Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act of 2022

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), my neighbor.

Week of Prayer for China

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for his comments and for his tireless commitment to pointing out the atrocities in China; our needs and interests in making sure that we stand with the people of Taiwan and stand strong in the globe and stand up as a strong country.

I would note, as we sit here today, that we had a number of issues that are of paramount importance to the American people. One of which, of course, being from the State of Texas, is the state of our border.

Today, official numbers came out from Border Patrol that there were 234,088 encounters in April. Of those, some 96,908 were turned away under so-called title 42 of our health code. But what that means is that at least 137,180 were released into the United States, and perhaps more.

Madam Speaker, 1,300 pounds of fentanyl, intercepted. Of course, today, Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is down at the Rio Grande Valley doing photo ops. Going down to the Valley so he can try to hide what he said to me and what he said to Republicans in the House Committee on the Judiciary who were questioning him just two weeks ago.

We said: Do you have operational control of the border?

And he said, Yes, I do.

Well, I wonder if my friend from Pennsylvania could help explain to the American people how 234,000 apprehensions, of which almost 130,000 are being turned into the United States, how that is somehow operational control.

The gentleman was an officer in the United States military. Does that sound like operational control?

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

Well, as the gentleman knows, as we sit here in the people's House, I just got an update from the border showing the Border Patrol is building a new soft-sided tent compound in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Another picture of it shows a big tent with chain-link fences up-- remember the kids in cages?--chain-link fences up. And it says it is roughly 215,000 square feet, which is almost five acres.

So to the gentleman's point, why would they be doing that? Why would Secretary Mayorkas be ordering Border Patrol to build a five-acre tent facility in Eagle Pass, Texas?

I know exactly why. Could it be because they believe their mission is to process more aliens coming to the United States? That it would encourage more to come; have them come across the river--never mind being exploited by the cartels--then get put into this facility to be processed and released.

Madam Speaker, the gentleman knows that we are feeling that impact in Texas.

He just mentioned fentanyl. We just got the new data from the CDC: 117,000 dead Americans.

Yet, nothing but crickets coming from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. They don't care. They don't care about 117,000 dead Americans, directly as a consequence of Chinese-produced fentanyl pouring in through cartels, through Mexico, into the United States. Nothing. Crickets.

Have you seen a bill on the floor of this body to deal with that?

Have you seen any efforts by our friends on the other side of the aisle to secure the border of the United States legitimately or force the hand of Secretary Mayorkas to actually enforce the policies of the United States?

Madam Speaker, very specifically, we have a discharge petition at the desk with the signature of every Republican but not one Democrat willing to go to the Democrats leading the administration and say, We need to secure the border of the United States and enforce the policies, including title 42 and whatever it takes to secure the border.

Is the gentleman aware of that?

Madam Speaker, I would ask the gentleman a question. We are talking about the extent to which the American people are hurting. He talked about the baby formula. We are talking about the border--wide open borders, fentanyl pouring in, American people dying. What about the fact that gasoline prices are skyrocketing, energy prices are going up?

We know we are producing 55 million fewer barrels of oil in February of 2022 than we did in February of 2020. The United States is expected to revert to being a net oil importer in 2022 after we had become a net oil exporter.

In the March 2020 debate, President Biden said no more drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore; no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.

Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they don't want to talk about that because they know full well it is precisely the policies of the administration to purposely limit the ability to produce oil and gas in this country that is empowering Putin to go after Ukraine and that is damaging the price of gas at the pump and harming the American people.

Our Democrat colleagues sit silent because they worship at the altar of the green agenda. Because that is their agenda, not the benefit of the American people, not the ability to drive your car, go to work, take care of your

family, afford gas, afford the goods and services that are going up because the diesel prices are going up, the inflation is skyrocketing. Because they refuse to open up American oil and gas, which we sit on a bevy of.

It is enormously important for our national security and the national security of our friends around the world. I know the gentleman, being from Pennsylvania, is well aware of the absurd energy policies that are harming the American people because they worship at the altar of the Green New Deal and the green agenda.

Absolutely. It is this green agenda that has us bowing down to China in order to get the minerals and resources in order to make solar panels and wind farms. If you look at Texas that produces as much wind as any State in the country, Texas only had 17 percent wind production from its wind farms last week, which was a big chunk of the problem that we had in terms of energy production.

Our grid is over-reliant on wind and solar. When you have a windless cloudy day, what do you need? You need fossil fuels. What else do you need? Nuclear power. Do you know how much nuclear power or fossil fuel generation we have in the pipeline, so to speak, right now across this country or even in Texas? Minuscule. Because of the worshipping at this ridiculous agenda.

