Protect Veteran Jobs Act

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 177 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Neguse), 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, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I remind my Democratic colleague that the rule we are debating today provides for consideration of H.J. Res. 42 regarding a Department of Energy appliance rule, H.J. Res. 61 regarding an EPA National Emission Standards rule on rubber tire manufacturing, and S.J. Res. 11 regarding the EPA's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rules requiring burdensome archaeological reports on energy producers.

There will be ample opportunities to debate, amend, and provide suggestions when the appropriate authorizing committees move forward when we begin our work on spending reforms in a budget reconciliation package. We should focus on the legislation before us this week.

I encourage my colleagues to engage in regular order as our authorizing

committees begin to work on our reconciliation and not prejudge their outcomes and make baseless assumptions.

My colleagues across the aisle have mentioned how they find these measures not worthy of our time. This certainly isn't the first time they have mocked House Republican efforts to curb regulations on appliances, from heating systems to dishwashers, refrigerators, and freezers.

If this were such an unserious endeavor as my colleagues across the aisle claim, then why did the administration they supported for 4 years issue at least 31 regulations covering a vast array of different appliances and other products out of the DOE and the EPA? Is $60 billion foisted on to our Nation's manufacturers and consumers in new regulatory and compliance costs not serious enough for Congress to thoroughly scrutinize?

Democrats seem to be confused about what it is that the American people voted for in November, and one of those items was lowering day- to-day costs that are hurting workers and families. Reversing these regulations is something that House Republicans are deeply committed to doing, and we are working with the administration to actually get this done.

I would also recommend that my colleagues across the aisle speak with the fellow Democrats in their Caucus about how harmful these regulations are and why CRAs to reverse Biden's anti-energy and economically harmful regulations are so important.

Last Congress, Democrats voted with Republicans to pass at least five measures to halt Biden administration green energy regulations, including the following:

A CRA to halt the Biden definition of the Waters of the United States. Nine Democrats voted ``yes.''

A CRA to halt draconian emissions standards on heavy-duty vehicles. Four Democrats voted ``yes.''

A CRA to halt draconian emission standards on light-and medium-duty vehicles. Eight Democrats voted ``yes.''

In this Congress, a whopping 11 Democrats voted just last week in support of a CRA on the Biden administration's rule on conservation standards for consumer gas-fired instantaneous water heaters, one of those appliance-related regulations that my colleagues here today claim is not worth our time in the House, but their colleagues voted ``yes.''

Finally, six Democrats voted ``yes'' on last week's CRA to halt the Biden-era implementation of a natural gas tax that would harm our Nation's energy producers and consumers.

The Democratic Party is busy pulling their hair out over President Trump, Elon Musk, DOGE, whatever else is their outrage of the day. However, they have lost sight of the kitchen-table issues affecting everyday Americans. They ignore the rising costs hurting workers and families in order to cater to their own extreme leftwing base. It is so bad that even Members in their own Caucus are breaking ranks to vote for commonsense reforms such as the rolling back of these radical anti- energy agenda items that the Biden administration foisted upon us in the eleventh hour of their administration.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, we listen to calls from our Democratic colleagues for compassion and concern. I must ask the question, where was the compassion and concern while they watched prices skyrocket over our constituents over the 4 years of the Biden administration?

Where was the compassion and concern where the Biden regulatory environment smothered the U.S. economy with regulation after regulation, trillions of dollars in off-budget spending,

which soared inflation for the American people? Where was the compassion then?

Where was the outrage when House Republicans were calling for relief for the American people in the last Congress?

They said that we were following the wishes of only President Trump. They followed the Green New Deal playbook to a t, and that is what we are here to debate today are these important rollbacks of the Green New Deal agenda.

We sat idly by and watched our country get invaded by at least 10 million people that came across our country's borders with the direct will of the President to do it. President Trump has proven in just less than 2 short months the ability for a President to roll this all back with executive orders. Yet, the cost to New York alone was $7 billion in costs on New York taxpayers. Where was the outrage then?

