Providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 14) establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 707 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

General Leave

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

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 707 provides for consideration of seven measures. The rule provides for consideration of H.R. 4922, H.R. 5140, H.R. 5143, and H.R. 5125 under a closed rule with 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform or their respective designees.

The rule provides each bill with one motion to recommit.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 3015, H.R. 3062, and H.R. 1047 under a closed rule with 1 hour of debate each equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking minority member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce or their designees.

The rule provides each bill with one motion to recommit.

The rule also provides that in the engrossment of H.R. 3633, the Clerk shall add the text of H.R. 1919 as passed by the House as a new matter at the end of H.R. 3633.

Further, the rule tolls the day counts regarding resolutions of inquiry until March 31, 2026.

Finally, the rule tolls the day counts until March 31, 2026, regarding joint resolutions terminating the national emergencies declared by the President on February 1, 2025; April 2, 2025; and July 30, 2025.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying legislation. The rule before us provides an opportunity for Congress to reverse the disastrous energy and crime policies left behind by the previous administration and restore accountability where needed the most.

For far too long, the American people have been forced to live under a regulatory agenda that drove up costs, weakened our grid, and made our communities less safe. These measures begin to roll back that damage and put us on a stronger and safer trajectory.

To restore accountability in our energy policies, this rule provides for consideration of H.R. 3015, the National Coal Council Reestablishment Act. This legislation permanently restores the National Coal Council, an advisory body for nearly four decades, providing expert recommendations on matters affecting the American coal sector.

Established in 1984, the council delivered 40 reports to the Secretary of Energy on coal markets, research and development into clean coal technologies, and regulatory barriers that affect the coal industry.

However, in 2021, at the behest of leftwing organizations, the Biden administration disregarded this history and disbanded the council, replacing it with an advisory body charged with fulfilling the left's Green New Deal agenda. Make no mistake. This was not about policy, it was about shutting coal out of the conversation, an essential piece of our Nation's energy matrix.

The United States is home to the world's largest coal reserves, with approximately 440 years' worth of supply at current production levels. Today, our fleet of over 400 coal-fired power plants provide 16 percent of America's electricity, and in five States, coal provides more than one-half. In 17 States it provides more than 20 percent. Together, the coal industry supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, lifts up small communities across the country, and provides affordable and reliable baseload power that helps keep prices stable.

Premature retirements of coal plants are being driven by Federal and State policies that intentionally attack their financial viability, yet the demand for electricity is only going up.

Since 2022, the retirement of 29,000 megawatts of coal capacity has been delayed because of rising demand and insufficient replacement resources. To put it bluntly, removing coal from the grid at this moment in time would lead to higher costs and greater instability for families and businesses. This is a reality that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to acknowledge.

In New York we are already seeing what these anti-energy radical policies have done: shutting down production of reliable baseload power in favor of pursuing unrealistic and dangerous green agenda items.

Now, despite widespread public opposition, Governor Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats are moving forward with a ban on natural gas and propane hookups in new construction starting in 2026. That means families in western New York, where winters are long, snow is great, and it is cold and oftentimes dangerous in these terrible winter storms, they will be denied the ability to choose the energy source that best keeps them safe and warm in their homes. Taking affordable and reliable options off the table is not sound policy.

It is assaults like this on consumer choice and on the freedom to use reliable, affordable energy like coal and natural gas that leave people more vulnerable when the power goes out. That is why it matters who is at the table. When it comes to energy policy, this measure makes the National Coal Council permanent, so future administrations can't simply shut it down for political reasons.

H.R. 3015 also reinforces President Trump's April 8, 2025, executive order to reinvigorate America's clean coal industry recognizing that coal must remain part of our future if we want to ensure future prosperity, meet rising electricity demands, and lower costs for families.

By reestablishing the National Coal Council, Congress will ensure that reliable, affordable baseload power remains a cornerstone of our energy policy while supporting family-sustaining jobs and fueling next- generation industries like artificial intelligence.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 3062, the Promoting Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure Act. This measure creates a transparent and permanent framework for permitting pipelines and other cross-border energy projects.

For years, developers have been subject to political gamesmanship, destroyed investments, and stranded jobs. The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline was not based on science; it was simply based on politics. The Biden administration sided with radical activists over American workers in energy security for our country.

We have seen the same story play out in my own State of New York. The Northern Access pipeline was a major natural gas infrastructure project that promised thousands of good-paying jobs, more affordable energy for families across the northeastern United States, and new tax revenue for rural communities like mine in the southern tier.

However, instead of moving forward, that project was tied up with endless red tape and obstructed by regulators. Western New York and the southern tier lost jobs and investment in energy security that would have come from it. A project that should have supported a large construction workforce and strengthened our region was derailed again because of politics.

This is exactly why permitting reform is needed and is needed now. Without certainty, projects like this will continue to slip away, taking good jobs and economic growth with them.

Energy developers, workers, and communities all deserve better. Yet when it comes to the permitting reforms that would actually allow critical energy projects to move forward, Democrats have consistently acquiesced to the demands of radical environmental groups instead of the needs

of American workers and their families.

The result is higher costs and fewer options for American families. This legislation cuts through that red tape, gives developers certainty, and ensures critical projects can move forward.

In addition, the rule includes H.R. 1047, the Guaranteeing Reliability Through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power Act.

Year after year, projects that would keep the lights on and lower bills are stuck in the interconnection queues and regulatory wait lists. Sometimes as long as 7 years they are stuck there. That is simply unacceptable. Families do not care about bureaucratic excuses. They care about whether their homes are heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. This legislation cuts through that backlog. It empowers grid operators to prioritize projects that actually enhance reliability.

Let us be clear about how we got here. Democrats have spent years forcing premature retirements of coal, nuclear, and natural gas through excessive regulation, while shoveling subsidies to wind and solar. The result is interconnection queues flooded with projects that only have a 5 percent completion rate.

Meanwhile, Democrat policies have left ratepayers footing the bill for two grids. One grid props up wind and solar with massive transmission costs. The other is the backup power we all rely on when the Sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.

This measure puts reliability first. It follows the lead of major grid operators who know the danger of relying too heavily on intermittent sources, and it makes sure that the grid is strong enough not only to keep the lights on at home but also to power next- generation industries like AI and manufacturing so America, not China, leads the future.

Mr. Speaker, energy security is, simply put, national security. The rule before us takes important steps to keep power reliable and affordable and American made.

But security is not just about the strength of our grid. It is also about the safety of our communities. Nowhere is that failure of safety more visible than right here in our Nation's capital.

While Washington should be a place that is showcased as what is the very best of America, it has instead become a city struggling with violent crime, juvenile offenses, and weakened law enforcement. The next measures in this rule take direct aim at those failures and restore accountability where the D.C. council has refused to act.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 4922, the D.C. Crimes Act of 2025. This legislation reasserts congressional oversight over the District by prohibiting the D.C. council from further pursuing its progressive, soft-on-crime sentencing guidelines.

The council has failed to keep residents and visitors from our country and from around the world safe. Even as violent crime has soared, police staffing has dropped to a 50-year low. This measure takes direct aim at the council's reckless decisions. It lowers the definition of a youth offender from under 25 to under 18 where it belongs so that adults are simply treated as adults.

It ends judicial discretion that allows juvenile, violent offenders to escape mandatory minimums, and it prohibits the council from weakening mandatory minimums on sentencing guidelines any further.

Make no mistake, carjackings and robberies by juveniles are out of control. More than 500 minors were arrested for robbery in 2023, and more carjackings were committed by juveniles. Every American should be able to visit their Nation's capital without fear of being the next victim.

We know all too well what happens when local leaders choose leniency over accountability. In my home State of New York, cashless bail has unleashed a wave of tragic and entirely preventable outcomes. Governor Hochul and Democrats have doubled down on procriminal policies that put violent offenders back on our streets, leaving families and communities to suffer the consequences. The American people deserve better. New Yorkers deserve better. People in Washington, D.C., deserve better, and President Trump has already stepped in to end cashless bail here in Washington. It is long past time for New York to follow that lead.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 5140, the District of Columbia juvenile sentencing reform act. Since the pandemic, juvenile crime has surged. More than 2,000 juveniles were arrested in both 2023 and 2024. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, over half of robbery arrests last year were juveniles. This year, juveniles account for more than half of carjacking arrests. This legislation responds to that reality.