Do you know how many coal-fired plants they have in China? Something like 1,100.

And opening one a week.

Do you know how many coal-fired plants we are opening in this country? Zippo.

Do you know what kind of rules we have coming out right now to hammer the coal industry in Texas and elsewhere? Massive rules.

Do you know what that means for the American people? No energy, lower energy, higher costs. That is 100 percent true and provable.

Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle walk around in some daze saying, oh, we are going to get this magic unicorn energy from wind and solar on a windless, cloudy day. It is absolutely absurd.

The American people are suffering. The American people are suffering because of the Democratic policies that are causing harm to them, driving up prices, making it impossible for them to have a reliable grid, reliable energy. We are sitting on a mountain of it in this country. We are exporting liquified natural gas from this country. CO2 is going down. We are not relying on China. We are sticking it back on them, and our people are benefiting and prospering.

The Democrat agenda is: stop that. Go beg China. And then pay more for your goods and services. Then what does Joe Biden say? What does Jen Psaki say in all of her infinite wisdom heading off to MSNBC after she accuses our Border Patrol agents of whipping people? She says: ``Oh, buy a Tesla.'' Go spend $60,000 and go buy an electric car.

Do you know what? If you are in Austin, Texas, and you want to drive to Midland, I guess you have to stop somewhere in the middle and hope you can charge.

Yes.

You know what I have here in front of me? I have a photograph that a friend--I think he is one of the six people watching on C-SPAN right now--just texted me and said, Here is a picture of gasoline at the pump. Diesel I should say, not gasoline. Diesel, 194 gallons. Do you know what the bill was? $1,090.

You want to know what is coming, American people, this summer? Have you looked at the inventory numbers for diesel? Ladies and gentlemen, it is coming. All of those goods and services sitting in trucks, trucks that are having to pay $1,090 to fill their tank, that is getting passed on to you. You are going to pay for that. You, the American people, are going to pay for that while Democrats in this body, in the Senate, and in this administration wave it off, laugh it off, and say: ``Go buy a Tesla.''

Well, that isn't going to make your prices any cheaper. That isn't going to enable you to be able to afford the goods and services you need.

I know we have only got a few minutes left, so I want to ask one more thing of my friend from Pennsylvania. We are talking here about energy, and we know how much energy is at the central debate about what is going on between Russia and Ukraine. And we know the administration didn't do a darn thing leading up to what is happening in Ukraine to cut off Nord Stream 2 to open up American oil and gas to try to cut off what we knew was coming and what Putin was doing.

Yet, last week we had a vote on the floor of this body on a $40 billion unpaid for blank check in the name of standing with Ukraine. Only 57 Members of this body out of 435 possible Members--however many are here right now--57 dared to say, Hey, wait a minute, maybe we should actually debate $40 billion that is not paid for that is going to go into the State Department, go into the Department of Defense, going around the world, paying

for refugee resettlement, paying for food around the world, paying for continued support of military operations in Ukraine.

I know the gentleman supports Ukraine and Zelenskyy, and I know the gentleman opposes Putin, but did you have a problem with a $40 billion blank check?

I agree with the gentleman. I support Ukrainians, but I represent Americans, and Americans want to stand alongside Zelenskyy and push back on Putin, but they want us to do our job responsibly.

When I hear the majority leader of the other party say, ``a time of war.'' When I sat with the majority leader in a Rules Committee meeting upstairs, and he said: ``We are at war,'' I was wondering when we voted to go to war. If we are going to have a proxy war, and we are going to give $40 billion to Ukraine because we want to look all fancy with our blue and yellow ribbons and feel good about ourselves, maybe we should actually have a debate in this Chamber, a debate in this body because the American people expect us to do that.

When the border of this country is wide open, and cartels have control of it, and fentanyl is pouring in, and we have $30.5 trillion in debt, and gas prices are spiking, and it cost $1,100 to fill a tank of diesel, and we go, Oh, blank check, $40 billion. By the way, I am looking at my colleagues on this side of the aisle on that same point.

The American people deserve and expect better than that. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Heaven forbid we vote on bills put before this body.

I know the gentleman is correct. I know we are just about out of time.

I would just say in closing, the American people expect us to do our job. The American people expect us to vote, the American people expect us to stand up for them, and that is what we are happy to be here doing. I appreciate the gentleman joining me tonight.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend, the good gentleman from Texas for yielding.

I think that what most people don't understand--and some even in this body--is that when you think about operational control of the border, you are assuming that the administration wants to stop people from illegally crossing. You are thinking that they are about border security and about national security.