For 8 years, this hysteria has cost them. While they persisted in their witch hunt of President Trump in 2022, Americans contended with 40-year high inflation, after Democrats and President Biden dumped trillions of dollars into a recovering post-COVID economy, which even one of their chief economists told us would create massive inflation. They ignored that guidance.

Did they seek to address everyday Americans' concerns about the direction of our economy? They did not. They doubled down on lawfare against President Trump, and it lost them the House in 2022. In 2024, when the world was on fire with our borders flung open to the invasion of millions of illegal aliens into this country that prompted a crisis in countless communities, including my own, Americans' top concerns coming back time and time again, poll after poll, were the economy and our border. Democrats did no work to address those concerns.

Did Vice President Kamala Harris address them? No, she did not. She didn't make that sale to the American people when she was campaigning across this country. Instead, all we heard was about Kamala brat summer and the last-ditch jittery attempt at once again trying to convince Americans that Trump was somehow a threat to democracy. Democrats lost, historically, on November 5, 2024. They lost the electoral vote, the popular vote, and they lost every swing State on the table.

Did Democrats learn from this smarting defeat since President Trump took office? They clearly have not. Instead, they focus their time again defending USAID slush funds, flat-out government waste, and pretty much every problem, trying to lay it at President Trump's feet, including what he is doing every single day as well as DOGE and how they are trying to fix the crisis and the mess that was left behind by the Biden years.

Mr. Speaker, the American people have time and again responded to Democratic hair-pulling with, at best, disinterest. Yet, here we are today on the House floor with more of the same.

The rule before us considers legislation focused on ridding American consumers in an industry of harming regulations that are truly impacting their wallets and their financial well-being and our Nation's economic future. I urge my colleagues to quit the hysterics and for once listen to the voices of the American people after years of refusing to do so.

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

Are you yielding me your time?

Mr. Speaker, we have seen a lot of masterful theatrics out of the Democratic Party recently, and we are seeing nothing different from that today. It is amazing that people who are so concerned about burdensome regulations and costs on people offer no solutions.

We are here doing the work of that today. We are taking price concerns off of the back of industries. We are preserving jobs. We are creating a brighter future for our communities by getting rid of this eleventh hour rulemaking that was put forward by the Biden administration.

They had all the power to make this country move in the right direction when Democrats controlled all of Congress and the White House following the 2020 elections. They had the ability to make those changes, but they took the country in the wrong direction.

That is why the country, at the ballot box, made the changes that they made. They took the House out of Democratic hands and made Republicans lead the House of Representatives. Then, they did the same with the Senate and the White House in 2024.

That is the report card that the Democratic Party earned because they prioritized the things that the American people did not want prioritized. They haven't read the room. They answer to their woke and angry mobs that they are foisting on Members of Congress and people all over the country right now. It is a very coordinated effort. They deny it, but make no mistake, every U.S. Senator today released a video that has the exact same script. It is very clearly a theatrical performance that the American people are seeing out of Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

We are here with solutions to problems created by the last administration. We are putting them forward to get the job done. We have a timeline that we have to focus on, and that is why these CRAs are so important for us to tackle right now. We have limited legislative days in order to roll back these unnecessary, burdensome regulations that no one asked for and no one wanted. We are getting the job done that we were sent here to do.

Let's look again at the numbers. The Biden administration has issued at least 31 regulations for residential and commercial appliances and equipment, totaling $60 billion. If my friends on the other side of the aisle don't think that added regulatory costs filter into the price of new appliances, then we

have several bridges available for them to purchase.

Let's look further at some of the regulations that will reap financial savings for American consumers. In one example, under the Biden DOE's dishwasher efficiency standards, Americans are expected to save a whopping $1.12 under that regulation. Was that necessary to put out there? Of course, it wasn't.

These are savings that the left expected the American people to be excited about as they racked up more regulations and more restrictions that cost us jobs from the results of the Biden years.

Under the latest DOE rule that H.J. Res. 42 would fortunately curb, home appliance manufacturers have already outlined how the rule requires their industry to provide a myriad of unnecessary information and data that is meaningless when demonstrating efficiency but simply is required to meet compliance with the rules.

It is regulations for the sake of regulations, and the American people are left to pay higher prices and have fewer choices.