Current law allows juveniles 16 and older to be tried as adults for violent crimes. This measure lowers that age to 14. These are not youthful mistakes. They are violent, life-altering crimes.

Consider the tragic example of Mohammad Anwar, a hardworking immigrant killed in 2021 by two teenage girls during a carjacking. Both will be back on the streets by the age of 21.

In July of 2023, another Lyft driver, who previously served as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was fatally shot while driving. The teen responsible was just 14 years old. They were sentenced to only 3 years of secure detention. Old enough to commit horrific and senseless murder, yet he will be back on the streets in just 3 years.

Let me be clear. This legislation applies only to violent crimes: murder, first degree sexual abuse, burglary in the first degree, and robbery while armed. These are serious offenses that endanger residents and visitors to our Nation's capital every day. They demand serious consequences to truly restore law and order.

The rule further provides for consideration of H.R. 5143, the District of Columbia Policing Protection Act. In 2023, the council imposed a set of restrictions that require officers to evaluate a checklist of 14 factors to decide whether to pursue a fleeing suspect. One of those factors even requires an officer to determine whether anyone in the suspect's car had a chance to surrender a weapon. That is absurd. Officers rarely have time or information to work through such a checklist when a suspect takes off.

This legislation repeals those restrictions. It restores discretion to trained officers. It allows pursuit when an officer or supervisor determines it is necessary, the most effective means of apprehension, and does not present an unreasonable risk to bystanders. Officers must be able to act quickly to protect lives, and this measure restores that authority.

Finally, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 5125, the District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act. The Judicial Nomination Commission currently limits President Trump's choices for D.C. judges to a very narrow list of names. That process is slow, it is politicized, and it is very likely unconstitutional under the appointments clause. The result has been persistent vacancies, clogged courts, and criminals slipping through the cracks.

This legislation abolishes the commission and restores normal constitutional processes. The President nominates; the Senate confirms. That is how it works everywhere else in America, and that is how it should work right here in D.C. A duly elected President should not be bound by a bureaucratic commission when choosing judges. By ending this broken system, we can fill vacancies faster, strengthen courts, and ensure justice is delivered without delay.

Mr. Speaker, Democrats' soft-on-crime policies have failed in D.C. just as they have failed in States like New York. These bills hold the line, restore accountability, and put public safety ahead of politics.

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

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

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle love to talk about affordability. They love to play class warfare, but if Democrats were serious about lowering costs for working families, then they wouldn't have spent the last 4 years driving energy prices higher with more regulations, higher taxes, and subsidies that pick winners and losers.

Families have felt the pain every time they fill up their gas tank, pay their rising utility bills, or try to keep their lights on in their small businesses.

Republicans, working with President Trump, are focused on real solutions: Restoring energy policy that unleashes production here at home secures our grid, delivers reliable, affordable power that families and businesses can count on, and creates jobs in the process. That is exactly what this rule is about.

The three energy bills before us are straightforward. They support family-sustaining energy jobs. They streamline approvals for cross- border infrastructure and ensure reliable and dispatchable generation for the grid. Together, they mean lower bills for families, stronger supply chains, and a more competitive America.

When Democrats talk about affordability, they don't have a leg to stand on in this fight because it is their assault on the American energy industry that led to so much of the inflation that this country suffered under for the last 5 years.

The answer is right here in the rule, and we need to support this legislation.

I strongly support the legislation and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I want to touch on the gentleman's comments on tariffs.

Republicans are doing what Democrats promised the American people for generations that they would do but utterly failed at: ensuring fair trade, protecting American workers, and bringing countries to the negotiating table in the process. For years, Democrats sold a bill of goods to working-class Americans while they turned a blind eye as their factories closed and their jobs were shipped overseas.

Today, Democrats claim to be the party of working families, and we know that is not the case. Yet, it is President Trump, over the Democrats' loud objections, who is fighting for fair trade deals for our working families, like the working families in New York's 23rd Congressional District.

Access to the American economy is a privilege, not a right. President Trump is using tariffs as leverage to reduce reciprocal barriers, safeguard our national security, and level the global playing field for American producers and manufacturers, and it is working.

Treasury has already collected more than $29 billion in tariff revenue this year, while countries like India, China, and South Korea are at the table negotiating new deals as we speak.

This is the same decisive leadership that secured stronger trade agreements with the EU, Japan, the U.K., and partners across Asia. These aren't trade wars. They are trade wins that deliver more jobs, higher wages, and greater opportunities for American families and American products around the world.

Mr. Speaker, the same focus on protecting working families is exactly what we are doing with the bills before us today. This rule advances commonsense legislation to strengthen our grid, unleash American energy, and restore coal's role in the mix.

Also, let's not underplay what it means to protect the people of Washington, D.C., which we do have a Federal oversight responsibility for. Having a crime-ridden Nation's Capital is unacceptable by any metric.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, let's set the record straight. There is a lot to unpack there and a lot of talk about playing games, but what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to admit is how during the COVID-19 pandemic they had intentionally passed premium tax credits with a sunset allowing them to expire and, in the process, playing politics with the healthcare of millions of Americans.

If Democrats truly supported these credits, as they claim they now do, being made permanent, they would have made them permanent when they controlled both Chambers of Congress and the White House. It would have been suggested by President Biden when he was in the White House that it should have been a priority of the Congress. They refused to do so. They never brought that up.

Mr. Speaker, this is a pattern with Democrats. They would rather use working families for their political means and ends than genuinely work to make their lives better. The American people see that for what it is. Mr. Speaker, you are hearing: The sky is falling. Everyone is going to lose their healthcare if this is not attached to a CR at this moment.

Yes, we do have the majority. I am confident we will pass the CR in the House. However, Mr. Speaker, you know darn well that in the Senate, Leader Schumer will hold the majority hostage using the filibuster to force us into a shutdown, just like they threatened to do in March. I mean, that is the tactic that is being played. All these expectations are being set by the other side, knowing that they have a trap door, and they intend to try to leverage the American people to get more of their political will accomplished.

Republicans already voted to deliver lower premiums for patients by passing H.R. 1, which targeted waste, fraud, and abuse across the ACA marketplace. Democrats unanimously opposed this bill, showing once again they are not serious about solving affordability problems for everyday Americans, just like they are not serious about trying to keep the government open. If they were, they would have supported these commonsense policies. Instead, they would rather play politics.

Mr. Speaker, what we are actually debating today are commonsense measures in this rule to strengthen American energy policy, to keep violent crime off our streets here in our Capital City. These bills are about lowering costs for working families, keeping our communities safe and restoring accountability. We are getting the job done with or without their support.

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

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues across the aisle want to pretend Republicans are manufacturing a crime crisis in our Nation's Capital, but the facts tell a completely different story. Under President Biden and Democratic leadership, Washington, D.C., became one of the most dangerous cities in America.

In 2023, D.C. had the fourth highest homicide rate in the Nation, trailing only New Orleans, St. Louis, and Detroit. If D.C. were a State, it would have had the highest homicide rate in America. That number could be even higher because, as we know, D.C. officials may have manipulated the crime

data to hide the true extent of the problem.

Democrats would rather fudge the numbers to justify their radical policy experiments in places like D.C. than actually protect communities from violent crime. The same thing is happening in my home State of New York. They would rather quibble over process arguments and gaslighting using false statistics than acknowledge how many lives have been saved since President Trump took action to enforce law and order in the streets of Washington.

This is how unserious and radical today's Democratic Party has become. Contrast this with what has happened since President Trump stepped in. In the 20 days following the Federal surge, carjackings dropped 87 percent compared to the same period last year. Across the board, violent crime fell 39 percent, burglaries dropped 45 percent, and carjackings fell 75. More than 2,700 arrests were made and 323 firearms were recovered. These aren't talking points. They are results. They are real safety improvements felt by families here in the District of Columbia.

While Democrats scramble to defend their failed policies and liberal experiments in America's major cities, and they downplay the true cost in lives that come from policies that have long been supported in these cities, Republicans are restoring accountability, enforcing the law, and delivering real results to make our communities safer. That is exactly what this rule is about.

The legislation before us strengthens accountability here in Washington, D.C., our Nation's Capital. It should be the gem of the country, and it will be again. If Democrats are truly serious about protecting families, they should support this rule and all of the underlying legislation, which is common sense to support law and order and protect the lives of the residents and the visitors to this great city.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the authors of inflation, the creators of inflation on the other side of this Chamber, the people who hypercharged an economy and drove down the value of our dollar, are now going to lecture us on why groceries cost so much. Where the hell have they been for the last 4 years? Where were they when Americans were struggling with the cost of their groceries because gas was up near $4 a gallon?