We actually voted in this body, as you know, to fund at higher levels, Border Patrol, ICE. And many on our side of the aisle even voted for it, either unwittingly or knowing that this administration was actually going to use that money, not to stop people from coming across the border illegally, not to uphold the law, not to stop the invasion that is guaranteed by our Constitution to the States, but to actually become more efficient at processing individuals coming across the border illegally and moving them very quickly into the interior of the country.

They used the money so that they don't have the optics of what is happening at the Del Rio bridge. That is why they wanted to be more efficient. They don't want the optics of people huddling underneath a bridge, coming from some other country or some other places illegally, and not having anywhere to go, and the squalor and the potential crime element that is associated with it.

Since they don't want that optic, what they have done is used the money that has been appropriated, the additional money--not to mention all the money that has already been appropriated--to move them more efficiently into the interior of the country.

So when the Secretary says he has operational control, sure, they are operationally controlling the influx of illegal aliens, right? That is the actual definition, right? That is the word that is used--illegal aliens into the country. And so on that charge, they are actually doing very well.

Unfortunately, the American people, and my good friend from Texas, Chip Roy, know they are suffering right now under horrific high prices that they barely can afford, whether it is for fuel in their car, whether it is for being able to buy groceries, if you can find them.

And heaven forbid you are a family that has a small child that needs formula. No extra money for that, Mr. Roy. No extra money for Americans.

Well, you know why.

Madam Speaker, into the country but without the view of the cameras, without the access of the American people in to see what is happening in their country. That is the chain-link fence around it, without the view of what is happening in every single community which is due to fentanyl overdoses.

Every single person in America now likely can say they know some family, somebody in their town that died of a fentanyl overdose. So that is coming from China, as the good gentleman from Arkansas was just talking about what is happening in China--it comes from China through Mexico across our southern border and into your town.

That is national security. That is border security. That is health security. And our country and the leadership and this administration is not providing it at this time.

I am aware of that.

Madam Speaker, right here on this floor, the President came and gave his State of the Union and said he wanted to secure the border. That is what the President said, he wanted to secure the border. Yet, the fentanyl keeps coming in. The money has been spent. In many towns they have defunded the police, right? The drugs keep coming in.

And as there is a primary election going on right now in my home State in Pennsylvania, many people from across the aisle have said they want border protection, they want national security, they want to stop the fentanyl.

But given any opportunity to vote in favor of that, to come down and sign the discharge petition, not one Democrat, not one Democrat signed the discharge petition to force that bill to the floor to say keep title 42 in place and leave us an opportunity to make sure that people and drugs and the crime element supported by the cartels don't come to America. Not one will step up.

That is exactly right.

Madam Speaker, the American people see and are feeling it every single day when they go to the gas pumps, when they have got to get their kids to soccer games and multiple activities, driving back and forth, and they can't afford to fill up their gas tanks anymore.

This is because we are at the beginning of implementing the Green New Deal, forcing it on Americans; not letting you make the choice, but letting policymakers in Washington, D.C., determine how your life is going to be.

And while the President says, in this very body, they want to have a vote on price-gouging. Meanwhile, we are not allowing the people to produce the gas and oil that we desperately need to keep our energy economy going. Our country runs on energy, right? The President is saying no more leases. Not one pipeline is being built.

No more leases. No more refining. It is not happening. They actually said that we are producing more gas and oil than ever before in history. But you just gave them the numbers, Mr. Roy. You just gave us the numbers. It is actually less. That is what happens, and you are going to pay more. For every single gallon that you buy, you are going to pay more. And this is all by design. They don't want you to have the choice. They actually want to force you to drive an electric vehicle.

As long as we are talking about energy and the lack thereof, Mr. Roy, it was just reported in your State to be prepared for blackouts and brownouts because there is going to be a lack of electricity production.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 21st century. America knows how to produce energy. We know how to make electricity. We know how to transport it. Yet, it is happening in California, and now it is going to start cascading across the country because of the policy decisions of the Green New Deal and those who worship at the altar of this green agenda that forces us to take these things that we can't afford and are inefficient and ineffective.

And opening one a week.

And hope you can charge. And I sure hope you have the time to sit there and charge, right? It is not like filling it up at the gas station and you get back on the road and keep going and make it in a reasonable amount of time.

The gentleman from Texas is absolutely right. I mean, he talked about the fact that we are empowering China. Eighty-five percent of the critical minerals that come here to make the solar panels and windmills come from China. Now, of course, we subsidize all that. That subsidy means it is coming from your tax dollars.

