Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Virginia, I am privileged to recognize the 90th anniversary of the Christiansburg Hunting Club.

The Christiansburg Hunting Club celebrated their 90th anniversary on September 24, 2022. Hunting is truly a great American pastime and outdoor tradition. Since 1932, the Christiansburg Hunting Club has served as an organization where generations of families have bonded over hunting and sportsmanship. An organization that has preserved this tradition, and the deep relationships that come alongside it, for over 90 years is truly worth celebrating.

Mr. Speaker, the preamble to the Constitution states that its purpose is, in part, to ``secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.'' Are we doing that today?

This legislation represents Congress at its worst. We are voting to let government funding expire on December 16, just days after dozens of Democrats are fired by the voters on November 8. But before this Congress adjourns and new courageous conservatives are sworn in, Congress wants to stick it to the American people one more time.

The funding for 2023 and beyond should reflect the will of the people and how they vote on November 8 when they reject the policies under which they are suffering today.

No Republican in the Senate should have, and no Republican in this House, and even those on the other side, should give one more cent to a government that doesn't care about our border but wants to send $12 billion more to secure the border of Ukraine.

We should not fund a government that is allowing an invasion across our southern border and is giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the countries that are facilitating that just south of our border.

We should be cutting our spending and not increasing inflation by more massive spending, as reflected in this package today.

We should support American energy production, not subsidize unreliable energy and Biden's gas price hike.

We should not be funding the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents to go after regular, hardworking Americans.

We should end the vaccine mandate and the COVID China virus emergency and not fund an administration that wants to fire healthcare workers because they don't get a vaccine.

All Republicans should oppose this CR, not give one more vote for one more cent for this tyrannical government that is hurting all Americans.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong opposition to

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of my constituent, Mr. William Eckerson of Crozet, Virginia, who celebrated his 100th birthday on August 20, 2022.

Mr. Eckerson currently resides in Virginia's Fifth District but, as a young man, he faithfully served the United States marines during World War II, even serving in Iwo Jima.

Following his time in the Marines, he worked in the private sector but maintained his commitment to the Marines by participating in the Marine Band, various parades, and many World War II marine reunions.

Mr. Eckerson has further demonstrated his commitment to the Marines and this country by spending years of his life cleaning up veteran cemeteries.

When he is not serving others, Mr. Eckerson is also an avid golfer and cheers for his beloved Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.

It is a great privilege to honor my constituent following his 100th birthday and thank him for his many years of service to the United States of America and his local community.

Mr. Eckerson, I certainly hope that you and your loved ones enjoyed a great day and celebration. May God bless you, and happy 100th birthday.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to S. 1098, which expands the Secretary of Education's already illegitimate, unconstitutional authority, so-called, to transfer student loan debt from those who borrowed it to those who did not.

How egregious, once again, that we would try to force taxpayers who did not go to college, who worked their way through college without incurring debt, or who paid off their student loans to now have to carry the debt for those making up to $250,000 a year, from a family standpoint.

This is an effort to double the number of student loans where the debt will be transferred to hardworking taxpayers. This bill allows new authority

for the Secretary of Education to allow for new loans if it is in the ``fiscal interests of the Federal Government.''

Now, that is an interesting concept. Since when does this majority consider the fiscal impact of their decisions?

There is no limit to how many illegals they will allow to invade our country through the southern border, and there is no limit, seemingly, to how much money they will spend. The answer to every supposed problem is to spend more money, irrespective of the fiscal impact.

Instead of considering the fiscal impact on the Federal Government, by the way, which I suspect we will not do since the Federal Government doesn't have any money, since the Federal Government is in debt for $31 trillion, which is $90,000 per citizen, how about if we consider the fiscal impact on the taxpayers who are on the hook for that $31 trillion and will be on the hook for this new spending that is being advocated for today?

