Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the rule. The fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act presented to us without amendment…
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the rule. The fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act presented to us without amendment is, against all odds, a strong bipartisan compromise between Republicans and Democrats on the Armed Services Committee.
I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised to see this year's NDAA come to the floor untouched by some of the rightwing extremist policy riders that in recent years have been attached to important bills like the NDAA.
However, this morning in the Rules Committee, Republicans green- lighted dozens of amendments containing controversial poison pills that may very well make their way into the bill. I hope that my Republican colleagues are able to demonstrate some restraint this week and vote down these bad policies. We cannot afford to politicize our national defense.
A good NDAA, like a good budget, is one that is probably perfect for no one. It is the result of compromise and negotiation. In the case of the NDAA, it is oriented around the shared goal of making sure that our Armed Forces continue to be the best in the world.
However, while the FY26 NDAA is strong in many ways, it also falls short in some crucial areas. Above all, it falls short in its lack of meaningful policy to rein in the Trump administration's reckless and illegal actions.
Out of fealty to their dear leader, Republicans have refused at every turn to perform meaningful oversight of this administration, to push back on Trump's worst impulses, and to exert Congress' Article I powers against the executive's repeated overreach. In the context of the NDAA, there hasn't been a single oversight hearing scheduled in the House or Senate to address the ongoing misuse of our military forces.
Of all Trump's abuses, his worst have been in the domain of national defense. Empowered by a partisan Supreme Court and aided by complicit national security staff, Trump has repeatedly used the U.S. military to commit reckless and even illegal acts that imperil our security, weaken our status in the world, hurt our relationship with our closest allies, and endanger our own citizens.
The President claims to have broad, undefined, and unchecked executive power. He has installed corrupt and incompetent appointees who jeopardize our national security and economic stability. He has imposed Federal troops and the National Guard on civilians across America, despite fierce opposition from local residents and political leaders. He has sent armed and masked Federal law enforcement agents to terrorize immigrant communities. Those agents have harassed and detained U.S. citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.
The President has initiated multiple politically targeted criminal investigations against his opponents and unilaterally defunded programs that are important to our national defense and our security.
While Republicans gleefully cheer on military deployments in American cities, I bet they would lose their goddamn minds if those troops were sent to their home States which have substantially higher crime rates.
If the real rationale for these deployments is to address high crime rates, States like Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana would be at the top of the list. We all know this.
We all know this isn't really why the National Guard has been deployed to D.C. or L.A. or Chicago. As with so many acts by this White House, it is just pretext. It is pretext for an agenda based on fear, intimidation, performative violence, and retribution.
Trump's agenda is about power and self-dealing, not problem-solving. That is all it is. There are no solutions. There are no plans. Time and time again, we have seen this White House reject and defund proven solutions in favor of no-tolerance policies and flashy shows of force.
In the process, this administration has wasted millions in taxpayer dollars with stunts like sending Dr. Phil on an ICE raid with a camera crew.
They sent hundreds of people, many of whom had no criminal record, to a violent, inhumane prison in El Salvador and produced a video of their abuse and humiliation.
They sent uniformed military troops to the streets of American cities, damaging the relationship between our citizens and our Armed Forces.
This past week may have seen the most egregious and violent misuse of military force yet that we know of. Last week, President Trump ordered the extrajudicial execution by the U.S. military of 11 men on a speedboat in international waters, thousands of miles away from the U.S. He then posted a snuff video of that act on social
media. We still have not seen credible evidence or legal justification for that strike.
That killing represents a sinister choice. The Navy and Coast Guard interdict drug smugglers on the high seas all the time. If we knew these men were smugglers and we knew where they were, an intentional decision was made not to stop the ship and, instead, to kill the people on it.
There is no congressional authorization for a President to kill drug dealers at home or abroad. This killing on the high seas is not authorized by international law.
The President cannot declare anyone he wants to be a criminal or an enemy combatant and then summarily kill them. This is the logic used by dictators and despots to disappear and kill dissenters and political opponents. A President who acts as judge, jury, and executioner is flat out un-American. If we allow such conduct, then we are no better than the terrorists and criminals we claim to fight.
Additionally, earlier this year the President approved air strikes against Iran, doing so without congressional authorization and in contravention of the Constitution.
No matter what one thinks about the merits of that attack, this was a flagrantly unconstitutional act.
Taken together with last week's assassinations on the high seas, we now have a President who claims to be able to kill whoever he wants, whenever he wants, and for whatever reason he wants, all without accountability under the law to Congress and to the American people.
