Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, since day one of this Congress, the Republican majority has been a complete and total disaster--failed speakerships, failed rules votes, failed bills, failure to address real problems, failure to pass real solutions, and failure to even send bills to the Senate. Today is more of the same, more failure from this dysfunctional Republican majority.

Speaker Johnson promised he would get all 12 appropriations bills across the finish line before August. They couldn't even pass half of them. He tried to coax the MAGA extremists into voting for a continuing resolution by tacking on more election fraud conspiracies. That plan went down in flames.

Here we are, a week before the government shuts down, and Republicans had to move on to a new plan. Despite the Rules Committee taking testimony from appropriators last night on the continuing resolution, there is no CR in this rule. I checked. I double checked. I made sure nothing was stuck to the pages. I looked under the table.

What was the point of that exercise last night in the Rules Committee other than to once again demonstrate that this Republican majority cannot fulfill its most basic function, keeping the government open without help from Democrats?

Let's be clear. Their majority is not a working majority. They don't have the votes without Democrats, so my friends are putting up a continuing resolution on suspension and, once again, they are asking Democrats to bail them out.

Madam Speaker, when will the other side stop letting the MAGA extremists run this place?

Look at the bills that are coming to the floor today: More MAGA messaging measures that will never, ever become law. It is pathetic. There is a bill that claims to be tough on China. Well, let me tell you, there are very few people who are as tough a critic as I am when it comes to China's human rights record. I think I am one of a handful, only a handful, of legislators in this body and the other body who have actually been sanctioned by China. I am not even allowed in the country nor is my family. Believe me when I say this is a stupid way to handle a complicated geopolitical challenge. We need to be smart on China. We need to pass bills that actually get results, not just pass bills that sound tough on paper, which is all this bill is.

Then, we have another no-good bill that Republicans claim will tackle crime, but we all know what this is really about. This bill's only purpose is to attack Vice President Harris.

The former President keeps spinning the narrative on the campaign trail that crime is at an all-time high. He has trouble with facts.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the Record an article: ``Murder and other violent crime dropped across the U.S. last year, FBI data shows.''

This report was released yesterday, by the way. The data shows that violent crime has dropped in recent years, but Republicans are ignoring these facts and choosing to push messaging bills like this one instead.

It really is quite sad that that is kind of the state of affairs on the Republican side.

Look, I get it. I get it. My Republican friends are afraid because Vice President Harris was a prosecutor who put felons in jail, and, well, I will just let everyone who is watching fill in the rest.

Then, we have an absurd, nonbinding resolution that politicizes the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Playing politics with this is disgusting.

This is not about honoring our fallen soldiers. This is about politics at its worst.

This bill didn't even go through regular order. It was introduced 5 days ago and didn't go through committee.

Republicans were so anxious to get this resolution to the floor before the election that they didn't even get Members' input. Was it written by the Trump campaign? I mean, give me a break.

This is not the way we honor our fallen soldiers. We don't play politics with tragedies.

Let me just state for the record, thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris, for the first time in decades, the United States is not at war anywhere in this world.

Finally, we have the Fix Our Forests Act. In my opinion, this is a pro-polluter bill that ignores the realities of climate change when it comes to wildfires.

I will be opposing this bill because the so-called Fix Our Forests Act will not fix our forests. Instead, I think it would bypass critical environmental laws, cut out scientific input, and undermine our Nation's core environmental laws.

Madam Speaker, look, here is the reality: Republicans have fumbled left and right over the last 2 years. They really have become the party of broken promises, wasting everybody's time and wasting taxpayer money on absurd messaging bills that are going nowhere.

While we have real challenges in this country, this is the junk they bring to the floor. People want us to work together to get things done, and instead, this majority spends their time fighting amongst themselves and accomplishing absolutely nothing for the American people.

It is simple, really. The other side wants to come down here and talk about anything other than their plans for the future because when they do that, people see how weird they are.

They don't want to talk about Project 2025, their dystopian plan to take total control of our country, dismantle our system of checks and balances, and take away people's freedoms.

They don't want to talk about how their draconian abortion bans are killing women and putting them at extreme risks.

They don't want to talk about how 9 years after starting to run for President, Donald Trump still doesn't have an actual plan to provide better healthcare for the American people.

They don't want to talk about how Donald Trump's big economic plan would result in average families spending an extra $4,000 per year-- $4,000 more per year that families would pay if his plans were enacted.

They come down here and bring up some absurd messaging bills to avoid talking about how weird and unpopular their agenda is.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Texas says that the Biden administration is weak. I guess the gentleman and I have a different definition of what weakness looks like.

It was Republicans, by the way, not Joe Biden, who held up aid for our allies for 9 months because their side buys into Kremlin propaganda. I think that is weak, quite frankly.

It was a Republican President who went to North Korea and tried to get a brutal dictator to like him. He actually said they wrote each other love letters. He went there and groveled to Kim Jong Un. I don't think that that is a sign of strength. I think that is a sign of weakness.