At the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues simply refuse to acknowledge the natural dynamics of the marketplace. When left to their own devices, the American people will seek out the most efficient model of an appliance that they can afford.

I agree with my colleagues when they say that the American people want cost savings, both at sale and with efficiency over the lifecycle of an appliance. What they don't want is government intervention that limits their ability to make those choices themselves. They want to have more affordable options available to fit tighter budgets, not fewer, more expensive choices because unelected bureaucrats at Biden's DOE needed to micromanage what refrigerators, dishwashers, heaters, air-conditioners, you name it, were permissible under unrealistic efficiency standards.

H.J. Res. 42 will help curb these costly, limiting, and anti-natural gas standards from the final days of the gasping Biden administration that were finalized at the behest of his radical climate lobby.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the epiphany that those on the other side of the aisle now have--and they are so concerned about costs and economic concerns-- when they fought us tooth and nail on every single action that we tried to take to curb the Biden administration's uncontrollable regulatory environment is just laughable.

We watched, warned, and fought in the 118th Congress to stop an administration that created a regulatory environment that has added about $1.5 trillion in needless regulations that have stifled the growth of industry and jobs in this country. Now, we are seeing them all of a sudden change their tune.

As our new administration is less than a month and a half old, things are moving in the right direction. People have a new view of what the future is. We are fighting hard to preserve a predictable tax code in this country. We are extending the current tax code so that we can have regulatory certainty, tax certainty, so that businesses can thrive and grow and not fear the hammer of government that they did in the Biden years.

There was an explosion after election day of people ready, willing, and able to invest in America. We have seen unprecedented investment come in from overseas, bringing new jobs, new opportunities, and new future creation here to the United States since election day. That will continue because that is what President Trump campaigned on. That is what House Republicans fight for and what we will achieve together.

Mr. Speaker, this epiphany that we have had on the other side of the aisle, that they are now all of a sudden concerned with the costs of everyday Americans, was nowhere to be found for 2 years in the 118th Congress, as we fought every day about the costs of gas and groceries and how it was pinching away because of Biden's inflation and what it had done to the purchasing power of everyday Americans' accounts.

People in probably both of our districts said the same exact thing, that they were watching the American Dream slip away from our kids and grandkids because we couldn't necessarily be certain that the future would be brighter under the current trajectory of this country.

We have saddled the country with $36.5 trillion in debt. It is a debt service that is higher than what we spend on our national defense. It is an unacceptable legacy that we are leaving to our future generations. We are working every day toward our budget reconciliation to get that under control so that we can be the era that bent the curve on spending and got this country back on track.

Yet, we have other people on the other side of the aisle who want to keep spending levels at the COVID era. COVID fell upon us 5 years ago this week, yet they still want to spend like we are in the midst of an emergency.

It is time that we have a commonsense revolution in this country, commonsense like what we are doing here today: rolling back needless regulations that hurt jobs, hurt workers, and hurt consumers. That is what we were asked to do by our constituents.

These CRAs this week are important because they reinstitute choice in the marketplace. They take the bureaucrats that DOGE is fighting every single day out of the equation and put the

American consumer back in the driver's seat so that we can have choice in our consumer goods, not creating a standard just to justify someone's job in a cubicle somewhere. That is what this government has been about for far too long, but those days are over.

Mr. Speaker, we are now putting common sense in the driver's seat in this country. We are working toward a brighter future for our kids and grandkids.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

For 4 years, Democrats gaslit the American people in a vain attempt to convince them that costs weren't going up, inflation wasn't real, our economy wasn't in trouble, and there wasn't a crisis at our borders. The American people saw past that deception, and they voted for a President and a Congress that promised to put our country back on track.

Part of fulfilling that promise includes unwinding a slew of burdensome rules, prohibitions, restrictions, and other ticky-tacky attempts to micromanage everyday life for Americans. It also includes ensuring that the woke mob and their radical environmental NGOs can no longer call the shots at these Federal agencies at the expense of our manufacturers, our domestic energy producers, and good-paying jobs.

