Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, Don Young was my friend. Years ago, before I entered Congress to serve my country at this level, as a police officer I was called upon to address the annual gathering of the Alaskan State Troopers. I will always remember, as our plane entered Alaska, the mountains rose from the Earth, and I had never witnessed such magnificent splendor of the Lord's creation. It was awe inspiring. Frightening even.

A couple of years later I met Don Young, and I understood more both about Alaska and creation and, by extension, I understood more about all children of God.

Don Young, his spirit, his voice echoed through this Chamber, and every day that I sat next to him for over 5 years I recalled the Scripture that came to my mind when I felt and saw those magnificent mountains arising from the Earth. I recalled the Scripture advised us in Micah, said, ``Hear ye now the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.'' This Chamber has echoed the voice of Don Young for five decades, and now he has gone to his reward.

May I say to you, Don, you are the mountain of Alaska, you have been a dear and honored friend. You will be missed, loved, respected, and your memory shall always be honored. I am a better man, having known you. I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), for leading this Special Order.

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

Madam Speaker, America is being crushed under the oppressive weight of the Democrats' greed for lust and power. They want totalitarian control over every aspect of American life, and they are ruling the people's House as if they were royalty. America is dissolving under our feet, and Democrats are worried about cartoons.

In Afghanistan, Democrats led the betrayal of American honor and abandonment of American citizens, granting control of the Afghan theater to Taliban terrorists and arming those jihadist terrorists with billions of dollars worth of American weapons systems.

Our southern border control has disintegrated, American sovereignty lost, and control of our own border completely ceded to criminal cartels.

American parents are tracked like terrorists and persecuted by our own FBI because parents had the audacity to challenge government indoctrination of their children, assembling to redress their grievances at their own school boards in their own communities. American parents are treated like criminals.

Americans are dealing with unbelievable inflation. Families cannot afford groceries and fuel.

Millions of Americans are being commanded by Federal decree to choose between losing their job or kneeling to comply with an unconstitutional, mandated medical procedure.

And the oppressors intend to distract you with cartoons.

Over the Speaker's podium are forever etched the words ``In God We Trust.'' Scripture says: A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Madam Speaker, I stand today with my brother Paul Gosar because I stand against oppression and persecution.

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, I thank my colleague for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the holiday and in objection to the means by which the Democrats have brought this to the floor.

It is just wrong that this holiday, which should be recognized-- arguments against it are vacuous. A CBO score is not real because it doesn't recognize the productivity of Americans during a holiday week in anticipation of a holiday and increased productivity after the holiday, and it doesn't recognize the positive impact of the economy by those who celebrate the holiday, and the money they spend.

So, the CBO score is not an argument. We support the holiday. But why would the Democrats want to politicize this by co-opting the name of our sacred holiday of Independence Day. Why would it not be named the Juneteenth National Emancipation Day? Why would we want to inject conflict about this?

I don't understand this body and the way it moves forward contrary to the best interests of the American people. We all support the holiday. I am voting in support of the bill, but the objection--and my Democrat friends know this--the objection would be to the naming of the bill.

Where would that have been confronted? In committee. But this bill was not brought to committee, was it? It was brought directly to the floor for a vote, a trap set by my Democratic colleagues for conservatives on this side of the aisle who they knew would object to the naming of this bill and the co-opting of our Independence Day. They did not bring it through committee where we could have this conversation legitimately and for the historical record.

Everyone on the Committee on Oversight and Reform, we have jurisdiction over national holidays. We would have wanted to speak on this. We would have wanted to offer amendments. Did that happen? No. Were our amendments accepted? No, because this was brought directly to the floor.

That is what is wrong with this body. That is what is wrong about this bizarre realm of Washington, D.C.

Despite that, we are going to support the bill. I am going to support the bill because I support the holiday, and I support the Black communities. My Black brothers and sisters, Americans all, have been celebrating this holiday for 100 years. What is wrong with that? It is recognized by most States in the Union. This legislation just brings the Federal Government more in alignment with the sovereign States, which as a constitutionalist, I certainly support.

Mr. Speaker, I object for the historical record since there was no committee activity. I object on the floor this day to the process that Democrats used to bring this bill to the floor and the name by which it is entitled.

Mr. Speaker, my ancestral forefather traveled to this country 200 years ago or so. He was born a poor Irishman with no path toward prosperity that did not lead through oppressive government, indentured servitude.

He arrived in the port of New Orleans after scrapping together enough money to book passage on a sailing vessel that had been converted from carrying cargo to carrying human beings. He survived the journey, although many poor Irishmen did not.