It is the Republican candidate for President who praises Putin on a regular basis, calls him Vladimir, loves Xi Jinping, says Viktor Orban is fantastic.

Don't even lecture us about human rights when the majority can't bring itself to be critical of what the Republican standard-bearer says on a regular basis. That is not strength. That is pathetic. It makes us look weak.

Meanwhile, after they wrecked our image on the world stage, it is President Joe Biden who has had to rebuild it. I don't call that weakness. I call that a sign of strength. Standing with our NATO allies, standing with the people of Ukraine as Russia drops bombs on them on a regular basis, that is not weakness. That is strength.

The gentleman from New York, I mean, listening to him speak, one would think that we are living in 14th century Europe during the black plague.

The fact is that we live in the best place in the world. There is no other place in the world I would rather live than in the United States of America, and it is the best time in history, quite frankly, for a whole bunch of reasons.

Please don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say that none of our soldiers were in harm's way. I said we are living in a time when we were not at war with any country. That is what I said. I have to insist on accuracy when it comes to my words.

We can do better, and we should work to improve the lives of the people we represent.

Crime is down. The gentleman from New York who just spoke apparently wasn't here when I inserted the FBI report, but that is facts. Crime is down.

The economy is strong and growing stronger.

Science is improving our lives in new ways every single day. It is amazing.

The Republican agenda of division and hate only takes us backward. Let's go forward. Let's work together on something, and maybe we can start today. Rather than politicizing the tragic deaths of American servicemen, maybe we can start the day today by actually helping our veterans, something that my Republican friends have a hard time trying to do.

Madam Speaker, I urge that we defeat the previous question, and if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to include an additional $12 billion in the continuing resolution that our Nation's veterans need for their healthcare.

Madam Speaker, let's remember how we got here. Republicans talked a big game all Congress about how they were going to return to regular order and pass 12 individual appropriation bills, but consistent with the theme of dysfunction for this Republican majority, they instead spent months fighting amongst themselves.

What was the result? How many awful, partisan, go-nowhere appropriation bills were they actually able to pass? Madam Speaker, 5, 5 out of 12, and they didn't even send the Homeland Security appropriations bill over to the Senate. Why? Because they threw a tantrum and refused to send their Homeland Security appropriations bill to the Senate unless their awful H.R. 2 border bill got signed into law.

That is not how this works. They need to watch ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' Maybe they can learn something.

Once again, Democrats are the adults in the room who are being asked to come in and clean up the Republican mess--in this case, to ensure that our basic responsibility of governing is met: Keeping the lights on.

Now, the continuing resolution that we will consider later this week has some good pieces in it, and it will keep the American people's government open for another 3 months, but there is always room for improvement.

That is why I am offering this amendment to provide an extra $12 billion to maintain medical care for veterans, money that the Department of Veterans Affairs says that they will need. Our veterans deserve our support. It is our responsibility to provide the care that they have earned.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Deluzio) to discuss our proposal.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would just say to the gentleman from Texas that I am sorry that I guess I hurt his feelings with some of the things I have said, but it is the truth, and I guess the truth hurts.

Madam Speaker, earlier I said that this majority has turned the Republican Party into a circus of chaos, broken promises, and failures.

Let's talk about that just a little bit more, shall we?

Since last January, this majority wasted 26 entire days, nearly a month, on fighting with each other as they tried to elect a Speaker of the House. Madam Speaker, 5 days were spent electing Kevin McCarthy, who was then booted out of the speakership and ended up leaving office. Madam Speaker, 21 days were spent as the Republican Conference argued about who was next in line. We ended up with Speaker Johnson, and we went from a bad Speaker to an even worse one.

That is nearly a month. That is nearly a month completely wasted on nothing more than bickering amongst themselves.

I will also remind you, Madam Speaker, the House was held hostage for days in June of last year because a tiny, extreme faction of the Republican Conference chose to throw a fit over the debt deal negotiated by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy.

Republicans struck down a rule on the floor for the first time in over two decades, holding the House floor schedule hostage all for camera time while MAGA threw a fit.

Now, we have seen a total of seven failed rules in this Congress, seven. Hell, we have even seen Republicans vote down not just the rules but vote down their own bills because there are times even conservative Members have thought the MAGA weirdo bills are just too weird and too extreme.

Get this, Madam Speaker, even when House Republicans manage to succeed, they fail to govern.

We keep hearing them complain about the border.

News flash, they passed the Department of Homeland Security funding bill 3 months ago, and they never sent it to the Senate. They put it in a filing cabinet and locked the door.

What is this, hide and seek? They are passing bills and hiding them in the basement so they can complain about the border more and more and more instead of trying to fix it. Someone needs to show these guys ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' I mean, we are talking about their number one priority, and they don't even send the bill over to the Senate.

