MSD Act

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1345 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon), 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 to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 1345 provides consideration for four measures. The rule provides for consideration of H.R. 8312, H.R. 8464, and H. Res. 1335 under closed rules, with 1 hour of debate each equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking minority member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, or their designees, and provides one motion to recommit for H.R. 8312 and H.R. 8464.

The rule also provides for consideration of S. 2 under a closed rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget, or their designees, and provides for one motion to commit.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying legislation.

The rule before us provides for consideration of four measures that address two of the Federal Government's most fundamental responsibilities: Safeguarding taxpayer dollars and protecting the American people.

At a time when Americans are demanding greater accountability from Washington, these measures represent commonsense steps to ensure that government is carrying out the basic responsibilities that taxpayers expect it to perform.

Mr. Speaker, every year, Washington loses hundreds of billions of dollars, taxpayer dollars, to fraud, improper payments, and abuse. Every year, Americans are told the same exact thing: Nothing can be done about it. Well, if you don't try, nothing can be done about it.

Taxpayer dollars go out the door, fraudsters cash the checks, government bureaucrats write reports about what happens after the fact, and taxpayers are left holding the bill.

Americans are, frankly, tired of it. They are tired of watching Washington lose track of billions of dollars while hardworking families are expected to just pay the tab and not worry about it.

Nowhere has this failure been more visible than in the State of Minnesota. Americans watched as massive fraud schemes ripped off taxpayers and exposed just how vulnerable government programs become when oversight disappears and accountability takes a back seat.

The lesson should be obvious: When government fails to verify eligibility, fraudsters take advantage. Republicans believe that taxpayers deserve better than that.

Mr. Speaker, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 8464, the Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act. The idea behind the legislation is very simple. If government officials identify warning signs that a payment may be fraudulent, why should taxpayers be forced to send that money out the door anyway? Why?

No family should knowingly write a check to someone they believe may be trying to scam them, yet that is effectively what Washington has allowed to happen time and again for years.

H.R. 8464 helps put an end to that government mentality. Instead of waiting for taxpayer dollars to disappear, and then attempting to chase them down after the fact, this bill focuses on preventing fraud before it occurs. It allows agencies to pause, segment, or stop payments that present elevated fraud risks before taxpayer dollars are lost. That is simple common sense.

The Federal Government should not knowingly send money to fraudsters and hope everything works out on the back end.

Mr. Speaker, the rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 8312, the Fraud Prevention and Accountability Act. The COVID pandemic exposed serious weaknesses in the Federal Government's ability to protect taxpayer dollars. In the rush to move money out the door, fraudsters saw a cash register. Billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen. Criminals exploited gaps in oversight, and Americans were left wondering how can so much money disappear with so little level of accountability.

H.R. 8312 helps ensure that the Federal Government never again starts from scratch when confronting large-scale fraud. The bill establishes a permanent, governmentwide antifraud capability, preserves the successful oversight tools developed in response to taxpayer spending and scamming, and strengthens the ability for inspectors general and watchdogs to identify fraud before billions more taxpayer dollars disappear.

Fraudsters are constantly adapting, and government oversight should not remain stuck in the distant past. This legislation ensures future administrations have the tools necessary to protect taxpayers when the next emergency inevitably arrives.

Mr. Speaker, the rule also provides for consideration of H. Res. 1335. At its core, this resolution recognizes a simple truth: Fraud is not a victimless crime. It says fraud should be condemned. It says Congress should stand on the side of the taxpayers rather than fraudsters trying to exploit the system.

Taken together, these measures represent a clear change in approach by government. Instead of chasing taxpayer dollars after they disappear, Republicans are focused on preventing fraud before it happens. Instead of looking the other way when billions of dollars are lost and stolen, Republicans are demanding accountability.

Mr. Speaker, whether it is protecting taxpayer dollars from fraud or protecting communities from criminals, cartels, traffickers, and dangerous narcotics, the principle is exactly the same: Government has a responsibility to do the job that the American people expect it to do.

That brings me to the importance of fully funding Customs and Border Protection and immigration enforcement. Mr. Speaker, the rule also provides for consideration of S. 2, the Secure America Act. One of the most significant success stories in the last year-and-a-half has been the dramatic improvement in security at our southern border.

The border crisis that President Trump inherited was not by accident. It was the direct result of deliberate--deliberate--policy decisions made by the Biden administration. For 4 years, Americans watched the cameras at the southern border as the Federal Government abandoned proven enforcement policies, weakened deterrence, and expanded catch and release practices and allowed millions and millions of illegal immigrants to enter the country. It was nothing short of an invasion.