Their policies determined that when they ran all facets of the government. Now, they have this revisionist history, and they want to talk about a cup of coffee.

The tariff negotiations that President Trump has used have created new deals and new markets for our products around the globe. It is making a more competitive America, and we are not going to be taken advantage of by other countries anymore.

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

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

Again, more and more class warfare, Mr. Speaker. We hear the term ``millionaires and billionaires'' thrown around. Yet, every single one of them voted against all the tax benefits that would have helped the middle class and will continue to help the middle class.

The minority voted against no tax on tips, against no tax on overtime,

against doubling the child tax credit, and against doubling the standard deduction, all things that put serious money back into the pockets of my constituents.

Now, to my colleague, $1,800, $2,000, $2,500 might not seem like a lot to him, but it might be two mortgage payments to my constituents. Yet, every single one of them voted no.

I will not be lectured, and none of us should be lectured by people who stood in the way of getting that tax code made permanent.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, for far too long, Americans have been forced to endure higher costs, weaker energy security, and rising crime because of policies pushed by the left.

The American people rejected that approach last November, and they elected a President and a Congress committed to restoring accountability, protecting families, and ensuring our future is built on reliable and affordable American energy.

The measures in this rule fulfill that promise. They strengthen our grid, cut through bureaucratic red tape, and make sure America, not China, leads in powering the next generation.

They also hold the line on public safety by rolling back soft-on- crime policies here in our Nation's Capital in Washington, D.C., and they restore the accountability that local leaders have refused to enforce.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the rule before us today and the underlying legislation.

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 for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we just heard a whole lot of words from the gentleman from New York, but the bills before us today are yet another example of how backward Republican priorities are and how they are hurting this country, hurting the economic well-being of the people I represent, and hurting the economic

well-being of working people all over this country.

People are stressed about their budgets. They are worried about prices going up. They are scared they might lose their jobs. People are struggling to pay the bills and make ends meet, worried about saving for college for their kids and how they are going to deal with the exploding costs of healthcare.

Instead of addressing any of that, we are dealing with this. When we are not dealing with this, Republicans are obsessed with fighting culture wars. That is what they want 24/7: culture wars, culture wars, culture wars. Some of them are now proposing a new committee to investigate their political opponents, a new House un-American activities committee that would make Joe McCarthy blush. That is all this place is to Republicans: a venue for culture wars, a venue for legislation to further divide people and divide this country. Meanwhile, they do nothing, absolutely nothing for everyday people, nothing at all.

Actually, it is worse than nothing. They are actively trying to screw over regular people. Look no further than yesterday. Democrats tried to force a vote on Trump's tariffs, and nearly every Republican blocked it. Every one of them is now on record as supporting Trump's disastrous tariffs. They are not just ignoring the economy. They are making it worse.

For the other side, this is all about genuflecting to Donald Trump. It is all about power for the sake of power. It is not about the American people. It has never been about the American people for Republicans. It is about power, and they use that power to help the rich, the well-connected, and the well-off.

Four of these bills that we are going to be dealing with are about local issues in Washington, D.C., something none of my constituents have ever asked me about. For the record, 0.2 percent of the U.S. population lives in Washington, D.C., and Republicans want to get into the weeds about their local policing policies.

Do you know what my constituents ask me about? They don't ask me about local issues that affect Washington, D.C. They ask me about why their healthcare insurance premiums are going up. They ask me about prices going up because of Donald Trump's tariffs. They tell me they need more money in their pockets to make ends meet.

Yet, week after week, Republicans do nothing about healthcare and nothing about inflation. It is constant culture wars. It is constant giveaways to the rich and powerful. It is constant distractions.

One of the Republican bills that we are considering today reestablishes a coal council--not even establishes, reestablishes. Wow, that is really important, a coal council. Who the hell asked for that? A coal lobbyist?

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Energy already reestablished this stupid council months ago. It is apparently so important that President Trump hasn't even bothered to appoint anyone to it yet. If you look up their website, he still hasn't appointed anybody to the council. Go to the website.

This is stupid. We are wasting time by doing this. Energy prices are going up in this country, and this is the majority's response: reestablishing a coal council. You can't make this stuff up. This is laughable.

The other bills that Republicans are bringing forward today are giveaways to polluters who dump toxic chemicals into our air and water. Why? Follow the money. Did the CEO of ExxonMobil call Donald Trump and ask for a favor?

Mr. Speaker, all of these bills are a disgrace. The people we represent want us to address the real issues that we face every day. They want us to talk about the cost of living, healthcare, and fixing what is broken with this country's economic system.

Meanwhile, as we are gathering here to do this stuff, the clock is ticking toward a shutdown. Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They should be able to fund the government, but they won't. They won't.

Let me be clear: Democrats are not going to stand by and do nothing while my Republican colleagues try to kick millions of people off their healthcare.

I hear that the Speaker of the House is saying that it is no big deal, that we will just kick the can down the road, deal with it sometime, maybe in December, and talk about it then.

Let me be clear. I will speak in ``See Spot Run'' language so that my Republican colleagues can understand. Mr. Speaker, the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, says that 1.5 million people--that is a lot of people--will lose their healthcare if we wait. People's premiums--that is, their monthly payments--will go way, way up because the insurance companies are making important decisions right now about how much to charge. We do not have time to wait.

Mr. Speaker, now that that is clear, Republicans have three choices: First, they can work with us in a bipartisan way to make sure it doesn't happen. Second, they could do what Trump said and pass the CR alone since they control government. Third, they can choose to shut the government down.

Those are the three options. Democrats are for keeping the government open, but we are not for passing legislation that tells millions of people who we represent, including sick people: Good luck. You are on your own. Best wishes.

We are not for that. If there is a shutdown, I say that Republicans own this. It is their shutdown. If Republicans would rather shut down the government than protect people's healthcare, then we do not share the same values.

I want to keep people on healthcare, not kick them off. I go home and ask people what they care about. I go to coffee shops and county fairs. I hold townhalls--something Republicans should try to do, by the way. Do you know what I hear from my constituents? They are sick and tired of those at the top getting ahead while they struggle to pay their bills.

They are sick and tired of Republicans in Congress passing bills to help the rich while everyone else has to breathe in dirty air and drink dirty water.

They are sick and tired of this culture war garbage and this weird obsession that Republicans have with micromanaging Washington, D.C. They want Republicans to leave Washington, D.C., the hell alone and focus on their own damned communities.

They are sick and tired of Republicans trying to kick people off of their healthcare to pay for taxes for multimillionaires and billionaires.

These are rotten bills. To top it all off, we have seven more completely closed rules with no amendments allowed. Take it or leave it from this Republican majority. I think we ought to leave it. These are terrible bills that are going to hurt the people we represent.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans are protecting American families, my foot. You just passed this big, ugly bill that throws millions of people off of healthcare, that gives tax breaks to multimillionaires and billionaires, and then you accuse us of playing class warfare because we are trying to stick up for the middle class in this country, for working families. You can't call it class warfare when you are giving tax breaks to multimillionaires and billionaires while cutting people's healthcare benefits.

Let me just say for the record that in the gentleman's district, New York District 23, as of 2024, 6,000 people in his district received tax credits to help lower their monthly premium payments to make quality comprehensive health insurance coverage more affordable, and these tax credits are due to expire. These people are going to lose their healthcare or they are going to see their premiums go through the roof.

For a 60-year-old couple earning $82,800 a year in the gentleman's district, annual premiums would increase by $7,349. That is a 110 percent increase.

For a family of four earning $129,800 a year, ages 45 and up, the annual premium would increase by $17,741. That is a 172 percent increase.

For a family of four earning $64,000 a year, the annual premiums would increase by $2,571. That is a 369 percent increase.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know. I guess in his district his constituents don't care about that. According to him, they care more about micromanaging D.C.

In my district and in other districts that I know of in this country, people are worried about their healthcare costs, and we ought to do something about it. We shouldn't kick the can down the road so more and more people end up feeling the pain.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to strike sections 9, 10, and 11, which together block privileged consideration of measures ending the administration's global tariffs and tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and Brazil until March 31, 2026.

Mr. Speaker, President Trump made a campaign promise that he would lower prices ``on day one,'' yet Trump's disastrous trade war continues to increase the prices Americans are paying for food, for gas, and for other everyday goods.