It just shows how fake all their outrage is about the border.

I will leave you with this, Madam Speaker: Despite all the talk from this Republican majority that the 118th Congress would be the most open Congress ever, last night Republicans, again, broke their own record for the most closed Congress in the history of the country.

In addition to being the most ineffective and dysfunctional Congress in history, it is now also the most closed. Republicans have advanced 106--I am sorry. It is actually now 108. There are two more closed rules in the rule we are talking about today. Before they broke their record, their previous record was 103 closed rules when Paul Ryan was Speaker.

That means that they broke their own record for the most closed Congress in history. They are going to be unbeatable when it comes to a closed Congress.

Madam Speaker, it is more than about numbers. It is about what they represent.

As of this week, Republicans have now blocked 5,822 amendments from debate. They have even blocked the majority of their own Members' amendments from coming to the floor from debate.

It is ironic, the party that calls us snowflakes is afraid to even allow debate on the merits of these amendments.

Every amendment they block is another idea that is prevented from a vote on the House floor.

Now, let's look at some of the examples of what they thought was too crazy to bring to the floor.

They blocked an amendment blocking smuggling of U.S. firearms across the Mexican border. They thought that was too radical to bring to the floor.

They blocked an amendment protecting food for seniors participating in Meals on Wheels.

They blocked an amendment providing postpartum mental health information to pregnant students. By the way, that was a Republican amendment.

Look, we know Republicans have the majority. These amendments might lose, but a truly open and inclusive process that Republicans promised would let us debate these issues on the merits.

It is all part of a pattern. They are afraid of debating because they don't want to engage on policy. For them this is all just a game. It is about trying to hold onto power for the sake of holding onto power.

It is one broken promise after another from these guys. The truth is, Republicans have nothing, nothing, nothing to show for their time in power, just incompetence and chaos.

That is why I think people will be rejecting them in November.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The gentleman just put forward a straw man argument. The way it usually works is the Rules Committee sends out a notice asking for amendments that sets a deadline. It gives a week for our people to construct their ideas and send them to the Rules Committee.

On this package, they never sent out a notice or a deadline. I mean, the reality is, I think everybody already knew what was coming.

I am going to tell you, there is no defense for being the most closed Congress in the history of the United States. They fight amongst themselves and they basically work overtime to prevent thoughtful ideas from coming to the floor. They are good about debating trivial issues passionately, but they are not very good about debating important ones. Everything that they bring to the floor is not about moving the ball forward in terms of helping improve the quality of life for the American people. It is all about messaging and gotcha and division and pushing hate in this country. It just has to stop, and hopefully it will.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how many speakers the gentleman has remaining?

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

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

Madam Speaker, I have already spoken about why these messaging measures will do nothing to help Americans, what a complete disaster this dysfunctional Republican majority has been, and how their weird, unpopular agenda is wrong for this country.

Now, I want to speak to you, Madam Speaker, and to the American people about the alternative, about what President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats here in Congress have accomplished and what we will continue to fight for in the years to come.

Democrats delivered the American Rescue Plan, helping to end the COVID crisis and reopening our economy that was shut down under Donald Trump.

Democrats delivered the CHIPS and Science Act, bringing jobs back from China and supply chains back from overseas.

Democrats delivered the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic investment that will rebuild our infrastructure for generations and generations to come.

Democrats delivered the bipartisan Honoring our PACT Act, expanding VA healthcare and benefits for millions and millions of veterans who have been exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances.

Democrats delivered the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant piece of gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years.

That is what leadership looks like. It looks like making this country better. It looks like imagining and doing big things. It looks like finding common ground across the aisle where and when we can. It looks like delivering real, concrete results for the people of this country.

Democrats fight for lower prices. We fight to build an opportunity economy. We fight to protect our freedoms. We fight to ensure liberty and justice for every single American.

We believe good policy can unite people. We want to bring people together and focus on what we have in common in this country because there is so much more that unites us than divides us.

Madam Speaker, people are fed up with this majority's dysfunction. They are fed up with Republican incompetence.

What we Democrats, President Biden, and Vice President Harris offer is the opposite. Instead of division, Democrats offer unity. Instead of talking about the past and complaining, Democrats talk about the future and giving people hope. Instead of dysfunction, we will run this country like professionals and get stuff done to make America the best it can be.

The choice this November is a consequential one, Madam Speaker, and we can continue down the same failed path of dysfunction and disarray, or we can fire this failed MAGA majority. We can let Republicans keep sowing anger and hate, or we can let Democrats bring some decency and dignity back to this place. We can let Republicans continue fighting with each other, or we can let Democrats fight on behalf of the American people.

That is what is on the line this November, and the choice could not be more clear.

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

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1486 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 3 printed in Part D of House Report 118-705, to be offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao) or a designee, be modified by the amendment I have placed at the desk.

