A resolution expressing support for the designation of the week of June 18 through June 24, 2023, as "National Firefighter Safety Week" in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of National Firefighter Safety Week to raise awareness of the fire risks associated with improper disposal of lithium-ion batteries.

Madam Speaker, I claim the time in actual opposition.

Madam Speaker, here we are again. The swamp is back in full force. We have a 1,000-page bill of $1.2 trillion filled with all manner of spending priorities that are at odds with the American people. That is what we have in front of us.

This bill is over 1,000 pages long. It contains hundreds of pages of report language, 1,400 earmarks, and we have had about 24 hours to review it. That is not the way to do business. The American people and American families are the ones left holding the bag. This is business as usual in the swamp.

Here is the deal to my Republican colleagues: You will own every single bit of this. If you vote for this bill, you own it. DHS funding contingent on signing H.R. 2 into law, that is what we did last year to make sure our border will be secure. That is punted, so you own it.

Defunding Alejandro Mayorkas. We did that in our bill. This punts that. It is no longer there. You own it.

Prohibiting mass parole and release of illegal aliens via the CBP One app. We did that in our bill last year. This bill gets rid of it. You own it. You own the continued mass parole of illegal aliens into our country. You own that. That is the truth.

It was mass parole that led to a Venezuelan gang member coming into the United States and killing Laken Riley. My Republican colleagues cannot go campaign against mass parole and use the name of Laken Riley because you pass a bill in her name when you fund the very policies that led to her death.

I hear all this, that we are going to increase ICE beds, and we are going to increase the numbers for Border Patrol.

The increased numbers for Border Patrol will process more illegal aliens. The increased number of beds for ICE will not be used because there are memos in place by Alejandro Mayorkas, whom we impeached and whom this bill will fund. Those ICE beds will not be filled. They won't be used, and we know it.

We set out to prohibit DHS from fast-tracking asylum. This bill doesn't do that.

We set out to make sure that this border would be secure and that you could end what happened yesterday in Texas where 100 illegal aliens bum-rushed our border, rolled over the Texas National Guard, fled into this country, and went to Border Patrol to get released into the United States.

That is what this bill continues to fund. Any of my Republican colleagues who want to spend this year campaigning against open borders, it is a laugh because today, if you vote for this abomination of a bill, you will be voting to fund it. You will be voting to fund the very policies that you will campaign against.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

General Leave

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Luna).

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

Madam Speaker, the Democratic leader talks about the mosaic. I assume by the mosaic, which anyone who votes for this bill today will be supporting, we are talking about $156,000 for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, an organization self-described as champions of LGBTQIA equity and provides training in cultural competency and access to healthcare for LGBTQ youth, or $2 million to an Oregon clinic that provides hormone therapy for kids, or the $850,000 for gay senior housing in Massachusetts, or $400,000 for Briarpatch Youth Services in Wisconsin that has gender-affirming clothing program for kids 13 to 18, or $400,000 to the Garden State Equality Education Fund, which helps minors transition genders, promotes biological boys playing girls' sports and using the same restrooms.

I could go on and on. How about the million dollars for the Inner- City Muslim Network, which calls for the destruction of Israel? That is what we are funding. That is precisely what we are funding in this legislation.

When the Democratic leader talks about a mosaic, that is what he is talking about.

My Republican colleagues, who will campaign against it all year--they will--they are voting to fund it today.

To be very clear, my Republican colleagues are voting to fund that so-called mosaic today unless they choose the right path and vote against it.

My friend from California, when he talked about the horrors that will happen if we have a CR, well, we shouldn't be here. This is the swamp acting like it does: have government funding expire on the Friday before a 2-week recess heading into Easter precisely to have the pressure of jet fumes so that the American people are the ones left holding the bag so that we, Members of Congress, can go off to our codels, can go travel, can go do your fundraisers, can make sure you get home. The ones left holding the bag are the American people.

When we talk about this, the game was given up when we talk about defense. Everything that is happening here is being done in the name of defense, everything that you see, and talking about our national security being undermined.

Well, tell me about national security in Texas when you have the National Guard getting rolled over in El Paso, when you have Texans dying from fentanyl poisoning, when you have gangs and cartels operating in Texas. Talk to me about national security then.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).

