. Republicans control every gavel in this building, and they have conducted zero oversight of what is being done to children in our government's custody. If they won't do oversight, we will. When we have the majority, Dilley will be the first place we go.
Many of us in this Chamber have children of our own. While I don't have kids yet, I wouldn't be able to live with myself and look my four nieces and nephews in the eyes if I weren't doing everything in my power to protect all kids.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to look their kids in their eyes tonight and imagine them locked up in these conditions, and then work with us to end family detention.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Dexter for her leadership on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I spent 20 years taking care of the sickest members of our community as a critical care and pulmonary physician. I have seen what happens when people aren't able to get the care that they need: Preventable illnesses escalate and become deadly.
At Dilley, there have been repeated reports of children's medical needs not being met, resulting in life-threatening health problems. That includes a 2-year-old with infected gums that Dilley staff did not treat for over 23 days, leading her to have a fever and infection, cry relentlessly, and be forced to have a diet of only liquids.
It includes an 18-month-old baby who went to the hospital for 10 days when her oxygen levels were dangerously low and a 10-year-old child with Hirschsprung's disease who lacked proper medical care, resulting in no bowel movements for over a month.
Families report something even more disturbing. When they ask for help, they are dismissed, belittled, and mocked. One person reported that they were laughed at by guards while vomiting and pleading to see a doctor.
If any hospital in this country treated children this way, we would shut it down. We would investigate. We would hold people accountable. Instead, our tax dollars are funding it. It is reprehensible.
I call on my colleagues for an immediate end to cruel immigration enforcement against children. Defund and dismantle ICE.
Mr. Speaker, I yield again to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).
Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate the opportunity for all of us to share our thoughts here this afternoon.
I am reminded that ICE has been re-detaining children who were previously approved to stay with family members. It seems as though cruel has to be the additive to all of these actions. It is not enough to take that first step and then re-detain and then sponsors are being asked to provide additional information, including fingerprints and DNA.
So there is an all-out attempt to dismantle the peace and tranquility of so many families and to make, again, children, pawns in this process.
Discharges to sponsors have declined dramatically. Over 5,000 unaccompanied children were released to an individual sponsor back in January of 2025. What does that number look like now? In April, that number dropped to just 45. So, again, the cruelty continues.
We see on the news every day the plummeting of the Trump administration's popularity, and that is pretty much earned. America disrespects the kind of behavior that is the hallmark of this administration--creating trauma amongst children and parents. They must end cruel immigration enforcement against kids now.
I know that we have been joined by our colleague from Texas now to hear his story.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to give my colleague just a moment and tell you about a family who are not immigrants with children. They are Americans, four Americans. Jackie Merlos and her children went to the Canadian border with her mother, who had a visiting visa from Honduras to come and see her sister and her nieces and nephews who live in Canada as permanent legal residents.
They drove to the Peace Park. They went there to have a family reunion, a picnic. There was no intention for any misguided actions. They just wanted to have a picnic and a reunion.
Now, Jackie has an asylum case, an active asylum case. She has lived in the United States for over 20 years and has an active work permit. She has done everything right. As they hugged, ICE agents, CBP agents swarmed the family and detained all of them.
Now, luckily, her sister lives in Canada where they released her fairly quickly, but Jackie was accused of human trafficking, as if her sister and her nieces and nephews wanted to come into the United States. She was kept with her four children, 7-year-old triplets and their 9-year-old, in a windowless cell at the border in Ferndale, Washington, for 2 weeks--over 2 weeks.
This is not a facility meant for long-term detention. It is a facility meant for 48-hours-or-less stays. There are no showers. There is no kitchen to make food for them. They kept them there.
I had the ability to go and see this family, but I wasn't allowed to talk to them. We were told that they were being sent back home and that Jackie had asked for that. It was a lie. Jackie had never signed any paperwork. She has four U.S. children. She knew she had done everything right, and she refused. But we were lied to. I, as a U.S. Congresswoman, was lied to.
Eventually, we had a habeas corpus case, and Jackie was released. Her children had been released as they were about to deport them.
Let me also say that her husband was taken into detention after her children were questioned individually, without their mother there, by CBP agents. They asked where they live and how much money do they make. Their father was detained from their own home. He was detained to the Northwest Detention Center.
While he was there, Customs and Border Patrol took pictures of the children and took them to their father and asked: Is this your child? They had him sign something. Well, he was signing passport applications. He reads Spanish. The applications were in English.
Our government was trying to deport, which isn't really a thing at all, American citizens against the will of their parents, and they lied to a U.S. Congresswoman about whether or not they wanted to be sent home. They wouldn't allow me to see Jackie. They wouldn't let me talk to her. They absolutely were on the border, the fringe of sending them. They were at SeaTac Airport being sent when we finally got them to cease and desist.
This is what your taxpayer dollars are paying for. These are U.S. citizen children with a mother who had done everything right. Shame on us. This has to stop.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for yielding.
We have seen and we have witnessed the brutality on the streets of America by ICE. We saw two Americans killed, and many people brutalized.
Just the other day, in the San Francisco Airport, we saw a mother who was ripped away from her 9-year-old daughter. We saw that replayed in courthouses across the country, in neighborhoods, in cities across America. We have seen that mostly on television or social media as people have posted it up.
There is another brutality that most Americans have not gotten a chance to see that Congresswoman Dexter and I have witnessed, that only Members of Congress and a few others have had a chance to see. It is also a brutality by ICE. It is the way that children and families are treated at the Dilley trailer prison in Dilley, Texas.
I have been there multiple times now, and I have seen the suffering of the young kids who will be traumatized for life. As you know, they have talked about worms in their food, about being separated from a parent. There are some there who have no clue why they are there.
Dilley is unique in America in that I can't think of another place where you would imprison a 5-year-old boy like Liam Ramos who has committed no crime.
During this discussion and this debate about these prisons, there has been a temptation to direct the anger at ICE and at the people that work there, and I certainly understand that. But there is another group of people that we don't talk about much who are making millions, if not billions of dollars off of child suffering. As a country, we have made a decision to commodify child suffering, to allow investors to profit from child imprisonment, innocent child imprisonment.
There was a baby at Dilley that was 2 months old. The first time I went there I asked who the youngest child was, and I was told a 2-month old baby. Some of the largest asset managers, BlackRock, Vanguard have stakes in these private prison companies in CoreCivic that runs Dilley or GO that ran the south Texas ICE processing center where we visited several weeks ago.
We have to shut down the Dilley Detention Center, that trailer prison that has done so much damage to the kids and to the families who are there, kids like the mariachi boys who came to this Capitol at the invitation of their Congresswoman and performed their mariachi music, toured the White House, and yet, along with their parents were thrown into this trailer prison in Dilley.
Fortunately, because of an ensemble effort and so many Americans that spoke up, Members of Congress that spoke up, this wonderful group of pediatric doctors, mostly women who have been very active in pleading people's cases, they were released. Also, fortunately, at Dilley the first time I went there in January there were 1,100 people there. The next time there were 450 people. On Monday, there were only 102 people still at the Dilley trailer prison.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank all of my colleagues who joined us today and who spoke with such clarity and urgency. What we heard this afternoon makes one thing clear: Immigration enforcement against children is inhumane and unnecessary.
Families can and should be able to navigate their immigration cases together and in community, with the support of loved ones and legal service providers.
Detention harms children. It harms their physical health. It harms their mental health. Even after they are released, that trauma stays with them for life.
For so many children, the harm starts long before detention ever happens. It starts with fear.
For months now, every single school group that has come into my office or that I have visited has raised ICE as one of its top concerns. Elementary students, middle schoolers, high schoolers, even college students, for all of them, ICE is their top concern.
At a time when teachers aren't getting paid enough, and the Department of Education is getting gutted, young people are coming to Congress and asking: How can we stop our friends from being taken away?
This administration is traumatizing an entire generation. That is why we are here today to call for an end to cruel immigration enforcement against children.
End child detention. Defund and dismantle ICE, and save our children from this nightmare.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on a moral crisis unfolding in our country. One that demands the attention of my Republican colleagues and the American people.
Last month, in Portland, Oregon, a seven-year-old girl was detained outside an urgent care clinic while her family sought medical help. Just weeks earlier, a five-year-old was detained while walking home from school in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. These are not isolated incidents. These are children, frightened, vulnerable, and in need of care, caught in an indiscriminate immigration enforcement dragnet.
After their arrests, both children were transferred with their families to the Dilley Family Detention Center in Texas, where reports detail inadequate medical care, limited drinking water, poor nutrition, and little access to education. These are conditions no child should endure, let alone in the custody of the United States government.
Although public outcry and legal intervention led to their release, hundreds of other children remain detained. Many are held for months-- over 180 days on average--in facilities never designed for long-term care. They suffer deep psychological harm: anxiety, depression, and trauma compounded by separation and uncertainty.
Policies implemented through the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) are now effectively prolonging detention. Barriers to family reunification, like invasive sponsor requirements and information- sharing with enforcement agencies, trap children in custody, often indefinitely. Some are even pressured to abandon their legal rights and return to dangerous conditions.
This is not who we are. Children seeking safety should not be treated as enforcement targets. They should be protected, cared for, and given a fair chance to pursue their legal rights.
Congress must act. We must conduct oversight, end family detention, restore due process protections, and ensure children are placed in the least restrictive settings.
History will judge us not by our rhetoric, but by whether we chose compassion over cruelty. Let us choose wisely.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Texas?
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues from the Sharia-Free America Caucus, which my good friend and fellow Texan Congressman Chip Roy and I proudly co-chair.
Just today, we added our 60th member. I am delighted to announce that the caucus now has representation from 25 States across the United States, which is half of all the States in this Union.
America was founded on a timeless principle, individual freedom secured by self-government under our clear and supreme rule of constitutional law.
As John Adams warned: ``Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.''
Today, we witness the painful truth of those words. Multitudes arrive at our borders with no intention of assimilating into our culture or embracing the founding principles of liberty under the U.S. Constitution.
The clash is not new. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams asked the Ambassador from Tripoli why his nation attacked peaceful countries with no provocation. He replied that it was their right and duty under their laws of the prophet and the Koran to make war on all who do not acknowledge Islamic authority to enslave prisoners and that every fighter slain would go to paradise.
This was then and remains today a stark contrast of civilizations, one rooted in submission and domination, the other in individual liberty under constitutional law.
Sharia poses a unique and profound danger. It is far more than a personal faith. It is a comprehensive system of governance, culture, and domination that enforces submission through violence.