Mr. Speaker, 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 thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Langworthy) for the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I will try to clarify for the American people, those who may be tuning in, certainly the individuals who have joined us in the gallery today, what this debate is all about.

Just by way of context, let's consider what is happening in the world today. I don't know if my colleague from New York has checked his phone, but the stock market is plummeting. The 401(k)'s of residents in New York and residents in Colorado are wiped out. The massive tariffs that the President of the United States applied to our neighbors at midnight we know will increase the price of everything: groceries, fuel, energy, you name it.

There were mass layoffs of Federal workers, mass purges of veterans at different Federal agencies, mass terminations of Forest Service employees in my district working on wildfire mitigation, scientists at NOAA, individuals doing cancer research, all of that is happening as we speak. Yet, here we are in this august body debating what? Labeling requirements for appliances.

That is what the Republicans have decided to spend today debating, labeling requirements for pool heaters. I don't know if the gentleman from New York has a pool. I don't have a pool. I don't understand why we are wasting time in the House of Representatives debating regulatory requirements for pool heaters or labeling requirements for coolers and air-conditioners. Seriously.

The stock market is crashing, and this is how House Republicans choose to spend their time. Government funding is about to dry out 10 days from now and we want to spend our time talking about pool heaters.

Give me a break, Mr. Speaker. Let's get serious. This isn't what the people of the United States elected us to do. I implore my Republican colleagues to come to the table, work with us in good faith, and stand up to the Trump administration that is dismantling Federal agencies in your own districts.

Social Security offices are being shut down. There are constituents who can't get services from the Federal Government because this President has decided to dismantle these agencies piece by piece.

It is time to get our priorities right, Mr. Speaker. I can assure you that the priorities that the House Republicans are pursuing today and have been pursuing for the better part of the last 2\1/2\ months are grossly out of step with the values of the American people.

It is why I would hope every Member of this body would oppose the rule.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, it feels like I am living in the twilight zone again. I understand the gentleman from New York very much wants to spend a half hour debating labeling requirements for pool heaters. I get it. We all get it. It is important to you. It is not important to me and not important to the people who I represent. In the 5 minutes that you just spent describing the reasons for this bill in your view, the stock market has continued to go down. More corporations have announced that they will be increasing prices later this week because of President Trump's tariffs. I don't understand how you believe that that is lowering costs.

Again, I would implore my colleagues, let's get serious. There are plenty of substantive challenges facing this country that merit and warrant the attention of lawmakers here in Washington. For the record, House Democrats are not scared to debate any single one of them.

Apparently, reports this morning indicate that in the Republican Conference meeting, a member of Republican leadership stood up in the meeting and supposedly told his Conference a simple instruction: Not a single one of you should attend or participate in a townhall.

Why? It is because they are scared of their own constituents, Mr. Speaker. They understand that if they hold a townhall with their community, they will hear outrage from everyday American citizens who are pissed off, who are angry that the prices for everything are going up because of this reckless Trump administration's policies.

Again, you want to spend a half hour, an hour, 8 hours debating labeling requirements for pool heaters? Be my guest. However, don't expect House Democrats to participate in it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Tran), a veteran who served our country honorably who can speak to the reasons why this amendment is so important.

If we defeat the previous question, I will be offering an amendment to the rule to bring up H.R. 1637, the Protect Veteran Jobs Act.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for the gentleman from New York. We have a lot of folks who come to Washington, D.C., to observe these proceedings. I suspect it might seem a little rote to them. I would love to have an actual debate. Maybe there are some folks here from New York, some folks from Colorado who would like to see us engage in some substantive debate.

Therefore, I might ask the gentleman from New York because he ended his last remarks by appealing to the voices of the American people and that he and his Conference, in his view, are standing up for the voices of the American people.

I wonder if the gentleman might answer a question. Mr. Langworthy, have you held a townhall this year? It is not a rhetorical question. I am just asking.

Mr. Speaker, if I might ask the gentleman from New York, I believe colloquies are permitted in this Chamber.

I am not. I am asking, rather, through the Speaker to the gentleman from New York if he has held an in-person townhall with the people of New York that he represents this year. I am just curious.

He doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to answer. It is a yes or no question. It is not a complicated question.