Madam Speaker, last night, the House Committee on Rules met to report House Resolution 1486, providing for the consideration of four pieces of legislation.

First, the rule provides for consideration of H. Res. 1469, condemning the Biden-Harris administration and individuals therein responsible for the military withdrawal of Afghanistan and subsequent evacuation. This will be considered under a closed rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Second, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 3334, the STOP CCP Act, under a structured rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and provides one motion to recommit.

Third, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 8205, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act, under a closed rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided between the chair and the ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary and provides for one motion to recommit.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 8790, the Fix Our Forests Act, under a structured rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided between the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Natural Resources and provides one motion to recommit.

Finally, the rule provides clarification in House rules regarding the regulations governing the availability of remote witness testimony.

Madam Speaker, it has been over 3 years since the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan; 3 years since 13 members of our armed services fell on account of the Biden-Harris administration's rushed operation to fulfill a campaign promise; 3 years of not one single acknowledgment by the President, the Democratic nominee for President, the current Vice President, or anyone in the administration, for that matter, to acknowledge what happened in August 2021.

For better or for worse, the American people saw this tragedy with their own eyes, as Afghan civilians clung to an airplane leaving Kabul airport, and the American people have been awaiting accountability from those responsible for a long time.

Well, that wait ends this week when the House considers H. Res. 1469 to condemn those in the Biden-Harris administration responsible for the events that led up to and unfolded in July and August of 2021.

Despite the Biden-Harris administration's incessant stonewalling of proper congressional oversight and accountability, Chairman McCaul and the Foreign Affairs Committee have investigated the events surrounding and during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Their recently released report is as stunning as it is outrageous.

The Biden-Harris administration ignored that the Taliban was not meeting its obligations under the Doha agreement. For example, the Taliban had yet to cut ties with al-Qaida by the time the evacuation started, something that the Biden-Harris administration knew.

Secondly, the administration prioritized optics and political expediency over the safety of our servicemembers and civilian personnel. The Taliban had already entered Kabul before the evacuation of nonmilitary personnel began.

Third, they failed to plan for the go-to-zero order appropriately, which led to the deadliest attack on U.S. military personnel in a decade.

Fourth, the failures damaged America's credibility and standing in the world. I cannot stress enough the significance of these events. We abandoned our allies, leaving them to slaughter, and allowed terrorism once again to flourish in the area.

Fifth, there was a concerted and deliberate misinformation campaign that

touched nearly every stage of the withdrawal.

These failures have had a profound impact on our country, but not a single person in the Biden-Harris administration has yet been held accountable.

Recruitment into our military has plummeted after the prospective servicemembers saw that they would basically be used as disposable chess pawns in a political promise.

The Taliban has organized a de facto permanent regime built on torture, violence, and religious and political oppression. Without a United States presence in the area, counterterrorism operations have been hindered, and foreign adversaries like China have moved in to establish diplomatic relations with the regime.

Most importantly, however, these events signaled weakness, emboldening China, Russia, and their proxies to become more aggressive with their geopolitical ambitions. China became emboldened to pursue its objectives with respect to Taiwan. Russian leaders saw an opening, and they invaded Ukraine, knowing that the United States was weak and could not be trusted, a shameful and disastrous series of events that our country is paying the price for currently and will continue to pay this price for decades.

Afghanistan is not the only area where the Biden-Harris administration has shown weakness. This week, the House of Representatives will consider the STOP CCP Act, which will impose significant and punitive sanctions on individuals of the Chinese Communist Party.

Madam Speaker, there is broad agreement in this body over the atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party. Where we seemingly don't agree is whether there should be consequences for these atrocities. Up to this point, the Biden-Harris administration has yet to impose any meaningful sanction on the Chinese Government officials for their political and religious oppression of their own people. The STOP CCP Act forces the administration to finally do so and speak loudly that oppression of God-given rights will be met with consequence.

Speaking of consequences, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act imposes strict regulations and penalties on charitable bond funds, whose funding has exploded in recent years as a result of the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. These funds, like the Minnesota Freedom Fund, bail out violent criminals who in many cases then go on to commit more crime. H.R. 8205 ensures that these funds are subject to penalties and licensing requirements to protect our communities and keep criminals where they belong, which is behind bars.

The final bill provided under the rule, the Fix Our Forests Act, is bipartisan legislation that addresses the wildfire crisis across the country. Now, in classic fashion, the Biden-Harris administration and their allies in Congress spent billions of dollars to address the increase in wildfire occurrences and their severity without fixing the underlying problem: bureaucratic red tape and extreme environmental and serial litigators that prevent the correct management of forests.

H.R. 8790 makes targeted, yet transformational, changes to the Federal agencies responsible for our forests to improve the way we manage our forests and ensure projects are not held up in the bureaucracy or in the courts.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bills, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, before I go to the gentleman from New York, I do want to point out that, sadly, in January of this year, January 29, 2024, three U.S. soldiers were killed in Jordan. The three soldiers are Sergeant William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia; Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia; and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia. All were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, Fort Moore, Georgia.