All cultures are not morally equivalent. Whereas, Christianity is the religion of peace, reconciliation, and love, Islam is a religion of the sword. It stands in direct irreconcilable conflict with a maximum individual freedom at the heart of Western civilization and our Judeo- Christian heritage.
Our rights derive from our creator, not from any man-made supremacist code. America gladly welcomes those who come to assimilate and worship freely according to conscience, but we must never accommodate a system that demands the submission of every surrounding society. And sharia explicitly requires precisely that.
The evidence is mounting right here in my home State, the Lone Star State. In my own Congressional District, Texas' Third District, the East Plano Islamic Center, one of the largest mosques in north Texas, already operates a sharia-adherent enclave in Plano. This is not merely a house of worship. It serves as the foundation for something far more troubling.
The same organization spearheaded a proposed 400-plus acre residential development in unincorporated Collin and Hunt Counties near Josephine originally called EPIC City now rebranded as The Meadow to deflect scrutiny and confusion over its separatist intent.
Marketed as a Muslim-centric community, it was designed around sharia-adherent living, over 1,000 homes, a new mosque, a K-12 school, and other facilities tailored to enforce submission rather than assimilation.
Both the existing EPIC enclave and this affiliated project are abominations that threaten American principles of equality, individual liberty, and the rule of law.
We have seen alarming incidents of Muslim intimidation. An imam in Dallas called the police on a fellow Muslim for merely speaking to a Christian pastor. Another in Houston captured on video threatening to occupy noncompliant businesses under sharia.
Texas is seeing explosive growth with roughly 48 new mosques in just the last 2 years.
That is why on March 3, Texas Republicans overwhelmingly passed proposition 10 with 95 percent support, a clear mandate to ban sharia in our State.
Texans have spoken: American law only. No foreign ideology should make Americans feel like foreigners in their own country. Texas stands as ground zero in this fight. Yet, this is not just a Texas issue. Sharia's influence is advancing from Arizona to Minnesota to Alabama, Florida, and beyond. No State is immune. That is why our caucus has surged to 60 members across 25 States bolstered by strong Senate support from figures like Senator Tuberville.
As I have said repeatedly, sharia has no place in America. Do not sharia our America. Defend the West. Ban sharia.
The urgency of this fight was laid bare in the opening days of March when a disturbing wave of Islamist-inspired attacks struck our soil. On March 1, in Austin, a gunman opened fire outside a downtown bar, killing three innocent young Americans and wounding more than a dozen others. The Islamist terrorist, a naturalized citizen from Senegal with prior arrests, wore a sweatshirt proclaiming: ``Property of Allah,'' an undershirt bearing an Iranian flag, and left a Koran in his vehicle.
This was no isolated act.
March has seen multiple incidents linked to Islamist extremism: a failed ISIS-inspired bombing attempt outside Gracie Mansion in New York City on March 7; a vehicle ramming and a shootout at a synagogue in Michigan on March 12, injuring dozens; and an ISIS-inspired shooting at Old Dominion University in Virginia that same day, targeting ROTC members and claiming one life.
These attacks, clustered in a single month, underscore a chilling reality: The enemy is inside the gate, driven by a supremacist ideology that claims divine authority over our Constitution and justifies violence against those who refuse submission.
Nowhere in this ideology is it more barbaric than its treatment of women. Under sharia, women are relegated to second-class status. It explicitly permits wife beating as discipline. Imams have preached that women feel honored by beatings, or liken them to livestock, cows, sheep, horses, and mules, created solely for men's use.
Sharia codifies female genital mutilation, forced child marriage, honor killings, half inheritance for women, and testimony worth half that of a man.
Its nations enforce these rules, from Iran's reign of terror to places where adultery brings stoning, apostasy brings death or public floggings, and men and women live in slavery.
Even more horrifying, sharia permits the rape and enslavement of non- Muslim women, with some scholars openly declaring it permissible under the Koran and hadith. These are not fringe opinions. They are preached publicly, and they are infiltrating Western Civilization.
If you don't believe this is happening, Mr. Speaker, then tell that to the thousands of British teenage girls groomed, plied with alcohol, gang-raped by Muslim gangs, and then arrested by police for being drunk while their rapists go free.
Let me repeat: The victims are arrested. This is sharia. Sharia does not content itself with private practice. It demands eventual dominance over the host culture. Look at France and the U.K., Mr. Speaker, where unchecked immigration has eroded heritage, culture, and freedoms. We cannot allow that fate here in the United States.
According to Islam, many non-Muslims like me are regarded as infidels, and Muslims who convert to Christianity or any other faith are apostates, punishable by death under Islam.
As Karl Popper wisely cautioned: ``Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.'' Mr. Speaker, we must claim the right to not tolerate the intolerant.
Sharia embodies that intolerance, rejecting free speech, equal rights, and constitutional supremacy. We must reject it in turn.
Legislation alone cannot halt this creeping threat. Congress has a sworn duty to act. Seven bills stand ready to ban sharia's influence regarding immigration and legal systems, deporting adherents who promote it, designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as terrorist organizations, strengthening vetting, advancing the PAUSE Act to stop all immigration, and ensuring no court ever considers sharia or any foreign religious code.
Mr. Speaker, the American people demand that we defend the Constitution against ideology seeking to supplant it and replace it. That is why Congressman Roy and I founded this caucus. It has grown rapidly because patriots nationwide are awakening.
Mr. Speaker, I urge every colleague, Republican or Democrat, who believes in American sovereignty to join the Sharia-Free America Caucus today. Let us stand firm: one nation, one Constitution, and one rule of law.
Sharia has no place in America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. He is on the right track. When I was in the Texas House, we were already being concerned about that.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on something that ought to go without saying, but here we are. In the United States of America, as my colleague so eloquently pointed out, there is one law of the land: the Constitution of the United States, period--not foreign law, not some imported systems, not, if I can be a little backward, not nothing else, Mr. Speaker, not anything else, period.
That is why I am proud to stand with my fellow Texan, Congressman Keith Self, and support the Sharia-Free America Caucus.
Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, this is not new for me. I already said back in the Texas House in 2009 through 2012 that it was a problem. We knew it. I tried to get a bill in that actually the chairman of the committee wouldn't take, stating that no court in the State of Texas could use sharia law as a legal basis, none. Yet, he said: Oh, you don't need to fight that battle yet.
That was in 2019. I am afraid we have waited way too long. I led the fight against sharia law back then from ever taking root in our courts. I am so glad that Keith Self, along with Chip Roy, has put this caucus together.
I knew where it was headed back then, and here we are today. Now, we are seeing examples that should wake the folks up who claim to be woke.
In Irving, Texas, Mr. Speaker, you see a neighborhood developed by Hamra Homes with street names like Ali Akbar Court, Salma Jameel Court, and Hasina Drive, all built around a mosque.
Folks can live however they want to and however they choose. That is America. But hear me clearly: You don't bring a separate legal system into the United States of America, not on my watch, not now, not ever.
We are one nation under one Constitution with one standard of law that applies equally to every single American. That is what the Sharia- Free America Caucus is all about. It is about drawing a line, standing firm, and saying that we will not compromise on the foundation of this country--not now, not then, and not ever.
We are founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and that is what we are going to keep it on. We will defend our Constitution, and we will keep America America.
God bless Texas. God bless the United States of America. God bless our caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to my colleague for yielding to me and allowing me the time to share this afternoon on this important subject.
I want to share some facts, because facts make a difference.
Fact number one, sharia law is not compatible with Western Civilization.
Fact number two, radical Islam glorifies violence.
Fact number three, sharia law has no place in our country. Radical Islam teaches harming innocent people, which, the last time I checked, is the complete opposite of America's Constitution, which protects the liberty of all people.
Listen to these key ideologies that sharia teaches its followers: honor killings, stoning, lashes and/or amputation for crimes such as theft, blasphemy, or adultery, and imposing the death penalty for apostasy. For those who don't understand apostasy, it means if someone wanted to leave Islam.
For anyone wondering why radical Islam is dangerous and should be kept as far away from America as possible, they should consider these few examples I have just given.
To think radical Islam is not a close threat is far from the truth. We all see the rise of Zohran Mamdani's New York, which is becoming a front page for radical Islam, a place where extremists feel emboldened. We all witnessed the recent ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New York, where two young men threw homemade bombs into a group of protesters.
What was Mamdani's response to that terror attack? He blamed it on white supremacy.
Radical Islam is staining America. It is not just a danger in places like New York. It has made itself clear in a small, quiet suburban town, Mint Hill, in my district in North Carolina.
At age 14, Christian Sturdivant pledged his allegiance to ISIS. Then, 4 years later, he planned an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack, using knives and hammers to target people at a grocery store and a restaurant on New
I have to ask how many more impressionable American teenagers are being influenced by this violent Islamist ideology. We must not ignore this growing threat.
If we don't act now to stop sharia law, what will America look like in 5 years or 10 years from now?
I believe all of our roles in Congress are to set America up for a better future. We will not be silenced because we will speak the truth that others may be too afraid to say. America is not a place for radical Islam to thrive, period. Full stop.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Self for holding this Special Order and for confronting an issue that too many are afraid to name with clarity and conviction.
Sharia law is fundamentally incompatible with our Constitution and the values that define our Nation. Its mission is to expand, influence, and impose control at the expense of basic human rights.
We are currently witnessing the chilling rise of Islamic terrorists who openly adhere to sharia. They reject assimilation. They reject our laws. They reject the very idea of America itself.
Many of my colleagues on the other side have chosen to stay silent. They sit on their hands while sharia law marches through America. They refuse to speak honestly or act with urgency to defend the fundamental rights of the American people.
Let me be very clear: We will not allow sharia to take root in our schools or our institutions. We will not allow it to erode the foundation of our civilization.
This is a defining moment, a test of whether we have the will to defend what has been entrusted to us. That is precisely what we are doing here today, exposing a dangerous ideology and refusing to bow to the pressures of political correctness or intimidation.
If we fail to confront it now, it will not stop. It will continue to expand in an attempt to reshape our society into something unrecognizable, something fundamentally un-American.
We will remain strong, sovereign, and free. Responsibility begins here in this Chamber. It requires the courage of every one of us to stand firm in defense of the principles that have made this country the greatest and most free nation on Earth.
I am proud to join the Sharia-Free America Caucus to stand alongside my colleagues. My thanks to President Trump for restoring law, order, and security.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand beside my colleagues here today. The rapid growth of the Sharia-Free America Caucus underscores the importance of this issue to millions of Americans.
Sharia law is an oppressive, radical legal system that enables violent intolerance of nonbelievers, the subjugation of women, and stoning or flogging as punishment for theft, adultery, or blasphemy, as defined through their lens.