The truth is this bill, this legislation, would add billions more to the already terrible decisions we have made fiscally in this Congress. The majority's response to the $31 trillion national debt that we have already referenced most recently is to pass their inflation increase bill. That added $800 billion more in spending, half of it for green raw deal spending, a couple hundred billion dollars for IRS agents, because I am sure you hear all across your district, like I do, that the only thing we need is more IRS agents.

Then, our other response, in addition to the inflation increase act, is to the student loan transfer fiasco, transferring debt from those who borrowed it to those who did not. Today, we will add billions more to that $600 billion conservative estimate on what the cost is of the student loan transfer scheme.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. Speaker, the Democrats are determined to make inflation worse by continuing their disastrous policies that caused it in the first place. Do they not understand the concept of pouring gas on a fire?

Beyond the reckless spending of nearly another trillion dollars on top of the $30 trillion national debt--there is no climate crisis. It is a hoax. This is the one crisis that even Democrats couldn't create.

They have been crying about the climate sky falling for 40 years now, predicting the world would end in 12 years. It is a lie.

We are the cleanest large energy producer in the world, and fossil fuels are a wonderful thing. They are essential to our economic and national security.

Worse yet, Democrats want to spend $80 billion to hire 87,000 more armed IRS agents to terrorize Americans with 1.2 million more audits of hardworking taxpayers. No one in my district has ever told me that the one thing we need is more IRS agents.

Mr. Speaker, the American people will vote against this bill on November 8.

Madam Speaker, today I honor the life and service of Sheriff Carl H. Wells of Bedford County, VA, who passed away on July 12th, at the age of 86. Sheriff Wells, a lifelong resident of Bedford County, faithfully served as sheriff in his community from 1974 to 1995.

I know my friends from Virginia, Congressman Morgan Griffith and Congressman Ben Cline, who both also represent the region, join me in honoring Mr. Wells for a life well-lived and a legacy of faithful service and commitment to Bedford County. My prayers are with his wife of 64 years, Ora, and the family, friends and community who are grieving his passing.

In addition to his 22-year commitment to serving his county as sheriff, Mr. Wells was also a member of Bedford Baptist church for many years and was actively engaged in his community through participation in multiple volunteer service groups including the Bedford Elks Lodge, the Lions Club, the Shriners, and many others.

On behalf of my constituents and my colleagues, it is a privilege to recognize Sheriff Well's life and service to Virginians. He will be missed but not forgotten.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 6929, another Democrat bailout bill by the sponsors of the nanny state.

It is clear that ``Bidenflation'' is crushing the American people with the Biden price hike that is causing sky-high gas prices, and Americans are struggling to stay afloat as the economy limps toward recession.

Not surprisingly though, Democrats are trying to redefine the term ``recession'' to avoid recognizing the failures of their damaging policies.

Let me help them out by quoting, paraphrasing from the former President Ronald Reagan: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. But a recovery is when Democrat Members of Congress lose their jobs.

This legislation would make hardworking middle-class taxpayers reimburse pension plan participants who were employed by the now- defunct Delphi Corporation and add 6 percent interest. The Democrats insist that this is just an attempt to rightfully recover losses suffered by these former employees.

But early in my own career, I actually experienced this kind of unfortunate situation firsthand. In fact, my first employer after college ended their cash balance pension plan just a couple of years after I started with the company. But it never occurred to me that other hardworking taxpayers should have to pay me for the benefits and earnings that I missed out on.

My next employer sold my division to a competitor, and then the former parent company went under, and the value of their stock that made up a significant portion of my retirement account went to zero. But, again, it never occurred to me that other, hardworking taxpayers should have to pay me to restore my lost investment value.

In both cases, recognizing the risks and rewards associated with our nonsocialist, free enterprise economic system, I just kept working hard, saving money for retirement, with no help from Congress or confiscation of resources from other hardworking taxpayers.

To my benevolent colleagues on the other side, I have one question for you: Where does this end? And we know where it ends, with these policies carried to its logical conclusion, with the physical ruin of America.