Human traffickers profited, and fentanyl flowed into our communities across the country. Border Patrol agents were forced to process migrants instead of securing our border. The result was one of the worst border crises in our Nation's history.

Under President Trump, we have reversed the course. It started instantly. The border was closed. Since taking office, illegal crossings have fallen dramatically. Border encounters have plummeted, and law enforcement officers have once again been empowered to enforce the laws already on the books. No new laws have been passed. We are enforcing the laws on the books.

The results speak for themselves. In April, southern border apprehensions were 94 percent lower than the monthly average experienced under the Biden administration. At the same time, CBP has seized significantly more dangerous narcotics attempting to enter our country, helping keep deadly drugs out of our backyards, our American communities.

Those improvements did not happen by accident. They are the result of stronger enforcement, better policies, and President Trump's commitment to restoring the rule of law at our border.

However, success doesn't mean the mission is complete. The cartels, they haven't disappeared. Human traffickers have not disappeared. Criminal smuggling networks continue to operate every single day. That is why the funding provided in this legislation remains necessary.

Mr. Speaker, Customs and Border Protection serves as one of the most important first lines of defense for our Nation and for our homeland security. Whether securing our borders, facilitating lawful trade and travel, or stopping dangerous narcotics before they reach American communities, CBP plays a critical role in both our national security and our economy.

I represent a district in western New York that shares a border with Canada. In my district, the border plays a part of everyday life. It supports jobs, commerce, tourism, agriculture, and cross-border trade through western New York and the southern tier.

In districts like mine, border security and economic security go hand in hand. The same officers helping lawful travelers and commerce move efficiently through our ports of entry are also stopping dangerous narcotics, criminal activity, and other threats before they reach our communities.

If we expect CBP to continue delivering results that we have seen over the last year and a half, Congress must ensure the agency has the support necessary to sustain those efforts.

Mr. Speaker, the legislation also provides critical funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Too often, people hear the name ICE and think only about immigration enforcement, but ICE's mission extends far beyond that. Every day, ICE agents combat human trafficking. They investigate gang activity. They dismantle narcotics trafficking organizations. They protect children from exploitation. They also work alongside State and local law enforcement to keep dangerous individuals off of our streets.

Much of this work happens outside of the spotlight, but it directly impacts Americans every single day. My district recently saw an example, a clear example of why this work matters. Just last week, a violent stabbing occurred in Cattaraugus County involving an illegal immigrant. Thanks to cooperation between the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office and ICE personnel in Buffalo, law enforcement uncovered additional violations and ultimately took a dangerous individual into Federal custody.

Keeping communities safe requires cooperation between local, State, and Federal law enforcement. Criminal organizations do not care about county lines, State lines, or international borders. Law enforcement must be able to coordinate, share information, and work together to ensure that dangerous individuals do not fall through the cracks.

Mr. Speaker, whether it is protecting taxpayer dollars from fraud or protecting communities from dangerous criminals, traffickers, cartels, and drug smugglers, Americans expect government to carry out its most basic responsibilities.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this rule and this underlying legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman fails to recognize the reason that we have to advance this funding. It is because their party time and again has obstructed and shut down our government instead of paying the employees of this government, all in the name of their politics. It is their last gasp in attempting to take us back to the era of a borderless country where we didn't defend our country from invasion. They did this.

When are we going to help improve Americans' lives? Well, I have to ask: How about the parents of Laken Riley who don't have a daughter because she was stolen. Her life was extinguished by an illegal immigrant that came here and killed her.

This is what this funding is here to do, to protect Americans. We need to advance multiple years of funding so that those employees actually get paid and they don't get held hostage in the political games of the Democratic Party.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert), my distinguished colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Arizona.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Haridopolos).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nunn).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Dakota (Mrs. Fedorchak).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Moore).

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

Mr. Speaker, for years, Americans have watched as Washington tolerated waste, fraud, and abuse while millions of illegal immigrants crossed our border and dangerous criminals exploited weaknesses throughout our system.

The American people knew better. They lived with the consequences, and they voted for a President and a Congress committed to restoring accountability, enforcing the law, and putting taxpayers first. Fulfilling that promise means preventing fraud before taxpayer dollars disappear, securing our border, and ensuring government carries out the basic responsibilities the American people expect it to perform.