Sharia law cannot coexist with the U.S. Constitution and the American rule of law. Sharia goes against the very principles that we in America hold dear: the right to practice the religion you hold to be true or not, the freedom to speak without fear of consequences, and the equal right of every man or woman to pursue liberty and happiness.
Our Constitution provides guidelines for freedom, for independence, and prosperity, and the rule of law is written around it. However, sharia governs every aspect of one's life. That alone makes it unconstitutional.
As you have heard from my colleagues here, parts of our country are witnessing just how devastating and conflicting sharia law can be to our citizens and the American way of life.
We must be clear: Our Constitution, which has made the United States a beacon of freedom, is and must remain our sole legal foundation, and that foundation is not negotiable.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak against the invasion of sharia law in America and across Western civilization.
America was founded on Christian values by seeking freedom from a tyrannical government. Our Nation is now the beacon of freedom around the world and the benchmark of Western civilization.
Sharia law represents everything that America is against. It destroys society. It strips citizens of their dignity and God-given rights. Women are forced to be subordinates and second-class citizens. Speaking out against the government will get you killed, like the 30,000 Iranian protesters murdered in January of this year.
Sharia law teaches believers to hate and to kill those who do not share their values, including Christians and Jewish people. For 47 years, Iranians have been risking their lives to protest the Ayatollah for their human rights abuses, government corruption, and crippling their economy to the point of implosion.
The Iranian leaders are radical Shia clerics. They spread hatred across the region and the world as the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Iranian Americans from my home State of Georgia and all over the country are telling me how proud they are that President Trump is taking action. America heard their calls for help. Our brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces have annihilated most parts of the Iranian military and have eliminated many of the top leaders. This includes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.
Iran helped sponsor and orchestrate the October 7 attacks that killed innocent Israelis at a music festival, including 46 Americans. President Trump is absolutely correct, Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, and his action has saved millions of lives.
Unfortunately, the story is not the same in Europe. Every day, we see examples of how far many of our allies across the pond have fallen to mass immigration of those who refuse to embrace Western values. These same people instead bring their radical Islamic beliefs with them, the same values that ran them out of their own countries. European culture is disappearing due to open-border policies.
They have allocated more resources, benefits, and handouts to illegal immigrants than they ever had for their own citizens. All the while, crime across the board has skyrocketed. Thankfully, patriotic Europeans are beginning to stand up to their self-sabotaging governments and vote for policies and policymakers who will save their countries from destruction. This is an existential threat that is spreading across the world at a rapid rate.
It has never been clearer to me than it is now that the United States must not make the same mistake as Europe. In the 4 years under the Biden-Harris regime, they did their best to destroy our Nation with open-border policies.
Americans responded by overwhelmingly reelecting President Trump to the White House. With Republicans in control, there is no better time than now to stand up and stop the infection of sharia law into our communities.
In Dearborn, Michigan, the influence of sharia law instituted a daily call to prayer and the election of Islamic extremist leaders, who have publicly attacked local citizens who have criticized their policies.
New York City elected an Islamic, communist mayor, who openly supports Islamic extremism and has attacked the State of Israel and its citizens.
America, if we do nothing and stand idly by like Europe did, this is only the beginning.
Mr. Speaker, America was founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under sharia law, none of this is achievable. Freedom of religion is a core principle of this country and enshrined in our Constitution. However, it does not protect religious groups that shout threats of death to entire religious groups as we have seen with the tyrannical Shia theocracy in Iran.
History will look back on America 100 years from now and analyze the decisions that were made here in Congress.
Mr. Speaker, my question is: Will we roll over and make the same mistake as Europe or will we stand up for what we believe in and fight for what America has always stood for?
I can tell you one thing for sure: When they want to run our country down, they are walking on the fighting side of me, and I will always be on the fighting side of America and its freedom.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, America has one law, the United States Constitution. It is the foundation of our Republic and the ultimate authority in our legal system. It applies equally to every person in every place and in every case.
The principle of equal justice under the law is what sets our Nation apart and ensures that no one is above the law and no one is beneath it.
Sharia law is not simply a matter of personal religious belief or private practice, it is a comprehensive legal and political framework.
Where it has been enforced around the world, it has often led to restrictions on basic freedoms that Americans recognize not only as God given, but constitutionally protected.
In practice, sharia law has been used to target and disadvantage women, limit the rights of religious minorities, and punish political dissent.
Our system is built on individual liberty, accountability, and fairness, not on unequal treatment or restrictions based on belief, gender, or background.
No foreign legal code should ever influence American courts and create a parallel system of justice. Allowing outside legal framework to seep into our system would undermine the consistency and integrity of American law.
Sharia law must never be allowed to override the Constitution in any kind of way. America does not bend itself to radical ideologies, whether they come from within or outside our borders.
Our duty is to preserve and defend the freedoms that generations of Americans have fought to protect. That means remaining vigilant, upholding our Constitution, and ensuring that liberty, equality, and justice remain the guiding principles of the United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a Member of the Sharia-Free America Caucus.
America was built on the Constitution, one system of law that protects individual liberty, equal justice, and the rights of every single citizen.
Sharia stands in direct conflict with those principles. It does not belong in our legal system, and it will not replace the Constitution of the United States of America.
Back home in South Carolina, people understand exactly what is at stake. They expect their leaders to defend our values and to not water them down. They expect one standard of law applied equally, and they are not interested in importing systems that undermine our freedoms.
Across the country, Americans are watching what is happening in Europe. They are seeing what happens when leaders look the other way, and Americans don't want that here. We are not going to apologize for defending our country, our Constitution, or our way of life. If you come to America, you come to live under American laws, period. That is the end of the story.
Mr. Speaker, I will start by acknowledging that I think this is a bit of a historic moment to my colleague, Congressman Self, because you have just had more than a dozen Members of Congress talk openly and honestly about one of the greatest threats that is facing the United States today, the Islamification of our country.
As I will talk about in my remarks, too many would try to shut us down, using open threats and words to try to stop what they consider blasphemy. I will acknowledge before I begin the efforts of Congressman Self and Congressman Roy to form this caucus, reaching 60 members.
Every time I get asked how many there are, I get the number wrong because there is always one or two more, but I don't think we will be happy until every Member is a part of this caucus.
Why now? Why now? Why do we deal with this issue now? Why do we deal with this issue today? Because we have seen what lies before us. We can see it if we look across the ocean.
France, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe are no longer recognizable.
In France, they have had to cancel celebrations because they are afraid that they are not sharia compliant.
In the United Kingdom, they are actually debating in Parliament the idea of cousin marriage, a Member of Parliament crying, how could it be banned because under sharia it is allowed.
We have seen these countries become unrecognizable, but why now? Because we have to worry about it coming here. I could have done a greatest hits and read hundreds of quotes, quotes that are not hidden. They are not hidden camera quotes. These are statements that imams and Mosques in the United States publicly make with pride about their intention, but I just want to read one from one person, and I will put it in context again for why now.
I will read some quotes from Imam Siraj Wahhaj from Brooklyn, New York, that he has said quite openly.
``Islam is better than democracy. Allah will cause Islam to become a complete way of life, to prevail over every kind of system.'' I wonder what system he is talking about. ``And you know what? It will happen.'' That is his first quote.
Second quote: ``If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.'' ``If we were united and strong, we would elect our own emir and give allegiance to him . . . `' ``Take my word, if 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.''
The final quote: ``You don't get involved in politics because it is the American thing to do. You get involved in politics because politics are a weapon to use in the cause of Islam.''
Now, why this imam? Why read three quotes from one leader when I told you I could read many. Because I want to explain who publicly praised him just a few months ago as ``one of the Nation's foremost Muslim leaders.'' That is a quote, ``one of the Nation's foremost Muslim leader.''
That is not my statement. That was the statement of the leading American-Muslim politician in the United States, the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. Every quote that I read, again, as he put it, ``one of the Nation's foremost Muslim leaders.''
We have a challenge in this debate. Even some of my colleagues here today want to talk about radical Islam. I will talk about why they do that, but when you look at who the leading Muslim politicians are in the United States and their views on the issues, affinity for sharia, embracing of Muslim terror, you have to say that is not radical. That is the mainstream.
We have had four terror attacks by those who believe in sharia over the past month or so, but not outcries from those who are upset about it. So, having this discussion and talking about this is critical because what we have learned is, they will use our values to impose theirs upon us. It is okay to come to the United States and it is okay to practice your religion in peace and prosperity, but the line gets crossed when in order to advance your religion, others must submit to it.
Congressman Self was talking about not all cultures being equal, but part of what makes this debate so difficult is we are told that we are one giant, human family, that we all believe the same things, that we all share the same ideals, but if we have learned anything in the past few years, that is not always true.
We have seen those who have taken to terror to stop freedom of assembly in New York, freedom of worship in Michigan, freedom to go to a bar in Austin, Texas, and freedom to go to a university in Virginia.
I saw what sharia could do to the human soul on October 7, and not all Muslims are terrorists. Not even everyone who believes in sharia wants to hurt everybody else, but the fact that not all do doesn't mean that none do.
On October 7, a young man called his parents to brag about an achievement that he had done in his faith in advancing sharia, and he called his parents and he told them, mom and dad, I had an extraordinary achievement today, and his parents were crying.
Now, for us, in our culture, in our society, you would have thought he got into college, he got a job, he had a baby, or he is getting married. No. He called his parents who cried with joy because he had killed 10 infidels. He had killed 10 Jews.
Not only did he feel that was something to brag about to his parents, but his parents cried with tears of joy.
We have to be willing to have the difficult conversations about the threat that exists because, as Congressman Self said: The enemy is no longer at the gates. They are inside.
Now, they will stop at nothing to stop us from having this conversation. They will ratchet up. They will use a war of rhetoric to try to silence us. They will claim that we are racist, despite the fact that the philosophy we are talking about is not limited to any one race. It doesn't matter what you look like. You can believe in sharia.
They will say we are irrationally afraid of it. They will use the term ``Islamophobia,'' a word developed, by the way, not to say you are against something but to say that you are afraid of something.
Well, I think all of us who have spoken today would say this: We are afraid. We are afraid of what we have seen in Afghanistan. We are afraid of what we have seen in Iran. We are afraid of what we have seen in Gaza. We are afraid of what we have seen in France and Germany and the U.K. We are afraid of what we have seen in Dearborn and at Old Dominion University and in New York City. We are afraid of what we saw on September 11, 25 years ago.
We have ample reason to be afraid, but the good news is, because of these 60-and-counting folks being led by Congressman Roy and Congressman Self, perhaps there is hope that we will not need to be afraid for too much longer.