But I should say benevolent with other people's money and with our children's financial and economic future.

Should Congress reimburse every American's investment retirement plan when it suffers a loss?

What if all Americans seek repayment for their losses in this failed Biden economy, because it does affect everyone.

But hardworking Americans have had enough. Why should the constituents of my Virginia Fifth District pay for someone else's retirement plan?

Enough with the stimulus checks; enough with the bailouts; enough with paying people not to work; enough with growing the welfare state; enough with incentivizing and rewarding the wrong behavior, while punishing those who do the right thing.

Let's get back to the Trump policies, 1 percent inflation, $2 gas prices, and put Americans back to work. I urge all of my colleagues to vote against this Democrat bailout bill.

I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the chairman of our Freedom Caucus, for allowing me to join tonight.

It is the fireman whose solution is to start more fires, quite frankly.

You wonder, this President, his administration, is there a devious, malicious intent, or is there just an illiteracy, a failure to recognize basic economic principles, as the gentleman from Arizona was just talking about tonight?

Their war that they have declared on fossil fuels, their war that they have declared on the American energy industry, is dishonest and dangerous demonization of an industry that is vital to our economy, vital to our industry, vital to our national security.

To inherit a year and a half ago American energy independence for the first time ever and $2 gas prices--I know we talked about the 2020 campaign over and over. Do you like Trump's $2 gas prices, or do you like Obama-Biden's $4 gas prices?

Who would have known that in just a year and a half's time, they would be so good at jacking those prices up to $5 a gallon? What is their solution to that? Oh, just go spend 70,000 bucks on your Tesla.

The more pain that you experience, said their Transportation Secretary, who knows nothing about transportation, has no experience in transportation, but said: Hey, the more pain you experience, that just means the more benefit that is being enjoyed. So, hey, buy yourself a $70,000 Tesla if you can't afford to put gas in your cars.

It is making no measurable or negligible difference on the cost of gas or the cost of fuel, but what it has done is to compromise our national security, once again, our economic security, once again. Emptying our Strategic Petroleum Reserves for political purposes is just an egregious failure, once again, by this administration.

That is right.

Well, you might think you can go to President Trump and get him to sell it at those prices from 6 years ago.

Will the gentleman yield?

They are executing the plan.

To Mr. Hice's comment about $6,000, the average family paying $500 more a month, $6,000 more per year, that is net take-home cost. That means you have to earn some $10,000 to make the $6,000 that you are losing just to break even.

So essentially we have lost $10,000 worth of gross income to Bidenflation, the Biden price hike. You wonder about the administration, you know, do they not know or do they not care?

It is not just the gas prices, which as we know--and we would hope that they would understand, but perhaps they don't or, again, perhaps they don't care, whichever is worse--but the number one thing that impacts American families--middle-income, low-income, fixed-income folks--is what they are paying at the pump.

It is not just the gas prices that have doubled under this administration, but it is all the other fuel costs that are going up. It is everything that is shipped, which is everything that we buy, so it is driving up inflation across the board. It is everything that is produced from petroleum products driving up prices further.

Then there is the lie about the fact that we could ever move to renewables anyway, which is a lie to begin with. Then there is the climate damage that they are causing because we are buying fuel from other countries who are not the clean producers that we are.

Meanwhile, it is being shipped across the ocean, which causes more pollution, so it is contrary to what they say they want to believe from a climate standpoint, not to mention the embarrassment of sending our President overseas, as Mr. Perry said, proverbial gas can in hand, pleading and begging with other countries to provide what we can produce for ourselves, not to mention the national security risk, being dependent on foreign countries--who hate us--for vital energy, not to mention enriching Putin with the ability to sell fuel at a higher price to fund his war, not to mention having Europe get greater dependence on Russia.