According to independent estimates, Trump's current tariff regime is resulting in a $2,300 tax increase in 2025 alone for the average American household. Fruits, vegetables, beef, and coffee are just some of the products experiencing the highest price increases. Go to a supermarket for heaven's sake in your district and you will know what I am talking about.

This is not what the American people voted for. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently held that Trump's tariffs that he imposed under the guise of bogus emergencies are unlawful and that Congress, not the President, must make the calls when it comes to imposing new tariffs.

As we await the Supreme Court's decision, Congress should be voting on these tariffs and whether they should remain in place, but in the Republican rule, they are, again, blocking the Congress from taking a vote on whether we should keep or remove these emergency tariffs.

The President imposed huge tariffs on Canada and Mexico in February, global tariffs in April, and most recently, a 50 percent tariff on Brazil because he didn't like that his friend, Brazil's disgraced former President, was just tried and convicted of trying to overthrow a democratic election to stay in power.

Mr. Speaker, does that remind you of anyone, by the way?

The American people paid $30 billion in new tariff taxes in August alone, and Republicans are continuing to hide their heads in the sand.

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

Mr. Speaker, for God's sake, we ought to do our work. We ought to live up to our constitutional responsibility and debate and vote on these things. I am sorry that the President has instructed you to do nothing, but we ought to do something.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks), the distinguished ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to discuss our proposal.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am confused by what the gentleman said. I don't know whether he supports the ACA tax credits or not. If he doesn't, then 6,000 of his constituents will be adversely impacted. If he does, then we should just fix it right now. By the way, Republicans all opposed the ACA when it came up, so I don't want to hear that garbage.

Don't blame the Senate. Donald Trump just said to Republicans over in the Senate: Do it on your own. I think what he is referring to was just last week Republicans nuked the filibuster when it comes to nominations. Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. Basically what they are telling us is that they don't give a damn about working families in this country, and that is what is at stake here.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett.)

Mr. Speaker, you have got to love these Republicans. They spend more time talking about micromanaging 0.2 percent of the American population in D.C. and more worried about that than they are worried about the fact that over 99 percent of the American people are about to see their premiums go up. Millions of people are going to lose their healthcare. We just have a different set of priorities. We have a different set of priorities.

By the way, when we talk about national security, healthcare is part of it. If you don't have healthcare, you don't have security.

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 such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned just a few moments ago, Republicans are blocking a vote on Trump's tariffs in this rule. I think it is pretty obvious why. The consequences of his economic policy are being felt in communities across this country, and Republicans know they can't defend it. That is why they are not doing townhalls.

Moms and dads are coming home with pink slips because their employers don't know if they can keep the doors open. Small businesses are shuttering. Farmers are struggling under higher input costs and shrinking markets.

Food, gas, electricity, basic goods and services--the prices are all up. They are likely to climb even higher as Trump's tariffs ripple through the supply chain. It is clear that the Trump economy is not working for average Americans.

President Trump and Republicans promised to reduce inflation. Instead, last month, we saw the largest monthly increase in inflation since January.

They promised to reduce grocery prices. Instead, last month, grocery prices spiked at the fastest pace in 3 years, driven in part by tariff- fueled costs.

They promised to cut electricity prices in half. Instead, August electricity prices were 6 percent higher than they were a year ago, and Americans are having to navigate a weakening job market and rising costs.

Fruits and vegetables are up nearly 2 percent. Dairy products are up 1.3 percent. Cereal and bread are up 1.1 percent. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs are all up a whopping 5.6 percent. Give me a break.

Mr. Speaker, let's be frank. The only winners in Trump's economy are millionaires and billionaires. He packed his Cabinet with the rich and well-connected. Republicans' reconciliation bill hands out nearly $100,000 in tax cuts for those making over a million dollars a year in 2027 alone.

Just last week, the Trump administration started rolling back efforts to crack down on offshore tax shelters that billionaires and giant corporations use to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Who does that?

Mr. Speaker, Trump promised an economy for the American people, but time and time again, his tariffs and policies have only delivered for the ultrarich, while families, farmers, and small businesses pay the price. We ought to be voting on this stuff.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, is the gentleman talking about the reconciliation bill that the Republicans brought to the floor that resulted in trillions and trillions of dollars and more debt, all to give multimillionaires and multibillionaires a tax cut? I mean, I am sorry. If there is class warfare going on here, I know which side my Republican friends are on.

Mr. Speaker, millions of everyday Americans all across the country are about to get notice that their healthcare premiums are going to skyrocket, including in the gentleman's district. Moms, dads, and grandparents, people working two jobs just to get by, are going to be at their kitchen tables, facing the awful decision of which bills to pay.

For nearly 24 million people in this country who have ACA marketplace health insurance, premiums will increase, on average, by 93 percent. A 60-year-old couple making $80,000 per year will see their premiums increase by over $17,000 per year. That is like $1,400 per month. A family of four earning $64,000 will owe an extra $2,600 in healthcare premiums every year.

Where on Earth are families supposed to find this kind of extra money, Mr. Speaker? We are talking hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. That is not extra change that you can find in your couch cushion.

It will mean 5 million people, including 2 million with chronic conditions, lose their healthcare coverage altogether.

It will mean older adults have to choose between paying their high energy bills and affording their healthcare.

It will mean families going without food because their healthcare premiums are unaffordable.

It will mean people fall behind on their rent just so they can afford basic healthcare in the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world.

This is a crisis, Mr. Speaker. It is a crisis of the Republicans' own making. Instead of spending the summer working with Democrats to address this looming healthcare cliff, Republicans spent it instead slashing Medicaid by a trillion dollars, kicking 15 million people off their coverage altogether, blocking access to cancer screening and prenatal care by defunding Planned Parenthood, cutting NIH's budget, and taking food away from families with teenagers, veterans, and older adults, which will make them less healthy, all to give tax breaks to Elon Musk and Trump's billionaire friends.

Honest to God, Mr. Speaker, I have no idea what to say to the working families who visit my office scared to death that their healthcare costs are going to force them to go broke.

I don't know how my Republican friends can talk to people back home in their districts, regular people, hardworking people, and somehow justify what they are doing. I guess many of them don't because they don't do townhalls.

With all due respect to the Speaker of the House, no, this actually cannot wait. I understand why they are trying to minimize the crisis that they created, I really do, but hardworking people back home are counting on us, Mr. Speaker.

Congress must address this looming healthcare crisis now, including one of the most significant healthcare premium hikes in history, and the historic cuts to Medicaid that are closing hospitals and nursing homes on a daily basis, to give families peace of mind that they won't go bankrupt trying to afford their healthcare.

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

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time I have remaining.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am losing my voice but not my passion.

Mr. Speaker, the truth is simple. Families are being crushed by high prices. Rent, groceries, gas, and healthcare are all going up.

What are Republicans doing? They are obsessed with micromanaging Washington, D.C., with not one, not two, not three, but four different bills today about Washington, D.C.

I hate to break it to Republicans, but none of the people whom I represent, and I think none of the people from the gentleman's district, live in Washington, D.C., which leads me to wonder why the hell Republicans are wasting time on this nonsense.

Mr. Speaker, the other bills that we are dealing with hand out favors to Big Coal and Big Oil. Again, there is nothing for regular families from these guys. There is nothing for average Americans. They have no vision and no plan for economic growth.

The bottom line is that healthcare premiums are about to go through the roof. People will see their healthcare bills explode because these guys refuse to act.

Republicans are putting ideology over everyday people. They are putting headlines over solutions. They are playing games instead of governing.

All of this--micromanaging D.C. and the coal commission garbage--is what the Republicans are focused on while the government teeters on the edge of a shutdown, while Trump's tariffs drive up prices, and while millions of people are about to get kicked off their health insurance.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is a lousy budget. It is a budget that will hurt working families. It is a budget that will especially hurt families who are struggling in poverty.

Republicans have succeeded in putting together a Marie Antoinette budget, helping the richest of the rich while hurting the poorest of the poor. Let them eat cake. That is the Republican motto.

I have never seen such cruelty contained in a budget in all my years here. This budget would force the biggest cut to Medicaid in American history.

The idea and the audacity of somehow pretending like it isn't going to hurt people is just insane. It is simply not possible mathematically to cut Medicaid by almost a trillion dollars and not hurt people.

By the way, for the record, that is not fear-mongering. It is what is in the text of this resolution.