He came to this land seeking freedom. He found it. He prospered. And through the generations the Higgins family established itself as a solid, working-class American family. Construction workers, firemen, police officers, soldiers, and sailors.

After my father passed, my mother and her sister, my Aunt Gloria, took it upon themselves to research the family tree. They discovered some of the truths that I am sharing with you tonight. This was way before the Internet and computers and iPhones. They worked in the actual archives.

One of the things they discovered was a letter written by my ancestral forefather describing the conditions on a vessel he traveled to America upon. His sleeping berth measured 2 by 2 by 5. 2 by 2 by 5. I think about that as I serve within this body.

I recognize the pain that our ancestral forefathers and foremothers endured to carve this country of greatness from the wilderness. There has never been a moment when American patriots claimed that our Nation was perfect. We have always known that we are imperfect men driven by perfect intent to create a nation where a man could breathe free, and indeed we have.

The sovereignty of America requires action from this body and from this executive, our current executive, to maintain the security and sovereignty of our Nation at the southern border. The very promise of America is threatened by the policies and weakness of action and refusal to act in response to 1.1 million criminal crossings year to date.

The very freedoms and opportunities that our ancestral forefathers and foremothers came to this country to embrace, the blood and life and limb that has been sacrificed by generations of patriots past have preserved America.

America itself is imperiled from within. It is the duty and the sworn oath of Members of this body to ring our voices loud and clear across the land that we will not allow America to fall into decline. We will not become judicious managers of our Nation's fall. We will stand and we will fight; we will make noise and we will be heard.

I thank my colleague for allowing us to gather this evening and speak on behalf of the citizens that we serve, the Nation that we love, and the future that we will not allow to demise.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of America's fiscal future as it is envisioned in the RSC budget.

For the first time since I have been here in 5 years, we have managed to assemble a very reasonable path forward to fiscal stability for our country.

I have language in this bill reflective of the crisis at the border. My legislation, H.R. 2729, the Finish the Wall Act, is included in the language of the underlying bill.

On President Biden's first day in office, he halted the use of border security funds allocated by Congress, ended all ongoing construction of the border wall, and implemented very weak border policies that have had dire consequences for our Nation.

We have had over 1 million illegal crossings thus far this year. In history, it has never been this high. We have had surges here and there in 2014 and 2019, yes, under various administrations for various reasons. But we have never had 1.1 million illegal crossings into our country.

Our border has created layers of crisis, and we must deal with it. We must act. We must force action from our executive.

The debt that we face as a nation is crippling, and the generations yet unborn will not survive a $31 trillion debt that we are looking at right now. America will not continue to exist as we know it with that type of crippling debt. But we won't get there. We won't get to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren as a strong American nation if we allow the sovereignty of America to be destroyed in the course of one Presidential term.

Madam Speaker, we are trending over 2 million illegal crossings this year. We cannot allow this to happen. I urge my colleagues to take a reasonable look at the RSC budget.

Madam Speaker, it has been 9 months since Hurricanes Laura and Delta devastated southwest Louisiana.

Our region has endured natural disaster after natural disaster. This past year has been incredibly challenging: two very powerful, major hurricanes; a crippling ice storm; and this week, ongoing, a severe rainfall event that is causing homes and businesses to flood.

Many families will have to again restart the difficult process of rebuilding their lives. Our people have been resilient in the face of great adversity, a show of incredible strength.

But the need for help from the Federal Government is dire. While much work has been done, southwest Louisiana has long-term recovery needs. To date, we have worked with our Federal partners to deliver well over $1 billion in disaster relief to Louisiana, with more on the way.

We have worked with President Trump and President Biden to secure increased Federal assistance through cost-share adjustments, now at levels of 90 and 100 percent.

These resources have supported southwest Louisiana's most immediate needs: housing and rental assistance, utility repairs, debris removal, hazard mitigation, and other disaster response costs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related bills, these Federal disaster accounts have received supplemental funding well beyond normal appropriations and are still available to the people of southwest Louisiana.

However, our region requires additional support in the form of long- term

recovery resources, primarily through community block grant funding.

Louisiana's Governor issued a formal request to the Biden administration in January of this year. My office has supported our Governor's request in every way through every channel. We worked for months to build support in Congress for long-term recovery resources, and our efforts to build that coalition has been successful.

While that support exists broadly, the Biden administration must first respond to our Governor's official request for supplemental disaster funding. President Biden must formally request specific supplemental disaster relief from Congress. Only then can our brotherhood of support take action here in the House of Representatives. That is the way it works. We have communicated these extreme needs directly to the Biden administration and House leadership.