Madam Speaker, the distinguished former majority leader brings up FSGG, the Financial Services and General Government bill. What he left out was the fact that we are going to give $200 million to the FBI for its new headquarters, even after Republicans touted in the last massive omnibus bill that we are cutting the FBI and then relied upon getting rid of an earmark in Alabama to claim that it was a bigger cut than it really is.

Now what is happening to the American people, guess what? The FBI is getting a brand-new, shiny headquarters, despite running roughshod over the American people, spying on them. By the way, we extended FISA to continue spying on the American people.

We also failed to prohibit the Treasury from establishing a central bank digital currency. House Republicans passed that. In this deal that was cut we don't do that. Why? Why? Why would it be so abhorrent to ban a central bank digital currency?

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman), my friend.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his remarks, but I would simply disagree.

All we are doing here is adding beds that aren't going to be used. All we are doing is adding money for a Border Patrol that won't be allowed to do their job. They will be processing more people and releasing them against the law under parole policies that are damaging the country and that led to Laken Riley's death. That is literally all this does.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene).

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Burlison).

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie).

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

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Crane).

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

The gentleman from Florida a moment ago talked about the fact that we defund UNRWA, and we defund some policies that are pernicious. I agree with him. It is a part of the process that we carried out last year when we set out to change this institution, to return to some sort of regular order, to have 72 hours to read bills, to be able to have single-subject bills, to offer amendments on the floor, to actually have an appropriations process.

We passed seven appropriations bills off the floor of the House. We passed three out of committee to the floor. We actually had some amount of debate and were able to move things through. We got some of our policy priorities. We sent them over to the Senate.

Then what did we do? We walked away and went back to business as usual in the swamp where a handful of people that they call the four corners all sit back and decide for you, not the people in this room as a body, but a handful of so-called cardinals, the same group that I heard guffawing in the back a minute ago, the same bloc of appropriators that think they are the ones that get to control the entire world and use our men and women in uniform as an excuse to undermine the national security of this country by spending money we don't have, by racking up debt to the tune of a trillion dollars every 100 days, while funding all manner of sin with respect to transgender surgeries, abortion tourism, funding the World Health Organization to give away our sovereignty, funding open borders with mass parole that led to the death of Laken Riley.

Madam Speaker, everybody who votes for this bill today owns it. They cannot go out and campaign this year saying they opposed this stuff when they wrote the check.

That is what is happening today. Every single Republican and every single Democrat who votes for this omnibus spending bill today owns it. They own the open borders. They own the woke military that we cannot recruit people to fight in. They own giving our sovereignty to the World Health Organization and international bodies. They own more funding for the Wuhan lab.

Yeah, that is all in there. They own it.

They own it. We should vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, do you want to win in November?

Then vote ``no.''

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

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

Madam Speaker, I am not opposed.

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

Madam Speaker, I am delighted and relieved to be finally closing out fiscal year 2024, and for that, I thank Chairwoman Kay Granger, Chair Patty Murray, and Vice Chair Susan Collins.

I am proud to have made history with such experienced appropriators. Madam Speaker, 2024 marks the first time negotiations on government funding have been led on all four corners by women.

I have many others to thank--subcommittee ranking members and chairs and staff on both sides of the aisle--and I will be submitting these names for the record.

I strongly support the bipartisan bill, which funds the majority of the United States Government.

This bill sides with the hardworking majority of Americans. It helps to lower the cost of living, protects women's rights and access to reproductive healthcare, reinforces America's global leadership, and helps our communities be safe and secure.

I am pleased that Democrats and Republicans again united to make government work for the people of this country.

Like the funding bill we passed earlier this month, this legislation does not have everything either side may have wanted, but I am satisfied that many of the extreme cuts and the policies proposed by House Republicans were rejected.

I am enormously proud that we are providing an increase of $1 billion for childcare and Head Start, expanding access to quality and affordable childcare for hardworking families.

We increased title I education funding, protecting 224,000 teachers' jobs that House Republicans tried to eliminate.

I am also pleased that we successfully defeated every one of the Republicans' extreme policy riders in the Labor-HHS bill.

In this package, we prioritize the men and women in our armed services and their families by securing pay and allowance increases of over 5 percent, the highest increase in decades.