Do not continue to repeat the lie that we have no soldiers standing in harm's way during the Biden administration. It was brought up during the debate by the Vice President. It was wrong then. It is wrong now.

We have soldiers on the ground in Iran and Syria. Of course, there are soldiers deployed in the Continent of Africa. We can't forget everything that is happening right now with the Houthi rebels placing our servicemembers in danger.

Do not make the mistake that the world is completely at peace under the beneficence of the current Biden administration.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Langworthy), a valuable member of the Rules Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

First off, I do want to remind the House that the House passed $3 billion in veterans funding last week and sent it over to the Senate. This gives us time to act on further veterans funding prior to the December 20 deadline that will be part of the continuing resolution that will pass later this week.

The Military Construction-VA appropriations bill was, in fact, the first House-passed appropriations bill. Representative Carter from Texas led that subcommittee and passed that bill much earlier in the year. It has been sitting over in the Senate. It hasn't seen any activity. That bill actually could have been passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President of the United States.

I am grateful that my counterpart, the ranking member of the committee, allowed you to see, Madam Speaker, what I live with on a daily basis, which is a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome. We see it on display in the Rules Committee almost continuously. You have heard a brief exposure of that today on the floor of the House.

I apologize to the country that they had to put up with that, but, again, this is my life in the Rules Committee. Trump derangement syndrome is alive and well and put forth on virtually every argument that goes forth in the Rules Committee.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

The rules brought forth today, two are closed, but in both instances, neither received an amendment in which to make in order. If there are no amendments, by definition, then it is a closed rule.

I do want to point out that this majority has reported nearly twice the number of bills as the last Congress when the gentleman, the ranking member, was, in fact, the chairman of the committee. I would also like to point out that since there was a change in the chairman of the Rules Committee, all Rules Committee votes have passed on the floor. I hope that pattern continues today.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close after the gentleman closes.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time on the Republican side.

Madam Speaker, it is ironic that we keep hearing about unity. I heard the word ``unity'' I don't know how many times during the inaugural address of President Biden, yet it is virtually impossible for a Republican to get a telephone call answered from the head of any Federal agency.

This has been the most walled-off administration that I have ever seen. I served in the Bush Presidency, the Obama Presidency, and the Trump Presidency, and I have never seen an administration that behaves in the way this administration does.

The gentleman referenced the aid to the country of Ukraine. I voted for that aid package in June 2022. We didn't get a lot of information before the bill was brought to the floor. Then-Speaker Pelosi brought it rather hurriedly. It came to the Rules Committee in an emergency hearing, but what was happening in Ukraine seemed so horrific that any ability to help seemed important.

Then I waited after that vote. I waited for the administration to come to talk to us about what the strategy is, where we are going, and what the plan is. Is there an exit strategy out there somewhere?

Again, we had another vote last March, once again hoping that the administration would begin to behave differently and at least inform the Congress of what their plans were. I voted again for that aid package. I caught a lot of grief from my constituents back home for voting for that package. At the same time, once again, no information was forthcoming from the administration, no plan and no strategy.

Madam Speaker, we had big meetings over in the auditorium in the Capitol Visitor Center just prior to the invasion of Ukraine. All the generals and Cabinet Secretaries were there. They told us that it was too late, that there was nothing we could do, and that Ukraine would fall in 3 days. They didn't.

That is when the administration came back and started asking for these aid packages, but never once did they fill in the blanks of: this is what we plan to do, this is where we plan to go.

Even today, the administration seems to be arguing with itself. Do we allow for Ukraine to use that aid in a more robust way to defend itself, or is it all just purely risk-averse defense spending that they will do?

Again, we don't know. I would love to hear the administration give us a reason why it is important to continue to send American tax dollars because they have a plan for victory and a plan for ending the war.

We heard a lot of discussion about the previous administration, the Trump administration, and the world was never more prosperous and at peace.

Madam Speaker, do you remember the comment in early October last year when the statement was made by the administration that they have never seen the Middle East more quiet than it is today? Oh, my God, where are we now? Where are we now?

Where are the plans of the administration? When are they going to come to talk to us about the correct way forward?

We hear arguments internally, arguments with the administration arguing with itself. We heard the Vice President and the President basically arguing about the way forward with what to do with the problems in the Middle East, but, again, no one comes to us and lays out what the plan is going forward.

Madam Speaker, I have never seen a world more dangerous than it is today. I feel as if we are living on a knife's

edge and that, at any point, one false move, one miscalculation by one individual, could lead the world into a confrontation and conflagration the likes of which the world has never seen before.

We do need to be concerned about that. We do need the United States to lead. We need a strong leader in the United States, and I would argue that the prior President evidenced that type of strong leadership, and the world was a safer place. The world was a more prosperous place.