I just want to say that this budget directs the Committee on Energy and Commerce to come up with at least $880 billion in cuts within their jurisdiction. Republicans want to be able to claim that there is no way to know at this point in the process where those cuts will come from, and they are saying that they are not going to cut any benefits in Medicaid or Medicare.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker. If you don't cut Medicaid, if you don't cut Medicare or CHIP, there is only $381 billion left to cut in E&C's jurisdiction. Even if you cut literally every single other dollar, you are still at least $500 billion short, half a trillion dollars short.

I guess I understand why President Trump suggests that you all close your eyes before voting on this steaming pile of Medicaid cuts.

I would also say it is not mathematically possible to tell the Agriculture Committee to cut $230 billion without cutting SNAP benefits. You just can't do it. You have to kick people off of food assistance if this budget passes. That means children, seniors, and Americans with disabilities are cut off.

In my opinion, that is the reality that Republicans are trying to hide from the American people.

We had a hearing in the Agriculture Committee yesterday where Republicans were bragging about how they wanted to put more hurdles in place for people to be eligible for SNAP. The majority of people on SNAP are children, are senior citizens, are people who are disabled. We don't expect them to work, unless you want to repeal the child labor laws, unless you want to send grandma back to the factory. That is the overwhelming majority of people who are on the program.

Of those who are able-bodied and expected to work, the majority of them work. The majority of them work. That is the program Republicans want to target? Give me a break.

I will go right through the list.

We can debate waste, fraud, and abuse all day. The money that DOGE has supposedly found in waste, even if you believe that number, is totally offset by the tax breaks for billionaires in this resolution. I mean, with all the chaos in our economy right now, does anybody really believe that we have to help out billionaires, that they are the ones who are hurting, not average working families but billionaires?

We have billionaires in this country who pay an effective tax rate that is lower than the effective tax rate for teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

What the hell is wrong with this place? I mean, the priorities here are all screwed up. Let's have a debate about our values and our choices, but, please, let's not pretend like this budget isn't going to hurt people.

Let's at least have an intellectually honest conversation and admit what this is about. Just like the devastating DOGE cuts to NIH and CDC, they are going to hurt people, just like Trump's tariffs are hurting people.

By the way, on tariffs, if I may, Republicans are once again rigging the rules to protect Donald Trump and hide from accountability.

Republicans know his tariffs are economic poison and know voters hate them, but House Republicans are too cowardly to go on record. The majority is trying to sneak around with a procedural gimmick in this rule to block a vote on the tariffs instead of facing the truth.

Mr. Speaker, to be clear, a vote for today's rule is a vote for Trump's disastrous trade war, period. There is no hiding from it.

Mr. Speaker, I know that Trump just announced on social media, of all ways, that he is partially backing down and putting a temporary pause on some of the tariffs he announced last week.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know whether it is idiocy or incompetence, maybe both, but that means that Trump tanked the market nearly 20 percent and put the entire American economy on the line so that countries would give him a phone call? Is that what this is all about? Give me a damned break.

Rightwing pundits are going to act like pausing the tariffs was some kind of stroke of genius, that recouping only one-third of our market losses is somehow a brilliant move. Now, I wasn't very good in arithmetic, but that doesn't sound like a brilliant move to me. That sounds like a stupid move.

First, let me remind my colleagues across the aisle that this is just a pause.

Second, 10 percent tariffs across the board are still in place, plus the increased Chinese tariffs.

Third, all of this chaos is horrible for the economy. Small businesses cannot plan or operate under this level of uncertainty.

What big business would want to invest in any new manufacturing if there is no telling what policy is in place tomorrow? How can our trading partners believe what we say when we are changing policy every 3 days? The swinging back and forth is making Americans worse off for no apparent reason.

Maybe Republicans think that some people need to be hurt in order to fix our country. I love it when Trump puts up all of these billionaires to tell working families: You have to just deal with the pain. It is no big deal. You should sacrifice. These are billionaires lecturing hardworking, middle-class Americans.

If Republicans at least admitted what the impact of these tariffs really were on average working families, we could have an intellectually honest conversation about what this budget and Trump's tariffs do. Yet, we can't because that would force the other side to acknowledge the truth.

The truth is that this budget was written by the rich, for the rich, to help the rich get richer. That is what this is: a massive transfer of wealth from those at the bottom to those at the top. It is Robin Hood in reverse, and the American people will pay the price for the Republicans' billionaire-first budget.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman said that we need to deal with facts. I agree.

Yet, we also need to deal with math. I understand that President Trump told the gentlewoman and other Republicans ``to close your eyes'' and vote for this budget. That is a direct quote, by the way.

Did he tell Republicans to hide their calculator, too?

I just went through my concerns about the cuts in Medicaid. This budget actually has instructions to the Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut $880 billion at a minimum. They were instructed to find $880 billion at a minimum in savings.

There is no way to do that when doing the math without cutting Medicaid. That is just a fact. The math is undefeated here.

I am sorry that my friends don't want to appear like Republicans are insensitive to the plight of those who are struggling in the lower income brackets and who need Medicaid and for whom it is a lifeline. It is just the truth. There is no way. Again, do the arithmetic. Do the math. There is no way to get those cuts without going into Medicaid. That is going to hurt people.

Mr. Speaker, again, I tried in the Committee on Rules to have an amendment saying that we won't give tax cuts to people who have a net worth of over a billion dollars. That was rejected on a party-line vote.

We want to give more benefits to people at the top, but the way we are going to do it is we are going to cut people's healthcare benefits who are on Medicaid. By the way, Medicaid is also the program that helps provide long-term care for a lot of middle-income families in this country.

Mr. Speaker, the notion that we can make all these cuts and don't worry, be happy, come on. Come on. People can figure this out. The math is undefeated.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Magaziner).

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

Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman essentially, once again, called me a liar, so I am going to be a little less polite than normal and say that the gentlewoman doesn't understand basic math. I am not going to waste my breath to try to explain it to her again, but math doesn't lie. It is undefeated.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge that we defeat the previous question. I will offer an amendment. My amendment will simply strike section 2 of the rule. That section, tucked in the rule by Republicans this morning, prevents the House from voting on Trump's disastrous worldwide tariffs, the ones destroying the economy and raising prices on regular Americans.

Just before I came down here, I guess Trump said on social media that he is partially pausing some of the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. Oh, cool, a 90-day pause. That is the certainty that the business community is looking for. How is any company supposed to forecast for their future, build a plant, and hire workers if they have no idea what the hell this President is going to do in his next tweet?

We went from the President saying on social media today ``be cool'' to then saying ``just kidding.'' We have a 90-day pause in a matter of hours. I have whiplash. I need a neck brace to be able to get through all of this.

Also, the President announced that he is hiking the tariffs on China to 125

percent and keeping the 10 percent tariffs across the board. That is great. Get ready to continue to pay more for almost everything.

What about the EU? They retaliated with tariffs against us this morning, too. Are we going to treat them like China and punch back as the White House Press Secretary says that we are doing? I guess we don't have any clarity on that question.

Here is the worst part, Mr. Speaker. The Congress could stop this madness and provide the certainty that is needed by voting on these tariffs, but it seems like Republicans are fighting tooth and nail not to stop the insanity but to keep Congress from having a say about these tariffs, to hide from doing their jobs.

With this provision hidden in the rule, they are stopping the entire House from bringing up legislation to put an end to these tariffs, not pause them, end them, legislation which, under the law, any Member should be able to bring to the floor 14 days from now.

Let's set aside that the stock markets are in chaos and having volatile swings. Let's set aside that the business community--you know, where people work--don't know where to buy supplies, where to build plants, where to hire, or anything else with any certainty now. These tariffs affect the cost of everything: the food at the grocery store, electronics, the goods that are in most demand by our constituents. We are in a trade war not just with China but with our own allies and friends.

These tariffs are harmful and they will lead to a recession, one caused not by any outside calamitous event, but by the ego of one man: Donald Trump. We could stop this uncertainty. We could stop this chaos, but Republicans are literally stopping us and themselves from even having a vote on these tariffs.

I say to my Republican colleagues, stop hiding. Open your eyes despite the President telling you to close them. Represent your constituents, the people who elected you and the ones who are getting hurt by these tariffs and strike this provision blocking a vote on tariffs.