The whole piece together--economically, national security, even the climate concern that he claims to have--is all compromised by what he is doing, intentionally, willfully executing the plan, Mr. Perry, as you said, on the war on American energy.

Who he thinks is a competitor, not an adversary.

They are getting hit on so many levels, as you said, Mr. Hice. Housing costs are through the roof, home prices, rental costs through the roof. At the same time, interest rates are surging-- we have got 75 basis points increase again today--interest rates going through the roof, so they are getting squeezed terribly on housing.

At the same time, inflation is eating away at everything, their purchasing power generally. So what do you have here? Wages have gone up some 4 to 5 percent, but it has been doubled by inflation. So real wages have gone down by 4 to 5 percent, so you are making less than you were a year ago, your housing costs are through the roof compared to a year ago, and you can't afford to heat your home, fill your car.

To your point earlier, Mr. Perry, the Democrats' response is to double down on the policies that caused it to begin with. The President has even said: We are going through a transition; we are part way through the transition. When we get through to the other side, everything is going to be better.

I guess when you don't have a job, when you don't have a home, when you don't have a car, and you are dependent on the government for some meager subsistence to try to just barely get by. But yet you can say, well, I guess I have no energy, which is the same thing as how they define clean energy, then I guess they will declare that as victory with the policies they have enacted and inflicted the American people with.

The solutions to it, as we all know, are to stop the spending, stop printing money, stop causing inflation by continuing the economic policies and the fiscal policies of this administration. Stop the spending, stop printing money that we don't have, and driving inflation. Stop ruining our fiscal future. That is going to cause interest on the national debt to increase. The part of our budget that has to fund the national debt is going to increase, getting nothing for that.

Secondly, stop paying people not to work. Stop incentivizing and subsidizing the wrong behaviors. Stop making people comfortable as we grow the welfare state and grow the dependent state. Reverse the energy policy. Stop the war on American energy. Unleash American energy again. Go back to the Trump policies. Lower taxes. Allow more Americans to keep more of their earnings. Stimulate the economy that way. Stimulate growth and investment in businesses. Then deregulate. End the regulatory assault on American businesses and the American economy. And then, finally, cut and reduce government.

We have got to do those things. Those are the proactive steps that will take place. This administration and this Democrat majority has shown no willingness to recognize how they have caused these problems and how the American people are suffering as a result.

Instead, they want to push through more of the build back bankrupt agenda. They want to break that up into pieces and try to pass that in this remaining 6 months of this election cycle.

Our future with these policies, especially on the energy side--look at California with the brown-outs they are experience. That is our future for the country. Look at Europe, who is going to freeze this winter because of the way they have compromised their energy policies and tried to move to renewables, and they cannot heat their homes this coming winter.

To paraphrase what Ronald Reagan said: Recession is when your neighbor loses his job; depression is when you lose your job; recovery, though, is when Democrats in Congress lose their job. Hope is coming.

Mr. Speaker, the Democrat majority is COVID crazy, it is January 6 forever, January 6 crazy, climate crazy, everything is racist, everything is seen through a transgender lens. Then there are their policies. Their policies that are wreaking harm on the American people, and that the American people don't want.

They have done so much harm to the country in the last year and half as they have had the majority, along with the White House. It is hard to put your finger upon what is the worst thing that has happened to the country. Is it the rapidly rising violent crime?

The undermining of our police?

Putting criminals ahead of victims?

Putting criminals ahead of police?

And just now figuring out that if you cut police, if you defund police, if you don't support police, then, of course, you get more crime.

Is it what they are doing to our military, wokeifying, wussifying our military with these radical policies. These diversity equity inclusion policies that think our military is a social experiment. Kicking out military members because they don't get a vaccine. We got 100,000 troops that are at risk of being dismissed from the military when we are at 40 percent of our recruiting goals.

Is it what we are doing at the border?

Gosh, we could go on and on about the border, once again.

Is that the worst crisis that the Democrats have created with their policies?