Moreover, as we speak of the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution, over the weekend, the President unilaterally decided to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War in what can only be described as a PR stunt. It is a decision he doesn't have the authority to make.
Whether or not this gimmick will distract from the Epstein files and this administration's economic failures, it will certainly cost taxpayers a fortune, with estimates ranging over $1 billion. Experts predict that our enemies will use the move to portray the United States not as a guarantor of peace but as a threat to international stability.
The NDAA is one of Congress' best opportunities to rein in these kinds of abuses of military power, specifically abuses by this President in his role as Commander in Chief. Unfortunately, this bill misses that mark. It lets the President get away with starting illegal wars and committing illegal killings.
Further, Pete Hegseth still has not faced any consequences for leaking confidential information to journalists and wasting taxpayer dollars on makeup mirrors. Tulsi Gabbard has not faced consequences for manipulating intelligence reports that contradicted the President's claims about Venezuelan gangs. No one has been held accountable for firing intelligence officials who claimed falsely that his strikes on Iran had obliterated its nuclear capabilities.
I know that my Democratic colleagues on the Armed Services Committee fought hard for oversight in the NDAA. Unfortunately, the price of a bipartisan bill to support our troops was that Republicans would continue to enable this administration and many of its worst actions.
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, House Republicans' efforts to turn a blind eye to the President's apparent misconduct are not limited only to matters of national security. For months, the President and most House Republicans have blocked the release of the Epstein files.
During the 2024 campaign, the President and his inner circle, particularly Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino, all repeatedly promised that they would release the Epstein files, but once they came into office and found the President to be frequently mentioned in those files, they changed their tune.
In the past few months, the President has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent the release of the Epstein files. His DOJ approved the highly unusual transfer of Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, to a cushy minimum-security prison, apparently in exchange for her agreement to distance the President from Epstein's sex trafficking activities. The President has even threatened members of his own party with retribution if they vote to release those files.
These threats appear to be working because House Republicans continue to provide cover for the administration, repeatedly voting down amendments in the Rules Committee that would have forced the release of the Epstein files.
In fact, just this morning, Rules Committee Republicans once again blocked the release of those files, and we have not seen our Republican colleagues stepping up to sign the discharge petition that could lay this issue to rest once and for all.
The longer this goes on, the more it seems appropriate to ask: What are they trying to hide, and whom are they trying to protect? What is the ``wonderful secret'' that Trump and Epstein share?
Mr. Speaker, I bring all this up because the other bill in this resolution, H.R. 3486, the Stop Illegal Entry Act, is another distraction to divert attention from this White House's ongoing issues and the Epstein files. It is a messaging bill that is light on substance, bad on policy, and just something shiny for House Republicans to talk about other than the Epstein files.
The bill purports to be tough on undocumented immigrants, but it doesn't do a single thing to improve our broken immigration system. What it will do is siphon even more taxpayer dollars into the hands of for-profit prison companies. Instead of deporting undocumented immigrants, this bill would require convicted immigrants to serve lengthy prison sentences here in the United States.
Guess who would benefit from that, Mr. Speaker? GEO and other private prison companies that have invested millions in the President's political campaigns.
It is already a crime to enter the country illegally. Despite the propaganda from the other side, prosecutions against unlawful entry are regularly the most prosecuted cases in the United States under Presidents of both parties. Those found in violation of these statutes are already subject to prison sentences and mandatory removal. However, Republicans are proposing to jail undocumented immigrants for up to 10 or 20 years, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and limited Federal prison space.
American taxpayers are certainly justified in asking our Republican colleagues: Why should we imprison someone who is subject to deportation here in the United States and at that cost to the American taxpayer?
Every day, we are seeing a new atrocity committed by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. All over America, masked ICE agents, often in unmarked cars, are taking parents from their children, arresting the elderly, arresting law-abiding immigrants, and even detaining citizens.
Trump says he is going after the worst of the worst, but over 70 percent of the immigrants his government has rounded up have no criminal record. In fact, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are reallocating resources away from investigating major crimes so they can terrorize undocumented immigrants who are just trying to work a job and provide for themselves and their families, including some who were legally present here and had legal status until this administration suddenly reversed it.
For all its bluster, this administration is not doing anything to combat gangs or serious criminals. They are not arresting the worst of the worst or gangs like MS-13 or Tren de Aragua. It is not doing anything about the smugglers and human traffickers at the border.
Instead, ICE agents are scrambling to meet Stephen Miller's quotas by arresting people at work or when they attend court hearings on their legal cases for asylum or citizenship, as they are required to do, and the hell with the impact on the local community, or, in the case of the disastrous raid on the Georgia battery plant last week, the hell with our allies and foreign investment in our country.