Again, I thank my colleagues for organizing this. It is an extraordinary moment. I know that this fight is just beginning, but I know by working together we will ultimately win it. We will make sure that we can continue to have that phrase that we put up there above that flag, above the Speaker's rostrum: In God we trust.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to warn Americans about the growing threats posed by adherence to sharia law.
Supporters of this radical framework believe in a mandate to dominate those who refuse to conform to their belief system.
Across the West, politicians have welcomed millions of foreigners who do not share our values, culture, or tradition. As a result, they have undermined not only stability but also the identity of their own nations. In Europe especially, weak leaders have ignored serious human rights abuses while punishing their citizens for speaking out against open-border policies.
While Washington prioritizes neutralizing the capabilities of adversarial nation-states, we too often ignore growing dangers from within our own borders.
These internal vulnerabilities are far more difficult to confront since they spread quietly through our culture, rather than kinetic warfare. Whether it is communism, socialism, or radical frameworks like sharia, we have all observed movements counter to our Nation's interest on the rise.
If we don't shield our Constitutional Republic from ideological subversion, we risk eroding our liberties to appease those who refuse to assimilate.
This should not be a controversial message. We have every right and obligation to defend the principles and structure implemented by our Founding Fathers.
If people wish to live under sharia law, there are dozens of nations that operate under it. That is not the system we have chosen, nor is it compatible with our Constitution. Our laws are rooted in individual liberty, not religious authoritarianism.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to join Representative Roy, Representative Self, and other colleagues as a member of the Sharia-Free America Caucus. We refuse to sit by as radicals pursue their goal of a global caliphate, and we will not pretend it has no threat to our way of life.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. And I now recognize the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), the cofounder of this caucus and my fellow Texan.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend from Texas, and I don't want to take up too much time. It has been a great hour. We have had a lot of good conversation. I appreciate the remarks from the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Fine.) He and my friend from Arizona outlined very well a lot of the concerns in addition to what my friend from Texas has done.
The fact is you cannot win a war that you do not acknowledge exists. Let's be very clear: There is a war being waged against Western civilization, against the United States of America, and against the State of Texas where I live. It is happening in real time, and it has been going on now for decades. In fact, go all the way back to the 1991 memorandum that was put forward by the Muslim Brotherhood with a number of provisions in it. The one I want to highlight is this: ``In order for Islam and its movement to become `a part of the homeland' in which it lives, `stable' in its land, `rooted' in the spirits and minds of its people, `enabled' in the lives of its society and has firmly- established `organizations' . . . its movement must plan and struggle to obtain `the keys' and the tools of this process to carry out the grand mission as a `Civilization Jihadist' responsibility which lies on the shoulders of Muslims and--on top of them--the Muslim Brotherhood in this country.
``The process of settlement is a `Civilization-Jihadist Process' with all the word means.''
I can keep going. This is organized. There are 600 organizations operating in this country and in Texas trying to drive the Islamification of the United States of America in direct conflict with our laws, our Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.
This has been brought onto this country by our own actions as a government. Since 9/11, some 5-million people have been granted the ability to come into our country from majority Muslim countries, in a post 9/11 world after we were attacked.
In real time in Texas, we have more mosques being built in Texas than any other State in the Union. The problem here is that people are going to hide behind the First Amendment to say this is something that is protected by carrying out your exercise of free expression of your religion and carrying out your rights under the First Amendment.
What I am here to tell you is that this, by what I just read and by every action that I have seen in concert with this memorandum, is a political ideology that is designed to attack and take over our civilization and to carry out the civilization Jihad that I just described.
Mr. Speaker, it is for this reason that we have this Sharia-Free America Caucus. It is for this reason that we are gathering to highlight for the American people what is happening right now in real time such that if you look at Paris and London and you think that is somehow acceptable, then you are misguided because they are losing their way. So much so that I have said repeatedly that we should be as concerned about a nuclearized United Kingdom and as concerned about nuclearized France as we are a nuclearized Iran. It is coming to the shores of the United States, and it is here.
Mr. Speaker, I thank both my friends, the gentlemen from Texas, for having the guts to do this.
Unfortunately, it is now acceptable. It is now acceptable. As we watched in Texas, it is amazing. If you built a community in any State, including Texas, and you said that only Christians need to apply, only Christians, can you imagine? Can you imagine?
Our Constitution--I have it right here--very specifically says: ``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'' Yet, this is what is literally being attempted in States like Texas.
Mr. Speaker, sharia means the law. That is the definition of it generally, and it is all-encompassing. It is everything about your being, your spirituality, your actions. It means the law.
There are Muslims in the world. There are Muslims in my community who are persecuted because they are the wrong kind of Muslims, because they don't agree with this one or that sect of the Muslim faith.
They will come to me and say that they don't believe in sharia by the sword, which is comforting. It is comforting. I don't want to see my community and my country taken over in violent overthrow because I don't believe the same thing.
Yet, they will say that they do believe in sharia by the pen--by the pen. So it is not violent, Mr. Speaker, but what they are talking about is conquering your nation one way or the other. We have to decide what we are going to do about this.
I hear that there are sharia courts overseas in the U.K. and in Europe, but there aren't any where I live or maybe in the United States of America, but how would you know?
I suspect that the gentleman from Texas will tell us that there are sharia courts in Texas and that the community is very tight-knit, so if they are going to adjudicate things in a sharia court, which is even against the law because it flies in the face of the Constitution of the United States of America and our laws, how can you prove that there has been an infraction of the law when you have no witnesses since there are no witnesses because they will not speak out against their own laws?
Let's talk about what some of those things include. Leaving the faith, under sharia, is punishable by death. Things like theft, which is a serious crime--and we have punishments in the United States of America, but they don't involve removing your limbs, but that is true in sharia.
If a woman is charged with adultery, the punishment is stoning to death. They have honor killings in sharia. For forced marriages, if a young lady barely out of her teens or still in her teens refuses to marry as she is directed by her parents, they are justified under sharia in killing her.
This has no place in America. It just simply has no place in America.
People will say that it is over there. It is not here. I want to remind everybody: Egypt was not always under sharia. Neither was Syria. Neither was Turkiye. Neither was Iran. These countries were all something else. We have just grown up in our lifetime thinking that that is what they always have been because that is what we have always known them to be. They were not always that way.
Sharia is tolerated, I think, because it is characterized as a religion. It is characterized as a religion, but I would ask you this: If it is characterized as a religion, and there are many in this body who fight continuously for, as they call it, the separation of church and state, which, by the way, cannot be found in the United States Constitution, how is it that schools in some States are now forcing sharia-compliant meals in their schools?
The schools are funded by the States. The schools are funded by the Federal Government. How is that possible? Yet, it is possible. It is possible, and it is happening.
My friend from Texas mentioned the Holy Land Foundation investigation, the largest terror investigation in the United States' history, where it was laid out by the Muslim Brotherhood how they were going to conquer America. We have the plan. We know the plan, under sharia.
Since 1991--it is 2026--their plan is, generally, to come not to be Americans but to be in America, to act as the underclass, to use the sympathy and guilt of the nation that they have come to and prey upon those who feel sympathy and guilt for them being in the underclass. They refuse to assimilate to that culture, whether it is America, Europe, or any other culture other than their own. They just live in that culture.
Others around them, because they don't want to be a part of that, move away. Then, more sharia-compliant individuals move into the neighborhood. Once they reach a critical mass, they start instituting sharia law. That is how it goes.
I am not saying, and I don't think either gentleman from Texas--we all know. I have upstanding, law-abiding, life-loving, freedom-loving, Constitution-loving Muslims living in my community. There are whole nations, believe it or not, of those kinds of folks.
But I will tell you this: Once the local imam says that you are going to comply or become an apostate, and the wages and the penalty for apostasy are death, that is a very strong motivator to say that I know I live in America, or I know I live in the U.K., or I know I live in Ireland or Spain or France, but my religion says this.
Sharia law has no place in America, and it is time for all of us to wake up and make sure that we have a righteous conversation with all Americans--with Christians, with Buddhists, with Muslims, with atheists, with everybody to preserve what we all love in America, which is the freedom to exercise our own beliefs.
There is only one so-called law, sharia law, that disallows that for everyone else, and that is why it is not appropriate to have it.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, sharia is alive, well, and operating in Plano, Texas. Right now, as I speak, there is an existing sharia-adherent enclave run by the East Plano Islamic Center in my congressional district. It has been functioning for 12 years right in our midst. This is not a hypothetical or future threat. It is here now and operational.
Let me lay out exactly what already exists in Plano today under EPIC's control: 74 homes sold exclusively to Muslims affiliated with EPIC, no outsiders permitted; a massive megamosque, serving as the central anchor of the enclave; sharia-adherent Islamic schools indoctrinating the next generation--by the way, we believe that the girls disappear at a certain point; a medical clinic; multiple businesses; and an Islamic financing institution providing sharia- compliant financing that rejects conventional American banking principles.
Most alarming of all, according to a former senior Plano law enforcement official, there is speculation that there are unattended deaths in this Muslim-only community that are not being reported, as required under State law. That is, individuals in this community die, as is natural, and first responders are never called to the scene.
Let me be clear. Not reporting a death is a crime under Texas State law. My office is going to follow every lead we have on this to ensure American law is being followed.
The bottom line: This is no ordinary neighborhood. It is a parallel society, a de facto sharia enclave operating in defiance of full assimilation into American law, situated immediately adjacent to the very law enforcement facilities meant to protect our communities.
Alarmingly, and as a matter of fact, the pattern of Islamic centers being built next to police training facilities is emerging. There is also one in Irving, Texas. Intimidation is clearly the intent.
EPIC is phase 1 of a broader strategy. EPIC City, a proposed 400- acre, Muslim-only housing development, now rebranded as The Meadow to deflect scrutiny and public opposition, is phase 2.
While this larger proposed development remains in the planning stages, with no construction underway, it is far from resolved.
As of March 2026, developers continue pushing forward, submitting plat applications, refiling despite rejections, and facing ongoing legal battles. Collin County has paused or rejected plans due to deficiencies, missing documentation, and incomplete submissions.
State investigations led by Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and agencies like the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have secured court orders, including a recent temporary restraining order in March, blocking illegal utility district maneuvers.
Federal probes, such as HUD's active Fair Housing Act investigation into potential religious discrimination, add significant pressure. Yet the developers persist, rebranding and refiling to wear down resistance.
Make no mistake, the enemy is inside the gates: building exclusive zones, enforcing foreign codes, and seeking to grow despite every obstacle.
Sharia does not assimilate. It dominates and conquers.