What this President had to do to keep a secure border was nothing. Continue the policies of the previous administration and we would have a secure border. Instead, we have allowed some 4 million--now averaging about 10,000 a day--illegal aliens crossing into our country. Over 3 million--acknowledged by border patrol--encountered at the border, most of them released into the interior of the country, and then some 800,000 criminal got-aways, the ones who, you know, don't want to be taken into our custody, don't want to be given free healthcare, don't want to be given free education, free social services, free transportation wherever they want to go, without a quarter to appear.

The ones who are evading capture because they are trafficking drugs, humans, sex trafficking, child trafficking across our border. The ones with terrorist ties and criminal ties who will do irreparable harm in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Then you look at the energy policy, which is driving--along with the rapid spending--it is driving the inflation in this country. Energy policy. What did we need to do when this President took over a year and a half ago to remain energy independent for the first time in history?

Nothing. Continue the policies. But this President, during the campaign, promised to declare war on fossil fuels to end American energy essentially--oil and gas production in this country. That is a promise that he has kept in the way that he has willfully put regulatory burdens, restrictions on the energy industry.

Now he goes essentially with a big gas can, carrying it over to the Middle East, begging these other world producers--who don't produce energy as cleanly as we do--to produce more energy to try to bail him out of his failed policies.

Meanwhile, what do we have?

His transportation secretary, who has no experience in transportation, by the way, says: Hey, the more pain that we can cause, the more benefit. The more pain we can cause with rising gas prices, the more benefit. Memo: Most Americans can't afford a $70,000 electric vehicle.

Most Americans don't have somebody driving them around in a big SUV so they can get out of the SUV right before the photo op and get on their bicycle and just bike the last block to work. Most Americans don't have that option.

This administration, this Democrat majority is out of touch with the American people. They are hurting the country. These policies are being rejected. You are going to see in 111 days from today the representation of that--the demonstration of that on November 8.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I had a constituent say to me from Bedford County, just outside of Lynchburg where I live, nothing this President and this majority in Congress is doing makes sense unless they hate the country. Nothing they are doing makes sense unless they hate the country.

What would you do differently over the last year and a half if it was your purpose, your desire, your intention to ruin the country?

Maybe you would undermine police. Maybe you would reduce funding for police. Maybe you would stop arresting violent criminals. Maybe you would stop prosecuting violent crimes. Maybe you would allow violent criminals to have no cash bail. Maybe we would release violent criminals from our prisons.

You know what? All of those things are happening, and the Democrats seem surprised that crime has gone up across the country. Violent crime is up some 30 percent in the last year across the country.

American cities, unrecognizable. People don't want to go there anymore because of these policies. Maybe the American people don't want 4 million illegal aliens coming into the interior of their country in the past year and a half.

Maybe we have a shortage of funding to take care of Americans, to do the things that we would like to do, to take care of our veterans, to take care of those most in need, to help our farmers, to help hard- working Americans, to maybe give them a little bit of their resources back, to reduce the regulations and the oppression upon them.

Maybe we don't need to bring in 4 million illegal aliens in a year and a half, 10,000 a day now, the average is, give them free social services, free healthcare, free education, free travel, with no requirement to even appear in court. Maybe the American people want their border secured.

Maybe the American people don't want massive inflation, 40-year record inflation, caused primarily by the massive spending, the reckless spending, and the energy policies.

Think about where we might be if this Democrat majority had gotten their $6 trillion build back bankrupt bill through Congress. $20,000 per American citizen. They like to say sometimes, oh, some of this stuff is popular. It polls well. People want this.

$6 trillion is what they have tried to spend, and they are still trying to backdoor it in over these remaining months that they may have power.

How would it poll, do you think, if we said, American citizen, do you want this so-called benefit, this so-called perk, what have you, but your share of the cost is $20,000. So a family of three, your share is $60,000. How many would vote for these policies?