Now, since the gentleman brought up the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, these were the very matches that lit the fuse on inflation in this country in January 2021.

Inflation was at 1.6 percent in December 2020. Then, a year later, where was it? It was going up toward 8 percent.

The Secretary of the Treasury said she thought it would be transitory. The Chair of the Federal Reserve thought it would self- correct. Then it didn't, and the American people suffered.

Why weren't we concerned about the suffering of the American people in the last Congress when we continued to lay spending bill over spending bill, which the people could no longer afford?

So, yes, it is tough. Now, we are having to dial some of that back, and it is not easy. Any time the Federal Government spends a dollar, it immediately creates a constituency, and it is difficult to dial those dollars back.

We argue with ourselves here in the Congress about what the best path forward is, but at the same time, we have an obligation. We have an obligation to fund the government, which we will have an opportunity to do later this week.

Madam Speaker, I do want to urge colleagues to support this rule. I do want to encourage colleagues to support the underlying legislation. I do want us to hold the Federal agencies accountable to the American people, solve critical issues for our constituents, and restore American strength on the world stage.

I said in committee yesterday that these bills are about accountability to the governed, respect for law and order, strength on the world stage, and rightsizing Federal agencies. These are the core tenets of House Republicans. That is what we pledged to the American people, and it is what the American people expect from this body.

Madam Speaker, I, again, urge my colleagues to support the rule and support the underlying legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1486, I call up the bill (H.R. 8205) to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to provide that Byrne grant funds may be used for public safety report systems, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 8205.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand before you today in support of my bill, H.R. 8205, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act.

This bill defines the posting of cash bail by a corporate, nonprofit, or for-profit entity as engaged in the business of insurance, subjecting them to Federal insurance laws and our criminal fraud statutes.

My district, unfortunately, knows the painful consequences of some of the leftwing bail policies after a repeat offender drove his car through the Waukesha Christmas parade nearly 3 years ago. The Waukesha community continues to heal from this violence that was unleashed that day, but our community is resilient.

While we must take time to remember those whom we lost, we should also turn an eye toward preventing a similar attack from ever happening again. That starts through regulating the use of charitable bail funds, which have been abused time and again to release violent criminals back onto our streets with no consequences.

Charitable bail funds generally flew under the radar until 2020 when the George Floyd riots caused revenues to balloon in many of these funds. The solicitations were done, for the most part, from celebrities and politicians.

What used to be small, community-based organizations that helped post bail for nonviolent misdemeanors has now grown into a multimillion- dollar industry.

For example, the Minnesota Freedom Fund saw revenues increase by 18,000 percent between 2019 and 2020, no doubt benefiting from then- Senator Kamala Harris' tweet encouraging her supporters to help fundraise for the group. A snap of that is just to my right.

Perhaps most alarming, what was intended to help bail out low-level, nonviolent protesters has instead been used to release violent felony offenders back into the streets with little to no oversight.

In 2021, for example, the Minnesota Freedom Fund released a domestic abuser back onto the street. Two weeks later, that man, George Howard, was charged with second-degree murder for a road rage incident.

Michael DeWitt of Louisville, Kentucky, was bailed out by The Bail Project in February 2021 after being arrested on multiple charges. Two months later, he was arrested again for murder.

Shawn Michael Tillman, 3 weeks after having his bail paid by the Minnesota Freedom Fund, murdered a man at a light rail station in St. Paul and is now serving a life sentence for that crime.

Mr. Speaker, the list goes on and on.

According to an investigation conducted in Hennepin County, Minnesota, the Minnesota Freedom Fund has bailed out at least 65 defendants who were awaiting trial on felony charges involving violence, physical threats, or sex crimes.

Moreover, because these funds are often anonymous, or at least unrelated to the defendant, there is no incentive to show up for their court dates. It makes no sense. Many of them don't.

According to CNN, which took a look at this issue, nearly 42 percent of the roughly 500 defendants bailed out by the Minnesota Freedom Fund later failed to appear at one or more court hearings between 2021 and 2022.

Commercial bail companies, by comparison, had a failure to appear rate of only 22 percent during that same period of time. This is why many States have begun regulating the use of charitable bail funds. Unfortunately, a State-by-State patchwork has now developed, and it will not solve this problem.

That is why we introduced the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act. The bill makes a small but important change to our criminal code to define bail bonds as an insurance product--it doesn't seem that significant; it is very simple--thereby subjecting them to the same Federal background check and regulatory requirements as those for for-profit bail agencies under the Federal Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1994.

This change would also bring charitable bail funds under State insurance regulation, giving States the ability to better scrutinize the use of the funds. There is no mandate on any of the State insurance regulations.

Let me be clear: This bill does not outlaw the use of charitable bail funds, nor does it regulate the posting of cash bail by family and friends of the accused. This bill merely says that if you are operating a not-for-profit with the purpose of posting cash bail, then you should be subjected to the same regulation and oversight requirements as those operating as for-profit entities.