Additionally, the State must do more to ensure private insurance companies are treating Louisiana citizens fairly. This has been a significant issue that has frustrated Louisiana citizens and hindered our recovery efforts.

I will not stop fighting for the citizens of south Louisiana, and I ask that my colleagues here in this body stand with us. I ask that our President stand with the people of Louisiana. We are one Nation. As a Republic of sovereign States, we have never failed to come to each other's rescue in the wake of natural disaster. Now is one of those moments.

This is a time when Americans must stand together as one. Every day, we are working to help Louisiana stand back up.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in memory of Charles Elson ``Buddy'' Roemer, III, who was born October 4, 1943, and died on May 17 of this year, a couple of days ago, went home to his reward.

Buddy was a very nice guy, and he had a saying: ``I love Louisiana, but I hate Louisiana politics.'' Many of us can understand that remark.

He was an American patriot, an investor, and a banker. He served in this body, the House of Representatives, from 1981-1988. He was the 52nd Governor of Louisiana, 1988-1992. He will be missed, remembered, loved, and respected.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are bewildered about what is happening in our Nation today. Americans who actually work have deep concerns about the future of our country. It is incredible to observe, from my perspective as a humble constitutionalist servant within this august body, exactly what is going on with my colleagues across the aisle and our newly inaugurated executive branch.

We have moved from policies out of our executive that put America first to policies out of the President's administration to put America last. We are facing $31 trillion in debt.

Let me help my American brothers and sisters who work very hard to earn their living and have portions of their income seized and sent to Washington, D.C., let me help them get their head wrapped around $31 trillion in debt.

If this body, which is responsible constitutionally for all Federal spending, were to run a $1 billion surplus in a fiscal year--meaning we spent $1 billion less in Federal expenditures than we took in Federal revenue, $1 billion--it would require 31,000 years of a $1 billion surplus to address a $31 trillion debt. A trillion is a thousand billion, and a billion is a thousand million.

It is insane what is being presented as fiscal responsibility out of the Biden administration's White House in their budget request.

President Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline, killed thousands of American jobs overnight with the stroke of his pen on his first day in office, and now has approved support for a Russian pipeline under the guise of ecological concern, which is why he shut down Keystone, which is done incredibly clean in America.

The oil and gas industry, the energy industry in America is the cleanest in the world. We are going to shut down an American pipeline and approve and authorize a Russian pipeline. It is absurd the direction we are going in.

Our border crisis. My sources, which are accurate, we have added at least 700,000 to 800,000 illegal crossings this year. Our vice president, alledgedly, has been put in charge of handling the border. She can't find her way to south Texas. We should send a map to the White House.

Israel. Could you imagine what our response should be as a nation if we received 6,000 to 8,000 rockets fired at our citizens?

We should be standing unwavering beside our ally, Israel. A nation that stands against Israel stands against itself.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for allowing me to address the House, and I thank my colleague for holding this important Special Order this evening.

Mr. Speaker, to be a police officer, it is not something we do; it is someone that we are. I was a military police officer in the Army and went on to serve for 12 years as a uniformed police officer, 12 years as a SWAT operator, and I buried far too many brothers.

There is a time in every man's heart where we have to make a decision of what we are going to do with our life that day, that week, that month, with our families, with our career, with our life.

As I reflect upon my career as a police officer prior to my congressional service, I think about the 8\1/2\ years of night shift and the exchange that my wife and I would have every evening as she returned from work and I was preparing to leave. She would have my little meal prepared, a brown bag, to take with me. And she would say: ``Be safe. Come home to me.'' And I would say: ``Don't worry about me. Worry about the other guy.''

Every police officer has a little exchange like that with their loved one before they begin their shift, because we don't know if we are coming home.

We recognize that the life we have chosen to serve our fellow man is an effort somehow to become better men ourselves. It is an effort to serve a Lord that we are not quite worthy of.

I have trained or helped train many officers through the years, and they would ask me sometimes about this section of the manual or that section of the manual, and I would always tell them the same: Your manual is 1,483 pages. Seek to be a better man, do the right thing, and you will be worthy of the job and career that you have chosen. Forget that, and you will not.

We are human. We have failed and fallen in some way, every one of us.

This can be said as well about the Members of this body. We wear a small pin upon our lapel that identifies us as Congressmen and Congresswomen. We are proud to serve and humbled to serve, and we do our best every day to be worthy of that service.

This job began with an oath. Imperfect, though, we be; varied, though, we be in our ideological perspective or our political affiliation, we do our best every day.

There are a million police officers across this country who don't have a little lapel pin. They wear a badge like this. And the mourning band upon that badge is in memory of the brothers and sisters of the thin blue line who we have lost.