Okay, I will take it as a ``no.''

Clearly, he has not held a townhall in 2025. I would think he would be jumping up to clarify the record that he, in fact, had met with his constituents, Mr. Speaker, if that were the case. He clearly has not held a townhall. I understand why. I get it, because at this juncture, if House Republicans held townhalls, as their constituents express their outrage and indignation at the mass layoffs of Federal workers, of civil servants and at the tariffs that are increasing prices and at the stock market crashing, if their only response is: We took up a really important bill this week on labeling requirements for pool heaters, I could understand why one would have some trepidation about hosting a townhall under those circumstances.

Again, let us be serious about the work that we are called to do in this body. We are here to lower costs for working families, to build safer communities, to ultimately ensure that the American people, the American taxpayers, the Constitution is vindicated. It is unfortunate that my colleagues don't feel the same way.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot about so-called theatrical performances. I didn't realize that asking the simple question of whether or not the gentleman had held a townhall this year counts as theater. I understand it is a forbidden question in the House Republican Conference now as to whether or not one has held a townhall, for obvious reasons.

My constituents certainly don't find that to be an offensive question. We have held five townhalls in the last 2 months. We look forward to holding more because we are going to be responsive to the American people. I wish my colleagues would do the same.

What I won't do, and I think what the American people won't do, is be lectured by Republicans about rising costs when literally, as we speak, Trump's tariffs are taking hold and beginning the process of increasing prices, which already started 30 days ago, and putting it into overdrive.

These are just a couple of headlines from the last 8 hours. ``New England, New York grid operators prepare to collect millions in tariffs on Canadian electricity.'' The New York Post says that car prices could potentially surge by $12,000 because of these tariffs.

House Republicans have the audacity to lecture us about increased costs when they are increasing the costs of everything?

By the way, this is not some foreign debate. I represent Colorado. I am proud to represent the great State of Colorado. I have never been to the gentleman's district in upstate New York, but my understanding is that it is pretty close to the Canadian border. There are billions of dollars of economic development in New York and commerce that is transacted between Canada and the United States a mere few miles from the gentleman's district. He describes this as theater?

I am not so sure that the folks in his district and that the people of New York will feel that way as these tariffs begin to kick in. I am sure that the farmers and the ranchers in Colorado that I represent, I can assure you, won't call it theater.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would like to spend every second of every minute of every day talking about the prior President. It has been a half hour now of my colleague on the other side of the aisle starting and ending every sentence with Joe Biden. Donald Trump is the President of the United States.

My colleague reminds us, yes, Republicans have a majority in the House and in the Senate. All I am suggesting is that maybe they should use that majority to do better things than waste everyone's time on labeling requirements for pool heaters. That is it. Maybe we ought to be a little bit more concerned with the 401(k)'s of our constituents, of working families in Buffalo and in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Mr. Speaker, I don't think that is too much to ask, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, as expected, we have a rebuttal replete with references to the 118th Congress, what Democrats did in the last Congress, assigning blame, and all the rest. I remind my colleague that the Republicans are in charge. They have the majority. They have the ability to shape events. They have a Republican President and a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate.

I can certainly assure my colleague that my constituents, who are seeing their 401(k) balances vanish in real time, would not describe these policies as common sense. The stock market tanking, prices of fuel going up, prices of food going up, prices of cars and vehicles going up, car insurance, home insurance, you name it, under Trump's economy, everything goes up.

By the way, he is unabashed about it. I watched some of his press conference yesterday. He is not hiding it. He has acknowledged it. He has said outright that he knows these tariffs will increase prices in the short term, according to him, and he expects the Republican Conference to defend him tooth and nail as these prices go up.

The gentleman talks about economic growth. The Federal Reserve, the Atlanta branch, just yesterday forecasted negative GDP growth for this quarter. That is the first time in a long time there has been negative GDP growth under President Trump. This is the commonsense agenda that my colleague from New York sells to farmers and ranchers in Colorado? We are not buying it. The American people aren't buying it.

It is why I implore every Member of this body to oppose this rule.