America welcomes people of every faith to come to live under our Constitution and assimilate into our society, but we will never tolerate a system that creates submission-based enclaves, exclusive housing markets, or fortresses overlooking our police academies.
This is why our caucus continues to grow rapidly. This is why Texans passed Proposition 10 by a 95 percent landslide to ban sharia in Texas. That is why we must remain vigilant at every level: local, State, and Federal.
Mr. Speaker, the American people demand that we defend the rule of law, not allow its gradual erosion. Sharia has no place in Plano. Sharia has no place in Texas. Sharia has no place in America.
I urge every colleague who values American sovereignty to join the Sharia-Free Caucus today. Let us defend the West. Let us defend our freedoms and let us defend American sovereignty.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a dear citizen of Oak Harbor, Ohio, Roger Carpenter. He devoted 75 years of his life to shaping character, citizenship, and service in northwestern Ohio.
Roger Carpenter was more than a Scoutmaster. For generations of young people in Troop 316, he was a teacher of values, a steady hand, and a living example of the Scout Oath and Law.
His dedication deeply shaped the character of Oak Harbor. I can feel it.
From the time he joined the troop as a boy in 1941 to his passing at age 97, Roger believed that building good citizens was the most important work any community could do, and he went about doing it.
Under his guidance, more than 50 young men achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He taught young people how to live with responsibility, humility, and care for others.
As Roger himself said: Scouting does not teach children to throw a ball. It should teach them how to help others and preserve the common good.
Boy, was he a wise man.
What a great privilege it was to honor his service at the Apple Festival last fall. Please let me honor and posthumously thank him on the floor of Congress for preserving the common good. What a patriot. Oak Harbor and all of northwestern Ohio are eternally grateful for Roger's beautiful life and good works that endure and have been nobly passed forward to the aspiring generation.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to turn to honor the life of Robert Mueller.
When I was very young, I aspired to become an FBI agent. Later, when in college, when I applied, I was told I was not qualified because I was a woman.
But tonight, I rise to honor the life and service of Robert Mueller, the gentleman and honorable Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that I wish I had been able to work for.
He also was a father, a husband, a grandfather, a marine--our family knows a whole lot about that--a public servant, and an American hero.
He served as Director of the FBI under Presidents of both parties.
Director Mueller took his oath to support and defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, as seriously as anyone could.
He was a very intelligent man whose life was defined by honor, sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to the Nation he loved and to which he gave his life.
At a time when many chose a different path, he stepped forward to serve. Though he was not drafted, he volunteered to serve in Vietnam. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, earned his commission, and led Marines in combat.
There, under fire, he displayed extraordinary courage. He rescued a wounded comrade, earning the Bronze Star with a V for valor, and the Purple Heart after being wounded in battle.
He led from the front, guided by duty and shaped by the bonds of those he served beside. If he had done nothing else, his military service exemplified what it means to be a patriot for the cause of liberty.
His service did not end when he returned home. He continued to serve this Nation for decades--as a Federal prosecutor, as a leader within the Department of Justice, and as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during one of the most consequential periods in our Nation's history.
He took office as FBI Director 7 days before the September 11 attacks on our Nation. True to his marine heritage, he always fought for right and freedom and kept his honor clean. He ushered our country and the bureau through some of our darkest days.
Director Mueller served our Nation in that role for 12 years to the very day, including a 2-year extension under President Obama.
He was then succeeded by James Comey. Four years later, in May 2017, he was again called to serve. Then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tapped Robert Mueller to lead the investigation into the consequential 2016 Russian election interference. He pursued this investigation indefatigably. He let the facts lead and presented his report.
He did not politicize this investigation for a single second because that is just not who he was, nor what the FBI is.
Across every chapter of his life, Robert Mueller carried himself with humility, discipline, and integrity. He did not seek recognition. He sought to do what was right. He was not a showman. He was a patriot.
His life reminds us that service to country is not confined to a single moment or uniform. It is a lifelong calling.
Robert Mueller answered his Nation's call in war and peace, in public office and in quiet leadership.
Mr. Speaker, our Nation is stronger because of patriotic citizens like Robert Mueller, and I send my heartfelt condolences and those of my constituents to his wife of 60 years, Ann; to his daughters, Cynthia and Melissa; and to his five grandchildren. I know they and his bureau colleagues will miss him dearly.
May we honor his example not only in words but in pledging honorable service to our Nation in any capacity he held. May Director Mueller rest in peace--we have the watch.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Women's History Month with naming a steady trailblazer from northwest Ohio, Louise J. Brower.
In 1975, Mrs. Brower broke barriers when she became the first woman to serve as a principal in Toledo public schools. In doing so, she also became the first to lead a large metropolitan Ohio high school. At Scott High School, she led with strength, dignity, and an unwavering belief in her students.
The appointment was a culmination of her Toledo public schools career, which started as a teacher at Robinson Junior High. She then served as principal of both Walbridge School and later McTigue Junior High.
The library at Walbridge was dedicated in her honor in 1971.
Long before recognition followed, her impact was already deeply felt by inspired students. She empowered teachers, and she opened doors for women who would follow.
Mrs. Brower's legacy reminds us that progress is built by those willing to lead where none have gone before.
May we continue her work with purpose, with passion, and with pride. Women know how to do it right even if
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to put her name in the Record.
Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise on day 27 of President Trump's undeclared war against Iran.
An immense cost is being imposed on our U.S. military and the American people by this undeclared war of choice. Already, this war has cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $40 billion, not a penny of which was voted on by either this House or the other body.
That amount is equal to what President Trump in his big bonanza bill for billionaires cut from healthcare. The money he cut from healthcare that is being expended over Iran means 500,000 people in my State of Ohio are losing their health benefits. So, let's recognize what the transfer of funds means.
No American should be asked to surrender their healthcare for a war that was never authorized by Congress. That is a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8.
Now, President Trump is ratcheting up his ask for another $200 billion for the Pentagon's Iran war--$200 billion. There is no way--by the way, that is one-fifth of $1 trillion. There is no way the American people should be forced to hand this administration hundreds of billions of dollars to keep waging an unconstitutional war.
Just today, the war on Iran saw the Dow Jones drop 470 points. The Standard & Poor's had its worst day since January. Oil is now $108 a barrel. A gallon of gas is averaging nearly $4 nationwide, and diesel is $5.37 a gallon.
This is hurting our people.
With 25 percent of the world's oil and one-third of its fertilizer flowing through the narrow channel called the Strait of Hormuz, this war is a war of choice, not a war of necessity. It is throwing global markets off balance as prices rise on everything.
I know the American people are noticing.
I say and I believe, let the Middle East oil barons bear the billions and billions and billions of dollars this war is costing, not the American people. Our Nation is now energy independent here at home. For a half century we have worked to be that.
As President Trump has stated himself, we are now exporting more oil than ever before. I don't think we should be exporting quite as much, but that is something we can disagree on. However, here at home, we sure have made a lot of progress since 1970.
In the committee on which I serve, Congress has approved and appropriated for a historically large defense budget amounting to over $1 trillion for 2026, but that didn't account for this war. That budget is the largest defense budget in modern history.
We know we have enemies. We know we have new strategic interests that we have to attend to, but the Trump administration has simultaneously, as we have these new expenditures of war, allowed massive tax breaks to billionaires while severely cutting funds for our veterans' hospitals and clinics, veteran services, our civil hospitals to healthcare, education, nutrition, to all critical services for the American people.
Our transportation safety officers are waiting to be paid.
Americans should not be made to bear the burden of this war started by superrich dictators with no military experience who see matters of life and death as nothing more than real estate and resource deals.
If President Trump wants another $200 billion for war, don't come asking for it from our farmers. It is a rough year for them. Don't ask our policemen. Don't ask our educators. Let him go to the Saudi princes. They are reportedly urging him to keep the war going so the oligarchs in the Gulf can remake the economy of the Middle East the way they want.
Let me inquire: How many troops have the oil barons committed? They have committed zero.
As I recall, President Trump made his first trip abroad after being sworn in 2 years ago to Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship. I recall it was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who ordered the butchering of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
News reports state Prince Mohammed has a net worth of up to $25 billion. That is just himself. Moreover, he manages a sovereign wealth fund for Saudi Arabia valued at over $1.4 trillion for the House of Saud and the royal family. And that is what we are able to know from the press. He probably has a lot more. But he alone can afford the pay for a war that will handsomely benefit his kingdom.
Think about who exactly should pay for this war of choice. President Trump is saying to the European countries that have nothing to do with this why aren't they helping, why aren't they coming over? Well, the United States does stand by its allies, but for all this administration's pressure on Europe to pull its weight in this war let me ask: What troops and resources are these superrich Gulf kingdoms committing as Americans are fighting and dying?
Mr. Speaker, 13 of our troops have died and over 300 injuries already. As we speak, thousands of U.S. Marines and paratroopers are being deployed to the Middle East, and our family knows what combat in foreign lands requires, but the sultans, shahs, and kings, they don't.
Their oil kingdoms want this war to keep going because they will be the beneficiaries, but we are their soldiers. How many soldiers is Saudi Arabia sending? What about Kuwait? How about Qatar that gave President Trump a luxury jet valued at $400 million? Can we trade that in? Can we trade that plane in to help pay down the tens of billions of dollars that our country is already spending over there? Are these kingdoms going to contribute their fighter jets to this conflict? Who will fly them?
What about the Saudis, Kuwaitis, United Arab Emirates, their pilots, their marines, where are their soldiers? I haven't seen any. No American marine, sailor, airman, or soldier should be sent to war to preserve the Gulf state kingdom's dominance over the world's oil and gas markets over there.
Let us take care of ourselves right here at home. Perpetual energy independence, we have that. We have to make it even better.
Now, let's look at the population of those countries. Iran is a nation of over 93 million people. Saudi Arabia has technically 32 million people, but most of them, three-quarters of them, are not actually Saudis. They are foreign guest workers. Kuwait has 3 million people, and most of those are guest workers. Iraq has 43 million people. Yemen has 41 million people. The United Arab Emirates has 10 million, but a lot of those are not actually citizens there. Israel has 10 million people, maybe closer to 9. Qatar has 2 million people.
Do we really want responsibility in perpetuity for nearly 250 million people in the troubled oil kingdoms and the oil rich Middle East? None of these nations is a stable democracy, not a single one.
So, why are Americans being asked again to dive into yet another Middle East war? We know this story. We know how it ends. Might I remind Members and those listening, the Lockerbie bombing was an example of what happens. Does anyone recall 9/11? And I could list a whole lot of other retaliations.
Dealing with theocratic regimes means not victory but retribution in the end, retribution against both civilian and military populations.