It used to be a rare thing to find your mourning band and put it on your badge. Now, these days, you can't get it off. Police officers out there know what I am talking about.

So I will say, Mr. Speaker, in closing, that the journey that we are upon in this life is a chosen path that all of us embrace, for better or for worse. We attempt to become better men and women, better children of God.

Police officers are no different. I ask you to hear my heart, feel my spirit. The men and women that wear a badge deserve your respect, your love, and your support. In this special time this week, we memorialize forever those who we have lost who wear the badge.

I thank Congresswoman Cammack for allowing me to address the House this day. I extend my love to the thin blue line.

Mr. Speaker, how is this unconstitutional? H.R. 51 violates our Founders' intent, the actual writ of the Constitution, the land itself, which should rightfully be returned to Maryland if its original purpose as land for our Nation's Capital is discarded by Congress and, finally, the required repeal of the 23rd Amendment.

I have explained these constitutional barriers for 2 years in committee, but there is more.

D.C. does not perform many of the roles of a true State. A prime example, unlike every other State in the Union, D.C. is not responsible for its prison system.

About 8,000 D.C. residents are inmates in Federal prisons, and the Federal Government absorbs the huge expense. These are inmates who would normally be in a State prison, but D.C. only has the capacity to house inmates awaiting trial.

Three times in committee, I have offered an amendment that would transfer this normal State responsibility to D.C. My amendment was rejected by Democrats three times.

So, let's look at how D.C. has handled their inmates awaiting trial. According to The Washington Post, D.C. is essentially torturing these inmates with what experts say is mass solitary confinement, 23 hours a day of solitary for every D.C. inmate ongoing for over 400 days.

That is certainly a violation of the Eighth Amendment. These are human beings awaiting final adjudication. Many will ultimately be found not guilty, yet they have been held in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day for over a year.

Is this what we can expect from a D.C. State?

D.C. is our Nation's Capital, was intended to be our Nation's Capital, and must remain our Nation's Capital.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for engaging in this debate today.

Mr. Speaker, there is a higher authority than the law of man. Above the Speaker's podium are the words, in this great Chamber, ``In God we trust.''

Do we? Do we recognize that the Biblical record is replete with the violence of man?

Shall my colleagues on the other side of the aisle admit that law designed to restrict Second Amendment rights and freedoms are but a veil to conceal the violence of man born since Adam? The firstborn son of Adam killed his brother in a violent rage. I am rather certain he did not use a firearm.

The Second Amendment protections that we have as American citizens shall not be infringed. Remember these words and that they are born of a nation that recognized our service to our Lord.

Madam Speaker, I am going to attempt to address the hearts and minds of some of my dear friends across the aisle, and I do have friends: I respect you, I love you, and I admire you.

I recognize that we have all lived different lives, but let me clarify that I have a very personal knowledge of the way the street works. Criminals are not going to follow these laws.

Madam Speaker, you are talking about 10 days--I can have a 10-minute override from right here and bring you back an illegal gun.

Do you want one?

A couple of hundred bucks, Madam Speaker, I can get you one.

Madam Speaker, it is not intellectually sound to actually believe in your heart that restricting the Second Amendment rights and freedoms to purchase, own, and bear firearms of Americans that will follow the laws you intend to pass is going to impact the decisions that are made by criminals on the streets. It is just not reality.

This realm is bizarre. Americans are watching this right now. They get it. They know the criminals are not going to follow the law. This is not going to impact the criminal realm.

We have deterioration of our society because of the failure to embrace core principles and American family values. This is what has happened over the course of a generation on my watch. I am 59. This has happened to America as I have matured. I am concerned about the future, but I am certainly recognizing the core freedoms and principled protections of the constitutional rights of my children and grandchildren.

We must not allow that to be deteriorated under the guise of protecting our citizens from crime. Criminals are not going to recognize these laws.

Madam Speaker, let's save a life. I am going to share with my colleagues an actual story going on right now, because my citizens have my phone number. I have had the same phone number since 2004. They know they can reach out to me for help.

A young lady, right now, whose property, her yard, her garage, has been invaded night after night after night by a strange man. He moves fast. She is a single mom, a 30-year-old woman, hardworking woman, American.

Many, many years ago, she pled guilty to a minor drug charge. It is still on her record. She can't buy a gun, but, by God, she is going to get one. She is going to get one illegally to defend herself and her young child.

Your bill would make this story commonplace from sea to shining sea. I beg for you to stand for the people who we serve and recognize what you are attempting to do.

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

Mr. Speaker, electronic vote not cast. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. En Bloc No. 1.