I strongly support the rule before us today.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this rule and to the underlying bills.

At its core, this Republican reconciliation budget bill is a statement about priorities, and the priorities reflected in this bill could not be more out of step with the needs and values of the American people.

Families across this country are struggling to afford housing, groceries, childcare, and healthcare. Americans are dealing with rising costs, economic uncertainty, and the consequences of another unending war in the Middle East.

Americans were promised lower prices and stability, but instead, they are watching gas prices climb back up to $5 a gallon while inflation continues to rise and squeeze household budgets.

Against that backdrop, Republicans have decided that what the country really needs is to spend another $70 billion on ICE and Border Patrol. This is on top of the roughly $140 billion Republicans already provided to those agencies last year, much of which remains unspent.

Taken together, Republicans are proposing to spend nearly a quarter trillion dollars, all deficit spending, to expand detention camps, fund mass deportation, increase surveillance, and accelerate an immigration crackdown that has already caused enormous harm across our country.

Republicans are doing this while simultaneously claiming that America cannot afford investments in schools, housing, nutrition assistance, or healthcare.

Let's be honest about what this reconciliation bill represents. Republicans spent years pretending to be deeply concerned about deficits and debt, claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility. They have attacked virtually every Democratic proposal to help working Americans and families, saying that those measures are fiscally irresponsible, but they have used their control of Congress and the White House to add trillions with a t, trillions of dollars, to the debt by giving tax cuts to their wealthy friends and corporate donors.

Now, Republicans are adding hundreds of billions more in debt to put more masked and armed ICE agents on our streets and to build out a nationwide network of corporate detention camps. Apparently, deficits only matter when tax dollars are used to help everyday Americans instead of Trump's billionaire buddies.

Mr. Speaker, it is also telling that Republicans are using a completely partisan process to ram through this S. 2 legislation. Once again, they are using the partisan reconciliation process to pass a budget because they have refused to negotiate through the normal appropriations process. Specifically, they have refused to enact any reforms to address the lawless behavior of ICE and Customs and Border Protection under the Trump administration.

Democrats proposed bipartisan funding solutions for DHS. We proposed reforms, accountability measures, and guardrails after repeated abuses by ICE and CBP resulted in chaos and death on American streets. We asked for basic transparency and oversight after the killings by Federal agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, American citizens. We asked that ICE and CBP be

held to the same standards as every other responsible law enforcement agency in this country.

Republicans said no. They said no to everything. There is not a single provision in this bill to rein in these rogue agents at DHS.

The Senate rejected amendment after amendment that would have imposed even minimal constraints on these agencies. The House bypassed committee consideration altogether. Why? It is because Republicans know the American people do not support the chaos that this administration is inflicting.

They know Americans don't want masked and armed Federal agents rampaging through their neighborhoods, at their kids' schools and soccer games, and in shopping malls and workplaces.

They know Americans are alarmed when lawful residents, law-abiding community members, and even citizens, are roughed up or detained by

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

Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that my colleague from Arizona brought up the impact of immigration on our Social Security system. The fact that immigrants pay into our Social Security system but are not eligible to take benefits out has actually acted to extend the life of that system and is a very important component of keeping that system working, in addition to all the benefits that immigrants bring to our country.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Simon).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from California.

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

Mr. Speaker, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Ruben Ray Martinez are all American citizens killed by Federal agents in our names, and our colleagues are unwilling to stand up and do anything to prevent that kind of senseless death in the future.

Instead, they try to get sympathy, which naturally should be provided to anyone who has suffered a family member's loss, but they can't lecture us that this is about human trafficking when DHS and the Department of Justice have pulled the resources from human and drug trafficking prevention and corporate crime prosecution. They have pulled those resources to direct them toward their massive deportation and detention effort. Eighty percent of the people they are detaining have no criminal records. It is all distract and divide.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Mrs. Fletcher).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentlewoman from Texas.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am so glad to hear my colleague from Iowa express support for the safety of our law enforcement officers, and I would like to offer him and the whole caucus the opportunity to live up to that sentiment.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to allow the House to take an up-or-down vote on an amendment to S. 2 authored by Ranking Member Raskin, which would prohibit anyone who was convicted of or pleaded guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer on January 6, 2021, from receiving a settlement payment from the Department of Justice.

This taxpayer-funded slush fund to compensate insurrectionists and Trump allies is a disgrace. Even though the DOJ has paused this effort, the President on Sunday said he loves the idea and doesn't know what is going to happen to it. Since my Republican colleagues seem unwilling to kill this slush fund outright, maybe they will at least accept some restrictions on who can get legal settlement money from

the Federal Government and from taxpayers.