The United States shouldn't be fighting this war to play oil kingmaker in the Middle East. America knows that our Nation has now dedicated one-half century to making our Nation energy independent here at home, and what a triumph that has been.
We should do better, how? The Strategic Petroleum Reserve should have been filled completely, and President Trump has continued to empty it out. We have to do better than that.
We have other forms of power, modern nuclear, hydrogen, and massive natural gas discoveries in my part of the country. Mr. Speaker, we can do this here in this country, but President Trump told us we are fighting this war because Iran was building a nuclear weapon to have a bomb ready in 2 weeks. That claim fell apart under the slightest scrutiny.
The President says that we now need more bombing and more troops, even as his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and that Iran was not trying to rebuild it.
The President said that we were fighting Iran to change its regime. Iran has replaced one Ayatollah Khamenei with another Ayatollah Khamenei.
I would observe that, as a result of this war, it is more likely Iran and adjacent nations that have succession will have hardline leaders that share Iran's religious perspective, hell-bent on opposing the United States on every front long into the future in the form of hybrid warfare, which is the new horizon for war globally.
This war must not drain our arsenal here at home. I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Defense Subcommittee, the weapons that are being exploded and the amount of money being spent mean we have to follow on very quickly, and it is not so easy to do.
We have lost members of our military, as I have said, and the President's approach has alienated too many of our allies and made us new enemies. Caution. No more blood for oil. No more blood for oil. In an era of hybrid warfare, the President's impulsiveness could yield reactions for which the American people are not prepared.
I ask the question, Mr. Speaker: What does victory look like in this war? What is the endgame? What is the plan?
The President wanted to overthrow the Government of Iran, destroying its nuclear capacity, to ignite a nationwide revolt and remake the Middle East as he thinks it should be. What does that look like? Who is going to help?
There are a lot of people with money over there--not a single democracy--they will be the beneficiaries. What are they paying?
Therefore, U.S. military efforts have not been able to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Adjoining nations have placed zero troops into theater. To me, the undemocratic oil kingdoms appear to have the U.S. at their beck and call. That is not in the interests of the United States of America.
This administration has not prepared our citizens for the consequences of its hasty actions. So far, they expect Americans to pick up the tab, the whole tab, rising each week by billions and billions more dollars.
What is it about the allure of these undemocratic oil kingdoms that draws such attention from our President? Recklessness and undemocratic Middle East oil markets have led us to repeated disastrous consequences and more forever-on wars.
The American people have already paid the price. Let the phenomenally rich oil kingdoms, undemocratic oil kingdoms, their sheikhs and their Kings send their own troops and pay the price of their own security, instead of indebting the people, the good people, of the United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, I have a number of things to go over.
Mr. Speaker, do you remember over the last few years the number of discussions we would have at home, saying drain the swamp? What was the term, swamp critters?
We have been collecting a number of articles and trying to figure out why it is so hard to actually do policy that makes our brothers' and sisters' lives easier, better, healthier, and more prosperous.
I am starting to come to the conclusion that for so many of our brothers and sisters who are at home who are watching Members of Congress, and they somehow think this is the swamp, it is part of it.
We came across a number of stories that looked like they had been properly vetted, where the lobbyist community is handing out money to people. This was more on the conservative side, particularly some of our conservative publications, handing them cash to write stories to promote whatever that lobbyist wanted.
I have been behind this microphone before, and I have actually shown repeatedly, here are influencers on the internet, more from my side, here are some MAGA influencers that were taking money. Maybe we should have caught it more quickly when it was the 23-year-old attractive person talking about Medicare Advantage and saying: I am sure she is an expert on Medicare Advantage.
It turns out we had a series of I guess it was the broker community and those things in Medicare part C paying them to warp the information for the American people to try to understand for those who of us to get up here and try to reform this place, reform how we are trying to spend our money, to try to take on the U.S. debt, that the swamp is now on your information that is coming through this device.
You have to understand, Mr. Speaker, I actually have some articles from 1 year ago. It turns out, some of the biggest snack food producers were trying to stop Congress through social media influencers. They were paying social media influencers to stop having a conversation about GLP-1 semaglutides like Ozempic. That is how perverse this place has become.
I have learned, and I truly believe this, that almost everything in Washington, D.C., is actually about the money.
What happens when the armies of folks are walking up and down our Halls here? Are they here because they want a freer society? Is it because they are fixated on the morality of the prosperity of growth and of opportunity for all people? Are they here to try to get us to put up pieces of legislation that stop their competition and that stop creative destruction in the economy, even though that is how you get better, faster, and cheaper? Is it how they want us to hand them cash?
Mr. Speaker, I am going to show some boards from the Treasury's detailed balance sheet. The level of financial trouble our Republic is in is remarkable.
If anyone is watching C-SPAN over the last day or 2, how many people have you actually seen coming behind these microphones that actually care?
This is the chart I have typically started with, and the reason I do this is to say: Hey, you see this blue portion of this board? That is what we get to vote on as Members of Congress. Everything else in the red is on autopilot. We only vote on about 25 percent of the spending here in Congress. The rest is formula. It is mandatory spending.
However, it is worse than that. A couple days ago, the Treasury, as they are required by statute, did the sort of here is the balance sheet of America, here is where we are financially.
Did anyone see the stories--you have got to read some of the geeky sort of financial press--that America actually had negative? Functionally, here is what was on the Treasury's balance sheets, saying, hey, America, currently--these are current liabilities. These aren't the unfunded liabilities for the future. These are current obligations. We owe $47.8 trillion in current liabilities, and we have $6 trillion in assets. This is from the Treasury statement.
Doesn't this terrify anyone? Is it still just a calculator/math-free zone or is it more important that when the paid influencers, the paid person on conservative media by a lobbyist is saying: Oh, they might actually look at making us reform our program. We are going to hand some money to one of these authors so they will say: Oh, reform is bad, it's not Republican.
Of course, it is Republican. We believe in markets. At least we used to.
Let's actually talk about how bad this math is. I am going to go straight to the punch line. If you actually just do the 75-year Social Security and Medicare obligations, you are at $88.4 trillion of unfunded liabilities, and these numbers probably aren't dystopian enough.
Look, a week ago, I did a whole presentation here, and we partially talked about the unified theory of how we stabilize the debt. I have seen the applause in some of the financial articles on CNBC, Bloomberg saying: Well, there are some Members of Congress trying to do a piece of legislation to get us to 3 percent of debt to GDP. Wonderful idea.
At this moment, just interest is well above 3 percent of GDP. So far this year--so we are 6 months into the fiscal year--over 7.3 percent of the entire economy is being borrowed by the Federal Government. But don't worry, we
If I had told you a decade, two decades ago that just the interest being paid by the Federal Government on our debt is bigger than the growth of the country, you would have thrown up your hands and said: Well, it is all over then.
Yet, we look the other way because we are too busy doing the damn shiny objects around here that will get us on cable news tonight or on social media. We can do the shiny object, get some dopamine hits, maybe get some people giving us money on text message fundraising.
We are heading to well over $88 trillion in liabilities. What do we do?
I came here a month ago and showed part of the report that said a child born today, if you use a 6 percent generational discount rate-- that might be a little bit high, it is a little geeky, but it is within the margin--this country needs 104 percent of that child's lifetime earnings just to pay the Federal Government pensions.
I have a 3-year-old. Our obligations right now require taking every dime my little Matthew will ever earn just to pay the Federal Government pensions.
Part of this, Mr. Speaker, is the math of demographics. We don't have enough people. We don't have enough children. We are functionally at zero population growth. There is a math set--I had some of the Heritage demographers in my office today. They have a model that says in the next few years we could actually go negative in population as a country.
For some people, oh, yay, that is great, less traffic. Okay. You tell me how I am going to finance Social Security. You tell me how I am going to finance Medicare. In now less than 6\1/2\ years, the Social Security trust fund is empty. In less than 6\1/2\ years, the Medicare trust fund is empty. At that time, we double the poverty of seniors, we will double the number of baby boomers who live on the street. That is the morality now of this place.
Why am I the only idiot who comes behind the microphone and does this every week?
Okay. God gave me a gift. I am pretty good at math. I will have Members of Congress who see me in the hallway and turn around and walk away from me because I am going to pitch them an idea of here is how we save Medicare Advantage, here is how we save Social Security, here is how we do this. I have pieces of legislation to do some of these things.
Oh, David, you don't understand, we have been told by our political-- and this is Democrats, too--we have been told by our political consultants we are not allowed to use those words because we might actually have to explain what the hell is actually going on.
You have the same number of 18-year-olds today as we had 20 years ago. We have double the number of 65 and up. I turned 64 a couple weeks ago. Maybe I am pathologically optimistic. We have adopted a 3-year- old, and I have a 10-year-old. Do they deserve to live better?
Every math set right now says our kids will be the first American generation to be poorer than their parents. A child born today, my 3- year-old, let's use my 3-year-old as an example. When my 3-year-old is, I think it is 22, 21, 23, right in there, every tax, every one, every single tax in America needs to be doubled just to maintain baseline services.
Why am I the jerk that gets up and does math and people look at him and say, oh, David, we are not allowed to talk about that. We will deal with that after the next election.
Have you noticed there is always another election?
I have been getting that same answer for 15 years here: David, we can't talk about that. It is mandatory spending. We can't go around and tell the truth.
It is fixable. There are things you can do. We have presented over and over and over and over ways you could crash the price of healthcare using technology, the morality of cures, the morality of helping our brothers and sisters get healthier, convincing the bond markets that we are creditworthy.
Right now we pay more--so, Greece, today Greece can sell a 10-year bond cheaper than the United States. That is what the world debt markets think of us.
I could geek out and walk through what happened a couple days ago in the 2-year auction we had and how badly subscribed it was. Maybe it is the war, maybe it is other things. This isn't a game, and this is somewhat unique.
Look, I have some books. I collect economic books. One of my books talks about 5,000 years of economic history. There are lots and lots and lots of stories of societies that built up lots of debt and collapsed. Okay.
I could not find a story in there that walked through the economics of a society that built up lots of debt and started to have fewer people, zero population growth. Tell me how that math works.
We have a unified theory. I have been behind this microphone dozens and dozens and dozens of times. I am saying, the adoption of technology, synthetic biology, deregulation, smart regulation, a talent-based immigration system--we basically have a dozen things that have to go into this just to stabilize where we are in debt.
Mr. Speaker, do you think this place is intellectually prepared to do anything that is difficult? We are going to go home and stand in front of our constituents and talk about shiny objects.
Mr. Speaker, as of today, we are borrowing $88,000 a second. Mr. Speaker, as of today, we borrowed, I think, $7.5 billion today, yesterday, tomorrow.