This will bring needed oversight to organizations that for years have gone unregulated--$42 million in the Minnesota Freedom Fund--while ensuring accountability of these funds by subjecting them to Federal insurance fraud statutes if they misappropriate funds or misrepresent the use of these funds in any financial reports. We now will have some oversight.

It is a critical step toward reversing steps by the Democrats, like Vice President Harris, to remove bail safeguards and let violent criminals back into our communities to cause further damage.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Ohio, Chairman Jordan, for his leadership on this important issue, as well as Congressman Troy Nehls, Congressman Bryan Steil, Congressman Tom Tiffany, Congressman Clay Higgins, and Congressman Ken Calvert from California for their support of H.R. 8205.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage a ``yes'' vote on the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to close.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle mentioned that many of these bail funds operate locally and, therefore, do not affect interstate commerce. I think it is important to describe the current landscape of the charitable bail funds, and we are not trying to eliminate them.

According to the National Bail Fund Network, there are over 90 charitable bail funds operating across the country. Perhaps the largest fund by revenue, The Bail Project, operates in at least 19 States. That is according to a 2023 annual report.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, The Bail Project saw revenues triple after the George Floyd riots to a whopping $42 million in 2020. That is $42 million. There is zero oversight.

Thanks to solicitations from Vice President Harris and thanks to those generous donations, The Bail Project ended calendar year 2023 with an astonishing $71 million. I think an important part that has flown under the radar is that these donations are also tax deductible.

That is right. A lot of Americans are surprised by that. The bail for a violent felony offender could be paid and written off on a tax return, the same as if it were a donation to any charitable cause.

That is an incredibly important point in the context of regulating the payment of cash bail. The donors to these funds have no skin in the game, which makes it incredibly difficult to secure a defendant's appearance in court. They likely care more about their tax deduction than about who actually receives the bail money.

In other words, there is no disincentive to commit a new crime and have a bond forfeited because the source of funds are not tied to the defendant.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 8205 is yet another vehicle for Republican campaign messaging that does nothing to help the American people. It is simply another attempt by Republicans to baselessly claim that Democrats are soft on crime and to distract the American people from the indisputable fact that crime rates continue to drop across this country, as they have for each of the last several years.

This legislation, which would amend the Federal insurance fraud statute to define ``the business of insurance'' to include the posting of any kind of monetary bail, would do nothing to actually keep violent offenders off our streets.

Instead, it targets nonprofit bail funds that try to address the clear inequities that result when people without financial means are held pending trial simply because they can't afford to pay the bail amounts set by the courts.

Defendants who can afford to pay the bail amount set by the court are set free. In New York, we have such a person, a well-known person who was accused of many felonies was set free on bail pending trial, was convicted of 34 felonies, and is now free on bail pending sentencing. I refer, of course, to Donald Trump.

Nonprofit bail funds, the Minnesota Freedom Fund in particular, have become a favorite target of Republicans recently as they desperately try to prop up their failing Presidential candidate by attacking Vice President Harris and Governor Walz. Former President Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that Vice President Harris donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and that her donation secured the release of a man who went on to commit murder.

This is nothing more than another made-up story the Republican ticket has created, and it is just as false as the former President's claim that immigrants are eating the dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.

Minnesota Freedom Fund has confirmed that Vice President Harris has never donated to them and that her only relationship to the fund was a 2020 tweet encouraging people to chip in if they were able.

The fund, 2 years later, bailed out an offender who went on to commit murder. The majority's attempt to link this incident to Vice President Harris demonstrates that Republicans are willing to politicize even the most heinous crimes to serve their desperate needs.

We know from experience and from actual data that, when the political rhetoric is put aside, Democratic policies work to reduce crime. Homicides are down across the country. Violent crimes are down. Property crimes are down. We learned just last week that even drug overdoses are substantially down this year.

While my Republican colleagues love to criticize policies aimed at eliminating or reducing our justice system's reliance on cash bail, study after study, including a recent comprehensive study of 33 jurisdictions, shows that bail reform has not led to an increase in crime.

The majority's only answer to this mountain of evidence about the crime rate is to claim that the FBI's crime data is fraudulent or that it does not include critical jurisdictions, but the FBI's data covers jurisdictions encompassing more than 312 million Americans. It includes every jurisdiction in this Nation with more than 1 million people.

Moreover, data from other agencies and organizations show the same decrease in crime rates that are shown by the FBI's data.

Despite the bill's title, it has nothing to do with violent crime or offenders. It applies to entities that post any type of monetary bond, including noncriminal immigration bonds and bonds for nonviolent criminal offenses, which make up the vast majority of criminal bonds.

In fact, the provision of this bill that actually attempted to address violent crime was stripped from the bill in the Judiciary Committee. All that remains in the bill is the provision relating to insurance fraud, despite the title.