This next vote is very simple. Democrats want to vote to enshrine the following language into law: ``The Department of Justice may not use taxpayer funds to make settlement payments to individuals convicted of or who pled guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers at or around the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.''

These individuals beat and injured dozens of law enforcement officers with bats, bike racks, fire extinguishers, and flag poles on January 6. They should not receive taxpayer-funded payouts.

If there are just a few Republicans who agree and are willing to join us in defeating the previous question, we could fix this right now.

Mr. 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.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the ranking member of the Committee on Rules, to discuss our proposal.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, underneath all the rhetoric we have heard today, this debate comes down to a very simple question about what kind of country we want to be and what we believe government should do for the people it serves.

As Americans struggle with rising costs, economic uncertainty, and the consequences of this reckless and expensive war in Iran, Republicans have chosen to spend nearly $210 billion in taxpayer dollars on ICE and CBP.

At every turn, this Republican majority says that there is no money for housing, for schools, for healthcare, for SNAP, for WIC, or for food for infants and children. Yet, somehow, there is always enough to fight forever wars, to give tax cuts to the wealthy, and to drive chaos and division into our communities.

The tragedy is that Congress could choose a different path. We could invest in our communities instead of detention camps. We could lower costs for working families instead of enriching lobbyists, consultants, and private prison companies. We could protect constitutional rights and strengthen public trust instead of rewarding agencies that have repeatedly abused both.

We could implement humane and sensible immigration policies that support, rather than suppress, our economy and economic development, and that don't scare away foreign visitors, whether from Niagara Falls in the Buffalo area or from Independence Hall in my district, where we are seeing the direct impact of bad immigration policy on visitors for our 250th anniversary and for the World Cup.

These are the choices before this House. This legislation is not a serious attempt to solve problems. It is an ideological project built around fear, division, and the concentration of executive power.

Think about what this bill will do. Republicans are about to spend exorbitant sums to put more masked agents on our streets, to spy on their political opponents, and to build a sprawling network of detention camps, private corporate detention camps, capable of imprisoning tens of thousands of who? Political enemies? It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where this authoritarian project is going.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and demonstrate their support for law enforcement by denying payments from the President's slush fund to the people who attacked law enforcement officers here at the Capitol on January 6, and I urge my colleagues to reject this dangerous waste of taxpayer money.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I first came up here to talk about three of the bills, which were in waste and fraud, but I will make a simple point being from a border State.

The chaos that was allowed to happen in my State and other border States for functionally 4 years, millions and millions and millions and millions, you didn't think there was ever going to be a societal cost, a government cost?

We have done entire presentations here on data from the Joint Economic Committee. Take a look at the Social Security actuary report of the suppression of working people's wages because of the importation of low-skill populations.

If you care about people and economics and wage growth, take some responsibility for the chaos you brought to my State and so much of this country.

Mr. Speaker, we are on a battle right now trying to explain the term so many of us all use, which is ``waste and fraud.'' We have got three bills on this. It is wonderful. Now, we need to actually add some of the definitions and the mechanics of how we are going to take it on.

Those of us on the Joint Economic Committee have been producing some reports that basically say that we have access to technology today so that the fraudulent checks never ever go out the door.

I will argue that the model we use today is perverse. Pay someone and then let's hire lots of auditors, lots of lawyers, lots of law enforcement, and let's chase it down. How often does someone ever go to prison? How often do we ever get any of the money back?

Mr. Speaker, my first request is, as we move forward on this agenda of taking on waste and fraud--this shouldn't be partisan, but it is technology. We need to take that on.

The second thing--and this one I have an absolute passion for because it is a level of immorality that the criminals are producing all over the world. There are headlines and stories. Have you read the stories of basically the enslavement of thousands of people in these scam farms where they are basically locked up and their job is to scam the elderly in the United States, to scam working people all over the Western world? This is an article from just a couple days ago. We have the technology.

Mr. Speaker, the Joint Economic Committee, Republican and Democrat, sent a letter to the big telephone companies, the ISP providers, saying: Moving forward, are you providing us with the technology that would stop the scam farms from being able to call grandma and do the evil of stealing billions and billions and billions? This is a bipartisan approach, and it exists.