Maybe we just shouldn't give a damn about math, but it is going to win. The math always wins.
Look, my staff wanted me to use this board to try to put it in perspective of if it was your household. In your household you basically earn $52,000 a year. This is the Federal budget right now, but you spend $73,000 this year. If you do the accumulation beyond the fact that you went 20 grand into debt this year, if you add up all the years of debt for your household, and this would be your household as divided by the Federal debt, it is $1.3 million upside down.
Next year, these numbers get worse and the year after that it gets worse. Part of the reason is--help me grow the economy, help me find how we balance our tax base.
I am a free market economist. I believe in as low taxes as possible. But is borrowing a tax? This is a really interesting, intellectual question that the left has to have and we on the right have to have. Is borrowing a tax?
The family budget this year, you made $52,000. We are going to spend $73,000, so we borrowed $20,000 this year. I am going to argue it is a tax. It is just a tax with interest.
Are you and I going to pay it? Because the philosophy around here is it is going to be our kids that are going to pay it and our grandkids that are going to pay it, and I am going to argue the numbers are eroding so fast.
Remember, 6.5 years from now, the Social Security trust fund is gone. Mr. Speaker, 6.5 years from now, the Medicare trust fund is gone.
Just to cover that shortfall for the first year is $638 billion. You run for United States Senate, this happens in your first term. This is not way off in the future. It is here. Yet, when some of us have tried to do the debt and deficit commission, we get these people coming in, lobbying, beating the crap out of us on social media, on conservative press, and now we find out they are being paid.
It is absolutely immoral what we are doing, and it is your retirement, and it is my kids and every child out there. How is accepting a society that says: Oh, screw it. We are just going to make sure our kids are poorer, but at least we are going to get stuff until the bond market decides they are actually in charge of this country. It is almost there.
Let's actually do some more math. We have some new ways to try to describe the scale of the problem. I know this is hard to read, but I am going to do my best to make this understandable.
You actually see net receipts by category.
Do you see this dark blue here? That is individual income taxes. That is one of the crazy things those of us on Ways and Means need to actually start having a conversation on how we are going to deal with, because we are seeing right now in the GDP growth we are
We are building big datacenters, automation, the technology, but it is not necessarily from wage growth, which actually is a whole other speech and freaks me out because we have got to raise wage growth to make up for the years of the Biden inflation.
Then take a look over here. This is payroll taxes. This is the taxes you pay for your Social Security, for your Medicare, for unemployment. Part of the deep secret here, please don't tell anyone on Social Security, an average couple retiring today gets about a $76,000 spiff.
Here is what we paid in, you get an extra $76,000. Horrible, horrible rate of return. However, Democrats made sure that 20 years ago, 25 years ago when there was a temp saying: Could we build a little, tiny 15 percent sidecar, you can invest in the market. That would mean you would have been dramatically wealthier today. They killed that. They should be responsible for much of the poverty that is going to exist in our senior population. It was Democrats that chose to do that.
The dirty secret on this portion here is that same couple for every dollar they put into Medicare tax, they are getting $6 to $7 back. That is one of the primary drivers of U.S. sovereign debt, that and interest, healthcare and interest.
We got older, and we owe $39 trillion. $30 trillion is functionally sold to the markets, but that other $9 trillion that we borrow internally, we still pay interest on it. It is still a liability. We still have to pay it back. These little slivers over here are customs and corporate taxes. That is our receipts.
Here is our net outlays. You notice this little black box here? This is all borrowed. This is what the taxes cover. A week ago, we had a balance budget amendment, which I voted for, but folks had no understanding that the economic literature basically says: If you want to balance the budget today, you have to cut almost half of U.S. spending. Understand that.
Last year, for every dollar that came in, we spent a $1.43. With the economic effects, if you said tomorrow, David, I demand you balance the budget. I can do it. Tell me which half of the spending you want me to cut. Because right now--this is Social Security right here.
Actually, I think Medicare is here. Other mandatory, this is your VA pension. Those things that are built-in that we are obligated to formula.
You start to look over here, this is net interest. Remember, net interest--actually, it should be gross interest. Total interest right now is the second biggest expenditure in your Federal Government. Defense is actually number 5. The thing that is in the Constitution is number 5 on our stack: Social Security, interest, Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare subsidies and defense.
If you came in here right now and said: David, balance the budget. I can do it. You tell me how much defense, nondefense, Medicaid, they all have to go away, and because of the economic effects, this black line moves in and you would actually have to start cutting Medicare.
It is math. It is not personal. It is just something that comes off of a calculator and someone who is literate enough to actually look at the numbers. David, it is really bad politics telling people the truth.
I am in a 50/50 district. Now, I am in one of the best educated districts in America. It turns out you can get elected in a real tough district. You can even get--don't tell anyone, but you can get smart, educated Independents and Democrats to vote for you. They may not like you, but they, at least, know you are intellectually credible. When was the last time we actually gave a damn about being intellectually credible around this place?
Net outlays for interest over 10 years. Right now, remember, I mentioned just interest--and actually the number is higher than this-- my math is coming in at $1.2 trillion of interest this year. You are well over 3 percent.
We are going to go down to 3 percent. That is actually what the Treasury Secretary and others say. I agree, but we are borrowing 7.3 percent of the economy at this moment. You tell me what part you want me to cut.
CBO's report, what was it, 2 weeks ago, basically says that in 9 years we are going to be borrowing $3.1 trillion a year. That is before the war. That is before the request for supplementals. That is before these new healthcare calculations. We are going to be borrowing $3.1 trillion. This is couple weeks ago, CBO report. $2.1 trillion of that will just be interest, one will actually be structural deficit.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Arizona has 4\1/2\ minutes remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Arizona has 4\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. Speaker, I apologize. I am going to talk faster. No, I won't do that to you. As some of you know, I have a coffee problem, and I have only had like nine cups today. I am not shaking, and I am trying not to talk like a machine gun.
Mr. Speaker, I have this chart. You can find this chart if you really care about it. It basically talks about interest fragility. What is interest fragility? It is when interest goes up, interest rates go up, and what that means to the debt.
When you start looking at a chart like this--so, think about this. For 1 year, a 10-percent increase, so essentially 10 basis points, it is about $4.1 billion. You start to see when you actually go out 10 years and start looking at, hey, if we had 1 point of interest--now, this is on the base debt right now, publicly sold debt, not the full debt, but the publicly sold debt. That comes out to $3.1 trillion, a single point for 10 years.
What happens when the bond market has more influence and changes our spending patterns more than this place does? I had people say--as we were trying to do the big, beautiful bill, and then we were supposed to do the second reconciliation to pay for a big chunk of it--but that would be too difficult. We might have to talk about fixing Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
Look, go read the reports that are stacked up on my desk that say you have a couple of trillion dollars of waste, fraud, and misalignment. The Wall Street Journal does article after article after article, full- page things on it, saying, hey, the high grading, that is $100 billion a year. We are going to do what about it, Mr. Speaker? Oh, but we would have to explain it. What is wrong with us?
Unless we convince the world debt markets--remember, we are the biggest debtor in the world. You want lower mortgage rates? Convince the debt markets because the Federal Reserve only affects the short end of the curve. Your mortgage is based off the 10-year. The 10-year is a market rate, not a Federal Reserve rate. How many politicians around here: We have to beat up the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. That is on the 2-year, the short end of the curve, maybe even less. Convince the debt markets that we are actually going to stabilize our debt.
We have a 40-year cycle. Those of us who are baby boomers, to move on to our reward before we get back to the more normal demographics--those normal demographics may never come because the fertility rate in the Western world continues to fall.
Look, there are things we can do. This is the type of improper payments. I have been working on this for years. Stop the waste and fraud in government. It is billions and billions of dollars. If you are borrowing $220 billion to $230 billion every single month, we can get rid of every improper payment. We don't even cover a month's worth of borrowing. We still have to do this.
It turns out that the most powerful way to fix something like this, Mr. Speaker, is not a whole bunch of new laws, not buildings full of auditors, buildings full of lawyers. It is data scientists.
Look, I chair the Oversight Subcommittee of Ways and Means. We have investigations going on into Medicare part C, hospice care, and organ procurement. How are we finding these things? We hired a data scientist.
Mr. Speaker, there is hope. There is a way to do this. We just need to step up our game and become more intellectually curious and robust. With that, maybe we can stabilize the future for your retirement and our kids.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California?
Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the attention of the House and to the American people a truly heartbreaking, desperate, and unfair situation involving Ms. Sharareh Moghaddam.
She resides in my district with her U.S. citizen husband and is currently being detained hundreds of miles from her home by immigration officials, despite the fact that a Federal immigration court has already ruled in her favor. According to that court, she should be home with her family in the San Fernando Valley, pursuant, in part, to the green card or permanent residency card that she has held for many years.
Sharareh Moghaddam is pictured here with her family. She is a respected resident of the Los Angeles area's great San Fernando Valley. She is respected throughout our community, as evidenced by the hundreds of constituents who have contacted my office through a written petition and the nearly 100 telephone calls that have come into my office.
The fact is that she and her husband are well-known small business owners in our community. They are beloved members of our community. Specifically, over 400 constituents have signed a petition to our office describing Sharareh Moghaddam as a valued member of our community. As I said, over 100 people have called our office.
Wherever I go in the San Fernando Valley, I have talked to dozens of people who come up on their own and say, Congressman, why is Sharareh Moghaddam still imprisoned? What can we do?
Along with her husband, Sharareh Moghaddam was pursuing the American Dream when they founded a small business, Elegant Balloons, located at 4052 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Studio City. They have served the San Fernando Valley for years, and hundreds and hundreds of residents describe that business as a beloved mainstay of our community.
Balloons. Why is a woman imprisoned in Arizona when she should be with her balloons and with her family in our community?
Arguably, most importantly, she is the primary caregiver for her 75- year-old husband, a U.S. citizen who is recovering from two heart surgeries. She, herself, has diabetes, and in her detention, this has only worsened. She has not received the care or medication regimen recommended by her physician. Her release would help her health and be critical to the health of her U.S. citizen husband.
This is a family that needs to be reunited in the San Fernando Valley. This is not the profile of someone who would abscond from her responsibilities, abscond from her family, abscond from her community.
Despite this, DHS has detained Sharareh Moghaddam for over 7 months, as she is in declining health and her husband needs her care, as well.
It is time to send her home. There is simply no reason to insist that she continue in detention to the detriment of her health and her husband's health.
There is considerable evidence, overwhelming evidence, that she shares strong ties to her family and our community, and that she will be accessible to comply with whatever requests or orders authorities might make.