Not to mention what they are doing on energy by design, on purpose, the dishonest attack on the fossil fuel industry, the dishonest narrative that we are not the cleanest, large energy producers in the world; the damage that has been done to the economy; the damage that has been done to the way that American people live their lives.

What are they doing? They are bragging about the pain that they are causing. The more pain, the better, they are saying. That is what the President has said. Hey, we are halfway through a transition. If we could just get through to the other side, it is going to be so much better, you know.

As you said in candy land and unicorn land, we are going to have all these jobs and all this prosperity because we went through all this pain.

But the fact is, the fossil fuel industry has been used to bring more prosperity to third world countries than any other development in industrial history.

This assault on our freedoms, our economic freedoms, our healthcare freedoms, as you mentioned, whether it is the mask, whether it is the vaccines, our individual freedoms with the Second Amendment assault.

This body is going to try to pass two more bills to take away and restrict Second Amendment rights. That is going to happen in this House, we are told. The continued assault on the Second Amendment right.

You know, I have right here--I don't do this very often, but I have some quotes from the Founders as it relates to the Second Amendment right.

As I was looking for quotes, you know, I couldn't find anything that talked about that people could keep and bear arms so they could target practice; that people could keep and bear arms so they could hunt; that people could keep and bear arms for sporting purposes.

These quotes that I have here from the Founders explaining why they wrote into the Constitution the Second Amendment as they did was to ensure we remain free.

Freedom has a cost. Most of the world does not live free to the extent that we still live free, as you often enunciate.

Whether the majority of this Congress likes it or not, we have a Constitution. I happen to like it. I know you do as well. The framers, in their wisdom, made it possible to change the Constitution, but they made it difficult by design.

They said, hey, if you want to change the Constitution, you have got to have super majorities of both Houses. You have got to have super majorities of the State legislatures in order to bring transformational change to the country and amend the Constitution.

But, instead, they want to undermine the Constitution, undermine our freedoms, and attack the rights guaranteed to Americans in our Constitution.

70,000 bucks. Go ahead.

Well said by the gentleman from Texas.

Their solution, this President's solution, this majority's solution to the economic wreckage they have created is to spend more money.

You just ask yourself. You're baffled. Is it malicious intent, and they recognize the harm that they are doing; and how they are causing the harm; and they are doing it by design; and they are doing it on purpose; or are they that economically illiterate, and they really are clueless and have no idea what they are doing?

Because we have record inflation, 40-year high inflation of 9 percent, which essentially means every American is working for 1 month free this year. One month out of the year they are essentially not getting paid with the loss of purchasing power they have experienced because of the inflation.

So what is their answer to that? Well, if we could just spend more money, if we could just get more of our agenda passed and spend trillions of dollars more, then that will help the problem rather than make it worse.

It is like the person who says, hey, I am trying to lose weight and then they would say, well, the solution is to eat more. That is the solution that they propose, to do more harm, and you just wonder, is it just that illiterate, that ignorant, or is it willful and devious and malicious?

Mr. Speaker, the Second Amendment in our Constitution is the amendment that guarantees or ensures all the other freedoms that we hold dear in this country.

The right to defend oneself is a God-given right, but we are unique among the nations of the world in that that right is protected for us and enshrined in our Constitution based on the wisdom of the Founders.

There is a mechanism for changing the Constitution, but it is difficult. Yet, what this body wants to do is to find ways to do what the Constitution clearly says, which is that the Congress has absolutely no constitutional authority to restrict the rights of law- abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.

I am going to read a few quotes from the Founders from about 250 years ago, and the reason why we go back to the Founders is to understand what they intended with the Constitution. We have the Federalist Papers, of course, and then other writings by the Founders.

Alexander Hamilton said: ``The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.''

Samuel Adams said the Constitution shall ``be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe . . . or to prevent

the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.''