We invest in global health and support 12,000 special immigrant visas for Afghans who assisted the United States.

Critically, we strengthened our border security.

I urge swift passage of this package, and I look forward to moving on to how we can best serve the American people in fiscal year 2025.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), the distinguished Democratic leader.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished ranking member of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the distinguished ranking member of the Defense Subcommittee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar), the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, 11,388 Members have served historically in the United States House of Representatives.

We are blessed, and what we are charged with is serving the American people. That is our job. It is not serving our individual philosophies, ideologies, or whatever it is that we believe. We need to govern on behalf of the American people.

I am proud to have been working with Democrats and Republicans united to make government work for the people of this country.

It is a bipartisan bill, it sides with the hardworking majority of Americans, it helps to lower their cost of living, it protects women's rights, it reinforces America's global leadership, and, yes, it helps our communities be safe and secure.

What we do is not about those of us who serve in this Chamber. It is about what we do on behalf of the people of this country outside of this Chamber. This bill serves the American people, and it has Democrat and Republican support to move forward.

We are 6 months into this 2024 year. We have been unable to do the work of the people because some people will hold us back.

Again, it is our job. The reason why we are elected is to serve the American people. That is what we are charged with. Let us never forget that we are blessed to serve here. We have a duty to perform and to do what is right.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill. It makes sense for us to do it, and we do it because we represent hardworking families in this country who put their faith and trust in us to do this job on their behalf.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to give my thanks and appreciation to my Democratic colleagues on the committee, especially subcommittee Ranking Members Sanford Bishop, Matt Cartwright, Betty McCollum, Marcy Kaptur, Steny Hoyer, Henry Cuellar, Chellie Pingree, Adriano Espaillat, Debbie Wassermann Schultz, Barbara Lee, and Mike Quigley, for fighting hard for the American people and for Democratic priorities in each of your bills.

In the majority, my thanks and congratulations to subcommittee chairs Andy Harris, Harold Rogers, Ken Calvert, Chuck Fleischmann, Steve Womack, David Joyce, Mike Simpson, Robert Aderholt, Mark Amodei, John Carter, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Tom Cole. I thank you all for engaging in these hard-fought negotiations with respect and patriotism.

My deep appreciation goes to the majority and minority staff, especially Minority Staff Director Chris Bigelow, Minority Clerks Martha Foley, Bob Bonner, Jennifer Chartrand, Scott McKee, Matt Smith, Bob Joachim, Rita Culp, Stephen Steigleider, Faye Cobb, Jenny Neuscheler, Erin Kolodjeski, and Christina Monroe. I also want to thank my front office staff, Jason Gray, Raquel Spencer, Adam Wilson, Ryann Kinney, Alex Swann, Tom Tucker, as well as my communications staff Katelynn Thorpe and Ben Cowlishaw. This would not be possible without the hard work of Tyler Coe, Nora Faye, Jocelyn Hunn, Jackie Kilroy, Shannon McCully, Laurie Mignone, Farouk Ophaso, Stephanie Reed, Philip Tizzani, and Thomas Wilson. Their hard work, long hours, and dedication behind the scenes is what makes this possible.

And I also owe a great deal of gratitude to my personal office staff, including Becky Salay, Jack Rayburn, King Green, Caitlin Peruccio, Daniel Robillard, Harper White, John Myron, Sam Erickson, Diana Solares, Mia Villiavicencio-Eschinger, and Clay Vaughan.

Everyone I have just named keeps my name on the door. I thank them all.

Ms. LEE of California, as Ranking Member of the House State and Foreign Operations subcommittee, I am sorely disappointed with this outcome.

I have spent much of my time in Congress talking about the 3Ds of our national security--diplomacy, development and defense. Each of these has a role to play in keeping our country safe and secure, and creating a world where kids and grandkids can prosper.

The SFOPS bill is supposed to fund two of those Ds--diplomacy and development. But this package slashes diplomacy and development by 6 percent than 15 percent below what the President identified as the global need.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon gets a $27 billion increase--despite failing audits.

America needs the diplomatic and development tools in the SFOPS bill to prevent wars. I fear this package leaves America weaker and more vulnerable. This funding imbalance undermines both our values and our interests. I hope we can work together to get our priorities rebalanced.

Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Budget, Judiciary, and Homeland Security, I proudly rise in support of H. Res. 1102--Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Approps Minibus No. 2) which will provide funding to continue the operations of the federal government through September 30, 2024, enhance supportive services to the American people, and avoid a wasteful and irresponsible shutdown.

After multiple Continuing Resolutions and threats of a government shutdown, I am relieved that an agreement has been reached between the bicameral, bipartisan leadership, and produced a second minibus spending package that keeps our remaining federal agencies funded.

This bipartisan legislation, which represents a compromise between Republicans and Democrats that adheres to the Fiscal Responsibility Act, would fund the remainder of the Federal Government through the end of the fiscal year, while investing in key priorities for the American people.

Specifically, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, provides full-year funding for the six remaining FY24 Appropriations bills:

Defense;

Financial Services and General Government;

Homeland Security;

Legislative Branch;

Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; and

State and Foreign Operations.

The 2024 funding bills invest in America's future and deliver for the American people by:

Helping with the high cost of living, reducing drug costs, and prioritizing childcare and Head Start;

Siding with hardworking Americans by supporting education, job training, and placement programs that help Americans find high paying jobs, defending robust worker protection agencies that ensure Americans are safe and properly compensated at work, and by ensuring billionaires and wealthy corporations pay the taxes they owe;

Protecting women's rights by blocking attempts to limit women's access to reproductive health care (including the elimination of Title X Family Planning and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grants) and supporting the reproductive health of women overseas;

Reinforcing America's global leadership by strengthening defense capabilities, ensuring America can respond anywhere in the world where freedom and democracy are under attack, amplifying American diplomacy, and reaffirming our global commitments to fight climate change and reinforce global health; and

Helping our communities be safe and secure by funding border security, preventing the trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, bolstering cyber security, protecting consumers from scammers, fraudsters, and dangerous products, and enabling robust and immediate responses to natural disasters.

Like the first Appropriations minibus, the bill rejects nearly all House Republican riders.

It also includes $1,383,069 in Community Project Funding that will be going directly to my constituents that I know will have a profound impact on Texas's 18th District.

I am pleased that Sec. P118-08-00 Conveyance and Detention Improvements, $1,383,069, was included in Homeland to be funded.

It was my goal to fund as many of the 3,203 Democratic projects across all 2024 funding bills as were eligible.

I am proud of the hard work it took to get to this point in an unprecedented year for the House of Representatives, and I hope that you will all join me in celebrating these direct investments in your community.

These investments create jobs, making a real difference in the lives of so many in my district.

I am proud to have fought for funding that will make our community healthier, safer, and stronger.

Funding the government is essential to our constituents, and I am happy that we were finally able to deliver.

This legislation provides vitally needed and long-overdue funding that will improve the lives of the American people.

House Democrats have worked to deliver results to the American people and these projects, programs, services, and improvements will do just that.

Without the passage of this bill, the livelihood of millions of Americans will be in jeopardy and the safety and security of the United States would be diminished.

The passage of this legislation is vital, I support it enthusiastically, and urge my colleagues to join me in passing this bipartisan, essential legislation to fund our government.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding and also the Speaker for bringing us to this point.

Let me tell you, I am proud of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs portion of the bill that we are dealing with today.

Let's take out a little bit of the noise and the rhetoric and let's talk about what is in the bill. It includes a 6 percent reduction from fiscal year 2023.

Let's be clear, we are at a critical point in our history. One of our most important allies is in its time of greatest need, and this bill answers the call. It is the strongest pro-Israel State-Foreign Operations bill that we have ever seen.

So let's talk about facts. It provides $3.3 billion in FMF, Foreign Military Financing, for Israel.

Almost as important as what is funded, is what is not funded in this bill. The bill prohibits funds to UNRWA, which has become, frankly, a de facto subsidiary of Hamas.

The passage of this bill means not one additional dollar from American taxpayers will fund this deeply flawed organization. But if we go to a CR, we are going to continue to fund it.

The passage of this bill also prohibits funds for the anti-Semitic UN Commission of Inquiry against Israel.