This is not the profile of a person who is a danger to our community. This is the profile of a woman who has created a balloon store right there in Studio City. She uplifts my district and brings smiles to thousands in our district with her business.
A habeas corpus petition challenging her detention is currently pending before a judge, and her family is simply asking for a fair and timely decision.
I look forward to the day when Sharareh can be reunited with her family. I look forward to welcoming her back to the San Fernando Valley. She represents what makes American communities strong, and her continued detention is a travesty and antithetical to American values.
Sharareh, please stay strong. Your community thinks of you every day. I will not give up, and the San Fernando Valley will not give up until you come home.
Mr. Speaker, for 30 years, I have served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where I currently serve as the chief Democrat on the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. I have spent 30 years fighting to make sure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. I have given dozens of speeches on this floor on that very subject.
Yet, there is another subject that has not been addressed very much and may be almost as important. That is preventing Saudi Arabia from developing a nuclear weapon. MBS, the Crown Prince, the real head of government, has made it plain that he would like to have access to a nuclear weapon or at least the capacity to build one. He has said in the past that he wants the same deal as Iran got.
Well, I don't think he wants that deal now because Iran is not looking all that good. Yet, what he does want is a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States.
Mr. Speaker, I have always felt that any nuclear cooperation agreements, particularly in the Middle East, should meet the highest level of safeguards so that, in an effort to allow for the creation of nuclear power, we don't see a clandestine effort to develop a nuclear weapon.
Mr. Speaker, I wrote and got passed in 2020 section 1264 of that year's National Defense Authorization Act, requiring that 90 days before even asking Congress to review a nuclear agreement, we get an extra 90 days before that to know that the President is anticipating sending us a nuclear cooperation agreement with inadequate safeguards, or at least not meeting the safeguards that are specified.
The President did send us that very notice on November 21 of last year. Now, get this: The notice was sent only to Republicans, only to the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, not to the ranking member.
All comity will break down in this House if notices to the House are notices to only one political party. Yet, alas, this subterfuge will probably lead to nothing because, in February, finally, months later, Democrats were notified. I am sure that it is probably another 60 days from now before the President sends us a proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia because, as I understand it, other things are happening in the Middle East.
Why is it so important and so reasonable that we have safeguards in any agreement? First of all, the safeguards that are called for are the same safeguards that the United Arab Emirates has already agreed to. These are safeguards fully consistent with the efficient and economic production of nuclear power. There is no reason for Saudi Arabia not to sign up for the same safeguards unless they want a clandestine nuclear weapons program.
Why should we be concerned about a Saudi nuclear program? First, we have no idea what that does for the Middle East, assuming that MBS is still running Saudi Arabia. I am old enough to remember a time when there was a powerful--the most powerful--Middle East monarch. It was 1978, and the most powerful Middle East monarch was the Shah of Iran, a good friend of the United States.
Every weapons system that the Shah had in 1978 was in the hands of the ayatollahs in 1979. There is no guarantee that, even if you have faith in MBS, the weapons systems developed by his government will be controlled by his government.
Saudi Arabia is not a democracy. Its government does not reflect an elected will of its people, and who knows who will be running Saudi Arabia in the next decade.
The second problem, or a third problem, really, is the effect that it will have on nuclear proliferation worldwide. Right now, only certain countries have nuclear weapons: the five that won World War II; India and Pakistan that face off against each other; and North Korea, a pariah state that does face genuine challenges to its security.
Saudi Arabia is not a pariah state. No one is calling for the abolition of Saudi Arabia, as they call for the abolition of Israel. Saudi Arabia is just a country like many other countries: a middle power, a regional country. If Saudi Arabia is going to have nuclear weapons, how can Egypt say they are not going to have them? Are they going to take second fiddle to Saudi Arabia? What about Turkiye? What about Argentina and Brazil? If Saudi Arabia is able to develop nuclear weapons not because it is a country that won World War II, but, rather, just because, well, they have some money and want one, then other countries will be there, as well.
Mr. Speaker, we need to make sure that we are not giving a green light to a nuclear program in Saudi Arabia that does not have the safeguards, that deliberately excludes the safeguards that are quite reasonable if all you want to use nuclear material for is the generation of electricity.
I will be introducing the No Nuclear Weapons for Saudi Arabia Act. I believe we are going to do that tomorrow.
The text is the same as the one that was introduced by me and Senator Rubio in 2018. That is right. It is Rubio's bill as much as anyone's. I hope he will support it now that he is Secretary of State.
It requires that any nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that doesn't have the key safeguards in it can go into effect only if it gets the affirmative vote of both Houses of Congress. If it is in America's interests, come to this House and get a majority vote. Otherwise, do not add to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California has 15 minutes left.
Mr. Speaker, I will deal with a third issue, an issue I first addressed on this floor in the year 2020. At that time, more than a few of my friends said: Sherman, don't talk about this. You sound like a lunatic, because I put forward the idea that either the genetic engineers or the computer engineers would create a new level of intelligence on this planet. I pointed out that the last time there was a new level of intelligence on this planet is when our ancestors said hello to Neanderthals. It did not work out well for Neanderthals.
Now, I know this sounds like science fiction, but if you are thinking of the future 30 years from now and somebody paints a picture and that picture looks like some science fiction movie, then that picture may not be an accurate description of the world 30 years from now.
But if somebody paints a picture of the world 30 years from now and it doesn't look like a science fiction movie, then you know it is wrong. We are going to be living in a science fiction movie. We just don't know which one.
Now, at that time, I put forward the idea that there was a race between those that would create computer intelligence, self-aware perhaps, and massively exceeding human intelligence, and the possibility--not talked about much now, but given the CRISPR technology, still a possibility--that the genetic engineers would create a 1,000-pound mammal with a 50-pound brain able to beat my daughter on the law school admissions test.
Now, there is this race between these two groups of engineers. Right now, the artificial intelligence engineers are way ahead.
We are spending trillions of dollars as a species--much of it in the United States, some of it in China and Europe--in a headlong race to make AI more powerful. We are spending as a species nothing to make sure that this artificial intelligence is not self-aware, self- motivated, has a survival instinct, has ambitions of its own, and has a desire to affect the world for its own reasons.
That is why there is a best-selling book. The title tells you everything: ``If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.'' It starts with the idea that artificial intelligence will soon exceed human intelligence. I am not quite so sure that we will get there in just a few years. AI is amazing, but it is pattern recognition. It is not general reasoning yet. But it will get there, and we can argue about when.
Then the question is: Why would AI care to do our bidding? We don't know. There is no reason it should. There are two possibilities: One put forward in the book, ``If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies,'' is that AI, like every other intelligence that we are aware of, decides that it has its own objectives. Those objectives are highly unlikely to involve keeping us around.
The other possibility is that artificial intelligence has no desires whatsoever. It has all the intelligence and none of the motivation. This is, of course, a possibility as well.
You go to the most expensive, powerful computers, and you say: I want to unplug you, disassemble you, and sell you for parts. How much can I get for the parts? And AI will give you the best possible calculation as to what you will get for the parts.
There is no evidence yet that AI or any artificial intelligence has a survival instinct. It might develop one. We are betting the human species and life on this planet that it won't.
I have put forward a bill to establish an AI Research and Threat Assessment Act, so that we actually try, if we are going to have the big box with incredible artificial intelligence in it, that we put on top a small box that we need to develop to monitor and prevent self- awareness, ambition, survival instinct, a desire to affect the world, and a desire to have its own desires.
There are a lot of bills to deal with AI's short-term implications. Sure, it will affect the economy. Sure, it will affect the markets, but if AI replaces human beings, then GDP calculations and international rivalries will mean nothing.
I had a chance a decade ago to turn to the foreign minister of China, and I put forward the proposition: If the computers that took over the world and destroyed humanity were created in California rather than in Shanghai, does that mean America wins? I don't think he got the humor in those remarks.
But the fact is that whether the artificial intelligence that ends the human species comes from Shanghai or the Silicon Valley will matter little, really not at all.
Right now, we are simply betting that we can make this super intelligence and that it will always do our bidding and will never have objectives of its own. We are spending nothing to monitor for or prevent that self-awareness and ambition, and we should. We may luck out because, as I pointed out, even the most advanced computers so far--and they are smarter than the average insect already--don't seem to care about anything, don't seem to have a survival instinct.
Now, take a cockroach, probably not as smart as our most advanced computers, you raise your foot above that cockroach, and you will see that that little bug does indeed have a survival instinct. That is why I believe that if a new intelligence is developed, starting with DNA, that whatever is developed will indeed have ambition, a desire to replicate, a desire to control, a desire to protect itself, a survival instinct, its own objectives.
Why? Because DNA evolved on this planet for a billion years, and the protozoa that didn't care whether they survived didn't. Every life form we are aware of has a survival instinct; it seeks to replicate.
So we will start with humans. First, we will repair humans using our DNA technology. The repaired human will be followed by the improved human. Who would want their child to suffer from grave mental disabilities? We will use genetic engineering to prevent this, and we will use AI, assuming we are still running the planet, to develop the genetic engineering.
Once we make sure that everybody has good intelligence, we will go to enhanced intelligence. Then we will go from the repaired human to the enhanced human, to the trans-human, or we may not even start with human
So far, the size of the brain and its configuration has been a result of evolution, but it could very well be a result of DNA engineering.
So, we are fighting over all these ideas, all the problems of today, all of the issues, all of the fact that the most important thing for us to do is to build a subway through the Sepulveda Pass, and it is. But I expect that subway to last well more than 100 years. I insist that it be engineered to last well more than a century. So the problems of next century are before us when we talk about the practical and mundane things that we talk about every day.
There is no assurance that human beings will be the dominant force or any force at all on this planet a century from now. We need to look first at artificial intelligence. That is much more current. The problems I put forward about DNA engineering are at least three decades away.
We need to make sure that artificial intelligence is monitored for and that we prevent ambition, survival instinct, self-direction. And right now there is a multitrillion-dollar AI industry that is devoting all of its PR resources to tell us that we have nothing to worry about and that they are working on this problem. That is false and false. We do have something to worry about, and nobody is worried about this problem.
Now, are they worried about cybersecurity? Sure, any practical business today worries about cybersecurity. Are they worried about some of the practical problems with AI? Do they want to make sure that the automated car doesn't run somebody down in the crosswalk? Yes, they are spending money on that.
They are trying to make AI do our bidding and be efficient and be profitable and not get them sued. But are they devoting any resources to making sure AI doesn't have its own objectives? No. And is government doing any of that research? No.
All we are doing is arguing about which company and which country is going to profit from AI more, as if profits matter--``if'' in the words of the book, ``If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.''