If you don't adopt my amendment, then a ``yes'' vote on this rule is a ``yes'' vote for Trump's tariffs. A ``yes'' vote is for more chaos and uncertainty in the market. With a ``yes'' vote, you will own the pain that comes with these tariffs, the chaos and the uncertainty, and you will have no one to blame but yourselves.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Craig), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture, to discuss our proposal.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

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

Mr. Speaker, can I inquire of the gentlewoman whether she has any Republicans that want to come down here and defend these tariffs and the tax hikes on average people? Does she have any other speakers?

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

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, this is a terrible, horrible rule. Voting in support of this rule means voting to protect Trump's reckless tariffs. Don't get me started about this budget resolution. It is not just Democrats who think this budget resolution is terrible; it is Republicans.

Mr. Norman, a member of the Rules Committee says: ``The Senate version is dead on arrival.''

Mr. Roy, a member of the Rules Committee says: ``Adopting a policy baseline does not change basic math.''

Mr. Ogles says: ``The Senate budget bill is really offensive.''

Don't worry. Donald Trump is on top of things. He says: ``Close your eyes and vote for it.'' I would just add to that: Close your eyes, cover your ears, and hide your calculators. That is what Trump wants you to do.

Pass this quickly and move on so he doesn't get blamed for how much it is going to screw people.

My answer to that is: We are going to fight back. If you support this budget, we simply do not share the same values. I believe it is fundamentally wrong to gut Medicaid. I don't want to kick moms and dads and kids off their long-term healthcare. I think it is rotten to kick kids and Americans with disabilities and veterans off of food assistance. I think it is evil to give tax cuts to billionaires while middle America struggles to get ahead.

I think that those are awful, mean, nasty things to do. We are the richest country on Earth. Republicans don't have to hurt poor people to help the rich. They are deciding to do that. They are deciding to steal from the poor. They are making a conscious decision to betray their constituents and sell out their best interests to MAGA billionaires.

At the end of the day, no matter what my Republican friends say, because of this budget, more kids will go without food. More kids will be malnourished. Because of this budget, parents and grandparents will have to sell their houses to afford medical care. Because of this budget, more consumers will get ripped off. Because of this budget, our air and water will have more toxic chemicals. That is the truth. That is the reality.

Most people in this country feel like the economy doesn't work for them, and it hasn't for a long time. Do you know why? It is because of budgets like this which were written for billionaires and not for regular people. I think plain and simple, that is wrong.

I reject this budget. I reject it not just mathematically, but I reject it morally. I am reminded here of the Book of Matthew, where Jesus says: ``Truly I tell you, whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.''

This budget steals from those with the least. Let me repeat that. This budget steals from those with the least. It is all so the rich can get richer. I just find that awful. I find that awful. We don't share the same values if you embrace this budget.

Years from now, Mr. Speaker, when we are all gone, we won't be judged by the size of our bank accounts. We won't be judged by how many tax breaks we gave to billionaires. We will be judged by our decency. We will be judged by our compassion. We will be judged by our kindness, and, yes, we will be judged by our work to build a society where everybody has a chance and nobody is left behind.

This is an immoral budget, and I want the American people to know I do not share these values. Democrats do not share these values. I reject this budget. Democrats reject this budget.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 313 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

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

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

This morning, the Rules Committee met and produced a rule, House Resolution 313, providing for the House's consideration of the Senate amendment to H. Con. Res. 14.

This rule makes in order a motion offered by the chair of the Committee on the Budget or his designee that the House concur in the Senate amendment to H. Con. Res. 14. The rule provides for 1 hour of debate for the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget or their respective designees.

Additionally, the rule tolls the day count for National Emergencies Act disapproval resolutions related to the emergency declared by President Trump on April 2, 2025, until September 30, 2025.

This budget resolution marks the next step in the reconciliation process to advance President Trump's America First agenda and deliver upon the American people's mandate from November.

We have certainly heard our fair share of fear-mongering and flat-out falsehoods from Democrats and their bedfellows in the mainstream media about what our budget resolution entails. Let me be clear: This resolution unlocks the path forward to deliver upon our commitments to the American people.

Over the next hour, I will bet you dollars to doughnuts, Mr. Speaker, that you will hear all manner of identity groups that Democrats will claim the budget resolution will hurt. You will hear them say that Republicans are abandoning the middle class and cutting benefits. None of that is even remotely true.

We heard some wild, wild conjecture in the Rules Committee this morning that Republicans would cut off your limbs and let you bleed to death if you had a cold. Notch that as another textbook example of Democrat fear-mongering that we have heard over the past few months. It is disappointing but far from surprising.

Here is the truth: There are no programmatic cuts or assumptions in the House-passed budget resolution. Not a single Democrat can back up his or her own claims that there are cuts to specific programs in the budget resolution. That is because, again, there are no programmatic cuts or assumptions.

Let's set the record straight about what this budget resolution actually accomplishes. It will provide funding for border security, provide for our national defense, and restore American energy independence.

On border security, the Biden-Harris administration's open-border policies resulted in over 10 million encounters at the southern border from 2021 to this year, a 500 percent increase in illegal crossings, and over $115 billion in costs to State and local governments. This wide-open border allowed deadly fentanyl to flood into our communities, killing over 100,000 Americans. Even worse, known gang members and violent criminals from across the globe have walked right into our country.

Because of the Biden administration's abject failure, innocent Americans have been raped, assaulted, and murdered by illegal immigrants who never should have been here in the first place.

Enough is enough, Mr. Speaker. We must and we will secure the border and put the safety of the American people first.

Next, the resolution enables us to protect tax relief. President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided critical relief to middle-class families and small businesses. Americans are still experiencing high prices because we are still recovering from Bidenomics.

Real wages under President Biden declined by more than 3 percent. Mortgage rates skyrocketed. Credit card delinquencies rose by over 50 percent. Bidenomics cost American families more than $11,000 every year for the last 4 years.

Mr. Speaker, these are facts. They are documented. This is so different from what our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing in their fear-mongering when they are projecting what they think will happen if we get through our reconciliation.

This budget resolution also puts American energy dominance first. Under President Trump's first administration, America achieved energy freedom for the first time in 40 years. We were producing more than we consumed. Gas prices were low and families were thriving.

That all changed the day Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office. President Biden waged an all-out assault on American energy. He shut down production, blocked development on Federal lands, and recklessly drained our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, all the while begging foreign dictators for oil. The result was skyrocketing prices and American families clutching their wallets in fear.

Again, these are facts, Mr. Speaker, proven facts.

This budget resolution is our roadmap to take this country back. It secures the border, slashes wasteful spending, delivers tax relief for working families, and begins to rebuild the economy that the Biden- Harris administration shattered.

It is time to put America first again, and the budget resolution is how we get it done. Once adopted, our committees and the entire House will begin detailed work to achieve these important goals for the American people.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I warned everybody that this is what we were going to hear. We were going to hear these outrageous claims that are simply not true.

The fact is that the rhetoric coming from the other side has reached an appalling level. We have heard the scare tactics for weeks now, but it has taken a dark turn, Mr. Speaker, that is literally instilling fear into the hearts of blameless, everyday Americans.

We heard in the Committee on Rules this morning of how Democrats brought people to tears in meetings by telling them lies about what was in our budget resolutions. Mr. Speaker, that is shameful. That is shameful.

We can have disagreements about policy decisions. We can have disagreements about the effects of mismanagement of tax-dollar funds, for example, or what amount of tax relief is appropriate. Yet, the Democrats have now impugned Republican motivations and put blood on our hands.

A Democrat in the Committee on Rules this morning stated that: Republicans would cut off your limbs and let you bleed to death, in the context relating to a patient asking for help with a cold.

It was an absolutely disgusting remark that has no place in this debate. Is this what Leader Jeffries wants to come to the floor to state, that we are cutting the limbs off of people to watch them bleed out?

Does Leader Jeffries want to stoke fear in this way and terrorize Americans?

Instead of recognizing the sickening, repulsive rhetoric for what it is, this Member doubled down and posted it on her social media accounts, instilling fear in and terrorizing those people who she claims to care for.

Mr. Speaker, Democrats are injecting fear into the lives of countless Americans, stoking their anxieties, disinforming them, dragging them into the muck of the worst of political discourse, and for what? For what?

Mr. Speaker, it is for political gain. It is sickening.

Let's be clear. This is a budget resolution. It doesn't have a shred of force of law outside internal procedures in this body. Yet, the Democrats would make us believe that we are targeting people.