James Madison, the first Congressman from my Fifth District and our fourth President, said: ``The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation,'' where ``the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.'' Still true today.

Noah Webster said: ``Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. . . . A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power . . . to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.''

Thomas Jefferson, from my home district in Virginia, from where the gentleman from Texas went to school, said: ``What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.''

Thomas Jefferson also said: ``No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.''

Back to James Madison: ``The right of the people to keep and bear . . . arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.''

George Mason said: ``To disarm the people--that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.''

Patrick Henry said: ``Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?'' ``If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?''

Samuel Adams said: ``The said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to . . . prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.''

Thomas Paine: ``Arms discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world. . . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.''

Patrick Henry also said: ``Where and when did freedom exist, when the sword and purse were given up from the people?''

We are doing that right here in this body. We are taking the sword and the purse away from the people.

He said: ``Unless a miracle in human affairs shall interpose, no nation ever did or ever can retain its liberty, after the loss of the sword and the purse.''

``The great object is that every man be armed.''

``Everyone who is able may have a gun.''

Final quote from Thomas Jefferson, then I will defer to the gentleman from South Carolina: ``Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.''

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina.

Ronald Reagan, to paraphrase, said: Freedom is only one generation away from extinction, and it must be fought and preserved from one generation to the next, and no nation having lost its freedom in history has ever regained it.

You think about how, in the past year and a half, we have seen our most basic, most essential freedoms trampled upon by those who would also trample upon our Second Amendment rights. They have moved to restrict our own healthcare decisions about whether or not we have to take a vaccine that we may not want or may not need. They have restricted our ability to travel and to move, where we want to go, whether or not we can assemble, whether or not we can worship, whether we can go to work, whether we can operate our business, whether or not we can earn a living. They want to trample upon our rights to defend ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Cawthorn).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, can you confirm how much time we have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. Greene), my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia.

I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), the chairman of the Freedom Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Perry.

Chairman Perry, have you ever been asked by the media about a police officer killed in the line of duty? Have they ever asked you about that shooting?

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) for the purpose of a colloquy.

I am never asked about the 100 police officers killed last year in the line of duty.

I am never asked about the police officers who are shot in America's largest cities, as you have mentioned. I am never asked by the media about that.

I am never asked about the hundreds of shootings that take place every weekend in America's largest cities, these war zones, these crime zones that are under Democrat control.

There is always a connection here. These are cities that have been controlled by Democrats. These are Democrat policies carried to their conclusion.

What they are trying to do to the entire country, which has been in place much longer in these major cities--you mentioned Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, on and on, New Orleans, and so forth. That is where most of the crime is in this country. That is where most of the shootings take place in this country, and they don't care about that.

Do they want to harden our schools? Do they want to do what is necessary to keep our kids safe?

I have long been an advocate in my home State of Virginia, the community where I served as a county supervisor, in allowing armed personnel within the school system who are trained and want to carry concealed and be part of a rapid response team, teachers and staff, to be armed in the schools to keep the children and the staff safe. The Democrats are against that.

We all know the truth. Mr. Norman from South Carolina mentioned this a moment ago. The best response to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The best response is more good people with guns, more law- abiding citizens with guns, as the Founders wrote and intended and as the Founders recognized 250 years ago when we didn't have this violent crime in America's largest cities.

If the Second Amendment is not safe, then no other right is safe. There is a reason why the Second Amendment comes right after that First Amendment guarantee to speech, free speech, to free assembly, to free worship, to petition our government for our grievances. It is that Second Amendment right to keep us safe, to ensure we remain a free people.

If you look around the world, if you look at the nation of Ukraine, Ukraine would be a different place today if the citizens were armed and permitted to be armed the way we are here in this country. Taiwan would be a much safer country today from the threat of its large enemy on its border if their citizens were armed the way our citizens are armed today.

