Floor Statements

Offered By: Mr. Good of Virginia

Amendment No. 126: Page 2, line 15, insert ``that is

approved by Congress'' after ``plan''.

Madam Speaker, once again, we have to say: How did we get to where we are today? How did we get to where we have to have a debate to defend life that survives the heinous practice of abortion?

In the infamous words of the Governor of my very State, the Commonwealth of Virginia, just a few years ago, if a baby survives an abortion attempt, the mother and the doctor would have a conversation while they kept the baby comfortable to decide what to do with it. He said that on air in a radio broadcast.

I realize that the other side may not recognize the science of conception. I realize that the other side may not share the premium or the value of innocent life in the womb that most Americans have. The party of death that believes in abortion up until the moment of birth at any time for any reason--today we find ourselves even having to defend and protect life, a baby that survives an abortion attempt.

If it were not so, if it were not true, then this bill should pass unanimously. I fear that will not be the case for this same party will not even vote later today against and condemn the violence at pregnancy centers across the country.

Madam Speaker, I encourage everyone to support this bill and protect all life.

Madam Chair, I rise for the purpose of placing a name in nomination.

What a privilege we all are enjoying tonight, we are all enjoying as elected Members of this great body; the people's House, as it has been said. What a great representation of the constitutional Republic in which we enjoy living, the greatest country in the history of the world, as we play out as the people's Representatives in selecting the all-important position of the Speaker of the people's House.

I was out on the southeast balcony here just a few moments ago looking out at the Supreme Court, looking at the flag flying above this Capitol Building, looking at the Jefferson and Madison--both Virginians, by the way--Library of Congress buildings, and pausing to do what probably most of us recognize we fail too often to do, to take it in, this high privilege, this distinct honor that we have to be the people's Representatives from our respective districts in this House here in this Congress.

This is the greatest Nation in the history of the world. With all of our imperfections as people and as a Nation, no nation in the history of the world has freed more people, has rescued more people, has ministered to more people, has evangelized to more people than the United States of America. And that would be a good time to respond with some applause.

There is a reason why people from all over the world are trying to get into this country, many of them illegally, due to the policies of the current administration. People from all over the world are literally taking on a treacherous journey, risking life and limb,

subjecting themselves to abuse to try to sneak their way into our country because they know this is the greatest country in the history of the world.

No country in the history of the world has provided more upward mobility, more advancement opportunity to people of all races, all nationalities, all ethnicities like the United States of America.

However, we as a Nation, we are teetering on the brink, aren't we? Isn't there just a window of opportunity to save the Republic? Crisis after crisis. $32 trillion in national debt, which equates to over $90,000 per citizen, almost $100,000 now per citizen, some $300,000 per household. When I said that on this very floor a few months ago in a budget debate, the then-chairman of the Budget Committee said, ``Stop saying that; we are not asking anybody to pay it back,'' as if it is not real, as if it is Monopoly. As I heard someone say, don't tell the other side what happens after trillion, what comes after trillion.

We just spent $1.7 trillion, both parties--Republicans joining in the Senate, a few in the House--to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill.

Sadly and unfortunately, part of the reason why I stand here today, that was the kind of bill that has been supported by our former minority leader every time it has come up in the House, no matter who was in control in the 12 years that he has been in leadership, contributing to the $32 trillion in national debt. Yes, the other side is better at raising the debt than we are, but we have been participants.

We are in crisis. We are in crisis with 5 million illegals having invaded the border in the last 2 years. When is it too much?

We are in crisis with the state of our education system, K-12, college campuses, indoctrination of our kids.

We are in crisis with the weakening of our military, with these NDAA bills.

We are in crisis with trampling on our most basic and essential freedoms over the last 2 years in ways we couldn't have imagined pre- 2020: Whether we can assemble, whether we can worship, whether we can earn a living, whether we can travel, what we have to put on our face, what we have to take into our body, whether or not we have to disclose what we have taken in; trampled in ways we couldn't have imagined just a few years ago.

The greatest reflection of where the people in the country are is the House of Representatives, and the people spoke back on November 8 and gave the majority by some 3 or 4 million votes to the Republican Party.

It is not the White House, it is not the Senate, it is the people's House that reflects where the American people are, and they have trusted us on this side of the aisle with the leadership of this House. We have a window of opportunity to validate that trust, to do whatever we can to save the Republic, to earn them giving us the Senate and the White House and this House back in 2024.

We have got to have a leader who not only has true conservative convictions that reflect the majority of Republicans who sent us here, but yet a courageous leader. It doesn't matter what you believe, by the way, unless you are willing to take risk to yourself personally to fight for it. We need a leader who has proven to do that very thing.

We have an opportunity to make history. We will live with the decision on this side of the aisle for the next 2 years. We will answer for how we voted.

I know how people in all the respective districts, like mine, Madam Chair, how they are telling us to vote. They have been telling me how to vote for 3 years, to vote for transformational change in the leadership of this Republican Party. They have told me not to vote for the status quo, not to vote for the next in line establishment creature of the swamp cartel, but to vote for transformational change.

And they are watching us. They are wondering if we will hang in there or will we cave or will we give in or will we let them down one more time.

I say, we are not going to do that. They are looking to us.

You look and see what a great job a recent businessman did in the White House, did things no one else has ever done in the White House, did things that no one else has ever done to try to change the country, showed courage, common sense, and judgment we have not seen before.

We need a businessman as the Speaker of the House. We need a businessman like Kevin Hern as Speaker of the House. We need a businessman like Kevin Hern who has led the Republican Study Committee's Budget & Spending Task Force that I have served on for 2 years and put forth the only balanced budget that I have seen--heck, the only budget that I have seen--in the 2 years that I have been here, who fought alongside us to say why don't we adopt the Republican Study Committee's budget for the Republican Party? And we didn't get agreement to do that.