There isn't any targeting. There aren't any assumptions about programs. Just read the resolution. It is a framework, and my colleagues won't find any of what the Democrats are discussing here today. Those things are not here.

With respect to what Republicans have been articulating outside of this resolution, we are aiming to ensure that Medicaid is targeted to the most vulnerable.

Mr. Speaker, we need to beef up Medicaid that is going to the most vulnerable. We want to rid the program of waste, fraud, and abuse that is robbing the American public of tax dollars that could better care for the sick.

Mr. Speaker, we truly care for those people, which is why we are trying to root out waste, fraud, and abuse which has not been acknowledged at all by our colleagues.

We want to create better patient outcomes through innovation. We want to rightsize State implementation so the truly needy are getting relief, and we want to focus assistance to those who are truly on the margins.

As Shakespeare said: ``What's past is prologue.'' The Democrats continue their campaigns of lies just as the minority has in the past. My Democratic colleagues famously got four Pinocchios from The Washington Post, hardly a conservative enclave, for their clearly false facts about the Trump tax cuts.

Democrats said they were targeted toward the rich and corporations that pay no taxes, but we factually know that the share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent of earners actually reached new heights, Mr. Speaker, after President Trump's tax cuts went into effect. The outcomes got more progressive.

Mr. Speaker, more recently, it has been publicly reported that ads placed by Democratic-aligned groups had to be taken down because of the same inaccuracies. What was their message?

Their message was that Republicans voted to cut Medicaid and give tax cuts to billionaires. That sounds exactly like what we are hearing on the floor. It wouldn't be able to be run on a billboard. It doesn't pass the simple test of scrutiny.

Mr. Speaker, the American public deserves better. Let's deal with facts, and let's not scare the American people.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I am not very happy about the fact that I am a good predictor of what the Democrats were going to say on the floor today, that the minority was going to lie about what is in this budget resolution. I expect every single one of them to come down here and do that. I predicted it, Mr. Speaker. Here it is, coming true.

Let me talk a little bit about the tariffs. The tariffs announced by President Trump on April 2, 2025, are a response to our economy that will strengthen the international economic position of the United States and protect American workers.

Access to the American economy is a privilege, and these tariffs are a starting point to bring other nations to the negotiating table. They are intended to reduce reciprocal tariffs and achieve global free trade, decouple developing countries from competitive nations like China, or for national security purposes.

As we are seeing, President Trump and America are winning. Over 75 countries have reached out to representatives of the United States to negotiate a solution on the subjects being discussed relative to trade: trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and nonmonetary tariffs. These will mean wins for the American worker.

President Trump is taking decisive action, pausing tariffs for 90 days, except for China, as nations have come to the table.

As I have made clear multiple times now, when it comes to the pause on the National Emergencies Act disapproval resolutions, this is a tool utilized by both majorities, and my Democrat colleagues had no qualms with supporting it in their last majority on a much broader and open- ended scale as it related to COVID.

This is why delaying the NEA disapproval resolution is prudent. President Trump must be given the leeway to negotiate on a global scale parameters that will make good on his promises of securing the border, protecting our communities, and leveling the global playing field to ensure fair trade for American producers.

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

Mr. Speaker, I do have some other Members who wanted to come down and speak on the rule. They are tied up right now. If the gentleman is prepared to close, then I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, it is good to hear our friends say they don't share the values of trying to save hardworking Americans' money from waste, fraud, and abuse, which are rampant in the Federal Government.

The American people know that, Mr. Speaker. They know that in their hearts and in their minds. They understand it. They hear about it every day.

It is curious to me that our Democratic colleagues do not want to make Medicaid more effective, that they don't want to help the people on Medicaid get better healthcare. How sad, Mr. Speaker, that that is the case.

Mr. Speaker, this budget does not steal from the least of these. It does not. What it does do is everything it can to stop fraudsters, to stop bureaucratic waste, and to stop bad things from happening to those least because those in the government are not serving them well.

Let's talk about these predictions. I started out by saying you are going to hear these horror stories. They said we are going to cut people's limbs off and watch them bleed to death.

Let's look at the predictions that were made when President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act around Christmas 2017. Then- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi infamously predicted Armageddon for America--fear-mongering, plain and simple. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act led to historic growth and economic gains in this country.

Larry Summers, a well-known Democrat, described progrowth forecasts as ``tooth fairies'' and predicted a long recession. That is fear- mongering. We got the opposite, a historic economic expansion under President Trump. Senator Chuck Schumer earned a ``mostly false'' rating for claiming companies were laying off workers due to tax reform. That is fear-mongering again.

Yesterday, I had in my office some businesspeople, and they talked about what they did when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed. They gave all of their employees a raise. We know about that, Mr. Speaker, those of us who were around. We saw that. There was lots of news about that because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

As a result of that bill, we got historic reshoring and more jobs, as promised by President Trump.

Then-Senator Harris, later Vice President Harris, claimed there would be a middle-class tax hike because average tax refunds were slightly down as tax season began. One newspaper deemed her claim ``misleading'' and--surprise, surprise--``nonsensical.'' History now reveals it to be false, and I would call it fear-mongering, the same we have been hearing on the floor today.

In perhaps one of the greatest reveals, liberal Vox writer Matthew Yglesias, after admitting that facts show ``a clear majority got a tax cut,'' praised other liberals who ``did a really good job of convincing people that Trump raised their taxes.'' Fear-mongering revealed.

Mr. Speaker, the fear-mongering needs to end, and the business of this House needs to continue. Again, despite what our colleagues on the left may claim, the American people know the truth. The Biden-Harris administration was a relentless assault on our economy, our national security, and our energy independence.

Today in Rules, one of our colleagues said they are always left to clean up Republicans' mess. No. It is the Republicans who have to clean up the Democrats' mess.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, they waged war on American energy, opened our borders to chaos, and drove inflation through the roof, all while families struggled to keep up.

That is exactly why Americans were fired up at the ballot box last November. The American people had enough of Democratic dysfunction.

This budget resolution is the beginning of delivering on President Trump's America First agenda. We are cutting waste, restoring our economy, delivering relief to working families, securing the border, and unleashing American energy like never before.

This is more than a budget. It is a blueprint to take our country back, Mr. Speaker. We are done playing defense. It is time to lead, fight, and win, all for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the previous question and ``yes'' on the rule.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend from the great State of Texas, the chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution and in moving this process forward. Let's keep in mind that we worked incredibly hard, especially here in the House, for months to negotiate all the details of what needs to happen in this budget reconciliation. It is all laid out in this House budget.

We also need to get started with the reconciliation process.

The process is where eleven of our committees in the House will go to work to start making improvements in so many areas to get America back on track. Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, that is why we all come here. We come here to solve big problems.

We deal with small issues, too. It is not often, but every now and then we deal with a big issue that can actually improve the lives of families all across this country. We can solve problems that have been going unanswered for years and decades. Mr. Speaker, we can address that in this resolution.

Let's go through some of the things that this resolution allows us to do because this resolution doesn't do any of those things, it just opens the door to start that reconciliation process.

The product front and center that most people talk about and that is a big piece, but surely not the only piece, is to make sure that Americans don't face a massive tax increase.

Mr. Speaker, if we listen to our friends on the other side of the aisle, they brag that they want these tax rates to go up. They want the 2017 tax cuts we passed with President Trump to expire. They don't mince any words about that. In fact, it was even talked about during the campaign.

The voters surely had a say on what they wanted when President Trump said he wanted to keep tax rates low on hardworking families and his opponent said she wanted those cuts to expire so those tax rates would go up on those hardworking families.

The hardworking families of America said where they wanted to go. In fact, the majority of all Americans said they don't want their taxes to go up.

Think about which tax rates will go up. On the other side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, my colleagues love to talk about class warfare as if that is something Americans should celebrate. I think it is insulting to any American who believes in the promise of the American Dream to try to insult and separate our country based on how much money they make.

Whatever a person makes today, the greatest thing about America, the greatest country in the history of the world, is that whatever someone is today, however much they make today, wherever they came from today, they can be anything they want to be if they work hard, play by the rules, and follow their dreams, whatever that dream is, even if that person wants to be a billionaire

Mr. Speaker, frankly, talk to most billionaires. They didn't start off chasing wealth because that is not what gets them there. They chased the idea of something bigger than themselves. It usually involves bringing a lot of other people along with them. It involves creating a lot of wealth for a lot of other people along the way, too.