The Founders recognized in their wisdom that not only did we possess a God-given right to defend ourselves, to keep ourselves and our families safe, but also that we would be unique among the nations of the world in enshrining that in our Constitution and protecting that right and saying that Congress has no authority to infringe on that right for law-abiding citizens.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his comments.

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution were intended to protect the individual, the people, from the government. The Constitution protects the individual, the minority, from the tyranny of the majority.

There is a reason why we are not a democracy. We are a representative republic based on the rule of law, based on a Constitution that would ensure that we remain free, that would ensure that we protect the rights of the individual.

The number one job of the Federal Government, that we have gotten so far away from here in this body, is to keep us safe and secure. Part of that is to ensure that our rights are safe and secure, and that includes the right to defend ourselves.

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

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of two amendments that would prohibit Federal funding for Davis-Bacon under Division A and Division F of this minibus.

Passed into law in 1931, Davis-Bacon was a conglomeration of many Jim Crow-era policies intended to inflate the wages of government contractors and eliminate competition for labor in favor of White union workers.

Nearly every day on this House floor, we hear from Democrats about how anyone who disagrees with them must obviously be a racist. That is their default response to virtually all opposition to their disastrous policies.

Climate--racist. Healthcare--racist. COVID--racist. Infrastructure-- racist. Police--racist. School choice--racist. Border security--racist. Voting Republican--obviously, racist. Being a patriot in the military-- racist. Election integrity--super racist.

In fact, the President of the United States called proponents of voter ID worse than Jim Crow. They were ``Jim Eagle.''

But will any Democrat join me today in this effort to oppose Davis- Bacon, a hateful, legal artifact from the Jim Crow era?

Beyond its history, the Davis-Bacon Act artificially drives up the cost of Federally funded construction projects by requiring the payment of the prevailing wage, an arbitrary wage determined by the Department of Labor, rather than the wage determined by the marketplace. That is never good, and certainly not in the interest of the taxpayer--you know, the ones who pay the bills.

In fact, Davis-Bacon drives up Federal construction costs by about 10 percent every year and costs taxpayers about $11 billion a year. I know, I know. We waste trillions around here, and we don't care about billions. We don't take that seriously. But why should American taxpayers subsidize unions when only 14 percent of construction workers are unionized.

Billions of Federal dollars are being funneled towards just one-tenth of the entire construction workforce in our country. By inflating wages far above the market rate, we are not helping American workers, we are robbing taxpayers of $11 billion a year. Nonunion workers are paying more in taxes to subsidize higher union wages for Davis-Bacon workers.

With the Biden price hike driving inflation to a 40-percent high at 9 percent, we should all be thinking about ways to save taxpayer money and make government more efficient. The Biden price hike has the impact of making every American work one month for free this year. That is how much less purchasing power they have.

My legislation to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act has the support of Americans for Prosperity, Citizens Against Government Waste, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, and National Right to Work.

Mr. Chairman, I urge all my colleagues to support my commonsense amendments to prohibit funding for Davis-Bacon and save taxpayers $11 billion per year.

Mr. Chair, I offered two amendments to this appropriations package that would save a total of $86 million in taxpayer dollars.

One amendment strikes funding to buy electric vehicles for the Federal fleet, and the other removes woke Federal funding to make public housing ``climate resilient''--whatever the heck that is.

The American people cannot afford Biden's climate agenda. They also don't want it, as I am confident they will demonstrate 112 days from today.

Americans are suffering from 9 percent inflation, the highest in 40 years. Call it the Biden price hike, if you will, with an average national gas price of nearly $5 per gallon.

Yet, this Democratic majority wants to make the American people pay for unelected bureaucrats to drive around in expensive electric vehicles and make them fund climate welfare programs.

Washington is pumping $91 billion in funding toward a ridiculous transportation and housing bill. This is an increase of 12 percent year over year.

Voting for an absurd spending increase is simply a vote for more inflation and economic pain for all Americans.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, vote to eliminate wasteful spending, and oppose the underlying bill.