We need someone who will do that. We need someone who is the head of the largest caucus in the Republican Conference, someone like Kevin Hern.

It is my privilege to put into official nomination Kevin Hern for Speaker of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. Honestly, this bill should be called the disrespect for marriage act.

This bill certainly disrespects God's definition of marriage, a definition that has served His creation well for more than 5,000 years of recorded history. And His definition is the only one that really matters.

This bill would codify into Federal law the Supreme Court's wrongly decided Obergefell decision and ensure that the marriage laws in the most liberal State--irrespective of how more radical they might become in the future, think polygamy, bestiality, child marriage, or whatever--must be legally recognized in all States.

It was wrong when the Supreme Court made law in the Obergefell decision requiring that the marriage law in Massachusetts had to become the law of the whole country when Massachusetts approved gay marriage.

This was overriding the will of the people and their elected Representatives as no other State to that point had been able to pass through referendum or State legislature a gay marriage law.

The fact is that traditional, biblical marriage is the foundation of a strong society and a strong culture.

I will say it once again: almost everything that plagues our society is a failure to follow God's design for marriage, morality, and the family. The perfect, omniscient, and immutable God knows what He is doing.

But this legislation repeals the correct definition of marriage in Federal code and requires the Federal Government to recognize any marriage if the marriage was valid in the State where it was performed.

Perhaps even worse, this bill eliminates all religious freedom protections for churches or other faith-based organizations and requires everyone to participate in and recognize gay marriage.

It empowers the IRS with their newly hired 87,000 agents who apparently need something to do to go after the religious institutions that simply seek to operate according to their beliefs. In fact, the bill does nothing to prevent the IRS from attacking and harming the religious organizations that have made an incredible impact in our communities across our Nation.

It is simply designed to undermine marriage as a union between one man and one woman. God's perfect design is, indeed, marriage between one man and one woman for life, and it doesn't matter what you think or what I think. That is what the Bible says.

This proposal is yet another Democrat attempt to undermine the fundamental values which formed our Nation and continue to hold our country together: recognition of the institution of marriage as between one man and one woman and respect for the freedom to operate according to your sincerely held religious beliefs.

The legislation we are considering today is a sobering indication of the erosion of the moral values that made this Nation great.

As President Reagan once said: ``America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.''

All great nations in societies fall from within. With Democrats threatening all sense of values and decency and family today by sexualizing kids in school, redefining sex and gender, and trans- surgery and mutilation of minors, it makes no sense for any Republican to support their efforts to codify their views on marriage.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues in this body to join me in strongly opposing this bill.

Mr. Speaker, Louie Gohmert is just as popular among my constituents in Virginia as he is among my esteemed colleagues' constituents from Texas.

Louie was one of the first Members of Congress to come and support me in my district when I started this journey 3 years ago. He literally drove through the night to come down to Virginia to help a fledgling, aspiring Congressman down in the Fifth Congressional District of Virginia.

Louie since I have gotten here has been an example of courage. As a freshman, I quickly observed him being willing to go to the microphone time and again, not only to challenge the other side but even to challenge our side when he felt they were wrong or weren't living up to the ideals that we promised to live up to for our constituents.

I have admired him for his character and testimony on a personal level, his love for our Lord, his love for our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Louie Gohmert is one of those people you meet here in Congress who is the same here in person as he is on TV when folks watch him. I am proud to learn from and serve with this true courageous, conservative warrior.

I am proud to call Louie a friend on a personal level. He will be missed. Even in his leaving this Congress, he is leaving in a courageous, selfless act, because he could have stayed here as long as he wanted to, to represent his district. But he loves his beloved State of Texas, and in a tremendous act of courage he took personal risk in leaving this body.

He has had a lifetime of service. He was an Army Captain, a Texas district judge, Chief Justice of the Twelfth Court of Appeals of Texas, and has spent 18 years of courageous, conservative service here in Washington.

Thank you, Louie. I admire you, love you, and I am proud to call you a friend. God bless you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mourn the senseless and tragic loss of life at the University of Virginia on November 13, but I also rise to recognize and honor the bravery displayed by Mike Hollins during the recent shooting at the University of Virginia.

After getting off the bus and directing two students to run to safety, Mike Hollins, a running back on the Cavaliers football team, turned around and attempted to reboard the bus to help his teammates and others still trapped with the gunman.

Mike's bravery was met with evil, however, as he was shot while trying to protect those still in harm's way. Thankfully, Mike has been released from the hospital. I pray he will continue to have a full and complete recovery.

My prayers are also with the families of D'Sean Perry, Lavel Davis, Jr., and Devin Chandler, who are deeply hurting from the loss of their loved ones, along with the entire University of Virginia community.

We are always saddened in the face of tragedy, but bravery like Mike Hollins showed gives us hope. May God continue to heal our land.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Virginia, I am privileged to recognize Ms. Robin Mahan of Gretna, VA as she retires from her position as clerk of the Halifax County School Board after 45 years of service to the school system. Ms. Mahan officially retired on September 30th after serving with seven superintendents.

It is truly an honor to recognize your commitment and devotion to Halifax County schools and our students. I wish her the best in her retirement and may God bless her in her future endeavors.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Virginia, I am privileged to recognize the 100th year anniversary of Main Uno Baptist Church in Madison County, Virginia. Main Uno Baptist Church celebrated their 100th birthday on October 9, 2022. One hundred years of a church serving the spiritual needs of a community is truly significant and worthy of celebration. I truly hope that this day is special for the each of the church members, and that each one of you remembers with fondness and gratitude everything God has done amongst your congregation and in your community.