In the latest example of how this administration's disastrous immigration agenda is at odds with reality, last week, ICE was directed to make a flashy, high-profile raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, arresting over 400
South Korean nationals whom we had explicitly invited to invest in manufacturing here and bring jobs to the United States. This stunt has been a complete disaster. It caused a major diplomatic rift with one of our closest allies and biggest economic partners, and it has given the whole world reason to believe that it is a mistake to move manufacturing to the U.S.
In truth, the Stop Illegal Entry Act is just another shiny object that is supposed to divert attention from the Epstein files and the failures of this administration. Republicans don't actually care about reforming the immigration system. They have repeatedly rejected all attempts to do so. They just want to campaign on telling horror stories about immigrants, regardless of the truth.
All we see from this House majority is distraction after distraction, all to divert attention from the President's failure to deliver on promises to the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Ansari).
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Conaway).
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Delaware (Ms. McBride).
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to provide for consideration of H.R. 4849, the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act of 2025, introduced by Congressman Gray.
Mr. Speaker, in July, Republicans jammed through their big, ugly bill. This 870-page monstrosity includes the largest cuts to healthcare in American history. It takes healthcare coverage away from more than 15 million Americans, American citizens, including 10 million who would lose their care due to the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and another $5 million because Republicans failed to extend the tax credits that help make ACA plans more affordable.
These cuts will throw millions of Americans off coverage entirely, bury families in medical debt, and result in hospitals and nursing homes closing, especially in rural America.
In my district, 21,000 people are likely to lose their healthcare. In the gentleman from Georgia's district, 36,000 people are estimated to lose their healthcare.
Mr. Gray's bill would reverse those disastrous cuts, as well as permanently extend the tax credits that help make ACA plans more affordable for millions of Americans.
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 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. McDonald Rivet) to discuss our proposal further.
Ms. McDONALD RIVET. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the hardworking men and women not just in Michigan but across the country.
Working families in Michigan and across the country are really struggling. There are 200,000 people in my district alone who rely on Medicaid.
While the Republican tax scheme gives huge giveaways to billionaires and breaks to the wealthy, it neglects the ACA tax credits working families in my district depend on to cover their insurance premiums. It cuts Medicaid by $1.1 trillion, kicking tens of thousands of my constituents off their healthcare, and it raises costs for everybody.
Our Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act reverses all of that, and we should pass it today. We aren't just making a point. We are fighting for the retired teacher from Mount Morris who needs Medicaid because her insurance isn't cutting it. We are standing up for the pregnant woman whose rural hospital is at risk of being shut down because of the Republican tax giveaway.
We are raising our voices for the family from Bay City who will have to sit down at the kitchen table to figure out if they should pay for rent or their child's visit to the doctor.
We know that as a result of the billionaire tax giveaway we are going to see premiums rise for working people across our country. The ACA tax credits need to be reestablished now.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, if we are going to discuss what should be disclosed with these Epstein files, all the more reason to bring this bill forward. We can amend it in Rules and carry on from there, but that is not what we are seeing from our colleagues across the aisle. They are trying to bury it, and I assume they will continue to do so.
This House and this Congress cannot afford to continue allowing an unrestrained and reckless President to trample on the Constitution and Congress' powers and responsibilities. Every day brings a new crisis with this White House, and they are all of its own making.
Since Trump announced his tariffs, the U.S. has lost 42,000 manufacturing jobs, tourism is tanking, and unemployment is on the rise. Costs for everything from electricity to groceries to health insurance are up, not down.
In fact, we are facing the biggest increase in health insurance costs in 15 years, even as the cuts in this big, bad bill threaten to bring more hospital closures.
Trump's attacks on the Federal Reserve could cause another financial crisis. Masked agents are roaming our streets, and reports of human rights abuses at ICE detention facilities are growing. Far from ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Trump has amassed naval forces off the coast of Venezuela and could provoke another unauthorized war.
This administration is out of control and Congress must act. Republicans can't keep their heads in the sand. They have already failed to protect core Article I spending authorities, the power to make appropriations and the power to declare war. Continued inaction will only allow more power grabs by this White House to occur.
At every turn, Republicans have fought Democratic efforts to place oversight and enforcement riders in legislation that we are passing. With this NDAA, our Republican colleagues are, again, blocking policies to restrain this President and prevent him from using the Armed Forces as political weapons. This cannot be allowed to continue. We must reject this rule and the Republicans' failed agenda.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the PQ and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