I guess the people on the other side of the aisle want to crush that ability. Mr. Speaker, go to Marxist countries, which is the utopia of some of the people on the left. Those Marxist countries don't have any billionaires to beat up on because they don't allow anyone to have that opportunity. They tell people what they can do, how much they can make, what kind of job they can have, and what their potential is. That is not America, and that never should be America.

Mr. Speaker, Americans can be whatever they want to be because of what is great about this country. If a person happens to get success, however it is defined--and it doesn't even have to be financial--if someone gets success, why should the government want to punish them for achieving it?

Again, there are great examples all over the world of how failed that approach is and every one of those countries has experimented with that, and it has been a dismal failure. I don't see any of the people, that want to change America to that, going to those other countries, because those other countries are so failed.

Let's start with that. Look at the individual income tax rates. We want to keep them where they are. We would like to make them lower, but we surely don't want them to go up as the other side of the aisle wants to do.

If these tax cuts are allowed to expire, which a ``no'' vote today would ensure, if the tax rates expire, it is not millionaires and the billionaires they keep talking about; it is 95 percent of all families in America who would see their taxes go up.

Unless a person makes $70,000 a year and thinks they are a billionaire, their taxes are going to go up. If they make $50,000 a year, their taxes will go up. The alternative minimum tax comes back. A lot of people don't know what that is because we got rid of it in 2017. Every member of the Democratic Party voted ``no'' because they didn't want those taxes to go away, but, luckily, we got the votes without them and passed it.

For the middle class of this country, that was a kick to the gut. We got rid of that. That would come back 100 percent, and all of those people in the middle class would see a massive tax hike.

Think about small businesses. People love to come here and talk about small businesses. We should do everything we can to help the creation of more small businesses and to help the growth of our existing small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, what happens if there is a ``no'' vote on this resolution?

There is a tax provision called 199A. Very few people might be able to explain it if they were asked to explain it.

Let me tell you what it is. 199A, that would expire if we keep going with this resolution, is the equalizer for small businesses to be able to compete on the same level playing field as a large business, a massive, multinational corporation.

The massive, multinational corporations already have their tax rates set at 21 percent. Think of the small business down the street, the mom-and-pop store, the business that is hiring three people, that is allowing that person to maybe be the next billionaire. They are not there today, but they might want to get there. If 199A goes away, all of a sudden that small business and every small business in America goes from paying a 21 percent equivalent to almost 43 percent.

Mr. Speaker, the small businesses will get crushed because they won't be able to compete with the big, multinational corporations.

I don't know why the Democrats who oppose this resolution want multinational corporations to get a two-times advantage over every small business in America, but that is what a ``no'' vote means.

The Democrats can hide behind billionaires all day long. The billionaires will benefit from that. We want to allow those small businesses to keep thriving. Yes, maybe some of them will become billionaires, and I am not going to attack them if they do. We ought to celebrate it if they do.

Some of them actually don't make it. A lot of them won't make it if this resolution fails, Mr. Speaker. We protect that as well so they can have their shot at the American Dream; so the single mom who has maybe never had a family that was able to afford their own house can go own their own business and one day buy their own house, maybe get a nice car, and maybe get the nice things in life. They don't have that opportunity if this resolution fails. That is what is at stake.

We do a lot of other things that we will open up the door to go do in reconciliation by passing this resolution. We secure America's border. Now, again, this was a major issue on the campaign, and I know the folks on the other side want an open border. Thank God President Trump won and followed through on his promise to secure the border. We now have a 95-percent reduction in illegal crossings at our border. However, that doesn't solve the problem, Mr. Speaker.

President Trump wants to continue to give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need to do their job effectively. Why the previous administration denied them these tools we can all debate, but the voters of this country made a decision in November. They said: We don't want our Border Patrol agents to be at a disadvantage with the drug cartels in Mexico, which they are.

Drug cartels have better technology today than America's Border Patrol agents. That is a disgrace. Mr. Speaker, you can see drones, and you can see night vision goggles not with our Border Patrol agents. Do you know who has got them? It is the Mexican drug cartels. Our Border Patrol agents who risk their lives to keep our families safe don't have that same ability. Shame on anybody who wants to deny

them that ability to have at minimum the same technology, if not more and better, than the drug cartels. We give them that better technology in this resolution.

We also do something, Mr. Speaker, that we used to all agree on in this Chamber, and now, unfortunately, it has become a partisan issue. We still believe in strengthening America's defense. Believe it or not, the bad guys are still out there. There are not necessarily more of them, but it is the same people who have been bad for generations, and if we sit back and stay complacent and don't keep up, go look at China's military right now, how much they are advancing their naval fleet that we are not.

We can look at all the other countries, Iran and Russia, those countries still intend bad things on our friends, but one day they want to have those bad things apply to us too, Mr. Speaker.

How do we stop it? It is by having a strong national defense. We bolster our national defense in this resolution.

Why does President Trump call it one big, beautiful bill? It is because it does a lot of critically important things all in one resolution that helps get this country back on a strong footing.

What else it does is it produces incredibly needed savings, Mr. Speaker, savings that the American taxpayers want, as well. They want their tax dollars being spent better. They want to see this Congress find a way to get back to balanced Federal budgets.

Why don't we all work together to do that? We are here working together to do that. Unfortunately, the other side of the aisle doesn't want to achieve that. They want to vote against any attempt to save money. They criticize DOGE when they identify hundreds of billions of dollars of tax dollars being wasted in foreign countries and here on American soil wasted.

People who work two and three jobs and are working their tails off to help provide for their family are incensed when they hear about this waste.

They say: When is somebody going to do something about it? President Trump said: I am going to do something about it. He actually campaigned about that too, Mr. Speaker. He said what he would do, and he is doing it. There should be a parade applauding a President who actually ran on saying I am going to do things and then he is actually following through on the promises.

The other side can still be upset that they lost the election, and they will keep losing elections as long as they stay in denial about what this country wants, but this country, the American people, 77 million of them, went to the polls and said: These are the things we want our President to do, and their President whom they voted for is doing those things. He needs help from this Congress to continue to follow through on that.

That is what passing this resolution today does. It starts that process. There will be more time to debate every one of these items I talked about, and the people who are against all the things I laid out can still talk about why they are against them. They can make up fake bogeymen: Oh, it is the billionaires, it is this, it is that the disabled people are going to lose benefits.

Do you know what we do, Mr. Speaker? We strengthen benefits for people that are truly needed, Mr. Speaker, because so many of these programs that once used to be so great and talked about and lofty have been abused.

How many illegals are here, people who are here in this country illegally, are on some of these programs that are going bust? Yes, they are going bankrupt. Those aren't my numbers, Mr. Speaker. You can go look at Biden's own actuaries on those programs. Biden's actuaries said that those programs are going bankrupt, and the other side just wants to demagogue and say: Leave them alone; leave them be.

To let them go bankrupt would be irresponsible. We can make them work better for the people who are actually here in America who pay into those programs and who have earned those programs or who had something bad happen in their life where they have to be on one of those programs, instead of people who are stealing from those programs. As far as the waste, fraud, and abuse alone, government agencies have given reports on $60 billion a year in waste just in Medicaid, and they want that waste to continue on the other side.

That is what a ``no'' gets us. It is allowing the $60 billion a year in waste in Medicaid and fraud in Medicaid to continue. That is the theft of hardworking taxpayers' money. That is taking healthcare away from the disabled who need it.

Let's actually get back to having these programs work for the people who funded them, who paid into them, who deserve to be on them, and who need to be on them. That is what we do with this resolution.

Let the other side keep demagoguing and keep making up stories, false stories, and personality fights with a person they don't like who won an election and they are still angry about that result.

They should look in the mirror, and maybe one day they will say: Why? Why did all those people, 77 million of them, go to the polls and say: We want President Trump to be in the White House to go do those things he said he would do?

He is doing them. Let's help him do it. Everybody should be supporting this. Whoever is not can still try to be roadblocks. We are going to keep moving forward, Mr. Speaker, because the future direction of this country demands it. The people in this country demand that we keep moving forward and fixing the problems that are holding them back and holding more greatness for this country back.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everybody to vote ``no,'' but anybody who doesn't want to vote ``no'' needs to understand what they are blocking and understand what they are voting ``no'' on.

The rest of us are going to keep going to work for those hardworking people who are tired of struggling, Mr. Speaker. They are tired of waiting for the right kind of things to happen in Washington. We can finally make those right things happen. We do it by voting for this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I urge approval of the resolution.