Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise unscripted and in passionate support of freedom. I have heard many statements with words like ``fact'' and details of the minutia of these plans. I will share with you a fact.

Two hundred years ago, my ancestral forefather was born. He was a young, poor Irishman born into indentured servitude. He heard a whisper of a land born across the sea, a land where a man could own his own property, a land where a man could keep the toil of his labor. So he garnered his courage, he saved his money, and he booked passage on a cargo vessel converted to carry human beings. According to the letter unearthed by my sainted mother, his sleeping berth measured 2 by 2 by 5.

What could have driven my ancestral forefather--and yours, Mr. Speaker--indeed, all of America? What drove our ancestral forefathers to come to this land? Freedom. Freedom drove us, and it is freedom for which I stand.

The Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare, is 8,000 pages--8,000 pages--of regulation and taxation. There is not a man or a woman amongst us, from sea to shining sea, who believes this body can produce 8,000 pages of freedom. The American Health Care Act is 124 pages of reasonable legislation based upon the best input of free market principles.

A vote against the American Health Care Act is a vote against freedom. It is a vote against 124 pages of reasonable legislation, and it is a vote for 8,000 pages of ObamaCare.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' for the American Health Care Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a saddened heart for my friend and comrade Sergeant Shawn T. Anderson, a veteran and highly decorated police officer, who was shot dead on Saturday evening as he attempted to arrest a rape suspect.

Sergeant Anderson died as he lived: in honorable service to the people of his State, Louisiana, and his city, Baton Rouge, wearing the uniform of my comrade and friend Sheriff Sid Gautreaux of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.

Mr. Speaker, there are 435 Members of this esteemed body. We wear a small badge upon our lapel to acknowledge our service to the citizens of the country we love.

One million of us across the country wear another badge, resembling this one, of various shapes and colors. We are the thin blue line. When we lose a brethren or sistren, we place a mourning band upon our badge. Over the course of the last decade, it has been difficult to remove my mourning badge because we wear them for 7 days, and I find myself never quite able to get the mourning band removed from the badge that I wear.

My soul and my heart delivers unto my lips constant prayer for the family of my brother Sergeant Anderson, for his fellow deputies, his community, and, indeed, for our Nation.

Our job begins with an oath. That oath is not an oath of allegiance to a sheriff or a chief or a marshal. It is an oath of allegiance to the institutional principles that our badges represent. Sergeant Anderson gave his last life's blood in service to all of us.

I thank the Speaker for allowing me to honor my fallen comrade.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1252) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to provide for certain acquisition authorities for the Under Secretary of Management of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1252, the Department of Homeland Security Acquisition Authorities Act of 2017.

The Department of Homeland Security has been routinely criticized over the years by watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office and DHS Office of Inspector General for failing to responsibly manage its major acquisition programs. These programs, which secure our borders, safeguard our cyber networks, protect air travelers, defend our shores, among other critical missions, and cost taxpayers billions of dollars every year.

Watchdogs have previously reported how DHS leadership has failed to hold programs accountable to its own acquisition policies. In some cases, these programs have spent billions of dollars of American treasure without having to show what they will ultimately cost, when they will be complete, and what benefits they will deliver to frontline operators. DHS' Under Secretary for Management has not had the force of law to hold these programs accountable until now.

My bill establishes a top cop in the Under Secretary for Management as Chief Acquisitions Officer to oversee these billion-dollar programs. It requires thoughtful management of major acquisition programs based on private sector best practices. My bill requires strong accountability measures to oversee major acquisition programs so that these critical tools get into the hands of those defending our homeland on time and on budget.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives, Committee on Science, Space,

and Tehcnology,

Washington, DC, March 10, 2017.

Hon. Michael McCaul,

Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security, House of

Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing concerning H.R. 1252, the

``DHS Acquisition Authorities Act of 2017,'' which your

Committee ordered reported on March 8, 2017.

H.R. 1252 contains provisions within the Committee on

Science, Space, and Technology's Rule X jurisdiction. In

order to expedite this bill for floor consideration, the

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will forego

action on the bill. This is being done on the basis of our

mutual understanding that doing so will in no way diminish or

alter the jurisdiction of the Committee on Science, Space,

and Technology with respect to the appointment of conferees,

or to any future jurisdictional claim over the subject

matters contained in the bill or similar legislation.

I would appreciate your response to this letter confirming

this understanding, and would request that you include a copy

of this letter and your response in the Congressional Record

during the floor consideration of this bill. Thank you in

advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Lamar Smith,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey. I, once again, urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1252, as amended.

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

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

Madam Speaker, the rhetoric coming from my colleagues across the aisle and the liberal media regarding President Trump's executive order to strengthen American's immigration policy is harmful to our country and is placing law enforcement professionals at risk due to incited protests.

The fact is that President Trump is protecting America by strengthening our vetting procedures. The details of his order clearly state that the allowed level of immigrants from the affected foreign nations is essentially the average rate of the 15 years before President Obama's dangerous expansion of the program in 2016.

President Trump's executive order has simply restored sanity to America's immigration policy. It was President Obama who, against all reasonable consideration, put the American citizenry at risk in 2016 by his massive expansion of immigration from nations that are known to produce radical Islamic terrorists. Thank God that President Trump has upheld his oath to protect American lives.

This order puts a temporary pause on immigration from seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia. The governments in these countries are either hostile to the United States, or presently in great turmoil.

As a professional law enforcement officer for the last 13 years, I paid very close attention to the insane policies that put American citizens and American police at risk. I have watched carefully and prayerfully as terror attack after terror attack has shed American blood on American soil, and I have been privy to many jihadist plots that were stopped because of the dedicated courage and skilled law enforcement investigators; the same cops that have been for years maligned, attacked, and murdered across our Nation by Americans incited to violence by dangerously irresponsible rhetoric from the left.

It is clear to me that the status quo immigration policy will not control the threat, and I am thankful that President Trump is using his office to reverse the madness that preceded him.

America's war against terror should never invoke partisan revolt. We, as members of the people's House, must recognize that the American people are not willing to accept radical Islamic terror within our borders--from immigrants or anyone else--as a fact of American life.

President Trump's executive order for a short-term ban on entry from countries that are known to foster jihadists, combined with a systematic review of our immigration and vetting procedures is both necessary and reasonable.

Madam Speaker, the time for weakness has passed. Now is the time for strength and courage. Now is the time to reform our border control and immigration policies.

President Trump's order is not a betrayal of American values. His actions inspire hope to the millions of Americans who have watched our Nation decline over the past decade, watched helplessly, as radical Islamic horror has gripped the world and, unbelievably, been allowed into our own Nation with wanton disregard.

Now is the time for America to embrace its rightful place as leader of the free world. The President's executive order to strengthen our immigration policies are reflective of the timeless wisdom of peace through strength. It protects the American citizenry, preserves American values, reassures America's allies, and ensures America's future.