If you have actually seen some of the videos of the misery these fraudsters and these criminal organizations are doing to people, being collected off the streets all over the South Pacific region and being locked up in scam farms in Cambodia--

I am trying to talk fast. I had a lot of coffee.

This is the hardest part here. When we say waste and fraud, the waste is often the way we have designed programs where the rent seekers, whether it be in Medicare Advantage, whether it be in Medicare, whether it be the stories of the hospice fraud of New York where the visitation is actually the fastest growing job production in New York City over the last 5 years.

We are going to have to also take on pieces of legislation that we have passed and stop the scammers from scamming us on that.

Mr. Speaker, we have given Republicans several chances to defeat the previous question so we can kill Trump's insurrectionist slush fund. They have refused time and time again. We are giving them another chance. Let's defeat the previous question so we can consider Ranking Member Raskin's amendment to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used as a payout for anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6.

Trump wants to turn convicted cop beaters into MAGA millionaires. It is disgusting. These aren't people who supposedly got caught up in the crowd and somehow found themselves in the Capitol. They are people who assaulted police officers, seriously injuring many of them. They pled guilty or were convicted. Donald Trump not only pardoned them, but now he wants to give them your taxpayer money, America.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption coming out of this administration: a super pardon for Trump and his family, bribes to pardon well-connected fraudsters, crypto schemes, pump-and-dump stock purchases, weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents and a sexual assault survivor, handing out massive contracts to his wealthy friends, appointing unqualified lackeys to important National Security and Department of Justice jobs, and the list goes on and on and on.

Mr. Speaker, I am ashamed at what Republicans have done to this House of Representatives. We are not debating issues on affordability. We are not debating lowering gas prices, controlling healthcare costs, or anything that matters to people. Instead, they have turned the Committee on Rules into the Protect Donald Trump Committee.

Last night in the Committee on Rules, I offered three amendments to go after this slush fund, $1.8 billion. I offered three amendments, and every single Republican, including the gentleman from New York, voted ``no.'' They voted ``no'' to allow us on the House floor to have a debate and to vote on this matter.

This is a pattern that Republicans have. Remember the Epstein files? Do you know how we ended up getting a vote on the Epstein files? It wasn't because Republicans wanted one. Democrats offered a gazillion amendments in the Committee on Rules to bring a bill to the floor to release the Epstein files, and the gentleman from New York and every Republican on the Committee on Rules voted ``no.''

It wasn't until we had a discharge petition and we forced a vote that all the sudden Republicans saw the light, and they came down here, and they voted with us. It wasn't until we had a supermajority where the President couldn't veto it that the President signed it into law, but here we are, the President still isn't releasing the files, and there is silence from the other side.

People are sick and tired of this President's corruption and his lying. They are sick and tired of Republicans going along to get along. We are talking about $1.8 billion going to cop beaters. I hope my Republican friends will vote with us and defeat the previous question and do the right thing for a change.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule providing for consideration of the Secure America Act.

After 4 years of chaos at our southern border under President Biden, House Republicans and President Trump have restored order and delivered the most secure border in history.

Illegal crossings have plummeted. Cartel activity has been disrupted, and law enforcement finally has an administration who is willing to enforce the law again.

Maintaining that progress requires more than strong leadership. It requires resources, and it requires certainty. This bill does both. More importantly, it sends a huge message that Congress stands with the men and women who serve on the front lines every single day.

ICE and Border Patrol agents put themselves in harm's way to stop fentanyl trafficking, to dismantle human trafficking networks, to remove criminals and terrorists from our country, and to protect American families.

These officers deserve to know that Congress has their back. Unfortunately, the only reason we are here today is because of congressional Democrats. They don't want now--and apparently never did want--a serious agreement to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security.

We made good-faith efforts to negotiate reasonable reforms and funding solutions: body cams, more training, and the like, but Democrats refused. Instead of working toward a compromise, they dragged out negotiations for political purposes.

At the same time, frontline officers and employees were left with long-term uncertainty. Time and again families have been left wondering whether they would get paid. That is irresponsible.

Border security--our national security--should not be partisan. Protecting our homeland should not be a partisan issue.

The Secure America Act fully funds ICE and Customs and Border Protection through fiscal year 2029. It gives these agencies the tools they need to continue securing our border and protecting our communities. It modernizes border technology, strengthens operational support, and prevents future Democrat obstruction efforts that put national security at risk.

This bill sends a simple message: Republicans stand with law enforcement. We stand with border security, and we stand with the American people.

I urge my colleagues to support the rule and support final passage of the Secure America Act.