Of course, I don't know whether you know this or not, Mr. Roy, but I suspect you do, those tax dollars going to pay for those raw materials in China are then--those tax dollars go to mine it, to mine it in the Congo, right?

One of the biggest mines in the world, the biggest mine in the world. Slave labor, child slave labor, right? We are talking about saving the rainforest, meanwhile they are cutting all this stuff down to mine these minerals, so we can feel good. So we can feel good about our ourselves and America. Meanwhile, it is supporting child slave labor with your taxes, supporting deforestation of the rainforest. For what? For higher prices and less availability, and it is just going to keep coming, ladies and gentlemen, as long as the agenda of the left keeps being implemented.

I had a problem with $40 billion with 5 hours, 5 hours of consideration for $40 billion. When we took the text to the staff and asked them about this line, what is this $300 million, and they said, Well, we don't know. And we are expected to vote on that. We are expected to vote for that or somehow we are aligned with Vladimir Putin.

Keep in mind, my good friend from Texas, 2 weeks prior to this we did this lend-lease without any time limit, without any funding limit, then come back, and the President asked for $33 billion, we give him $40 billion. We can't afford our diesel. Pretty soon you are not going to be able to afford your food. We won't do anything on our own border. Prices are going up for every single person.

Every American wants to help Ukraine, but we are Americans, and the Representatives in this body represent America.

You are absolutely right, Mr. Roy. The American people at least deserve the debate. Five hours, ladies and gentlemen, 5 hours for $40 billion. People around here complain about all kinds of things.

Right. That is a problem. But $40 billion, no problem.

Meanwhile, our citizens, the citizens that I represent, they are having a hard time figuring out, do they pay their insurance, do they pay their mortgage? I talk to people on a regular basis that say they put their bills on their table, and they put a date on them when they are due and when they think they will be able to pay for them. They say, I have never had to do that before. I am selling stuff to pay my bills because I can't afford what is happening in my country right now. Meanwhile, we can't talk for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour about $40 billion to some other country. Meanwhile, we just gave a blank check 2 weeks before to let the President spend any amount of money for any amount of time on the same country. We didn't declare war.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for allowing me to be part of this Special Order and speak on behalf of and fight on behalf of the American people that are struggling right now.

Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to the continued death of freedom and personal rights occurring in greater China.

Last week, Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90 years old, the former cardinal from Hong Kong, was arrested by the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong for speaking out for democracy.

This arrest threatens the fundamental freedoms of all individuals with the courage to speak out against the Chinese Communist Party by demonstrating the extent of the regime's aggression, threatening these advocates with life in prison or worse.

For years, Cardinal Zen has advocated for democracy and religious freedom for the Chinese people. I have had the opportunity to meet with Cardinal Zen and have heard his pleas for freedom and advocacy for citizens in Hong Kong and Roman Catholics in China.

Next week, we will recognize a week of global prayer for China. During the week, we will pray for all suffering under the Chinese regime, including Cardinal Zen.

I urge my colleagues to take a moment to pray for religious tolerance and individual rights, to pray for a bright and safe future for the Chinese people, a future without persecution, a future with the fundamental freedoms we all deserve.

We must keep Cardinal Zen and the other brave individuals advocating for freedoms that we enjoy here today and every day in our prayers today, tomorrow, next week, and until the Chinese people are no longer under the boot of Communist persecution.

Preserving Peace and Stability in Taiwan

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my legislation that I have introduced with the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).

Our bill, H.R. 7704, the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, is a necessary step to help deter the Chinese aggression or the potential aggression, I think we should all hope, against Taiwan.

In 1979, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act to preserve and promote a close relationship between the United States and Taiwan. For 43 years, the United States has been committed to the preservation of human rights, peace, and stability for the people on the island of Taiwan.

Unfortunately, the Chinese Communist Party has been growing more comfortable in taking coercive and aggressive actions toward Taiwan.

Our bill will ensure that the financial consequences for CCP officials and their immediate family members are immediate if they are tempted to get any ideas from their brutal, repressive, murderous friends in Russia.

Under my bill, if the President reports to Congress any threat to the security or social or economic system of Taiwan made by China, as required under the 1979 act, the Treasury will report on all illicit and corrupt assets of senior CCP officials and their immediate family members and will take steps to prohibit these officials from benefiting from these funds at U.S. financial institutions.

We cannot risk any lack of clarity regarding the U.S. commitment to Taiwan. Aspiring global strongmen must know personal consequences are in store for any aggressive behavior.

Madam Speaker, I urge quick consideration and adoption of our bill, the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act.