The passage of this bill means no funds can be used to delist the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization or to implement that infamous nuclear agreement with Iran.

Another top priority, Madam Speaker, is countering Communist China. This bill includes $300 million Foreign Military Financing for Taiwan-- the first time ever in an appropriations bill that we have done that.

The passage of this bill prohibits the use of foreign aid to repay Chinese debt.

Also another priority to strengthening our national security is supporting democracy around the world and defending human rights and human dignity.

This bill increases funding to promote democracy and human rights in Cuba and establishes strict guidelines to ensure that this crucial funding supports the democratic opposition.

So it helps the democratic opposition and not the terrorist regime's chosen businesses.

We also stand strongly against human trafficking and particularly human trafficking of doctors.

This bill also supports those struggling for freedom in our hemisphere's most repressive, anti-American dictatorships in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

If we fail to pass this bill, we lose provisions on the prohibition of funds for encouraging, organizing, facilitating, or promoting migrant caravans to the United States border.

If this bill fails, then those funding sources to again, organizations that are promoting caravans of illegal folks to the United States will continue. That is factual. That is in this bill.

If this legislation were not to pass, we lose the protection of free speech by limiting how funds can be used under the pretext of countering disinformation.

If this legislation were not to pass, we would go back to current law.

We would lose the restriction that only the U.S. flag may be flown or displayed over a facility of the State Department.

Madam Speaker, this bill reduces spending. It reprioritizes funding towards our vital national security interests and carries crucial limitations and smart policy changes to rein in the Biden administration. If this bill were to fail, we are giving carte blanche to the Biden bureaucracy.

It is a dramatic improvement, Madam Speaker, from current law.

Before I close, let me thank the staff for their hard work, and again, Madam Speaker, this is an important bill at a crucial, critical time when American leadership is sorely needed. We are not getting it from the White House. This bill goes a long way to reestablish American leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the authors of H. Res. 1102--Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 for funding Department of Defense programs that support secure domestic semiconductor advanced packaging manufacturing technology and capabilities. I also thank the staff who contributed to this effort.

Specifically, I express gratitude to my colleagues for the following actions:

Fully funding the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Support's (IBAS) Reshore Ecosystem for Secure Heterogeneous Advanced Packaging Electronics (RESHAPE) program within the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide account;

Providing $10.25 million in additional funding for IBAS's 2.5D advanced packaging program within the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide account; and

Providing $2 million in additional funding for Aerospace Sensors' zero-trust environment for semiconductor technology within the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force account.

Microelectronics support nearly all DoD activities. They enable critical capabilities such as the global positioning system, radar, command and control, and communication. Ensuring secure access to leading-edge microelectronics is a challenge, however. The pandemic highlighted challenges associated with the global supply chain, the changing global semiconductor industry, and the sophistication of U.S. adversaries who threaten to target military electronic components. Funding for the three projects highlighted above help address these challenges.

IBAS is dedicated to ensuring that the DoD is positioned to effectively address industrial base issues and support the National Security Innovation Base. IBAS achieves this mission by strengthening and protecting the domestic semiconductor supply chain to provide access to leading-edge capabilities that accelerate innovation. One of the next generation semiconductor technologies that IBAS focuses on is Heterogeneous Integration and Advanced Packing. These technologies provide secure, credible, and reliable domestic advanced microelectronics manufacturing capability. Full funding for the RESHAPE program, along with $10.25 in additional funding for IBAS's 2.5D advanced packaging program will support machine tooling and advanced packaging manufacturing capabilities and allow IBAS to support next generation domestic production lines.

The $2 million in additional funding provided for Aerospace Sensors' zero-trust environment for semiconductor technology further helps address critical challenges associated with domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) is working on a new modeling and simulation research program (secure digital twin) to advance next generation semiconductor design and manufacturing. Funding for the zero-trust environment for semiconductor technology will provide capabilities that deliver solutions that protect against malicious function insertion, fraudulent products, theft of intellectual property, and reliability failures within DoD semiconductors.

I believe Congress should continue to provide resources necessary to update our domestic microelectronics security framework. I am proud of the work undertaken in my district to support domestic semiconductor manufacturing technology development and to ensure the security of this critical supply chain. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to support this goal.