Mr. Speaker, it is also why I would implore everyone to support the amendment to the rule that we would like to pursue by bringing up H.R. 1637, the Protect Veteran Jobs Act, which was brought up previously.

I ask unanimous consent, Mr. Speaker, 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 am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I will direct my comments to the Chair, to you, Mr. Speaker, to express my frustration, which is the frustration felt by so many of the hardworking people of the great State of Colorado that I have the privilege of representing in the House of Representatives. It is a frustration borne from the realities that they are facing each and every day.

As I mentioned, we have an economy that is in free fall, a stock market that is tanking. They are seeing their neighbors, their friends, public servants, being purged from Federal agencies, hardworking civil servants who do wildfire mitigation work in Colorado and across the Rocky Mountain West, unceremoniously fired.

There are scientists at the NOAA and NWS facilities in Boulder and elsewhere being subject to these mass terminations by a Federal executive who seems intent on dismantling agency after agency. We have a House Republican caucus that is walking with him in lockstep every step of the way as they prepare to slash Medicaid to the tunes of hundreds of billions of dollars.

The frustration that my constituents feel is justified, because notwithstanding every single one of those transgressions, every single one of those challenges, those obstacles that Republicans have manufactured and created in their daily lives, if they tune in to this debate, they will see that the focus is on none of that and instead on the matters that we have discussed today.

My constituents, Mr. Speaker, do not want to see me debating labeling requirements for pool heaters. They don't. I won't speak for what the people of New York have to say about their Representatives. I will just say for Colorado and Coloradans, they expect me to be here pursuing policies that will make their lives easier, that will promote economic growth and a better quality of life. They are not getting it from this House under Republican control. I can assure you of that.

I understand House Republicans, I am sure, will pass the rule and they will get their bill on water heaters and pool heaters and air conditioners passed through the House. They will have a big fancy signing ceremony at the White House where they will celebrate the fact that they repealed a labeling requirement rule that was promulgated a year ago.

I fear for what the broader economic trends will be when they have that signing ceremony. Who knows. But if past is prologue, I am reasonably confident that the economy will continue the free fall unless Republicans work with us, Democrats, in good faith, to pursue policies that would advance opportunity in our country.

That is my humble request, Mr. Speaker. The best way to get started is by opposing the previous question, opposing the rule, opposing the underlying bills, and getting back to the business of this House.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding. I rise to urge my colleagues across the aisle to show some humanity and compassion to the thousands of veterans who have been recklessly dismissed from their civil service jobs at the political whim of this administration.

The men and women who serve our country deserve our unwavering support, not broken promises. The indiscriminate firing of veterans by the Trump administration and Elon Musk dishonors the unwavering commitment that these public servants have dedicated to our country. These heroes stepped up for us, and now we must stand up for them.

This issue is deeply personal to me. I am the son of Vietnamese refugees who fled war and persecution in search of safety and a better life in America. This country welcomed them and gave me the chance to succeed. I joined the Army out of a sense of duty to my country because I wanted to give back to the country that gave me so much. I wanted to protect the very principles of freedom, justice, and decency that we hold dear.

However, I don't see these values in the actions by the Trump administration. I see only chaos, fear, and cruelty.

I have a duty as a Congressman, a veteran, and a proud American to stand up for those who made the highest commitment to us. That is why last week I introduced my first bill, the Protect Veteran Jobs Act, to reinstate veterans who were recklessly terminated without cause under the Trump administration's purge of the Federal workplace. My bill will also hold the executive branch accountable for any future terminations that may occur.

This isn't about politics. This is about basic decency. This is about treating our veterans with the dignity they deserve. Veterans make up over 30 percent of the Federal workforce, and when they are unjustly removed, it impacts all of us. From delays in healthcare services and disability claims to staffing shortages at the VA, the consequences for American families and servicemembers are dire.

Veterans have always had our backs. It is time we step up to have theirs. I urge my Republican colleagues to join us in opposing the previous question so that we can take up this important measure to restore the livelihoods of veterans who have served our country honorably and who have continued to do so through civilian service. Let's reverse course immediately and get these veterans their jobs back.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to remove the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scott Franklin) as cosponsor of H.R. 1637.