I expect that, during today's debate, Republicans will cite individual examples of people who committed violent offenses after being bailed out by nonprofit bail funds. Each is tragic, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families.

What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle won't mention is the thousands more who received help from these funds, finished their cases, and moved on with their lives without incident. The majority won't mention the people who commit crimes after being released with the help of commercial bail agents. Republicans will not mention that it is a judge, not a bail fund, who decides whether to set cash bail in a given case and, if so, in what amount.

Bail funds simply allow indigent defendants to obtain a release that a court has already deemed to be appropriate.

We must remember that we cannot ask for or expect perfection from our bail system. What we can do is to make sure that the solutions we propose for violent crimes are actually targeted to address the problem rather than to provide sound bites for social media.

There is no question that we must address the root causes of violent crime, invest in proven solutions, such as community violence intervention and drug treatment. We must also support law enforcement with funding and other resources rather than attacking the FBI, the ATF, and our other Federal partners relentlessly.

If and when the majority decides to get serious about combating violence in America, I will gladly join them in exploring serious solutions, but this legislation is no solution at all.

Mr. Speaker, therefore, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting ``no'' on H.R. 8205, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardenas).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, once again, Republicans have brought us to the brink of a government shutdown, threatening to cut off essential services for millions of Americans.

Instead of addressing the real needs of the American people, Republicans are poised to advance legislation that does little more than advance false Trump campaign rhetoric.

Although the majority claims that the bill is necessary to provide oversight of bail funds, the bill provides no oversight. It simply applies criminal penalties of up to 10 years, or 15 years in some cases, for misconduct that is already covered by Federal wire fraud and money laundering statutes.

The majority does not even attempt to explain how this bill will live up to its title of ``Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets,'' as the bill has nothing to do with addressing violent crimes.

Like the majority's failed hearings in blue cities across the country, this bill

is another baseless attempt by Republicans to engage in fear-mongering and to label Democrats as soft on crime while ignoring their own documented red State murder problem, the mountain of data showing that crime has been steadily declining throughout the U.S. under the Biden- Harris administration, and that bail reform policies have not contributed to increases in crime that occurred during the pandemic.

In bringing up this legislation, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seek to distract the American people from the fact that their own actions have repeatedly made every American, from Presidential candidates to school children, more at risk at every turn by failing to support law enforcement funding and commonsense gun safety measures.

I urge Members to oppose this flawed legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this rule, which will provide consideration for commonsense legislation that would hold accountable local leaders that are pushing an antipolice, pro-crime agenda on our States and cities.

Madam Speaker, as the only New Yorker on this side of the aisle today, I can tell you that I have seen firsthand what happens when a Democrat-run State bows to the radical left and embraces the unaccountable system of charitable bail funds and institutes full-blown bail reform.

Violent offenders are getting a free pass while law-abiding citizens are left to suffer. Look at the facts: In New York City, after bail reform, crime jumped 20 percent after they pushed for this in the name of social justice. Judges can't even set bail for crimes like petty larceny or grand larceny or burglary.

Who pays the price? Innocent American families.

Now, unfortunately, my home State of New York is just one of many Democrat-run States in jurisdictions around the country that have given criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card.

What is worse is that these policies have the full backing of the Democratic Party, including their nominees, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Harris, in particular, supported these radical bail funds, actively encouraging donations to bail out criminals, many of whom were charged with violent crimes. They are the faces of a party that have abandoned the safety of our communities in favor of appeasing a far-left mob.

Democrats would have you believe that these policies are about helping lower-income communities, but let's be perfectly, honestly clear: These policies are hurting the very people they claim to protect.

These multimillion-dollar bail funds, like the Minnesota Freedom Fund and The Bail Project, aren't helping. They are putting violent criminals, domestic abusers, and sexual predators right back on the street.

Who suffers? Everyday Americans in cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. These so-called reforms are nothing more than a betrayal of the people and a destruction of the rule of law in this country.

Look no further than the facts. Groups like the Minnesota Freedom Fund bailed out individuals charged with violent crimes, including domestic violence and sexual assault, and Democrats are more than happy to just look the other way. They decided that protecting a radical base is more important than protecting the innocent victims.

This is what the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats across this

country have stood for, policies that prioritize criminals over communities, chaos over safety, and special interests over the hardworking American people. They have abandoned our law enforcement. They have turned their backs on the very citizens they were elected to serve.

I call on my colleagues across the aisle to listen to their constituents in their own Democrat-run States and cities who are absolutely fed up with rampant violent crime and fed up with the revolving door prison and jail system that Democrats and their bail funds have facilitated.

They are sick and tired of watching their communities deteriorate and small businesses have to close due to crime skyrocketing.

The least we can do, Madam Speaker, is ensure that these bail funds operate under some level of accountability and transparency.

Madam Speaker, I strongly support this rule today and the underlying legislation.